foreign it has a couple names sir excuse me good morning seriously you need her she's in the office I mean foreign foreign foreign oh yeah good morning sir good morning you know what do you think good morning morning yes quit signing into my computer I was like Hey we're good we're good okay thank you oh I just thought this was from last night yes perfect I'm having an earring crisis I lost my little back to it I was looking for a which one so the 915 yeah so that one just the little corner and I wanted like on a board or something so we can like print two letter signs or um Niecy Cassandra can you call nisi so I'm looking at this document so where do I sign or what do I do just tell you I approved okay so we're good yes as far as I know okay thank you oh how's it going I'm good how are you doing great thank you can I have you sign out of my legislative sign back in I had to reset the stream okay can I finish this email real quick Adrian so I lie down what do you want me to do just sign back in I have to reset you want to sign in then did you get the metal yes man all right yeah thank you thank you good yes sir okay perfect morning morning good morning Mr Mayor don't worry um where are we going right behind you oh what's up what was that the answer to you foreign but I have like just accidents and I'm actually friends electricity yeah yeah is the culture issuers the projector issue just be there at night I'm just letting you know yeah I try to do something 100 signatures for people that wanted something there but again because they're all renters because there's a Housing Authority complex down the road a little bit and then there's that trailer park on the other side well I just moved to postponent for two weeks okay well I don't know about the other two the one on Racetrack I have no idea oh did you get it yeah where'd you find one oh cool okay yeah it helps a lot right now I do it every night and then twice in the morning depending on how much time I have because I'll boil water you know it's terrible confidence good morning I'm gonna turn everyone's mic off except mine good morning Miss Prine good morning this is a meeting of the El Paso city council for Tuesday April 11 2023 mayor Lisa is presiding in site council chambers along with representative Kennedy mayor Pro temanello alternate mayor Pro tem Molina representative Salcido and representative Canales and representative Hernandez now will everyone please silence their electronic devices so as not to disturb the meeting it is 902 a.m and rise for the invocation delivered by Ministry coordinator for the El Paso County Sheriff's Office and chaplain Emeritus for the El Paso Police Department San faroni good morning sir mayor council officials and all guests good morning to you it's a privilege to be with you today and to pray with you and I certainly invite you to join me if you cared about your heads as I pray I begin with these words from psalm 103. praise the Lord my soul all my inmost being praise His holy name praise the Lord my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgives all your sins heals all your diseases redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles almighty God every new day may we be reminded of all the benefits and blessings that you provide and in this beautiful spring time of the year we see things that have been dormant all winter begin to come to life it speaks to us about New Life new beginnings and new opportunities we recognize the blessing of your presence with us this morning and that you will lead us in the ways that are good and right and pleasing to you so may we set aside any personal agendas and seek your agenda above all and for those things that will be best for our city and our people I pray for my mayor representatives and officials that they may have the benefit of strength and true wisdom to make the decisions that lie ahead of them today let all discussion be tempered with respect and kindness and foresight please watch over and protect all who protect our freedoms and keep us safe in Jesus name God bless El Paso and God bless America thank you sir may God bless you thank you sir Excuse Me Miss Knight Miss Knight can you lead us in the pledge please thank you ma'am thank you Mr Knight I um I do want to I do want to welcome everybody to our city council uh meeting uh representative Kennedy I you have a few guests here from out of town would you like to introduce them I would thank you mayor um visiting from Minnesota to enjoy our much warmer weather is my 92 year old mother who was not able to come down when I swore in so she's here and sitting next to her is my older sister Marcia who came down so I just want to thank you man welcome thank you and um you know I as spring begins I think we we all looking forward to a a wonderful year forward the summer and everything going on I want everyone to think of the great things in life you know we talk about we always seem the the you know talk about things that have happened around the world and things that that really we need to pray for for peace but today I want to pray anyone to have a moment of silence for the great things that have happened in our community but the great things that have happened in our lives and think that we look forward to in the coming months and for this year I think it's important to really have a great positive vibe as uh it's beautiful out there our weather's got beautiful uh the wind is uh not blowing today but uh you know I I don't think you know one thing that I tell people when they're coming to El Paso that we're the only city in America that has 400 days in a row every year of sunshine and um so uh I've only been corrected once by the way but uh I do want everyone to really have some really Positive Vibes as we look at today in the future of our city in the future of our lives and let's have a moment of silence and kind of think of wonderful great thoughts moving forward thank you everyone as chaplain Peroni said to me God bless America my may God bless El Paso and may God bless every one of you all thank you Miss Prine we're ready for you yes sir for the record of Representatives are also present on the Deus that brings us to the mayor's proclamations the first Proclamation is autism acceptance month representative thank you mayor thank you ma'am good morning Proclamation city of El Paso Texas whereas autism is a lifelong development disability affecting one in 36 Americans which significantly affects communication and social interactions such as an engagement in repetitive activities and movement resistance to change in environment and daily routines and hypersensitive to sound and other sensory information and whereas It is Well documented that it individual with autisms receive an early diagnosis and appropriate therapy and education it is often possible for them to gain greater Independence which is where autism supports groups in El Paso comes in who provide care information in the public so those affected by autism can feel safe and accept it and whereas the Autism Society of Texas at El Paso a local branch of Nationwide organizations provide resources to individuals living with autism so that they are able to maximize their qualities of life and society in which they are valued and whereas the Isleta independent school districts special education department provides resources to students with autism through children find evaluation and evidence-based programs such as Early Childhood special education speech language physical and musical therapy in home training and transition services and whereas autism hope El Paso Works to educate the public about autism in order to strength advocacy efforts spreads reliable information such as self-determination inclusion understanding acceptance for the autism individual in whereas Beautiful Minds Mali Mali provide those on autism spectrum with Innovative programs and events in the area of science engineering and arts being an inclusive platform for these individuals to discover and embrace their talents and whereas Autism Awareness tells us about autism as a condition autism acceptance shines Delight on the full lives of autistic people and by celebrating their strength in contribution to the society we make our community a supportive place where those with autism are able to not only live as they are but flourish now therefore be a proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso that the month of April shall be known as autism acceptance month signed by The Honorable Oscar Mayer liser which I'll like to come up for a minute thank you hello yarling hello how are you thank you so much for having it all of us here um I represent the Autism Society of El Paso I am also a mother of two young men on the Spectrum AJ can you say hi hi Adrian Matthew hi Matthew thank you and I want to say first and foremost that I'm extremely um honored to be part of this Proclamation it's really special but I'm not only honored because you're proclaiming this autism acceptance I'm honored because of that change that one word change from awareness to acceptance that's something that we at the autism citing autism hope Beautiful Minds Molly yisd all of us and this community alone have been working so hard towards to let everyone in our community know who we are what we represent and now I want to let everyone know that we're going to continue to work on acceptance all year long not just this month but all year long I know change can be scary I know sometimes it's an upheaval but this one means that we're making a step forward and that makes me so proud and I can only hope that you feel that Pride today for us so because you said yes we notice your differences but we also more importantly notice how you are the same and you are a part of our community and we honor what you bring to us so I thank you from the bottom of my heart for that completely and utterly thank you and lastly I just want to let you know that all of us here are going to continue this on and continue this forward till the month comes where it's not autism acceptance month it's autism advocacy month and I hope that like I do you see that as a bright light in our future thank you so much for your time thank you can you introduce yourself my name is Rebecca Sandoval I'm the president of the Autism Society of El Paso and this is our Administrative Assistant Maori science I will go ahead and thank you very much the rest of these groups who I'm honored to be with [Music] good morning good morning everyone my name is I'm the executive director of Beautiful Minds Mali I'm here with the board members Perla Gonzalez Treasurer and Camille Maldonado the secretary and we are the three of us are parents with kids on the Spectrum and we feel very honored to be here and excited as well we like to start by thanking the city of El Paso and major Oscar liser for this invitation thank you thank you to all our representative for this amazing Proclamation for April being April acceptance months especially to Representatives Cassandra Hernandez for including us in this programmation thank you Beautiful Minds Mali is a 501c3 non-profit organization that provides services and Innovative experiences in the area of science engineering and art for the community in general but with a special focus on individuals with different abilities and their family members we feel that it is important for individuals with autism spectrum disorder to have experiences in different areas for them to strengthen current skills discover new ones and be exposed to infinite possibilities however as important as these experiences are for them it is equally important the environment and the resources that facilitate these experiences we feel that these are key factors for a successful outcome Beautiful Minds Mali is currently the only non-profit organization providing services and events in these three areas for the community of individuals with autism spectrum disorder in an inclusive environment with a trained staff in addition to provide personalized accommodations and modifications for individuals on the Spectrum Beautiful Minds Mali believes and has already experienced that these accommodations and modifications for example accessible workspace sensory friendly environment no time restrictions a dynamic creative process due to our knowledgeable staff among others are vital for individuals on their spectrum and any other disability to flourish and reach their full potential it is a privilege for us to provide this needed servicing El Paso Texas and to work with individuals on the Spectrum through unique opportunities events and collaborative efforts in the area for science art and engineering Beautiful Minds Mali successful cannot be attribute to ourselves only but to an effective collaborative approach we believe that together we can do more and better this success and continual evolution of services and events is also due to the various collaborative efforts with organization just like the ones recognized here today and collaborations of course with the city of El Paso and I'm gonna use a collaboration with the city of El Paso just as an example on why we believe that together we can do more and better our partnership with El Paso Museum of Art provides the city of El Paso with the only art exhibition by individuals with different abilities at this prestigious Museum this not only provides an opportunity to Artistic individuals to explore the infinite possibilities that art can provide but by this amazing partnership between Beautiful Minds Mali and the city of El Paso this individuals can showcase their talents and true abilities to the city of El Paso and surrounding areas we are looking forward to new projects and more successful collaborations with more organizations and the city of El Paso to continue serving together as a platform for individuals with autism spectrum disorder and any disability to discover and embrace their talents and their true proficiencies thank you thank you [Applause] good morning my name is election I am the founder of autism Hospital Inc thank you to erupaso City Maya Oscar Lisa and the city Liberation tips for proclaiming a airplane as autism acceptance months I like to personally thank you to lip Legend tip Cassandra Hernandez for her continue the support for our autism and disability community my journey of autism started 80 years ago when my son was diagnosed with autism at five years old since then we have a hard opportunity to learn more about artists advocacy after 18 years there is still a much needed change in our community in regards to autism acceptance and understanding my goal is to Spirit autism Acceptance in order to create a more inclusive word for our artistic community this is the reason I started my organization doesn't affect only the person but also their family Inc is a non-profit organization that offers support to artistic people and their families we have a monthly caregiver meeting sibling workshop for siblings sensory friendly events autism related to classes and the children and the younger adult groups we have a newly diverse board of directors that can share Insight with their experiences we are very active in El Paso's autism Community we are always thinking of a fun New Way give opportunity to our artistic community the newest program we will be introducing will be in partnership with elephant Animal Services who will have a dedicated this way artistic individuals and families can have a safe sensory friendly interactions with dogs and cats we also know the importance of the relationship with First Responders and the artistic Community we will have opportunities for the community to meet with officers learn more about their career and although the officers a chance to learn more about autism in our youth transition program we have opportunities for artistic teens and young adults to visit the local job sites and gain and the knowledge and tool to navigate the carrier world I believe more Autism Awareness leads to more acceptance thank you again for this great opportunity and accomplish you all thank you good morning good morning thank you for this opportunity my name is David Medina I'm the director of special education for the Isleta Independent School District and I will be brief I just wanted to um again thank you for this opportunity to be a part of this Isleta ISD recognizes that it takes a community and we are proud to have the support of the El Paso city council and other autism organizations that support our autism Community we pledge ourselves along with members of my staff here to continue to work with parents to work with students and to work with our schools to provide the best services that we possibly can for our students in Partnership and understanding that this is for their future so thank you very much for this opportunity thank you and um I um I think it's very important and I think that uh I I have 11 grandkids and I have one of them that has autism so it's important to understand it and you know and make sure you work with them at an early age it's so important to understand that at so many different levels that work with professionals it's so important so uh I thank you representative Hernandez for bringing this up and of course thank you all for being here because as you all said it's one of the most important things it's a child's life and learning and everything else so like I said it's um there's many different levels in understanding the levels and understanding how to work with them is so important and I thank you all for being here and thank you for for uh bringing it up representative Hernandez so I just wanted to give a quick thanks for all of the organizations and all the work that you do every day for your loved ones family members and children um you're right the the advocacy has to start and the city must lead by example and really thrilled to see that there are more sensory friendly events and the department of museums and our Museum MCAT museums cultural Affairs Department they're looking at programming for low sensory events you saw that they're doing that at the Museum of Art low sensory Saturdays and and for me as a mother with a child with with autism special thanks to Isleta for your support for my sign in the special education program I wasn't aware because of your work you brought me Awareness on how to get support for my son so thank you for that but I'm also really excited to um to thank city manager Gonzalez and Dion Mack their Deputy city manager are they're helping us host a a round table with your autism organizations at the end of this month so that we can hear from you on what we can do at the city to ensure that our programming is not only inclusive but that we hear how we can address some of the challenges that families have and how we can do that in a way that's it's going to make the experience more welcoming and again more accepting and so I'm here to help champion and fight and Advocate with you alongside with you and I know the support of city council is here as well and so thank you for all your advocacy and all for your support because it really does make the difference when you're here championing these efforts not only for awareness but for acceptance and advocacy so great job everyone and I hope to continue to be by your side thank you and again thank you all for being here and um your right acceptance and acceptance early in Workman in early is so important so thank you all for being here next will be the next Proclamation is Sexual Assault Awareness Month who's got that one representative Brie Bella or they said yours I think it's yours I'm sorry I was distracted I have the proclamation for the city of El Paso and just as a comment for those uh if you can hold off so we can um y'all can come up to the front um we're going to take pictures at the end if you can wait for a minute whereas the crime of sexual assault violates an individual dignity and humanity and is used as a tool of Oppression to humiliate and degrade people using manipulation exploitation and exertion of sexual control over another person and whereas sexual assault crosses boundaries of race class culture gender sexual orientation gender identity and perpetrators use sexual assault as a tool of Oppression people who identify as members of oppressed or marginalized communities experience greater rates of sexual assault and whereas on average there are 463 634 victims of sexual assault each year in the United States all sexual assaults are reported to law enforcement due to shame guilt and embarrassment since 80 percent of all perpetrators are knowns someone known to the Survivor such as a friend family member or intimate partner and whereas last year the center against sexual and Family Violence received 4 342 calls on the crisis hope line of which 721 were directly related to sexual assault and provided Hospital accompaniment advocacy to 332 local sexual assault survivors and whereas this year's Campaign Will highlight the importance of speaking up and encouraging not just survivors but all of us to speak up when we witness any type of abuse and whereas the city of El Paso recognizes the month of April to be Sexual Assault Awareness Month and urges all El pasoans to join Advocates and communities across the country in taking action to prevent Sexual Violence by empowering individuals to engage in sexual assault prevention efforts and ensure the Next Generation Fosters attitudes that promote equality and respect now therefore be proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso that April 2023 shall be known as Sexual Assault Awareness Month signed by honorable mayor Oscar liser congratulations good morning morning so my name is Sandra Nevada Garcia I'm the executive director for the center against sexual and family violence and the center is tasked with dealing with two of the most difficult victimizations I think in any community and so that's domestic violence and sexual assault and as Miss Hernandez just read the difficulty of having individuals come up and be able to say that they've been affected so amongst you today in this room I guarantee you there's individuals who have not only experienced it directly or at least know of someone that's experienced it and from those individuals of small percentage actually report the crime not because they don't believe it occurred not because they don't believe it was severe enough but because of fear embarrassment and and guilt that's associated with that crime as a community we need to do better right we need to do better of ensuring that when someone comes to you and expresses that they were affected by sexual assault is that we believe those individuals it's not something that's easily divulged to anyone and they've already gone through this horrendous thought process just to even be able to say those words and utter them out loud and so it's unfortunate I always it's unfortunate that we exist and that we need organizations like ours in our community but it's fortunate for those individuals that are suffering through this type of victimization we can show you that um unfortunately our community sexual assaults went up from 20 from 2021 to 2122 uh 35 um those are just individuals that we are self-served um again there's many individuals that had not yet Services as of yet and so our campaign this month is exactly that speak up and so we want to ensure that individuals have the space the opportunity to come and access Services whether it's through us whether it's through a trusted adult and we completely understand that it completely takes a village right so we're the experts in domestic violence and sexual assault but as a community we rely on the greater good to make sure and kind of direct those individuals to the resources that they may need and may need to access this morning I have a small representation of our tribe currently as we speak we have intakes going out at our Family Resource Center where individuals are coming in for services without an appointment just to be seen at their convenience and so we have our director of client services with us we have our associate director of sexual assault services and our volunteer coordinator that's with us as well we do run a 24-hour Hospital response team so every single day every single hour every single minute there is a staff member ready to go to the hospital or any emergency room to accompany a Survivor and provide them with the resources that they may need and information that they need to be able to continue from their day forward um we're extremely honored for for this Proclamation and look forward to our continued partnership and working together and I look forward to doing our our live with Mr Hernandez this Thursday um we also do have an event this afternoon and keeping with bringing awareness is we have a gentleman and his daughter the Dylan family who have decided to take on an interesting task they're actually biking from California so they start they're not doing it all today right but they started since the first they're arriving in El Paso today um it's obviously a father-daughter combo um wanting to just bring awareness to domestic violence and how sexual assault is related um and how 70 percent of our survivors of domestic violence have some sort of sexual abuse tied into that and so we will be receiving them today at Yucca park at 2 pm if you want to join us you're more than welcome to do so thank you so very much thank you and thank you for your dedication and your hard work thank you thank you Mr Prime [Applause] and Council will have an opportunity to take photos with this morning's honorees once all the ceremonial items have been completed the next Proclamation is medical laboratory professionals week thank you Proclamation by the city of El Paso Texas whereas during the covid-19 pandemic medical laboratory professionals played a crucial role in testing and monitoring patients and have worked behind the scenes at every laboratory throughout our city to ensure the health and well-being of countless El pasoans and the surrounding communities in Texas sudar Juarez Mexico and New Mexico and whereas medical laboratory professional weeks is a time of recognition for the approximately three hundred thousand medical laboratory professionals and fifteen thousand board certified Pathologists that play a vital role in every aspect of Health Care and whereas professionals who practice the medical laboratory including Pathologists medical laboratory scientists medical laboratory technicians I hope I said it right and South technologists and histo technologists are invaluable members of the patient's Health and Care team and whereas the health of all Americans depends upon educated minds and trained hands and whereas the practice of modern medicine would be impossible without the scientific test performed daily in medical laboratories and whereas these well-educated and highly trained health professionals save countless lives and each day and whereas main maintenance of these standards and progress toward Improvement in the quality of laboratory services depends on the dedicated efforts of health and medical laboratory personnel and whereas more than 12 billion laboratory tests are performed in the United States each year and laboratory medicine is an honorable profession vital to sustaining a high standard of Health Care now therefore be proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso that April 23rd through April 29th 2023 shall be known as medical laboratory professionals week signed by The Honorable mayor Oscar liser thank you thank you representative good morning me and Lisa and Council my name is Simone banbani I'm the laboratory services program manager for the Department of Public Health Laboratories I'm accompanied today by Dr Jude abedi our medical director in some of my lab Personnel on behalf of the lab team I want to thank you mayor liser and Council for this Proclamation which shows your appreciation for the work we do daily in support of our community thank you very much thank you very much [Applause] thank you Simone and good morning um honored to be here today I'm my name is Jude abedi and I'm the director of clinical pathology at UMC and I also have the privilege of serving as a laboratory medical director of the Public Health Labs here in El Paso there are two of them there's a stat lab and there's the main lab and I say it's an honor and a privilege to serve in this capacity because of the great work that's done by laboratory I mean some folks don't realize it but every specialty relies on a laboratory psychology Psychiatry Cardiology every every field in laboratory medicine neurology we can go on and on but what really gives me great pleasure in serving his capacity are the folks behind me because those are the true heavy lifters they deserve all the credit for the laboratory and successes that's put forth by the public health laboratory a lot of this is transparent to most folks but it's Herculean efforts and we have had many bumps in the roadway and again those have been transparent to many folks and so because of that I look for or to continue working with this group and continue making important strides in the field of laboratory medicine and pathology thank you thank you sir thank you thank you everyone the next Proclamation is One Stop Shop staff Appreciation Day representative Canales thank you Mary Proclamation city of El Paso Texas whereas the One-Stop shop was developed as a division of the planning and inspections department to serve as a primary intake point for Land Development building permits and building licenses and whereas the One-Stop shop along with other City departments is committed to deliver Services effectively and efficiently to El Paso's residents businesses visitors and the construction community and whereas the accessibility and collaboration between the One-Stop shop and business communities is essential to the economic development and growth of our city and whereas April 1st marked the 10-year anniversary of the opening of the One-Stop shop and whereas the El Paso Community recognizes the accessibility reliability and dedication of the One-Stop shop staff during the recent pandemic that continued the uninterrupted Service delivery to our community and whereas the 10-year anniversary gives the city an opportunity to recognize the staff working at the One-Stop shop and the planning and inspections department and to extend our heartfelt gratitude for the continued commitment to their public service and to support the city of El Paso's Mission Vision and values now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and Council of the city of El Paso that April 10 2023 shall be known as One-Stop shop staff Appreciation Day thank you you know I see all the great work you do and I always thought it was just you alone in there but now I see everyone behind you and I understand why you guys do such a great work there are still many more good morning sir good morning mayor council Filipino airplane inspections I want to say thank you to mayor council City leadership for all the support and the your leadership all throughout the years that we established this One-Stop shop also a special thanks to Miss Hernandez you know for putting this on Council agenda to recognize staff for all the work that they do on a daily basis so I want to say thank you very much I'm going to turn it over to Miss Brenda Cantu the One-Stop shop manager thank you good morning good morning good morning thank you very much uh mayor and Council for this recognition we really appreciate it um I'm very very happy to have my team here um many years ago the One Stop Shop like it was mentioned you know we started it to City Hall on the first floor with just a couple people and we've grown into this um we've continually strived to fulfill the vision mission and values of the city of El Paso and you know this dedicated staff I'm very proud of him and um I'm with the with the guidance of leadership and our director and thank you very much for this um um recognition Mr Hernandez with your help um we have grown to you know we're growing leaders um a lot of people are taking advantage of the tuition assistant program that we have um so we're very proud of that lean Six Sigma everything so I mean we have a great team and we're growing to be a lot a big and better team to continue to deliver the services that we provide to our community you guys do a great job and and I thank you for everything you'd like to have everyone come up and real quickly introduce yourself I think it's uh we're having a little appreciation um luncheon on Thursday from um from 11 to 1 at the One Stop Shop so I encourage you to come by and check us out we're going to have a little bit of lunch for our customers and our staff thank you very much thank you thank you do I want to come up one at a time hmm come on up please everyone good morning everybody my name is Nathaniel mirror I'm a customer service rep at the One Stop Shop thank you hey good morning Pacheco and I'm a permit technician at the One-Stop shop thank you hi my name is Gabe de la oh I'm a customer relations representative here at the One Stop Shop for six years thank you good morning my name is I'm a building plans examiner I've been with the One Stop Shop uh 15 years thank you good morning everyone my name is Sarah Mendoza and I'm a building permit technician at the One Stop Shop thank you thank you good morning everybody my name is amirona I'm the new Ombudsman with the planning and development thank you thank you good morning everyone my name is Emma Castro and I just started at the one stop and proud to be there thank you good morning everyone my name is Sarah celi Macias I've been with the One-Stop shop for six months and I'm very happy to be here thank you thank you hi my name is Lena cunha and I'm a customer representative relation clerk at the One Stop Shop thank you good morning my name is Juana Leman and I am a uh a permit technician with a One-Stop shop thank you good morning my name is Desiree Morales and I'm a customer relations representative at the One Stop Shop thank you good morning everybody my name is Marita Kettle and I've been with the One Stop Shop since January of this year and actually today has been a year that I worked with the city because I also worked at the municipal court before this thank you hi good morning my name is Melissa and I'm a customer representative at the One Stop Shop thank you my name is Sona I'm under customer relations uh the what's up Chef thank you hi good morning my name is Kimberly Ray I'm a customer so representative Claire and I'm his sister for the city thank you thank you good morning everyone my name is Valerie Medina and I'm the licensing and permitting specialist at the One Stop Shop thank you Giovanni ferencia I'm the archives and Records manager for planning and inspections and I've been with the One-Stop shop when they first started I was there for about eight years thank you very much thank you all and you know Philip Paul kidnashod you do an incredible job and I can tell you that we've never not um when we call you've always been very very receptive and you do an incredible job and we thank you for everything you do for our community thank you mayor council appreciate this opportunity representative thank you mayor just want to say that you all are doing a great job and this department continues to improve and I want to I think the the processes that were set in place I know that the One-Stop shop was spearheaded I believe 24 when once this year it was spearheaded um Philip started that then he left to go to another place and then when he came back he helped us rejuvenate that and put it back into this the strength and and honor that they represent now so he so I really appreciate his leadership and the work he's done I know we got a lot of calls um uh before he got here and then when he got here I don't get any calls anymore from different businesses so he and his team do a great job for the community for our organization and for the city council no absolutely just want to say I I frequent that area you know as my as a public sector part of it but I want to say y'all definitely doing a great job I see many familiar faces here Reuben back there 15 years thank you for all the customer service you all provide and I know that this this really has changed how we streamline processing so thank you so much for all your hard work thank you ma'am thank you and I think this is a perfect example that one person can't get a lot accomplished but everyone together can get a lot done and this is a perfect example of getting a lot done thank you this is a wonderful team mayor council thank you thank you thank you Mr Prime mayor did you want to move to the consent agenda there are a couple of items on the regular agenda that are ceremonial items 15 and 19 would you like to go to the consent or to the 15 to 19. we'll go ahead and do the so we can do pictures all at once so 50. what was that I'm sorry man one of the ceremonial items is getting deleted so can we do consent and then take this yeah that brings us to the consent agenda all matters listed under the consent agenda including those on the addition to the 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 meet thank you Miss Prine I make a motion to approve the consent agenda with the following revisions page 3 item three move to regular agenda per representative anello page 3 item five or postponed two weeks per representative molinar page seven item 14 revised first city clerk's office and that revision is to add representative art Fierro as a co-sponsor to the item okay page seven item 15 move to the Forefront Pro representative Fierro page seven item 16 revised per representative Salcido and that revision is to add representative Isabel Salcido as a co-sponsor to the item and then page eight item 19 delete per representative Fierro yeah the representative molinar thank you Marion thank you alternate mayor program excuse me mayor program so on item number five what Auto solar request the El Paso Police Department provide data on accidents from January 2020 to current and regarding fatalities whether there'd be pedestrian cyclists or Motor Vehicles thank you thank you for that we have a motion in a second yes the motion was made by mayor Pro temanello seconded by representative Kennedy to approve the consent agenda as revised on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously that brings us to item number 15 that was moved to the Forefront item 15 is discussion in action to congratulate and comment Alicia Trejo and Daniel Quinones for their dedication and commitment to improve the lives of el pasoans through volunteer work with Americorps Vista and this item was submitted by representative Fierro representative thank you Mr Mayor you know one of my favorite quotes on volunteerism is there is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people that describes these two individuals to the T whereas the city of El Paso values and appreciates the countless contributions of individuals and organizations that strive to improve the lives of residents and whereas Alicia Trejo and Daniel Quinones have explified the true meaning of volunteerism through the tireless efforts to enhance the quality of life for the El Paso Community and whereas Alicia Trejo has dedicated her career to serving others starting with the Americorps Vista volunteers working her way up from resource coach to money Basics program and in October 2022 employee of the month of prodigyamistar whereas Daniel Quinones has demonstrated an underwearing commitment to improving the lives of el pasoans through his volunteer work with El Paso fighting hunger and his current role as the Americorps Vista volunteer for Amistad and where he assists with donations company morals while organizing donation drives for clients in need now therefore be resolved by the city of El Paso that city council expressed deep gratitude to Alicia Trejo and to Daniel Quinones approved this day thank you so much a motion to approve second thank you Mr Mayor would you like to say something good morning and I've been a Vista member since late um October of 2021 and I just want to say that I'm glad I was able to help as many people as I can and I hope to help more people in the future thank you thank you good morning mayor Lisa and Council my name is Alicia Trejo and I'm a Americorps Vista alumni serving from 2015 to 2020 and I'm now a resource coach at project at misad thank you thank you congratulations thank you we have to vote on it no motion We're In Motion in a second you said okay Motion in a second yes sir the motion was made by representative by representative Rivera to approve item 15. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously recess is there a motion to recess second there's a motion in the second to recess the city council meeting in order to take photos with his mornings on our ease all in favor anyone opposed motion passes and the meeting is in recess at 9 50 A.M so councilman members if I can also get the attention of the folks we're going to go ahead and start with the autism acceptance month followed by the Sexual Assault Awareness Month medical laboratory professional week and the One-Stop shop I'm going to ask the One-Stop shop since you're such a large crowd of folks we're going to do it out in the entryway of the city hall so I'll meet you all out front um and let's coordinate there and then following that we'll then go on to the Americorps group and we'll do that inside as well so um code import um planning on inspections if we can meet outside all right nice questions I need the front row today okay thank you all right see especially all right everybody because [Music] all right she's got a call thank you very much feelings foreign hello everybody right now right now yes what's up foreign I shall cherish [Laughter] this is my mascot pin somebody left it here I think it was Claudia Rodriguez she left it there so no it's Friday but you know it's my mascot thing they took taking all my pants [Laughter] it's okay good it's okay it gives you an excuse to go buy more oh my gosh foreign yes sir two cups good morning I like that blue it's pretty Springtime Springtime throw some color I did a proclamation practice some clustered and she wants to participate in your next they actually all reached out two of them together because they all want to be recognized they're all doing a great job yeah she reached out to me that's the time I had my post my teeth pulled out so I told her don't worry so I think let's go there's too many that's a smart idea put them all together you can call all the organizations together [Music] in argue for a few minutes thank you thank you motion to reconvene there's a motion and a second to reconvene the regular city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed the meeting is back in session at 10 14 a.m mayor did you want to take the item that was moved to the regular agenda yeah let's take the the one that we have quite a few people on here first which is 17. item 17. okay item 17. yes ma'am is discussion in action to direct the city manager to adjust the operating schedule of the streetcar to be event driven for optimal use this item was submitted by the mayor's office thank you and thank you all for I know there's people here to talk about it and you know I um I honestly have I've had a lot of conversations a lot of people are we've had a lot of calls Thanking us for putting this on there but we've had some that people want to talk about that the trolley is supposed to lose money it's not supposed to make money and this item is not to get rid of the trolley of I don't quite understand where that came from this is to maximize a resource that the city has I know the city manager put this item probably and talked about it about a year ago and it was not accepted I think it's something that we really need to maximize the usage it's uh kind of sad to see it circling around town when it's empty I know that there's a lot of Investments within the community and the downtown area and we want to continue to maximize the investment for the taxpayers so yeah I was told that more than once that that's not supposed to make money if it's not supposed to make money let's maximize it and make sure that we don't continue to loose and lose and lose money the downtown area has been very important in our community and we have an investment and we need to make sure that it doesn't cost the taxpayers up you know we need to treat it like it's our company and it is we are the taxpayers and we need to treat it like it's our company I can tell you that an airline flies around empty they're not going to continue to fly the same route they're going to adjust and maximize sure they're they're for profit but if they continue to fly empty they're going to be out of business bus companies same thing so why I have a I mean I literally have a hard hard time telling me that we're supposed to lose money and it's okay it's not okay I took the oath I ran for office to make sure that we were good stewards of the money of the city I've had some great conversations with Mr Gonzalez and his team about maximizing the usage making sure that his office is in control of scheduling whether it's a convention there's a lot of people downtown there's a baseball game there's something happening that needs to be operating in and I I mean I know that we have people that are signed up to talk about it and I'm here to listen but I I'm not sure anyone could ever tell me it's a great idea to lose money and it's silly to try to maximize and make sure that we use our resource to its maximum capacity and make sure that when it's empty it's not an embarrassment as I can tell you the hundreds of phone calls and people I've spoken to and where people are down here they have the ability to use it and maximize it there's 15 team members that work there not one will lose its their job they will continue to maintain and maintenance and do things that need it to make sure that they're continuing to run safe and with that I I'll I'm sure I got a lot more to say but we're not getting rid of The Trolley system I don't know where that started but I'm going to repeat it one more time we're not we're maximizing the assets of the city of El Paso to make sure that we're responsible store to the money that our community voters to take care of and make sure that we do things when we do save money we can do things that some routes Beaumont and things that we've not been able to do because we're spending three million dollars of money that uh to operate The Trolley system there was an investment by techshot and again it wasn't free nothing's free in life and I think we need to make sure that we understand maybe the construction of it was not on the back of the local taxpayers but the operation is and again it's our responsibility to make sure that Michigan's always and his team maximizes and does their job the way they know how to do it thank you and with that we'll go to call to the public yes mayor we have 15 signed up to speak the first person is Jenny solo followed by Sebastian Escobar Jeffrey sirkin Luis Lozano Peter schwarzwein Sam legate Michael Parra Jenny solo good morning you have three minutes good morning good morning it's my first time here I'm not a great public speaker so I apologize I run a Blog called that makes two of us thank you um you know in regards to your comments mayor um yes we shouldn't be losing money however it's an investment in our kids I'm here on behalf of my kids and for a lot of kids who cannot speak and I'm advocating on their behalf so with that in mind I wanted to kind of point out a couple things if that attitude is how we are approaching things going forward why are we losing two million dollars on the water parks our public libraries are empty you know I mean where where do we stop I mean the schools if the kids don't graduate is at a waste of money you know so those are my comments in response to what you said sir thank you um respectful thank you for that um and I just wanted to kind of read what I wrote I remember the first time my in-laws made a case for us moved to move to El Paso it was the first time we spent the summer here in 2019. um he's never my father-in-law's never gone to downtown there's a festival going on and it was the Dia de los Ninos festival and the plaza was packed with people smiling there were mariachi bands a tent full of books and they were giving it out for free food vendors all around even a guy in a sun costume it's my first time seeing that Amigo dude I think um and it's just enjoying their families the best thing for my kids though was seeing a trolley come down the street we were so amazed because that's not something that I could ever imagine being in El Paso seeing and they just lit up we must have written on that thing up and down I mean I got kind of nauseous four or five times we didn't know the routes just hopped on and we had the best time and it was a bonding moment for my father-in-law as well since he's never he's lived here for 12 plus years never been on a trolley um didn't even know it was you know something that was available and that was the first time I saw the vibrant and family friendly City of El Paso for what it was and I saw the possibilities I want to share their Vision with the world now as a member of that community and I was shocked currently at the pace of how we're getting rid of our family friendly activities in town when I moved here there were two rollerwinks they're gone now so other bike carriages downtown now they're talking about getting rid of the only ice rink in a 10 hour radius and now we're talking about basically shortening hours basically this eventually it's going to be this downward spiral where we're going to get rid of a living piece of history that families can enjoy I literally come from a city in Santa Ana right now that's trying to build one they are literally going around town raising funds to finish that sorry you've reached the three minutes thank you thank you very much ma'am thank you Sebastian Escobar followed by Jeffrey sirkin Luis Lozano good morning sir three minutes hi good morning mayor and Council uh my name is Sebastian Escobar I'm the principal architect for material architecture Studio here in El Paso I'm here on behalf of the American Institute of Architects El Paso chapter to advocate for keeping the current streetcar hours the streetcar in El Paso is a unique mass transit service that is integral to the Future urban planning and development throughout downtown El Paso adds to the mobility options of the people in the city more Mobility options means more people means more business and activity to the city for the city of El Paso the streetcar is a service for our citizens and should remain on its current schedule you know reducing the hours is going to cause confusion and diminish trust in the service which means people will just take their car instead uh if the general public is expected to use the service it needs to be reliable it needs to be consistent to build that ridership that serves the commuters rather than decreasing service hours uh the streetcar was extremely useful uh for the txa Architects convention that was held in the convention center downtown in October of last year tourists without cars could easily explore nearby areas without getting caught in traffic and look for parking it should be kept for tourism and future conventions as well as serving citizens on a daily basis and should be heavily promoted to give it time to develop a relationship to the citizens and Thrive thank you thank you for your time the next statement was submitted by Jeffrey sirkin and it reads to city clerk I'm writing to request that the following comment on the future of El Paso streetcars be read into the record I'm writing to voice my support for continuing regular operation of El Paso's historic streetcars I understand that there are members of the city council who have scheduled a vote to essentially eliminate the streetcars with the intent to use them only for special events I think this would be a mistake and would only lead to their discontinuation altogether instead the city should be finding ways to expand the streetcar system create new routes downtown and in the first ring suburbs perhaps along the Montana Corridor to Five Points for instance in essence we should be utilizing these valuable and beautifully restored historic assets to create an inner city accessible by reliable and permanent public transit in other words use the valuable assets we have to further invest in the city when this vote comes before Council I sincerely hope you will vote to keep the streetcars running and in the long term I further encourage the council to consider finding ways to expand their reach thank you Jeffrey sirkin the next statement was submitted by Luis Lozano and it says Dear mayor Lisa and City Representatives I'm writing in regard to the agenda item mentioned in the subject line I want to express my opposition in curtailing streetcar Services as someone who recently worked downtown across from the baseball stadium I would frequently encounter customers who wrote the streetcar to the business vitola cigar and whiskey Lounge this is a small business so every customer that walked into our doors definitely helped most of the frequent patrons are retired and use the trolley to get to and from their apartments that are near the Stanton Cliff area I myself often park at the Glory Road parking garage and take the streetcar to downtown so I don't have to struggle in finding a place to park many other people do this too my elderly mother also writes likes to write it seems it helps her reminisce about her Youth and how she used to write it to Juarez during the 1960s I am sure you are aware that the El Paso Children's Museum will open soon and streetcar availability will only help in increasing attendance to the museum isn't the idea of revitalizing downtown and increasing foot traffic the streetcar is a great amenity to have to accomplish this I sincerely hope that the streetcar days and hours of operation are kept as is or increased I humbly ask that you read this into the record with warm regards Luis Lozano the next speaker is former mayor Pro tem Peter schwarzbein followed by Sam legate Michael Parra Joe goodenwrath Ron Lehman good morning sir you have three minutes good morning good morning Council my name is Peter schwartzbein I'm here representing myself as a citizen of El Paso and a resident of District eight when it comes towards celebrating our bi-national history and growing future why are we creating a double standard for the streetcar there is not a public transit system in the world that pays for itself just like roads they don't pay for themselves but rarely do we hear people say there's only one person driving on that road or there's only one person in that Lark Park shut it down or that Library let's cut it hours but they'll always say there's only one person on that Streetcar the challenge that we have always had with the streetcar is that nobody knows when it is running even council members are confused as there was mention of empty cars on a Tuesday when the stir when the streetcar currently doesn't even run on a Tuesday inconsistent hours lead towards inconsistent ridership I think that is very important to hold back because what is holding ridership back is that no one knows when the streetcar is active and all this herky-jerky talk of changing hours to events and other things don't help at all especially after covet when sweet car systems and mass transit systems has seen a collapse of ridership across the country yesterday I went to every single hotel around the streetcar all 10 of them and only one knew the current hours and only half of them had these pamphlets with the info and history and root of the event and events on the streetcar as stated by staff yesterday the fixed cost for keeping up maintenance and operator training for this streetcar is the same whether it runs on a constantly sifting schedule that no one really knows about or if it runs on mornings and lunch times as well which coincidentally would be able to capture more UTEP student writers as well as as well as downtown and Uptown office workers basso Independent School District just moved their Headquarters downtown there is a vision and a story with the streetcar but we all need to do our part to tell it the streetcar's story and funding from the state never came because of a clear need for ridership it came because of opportunities for reinvestment with Transit oriented development around the streetcar line as part of an ecosystem for reinvestment in Heritage tourism and it's important because that's exactly what it's doing it's working as intended the 2010 feasibility the streetcar feasibility study anticipated a four to one to eleven to one return on investment in terms of new development and increased property tax values and it is working exactly as it's seen Oklahoma City since it opened up its streetcar line in 2019 has seen a fraction of the public sector and most importantly private sector investment in terms of hotels large businesses and small businesses choosing to build around the streetcar this is not the time to send a mixed message to our downtown and to our community the streetcars is success and the question the council has for day will you let it continue to work for our community in a way that was intended I ask you to let the streetcar have some room to ride and celebrate our history thank you and our future with pride thank you a couple things for you guys as well congratulations to those new council members thank you the next speaker is Sam legate followed by Michael Parra jogun wrath Ron Lehmann Patricia hudman good morning you have three minutes good morning sir good morning Council I'm here to speak to you as a public citizen but largely as a person that has bought the city's line to invest downtown right now I just counted up I have one two three four five projects I'm West I'm I'm investing personally in my partner millions of dollars in downtown this is what the city's asked us to do so I heard the mayor he says well how can you support I'm only for it growing being its best and all that that's great we all agree with that but if you read his uh item it's not a let's make it great it's a let's reduce it if his item were let's study how to make it great I wouldn't be standing here his item is specifically directing staff to reduce the the trolley so I want to look at it from a business point of view the mayor's of business so say he has a product that's not succeeding what do you do do you decide well I'm going to have maybe you decide you have less of it or maybe you study to see why is it not succeeding why are the trolleys not succeeding are we stupid is El Paso stupid we can't make it work we can't meet make it achieve the goals we've set for it well let's talk about goals what are the goals have we heard of any I'm not an expert in trolleys and I feel no disrespect confident none of you are either so what my suggestion would be for you today would be to take a minute study what are other cities that are doing trolleys what are the metrics that are success Peter argues that it's business development around them the mayor argues it's ridership I would argue that you know it's a tourist attraction that was the thank you that was the the first person's argument none of those metrics have been determined so how do we know if it's succeeding maybe maybe the metrics for Success isn't ridership maybe it's investment around it maybe it's number of tourists that go on it but my suggestion to counsel is rather than adopt what the mayor suggested which is a limitation of the trolley and admission of failure of The Trolley system uh instead let's look at what success means and that's what any smart business person does you have to identify what is success I'm a lawyer what is a successful lawyer I have to identify that first and then once I've identified that what do I go do to to make that happen and to me until we've identified what success means not by our own personal um kind of whims or what I feel success is and I have I have two in directly and indirectly two properties right right on the trolley and uh and I'm interested in it and so to me it's like number one hold your horses let's let's study see what success is what it means so that when you do vote and you direct because how the way I understand city government works you identify as counsel what you want your staff to do to be successful to run this city I appreciate you being here the next speaker Michael Parra submitted this statement and it reads dear city council I urge you to vote against it just adjusting the streetcar schedule to something less than its current schedule reducing the schedule will cause confusion would be visitors from patronizing downtown I myself have used the streetcar numerous times when parking outside of the immediate downtown area and utilizing this wonderful Transportation option to and from downtown I wouldn't want this opportunity to exist only on certain days and not on others I understand that ridership could be increased and thus I encourage the city to continue to promote ridership and continue the economic development opportunities that the streetcar program has brought and will continue to bring in the coming years Michael arbara the next speaker is Joe goodenreth good morning mayor city council City staff um representing the downtown Management District here today and I want to say we're probably all in agreement that maximizing the usage of the streetcar is a great thing to have happen and there's nothing more that the downtown management wants Management District wants to see rather than people downtown enjoying our downtown taking advantage of the streetcar or the past couple years since the streetcar resumed following the pandemic I've had the opportunity to work with City staff on a cross-functional team established by the city council to look at streetcar operations to maximize its efficiencies but then to also maximize usage to increase ridership they are a committed group of City staff who want to make sure we're not wasting anything that we're building the ridership that we're making everything successful they are doing what you what we're talking about today I'd like to see that CFT continued and not only continue to focus on events but to focus on again increasing that ridership when we talk about the the primary driver for the streetcar I agree with representative schwartzbein former representative schwartzbein that's about Economic Development Economic Development as you all know is long slow drawn out and a never-ending effort doesn't happen overnight but the true success of the streetcar won't be measured by how many people ride it on a Wednesday night it'll be it'll be measured on the long-term growth and development along the tracks undermining the strategy is undermining our Economic Development efforts I also understand the idea of being efficient as anybody who's run a business or an organization recognizes how important that is and when you talk about this item specifically as it's written being in an event driven operations schedule I don't think it'll get to where you want it to be or where you're intending it to be we focus on events because events are a major driver for activity downtown so when you actually put together a full calendar of events of what's happening in downtown and Uptown you're talking about almost nightly activity whether it's sport sporting events at UTEP Theater events at UTEP downtown we're having Gallery openings live music performances there's private events bringing hundreds of people to our hotels like Quinceaneras and weddings and then of course you have our large-scale ticketed events like the ballpark our festivals Winterfest so basing it on operation or on events only might sound good but I don't think it'll bring you those efficiencies so the downtown Management District we're here to work with the city to increase ridership make it maximize its usage and we hope for hope we have that opportunity going forward thank you thank you for your comments the next speaker is Ron Lehmann Mr Lehman star six place to end major telephone Ron Lehman to our sixth place to a major telephone good morning you have three minutes good morning good morning my name is Juan Lyman I am an instructor with the UTEP osher lifelong learning Institute yes are you hearing me yes sir okay next Wednesday on April 19th Chris McKenzie and I will be leading a history tour this final tour of the semester will be an El Paso streetcar tour in which we will board and ride the streetcar on the nearly five mile Loop we have space for 48 individuals and this class has a waiting list for Ali students Ali students are El pasoans 50 and over along the Route we will point out important sites stopping at some for detailed discussion it will also be an explanation of the El Paso streetcar's history and operations including technical information on the modern Streetcar we will point out that the development of El Paso is directly tied to railroads and railways what I want to do is challenge the mayor and eight City representatives to take a tour with us before a final decision is made we will board a street car and have a class tour we believe that a deeper understanding of the El Paso streetcars will lead to a better informed decision thank you sir the next statement was submitted by Patricia hudman and it reads my husband and I want to see continued daily service by El Paso streetcars I know many friends family and other visitors to El Paso who enjoy using the streetcars city council must vote to continue this service Patricia hudman the next speaker is Arnoldo Hernandez file followed by Brian Cannell Marcus Prince McKenzie Lisa Turner I don't see him Brian kanoff there he is good morning sir you have three minutes good morning mayor and good morning sir members of council I'm Brian kanoff and I come here representing myself and uh I'm a little confused about a lot of things and I've become continually more confused the older I get one of the things that really confuses me is that historically speaking El Paso is the most Progressive City in the state of Texas I'm not talking about politics here I'm talking about being a true Progressive City we're the first ones that put recycle bins next to our garbage cans the first major city in Texas to do so we recycle what little storm order we get it's called gray water and we use that we recycle that storm water to uh for uh to irrigate our city parks and a couple of golf courses as well now uh I personally feel that that Sun Metro should integrate the street cars into their overall uh Transportation plan uh for ridership Citywide I'd like to see this the streetcars Roots expanded and not contracted but uh there's an elephant in the room here especially when we talk about El Paso as being a progressive City there's only one public conveyance that's zero emissions and that's the electric street cars and instead of expanding them we're talking about Contracting them it doesn't make sense in the 21st century we have a there's a city ordinance about global warming if that's what you want to call it there's a proposition K that I don't agree with but that's on the that's on the uh that's going to be litigated uh by uh uh by ballot uh in the up and coming month but the the elephant in the room is pollution we share air with our with our neighbors to the South we are we heavily relegate regulate how that how uh petrochemicals are used in the United States and if we're doing anything to to move this forward it would be to continually use electricity for our mass transit and not the petrochemicals that we're using right now thank you very much thank you for your comments sir the next statement was submitted by Hal Marcus and it reads good morning city clerk's office please read into the record dear mayor city council and city manager I own a property a home and in my business on Oregon Street it's said that this project is not working as hoped as a resident of Sunset Heights I believe in historic preservation I'd like to give this more time to get some new ideas and test them out to see if our streetcar project can meet our community's needs sincerely Hill Marcus the next speaker is Prince McKenzie followed by Lisa Turner good morning you have three minutes good morning sir good morning I'm Prince McKenzie executive director of The Railroad and Transportation Museum of El Paso we have been involved in downtown historic preservations since 2001. now the paso del Norte streetcar preservation society that saved these cars for the city of El Paso had a contract for 30 years they started in 1985. and there have been a lot of people that have been working on this but today I'd like to talk to you about Economic Development 25 in the last 25 years there's been a national great historic Resurgence of historic streetcars streetcar systems in addition to cities that have been simultaneously putting in high-speed Light Rail which is what Brian just suggested that we should also consider now our cars are unique they're the PCC type cars they are they came out of the Great Depression and turned out to be the the best street cars of the 20th century and so there's been a surge in bringing these cars back and The Surge is so big that the industry is making replica cars because there aren't enough ours are original not only that ours came from El Paso and so Tampa Florida put in replica cars the city of Little Rock Arkansas bought replica cars to run from downtown to The Clinton Library the Colorado Springs has replica cars now Heritage tourism has never been properly promoted this visitor's guide is 2019 nothing significant has been said has been put out except for this now this brochure has some good points but it completely leaves out the Real historic value of our cars our cars are streamlined they're not the rolling boxes that New Orleans has but incidentally New Orleans also wanted to have PCS C cars too but now the when this brochure was designed for the city they didn't contact us to get any historic facts which is would help so I believe that it we should really look at the schedule rework the system don't cut it down rework it and reevaluate it thank you Mr McKenzie thank you use of historic characters thank you sir the next speaker is Lisa Turner followed by Alejandro burunda Dora Oaxaca Albie cormack good morning you have three minutes good morning mayor good morning Miss Turner I was originally against this in the beginning I still am I think event driven is the way to go we've got people downtown they live downtown they don't want to see it go I don't live downtown and 99.5 93 percent of the people in El Paso don't live downtown and they do not get to write the trolley they have to pay for it though and don't say well they'll come downtown nobody's going to come downtown if they live out by Joe Battle to write it I'm downtown because well you're meeting on Tuesdays I like to be here on Tuesdays to see what you're doing I have to be here it's not that I wanted to be here but I have to be here we talk about success well success is not taking the money out of my pocket and putting it in yours if you're a business I'm a die-hard capitalist that means you get no deductions no write-offs nothing cost of services minus your taxes is going to each equal your profit from your General Revenue that you bring in anything else to me is socialist communistic ah and I will tell you this right now electricity doesn't come out of here something has to generate it and right now we're using fossil fuels and something has to get the fossil fuel to the power plants and that's trucks oil rigs gas rigs you know how are you going to cut that out the fact is costing way too money too much money the fact is you don't even have a regular route to Beaumont to serve your veteran Community the fact is very few people even write it and even if you've got everybody downtown to ride it it still would lose money and it only serves a small portion of downtown which usually shuts down at five o'clock it doesn't serve me where I live off Mesa it doesn't serve anybody by out by Joe Battle doesn't serve anybody in the Northeast anywhere on the east side doesn't serve anybody but they do have to pay for it out of their pocket to make the people downtown happy and when it comes to growth we are a metropolitan area of some 2 million people I'm sorry but street cars is not going to bring a company here I've yet to see somebody come in here ask for your assistance oh we're here for the streetcars they're here for two million people to sell their goods to our location next to the Border that's why they're here anybody who thinks it's a streetcar is crazy I'm sorry but it's a waste of money it needs to be event driven thank you thank you Mr Turner the next statement was submitted by Alejandro barunda and it reads please read this into the record for agenda item 17. hello my name is Alejandro borunda and I'm a small business owner born and raised in Juarez El Paso Borderland I came back to El Paso to pursue my goal of opening up businesses that would add value to the El Paso Community it was fulfilled by opening an international bar in downtown almost seven years ago and tagoneta in uptown off Stanton almost three years ago when I was looking at a place to open my restaurant I wanted to be in a place that I knew people would be near and was growing and representing the best of our community I knew that place for my new restaurant will be along the streetcar line having left El Paso I saw how other communities redeveloped a long streetcar and Light Rail and was happy to see El Paso pursue a vision of economic development that encouraged people to invest in downtown and along the streetcar covet really shook things but post covet I noticed firsthand how people are out and about in the downtown area our downtown should have the amenities at many other major cities offer as the community expects is per adding value to their lives as they deserve it the streetcar is one of them we are seeing more and more people out and using the streetcar we shouldn't be changing hours but expanding them I wish we could have more ridership not less I'm sure it's much easier said than done but we should not give up on it it's taken a lot of effort to get us here let's not slow down let's continue to grow and persevere putting El Paso on the map thank you for your service and please help small businesses like mine flourish in our downtown and surrounding neighborhoods best wishes Alejandro borunda the next speaker is Dora Oaxaca Miss Oaxaca star six please to unmute your telephone good morning you have three minutes hello good morning Karen Council for the record my name is Daryl wahhatan I'm against the mayor's item to blatantly State the trolley is a failure the trolley is a component to the success of Downtown Development I also want to correct the mayor on his opening statements by stating that the city manager quote unquote I know the city manager and put this item a year ago mayor please do not misinform the community on past conversations regarding the streetcar fact check the city manager and his Dean presented an item to increase the street ridership post covet mayor understand the Staffing was an issue due to covet also the city is coming out of the hiring hate the streetcar is a transportation historical preservation it also meets our climate change needs it also generates Revenue to the city via Economic Development it increases growth business investment in downtown and that translates to revenue for the city and benefits our taxpayers when destination El Paso and the Democratic team met to bring in the state democratic party convention one of our highlights in our presentation was A Streetcar El Paso streetcar program is a NASA to our city transportation systems tourism and instead of minimizing the use we need to expand to the medical center and to our quality I urge all of council to think very carefully about what the streetcar is to El Casto and and maximize the use please vote against the mayor's leasers regressive item that puts El Paso behind and not forward thank you thank you for your comments the next statement was submitted by lb cormack and it reads good morning Mr Canales I'm writing in support of continuing regular service for the El Paso streetcar this is a service that my family uses frequently at least once a week it gives us connectivity to downtown for my neighborhood in Kern we really appreciate that we can encourage a healthier Lifestyle by teaching our children to walk and then ride on the streetcar rather than being car dependent we are also looking forward to writing it down to the main library and La nobe when they are complete my two nephews visited El Paso in February and wrote it every day that were they were in town they loved it and the streetcar was one of the unique features of El Paso that they lamented they would miss the most at home in Seattle thank you so much please feel free to read my letter on the record Alby cormack the final speaker is arnulfo Hernandez good morning you have three minutes good morning sir good morning mayor Lisa and members of the uh City Council I speak in opposition of changing the streetcar running to be event driven for the reasons that Mr Canales you well so so well spoke on the k-14 fox statement streetcars is more than just plain about money it is as you pointed out Mr Canales a important to our community and let me say that your community includes my former Community where I grew up I no longer live there but it doesn't matter that it doesn't service me it serves people that are in need of this type of transportation for what students to go to school free of charge the elderly the infirmed the poor and and I consider myself poor but I do have a little car but they need it because it's free of charge they need to get to appointments they need to get the classes they need to come downtown they need to be incorporated into our city the 799 uh zip code was probably the second or the third poorest in the entire United States isolated economically geographically and I guess also housing from the rest of the city so for those reasons I oppose changing it to reducing the hours in fact I think you ought to amend it and look for ways of increasing the the if you will disperse throughout the city that incorporates perhaps the Lower Valley more of Segundo Wario and as the other speakers spoke areas of maybe closer to Juarez because the economy is driven by that area you are eloquenting what you said um Mr Canales and I wear this Gap in your honor today because it was what you said about the arena being placed in the duranguito that move these folks to move against placing the arena in duranguito and keeping it for posterity as Mr Oaxaca point out historical purposes and I think this um streetcar is part of that you know San Francisco has street cars it's a tourist attraction the city I lived for about 40 years before I came back to El Paso uh Sacramento California Has A Streetcar we call it light rail but it's wonderful because it serves people all over the city they got spurts going in all directions that's what we need to look mayor I think that's forward-looking you folks Mr Kennedy Mr Fierro um you were elected to move us forward don't take us back thank you thank you thank you sir thank you for your comments mayor that concludes a public comment on this item thank you very much thank you everyone that came down here and thank you all for your for your comments um with that we'll start with mayor Pro tem followed by representative Canales laid out about five questions I was going to want to answer today um but I do have a question I want to start with that wasn't mentioned yesterday um which is part of the conversation about when planning for the streetcar was done and so I don't know if there's someone here that can answer those questions but my question is uh you know I know in the planning for the streetcar there were assumptions of ridership projections and I want to know if anybody has those and it can talk about if we've followed them I know um Mr Jerome shared with Council the numbers of ridership yearly based on representative canale's request and and we do and we knew this but we saw a real decrease after the pandemic and so I know that that data is going to be skewed because we did not plan for a pandemic but I do I want to have a conversation about what those projections look like and how we've amended rules and times and and all of that to get to those projections so that's a good question uh so one of the reasons why we changed from First Transit and brought the Sun Metro operations in-house was because we didn't feel like the kickoff of the marketing of the streetcar went very well with with the previous operator which was first Transit and all the questions that were asked about benchmarking and things of that nature we didn't feel like we were satisfied with the type of information that we received but TL's question when it did open in the first year of full operation it had 220 000 passenger riders for that for that fiscal year that second year it was on schedule to eclipse the first Year's numbers which are pretty good numbers we'd have to go back and do some more analysis since this was an item that was wasn't that was placed on the agenda today for really to direct us to go and do certain things so we we don't have like a presentation but with respect to the benchmarking that that we need to do because of the questions that were raised today we can absolutely do that and do a comparison I would say to you that that going forward the numbers after covet as the mayor Pro tem alluded to have not have been skewed they're not consistent with what they were prior to covet and then we also had as as we've discussed several times really a hiring um pandemic Across America not just in El Paso and we're getting past that right now and we were able to start hiring people back up we've we've increased wages throughout the last several years and so we feel like we've got a good handle on bringing people back on not only in Sun Metro operations but across the board for the city because we've been extremely aggressive and the council's been very supportive and we thank you for that so the numbers right now are really not indicative of what they could be and we haven't built that number base back up again so that's where we are right now excuse me and the numbers you received them are projected to be a little bit over 80 000 by the end of the year in terms of full operation which is a lot less than the 220 000 in the First full year of operation prior to covet I hope I answered your question well I mean I I think you addressed some things about the numbers but my question was specifically about the plans that were put in place to address ridership issues that could happen and so I I guess I heard you say you all don't have that today um which I in terms of in terms of ridership I can't speak to just by memory of some of the things we have presented to city council relative to no I understand but they're they're just you know there were there are plans in place for this there were assumptions we do have programming in the streetcar we do have uh staff dedicated but we're not I guess my question is we're not following what the experts we hired to do to make these assumptions of ridership we're not following their recommendations or we're unaware of them they did not give recommendations the things that we're doing now are over and above what First Transit did not do so so yes what we're doing now is is not only um you know in terms of the best way you can increase ridership when we look at some other cities they're not doing near us what we're doing with regard to the programmings uh that we have in place on the streetcar you have different um read-alongs you have tours you have Mariachis you have different holidays that are celebrated no I get that and think those are great I just I'm just looking for the specific data I do remember them from presentations around the community and if when we follow up with this item if someone in the virtual Abyss can can get those I think it would be important I also so leads to kind of one of my next questions is something that Mr gutenrath had had brought up is during those initial planning stages there were conversations about working specifically in partnership with UTEP right I think that was the entire point of bringing that line up there the Don Haskins Center Mr gutenwrath mentioned you know the dinner theaters and the plays they do I have not seen any of those Partnerships I don't know if we we've tried to do that or if we have any examples of that we can bring back that information as well on this Nilla with respect to the questions that you're asking because again we don't have a presentation prepared but we're taking notes of all the different questions you're asking so that we can go back and see what we've presented before and also to your questions right now in terms of how much information we provided to you all with regard our Partnerships because we do provide different updates as you as you know for All City programming sometimes we get a little lengthy and and I know that that's difficult to like sit through all those presentations so we've we've condensed those if you've noticed on the goal reports and really hit on the high points in terms of the results and I think the council has as uh well that that's been well received by the council but we're taking notes on the specific questions being asked now we would definitely come back and respond to all of these questions okay and I swear I'm going to get to the five questions that I mentioned yesterday but I do kind of want to say you know I don't disagree with any of the statements that were that were made today um but I think myself personally as a representative I think we as a council we as a city have done a really poor job with our public transportation since ending the contract with First Transit I've spoken many times about my concerns about the public transit system in this city across the city and I think we as a council really need to take a step back and figure out how we're going to improve that and I prove that city-wide and and I don't know that putting a pause on this and we're not putting a pause on it but but making this change uh to the trolley schedule is the best way to do it but it's something that I am comfortable with today um I think putting you know in transit does not make money and I think that's really the problem that we've had as an organization is expecting uh a reward for public transit and I think that that is echoed across the city when it's come to transportation we have a very and I'm sorry if this is offensive but we have a terrible transit system across the city and it really needs to be improved and we really need to be making amenities uh or amendments to it to be increasing ridership we heard we don't have a line to the VA hospital we I'm still not sure if all of our Sunday hours are back we're getting complaints with the lift for six months to a year I think some of those have been adjusted I just think as a whole this Council when we are coming into budget in the next four months needs to take a very serious look at our transit system because it is not successful and it has not been for years so now with that I kind of want to get back into the questions that I brought up yesterday and the first one is going to be um and this is a story I shared about a year ago so a year ago I went to a soccer game got out of the soccer game tried to get on the trolley with my godson and the trolley had stopped running before the soccer game was over it's something that I've always said I think is is a like a failure that we have created and not extending hours for special events and so if we're moving to only special events I want to make sure that we are increasing the hours to meet that event in the needs of that event and then my next one is and again we talked oh go ahead sorry maybe we take these one at a time yeah sure I'm just going to list them out if you want it but that's right so so answer to the um for the record uh senior Deputy city manager Tracy Jerome um we do extend um depending on programming um in the downtown we do extend hours and we've worked together from a programming perspective oftentimes we'll do programming around that I don't know the specific date that you're talking about but generally speaking when there are baseball games when there are soccer matches we've actually had some programming in the downtown for example at the at the Chavez that we know that there's going to be a very high demand depending on who the performers are and all of that we have we do work with those partners and we will continue to do that we've worked with the operational side of the house to put aside um sort of a bank of ours for overtime so that when it seems to be the right time we will extend those hours I apologize um if you did not get the service that you that you needed on on that particular night I don't know what happened so I'm not going to try to make excuses for that but generally speaking what we have tried and will continue to do is on those nights that we know because one of the things that happened in the very beginning when First Transit had this system they were running the system from seven to seven which meant that in the evenings you could take the streetcar downtown to go to the baseball game but at seven o'clock the game's just starting so one of the things that we did initially when when when the service was brought back in in-house with the city of El Paso staff is we tried to look at what those hours and those demands were at the time so to say that you know yeah you can take it downtown to the goat to go to the game but you can't come back that doesn't help and that doesn't that doesn't need meet the needs so we have continued to try to work around looking at adjusting scheduling this was pre-pandemic and then post pandemic we we've continued to do that to look at what those needs are we don't I won't Proclaim that we've got it perfectly sorted yet but we are looking at those needs and so yes we do coordinate and collaborate with those types of Big Ticket big item big time on demands we do the same thing when we're looking at our collaborations with with UTEP for example during the Sun Bowl so the Sun Bowl is a reverse need so what we've done over the past few years is we've advertised and we've collaborated with with with uh with the the Sun Bowl to get people to park in the downtown and then take the streetcar Uptown which is the reverse of what we think about when there's a football match I'm sorry um a soccer match I apologize a soccer match um or um or a baseball game going on um that we have people Park Uptown and come on downtown on the streetcar and we reverse that for things like the Sun Bowl um so we are looking at all of those and we are trying to be responsive to those needs and that's probably a longer answer than you needed but and I'm I want to hear everything you have to say but I want to make sure it's fine I mean I just that that hasn't been my experience but I think that you know what you're saying is what we need to be doing if this item passes and so that makes me feel a lot better um and so now I want to talk about how we're defining special event right I think yesterday something I mentioned is and and Miss Oaxaca mentioned it and it is very important the the Democratic party has said multiple times that that trolley is extremely important to them so when we have conventions are we partnering with the people people that are coming in with conventions but then I also on the other side want to talk about well what about you know a non-profit or neighborhood association events and and I have not talked to this neighborhood association but I remember years ago the sunset night Heights neighborhood association used to have a block party if they're doing that if they start doing that again and they want to have the trolley running for that you know they're not going to be able to pay what someone is paying for a Convention Center so I do think we need to come back with kind of an understanding on if we're running this for special events how are those events scheduled how are they you know are we charging are we not charging what does that rate look like what is the exception for that um and so mayor if you would I would like to ask staff and direct them to come back in a reasonable amount of time to kind of address if this item passes to address those two um and what if you know how you how how we're defining a special event and who can request the trolley access for their event I think it's more than just special events I agree with you it's things that are happening within downtown and whether it's a Democratic party I would I mean that is just something special happening neighborhood block parties reading on the trolleys anything that's happening that's out of you know that would increase the ridership and help them out absolutely I agree with you and I think that's a great recommendation yes ma'am so an example of those collaborations that happened most recently and I think it was commented on today because we had some members um from the um the architecture the AIA organization they have they're they're meeting here in October and so we collaborated the convention it was highly successful we did a lot of special programming on the streetcar and we actually did collaborate to make sure that there were Services we do provide special service we do provide that access we do work with non-profits we work very closely with destination El Paso with that planning we will continue to do that we would love to expand those opportunities as well right now it is not possible but the streetcar um the operation side of the house is developing a plan for for rentals so that people can actually do party rentals on the streetcar um and that's going to be a very exciting I think a new opportunity for people to take advantage of the system in a different way but right now for that type of special programming like when the conventions come in when there are meetings that come in when there are organizations or groups that want to have a special tour those are not being charged ma'am so we are working with the community on that but there will be additional opportunities coming for people for example if they want to have a party on the streetcar and we look forward to launching that in the in the coming months um it will be a there won't be a huge amount of Revenue that will come from it because we're not we don't want to charge at a high level The Proposal will be that we'll charge for expenses but again another way to activate that system and another way to bring people into the system and utilize the system but that's separate and apart from extra programming that we do to make sure that we're collaborating again with non-profits with the conventions and meetings that are coming in okay I'll come back to you in a few minutes and we have uh and uh thank you for all your questions and I agree with your recommendations um representative Canales followed by representative Fiero followed by representative thank you and again I do want to caution y'all we have 10 minutes and we will each will speak twice on the same item thank you go ahead sir thank you mayor uh first of all I requested a whole lot of data from City staff uh during yesterday's public agenda review meeting so I really want to thank them for moving quickly to get the the council some great information in such a short amount of time so thank you to Mr ohm and Miss smiven I'm sure a huge team of folks behind you working to get the numbers that we asked for um I'm speaking today in my capacity as the city representative whose District contains the entirety of the streetcar's uh two routes to voice my opposition to the proposed changes that would limit the streetcar service to special events only the streetcar has become very important to our community provides reliable accessible and enjoyable transportation to Residents and to visitors alike and it's on track to serve more than eighty four thousand riders in 2023 it's worth noting that in 2022 the Sun Metro Bus system had just over 5.6 million Riders on 73 regular operated routes so that's an average ridership per route of 76 971. uh the streetcars ridership Falls right near the middle then when we look at ridership across Sun Metro's routes the the changes that are proposed today would have significant consequences that we can't afford to to overlook uh while this may seem like a small change uh to some something minor uh the potential consequences are are much more significant and far-reaching and I'm happy to justify why I think so uh first of all removing regular Transit operations from the streetcar would have a significant impact on the daily lives of many El pasoans who rely on transit in and around the downtown area particularly the most vulnerable members of our society who may be more likely to use the streetcar since it represents a free Transit option those who rely on public transit to get to work to school to medical appointments and to other essential destinations within the the downtown and Uptown areas for these folks the streetcar has become an essential mode of transportation the proposed changes would force these these individuals to find alternative modes of transportation which might not be as reliable or affordable to them as the streetcar it's important to remember that the implementation of the streetcar led to the removal of bus transit routes that were redundant with the streetcar lines and also a broader reworking of Transit routes in the downtown and Uptown areas removal of the streetcar is a regular Transit option would necessitate the reworking of these Transit routes yet again uh requiring in my opinion a significant public input process and considerable staff time for things like public meetings the reprinting of Route maps and signage etc etc um it would mean a change and Mr kanoff pointed this out very effectively during his public comments uh a change from the all-electric powered streetcar back to buses powered largely by fossil fuel combustion engines another important consideration is that the city is looking to incentivize residential development in the downtown and Uptown areas that the streetcar directly serves the the streetcar is an essential part of any Transit oriented development strategy that aims to promote denser more walkable and more sustainable communities in these areas of the city the streetcar encourages people to live work and play in the downtown area reducing the need for car trips and promoting a healthier lifestyle eliminating the regular operating hours would send a clear signal to developers and investors that we are not serious about Transit oriented development or about our efforts uh to develop residential options in the in the downtown area which could undermine the the long-term economic prospects of our downtown by providing a convenient and accessible Transit option the streetcar encourages residents to explore local businesses restaurants cultural destinations in the downtown area and Uptown this in turn contributes to the growth and vitality of of these areas helping to create jobs and and spur economic activity the streetcar also serves as an important source of visibility for these local businesses along the Route fixed rail Transit provides a unique opportunity for businesses to be seen by a large number of people passing by with the guarantee that the route will not change we'll stop by and patronize these businesses visibility from and prime location adjacent to the fix rail Transit our streetcar is an important factor that many commercial tenants likely considered when deciding to pay potentially higher rent for their locations along the streetcar route and if we were to eliminate the regular operating hours we would be reducing the number of eyeballs on those businesses potentially undermining their their visibility and their economic viability uh and I think breaking the promise that our investment in fixed rail Transit made to them another very important consideration is that many UTEP students who cross the border to attend uh class at the University rely on the streetcar as a free Transit option linking the downtown ports of entry and utep's campus eliminating the the regular operating hours would make it significantly more difficult and costly for these students to access their classes and other resources on campus I've heard discussion of the fact that the streetcar costs 2.9 Million dollars annually to operate it's my understanding that the bulk of that cost including the entire maintenance cost is made up of fixed expenses which will not disappear if the streetcar operations are are further reduced what could theoretically change within the operating costs is what the city pays in staff hours for our operators but we were assured in our discussion during yesterday's meeting that staff hours would not be reduced or impacted and so those costs would remain I've heard also that the I've heard folks refer to the 2.9 Million Dollar operating cost as a loss as in the streetcar loses 2.9 Million dollars per year uh Services provided to the public are not losses uh we don't only provide libraries or Parks or our health clinics during peak hours these services including the streetcar are largely the point of city government and funding them as an investment in community Wellness not a source of loss finally I want to point out that the the streetcar is not funded by the general fund meaning we don't pay for it through our property taxes in fact Sun Metro's entire operating budget of more just more than 93 million dollars comes from non-general fund dollars there's no general fund subsidy in addition to the specific federal and state grants Enterprise revenues such as advertising Revenue and charges for services meaning the fares that are paid by Riders comes from the half penny of sales tax revenue that's dedicated by law to be spent only on public transit so any amount of money saved from this proposed change would have to remain within the public transit system uh in conclusion I urge my colleagues on the council to reject this proposal to eliminate the regular operating hours uh we we can allow uh this kind of snap decision to to undermine the well-being of our citizens and and the economic development of our city uh the streetcar is uh By Nature a long-term investment with a long-term expected uh return on that investment and abandoning the investment early doesn't benefit us let's instead work together to find some creative and Sustainable Solutions to any challenges facing the streetcar and to ensure that it continues to serve our needs I've been involved with the streetcars cross-functional uh the streetcar cross-functional team that the city put together several years ago since its Inception first as a staffer and now as a member of the council I welcome the mayor and and anyone else interested in in the streetcar to participate as we discuss operations and schedules and programming and special events and engage in data-driven decision making related to the ongoing success of the streetcar I think that form of collaborative approaches is much more valuable in in guiding the the future of the streetcar um before uh we make a decision of this magnitude I think we need to understand the economic impact the impact on our Transit users uh and the the projected Financial impact of this change I haven't heard yet how much this change would actually be projected to save uh and how those Transit dedicated sales tax dollars might be reallocated um I understand that we haven't studied that at all in advance of today uh with that I move uh one to table this item indefinitely uh two that the council direct City staff to conduct an economic impact analysis to assess the past present and future Economic Development impact of the streetcar including uh potential future expansion and the impact on our existing Transit oriented development incentive program agreements three that the council directs City staff to conduct an assessment of the impact that different models of streetcar operating hours have on Transit access in the Uptown and downtown areas and four that the council directs City staff to conduct an assessment of the projected cost savings to the streetcar system that would result from this proposed elimination of regular operating hours in favor of event driven operation only miss Pratt I can send that all to you uh I think that's a reasonable course of action so that we can understand the situation from all angles before acting uh rashly today especially if the goal is to maximize the value of the streetcar as a city asset yes we should look to expand service during events I think that's very important but that should come in addition to sustained or hopefully even expanded regular operating hours not instead of them that concludes my comments for now thank you mayor thank you sir okay and um I also I think what we need to do I know you you had a lot of things you want done and there's a second but I think what we need to do is just like Mr ligetz said and other people said that we need to try to figure out how to make it work and we need to give it to city manager and his staff without really making it event driven or any driven or anything but really bring it back and come back with a plan on how to operate it more efficient and you know whatever that may be so I think it's important that um you know the community gets the opportunity to really maximize the usage of the cars whatever that may be again what it's going to look like but I'd like to see the city manager and his staff come back with an operational because I think representative anello was correct on it that says we got so many questions still that we need to ask and I appreciate everyone in the public that came out to talk to us but we want to make sure if we make a motion and we do something that's going to affect the community we do have a plan and a plan I think what did Mr Robin say say used to say to us bail the plan you plan to fail yeah fail the plan plan to fail we don't want to do that we want to make sure that it does have because it's really important to me I think that we maximize the usage of it and like I said I agree with Mr Legette that we do need to make it work and how we're going to make it work is by taking a step back and actually looking at it and taking our time and then bringing it back to this Council in this body to make sure that you know we can make a lot of recommendations but I think it's going to be up to you all to really bring a full recommendation and then brief the council and then come back and bring it to the Open session so I think that's something that I want to make sure that we do and like I said representative nello I agree with you on it that it's something that I want to make sure that we look at and take our time to look at it so I wanna I wanna that's what I want to do on this item yes sir we have um representative you fell off we can uh you can you still go ahead sir thank you Mr Mayor you know first and foremost I think mayor thank you for putting this on there after last council meeting when Mr cortinas gave us a briefing on the budget and we saw what the budget is projected at and what what our our tax uh collections is projected at we also heard that the potential of nine percent increase in property values you know we we have got this is just one area that we've got to look at and prepare for the budget season so thank you very much for bringing this up you know Mr Jerome um former mayor Pro tem schwartzfein has been very critical of us not communicating to the public on a schedule or the expanded schedule how are we how are we doing that so the just like all about Sun Metro there is a there's a there's a number of ways that we communicate and we actually work very hard to communicate with the public um and again but I won't tell you that anyone is perfect because again we're humans so we are constantly we're a learning organization we are constantly striving for improvement and um and that's important to us however the team that's responsible for this works very closely again programming from the programming side of the house the operations side of the house we have an app that we encourage people to utilize because although the streetcar doesn't take ticketing people want to know where the streetcar is so if you go to the Sun Metro app you can do all your Sun Metro business on the app um everything is there and With A Streetcar you can even track where your streetcar is when it's activated we're very active on social media because again that's where people live today I know there are a few people that don't utilize social media and so there's also there's Sun Metro has has customer service where they're available if people want to pick up the telephone so it's not a matter of you can't find and talk to a speak to a human but again over overwhelming majority of people want to know where things are so they go to the website they go to they use the app they follow us again social media Instagram Facebook all of that all of that information is is posted there and we don't just function through some um through Sun Metro we work across all of the city platforms to make sure that we're communicating that information we push that information out we also share that information with all of you and we really appreciate all of the support that we that we receive from Council because we know that you're out meeting with your constituents on a very regular basis so all of the updates all of the information about programs special programming and hours I know that you all push that out to make sure that people are aware of that so we do we do share very very frequently very very regularly we believe in in you know communicating at every level that we can we do work with our partners through the hotel motel Association um I I heard on one member of the public who did speak that stated that there were not brochures at some of the some of the down Hotel hotels and motels I will work with staff to make sure that that information is refreshed because we do communicate with them very regularly and we do provide hard copy we try to be environmentally um friendly but we'll make sure that we redouble those efforts because again thank you we didn't realize that that was the case so I'll speak with staff on that we want to know how we can get better but we do work very hard to make sure that we're pushing that information out there is also information available at the at the stops along the way as well to make sure that people if they walk up to a stop that they have an idea about you know what the route is and where they can go and get more information and but again the reality is and we're seeing this across all the Departments um social media seems to be our best and our best option and that app is incredibly important because the information is there and again you don't need to buy a ticket for the streetcar because we don't charge for that but when when it's active you can actually see where your street car is and see how long it's going to take for it to get to you so that you can decide if you want to which stop you want to get on where you might want to take a scooter to the next stop and how much time if you have a time if you have time to go and stop in that store or that restaurant that's right along the way before your next street car comes thank you very much it was just a criticism that I received this morning and I wanted to make sure that the public knew that that we were doing uh uh the best that we can to reach as many people as we can Mr Vero also about your point about criticism I'm very proud of our team they do a tremendous job and I know that uh well for the record that wasn't my criticism no no this isn't my receiver yes sir but I wanted to thank the council for everyone on the council all nine of you the eight Council and the mayor about uh just the way y'all push us to get better and so that that's what I am saying in light of of that kind of feedback that we take it very seriously we have a tremendous team I know that when we took over for First Transit we had a 37 million dollar deficit that means we were in the hole about 37 million dollars negative 37 million dollars today were 25 million dollars up and we've added two new Transit centers and we've added more routes and we also had a pandemic and we you know the hiring process I know that people have are have grown weary of covet talk with respect to the impact it had Across America but we we had to work through that and we accept that responsibility and are accountable to that but I did want to speak to the incredible job that our team has has really engaged in with this community in the transit field and and having had experience in that space Not only in Lubbock but in Dallas and then in Irving with city bus in Lubbock with the transit system that was put in Dallas Dallas Area Rapid Transit System and then that connected to Irving in addition to what we call the rubber tire service as well which was busing I can tell you that what we've done with programming and whatnot has been impressive here in this in this community we can get better we can look at other the cities and what they do with respect to their street cars and trolleys because they're different a trolley is different from a street car but we we had a plan for uh Sun Metro and and the expansion and the way we operate and it's working it's no different than the plan we had for the hotels and now we said we build those and we get leveraged dollars from the state you were a part of getting that done for us thank you some of that state legislation that was passed and then the dollars that we got to make the downtown happen with the hotel so the streetcar is part of that overall plan and the overall uh program that the the that the team is involved in so I just wanted to point that out that our we have a tremendous team and as long as we get the direction that we've been getting from Council and the support we've been getting we'll come back with a more robust plan for the council to see Mr Gonzalez I think that's exactly how I took this this item on the agenda was how can we make it better how can we make uh more accessible I hate to hear that represent has to walk down the hill to her to her home we need to make sure she gets a ride in the evenings after the games but but mayor thank you for putting this on because I think this is really going to make us a better community and more accessible to the people who visit our activities representative that's kind of a tough hack to follow mayor but okay oh a representative fiero's comment about him but um I think thank you mayor um I think you took a little bit of what I wanted to ask you sir uh Mr Gonzalez because I remember that being here at the beginning things were terrible with trans uh with Transit and ever since you and the leadership team placed Miss smython there I think this concept became data driven and sometimes we as counsel didn't like to hear the data that was being placed on routes being cut or whatever the hours but you know what Miss made those difficult decisions and they worked well they were criticized for a little bit but they can work well so you have a good team leader right there and and Miss smython she has proven herself over and over again and most importantly with this trolley here history on wheels history on wheels that most of us old enough can remember the original ones and go back to the buses too that he used to travel into Mexico remember that but also in listening today to the community and coming forth and and really supporting this I find it amazing to hear Mr anulf will talk proudly about the bus about the trolley I'm sorry to hear everybody else come here and then uh representative Canales breaking it down for his district the uh the senses there that uh we can't go we can't go back we've we've got to keep moving forward like what says Google said uh this cross-functional team that you have in place is phenomenal they they work they're behinds off to to to make this thing work and uh when mayor Pro tem uh sourced on us here there was a lot of suggestions he had uh and so I mean I think he bled the trolley if he was cut he bled it and so um I think the this is a this was a good item to put on their mayor because now you know that people support this trolley and these new hours of operation haven't even been even been in place for about a year correct correct this hasn't been in place for years no chance has been given to it to to see how far we can go after the pandemic and and yes I've written other other rails where there is no charge either or there's a donation bin if they want but um I've been in we've been in Phoenix we've been in San Diego where they had this as well and so um I think that that letting this taking any action to cut the hours and not allowing it to to to prove itself again would be uh detrimental to the trolley itself what I call history on wheels and a lot of people got up here and and said it in that in that manner and uh of course with Mr Jerome now being in there and assuring the public that oh well you'll get aggressive on promoting this updating all kinds of materials that may already be our date we would appreciate that so um I couldn't see myself supporting you on that but I'm glad you're it was going to be table and let the the cross-functional team and City leadership uh look into this and and make it work make it work for this community oh thank you thank you mayor now we do have a motion ahead of that I don't know if you want to move your second and then just have a table for them to bring it back your motion that you second it I know there's some motion already so if you want to put a motion on there to table it to have them bring back the information we can do that that's yours that's your yeah you want to call the question then yeah we still that's what I'm saying yeah we have representative uh Hernandez but I think that's important I mean basically we're asking the same thing we're asking them to do basically thank you without limiting them to anything go ahead ma'am thank you um and I'm happy Mr Gonzalez that you brought that up because I do agree that our mats Transit um department has really faced so many challenges not only in light of the pandemic but when we canceled the contract with First Transit the department and Ellen Smythe you inherited the multi-million dollars of deficit on top of the loss of ridership on top of the loss of sales taxes and so I've done a deep dive into the district into the to the budget and when we talk about where really are the savings the total revenues for the preliminary revenues for fiscal year 23 were 93 million dollars for the mass transit department and so when we talk about how much does it cost to operate the streetcar you're talking about 2.9 Million Dollars which is five percent of your total revenues for our mass transit budget I like to think that that is pretty reasonable and if not is a demonstration of how we excuse me of how we actually need to increase our operating dollars to see the success and the expansion of the streetcar a lot of the comments uh representative Canales mentioned I agree with you wholeheartedly thank you for being prepared and thank you for advocating for the streetcar and thank you to all the speakers who came today but there was a lot of things said and we need to clear the record um the Sun Metro and mass transit department has done remarkable not only getting us out of a deficit now in the rainy day funds now we're a positive over 50 million dollars that is um a huge achievement the other thing we need to be reminded of is that we often apply for Grants they're competitive grants last year we announced over 8.8 million million dollars of FTA Grant which was competitive there are ways that we can save taxpayer dollars if we're strategic and I believe that department has demonstrated that and thank you for that we're going to Electrify our buses Paratransit units we're going to purchase a zero emission 50 units of those 25 new charging stations this is a department that has excelled under extreme rare circumstances which is a pandemic no mass transit system across this nation especially in this community does not operate without a subsidy we need those subsidies through a sales tax revenues which is not your property tax dollars as representative Canal has already said we have to re-emphasize that and just say it over and over again they're not your property tax dollars they're dedicated funds for mass transit because there's a direct correlation is that when you invest in transportation and you give the most vulnerable people access to Transportation or people who have that preference then you see a economic prosperity for all individuals especially the Gateway of our community which is our downtown our living room to our city our downtown so it's important that we continue those Investments um we also um we also announced uh new um lift buses last year and I was really excited to to talk about that with constituents and persons with disabilities and I know there is a plane supply chain issues again all in direct response to a pandemic and so while we see ridership decline what we will be remembered as and this Council will be remembered as is what did we do and what strategies did we Implement so that we can help save the streetcar to understand streetcars to understand the history of it and I know Peter representative schwarzbein talked about that a lot while he was here on the days and the crma has a really great history and and line items of of the exception how it failed from the late 1800s to the early 1900s we had electric streetcar in the early 1900s go from downtown to Savannah Juarez something we should celebrate that increased our tourism which is why we saw Economic Development boom in the 1950s we also saw a strike when the streetcar came back into downtown there was a strike in the 1970s then the leaders and the councils then decided let's stop let's let's slow it down and so the lessons here from history is that when you slow down the streetcar it will inevitably come to its slow death we have seen that already history has shown that let's not make the same mistakes that we have seen in the past let's be known for that Council that puts those strategies forward so that we can save and increase ridership so that we can increase Transit oriented development we just amended that in 2021 that we want to see more development along the streetcar rail so we have taken those policy decisions councils and councils and members of the community for decades into the late 1800s to now have championed and fought to save the streetcar this is a disservice to our community if this passes today to change it to a events oriented streetcar that's not that's not the intent and that's not the purpose it certainly is not part of the history that I want to sign on to CMAC dollars what is CMAC dollars congestion mitigation and air quality while while serving on the Metropolitan planning organization we approve those dollars so that we can put to the streetcar so that we can continue to operate it for years for three years I believe right three years and it really came at a at a critical time because those CMAC dollars essentially funded and subsidize all the operations of the streetcar and through those subsidies we were able to help kick-start the streetcar and and pay for that but we can't ignore the fact that it happened in the middle of a pandemic it did and the unfortunate part is that ridership is going to decline and now is the time that we increase consistent hours that we increase programming that we come together not only in a cross-functional team but maybe at a separate work session to talk about what we need to do more five percent of your total revenues from the Sun Metro budget I think I think we can do more with that budget um all the mass transit regionally have across not only in New Mexico but in El Paso and all of our other services have seen a decrease in ridership so again it is absolutely imperative and I agree with um the the attorney who came up here earlier Mr legate we need to have empirical data benchmarks driven goals so that we can increase ridership and so um the other thing I wanted to mention and I think I asked I.T to pull up a list and if they can't pull it up there you go the other thing I just wanted to mention are the hotels since November 2018. that have opened along the streetcar there are five the Marriott Courtyards Stanton House Hotel the Aloft Hotel the PDN hotel in The Plaza Hotel partial list of small businesses along the streetcar line since 2018 Savage Goods lme working capital New York Gourmet Deli the international Fool's Gold Paradigm Texas Milan healthy bite coffee box serial killers Cafe [Music] Tropical Smoothie Cafe wesso Lampa lapa El basico Jesus Park Tavern District Coffee Company The Garrison achuco restaurant howdy ice cream Dillinger's Bar konoko restaurant The Manor vintage thrift store Palomino vet The Tavern and then the public private sector investment since November 2018 epist headquarters EPCC parking classroom expansions the Mexican American Cultural Center the new children's museum La nube West Star Tower and Cress and in closing I just want to re-emphasize to our sun Metro team that we and mass transit is that we value you the department has seen wonderful improvements it saddens me to hear when members of council say that it's a failure when I absolutely think the opposite but also this is a reflection of the leadership too so we need to to not only encourage you but elevate our employees because you all sacrifice your time and your efforts for the betterment of this community and so for that I'm very grateful but also in the times of conflicts there are always opportunities to have a conversation of what we can do to improve our services because we have to we have to and we owe honesty to you we have to do a little self-awareness and and think about what can we do to improve tourism and attractions a lot along downtown corridors that will bring additional sales revenues because decreasing your streetcar means that you're going to decrease your potential sales revenue thank you representative um and um finally uh decreasing streetcar amenities in programmings it decreases sales tax revenues we need to increase those sales tax revenues thank you thank you ma'am thank you and I do have a question I know that we're talking about the operation of it Mr Jerome the Sun Metro as a whole operate in a red or in the black or maybe Mr cortinas since you're sitting right there thank you sir good afternoon Robert cortinas they've been operating in the black for the last uh three years now and a large result of that has come from the federal funding that they did receive also through a lot of the changes that Ellen has implemented since she's been overseeing some Metro Department really paying close attention to the overtime looking at the routes a lot of the adjustments that have been made over the last several years one of the big things that we need to continue to have the discussion about not only right now with the streetcar but moving into the budget for next year is the capital placement percent Metro how do we go about continuing to make sure that we have regular replacement for all of The Fleets for the Brio's all the different vehicles that are required to provide the services for the community but yes sir to answer your question they are currently in the black and they do have actually now some built up fund balance that is something that's new for the mass transit department but something that will continue to monitor the budget office comptroller office works very very closely with her to make sure that we're reviewing those documents and their financial reports on a monthly basis so we're operating in the black and yet we've now been able to to get some routes that we've been asking for so and you know like Beaumont and other routes we've been asking for because we didn't have the money so you're saying we do have the money so we do need to look at those that we've been asking about correct and some of those other issues we talked about the operation on the staffing issues that we continue to face but continue to get aggressive as far as the pay which has helped us here recently with the increases that the council has approved but again we need to continue to be competitive ensuring that we're being able to hire the drivers that administrator to be able to provide the new routes that we want to bring on thank you for that thank you sir and we have a representative Salcido followed by representative molinar and then representative Manila I know but if I get to talk first thank you mayor um I wanted to say thank you mayor for putting this item on the agenda so that we can have this very important discussion that we currently are having right now I want to thank my colleagues for other comments and also the public for giving us their comments as well a few comments that really stood out to me um were that the funding does not come from the general fund and that part of it the amount is allocated to mandate to be used by public transit is when ridership is aligned to what the ridership of Sun Metro is is another it serves the most vulnerable uh people of our community and in and around the downtown area also UTEP students across the border rely on this Transportation but even if one person uses it that one person really matters so our our job is to figure out how do we make it happen and how do we make it efficient for them um I I definitely I think I also heard another one to make sure that we take data-driven approaches I think I am for firmly on that I'm a big proponent on really looking at Data before I make decisions um I I think representative Canales and I think that his amendment's pretty practical I think it would allow us to work with all stakeholders and really look at what we're going to do to make sure we make the trolley a success for the El Paso people we want to be a make sure we're a successful story for a pathway as a whole the people are looking at us businesses are looking at us we need to make sure that we have the things here that they want to invest in our community I do think that the true intent here was really to look at how do we cut taxes and I think that's in the Forefront of this Council and I know that's around the corner for us to really talk about that when the budget season comes I am firmly looking forward to finding ways that we're going to really tighten our belts I know that we have incurred numerous costs I know we have to figure out how to pay out a million dollars and amongst other things that are we've now incurred in our in our budget so I'm really looking forward to looking at at how we can get that I really would want to see if it's possible and I know that's going to really go item by item to see if we could really get to the No-No Revenue as I proposed last year to to be able to address these taxes so I know it's going to really take us to dissect you know work as a team to really look item by item and how we're going to tighten this belt and really help our community so that they're not paying that much taxes out there so I want to think that for this item to come before us so that we can have this discussion and looking forward to working with the Community Partners and really making this trolley exercise story thank you you mayor Lisa thank you very much for this opportunity I'd like to thank you mayor for bringing this item out to the Forefront it's a long waited discussion that we needed to have and so for everybody that provided comment input I thank you as well because it's really an eye-opening experience when you hear different people Mr Gooden wrath you were here Mr legate different people Mr Hernandez and I uh listen to you and I try and figure out what's the motivation here and it's all in good motivations nothing wrong but I did hear representative Canales mention about students and Veterans and the disadvantage and things like the administs that are done this you mentioned about students going to UTEP different thing like that but I was going to ask Miss Jerome or I'm not sure exactly who do we have any data and I know you can't ask when someone comes on board are you a student are you a veteran or anything like that because that would not be a good practice but do we have any breakdown of data as far as anything like that from a student coming on board a veteran coming on board someone disabled or anything like that um we're going to ask send metro to give some some feedback on that if you could just stand by please do can you provide some information Mr Smith right now John Smith I'm content right now working on a system-wide analysis they've already presented a city council The Benchmark where we are and then they presented in great detail all the survey data and you may recall he was here with all his pie charts and everything who who were students and elderly and income and all that so I can get that back to you that information but does that overall ever encompassing all of us on Metro the Brio the regular rounds and the trolls two separate surveys one was just for the mode that we operate and then the other half of the data he presented was the overall system on the regular buses okay good thank you very much I appreciate that information I'll bring that back yes if you could get that to us and um the other question I do have I know we have programming whether it's via Mariachis I know on Valentine's Day we had people for a day of love you know different events happening throughout the year for special programming uh who pays for that and what where does that come from where does that funds come from yeah it's it all comes from it's funded through through uh Sun Metro so that would come through the sales tax okay so it's not coming out from the general fund or anything like that no okay I'd also like Mr molinar it's an Enterprise fund so the general fund cannot be used for it it's not a generally accepted accounting practice for you to do something like that has to stand on its own so when I said earlier about it running at a deficit that truly had a deficit they were underwater and so that's what we flipped around and what they receive annually is 5.1 million in in Revenue but the operations of it is way is above 50 million dollars so the the the revenue that it derives is is very low comparatively to the operations of Sun Metro okay and as far as programming um and I understand I see the emails from Ms Lara Cruz Acosta saying hey we're going to have special events coming up things like that uh does that how does that would that curtail or dovetail into what we're trying to do here to make the max efficiency so in other words do we have to create more program or do you have to increase programming so the programming has been a Gateway actually for a lot of first-time writers and repeat writers um there is there was some information that um following the questions that were that were that were provided from Council yesterday um to staff um during the agenda review there was information that was sent out to all members of council and I'll I will repeat that you will see a direct correlation between programming on the streetcar and around the streetcar with ridership ridership is a metrics that we need to look at to determine if if the absolute numbers of ridership if that's going to be our metric we're going to have to address that but to increase ridership and to expose people to that service in the first instance oftentimes the programming is the way we get people come to come down and and utilize this the service because it's still relatively new streetcar service was launched late in calendar year 2018 and it's something that many people from a generational standpoint had no experience with either if they're not from from El Paso then they would not have ridden the streetcar and if they're of a certain age or younger in El Paso have been discontinued and so that programming is something that really encourages people to come and utilize the service and to understand it and understand how to utilize it how easy it is to Hop On Hop off that it's air conditioned that it's heated that we have free Wi-Fi available where the route is and how it works and so the programming is is a means to an end it is very much to help people to cross that threshold maybe for the first time or to come back and ride so that they'll consider the utilization of it during times that we're not programming because we don't obviously we don't program we don't have something happening literally on the streetcar every hour that the streetcar is running but oftentimes that is a it's a gateway to to Really encourage people to come in and utilize it maybe maybe for the first time and then that is to help to people to so that people understand how easy and how great the service is how how practical it is and how they may be able to utilize it at non-programming times okay thank you very much that's all I am thank you sir mayor Pro tem thank you mayor um before I ask my last question I kind of want to address some of the grandstanding that was directed towards me and clear up the fact that I did not in any way criticize the Sun Metro Staff I criticized this Council for making decisions in which I think were at the cost of riders of our bus system this Council agreed to cut lines this Council agreed to increase the monthly bus pass which I heard we heard concerns about yesterday this Council from what I just learned from the Ada community supported the budget that removed funding for Ada curbs that were in the Sun Metro budget for bus line routes we had the presentation Miss Smythe mentioned a couple I think a couple months ago talked about how you're going to make people in low-income area walk 12 blocks to get to a bus stop but then we talk about the streetcar line and this is such a free ridership from low-income communities it's a free ridership for one community and and I don't think you know we have the data to say it's serving the low-income community as much as the other communities that it's serving in the routes that it reaches um and so you know I my concern is not this the trolley my concern is Sun Metro and how we have decided as a council and as a body to continually cut funding that has continuously impacted low-income Riders across the city for years and I think it's great that we're out of the red but we did that at the cost of low-income Riders we chose that and and and just for clarification city manager you can use and if you look at coats it'll tell you you can use general fund dollars for Enterprise funds we as a council have decided not to do that I know Miss Mike and I have talked about for that for a long time I know she even agrees with that but has you know is doing what she needs to under the direction that she has so I did not direct any animosity towards her or her team I specifically directed that towards Council and the decisions they make and how sometimes we are talking out of both sides of our mouths to justify projects and ignoring the low-income communities that we have been doing a disservice to for over four years now right when you have people in my district you're going to have to walk 12 to 13 blocks uphill in the Sun and stand at a bus stop with no Ada curbs and no shade structures yeah I'm concerned about the three million dollars that we're using from that fund to fund something that is not being accessed properly because this Council and this administrative staff have not taken those dollars seriously or invested in the streetcar and I'm sorry done Outreach in the proper way those are serious conversations that we need to be having and so I'm going to get to my last question which goes back to the initial study data and recommendations when this trolley was put on service and that was to eliminate the downtown route the circulator route and push individuals only to use the trolley we never did that can someone explain to me why that is why we now have two bus lines running and if anybody has the data on the downtown circulator because last time I saw it it actually had a much higher ridership than the trolley even though individuals are paying because they're going further does anyone have an answer to those questions there is information that was provided to council last evening about Route 4 and about route nine these are the downtown downtown circulator number four is the union Plaza circulator um I have high level information that I can provide to you now further research will be not need to be done and provided to council at a later date if that's something that you would prefer but what I can tell you is with the introduction in November of 2018 of the streetcar the following changes um happened with downtown Transit Route 4 which is the union Plaza circulator it went from being a free fair to a full sun metro fare of a dollar fifty in 2018 the monthly average ridership was 34 000 with the introduction of the streetcar in the downtown with covid with everything that we have we have navigated subsequently since 2018 and 2022 the monthly average ridership is 7 000 people Route 9 which was a downtown shopping circulator that was deactivated in November with the introduction of the streetcar at the time the 2018 monthly average ridership on that was 18 000 about 18 000 people but that's the data that I can share with you right now um mayor Pro tem and if there's additional data that you would like on that we can I can ask staff to provide that at a later date because we need to do some more research on that no that's helpful but I'm also looking so we're saying that the ridership on Route 4 and the trolley are essentially the same monthly because I I'm and I'm trying to understand the data that you sent this chart for first and second quarter monthly ridership September 22-23 that's the trolley yes ma'am the the charting that I provided to you um is only the the streetcar ridership and what you can see is that's the um that's ridership for uh fiscal year where from the beginning of this fiscal year to where to February to February or to March we've added March because we just we just completed March then you're saying yeah I mean we're seeing the monthly ridership in 2020 is about 7 000 on Route 4. you've got about seven thousand or eight thousand on the trolley and so just I mean that's good data when we're making the conversation about free ridership because honestly if this body would like to have a conversation about free ridership and all of us on Metro lines I would love to entertain that um but I just think it's important that when we're making those comments we think about the other people in this community that are impacted and how our decisions have done that right so um can you read out the the um motions please for me there were five of them the first one I know what were the two through four the motion was to table this item indefinitely two that the council directs City staff to conduct an economic impact analysis to assess the past present and future Economic Development impact of the streetcar including potential future expansion and the impact on our existing Transit oriented development incentive program agreements number three that the council directs City staff to conduct an assessment of the impact that different models of streetcar operating hours have on Transit access in the downtown and Uptown areas and four that's that the council direct City staff to conduct an assessment of the projected cost savings to the streetcar system that would result from the elimination of regular operating hours in favor of event-driven operation only yeah I mean some of those are the other questions that I had yesterday and so I was going to make the same Amendment I'm not going to support the table indefinitely I think that that counters the studies I think there needs to be a day and a time to come back with that data so I'm just I'm not going to be supporting the first one representative Kennedy just a point of clarification I made those as one single motion you what well then I would motion to take them separately go ahead okay um I don't want to vilify the trolley I don't want to grandize the trolley um the item was to try and maximize the trolley I thought the usage of it which has kind of gotten lost I don't think that the three million dollars is bankrupting the city although it does have to be used in mass transit I do think that I would refer back to fallacy of logic called post hock Ergo propter Hawk when one thing happens before it does not cause it I had great machaca this morning it wasn't caused because we have a trolley and just I don't believe that the five hotels are here because we built a trolley I think they are mutually exclusive and I don't think we really have any evidence that proves anything different you know if that would be the case everything good and bad that happened downtown we blame on the trolleys or they take the credit for it we talked about double standards and I agree and there has been some double standards I think um saying the only people that get to ride for free are people who ride the trolley I think is is concerning to me because there are some ridership areas that are unserved because they were not financially viable and didn't make sense fiscally that's how we got in the black but now we're going to say it's okay because one area of town gets free rides Heritage tourism keeps coming up well great let's let the Herod let's let the tourism dollars pay for it maybe let's let the businesses along the trolley pay for it if it's that big a business boost maybe the businesses are willing to do it maybe when we do special events we can roll the cost of seventy nine hundred dollars a day which is what it costs if we run it every day into the cost of the event I think we can't use tax hotel tax money on it because there's a tax code that prohibits things like that so the two things I heard are let's spend more money and make it bigger and better because that's the way we're going to get the thing to start taking care of itself or what is in my opinion um looking at so many various options it's almost paralysis by analysis I mean I don't want to view how the trolley caused the dinosaurs to leave either and I think we can sit down and find a way to maximize this without locking ourselves into months long and thousands of dollars pretty soon we'll have another eighty thousand dollar study on how to not lose money on the trolley 2.9 Million eighty four thousand Riders it comes up to 7 900 bucks a day if somebody were to take it to and from work five days a week for most of the year the citizens of El Paso will be paying about seventeen thousand dollars to give that person a free ride to work we could buy a car forum cheaper than we can put them on a trolley Uber might be a better idea to help cut the cost my concern is we're asking all of the city to pay for something and now we hear all the other reasons whether it's students can get to school people can get to work that's great but there are veterans that have to pay and they have to get to school and they have to get to work and I'm concerned and I think that the initial item is one I can support which is let's maximize the use of the trolley when we start looking at events it seems that October November December are the high most highly written months when we have more multiple event days which is what I was looking at there are days with more than one event downtown I think we have to sit down and take a look and say how do we maximize it I have a feeling that staff could come back fairly quickly with a fairly good game plan on how to do that but I think we're going to get deep in the weeds and I think that it's going to be unfair because what could that what could some of that money do you could ride some other it could help fund some other bus lines to some of the outlying areas where they're not being serviced right now and that's my concern so let's maximize what we currently have thank you thank you representative Kennedy representative Canalis yeah I know uh rappinello had asked for uh a deliverable date for some of the things that I was requesting in my motions I'd be happy to entertain a friendly Amendment here would 90 days a 90-day time frame be sufficient well both I mean would that mean your concern repinello and then staff would that be an appropriate time frame for delivering Mr Gonzalez what do you think it would take you all time to come back I didn't hear mayor did he says it would take for you all to come back with some kind of game plan I think that's enough time and then also that's not 100 aligned with the budget because right the budget will be kind of put together but you don't get your appraisals till July so that that time frame works and we can always bring it back sooner if we get it finished sooner right yeah I think the the more you could bring it back uh to align with the budget yes and the better but of course we want to make sure you have ample time to yes to do but the way you've uh outlined it I think it would get us into July but so we'll work to see if we can get those that information quicker so it can be integrated into the budget as well for those purposes okay okay um with that then I am so mayor that's that works thank you okay thank you so I'll remove motion Mr Prime I will happily uh amend mine I guess on items uh the numbers two three and four those those three Clauses if we can append uh let me see let me make sure I wear this correctly right uh and and to return uh within 90 days if we can append that to the end of of those three clauses thank you thank you for that we have a motion Ms Brown can you clarify so there was the initial motion to approve the item because there was a motion made by representative Cornelius seconded by representative Hernandez however he just amended the motion to strike out number one and that at the end of the motion and to return within 90 days to clarify I didn't strike out number one it was still table this particular item with this language indefinitely this one no I'm not going to do that yeah yeah and then the other three would staff would return within 90 days and I they would obviously post a separate item it just wouldn't have this link I I would like to make my motion again to take these separately just as I was clarifying it wouldn't uh they've already been posted a new item with new language to present this to us and the council could take different action then this particular item only allows us really as in terms of a definitive action uh it only allows us to uh carry out that the action that's in the uh in the in the text and so the the future item would theoretically give us more freedom to act in a different way if that was what came out of the the study that was if you wanted to keep the Four Points as previously stated and that at the end and return in 90 days correct okay so you want to go ahead and I'd like to hear them separately if there's an issue then we'll take a vote on it are you still referring to it indefinitely yes to table this item indefinitely is functionally no different than to to delete this particular item like it's not to delete it right because if we delete it we're not taking any action on it right it's to to to place this item on the table two table indefinitely is in a sense to delete it right so I'm going to call the question let's call the question and take all the items separately go ahead she'll read them each one at a time she'll read one at a time go ahead Miss Brian okay so the motion the first motion is to table this item indefinitely made by representative granola secondary by representative Hernandez okay this is to table the item indefinitely on that motion call for the vote just another point of clarification here if we take these separately then we can't if we table the item then I don't think we can take further action on the item it would only be functional if all of them were taken together if we're taking these separately then yes we'll remove the the first one um did you want to take this to postpone indefinitely first and this this leaves us in a strange clarification uh procedurally if there's a motion to separate items Mrs prying does that require a vote to separate items that would be an amendment to the motion that would require a separate vote correct oh he's using his privilege to these items be taken separately okay thank you understood so the motion is open to postpone the item indefinitely it's still open the voting one more point of clarification here if we if we vote to table this item indefinitely can we take further action on the item after that vote you'd have to make a new Amendment you need to make a new motion well no because the motion would be placed on on the table and we would have to entertain a new motion to take the take the item from the table it would have to be if it's postponed essentially to reconsider and it passes then it would have to be reconsidered by someone on the prevailing side right so in the voting session and the motion fails to postpone indefinitely so now the second motion made by representative Canales there's always a first in life by representative Hernandez and you want to take number two correct and number two was at the city it was that the council directs City staff to conduct an economic impact analysis to assess the past present and future Economic Development impact of the streetcar including potential future expansion and the impact on our existing Transit oriented development incentive program agreements is that correct sir and to return within 90 days and to return Within 90 days on that motion call for the vote then the voting session the motion passes six to two Representatives Kennedy anello voting nay the remainder of council voting either motion does pass the third motion made by representative analyst seconded by representative Hernandez is that the council direct City staff to conduct an assessment of the impact that different models of streetcar operating hours have on Transit access in the downtown and Uptown areas and return within 90 days correct correct thank you on that motion call for the vote wait Point yeah point of fabrication is Miss Prime what's the difference between the 90 days we just voted that June included the three points as well as this one coming back at 90 days correct okay yeah these are three three separate analyzes that we're asking each carry out and we have the 90 days in the voting session the motion passes seven to one representative Kennedy voting nay the remainder of council voting I the motion does carry and the final motion made by representative Canal is seconded by representative Hernandez is that the council directs City staff to conduct an assessment of the projected cost savings to the streetcar system that will result from the elimination of regular operating hours in favor of event-driven operation only and return within 90 days on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously okay now representative uh molinar thank you Miriam so I'd like to uh have a discussion again on item 17. well it's still open them we have not closed those were the Amendments those were the Motions we can still make a motion and I'd like to have a motion to just have the city manager bring back I'd like to see a motion to have the city manager bring back the items as he proposes that he feels his proper and to make sure that uh he gives us a broad overview of the whole thing yeah no that's something I'd like to see a motion that way is that the motion you'd like to see yes sir is there a second all right there's the most in a second to bring the city manager to bring up the item back as he proposes and sees how we can make it more efficient mayor um could we ask a time frame on that please can we what time frame for returning it's no 89 we won it the day before but wait still are you still no 90 days 90 days okay yes yeah I think 89 times better but I'll try I just think it's important to maximizing 289 mayor if you'd like right that's just important to look at it Max Marshall and give you that Latitude yes sir so with that we have a motion in a second is to direct this manager to bring the ring right within 90 days to maximize the operation to maximize the operations right to maximize the streetcar operation well it's just refreshed it's just being refreshed right yes the answer is just so that people understand your your initial Direction and action it isn't it and just being refreshed for him to bring it back to his discretion okay 90 days right is that the one that Joe did through you no okay sir that's it there's Prine this is to direct the city manager to bring the item back in 90 days to maximize operations streetcar operation operations Thank you period the motion made by representative Molina seconded by representative Fierro is that correct thank you call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes six to two Representatives all right now I would like to take call to the public yes sir I know we're a few minutes late but again thank you thanks to everyone that came by and and I think I look forward to continuing the work for the window maximize again operation and I know Joe one day you're going to come say some good things to me I know what I'm waiting for it thank you the El Paso city council is local government body charged with serving all those citizens of the city and the meetings must be focused on the meeting at charge the City Council meetings are public meetings under the Texas open meetings ACT public comment is an accommodation and not a requirement of city council all persons in attendance are expected to displace Civility and decorum that is respectful to other persons without the use of insulting profane threatening or abusive language public comment will not be used for personal attacks against a person or group's character or Integrity which are not pertinent to City business nor May any member of the public uses foreign political statements or campaigning please note that during call to the public the city council may not deliberate or decide any subject that is not on the agenda however Council May propose that a topic brought forth be posted on a future agenda this afternoon we have 18 people that have signed up for call to the public the first person is Terry Avalos her topic is pickleball access during scheduled open gym she will be followed by Stephanie Blackburn good afternoon you have three minutes good afternoon thank you all so much for letting us come today my name is Terry Avalos and I'm a member of the pickleball El Paso Association I am here today to speak on behalf of the senior population who play this wonderful game I play Pickleball in a wheelchair two days a week in fact I played four games before I got here today On Any Given morning in parks and recreation centers throughout the Sun City there are over 200 El pasoans over the age of 50 who are lacing up their sneakers and making their way onto a pickleball court many of these senior athletes once suffered from obesity they were unsuccessfully treated for depression some were suffering from the loss of a spouse or a child they were spending long lonely days in front of a television while sitting on a recliner and basically leading a sedentary lifestyle their doctors were perplexed as to how to solve this increasing problem many of them were fortunate enough to be introduced to the sport of pickleball there are many benefiting from this game in so many ways they are thriving mentally physically and socially in short they are doing great except for one big problem there are not enough courts to play on actually in some cases there are empty courts that we are not allowed to play on in the morning the courts that they are reserving for basketball are empty 99 of the time in other cases the pickleball courts are being left open for people who might show up and want to use the gym there are many times that there is a 45 minute to one hour wait to be able to play on a court that is too long especially when there is an easy solution when they are empty available pickleball courts we should be allowed and encouraged to play on them this would not cost the city one penny the facilities are already there when one of the recreation center managers was recently asked why they could not open an additional two courts when there were so many senior pickleball players waiting to play and nobody waiting to play basketball she was told to go back to the senior center where she belonged that is not an acceptable solution to the problem please assist us in helping our senior community continue their quest for health and happiness I would like to extend a personal invitation to all of you to come and join us we will teach you how to play the game that we all love so much we will give you a free lesson lend you equipment and teach you the rules I have cards available with contact information if you are interested in learning to play thank you for your time thank you for your time hi next speaker is Stephanie Blackburn also speaking on pickleball courts at Rec Centers followed by Enrique Gonzalez good morning good afternoon you'll have three minutes good afternoon good afternoon my name is Stephanie Blackburn I live on the east side the 3-6 zip code and I just have a couple things to say and one of them is on the east side we're we don't have enough courts to play on at the rec centers in fact we've gone at album from three days a week down to one day a week Marty Robbins we do one day a week the Beast we do one day a week and we just don't have enough playing time and what I've seen is that just what Terry said is that here we have two courts and we get nudged off for basketball and it seems like we're always getting nudged off for basketball so it seems basketball has nine in the morning till they close at night and this is a cost Free Solution all we're asking is that some courts especially at shamizal when there's four courts available and we're only allowed to play on two courts in case a basketball player shows up and even if there's one basketball player we get shoved off to those two courts in addition we're having growing pains and I'll pass out in El Paso County for pickleball which is a good problem to have and I'm glad we have that problem because now we can start thinking about what is our solution and of course one solution is just giving us pickleball people you can see we're very passionate about our pickleball giving us just time on what let's say one day a week at shamizal or two days a week for three hours to play on four chords you'd have a whole bunch of happy people and going back to my other point is this being a um a good problem to have we this this pickleball thing isn't going away now you have Pro players buying teams it's growing and growing I guarantee y'all if you played one time you'll be addicted it only takes once as Andre Agassi said last Sunday after he got done playing a million dollar purse game also we have small communities for instance where I'm from in Illinois 10 000 people and we have dedicated courts six dedicated courts and again I know it's a cost problem but there are solutions right now that we can Implement easy stuff just give us a little bit more time on the courts thank you very much thank you for being here the next speaker is Enrique Gonzalez Enrico Gonzalez is also speaking on chummy celery creation center pickleball court availability good afternoon you have three minutes good afternoon sir good afternoon mayor and city council my name is Enrique Gonzalez and I'm here representing pickleball Paso Association I'm here to address the issue of overcrowding at the indoor pickle board pickleball courts at the same Recreation Center El barro Sports Club is a well-known and respected sports club that has been in existence in El Paso for 20 years the actual El Barrio Park is located on Finley Avenue and South Raynor Street just a few blocks from the chummy style Recreation Center they provide Sports Camps and tournaments to the youth and residents who live in the area have been informed by Mr Cruz Morales who is the director of the El vario sports club and who is also a good friend of mine the hair that hair that hair that there has been an increased interest in pickleball by the youth and residents of that particular neighborhood for this reason Mr Morales asked me to conduct a pickleball camp and provide pickleball lessons to the youth of the neighborhood the pick ball cap and the tournament is in the planning stages and will take place sometime in the month of May this will definitely increase the popularity and participation in the fastest growing sport in El Paso therefore once school is out for the summer we're going to see an increase in the number of players going to the shamisal recreation center to play Pickleball this is why we need more indoor pickleball courts available at chamisal and for that matter at all the other recreation centers in El Paso thank you the next speaker is Jamie Fisher Jamie Fisher is speaking on problem and recommendation for sharing indoor gym time and will be followed by Ruben Pena may I use the Elmo yes it we need the Elmo please is that upside down or sideways sideways I think it's harder you want me to flip it cool all right my name is Jamie Fisher I'm president of pickleball El Paso we do have a problem and we also have a solution that will cost nothing it would cost nothing to implement we have a dire situation on the east side so Representatives Salcido Fiero Rivera Canales and Miss Hernandez four of you are half of city council for that entire area those four districts there are two courts a day for everyone to use Monday through Friday and there is nothing on the weekend your constituents have it the worst chamizol is centrally located so this is what chamizal looks like on the basketball side on a weekday our time slot is Tuesday and Thursday 9 to 12. most people are working or in school you all are working this is an excellent fit for retirees but they won't let us use it and they gave us a reason I have been to Parks and Rec board twice and I was told by Mr Rodriguez that they are saving the court for the people who live close to the gym time cannot be saved it vanishes and this has been going on for a year we've been asking for a year so in the back there's another court on Tuesday Thursday when we have our time there are eight people playing and there are 14 people waiting you play 20 minutes and then you have to wait 40 minutes to get another turn while this side of the gym is empty so let's look at what a successful gym looks like bad things this is Haskins every other facility lets us use the whole place Haskins galatz and Mr molinar veterans they let us use all three courts when we are there there are 12 people playing there are 17 people waiting and some of the people waiting are some homeschool children they show up and in pickleball you put your paddle in line and Fork them off and four go on there is nothing more inclusive than pickleball so this is Haskins so like I said I've been to Parks and Rec twice they said they're saving the facility we would like to be able to use it and it's a solution that doesn't cost anything I have petitions here from all the people that couldn't be here today we have a nice crowd but we got a lot of people who work or who are in school taking care of family out of town they can't be here please help us please let us use those empty courts thank you the next speaker is Ruben Pena WrestleMania will be speaking regarding second gem at chamisal availability for pickleball followed by Kelly gross good afternoon you have three minutes she Miss Fisher became an expert on the hillmo I'm sorry he became an expert on the Elmo now [Laughter] Mr pain and you have three men do we need the Elmo once again please good afternoon mayor and city council echoing a lot of the statements that have already gone on we have a problem and a solution and a solution will cost no money in no time pickleball has been the fastest growing sport in this country for the past year six years our community wants to play and exercise unfortunately there's a severe shortage of facilities especially on the east side but there is a facility with open court time a place that is staffed and courts that sit empty we would like to use it we have asked to use it but we have been told no is centrally located in kelp can help with the East Side shortage it has two gyms each with two pickleball courts we are only allowed right now to use one side on Tuesdays and Thursday mornings from nine to twelve when most people are in school or at work we have a lot of retirees and this would be a perfect place for us to play it's a great fit we typically have about 15 to 22 people but only about half the facility and eight can play it at one time so they play for 20 minutes and the other then they have to sit and wait for 40 minutes uh the the picture here shows that 14 people are waiting to play We stack our paddles there we're waiting to play while the other gym is empty they will wait four minutes for every every hour we'd like to use the second Gym we've been asking chamazon management for a year to use the empty gym we have been to the parks and rec board twice but they continue to say no why this is what Carlos Rodriguez told us the second gem must be available to the community which they Define as people expected to move into the Salazar housing project next door to the gym at some point at some point Parks is saving the gym for them to be used specifically for basketball basketball has access out every hour of every day Monday through Friday nine until closing and Saturday until 2 p.m they either get half of the facility or all of it we are only asking to use a second Gym on Tuesday and Thursday mornings from nine till noon three hours to reduce the congestion and wait times is it a full gym better than an empty gym supervisors have a lot of autonomy and unfortunately chamazad's not value the facility being used every Monday Wednesday and Friday morning this is what the volleyball side looks like completely empty the facilities do not belong to the gym supervisors we need your help please let our citizens use both gyms thank you very much the next speaker is Kelly Groves Kelly gross is also speaking regarding the Chinese Recreation Center I believe Kelly had to leave thank you Suzette balderrama Suzette balderrama Norma natividad Norma natividad Mary Barnard speaking on Animal Welfare good afternoon you have three minutes good afternoon mayor Lisa and members of city council my name is Mario Barnard and I'm a lifelong resident of El Paso just shy of 70 years and although I'm very shy about public speaking I felt compelled to speak today out of my concern for the dogs and cats of El Paso the greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated this is a quote that is often incorrectly attributed to Mahatma Gandhi regardless of its source it holds so true how we treat animals is a direct measure of the level of Civility and compassion of a society I'm afraid that we are not Measuring Up in El Paso there are thousands of dogs and cats wandering the streets while the agencies created to help them are Beyond capacity and close to intakes the staffs of shelters along with individual Rescuers are overwhelmed exhausted and depleted every time I log on to social media I see numerous verifiable stories of horrific atrocities and situations people driving away after dumping their dogs in the desert while the dogs chase after the vehicles desperate in their abandonment sacks of puppies or kittens tossed out of Windows of moving Vehicles starving cats and dogs on street corners vacant lots and roaming the desert in packs scenes are depressing and disheartening to your constituents We Are Better Than This El Paso I'm not here to blame our cast aspersions on any individual organization or agency I'm here to plead for adequate planning and solutions that will alleviate the suffering of these innocent creatures I've been informed that much of the current disaster is the result of policies during covet when animal services was closed to intakes and there were no free spayed neuter clinics is it possible to expand facilities to house these animals humanely with outdoor exercise space in areas where adoptions can be facilitated is it possible to create numerous free spay neuter clinics throughout the city is it possible to flood the Airways with PSAs about the correct care and treatment of animals I applaud the recent post by Animal Services I've seen that encourage microchips spay neuter fostering adoption and general welfare I feel incredible gratitude for shelters like pet Guardian Angel positive Rescuers almost home and Animal Rescue League among many others who have worked so hard to save shelter they can sometimes transport thank you I appreciate it Miss Barnard thank you you've reached the three-minute limit the next speaker is Renee Koran Rene Coral thank you Miss Barnard Mr Corral is next Mr Corral's topic is Crisis with stray dog within the city he will be followed by Ron Cuomo Barbara Valencia good afternoon sir you have three minutes good afternoon I'm a little disappointed that not all everybody is here especially the mayor especially my my city representative Cassandra Hernandez so my name is Rene Corral my ass from you today is going to be for you to place the out of control loose stray and abandon dogs on the next agenda on March 17th I attended a community meeting hosted by representative molinar at that meeting I heard the director of Animal Services Terry capsule talk about how in spite about this temper outbreak at the shelter the community was successfully coming together and reuniting lost pets back with the owners sounds wonderful that is not reality I'm sure this is what you are hearing from the director of Animal Services but the reality is is that when any caring member picks up a stray or loose dog they have no place to go what are they going to do with that animal most of them have dogs themselves they don't know what to do with that animal and a lot of times they have no choice but to put that animal back on the streets the reality is is that these dogs not only are suffering but they pose a danger to the community they may cause accidents by people avoiding hitting them they pose a danger to children to people walking the streets of El Paso now the director of Animal Services Terry capsule stated Animal Services is limiting intake to a pet in medical distress any situation involving an injury to a human or animal an aggressive animal and animals in immediate Danger let me ask you a question what animal is not an immediate danger out in the streets I don't get that I don't I I don't understand that City console approved hiring Best Friends Animal Society we send this Con this contract up for Best Friends Animal Society it is not working the people that are abandoning these dogs they're the only thing they care about is stiffer fines that's the only thing they're going to listen to I I beg of you please do something you've been hearing this from people for three years and nothing has been done at what point in time the dogs become so worthless in the city of El Paso will you place this issue on the next agenda [Applause] thank you Mr Corral the next speaker is Ron Cuomo also speaking on Animal Services followed by Barbara Valencia Mark Fierro Ephraim Salcedo Joshua Simmons Ron Cobo Barbara Valencia Mark Fierro Efrain Salcedo Joshua Simmons good afternoon Mr Como you have three minutes sir okay everybody we're gonna Sidetrack our normal conversation I know the city of El Paso has what they call ethics they have rules and regulations about ethics I would like to file a formal public complaint against the director of El Paso Animal Services the inaccurate statements that come from him and I'm trying to be polite I know there's words I can't use his information is inaccurate I have a video 9 minutes and 45 seconds of pure unadulterated garbage coming from our director he gives misinformation to you all which by now I'm hoping you know the conversations about the Haas program that they've been on since 2020 him and the city manager keeps saying they're not on it they are on it if you'd like to see the Haas program I'm sure one of us could pull it up for you so you can follow the programs plan and how it's put in place because it is El Paso Animal Services if the Haas program is so great why is Las Cruces on the Haas program and saying they're not why is El Paso on the program and everybody from upper management and animal services to our city managers saying that we're on no kill trust me they're nowhere near no kill they have no idea by conversation with Terry was well if I think I want to be no kill then I'm no kill well that's what happens when you put an unqualified person in charge of a city shelter I'm asking that the city attorneys do something about our director and the inconsistencies and again I'm saying something nice on the conversations that are coming out of our shelter it's time we end the lies sorry but they are mayor Pro Temp I'll discuss Mr Cuomo's concerns separately since we're not allowed to interact with the public and that's fine but I just I want to make you aware that we have a problem and it's being ignored sir there's a process in place and we can discuss it not at call to the public thank you thank you lost track that's what happens you get old the other thing I'd like to bring up the other day we had our our new chief of police up here talking about going after people for uh laws in violating lies the city shelter is in violation of a Texas Penal Code I've given the penal code to this young lady and I've tried to email it to everybody else so you'd have it thank you Mr Cuomo you've reached the three minutes sir the next speaker is Barbara Valencia followed by Mark Fierro at Ryan Salcedo Joshua Simmons Arnold Fernandez Lisa Turner Albert Rivera good afternoon Miss Valencia you have three minutes hello I'm Barbara Valencia with Huckleberry Hound Dog Rescue 18 months ago Nanook the Husky received International Fame with the video of him being abandoned and chasing after his owner's car as they drove off last Friday a dog being dumped and chasing after his owner's car was caught on video and the video didn't even get a second look why because now this happens every day all over the City and surrounding desert area due to best friends and their shelter program Animal Services is using Haws and you mayor and city council members don't care that this is happening in our city what was once Animal Services responsibility is now thrust upon the citizens of El Paso it is now the responsibility of the citizens to take in and care for the strain lost animals the problem with that is most citizens do not have the knowledge experience or resources to take unfamiliar Strays into their homes and risk their safety for their family and their own pets it has already proven deadly for a six-year-old boy in doniana County who was mauled to death by a stray their family took in under the um Animal Services Center Macias Valley's Haws program the same program that our Animal Services is using that little boy died if the citizens are unable to take in Australian lost animals the remaining options the city is offering again these are the options that the city is offering leave the dog or puppy on the streets to fend for themselves resulting in death two take the dog or puppy to a local vet and pay to have the dog or puppy euthanized resulting in death three take the dog out to the desert and leave them there to suffer resulting in death for those that aren't able to keep their pet prior to Hogs and best friends the shelter would take in those pets and either transfer them to a local rescue or adopt them out now the options available that the city is giving to these people are one take the pet to a vet office and have the pet euthanized resulting in death two take the pet out to the desert and leave the pet there to suffer resulting in death you cannot be a Nokia City or no kill shelter if the only options for the animals in the community is death our tax dollars pay for the services that are to be provided to us and the animals in our city taking money from people for services and not providing the services is fraud you're committing fraud on the people of El Paso the 10 million dollars a year allotted to Animal Services is not going for its intended purpose to provide services to the animals in the community as a citizen of El Paso and a taxpayer I am standing here to say enough is enough it's time to rescind this contract with best friends thank you the next speaker is Mark Fierro Mark Piero is also speaking on Animal Services he will be followed by Ephraim saucedo and Joshua Simons good afternoon sir you have three minutes good afternoon my name is Mark Fiero I'm a lifelong resident of the city of El Paso and I've had enough so back in 2016 the city became a no-kill City something great something to strive for but now Animal Services going backwards it's going backwards like back to 20 20 and 2021 just this past Thursday on April the 6th the rescues received several calls from people who had found dogs and puppies took them to animal services and were told by the director of Animal Services to take their dogs to and puppies to the vet office and have them euthanized or they can take the dogs and puppies out to the desert and leave them there Haas is back in full swing thanks to Best Friends Animal Society complete with the city and animal services telling people to abandon dogs and puppies Texas penal code section 42.092 the term custody includes responsibility for the health safety and Welfare of an animal subject to that person's Care and Control regardless of ownership of the animal cruelty to non-life stock animals the term abandon includes abandoning an animal in the person's custody and by leaving them in the desert it constitutes cruel manner a manner that causes or permits unjustified or unwarranted pain or suffering these are our animals and that means that anyone who follows the instructions from the director of Animal Services or best friends will be committing a crime not only is animal services along with best friends Animal Society forcing the citizens of El Paso to take in and care for the Stray and lost dogs puppies cats they now expect us to do their dirty work and take the dogs and puppies to be euthanized at local vets offices on our own dime or Worse take them out into the desert and leave them to suffer and die painful death this is just beyond Madness the very next day I I believe it was Friday the uh the seventh people were doing exactly that they were following the directions of the director of Animal Services he was telling people to take dogs out leave them as Strays some take them to vet's office suggesting that they should be euthanized and so on suddenly we had a video right here in El Paso I believe it was on Rich beam if someone dumping a dog out in the desert following the instructions of the director of Animal Services thank you Mr Piero the next speaker is Evelyn Salcedo his topic is the city of El Paso Mr Salcido you need to be a little bit more specific when signing up on your topic please good afternoon you have three minutes sir what's going on good afternoon all of you foreign I've been working for a it's a monitor for my City because I want to hear my city the best city in the state because you know before in Austin that he knows okay I went one time to tell us when I went to uh basic training and then a gentleman asked me where are you from I said I'm from El Paso Texas and then he asked where are you going we're going to Legacy training Alford Missouri we have four of us and then he says El Paso is from Mexico isn't it you said no that's from the United States we are here in Texas and they say well I don't think so it's okay but you know what he says that's a lot better than now we have our soldiers from Mexico and we're going to have a lot better now to help us now are you trying to do this all my life and I want to make it I want to make it I know you guys have a lot of problems you ever on your back full of problems and the politicians I respect all of you because we have to start doing it not you I put the express lane by myself with corrupt Sylvester Reyes okay by myself and and we don't have to put all of the blame on you they come and help us they help us and help us we can do it right now Montana is three it doesn't belong to us he wants to taste that okay so I already calling this that because when you're on the east side a second floor over Transportation I have an appointment don't be afraid to call over there call him anyhow again I'm gonna call you from there I'm pretty sure I've been doing this for more than 40 years for my city and uh please all the people who come and ask you for miracles they have to start themselves with a sample like I did and I'm doing it like I told you before I have an appointment with Tesla on Tuesday next Tuesday I thank you very much God bless you God bless you family and I'll be here thank you thank you the next speaker is Joshua Simmons Joshua Simmons I don't see him here and I don't see him in the queue Hernandez Mr Hernandez's topic is guidelines for selecting the city manager good afternoon sir you have three minutes good afternoon um mayor and city council I speak in support of the guidelines for selecting a city manager that Miss Cassandra Hernandez brought forth a couple of meetings ago I think is from the Texas cities Association it's a good start initially it may indicate that I think this is also a good line for the selection of your city police chief which I believe is going on um I'd like to make just a couple of a few comments I think they're all positive the first one is that I think that the council ought to invite some candidates that they can identify and that for you I identify them and invite them send them a letter ask the guidelines point out so that they be considered for this position like anyone else and to this point um your interim city managers of July 1st is going to be Amos to carry Weston make sure that he gets an invitation so that he also gets considered for the permanent position there's other individuals in City uh government who I think deserve an invitation one I heard today was Mr cortines and there's other folks and I think this is good because it addresses the issue of diversity and the issue of experience with a city like the city of El Paso and there's also the underlying morale booster for the current employees that if they aspire to high position within the city in which they work that it is possible um the um the city of El Paso was married at the hip to Fort Bliss it's the largest employer in the city of El Paso and so with the suggested questions and I guess interview process that's going to be taking I think it is important that this city council points out to the whoever the firm is going to be doing the uh the uh looking for candidates if you will is that they include questions like can you provide us with your experience a work experience within military installation working in partnership with a city that you might have worked before and I think that's important um again being the largest employer in the city of El Paso it behooves us to look for individuals who have this kind of experience so that they hit the ground running and that they will be seen as a positive asset to the city to to Fort Bliss and and improve the relations which in my opinion have not been the best with the city of El Paso for quite some time thank you thank you the next speaker is Lisa Turner her topic is U.S code 18 section 0191 good afternoon Miss Turner you'll have three minutes one zero nine one zero nine one zero nine ten ninety whatever uh it's called genocide the translator Community right now in republican-dominated States every effort is being made to erase them state of Texas declared anybody with a transgender child who actually attended to their child's needs said it was child abuse other states have funneled that lead there's a bill now in the Florida legislature and to take children from parents who have transgender children apparently to fix them in some way or another I can't even drive home anymore it's illegal to use the bathroom in the states of Arkansas and Tennessee I'm unsure about Kentucky they did pass a bunch of laws but I'm not sure if that was one of them and if you're thinking about moving to Kansas and you have children who like to play sports understand that they're going to have to go through a genital inspection during their pre-participation physicals this is all in an effort to eliminate us you've seen the removal of books LGBT you know I'm old enough to remember my history classes my memory is still great about what happened in the 1930s what Nazi Germany did and I see the parallel Indiana will be forcing children who are trans to detransition in other words stop their medical care other states like that ideal and other states are looking at that too being denied Medical Care is something I'm very familiar with it's happened to me here in El Paso multiple times it happens to a lot of us and as I was talking with the the representative from District three that had learned from UTEP that 37.5 percent of those who are trans and autistic are being denied Medical Care along with 20 percent of those who are autistic and cisgender are being denied Medical Care it's not that they don't want to go it's that doctors don't want to treat them and refuse to treat them uh this kind of thing has to be stopped you can't be a doctor take enough not to do harm and first thing you do is try to harm a child or an adult we're trying they're trying to erase those of us who are trans period there's already been some violence we know thank you hate speech does thank you Miss Turner we experience that with Walmart the final speaker is Albert ribetta Albert Rivera's topic is noise ordinance and decibel limits good afternoon sir you'll have three minutes good afternoon people city council I'm here to talk about the ordinance 018-908 the sound decimal level um it doesn't state in there about the property distance from the other property that it's adjacent to for the decimal level to be at a reasonable amount it only states that the decimal level can be at 70 decibels and that would be good if the property next to the bar that's making the noise was a mile away but this property I'm speaking about is at 533 West Franklin called The Hush Hush I live at 537 I own that property in the 539. they I keep having the police department come out and they do a decimal level check when I call them and it's always about 68 67 69. so they know the limit that they can go but when you're three feet away and you have a bar without a roof and they're playing that level at 68 or 69 that's a little bit louder how would you like it if I talk like that for one minute but I listened to that for hours at a night okay three feet away that further you mayor to me I'm closer to the boy than you and I are right now and I listen to that every weekend what I propose is that we do the decimal level according to the distance the bar is to the residential property you found three feet from that bar that decimal level should be at 45. under 50. and every 100 feet they can go a half a decimal or more but if we're three feet away from me and I'm talking like this for hours drive me crazy and it's doing that with my mental health because I listen to it all the time I need this amended added I understand that the new process of the sound decimal ordinance being revised and we could reactivate and re and back it up I can't think of the word right now I'm so upset I better activate the the sound decimal level to where it's accordance to the property line I need the decimal level at the hush us or anybody that doesn't have a roof down to 45 or 50. 69 68 it's too loud it's driving me crazy and if you don't like it come sit there at my porch just sit on my porch for an hour and listen to it thank you Mr Rivero thank you thank you sir mayor that concludes a call to the public I will share with Council all of the written statements submitted for today's items what was that man we have written statements for today's items submitted and I'll be sharing them with Council okay thank you yes and I do want to I know Miss uh Bernard had spoken a little bit that we stepped out for a minute and we did we we actually just stepped out to make sure that we had quite a few people from pickleball that the I know Miss Jerome did a really good job of making sure that they got someone to listen to him and talk to him and hopefully give them some assistance so and the reason why representative actually and I walked out was to kind of talk to them and let them know that the city was wanting to talk to them and listen to them and make sure that uh and and they did so we we didn't we didn't walk away and and I from from someone speaking we just wanted to make sure that they get the what uh the attention and they wanted and they asked for it I know there was no representation dollars wanted to speak to him so I think it was really important that uh we you see that we are listening I think item 17 was a perfect example and again you know when uh they came we are listening and and I know that animal shelters and animal uh rescues we are listening to them even though they um they sometimes don't think we are if we really are and I do have one-on-one meetings for them and continue to do that so I do want to thank the people that do come to call to the public uh Miss Turner you're always here and thank you again because it is important to us and we and we are listening so thank you and with that I'd like to research for 21 minutes to 1 30. I love everyone there's a motion in a second Teresa it's a council meeting all in favor anyone opposed and the meeting is in recess until 1 30 pm thank you [Music] we're looking to grow our apartment oh yeah yeah foreign I think you know I think uh very much foreign and they have to be the coverage okay foreign foreign foreign foreign but foreign foreign thank you thank you yeah thank you foreign thank you foreign [Music] [Music] hey oh my goodness see I go do it do it how's it going I'm excited to see y'all on the agenda [Music] um it's been like a year it's fine oh look what the hell where's she going she's awesome yeah sure money is a real thing when it comes to law school but everything else is good okay good okay bye so plugging away I don't know if I'm having fun did y'all just get here did you see all the drama earlier I love when people come from me it's my favorite day it's like y'all really wanted to do that do you oh that's right because there's some public comment oh really because I love the old white men that were in the organization yeah I love that I love that about y'all it makes me so happy well good luck we'll see you up here Laura last chance this Prime won't mind she wants to sit in the mayor's chair I'll take a picture of you there you see good for you Hey listen please okay yeah they need to come off this is stupid I don't understand you ready yes sir all right we have a form we have a motion to return so motion to return we need one person on the days oh here he goes there's a motion to reconvene is there a second there's a motion in a second to recommend the regular city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed the meeting is back in session at 1 35 pm mayor would you like to pick up the item that was moved from consent to regular okay this is item number three and this is a resolution authorizing the city manager or designate to submit Grant application 300-7108 for the city of El Paso Police Department project identified as El Paso 2022 opsg are speakers here by our speakers representative do you have some questions you're the one that moved it yeah is there a motion to approved though mostly approve second okay there's a motion made by representative Rivera second and by representative Salcido to approve item number three on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes five to two Representatives voting a the remainder of council voting I representative Fiero not present the motion does carry the next item on the agenda is number 14. and this is discussion in action to direct the city manager for a strategic plan on how to address the metal plates pending restoration on city streets placed by utility companies to include a presentation and background regarding metal plates on city streets this item was submitted by Representatives Rivera and Fierro should be better oh thank you mayor as noted on the agenda of high places item and along with the representative co-sponsoring it as a result of the increasing number of metal Place pending restoration on city streets I believe representative Federal as I have been approached by residents with concerns regarding these plates I believe I have reported to staff either loose metal plates or giant potholes Left Behind when these metal plates are removed residents are concerned that some of these plates on our streets city streets at times come off Loosely and are not placed correctly faulty metal plates on our city streets can cause public safety concerns to drivers and some residents who have expressed the metal piece have caused damage to the Regal and tires which there's proof and that's the reason and because of these growing number of metal plates uh uh City Federal and I are asking the council for your support to direct City Manager for a strategic plan on how to address metal plates pending restoration on the city streets placed by utility companies and it is so it is often to the point mayor and Council that I've gotten calls believe it or not that these metal plates are being used to cover potholes that's how misunderstood it is that's why I put it on the console so thank you for doing that sir good morning good afternoon I know you were here this morning though Richard Bristol with streets and maintenance I'm joined today by Gilbert Trejo from the Apostle water utility along with we're nearly on from The Wire utility as well and the reason they're joining me on this item because this is an item that we are working together on but before I touch on that I want to clarify a few things these steel plates are not associated with the street maintenance program we're not covering up potholes they are solely and exclusively associated with pavement Cuts utility pavement cuts and when I'm speaking about the the steel plates I'm taking off my Straight maintenance hat and I'm putting them on my permit Authority hat because the streets and maintenance department is the perming Authority for both traffic control permits and for pavement cut permits which means we're in the process of governing these cuts into our right away now the reason that we're in this together is simply because when we're addressing the streets in the right away um about upwards of 90 of them will have better information when we come back and do our presentation upwards of 90 percent of them are water the El Paso water and the reason there's many of them um I want I want you to understand that our street network is not only a transportation Network it's also where the utilities are housed so underneath our pavement layers we've got the storm water system in the middle of the street we've got Wastewater lines and domestic water lines as well moving further out we've got the electrical and the gas and then inside the Parkways we've got the telecoms all of these assets exist inside our right away and in order for these utility companies to do proper maintenance or repairs or scheduled maintenance or emergency repairs on them they have to break through our pavement layer to get to it this is why we have a pavement cut ordinance so when it comes to the steel plates by and large it's a resource issue believe it or not it's it's because there is a lot of work being done at various locations around the community where they've gone in and they've done repairs on the lines but it's pending a restoration so the reason that we permit these things is so we know who is cutting into our right-of-way so we can hold them accountable for a proper restoration that's the reason that we have the pavement cut for permits in the first place the traffic control permits work in alignment with that the purpose of the traffic control permits is to make sure we're providing a safe work Zone we don't want either people working in a work zone or traveling through it to hit somebody it's a very dangerous situation so these this is all part of the streets of Maintenance permitting Authority and what I want to share with you prior to asking Mr Trejo if you'd like to address a counsel in on also um letting you know what what our plan will be when we come back to to to provide a report on this is we have already done a lean Six Sigma project with the water utility on this topic um resulting from that lean Six Sigma project we've got some some things that we didn't have before one of them is an emergency permit an emergency payment cut permit which is different from what we utilized before but this one is a little more comprehensive and it will also account for the use of Steel plates in the right away um coming along with that we'll have a dashboard so on our dashboard we'll be able to be able to tell in real time how many plays we've got out there in in in addition to right now we can tell you how many permits we have out there but we don't have the data on the plates right now so we've got a way to capture that um having additional analysis and oversight over that will be very helpful ourselves but on the Water Utility side one of their challenges are a resource Challenge and [Music] um Mr uh Mr Trejo is here with me if there are any questions you'd like to ask him about the use of the place but what we want you to understand these plates come into the right away basically three ways one are for the water line projects second one is new utility Taps when there's new development new construction and they need to connect the new facility to a water line or to the sewer line usually a third party is doing that work and they're tapping it as well that work can take a while to complete that's why they're utilizing plates for that as well third reason is not as common um the gas the gas company uses them as well so by and large they are associated with El Paso water by and large they're associated with pavement breaks line breaks rather and any kind of need to get in there and do the maintenance I need to kind of also clarify I've I've been in front of you before to explain to you how our infrastructure ages how our street infrastructure ages over time the only thing I want to point out to you with all of his utility assets being underneath our pavement layer well they are also subject to deterioration and they're subject to breaks they're subject to maintenance conditions and maintenance issues as well so this is why we're seeing a lot of this activity right now this is simply a result of one it's a resource issue and then two we have aging infrastructure so that is what's Behind the Steel plates what we're going to do we're going to complete our work on the lean Six Sigma project we're going to have a series of meetings with wire utility staff because we want to expand Beyond just what we've discussed in our lean Six Sigma we want to add this dialogue on the plates as well and then we will put together a presentation with our plan and we will come back and report it to you we will very likely have some of the employees that worked on the lean Six Sigma project handle a lot of that detail and Gilbert myself will probably handle the higher level issues so we would ask the opportunity to come back and provide this information and complete our work and I believe we'll have a very good informative program for you I sure I would ask for 30 to 60 would be ideal but we're we're ready to go when you need us to so we just need a little bit of time to get all our ducks lined up and we do have to go through a process of going through our strategic briefing review which will probably take added a week or two to the process you should ask for 60 days and then if they get it back sooner than that we'll beat that timeline mayor I was going to ask him a few questions then the 60 days would be fine I mean to come back to direct you to come back um but in the meantime while those people that are listening can what is the average length of for the metal plates to lay there on the roadway what is the uh what is the average length of these metals are on our street we'll have a better number for you when we come back with our final report um throughout the lean Six Sigma project I I do know they identify a timeline my reluctance to share that is because I have not comprehensively reviewed the data um it's not complete yet right so that will be part of our report and there are some cases sir where some of these plates are during the rot away for a period of months that has been the case right and uh that the next question would be addressed to Mr Trejo then if that's how does the uh how's the utility monitor these metal plates be uh to ensure that they're not putting the public in a safety risk or you know for the motors good afternoon mayor council Gilbert vice president with El Paso water representative Rivera we do keep track of all every single still plate that is at every site across the city we have weekly meetings with our contractor who places the plates in the right-of-way some of the plates belong to El Paso water cruise we own our own plates as well and we track it though we track those in the same way Rich was correct in that they some of them do last several months as you've heard from from your from your constituents we respond quickly to when we get those complaints that the plates have shifted that there it's perhaps too too much of a bump and we have addressed those concerns in different ways so one of the things that we've done is that we've moved to a cement sand mix that creates a hard surface and we put that in lieu of Steel plates however what we've seen is that we put that in high traffic areas or high speed areas even with this harder concrete surface that we put it erodes and now you end up getting a a dip right which creates just just a similar complaint of the road surface is uneven it's unsafe my car was was was damaged in some way we hear those complaints as well so we're we've been responsive in that sense that we try to find another way but we continue to run into the resource challenges as Rich mentioned not only our contractor um they have a hard time obtaining their own resources to deploy and have be responsive to every single plate that is out there but the cement as I mentioned cement is also an issue of the material if we expose the the our water line or sewer line to to repair it within a day it's repaired but if we call in the concrete order or the cement order it's not always readily available hence we start to put steel plates but we we hear you we are committed I'm here today to commit to the council that we will do something about it and we'll we will get better and reduce that time I think Mr representative can address the uh the part that you just explained where the dip gets slower and lower and becomes a real Hazard almost a sinkhole thank you sir thank you mayor thank you sir representative Rivera thank you for putting this on the on the agenda you know the issue is is some of them are taking much longer than the others and and I gave this example to the city manager during the council meeting last time there was one out front here in City Hall and I don't know if it happened to be because it was in City Hall but it was fixed and it was flat and it would didn't bounce it was perfect then with the week it was gone the one in my district between Montwood and um George Dieter has been it's a safety hazard and and it's you know poor Camilo I don't know where he's I hope he's listening but there's been times when I've called him up and right or emailed and texted him on Thursday on Friday evenings and where the holes being exposed and their attire can fit in there and and so this is I I totally understand and we would be having a different conversation if you didn't have access to bring utilities to us right services so but we really need to focus and and I'm going to take you for your commitment please thank you for that on coming back with a timeline for us uh being able to resolve it because we really it is it's a safety issue and and we I can show you the threads of of emails and and phone calls and text messages that we've sent on inspect in particular those those plates and it's been everything from like the representative Rivera said at one point it was higher than it was became like a speed bump and nobody was noticing to the Shifting the whole being exposed to um potholes on the side of it and so it's just been and it's been there since I can tell you since I got elected understood uh one of the the opportunities here that I've been talking to Rich about is not only that we will reduce the time that the that the steel plates are on the street but also there's a communication Factor here so we respond quickly when we hear that the plates have shifted um that the hole is being exposed as soon as we hear about those we deploy our contractor and if our own crews are available to go address those and fix them um but the process improvements were eyeing include both not only to reduce the time that overall the plate is there but there's a communication Factor here the student the the more we could hear or the easier it is for constituents to communicate to us that one has moved so that we can deploy quickly that's our goal as well well I wish the city manager still here because there is a there is a communication issue and you know we're our hands are tight on communication also so we can only do certain things and reach out to certain people and then it's it's up to them to reach out to you so we we do need to smooth it out and because it is a sale there there's time there is a safety issue and and it's a concern for constituents understood sir I heard I heard a communication issue well the gentleman mentioned that there's a communication that we need more communication between the city and his department and I brought his attention that our hands are tied as far as reaching out to his department or or directly because of the charter and so we we follow the lines of communication and and so we we need to work on that so I think I think y'all can call them direct you don't have to okay right you can call them direct I mean they're a city Department uh they just don't report to this office I don't know if you know that they're they're all on the city's pension fund there is no I I understand it but we can have this we can have this conversation you can call them directly no no all I was saying is you can call them direct but with respect to the communication we do have good lines of communication I know the street department works with them they've been the gentleman said it I didn't say it right right right right I'm not like addressing it with you I'm just addressing his point um Richard can speak to the communication stream we also for several years have talked about doing the lean Six Sigma project and we've done variations of it this last go-around we were really pushing hard a council for um a more robust version of the lean Six Sigma program in order to again get these coordination points in place but you want to speak to the information that shared I know that one of the things that I spoke with John Ballou directly was if we could get into the street cuts and try to reduce the number of Street Cuts because when we looked at who's doing Street cuts of all utilities we just wanted to work with all the utilities to make sure that there were less Street cuts and that issue came up because I know in a few of y'all's districts a t was going into those neighborhoods and just cutting and not letting anyone know and that led to me asking the staff to do franchise fee audits no different than the hotel Moto tax audits we were not doing hotel motel tax audits in El Paso and we're doing them now the other thing that we weren't doing that we're doing now is franchise fee Audits and I know on the franchise fee we've already been able to identify uh I think a half a million dollars in in terms of additional Revenue so no sir I'm not I'm not suggesting that you're bringing it up I'm just saying that we do have it could it be more absolutely and Council can call them directly and we can just we can just get a contact person and phone number and we will show that with the county right so so you're I'm hearing that if we have issues we can call other departments directly also well the water department just the water department yeah not not Street Department anybody else yeah because I mean the you they have a governmental relations officer I think he's just standing up and he's been very helpful he's been very helpful um in working with us and working with the council offices and I think you're called often so so yes sir and and we should have made sure you had that information that's on us uh but yes sir you you have a direct link to the water department I'll let I'll let him speak go ahead if I may I representative I just want to clarify so the increased communication was not between the city departments or from yourselves of course you you are you can call us anytime I was implying that increased communication from constituents directly to El Paso water to even to just to get to the information to us quicker that's what I was implying there's plenty of communication between the two departments mentioned weekly meetings that we have between the Departments to go over these exact issues and Partnerships that we have with the Department as well to reduce the street Cuts as the city manager mentioned is absolutely right in terms of when we put in a new water line we communicate with the with city streets and maintenance if we can pave uh if it's on the street Paving list we have that type of coordination same thing if they're gonna fully reconstruct the street we can put in and put the water and sewer to avoid recutting the streets over and over again so I know I'm sorry if I misrepresented if I wasn't clear there's a lot of communication that occurs between the two departments I was implying just between her constituents if we can get them to talk to us and improve that process then that way we can move a lot quicker and when you share it with Mr Gonzalez we will make sure we share it with the constituation thank you for sharing that um we we've also been coordinating to attempt to save money too because a water department has a budget that they go in and they go in and finish off streets once they've dug something up and what we've asked them and they've been very open to this and like you said we we've been talking quite a bit and today believe it or not it's a lot more improved than it was several years ago because they have been open uh to working with us and us with them uh in that if they have money set aside to like resurface the street after they've gone in and dug something up what I've talked to John about and it's been a really good conversation uh and they're probably aware of it is that if we could put our money together and then maybe when we know we're going to cut something up we can kind of pull our resources and maybe they could save money we could save money instead of us having to do a street by ourselves with them having to do that street if we know where they're going to come that maybe there's some savings opportunities so I kind of pitched it that way and then said we can do an LSS project and the only reason why we keep bringing up LSS that business methodology allows everyone at the table to speak the same language and just look at the process and look at how can the process be made better so we've been in those kind of conversations too but yes sir I totally get what you're saying and if I misspoke my apologies I was simply referring to the fact that we probably need to streamline some of the things that you might need to contact so that we can not speed that process up as well thank you Mr city manager thank you representative Rene Leon with El Paso water all the council members are aware that they can reach me directly if they have an issue after hours on weekends you know things come up so I'll make sure your staff has my contact information and we do have a briefing scheduled with you later this week to go over some of these lines of communication thank you very much thank you again thank you mayor thank you mayor thank you all for the presentation um I will say uh just on the topic that we were just discussing I think uh I've only ever received exceptional service from from El Paso water in terms of your Renee and and Gilbert and everybody uh you know very quick answers very knowledgeable answers and and so thank you always for for that good communication and your willingness also to reach out directly to uh our constituents to to make sure that their their issues get solved quickly um I'm gonna attempt to do a little piece of your job for you here because I it's it's less of a question and more of a statement a a question and then I'm going to try and answer it myself but it's something that we hear a lot from constituents and so I think this is maybe a good forum to get the information out there um I've heard over the years from folks who uh they see a metal plate um and there are no workers around right and we'll hear the plates been there for a week and we haven't seen any work done and people are frustrated by that um I know that before you all make a cut you have uh there's often extensive planning right if it's a planned project but sometimes these are an emergency cut and it's something different yeah I think uh about a third are emergency repairs a third are planned and then the other third are simple getting in there and stopping a leak before it becomes an emergency break so we do communication ahead of time on the planned projects but in two-thirds of the cases there's just not enough time to do Outreach and the steel plates help us bridge that gap between either closing a lane and blocking off with cones and barrels or put a steel plate there and allow the public to pass through until we're able to repave it so I know a lot of you do get complaints when we do have cones and barrels blocking Lanes right away they'll be upset that traffic's blocked and people can get through so the steel plates they're an inconvenience they're noisy but they do allow traffic to pass through in the meantime yeah and again in cases where it's an emergency you know and you you're able to do remote sensing like electromagnetism electromagnetic sensing and you have your I know the the uh camera remote camera inspection that you can do with the sewer lines for example but sometimes it's an emergency you're digging before you necessarily know what exactly the problem is you're going to encounter and then uh there's a lag sometimes in in when the work is able to occur based on what you find when you cut through the pavement and get to your uh get to your pipes right and so that that sometimes accounts for why you might see plates out for a long time when I say a long time I don't mean a long long time but for an extended period where someone might not see workers out there immediately working it depends on what we encounter in the site and I think what Gilbert was mentioning earlier it's a resources problem uh materials resource but also labor resource if we just if our contractor does not have the manpower to get to it that means the steel plates stay out there longer so we have some solutions that Gilbert can talk to about talk to you about that could help speed that up in the future getting more manpower getting more teams out there but it would be a Contracting issue yeah so one of the things that is going to our Public Service Board here in the next month is a awarding a contract for more pavement contractors so we've been working with the same pavement contract for we're finishing up our fourth year they actually did a good job compared to where we were the city manager mentioned we we've come a long way we're at about 92 percent of all the pavement cuts that we receive we complete 92 percent of them but it's that last eight percent which represents about 200 sites with plates that still is is still taking too long so we have more resource coming in we talk about the resource issue so we have a new bid coming up we plan to award multiple contracts so long as as the bids are are qualified and meet all the requirements we planned on on now awarding multiple contracts to multiple contractors to help us spread the resources out and get things done quicker versus having one and them just trying to get all over the city and these are on-call contracts that you just maintain with multiple uh contractors to do your your pavement yes and and that's actually one one of the other challenges that we face so because um we the paving contractors that we get they're not we'll say that the big contractors that all they do is Paving um they go after Tech stock contracts they go after the streets and maintenance contracts those are very good contracts for them constantly Paving full curb to curb that's where they prefer to do their work so we get contractors that do other things but they also have a Paving crew and that's where we run into the the resources issues that's where they run into the resources issues so knowing that that's the type of contractor that we get well we're just going to get more of them uh to to get past the resource issue understood and again uh you know I'm not bringing you a complaint I think this is good information for the for the public to know in the year so that's that's why I'm asking you these questions um you know the of course it can always be uh be addressed faster and it sounds like you're working towards that but uh I also don't particularly think that you have a problem again I've seen a good level of service well thank you thank you sir representative Salcido followed by representative thank you mayor and again I also want to read reiterate your all's communication with my office has been great you all are great at responding to my constituents um my question to you all know that you mentioned you're going to be working together with all entities so are the contractor is going to be involved in that conversation about how to you know be able to address this yes yes it will be okay so all the parties that will be involved will be water department contractors El Paso and anybody else that is part of that process on the permitting side we reach out to people at issue permits with this and we have standing meetings with the telecoms with the water utility of course companies that were doing ongoing projects with we have standing meetings with so for example the telecoms there will be a good example you can remember a time when these 5G build outs first started we got five 5G build those going on around the city when they first started there was a rocky road we had to get up to speed on a new process a new way of doing things well that required coordination and as that communication kept happening we we developed a better line of communication and that's resulted in a better permitting process with most of the telecons but they still have resource issues like uh like Gilbert is describing there it's a lot of struggles um still uh persist but it's as far as your question will we be reaching out to the other Utility Partners that post for uh permits absolutely everybody that's involved with the permitting process we need to include it just so happens that the ones that are responsible for the majority of the steel plates happen to be the water utility because the telecoms are on the side they're on they're on the Parkways so it's not it's not in the middle of the right of way and I think you're noticing the steel plates more because they're right in the line of travel perfect no that's that's great to hear I know that you all are striving to improve so and working together so thank you so much for for your hard work foreign thank you mayor representative Rivera and Pharaoh thank you very much for putting this item on thank you very much for everybody being here I can tell you I know on District Four even though they're already been removed and repaired or resurfaced on Chrome Street there were some issues there the 4500 block or 4400 Block of Hondo Pass I know recently there was one on John Cunningham and I can tell you I we our office reached out to Renee right away and the response from El Paso water has been great you know he contacts us back he lets us know what's happening what's not happening perhaps gives us a timeline but it's always a great communication between our office for sure and EP water so we thank you for that but to me it's like we need to do a better job myself as a city representative but also a house of water when we need to notify people perhaps through social media hey we're going to have construction on going on at whatever street and perhaps we can put it out saying hey by the way this you're gonna have a big plate there for a couple of weeks perhaps a couple of months hopefully that's not the the right thing but you know to let people know because right now we're talking about it but I doubt very seriously there's a lot of citizens in El Paso that are watching here on this right now and I hope they are and I hope they are taking notice of it but um I don't know what else maybe social media or maybe on the EP website saying hey this this is the data this is the information and so that someone can look into it and say oh that's what they're doing oh that's that's what's happening just food for thought no that's a very good very good idea uh we'll certainly take it back as part of the improvements that we're looking at and actually one of the things I just mentioned to Rich about that we're going to explore um as improving the way our customers and the residents communicate with us is perhaps the 3-1-1 app is something that we can do the more people report the quicker it gets to us the quicker we could respond so that along with your suggestions certainly are all on the table all right thank you Mr Terrell appreciate it thank you Mr Leon Mr Bristol thank you thank you representative Rivera thank you mayor and and with that uh you know I'll make a motion to approve and give you staff UH 60 days to come back with a comprehensive report his mayor the motion was made by representative Rivera seconded by representative Molina and this is to direct the city manager for a strategic plan on how to address the metal plates pending restoration on city streets placed by utility companies to include a presentation and background regarding metal plates on city streets and return within 60 days is that correct sir thank you on that motion call for the vote representative Fierro thank you in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously thank you all thank you Council yeah item number 16 is discussion in action to approve a resolution allowing the city manager to accept a donation in the amount of twenty five thousand dollars from a marathon petroleum Inc and authorizing authorizing the use of District 3 discretionary funds in an amount of twenty five thousand dollars to be used towards the establishment and funding of El Paso tree Keepers a tree planting initiative with low tree Equity score areas for the city of El Paso and this item was submitted by Representatives Hernandez and Salcido hi good afternoon I I do have several uh changes and amendments floor amendments that I'd like to read into the record um but first I'd like to explain the the program um and some of the some context behind um some of our initiatives this program isn't something new in fact it was something a program that I had the great opportunity to work with one of the city council a former city council representative Byrd for the central area and driving by some of the streets where I helped plant some of the trees along with many volunteers and staff it's really rewarding to see those canopies come to life after several years and we have to do more we heard yesterday from some of the Uptown planning studies that there needs to be more tree planting opportunities in downtown we're looking at heat Maps I know the the office of climate sustainability they have um really push to make sure that we understand where throughout the city um where where it's really hot and essentially the entire city is incredibly hot we looked at tree Equity scorecard it's it's a website and anybody can look that up and you can get really granular information where it it will look at the poverty levels it'll look at vulnerabilities it'll look at income and it'll also look at the tree canopy scores and so what we really want to do and focus and to to implement strategies to help cool down the city is focus on those targeted areas that have been developed with no landscape that have been developed no trees and there is a direct correlation between having low trees scores tree canopy scores and poverty levels and so we want to make sure that we are maximizing our dollars and our hope is to expand this program throughout the entire city and anybody is is welcome to participate so some of the changes include an additional donation a generous donation from El Paso Electric in the amount of 25 000 we have that reflected in the resolution and I'll read that into the record in addition representative Salcido she has generously offered to also plant trees in District Five and will be donating ten thousand dollars including programming incentives related to helping volunteers incentivize volunteers to plant trees to help cool our city because this is a collective impact we all have to take responsibility within our own households within our own neighborhoods and we believe that this program aligns with the intent of the new established office of climate sustainability and all the work under the support of Mrs Fiorini and then I'll invite her to to say a few words and representative Salcido but first let me read just the the changes to the agenda so on the agenda language I'm going to be adding revised language to after Marathon petroleum Inc and 25 000 from El Paso Electric and the city clerk has all of this information for the record um changing the Name EP to 915 and discretionary funds in the amount of 11 500 and so the resolution reads whereas the city of El Paso has residents who reside in areas of the city lacking trees and tree canopies including having a tree Equity score below 65 which contributes to the existence of high heat areas and whereas the city council of the city of El Paso wishes to address the above described issues very via various means including the establishment of a 915 treat Keepers program which will provide drought tolerant trees to be adopted by residents who live in high heat areas and whereas the program will utilize City Urban heat maps and determine routes to city parks and schools for identifying planting opportunities and whereas the program program will be supported through strategic Partnerships to include the city's climate and sustainability department and additional support if needed by the streets and maintenance and Parks and Recreation departments and whereas the program will put forth Outreach efforts and promotion initiatives and whereas the office of District 3 City representative Cassandra Hernandez wishes to Kickstart the initiative by allocating twenty five thousand dollars to the newly established 915 tree Keepers program and whereas the office of District 5 City representative is Isabel Salcido authorizes the use of discretionary funds in the amount of ten thousand to purchase trees for District Five and Razzy office of District 5 City representative Isabel satsillo authorizes the use of discretionary funds in the amount of 1500 to provide as an incentive for volunteers or groups who participate in the program and whereas El Paso Electric has been an integral part of the El Paso Community for over a century established in 1901 and whereas El Paso Electric has established bold renewable energy goals striving to achieve 80 carbon free energy by 2035 and 100 decarbonization by 2045 these commitments demonstrate through unwavering commitment to sustainable renewable energy and a cleaner future for generations to come and whereas El Paso Electric wishes to support the program to provide to the program by providing the initial startup funding and whereas Marathon petroleum has been a member of the El Paso Community since approximately 1928 and whereas a marathon has shown a commitment to minimize their impact on environment with their ongoing involvement in multiple programs support of several organizations and implementation of various initiatives that aim to protect our environment and local communities in which they operate and whereas Marathon wishes to provide support to the program by providing the initial startup funding and now therefore be it resolved by the city council of the city of El Paso that the city council declares the expenditure of District 3 discretionary funds and the amount not to exceed 25 000 and the expenditures of District 5 discretionary funds and an amount not succeed 11 500 to support and establish 915 tree keeper serves a municipal Purpose By setting the standard for a safe and secure City promoting the visual image of El Paso enhancing El Paso's quality of life promoting transparent and consistent communication among all members of the community and nurturing and promoting a healthy and sustainable community that the city council instructor city manager to accept the donation the amount of 25 000 for all past electric and 25 000 from the marathon petroleum to establish a 915 tree Keepers program to the city in the city of El Paso that the city manager instruct staff to establish establish a program using the funds allocated by District 3 District 5 and donated it by El Pas electric and Marathon to pay for trees to be adopted by residents who reside in areas of the city lacking trees and tree canopies and targeted to high heat areas with below 65 tree Equity scorecards the program will also utilize City Urban heat maps and determine routes to city parks and schools for identifying planting opportunities the program will be supported through strategic Partnerships to include climate sustainability Department streets and maintenance and Parks and Recreation Department that the program will also dedicate part of the funding allocated by District 3 District 5 and donated by El Pas electric and Marathon to kick-start the program Outreach efforts print mail promotion initiatives trees adopted by residents Will consent to an agreement and maintain at their wa their water maintain and water their drought tolerant trees aided by a native tree plant guide provided by the Texas A M agrilife extension the program will continue with the support of the love your block program and other climate initiatives to ensure its future sustainability the program is not limited to any area in the city and is open to additional parties wishing to participate in alignment with the program's Mission representative Isabelle says see the wishes to dedicate the use of discretionary funds in the amount of 1500 to provide incentives to volunteers who participate in tree planting events three incentives in the amount of 500 will be provided to volunteers through random selection for participation and further that the city managers authorize to effectuate any budget transfers necessary to ensure that the funds are properly expended for such purpose and is authorized to execute any related agreements amendments to such agreements and documents necessary to carry out the purpose of this resolution and upon approval will be signed and so I just wanted to thank our donors for showing a commitment to help with these strategies to help residents as well it's not just limited to planting trees while we're at their door planting trees we are going to be providing resources at the door on how homes and households and individuals can take individual responsibilities to reduce their carbon footprint within their households so that we can together through Collective impact make a greater impact for our community to have a Greener El Paso and to ensure that our streets are beautiful with beautiful tree canopies and improve our Aesthetics and thank you you pour that long-winded resolution and those changes those are my amendments and so I moved to approve second thank you thank you mayor uh I just wanted to thank representative Hernandez for her leadership on addressing this 915 trees Keepers I think this is going to be a great program for our community it is said that in District Five there is where two degrees hotter just the fact that we do not have enough trees so it's a great issue I know that in the past you know I was not part of that Council where you know trees were not are being they're paying fees to not put Landscaping so I think that that it is time for us to really look at how we're going to get those trees on in those in the ground so that is going to be something I'm going to definitely be a strong participant in and so thank you for this this uh initiative and thinking about the process and getting these donors to help us out to initiate so I'm excited for this program I we need more trees in District Five I'm excited that we are going to be able to start a program that's really going to address the need and so thank you thank you ma'am representative Molina thank you mayor um I agree with representative Hernandez representative Salcido referenced this initiative to plant more trees in El Paso overall I will state though to me it's and I'm not an arborist but to me it's the type of trees that you plant as I can tell you Representatives on this right now between Sun Mountain and Hawkins on by count there are several trees that have been planted there for quite some time and some of those trees already dying and some of these trees already fallen some trees are not even existing anymore so I'm not I'm not saying that's critical of yourself I'm just saying that the things that we try sometimes we don't do well however now in District Four there's a company called vertical one at the intersection of Diana and Omar Bradley or skimion anyways near Diana near the Western Tech and so this company has been there just less than two years and I can tell you the trees there are growing they're thriving they're green they are just it's a great thing to see and then you go on to the say the 9100 block of star Hollow those trees already been there for like five or six years and they're still not thriving and they get watered all the time and it just makes you wonder like what's happening what's not happening the type of trees our environment our the heat whatever I'm not really sure the lack of water the lack of moisture the way we control the drainage the root system for each individual individual trees or something like that I think that all that needs to be taken into account I mean we can plant trees all day long but if they don't take root and Thrive it's just a waste of time and money and like I said I'm not an arborist I just invite anyone to go by their vertical one on the 9500 block 9400 block of Diana and see those trees they're just green green green and they've already taken root and like I said the company's only been there two less than two years and it's a great great sight to see thank you thank you sir representative uh Salcido again I just want to thank uh representative Molina for those comments um I think it is he's on point and the fact that we just need to make sure that we get the right proper care for them and that's why I think it's big that we get the community to buy in I think there's going to be people that are going to adopt the tree um and then I think I'm looking forward to really work with the school districts to you know figure out you know El Dorado Pebble Hills to really you know take that you know take own up on on giving back to the community and and what's going to take us to take care of these trees I'm looking forward to reaching out to Vertical one you mentioned if they're having thriving trees I would love to know what they're doing and I want us to do it for for 915 pre-keepers so whatever it's going to take but it's going to really take that buy-in from the community that's why the incentive of the volunteer is right what I kind of thought it would be great to just get them to start and really volunteer and buy into our community and we can make sure that we make it beautiful so thank you for those comments Prime um one second representative um Hernandez I wanted to invite um Mrs Nicole Fiorini um if you can say a few words about the program um Miss and on this if before um Miss farini speaks I'd like to speak to some of the comments that you've made regarding this program I know that uh back I know that when we hired uh farini I think that was in 15 14 or I think it was the latter part of 14 early part of 15. and one of the things that we did as her being the resiliency coordinator a residency officer rather is the heat map that you're referencing and we use some of that data in order to put together the top 50 arterials so the top 50 arterials were done for Public Safety but we also took into account you know having more trees on the ground more Landscaping so you may have seen there's more there's more roads and more streets with more with more trees and we did that in order to hit all the districts so I think this program that you're suggesting very much compliments a lot of that work and I think you're going to hear from miss perini that that indeed does do exactly that that heat map that she provided is about a six or seven year old product it might be even older than that so uh one that's more updated would be helpful the other thing that we are doing just making Council aware I know that you recently passed something with the with the Tiff item to do more Landscaping more of that downtown and we have a downtown tree program as well for the same reasons that y'all are talking about right now so I just wanted to just say that this program would very much complement a lot of that work a lot of what council has authorized and approved us to do in the past and I just wanted to mention that to you because you can continue that kind of work with what you're suggesting with those uh Main arterials and then I think you can eccentrically go out further than those 50 and hit more of these but you can do it with the with the data and and Richard Bristol and his team can be very helpful with that because they've got the numbers on what are the most travel streets in so and I think the reason why that makes so much sense for the reasons you've stated but also those are the streets that people are traveling the most so they're going to see the difference faster than they would otherwise so just just a few comments thank you for allowing me to add to that thank you Mr farini you have something to add can you all hear me yes yes okay I apologize for not being there in person I was there this morning but had some other commitments and had to run away but um I want to thank both representative Hernandez and representative uh subsido for their leadership and you know reaching out not only to us as the newly established nascent office of climate and sustainability but also bring into the table multiple partners and so um to what the city manager was mentioning we've been talking about these kinds of initiatives for some time this is more than just aesthetic tree planting this is more than just sustainability this is real Community resilience building and it's resilience building because you plant a tree you educate a family you change the both the aesthetic and the quality of life in a neighborhood and you do that through Partnerships and also engaging volunteers this idea that the community really has ownership of this kind of an initiative and it really allows us to expand the community's thinking about the kind of difference that they can make particularly we're talking about things like Urban heat and so really really important that we engage and educate Community I want to speak a little bit to representative Molina's comments as well as the city manager because we've done this before in different variations there's a lot that we have learned through those processes there's a lot that we've learned about the kind of trees that you can plant where and when and what size and in addition to that more than just how much do you water them how do you care for them desert plants are extremely resilient but they do require a unique kind of care and so I just want to thank you all for giving our team and our community the opportunity to interact around this issue and I also want to thank you for bringing it Forward during Earth month there is no better time to be talking about this talking about how El pasoans can make a difference one household at a time and so thank you and thank you for including our office thank you ma'am thank you Mr so I've known this and and just to finalize my comments um with now having a budget of eighty five thousand dollars um our goal is to plant over a thousand trees so we are seeking volunteers we are looking for organizations who want to be part of the solution we are engaging schools for volunteer hours and so we are mapping all of this out we wanted first to get those donations approved and discretionary expenses are approved so at a later date we will roll out websites interest forms volunteer interest forms and more resources to having a more Greener households for individuals who wish to participate and again happy Earth month and hopefully through the next 18 to 24 months we'll be able to plant a thousand trees and we welcome members of council who want to participate to to buy in we are happy to initiate some of those planting events in your districts and will welcome your participation as well thank you women's prone first we have the Amendments and then yes you can get the approval for the amendment first you can approve it as amended okay right so I moved to approve as amended and read into the record there was a motion made by representative Hernandez seconded by representative Salcido to approve the resolution including the floor amendments written to the record by representative Hernandez on that motion call for the vote representative Fierro thank you in the voting session and the motion passed unanimously thank you next item please that brings us to item number 18 and this is discussion in action on a resolution that declares the expenditure of District 3 discretionary funds to be used towards funding the registration cost to the El Paso neighborhoods USA conference for presidents or designees of recognized neighborhood associations and Civic associations in District 3 serves a municipal purpose Hernandez is this your item item 18. yes ma'am it's a long day members of council this is a similar request for the upcoming convention and so I moved to approve Motion in a second there is a motion made by representative Hernandez seconded by representative Rivera to approve item number 18. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously item number 20 is presentation and update by Pioneers 21 on the organization's FY 2022 annual report including a status update on activities during FY 2022 use of Grant funds and progress toward performance measures identified in the chapter 380 economic development program agreement good afternoon good afternoon Alejandra Fuentes for economic and International Development Pioneers 21 will be delivering their annual compliance report per their chapter 380 agreement Pioneers 21 has been a fundamental resource in assisting the community's small businesses the economic development department is further expanding its efforts to Target small business recovery and growth using covet relief funds which you will see later today in today's agenda during the arpa agreements presentation here to present Pioneers 21 annual report executive director Laura Butler good afternoon good afternoon hello thank you for having us today appreciate the time I'm I'm just gonna go over like high level overview of our what we've done in the past year so um thank you first of all I know throughout the year we've met with a representative Hernandez Rivera anello and and molinar and a couple of others that are not here today so thank you all for seeing us at your offices we want to set meetings with Fiero Representatives Fierro Canales and and Kennedy in the in the near future and uh tell you a little bit more about us so you get to know us so we were formerly The Hub of human Innovation and for the past close to five years now we are pioneers 21. I can't tell what's on the screen oh there we go do I can't okay I'm sorry here we go okay thank you so um our mission uh to unleash the creative and economic potential of El Paso in the U.S Mexico border has been our mission for the past several years we added a vision to ensure that every Venture that we incubate is viable and builds a strong foundation and lifelong economic Prosperity because in every Venture that comes in to see us their number one priority is money they they they want to meet people that uh provide them with funds for their business and idea with over 20 years experience in the banking industry that is why they would come entrepreneurs and new business owners would come see us at the bank as well because they had an idea and they wanted one to two hundred thousand dollars to start a business something that I'm all too familiar with so I said you know we want to ensure that you know when there is something that is viable out there that we do everything we can and work with others in the community to help provide uh these business owners and entrepreneurs with the best uh resources possible we know that there's a lot of us that help support small businesses startups there's a few of us that help startups right but it is important that all of us exist and help each other as one ecosystem so that we can continue to grow the economy and that is why we added that vision um our team the work that we do we do it with the team I say a two and a half with Diana is our program coordinator we will be losing her in the next several weeks because she was accepted to law school she is a graduate a graduate of UTEP I will be going off to somewhere in the east coast and New York I believe to go to law school but we've added a new team member who is Elisa spaloney Williams who also has banking industry background she is somebody that will help us uh continue to scale the programs that Pioneers 21 she comes from Learning and Development has over 12 years of experience she will be helping us continue to develop curriculum she developed curriculum curriculum in the banking industry provided support in training anybody from lower level to Regional presidents in different regions throughout the banking industry so in with that said we both would work together in banking regions where there if there wasn't a functioning business business area Within These Financial uh Industries then we would go in as a team as high level team and fix these regions that weren't working in the banking industry so we plan to do that continue to do that with our work at pioneers 21. I wanted to mention that as we meet more and more Venture capitalists in the region and in other regions outside of El Paso something that they invest in is teams so something that I'm looking for in my team are people that can continue to take Pioneers 21 to through change and move us forward and continue to help us scale so these are the metrics that you all hold us accountable for when I was here uh about a year ago talking to you about our chapter 380 agreement wanting to move forward with that um it was very important to me that we not just talk about metrics but that we talked about what the community needed because I think that coming from being you know meeting hundreds of metrics per year in the financial industry I think metrics are important we have to have goals but it's also important to meet with the community needs so as far as our year one metrics we've exceeded I think over I want to say more than 50 percent on some probably even 300 percent on other metrics that were being held accountable for and we have a strategic plan to be able to do the same for year two um The Benchmark survey we've met that metric but it's not due until about maybe 45 days from now we will continue we're still asking for more information so that we can have just better numbers for you all uh within the the 60 days that it's due the final metric our quality Texas Foundation examiner training metric we also met that uh because we ask everybody that joins our Venture mentoring service program as part of the application to see if they want to hear more information about that program and I spoke with the director there to see if there was anything we could do about travel arrangements to be able to to send people to that training so we weren't able to do that so we haven't been able to send anybody yet but we'll still continue to ask a number that stands out here is no total number of applicants that number is not just for our Venture mentoring service but that number is a total of applicants that we have for our entrepreneurship boot camps that we have as well as our accelerators that we've added to programming so as we continue to add programming I'm going to continue to track any anybody that actually that we have an application for for all the programs but also continue to add um to our Venture mentoring Service uh graduates and applicants to that as well our next slide this is not something that the city holds us account accountable for it's hard to see the numbers but I I do have them here with me um this is for our Venture mentoring service program I just want to share a high level overview that we do have for this program we've been it's a year old as of March 31st when we launched this is the program that is uh licensed from MIT and it is the only one of its kind in the region so myself my team has been trained by MIT Venture mentoring service out of Boston and we have we started with zero Ventures last year where we we've now been able to Diana you want to help here this is the the program that Diana uh is is the coordinator for but she is just in case I miss anything she she's been uh just really the the one that's helped launch this program and make it successful but we've been we've uh served 24 entrepreneurs in the past year uh 22 Ventures uh currently uh Venture uh currently we've been able to recruit 34 mentors that are successful business owners from the region um and a few uh that are that are outside of the region as well but those mentors have served over 150 to 154 uh volunteer hours through uh in the past year um anything uh specific on VMS that you want to add hi so um when I first joined the program there was only eight Ventures and 15 mentors so we've increased the program by a lot we have a currently 24 Ventures as Laura mentioned but we've served over a thousand as you'll see here she'll talk about that metric so we have helped a lot of Ventures who are just outside of the Venture mentoring service but we also have just significant amount of people wanting to be mentors for our program so right now we're at 34 mentors which is amazing and that metric keeps growing as we recruit more mentors and ventures in our program but Laura will also talk about how we've served so many entrepreneurs outside of the program well because of the vet program that is our anchor program The Venture mentoring service but as Banker as a banker I continue to track a lot of other things and that just helps us uh when whenever we're applying for Grants so on this slide um starting from left to right the first is these numbers I would say the for up until where it says cumulative cumulative Capital raise that's uh those numbers are since 2011 and these are annual survey metrics that we track um but we did in 2022 we served a thousand um entrepreneurs that walked through our doors either for a workshop for a or for a type of event that was educational I don't necessarily believe in having networking events just to network and serve food and Cocktails I believe in having an event that is purposeful and for Education only if we happen to have food great but I I ensure that those are the numbers that I count it's just those people that walk through our doors for events and workshops as far as total graduates from boot camps and workshops we had 38 which is an increase of 50 percent year over year and we've set a goal for ourselves of for the coming year to also increase at conservative 40 percent um we we continue to add programming so hopefully that number will go up as well these are um our access to Capital numbers and I'll just go through a couple of them but we also ask our Ventures and you know did you did you acquire um any lending because of the because of you went through our financial accelerator program did your credit um increase were you able to make contact with one of the Venture capitalists and also get have some access to Capital that way so these are some of the numbers that were able to track through our through other surveys that we send out and did you experience any business growth something else that's very important is our you know patents and advancements resulting from any of the research that they're doing so I'll tell you we are servicing several very interesting Ventures some that are building drones some that are ready to work on geothermal projects other Ventures that are working on medical devices and we certainly have Partnerships with the MCA with UTEP and El Paso Community College and have involved other partners in the ecosystem to help us be able to Mentor Mentor them as well I do love to look at numbers as you can see but I don't think you want me to read all of those uh something else that uh just want a real high level overview as far as and I talked about it a little bit but I just like to kind of know how many events we hosted versus the number of events that were hosted with other partners and this is a high level overview of that uh but total 48 events again only tracking those events that were educational next um graduates which we've already gone over this is new program that we've added this year which was our financial accelerator in collaboration with lifund which is a cdfi I'm sure you all are very familiar with livefund I work with live fund people fund and a couple of other cdfis in the in the region um we were able to raise twenty thousand dollars together lift fund border Plex Alliance p21 and create this financial accelerator which we had about close to 40 applicants is that correct and we had a goal to graduate 15 of those applicants just because of capacity issues uh anyway each one of those graduates received a thousand dollar stipend for completing the program we had professional CPAs um that came out a venture capitalists that came out to talk to the attendees as well as other local credit unions and bankers that came to talk to them all about credit tax treatments as well as how to read their their books and how to even talk to their CPAs as well and they walked away with a thousand dollar stipend and just how to improve on their finances and their business if we want them to pump money into uh the economy then we must show people how to how to use their funds a little bit better so that was a successful program we're currently working on running another Financial accelerator and have a waiting list for this summer and we will be working on a financial accelerator 2.0 and I have Partnerships pending for that with along with border Plex Alliance chamber Foundation as well as Spectrum reach and ADP so the programs are continued continuing to grow next uh is our p21 VMS pitch challenge so Pioneers had not ever held a pitch challenge we had presentations of uh many many Ventures providing uh their their pitch but we hadn't actually provided access to Capital so this year we were able to provide twelve thousand dollars in prizes uh this was held more in early March we provided workshops to the ventures that were pitching and had a first second and third place winners first place to went away with 6 000 second place four thousand and third place uh went away with two thousand dollars the participants I mean it was a sold out event and I think that this will continue to help us scale programming we want to do more of them it's a great fundraiser although most of the funds are provided to the ventures this is what we need for them to continue to to to start and to use the money to build prototypes or whatever it is that they need to do to start their business as far as funding this has also changed if you notice we're not solely focusing on the funds that the city provides that the city provides us but we are looking for other opportunities we are we have several um 100 000 pending and government funding as well as private grants that were that are not um on here I decided to just keep what had already been funded on here but we do have we are pending several other grants and to here to see if they're going to be funding funded I know I mentioned a lot of Partners throughout the presentation some of those Partnerships we've applied for for government funding together as well and I think that's just something that I continue to seek and and look forward to um from the from the ecosystem so that we when Whenever there um there is funding that it continues to come to to El Paso next um it's just our areas of focus I just want to mention and I've talked about those areas throughout the presentation but it is continues to be our mentoring service which is our uh anchor program our business incubation so just because you're not part of the mentoring service doesn't mean you're not going to receive service with us we do one-on-one appointments and we have companies that are incubating without necessarily being part of the mentoring service we also are continuing to add more program to our Innovation accelerator series and more and more accelerators is the is the goal and with those accelerators what we're doing is we want to raise funds to be able to provide stipends to any of the graduates that attend those that is how it is done in other cities so it should be done that way here in El Paso as far as it is extremely hard to read this um this slide but just high level our strategic plan and I need my glasses is access to Capital is one of the pillars attracting more clients Civic and Community engagement so that we can continue to apply for these grants together and bring those funds to our community adding the programming and then including to adding fundraising events that'll help us do that Diana I know you had um other or do you have any other commentary you've been one of the you've been my right hand for this past year um so also just important to note that since the program we've had more women right now we're focusing on getting more women entrepreneurs to be part of our program but for a while they were 60 of our Ventures and they were also 60 of our mentors so it just goes to show that we are creating more opportunities especially for people who have historically been disadvantaged or may not have a seat at the table we want to make sure that we convene those opportunities for them so that they know that there is a place like ours where they can get that one-on-one support so that's also been really interesting and amazing for part of the program is having more women involved thank you thank you represent anello remember Pro tem thank you all for the presentation first I want to say congratulations on getting into law school it's a very exciting I'm very proud of you um remind me how long have you been in this position has it been just one year I yes it's been since April 26th so it's been two years well um yeah I mean she's just looking at kind of the growth that you have all had I'm trying to see what slide number this is not like if you just look at side nine right you've already you've got almost 18 additional people you're setting a goal to double that um I think these are the metrics that we weren't seeing from the program before is really being more people-centric um and so I wanted to thank you for the presentation and the work that you're doing I do have a question um you show us your funding on slide 12. is that your total overall budget is 313 000. that's a very small budget I'm like really impressed with everything you're doing with that actually our budget is like 429 000. it's still small it's a small bedroom yeah it should be a million dollars incubator no we we should and we just had that meeting with our board and our strategic Partners as well and it is a conversation that we had it is this morning no that's great those are important conversations you'll be having right like I'm glad that you're and I'm really glad to see I was I was looking at your um your strategic plan one pager and like there was a big Focus there on like women and minority women and so glad to hear you bring that up as well um I think this this organization has gone through a lot of transition um like many things we talked about the today the pandemic didn't help it but I think that you've shown so much growth in two years I mean even that comment about like we're having conversations about being a million dollar budget that's amazing um those are the things that we need in this community those are the outlooks that we need for entrepreneurs um this kind of work is really always hard to present in a way with success right because you're helping other people succeed and you can only help them so much but those things are invaluable especially in a community like this where you know when you talk about minority women who weren't really ever set up for Success you know yes decades ago and so um just want to thank you very much for all the work you're doing and and congratulations on your success congratulations again on law school and excited to see you all again in the future thank you ma'am thank you thank you mayor Pro tem representative Salcido thank you mayor just want to also say that um thank you so much for the presentation and I I've seen a great growth in in the organization um when I came on Council 2019 um it was under different leadership and I know that I've seen a lot of increase uh it's good to hear that y'all are focusing on women and and getting women mentorships and and really just taking also bringing the data that you mentioned as a banker so I wanted to say thank you for for your hard work and I definitely see that there's there's uh growth and it is moving in the positive direction so it's good to see this I'm here to support it any way that my office can help thank you thank you thank you thank you for your presentation congratulations in law school thank you Mr Prime yes mayor that brings us to item number 21 which is a budget update foreign so this presentation is going to focus and provide you all an update on our Capital Project funding status with the debt that's been issued what's remaining to be issued and we had some discussion over the last several months regards to our budget updates we've been providing what we're looking at focusing on the operating and maintenance component of the of the budget but this side presentation is going to focus on Debt Service and then also in conjunction with a couple of items we have on the agenda here a little bit later here are the four areas we're going to cover talk a little bit about the historical Debt Service rate also focusing on the general obligation bonds talk a little bit about the debt forecasting and what goes into that and then finally what the projected five-year forecast looks like so this slide shows you the a graph and also a couple of key talking points and how we managed to keep our debt service rate down over the last several years not only through the refinancing but also in 2021 taking advantage of historic low interest rates I've saved quite a bit of money and lowering the cost of those Kepler projects the 15 million dollars under budget for the 2012 Street program so originally I allocated 200 18 million and we'll be finishing up those projects at just at 203 million and then finally creating the set-aside or the payco funds the annual funding which we've talked a lot about over the last several months as well again in order to minimize the impact on having to go out and issue debt for a lot of those purchases that we've been able to do with that paygo funding whether it's the purchase of the police and fire vehicles or the street resurfacing projects that we've talked about so this slide again just to provide an update on the three Geo bonds that we do have still bonds to be issued in the future you can see there the quarter of life remaining amount we still have 128 million approximately to be issued for the MPT project we have the public safety Bond approved in November of 2019 we have approximately 240 5 million dollars remaining to be a student in the future on those bonds and then on the community progress Bond just to prove this past November you can see the amount there excluding the 46.1 million which was approved back in December but we're actually going to be placing those bonds coming up in May we'll leave about 226 million dollars of those bonds to be issued over the next couple years as well so overall between these three General obligation bonds that have been approved by the voters just over 600 million dollars of bonds to be issued in the future and so these bonds will be issued again not all in one year we do this over a multi-year phase and so again working very very closely with the engineering department to ensure that we're only issuing the bonds is we need them and again also ensure that we're not impacting The Debt Service rate significantly it's ensuring that we're again keeping that as stable as possible so as we're projecting out and working closely with our financial advisor who's actually here today on the bond items that we have myself our budget office our controller's office working with her as far as the future forecasting in regards to the structuring of the bonds that we have to issue again property evaluation growth is one of the key components when we're determining what the impact is going to be on The Debt Service rate that's probably the largest and so obviously that's looking at the residential commercial growth that we see on an annual basis but also looking at the homesteads and what we're seeing as far as increasing the homestead exemptions also are over 65 and Senior exemptions in our disabled exemptions because that has an impact again on overall property tax value or Revenue that comes to the this city I'm also looking again at Future Property Tax Rate again ensuring that we're doing anything we can minimize the impact on our taxpayers looking at the future issuance amount every year again trying to determine working very closely with the engineering department as far as the timing of the projects how much we believe we're going to need in each of these fiscal years over the next several years interest rates obviously a huge component of that as well and what we've seen in the fluctuation with interest rates and then finally refinancing opportunities that we have we have a couple of items on the agenda today again those are very very difficult to forecast obviously because those are all dependent upon interest rates and the economic environment and so those are typically things that we're planning for however typically we want to make sure that we're being conservative we don't typically incorporate those potential savings into our future debt modeling just because there's a lot of uncertainties related to any type of economic refunding opportunities in the future and so this slide is just to provide a five-year forecast on what we're looking at as far as future issuances I mentioned in the current year back in December the city council did approve the 46 million dollars for the community progress bond to begin those projects and you can see here over the next five years what we're looking at as far as future issuances for these General obligation bonds so in fiscal year 2024 you'll see 40 million dollars there for the community progress Bond we have right now as of this moment no planned issuance for the public safety Bond just because we did do two issuances back in 2021 and we currently have enough Bond Pro Series to be able to get us through for the next year or so and so right now we're not planning to issue anything else for Public Safety Bond again the terminals projects everything is pretty much on time right now we don't need to go out and shoot any bonds for for that program you'll see in 2025 and 2026 the Assumption there is related to the NPC reduced devil over 30 million dollars upon proceeds that were issued for that project so this would assume 2025 26 and 27 doing the remaining issuances for that project again we know there's some uncertainty related to that project but seem to be making some progress here over the last several months and then you can see they're the remaining issuances for Public Safety Bond and the community progress Bond as well and so again ensuring that we're doing everything we can to minimize the impact on The Debt Service rate working very closely with the engineering department to ensure that we're not slowing down these capital projects and then my very last slide will just show you what the impact is on taking this information these creatures looking at what were projected as far as interest rates again being very conservative as we look to the Future also future property value growth for upcoming fiscal year 24 we're looking at nine percent however we want to be conservative in the future so everything Beyond 2024 we're only estimating a two percent increase in property value growth so assuring that we're being very conservative and that we're not painting a a better than expected picture and that when things start to play out over the next couple years we continue to update that model as well but again we want to make sure we're being conservative in these amounts as we're looking out into the future and so this is what we've come up with as far as our debt modeling the four left-hand farther as we're currently with The Debt Service rate just under 28 cents you see in fiscal year 2024 again based on that 40 million dollars of future issuance for the community progress Bond The Debt Service rate actually goes down by about a penny so that's good news and again that's a result of the property value growth um and also with what we're planning as far as the amount to be issued next year and then you'll see beginning in 2025 incremental increases and again myself working very very closely with our financial advisor to really minimize this impact as much as possible again I'll repeat it again beginning in 2025 and Beyond we are very conservative with the property value growth because we don't want to assume that things are going to continue to play out at what we've seen almost double digit growth and property values again just based on historical data we know that's not the case and so ensuring that we're being conservative with what that Future Property valuation growth is going to look like one of the key points on this several of the members of council we remember back in 2019 when we did the public safety bond that went to the voters the debt management policy was revised to actually increase the maximum amount up to 40 cents on The Debt Service rate because at the time based on the assumptions we were forecasting we were expected to get close to that so the actual maximum right now on The Debt Service rate is 40 cents and you can see from this graph here that we're only expected to hit just over 32 cents in fiscal year 2028. and so again that's the result of what we've seen as far as property value growth the refinancing opportunities that we've taken advantage of just recently back in 2021 about 11 million dollars of savings and so this is what we're looking at over the next several years and again this is just building upon what we presented with the budget updates over the last few months also as I mentioned again I'll just repeat it again the future years do not account for any other refinancing opportunities so these numbers again if anything would more than likely be be better than what we're presenting here but again Australian that we're being conservative with our forecast not being overly optimistic that's the presentation be happy to answer any questions real Pro Tem hey Robert love that presentation nice and short um but really this is super helpful I have constituents I think you probably know Mr best day who love to just like quiz me on these numbers and start having just like a presentation short precise and with these charts is really helpful for me I'd love to see this in the future on the CEO debt as well just because I get a lot of those questions or is that all rolled into slide seven so when it comes to that so there's a very very small amount of projects that were approved by the council I believe about 33 million dollars of CEO projects some of them are the top 25 median Landscaping projects and then the Tomlin slope repair did not factor that those numbers into this presentation just focus on the general obligation Bond I think that we probably need to have a future discussion about materials and use the seals I know that not only with what the state has passed and this past legislative session with discussions going on now about how CEOs are utilized so right now we have no anticipation of issuing CEOs and bringing forth the co to the city council which you're saying there are only two projects that were funded by CS no I'm saying the remaining amount of CEO projects that have been approved by the council are there's some projects related to the top 25 meeting and Landscaping they were also the Sun City Lights projects and the way finding which hasn't been done either or did those end up getting pulled photos so the only thing remaining again is a few of the top 25 media landscaping and then the Tommy slope repair project so if they're funded but not complete where are the dollars if I'm tired if they've been funded but not complete you all pulled those out of debt and we need to work so I'll get with Santa margaritas if there's particular projects so I mean they provide that monthly update to the city council as far as all of the capital projects by District okay I I don't know about the top of my head that because again I just get the questions about that from very eager constituents like Mr bestie you want to be able to answer but this is super helpful so I appreciate it you're welcome um and then representative Hernandez I um Mr cortina's great presentation thank you for bringing this information to us um just I wanted to understand what changes if any um related to the capital plan so on to 2012 quality live 2019 Public Safety Bond um those two had um previously came to council with uh year over year when we can expect for that debt to be issued and I know due to supply chain issues construction staffing shortages inflation you name it there was already over expended I guess over they were over budget on the public safety Bond and so lots of lots of those rollout of which Pro not projects but which amenities would be built first had changed and so I'm curious does this reflect all the changes on the year when we're supposed to fund it from 2024 to 2029. so what this reflects is the amount that was approved 413 million dollars for Public Safety Bond projects as far as which projects may be underfunded or those discussions are still ongoing between the capital Improvement Department City manager's office I know that we need to come back to council eventually and show you all the recommendation on how those projects get done the I don't know city manager wants to reference but the the messages or the communication has been that these projects we need to deliver what we told the public we were going to deliver we don't want to short any of the caliper projects on the public safety side that we promised the voters that's exactly right and I would just add that the the increase is due to the things that you mentioned representative were significant and they were brought on by covet and we made sure that the staff knew that these but these numbers needed to have a lot of wiggle room and they needed to be overly compensated for but we did not consider something like a covet pandemic to to happen and so the numbers of gone up significantly and the inflation on top of it has really impacted some of these projects due to contractors not being able to get enough Staffing and those kinds of issues that have that have come up so the bottom line is what we've instructor staff to do is to complete those projects because Robert has indicated consistent with what was shared with the public and then if there's more funds needed go back out for another vote for Public Safety that the council will need to consider doing that so that's the only thing I would add to his comments Okay so for example on this slide year 2024 there's nothing listed for Public Safety Bond however I recall seeing that there was going to be um every year some kind of improvements and so um is the year that it's being funded not indicative that there's not work happening or so I just want to be clear so let me clarify so yeah as I mentioned we did two dead issuances in 2021 so less than two years ago do one in April and another one in November so we have approximately right now about 130 million dollars of Bot proceeds we've already issued four Public Safety Bond projects so right now we have enough cash to be able to fund for at least the next year the projects that are currently in progress so we don't need to go out and issue more debt right now for those publicity bomb projects we have enough Bond proceeds or cash of what we've already issued to continue moving forward with those projects right now so again our strategy is if we're not going to go out and issue dinner reader just because that was their original plan we're only issuing that as we need it again to ensure that we're minimizing the impact on The Debt Service rate as much as possible is that why in the next slide ITV can advance to the next slide why year 2024 you see a reduction and then a jump by 16 right so last year originally for 2024 we had estimated doing 180 million dollar issuance and so there was going to be an increase in The Debt Service rate but again because we don't need to go out an issue for Public Safety right now right now and these numbers will change again this is no different than the five-year forecast we did at the last meeting these numbers will change again based on property values that come through based on interest rates based on the timing of when we actually need to issue for each of the different Bond propositions so the numbers will change again this is a model that we continue to work with and update as we need to okay so two uh questions that I don't know you'll have an answer to but I see some of our finance folks in the room markets what what are we seeing government bonds closing at um and I'm not sure if you have the answer and the second question is are you projecting um because I'm still under the impression based on the Strategic plan that and based on the responses from today's public comment and the need for more um Quality of Life amenities that we need to be and have that foresight to start planning a 2024 bond election because they're of the need and the the closing of all these other programs and so um are we in in a position financially to issue or to ask the voters to to invest more in quality of life is there wiggle room in the in the current rate in the current debt service rate and what are we looking at in terms of the the bonds that we're closing at so that that's what this slide here represents and that's what I mentioned just a minute ago is that the current debt management policy allows up to 40 cents on The Debt Service rate right now with all of the bonds that we have left to issue that 600 million over the next over years with our forecast we're only estimated to hit just around 32 cents at the highest point at the highest point so approximately eight eight pennies or eight cents on The Debt Service rate which would be allowed by our debt management policy and I would and I would add that you want to have the ability to have that tool at your disposal doesn't mean you have to issue debt if if you if you do go out to a Geo and then if the Market's not where it needs to be and or if we don't want to sell the council doesn't want to sell at that rate or the amount you always have the ability to approve it or not approve it as we're doing today so you would always get another set of eyes on it again or you would get another chance rather to review and approve that process so the recommendation would be for you to plan for those things and then you don't have to necessarily spend it because I know that several of you every year have a list of projects that don't get funded that do not meet the what the data shows in terms of it being done that particular year case in point streets we've thrown a lot of money at it and it still doesn't get to some of the roads that some of the council members bring up so what I've suggested to them take it to council Council has voted those down because you're consistent about going with the CPI process which is a good process by the way so so the answer would be that yes we are planning for that 24 but it's up to the Council on whether or not they want to have that election for for the people to consider because we do have a lot of buildings that have reached their useful life their their end of their useful life and so you will have to either look at closing them and or renovating them and or building new so those are things that you all have to consider okay no I just you answered my question I was just trying to understand um currently what are we seeing with interest rates where we get to items 31 or 30 31 and 32 we do have a presentation that we can go through to show you what we're looking at as far as assumptions but then what we're looking at as far as the parameters and our parameters typically provide a little bit of flexibility in case things do change over the next couple of weeks we'll cover that in an upcoming item but with this with your slides tell me what your presentations tell me is that the decisions we make today and when voters approve a bond it takes time it's not something that's going to happen overnight that we plan for these you forecast the your debt service rate you you do it in a way that there's not too much sticker shock that it's still affordable because these are large Capital Investments that we desperately need and that the voters have CL sent clear mandates to get done it just takes that foresight and planning now so that we can see the fruits of our labor 10 20 years from now and you also and also when you issue debt you want to pay attention to which projects are being completed because some of them come with operations and maintenance costs associated with it so that's like bringing something new that you have to then take care of going forward some of them are like streets where obviously you still have to maintain them but not to the level or degree of opening up a new facility that will require 20 people or the East Side Regional Command Center 40 50 that depending on what you're opening up so some of these things come with additional costs associated on the operation side so that's another thing to consider and Robert I think you were going to say something I was just going to comment that again this goes back to our our planning right our fiscal management and the way we go about approaching not only developing that current year budget but you hear us talk a lot about ensuring that we're looking long term as well and again this is just another example of how we continue to plan for not only the operation site but on the debt side as well so on the revenue side I do have to add this because I think Council needs to be armed with this information with this knowledge and that is when we re-structured or when we negotiated rather when iif was purchasing electric utility we were able to negotiate over 200 million dollars more for the city now some of that you're seeing now a 5.3 million for economic development over the next 15 years you're getting that now we also negotiated 750 000 for them to pay us over the 10-year period uh that that's happening now another big sum of money comes in 2030 when you're going to get close to 5 million dollars more per year so if you remember that's something that we worked on uh together with city attorney's office and it was something that we involved several departments and then the council weighed that weighed on y'all heavily but that was going to happen regardless regardless if if um if this if iaf purchased them or someone else purchased them so that was not something in your control necessarily other than the regulatory piece of that uh and and we on our end we wanted to get the best deal for the for the community including a lot of Provisions that we put in there for customer service that were not in there before and I would also recommend that in the franchise fee agreements that we're auditing that a new franchise is that that's something that the council needs to look at very closely because whenever those were done however many years ago their 30-year agreements it did not take into account customer service issues and that's the reason why you have things like at T going into neighborhoods and tearing up streets because the customer service Provisions aren't as strong as they need to be so that would be something else to look at so I say that because when we look at a five-year forecast Revenue projections are also in the mix so that's another tool that y'all will have at your disposal that you need to look at those future revenues we've been able to work in that start now and in some cases in 2030. I have a question in regards to representative Hernandez's questions um I'm not super familiar with the tax reform bills tax reform bills coming out of the state this year um can you tell me what those are when it comes to debt some of them are related to the uses of CEOs some are related to the What's called the unused increment which is we've talked about cinebilt 2 and what that did I've studied at three and a half percent cap if you stay under that cup essentially allowed or cities are allowed to roll over that unused increment and use it in future years we haven't done that we've been under the vote approval the last three years we haven't used any of that unused document but it's something that we could brought it forward as a recommendation we could do that it's a flexibility if it's a useful tool but we haven't post former sb2 not this year yeah so there there are quite a few bills I actually responded to a few but again most of them are primarily related to these seos there's no anticipation right now to bring forth and Eco issuance okay about um the sale of the electric company and the revenue that was brought in there is Irish Bill while you were talking so this might not even be relevant but I know that there's a bill that stops cities from using any kind of tax revenue or revenue generated by tax or transfers from utilities yeah it's really confusing to me but it's like you're taking on utilities yes those are cities for economic development yes ma'am but those are cities no that's a different one but there is one and it's really confusing me and I'm trying to find it I'm sorry but it says that you can't use any tax dollars or dollars created from like tax revenue it was like but it it sounds like what they're saying is like it could be like the electric company right because they create revenue for charging companies yes ma'am but they're referring to in in um I can be corrected on this but I believe that that they're referring to as Robert said municipally owned utilities like a Lubbock Power and Light in Lubbock I think San Antonio owns their utility as well and I believe Austin owns theirs so I believe it's referring to that because they do huge transfers from Lubbock did it um Austin has done it several times so is San Antonio so in other words when the budget does not uh meet they get a huge transfer from the utility so it seems as though that their rates are really really low on property tax but it doesn't take into account like in some cases they would transfer 50 million 65 million dollars in some cases more than that and in order to make up for what they would have had to increase their taxes for had they not had a like an electric utility but this in this case we do not own the the utility here in El Paso that is governed by a franchise agreement that you all approved that they agreed to I'm not miss Neiman she can speak to this but I would think that that would have to be honored and not be changed until it runs its course and okay I'll let her speak to me so I actually I I have nothing else to have that's correct it only applies to me recently municipally owned utilities which El Paso Electric is not so we're Bound by our electric uh franchise agreement okay and that that is that the bill I was talking about but it wasn't what I was thinking of um the one I was talking about is uh prohibiting cities from making loan or Grant of public monies under 380 Economic Development agreement from the proceeds of property taxes or other City obligations payable from property tax so we don't fall into that category either because they're uh again it what utilities sending us does not have to do according to their own words uh with the rates that's something that they invested on the front end in order to make the deal happen out of iif pro out of iif Revenue and so that had nothing to do with that even if if even if they were transferring from the rates I don't believe what you said would impact that but we have belts and suspenders in this case and that they're using Revenue other than the rates and again that's in writing that's in the agreement and that's what they told us and I know because I sat across from them just like Miss Nema did and we we heard that directly from them multiple times okay they set up a separate fund for that yes ma'am okay thank you for clarifying that and absolutely with that representative Canales just to close out that topic I think just to put it the most simply it was they set up a separate fund that was uh non-recoverable right so those were non-recoverable funds right so just a separate fund that iaf created as part of the deal yeah yeah so they won't recover those costs through their rates that's correct okay uh just one super simple question uh what was the previous Debt Service rate cap before it was increased to 40 cents it went from 35 to 40 back in 2019 and the current projection shows were still peaking out just over 32. correct and it's again very conservative model as we're looking out the next five years again assumes only two percent increase in property values assumes seven percent interest rates in future years which is extremely high even in today's environment so again a very conservative model all right that's it thank you thank you so much no further questions Miss Pride yes item 22 is presentation and discussion on a report by Moss Adams LLP on the financial and Grand solid of the city of El Paso good afternoon Margarita Marine City controller waiting for the presentation now this is not a representation I think can you please pull the correct presentation it for office of the Comptroller item 22 please the one the one before this one this is the one that most Sams is gonna do so yes thank you presentation of the other results for the fiscal year 2022 Margarita Marine City controller the Strategic plan alignment for this presentation is called six set the standard for some governance and physical management specifically 6.6 ensure continued Financial stability and accountability through some financial management budgeted and Reporting the financial highlights for the physical year then ended is that we concluded the year with no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies found by the external Auditors we also have received the the certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting for the 24 years consecutive for the actor and also last year we have received the award for the paper for the very first time if you recall we submitted the report last year and so we are very pleased to announce that we received that award we have also um provided our grants division provided oversight to active grants in the amount of 159 million dollars I want to highlight that since the year 2016's our grant divisions have provided oversight to over a billion dollars in Grand Awards and still with no audit findings in the single audit if I may I can interject one comment it's 1.1 billion and if you remember we've got also a lot of coveted money cares funding arpa funding that that may increase it significantly but even with that out that you'd have about six or seven hundred million their point is if you have 1.1 billion dollars from 2016 till today that's a lot of money to sift through and there's no no external audit finding so that's significant especially when we started this whole process on the strategic planning process with We inherited 21 external audit findings so having a plan and working the plan them having more staff having stronger internal controls that that Margarita and her team led for the whole organization that's the reason why when you hear reports from cdbg and that there's no findings and they go all the way back to 2003 on items that they corrected also goes back to 2009 if you remember in 14 there was a big article a salacious article about City needed to get reimbursed for two for 20 million dollars from TxDOT and usdot and the accusation was even wrong it was actually 19.2 million not 20 million and we recovered 100 of those dollars and now the Capital Improvements Department Margarita and her team the Capital Improvements department now is a a benchmark Organization for usdot expenditures and reimbursements as is with TxDOT they use them frequently for that process that they have in place that they obviously did not have in place before when we had 21 external audit findings so that is significant especially for an organization our size it's over two billion dollars 1.2 1.2 billion in operations all funds and about a billion dollars in Capital Improvements not to mention the 1.1 billion dollars that she just referenced with regard to Grants so I did want to add that thank you Margarita thank you thank you sir also our treasury division did a very good job investing um and earning the city 5.8 million to adapt to 48 million since 2016 in additional funds that we get for the city and lastly our physical Operations Division were very busy implementing the gas b87 excellent work that they did we work in partnership with the real estate division and also with a software developer to create a solution for this area customized solution to be able to implement this standard again with no findings a very good work that was done in my office also the popular annual Financial reports you can see this is the one for the fiscal year 2022 it was created with the help of our public information office so you know we express our sincere gratitude to them because it's a great job it's a very nice report that you can access in the controller's website and part of the grading criteria for ngfoa in order to obtain the award is actually to to say that way how we disseminate this report to the constituents so we encourage you to please share with them we are printing our copies and placing them in City facilities so it's accessible to anybody that can read them that wants to read them and also we're going to be using social media to make the public aware that this report is out there um most Psalms is going to be presenting right after me the results of the audit and they're gonna be talking about the work that they did as far as the audit but I wanted to mention some of the word that office of the controller also did during the year and that contributes to this achievement to to end up another year with a clean out it with an unmodified opinion especially because we have a decentralized accounting system so it's quite a challenge to have all these um policies and procedures implemented and as the Departments to follow and to abide by them provide training across City departments to ensure that everybody is doing the right thing also um you know automating processes and procedures analyzing for internal controls to make sure that we're all always doing the correct thing the right thing is very important so last year we also developed a couple of new policies one of them was the post issues compliance policy to track our bonds and then we also put in place the gas b87 policy to ensure that we are following through with what standard requires of us and this current year 2023 this is the implementations that are respected of the city the main challenge here is the Gatsby statement 96 which is very similar to the statement 87 in that we have to account for the subscription-based information technology arrangements and know how much we're going to be paying in the future and discount that value to a net present value of recorder liability in our balance sheet pair with the right to use asset which is this the it subscription Arrangement so we're working on that following kind of the same process that we follow on the gas b87 working with the same developer trying to implement the criteria of this statement within the system so it's easier for us to make sure that we are properly recording and Reporting the standard so that's kind of the word that we're doing and also analyzing USB 94 and then 99 is just some addition to in clarification from the board as far as Gus be 94 and 96. a special thanks to a city manager in the CFO controller's office staff in the city departments and also to the council for your support and now Corey is going to come over and he's gonna do the second part of this okay about representative Fernandez did you have a question for margarita oh no sorry that was from before thank you so much okay I think can you please put the second presentation yes thank you good afternoon members of the council my name is Corey Hogan I'm a partner with moss Adams I'm here today representing an audit team of nine members and two it Auditors that completed the fiscal 2022 audit of this financial statement audit of the city uh the audit lasted from started in July of last year and and the reports were issued in February of this year so it is a a lengthy audit uh involves quite a few people both on our team and at the city and throughout the various departments and uh and overall as I start I want to say that it went very well this year where we moved uh from a remote audit environment that existed during the pandemic back to kind of a hybrid audit environment back to being on site more where we actually got to get out and visit the airport and Sun Metro and some of the different Departments of the city and do eyeballed up eyeball auditing which is in my mind a lot more effective than doing things over computer screens I just have a really short presentation today we did present the audit in more detail last month to the financial oversight not at committee on March 6th so it's more of a summarized presentation today I think I just have five or six slides here I just want to go over the reports that we issued during the audit talk a little bit about what we did look at during the audit summarize the federal and state programs that we audited which is a significant part of what we do and then just a few of the required audit Communications to start out with uh we issued a variety of audit reports uh the the biggest most substantial one is the audit report on your financial statements on the annual comprehensive financial report that is issued by the city that's consists of your basic financial statements and uh the other statistical reports and things that are issued and as the Comptroller mentioned that's that's submitted uh to various agencies and the city has received a certificate of excellence in financial reporting for that document the second report that we issue is the report on internal controls over financial reporting that's required by government auditing standards that's very specific to audits of state and local governments um in addition we issue an audit on a single audit report that's over your federal and state programs and this year we'll go we'll go over in a minute the programs that were audited this year but we audited seven Federal programs and three state programs and those are largely determined under a formula that's prescribed by the federal agencies and and the state of Texas as a result of those audits on the financial statements we issued what's called an unmodified opinion that's a clean report uh and on your single audit there were no findings of non-compliance noted so again a a very clean audit it wasn't for the lack of trying we as I mentioned we were out here for off and on for eight months with a pretty large team and uh and found that the city was able throughout all the Departments was very responsive and able to provide information and support and documentation for the representations and the financial statements and for the expenditures and the the programs we also wish you um four separate engaged uh they're called agreed upon procedures but separate reports that are required by different agencies the first is the passenger facility charge program audit at on the airport that's required by the FAA to track the collection and spending of those passenger facility charges that are assessed on on airline tickets uh back in October we issue a report on the chapter 59 asset forfeitures for the police department which goes to the state of Texas it tracks the inventory and the accounting for seized assets and uh the assets that came in during the year and the assets that were disposed of during the year and making sure that the the proper procedures were handled in handling those assets the third report we issue is the TCEQ government financial test that goes to the state of Texas it's a it's a measure of ratios and your financial statements to put in Auditor's signature on the calculation of those ratios that it meets the requirements of the state and finally we issue a report on the Sun Metro the national Transit database reporting um that goes to the dot each year and that was the one finding that we had this year as a result of this was in that final National Transit day reporting and it was nothing that was the fault of the city it was the the program requires us to verify information in a certain form and compare it to supporting information and that form was not available from the federal agency this year so we were required to write that up or to not write it up as a finding but write it up as an exception to the procedures and it was at no fault to the city uh just to summarize a little bit uh some of the procedures that we performed during our audit to give all this a little bit of meaning we we spend a significant amount of time in our audit looking at internal controls going out to the various departments uh looking at the major transaction cycles and the financial statements and sitting down and doing interviews with people and doing what we call walk-throughs of internal controls and processes so having people show us what they do with their jobs if they say things are approved uh before a checks cut it's approved then we say show us show us a couple show us that approval and we'll we'll pick once and have them show us um we spend a lot of time looking at estimates these are those balances and there are quite a few of them on the financial statements that aren't supported by bank statements or direct evidentiary support these are estimates that are put together by actuaries by Engineers by estimates of value of assets of depreciation of pension obligations and as Auditors we need to validate those numbers and make sure those estimates are reasonable and that the Specialists that came up with them are qualified to make those estimates we spend time looking at the Enterprise funds these are the funds that we call the the business of government uh I spoke earlier today about the streetcar that's one of the falls into one of the Enterprise funds the airport Sun Metro International Bridges tax office these are those uh public-facing operations that are run by the city and it has a different set of risks as you can imagine than a a traditional general fund or or governmental fund so we spend time looking at those and those are all presented separately in the financial statements and then finally I want to point out this year uh you're well aware by now that the city implemented a major new accounting standard this year gas 87 it basically put the all the leases that the city has of tangible assets tangible leases both as a lessor and the lessee put those on the books so there was a tremendous amount of work involved in that I think it took about three years and Consultants were involved in a new software system and and the city was well out in front of that and we spent a lot significant time this year auditing that and auditing leases to make sure that all the applicable agreements were included and the valuation was done accurately for that implementation there we go um fiduciary funds the city's involved in two pension systems in an opeb system retiree Health Care System there's also custodial funds we spend time looking at those there's again different sets of risks involved in the accounting and valuation of the assets and the net position in those funds a big year looking at Capital assets with the new lease implementation um debt looking at Bond issuances every time the the city looks at issuing new bonds or or refunding refinancing bonds we look at the support for that and the disclosures that are being made and make sure that they're telling a story that's representative of what's in the financial statements and then finally as I mentioned earlier we have a separate it audit team that comes out and looks at the general controls around the city's I.T systems that are used in producing financial information we don't come in and look at every I.T system or operational system in the city but we focused on those ones that are instrumental in producing financial information and the financial statements that we're auditing the list of major programs that we audited this year there were about 150 million as mentioned earlier 150 million dollars in Federal grant money that was expended this year of that 150 million dollars we tested about 129 million and so you can see the list of the programs here we don't pick and choose those each year it's very formula driven under the uniform guidance from the federal government of which programs we have to audit it's largely a factor of how long it's been since they were last audited and whether whether there were findings last time they were audited and of course the size of the program but you can see the the list of the programs there um that were audited this year some very large ones and then three state programs there was about nine million dollars 8.9 million in state grants that were expended this year and we tested about 4.5 million about half of it them and again it's a formula-driven process and again no no compliance findings noted in the testing of those programs each of those programs involves interacting with a different department at the city different people that administer the uh the front end of those programs anyways and we found that people were responsive and able to provide support for the various compliance requirements in each of those programs I want to add that's that's somewhat unusual for a city of this size we we normally do have findings so uh compliments to the the structure that has been put together in the organization um in administering those programs finally my last slide here again I mentioned we we did speak to the the faux last month and went through more of a detailed list of required Communications I just summarized here the key ones the audit went very smoothly it was planned performed in accordance with the the scope and timing that we set out last summer um management was very responsive to our requests we had a weekly status meetings and uh and everybody came prepared and and energetic and responsive to our requests I know sometimes I would get on the phone and make some requests or ask some question it was almost before I got back to my computer there was already an email there with attachments and responses um as part of our audit we need to re-certify that we are independent with regards to the city that's something that we check every year make sure that the members of the audit team the members of our firm uh don't have relatives or or other relationships with the the city or employees here um and finally I want to point out that there is a new significant I know the Comptroller spoke of this earlier new significant County standard coming up this year that's one item that we're required as Auditors to kind of discontinule your mind our clients of new significant new standards and this is really the second part of the lease standard the gasby 87 captured the more tangible leases real estate equipment things of that nature gasby 96 is looking at software electronic more intangible things where if you have subscriptions for software or it systems those are also now going to be required to be put on the books and capitalized and uh in a lot of respects that's going to be a more complex standard Implement for a lot of cities and municipalities just because you have to do more research and and make sure you're capturing all the relative the applicable uh contracts that are falling to that standard with that I again I want to thank you the city the Comptroller's office and the various departments that were responsive to our audit team this year and it's clear that the cities has set a tone at the top of taking these audits very seriously and uh and we appreciate that it's been a pleasure to work with everybody I I don't have a question I just wanted to congratulate the the team for all your hard work um this is this is really significant when we have a government that continuously does not have any uh major findings it is a direct reflection of not only our leadership here on Council but within City management leadership and so just thanks to your firm for your hard work and I've seen you over the years I've even asked you questions about like can you just be like absolutely critical if you have to be and you you had mentioned in the past about beefing up about cyber security and and the threat of invasions in the I.T world and so I really appreciate all of the um the work that you do and all of the historical knowledge you bring to um with the firm that you bring to our organization because you understand our organization because you've been here for some time so thank you and thank you margarita in the back you all do such wonderful work um a lot of it goes unrecognized but but know that we value you and your team because this this is so significant to our government and this is just really good governance so good job and uh represent I would just add um the 20 million that was accused in in 2014 that certainly didn't go unnoticed so I appreciate you not letting this go unnoticed because the team that consists of who we described Margarita leads the team in her computer's office but she's right all the Departments have to have to chip in and they have to fall in line with all the internal controls I know that a lot of times that that becomes frustrating for you all you see it sometimes as a bureaucratic obstacle but we need those to have it in place so that we have no findings I just want to make that clear that there was no external audit findings because you said any significant I think I don't know what word you use but there was no findings at all no findings okay for the record no findings no it's something that Council should be very proud of because you you've you've sat in the seat uh most of you if they're in all this time and those of you that are new there's something that is something very prideful because if there was a mistake uh I think we'd be talking about it you definitely would be talking about it and you definitely would be getting interviews from the media about those things so our staff does an incredible job of having these internal controls in place and for us to conduct the training I know there's been a lot more training that we do that the staff did not have before that they have now and they are very eager to go through that training and so it takes strong leaders it starts with you so thank you and and thank our staff for the incredible work margarita thank you everybody thank you sir if you could come back to the podium if you don't mind repeating your name against her I was gonna Escape okay um I'm going to give you a what if question what if you did find a major discrepancy a neighbor malemish a major fault or an accounting or anything else like that what are the steps that you as an external auditor take for the city of El Paso great question as I mentioned we have a weekly status meeting with management so it would depend on where the finding was located if it if it involved management we would skip this step but we would bring it up in that management meeting if it was something that we noticed out at at one of the Departments if we were out at parks or out at the airport and we saw something that didn't look right we would bring it to the the cfo's attention the controller's off attention and and also the internal auditor at edmundo Calderon if it involved the management group with which we were interacting um we would consult with the internal auditor Department with uh edmundo Calderon and and also reach a level above and it would ultimately be held accountable at some point we try to establish communication with members of the council we as part of our audit we we meet with a few of you each year have been told that I've been asked to meet with more of you in the finance committee last month and look forward to that next year so we'll be reaching out to set appointments but through establishing that level of communication um you are ultimately our client the city council is we address our audit report to you it's it's not management so if we if we find things during the audit we report to you that would be the the ultimate communication that would happen depending on the severity of the finding and for perspective sir how long have you been in internal or external auditor how long have I been doing this 25 years and in your 25 years have you ever discovered uh some wrongs absolutely and I don't have to go back 25 years I mean there's stuff going on all the time um from vending machine fraud to real estate fraud across the whole Spectrum all right thank you very much I appreciate your time thank you representative Salcido thank you mayor Pro Temp I want to say thank you so much for a great presentation I'm usually used to seeing you all mostly at the El Paso employees uh pension fund so it's good to see you all here I miss you all um great presentation I have a question for you you mentioned that you did an audit in regards to the assets real estate leases was there like an actual number to that I'm sorry could you repeat the last part is there like a value of how much did you allocate in the assets you mentioned you did an audit on how many leases and of capital assets and leases yeah the the city implemented a new software system as part of the implementation of the lease standard and also for the capital assets so we spent I can't give you an exact dollar amount right now I could go back and look that up for you but we did spend more time on it this year and that's what I pointed it out in my slide because of the the new software system that was implemented and this new lease standard uh it's significant dollars and you have a when you think about it there's a lot of estimates involved when you're valuing Capital assets useful lives depreciation and of course all the assumptions that go into these capitalized leases so we did spend a significant amount of time on that that's great yeah I know it definitely takes a lot of time so if you could share those numbers with me I would like to look at them do you want to know the amount of the capital assets that we have the amount yes the capital amount two billion dollars in assets okay okay and then as far as the gas b87 implementation we recorded about 180 million dollars in a receivable when we are the landlord the lessor and then 11.4 million dollars in um in a liability when we are the lessee well that's great stats thank you so much that really helps me and again thank you to the Auditors and also El Paso for no findings for a very long time this Administration um and this Council and and it's good to hear that a size a city of our size can go with no audits for a very long time so thank you so much Corey thank you so much y'all that's all our questions we appreciate you the presentation very much thank you Miss Prime the next item is number 23 and this is discussion in action that the city manager be authorized to sign an advanced funding agreement amendment number two by in between the city of El Paso and the state of Texas for the Sean Hagerty Drive Extension project for the design of a four-lane bridge with pedestrian facilities from Nathan Bay Drive to Dyer Street is there someone to answer questions I have questions yeah I don't know if there's someone available to answer questions good good afternoon sorry I'm too short to see you on the screen I had a set up I apologize um I have a question that I know representative molinar is a question um my question is so there's a 457 458 000 increase in the co portion of the city's match okay so I guess my question is actually more for Robert based on the conversation we were just having when you said there were no more CEOs to issue except for two did that were you already talking about this one so we've already issued prior seals that we're utilizing for Imperial match funding it is a discussion that the CID Department as we continue to and I mentioned this when we did the fighter podcast one of the areas that we're going to have to continue to address is coming up with the future match for any grants we apply for not just through the NPO the federal government obviously has been issuing a lot of Grants lately a pretty significant amount I'm gonna need a mattress and so we need to begin to develop what's going to be the ongoing funding source so that we build that into the budget and that we're not having to rely upon a financing mechanism to take care of the match okay okay and so maybe for matches to conversation yeah so I've been having close discussions with the capital Improvement Department in Economic Development Department as we're applying for Grants we've already been awarded and as we're looking to the Future as well again it goes back to that future forecasting of knowing what's coming down the road as far as future grants we're applying for okay and I don't want to take up too much time because this is in representative molinar's district but so we approved this back in June of 2022 I know we now have this change order but are we seeing this project going to begin construction soon once this is approved so we're currently under design and just for clarification of works this is not a change order this is an amendment yeah no worries this is an amendment to the advanced funding agreement so there was additional funds that were provided to the mpo and the mpo provided that that funding across the board and so Sean Hagerty was selected as a project that will receive additional federal funds um so just to qualify it's not a change order but secondly to answer to answer your question we're uh finalizing design and we're proposed to let this project in the fall okay and so when texts increased their budget we were required to match that at a percent even though that they did that after the agreement correct so any funds that are provided to the city of El Paso do require a match um due to inflation actually it's really great that we received this estimated 6 million because of the project comes in over budget generally it is City contribution that will have to pay that shortfall so having these additional funds if you look at the total crop uh percentage we're paying about six and a half percent for this 28 million dollar project that makes sense thank you with that alternate mayor Pro Tem molinar if I heard you correctly more or less in the fall of 2023 this year we should be able to start is that correct correct we'll be able to project and purchasing where early 24. all right thank you very much move to approve there's a motion made by alternate by mayor Pro tem anello to approve item number 23 on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously next is the first reading of ordinances these are items 24 to 28. there's a motion made by representative Rivera seconded by representative Salcido to approve the first reading of ordinances items 24-28 on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes unanimously that brings us to item number 29. I believe we have public comment is there someone signed up did I look at the for item 29 yeah Lisa Turner yes item 29 is discussion in action on the award of solicitation number 2023-0275 armed security guard services to Night Eyes Protective Services Inc move to approved second and I don't believe Miss Turner is in the audience there's a motion made by mayor Pro tem anelo secondary by representative Salcido to approve item 29. I think it was made by representative Hernandez I'm sorry I don't know representative Hernandez seconded by representative sansilo to approve item 29 on that motion call for the vote and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously Mr cortinas I'm not sure if you need to recess at this point or yes Council we need to a motion to recess in order to convene the Downtown Development Corporation meeting at this time I moved to recess there's a motion in a second Theresa's the city council meeting all in favor yes anyone opposed the meeting is in recess at four o'clock P.M good afternoon this is a meeting of the Downtown Development Corporation for Tuesday April 11 2023 it is four o'clock P.M president and presiding Insight council chambers is Vice chair anello along with Mr Kennedy Miss Hernandez Mr Molina Ms alcido and Mr Fiero the first item on the agenda is the approval of the December 13 2022 meeting minutes there's a motion made by Mr Kennedy seconded by Miss Salcido to approve item number one on that motion call for the vote this is the refunding item right not the refinancing item so there's two items this is the minutes item number one is the minutes sorry I was very eager to ask my questions okay thank you in the voting session and the motion passes with five affirmative votes Mr would you like to reconsider to vote okay motion to reconsider there's a motion to reconsider item number one is there a second there's a motion and a second to reconsider item number one all in favor anyone opposed the motion passes we're back on item number one this is the approval of the minute to the December 13th Downtown Development Corporation meeting there's a motion made by Mr Kennedy seconded by Mr Molina to approve the minutes on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes with six affirmative votes Mr Fierro has abstained and Mr Lisa and Mr Cornelius not present item number two is to discuss and approve a resolution authorizing the issuance to the city of El Paso Downtown Development Corporation special revenue refunding bonds series 2023 downtown Park venue project to restructure Debt Service on certain of the corporations outstanding indebtedness approving a fourth supplement to trust agreement and a fourth amendment to master lease agreement and authorizing the execution of the documents and instruments Laura my presentation is going to cover both items two and three so I don't know if you want to go and read both into the record and then Council can vote on them separately but that way I can cover both items in the presentation yes sir item three is discussed and approve a resolution authorizing the issuance of city of El Paso Downtown Development Corporation special revenue refunding bonds series 2023 a downtown ballpark venue project for Debt Service savings approving a fist supplement to trust agreement and a fifth amendment to master lease agreement authorizing the execution of documents and instruments good afternoon again members of council Robert cortinas so first before I begin this presentation this a little bit of a follow-on to what I just presented a few minutes ago obviously with the debt that we have to issue the ballpark being one of them as far as refinancing the city manager myself I considered the pricing officers of what you'll find in the resolution and also you have corresponding items on the regular Council agenda but it's not just a city manager myself and Margarita Marine who you saw just a few minutes ago but it's also the team that we have helping us as well we have Maria urbina who's our financial advisor from Hilltop Securities plays a critical role in helping us coordinate these Financial transactions well said Mr Paul Braden our bond counter who plays the key role as well helping us prepare all of the legal documents but anytime we're going to go out and do integral restructuring refinancing and then obviously all of our Underwriters that are going to actually assist us in actually selling the bonds to the investors so it's it's a large team a lot of work and then obviously Miss Neiman in her legal team and all of the staff that goes into preparing these documents there's a very very thorough legal review that Miss Newman and her team have to go through to ensure that not only through the bond reading process the due diligence calls but then also just preparing the resolutions in order so a lot of work and effort has gone into bringing these Data before you today so as we mentioned there's two separate items that we have discussed these a little bit yesterday during the agenda review item number two is the restructuring and so I'll go through the presentation and talk a little bit more about this particular item and then our proactive approach to minimize the impact of this particular item so as I mentioned item number two is the restructuring so it's a refinancing special revenue bonds but it's a restructuring of current amount that's due item number three is the refinancing opportunity again to minimize the impact and to project some Debt Service savings so this is just some general information related to when cities typically go out in issue bonds unfortunately with this restructuring that we're doing when the ballpark was originally financed back in 2013 they did two different balloon payments one was taken care of already in 2016. about a 17 million dollar balloon payment this one is about 5.2 million dollar balloon payment that City built into the original financing 10-year non-callable that 5.2 million dollars is due August 15th of 2023 it's always been the intent of the city and the Downtown Development Corporation when they did the original financing that that would be restructured and so that is what is on item number two and so taking that 5.2 million dollars and restructuring that over the next 20 years again not extending the current maturity so the current maturities go all the way through the year 2043 but taking that 5.2 million and essentially restructuring it over the next 20 years which does add additional cost to the overall payment related to the debt service related to the ballpark and that's what slider before shows assuming on this these are our assumptions there are parameters that rescue to take action out but these are the assumptions of what we're projecting so assuming that two interest cost of 4.15 maturity of 15 2043 so again not going beyond the original maturity of these bonds and then again it's an additional impact of 2.73 million is what we're estimating and again that's the result of restructuring over the next 20 years and again this has been taken into account when we do our forecasting related to the ballpark you all recall that I did the presentation the year in presentation not that long ago that percentage that we did have the first year of no general fund subsidy we actually had a surplus from the dedicated revenues for the ballpark and so in order to offset this additional impact of 2.7 million that is why we're being again proactive on the additional item on the agenda number three is so that we don't have to take on the full burden of this 2.7 million dollars and instead we have item number three which is a refinancing opportunity that we have and again this is again taking advantage of bonds that we have a little bit different refinancing opportunity that we have than what we typically historically have done Maria is here if there's particular questions on the financing mechanism but essentially what we're doing is doing Tinder offers and so going out to the investors that purchased taxable bonds back in 2021 essentially offering to buy those back and using those proceeds to or actually issuing tax exempt bonds and then that spread is what's expected to generate the savings there's no guarantee we do have to get the investors to voluntarily be willing to sell back those bonds but again Maria urbina and her team has done a really good job on preparing this transaction we have experienced Underwriters who have done some of these already they're relatively new I believe there's only been four or five of these done in the state of Texas and so again this is a productive measure again to I hope I'll set some of the impact from that restructuring that we have and so on this one on item number three here are the assumptions again we're projecting a true interest cost rate of 3.76 very very conservative when I mentioned that the investors need to purchase back or offer to sell back these bonds we know that more than likely we're not going to get 100 participation so we're projecting about a 30 percent just based on what we've seen through these type of deals before and with that 30 participation expecting to generate almost 1.3 million dollars of savings and so that 1.3 million dollars in savings would offset about half of that overall impact from the restructuring however if this comes in better and we get a better participation then obviously that savings would be a little bit higher you'll see the potential net present value savings and so our requirement our parameter is three percent but you can see with this of what we're projecting about 11 and a half percent projected Net Present Value savings from this refinancing opportunity so let me go through the actual parameter so that it's of what's in the resolutions and what's going to be in the ordinances and so here are the parameters these are posted in the backup and the resolution and you'll see here on this item two interest cost not to exceed 5.25 overall aggregate debt loss maximum we put 3.9 million just to provide it against some additional flexibility in case we see swings in the market but again we're projecting right now about 2.7 million dollar overall loss final maturity date again stays 2043 with the original maturity and then we have 180 days to go out and price these bonds and so up to six months to actually go out to Market and price these bonds right now we're looking at middle of May timing just to combine this with what we have as far as our general obligation Bond issuance for the community progress bond that we had planned over the last three months and so doing these deals together saves money on the insurance costs keeps that down and again just being proactive and trying to identify some saving opportunities to again offset the impact from that restructuring these are the parameters on this slide here for the refinancing again the 5.25 percent true interest cost but as I mentioned we're expecting that to come in closer to four percent around 4.15 is what we're estimating again the minimum present value savings we need to generate at least three percent and but as I mentioned we're expecting right now just based on 30 participation to be around 11.5 so meeting that uh final maturity date of December uh 2038 and then again 180 days to actually go out and price these bonds and so these are the parameters that are including the resolution and also included in the ordinances that the council approved on the regular agenda I'll be happy to answer any questions thanks Robert so about the limitations on Revenue with non-taxable bonds as it relates to refinancing I'm sorry I can I could so I think that we had a conversation prior to the amounts of Revenue you can make when you have a non-taxable Bond so the reason why we did the taxable bonds back in 2021 was because of the interest rates it actually it was sort of a unique thing where typically you've got an issue taxes and bonds because there are lower interest rates because of the market it was actually more beneficial to do the taxable ones with that refinancing opportunity but sure but I guess that's not my question well I'm not no it's okay so I mean we had we had had a conversation prior about how you can only make about 10 Revenue if you use non-taxable bonds we had an executive about a different item I don't know if anybody wants to chime in on that good afternoon Paul Braden Rose Fulbright Bond Council of the city I think what you may be referring to is Private Business use is that ring bill I don't understand the question either then we had a conversation an executive about the bonds used in 2020. we shouldn't be having that discussion in Open session it was discussed my understanding was the 10 threshold on not being able to use bonds that were issued for a certain projects at threshold all of the bonds that were issued were for the ballpark for the construction of the ballpark and I understand that not wanting to integrate that conversation but the conversation was around non-taxable bonds the difference between taxable and non-taxable and how much revenue can be generated from them and so when we're talking about non-taxable bonds here I'm just wondering if that's impacting this project the way we were told an executive about a different project I mean I know I'm not crazy we had this conversation correct I'm not clear of what the question is so the question is these are the question is whether or not non-taxable versus taxable bonds and her clarification is she's seeking to ask for the 10 threshold are these taxable bonds or non-taxable bonds the Tinder offer is going to be tax exempt right so we're selling back so we're purchasing back taxable months and we're going to issue tax-exempt bonds so the the scenario that you're questioning is not or it's a complete that was the clarification that I wanted thank you representative Kennedy when everything's said and done on the two different issues that we're talking about what's the net up or down so it's an impact assuming so refinancing the Tinder offer again because there's no guarantee assuming the 30 participation the net impact is about 1.4 million dollars of additional cost on the debt for the ballpark how much participation would it be would be required to net it at zero do you know about 75 is what that ain't happening we don't look just based on right so we wouldn't happen again we wanted to be very conservative and what we're asking the council to approve as far as the parameters and so again we're not expecting to see on a tender offer it's not what based on the Liberty numbers that we've seen with a limited history on this type of thing what it what do you your best guess is 30 on this one sir uh Maria urbina from Hilltop Securities um just to to give you some context these tender offers that we're seeing right now they're very common in the corporate world but for the municipal world they're somewhat new well new in in certain States and state of Texas as Robert mentioned earlier we've seen about five so we've pulled certain information and what we're seeing right now to be quite Frank with you is that we're seeing anywhere from 25 to 35 percent participation in terms of the tender so that's why in our presentation today we wanted to give you roughly what we think would be achievable I was just asking because of involvement with corporate restructure sometimes okay thank you representative Fiera thank you mayor Fullerton Mr cortinas what happens if the council decides not to pass this so the item number two is the Restriction as I mentioned we have a 5.17 million dollar payment that's due August 15th of 2023 so we need to make that payment or we need to do the restructuring and if we do the restructuring it's going to cost us 1.2 million is that what I'm hearing if we generate the savings expected from lighter number three the overall impact is around 1.4 million dollars of additional cost over a 20-year time period thank you we're all having side conversations our brains are trying to work anything else represented for you okay thank you represented Saucy though I have a quick question um so how much right now that you're saying it's owed on April what is what is going to be August 15th August 5.17 million dollar payments 5.1 7 million dollars will be owed it's a balloon payment that again going back to the original financing in 2013 it was a very challenging and again people in this room I don't think any of us were here 10 years ago okay it's something that the city had intended all along to do a restructuring and so here we are today with not only doing the restruction which we knew we were going to have to do but bringing forth the recommendation to be proactive about trying to generate a little bit of additional savings on top of the refinances we've done over the last couple of years again to minimize as much as possible that impact from the restructuring okay there a 10-year address right now so 5.1 7 million that will be owed on August or refinancing which is what we're you're trying to um propose and pay back over the next 20 years and then offset some of the impact right with the refinancing and when you refinance it just adds though it it basically adds one point how much million to it assuming that we meet the parameters or what I just presented the overall impact would be around 1.4 million dollars of additional cost but again that's over a 20-year time period and will also be another opportunity to refinance again when we hope to see some raids go lower after this yeah so we do but again as I just mentioned during my presentation a few minutes ago we don't like to present future opportunities because we don't know what's going to happen with interest rates in the future I mean it all depends upon the economic environment at that time but there would be a potential opportunity in the future to come back and do a refinancing in the future at offset and um I think my last question do we you know we needed to pay that 5.1 million what would that be on the budget and where would it be where would we be getting that money from we would have to bring forth the recommendation I mean we have built up our reserves um obviously we're very sensitive to utilizing taxpayer money to fund or make payments on the ballpark we believe that this is a sound recommendation to bring forth of doing this restructuring offsetting almost half of that impact with the refinancing and again with future refinancing opportunities to help you bring down that remaining small impact that we are incurring you got it just so summarizing refinanced we won't have to pay at 5.1 and it'll be refinanced by in 30 years and we're twice that 30 years 20 years go through correct 2043 the remaining 20 years maturity on those existing bonds okay thank you representative in Texas five that we're aware of have they been that successful in Saving the the funds that we're looking at the funding as as I mentioned and there's still some of those five are still in the process of being priced um but right now we're seeing them being successful again about 25 30 success rate and in this particular instance if we could generate the savings I think it'd be a great opportunity for the corporation and again what was that savings piece or what slide was that I didn't have it it's about 1.3 million 1.3 and so we're doing this we have another item on the regular Council agenda item number 30 that's a similar refinancing opportunity and so with this since we're already doing the new money issuance with what the council approved back in December we had planned to go out and issue the general obligation bonds for the community of progress Bond about 46 million dollars packaging these together brings down the insurance costs but then also gives us the opportunity to take advantage of potential savings debt server savings if we do participation okay all right thank you thank you beautiful Tim representative Hernandez so there's some changes in some um lack of understanding of the finances now my part um so I just want to to better understand to convey to constituents um the and say if I'm wrong or right it's a it helps me just to repeat it um the restructuring is necessary so that I don't use the general fund to subsidize the ballpark correct correct um the restructuring will pay for half of the estimated amount of 5.1 million dollars item number three the refinancing the refinance we'll help pay for our students cover essentially half of item number two it'll cover half if we don't restructure it'll require some kind of or some form of subsidy whether it's a general fund or other sources of funds that we deem appropriate but this is specifically for the debt and not for Capital Improvements for the debt okay and then finally the I guess the third item there is that in the future the hope is to this is where I'm having trouble that remaining 2.7 million or whatever the difference the balance is what is the proposal to help meet that Gap so that's the refinancing that's item number three okay the refinancing right now with what we're projecting would save approximately 1.3 million dollars so so almost half of the additional impact would be offset by that refinancing okay so the refinancing covers half of it but but what a so the second half but what about the balance so there is an additional impact so about 1.4 million over 20 years and so the way that we structured it is that over that 20-year time period we would have that additional impact okay she's like I know what you're saying no I I think I know what you're asking to think it's okay are there any additional refunding opportunities to you know that that other gap that we're not correct yes so you still have other debt outstanding that in the right time if the market conditions you know exist then we can take advantage and actually refund additional debt and so we can close that Gap now I will mention I think Mr Cortina has mentioned earlier over the last 10 years I understand that the pricing back in 2013 was very difficult but over the last 10 years we've taken every available opportunity to refund existing debt and I believe the city has saved up more than 10 15 million dollars of existing Corporation anyway but you we won't be able to achieve that today but there's not going to be a necessary subsidy today if we don't restructure it then that would be a different conversation we'd have to look to see how we can to meet that Gap or to fill that Gap um and then finally the true costs the percentages you've listed here are they fixed are they you know are do they do they increase over time or it's it's just a fixed so the parameters that you're approving as I mentioned go to the slide let's play 12. so the parameters are approving you see the maximum two inches cost of 5.25 again that's just to provide flexibility between now when we actually go out to price the bonds just in case we do see a little bit of an increase but right now we're projecting to be under four and a half percent okay that's a lot better than what I expected but I think it's necessary in order to to achieve those savings long term and then finally I mean the expectation would be come back when the markets are better so that we can achieve additional savings and then just so that we can just focus on paying back that interest in principle and just a reminder for the presentation that I did a few a couple of months ago the update on the ballpark and that five-year forecast of looking at the dedicated revenue from the hotel occupancy tax the team Revenue still projecting this was included in those assumptions but still projecting to generate a surplus going forward building upon the Surplus that we generated with the fiscal year that just ended this past August and so this has always been something that we knew we were going to address again going back to 2013 everything that we've presented in Prior official statements always include the footnote that it's always been the intention of the city to do this restructuring okay thank you for that clarification yeah because I think we complete the two issues thanks thank you representative Fiera did you have another question so Mr Cortina just so it's clear for me please I keep hearing you use the word offset the 1.2 million dollars offset but that's what it's going to cost us if we vote for this today right approximately 1.4 million 1.4 million right that's the additional if the savings comes through in the refinancing the impact would be 1.4 million dollars of additional cost so if we don't use general fund or savings or whatever it's going to cost us 1.4 million dollars if we won't vote for this the taxpayers if we vote for this today so remember that The Debt Service remember that The Debt Service is funded by the two percent Hotel occupancy tax and the team Revenue those are the sources of revenue that pay for The Debt Service and so with what we've projected over the next five years and we just had the first year this past year is that that Revenue that's dedicated to make The Debt Service payment is sufficient enough to fully make The Debt Service payment so we deal with that additional impact even with the additional impact of this restructuring there is sufficient revenue from the two percent Hotel occupancy tax and the team Revenue to fully make this debt payment even with this additional impact we just approved five million dollars in in improvements to the ballpark wouldn't it have been smart to just hold off on those improvements and use it for this debt this payment so that five year it's not a five-year expenditure plan it's a five-year Improvement plan and so it's a year by year basis of what we're actually spending we're not spending more than we actually bring in Revenue in each of those years each year that plan is brought back to council for approval but we're not spending that five years worth of money in one year that's over each of the next five years and so the annual allocation is what we're going by the requirement is that we do bring that Five-Year Plan again just for planning purposes so you can see what's coming down the road but it's a year by year actual expenditure plan okay thank you you're welcome will y'all push your button after you speak thank you representative Kennedy yeah um the difference is on the reef just so the difference is if we were to have to pay the 5 million right now it probably would come out of either reserves or general fund correct correct but with the refi we end up pushing it under revenue bonds correct so it goes through revenue bonds and then we as I mentioned have the funding source through the dedicated Hotel occupancy tax and the team Revenue to be able to make this payment is still have sufficient Revenue to have additional Surplus that can go into the capital Improvement project for the ballpark so there is deficient Revenue that's dedicated to cover this impact I appreciate the balloon payment they left us with um me too yeah lowered the interest initial lowered the payments initially but we get to eat it when you did the the estimation on the total cost for the ballpark had they presumed an interest on the balloon payment or they just presume it would be paid and no interest on it we're looking at total cost for the ballpark I just don't know I mean I know it's a strange question probably knowing that the balloon payment was hanging out there and we were probably going to have to refi it the original interest rates for the ballpark were seven and a quarter to seven and a half so high did they presume the last balloon payment would be refined when they were doing the overall cost estimate that was always the intention was they were at the seven percent is that what they figured when they were doing the estimations I feel better now I made Paul get up so they're saying there's a footnote in the original official statements that they were projecting five percent okay and we're at what right now about four and a half for 4.15 is what we're 0.15 I'm expecting to come in now and if somebody was going to refi what would the the normal percentage savings be worth refining for is it I mean if I have X amount of debt and I want to refinance the whole thing if I don't have a certain amount of savings it's not worth the issuance right yeah it's all depending upon the interest rates and the environment and does it does the 1.4 include all issuance rates and everything else involved that's not internal conditions cost okay thank you okay I'm trying to be very clear so it's one point you said two 1.6 million additional one four and that's over four years no the I'm sorry obviously not for it the additional um amount of years on the bottom approximately 1.4 million dollars of additional impact and what's the additional length of time over 20 years okay what's the life of the bond right now through 2043 so it's 20 years so there's no additional time being added on to this no okay sorry because no we never extend the original maturity yeah slide 10 was really confusing me um that's what I was trying to figure out um I don't have any more questions anybody else okay Miss Prime is this for item two correct you want to take them both representative Kennedy do you want to take both okay so there's a motion made by Mr Rivera seconded by Mr Kennedy to approve items two and three on that motion call for the vote this is for items two and three in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously Mr Lisa and Mr Canales not present that brings us to the end of the Downtown Development Corporation meeting is there a motion to adjourn there's a motion and a second to adjourn the Downtown Development Corporation meeting all in favor anyone opposed and the Downtown Development Corporation meeting for Tuesday April 11 2023 is adjourned at 4 32 pm motion to reconvene there's a motion in a second to recombine the regular city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed the regular city council meeting is back in session at 4 32 PM the next item is number 30 and this is an introduction in a public hearing of an ordinance authorizing the issuance the city of El Paso Texas General obligation refunding bond series 2023-a for Debt Service savings letting a continuing direct annual ad valorem tax for the payment of such bonds and resolving other matters which are necessary to affect situate such issuance if no one has an issue I think we can take 30 31 32 together is that about let me just go through 30 really quickly because it's separate from the two ballpark items so item 30. similar to the ballpark refunding opportunity that we have since we're already going out to market with the new bonds for the community progress Bond the 46 million wanted to package this refinancing opportunity in so let me go to slide three that shows you the assumptions so assuming that two inches cost rate of 3.66 these are the assumptions I'll show you the parameters of what rescue for approval these are what we're we're estimating as far as what we're actually going to see when we go to market two interest cost of 3.66 again assuming a tender participation of 30 percent potential growth savings is three million dollars and so again to offset think back to the presentation I did just three minutes ago where we're looking to you know over the next several years issue remaining debt on the general obligation bonds that we have any opportunity that we have to be proactive to generate Debt Service dating savings we want to make sure we're taking advantage of particularly because we already already have an issuance that we're going out for there's not a whole lot of additional issuance costs related to packaging this in so this is just getting an opportunity to provide some additional Debt Service savings the potential Net Present Value is estimated over seven percent and you can see here these are the actual parameters of what rescuing for approval maximum truances cost not to exceed 4.75 we must generate at least three percent Net Present Value savings and you see the aggregate not to exceed principal amount and then again the maturity dates stays the same as the original bonds maturity date and then the expiration of delegates are 30 to 12 months however we're probably going to package this in at the same time we do the original or the issuance in may just to get them all done at the same time and so these parameters just to make sure that I'm being clear because I know we have some members of account so all of these parameters have to be met in order for us to move forward with the transaction if these parameters aren't met then we cannot move forward with the transaction and so again this is estimated to generate almost three million dollars of savings on general education bonds what is the change in from what was issued or what we originally projected to what we're projecting with this refinance or restructure I'm sorry I'm saying all the wrong words today so the way that these Tinder offers work again these are our new refinancing opportunities and so what this is doing is taking taxable bonds that we issued same thing same thing and that we're essentially converting them into tax exempt bonds and so this would generate that spread between the two estimated three million dollars in savings okay okay no Kennedy these are these are GEOS right right thanks hard we have no one else on here is there a motion second yeah I would absolutely I've been listening to you guys so I know what's going on item number 31 is a introduction in public hearing on enormous approving the issuance of the state of El Paso Downtown Development Corporation special Revenue refunding bond series 2023 downtown ballpark venue project approving a fourth amendment to master lease agreement item 32 is an introduction in public hearing of an ordinance approving the issuance of city of El Paso Downtown Development Corporation special Revenue refunding bond series 2023-a downtown ballpark venue project approving a fifth amendment to master lease agreement there's a motion made by representative Kennedy seconded by representative Rivera to approve items 30 31 and 32. on that motion call for the vote and the voting session the motion passes unanimously Representatives Molina Salcido Canales not present that brings us to item number 33 on the agenda anyway no I just wanted to thank you all I know Mr cortinas you all did a lot of work and um it uh it you found a way to get it done and that was important and I was listening to the whole conversation and I know that uh we're hopefully we're going to get it under four and a half and uh but I hope that we do just uh the same as become a little greater and the important part is we're not extending the term whatsoever so right I thank you all for that and thank you for for the hard work and I know that uh it could have been a little bit less than 1.4 million as uh represent uh fear was talking about but thank you no more balloon payments so this is the last one that we're taking care of thank you three is a plug a pub purchase and sale agreement and any other documents necessary to convey a portion of track a block 5 Coronado Country Club Estates Mr proof there's a motion made by mayor Pro tem anello seconded by representative Rivera to a did you want to take 34 also item 34 is a public hearing on an ordinance authorizing the city manager to sign a purchase and sale agreement a deed and any other documents necessary to convey a portion of track 4A and all of Trek 482 block 24 Socorro Grant there's a motion made by mayor Pro tem anello seconded by representative Rivera to approve items 33 and 34. well it should take 35 minutes please go ahead yeah go ahead yes sir yeah 30 item 35 is a public hearing on an ordinance authorizing the city manager to sign a purchase and sale agreement A.D and other documents necessary to convey a portion of lots one and two and three block two Kessler industrial district unit one there's a motion made by mayor Pro tem anelo seconded by representative Rivera to approve items 33 34 and 35. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes unanimously representative Canal is not present that brings us to item number 36. I'll make a motion to take item 36 to 51 together okay we'll go ahead and take them together man thank you 251 the other one from Texas Tech is there a second there's item 36 is a public hearing on an ordinance changing the zoning at 4645 Vulcan Avenue from R4 residential to AO apartment office and imposing a condition items 37 251 are public hearings of an ordinance authorizing the conveyance of real property owned by the city of El Paso to Texas Tech University Health Science Center at El Paso these are lots 678 9 and 10 block 1 hatlocks Suburban Gardens tracks 26a 26b 26b 226c 27a27 A1 and 27a2 Elijah Bennett survey number 11. Lots 42 and 43 block 2 headlock Suburban Gardens Lots 46 and 47 block 2 headlock Suburban Gardens Lots 26 27 28 in the South two feet of Lot 29 block 2 Hadlock Suburban Gardens Lot 19 block 1 Hat Lots Suburban Gardens lot 18 block 1 hatlock Suburban Gardens lot 16 and 17 block 1 Hadlock Suburban Gardens lot 15 block 1 had lots Suburban Gardens lot 14 block 1 headlock Suburban Gardens lot 13 block 1 headlock Suburban Gardens Lots 11 and 12 block 1 Hadlock Suburban Gardens Lots one and two block one Hadlock Suburban Gardens Lots 20 and 21 block 1 Hadlock Suburban Gardens and lots 26 and 27 block 1 headlocks Suburban Gardens and the motion was made by mayor Pro Tem anello yes ma'am if I remove item 36 36 from that grouping do you have to read them all over again okay let's just take them all together then we can just remove 36. yeah it's fine did you want to take 36 separately yes yes we'll have to read off we can take 36 which is an ordinance changing the zoning 4645 Vulcan Avenue from R for residential to AO apartment office and a posing a condition but I don't want you to have to read the other ones over again you will nowhere okay good so the motion on 36 is from mayor Pro tem anello seconded by representative Kennedy yes okay and this is to approve item 36. only on that motion call for the vote and the voting session the motion passes unanimously representative Hernandez not present is there a motion for items 37-51 as previously I also think we should entertain a motion for you not to read them again by representative Kennedy and this is to approve items 37 to 51 has previously read into the record on that motion call for the vote um I also want to thank uh Mr Bristol and Mr Rodriguez who came to the community last week to talk about this as a very fun Lively meeting I just wanted to thank you all for your time in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously representative Hernandez not present that brings us to item number 52 on the agenda 52 is discussion in action on a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a sub-recipient agreement by in between the state of El Paso and bidwise impact to administer arpa funds to implement the El Paso Workforce Development program in the tech industry to entities affected by the kova 19 pandemic move to approved second there's a motion made by mayor Pro temanello seconded by representative Rivera to approve item 52 we do have public comments I'm not sure if Christine Villarreal Liliana Mireles Lisa Turner or in the audience Christine vieria yes thank you good afternoon you have three minutes wonderful good afternoon my name is Christine Villarreal I'm the president of bitwise impact and our non-profit is really built to provide resources around Workforce training for local communities and ensure that underserved populations have not only the training they need but also the barriers to be removed to ensure that the learning can take place as part of that work we work very closely with non-profits in organizations and leaders in the community that know the community best and the third thing that we work on is really looking at the learnings from our program evaluating constantly providing research so that we can then share what we've come up with as it relates to not only Workforce training but barriers that we work on removing like providing Child Care Transportation food insecurity and then take those learnings and share them within the community and Beyond this fund ending is a critical component to make sure that not only the training can take place but the wraparound services that we are providing also have the ability to be implemented so we would be incredibly fortunate to have this partnership with the city we work closely already with non-profits locally as well as other corporate Partners here to put together the the level of training support to provide this training but also to ensure that folks stay here locally after the training and are able to do their work here with the community so I want to thank you for your opportunity for your uh the chance to speak with you all and also for the opportunity to serve the public thank you thank you the next speaker is Olivia Ramirez good afternoon in three minutes good afternoon thank you mayor thank you City Representatives I want to take this opportunity to thank you all for the opportunity to speak to you my name is Liliana Mireles and I currently serve as the vice president for bitwise Industries here in El Paso bitwise currently has a staff that's growing but we are currently a staff of nine nine people from El Paso that love El Paso that are here to serve its community and we hope to continue to grow that number over the past year we have really focused our time on building relationships with our community partners that are already doing great work here locally but that align with our mission which is to work with underestimated under representative marginalized communities we strongly believe that you cannot ask the community to show up for you if you do not show up for them and that is really where our focus is so with that mindset we have spent our year really with boots on the ground working with Community Partners like caspi like project uh Project Bravo of the pride Center for transitional Foster youth giving them a voice and a space in Tech um when we reach out to these different communities those are the communities that are helping build our pipeline into some of the workforce opportunities that we provide we don't just ask we show up we have worked with Community organizations we want to be an additive to what they're already doing so that their members can benefit from the resources and the tools that we offer um as you know arpa is meant to support folks that have been disproportionately impacted by covid-19 those are exactly the people that bitwise serves so through our pre-apprenticeships our apprenticeships and our tech services that we hope to fund through these programs Community we will be helping those into employment so not only supporting the individual but then that trickles into the family which then also trickles down to the community as a whole so I strongly believe in the work that we're doing we have amazing people on staff I invite you to come visit our space that just opened up on Monday you might not ever want to leave because it's just that exciting and fun but please please come by um you know we really believe that this is going to be wonderful because the city of El Paso deserves this so that is why we want to thank you for this opportunity and um we're here to serve our community so thank you thank you thank you what you do there was a motion made by mayor Pro tem anelo secondary by representative Rivera to approve item 52. we have two motions in two seconds should we take them both they're the same they're the same go ahead on the most item 52. call for the vote voting session is open on 52 Council and the voting session and the motion passes unanimously you know they were so excited about the motion that they made two motions in two seconds that didn't happen very often so y'all did a great job of coming in Provost thank you all item 53 is discussion in action on a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a sub-recipient agreement between the city of El Paso and Fab Lab El Paso to administer arpa funds to implement the El Paso Workforce Development to build pipeline of 3D printer technicians two entities affected by the covid-19 pandemic second we do have public comment from Kathy Chen good afternoon you have three minutes good afternoon good afternoon City Council Members I'm Kathy Chen executive director of Fab Lab I'm here to support our proposal for an Innovative program that aims to provide additive manufacturing skills training and certification to high school seniors from low-income families impacted by covet 19. our proposed program utilizes curriculum and content best practice recommendations from new caller Workforce Coalition sponsored by a grant from America makes to prepare students for the jobs of now and for the jobs of the future according to the North American digital fabrication Alliance for every engineer in the industry there's a need for two to three technicians in supporting roles we want to provide Workforce alternative Pathways in lieu of two-year and four-year colleges to address immediate industry shortages and needs through this program we'll provide a project-based learning experience that could contribute to financial stability of at-risk and economically disadvantaged households through training stipends and paid internships for year one of our pilot program we'll be recruiting 25 senior high school students from Isleta Independent School District they will be selected based on several factors academic aptitude demonstrative Financial need due to covid-19 impact on household income identification of at-risk of not pursuing higher education and interest in stem employment pathways students will be given access to our self-paced online curriculum and we will be housed at The Innovation Factory uh at the El Paso Airport cargo complex we expect the certification process to take between six to ten months depending on the cohort pace and we will also be partnering with stem employers identified by El Paso mix Coalition and Workforce Solutions border border plugs to develop authentic challenges and experiences for the internships and apprenticeships so in conclusion we believe that this program will not only be helping students develop 21st century stem skills for the Post covid-19 new collar job economy but also contribute to the Local Economic Development goals of strengthening the advanced manufacturing labor shed specially for sectors like Aerospace and defense construction and great energy and we hope that you'll consider supporting our pilot program and invest in the future of our city thank you so much for your time thank you for being here representative mayor Pro Temp hi Kathy I have a question for you um I was trying to also look at the presentation what was the certification that you mentioned it's going to be through the new color workforce alliance it's based out of Santa Fe and the curriculum and badging system developed was sponsored by a Federal Grant from America makes that's okay cool that's really great to hear about um is there a reason we all are just working with Isleta yeah so we identified the three top school districts in El Paso El Paso Independent School District Socorro and Isleta and Isleta had the highest percentage of students who were at risk and economically disadvantaged with the lowest college readiness and this program I believe is going to be a really powerful pilot to provide alternatives for students who you know either because of family situations or just because of career aspirations are not choosing to go into those education Pathways wow I didn't know see and through this through the arpa funds how long are you all funded for we'll be doing a pilot for one year for a cohort of 25 students and then pending continued funding and Industry support for the second year we hope to keep running this program out of the Innovation Factory that's so cool I would love to come back you guys are all up and running congratulations thank you mayor are there any other questions yes ma'am representative Canales now really question just a comment um I I love to talk about new collar jobs and I don't think I've ever heard anyone say it at the podium before uh so uh I'm glad that we're at the level uh of awareness now and and uh uh the the point where we can fund new caller job Pathways and yeah it's a it's a term that was coined by um Guinea rometti from IBM and it's been almost 10 years in the making we've been working on this project developing the curriculum and working with a cohort based out of Santa Fe but it's a national group for five years and so really excited to finally be able to bring it to fruition in some form in El Paso because it's very much needed here excellent okay I'd love a tour one day when it's when we're up and running perfect thanks thank you thank you and with that Mitch Prime we have Motion in a second yes sir the motion was made by mayor Pro temanello seconded by representative Salcido to approve item 53. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session and the motion passes unanimously item 54 is discussion in action on a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a sub-recipient agreement by in between the city of El Paso and just Community Inc to administer arpa funds to provide technical assistance for female micro entrepreneurs affected by the covid-19 pandemic motion to approved second any public comment no public comment on this item sure we have a motion in a second yes the motion was made by representative Rivera seconded by representative Salcido to approve item 54. on that motion call for the vote representative Hernandez thank you in the voting session the motion passes unanimously mayor Pro tem anelo not present item 55 is discussion in action on a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a sub-recipient agreement by in between the city of El Paso and Success Through technology education Foundation to administer arpa funds to provide technology startup support to entities affected by the covid-19 pandemic motion made by representative Rivera seconded by representative Fierro to approve item 55. no public comment on 55 we have one on 56 not on 55 55 I did not have anybody but miss Turner signed up on 55. is there someone that's here to speak on it yes can you please more than welcome to come up who may I have your name for the record please Joseph Sapien thank you good afternoon mayor Lisa city council member City staff and guests I'm Joseph Sapien entrepreneur and executive director for stte foundation on behalf of the K-12 schools college students and it's an honor to be here today to talk about how startups create economic value SCT is a non-profit organization that started in 2018 we were built to transform a generation our journey we create an impact through various initiatives Citywide from providing laptops to students during the pandemic raising money for stem scholarships preparing students on Stein's science fairs and then also serving entrepreneurs from all parts of El Paso regarding stt Ventures the program will directly assist 20 startups that are high-tech our committee of entrepreneurs who I asked to come with me today in this Monumental moment will help generate revenue for this city just to be clear venture-backable takes immense care and guidance for startups our community of entrepreneurs here today are disruptive they want to create new markets they want to foster a 10x growth for Venture capitalists and they want to be transformative the ventures metrics that that we are going to provide the city is identification of new customer segments increase in users increase in Revenue access to Capital secured and growth staffed jobs created we do this by intellectual property generators we just wrapped up an open AI hackathon which was a huge success we also have a stte in our residence and attorney who is has a wealth of knowledge to help the startups we provide targeted mentorship with experts who have previously raised capital and we create peer networks through our pitch events like Dia de los Muertos El Paso pitch we actively make warm introductions to venture capitalists and SCT currently hosts some of the top emerging startups internbytes.com who's behind me uh internship platform using AI acemate.io is leveraging AI company which is a software AI tool developer thyroid HQ hypothyroidism hyper thyroid prevention and detection and then a few others that could not be here today I close with this the recent boom and AI tools like chat gbt are accelerating the development of startups just to give you an example we hadn't the hackathon that I spoke about earlier in just two and a half days we had 10 teams that developed industry products from Construction like fintech and Logistics and in just two and a half days there was 10 teams there was three viable products that were able to to come out that were Venture backable that's never happened before I've done multiple pitch events and and that's a key in this indicator of success not to mention the judges who were industry professionals also wanted to hire the developers on the spot said Joseph we'll take them all so the the ex the exponential growth in technology is here and I want to thank the city council for your support as we go on this journey thank you thank you all for being here y'all want to introduce yourself to council real quick hi everybody my name is Timothy I'm one of the co-founders of venture bytes which Joseph mentioned we want to help students get internships through our platform using AI thank you thank you hi my name is Ivan villente I'm the co-founder of parabeak we help designers and developers automate their UI and ux workflows hi everyone my name is Max mogamis he's a graduate student from engineering we created acemate we try to connect college students to surpass uh their tests and graduate from college increasing surpassing rates hello and my name is Sergio ponzo de Leon I am the co-founder of thyroid HQ we are trying to detect and prevent hypothyroidism in patients here in our local community I'm also a UTEP graduate so this is a very much a community funded and um uh community in in the end sort of business right so thank you all for hearing us out today thank you and thank you all congratulations and good luck with every one of you all thank you there was emotion made by representative Rivera seconded by representative to approve item 55. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes unanimously mayor Pro tem anello not present and the final item is 56 and this is discussion in action on the resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a sub-recipient agreement find between the city of El Paso and Hunt Institute for Global competitiveness at the University of Texas at El Paso to administer arpa funds to provide study results of the economic econometric information associated with the creation and use of a One-Stop shop Business Center in El Paso motion approved second and we do have public comment from Miss Myra Maldonado yes hello can you hear me good afternoon Miss Maldonado you have three minutes and I I asked for permission to share my screen can I share my screen yes ma'am thank you thank you mayor and City Representatives the executive director of The Hunt Institute here at the University of Texas El Paso we applaud and support the efforts of the city of El Paso to create a One-Stop shop for businesses the covid-19 pandemic exposed the many difficulties that small businesses faced during the Public Health crisis I'm sharing my screen um there you go uh the the hunt Institute was tasked with conducting a data analysis Endeavor of mapping all the recipients of cares act funding funneled by the city of El Paso with the assistance of uh cdfi lending branches the findings of this analysis allowed us to trace and map the impact of covid-19 of small businesses where we learned that small businesses Revenue decreased by 24.2 percent in El Paso we also discovered that most of the businesses are either non-employer firms or firms with one employee most of them are women owned or minority owned and only 11 of these businesses uh received traditional bank loans another Finding from the analysis uh revealed that employees working for these small businesses need financial and digital literacy and um while business owners were many hats having a One-Stop shop will help these businesses get the assistance they need from all angles in order to be prepared competitive and resilience uh resilient for the future a One-Stop shop does the hunt Institute to perform nine tasks to create metrics needed to measure business performance and business assistance received by this business center performance will be measured regarding economic indicators in respect to demographics number of employees business profile sector location business assistance and services some of the tasks and deliverables are design and creation of performance surveys data harmonization and Analysis of data to create sectoral reuse reports fact sheets and dynamic dashboards we will also be conducting an economic impact for the region and one of the essential components of our proposal is performance metrics if there are no metrics performance cannot be measured the One-Stop shop is an important tool for building and developing a blueprint of the business profile and Commercial needs of entrepreneurs here within the El Paso Community and it's certainly a tool for the economic development of our region thank you so much um you ever should have written on this Maldonado um I I'm actually really looking forward to see the results of this study um because I know that when we challenge ourselves and we raise the bar it could only have greater opportunities for economic development in our city and so um thanks for your work thanks for that proposal um and actually I also wanted to thank the hunt Institute for the study that you sent as the financial impact study and the economic study would love for you all to come at a future work session to demonstrate those results because as we are gearing up for the upcoming budget year and we are looking at strategies and policies to increase Economic Development I think that study is really critical and and how we can align our policies with that study and so um thank you for that work and thank you for being here today thank you so much thank you move to approve there was a motion made by representative Fierro seconded by representative Rivera to approve item 56. on that motion call for the vote in the voting session the motion passes unanimously mayor Pro tem anello not present that brings us to the end of the agenda there's a motion and a second to adjourn the regular city council meeting all in favor anyone opposed and the regular city council meeting for Tuesday April 11 2023 is adjourned at 508 pm thank you Council thank you remember but there's a lot of sidebar talking over there a lot yes a lot of you said yeah oh yeah yeah but you can never hear me in this crime in my chair not bad no I'm gonna um data um thank you oh sorry well I wasn't blinking that was mine but not you yeah yeah I drank about three yeah foreign foreign you said oh cool nothing else you always find