City Council - Regular Meeting

I'll say it. Like if you say revise for purchasing a strategic social, and then I'll say what the revision is.

Well, good morning, everyone, and welcome to City Council Chambers. Ms. Pryan, I believe you're ready to get started.

Yes, sir, good morning, and welcome to the presentation of the mayor's proclamations. We begin with the Pledge of Allegiance, and this morning to lead us in the pledge are students from Loretto Elementary School. At the invitation of City Representative Lili Limon, we have Camila Lopez and Paris Landa.

All right, that looks great.

Give me big smiles.

All of those are perfect. Ready? One, two, three.

And one, two.

Thank you, Mayor. Mayor, I need to bring the attention of the young ladies who are just leaving the chambers that it was maybe 15 years ago when Representative Lemoine was sitting on this dais before and Juliana and her class came from Loretto and did the pledge and we have pictures of her then and then HOW MANY YEARS HAVE YOU BEEN SERVING? FOREVER. MY GOD. THAT'S WHY WE NEED TERM LIMITS. OH, MY GOD. THANK YOU, REPRESENTATIVE LIMON.

AND THEY'LL BE BACK IN JULY, MAYOR. SOME OF MY LITTLE KIDS WERE BACK IN JULY WITH JULIANA.

FANTASTIC. OKAY.

Yes, Sir that brings us to the mayor's proclamations for those of you receiving a proclamation once I announce your proclamation I like to come up to the podium once the proclamation is ready will have up to 4 minutes collectively to speak at the podium. The first proclamation is I mean that 50th anniversary represent can Alice.

Thank you mayor. Come on up come on up. Proclamation, City of El Paso, Texas. Whereas in 1976, Miss Lucy G. Acosta, a devoted community advocate and leader of LULAC District 4, co-founded LULAC Project Amistad alongside Alfred Jaquez and Raquel M. Perez, formerly incorporated under Texas law on May 13, 1985, with a mission rooted in the belief that every member of our community deserves access to dignified, compassionate, and effective social services. And whereas Amistad has faithfully served El Paso for 50 consecutive years, growing from a single transportation program into an institution offering 30 programs addressing health care access, housing stability, financial management, disability services, veterans assistance, and homelessness, serving over 50,000 individuals and operating as the only state-designated aging disability and transportation resource center in West Texas. And whereas Amistad's transportation program has grown to a fleet of more than 42 vehicles performing over 18,000 trips and 1 million miles annually, while also serving as court appointed legal guardian for over 450 vulnerable individuals across El Paso County and six other West Texas counties. And whereas Amistad operates the only 24-7 street outreach program for persons experiencing homelessness in El Paso through its El Camino a Casa initiative, reducing police response times from 18 hours to 20 to 30 minutes. And its money management program, in operation since 1982, has achieved a 99% client eviction and utility disconnection prevention rate. And whereas Amistad has been recognized by the Texas Legislature, the Office of the Governor, the Adult Protective Services Silver Star Board as a champion for vulnerable adults, and has been voted among El Paso's top nonprofits by El Paso Inc. in 2020, 2023, and 2024 to 2025. And whereas under the leadership of Chief Executive Officer Andrea Ramirez, Amistad maintains over $5 million in operating and investment accounts, 193 days of cash on hand, and a culture of fiscal accountability that reflects the organization's core values of respect, honesty, integrity, service, and excellence. now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and city council of the city of el paso that may 30th 2026 shall be known as amistad's 50th anniversary celebration day signed by our honorable mayor renard johnson welcome and congratulations yeah good morning

Good morning, sir. Good morning, Mayor and our city council members. My name is Andrea Ramirez. I am the chief executive officer of Amistad. I have been with Amistad 16 years, serving as the chief executive officer for six. Our founder, Lucy G. Acosta, of course, 50 years ago, so beautiful, so brave, so fierce, so loving, known as Mama Bear. And so today, our team here, we have our board members, we have our corporate management team, program managers and supervisors, we stand in front of you just to tell you thank you. Thank you for trusting us in loving your constituents, in taking care of them, in making sure that we advocate, connect, and deliver exceptional social services, making sure that we improve and provide that dignity to their life. And so I just want to thank you all for everything. Thank you for trusting us. Thank you for believing in us. And thank you for being really our champions. Thank you. Does anyone have anything they'd like to say? So a lot of you know Ms. Ketafiero, but she was a great friend of our founder, Lucia Costa, and she is our president emeritus.

Good morning.

Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Mayor. and city council members for your support all the time. And I thank you for always being there for us. What would we do without Amistad? Can you think, can you put yourself in that position that you're homeless, you have nowhere to live, you have nowhere to go? Where would you go? But we have Amistad. And we've had it for 50 years, thank God. Thank Lucy and all its supporters and everybody in El Paso who supports Amistad, who gives, who donates to Amistad so that hundreds of people in El Paso would not be homeless. They have a home to go to. They have somebody to look after them. They have somebody to guide their lives. And they have not anything like that worrying anybody that is under the wing of amistad. And I put myself there and I said, what would I do? Where would I go? Would I eat? I love to eat. But anyway, gracias. And I thank God that We have amistad in our community. Not every community has amistad. And we need to work on that. Because there's a lot of people that are homeless everywhere throughout the world, throughout the country. And we have a big job. And we have a great leader here in El Paso. We've had three great leaders in El Paso. that have worked at Amistad and have kept it up and will continue to do that with God's help and your help and our community's help. Gracias, adios.

Thank you for everything.

Thank you very much. We also just want to let you all know that on May 30th at 6.30 at the Starlight Event Center on this Saturday, we will be having our Lucy Giacosta Humanitarian Awards. And so I have sent out an invite to the city council. So hopefully we will see you there. And thank you again for your support.

Very good. Andrea, you've got a big group with you. Do you mind letting them introduce themselves?

Absolutely, sir.

Good morning.

Good morning. Good morning, Mayor Council. My name is Christina Pena. I'm the Chief Communications Officer for Amistad.

Good morning. Good morning.

Good morning. My name is Dalia de los Santos, and I'm the Chief People Officer at Amistad. Thank you for having us here this morning.

Good morning. My name is Celia Garcia. I'm the Chief Operating Officer at Amistad, and thank you for having us here this morning.

Good morning.

Good morning. Zadia Chigoyan, program manager at Amistad. Good morning. Denise Apodaca. I'm the supervisor for the Aging Disability Transportation Resource Center.

Good morning. I'm Claudia Taylor. I'm the supervisor for Camino Acas Initiative.

Good morning. Claudia Tarango, one of the partnership program managers.

Good morning.

Good morning come on my name is Elizabeth and rather than I'm a guardianship supervisor.

Good morning, good morning, everyone, my name is Michelle Moss and I'm a program manager and I think.

Low morning, my name is Aldo Montes and supervisor transportation, the good morning.

Good morning to you all.

But another straw feel supervisor, the transportation.

Good morning.

Good morning, Mayor, members of City Council. My name is Javier Banales. I'm the treasurer on the board of directors. Thank you very much.

Good morning, Javier. My wingman. Good morning, Tony Benitez, board member. Good morning, Tony. Did we get everybody?

Yes, Mayor.

Okay. Representative Canales.

Thank you, Mayor. Just very quickly, I just wanted to say congratulations As I read in the proclamation, you offer such a range of services, but you've always thought has been a particularly wonderful partner of the city's on the transportation program. And I really value that partnership and also more recently and very significantly on the street outreach program. And I don't have the numbers in front of me. I can pretty confidently say anecdotally, you are my office's number one referral for people who call in looking for resources of all different kinds. I think we send more people to you than to anywhere else. I really appreciate what you offer to our community. And Ms. Fierro asked, what would we do without Amistad? And I'm very glad that we don't have to answer that question ever, and we have you as a resource here. So thank you very much. All of you, thank you. Wonderful programs.

And all I can say is, wow, for over 50 years of serving this community and serving over 50,000 individuals. But I do have a few questions, Andrea. The first one is, can you expand on your Amistad transportation program?

Yes, absolutely. So we provide an array of transportation supports. Any amazing social worker will tell you the first thing you want to ask someone is, do you have accessible and safe transportation? So what we do is we make sure we work with some. We have mobility managers. We make sure that you have that accessibility. It could be riding a bike. It could be walking to your closest bus stop. It could be using your own vehicle. It could be, you know, Finding a neighbor or a friend to be able to provide you that transport. But we want to make sure that you do have accessible and safe transportation. That's how we exist. That's how we were able to live a quality life. And so Amistad goes over 1 million miles a year. We spend over $1 million in in insurance costs, over $400,000 in maintenance, about $400,000 in fuel. And we do that in partnership with the city of El Paso. We work very closely with Mr. Anthony Kaiser and his team. They do an excellent job. But we provide community transportation within the communities of El Paso. And it is a fixed route. Right now we have 10 routes with the city. We also have partnerships with the VA, Ready One Industries, et cetera. And so we really do want to be a resource for the community to provide reliable and safe transportation that's safe and that's going to get you there on time.

Fantastic. And Representative Canales touched on your street outreach program, which is incredible. 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Yes, sir. And also congratulations on being voted one of El Paso's best nonprofits for 2020, 2023, 24, and 25. Congratulations to you guys for a job very, very well done. And like you said, we don't want to think of an El Paso without you guys. So congratulations.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

And the next proclamation is 2026 Top Cops Award to officers Mark Perez and Amarani Hiner.

Representative Rocha.

Thank you, Mayor.

And I'd be remiss if I wouldn't introduce Senator Cesar Blanco, who's here also, who will be reading the resolution that the state has provided right after I read the resolution for the city. So officers, I'll defer to you, Senator Blanco, as soon as I'm done here. OK. Whereas Officer Mark Perez of the El Paso Police Department has been nominated for a 2026 Top Cops Award by the National Association of Police Organizations in recognition of his courageous response to an active shooter incident on June 1st, 2025, And whereas Officer Amayrani Hinef of the El Paso Police Department has also been nominated for a 2026 Top Cops Award by the National Association of Police Organizations in recognition of her courageous response to the same incident. And whereas on June 1st, 2025, officers Mark Perez and Amirani Hiner responded to a report of a domestic assault in progress. Although they parked their patrol vehicle at a distance from the residents to ensure a safer approach, they came under immediate gunfire as they neared the location, prompting them to take cover. Whereas during the ensuing gunfight, Officer Amarani Hiner sustained a bullet wound to her right leg. Despite her injury, she continued to exchange fire alongside Officer Perez. Officer Perez continued assisting his wounded partner as they worked together to neutralize the threat and prevent further harm to responding officers and bystanders. After securing the scene, Officer Hined promptly began self-aid by applying a tourniquet to her leg. And whereas in an exceptionally dangerous situation, Officers Mark Perez and Amaerani Hined acted with considerable skill, courage, and bravery to protect the safety of the public and their actions on that day merit the highest praise and admiration. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the Mayor and Council of the City of El Paso that May 26, 2026 shall be known as 2026 Top Cops Award Officer Mark Perez and Officer Amirani Hinerde, signed by the Honorable Mayor Renard Johnson. Senator Blanco, please.

Good morning, Senator.

Good morning, Mayor and Council. Thank you for the opportunity for me to speak today to recognize this bravery of these individuals and to speak today. I want to thank my friend, Councilwoman Maldonado Rocha, for recognizing these brave El Paso police officers and for giving the opportunity to join you all today. You all know it says something important. about our city when we're taking the time to recognize individuals, not only for their achievement, but for their character. In public service, we often use the word courage. But moments like this, experiences like those that they experienced, I think remind us what courage actually looks like. Courage is choosing responsibility over comfort or their own safety. It's stepping in the line of danger even when the instinct that you have tells you to step away. It's making that split second decision when they're out there, not for recognition, not for popularity, but because someone else's safety or life matters more than their own. That kind of selflessness, you can't teach that. You can go to the academy, but you can't teach that in the academy. And it reflects discipline, it reflects integrity, and it reflects a deep commitment to others. And the strength of the community, I think, is not measured only by its infrastructure or by the budgets or the policies that we do at the state or at the city. but by whether or not people are willing, what they're willing to do for each other, right? What they're willing to do to look out for one another, what they're willing to do to protect one another, and what they're willing to do to serve something that's greater than themselves. So Officer Giner and Officer Perez, I wanna thank you all for reminding all of us as a community, what commitment looks like, what it looks like in practice every single day. I want to thank you for your professionalism. I want to thank you for your sacrifice. I want to thank you for willing to answer the call to duty that most people would never be able to fully understand. Your actions on that day not only made our community safer, but in reality it strengthens the trust, it strengthens the pride that our community has for those who wear the badge. So on behalf of the state of Texas, it's my honor to present these resolutions recognizing the bravery, and congratulating you on your nominations for the 2025 Top Cops Award. Thank you all very much.

Thank you, Senator. Good morning, Chief.

Good morning, Mayor, Council. I just want to say a few words about Officer Pettis and Officer Hned. Like every officer knows, the officer doesn't pick the call, the call picks them. And on that June 1st day, they responded to this call. What the proclamation, the reports say, and everything else do not give the cold, hard reality of what these two officers did. They saved lives that day. They fought through an ambush. They had no cover to get to. They fought to protect the victims inside the house and the victim that was outside of the house. These are the epitome of the El Paso police officer. They are the example of what every officer does every single day. They go out there and answer that call for service. We are very proud of what the Officer Hernandez and Officer Perez did here. Officer Perez's father serves the city as a firefighter. Officer Hinet is an officer in the US Army, out there continues to serve the country also. So these two incredible individuals set the example of what every El Paso police officer does out there every single day. The example that they have set will be graduating officers on June 5th, one year and four days after their incident occurred out there. We hope the public can come out and celebrate with us the graduation of some new officers coming on the street, because they're going to have fine officers to train them out there, just like every other police officer. Cannot say enough. And I'd like to give some time to the president of the association to say some words.

Good morning.

Good morning, sir. What makes this award even more meaningful is it reflects not only individual heroism, but professionalism and character of the El Paso Police Department and the city of El Paso itself. These officers stood on the national stage representing our community, our department, and every officer who puts on the badge with the understanding that service often comes before themselves. In this profession, where criticism is often loud and sacrifice is always quiet, moments like this matter. They remind us that behind every badge is a human being willing to run towards danger while others run away. They remind us that excellence in policing still exists and that courage, compassion, and discipline are still alive in this profession. Thank you.

Thank you. Don't be bashful, guys. Come up. Good morning.

Morning, Mayor. We're not usually the ones to talk. Morning, City Council.

Morning.

We're thankful that you took the time to give us this recognition. And I always say this. I mean, I never expected anything from this. If anything, I'm more thankful to the people that supported me after the fact because that was a whole other... process that I didn't realize was going to be hard. So I'm just grateful and appreciative that I'm even here.

Very good. Officer Perez.

Same thing. I'm very grateful to go home at the end of that day. Very, very appreciative of the accommodations we got after the fact, like my partner said. At the end of the day, we go home, like my chief and my association president said, we're humans at the end of the day, too. I'm just like, you can't stress it enough. We're just very grateful to be here. You know, still alive, breathing, wonderful support system, both family side and our department. There's that term legacy family where officers have come from a line of other officers in the family. I think that's just our whole department. We come from a good place, especially I love the West Side where I work. We never have, it's not like TV where we have set partners all the time. We're always rotating. So I said before, we couldn't have done this alone. I mean, we learn from everybody and they learn from somebody. So we are who we are because of everyone else. So I don't think, it belongs to all of us. That's just how I feel.

Very good. Thank you. Representative Fierro.

Thank you, Mayor. Officer Perez, I encourage you to try the east side. Great place. Senator Blanco could not have put more accurate words to how he described the proclamation, the resolution. What you all have done, you're an example of why we live in one of the safest cities in the country. It's officers like yourselves who go to work every day, put your lives on the line so that we can live free and just go about our days. So from the bottom of my heart and from the east side, I want to thank both of you very much for everything you've done and being such great examples of our community. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. Representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor. Congratulations to the both of you. I know we met at the quarter award ceremony back in May at the Westside Regional Command Center. I want to first thank Chief Basias for his leadership for the entire department. And of course, Commander Lopez from the Westside Regional Command Center and all of the team that works out of that command center. That is the command center where I did my ride along. That is the command center where I have all of my community meetings. And that is a command center that week after week since I took office shows the lowest crime rate in all of the city of El Paso. So the team is exceptional there and you are among the bravest from our department, from the police department. I congratulate you, I honor you and I thank you for keeping us safe and for running into the line of duty when things are very tough. When most people would run away from it, you run into it. So we appreciate your efforts. We appreciate the work that you do. I commend you and I honor you today. Thank you.

And the senator said it well. You guys speak to the commitment of the men and women and the professionalism that wear the uniform every day to keep El Paso safe. And I can tell you, as a mayor, it weighs on me to get a phone call on a Sunday. I remember the day very well. Yeah, very well. When you receive a call that says an officer has been shot, and me and the chief, the very first thing is, is the officer OK? And you go through a number of emotions as a city leader when you hear that. This wasn't my first call. And when I got that call, the very first thing I asked the chief was, can I give Officer Hiner a call? And he said, absolutely. I'll never forget, I called her on a Sunday. She was probably hours after being shot, and we talked. And her calmness that she displayed that morning or that afternoon was something that will sit with me for the rest of my life. because it showed me how dedicated you are as an officer and how lucky we are to have both of you and all the men and women in uniform that protect this community every day. Because you took the time to speak to me to let me know you were okay. And you told me how you put the tourniquet on your own leg and still were able to make sure that your partner was safe. So with that, I just want to simply say thank you to both of you, and we are so glad that you are here receiving this proclamation. We are so glad that you are on the national stage in Washington, D.C., representing El Paso. So congratulations, and we are blessed to have the men and women in uniform protecting this community. And you two are very, very prime examples of what El Paso Police Department looks like. And on behalf of the city of El Paso, congratulations.

Thank you.

Okay, Ms. Bryant. The next proclamation is NEBA Small Business Impact. Representative Trejo.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning. So we're having this proclamation for Small Business Month. Whereas small businesses are the backbone of our local economy, creating jobs, strengthening neighborhoods, and contributing to the unique identity and vitality of El Paso. And whereas the Northeast Business Alliance, a 501 nonprofit business organization governed by a seven-member board of directors, has remained committed to the growth, success, and advancement of Northeast El Paso businesses and the community they serve. Whereas the mission of the Northeast Business Alliance is to elevate Northeast El Paso businesses by providing networking, education, and community-focused events that create a viable and thriving business climate for its members and the Northeast business community. And whereas NEBA's guiding principles reflect its commitment to leading with a mission-driven purpose, serving a collective good, protecting the organization's long-term sustainability, encouraging respectful collaboration, exercising sound judgment, and leaving the organization stronger for future generations. And whereas in 1999, community leaders, businesses, and civic organizations organized the importance of encouraging residents to shop in their own backyard, leading to the formation of the Northeast Business Alliance as a networking and business support organization dedicated to strengthening Northeast El Paso, And whereas NEBA developed strategies and events that brought businesses and residents together through networking opportunities, educational presentations, vendor showcases, mixers, business fairs, and candidate forums, charitable initiatives, and monthly meetings featuring guest speakers and community engagement, Whereas after receiving its commitment and organizational vision in 2007, NEBA continued expanding its support for local businesses through business education, promotional opportunities, social media training, job fairs, grand opening support, and initiatives to foster economic growth and community collaboration throughout Northeast El Paso. And whereas NEBA continues to embody the spirit of community-driven solutions by bringing together business owners, entrepreneurs, and community leaders dedicated to strengthening the Northeast and creating opportunities for local small businesses to prosper. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the Mayor and Council of the City of El Paso that May 26, 2026 shall be known as NEBA Small Business Impact Day.

Good morning.

Good morning, sir. Mr. Mayor, City Council, thank you very much for this honor. Before I get started, I want to introduce some of the board members here today. And then we also have some founding members here.

Mondo Martinez, the founder and chairperson for the foundation.

Good morning, Mondo.

Good morning, Council. My name is Alejandra Pechan, and I'm one of their newest members.

Good morning. Tony Benitez, founding board member and past president.

Good morning, Tony.

I was voluntold. I'm Beth Newman. I've been a member for NEBA since it started. And this was back in 1990, I believe it was. It's been so long ago, I don't remember. But I've been there. And we've done lots of stuff for Northeast. Thank you so much.

Good morning, Beth.

Hi, my name is Richard Teschner, and I have only been a member of NEBA for the last seven years. But one thing I've learned about NEBA is never underestimate NEBA. Good morning.

OK, well, good morning again. Good morning. And on behalf of board directors, members, supporters, and partners of Northeast Business Alliance, thank you. Thank you, El Paso City Council, for this incredible honor and proclamation. Today's not just a recognition of the organization, it's a recognition of the community and many individuals who have dedicated themselves to the growth and success of the Northeast and Neba. For more than 26 years, Neba has proudly served our business community with a mission centered on collaboration, economic growth, community development, and opportunity. And throughout those years, We have worked to support local businesses, strengthen relationships, and create networking opportunities to advocate for continued growth in the Northeast. But our mission extends beyond the business. We also believe deeply in investing in the future of our community through education. Through our scholarship program, NEBA has had the privilege of supporting students and teachers who are making a difference in our schools and shaping the next generation of leaders. Education remains one of the most important investments that we can make in the future of the Northeast and future of our leaders. We stand here today because of those who came before us. The founders, past board members, volunteers, business leaders, community advocates, and who believed in the potential of the Northeast in Neva and worked tirelessly to move that vision forward. Their dedication created the foundation we continue to build upon today. I want to also recognize our current board members for their leadership and commitment, as well as our members, supporters, and especially our sponsors. Your partnership and investment allowed organizations like NEBA to continue serving the community and creating opportunities for growth and connection. I would also like to recognize Representative Cynthia Trejo for her commitment in reimagining Northeast. That's a big round of applause, guys. Her support both for the residents and business community in Northeast is really incredible to see and to witness. Her leadership or vision for this community are truly appreciated. And we are excited to continue supporting efforts that help strengthen and elevate the Northeast. Northeast El Paso is filled with hardworking families, entrepreneurs, educators, military pride, and community spirit. While we celebrate this proclamation today, we also recognize that there is still much more to accomplish. There are more opportunities to create, more businesses to support, and more students to inspire, and more partnerships to build. This recognition reminds us that when the community comes together with purpose and vision, meaningful progress is possible. On behalf of Northeast Business Alliance, the Board of Directors, thank you again, City Council, for the tremendous honor and for recognizing the importance of future of the Northeast. We are grateful, we are honored, and we look forward to continuing the mission for many more years to come.

Well, congratulations. And as already mentioned, small businesses are the backbone of the economy. And I know in El Paso there's about 75,000 to 80,000 small businesses with about 6,000 to 10,000 right there in the northeast side of town. And everything that you do as a Northeast Business Alliance to help those through mentoring, everything that you've already done, the scholarships that have been mentioned, we can't thank you for all the great work that you do for the Northeast small businesses and all that you do for our community. So congratulations on today's proclamation, and we're very proud to be honoring NEPA today. Congratulations, guys.

Thank you. Thank you.

And the next proclamation is interpreter appreciation day represent fear.

Thank you mayor. Whereas May 6. Anybody with a group would like to come up to them to put the Oh, there they come, thank you. Let me start them here. Whereas May 6th, 2026 is recognized as National Interpreter Appreciation Day, a day to honor, celebrate the vital role interpreters play in ensuring equitable communication, access for deaf and hard of hearing individuals. And whereas El Paso Sign Language interpreters is a woman-owned business rooted in the deaf community founded by children child of deaf adults with a lifelong connection to language access communication equity and is dedicated to providing professional high quality interpreting services that promote inclusion accessibility and equal opportunity throughout the El Paso community Whereas El Paso Sign Language Interpreters has provided interpreting services throughout the city of El Paso for over a decade, supporting government entities, education institutions, healthcare providers, and community organizations. Whereas sign language interpreters serve in a wide range of settings, including educational institutions, medical facilities, legal environments, community events, workplace, ensuring that deaf and hard of hearing individuals have full access to information and services while fostering understanding and breaking down communication barriers. Whereas the work of interpreters require a prominent level of skill, ethical responsibility, ongoing professional development to effective accurate and meaningful communications, whereas National Interpreter Appreciation Day provides an opportunity to formally recognize and honor interpreters for their dedication, professionalism, essential role in supporting equitable communications access within the community. Now, therefore, it be proclaimed by the Mayor and Council of El Paso that May 6, 2026, shall be known as Interpreter Appreciation Day in El Paso. Signed, the Honorable Mayor Johnson.

Good morning.

Good morning. My name is Tamara Marquez. I'm the founder and CEO of El Paso SLI. We're a sign language interpreting agency, local, women-owned, and minority-owned. And I just want to thank you, Mayor and City Council, for this proclamation today. We have built an amazing partnership with the city and the county and local businesses. El Paso has been serving, El Paso SLI has been serving El Paso community for over 17 years now. This hits home for me because both of my parents are deaf and I know, and it just, accessibility has always really touched my heart and I've seen the struggle firsthand. The ultimate goal has always been to bring a greater access, inclusion, communication, and accessibility to the city of El Paso for the deaf and hard of hearing community. This recognition means so much because it just shows that the city is continuing to progress and making a better city and making it more inclusive for everyone. I want to recognize today and every day the jobs that the interpreters, advocate, organizations, and community members who continue to work with El Paso SLI in making this possible. And I just want to say that I'm very honored. And today we have a couple members from the agency with us. And I would like to invite you all. We're having an annual picnic on June the 6th at Albem Park from 1 to 5. We invite the whole deaf community. And we get out free pizza and T-shirts to celebrate the deaf community. So if you know of anybody or if you'd like to come, everybody's welcome.

Very good. You want to introduce some of your team?

Yes.

Good morning.

Good morning. My name is Alicia Marquez. I am the client relations and operations manager for El Paso SLI. I've been with them since about 2019. Just maintaining relationships throughout the city, Fort Bliss, New Mexico, just maintaining relationships with everyone. Thank you.

Good morning. Good morning.

Good morning. My name is Melody Marquez. I just wanted to say a few words, not only as proud to be here as Tamara's daughter, but also a new member of El Paso SLI. Even though I just started interpreting recently until about this year, I just want to say that watching the women-owned business grow my whole life has really been an inspiration for me as far as motivation. I'm currently a UTEP student at the College of Science, so it's a little bit of a different branch, but it still falls under how proactive she is in the community and everything she's doing to include everybody. As a native speaker connected to the deaf community, I do speak fluent ASL as well. I think it's really special to see the inclusion and the diversity with professionalism and connection in the community that she's bringing in El Paso just because it's a smaller city when you think about it. I do think being a part of the agency that values such ethic, community, and growth is what inspires me to improve as well. Just because even though I have just started, I do think it inspires me to follow in the best way that I can. So I just want to say thank you for having us here. It means a lot.

Thank you. Very good. Good morning.

Good morning. Good morning, Mayor. My name is Sophia Diaz. I am a marketing and communications intern through WSB for El Paso SLI. I am a recent UTEP grad. I graduated in December. And I'm just really excited to keep partnering with the community and for more people to have access to our resources and to get to know the deaf community.

Good morning.

Good morning, mayor and everybody here in City Council, thank you for being here, my name is Jasmine Montaignez and I am honored to work here at this agency with Tamara Marquez. Thank you for everyone here for being here today.

Thank you.

We also brought some goodies there. Little. Glasses and it's our logo. It says I love you. So I brought a few So you guys can fight over them And if you would like more I'll definitely bring some more for you all

Well, Tamara, thank you guys so much for what you do. And as Representative Fierro said, ensuring equitable communication access for our deaf and hard of hearing individuals. I do want to give a very special thank you, though, to our ASL interpreters here at the city, both Martha and Eddie. for everything that they do for us here at the city of El Paso. And congratulations on National Interpreter Appreciation Day. We're very proud of you guys. Congratulations.

All right. Ready? One, two, three.

One, two, three. One, two, three.

One, two, three. Thank you. One, two, three.

And the final proclamation is National Apprenticeship Week.

Represent Nino.

Thank you, Mayor. The honorees can make their way up to the podium. It's a proclamation for the city of El Paso, Texas, whereas National Apprenticeship Week recognizes the value of registered apprenticeship programs and the essential role they play in preparing skilled workers for meaningful careers. And whereas registered apprenticeship programs threaten local economies by combining paid on-the-job training, related classroom instruction, mentorship, and nationally recognized credentials. And whereas the Independent Electrical Contractors El Paso Chapter Inc., established in 1968, has served the El Paso region by training the next generation of electricians through a four-year U.S. Department of Labor registered apprenticeship program, and whereas IEC El Paso apprentices work full-time with electrical contractors while attending class one night per week, gaining the skills, the discipline, and the experience needed to support commercial, industrial, infrastructure, healthcare, military, and community projects across the borderland. And whereas the electrical trade provides local residents with a pathway to stable employment, career advancement, licensure, and long-term opportunity while helping meet the growing demand for a highly trained, skilled workforce. And whereas IEC El Paso and its contractor members, instructors, apprentices, and community partners contribute to workforce development, public safety, economic growth, and the future of the city of El Paso. and now there be proclaimed by the Mayor and the Council of the City of El Paso that April 27th through May 1st, 2026 shall be known as National Apprenticeship Week signed by the Honorable Mayor, Renard Johnson.

Good morning.

Good morning. Good morning, everyone. My name is Sarah Navarro, and I am honored to speak on behalf of the Independent Electrical Contractors El Paso Chapter. Thank you for recognizing National Apprenticeship Week here in the city of El Paso. This recognition is personal for me. IEC El Paso was established in 1968, and my grandfather was one of the founding members of this chapter. So when I speak about apprenticeship, I am not only speaking as the executive director, I am speaking as someone whose family history is connected to this work and whose community has been shaped by it for nearly six decades. For almost 60 years, IEC El Paso has trained electricians and supported the Merit Shop electrical contractors for this region. Our apprentices are not just sitting in the classroom hoping for a career someday. They are already working. They work full time with electrical contractors during the day, and they go to class one night a week. They earn while they learn. They gain real job site experience, real discipline, real mentorship, and real opportunity. That matters in a city like El Paso because apprenticeship gives people a real path, a path for the high school graduate who knows college may not be the right fit, a path for the parent trying to provide more for their family, a path for the veteran starting a new chapter, a path for the worker who wants more than just a job. And that path is not a backup plan. The electrical trade is a skilled profession. It requires safety, math, problem solving, discipline, leadership, and pride in your work. According to the US Department of Labor Statistics, employment for electricians is projected to grow 9% from 2024 to 2034, with about 81,000 openings projected each year. That tells us something very important, that the future is not just digital. The future is electrical. Hospitals, schools, military facilities, small businesses, homes, infrastructures, and industry all depend on skilled electrical workers. And every time El Paso grows, electricians are part of that growth. Behind many of those electricians are apprentices learning how to do the work safely, correctly, and professionally. That is why registered apprenticeship matters. It connects training to real employment. It connects employers to local talent. It connects classroom instruction to the job site. It connects hard work to a nationally recognized credential. And most importantly, it connects people to a future they can build with their own hands. We are grateful for our contractor members who hire, sponsor, mentor, and invest in apprentices. We are grateful for our instructors, many of whom work in the field during the day and teach at night. We are grateful for the families who support apprentices through long days, evening classes, early mornings, and sacrifices that come with building a career. And most of all, we are proud of our apprentices. They show up. They work. They study. They learn from their mistakes, and they grow year after year. And by the time they complete our four-year program, they are not just better workers. They are stronger providers, more confident people, and part of a skilled workforce that keeps our city moving. National Apprenticeship Week reminds us that opportunity does not have to look one way. Success does not have to follow one route. An El Paso apprenticeship is workforce development it is economic development, it is public safety, it is family stability, and it is community investment. So today, on behalf of IEC El Paso, our board, our contractor members, our instructors, our apprentices, and their families, we thank you for this recognition. We are proud to train electricians in El Paso, we are proud to help local people build meaningful careers, and we are proud to be part of the work that powers this city, not just today, but for generations to come.

Sarah, do you want to introduce the folks that's with you? Go ahead. Good morning.

Good morning. My name is Ray Campa. I've been working with the IEC for the past seven years. I'm a third year instructor.

Very good.

He's also a city employee. He's a city electrical inspector.

Victor Ramirez.

I'm a training director for IEC El Paso and also a first year instructor.

Very good.

And then we have Manny Veran. He's videotaping. Good morning, Manny. He's our apprenticeship coordinator.

Very good. Representative Fierro.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you to the IEC. I mean, what an opportunity to come out and to join the workforce with these professional skills, an opportunity to retool, to go back into the workforce or to change careers. So I just want to thank you for all the work that you do in helping train all the people who are coming through the program. And I'm imagining, how many people in the cohort?

We have about, right now, we have 110 apprentices currently. We're going to graduate 20. this year, next month. We are projecting about 250 starting in September.

Well, congratulations. And I'm sure they're coming out at minimum wage?

No. Can you start? We always tell them they start between $12 to $16 an hour. So it depends on the company.

What a great opportunity. Thank you, Mayor.

You got it. And Sarah, remind me how old the IEC is?

It's almost 60 years old. Yeah, 50. It's 58.

Wow, congratulations on that. And I know the National Apprentice Week is fairly new, maybe 11 years, 12 years old. Yes. But you have served over 2 million people and participated in over 10,000 events celebrating apprenticeship programs across the country. So I love what you said earlier. You earn while you learn. I think that's incredible. But thank you guys for what you do for El Paso and for the region and working with our workforce and keeping El Paso moving forward. Thank you guys and congratulations.

Thank you. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four.

Mr. Good morning. This is a meeting of the El Paso City Council for Tuesday, May 26, 2026. Mayor Johnson is present and presiding in council chambers along with Mayor Pro Tem Chavez, Representative Acevedo, Representative Malonado Rocha, Representative Boya Trejo, Representative Nino, Alternate Mayor Pro Tem Fierro, Representative Limon, and Representative Canales. It is 1018 a.m. Will everyone please silence your electronic devices so as not to disturb the meeting and rise for the invocation delivered by Pastor Bobby Garcia from Grace Christian Church.

Good morning. Good morning, Mayor and City Council. REPRESENTATIVE LIMON, HOW ARE YOU THIS MORNING? JUST TWO VERY QUICK THINGS. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE PROCLAMATION ON YOUR BEHALF AND THE CITY COUNCIL AND REPRESENTATIVE LIMON. state commissioner olguin they did a fantastic job one read it in spanish one in english and they did a great job and we want to thank you so much for that and then also uh this is my daughter sarah and uh uh i don't know if you're aware of this but for the past 30 35 years through here passes a group of veterans who ride motorcycles They start off in Cucamonga, California, and they go all the way to the wall in Washington for Memorial Day weekend. But anyway, they pass through here. There's four different routes throughout the United States, and a group of us go to Van Horn, and we host them there so we can feed them and they can keep on going. But anyway, we have some pins really quick if we're allowed to approach, and we'd just like to let you all have one really fast. And I know it's not part of the. That's fine. Thank you so much. That little card mirror tells you more or less what run for the wall is. That's nice. Thank you.

Thank you.

Praise God. Anyway, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, in Jesus' name, we come before your presence, Father God. We come here today, Father God, with gratitude for the opportunity to gather, Sir Lord God, and service to this community. Your word reminds us, Lord God, in Micah 6, 8, to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly. We ask these principles guide every heart and every decision made in this meeting. Lord God, grant wisdom to our mayor, council members, city staff, first responders, and all who serve this city. Give them clarity in moments of difficulty, unity in times of disagreement, and compassion for the people they represent. We pray for the families, businesses, schools, and neighborhoods of our community. May this city be marked by peace, integrity, opportunity, and care for one another. Help us to work together for the good of all people, seeking not only progress but also justice and understanding. Protect those who serve and those who are vulnerable. Let wisdom prevail over division and service over self-interest. Lord God, may everything be done here today bring benefit to this community and honor the responsibility entrusted to our leaders. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Thank you, Pastor, for coming in on such a short notice. That brings us to public comment on agenda items for those that signed up to speak at 10. We have quite a few members of the audience that signed up to speak on item 22. And item 22 is an item related to the data centers. We have the first person is Jonathan Zion.

And Ms. Prime, before we begin today's discussion, I want to thank everyone who came out today to speak on this issue. I want you to know that this is important because we all live here and we all care about this community and we all want what's best for El Paso. And I want you to know this is not a new conversation for the city council. Back in February, we directed the city manager to begin developing a comprehensive data center policy framework because we heard the community's concerns loud and clear. I want you to also know that every member of the city council shares The same responsibility and goal protecting our water protecting our natural resources and our infrastructure and protecting the long-term future of the community that we all call home So again, I just want everyone to know that and I want to be clear that I do not want no more data centers in the city of El Paso and I will continue Emphasizing that position as we move forward. But with that said we'll take public comment

Thank you, Mayor. Jonathan Zion will be followed by Courtney Barraza, James Barraza, Juan Gomez, and Montoya. Good morning, sir. You have three minutes.

Good morning.

Good morning, Mayor and City Council. I am a registered voter of District 6, and I am in favor of Agenda 22. I want to thank you, Chris, for bringing this forward. And with this, it's a good opportunity to stop incentivizing future data centers. And this seems like a common sense agenda. I have a strong feeling it's going to pass today. But the reason I'm here is because I hope we're going to learn from our mistakes. And I hope we're going to use the existing terrible incentives that are part of the 380 meta agreement as our foundation of what not to do moving forward. So I just wanted to highlight some of those really bad incentives just so we're all on the same page. 80% tax abatement in exchange for 50 undefined jobs That 80% taxes, we could have used that to create way more than 50 jobs or even created grants for our aspiring entrepreneurs within our community. Speaking of grants, we are currently giving META $7.5 million for infrastructure as a grant. That can go up 20% to 9 million. That's according to the 380 agreement. In addition to that, If there's a water emergency, we cannot isolate the data center to say, hey, even though you're using 2.5 million gallons of water a day, hey, can you calm it down? We're not allowed to say that. But what we can do is blanket it and say, hey, everyone, including the data center, can you not water on Mondays? These are really good incentives for them. It's terrible for our city. One other incentive that's really terrible, lack of oversight, for example. We're only allowed one inspection per year. That inspection has to be done 30 days advance notice. And META can control what the inspector can see. The inspector has to sign an MDA. And on top of that, any notes the inspector takes can be essentially confiscated by META. This is all according to the 380 agreement. So I'm hoping this will be the minimum of what we will not provide anyone moving forward. Furthermore. I hope that this is a good opportunity. Mayor, as you said, that you are against future data centers. That's cool. One good step forward. But the damage is essentially done. I still believe there's time to cancel that 380 agreement. We have not yet been given any proof of the claim of $1 billion to cancel it. So as far as I'm concerned, that's either a guesstimate or a deterrent to get us to stop talking about it. So I hope that one of the city council members is brave enough to bring canceling the 380 agreement to the next city council meeting. And I further want to say by doing so, not only would you represent us, but you would stand with us as we fight against this damage and this immense damage to our city. My name is Jonathan Zion, and thank you for your time.

The next speaker is Courtney Barraza. Courtney Barraza. Courtney Barraza or James Barraza.

Good morning.

Good morning. I wrote it down because I'm not good with public speaking.

Okay. Take your time.

On Thursday, May 21st, El Paso Water CEO John Value said it would be a concern to us if there were 10 data centers that came in because that would represent At a meta-scale water usage that would be 20 million gallons a day to the County Commissioner Court per news article from KTSM. I ask that you vote yes to item 22 and not let any more data centers into our community. We're told to conserve our water every summer and set our thermostats to 78 degrees per El Paso Electric's advertising. Why? Because we're a desert city. If we as consumers are told to conserve what we already have due to our power grid and water concerns, how are we supposed to sustain a data center that uses our resources 24-7 without a break and without conserving energy? El Paso is one of the most polluted cities. Adding more pollution will lower our quality of life more, cause cancer, shorten all of our lifespans. We deserve clean air and clean water. What about the water that will actually make it back into our drinking water? Everyone suffering chronic illnesses like myself will suffer more. All of our city council was voted in because we trust you to care about El Paso and the people that live here. No one wants this. Then why is it happening? We should care about our children's and grandchildren's future. The future of the city is at stake. What will we do if we let these data centers come in and we have no more water? Residents in Lake Tahoe have been told to find new energy provider next year. Why? Because the data center comes first. We cannot let that become our reality here. We live just a couple of miles from the data center being built. If the studies are accurate, it will raise our temperatures 15 to 30 degrees. I don't know if you guys know that. It gets over 100 already in our city. That will cause consumers to use their air even more and to use more energy. The closer you are, the hotter it is. Let's be proud of the world we leave our grandkids and say we want quality air and water. Please vote yes on 22. Please, we know there's a way to end that tax and that metadata center. There has to be. We don't need that here. We've got to get rid of it, you guys. Please care. Please care about the sick people, our air, our water. It matters.

Thank you, Courtney.

Thank you. The next speaker is James Barrasa. He will be followed by Juan Gomez, Ann Montoya, Cristina Pasillas, Cynthia Lozano, Serenity De La Torre. Good morning.

Good morning. Hi, good morning. Morning. My name is James Barraza. We live two miles away from the new metadata center being built. I wrote this also. So data centers are being more and more prevalent throughout the United States, with Texas being the second to Virginia in the total amount of centers. This raises concerns given the drastic ecological differences between the two large producers. In El Paso, we have been conditioned to understand the importance of water and conservation in this finite resource. This is becoming more important given the environmental drought we are seeing year over year. Data centers are massive consumers of water and energy with local impacts being seen throughout the United States. A resource institute, a large data center, can consume as much energy as 100,000 homes, consume 5 million gallons of water a day, and contribute to local air pollution in a significant way. The regional impacts and capital losses can be profound for a community and the longevity of sustainability. In Louisiana, Meta initially promised to pay 15 years of the capital costs of the new gas plants and some of the new transmission upgrades necessary to power Hyperion, which is a hyperscale data center. They later lowered their commitment to just four years, even though rate payers will be paying back the cost of these investments for over 30 years. And Louisiana also requested 5.6 million gallons of water a day compared to the initial two that they requested. Many facilities rely on gas fired generators for routine operation alongside diesel generators for energy backup. Both come with climate and health risks. Some data centers house gas power on-site day-to-day operations, creating continuous air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. One of the most visible examples is unfolding in Memphis, Tennessee, where more than 30 natural gas turbines intended for daily use are being installed. El Paso Electric has applied for regulatory approval to build a new $473 million natural gas power plant specifically to support META's Northeast El Paso data center. Diesel fuel backup generators also release harmful air pollutants, including nitrogen oxides, which are linked to respiratory disease, heart disease, asthma, and other serious health risks. What does this mean for El Paso as we are already affected by pollution in our neighboring country? Data centers promise local economic benefit and job generation, but from the Harvard Gazette, it often requires 20 to 50 people to run. And then also, between May 2024 and March 2025, due to organized opposition, Most contracts were canceled due to opposition, so it's not too late for us. In this moment, we have a chance to prevent the damage before it is done, as we have seen in other communities. Please vote yes on agenda item 22 to not allow more data centers in El Paso. Please end the 380 contract. Thank you, Mr. Barroso. Thank you.

Thank you, James.

The next speaker is Juan Gomez. Juan Gomez, followed by Ann Montoya, Christina Pacillas. Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning members of the council. My name is Juan Gomez and I'm here today to ask you a straightforward question. What is the community getting in return for what we're giving away? The city has already welcomed a hyperscale data center and with this decision comes a burden that we will carry for decades. Let's talk about water. This facility received a permit for 2.5 million gallons a day. To put that in human terms, that is the same daily water demand as 10,870 households. Roughly 8% of the city's commercial water demand. In a region where water scarcity is not a future threat, but a present reality. We allow the single corporation to take priority over the needs of thousands. Now let's talk about power. The 366 megawatt facility to power the center in phase one will be putting out equivalent emissions than adding 353,000 cars to our roads. The commercial sector of our county, which employs around 403,000 people, consumes on average 1,150 megawatts. The power required for phase one of the metadata center is 32% of the commercial demand. This represents about $288 million a year in energy costs that this community will have to subsidize to a multi-billion dollar company after the breach period expires. And what do we receive in exchange for all of this? 50 guaranteed permanent jobs. The city will subsidize staggering consumption of three of our scarcest resources, water, energy, and our quality, to generate a negligible employment footprint. This is not economic development. This is public subsidy for private infrastructure at the community's expense. This item is one of the many actions that can be taken to stop hyperscale data centers, even though it's a shame it came in too late. I urge the city council to vote yes to adopt this item as formal policy. And critically, this policy must hold so future pressure from developers or lobbyists cannot erode what you established today. Vote yes or community is watching. Thank you.

Thank you, Juan.

The next speaker is Anne Montoya. Anne Montoya. I don't see her coming forward. Christina Pacillas. Christina Pacillas, if you're in the queue, star six to unmute your telephone. Christina Pacillas. I don't see her phone number in the queue. Cynthia Lozano, star six please to unmute your telephone. Cynthia Lozano, I see your phone number in the queue, star six please to unmute your telephone. Good morning, you have three minutes. Okay, thank you.

Good morning, everyone. My name is Cynthia Lozano. and I am a concerned El Paso resident in favor of agenda item number 22, to not actively recruit or incentivize future hyperscale data center development. These data centers are in misalignment with the city's long-term sustainability and infrastructure resilience goals. to focus on construction engineering management. My obligation as an engineer is to uphold the highest ethical standards, protect public welfare, and maintain the dignity of the profession. In almost the same exact way, the city council has this obligation to the residents of the city of El Paso. I have worked on multiple construction projects, and the same goes for each one. The second the project wraps up, the crew are looking for their next job. Meadow will not provide jobs for all of the individuals involved during construction. In fact, they'll only be providing a minimum of 50 jobs. Let me pause and put this into perspective. A single fast food restaurant provides about the same amount of provisions and perhaps even more. We are putting the city on the same path as Morgan County, Georgia, where NETA is also building a data center. Both families are seeing their water pressure decrease and a significant decimation of their water quality, making it undrinkable. I'm not sure how many of you have seen the LORE Act. It might sound silly, and it's a children's movie, but there is a significant lesson there that I don't think enough adults making major decisions have learned. Going back to my mention of Georgia, those folks are already relying on bottled water to drink and prepare their meals. Does that sound familiar? We are on our way to becoming need-able. Another point, El Paso's Rio Grande and Hueco Bolton Aquifer are already strained. The city should not occur facilities that threaten resources we've spent generations protecting. Any data center should also use reclaimed water for cooling, not our drinking water. That should be a non-negotiable in our desert environment. I want to raise my future family in the beautiful city that I grew up in, not in one where there's a lack of water security, skyrocketing electric bills, and polluted air. The city council needs to void the existing 380 agreement with Meadows that gives them hundreds of millions in tax breaks. And the city council also needs to direct the public service board to void their contract with Meadows. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker is Serenity De La Torre.

She will be followed by Giselle Fregoso and Fred.

Good morning.

Good morning. Hello, I'm Serenity de la Torre and I am a youth development specialist in San Elisario. Thank you today for hearing us out. I'm sure it's redundant to hear all of our conversations and arguments, but I'm sure this shows to you how much our community really stands in the agreement of item 22. Currently there are about 400, there are currently 446 data centers in Texas alone. That costs about 9,567 megawatts in electricity and about 25 billion gallons of water. And that's already a lot. And if you guys continue this, the projected growth, it is going to increase tenfold within a five span year. leading to about 161 billion gallons of water and about 78,000 megawatts in electricity. And where we are currently with droughts, currently in Texas there is about an 80% drought in our entire state, and within that 17% is an exceptional drought, which obviously if you know what exceptional means, it is very, very bad. especially currently within our own power system and our water plan, the Texas water plan updates every five years using previous data. And with the growth going exponentially fast with the way these data centers are coming, we can even plan with the amount of water we are using because we do not have the data. We will not be seeing data to help us create our next water plan until the next five years. 2027's water plan does not include any of these statistics, let alone the fact that because We are so unsure of how much we are using. You're not able to see the projections for later years. And at that rate, even now, we are not having enough electricity to sustain the current data centers we have. So why on earth would you guys plan to create more, especially here, especially when we are already having rolling blackouts? In my school district alone, we are last week alone our schools did not have water to the point where our elementary schools had to hang out at the middle schools i know this because i work at garcia enrique's middle school and our elementary school alarcon did have to spend the day with us and we do not have enough resources even alone at our schools to accommodate all the children because why are we displacing order i'm not saying just in regards of I'm so sorry for blanking. I just find I'm very passionate about this. Please break your agreement with META. Please vote yes for item 22. Not just, if you guys care for the community, if you guys care for the future, if you guys care for how much our, if you guys care for your community and our history just as much as your people do, you would vote yes. Thank you. The next speaker is Giselle Fregoso.

Giselle Fregoso. I have a person that signed up as Fred, no last name, Fred. Okay, we'll move on to Andrew Grigne. Mr. Grigne, star six please to unmute your telephone. Andrew Grigne. Star six please.

I see.

Hello. You have three minutes.

Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Members of the city council. My name is Andrew Grenier. I'm a born and raised resident of El Paso. I'm proud alumnus of Coronado High School. I currently attend Northwestern University in Edmonton, Illinois. I was a pre-law student. I am taking time between classes and exams this morning to work my support for item 22 and to break the 380 economic development program agreement with META. Although I left the city for college, I make a point to return home every summer. And I want to return to El Paso after graduation to further my career and raise a family. However, last October, when I first heard about the agreement with META to build a data center in the city, I was incredibly disheartened. I, along with my peers from El Paso, are concerned about the environmental, infrastructural, and economic impacts of data centers, which are increasingly hostile to the lives we hope to have in the future. Romero insists this project will offer economic benefit through new jobs and regional investment. By their own admission, most of these benefits will be lost after construction, and only a few positions will remain for infrastructure maintenance. After never received backlash for straining water access in Georgia near a newly constructed data center, the company claims their similar project in El Paso would utilize clean, recycled water to curb energy concerns. However, I must ask how they intend to achieve this goal in a community where water access is already at a premium. El Paso's increasingly drying climate already relies heavily on large amounts of local water desalination infrastructure, which struggles to sufficiently provide enough water to all those in the borderland. I find it difficult to understand how our community can afford the economic and environmental burden posed by the exorbitant utility demands required by META's data centers. I realize the desire not to be left behind in a rapidly changing economic landscape. I realize the appeal of an opportunity such as this to put El Paso on the map for investment from tech companies. Most of all, I realize the desire to show the rest of the country the capability of our community. And this is precisely why the prospect of having a data center in El Paso is so concerning for me. In an age where technological innovation is occurring at people's expense, I selfishly want my home to stand as an example against the pressures of large tech companies encroaching on the lives of everyday people. I want El Paso to be an example of a city which cares about the current and future livelihoods of its residents. While its initial economic extent seem appealing, the long-term presence of a data center will provide little benefit for El Pasoans who will be forced to bear the financial and environmental strain caused by its presence. Young people like myself witness the decisions our community makes today and take them into account when planning for our future. I would hate to see more of my peers leave El Paso with no intention of returning to the borderland. My generation of El Pasoans' hopes and dreams for our future are thwarted by an El Paso which welcomes data centers at our expense. Thank you for your time this morning.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Claudia Contreras-Ziller, followed by Mary Woodruff, Crystal Martinez, Claire Wells. Good morning.

Good morning.

Hello, good morning. I think the community already spoke. We're losing a lot of time under the National Defense Act. It's against the law for data centers to use China components. At this time, we need to find all the legal ways to stop them. Other than the drunk drivers, this is the most important thing in our city. And the city voted for you to represent us, for you all. This city consists of brave people, just like Jonathan said right now. And we want to stop the data centers to be in our community. We don't want their 50 jobs. None of us want their 50 jobs. The news already spoke. FITFAM already spoke about it. We're getting education all over, and we need you guys to be brave and to break the contract already. Right now. A lot of people are afraid. And most of the people that are here, it's because they can come here. But there's a lot of people that are scared to be in a mic. So please break the data center agreement. Find the legal ways to sue them. We don't care if it takes 100 lawsuits. Stop them. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Mary Woodruff, followed by Crystal Martinez, Claire Wells, Arianna Eicher. Good morning, Mary.

Good morning, Mayor and Council. My name is Mary Woodruff, and I'm speaking for Los Exos, La Puy, and Friends. I am asking for three things. First, that you vote yes on item 22. Second, that you terminate the 380 agreement. And third, that there be no further tax abatements or incentives granted to corporations like data centers seeking to invest here. And I wanna explain why it's personal to me. My mother became a widow at a very young age and left to raise three children on her own. She worked two and three jobs sometimes just to survive. She fought for years to keep a roof over our heads. Many times she almost lost her home. But through sacrifice and determination, she finally paid it off. Long after I had graduated high school, yet at 80 years old, After a lifetime of hard work and paying taxes, she fell behind on her property taxes. She was $10,000 delinquent. And this city was prepared to foreclose on her home. Think about that. A working class widow who contributed her entire lifetime and was at risk at losing everything for $10,000. While at the same time, the city is willing to hand out millions in tax abatements and incentives to medicine centers. During COVID, small business owners lost their livelihood. In our community, many did not survive. They closed permanently. They still had to pay taxes. Ordinary residents did not receive special deals, exemptions, or forgiveness. So why are wealthy data centers being treated with more compassion and flexibility than the very people who built this community? This is not economic fairness. It is a system that is increasingly rewarding the wealthy while placing the burden on working families, seniors, and taxpayers. I urge you to end the 380 agreement and stop using taxpayer dollars to subsidize corporations like Data while everyday residents struggle simply to remain in their homes. And yes, you can. The 380 agreement can be fought. And my mom taught me to fight because God did not create a spirit of fear and cowardness. He created a strong spirit. Thank you.

Thank you, Mary. The next speaker is Crystal Martinez. Crystal Martinez, star six, please, to unmute your telephone. You're on mute, ma'am. Star six, please. Ms. Martinez. Go ahead, ma'am. Your microphone is ready.

Yes, ma'am. Thank you, ma'am. I appreciate it. Yeah, so I'm here to speak in favor of the Measure 22. And I think it's just to reiterate what all of our citizens here in El Paso. We have legit concerns. We, as has already been said, at the national level, we see data centers are coming up. And because of the wealth, and the drive the the they have the economic wealth to basically push and set aside the wishes of the community residents one data center is going to have severe impact on our region if it's not going to affect one person it's not even just going to affect those people in the northeast Okay, this is going to affect our region. So we're not talking about, you know, a little business. This is not the same as a regular business that sets up shop and we're providing water services, you know, for utility, you know, for flushing of the toilet. No, this is a direct threat to our very scarce resources. As everybody has already said, we have been raised to really care for our water. Our air quality is very poor. I am a nurse. We see patients with COPD. We have veterans. lots of asthma bronchitis pneumonia you guys you have the power to stop this and this is not just unique to el paso but we need to be the ones to stand up and say no and i also have to say in the existing uh 380 agreement there is under 14.9 a moratorium or interim control for control ordinances. And it says, if it is a public health safety issue, you know, we have the right to stop, okay? And sure, we can say a moratorium for whatever long of existence, but the reality is they should have done, Again, this is so big, the impact is so big, guys. We should be checking the water quality before and after. You see Georgia, they're having water contamination. They have evidence of this, guys. So we need to be watching what's happening at the national level and see that as data So this gives us reasons to stop and say, hey, we already water deprived. Our air quality is already poor. We need to act on the safety, on the behalf of our public safety and environmental, you know, for our region, guys. And I'm gonna say this, I'm a nurse. I have two girls and my husband. Guys, we invest, as a resident, I'm watching to see what our town does to decide, do I stay or do I need to leave to somewhere that they're going to respect and care for our environment. So I'm saying as a, for economic purposes, young people are gonna leave El Paso if we do not act. If you guys want this to be an active border city and not like this dry thing, you know, then you should protect the infrastructure, okay?

Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. The next speaker is Claire Wells. Claire Wells, star six, please, to unmute your telephone. Hello? Go ahead, ma'am, you have three minutes.

Hi. Good morning, Mr. Mayor and city council members. I'm speaking in support of agenda item 22. I'm a resident of Northeast El Paso. I've lived in town for two decades and my family is from here and I had been planning to buy a house here. The recent advent of construction of hyperscale data centers in and around El Paso is forcing me to reconsider that because I don't know how much of a future there can be here with the unprecedented resource consumption these developments will impose. Whether the data center is in the Northeast, in Fort Bliss, or just across the river in New Mexico, they're all going to pull water from the same Waco-Maseo-Bolson aquifer system, the same aquifers that every resident of El Paso, Juarez, and surrounding areas rely on for water, and that are already being slowly drained faster than they can replenish. Hyperscale data centers bring few jobs and rapaciously consume our water. They are unlike any other form of development in the extreme imbalance between the paltry benefits they can offer, the places that host them, and the massive costs they impose on locals. For how many years can the water underneath this desert support both its people and the new data centers? If I buy a home here, will the water last as long as my mortgage? Will it last the rest of my life? When I see young people at my work, should I wonder what will happen to them if they decide to stay here? Is this still a viable place to raise children? Without water, this city does not have a future. I urge City Council to adopt this policy that the city will not approve any future hyperscale data center projects and will not offer tax breaks or any other form of special enticement to such projects. I further urge you to cancel the 380 agreement with META. Any results in financial penalties are something that can be litigated and that we can handle as a community. Money comes and goes. In the desert, water is the only absolute. Thank you.

Next speaker is Arianna Eicher. Arianna Eicher, followed by Phillip Sullivan, Marco Sanchez, Wesley Lawrence, Veronica Carvajal.

Good morning.

Good morning. My name is Arianna Eicher. And while preparing for my statement today, I did some research and I want to share some quotes with you all today to reflect on as it pertains to the issue of data centers invading our community. One, my experience has given me the skills to listen and adapt and take action, which is exactly what our city needs in a leader. I believe in transparency, accountability, and putting the needs of the community first. Ms. Chavez. Two, when I see a problem, there's always a solution and we figure it out together. Dr. Acevedo. Three, transparent government to me means that citizens have access to the decision making process on policies and it also means that as part of that government, I am held accountable, have clear communication and work ethically. Ms. Rocha. Four, I can either sit back and complain about what El Paso lacks, or I can step forward to help make a difference. I'm stepping forward to represent our community and fight for the issues, interests, and values that matter most, Ms. Trejo. Five, I'm committed to making our community even better. I will continue to be a public servant who truly understands and cares about our community. I am that person, Mr. Nino. Six, I commit to define my role by adhering to our purpose, to establish long and short term priorities and objectives, review and approve the budget and tax rate, establish policies loyal to the city's financial and functional limits and mandates, and to represent the interests of the people who elected me, Mr. Fierro. Seven, I pledge to use my vast experience to advocate for residents and make sure city services are allocated to our neighborhoods. In short, I will cut through red tape and make this a stronger, healthier community, Ms. Limon. Eight, the city should get voter approval for all capital projects to give people a more direct say in what their bills look like. My degree is in sustainable development, and I also worked in that field earlier in my career. Action to address climate change is very important to me, Mr. Canales. And finally, I'm not a politician. I'm a local business owner who knows we can do better with the right leadership. We can unify local, state, and county leaders to ensure the best future for El Paso. I'm running because I want to give back to the community that has given me so much. I will use my experience and love for El Paso to help our city thrive, Mayor Johnson. These words come directly from each of your campaigns for a city and city council, and you made it. There's never been a more important time to honor your word than now. You may have forgotten about those words which you used to get elected, but your voters have not. Words have immense power to move people and change lives, but they can also be used to manipulate or even fall empty. So you still have time to do the right thing. Void the existing 380 agreement with META, direct the PSB to void their contract with META, and obviously vote yes on item number 22. All this is the very least you can do and the only acceptable outcome. Don't tell us it can't be done. We understand it'll be hard, but based on your words, you're the most qualified. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Phillip Sullivan, followed by Marco Sanchez, Wesley Lawrence, Veronica Carvajal. Good morning.

Good morning. My name is Phillip Sullivan. I've been here before to talk about this. Thank you, City Council and Mayor. So obviously you guys are realizing this is not what needs to happen. It's happening all over the country and these corporations are trying to push this through as quick as possible. You guys are realizing that you jumped into this a little quick. This is a problem. I want to bring up the Stratus project that's in Utah by Kevin O'Leary. He's a Canadian. He's trying to bring a project to Utah that's 63 miles by 63 miles. The distance from the edge of El Paso to Las Cruces is 32 miles. The distance from this building to White Sands is 56 miles. So I want to understand what exactly is this? It doesn't make sense on a scale. We already have AI running on everyone's phones. It's already going. Everything's fine. What could possibly be in a facility that's 63 miles by 63 miles? Is this a military installation? There's no way that a building can be built that's that big or even an energy center. I don't care what it is. That makes absolutely zero sense on a scaling situation. Currently, there's 3,000 of these projects being pushed across the United States. A year or two ago, this wasn't even a question. What is happening is really a very important question to be asked right now. What is this really? A data center doesn't make sense at all. Okay, so I think there is a way out of this 380 deal with meta I think her name is Claudia brought it up. It's the National Defense Authorization Act it says that no parts in these data centers can be from China whatsoever so If that's the case, an inspection needs to be done, because that means that this contract was written in a fraudulent situation. It means that Meta knows that all these break the contract. It has to happen. It has to. Other contracts across the country have been broken under the NDAA Act. It's very important. It says that no minerals, no component services, any of that. No parts can be from China. Do you guys need to do an inspection? Did Meta start this with parts all from China? I know that the United States is not supplying that many chips, minerals, resources. It's not happening. They're trying to lock El Paso in. for several reasons. They want our resources underground. They want that water. They want our sun. And they want our cheap labor. They're trying to lock us in hard. And with these aquifers, you guys see this Project Jupiter. They're tapping in in Dona Ana County. They're going to tap into the Mesilla Aquifer. Juarez has no defense. They have no protection against any of this. They didn't get asked anything. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Colin. Our next speaker is Marcos Sanchez.

Marcos Sanchez, followed by Wesley Lawrence, Veronica Carvajal, Chris Guevara, Matthew Rodriguez.

Good morning.

Good morning, Mayor Johnson and council. My name is Marcos Sanchez. I'm a high school student from El Paso, and I wanted to speak to you guys about item number 22. Hyperskilled data centers may look like economic development, But across the country, we have so many examples. In fact, everybody here has mentioned so many examples that my sheet of paper here is useless. These data centers are destroying this nation. They're polluting. They're consuming our resources. They're crippling. Energy infrastructure let alone this January believe it was January 11th El Paso had a water main fail that affected over 100,000 El Pasoans and myself personally I had our school closed down for two days because we had no running water and the incident lasted so much longer than that and Not to mention how our rates went up in order to subsidize the repairs. Our city is not built for this infrastructure that these metadata centers want. No city is built for this. And we cannot allow these big, massive corporations to push our city around with infinite amounts of money. So we need to pass Article 22 to make sure that this cannot happen. And like everybody else has mentioned, this is only going to prevent future damage from being done. But if this 380 proposition continues, then our fate is already sealed. This one metadata center, as it stands, and will damage our city severely. As myself, as a member of Gen Z, this is my city. This is my city's future. I want to grow old here. I don't want to be forced to move out because this city turned bad. So please re-evaluate the 30-80 agreement. Cancel it as soon as possible. Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you, Marco.

The next speaker is Wesley Lawrence.

Wesley Lawrence, star six, please, to unmute your telephone. Mr. Lawrence, star six, please. Hello, can you hear me? Yes, go ahead. You have three minutes.

Thank you. Good morning, Mayor and Council. My name is Wesley Lawrence, and I know many of you there today. I'm the founder of the Northeast Hope Coalition, a nonpartisan organization focused on strengthening members of Northeast El Paso. And I'm here to support item number 22, but I do have an ask. Number one, I'm tired. of a lot of things, but mainly the gaslighting being done by the mayor and every member of council when it comes to data centers. I've talked to thousands of members of our community who are very clear when they say this. We want no data centers. I think the framework was a step in the right direction, but now it's become a gaslighting technique used by this chamber to silence the voices of those of us who oppose data centers. I would challenge Representative Cynthia Boyard-Rejo to come to the Northeast go to more community meetings and to talk to members of the public and actually engage with them. It's one thing to come to a meeting and sit there silently and it's another to actually have meaningful conversations with these people that live in our community. Because you will find that there is not one member of our community that can articulate why they support a data center. They all understand it's going to pollute our area. It's going to cost thousands of dollars in property damage for people who live in Rio Bravo, the people that live in Futureland. It's gonna cause light pollution, it's gonna cause air pollution, and it's gonna take up our city's most precious resource. something that if we continue to abuse, we will not get back. We can flood Northeast El Paso due to a lack of actual maintenance on our infrastructure until the cows come home, but that water still is not gonna go into our aquifer. So we're still not replenishing the water that we continue to lose on a daily basis by these companies that you know instead of these 380 agreements that we really start making these humanistic approaches but I would ask that you cancel it because again you will find that if you ask a majority of members of Northeast El Paso that we are ready to end this 380 agreement regardless of what it costs I know the mayor brings up billions of dollars to do this great let's do it I understand it's going to raise taxes but I think people are more willing to raise taxes than they are to not have drinking water than they are to not have safe air to breathe and that they are not to be able to survive in northeast El Paso because we are not going to have an inhabitable city if we continue to build these data centers. But I would also ask that this council have the moral fortitude to ask and call for a data center That is what we need. We do not need a data center. We don't need a framework. The answer is simple. No more data centers. Full stop, period. You can do that. They just did that in the RGV. They were the first part of Texas to call for these things. I don't know why El Paso continues to be the last. We can be brave, we can be strong, and we can be a city that really fights for working class families. Unfortunately, a majority of council just refuses to do that. So again, I would ask that you next council meeting call for more data centers. Thank you.

The next speaker is Arunita Karavahal. She will be followed by Chris Guevara.

Good morning, Veronica.

Good morning, Mayor and Council. Veronica Carvajal, organizer with Sembrando Esperanza. Please vote yes on item 22. We understand that this is not just a city issue. It's a county issue. It's a Fort Bliss issue. It's a southern New Mexico and a Juarez issue. We ask that you continue to work to keep all of our AI data centers out of our shared desert. As you know, Sembrando Esperanza works with the people most directly impacted by polluters and issues. We are very proud to be supporting the work of the Vista del Norte neighborhood residents. Their president, Cynthia Acosta Kraus, is here, and we encourage all residents near the Meta data center to continue organizing. They and the people of Chaparral are the people most impacted by the decisions related to Meta. They already live with the light pollution during construction, and as reported by Telemundo Chaparral, already felt the impact of water pressure. Unless you find the courage to stop MEDA, they will live with the noise, the heat, the potential flooding, the air pollution from the McLeod generators, as well as the data center, more water pressure issues, and unknown health effects. This on top of what the rest of us will face, including water shortages, more expensive water, and more expensive electricity, and even more polluted air. This item, however, does not go far enough. The city and the PSB, or the public service board that runs our water company, own dozens of acres next to Meta. I hope that you've all been out there. And it's very close to the El Paso Electric Newman plant. The public service board owns a lot of land in the county. The city sold the land to META. That was a choice. It was not a mandate. Please do not allow any more data centers to operate on city or public service board land, whether by sale or by lease. In addition to this, the city used $12.5 million from the El Paso Electric franchise agreement to build a road for META on Stan Roberts. Per the franchise agreement, that money was meant to support economic development. Please let that sink in. As you all know by now, META endangers our economic development rather than support it. Further, El Paso Electric will profit from META's electric consumption. EPE does not care if it leaves us without a drop of water. It is currently the number one non-residential user of water in El Paso and consumed five billion more gallons in 2025 than 2024. And that's even before META begins to operate. Please cancel the 380 agreement. We need the city, the county, and the El Paso water attorneys to do their job and get us out of all of the agreements because META lied. They're using up to, 1.5 million gallons of water every day once they operate. They're going to drive up El Paso Electric's usage of water because Meta refuses to use renewables for 1,000 megawatts. And they're not going to pay billions of dollars to import water from Dell City. We have not made 35 years worth of sacrifices to make a bunch of billionaire tech bros even richer. Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Chris Guevara. Chris Guevara. Star six please, go ahead. Chris Guevara, go ahead. Your microphone is ready.

Hello, I am Chris Guevara and I'll be talking about the Meta data center and the issue I have is the health concerns. I'm someone that has asthma and there are many other people that have health concerns here in El Paso. The Meta AI data centers will contaminate the air and have a negative impact on our water supplies, which will lead to respiratory problems. And these Meta AI centers aren't going to stop using water and energy. These are going to keep going while you sleep, while you eat and while you're using the restroom. I request that the City Council to take these issues into consideration by urging the Public Service Board to break their agreement with NEDA and voting yes on item number 22. The discussion and action to adopt as a general policy direction of the City of El Paso that future development of hyperscale data centers should not be actively recruited, pursued, or incentivized due to their misalignment with the city's long-term sustainability and infrastructure resilience goals. This will infect public financing assistance economic development grant or similar economic development tools, and that the policy direction effectuated by this action will remain in effect until and unless reversed by the city council. Further directing the city manager to continue the ongoing process for the development of a future-focused data center policy framework for consideration by the city council. So now, have this thought. The planet bleeds green like you and me bleed red. So what do you think is going to happen when it's all gone? That is what I have to say. Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Matthew Rodriguez. Matthew Rodriguez, if you're in the queue, star six, please, to unmute your telephone. Matthew Rodriguez, star six. I don't see his phone number in the queue. Now I don't see his phone number in the queue. We'll move on to Juan Ortiz. Juan Ortiz followed by Karen Lozano. Pedro Fernandez, Minerva Torres Shelton, Rosemary Sandoval.

Juan Ortiz.

Karen Lozano.

Good morning.

Good morning. Good morning, Major, and good morning, members of the council. Thank you for letting us, well, of course, have given this place for us to speak. My name is Karen Lozano. I'm from Ciudad Juarez and from El Paso. And just learning about El Paso, I started living here in 2022. And ever since I learned about El Paso, I've learned about the great projects that the city has pushed on the people. I want to remind you guys that there's still people mad about the statue of Juan Donate at the airport. There's still people mad about the displacement that has been in Duranguito, the displacement about the item. I want to remind you that there's still thousands of people at Las Colonias that are still lacking running water. And it took the city to respond to the Las Colonias about 30 years. And now for this mega project, this hyperscale data center, it's taking less than that. Of course, that lets you think into where is the government of the city lying for. I'm in favor of item 22, and I urge the city to end the 380-100 agreement, and I urge the public service board to end any contracts with the data center, with Meta, and I urge the electric, El Paso Electric company to not go with the McLeod project. How are we letting fuel, power, gas generated in our city? How are we letting these hyperscale data centers taking our water, taking it to our land when our resources are finite? That's it. Thank you, Karen.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Pedro Fernandez. Pedro Fernandez will be followed by Minerva Torres Shelton, Rosemary Sandoval, Jay Mania, South Gonzalez David a spino selling that and that is a good one.

Good morning morning, good morning, mayor Johnson City Council. Thank you for your time today. My name is better off and on this. And I am a resident of district 6. I'm here today to speak in favor of this agenda item number 22. I'm aware that much of what I'll say today may be redundant due to the heightened interest in this subject across the community in this agenda. However, like most of us speaking here today, I believe this is to be an opportunity for our community to amplify its voice on this issue. I wanted to be present and stand along with my fellow Pasadena in support of item 22 and ending the 380 agreement. With what we have learned about data centers and their long-term effects, I don't believe it to be prudent for the council or any other governing authority in El Paso to consider, as this item mentions, recruiting, pursuing, or incentivizing more AI companies to construct data centers in El Paso. As has been said, the depletion of our natural resources would only cause further strain on El Paso and its citizens, calling any bright outlook for our city into question. I urge that our city representatives vote in the affirmative for agenda item number 22, and once again, thank you for your time.

Thank you, Pedro.

The next speaker is Minerva Torres Shelton, followed by Rosemary Sandoval. Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning, my name is Minerva Torres Shelton and I am here today as a member of this community. Mayor, city council, over the last few months, the citizens of El Paso have spoken loud and clear. We do not want data centers in our community. County Commissioner Court led by the County Judge Samaniego negotiated tax incentives to move this agenda forward without regard for the people they were elected to represent. And let us remember this, this data center is being built inside El Paso city limits, not the county. City Council, Mayor, I have one simple question for you today. Do you possess the intestinal fortitude to represent the people who elected you and to put a stop to this and future data centers? Or do you not? And if you do not, I want to remind everyone who is listening to my voice, we the people have the ultimate power through our vote. Again, my name is Minerva Torres Shelton. Thank you for this opportunity, and I yield my time.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Rosemary Sandoval. Rosemary Sandoval will be followed by Jay Mania, Saul Gonzalez, David Espino.

Good morning to all of you. Good morning. I want to thank you for allowing us to speak. And much of what has been said I will omit. But upon reviewing the current policy to be voted on specific to future data centers, I ask that you consider an addition to this proposal seeking voter approval. As I refer to sentences five and six on the proposal, it states, this action remain in effect until and unless reversed by city council. I propose that you add instead to the end of this sentence only upon voter approval of a ballot measure amending the reversal of the current policy. You have nothing in there as far as our opinion. So I'm asking that you consider that. I realize that you're gonna take the vote today, but I really think you need to consider our opinions also and that would be by putting it to a vote the citizens of El Paso were not given a choice there was no public input on the current Northeast construction for a future metadata center and that is the elephant in the room that was former council Oscar Leaser former council members, to include you, Mr. Canales. I don't know if you signed a non-disclosure. I have no idea. But we weren't given the opportunity to speak on our behalf as to how we felt about even bringing a data center. And now, here we are. So I realize, Mayor Johnson, the difficulty and how difficult, you know, what you've been put under. You didn't ask for this. It was given to you. And now the people of El Paso are saying, you're going to have to fight for us. So I realize that we're asking a lot, but we don't want the data center. I looked because I said, well, I'm going to move. But I looked throughout the United States because of our current president. They are going like leaps and bounds. I looked at San Antonio. I think those people are asleep. They are going to build so many data centers at San Antonio, they're not going to have water. So I'm asking you, secondly, I ask that you amend the current zoning code in reference to data centers by stating the following. The city zoning code is hereby amended to classify hyperscale data centers as a prohibited use in all zoning districts. We need to look at every way possible to prevent a data center. Thirdly, if you are opposed to data centers, then as a reminder, when you're on your phone or your computer, what pops up immediately? AI.

Thank you, ma'am. Thank you.

OK. Do not. The next speaker is Jay Mania. Do not go and click on AI. Thank you.

Thank you, Rosario.

Jay Mania, followed by Saul Gonzalez.

Good morning. My name is Jay Mania. I'm a community organizer with the Manistead People's Project. I'm a father, and I'm a concerned El Pasoan here to speak in support of Agenda Item 22. Over the last six months, I've talked with thousands of people at the doors, on the phone, at our town hall, and at info meetings all around the city. Without a doubt, this is the most unpopular issue I have ever seen. Across age, gender, political ideology, it's clear that people do not want these data centers in El Paso. Not a day is a good first step in taking action to protect El Paso. It's a direct result of the pushback and organizing happening all around town. This policy should be unanimously approved, but our work isn't finished yet. This does nothing to address META, its massive water consumption, or its gas plant that will pollute more than anything we have ever seen in this region. Like many people have stated to you all already, we will not take any more of your excuses. We need you to continue to fight for us. Our demand... Our demand still stands. Listen to the people that put you into a position of power, the people that elected you to speak for them and break the deal with Netta.

The next speaker is Saul Gonzalez. Saul Gonzalez will be followed by David Espino, Serena, Galicia.

Good morning, Saul. Hi, good morning, Mayor and members of council. My name's Saul Gonzalez. I'm an organizer with Sembrando Esperanza and also a resident of District 3. For months, our coalition has been organizing around the MENA Data Center and now the proposed Fort Bliss Data Center. We have been working directly with our members of Sembrando Esperanza, community members, and those more impacted in the Northeast with residents of Vista del Sol and each in Montana Vista. and those are the communities that will be more affected by these data centers. When it comes to the data centers, you all have so much power. The city of El Paso has a lot of power and influence. The city owns our water utility company, and you can implement regulations on big water users like data centers. The city can direct staff to work with El Paso Water, the PSB, and the county to explore every possible option regarding these agreements. Communities across the country are challenging projects like this because they understand what is at stake. El Paso should not act powerless when the health, affordability, and the future of our people are on the line. MEDA keeps demanding more and more, and at what point we will put a stop to them. I have heard concerns from some of you about the reputation of the city if agreements are challenged or canceled, like the 380 agreement with Meta. But your first responsibility is not the reputation with corporations. It's your responsibility to the people you were elected to represent. Across the city, the community has spoken clearly and consistently. People do not want data centers in our desert. That is why I strongly support item 22, and I'm asking all of you to vote yes on this item. While a small group of people want El Paso to become the capital of AI, the reality is that our community will carry the cost of higher utility bills, more pollution, noise impacts, stricter water conservation plans, and many, many other concerns. I hope you all join the community by voting yes on item 22 and not to a group of people that refer to us as a virus. We have attended many of your community meetings, listening sessions, and community events, and the message has been the same. The people are asking you to protect our community before protecting corporate interests. Not a meta, not a for bliss data centers. Cancel the 380 agreement, direct El Paso Water to void their contract with Meta.

We are Sembrando Esperanza.

For those watching at home and in the audience, please follow us if you want to fight data centers. And I'm asking you all to vote yes on item 22. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

The next speaker is David Espino. David Espino, followed by Selena Galicia. Lali Delgado.

Good morning mayor Arnie morning City Council I did not have a speech prepared today or a written statement, but I'm here because I'm in favor of Agenda item 22. I'm asking all of you to please vote. Yes on this. This is a good step forward in which we are protecting part of what bad things come from data centers in the future and And we really appreciate these steps. However, we really need to take a look at the current problem. The current data center is going to destroy this region. I want you guys to look at the children of this city. They need water. They need to be outside. They need fresh air. They need to be able to stay healthy. With the problems that come from this data center, we're facing not only water shortages, we're facing pollution, we're facing a region that's going to dry up even further than it is now. We've been in droughts, we've been through, we've been able to adapt to a desert, but this is not something that belongs in the desert. We need the water for the people, not for AI, not for a company that's just coming here and establishing a contract or negotiating a contract that we're not taking our people in consideration. And outside of the problems with the environment, what data is being collected on these massive places? They're going all over the country. What data? So maybe we can start connecting the dots about what's happening around the country. And we need to start connecting the dots about what's happening in the country. We have across the city as well, and you guys know that I'm here to speak about FLOG in the past. And that surveillance infrastructure, those are the eyes of the machine. We're now going to feed and create a brain locally that is going to process all of our data, our surveillance data, looking at every move that we do. I want you guys to consider that, and I really appreciate that item 22 is being moved forward. It seems like everybody's in favor. However, we still demand that the 380 agreement is ended. So with that, I thank you guys.

The next speaker is Selena Galicia. And I ask the public, please maintain decorum so that everybody has a chance to speak. They each get three minutes.

Good morning.

Hi, good morning. My name is Selena Galicia. I'm from Juarez, from this region. And I feel like we shouldn't even have this conversation. As all my compañeros already stated, danger to our community. We're in danger. So I feel like this is just to benefit a few people and I want to add that even like this region will be affected and we're not thinking even about our sister cities, right? They don't even know about this. So this morning I saw a video of you, Major. Thank you so much for your kind words saying that we don't want any additional data centers. I just want to say that we don't want any. So please, please, please, please help us break the agreement with MEDA. This is your land, this is our land, so please defend it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Sitlaly Delgado. Sitlaly Delgado followed by Adrian Monroy.

Good morning.

Good morning, I'm Citlaly Delgado. I want to say for you all to vote yes to item 22, AI is modern colonialism. The same way the Europeans got on their ships, went to Africa, displaced and enslaved its people, and extracted the land's resources, all for the generation of profit, it is all to happen again. Except this time, it won't be just indigenous peoples, black people, or people of color. The capitalistic business model of artificial intelligence is to enslave every person, every color, gender, religion, and ethnicity, an entity who is in the working class. If you are not a billionaire, you are involved in the danger zone. This would be on a couple of levels. Within the last 20 years, we have been involved with the internet, whether to be entertained, book doctor's appointments, play games, and for the most part, to do work. AI is an entity that is abusive. We were trained to be dependent on the internet the last 20 years, and now the tech bros want to replace our humanity for revenue. They will do this by continuously buying our desert lands and buying out its people and extract our water for green pieces of cotton we call money. And that might stop as well since we're in the digital age. I love the Chihuahuan Desert truly. I went to an MSU. Sorry for you all UTEP people. And I gained an intense love for community and land that is not only 45 minutes away, just for me to learn that New Mexicans are fighting the same thing. We also must protect our sister city, Juarez. Well, and the world, actually. This is happening all over the place. I don't know. It's kind of funny. As a 2000s kid, I grew up watching movies, animated movies, and watching WALL-E, actually. And for this to be a real thing, You know, we are going to look like the people on the floating couches, you know, drinking bad things and just dependent on this future that is very toxic. And so I grew up on narratives that were combating world domination. And it's real, it's a real thing. That is what is happening. It's not about left or right, it's about the top versus bottom. So this city is my future. As a young person, say no to the data centers. We need water, we don't need AI. Cancel the 380 agreement. Thank you. The next speaker is Adrian Monroy.

He will be followed by Miguel Escoto, Nadia Antoine, and Corinthian Sanchez.

morning good morning my name is adrian i'm a icu nurse i've been a nurse 16 years i've worked icu during the pandemic might have taken some care of some of your family members some of the city council council family members so health is a big thing for me i think it's very apparent the people have spoken you guys are city representatives

We don't want this.

Part of being in nursing is just realizing how much hospital administrators it's all numbers. It's not people it's numbers and I'm sure it applies to city council and administrators at your level as well. All you care about is quarterly numbers quarterly numbers. You got to think about the big picture. You all probably have children you're going to have grandchildren. This is their future. And we've spoken at end. We're tired of not being represented when it comes to something as important as our future. The amount of cooling, who thinks to make a data center in a desert when we already are so water dependent? The tri-city Juarez, El Paso, and Las Cruces. And let's not rule out that the big reason that my friend David spoke out about data centers, it's not about funny cat videos dancing around. It's about surveillance. It's about flock. And you all be naive to think that it's not about that. We were just talking about the sheer size of data centers around the country. What for? They're funny AI videos? I think not. We're not that naive. Lastly. The amount of the subsidies, for one job in an AI center, we're paying millions. Is that really worth it? And I believe here, locally, we're talking about 50 jobs that are going to be created from that? Long term? Is that really worth it? And lastly, before my time is up, Going back to flock and security, Benjamin Franklin's warning that those who trade essential liberty for temporary safety usually end up with neither. And we started city council meeting right here with a prayer. Ask yourselves this. Would Jesus approve a data center? Thank you.

The next speaker is Miguel Escoto. Mr. Escoto, star six, please, to unmute your telephone. Miguel Escoto. Go ahead, sir. Your microphone is ready.

Can you hear me okay?

Yes, sir.

Hello, City Council. My name is Miguel Escoto. I'm a voter in District 2. lifelong El Pasoan, and I have worked as a community organizer for nearly seven years in this region, and I'm speaking in favor of item 22. With the group Oilfield Witness, I have studied oil and gas infrastructure using an optical gas imaging camera, and I want to remind us that there are already three existing gas plants in El Paso that poison our lungs. Montana Vista in the Far East, Rio Grande in the West, and Newman in the Northeast. The metadata sensor would require the McLeod gas plant only a few miles from the already existing Newman gas plant in the Northeast. And I want to highlight the story of Aida Garcia. She lives near the Newman gas plant in the Northeast. I met her in 2021. when the El Paso Electric Company proposed to expand the Newman gas plant near her home. She was concerned about her health. The gas plant impacted her like it impacts many El Pasoans every day. She was forced to abandon her backyard garden because she was scared of how the gas plant's pollution would seep into her fruits and vegetables. Ida developed a respiratory disease, lumps in her lungs. Her doctor asked, are you exposed to any environmental pollution? Ida tells me that this question stung. She knew exactly what caused the lumps in her lung, the gas plant. So Ida organized. She opposed the Newman gas plant expansion. And her campaign won a legal agreement from El Paso Electric to never expand the Newman gas plant again. now the metadata center would require the mcleod gas plant only a few miles from the newman gas plant in northeast item 22 is a good step forward but it is incomplete your job as city councilors is not finished the most important takeaway you should take from the public is that we are not satisfied until you address MEDA directly. What are you going to do for Ida Garcia and thousands of other El Pasoans poisoned by your pollution? What are you going to do about MEDA? Thank you.

The next speaker is Nadia Antawan. Maria Antoine, star six, please, to unmute your telephone. Go ahead, ma'am. Your microphone is ready.

Good morning, Mayor and City Council. Good morning. I'm in support of agenda. Can you hear me?

Yes.

Hello? Okay, great. I'm in support of agenda item 22. If that includes zoning changes, please do so. I would appreciate it if we can stop data centers from entering our city. I understand there are many cities around us and have no control of what they may do, but we can't throw our hands up and contribute to a potential problem that will endanger our lives and our children's future. Mr. Mayor, I attended one of your meetings that was supposed to be to get feedback from citizens and it was clear to me that you didn't hear what all the citizens had told you at that city council meeting prior to those meetings. And that's why today's item is not a guaranteed pass. People spoke at that meeting for three hours and you still didn't hear what we said. We don't want data centers. We don't want it, period. There is no certain size that we will allow, and there's no certain area that we will accept. We don't care for it. And it's not something our community is willing to compromise on. We understand we are foregoing tax dollars for the sake of our health, but so be it. If you can reverse course on the Meta Center and the 380 agreement, I urge you to turn every stone to do it. Let El Paso go down in the history books as a city of fighters who fought the AI giant and overturned our AI agreement. Bring us good businesses. It's time to stop wasting our citizens' time with having to fight our city's council for every common sense vote. We are speaking loud and clear. We don't want any data centers. You need to open your fears and close your wallet and understand what we were saying. So these common sense items should just Go away, and I do not have to fight the hunt and foster mafia every time there is an item that benefits the ultra wealthy in El Paso and beyond. Represent your citizens and follow our instructions. No one is going to talk about the missed opportunities of the data centers when we look back at this time. What will be said is that people spoke and the representatives listened. Make us proud and vote with your people. Ban future data centers and fight against meta now. Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Corinthians Sanchez. Corinthians Sanchez, star six please. Go ahead, your microphone is ready.

Hello?

Yes, we can hear you.

Oh, thank you. Good morning, Mayor, city council members. My name is Corinthians Sanchez. I'm a resident of District 5. I live here, my family lives here, and the decision that you guys make today over item number 22 is very important to our future of our water, our kids, and our infrastructure. I do support it, but I must be honest with this council and the mayor. In my opinion, the language still leaves too much room for comfort. As written, this policy leaves the door wide open. It primarily addresses hyperscale facilities but doesn't address any smaller data center that could be allowed to my understanding. Additionally, a hyperscale facility still can come in without incentive and set up shop on their own, on their own dime. Another concern is that any future city council could reverse this agenda item entirely with a simple majority vote. While I do believe this is a step forward, and I want to thank Representative Canales for bringing this forward, it raises concern that this doesn't go far enough to protect El Paso in the long term. The best thing to do is for the mayor and the city council is to honestly break the deal with META. Full stop. We are already a city where residents have designated watering days. We are watching reservoir drops across the American Southwest. We are seeing drought maps expand year after year, and we are sitting in the middle of a desert. Yet we are word playing about what to do with data centers when the answer is clear. It's to ban them completely. And there's an opportunity here to make a strong decision. A complete man on the data centers in the area that the city council and the mayor govern and control. This is a larger conversation that's happening nationally about water resources and public infrastructure. You all have had community meetings. You have heard the concern and many of El Pasoans have been firmly against these data centers. and you have heard clearly from each and every one of your constituents. Most of us do not want data centers here, and I'm willing to bet it's over 90%. At the end of the day, the responsibility falls on you. You are the ones that we elected to protect our resources and to make difficult decisions. Other communities across the country have paused projects, they've passed bans, or even voted out representatives who have not gone far enough to address these issues. Something has to be done, and it has to be definitive. You know, contract lawyers always say that words matter when it comes to the paperwork. So the policy needs to address a complete ban and something that doesn't allow city council members in the future to overturn something so easily. Thank you for my time. I appreciate you.

Thank you.

My next speaker is Christian Cardenas. Christian Cardenas, if you're in the queue. Star six. I don't see the phone number in the queue. Javier Miranda. He will be followed by Michael Ramirez and Juan Ortiz.

Good morning.

Good morning, City Council and Mayor. I don't want to be redundant either, but the folks that brought us META are the very folks that fund some of your campaigns. I know that you, Mr. Johnson, are also a member, an active member of the Borderplex Alliance, the very folks that came. And I believe you also serve on the Public Service Board that has a final approval on some of these operations. And while I understand that these campaign donors are quite influential, but as you can see, as a lifelong community educator, I am so thrilled by the fact that there are so many young folks, family members here with them, that are opposing this directly. And Mr Acevedo and Miss Limon, you probably agree that the educational, Mr. Acevedo, I'm over here. I would think that you'd agree with me that the presentations that these folks have given are very educational. As a member of the Citizens Academy hosted by El Paso Water, I've learned a lot from the resources that were presented by the Citizens Water Academy. And we understand that the aquifers are being depleted. We understand that the aquifers are also being divided with fracking interests, as my friend Bill Addington over here can also attest. And Sembrando Esperanza and Amanecer People's Projects have demonstrated have revealed all these facts to you folks. And I understand you folks have policy folks that give you all sorts of advice. But I would also ask that the city attorney over here also revisit some of the things that have been brought up, some of the concerns that have been brought up about the Chinese connections and the products and also the fraudulent way in which we entered into these agreements. I appreciate Mr. Canales with the 22 item, but as I echo what other folks say, please, please don't stop here. We need to join the growing masses of folks in opposition to these. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Michael Ramirez.

Good morning.

Good morning, council, mayor. My name is Michael Ramirez. I'm a resident of District 4. I've spent the last four months advocating against these data centers and have assisted collecting signatures for petitions under Sembrando Esperanza. I've spent countless hours of my own time after work still taking care of my kids and making time to get to everyone and anyone who feels as if they're not being heard. I've spent time recently out in Chaparral getting to know some of the local folks, and there is indeed growing concerns. And I have testimony and eyewitness that they have seen these construction workers taking water from their county, their community, to work on this project. When residents have a glow that shines through their windows all night, waking up to low water pressure and being told they cannot do anything about it because it's not on their land, but it's right across the street from their residential neighborhood, there is an injustice. For months we have asked you and the PSB to cancel the 380 agreements with META. We are told that if we do so we will be sued for going against the agreement. I have said before and I will say it again, where is the accountability? The City Council and the PSB members appointed by City Council made those decisions. You are willing to allow the citizens to subsidize these hyperscale facilities at the cost of our resources. If we are going to pay financially regardless, I say let them sue the city because the way I see it, you are all willing to let your constituents pay the price and suffer rather than admit the city's government made a grave mistake. When I say transparency, I am not just referring to answering honestly when asked a question. Transparency also means full disclosure. When something important is taking place, tell us. Do not wait for the whistle to be blown and be upset when we, the public, decide to hold you accountable. do you see how those two go hand in hand you agreed to be the eye of public scrutiny the day you decided to run for office i am aware not all of you were on city council at the time deals were made but that excuse does not sit right with me nor should it be accepted by anybody to me that sounds like pointing fingers the whole it wasn't it wasn't me game let me be clear when i say that is unacceptable As public servants whose combined salaries exceed that of hundreds of thousands of dollars paid by our tax money, we do not pay to say it wasn't me. We pay to find solutions to give us proper representation, neither of which have been delivered. Three years. Three years you have had to educate yourselves on a topic. Three years you had to tell people about this project before they broke ground. But you weren't going to do that because you knew eventually the backlash it was going to face, you all knew, and have done nothing to actively stop it. I have a feeling that you will all vote unanimously today in favor of item 22 on the agenda because any vote otherwise would face extreme backlash considering the public has become very much aware of what's at stake. So before I step off today, I ask that you enact on your authority as the elected leaders of this city to create moratoriums for all current and future data centers and to end the 380 agreements with MEDA. Thank you for your time.

The final speaker is Juan Ortiz. Juan Ortiz is the final speaker. This is the list of people that signed up to speak at 10, not when the item will be heard.

Good morning.

Good morning. Hello, council members. My name is Juan Ortiz from District 2, and I'm here in support of item number 22. I want to support the decision not to pursue data centers and stop cooperation with any ongoing plans for data center projects in El Paso. And wherever it is, the city council can exert influence on the greater region. Because we don't want these projects just to move to the peripheries of the city. And as was mentioned before, we all tap into the same water resources. And that's one of the things that I really wanted to come that's very specific to talk about. I've come to speak to city council recently to speak against the construction of the proposed massive immigration detention centers in our community. And I have come, I've been vocal against the construction of a border wall at Mount Cristo Rey. But I have come to talk to you today in my capacity as a member of a local group called La Cruz Rosa, which provides humanitarian aid in the surrounding deserts of El Paso and southern New Mexico. Our group sees the convergence of these existential issues in the most directly impacted sectors of our community happening to the most vulnerable in our community in the most dramatic of ways. We see firsthand the results of deputy deterrence policy converge with explosive expansions of data centers and their infrastructure in the deserts of Santa Teresa, extending all the way east to Columbus, New Mexico. In a press release we will be releasing to the public soon, we outline how these large expanse of solar panel fields and now data centers, all surrounded by electrified fencing, coupled with the construction and expansion of the border wall in our area has essentially created a secondary wall of electrified fencing, creating a deadly maze migrants must navigate to reach city limits, to reach more populated areas. all in an area with deadly record amounts of deaths in recent years. In essence, this data center and those accompanying infrastructure projects and others like it on the border will contribute to migrant deaths. Already during the first phase of construction of Project Jupiter, three of our water barrel stations have already been destroyed. We had situated those water stations there because we had been told by local search and rescue teams that those areas were areas with the highest concentrations of migrant deaths. In an area where many of the deaths are due to dehydration, Project Jupiter is set to use up to one million gallons of water per day, according to Santa Fe New Mexican. As noted by others here today, many of those other proposed projects in the El Paso area will have similar impacts on our environment and our city's sustainability. We think that it is wrong We think that this is wrong and we demand that our precious water resources be used in the service of life and not death.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I called everyone that signed up to speak at 10 o'clock on item 22. There are other speakers that signed up to speak at the time the item will be heard. So we'll move on to call to the public at this time and this is for topics not on the agenda.

Okay, let's do it.

The El Paso City Council is local government body charged with serving the citizens and the meetings must be focused on the meeting at charge. The City Council meetings are public meetings under the Texas Open Meetings Act. Public comment is an accommodation and not a requirement of City Council. All persons in attendance are expected to display civility and decorum that is respectful to other persons without the use of insulting, profane, threatening, or abusive language. NOR MAY ANY MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC USE THIS FORM FOR POLITICAL STATEMENTS OR CAMPAIGNING. PLEASE NOTE THAT DURING CALL TO THE PUBLIC, THE CITY COUNCIL MAY NOT DELIBERATE OR DECIDE ANY SUBJECT THAT IS NOT ON THE AGENDA. HOWEVER, COUNCIL MAY PROPOSE THAT A TOPIC BROUGHT FORTH BE POSTED ON A FUTURE AGENDA. THIS MORNING WE HAVE EIGHT MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC THAT SIGNED UP FOR CALL TO THE PUBLIC. THE FIRST PERSON IS ELIZABETH CRAWFORD. Ms. Crawford's topic is a veteran battlefield trauma and abortion. Ms. Crawford, star six, please, to unmute your telephone. Go ahead, ma'am. Your microphone is ready.

Thank you. Good morning. Thank you so much. As we have this month honored Memorial Day and God's mercies on our nation, I'd like to share a veteran story. I just want to start Psalm 107, the psalmist wrote, O good thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his loving kindness is everlasting. His mercy endures forever. My senior year of high school, my church called a new youth pastor to serve. This man was different from many of our other youth leaders. He had been on the wild side growing up and was drafted for Vietnam soon after getting married. He described to us his time in Vietnam and how one day looking out at the battlefield and seeing the face of a dead Vietnamese soldier, he went into despair and concluded there is no God. came back after Vietnam and Asia, but God mercifully gave him a job with a co-worker who started talking to him about the love of Jesus. He said that over time, God worked in his heart, and by God's grace, his testimony was that God saved him. Story of his life always stuck in my mind. As a kid, it was the first time I'd gotten to interact with a Vietnam veteran directly and hear his story. I felt sad for him for the scars he had from the battles. Being a witness to violence and death is imprinted on a person's memory for life. We as a nation for years have been mercifully spared of warfare on our soil. And yet in nearly every major city in our nation for decades, there has been a near silent war going on, a war against the unborn. The war is near silent because the supposed enemy is the baby, the voiceless unborn child who has the audacity to exist. As we know, there are very few, if any, wars in the history of the world where one nation is 100% at fault and the other is 100% free of wrongdoing, even against an aggressive nation. Very few, if any, wars where every action taken, even by a nation defending itself, is 100% justified. Very few, if any, wars fit into such a category. But there is a war around the world and in huge proportion in the United States and in the backyard of El Paso in New Mexico where there is a party completely free of guilt in its interaction with the aggressor. That war is abortion and the innocent party is comprised of the millions of unborn children, children in the womb created in the image of God. The psalmist wrote in Psalm 95, O come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker, for he is our God and we are the people of his pastor and the sheep of his hand. This month, as we have honored Memorial Day, we ask God not for what we deserve as a nation because we deserve judgment, but we ask God for his mercy upon our nation. Thank you so much. Hope you have a good day. Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is John Guillen. Mr. Guillen signed up to speak about the El Paso scavenger hunt contest. He will be followed by Marcy Chavez, Claudia Contreras-Ziller.

Good morning, John. Good morning, Mayor. Good morning, City Council. What a passionate morning. That's why El Paso is beautiful. We have beautiful people. I'm here to bring light to the EP Hunt 2026 scavenger hunt. It was a month-long scavenger hunt with over 100 tasks and quests. that range from the city of El Paso and its surrounding areas, from the museums in Cinelli, to the pecan canopies in Mesilla, to the murals in Subundavario, to the edge of Texas, and much more. Our team, Team RAD, which stands for Reel and Down, We accumulated over 900 points and did over 72 quests. We are proud and honored to say that we are this year's 2026 EP Hunt Champions. Now that we are champions, we can no longer play the game, but we are ambassadors to the game. And we are here to bring light to, for the city to come and maybe shed light to the nonprofit organization that organized this competition. I'd like to introduce my teammate.

Good morning, my name is Saideh Ontiveros and I stand on behalf like other members, Abby Ontiveros and Elsa Ortega.

We also have other members, Christina Espino and Dominique Enriquez. I also go by Johnny Retro. But we are proud, and we are excited to say that we are champions. And what a morning, and we're happy to be here. Thank you so much. Congratulations.

The next speaker is Marcy Chavez. Ms. Chavez signed up to speak regarding misspending of funding. She will be followed by Claudia Contreras-Ziller.

Good afternoon.

Well, like always, God bless every one of you. I WANT TO START OFF. FIRST OF ALL, I WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE SPOKEN IN THE DATABASES ALSO, BUT FOR SOME REASON MY NAME WAS NOT MENTIONED, SO I'M JUST GOING TO MAKE IT A LITTLE SHORT.

WE HAVE YOU ON THE LIST FOR ITEM 22 AS WELL AT THE TIME THE ITEM WILL BE HEARD. SO RIGHT NOW IT'S JUST FOR YOUR TOPIC ON THE SPENDING OF FUNDS.

SO I'M GOING TO GO THROUGH IT. If you think that inflation was an accident, you're already behind. Governments did not lose control. They created chaos to gain more control. Inflation is the easiest tax to hide. You pay more, they blame economy. They profit quietly, but inflation was just step one. They do the damage to us, and then they use us as baits for their advantage. Now, I'm going to cover a little bit here. If we, we will lose a lot of dollars, tax dollars, and into the community with the water, the energy, and the spending of the land. We do a lot of misspending on, what do you call it, parks. recreation stadiums, downtown events, and we're here starving and in need. Everything is going up. And before I continue, I wanted to mention something really quick that is important. Just as you demand respect from us, we demand respect from you. And for those that have been standing up and leaving the premises, you should be sitting there preparing to hear the community of El Paso, Texas. Not go for your own personal needs and take advantage of it. So, who are you really representing? The people or the one that picked your title? And as for careers, you say you offer a lot of careers. Well, you target younger generations to prepare them to comply to your future demands. Why? Because greed is stamped in your foreheads. We are not ignorant, so do not underestimate our intelligence, and let this be in record, for we, the community, will make you accountable for not making actions on the demand that the community needs. And how more clear can that be? I suggest that you read over and over the Declaration of Independence and what it stands for. This is the public, and you are supposed to comply to the public. You're supposed to represent the public, not your public needs. or your own needs sorry in the bible a representative is appointed as a person as not as a prophet priest apostle acting as god's behalf or mediator the concept focus on individuals representing the interests of another for in conventional religious or political roles and joshua acting as supreme representatives for humanity before god fit it to represent exhibiting.

Thank you, Ms. Chavez. You've reached the time.

OK, thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Claudia Contreras-Siller, followed by Bruno Vasquez and Rico Velazquez. Ms. Contreras-Siller's topic is Clause Against Cruelty.

Good afternoon.

Hello, good afternoon. So I'm here and I show the theme Clause Against Cruelty because that's the theme animal services was using for April and it's to defend cats against cruelty and I wanna hold my Bible high like I did the first time I was here to defend our animals against animal cruelty a year and a half ago. And I want to mention that Concordia Cemetery is a place where sacrifices are taking place. I want to ask for an open investigation by the El Paso Police Department and also the FBI, since animal cruelty escalates to human sacrificing also. I report animal cruelty all the time, owner negligence, and I've been receiving threats. People are taking pictures of my house, sending them to me at night. So that's harassment, right? And what do I do when I feel threatened? I call the police department, and that's why I love them so much, and I will always back them up 100%. I want to request an investigation on the Concordia Cemetery and also Album Park. I'm sure the police officers know what I'm talking about. Also, I want to request for a proclamation for the animal services, animal protection officers, police department, fire department, water department, El Paso Electric, the news feed farm, and all the volunteers that have contributed to save animals in our streets from death. and distress. Also, it takes a teamwork for us to save an animal. And also, I want to hold the judges accountable and for them to do their job. Our final and most high judge is Jesus Christ, and these judges need to do their job. It's not fair for our officers to be in the hot weather, in the cold weather, and for them to be exposing themselves with dangerous people, and for the judges to throw down the case. And that's pretty much what I want to say about cats. Also, please also back up our cat feeders. Trap-neuter return program. Educate the city. Thank you, Feed Fund, for posting pro-cat stories. Also, I want to talk about the pigeon trappers. These businesses need to be held accountable. The Wildlife Second Chance Rescue was here asking for an ordinance to have these businesses accountable. How come the other businesses are held accountable? They have to pay taxes and not the ones that are trapping and killing our pigeons? It's not fair. They're shooting them. They're using them for hunting dogs. And I want to request an ordinance to keep the pigeon trappers accountable. And I want to say this in Spanish. Thank you.

Thank you. The next speaker is Bruno Vasquez. Mr. Vasquez's topic is El Dorado High School Architecture Program Participating in a National Competition.

Good afternoon, Bruno.

Good morning, Mayor, City Council, and fellow El Pasoans. My name is Bruno Vasquez, and I'm speaking today as a member of the Public Awareness Committee of the American Institute of Architects. Every year, the Texas Society of Architects runs a student design challenge, and this is a statewide architecture competition for middle and high school students that introduces them to architecture as a tool for problem solving and community impact. This year, students were asked to explore how design can foster environmental, social, and cultural growth through adaptive reuse and renovation of an existing space. THE GOOD NEWS. THE TEXAS SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTS SELECTED THE EL DORADO HIGH SCHOOLS PROJECT, A STUDY TO RENOVATE KEYSTONE HERITAGE PARK IN DISTRICT ONE, TO REPRESENT THE STATE OF TEXAS AT THE UPCOMING AIA NATIONAL CONFERENCE IN SAN DIEGO IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS. EL DORADO KIDS WILL COMPETE ONCE MORE AGAINST PROJECTS FROM ACROSS THE COUNTRY. SINCE 2018, THEY WON AND COMPETED IN COMPETITIONS FOR ORGANIZATIONS SUCH AS SKILLS USA, ARCHITECTURE, CONSTRUCTION, AND ENGINEERING PROGRAMS, AND TECH STUDENT ASSOCIATIONS, ADVANCING TO STATE AND NATIONAL LEVELS. AND VERY IMPORTANTLY, THERE IS A SPECIAL PRIZE CALLED THE PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD. AND THE PUBLIC CAN VOTE ON ANY PROJECT ONLINE. SO I AM HERE TO HUMBLY REQUEST YOUR PARTICIPATION AND VOTE FOR EL DORADO KIDDOS TO HELP US SPREAD THE WORD AND ALSO ENCOURAGE YOUR CONSTITUENTS TO VOTE AS WELL. VOTING IS OPEN NOW AT AIA.ORG. AND THE WINNING ENTRIES RECEIVE A $1,000 PRICE AND, OF COURSE, BRAGGING RIGHTS THAT THESE KIDS CAN BRING TO COLLEGE IN THEIR FUTURE CAREERS. REPRESENTATIVE NINO, AS A GRADUATE OF EL DORADO HIGH SCHOOL, WE EXPECT A LOT OF VOTES OUT OF DISTRICT 5. SO PLEASE HELP OUT. THIS IS ANOTHER GREAT OPPORTUNITY FOR OUR CITY'S DESIGN COMMUNITY TO SHINE. and to continue engaging all of El Pasoans in recognizing that good and responsible design, architecture, and urbanism is a civic value that brings real and sustainable and responsible progress. The quality of a city's built environment has a direct impact on its economic development and the quality of life that it offers to its people. So I want to thank everybody for their time and attention. Bruno, thank you.

And good luck. Thank you.

The next speaker is Rico Velasquez. He will be followed by Fred Evans. And both gentlemen will speak. regarding the piedra street closure captain rico

Good morning, good afternoon, and you guys have been going through it today, sheesh. My name is Rico Velez, I'm the owner of Druid's Court Publisceptual Apostle. I represent the businesses that can't be here today, but will definitely be there at your meeting on Thursday. In regards to the proposed Piedra Street closure, the businesses in this district are not opposed to progress, infrastructure improvements, or public safety projects. What we oppose is being expected to absorb the financial destruction caused by long term street closures. The responsibility of a city representative is not simply to approve projects and repeat department talking points. The responsibility is to represent the residents, taxpayers, property owners, and businesses directly impacted by these decisions. Right now, we believe this process has been deceptive from the beginning. First, this was presented as a city lights project. Then the purpose changed. Then businesses were told the apostle water would simply take advantage of streets already being dug up by the city. Later, we're told EP water requires major separate upgrades altogether. potentially turn this into two separate long-term projects with well over a year of disruption. Meanwhile, we are expected to accept changing timelines, shifting explanations, and uncertainty surrounding our survival. At one meeting with business owners, Representative Acevedo referenced flooding that affected his grandparents' homes years ago as part of the reasoning behind this project. No one is dismissing the importance of flood mitigation or infrastructure improvements but personal experience are not a substitute for transparency, economic impact studies, or responsible planning. This sounds like a passion project at our expense. The city spends thousands on consultants, analysts, and redevelopment studies, yet somehow never seem willing to fully analyze the damage these long-term closures create for the businesses that helped build these districts in the first place. What businesses are asking for is simple. Stop minimizing the impact. Stop treating legitimate concerns like opposition. Stop acting as though this decision has already been made regardless of community input, and stop expecting small businesses to quietly absorb the consequences. If this project truly must move forward, there needs to be a real parking and access plan, not just talk and pictures and pie in the sky. A funded marketing campaign informing the public where the businesses will remain open and where to actually park. Financial assistance for impacted businesses, because that will happen. We've seen it on Zaragoza. We've seen it on Airway. We've seen it on Cincinnati Street. Clear accountability for timelines and delays and honest communication with the community. What businesses will not do any longer is sit back quietly while decisions threatening our survival are pushed forward without meaningful collaboration. We are stakeholders in this district. We are taxpayers, we are employers, and we are part of this community. We helped build this area organically with our own hard earned dollars long before it became politically beneficial to invest in Central. I will continue speaking publicly, organizing collectively, working with the media and considering all available legal options including injunctive relief if necessary until businesses are treated like partners in this process instead of being made to fear collateral damage. Thank you for your time.

The next speaker is Fred Evans. He will be followed by Patricia Osman and Rene Fierro.

Good afternoon, Fred.

I'm Fred Evans, Five Points Development Association, Mayor Johnson, members of city council. As we celebrate the birth of our federal representative democracy 250 years ago, I stand before you to mourn the death of representative democracy in the Five Points area, the city of El Paso, Texas. The city is forcing a bottlenecking project that will create congestion, confusion, and unsafe merging and will close Pietra Street completely for 10 months to do it. Five Points, Manhattan Heights, the Eastside Central Coalition all oppose this project because it threatens access to their neighborhoods and threatens the very survival of small businesses. The complete horror story is very long, but here's an impression thus far. The city, particularly Capital Improvements, is not your friend. Beware if they come bearing gifts. They'll not ask you if you want them, they'll not allow you to participate in their design, but we'll force them on you. making clear that they know better than you what's best for you and your neighborhood. Very briefly, here's why we feel the way we do. District 2 representative, when told by businesses of the threat to their survival, replied, you made it through COVID. I think you can make it through this. And I hear you, but I still think it's a good idea and we're going to go ahead with it. Told by a business owner that her business was less than a year old, District 2 representative replied, businesses five years ago are not here today and businesses today won't be here five years from now. She felt disrespected. District 2 representative announced he would specifically exclude the president of the city recognized neighborhood association from meeting because he always wanted to talk about opposition and road diets. The president received an verbal invitation two days before the meeting. The director of grant-funded programs, when asked for an economic study supporting the plan, cited Cincinnati Street, which Five Points business owners roared in derision as many of them had lost business there and moved to Five Points. When asked for a copy of a state statute he was citing as justification, replied, you can file an open records request. When it was suggested it might be helpful for the Five Points business owners and perhaps an expert of their own to meet with the traffic engineer to look for a better solution, he said, no registered engineer in Texas can overrule the city traffic engineer. When reminded that no one said overrule, he repeated himself. When asked if any of the people directly affected had a chance to speak to the contract designers of the project, his response was, no, it doesn't work that way. They work for us, not for you. The city, like the predatory leopard, apparently doesn't change its spots. It did the same things in Memorial Park, on Torbridge Street, and Duranguito. Five points is up against the wall. What do we ask? What is left to us? Protracted legal? Actions such as direct action in the streets, we don't think any of those things are appropriate. But what's left? Submission? We don't think that's acceptable either. So sadly, I conclude that representative democracy is dead in five points in El Paso, Texas. We've apparently entered the People's Republic of El Paso where politics and power, philosophy and process overrule the desires of its citizens. Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Patricia Osmond. Ms. Osmond's topic is Transparency, First Amendment, Civil Rights of Citizens. Ms. Osmond, star six, please, to unmute your telephone. Go ahead, ma'am. Your microphone is ready.

Well, let me remind you of a Bible quote. Since we all like to pretend we're religious within the diet, Is there for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle and for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God? Let me remind you, regardless of what some pastors or preachers, religious figures might say, that asking for forgiveness, God forgives us, he does not. I remind you of plagues and floods. So they're lying. How you harm the least of us, you will pay at the end. I'm gonna say that with all the religion that gets tossed around, maybe, like some of the politicians who are afraid of rituals cursing them, This community has a lot of Mujeres, Valeros, even some Satanists, Santeros, perhaps even some Native American practitioners. We can do a little mojo, a little cursing. Throw it to all the people that are harming the greater community for the few. And yes, as your lady said, respect is earned, it is now given freely. People in this community handed their trust to you and you all have broken it. I saw the worst of a mayor When Larry Francis signed off a contract to his own company. Or when Dean Margo gave in the diet that property values should jack up so the city could get more taxes. Or when Oscar Lisa, who also sat on the board, signed off on all of this matter, hiding it from the public. I thought that was bad. But it gets worse now. And I think the people in this community, the 2.12%, 2.12% who voted need to get out and vote or actually rescind y'all out of office. Y'all need to be recalled. Go vote, people.

Thank you, Ms. Osmond. You've reached the three-minute limit. Thank you. The next speaker is Renee Fierro. Mr. Fierro's topic is Deck Plaza Project.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. Good afternoon. So I had signed up to speak on the agenda item, but also on the deck park. As far as the deck Park I spoke about a month ago on that the mayor unfortunately was not here when you did the vote on the memorandum of understanding with the county and I was obviously opposed to that but public opposition is strong like it is with the data center and I feel like your political at least careers will hinge on these decisions and you can give your campaign donors what they want and lose your political careers. We've seen people like Dee Margo or one time, or one term mayors because they tried to push through unpopular agendas and when the voters had a second chance, they removed them from office. And don't think the same fate doesn't await you if you continue with unpopular policies. The deck park being one of them, people just don't want it. They know there are better uses for those funds. What better way to use those funds than to pay to cancel the agreement with Metadata Center that we're told is exorbitant funds, but so would the cost of the deck park be. And so that money could be used for other things that would benefit everyone, that people actually want to be done. So what I encourage city council to do, because I only have three minutes to speak and I can't speak on other items, is to be more open-minded and to try to approach some of these things from outside of the box. How would someone from another city that wanted to move here feel about these projects? Would they agree with them? Would this encourage them to move? Or would it be something that they say, would they look at it and they say, well, these are not good decisions and I don't want to invest in a community where bad decisions are being made. Or look at yourself from the perspective of someone that doesn't have the power and feels powerless but still wants and hopes that you do the right thing and make the changes that benefit all of us, not just some of us. Because after all, as you saw, we're the many. Nobody came in up here to speak in favor of the Dana Center because they don't have anybody that lives in this community. Similarly with the people that that want the deck park, yeah, sure, they own the businesses downtown and they stand to benefit from any investments that are made downtown, but it doesn't really benefit the rest of us. There's no really residual effect. The buildings downtown increase in value. They still have cut tax rates. And those taxes get reinvested right into downtown. They're not shared with the rest of the city. A lot of people aren't even aware of tax like that. And a lot of this stuff, people don't have time to research and find out the nuances. We're depending on the city council to do the honorable and the right thing. But there's a history, unfortunately, in El Paso. Thank you, sir. And that's why there's so much low voter turnout. People don't trust you.

Thank you.

Council that concludes call to the public. Okay. As per the rules of order, no use of personal cellular devices, no personal communication should take place on the days when the meeting is in session. Once you obtain the floor from the mayor, you will have up to 10 minutes for debate and may speak twice per debatable motion. Please speak into the microphone and refrain from side conversations. When the meeting is in session, for those of you joining virtually, please make sure your microphones are muted to reduce any background noise.

Okay, Ms. Ryan, I believe that brings us to the consent agenda.

Yes, sir. All matters listed under the consent agenda will be considered by city council to be routine and will be enacted by one motion unless separate discussion is requested by council members. Prior to the vote, members of the audience may ask questions regarding items on the consent agenda. When the vote has been taken, if an item has not been called out for separate discussion, the item has been approved. Council may, however, reconsider any item at any time during the meeting. Mayor Prochaz.

Thank you miss pine, I make a motion to approve the consent agenda with the following provisions. Page 9. Item 25.

Revise for purchasing and strategic sourcing and that revision is to the name listed under task for to correct the name in media with a video.

Page 14 item 31. Move to the forefront per capital improvement department. Page 14, item 32, revised per city attorney's office.

And that revision is to strike out $212,046 and replace with $212,045.65. There's a motion and a second. Ms. Prine? Yes, the motion was made by Mayor Pro Tem Chavez, seconded by alternate Mayor Pro Tem Piero, and this is to approve the consent agenda as revised. On that motion, call for the vote. Thank you, Representative Rocha, in the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. Mayor, I forgot we did have public comment on item nine. Okay. Is there a motion to reconsider?

So moved. Second.

There's a motion and a second to reconsider the consent agenda. All in favor?

Aye.

Anyone to vote. The motion passes and let's take public comment on that item is from item number 9 we have this Patricia Osmond that's enough to speak. And that item is a notation of people are transactions. March 21st, 2026 to April 20th, 2026. Go ahead, miss Osmond.

using funds to hand out treats to the public and at various events kind of captured votes there although by the voting count don't know how much that really works at a senior center it definitely does because that's where they're voting I'm just curious there are very high let's see sixteen hundred almost seventeen hundred dollars amount on here and then we've got this lehman went to uh galveston texas we've got another thirty nine hundred dollars i understand you know those I have to do that on my own dime at one point. And if you don't know what CLE is, that's continuing legal education. And then we've got $605 for Ms. Mack to have gone to Orlando, Florida. And I'm kind of curious. I know that was a, what are they called here, Ms. Mack? And get it right. I see in a conference in Orlando costing taxpayers $605. But she could network with other mayors. Maybe learn how to keep the public silent. I'm curious whether she's also going to go to Long Beach, California in October for another ICMA event. $1,500 for Guadalupe Corral. It's a wonder why the city employees remain silent and kind of do a lot of the back of house work the public doesn't know because of all the benefits that they receive on the tax paradigm. And when everybody in the gallery wonders why they're not listened to, because the taxpayers were actually funding a lot of the study. And if they paid attention to the P cards, maybe they would see it. I do. And it's really sad every time you look at it. The not exactly getting reported as often as they once did, which also leads me to wonder, why is that? Anyway. Not something where you're going to not pass it through. Thank you, Ms. Osmond.

You've reached the time limit. Thank you, ma'am.

Okay, Ms. Freyne, do we have any other public comment on any consent agenda? No, sir. Okay.

Mayor Chavez, will you make the motion again?

Yes. I make a motion to approve the consent agenda. Second.

All right, Representative Limon? No? Okay. Ms. Freyne, we have a motion and a second.

Yes, and this also includes the revisions that were previously read to item 25. And move item 31 to the forefront and revise item 32. On that motion, call for the vote. In the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously.

OK. Representative Limon.

Mayor, I make a motion to recess for one hour.

OK. There's a motion to recess for one hour. Is there a second? Second. There's a motion and a second. Ms. Prime?

There's a motion and a second to recess a council meeting for one hour. All in favor?

Aye.

Anyone opposed? I have a comment on this motion.

OK. Representative Kanellis.

I believe there was one item where staff had requested to move it to the forefront. It was just a single item on the regular agenda, and I imagine that was in order to allow staff to return to their duties. They're here in the chambers. Council, could we consider hearing that one item to allow staff to return to their duties? It's up to the council.

Happy to recess after that.

Is that a motion? There's another motion already on the floor.

Let me let me take a roll call on the recess. Mayor Pro Tem Chavez. Aye. Acevedo. Aye. Maldonado- Rocha.

Nay.

Boya-Trejo. Aye. Nino.

Nay.

Piero.

Aye.

Limon.

Aye.

Canales.

No.

The motion passes. So the council meeting is in recess at 1234 PM and will be coming in one hour.

Thank you.

Okay, Ms. Prine, I believe we're ready to get started.

Yes, sir, is there a motion?

So moved. Second.

There's a motion and a second to reconvene the City Council. Anyone in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed?

The meeting is back in session at 1.34 p.m. Ms. Prine, I believe that brings us to the first reading of ordinance.

That's correct, Mayor. These are items 13 to 15, starting on page 5.

Mayor, make a motion to move on the first reading of the ordinances.

Okay, there's a motion and a second. Ms. Bryant?

Yes, a motion was made by Representative Limon, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Chavez, and this is to approve the first reading of ordinances, items 13 to 15. On that motion, call for the vote.

I'm not locked in.

Representative Limon? Aye. Thank you. And the voting session, and that motion passes unanimously. Representatives Borrego, Nino, Piero, Canales not present.

OK, Ms. Pryor, let's take the regular agenda public hearing second reading of the ordinance.

Yes, this is item number 16. This is a public hearing of an ordinance amending El Paso City Code Title IX, Health and Safety Chapter 9.52 Fire Prevention Code to include local amendments to the 2021 International Fire Code.

All right, can we take 16 and 17 together?

If you would like, sir, item 17 is also a public hearing of an ordinance amending El Paso City Code Title 18, Building and Construction Chapter 18.02, Building and Construction Administrative Codes to Add Provisions for Third Party Fire Plan Review and Inspection Services.

OK, and I believe we have a short presentation.

OK. Mayor, make a motion to approve both items.

OK, great. Is there a motion? And is there a second? Second. OK. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. My name is Daniel Chavira. Good afternoon, members of council and mayor. My name is Daniel Chavira. Is that better? Is the microphone on?

IT, the microphone appears to be off.

Testing. There you go.

All right.

I'll start again. Good afternoon, council members and mayor. My name is Daniel Chavira, and I'm with Planning and Inspections. I am here to present item 16 and 17, which address the proposed updates to our third party service provider ordinance. Our primary objective is twofold. First is to maintain the health and safety of our community while providing options to improve local customer service. And these amendments will align El Paso's local codes with the Texas House Bill 14. And by expanding our current program to include fire plan reviews and inspections, we give qualified third party entities the capacity to handle these specialized tasks. To ensure quality and safety, every registration request will be strictly vetted by the fire department and the building code official. A third party services provider program was initiated in 2005 and it transitioned to include commercial work in 2014 and then moved on to a licensing program in 2016. So for over 21 years, third party providers have helped safely assist development in our community. We currently have two third party companies that provide these services. To integrate a fire plan review and inspections into the system, we are amending two sections of our local codes. First, chapter 1802 of the building code will be updated to add fire plan review and inspections. Second chapter 9.5 to of the health and safety code creating local amendment to the 2021 international fire code explicitly authorizing these providers to conduct fire plan review and inspections. The proposed amendments directly reflect the intent of Texas House Bill 14, which aims to reduce development delays across the state. By adopting these measures locally, the city of El Paso increases its service capacity, establishes standardized certification requirements, and implements a strict audit system to preserve our plan review and inspection standards. So what we are proposing is an expansion to a successful third party program that has been in place since 2005. The program supports development, expands service delivery, and maintains the standards expected for fire safety and inspections. This concludes my presentation. And thank you if you have any questions.

Representative thank you mayor.

This sounds like a great plan. I'm supportive of it. I just had questions around How long do you think this helps reduce wait time for the inspection to clear?

We're not going to know that yet until we reserve the data. But with this option, we do expect more developers and contractors and business owners to use third party services for plan review and inspections. But we're not going to know the results till we see it in action.

Okay, and is there a plan on notifying developers or just notifying anybody that might need this inspection that there's changes and it's hopefully going to be a little faster, anything like that?

We have spoken to the developers group about it. We've spoken to the third party companies about it. And hopefully here in the near future we'll go ahead and provide more information on our website.

Okay, and would this affect anything with buildings like for example in downtown that are likely out of code? Can we use this as a tool to inspect those buildings?

We can use it, but we're not going to be able to implement it unless they're doing construction. But it will be applicable to any development throughout the city limits.

So unless they're going to make modifications or anything like that, then that's the only way that this would affect those not buildings that are already there that we kind of already know are in bad condition and we could use that to maybe spur more development there. We can't use this for that.

Correct, yeah, for this service only, we're not able to go in there without a building permit being acquired.

Okay, I appreciate it, thank you.

Thank you. Okay, any further questions on item 16 or 17? All right, Ms. Bryant.

Yes sir, there is a motion made by Representative Limon, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Chavez to adopt the ordinances on items 16 and 17. There is no public comment on that motion. Call for the vote. Representative Trejo? Aye. Thank you. End the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously.

OK, let's take item number 18, please.

Thank you.

What's that? Not yet. Item 18. Item 18, yes ma'am.

Yes, sir. Is a public hearing of an ordinance changing the zoning at 7912 North Loop Drive from R3 residential to SD special development, imposing a condition and approving a detailed site development plan. And there is a lady that has requested to speak during the public hearing.

All right. There's a motion and a second. Okay. Can we see the presentation?

Yes. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Luis Zamora with Planning and Inspections. Item 18 is a resumption request for the property at 7912 North Loop. Here we have the aerial imagery of the subject property. It is located on North Loop and west of Yarbrough. It is obviously grandly developed. So the applicant is requesting to restore this property from R3 to SD, special development, as well as approval of a detail site development plan for proposed use of restaurant. And obviously they plan to use the existing building. Future land use map designation for this area is G3 Suburban, which can ask for supplementing missing civic and commercial uses. It's obviously in character with the area, especially fronting a main road. Here we have the detail site development plan that will be being proposed, showing the proposed layout. This will be binding, so the applicant will have to comply with this layout. And as you can see, you have parking along Durant. Again, the main building is still going to be there. It's proposed to be rehabilitated from a single-family home to a restaurant use. Here's an image along Durant. the such a property again still there and Then surrounding development around it. We have to the north a shopping center zone c1 and c4 to the east we have single-family homes and apartments phone are three and they owe to the south we have to the south and west actually we have single-family homes on our three and The applicant did notify Corridor 20 Civic Association, Mission Valley Civic Association, and the Rosedale Farms Neighborhood Association of this proposed rezoning. Notices were sent back in January 16 for the first public hearing with the City Plan Commission. At this time, we have received a petition with all signatures in support, as well as a petition with 21 signatures in opposition, as well as one email. to this request. Let me know that we did have the president of the Roseville Farms Network Association and the City Planning Commission who spoke in favor of this item at that time. Here we have the notice map for the subject property. So we did notify 31 property owners within 300 feet of the property. So stop recommendation and city plan Commission recommendation is of approval with conditions The first condition would be that we cannot ask him for a landscape buffer along Nor loop and Duran Road and this will be to cannot safeguard the residential aspect of the area especially when fronting again a big road nor loop and A second condition will be to restrict the uses of automotive service stations, more vehicle repair minor, commercial fuel station, and convenience store with gas pumps, again, to safeguard the residential aspect. And the third one is no outdoor amplified sound shall be permitted on this property. And with that, that concludes my presentation.

Okay. Ms. Bryan, let's take public comment on this item.

Yes, sir. Joanna Casillas.

Good afternoon. You have three minutes.

Good afternoon, Joanne.

Good afternoon. My name is . I am the owner of 7912 Lot B. I'm right next to that lot. I have lived there for 20 plus years in that area. I can tell you right now, it's a safety issue. The structure of it cannot accommodate having people going into the restaurant. There's no actual parking. There's only, if anything, four spots. And that would have to be for the employees. The rest of the parking would have to be out in the streets, which it is a residential area. Now, across the street, there is a commercial shopping center where there's already restaurants. And also, one block down, there's a street light. So right there, I'm like, there's already a lot of traffic. There is children that live in that area. My nephew, the people that live in front of that property have children. There's a bus stop for school, for high school and middle school. So this is to me, what's it called? It's a safety issue. for a restaurant as it is, I was gonna buy that rental, that property when it went into sale. But the realtor told me no and also because they had already tried to make it from residential to commercial and they were denied. So now for them to come back over here and ask for it to become a commercial, that's not right. So I would say please look into it more because it has been denied before for it to become a commercial. Okay, and that's basically it. I live in that area. I'm literally the owner right next door. That's actually going to affect my property. My, what's it called, the value is going to go down because there's no parking. Anybody who goes, if it becomes a restaurant, everybody's going to have to go into that restaurant. I did talk to a veteran safety person. Fire safety officer, who is a veteran now, looked into the area. We have a fire department two blocks down. To get in there is going to be really, really hard. And again, one block down, there's a light. There's lights right there. So it does have traffic around 4. Again, I'm opposing to this. Please think about it. You guys don't live there. I do. Thank you.

Thank you.

REPRESENTATIVE LEMON. WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT PREVIOUS REQUESTS FOR CHANGE IN ZONING?

SO STAFF IS NOT AWARE OF ANY. WE'RE NOT AWARE OF ANY LIKE REZONING HAPPENING BEFORE. SO IT'S POSSIBLE MAYBE THAT PREVIOUS ZONERS WERE TRYING TO DO IT WITHOUT PERMITS. or they tried to get permits and they were obviously not issued because the current zoning is residential, but we're not really aware of anything happening before.

Mayor, I did not receive any communication from the neighbors or from anyone other than the presentation that we have. I'd like to postpone for two weeks, please.

Okay. There's a motion to postpone and there's a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, seeing none, Ms. Prine, call for the vote.

Yes, sir, the motion was made by Representative Limon, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Chavez, and this is to postpone the ordinance on item 18 for two weeks. On that motion, call for the vote. Voting session is open. in the voting session, and that motion passes unanimously.

Okay, let's take item number 19, please.

Yes, sir, item number 19 is a public hearing of an ordinance changing the zoning from R4 residential to A2 apartment north of Edgar Park Avenue and west of Gateway South Boulevard.

Okay, is there a motion to approve this item? Move to approve, okay, okay. Presentation.

Yes, for the record, we somewhat are planning inspections. Item 19 is a zoning request for property located on Gateway South. close to other Park. I hear we have their aerial imagery for this subject property. It is currently vacant along gateway South. Existing zoning is our force of residential and as you can see on this image, everything around that a single family homes on the same are for so easily across the U.S. 54 we have commercial property and apartments. So the request is obviously to resound this from R4 to A2 apartments for a proposed multifamily development. Future 90s map for this area is G3 post-war, which also calls for adding missing civic and commercial uses, as well as adding and supplementing the limited housing stock in the area. Here's a conceptual plan. This is what the applicant submitted. It's not binding. It's not necessarily doesn't mean this is what's going to be built, but more or less give us an idea of what the proposal is. So the proposal was to kind of develop five units in this area. And then obviously main access is through Gateway South. So we have an image of the subject property along Gateway South. Again, it is vacant. And then surrounding this property, again, as I mentioned, everything is on R4, north, west, south. We have single-family homes to the east. Obviously, I bought U.S. 54, and across U.S. 54, there's apartments and commercial businesses. The applicant did notify Sunrise Neighborhood Association of this request. When they submitted the application, we had sent notices to property owners with 200 feet. At this time, we have only received one phone call in opposition to this request. Here we have the notice map. So we did notify 43 property owners of this resounding request. And with this staff and city plan commission recommendation is of approval of the resounding request.

Okay. Any discussion on this item? All right. Hearing none, seeing none, Ms. Prine, call for the vote.

Yes, the motion was made by Representative Acevedo, seconded by Alternate Mayor Pro Tempero, and this is to adopt the ordinance on item 19. There's no public comment on that motion. Call for the vote. in the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously.

All right. Thank you. All right. Ms. Prime, let's take item number 31, please.

Yes, Mayor. This is on page number 14. Item 31 is discussion and action on a resolution authorizing the submission of a grant application to the United States Department of Transportation requesting funding through the Safe Streets and Roads for All grant program in an amount not to exceed $10,070,000 for the Safe Routes to Transit and Post-Crash Care Initiative, including a 20% match from the City of El Paso with such 20% match to be paid from the city's general fund Vision Zero annual funding allocation.

Okay, there's a motion. Is there a second? Second. All right. Good afternoon.

Hi, good afternoon, Mayor and Council. This is Anna Mesa-Zend from the City of El Paso Capital Improvement Department, the grant-funded division. I'm going to be giving a brief presentation on this proposed application for the Safe Streets and Roads for All grant. If you can go to the first slide, please. Next slide, please. This application was put in together with collaboration with the Fire Department. So zooming out, the Safe Streets and Roads for All grant is a United States Department of Transportation federal funding project call specifically to support Vision Zero initiatives or initiatives to end roadway fatalities in the United States. The city of El Paso adopted a vision zero action plan in 2023. It is actually a requirement for city local governments to have a action plan related to ending roadway fatalities to be eligible for this grant program. When we became eligible in 2023, we submitted an application and we were awarded $10 million to do network wide safety improvements on our high injury corridors. If we go to the next slide, please. So a little bit more about that safe systems approach and what makes us eligible for this program funding. When we adopted that Vision Zero action plan, we met all of the criteria that makes us eligible for this funding source. But we also laid out really, really specific action items that we would accomplish to end roadway fatalities. And this application does accomplish one of those action items in the short term strategies, which is to improve access to transit by identifying high priority transit centers using crash data and implement quick build and long-term safety installations at those areas to make it safer for cyclists and pedestrians. If we go to the next slide, please. What we are proposing for this 2026 application is two main elements. That first element is safety improvements to crossings, visibility, speed management around these high-risk transit centers that staff has identified. The second element of that is a post-crash care program, which will equip frontline EMS responders to do whole blood, transfusions at the point of injury so at crash sites this will allow them to treat hemorrhage shock which is one of the leading causes of preventable roadway deaths and fatalities in the city it also addresses a really critical gap in that safe safe system approach which is post crash care if we go to the next slide please So the safety improvements that you can expect around these transit centers will largely be consistent with federal priorities, but things that will improve safety for cyclists and pedestrians, specifically lighting upgrades, signal upgrades, signage upgrades, traffic calming, speed reduction, things to improve visibility and access. If we go to the next slide, please. So these are the proposed facilities that we are proposing selected based off of crash data, cycling and pedestrian demand, and geographic distribution. The cost amounts allocated to each funding station vary between $2.1 million and $1.2 million. If we could go to the next slide, please. The cost breakdown, it's $10 million with a $2 million local match. Majority of those funds would go to construction for those safety improvements with $670,000 allocated to the whole blood program implementation. Next slide, please. So we're expecting in the beginning of 2026 and into early 2027 to begin the planning for the post-crash care program, as well as the design for the safety improvements for the transit centers. You can expect that the rollout for the post-crash care system would happen in early 2027, and that construction for the safety improvements would begin around late 2028. An important part of this initiative, as well as this grant program, is project evaluation. So we've included in our timeline, as well as our grant application, ample time to evaluate both programs, safety improvements and the whole blood post-crash care project, to make sure that they are working effectively and meeting the desired outcomes. If we go to the next slide, please. So the request in action for this specific grant is to approve a resolution that authorizes the city staff to apply for this grant with a 20% match of that $10 million coming from the General Fund Vision Zero allocation. And that concludes the presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Very good. Thank you. Representative Canales.

Thank you, Mayor. I understand there's some time pressure, so I'll go quickly. I can see the two primary EMS stations labeled on the map in the purple dots on slide six. Can you detail a little bit more? Like, I know where the transit centers are for the other portion, but where those two deployment points are?

Yeah. So my understanding is that these two locations, um, where they will be keeping the primary blood is mostly for storage purposes, but that all frontline EMS responders would be equipped to carry it on them. Um, strategically those storage units are placed, I think kind of centrally located to the high injury network, um, with the understanding that they would be able to reach any crash site within the city, I believe within a 16 minute radius or within a 16 minute timeframe. Excuse me.

Are they centered at, are they, uh, fire stations or is this a other medical facilities?

I'll defer to the fire chief who is with us.

OK. Good afternoon, Chief.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Gustavo Tavares, Chief of the Classified Department. So the locations of those whole blood programs, it's actually stated in our supervisor locations. So those two stations have housed our supervisors. They're deployable to pretty much all the city. So they're the ones that are going to be a big part of being able to get that blood within quick response to be able to supply that blood.

Okay, and can I ask if, and I know it's very early where it's just applying for the grant, do we have an identified source of the whole blood?

identify scores?

Yes.

Yes. So when we ran the data as to who would benefit from this program, annually we're looking at about 46 cases where they can actually benefit from it. So we start there. As we go in and implement this program, then we can see more value to it. Right now we're focusing on trauma, but there's more use to it. There's also a hemorrhaging of medical incidents as well. So we will incorporate those as well as we move forward with the program.

Yeah, I guess I meant to ask, where will we source the blood from?

Is it local blood bank? So next meeting, you actually, yes, you actually will be bringing forth an agreement with Vitalant, right? And they'll be the blood suppliers.

Wonderful. Before I was in elected office, I was the chair of the community board at Vitalant. I love the work that they do. I wish that I could still commit to them to do that work now. So I was hoping that was the answer you would give. I think they provide excellent service, and we'll be happy to deploy some of their blood into the community. Thanks, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor.

Representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Ana, for the presentation. So when I got briefed, I asked on slide three where it says 48% of all killed or seriously injured crashes are within 250 feet of a transit stop. What is comprised of the other 52%?

So that is a metric that is coming directly from our Vision Zero action plan. It's not per se saying that 60 or whatever the remaining percent can be attributed to something specifically, rather that a total of the KSI crashes are happening at 48% near those transit facility locations. SO THERE ISN'T A STATISTIC IN THE VISION ZERO ACTION BILL THAT NECESSARILY COUNTERS THAT STATISTIC THAT MAKES UP FOR A WHOLE PERCENTAGE, BUT WE DO HAVE DATA OR STATISTICS ON SPECIFIC CONDITIONS THAT MIGHT CONTRIBUTE TO KSI. FOR EXAMPLE, I THINK LIKE DARK LIGHTING CONDITIONS, 70% OF OUR FATAL PEDESTRIAN CRASHES HAPPEN IN DARK LIGHTING CONDITIONS. SO NONE OF THEM MAKE UP FOR A WHOLE 100%, RATHER IT SHOWS A BREAKOUT OF WHAT PERCENT CAN BE ATTRIBUTED TO THAT AREA.

Okay, but there's probably other injuries that are occurring within your HIN that are a certain percentage, but we don't have that data right now?

If you could ask for a specific metric, I could look into that, but not specifically for the KSI breakdown.

Okay. So this grant opportunity, I think, opened up in March, late March. Was any input from council asked before deciding to go for transit centers specifically?

I'd like to defer to my director, Joaquin, if that's okay in the question.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Wonking.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Joaquin Rodriguez, grant funded program director. So we don't typically come to City Council for ideas for the grants. This grant program specifically is targeted towards communities who are implementing their Vision Zero action plans. As Anna mentioned, our Vision Zero action plan specifically states the need for transit improvement or improvements surrounding transit facilities and protecting transit users. Council has given that input in the past by adopting the Vision Zero action plan. and by adopting a complete streets policy which both direct us as staff to prioritize vulnerable users in our transportation system and subsequent improvements.

So no council input was taken prior to deciding to do transit centers specifically?

That council input again is derived from council's adoption of prior planning documents.

Okay. Well, when prior documents were approved by council, I wasn't on council. So that's why I'm asking why can't because I wasn't a part of those conversations back then. The US Department of Transportation advocates for redundancy. How is redundancy taken into consideration by going for transit centers here in this grant?

Not sure I understand the question.

Okay, so the 2026 SS4A NOFO is part of the Vision Zero plan, right? The grant that you're submitting for is part of the Vision Zero plan?

No, the funding opportunity requires communities to have an adopted Vision Zero or safety action plan to qualify for applying for the grant.

OK. And I know the US Department of Transportation highly advocates for redundancy. So like if you're doing safe routes to school, for example, or bike lanes or whatever, they promote redundancy. Is this grant going specifically in that direction?

I think there's a lot of different ways you can look at the term redundancy. If we're thinking about it in terms of our transportation network, there's redundancy and safety for vulnerable users. If you're looking at a bike lane, we have striping that indicates to drivers that that is a bike lane. We can install delineators that indicates to drivers that that is a bike lane. We can do educational programs to indicate to cyclists how to use bike lanes and vice versa for drivers. Those things would constitute redundancy. If anything, these physical infrastructure improvements surrounding our transportation facilities would also be supportive of redundancy. The network that we have in place now is adequate. but we can make improvements to make it better and safer for pedestrians and cyclists and other vulnerable users. I would say that that constitutes redundancy.

So the transit centers is part of the redundancy?

You would really have to define redundancy a little more specifically for me to give you a more specific answer.

Okay. Let me ask another question. How do the high-impact networks that you've identified in District 1 specifically benefit from this grant?

If there are transit users in District 1, either using transit directly in the district or walking or cycling to the transit facility in District 1, they would benefit from this grant.

But there is no transit center in District 1?

The Westside Transfer Center is right on the border of District 1 and District 8.

But not in District 1.

Correct.

So again, how does high-impact networks, how does District 1 high-impact networks, HINs benefit from this?

HIN stands for High Injury Network. Yes. That's the network of roadways in our community where the most or highest concentration of severe injuries and fatal crashes are occurring. This project does not specifically look at the high-entry network since it's focused on transit. Most of those transit facilities do lie within the high-entry network or in close proximity to it. But specifically, we're looking at access to and from transit centers with this grant. So if there are transit users within your district, whether they're using transit within District 1 or perhaps driving somewhere and using transit, coming downtown and using transit, All of those folks would benefit from this grant. I think when we're talking about fatalities and serious injuries within our community, the Federal Highway Administration has established a rating scale where they assign a monetary value to these fatal injuries and severe crashes. And that rating scale essentially assigns an economic impact to the community of certain types of crashes. So any fatality or serious injury that we can avoid on our roadways is, in essence, a economic benefit to our community as a whole.

And I appreciate the work that you and your department does. Joaquin, unfortunately, this grant does not, is not, District 1 is not included in this grant at all. There's nothing on your slide here that includes District 1. And I don't see where the direct benefit is going to be to District 1. I know that the post-crash care program potentially could, but even Fire Station 31 is about 20 minutes if I map it out on Google Maps from the most northern part of District 1. It's a big distance away. So there is nothing in this grant that would benefit directly my constituents.

So the average response time for the rescue operations captains from those two fire stations to any point in the city would be I think 11 and a half minutes with some responses being as much as 16 minutes.

And I understand, but it's still a good distance away. And I just wanted to read some statistics here. According to recent newspapers, the city of El Paso, the population is actually declining. But since the 2020 census, District 1 specifically has grown. So while the city's population is declining, District 1's constituency has grown by about 7.2% according to a recent census. district one is growing and unfortunately you know I don't have a transit center you are correct but by specifically targeting transit centers through this grant district one has been completely eliminated from this grant and there's two million dollars that's being asked from council approval through our general fund And I just don't see how my constituency is really going to benefit. Of course, if they do use the transit center, which I'm assuming some do, I'm not saying no one does from District 1, some do, but there's going to be little to no benefit to District 1 through this grant. And there was no council opinion asked prior to deciding to target transit centers for application process, for this application process. Is that correct?

As I've mentioned before, Council's opinion and input to us is through the planning process in Vision Zero Complete Streets, a number of other planning documents. So we may have to just agree to disagree on that.

yes and and because of that I mean I am asked to vote in favor of this and it's difficult for me to vote in favor of something that has little to no benefit to my constituents especially when there's a two million dollar match from the general fund from the city but again I like I thank you for the work that you've done and I know that you in general have the best interest of our community at heart and just this specifically today I will not be able to support, but I appreciate the work that you do, and Ana, thank you for the presentation, and thank you, Chief, also. Thank you.

Representative Acevedo.

Thank you, Mayor. So it looks like a good plan. In general, this is targeting transit centers, right? And is there something else that you've pursued that is targeting just bus stops in general with Sun Metro rising coming in my constituents are being really affected by one of the routes and a lot of them have mobility issues and the routes to the new stops are Kind of an impediment to them. So trying to understand if there's other money that's also available in this same fashion to make it more accessible safer, etc

so it's not something that we've targeted specifically i know that jerry and anthony and their team at sun metro have invested significantly in looking at sidewalk gaps and accessibility issues on the way to the new stops or on the routes that folks will be walking to the stops that are you know being retained as part of the summit arising I can't speak specifically to the amount of funding that they've invested so far, but I know that there is an effort to ensure that there are safe and accessible routes to those newly laid out stops as part of Sun Metro Rising.

Okay. I appreciate that. I just had a heartbreaking meeting a few weeks ago and it's specifically in South Central Route 65 is replacing 24 and there's people that use it two to four times a day. They have a stop that is being removed from in front of where they live in housing. by home and People were in walkers Cold weather hot weather all of that was brought up and they've come to public comment So I think I'll add just as a general comment this grant is not replacing the other work that the city is doing in terms of You know transportation safety and accessibility.

We still have the accessibility on-demand program which includes funding for sidewalk gaps and We still have the Vision Zero quick build project program that can address some of these other safety concerns throughout the community. This is just one grant program. You may recall in the past we have dedicated funding to Safe Routes to School. We've dedicated funding to Safe Routes to Parks. Safe Routes to Transit was sort of the next logical step in that Safe Routes portfolio.

And that makes sense I guess I'll get with you offline just to kind of tell you about the issues that are being presented here with that specific change and how it's affecting a large portion of South Central Paso and I guess one of the other questions that I had was that I see that the five points Transit Center is would be getting 1.8 million dollars And the five points transit centers on the district eight side of the other street. Right. So it's not necessarily my district but it's right adjacent to it. So I'm just wondering is that one point eight million dollars going to close streets around the transit center when you're doing any of the work. Close streets? Close street closure. You're going to do striping. Is it minimal?

Not really something we would know at this point. The grant request includes funding for design of these projects. So we would have a consultant come in and really examine the pedestrian and cycle network around those transit facilities. and try to come up with a package of improvements that is, you know, appropriate and site and context specific for that transit center. As far as, you know, future planned closures, as we do with all of our projects, we try to mitigate the impact on the community whenever we have a street or roadway closure.

Okay. I appreciate it. Thank you.

All right. Any more discussion on item 31? All right. Hearing none, seeing none, Ms. Prime, please call for the vote on 31.

Yes for the motion was made by alternate may approach and get a second if I representative canada's and this is to approve the resolution on item 31 on that motion call for the vote. And the voting session. And that motion passes 7 to 1 representative Chavez voting made the remainder of Council voting by the motion.

Okay, let's take I'm number 20 police.

Yes, sir. We now return to page number 8 to item number 20. And this is discussion and action on a resolution to reappoint to the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority Monica L. Perez to position 1 and Christopher Linder to position 5.

All right. There's a motion and a second. Any discussion? Ms. Bryant?

The motion was made by alternate mayor put in Seattle seconded by representative in the morning and this is to approve the resolution and item 20 on that motion call for the vote. And the voting session and that motion passes unanimously came to stick item 21 police. Yes, Sir item 21 is discussion in action on a resolution to authorize the expenditure of district 7 discretionary funds in an amount not to exceed $845 for hygiene stations and an obstacle course for the 2026 route to cloud. They'll air neighborhood Association community cookout at route to cloud Park in this item was submitted by representative to the one.

There's a motion second any discussion. OK this crime.

The motion was made by representative Limon seconded by alternate mayor Pro Tempiero and this is to approve the resolution on item 21 on that motion call for the vote. Voting session is open. In the voting session and that motion passes unanimously.

Okay, let's take item number 22, please.

Item 22 is discussion in action to adopt as a general policy direction of the city of El Paso that future development of hyperscale data centers should not be actively recruited, pursued, or incentivized due to their misalignment with the city's long-term sustainability and infrastructure resilience goals. that hyperscale data centers shall not be considered for tax abatements, rebates, permit fee waivers, public financing assistance, economic development grants, or similar economic development tools, and that the policy directions effectuated by this action remain in effect until and unless reversed by the City Council. Further directing the City Manager to continue the ongoing process for the development of a future-focused data center policy framework for consideration by the City Council. This item was submitted by Representative Canales.

OK. Representative Canales? Move to approve. Is there a second? All right. Ms. Primer, we're going to take members of the public comment first.

Yes, sir.

Since they've been here all day.

Yes, we have Marcy Chavez. Marcy Chavez. I don't see her. Alexandra Echagayan. I don't see her in the queue. Jackie Aguirre. Jackie Aguirre. I don't see her coming forward. Joaquin Madrid. Joaquin Madrid. May Jung Cook. I don't see the phone number in the queue. Anthony Rodriguez. I don't see the phone number in the queue. Joshua Jures. I don't see that phone number in the queue either. Uh, Priscilla Savala.

Hello.

I'm sorry, sir. Your name?

Joshua Drews.

Okay, go ahead, sir. You have three minutes.

Thank you so much. Mayor Johnson and city council members. My name is Joshua Drews. I'm a resident of East El Paso and I'm speaking on item 22. I, along with many El Pasoans that you heard earlier and the thousands who are not present I'll agree that we don't want the data centers here in our city and county. Our elected officials in the state and federal level are not going to put forward a comprehensive people-first policy framework over the data centers, so we must act locally in order to protect our resources for the future generations. And I think, honestly, today's vote on item 22 is going to be a very easy yes in support of creating a policy around this. We can't keep sitting around waiting for someone else to step in to develop these policies. No one else is going to step in from the federal or state level to protect our region. Honestly, it's in our best interest to be proactive in protecting our region and its resources, because every other corporation and so-called economic development organization simply sees this as an area, as another place to strip of its resources. They don't care about this, and they never will. Council, as we move forward, these technologies like AI, data centers, and the like, they're going to develop faster and faster. Just know that the call to protect our city and its region is going to become louder and louder. And remember that protecting and investing locally in our people will always outweigh investing in some corporation that does not care about you or your family or the lives that live here. They will never see this region the way we see it, a precious desert region where families live, work, and build their future. The community is not against progress. We're against the investments that treat El Paso like an extractive resource colony rather than a place where the families live, work, and build their future. El Paso deserves investment that builds a community, not infrastructure that will continue to drain it. If I finish really quick, Vote yes on item number 22. Number two, void the 380 agreement with META. Number three, to echo everyone else who spoke on earlier, take today's vote a step further. Put an indefinite moratorium on all and current future data centers and urge the PSB to break their agreement with META. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Priscilla Savala. Ms. Patricia Osman, Ms. Osman, star six, please, to unmute your telephone. Go ahead, ma'am, your microphone is ready. Can you hear me? Yes, ma'am.

Okay. In regards to the data centers, y'all have heard quite a bit. Did any of y'all pay attention to the Pope and his manifest? human death in regards to AI. Even the Pope says God does not approve. A lot of what we hear and a lot of what is written on item 22 is manipulation, gaslighting, double speak. It's like Oz, don't look behind the curtain. Because it does say the city should not pursue. But then again, the city wasn't supposedly who pursued META. It was the Borderline, Borderplex Alliance. And we know right here that this prevents anybody else from pursuing and bring it forth. So this entire look and mirrors of item 22, That's all it is. Unless you do a motion to amend, you add provisions in here, as others have asked for. You actually kill the 380 agreement. And the reason, like that gentleman said, there are Russians, is because federal dollars, 100% payback, is at stake for all these data centers if they're built by 2030. That's why the rush. So investment, they're not investing anything really. Now in regards to what other people have brought up, let me let you know, it's HR 2670, the National Defense Authorization Act. And there are several things here that apply not only to metadata center, but also the aerospace item that we'll touch on later. It is this whole smoke and mirrors is to try to pacify the public and those speaking out, but it has no teeth. We all know it. And the fact that you all will pretend it does is insulting to every individual in this city. The thing is, is some of the elites in this town have done no different than other Texans in East Texas like Harlan Crowe who found desperate individuals seeking power and then started throwing a lot of funds at them. Examples, Prince Thomas. Luckily, the same thing has happened. It is ridiculous, but you all do not have to speak. Thank you, ma'am.

The next speaker is Emil Esparza. Emil Esparza. Renee Fierro. Renee Fierro. Scott Ronquillo. Scott Ronquillo. Followed by Julia Contreras. No? Julia Contreras? Don't see her. That's all that signed up for item 22.

Okay, Representative Canales.

Thank you, Mayor. This action that I'm proposing today is ultimately, I think, part of a broader question that we are increasingly being forced to confront in El Paso, which is what kinds of growth do we want to encourage and incentivize and build our future around? Throughout my term, I've asked that same question in very different contexts, urban sprawl, impact fees, infill development. Parkland dedication. I think this conversation about data centers is another way in which we're confronting kind of that same question about growth. My proposal today would establish a general policy direction that the city of El Paso should not recruit, pursue, or incentivize future hyperscale data center facilities. Importantly, it doesn't stop the ongoing work of developing a broader data center policy framework that the council directed a few months ago to bring back to us for future council consideration. It says the opposite. It specifically says we'll continue that work But what it does say is that in the judgment of this council, if it's passed today, these type of data center facilities are not aligned with the long-term future that we should be pursuing as a desert community with our economic development dollars. A few years ago, local governments across the country I think viewed data centers primarily through the lens of economic development purely and technological investment. Data centers as a concept aren't new. And there was kind of an established conventional wisdom about how to handle them more like a typical warehouse type business. But hyperscale data centers at this massive scale, primarily those serving generative AI, are relatively new. And the public conversation about them was very different than it is today, just a few years ago, and rightfully so. I think we know now a lot more than we did about their impact, especially with the rapid expansion of AI supporting infrastructure and the data centers that serve that. We've definitely seen a new scale of electricity demand and water consumption associated with hyperscale data center facilities. We know more about the infrastructure burdens they create, particularly in regions like ours with finite water resources and increasing climate pressures that already require huge public investment and planning, a lot of which we've gone through quite recently, especially in the adoption of our climate action plan a few weeks ago. And so I think it's entirely appropriate for us to say that incentivization of data centers is not the right direction for our community. Not every project that generates revenue is automatically the best fit for a city. I'm going to go in a little digression for a moment and say, for those today who are here who don't know me, I always strive to speak very realistically about every issue, even when it's uncomfortable or cuts against the grain a little bit. So bear with me over the next minute. If you don't think you'll agree with me at the start, agree with me at the end of the minute. I've heard several commenters today say that the metadata center would only bring 50 jobs and nothing else. And I think it's important to be accurate and it's important to acknowledge that the project would also generate a massive amount of tax revenue to the city, to the county, to East Letta Independent School District, to El Paso Community College and University Medical Center. That's revenue that these entities can use to better serve El Pasoans. And I can say plainly that this tax revenue and the positive impact that that revenue could have on our community is exactly why the city council passed that agreement unanimously in 2023. As Meta has scaled up their project, that tax revenue to the city is now projected to surpass a billion dollars over the term of the agreement. That's a lot of money that could help El Pasoans. But now the part that I think a lot of you will agree with Even massive tax revenue doesn't mean that the trade-offs are worth it. So listen, today I can't tell you what I think a lot of people who spoke want to hear, that the meta project will go away. we can at least decide today that we shouldn't be involved in bringing in anymore. And saying so is, I think, responsive to what we've heard directly from the public, both in our series of meetings and in our council meetings and earlier today. Over the past several months, residents have shown up in really large numbers at public meetings, at public comment here in this room to raise legitimate concerns and fears about water use, electricity demand, emissions, the impact on our infrastructure network. long-term sustainability implications. Whether one agrees with all of those concerns raised or not, I think it's undeniable that the public conversation has substantially pointed in one direction, which is no more data centers in El Paso. We heard that pretty loud and clear. So I now want to explain why I chose to draft this item in the way that I did. Some speakers earlier today called for a blanket ban on data centers. Texas law doesn't really allow cities to do this. We have no mechanism by which to enact that kind of blanket ban. Some people have asked for a moratorium. Under Texas law, a moratorium means something very specific. A moratorium is passed by ordinance and it's intentionally very temporary. It can only last for 120 days, extendable under certain circumstances to 180 days maximum. To enact a moratorium, a municipality has to hold two public hearings at least 30 days apart and publish and mail notices to the public at great expense. Passing a moratorium ordinance requires a super majority of the governing body. For us, it would be the city council. And then when a moratorium expires, the city can't consider a similar moratorium for a period of at least two years. So frankly, the way that I've proposed this item, I think does effectively the same thing, but better. Data centers are largely not being built where they're not being incentivized, since there are communities out there who are still willing to incentivize them in other parts of the country. This item is, again, intentionally limited in its scope. There's a meaningful distinction in the state of Texas between the imperative to allow lawful private activity and development on private property and separately deciding what kinds of projects the public sector should court or invite actively. Cities make policy choices all the time about what kinds development they want to prioritize in their economic development policy. I think that's one of the core functions of economic development. incentivizing the type of development that you want to have in your jurisdiction. As I said earlier, the proposal also continues the ongoing process of developing a more future focused data center policy framework, like the mayor mentioned earlier, that would ultimately be integrated into the climate action plan that the council adopted recently. That work I think remains incredibly important because clearly this issue isn't going away. The city still needs to think carefully about other meaningful interventions in areas like land use, infrastructure planning, sustainability considerations, and long-term policy approaches related to large-scale development generally, not necessarily just IN THE SPECIFIC CONTEXT OF DATA CENTERS. COUNCIL, I BELIEVE THIS PROPOSAL REFLECTS A REASONABLE POLICY DIRECTION AND A THOUGHTFUL WAY TO APPROACH HOW WE THINK ABOUT DATA CENTER INCENTIVIZATION AND OUR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT POLICY IN THE FUTURE. SO I ASK FOR YOUR SUPPORT. THANK YOU, MAYOR.

THANK YOU, REPRESENTATIVE. REPRESENTATIVE FIERRO. THANK YOU, MAYOR.

Mayor, I don't know for a fact, but I believe that up here in Stuyvesant, we all have family, children, grandchildren, neighbors that we care about that live in our city, our community, in our region. I believe that water is one of our most precious resources. There's no question. And I would dare say, not speaking for anybody else, for myself, it'd be very difficult for me to support another data center. And even more so, I wouldn't consider any tax incentives, any 380s for future data centers. And so having said that, I think we all agree that we want a planned set forward that's gonna really put the guardrails on. But my question is, Ms. Mack, is this not part of what we directed you and your team to address a couple months ago?

Yes, sir, we've been coming back to talk about the economic development piece. I think we've talked about what the main pillars of that program were.

To include no incentives, to include

incentives land use which I think I heard some folks talk about today. How we talk about committing which I think also heard folks talk about and also how we might manage utilities to ensure that whoever is maybe coming to the city pace on their share.

Mayor, I just wanted to clarify that although this is a good amendment, which I'll support, but I do think that we've already given the direction as a council as a whole to Ms. Mack and her team to move forward with this. Thank you.

Representative Acevedo.

Thank You mayor and I'm it's also my understanding that basically staff will come back in June and kind of say no more 380 agreements and special permits outside of the 380 agreements but my my question when I was briefed on what's coming in in June with staff is how are we going to make sure that there's no 380 agreements which I think this covers it right but I'm wondering Is this something that you're just envisioning the direction is just this statement or would you want to bind it under a resolution that the council could consider passing? Because that was some of the conversations that I had with staff.

I'D BE HAPPY TO BIND IT IN A RESOLUTION. AT THE END OF THE DAY, THIS COUNCIL CAN'T BIND FUTURE COUNCILS. A FUTURE COUNCIL COULD UNDO THIS. A FUTURE COUNCIL COULD UNDO A RESOLUTION. FUNCTIONALLY, THERE'S NOT TOO MUCH DIFFERENCE.

THE REASON I WAS THINKING RESOLUTION, IT'S A LITTLE BIT MORE OFFICIAL AND THEY WOULD NEED TO TAKE A VOTE TO UNDO THE RESOLUTION AND I THINK IT WOULD BE A LITTLE BIT MORE POWERFUL. THAT'S WHERE I WAS THINKING THROUGH. SO I JUST WANTED TO ASK IF YOU WOULD BE OKAY WITH ADDING VIA RESOLUTION?

I'd be happy for the council to consider a resolution about a similar topic that could be proposed for a future meeting. But I think it's important that this is an action that essentially has immediate effect. And so a resolution would take time to come back to us to get drafted by our legal department and to come back to us as a council. I think part of the appeal of this is that it is immediate.

Okay, that works. Overall, you know, there's been a lot of conversations on data centers that we're seeing, and I've been having a lot of conversations with constituents, having a lot of meetings, and I just kind of wanted to let the public know that two weeks ago, I finally met with Meta via Zoom, And that information was was interesting to kind of process. And one of the things that I asked for them to do was to hold public meetings And they told me that they don't want to have public meetings because there's security concerns. And I don't think that's a good answer. And overall, we said that the city could probably provide El Paso police at meetings of their security concerns. And they still don't want to go in that direction. And the reason that I'm bringing this up is they have a 380 agreement with a public entity, the city of El Paso. And to me, that is taxpayer money. And if there is no will to do that, and they're just kind of saying, oh, it's kind of already done. We're good. We don't want to face the public because the public is mad. I think that that's kind of bad. And so I'm hoping that this passes in terms of, you know, no more 380s. But There should be a public component that they're willing to have and they're not willing to do that another thing that I've heard is you know, they have tons of money and they're gonna Bring in so much money for infrastructure. I asked a question about how much money they've given Fort Worth specifically since 2018 they've only given Fort Worth 5.4 million dollars So I don't believe that there's a lot of money coming to El Paso in exchange for this deal that was passed. And so I think it's important for the public to start understanding what we signed up for in a prior council taking this action because we're not going to get the hundreds of millions for infrastructure and each grant cycle happens in fall and then it's awarded in spring. And so far what they've given the community is 500,000 across nine districts for school districts. So I'm not really holding my breath on that. And I think it's really important that we have this passed. We have a framework in place to have an understanding of lessons learned from bad agreements like this one, in my opinion.

Very good. Representative Trejo.

Thank you, Mayor. Excuse my voice. I always lose my voice here. But I wanted to share that, Canales, we know what you're bringing. I think as we're looking at all these situations that are being brought to council, Acevedo and myself, we brought the policy REVIEW BACK IN JANUARY, AND IT WAS TO RESEARCH, YOU KNOW, RESEARCH ON DATA CENTERS, AND THE CITY HAS BEEN CONDUCTING THAT RESEARCH AS WELL AS 380 AGREEMENTS, AND THAT WAS JUST BROUGHT UP. Fernando with sustainability has provided some of the, he has a draft on the sustainability research that they've done so far, and I have a copy here. I believe they're gonna go live on the website. Is it today, Fernando? It's going live today. And so the community will be able to see up to what point they've done a lot of the research already. And I bring this up because it's important that the community know that here as a council, we do care. We do care. This is important. We are hearing your voice, and we're doing what we can. So it's important that we share that. You know, I brought this to council with Acevedo. Representative Chavez also brought a line item back in February. Actually, no, mine was my February. Hers was in April for legislation for our council. our strategic and legislative affairs to do also some advocacy work and support for proposals related to data center incentives and all that to look into that as well. And now we have Canales who's looking into this and asking that we now put a stop to 380 agreements. This is our efforts as a council to work towards what the community is asking. But we also have to be mindful of what's happening outside of the city. We have our president who did a presidential action accelerating federal permitting of data centers infrastructure, and he did an executive order in July of 2025 And I'm going to read a little about this. And he says, by the authority vested in me as president of the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered my administration has inaugurated a golden age of American manufacturing and technological dominance. We will pursue bold, large-scale industrial plans to evolve the United States further into the lead on critical manufacturing processes and technologies that are essential to national security, economic prosperity, and scientific leadership. These plans include artificial intelligence, AI data centers, and infrastructure that empowers them, including high voltage transmission lines and other equipment. It will be a priority of my administration to facilitate this rapid and efficient build out of this infrastructure by easing federal regulatory burdens. IN ADDITION, MY ADMINISTRATION WILL UTILIZE FEDERALLY OWNED LAND AND RESOURCES FOR EXPENTANEOUS AND ORDERLY DEVELOPMENT OF DATA CENTERS. THIS USAGE WILL BE DONE IN A MANNER CONSISTENT WITH THE LAND INTENDED PURPOSES TO BE USED AND SERVED IN THE PROSPERITY AND SECURITY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. And it goes on, it talks about how he plans to incentivize data centers, and he's specifically looking for data centers that have over one gigabyte of usage. Then we also have to take into consideration that the state has established also incentives for data centers. And so this is what we're up against as council. We're doing what we can as a council, as a whole, and our mayor as well. to be there for our community and do what needs to get done. I support this item, Representative Canales, to continue to do what we're doing as a council and the city as well. I ALSO WOULD LIKE TO BRING FORWARD AN ITEM TO COUNCIL IN THE FUTURE TO HAVE A PRESENTATION ON WHAT IT WOULD LOOK LIKE TO EVEN, YOU KNOW, WE'VE BEEN BRIEFED OF WHAT IT WOULD BE TO CANCEL THE CONTRACT WITH META, BUT IN GENERAL, WHAT REALLY THAT MEANS FOR THE COMMUNITY. THIS IS IMPORTANT THAT COMMUNITY KNOWS. SO THANK YOU SO MUCH, REPRESENTATIVE CANALES, FOR READING THIS FORWARD.

THANK YOU, REPRESENTATIVE CHAVEZ.

THANK YOU, MAYOR. I want to speak directly to my constituents in District 1, to the community at large. I attended the meeting in the Don Haskins Recreation Center on the data center policy workshop, and there was a high turnout there. i think there was about 150 people more or less that showed up that evening and i heard directly from many people not only in district one but i think around the city that had attended that meeting i've also had the opportunity to engage directly with my constituents anybody who's asked me for a meeting has been given one either here at my office or directly in my community wherever they tell me to meet them. I understand firsthand that this is a concern, I guess the number one concern right now for our community. When I was campaigning it used to be infrastructure and I think right now the way it stands as data centers. And I have children. I have a 15 year old, a 13 year old, an 11 year old. I grew up in El Paso. This is a city I love deeply and I care and I'm committed to serving to the best of my ability. And so this is why I think it's important that we support this item today. I do wanna point out, as Representative Trejo just mentioned, that on April the 28th, there was an agenda item that I brought forward along with Representative Nino to direct the city staff and to amend the legislative agenda for both the state and the federal level. to include work along with TML and NLC and supports legislation that sets higher standards for transparency, environmental protection and accountability. We definitely need to have a seat at the table both at the state and at the federal level because there's only so much that we can do as a municipality and we want to make sure that there is measurable public benefit to whatever we're being dictated to do both at the state and federal level. I also want to mention that I know the city staff is working really hard in filtering and sifting through all of the comments and feedbacks from these workshops that we've done. And I know from my comments with Fernando and all of his team as well as our city manager and others at the city that all of us you know care deeply about this subject and and we are committed to making sure that we are responsive to everyone's concerns again I want to make sure that people know that I am accessible to them in case they want to have a conversation about this please reach out to my office and I would gladly have a conversation about it so Thank you once again for your patience and thank you for being a part of our community and being engaged as we move through this process.

Thank you, Representative Nino.

Thank you, Mayor. And I want to start off by thanking everyone who continues to show up and voicing their concerns. I, too, share a lot of the same concerns in regards of data centers in our region. And I'm glad my colleagues also mentioned the action from February 2026, giving the direction to the city manager to develop the policy framework. Additionally, on March 17, 2026, staff has been working on the climate action plan, which included action M6, which included the development of data center policy that incorporates environmental, community, and economic development consideration. And I also got briefed by our Climate and Sustainability Department in regards to the policy framework. Section 3B includes the recommendation of having no tax economic incentives for hyperscale data centers. So I know staff has been working hard on that and I've been reading through that entire policy. Also additionally how Mayor Pro Tem mentioned the item that we added in April, advocating at the state level and at the federal level to ensure that we protect taxpayers even further. But I just have one quick question. Ms. Mack, maybe you could answer this. Is the city of El Paso currently actively recruiting, pursuing, or looking to incentivize future data centers?

No.

Okay. That was the only question I have, Mayor. I just wanted to clarify that. I think it's important to highlight that because, again, similar to what my colleagues said, we care about our community. We live here. We breathe the same air. We drink the same water. And we want to ensure that the community is aware that we do care for our environment and for everyone. We want our community to be taken care of. So thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. Representative Limon.

Thank you, Mayor. Truly, this has been a very critical discussion point since we have come into office. Both this, the Deck Park, and several other things. And there's no doubt that with the people that were here today that took the time, people that have come forward to speak to us, we cannot hide and say that we don't know what the community wants. The community is very clear, very, very clear. And thank you, Representative Canales, for bringing this forth. I believe that with the work that Ms. Mack and her team are doing and with this information, that we're gonna come about with a very clear, solid message. And the message is simply, we don't want any more data centers in the city of El Paso. Thank you, Mayor.

Representative Rocha.

Thank you, Mayor. And I just want to thank the public that came today to speak, the ones that have waited all day to have their comments heard. Thank you to Rep. Canales for bringing this item across the finish line. I think there's been several meaningful ways to try to answer the overall question and concerns that we have regarding data centers. And so my question, Ms. Mack, would be, is there intent for all of this to come together into your document?

Yes, ma'am. So all the feedback that we've received received thus far. We intend to include we intend to make this document public, hopefully by the end of the day. and we'll also have an opportunity for comments that can help us to refine what will be the final document that you're going to take under consideration in June.