City Council - Regular Meeting

It is now 2.26 PM and the City Council will take a short lunch break and will return at 3 PM to reconvene the meeting.

Kim is trying to believe a ready to get started.

Yes, sir, Council is there a motion to reconvene. There's a motion and a second to reconvene the City Council meeting all in favor. Anyone opposed. The meeting is back in session at 3.02.

Let's take item number 27.

Yes, sir. Item 27 is a public hearing of an ordinance changing the zoning at 7321 North loop drive from our French and farm to see to commercial and imposing conditions.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, I'm back.

Is there a motion to approve item 27? All right, motion second. Good. You have a quick presentation.

Yes, again, good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Luis Zamora with Planning and Inspections. Item 27 is a resumption request for a property located at 7321 North Loop. I think the clickers, well, there you go. Thank you. So the property is located on Hawkins and North Loop, northeast corner. It is close to the PCC Valleverde campus. SO PROPERTY IS SOWN RF FRENCH AND FARM. THE REQUEST IS TO RESAWN TO C2 COMMERCIAL FOR PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT ON OFFICE WAREHOUSE DEVELOPMENT. FUTURE LAND USE OF THIS AREA IS DESIGNATED AS G4 SUBURBAN WHICH CALLS FOR ADDING MISSING CIVIC AND COMMERCIAL USES. Here we have a conceptual plan of the property. Again, this is not binding, just conceptual. As far as we know right now, the applicant proposed some office warehouse uses in this area. The zoning will open the property to other commercial uses as permitted in this area. It is currently vacant. It was an old dairy farm back in the day that was demolished, so right now it's kind of undeveloped. and subject properties around there. What we have mostly to the north and east, we have the EPCC by Iverde campus. To the south, we have some kind of retail homes across North Loop, and to the west, we have some general warehouses used as zone M3. The applicant did notify the appropriate neighborhood associations of this request when they submitted the application. We had notified property owners within 300 feet of the subject property, And at this time we have received only two phone calls from inquiry with no communication support or position to this request. We did notify 23 property owners of this application. And with this staff and city plan commission recommend approval with some conditions. The first one is that we require a landscape offer along other ranch and farm zone districts to just still protect. While there's not much agricultural happening here, it's still a low density zoning. So wanna make sure that we protect from a higher commercial zoning district. A condition to a study to side of on plan. At this time once they some staff can review the layout and then see the staff will also check if a traffic impact analysis will be required then we'll make sure to go through that process if needed. And the third one is to just kind of limit businesses that they're either more 51% or more than income from alcohol sales, as well as providing other amplified sound just to avoid concentration of these uses in the area. And with that, that concludes my presentation.

Representative Lima.

Thank you, Mayor. Luis, I'm just so concerned that more and more of the farmland is being turned over for commercial use. This is a pretty busy intersection, yet it's a residential right down the street. So we really don't know what they're going to do. I mean, it could be a logistics firm. It could be most anything, a warehouse.

Yeah, so I think one of the things to know is a general warehouse, which is typically just the heavy trucks and all day, that's not a permitted use. The office warehouse is a little different because it's mostly dealing with offices in there and then portion of it is dedicated for the warehousing for storage of those whatever items they're gonna sell. So it's a very different use, similar, but still very different from just warehousing, which is just typically semi trucks all day.

Okay, thank you.

Representative Brocha.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Luis. I know that Ms. Viagrana came out and she was in support of this item. She's from that neighborhood as well. I had a conversation with Rosedale. I was there about two and a half weeks ago. And that's the biggest concern that they have is that it's gonna turn into a logistics company. So thank you for putting those protections in there for them. And just if I could ask that you continue to keep them part of the conversation with the current owner. to make sure that what they want in their neighborhood is taken into account as well. Thank you, I appreciate it.

All right, any other questions for Luis? All right, Ms. Pryor.

The motion was made by Representative Limon, seconded by Alternate Mayor Pro Tempiero, and this is to adopt the ordinance on item 27. There's no public comment on that motion. Call for the vote. And the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously.

Thank you. How could they?

Ms. Bryan, let's take item number 28.

Item 28 is a public hearing of an ordinance authorizing the conveyance of real property owned by the city of El Paso to Fire Development LLC for the purchase price of $87,000. The property described as lots 15 and 16, block 17, map of Lincoln Park addition, in addition to the city of El Paso, El Paso County, Texas.

Good afternoon, Mary Lou.

Good afternoon, Mayor Kaufman.

Is there a motion? Move to approve. There we go.

Okay.

Motion and second?

Go ahead. So this item is regarding the property sale agreement for 4425 Rosa, also known as property identification number 236416. This was brought before Council in September of 2025. Council vetted it as surplus property and approved it for its listing. In accordance with the Texas local government code, the property was marketed via a broker and listed for at least 30 days on that multi-listing service. The cross streets are Rosa and Mar. The property is 0.14 acres. It's zoned smart code. It was listed October 8th of 2025. The proposed buyer is Fire Development LLC. The appraised value is $84,000 and the purchase price is $87,000 plus closing costs. We received two offers and we recommend selling the property to the highest offer.

Okay, Ms. Bryant, I believe we have public comment on this item.

Yes, there is. Araceli Rivera. Araceli Rivera. I don't see her coming forward. I just tell you the better.

Any further questions on this item number 28.

OK this Frank has a motion was made by representative us a battle seconded by representative lemon and this is to adopt the ordinance on item 28. On that motion. Call for the vote. In the voting session. That motion passes unanimously.

And the second number 29 place.

Item 29 is a public hearing of an ordinance authorizing the city manager to sign a deed and any other necessary documents to convey approximately 330.26 acres of land legally described as Laura E Monday survey to 34 a portion of track to El Paso County, Texas.

Representative Chavez, you want to make a motion on this? Motion to second. All right. Motion to second. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Council. Alex Vidales, El Paso Water Utility Land and Water Rights Manager. This is for the sale of property of approximately 330 acres to the highest successful responsible bidder, which was Hunt. And I have a brief counsel on this. I'm happy to answer any questions.

OK. Questions for Alex on this particular item? I DON'T SEE A PRESENTATION THERE.

OTHER THAN THE MAP THAT'S IN YOUR BACKUP, WHICH IS ON PAGE 142 OF THE LEGISLATURE OR 1518 ON THE PACKAGE.

OKAY. QUESTIONS FOR ALEX?

The motion was made by Mayor Pro Tem Chavez, seconded by Alternate Mayor Pro Tem Ferro, and this is to adopt the ordinance on item 29. There is no public comment on that motion. Call for the vote. Voting session is open.

REPRESENTATIVE FIERRO.

I RECEIVED A CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION FROM WOODY HUNT.

OK. REPRESENTATIVE CANALES. THANK YOU, MAYOR. YES. YEAH, THE FORM IS NOT LISTED. I DON'T KNOW IF IT'S BECAUSE IT'S AN EL PASO WATER ITEM, BUT I ALSO IN 2022 RECEIVED A CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION FROM WOODY HUNT.

LET'S LIGHTEN UP REPRESENTATIVE ROCHA. I MEAN REPRESENTATIVE ACEVEDO.

I've also received a campaign contribution from Woody Hunt. Several.

Representative Trejo.

Thank you. I have also received contributions from Woody Hunt.

Representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor. I've also received contributions from Woody Hunt, although I think the purchaser of this item is Hunt Properties. But nevertheless, it's always better to be safe.

Thank you. Representative Nino.

Ditto, Mayor. I also received a contribution. Thank you.

REPRESENTATIVE LEMON.

I WOULD LIKE TO GO ON THE RECORD THAT I HAVE NOT EVER RECEIVED CONTRIBUTION FROM HUNT. VERY PROUD OF THAT.

I HAVE RECEIVED A CAMPAIGN DONATION, TOO, FROM THE HUNT. WITH THAT SAID, MS. BRYANT, CALL FOR THE VOTE. REPRESENTATIVE CHAVEZ.

Thank you, Mayor. I just want to verbally express my gratitude to Hunt Properties for eyeing this site in District 1 and for having the vision to develop this area in my district, because I think it's going to be a great addition in the future for all of my community. So very grateful for their contributions, not only to District 1, but to the city of El Paso.

Thank you, Representative Chavez. Ms. Bryan?

Voting session is open, Council. Let me start it once again. Voting session is open. and the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Councilor.

Thank you. And Ms. Bryan, we're going to do a little bit of reordering here before we take items number four and five. Instead of taking 30, let's move 35 up.

Yes, sir. representative trey oh let me let you read it 35 is discussion and action directing the city manager and city attorney to coordinate the drafting of a community agreement between the city of el paso and meta platforms inc the agreement shall address environmental protections financial commitments utility infrastructure improvements rate payer protection workforce development initiatives support for the advanced training center and the community accountability measures including safeguards related to water and electric utility resources. The agreement should also include El Paso first hiring commitments on the additional 300 operational jobs associated with the data center located in northeast El Paso. Further direct the city manager to continue the series of roundtable discussions facilitated by an independent moderator with suggested roundtable participants, including the mayor, the city attorney, representatives from El Paso Water, El Paso Electric, the El Paso Chamber, Kepar, Meta Platforms Inc., a resident representative, and an environmental advocate to assist in the development of the final community agreement. Staff shall return to city council within 45 days with a draft agreement for consideration. in action. Deciding was placed by Representatives Boya Trejo and Madonado Rocha.

Motion to approve? Second.

All right, there's a motion and a second. Representative Trejo.

Thank you. I wanted to share that over the past several months, I've had ongoing conversations with META during the many, sharing the very many concerns of our community. And these discussions focused on areas such as environmental protection, financial commitments, utility infrastructure improvements, repair protections, and workforce development opportunities. I want to be clear that these conversations didn't just recently begin. For the last 10 months or so, I've been working to identify ways to bring meaningful benefits and accountability measures to our community. Last August, we hosted a District 4 community meeting with El Paso Water and El Paso Electric to ensure residents had the opportunity to discuss, ask questions, and share concerns regarding the utility impacts of the data center. In November of last year, I brought forward an advanced skills development center agenda, which was unanimously approved by council. This initiative was to explore workforce opportunities and potential meta grant funding. In February this year, I brought an agenda council item to develop a data center policy framework and review of 380 agreements. That was also approved and will be presented to council. In April of this year I supported the agenda council item to advance legislative agenda changes and to support stronger transparency, accountability and standards for data center initiatives at a state and local, I mean at a state and federal level. Last month I supported another council agenda item excuse me, not to actively recruit, pursue, or incentivize hyperscale data centers, and both of those items passed. Some have asked why these things were not done before. with the original agreement? And the answer is this agreement, the previous agreement was approved by the previous council. I and most of the council members sitting here today were not here when the original agreement was signed in 2023. I spent most of my year and a half in this office advocating for the interest of our residents and working to address the concerns that have been consistently raised by our community. What makes this effort unique is that this initiative that I'm proposing today focuses on creating community-centered agreement and is the first of its kind. This item is not to amend any existing agreement and it is a completely independent agreement. This process was designed to bring together residents, community organizations, utility providers, business leaders, labor representatives, environmental advocates, and other stakeholders to help shape the framework of an agreement between the city and META. By gathering input on a broad range of perspectives, we can better ensure that the priorities, concerns, and interests of our community are represented. The goal is to ensure that all perspectives are heard and considered as we move forward. That is why this item includes community round tables discussions with an independent moderator. MEDA has provided a formal letter of support expressing their commitment to this process and working collaboratively with the community. A copy has been provided to council And I just want to read a small part of it where it states their support. And it states, we are supportive of using a roundtable process to discuss with the city further ways to demonstrate our deep and ongoing commitment to the El Paso community. We believe in a collaborative process informed by voices and residents, community leaders, and local partners can help ensure transparency and strengthen trust. Now I want to be clear that I am neither pro-data centers or anti-data centers. My responsibility is to do the best for our community with what we inherited. Again, the focus is ensuring accountability and securing benefits for our residents, and I respectfully ask my colleagues to support this item. It is an opportunity to establish a community-driven model. Most importantly, it allows us to work together towards solutions, ensuring META is a responsible community partner and neighbor. Thank you.

Thank you. Representative Rocha.

Thank you Mayor, and thank you Rep. Trejo for your words and for the opportunity to come onto this item. I think that the piece at its core is that this is intended to be community driven through those roundtable discussions which the first one started last week. And you made it available to the public through the YouTube platform. And so I think that these are great opportunities for the community to be involved. And Ms. Mack, I look forward to, you know, should this pass, I look forward to these future roundtables, discussions. to be very productive and to really bring those community concerns to the table and to be able to have that continuing conversation with META to be able to answer these concerns that the community does have. And we all have them. But just to be able to make sure that those that are at, I think I heard earlier, ground zero, really don't get affected.

or we limit their effect completely so thank you for that and thank you representative chavez thank you mayor and thank you to representative boyer trejo and maldonado rocha for sponsoring this item um and for having um you know just giving us the opportunity to have these discussions because i know that they're necessary and very much uh needed in our community I had the opportunity to meet with Metta a couple of weeks ago when they were in town. They came to my office and we discussed our ongoing relationship with them after council approved this agreement with them in 2023 and they started development in the Northeast. We asked them or I asked them specifically that day to come to the table in a bigger way for our community and to show good faith and really show us that they were committed to being a corporate partner in our community. And they were very receptive to that idea. At that time, I also brought forth an idea to them in that meeting, which is the establishment of a fund potentially that they could contribute towards and that we as a city and as a council could decide moving forward HOW TO MAKE THE BEST USE OF THOSE FUNDS. WE'RE CURRENTLY DOING THAT THROUGH THE TED FUND, THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FUND THAT WE ACQUIRED AFTER THE SELL OF EL PASO ELECTRIC OR DURING THAT TIME, AND WE USE THOSE FUNDS FOR DIFFERENT PROJECTS IN OUR CITY. THOSE CONVERSATIONS START AT THE STAFF LEVEL THROUGH THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT, THROUGH OUR LEGAL DEPARTMENT, AND THEN AS A COUNCIL, WE VOTE TO IDENTIFY THE NEEDS OF OUR COMMUNITY AND HOW TO DISTRIBUTE THOSE FUNDS DEPENDING ON WHAT THE NEEDS ARE. AND I TOLD MEDA THAT POTENTIALLY THEY COULD ALSO START A FUND SIMILAR TO THAT ONE WHERE WE COULD IDENTIFY AS A COUNCIL NEEDS IN OUR COMMUNITY THAT WE NEEDED TO CONTRIBUTE TOWARDS. AND THEY WERE VERY OPEN TO THAT. SO I THINK THIS AGENDA ITEM, REPRESENTATIVE TREJO, IS A GOOD START TO THOSE TYPES OF CONVERSATIONS IN ADDITION TO EVERYTHING THAT YOU'VE ALREADY LAID OUT. maybe potentially starting a fund would be very beneficial I think for our community. We can't go back and undo what's already been determined in the past, but what we can do is to continue advocating for our community and to ensure that they have accountability. SO I WOULD LIKE TO OFFER AN AMENDMENT, MAYOR AND COUNCIL, THAT SAYS FURTHER DIRECT THE CITY MANAGER AND CITY ATTORNEY TO ENGAGE META PLATFORMS INC. IN DISCUSSIONS REGARDING THE POTENTIAL ESTABLISHMENT OF A COMMUNITY INVESTMENT FUND FOR THE PURPOSE OF SUPPORTING LONG TERM PUBLIC BENEFIT PROJECTS AND COMMUNITY PRIORITIES IDENTIFIED BY THE CITY OF EL PASO. Staff shall return to city council with recommendations regarding the feasibility structure, administration, and any proposed framework for consideration and action. And again, this is just starting the conversation. It's a discussion regarding potentially a fund that they could contribute towards and that we as a council in the future could decide where to best invest that money. We have a lot of needs in El Paso and we want to make sure that we are again having these discussions with META so that we can further contribute towards those needs in our community. So I will send you that language, Ms. Pine, and if you could send it to the council. I appreciate it, and again, thank you so much to Representative Trejo and Rocha.

All right, so we have a motion to amend the main motion? Second.

Okay.

Representative Canales.

Yes, I have a comment on the amendment that's proposed. Sure. Is the intention that this fund would be limited to any particular type of use? I mean, Ted Fund has very particular limits on uses within economic development, within the service territory of El Paso Electric, for example. I'm sure the language is making its way to me digitally, but I didn't hear anything about any particular uses that the fund would be restricted to. Would it just be a fund that the city council could spend on anything?

Yeah, I think right now I'm keeping the language broad because what we want is to be successful in this effort. So the language says for the purpose of supporting long-term benefit projects, and community priorities. So it's very general, and that's intentional.

Okay. I'm interested in the exploration of this. I think it could be incredibly beneficial, for example, if the fund were limited to, say, funding projects in the Climate Action Plan that the Council has adopted. providing a direct counterweight to some of the environmental impacts of META. We can leave it vague for now, but I think if this passes and we move toward the development of that, I think those are a set of projects that we've already identified and this council has already adopted that we need longer term funding sources for. And so I'd be interested in seeing that explored as the potential use of any fund that gets created.

Representative can I was I had originally labeled infrastructure quality of life and a lot of things specifically, but again, my intention is to make sure that this is as successful as possible. So I'm keeping it intentionally vague, so that and met is open to the idea so that we can continue the conversation with them, and hopefully, be successful with this.

Perfect analysis.

Yeah, again, it's something that I've thought about bringing forward in a different way. I guess just letting everybody know that that's where my thinking is and I I may come forward with something similar to that in the future which now may take the place of providing additional guidance on this. You know the creation of a potential fund.

Thank you represent here. Thank you mayor may pretend I think leaving a fake was very positive this allows miss Mac and her team to come back in 45 days and where it will be able to really make it what's really important for our community. So thank you for your amendment.

Representative Trejo. Thank you, Mayor.

Yes, I agree also with this community investment fund. It should be vague since you're having community input. It's very important to have the community input and what they would like to see from this. So thank you for bringing this up.

Representative Nino.

I was going to share the same sentiment in regards of, you know, the item specifically mentions more community input, the roundtable conversations. And I think, you know, we've heard a lot from different members of our community of what the priorities are. So even more in these roundtable conversations, we'll be able to hear more of what the priorities are. And thank you for making that amendment as well.

Representative Lamont.

Thank you, Mayor. Representative Chavez, in your comments, it sounds like And like this is a done deal, like you've already had your communications with META, they're in agreement with this kind of a setup, is that correct or not?

I mentioned it to them when we had a meeting. That doesn't mean it's a done deal. That's what this direction is intentionally doing. It's directing the city manager and the city attorney to continue that conversation with them and then come back to us with recommendations.

I was just wondering, when you talk about talking to META, is it a high-ranking official? Is it a public information person? What level are we discussing here?

It's the three officials that have been actively conversing with several people at the city level.

OK, but we don't know which if it's high ranking official or a public information people. Thank you.

It's it's the individuals that Meta has determined should be the front and center people that should be speaking to us at the city level. And I'm very grateful that they're receptive. But again, the intention here is to be successful.

Thank you, Representative. Any further conversation on the amendment? Okay, Ms. Bryant, on the amendment.

Yes, sir. The motion was made by Mayor Pro Tem Chavez, seconded by Representative Madonado-Rocha, and this is to amend item 35 to add the following statement. Further direct the city manager and city attorney to engage Meta Platforms, Inc. in discussions regarding the potential establishment of a community investment fund for the purpose of supporting long-term public benefit projects and community priorities identified by the city of El Paso, staff shall return to city council with recommendations regarding the feasibility, structure, administration, and any proposed framework for consideration and action. On that motion, call for the vote on the amendment. in the voting session, and that amendment passes unanimously.

Okay, Ms. Brown, let's take the main motion.

We do have public comment.

Okay.

We have Ms. Tara Mitchell. Tara Mitchell. I don't believe she's in the room, sir.

Okay, Representative Acevedo.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for bringing this item to our attention and our consideration. I overall am supportive of it. I think that there is a lot of aspirational things in here, just my trust with META isn't at a great place, but I think we should at least try, right? And I see this as trying on a lot of different fronts from environment to water, to pay your protection fund, localized workforce education pipeline. Specifically on that one, I know that there has been a commercial that META has been airing during the news hour, the 10 o'clock hour over the last few weeks on how they're doing stuff with workforce. So I think that there might be something that can come out of that in terms of training and that's what they've also told me in conversations that I've had with them. I had the luck of running into Ana Martinez last week and we had an impromptu meeting and we confirmed in the hallway that it is my old classmate that I had mentioned two weeks ago. And so after we caught up, after not seeing each other for years, we we kind of talked through um how how meta has in my opinion been um discussing and treating discussing items and treating the city and how unhappy i've been with that and so i appreciated the opportunity to kind of let her know um you know the the water fund that they created for for people was about twenty thousand dollars and you I really want to see something out of META that's going to actually help the community. I'm not sure that I've seen a lot of that so far. There's been a lot of empty promises. It's hard for me to believe their word when they've gone back on it several times. Like we discussed last council meeting, the project is a lot different than it was in 2023. Back then, I believe the council understood that. This would be for cloud storage. It's turned into a hyperscale AI data center that is ten times bigger, at the very least $10 billion in investment. We've heard from people that that live near the data center and their concerns with it. And and that has really been keeping me up at night and how they're going to be able to handle this. Overall, I think that I I want to see what else we can do. Anything that we can do, throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks is what we need to do with this at this point, given what has transpired over the last few months in our community. But I also just want to make it very clear that I'm not here to say that I trust Mehta today. I'm not sure that I'm ever going to trust them just because of the track record that they've had in our community. AND I ALSO WANT TO TAKE THE OPPORTUNITY AND USE SOME OF MY TIME TO ALLOW THE PUBLIC TO KNOW WHAT META SAID TO US IN THEIR LETTER DATED TO US THAT MS. PRINE SHARED WITH US THIS MORNING. IT SAYS JUNE 23, 2026, EL PASO CITY COUNCIL, 300 NORTH CAMPBELL STREET, EL PASO, TEXAS, 79901. Honorable Mayor Johnson and members of the El Paso City Council, thank you for your leadership in convening the ongoing series of community roundtable discussions regarding META's data center. We are grateful for the opportunity to participate and look forward to engaging in a productive dialogue with you, community stakeholders, and our partners at El Paso Water and El Paso Electric. We are proud to have a presence in El Paso and remain committed to being a good neighbor to the community. We welcome this forum as an opportunity to listen, share information about our operations and commitments, and work together to ensure that our presence strengthens the community for years to come. As you know, Meta has made significant and binding commitments to the El Paso community. Our data center represents an investment of more than $10 billion. We'll support over 300 operational jobs and more than 4,000 skilled trade workers at peak construction. We have entered into legally binding agreements with the City of El Paso, El Paso County, El Paso Water, and El Paso Electric that govern our commitments, stipulate taxes we pay, infrastructure projects we must fund, and the environmental protections we uphold. Beyond these agreements, we will launch our annual Data Center Community Action Grants Program this fall, providing direct funding for local nonprofits to support the community. Additionally, we have invested in workforce development through partnerships with El Paso public schools and other local organizations and through hiring locally. We are working with Workforce Solution Borderplex to support local community access to America's Workforce Academy, a free skilled trades training where participants are guaranteed a job upon graduation with a Meta partner at one of our data center sites, including Meta's El Paso data center. We are so proud to fund water restoration projects that will restore 200% of the water consumed by the data center to local watersheds. We have worked closely and collaboratively with the city of El Paso, El Paso County, El Paso Water, and El Paso Electric on our existing binding agreements and want to ensure the broader El Paso community has a clear understanding of these commitments and knows we are devoted to being good neighbors. We're supportive of using the roundtable process to discuss with the city further ways to demonstrate our deep and ongoing commitment to the El Paso community. We believe a collaborative process informed by the voices of residents, community leaders, and local partners can help ensure transparency and strengthen trust. We look forward to the conversations ahead. Please do not hesitate to reach out if there's anything we can do to help ensure these roundtables are a success. Sincerely, Ana Martinez, Director of Public Policy and Meta. So, you know, a lot of this is really reading to me in the sense that not much is going to change. They remind us that there are binding agreements a few times throughout. And I really hope that they prove me wrong. I mean, they mentioned those grants that are going to open in the fall. They're awarded in the spring. And they have had that in Fort Worth, like I mentioned last time, $5.4 million in eight years. It's not very much money. And so I... I'm hoping that I'm wrong, but everything that they've shown me tells me otherwise so Overall, I think we need to proceed with caution and not completely trust what they're going to say to us But with that in mind, you know represent barter who I I thank you for leading the last week and putting that roundtable together with different people from around the around the community But there's still one sticking point that my constituents continue to, you know, tell me over the last few months, and this is bare minimum, at the very least, this is what they want to see, you know, and they want to see community meetings. And what Meta has told me is, you know, they're not doing that at this time. Ana last week said, yeah, maybe that wasn't the best way to answer that question. Maybe we could see in the future. There wasn't a big commitment on a lot of things. IT DOES FEEL LIKE VERY SCRIPTED ANSWERS THAT WE CONTINUE TO GET FROM META OVER AND OVER AND OVER. AND SO JUST TO END THIS 10-MINUTE BLOCK, I DO WANT TO OFFER AN AMENDMENT AS WELL AFTER THE SECOND PARAGRAPH. In the item. I want to say I moved to include in addition direct the city manager and city attorney to formal formally request of meta that they hold eight community meetings to solicit feedback from the El Paso community offer security via El Paso Police Department for these meetings and share information with the public about their data center within the next 120 days.

Okay, there's a motion and a second. Any discussion on the amendment?

And I have sent this over to Ms. Prang to share with the rest of council.

Okay. Representative Canales, on the amendment.

Yes. The language of the amendment says eight community meetings. Is there a reason why it's eight?

Eight districts. I figured they could go to each council district.

Okay, but the language doesn't specify each council district, just that they have to have eight meetings?

We could add council districts in each of the council districts.

You want to repeat that?

Yeah, let me let me resend that to Ms. Pai. Thank you for bringing that up.

And then, you know, it says using the services of El Paso Police Department is the intent that they will pay for security for their own event?

I think they could figure that out with the city manager. But one of the things that they kept saying is that they had security concerns. And we could have them pay for it. They definitely could afford it.

Yeah, I just worry about telling a private entity that they have to pay. They have to hold meetings using the police department and that they have to pay for the use of the police department. Like they could hire whatever private security.

If they want to figure out their own security, we could leave that part out if that makes you better, makes you feel better.

Yeah, again, it really has nothing to do with meta in particular. In this case, I just worry about the precedent of saying you have to hold meetings and you have to pay us to provide the security.

Okay, no, then we'll take that up.

That's on there representing you on the amendment.

Anyone else on the amendment.

I sent it over spring represent trail.

I wanted to make sure what the wording was on the amendment.

It hasn't come through yet. OK I just received it let me forward to council. CHS sent it to council.

Ms. Bryan, for the public, can you read that out loud, please?

Yes, it says the amendment is to add, in addition, direct the city manager and city attorney to formally request of META that they hold eight community meetings across the council districts to solicit feedback from the El Paso community and share information with the public about their data center within the next 120 days.

Okay, Representative Chavez.

Thank you Mayor. Overall I think it's a good idea. I'm just wondering if Ms. Newman could tell us I mean even if this amendment were to pass could we legally require that META hold these community meetings?

You're simply asking for them to engage with the public as an additional community outreach. It has nothing to do with the current agreement.

Yes, but Representative Acevedo just recently told us he didn't want to instill false hope to the community. So I just want to make sure that we're clear. Even if this amendment were to pass, we could request it, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to agree to that. Is that correct? That's correct. Thank you.

Okay. Okay. Ms. Bryant?

Yes, and so this is on the amendment made by Representative Acevedo, seconded by Representative Limon, and this is to add the words, in addition, direct the city manager and city attorney to formally request of META that they hold eight community meetings across the council districts to solicit feedback from the El Paso community and share information with the public about their data center within the next 120 days. On that amendment, call for the vote. in the voting session and the amendment passes unanimously.

Okay, let's go back to the main motion, Ms. Frey.

Yes, sir. So this will be motion made by Representative Trejo, seconded by Representative Maldonado-Rocha, and this is to approve the item as revised.

Representative Canales.

Thank you, Mayor. I still have some lingering questions. Again, I have a very solid grasp of what a community benefits agreement is. I don't know how a community agreement without the word benefits differs from that. Is the intention that this is an agreement that we would look to enter into formally that would be a legally binding agreement with META, like a community benefits agreement would be?

So it would be an agreement. I guess Ms. Neiman can answer the question better, but it is an agreement between the city and META. But there's also additional agreements possibly from this, right? If they're looking to do infrastructure with El Paso Water or if they're doing something with El Paso Electric. And so those are things that we as a city cannot commit to that. And that's why there's been that change of language because it pertains to several different things that are being considered here. but I would think that would be a question for Ms. Neiman to answer.

So I was invited to attend a meeting last week with Representative Trejo and Ana Martinez from Metta, as well as Provere Metta, who is a VP in Washington, D.C., along with Holly, and I apologize, I can't recall her name. They were present on Zoom, and the conversation that Representative Trejo brought up was about the community benefits agreement. It is my understanding based on their representations that they cannot do a community benefits agreement like they've done in other communities because those are tied to the 380. And they were very clear that they would not reopen the 380. That was coming out of their mouth. I think that that was why they sent this proposed letter here today. My understanding is that as a result of these amendments, if they pass, that there would be discussions with the public about potential agreements that could be entered with other governmental entities or other nonprofits to achieve some of the ends that maybe the public would like to see. That's my understanding of where we are here today. I don't have anything else to add, and I don't know really what META's position is going to be once the discussions start.

Yeah, I guess I understand that. I'm trying to understand our position and whether or not we'd be trying to aim for an agreement that is legally binding.

so from from our limited understanding of what they are proposing after speaking to representative trejo is that they have not done these types of agreements in the past they've only done them as part of a 380 and that they would come back with some proposals i'm not prepared to tell you what that looks like because i haven't seen it and i don't know what it looks like What we are being directed here to do is to have conversations with the public and then present those items to META and leave it up to them to decide how they're going to propose these issues. They were very clear that they would not open the 38.

Yeah, of course, but I don't think this is asking them in any way to open the 380 agreement. There can be a totally separate agreement from a 380 agreement that's a separate legal binding agreement.

Correct, and I don't have enough information to give you a full legal explanation as to what that would look like at this point. Once the conversations begin and we have conversations, then maybe we can have a more thorough discussion about what those would look like.

Okay. And so we haven't had conversations with Meta then about the terms that are included in this proposal on the agenda today?

No, sir, I have not. The proposal was on the agenda last week. The meeting with Meta was minutes before the item was posted, and they've taken that position and sent this letter.

OK. And then this provides a timeline of 45 days. Staff shall return to the city council within 45 days with a draft agreement for consideration and action. Would that be action? I mean, I don't know that that could be approval. That's conditioned on META wanting to enter into an agreement in the first place and agreeing to terms. And what would be the action in 45 days?

it would be just that so the city would come back with the draft of course it'd be what the discussion that we're having today taking an action to move forward or not move forward uh you know i've asked miss neiman if 45 days is enough miss neiman i mean uh miss mack if if 45 days is enough to be able to put this together she felt it was reasonable this is a conversation so now we've added the the item of eight eight community meetings in 120 days it doesn't state that that would be part of the disagreement and so that's another thing to take into consideration but the 45 days was sufficient with what we were originally speaking of

OK, I guess still what I'm trying to understand is, is this 45 days for staff to unilaterally on our side develop a draft that then comes to the council and we decide whether we want to bring that draft to META for their consideration, or is the idea that we have a bilaterally negotiated agreement in 45 days.

It's an agreement between both parties and agree to an agreement. And so having these roundtable discussions, they're going to be receiving input from the community. And that's how this is going to be formulated. So I have these items that I brought here on the agenda item. This is what the community has shared, right? We're concerned about resources. We're concerned about electricity, the air emissions, and things like that. So all these are the conversations that are going to be taking place over the roundtable. And in these roundtables, they're going to start formulating what the agreement should entail. So the initial thought was to have four roundtable discussions with these individuals that have come to the first roundtable. And then this can be formulated within those 45 days.

Okay, and only those individuals who attended the first roundtable will be welcome at the future roundtables?

No, we'll adjust the membership based on where we think the conversation will go, but I think it's clear that this really is going to be driven in large part about META's willingness to provide some service and so I think they need to be at the table and I think we have the commitment to have them at the table I think it's going to be important to understand know what they're going to bring and then make sure that we're bouncing some of those ideas you know off the community to make sure that there's alignment there our thinking was that we could at least have those initial conversations and in 45 days at least bring something back it may not be a final but at least it's a check-in with you all in terms of the discussions that we've had You know, what are those things that we see, whether there's any gaps or that can be a public discussion for everyone so we can all be on the same page about where we're going with it.

Okay.

And we, as we were looking at these categories, one of the reasons why we changed the language for cooperate is that, you know, as the rep said, some of these elements are not things that are, you know, in our purview. You know, you may have an agreement that's with the water utility. We've already talked about what workforce solutions might be working on. So as we're talking about those categories, we would certainly want to have the experts who would be directly involved in those type of agreements at the table so we can all have a good understanding of what the impact will be. And so then we would bring that back to council for consideration.

Okay and then it further states that the discussions would be pardon me facilitated by an independent moderator. Are we being asked to authorize an expenditure for the hiring of a moderator?

I don't think we have to. So part of the discussion that I had with the representative was I understand that the first session there were lots of questions that were asked. I think that the first session should be a follow-up to those questions really sort of putting some Structure around getting answers to people so the first series should be a follow-up with answers to those questions and then as we're talking about understanding what the pillars that we have listed here might be and there might be another opportunity for us to have more of a facilitated discussion. My early conversations with strategic and legislative affairs is that we would love to reach out to partners at UTEP, who I think would volunteer to play that role, who specialize in some of these areas. And so that would give us another voice. And that would give someone who is not regularly involved in these discussions. So I don't think that we would have to spend resources.

issue that people really care about and I think that we will have qualified people you know stepping up to really help us through these processes okay and then I just wanted to be sure like this after the first two paragraphs just kind of launches into categories with terms are these are we limiting ourselves to the terms that are listed here it doesn't say that it goes beyond what's listed on the

No, it is not a limitation. These were the initial discussions and concerns of the residents. And this is something that I've shared with META, the concerns. I stayed with, I have not strayed from what I've shared with META. But these are open discussions, right? There's a lot that can come from this. I guess you can look at this as a skeleton of what could be, right? And it's going to come mostly from the community and the input and those conversations.

OK, yeah, I just think it's very important that the record today reflect that we capture that idea that this is a skeleton of what could be, but not an exhaustive list. I think I'm hearing that this is a reflection of what the residents want, but I don't know that residents of District 8 have had the same input or the same ability to weigh in on what might be included in an agreement. And I do think there are potentially different interests across the city in terms of ways that the public might benefit from this type of agreement, depending on proximity to the site and the way that they're impacted in different parts of the city. And so I just wanna make sure that we have the understanding that this is a limited potential set of terms in an agreement, but not an exhaustive set of terms that could be possible. That's correct. Okay, that's all for now. Thank you.

Representative Nino.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Representative Boyar-Trejo, and Maldonado for bringing this forward. Maldonado Rocha. I know I've asked Ms. Neiman a lot of questions, and I've done a lot of research on community benefit agreements, and one of my biggest questions has been how do we make this enforceable? how to make this legally binding. And a lot of CBAs are tied to developments or 3D agreements or other types of agreements, which is essentially what I believe Representative Boyar-Trejo removed the CBA language from it. But what I really want to focus on is on whatever, you know, comes forward from this is that we create a legally binding enforceable document that holds META accountable. I don't think that at the end of this conversation or when this comes forward, I don't want it to just be a one pager saying this is what we're committing to. I want it to really be something that both parties really sat at the table, created some sort of agreement and that we could fully enforce. So I'm going to make an amendment as well where it states, furthermore, the proposed community agreement shall be structured as a legally enforceable agreement under Texas law, including clearly defined obligations, measurable performance standards, reporting requirements, monitoring provisions, notice and cure procedures, remedies for noncompliance, and provisions binding upon successors and assigns as determined appropriate by the city attorney. And I think it's important to advocate for that so that we could reassure our community that we are having the best interest of them in ensuring that there's a lot of different community protections overall and that we're able to successfully have a legally binding agreement that holds them also accountable. So that would be my motion, Mayor.

OK. There's a motion. Is there a second? Second.

Second.

Motion and second. Any discussion on the amendment? Representative Trejo.

Thank you. I just want to ask Ms. Neiman her thoughts on that amendment and in the conversations that we've had with MEDA.

Again, I think that these are preliminary discussions with the council. META should be listening to this discussion. I will wait to see what these discussions look like before we come back with something. It's too early for me to give you my analysis on your proposal, Representative Nino. I hear you loud and clear, and if the item passes, we'll have to go back and have those discussions and then report back.

Ms. Bryant?

Yes, sir. The motion was made by Representative Nino, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Chavez, and this is to amend item 35 to add the words, furthermore, the proposed community agreement shall be structured as a legally enforceable agreement under Texas law, including clearly defined obligations MEASURABLE PERFORMANCE STANDARDS, REPORTING REQUIREMENTS, MONITORING PROVISIONS, NOTICE AND CURE PROCEDURES, REMEDIES FOR NONCOMPLIANCE AND PROVISIONS BINDING UPON SUCCESSORS AND ASSIGNS AS DETERMINED APPROPRIATE BY THE CITY ATTORNEY.

CALL FOR THE VOTE, MS. FRANK.

ON THAT MOTION, CALL FOR THE VOTE. in the voting session, and the amendment passes seven to one. Representative Limon voting nay, the remainder of council voting aye.

Okay, back on the main motion.

The main motion was made by Representative Trejo, seconded by Representative Maldonado-Rocha, and this is to approve the item as amended.

Representative Limon.

Thank you, Mayor. Let me begin first by saying I voted no because all of a sudden we've got a motion that's running almost two pages deep on what we have presented to us. I think that the last motion is putting MIDA in a situation that we're not even sure, we're not even sure that they're gonna come to the table and even remotely, agree to all of these items that have been put forth so just as a thought meta is worth 1 trillion 400 billion dollars that's the last estimate that i saw and i want to reflect on something that and i wrote this down el paso matters reported that through the dig deep meta would provide first-time homes running water in 28 homes in the colonias. Not within the city, but in the colonias. If we look at that and we think, oh my gosh, that is so wonderful. Well, it'll be really nice for the 28 homes, but that is equal to one-tenth of one percent of Mehta's worth. Here's a company that could very easily come in and say, yeah, we'll do all of these things. We'll do all of these community benefits agreements. We'll fund and build localized water recycling. We'll do all of these things. Future land. We'll do future land. All of these things. And yet, quite frankly, MEDA has not been at the table. Other than coming here for almost a year later, groundbreaking ceremony, I don't think that we really have had the opportunity. I'm not sure that the city manager or the city attorney have had the opportunity to do that. Zoom is one thing, person to person, that's another thing. I think that this is making a commitment and saying that, oh yeah, we're gonna do all of these things. Quite frankly, it reminded me of just a term that was used earlier. This is bringing false hope to the community. If we think that by passing this motion, and I'm going to vote for it, Mayor, I'll be voting for it. I would love nothing to see. I would love to see this come true. This is an incredible wish list. I do not anticipate Mehta will be coming forward. I don't think Mehta will be in agreement with any of the things that are put forth. And yes, I would love to have a community meeting in my district for Mehta to hear directly how this community feels and hears. We had over 180 people sign up last in two weeks ago. If anything, that was a huge comment. Today, we only had a few people that showed up because the feeling is, quite frankly, we're wasting our time. But I'm gonna support it in respect of you, Ms. Trejo. Thank you for putting it forth. I will support it, but I truly question whether anything will be able to come out of this. It's false hope. Thank you, Mayor.

Representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor. So yes, there has been a lot of misinformation out there. I think Representative Trejo briefly mentioned it earlier today when she said why these discussions or questions were not asked in the past. We don't know because most of us were not here in the past. We don't know. But what I do know is that you miss 100% of the shots that you don't take. So this is our chance today to have this conversation, to talk to Meta. And if we're successful, then we'll have something to show our community for it. And if, for whatever reason, Meta doesn't come to the table, then they'll have to do the explaining to the community. But it won't be us. It will be them. Giving up. is not an option for me. Thank you, Mayor.

All right, Representative Trejo, one last time on this apple. Go ahead.

Thank you. I just wanted to reply to Representative Limon. You know, this item was not to bring false hope. It was brought forward to bring the voice of the community to Meta. What this looks like at the end, I don't know, but they're willing to come forward to the table right now and have those discussions. And I'm looking forward to seeing what this looks like. I do see that there's a lot of amendments here, but we'll see what they're going to come forward with. I'm not here to speak for Metta. I'm here to speak for my community. And this was for my community to give them the voice and have Metta come to the table. Thank you.

Ms. Bryan.

Yes, Mayor. The motion was made by Representative Borrea-Trejo, seconded by Representative Malonado-Rocha. And this is to approve item 35 as amended. On that motion, call for the vote. End the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously.

Thank you, Ms. Prime. Before we take item 30, do we have the executive session items we were supposed to do?

Yes, sir, that would be executive session item number one. Mayor Potem.

Thank you, Ms. Prine. Motion made, seconded and carried that the city attorney in consultation with the city manager be authorized to hire and retain outside counsel and any other necessary consultants and to file an intervention in the El Paso Electric Company's application to amend its certificate of convenience and necessity to replace the existing eddy high voltage direct current tie under the Texas Public Utility Commission docket number 59836 in matter number HIQ utility dash 90 and to take all steps necessary, including the execution of any required documents in order to effectuate this authority.

Okay, there's a motion. Is there a second? Second. Okay.

There's a motion made and read into the record by Mayor Pro Tem Chavez, seconded by Representative Alonado Rocha, and this is on EX1. And this is to intervene and hire outside counsel and consultants on that motion. Call for the vote. in the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously.

OK, Ms. Bryan, let's take items number four and five that were moved out of consent agenda.

Can we do the rest of the EX? Sure. Just for the record. EX 2?

I forgot.

No action. Thank you. EX 3? No action. Thank you.

Representative Neiman.

I have a question on EX 2, if I could ask Ms. Neiman. You know, also online, I've read a lot of individuals or seen videos where individuals have shared specifically about this EX2 item, and I'm not gonna talk about what gets discussed in executive, I had alerted Ms. Neiman that I would ask what the purpose of us going into executive is, specifically when it comes to the CCNs, right? I think there's assumption from members of the public that we meet behind closed doors and that there's some sort of conversation even with the company, electric company, which we don't sit in a room with the electric company, rather, it's legal advice providing information from legal experts as to why we're advocating and fighting for Opaswans. You know, the CCN specifically, we were notified, the filing happened in December, we were notified in January. On January 6th, this council unanimously voted to intervene, meaning we voted to take part of the actual filing to advocate for Opaswans, meaning we're not just letting it pass, But the reason why we'll meet an executive is for those reasons is that we all could have the conversations of what is important for us to set community protections, specifically when it comes to such CCN. So Ms. Neiman, can you just touch briefly as to the reason why we go into an executive session for such filings?

Thank you, Representative Nino. The reason that the council is allowed to go into executive session is an exception under the Texas Open Meetings Act, which means that the law has determined that there are certain subject matters that discussing them in public would place the entity at risk or liability in discussing those issues in open session. But you are correct in terms of we discuss these items because it's not prudent for us to have the conversations in open because you are making decisions regarding strategy or recommendations that you're receiving behind closed doors. But what I think that the public should be made aware of, and this council has been very proactive, we are continuously issuing press releases in regards to a variety of filings that el paso electric is is currently ongoing and in this specific request you all will remember that we asked el paso electric at the request of the council that they come and present this filing specifically to the council in an open session which they did in april and you are correct that we routinely intervene and that's the technical term we use for joining in the filing of the state. So again, I hope that answers your question. We are going behind closed doors for you to receive additional information in regards to recommendations and decisions that you all need to make. But we are routinely keeping the public aware of those decisions like we did last week in regards to our filing and many of those filings are all of our filings are public at the state level and we did have an in-depth press release last week to take a position in the case which you all have right and the public has been made aware of but does that answer yes that's perfect and I'm grateful for you for providing that and I think it's important and I think I'm probably going to bring this up over and over so that the members of the public understand the reasons why we go into executive sessions it's not to

have some sort of secret conversation rather it's really strategizing and this specific filing shows proof of us advocating for the last six seven months that we're not just letting this McLeod generation facility be built right as it's what's it's intended for for the meta facility but I think overall it's really showing to the community that We all have had them in mind, and we're advocating for them to ensure that we have any and all protections for them. So thank you, Ms. Newman. Thank you, Mayor.

OK, Representative Canales, then we're going to move on to the rest of them. Go ahead.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. I just think one other very important thing to clarify is that because I've seen this misstated a lot, especially in recent weeks, there are zero votes that take place during executive session. The council doesn't deliberate about these items. The council doesn't vote.

Any item or anything at all in executive session 100% of the votes happen in open session And so it's actually not permitted under law for you to take action So that's correct all of the votes and miss you just saw that happen right now when the motion comes out of executive And the votes are happening in open in regards to the specific motion that we requested the council consider that's happening in open session and

Yeah, and so I've seen people saying that votes happen behind closed doors and that there's votes that the public is not allowed to be present for, and none of that is the case. 100% of the city council's votes take place right here in open session. That's correct. And then I think just one last, last clarifying thing, and that's that These filings that the utilities make before the regulatory bodies, whether that's El Paso Electric filing to the Public Utility Commission of Texas or Texas Gas filing with the Railroad Commission, those function like judicial cases essentially, like cases that go through the judicial system like a legal case. And so the city's intervention is essentially and then you know, that's a term of the Regulation, but it means that we become a party to that case and it means we have Typically our attorney is present when that case is heard in Austin It means that we file a legal briefs and rebuttals to testimony from the utilities. It basically is the city getting involved entirely as a party in the legal case. I think when you hear the council make, as we just did on the X1, a motion and approve a motion in open session to intervene in a case, that's what we mean. It's the city becoming a party to these active filings, which function like legal cases before these regulatory bodies at the state. I think it's important for the public to understand how that functions. It gets very complex. These filings are very long. And so it becomes important for us to receive all the information about what's happening in a particular case and then ultimately come out and make a decision about how we want to proceed with the legal advice.

Thank you, Mayor. Very good. Mayor Pro Temp.

EX2.

EX2, there's no action. No action. EX3? No action. Thank you. EX4? No action. Thank you. EX5? No action. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, we are on, we're gonna take items four and five that were in consent.

Yes, sir, and would you like to take those together?

Sure.

Okay, item four is a resolution requesting that the director of purchasing and strategic sourcing is authorized to notify Transamerica Protection Corporation that the city is terminating contract number 2024-0183 armored car services for default pursuant to attribute 29 Article 8 section B of this contract due to contractors violation of laws and regulations related to the performance of contract number 2024 dash 0, 1, 8, 3 and that the termination shall be effective as of June 23rd, 2026 and that the purchasing and strategic sourcing department also recommends that Transamerica Protection Corporation be disqualified from entering into any contract with the city for a period of 3 years For default and unsatisfactory performance item 5 is a resolution requesting that the director of purchasing a strategic source to be authorized to notify Transamerica corporation that the city is terminating contract number 2024 dash 0, 5, 2, 0, armored car services for default pursuant to attribute 29 article 8 section B of this contract. due to contractor's violation of laws and regulations related to the performance of contract number 2024-0520, and that the termination shall be as effective of June 23rd, 2026, that the Purchasing and Strategic Sourcing Department also recommends that Transamerica Protection Corporation be disqualified from entering into any contract with the city for a period of three years for default and unsatisfactory performance.

Okay, there's a motion to approve. Is there a second? Second.

represent Chavez can we see the presentation.

Sure, thank you. Good afternoon. I think it's a with purchasing and strategic source in the permit. So these 2 items are recommending termination for the following contracts to any 24, 0, 1, 83, 20, 24, 0, 5, 20, 20, 20, 3, 0, 1, 8, 8, for armored car services for default. Also, we are recommending that Transamerica be disqualified for entering into any contract with the city for three years for satisfactory performance. So the base of this recommendation, it is included in each of the contracts that we are recommending terminating. and it is indicating in a clause termination for default ADB. The city shall have the right to immediately terminate the contract for default if the contractor violates any local, state, or federal laws. rule or regulation that relate to the performance of this agreement. So in April, the city of El Paso filed a petition against Transamerica Protection Corporation and Robin Carol Rodriguez and El Paso County Court of Law for the breach of contract. And again, just a recommendation.

Representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor. And thank you. I know you did brief me and I had some questions at the time of the briefing, so I just thought it'd be beneficial for all of us to have this discussion. And I know you didn't have all the answers then either. So that's why I want to thank you for the opportunity. So on slide three, you said the city shall have the right to immediately terminate the contract for default if the contractor violates any local, state or federal laws. What did the contractor violate in this case?

So because of the petition that was filed, and I'm going to ask legally if they can speak about that. Okay, thank you.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Rep Chavez, to answer your question, money went missing.

Would you state your name for the record? Yes, Mayor.

Sergio Estrada with the City Attorney's Office for the record. We had money go missing that was collected by this entity from city facilities. Additionally, we had money that was deposited way after the date on which it was collected and deposited into bank accounts in denominations that were completely contrary to what the city had collected. So there's evidence of mishandling, misappropriating the funds. And these are all things that we've alleged in a lawsuit, so it's public record. So because of all that, they've violated the laws and they've breached the contract with the city of El Paso.

Okay, how long have we been doing business with this company?

I don't know how long we've been doing, well, sorry.

So we have in our records that we have been doing business with them since 2014, based on the records I have.

And when did we first become aware that there was mishandling of money?

So we were notified on December 2024.

Okay. Well, my next question, I guess, has to be, since December 24 until now, I mean, were they given a time to correct what was being mishandled, or what happened between then and now to make us come to this?

Yes, so the Utah Department was trying to coordinate with them to get clarification and to get the funds deposited. They were trying to contact them. We also, when notified, tried to contact them, too, and they weren't responsive to our attempts to resolve the situation.

So it's taken us about a year and a half, more or less, to come to this decision?

No, ma'am. There were two different contracts. And so initially, the findings were with municipal court. And I'll hand it to Ms. Cody.

Yes, ma'am. Nicole Cody, city manager's office. And so it's important that we identify that there is, as the city manager said, three separate contracts. So the first contract, this happened with municipal court. Municipal court filed the police report immediately. They also notified purchasing and legal of what had occurred. They did file, and we do have Chief Macias here as well. They did file the police report. And so that process was the first part of the process. The contract was terminated. where it expired, I should say, on January 9th of 2025. So it happened in December, and then the contract ended. They do now have a different armored car services for municipal courts. Each of the departments were immediately notified, and we did ask if there were any current issues that they had with the vendor. We also wanted to make sure that if they had any issues, if there were any concerns, that way we could move forward as appropriately with the different contracts. At that time, we were informed by the departments that there were no issues. They had not had any performance issues. This seemed to be an isolated issue, and the contract had ended on January 9th of 2025, which is within less than a month.

And that contract you're referring to is specifically for municipal court? Yes, ma'am. That's why they're not listed on the slide number two?

Correct, that's absolutely it. And so then time continued. And then to refer to what Mr. Estrada brought up, in July of 2025 then we did have specific incidences that were always rectified very quickly if there was an incident with international bridges and we had mr. Cortina's to be able to elaborate about those they the company rectified them immediately and quickly and we had several issues that were leading up to finally filing for the the litigation that we now have against Transamerica. So Mr. Cortines can go into the issues that International Bridges has seen that Mr. Estrada provided you kind of an overview of.

Good afternoon. So in April of this year, I was notified of the allegations or the issues that Mr. Estrada mentioned. So I met with the International Bridges Department. I was notified that there was recent situations of delayed deposits, So the contract currently calls for those deposits to be made on the same day. And that's the city policy. That's what's in the contract as well. And some of these deposits were taking weeks to be deposited. And not only that, the issue about the denominations being different of what was being deposited compared to what was picked up, as soon as I heard this, these are serious issues that we're dealing with. And so I asked Mr. Tinejero to notify the police department. I asked him to work with purchasing to expedite as much as we could, the termination of the contract based on those issues that we were facing and to move forward with an alternative solution to provide the armored car services.

Thank you, Robert. So when Mr. Estrada mentions that there's money missing, how much money are we talking about?

As far as I know from the International Bridges Department, everything that is owed to the city has been deposited for the International Bridges Department. And I'll let Ms. Cody, because I believe that there was an issue with the municipal court that's been addressed recently as well.

So municipal court, the amount that I have is $12,654.08. As was indicated in the email that I did provide you all this morning Transamerica did pay the amount in full yesterday June 22nd.

OK. So lastly I would like to note so for disqualifying someone from doing business with the city I'm assuming that doesn't happen very often. Right Claudia. So and I do think this is an extreme case so definitely but do we have a process in place on how to qualify someone to be disqualified?

So we went back to our records, and what we could find by practice is that we were taking a resolution, an ordinance approved back in 2006, indicating and relating to anti-lobbing, kind of silencing anti-lobbing policies. So according to that section of the municipal code, it indicates that we can disqualify for entering into a contract for said items for three years. So in practice, purchasing has been including that language for terminations, not only for those items, but also for default, just for consistency purposes.

Okay. Okay. Maybe we need to revisit it since 2006. I don't know if this would be a good opportunity to do that.

We'll add it to the plan. We have the consultants already working.

OK. And if I may add, we revised a portion of that ordinance back in 2021 to just delete some of the words included in 2006. And we still stayed with three years.

Yes especially because it's not something we do often and since in this particular case we pursued litigation we want to make sure that we would be able to prove in a court if needed the reason for disqualifying someone if in case that was brought into as part of the litigation I'm not sure but thank you very much I appreciate it.

Representative Acevedo.

Thank you Mayor. I guess since we're talking about the three years. Do you think that's a standard practice in the industry. Can it be longer. Can it be a lifetime ban. What can you can you tell me how you got to the three years or what the standards are.

So I cannot speak about what passed in 2006 or completely on how was that determination made, but I think certainly we can look into it because it will depend on a case-by-case basis of depending on the recommendation or the default that we're recommending for. So that's why certainly we're looking into that to make that policy stronger.

Okay, and then let's say they bid three years from now on something. It's a different council at that point. Will the backup documentation say they were banned for three years, they've met the three years, and now they are the winning bid or something along those lines?

Yeah, we can look into including that language for future reference.

I think it's important just similarly a few months ago we had a discussion on we were giving bids to people that were suing us and we didn't know that they were suing us and now we've had documentation that kind of shows us these people are suing us and it's an explanation as to why so you know future council down the road could understand that the three-year mark ended and the reasons why that happened. So, you know, kind of throw that at you. So positive on that. The other thing that I want to ask maybe Ms. Mack, this is kind of the second time this happens in the last few months. You know, there was the security company that we parted ways with at the airport. And as I'm kind of seeing this, it's June of 2026. We kind of found out December of 2024 that something was wrong. And then now the council year and a half later is finding out. So is there something that you can do to kind of give us a heads up that this is happening? So we are not finding out for the first time a year and a half later.

Okay, so from my perspective, we really saw the issue arise as Robert said in April. So I really wasn't tracking the piece regarding the municipal court. So we certainly can look at some process to let you know if we're fouling suit with somebody. I don't know if that's already in your reports.

because the authority has already been vested in the code for us to file collection matters without having to ask for permission. So we moved forward in that direction when we found out about that. Municipal court, missing money issue.

yeah i guess just better processes in place um you know maybe some more staff training on kind of bringing it up to your attention you know this just looks really risky from an organization standpoint and i'm hoping we could learn from this to kind of better implement this in the future that we're not going to be in in this position okay i mean i think that the staff did the reporting they followed they followed the contractual language they did the reporting to legal and others we certainly will figure out you know our process but making sure that it's either included with the details that carla have or some report to you all if you're interested i don't think it happens that often for us yeah no and that's great that it doesn't happen often but i think you're you're right on on what i'm asking and and miss cody thank you for sending us that explanation over email it really clarified a lot for me i had another thought and it kind of skipped my mind but i oh um Had this company had any issue in the years before this contract?

Not that I'm aware of.

Not that you're aware of. Okay.

And if they had any performance issues, most likely they were resolved at the department level and they didn't have to come to us through a cure process.

Okay. And then we're going to bid this out again? Yes. And so in the meantime, what are we doing?

So in the meantime, we already completed a competitive procurement for a short-term contract. So we have that in place. So if these items are approved, then that contract will start as soon as tomorrow.

OK. Perfect. Thank you so much.

OK. Representative Canales?

Never mind. I think it was from the last item.

OK. Any other questions on item four or five? OK. Ms. Bryant?

Yes, sir, the motion was made by Representative Limon, seconded by alternate Mayor Pro Tempero, and this is to approve the resolutions on items four and five. On that motion, call for the vote. In the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously.

Okay, Ms. Bryan, there's no nice way of doing this. The meeting's choppy no matter what, but we have a Sun Metro item, number three, we have to go back to?

Yes, sir. Would you like to do that at this time?

Sure.

Because Sun Metro is still here. I move to recess the regular city council meeting for the Sun Metro mass transit meeting.

There's a motion and a second to recess a regular city council meeting. All in favor?

Aye.

Anyone opposed? And the motion passes. The city council meeting is in recess at 4.32 PM in order to reconvene the mass transit department board meeting.

I move to reconvene the mass transit department board meeting.

Good afternoon, and we have a motion to reconvene the Mass Transit Department board meeting for June 23, 2026 at 4.32 PM. And this is to. Consider item three. And present and presiding is Chair Johnson, and also present in council chambers are board members Chavez, Acevedo, Maldonado-Rocha, Boyar-Trejo, Nino, Piero, Limon, and Canales. Item three is.

I believe we need a vote to reconvene the meeting.

I'm sorry?

I believe we need a vote to reconvene the meeting.

There's a motion and a second to reconvene Mass Transit. All in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? No. The Mass Transit Department board meeting is back in session at 4.33 PM.

And item three is a resolution to notify Transamerica Protection Corporation that the city is terminating contract number 2023-0188 armored car services for default due to contractor's failure to comply with provisions of contract number 2023-0188. This is effective as of June 23, 2026. And it also recommends that Transamerica Protection Corporation be disqualified from entering into any contract with the city for a period of three years for default and unsatisfactory performance.

There's a motion and a second. Any discussion on item number three? Okay, call for the vote.

And who moved?

Representative Canales.

thank you there is a motion made by board member canales seconded by board member limon and this is to approve item three the resolution voting session is open thank you And the item has been approved unanimously.

OK. Is there a motion to adjourn.

Motion to adjourn. Second.

All those in favor. Aye. Anyone opposed. And the mass transit department board meeting for June 23rd is adjourned at 434 PM.

Is there a motion to reconvene the regular city council meeting.

Second.

There's a motion and a second to reconvene the regular city council meeting. All in favor. Anyone opposed. And the regular city council meeting is back in session at 435 PM.

Okay, Ms. Bryan, let's take item number 30.

Yes, sir, item number 30 is an El Paso water presentation. After action report on the Northeast Large Scale Water Main Break, this item was placed by Representative Boria Trejo.

Representative Trejo. Thank you, Mayor.

Hello. I just wanted to give a little statement here, a brief statement from asking El Paso Water to come and give a report. So the historic water main break that we had in District 4 in January of this year affected several districts and over 100,000 residents. When incidents like this of this magnitude its importance the importance of transparency and clear communication is is very crucial and The primary concerns raised by a residence was the delay in public notification many people didn't learn about the situation until Monday evening and Many were left without timely information during a critical period. Residents also raised questions about aging infrastructure, previous pipeline failures, and long-term reliability on our water system. I had shared a quote in a previous council meeting on the water main break, and the quote is, you can't hold people accountable for what you've never made clear. Clarity is kindness, and accountability is respect. Since the incident, I've met with El Paso Water leadership on multiple occasions to discuss key actions to strengthen preparation, improve communication, and help prevent similar disruptions in the future. And I've asked them to come today and present a post-incident action report. I also want to thank everyone who stepped forward during that crisis, including neighbors and volunteers, businesses, organizations, Fort Bliss, first responders who provided water and delivered water assistance and support to those in need. And, of course, El Paso Water for hearing the concerns of our constituents and for providing an update today. Thank you for being here today.

IT'S MY PLEASURE, REPRESENTATIVE IT'S MY PLEASURE, REPRESENTATIVE TREJO. TREJO. TREJO. GOOD AFTERNOON, MAYOR AND GOOD AFTERNOON, MAYOR AND GOOD AFTERNOON, MAYOR AND COUNCIL. COUNCIL. COUNCIL. GILBERT TREJO, VICE PRESIDENT GILBERT TREJO, VICE PRESIDENT GILBERT TREJO, VICE PRESIDENT FOR OPERATIONS AND TECHNICAL FOR OPERATIONS AND TECHNICAL FOR OPERATIONS AND TECHNICAL SERVICES FOR EL PASO WATER. SERVICES FOR EL PASO WATER. SERVICES FOR EL PASO WATER. AND THANK YOU FOR THAT AND THANK YOU FOR THAT AND THANK YOU FOR THAT INTRODUCTION, REPRESENTATIVE INTRODUCTION, REPRESENTATIVE INTRODUC The presentation I'll be giving today is a summary and represents the results of the after action report that was completed by El Paso Water Staff, led by our Chief of Security and Emergency Response and Safety. It was a deep dive into the event. And this presentation is going to take you through the event itself, the performance of our system as a whole, because there has been a lot of questions related to it. But overall, it's going to answer the questions as to why, what happened happened, what are we doing, TO PREVENT IT CITYWIDE AND WHAT DID WE LEARN FROM IT AND WHAT ACTIONS ARE ALREADY ONGOING AND PLANNED. THIS PRESENTATION WAS READY FOR COUNCIL AT THE REQUEST OF REPRESENTATIVE TREJO IN MARCH DUE TO SCHEDULING REASONS. And then many scheduling reasons, here we are in June, but this presentation was already in March. The good thing is that a lot of the actions and improvement plans that were identified even back then are already in motion. So we did not wait for this presentation. We were not waiting for anything to make sure that we maintain the level of service that our customers expect from us. So a deep dive and brief overview of the event itself. So on January 10th, a 36 inch pipeline broke in Northeast El Paso. large of a pipeline Represents the backbone of a system and a large part of the city this caused for many up to, I won't say many, seven tanks to drain in northeast El Paso, which led to the loss of service to up to an estimated to 38,000 connections. When you look at people affected, we're talking about, at the time, estimated about 100,000 people that were affected by this event. Because of this, a boiled water notice was issued. It was precautionary when tanks lose pressure and the system as a whole lose pressure. It is recommended and the guidance by Texas Water, by the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality for the protection of public health and safety that we issue a public boil water notice and that's exactly what we did. The situation and the event was hindered and really escalated due to many valves not operating at the time, and I'll get into a deeper dive related to that. But at the end, the event started in June, January 10th, and it was concluded and service was fully restored by January 15th. The after action report and the analysis and investigation that was completed, showed exactly what we thought had happened, which was a severely corroded pipe had failed. The trigger event itself was a rather routine event that happens every day in El Paso in our pumping stations. There was a power surge, which is normal when we're feeding these types of large pumping stations. There's nothing abnormal about that. Pumping stations are designed to be able to withstand a power surge, a breaker tripped, and our staff proceeded to follow their standard operating procedures. They went on to turn on the pump station again. When you turn on a pump station, pumps of this magnitude, it creates a bit of a pressure surge in the system, again, very normal as well. The issue is when you run into a corroded piece of pipe, and depending on the size of that pressure surge when you initially activate a pump, That pressure surge, when it finds a soft spot, a weak spot, a corroded spot on a pipe, it'll break. The image that you see on the screen is the actual pipe that broke that night on January 10th. Just for comparison purposes, the one above it is what this pipe should look like and many parts of this pipeline look like the picture above but the picture below was severely corroded we did complete a a metallurgical analysis of the pipe to fully understand exactly why did this pipe fail again it's not uncommon for pipes to corrode we do have corrosion protection systems on pipes all over the city In this particular case, the corrosion that was encountered was external corrosion. The soils in this area tend to be very moist. There is a stormwater structure nearby, and that was what that metallurgical analysis of the pipe revealed, that it was external corrosion, and it corroded through the pipe itself. A little bit more on this type of pipe because it does matter. So this is pre-stressed concrete cylinder pipe. And this pipe is a problem for the water industry across the country. This is not an El Paso, Texas problem. This is a United States and water industry problem. So this type of pipe is a very thin steel cylinder. And it is wrapped with a thin wire. That thin wire is pre-stressed and it creates a lot of tension on the pipe, and this is the way the pipe maintains its internal capacity to withstand those pressures from the water pipe, but it also provides external structural stability from when you weight it externally, from external top loads. And then you can bury it at deep depths. When this pipe was being installed and was the pipe to install in the 1980s and 90s as it was here in El Paso, It's the best of the most affordable pipes at the time. There's many other different pipes that you can install, very thick, robust pipes, whether it's ductile iron pipe. But in this case, at the time, so it could be affordable for municipal systems, this pipe was being put in all over the country. It turns out that that was a mistake. This pipe failed and has failed time and time again all over the country. There were well-documented cases in Las Vegas, Tampa, Phoenix, San Diego, and a major failure of this type of pipe upwards of a six-inch pipeline in Washington, D.C. in 2008. that really caused a lot of damage. So again, this is not just us. And this type of pipe is no longer installed anymore. Once the water industry realized that this material failed often and failed catastrophically, as soon as one of those little wires that wraps around the steel cylinder pipe, as soon as one of those little wires starts corroding, it completely unravels, if you can picture a slinky. So it just takes one little wire to go before the whole pipe goes. Again, this pipe is no longer sold, is no longer installed in the United States, and we followed suit as soon as all of this was discovered. So some of the things that we're already doing. So back in March, I would have said we plan to replace this pipeline segment in Northeast El Paso. I'm here to tell you that this pipeline segment is already under replacement in Northeast El Paso. So it has been designed. We have a contractor on board. The pipe is scheduled to arrive in late July. and will take approximately 120 days to install once the contractor has everything planned, staged, and ready to go. Representative Trejo, we are hopeful to let you know that by the end of the year, this pipe segment will be completely replaced. So we've not waited on anything. We've gone ahead and started to, Replace this pipe. We are using an inert non-corrosive material. This is typical for large diameter pipes all over the city. We have a large diameter replacement program where we identify pipes of high consequence of failure and of high risk. We are replacing it with this high density polyethylene pipe. Again, inert will not corrode. And it doesn't have traditional joints like slip-on joints. These pieces of high density polyethylene pipe are welded together. So when it's all said and done, it's really one solid tube is probably the best way to think about it. So it really is one of the best pipe materials out there to be done. And El Paso is one of the few cities that is implementing it because it is not cheap, but it is the best. And that is what our customers and our residents deserve. So going back to the valves, so when I talk about this event, we can expect power bumps at booster stations that will cause the pump to turn off. We turn it back on. We can expect all of this. We can also expect pipes to corrode. This is nothing new to the industry. We have condition assessments. We have ways to identify where potentially pipes are. are corroding and then we could proactively plan so we could replace these segments. All of this can be expected. One of the things that we expect is for valves to work. And I think one of the things that we did not expect that night of January 10th was when we saw the running water and we dispatch our crews to go work, we expect the valves to close. Very often, residents, everyone would tell us, close the valves and isolate the line and make it work. That's what we're trying to do. What exacerbated and made this situation much worse was not only that the valves on the main line did not close, This line was connected to many smaller lines along the neighborhood, the neighboring neighborhood. So now not only are we trying to close the two main valves on the main line, there's also I believe upwards of eight to 12 valves along that whole segment that were just connected to it. So until those closed, water was just going to keep coming out of the initial break, which led to the draining of the pipes. We have 52,000 valves in the city, and we proactively exercise them. We have a program in place to make sure valves close when they need to. We have a contractor that their sole job is to go around and turn valves, close it and open it. Within that, we see that sometimes when we close it, it won't open back up. We then proactively replace it. Same thing with our crews. This is the thing to do in water utilities. This is really the only thing you can do other than go one by one to replace them. But when you're talking about 52,000 valves in the case of the El Paso water system, that's quite the task. However, we are proactively have these programs in place to do it. However, that day, the valves were not closing. The valves were not closing. Our crews worked very hard through Sunday into Monday before they finally got to a valve that would close and help us isolate the system, but by that time it was too late. The tanks had drained and we had the escalated situation on our hands like we had never seen before. Other items that we're working on in terms of improvements. Again, things that we can expect, but it's the reaction, either proactive action or how we react to the actual situation that we can improve. So one of the things is being more proactive with having line stops available to us. So line stops are critical because when a valve does not close, in one of these situations where our crews are saying either the stem broke or the valve just is not lowering into place to provide the obstruction in the pipe the way it's designed to do. Line stops is a way that a contractor can come in and while the line is active, Insert a valve in place These line stops have to be designed specifically for the pipe it is In some folks some utilities may consider this extreme because it is it's expensive But it's the only way to stop a pipe that is running and pressurized while it's live so we're looking into ways to have line stops available for us many line stops of many sizes have contractors in town and Available to install these for us so that to avoid this type of situation the contract I mentioned where we Hire a contractor to help us exercise all of these valves all over town that actual contract is coming up Here in the coming year We are going to rebid it and we're going to put in additional provisions in place additional metrics to make sure they can get to more valves additional data collection knowing what type of valve it is and If it's failed, to hold on to it so that we can do analysis on it. Why are these valves failing? Is it the actual gate or the actual obstruction that blocks the water in the pipe? Is it the gears, the actuators that move the stem up or down? There's so many ways that they could fail, but we're going to start collecting much more of this data so we could revise your design standards and start making better decisions with all the new infrastructure that is going in. Upcoming CIP projects. So these are things that I'll call them short term, but then there's a really long term actions that we can make in the Northeast so that That require budgeting and our longer term impact. So there's the initial line that we are putting in and ACTIVELY NOW, THE REPLACEMENT OF THE SEGMENT THAT FAILED. THERE ARE MORE LINES AND LARGE DIAMETER LINES THAT WE COULD PUT IN THROUGHOUT THE SAME SERVICE AREA TO PROVIDE MORE LOOPING IN THE NORTHEAST. SO IF SOMETHING LIKE THIS DOES HAPPEN OR MAYBE NOT THE 36 INCH BUT THERE'S OTHER LARGER LINES WHETHER IT'S ON DYER OR SOMEWHERE ELSE, We're going to plan more pipelines to better loop the system in the northeast. The question is why aren't these lines already in? These large diameter lines go in well before any development. The first thing that goes in are these large lines and then developers will choose where to develop over time and then they'll connect to it. But these large lines, they go in first. For whatever reason, back at the time when this part of the Northeast was developing, additional looping was not put in. I do not have the answer as to why. I can tell you that in new parts of town, we do put in multiple loops as best as we can. This is just one particular part of town that did not have additional pipes. We are planning them in our capital improvements program to put in more of these larger lines to better loop the system to avoid an event like this and to lower the risk profile of this area so that the residents in this part of town do not have to experience something like this again. Overall, the after action report that was completed identified many improvement plans and many of them are actionable, like I mentioned. We're already moving on a lot of them. Everything from additional data that could be available to us, and I have some slides here at the end of this presentation to show the value of the data, but there's additional strategies in terms of in operations, how will they mobilize, valving strategies, as I mentioned, updating of our SOPs, ALL THE THINGS THAT ARE IN OUR CONTROL, THEY HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED AND WE'RE WORKING ON THEM. A BIG PART OF WHAT YOU MENTIONED, REPRESENTATIVE TREJO, WAS THE COMMUNICATIONS EFFORT, AND THERE'S A WHOLE SEGMENT IN THE PRESENTATION HERE, BUT THIS IS ALSO PART OF THE AFTER ACTION REPORT, AND HERE MY COMING SLIDES ARE GOING TO TALK ABOUT THE IMPROVEMENTS IN THE COMMUNICATIONS PART OF IT. AGAIN, ALL THESE ARE ACTIONABLE. APPENDIX H IN THE REPORT HAS THEM ALL LISTED WITH DEDICATED LEADERS TO MAKE SURE THAT THESE ACTIONS GET COMPLETED. I WANT TO BRING ATTENTION TO, AGAIN, THE TARGETED RANGE FROM 6 TO 12 MONTHS. I'LL SAY EVEN BEYOND 12 MONTHS IF SOME OF THESE ARE LARGE BUDGETED ITEMS, THEY WILL BE BUDGETED FOR AND THEY'LL BE EXECUTED FOR EVENTUALLY, HOWEVER, 60 DAYS. SOME OF THESE ARE EITHER ALREADY COMPLETE OR ONGOING. Some of the questions that we've been asked regarding the system. So this event was quite the reputational hit for El Paso Water and that's important. It is very important that our customers trust their water system and trust El Paso Water. So there could be the perception that we always have breaks, there's too many breaks, what is going on? All very fair questions. So these are some of the metrics that we track FOR OURSELVES, AND THESE ARE BENCHMARKED NATIONALLY. IN THIS CASE, THIS IS JUST THE BENCHMARK AGAINST OTHER CITIES IN THE STATE OR IN THE SOUTHWEST IN TERMS OF HOW GOOD A WATER SYSTEM IS. AND ONE OF THE MAIN METRICS IS HOW MANY BREAKS DOES A WATER SYSTEM HAVE PER 100 MILES? SO BREAKS PER 100 MILES. This graph shows the breaks per hundred miles on the vertical axis, but then we show the age of the pipe as well. So this line, when you draw this line, it's telling you that the older your system, the more breaks you have. You want to be below this line. This linear regression really just shows how everyone just fits there. The older your system, the more breaks you get. We're well below that line. We are at just about eight breaks per hundred miles, and the average age of our pipe is about 44 years. So we're doing pretty good in this sense. We can always do better, and there's a lot of things that we are doing to be better, but we just wanna make sure from a, Customer confidence standpoint, we're not bad. We're not bad. We are eight breaks per mile, per 100 miles, and we benchmark well against the national standard and against other cities in the state and in the southwest. Here's another KPI. This one also tracks the breaks per 100 miles relative to the U.S. average in green, the Texas average in red, and then El Paso water in blue. We rank well against those metrics. In the middle, against the brake ratio, divide the eight brakes per 100 miles by the age, 44 years. In that sense, this is another way to show that graph you just showed. We're doing OK. And then the last graph on the right shows that we're pretty much all the same age. It's not like when you look at the average age of pipes in Texas and in the US, between 44 to 47 years for the national average, there's not a big gap there. We're all roughly the same age, yet our breaks per 100 miles are ranked pretty well within that. Time to isolate and time to repair is another metric that we track. We try to find, this isn't something exactly the American Water Works Association benchmarks. They benchmark a category that they say average time to address unplanned water service disruption. A water main break falls into that category, but that also means a lot of things. So AWWA says that nationally, the median is 4.3 hours to isolate and to repair. That is extremely quick. On the high end, some cities are at 23.5 hours. Our goal, so we've separated out. For us, there's the isolation part to make sure that the broken segment is isolated and as few customers as possible are impacted. And then there's the repair. The repair, there's a lot that goes into it. There's a lot of safety considerations, but there's the depth of the excavation, there's the traffic control. For example, is it residential or is it on Mesa, for example? That's a big difference in terms of how quickly we can all respond to it. Is it a small line or a large line? All of that just gets thrown into this metric right here. So there should be a big range here. But we separate it out. On the top, you can see the time to repair for El Paso water. This is the numbers that we're tracking. So after we isolate, make the site safe, we're around 12 hours to repair the line. The isolating part of it, we've gone from 4.2 7 hours to 3 hours. That I can tell you needs to get better for sure. Both of these can get better and will get better. We're doing a lot of things to reduce this number as much as possible to reduce the impact to our customers. One more metric that we track is the O&M cost. So how much money are we investing into the system to prevent? So there's the effort to be proactive in all of this and let's prevent all of these events from happening versus just being reactive to them. OUR MAINTENANCE BUDGETS FOR SPECIFICALLY FOR THESE TYPES OF EVENTS TO ADDRESS BREAKS AND THESE ARE ANNUAL BUDGETS HAS RISEN OVER THE YEARS AGAIN TO INVEST INTO THE SYSTEM AND TO PREVENT THESE TYPES OF EVENTS FROM OCCURRING. HERE IN THE LAST YEAR YOU SAW THAT A SMALL DOWN TICK. THAT'S NOT THAT WE ARE INVESTING LESS INTO THIS PROACTIVE APPROACH. THAT'S BECAUSE WE ARE ABLE AND WORKING WITH OUR FINANCE TEAM to capitalize these expenditures so we're not using solely operations and maintenance budget. Some of the other efforts that we are doing to improve on these KPIs. is to catch the leaks before they become breaks. Long before they're breaks, it is a leak because these pipelines are buried, sometimes buried tens of feet. We don't see the leak, so they will eventually break. What we have now is a dedicated leak repair team. While we've had leak detectors, and we have 10,000 leak detectors deployed all over the city, Since 2004, this program has been going on. It's one thing to know that the leaks are there, but when we have thousands of small leaks in the city, it's difficult to get to them. We have now organized a leak team so that we can get to these leaks before they break, before they turn into these large breaks. This team has tackled JUST ABOUT 1,000 SMALL LEAK REPAIRS HERE IN THE LAST COUPLE OF MONTHS. AGAIN, YOU CAN SEE THE TIME FRAME THERE, JANUARY TO APRIL, BUT UP TO THIS POINT, WE'RE WELL OVER 1,000. THIS NEWLY FORMED LEAK TEAM, THIS IS ALL THEY DO. UNFORTUNATELY, THIS MEANS A LOT MORE BREAKING OF THE PAVEMENT, MORE STEEL PLATES, BUT WE'RE ATTACKING THAT ON ANOTHER END TO MAKE SURE THESE REPAIRS CAN BE DONE VERY QUICKLY. Repair and leak is very important. Not only does it help with reducing the breaks per hundred mile metric, but it also helps with a water loss reduction, which is a strategic goal for El Paso water as well. From an emergency coordination standpoint, what did we learn from this event? So the Office of Emergency Management first was fantastic throughout this event. El Paso Water is no stranger to the Office of Emergency Management. We've always worked with the OEM for for decades now. OEM was instrumental back in, we'll say, the freeze of 2011. So we are no strangers to the OEM. I think what we learned in the OEM was, I think when we hear this often, practice makes perfect. And the practicing of these events, the scheduling of exercises with the OEM makes a difference. In El Paso Water, we have a newly formed office and team of emergency response, security emergency response, and safety with that team. These are new team members. Many folks at El Paso Water worked with the OEM in their career in El Paso Water. The folks that we hired with and lead our own emergency response and security and safety team, they've worked with the OEM. However, together, this team, the staff, we just hadn't practiced it together. And then that is just the truth. But we came together, we formed our own OEM or our own emergency command center in El Paso water and we were responding we had folks at the OEM but really some of the things that we learned from this event was who we staff at the OEM matters we need more technical team representation at the OEM we need communications team at the OEM and not just in our own team as we're responding to this so this is one of the most important things that we learn and We're defining roles and responsibilities between us, between our board was very important as well. Now we have established training exercises moving forward to make sure that this does not happen again. We had a debrief with the OEM in late January. So again, we did not waste any time. We debriefed with them. We've already completed one exercise. with them and we have two more scheduled here in the coming year. So again, this was a major point of improvement for us and we hit on it immediately since January and we're working towards getting better. One of the good things that came out of the event was the registry, the State of Texas Emergency Assistance Registry. So this STEER program was something El Paso Water at the time was not aware of. This is a program that assists vulnerable customers, whether they're unable to, they have disabilities, or they have limited mobility, they have medical conditions. So the OEM really brought this to the table in this event. They had used this a couple times already. They let us know about it. This was an excellent program. And we too have now embraced and built a relationship with STEER. We've let our customers know to register for it. So again, because this is a registry, we need folks to spread the word that if you know somebody who meets this criteria to register with STEER so that when there is an event of this magnitude or a similar event, they're already part of the registry and OEM can proactively and El Paso Water Staff can proactively use this registry to go and help them and provide the assistance that they need. IN THE CASE OF THIS EVENT WAS TAKING THEM WATER. THEY NEEDED WATER AND MANY OTHER SERVICES THAT OEM WAS HELPING WITH. SO THIS WAS ONE OF THE THINGS THAT, AGAIN, WE IDENTIFIED AS SOMETHING THAT WE NEED TO START IMPLEMENTING, AND WE'VE ALREADY BEGAN THE OUTREACH, ESTABLISHED IT WITH STEER, AND WE'VE PROVIDED INSERTS IN OUR BILLS FOR OUR CUSTOMERS, SO ENCOURAGING THEM TO REGISTER TO BE PART OF THIS REGISTRY. a customer service and operations standpoint our customer servicing performed at an extraordinary scale during the event so it was not only just responding to calls and adding additional information whether it was online or through the communications scripts that they had as people were calling in they had to also assist with the distribution of water just a couple of statistics from the event so we had The customer service call center received 2,322 emergency calls just on Sunday alone. Through the communication efforts that we did, we reduced that to 263 calls on Monday. The efforts, while the call center was called in and remained open and active throughout this entire event, we had many customer service staff through the help of our human resources team, also help with the distribution of water bottles as well. So we set up sites all over the Northeast. In all, we distributed upwards of 48,000 gallons of water, 887 pallets of water. Many water bottles were distributed at the time. Our customer service staff was also delivering. So separate from the STEERS program I just mentioned, We were delivering waters to seniors as it was being made aware to us that they needed assistance. So our customer service team really stepped up for this event. The improvements here from a customer service standpoint was on the water distribution sites. So a lot of issues at the sites. While we located them and tried to space them out throughout the impacted area, There was issues with the layout. Some of the layouts were not the best. There was traffic issues, traffic jams. We had to get the right equipment there. There was an overwhelming support of water bottle and pallet deliveries, but we needed the right equipment there. We needed forklifts there. We needed people to operate forklifts there. So these were all things that we learned from, and we have now developed plans and will standardize some of the layouts, standardize the locations, the ideal locations good water distribution site looks like and taking into consideration traffic patterns lighting at night too we need lighting there as well so this is one of the major action items that we're working on to respond to a similar event FROM A COMMUNICATIONS AND OUTREACH STANDPOINT, HITTING TO THE HEART OF ONE OF YOUR ITEMS, REPRESENTATIVE TREJO. WE DID MAINTAIN CONSTANT COMMUNICATIONS THROUGHOUT THE EVENT, BUT TO YOUR POINT, NOT SOON ENOUGH, AND WE NEEDED TO GET THEIR OUT SOONER, AND WE DO HAVE A SOLUTION FOR THAT THAT WE'RE WORKING ON. MANY OF THE COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES THAT WE USED WERE, THERE WAS MANY OF THEM AND THERE WAS A VARIETY OF THEM. WE PRETTY MUCH USED EVERYTHING THAT WAS AVAILABLE TO US AT THE TIME. to provide some input to us from our customers. So here are the results of a survey that we did after the event. So after the event happened, we did issue a survey to the customers in the impacted area. So we sent out to upwards of 35,000 customers in the Northeast, bill insert requesting their feedback. on communications themselves. How did they receive it? How would they like to receive it were some of the questions that they got. What did they think of the response from El Paso Water? One of the questions that we asked them was what did they think of the overall response from El Paso Water? 80% of the respondents said it was anywhere from fair to excellent. 20% said poor. And the poor, they were very clear as to why it was poor. Number one, the map. So we haven't talked about the map. The initial map that we issued was not up to par. It's not acceptable. That was rectified very quickly after the initial map was sent out. They did not like that the elderly and folks in the high risk population category, they needed more help and they felt that that was not happening. And number three, the communications were vague. Again, to your point, Representative Trejo. They were vague, and the water station rules were not clear to them. Do they bring their own gallons? Do they bring their own bottles? What can they bring? What can't they bring? So a lot of this is why they rated the response poor at the time. From a communication standpoint, again, during the event, the majority of the information means that people were receiving was the news. The local news and any news source was the majority of the way. What they told us, here's the next slide, was that they wanted by text message. The majority of our customers want to be able to communicate with us via text. They want text sent to them. They want a push notification sent to them. And that's the expectation that they're setting. The good news is that we are working on the El Paso Water app, and the El Paso Water app is going to address all of these issues that the customers that experience that week in January are asking for. Not only with the El Paso Water app will we be able to send targeted text messages, like in a geographic-specific area. We can send push notifications if they allow that when they sign up for the app. They'll be able to track their smart meter information. They'll be able to track usage, all these other things that we're working on right now. But from a communication standpoint, it's loud and clear. Text messages, phone, easy to access. That's what customers want, and that's coming their way later this year. By the end of the summer, we'll be rolling out the app for our customers to sign up for, and that's really going to solve a lot of issues in terms of communications. One of the other questions we asked was the boil water notice. So how many, did they know that there was a boil water notice in place? 90% of the respondents said that they did know. This is very important that this type of public outreach, it's a public health and safety issue, that 90% of the folks in the impacted area did know that it was going on. So that was good and reassuring from our standpoint. Satisfaction with the water distribution was another question that we asked them as well. 50% very satisfied with their experience at these sites. 40% said they didn't even use the water distribution site. And then 10%, again, not happy for the reasons that I stated earlier. Generally, the water distribution, the emergency water distribution EFFORT GENERALLY MET EXPECTATIONS, BUT AS I MENTIONED IN MY EARLIER SLIDE, THERE'S A LOT OF WORK THAT WE ARE DOING THERE TO IMPROVE THAT EXPERIENCE IF IT'S EVER NEEDED AT THAT SCALE AGAIN. some of the additional proactive measures that we're working on as well to make sure this doesn't happen again. One of the biggest questions is, this cannot happen at this scale. What are you doing to stop it? So we're doing many things. Number one, the asset reliability program that is currently ongoing. So Passawater has invested in an asset management program to improve the maintenance of all of our equipment. We have tens of thousands of pieces of equipment. All of them require routine maintenance to prevent these types of events. This is where the valves will fall in. This is where even some of the power bumps to reduce some of them. I said they're normal, but things can be done to reduce them on our side from a design and from an emergency or from a maintenance standpoint. So this asset reliability program is really going to play dividends and going to pay for itself when we get a program in place to do preventive maintenance programs of all the equipment in our inventory. Again, I mentioned leak detectors, so we have UPWARDS OF 12,000 LOGGERS ALL OVER THE CITY SINCE 2004. WE PLAN ON EXPANDING THAT PROGRAM AS WELL. LEAK DETECTORS WILL HELP US DEPLOY OUR LEAK REPAIR TEAM AND STOP THEM BEFORE THEY BECOME LARGE BREAKS. THE DIGITAL METERS THAT HAVE BEEN, WE'VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT THEM FOR THE LAST YEAR, THOSE ARE GOING TO PROVIDE A LOT OF REALLY GOOD INFORMATION AS WELL. DURING THESE TYPES OF EVENTS, AND I HAVE SOME SLIDES TO SHOW YOU SOME EXAMPLES OF HOW THE DIGITAL METERS ARE GOING TO HELP US in terms of how we respond to these events, valving strategies while the event is happening to prevent something like this from happening. We also have a team dedicated to process improvement as well. So as the operations teams, the engineering teams, customer service, everyone who responds to these types of events, they all have process improvement plans and updating of their standard operating procedures to inform how we react to these types of events moving forward and the last one is our IT and OT transformation, so we're ongoing a digital transformation right now We're taking all of our processes that are manual anything that's handwritten anything that is not visual we have our operational technology team and our IT team are working towards creating dashboards making any manual process a digital process and and an automated process so that all this data and information is in our hands and it is gonna be very helpful as we move forward to responding to any type of main break event. Now my last set of slides here is related to the digital meters. So one of the things that we learned because of this event is really the power that the digital meters are and the information that we can use to inform our decision making is going to help greatly. Digital meters, they have many codes and alerts on them that they can provide us and they provide the customer. One of them is when the meter is dry. So if the meter is dry, an alert is given to us. And when the apps are available, it'll give it to you as well, saying your meter is dry, meaning no water is in it. There is air in your meter, not water. Using this dry code. We went back in time. So again, this type of this information was not available to us in January. I want to make that clear. We did not have this in January. The digital meter program is still ongoing. It's still being installed. are at 88% complete across the city. That's 193,000 of these meters installed of 218,000. So we're not done yet. And in January, we were not done yet. However, we went back in time and we went to the company who's installing these for us and the maker of the digital meter. And we said, what type of data are we going to have? in the event that something like this happens again, or really for any main break. And they mined out the data and they created some maps for us, kind of showing what we're going to have moving forward into the future. And this answers one of the questions about the types of maps we provide, the type of information as we move forward. Again, going back in time, in the northeast when this event happened, 97% of the meters were installed at the time. And again, it's an active project. We do not have the information yet. However, this was an example of the initial map that we sent out. We quickly took this one down, and we connected it to our geographic information system map. But this was the first map we put out to say, if you live in this area, you are likely impacted by the ongoing event. This is the type of map we're going to have moving forward as soon as all of these digital meters are installed. So this map shows the impacted area. And you see all the green dots. All the green dots mean is a customer meter that is active and working. It's full of water. It's normal. It's hard to see on the screen, but there's little red dots too. The little red dots can mean several different things. The main one is that there's no water in your service, in your meter. Why? It could be turned off, it could be brand new, it's active, but no one's living there now, the valve is closed off. It could be a partially closed valve, which allows air to go in, many reasons. THIS IS WHAT THE NIGHT BEFORE THE EVENT LOOKED LIKE. A LOT OF GREEN DOTS, EVERYTHING NORMAL IN THE NORTHEAST. IN THIS IMPACTED AREA, THERE WAS UPWARDS OF 42,000, ALMOST 43,000 METERS IN THIS AREA, AND THERE WAS ONLY 158 DRY COATS, NORMAL. AS SOON AS THE EVENT STARTED ON SUNDAY NIGHT, THIS IS THE TYPE OF INFORMATION THAT WE WOULD HAVE SEEN. SO INSTANTLY, WITHIN HOURS, WE ARE GOING TO SEE THE ACTUAL IMPACTED AREA. NOW, THE GOOD THING, THE GOOD NEWS IS, IN HINDSIGHT, WAS THE IMPACTED AREA WAS NOWHERE NEAR AS LARGE AS WE THOUGHT. A LOT OF THE THINGS THAT WE DID WAS UNDER, WAS BECAUSE OF AN ABUNDANCE OF CAUTION. we didn't have the data to really know how big the impacted area was but this is the information that we would have have and are going to have moving forward within a couple of hours in terms of the information that will be available to us. This was Sunday when the event happened. Monday, the red dots fill in a little bit more, and we start to see how many customer connections were actually impacted by the area. You can see a large part of the Northeast was not even impacted by it, but we put them in the impacted zone, frankly, because we didn't have this type of granular data available to us. We will moving forward. By Tuesday, we see some of the green dots come back, meaning that the system started to rebound. The things we started to do to move water into the system through different pipelines, it started to work. So while the boil water notice was still in play, the customers in this area started to get water back a lot sooner than what we thought. You can see the red highlighted box is showing how the number of customers affected rose Sunday, Monday, and then by Tuesday came down. By Wednesday, the event, most of the Northeast, really all of the Northeast was back except for a small segment up on the mountain that was still a part of a pressure zone that still had not recovered. But then by Thursday, the system would have recovered. So the purpose of showing you this is it is not gonna take us years to figure out how to get data. The data is already here. These digital meters are proving to be very beneficial to us. We will incorporate this type of mapping and this data for any main break. So you could just imagine there's a main break anywhere in your districts. we will have this type of data to see red dots, green dots, who's really impacted, and then our teams will be able to react much quicker to find the valves in the area. So the time is here, I guess what I'm saying. I'm not here to say it's gonna take us a long time to figure this out. We're already here. Again, just overlaying the two maps. The blue is the map, the impacted area that we had set originally. The red shows what was actually impacted. Where we initially estimated 30,000 customers were out of water, really the data is showing us that really closer to 10,000 customers were out of water, not to 38. So again, it will help us make better decisions, better communications, targeted communications for our folks and our customers. Let me catch my breath here. Finally, this is my last slide talking about moving forward. So digital meters are going to be a major operational advancement for future events and how we react to them how even how you communicate with us now that you know that this type of information is available we plan to use these green dot red dot maps on our website these will be available on people's apps if they have the app they will be able to see it they'll be able to react to it as well proactively so again it's going to lead to better mapping Direct outreach, targeted outreach to our customers, targeted messaging. We know exactly who is experiencing what and we can talk to them about it and reduce the impact of like a very large boil water notice just by judging at the map. It should have been a much smaller area than what it was. Again, with that, I'd like to thank, again, Representative Trejo for the opportunity to present this to council, and I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Governor, thank you for the thorough presentation there. Representative Acevedo. Thank you, Mayor.

This is a great presentation. It answers pretty much everything I've been wondering all this time. So kudos to you and the team for putting this together, especially since you put it together in March, about two months after everything happened. The survey data is really great to look at and kind of understand how people were feeling about this. I am also really thankful for your honesty. At times you were like, we weren't prepared for this, or we didn't know this existed, so now we're going to move forward. And so it's a really nice blueprint for hopefully the future, and we're not in this position again, but these things can happen. As my constituents, I've kind of been discussing what these digital meters are, and there's a lot of hesitancy in moving to the digital meter. But I think you have a really good story here to tell the El Paso Water customers, hey, this is actually a good thing, because if this happens again, we're going to be able to contact you in a better way. And we're going to understand that it's actually your house, but maybe not your neighbor's house, or something along those lines. So, I'm hoping that you also use that in the strategy toward getting people on board with the digital meters. I had one question, and it's really just a little bit of clarification. On slide six, you had the pre-stressed concrete cylinder pipe. This was the type of pipe that that broke correct? Okay, and then you said that the pipe was 70 years old and Then in the 80s and 90s, we had a lot of these So this pipe was in the 50s. Yes. Okay, and it wasn't until the 80s and 90s I realized that they were bad. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Okay, that's that was my computer Okay, and so do we have any of these left? I

Yes, we have about 200 miles of this pipe. 200 miles, OK. All over the city, yes.

And so what are your thoughts on how to tackle this? Because we know they're bad, right? And you kind of used a slinky illustration, and that was really good. So do we know any other pipes that might be in bad shape on any given day?

Yes, so again, I'll try and be brief because of this pipe failure. The modern day condition assessment what utilities do to identify where where is it and how much you replace because it's just not practical to for any city to go and rip out all this pipe and put it back in. So different technologies, whether it's acoustic technology, electromagnetics, robots, all this was developed in the early 2000s to deploy into the pipes and see where is there corrosion, where is the wire being eaten up, so that the name of the game isn't to replace the whole pipe, but to find where is there corrosion and go replace that pipe segment. We have those programs. So since the early 2000s, we have conducted condition assessments. So we know, we do know where these pipes are, but we don't know where they're all at. But we do have a program in place. We do have a CIP line item where we go and explore based on high risk of failure high consequence of failure. So large pipes are usually found under the large streets. So unfortunately, you find this type of large pipe under the Litrovinos, the Dyers, the Pebble Hills, the Edgemeres, the Mesas. This is where you find large pipes. Large pipes, large streets. That's for sure. So to get in there and investigate, and deploy this type of technology. In itself, it's challenging because the pipe was never designed. No one ever thought that there'd be technology where you could insert technology to investigate it. So in order to do it, we have to shut the pipeline down. We usually install valves, isolate it. Sometimes we even have to do other projects to even just allow us to shut down a segment so we could deploy this technology. So I said I'd be brief. We have a program and we are on it. We have a whole CIP program dedicated to replacement and investigation of these segments.

And off the top of your head, do you know if Piedras is included in those big streets that might have one of these?

No.

No, okay. And then the dedicated leak repair team, they're looking at this?

The dedicated leak repair team, team where... They look at the loggers, so where we have the 12,000 loggers deployed all over the city, that information comes in. We triangulate using this information. We find a small league, we deploy them, and they will go address it. Again, just like them, they'll get the low-hanging fruit, so that team is nowhere near we have thousands of leaks and this is a team of about eight a crew of eight that we deploy so we're doing our best to try and get to all of them but again where are the leaks is it under a major thoroughfare high risk high consequence of failure that's where that's where we're going okay thank you so much representative thank you mayor gilbert um damages to residents homes there's nothing in here that indicates what action was taken um

On their behalf, is there anything that El Paso Water did?

I apologize for that, ma'am. So yes, so there was the one home where a claim was made and has been resolved with that homeowner. One home? Yes, that was the one claim that was submitted. There was another one that is still ongoing. There was one other claim that is still ongoing related to a rock wall.

Oh, OK. Thank you. I thought it was a whole lot more than that.

Oh, man.

Representative Trejo.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Gilbert. I appreciate all the work that you all have done with this. Hopefully we don't ever have to experience that again, but I do see a lot of proactive measures that have been taken into place in such a short period of time, right, in five months, and all that you have to report, you know, the leak detectors, the digital markers that you all have been working on. upgrading procedures putting in the loops of the piping or looping it right if i'm using the correct language there the steer program which came from that as well and now you have a way to get to to get that information to the seniors we got to make sure that we share that information more so that they know that this is available to them and then the customer service part of it which is you know, I felt was very, very, very important. And so you all have come forward with that, and that has been a focus, you know, even with the letter of apology, which I think was great that you all were able to do that. So I want to thank you all for your proactiveness in what has happened since then, and hopefully we never experience that again. Appreciate it.

The President Thank you for the great presentation. And thank the crews for all the hard work. Thank you. OK, Ms. Brown, we're going to move to item number 31. And I just want to remind council we've got about three to four hours more worth of work. So if your questions could be more laser focused, that'd be great. So let's go. Item 31.

Item 31 is discussion and action to direct the city manager to amend the city of El Paso's 90th session state legislative agenda to include advocacy support for policy related to protecting residential rate payers from utility cost of data centers as proposed by Governor Greg Abbott's letter to the Public Utility Commission of Texas, PUC Chairman Thomas Gleason, and Electric Reliability Council of Texas, ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas, on June 10th, 2026, additionally direct the city manager and city attorney to determine as per Governor Greg Abbott's immediate directive that the electrical utility grid that the city of El Paso's residents UTILIZE IS INCORPORATED. THIS ITEM WAS PLACED BY REPRESENTATIVES PIERRO CHAVEZ AND NINO.

REPRESENTATIVE FIERRO.

MOTION APPROVED? SECOND. OKAY. THANK YOU, MAYOR.

REPRESENTATIVE FIERRO.

THANK YOU, MAYOR. MAYOR, WE PUT THIS ON THE AGENDA because of the governor's June 10th letter. And the governor gave a directive to the PUC and to ERCOT to shield Texans from data center infrastructure costs. And just to touch a little bit on the letter, he touches on that the PUC must require the centers to be fully funded, fully fund the cost of the electric infrastructure. Another item that he put on there, the PUC and ERCOT must identify additional actions under their authority to safeguard residents and small business rate payers. We reached out to the legislative team, Ian and Omar, and we've been working with our local state delegation, in particular Speaker Pro Tem Moody and Senator Blanco's office. And all of them came up with the same answer. We're not sure if the Western Grid is part of the governor's directive. And so what turns out, and I'll let Ian and Omar touch a little bit about how there's other counties that aren't on the ERCOT grid. And so together, All of us have been trying to figure out and make sure that we are under the directive of the governor's PUC and ERCOT letter. We've also asked the city attorney, Ms. Neiman, to help us find out legally if we are covered because it says the PUC is overseeing this and we've asked Ms. Mack to help also. AND I WANT TO THANK THE MAYOR PRO TEM AND REPRESENTATIVE NINO FOR CO-SPONSORING THIS ITEM.

LET ME JUST ASK. SO THE LANGUAGE IN THERE IS NOT CLEAR THAT THIS GRID IS INCLUDED IN THE KIND OF THE RATE FENCE?

CORRECT, MAYOR. AND WHAT IT DOES IS THE GOVERNOR DIRECTS THE PUC AND So the assumption could be that because it directs the PUC that we all fall under the umbrella, but it's not specific. And we want to make sure that, and again, speaking with the delegation, they're under the same assumption too. They hope we are, but we don't know if we are. And if you wouldn't mind, Mayor, I'd like Ian to come tell us a little bit about what his office, how they're being proactive and what they're working on.

Good afternoon.

Thank you, Mayor. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Part of the confusion stems from SB7 that was passed in the 89th Legislature. This is a bill that aims to direct data centers to pay for their share of infrastructure improvements for projects that are over 75 megawatts. That one was intended to be statewide, but ultimately only impacted ERCOT. And that was despite the effort from multiple parties to make that bill apply statewide. There are a number of areas of Texas that are not covered by ERCOT. So I'll give you a couple of example cities. You've got Lubbock, Beaumont, Texarkana. So not huge, but still substantial population that is not covered under ERCOT. So when we saw this order come from the governor, we immediately alerted the delegation. We've started reaching out to the PC. We've reached out to, let me make sure I get the name right. It's the State Energy Conservation Office. We reached out to El Paso Electric. So for council's knowledge, El Paso Electric interprets the order to apply to non-ERCOT areas, but they are also trying to get confirmation on that as well.

Very good. Representative Nino.

Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Mayor Pro Temp and alternate Mayor Pro Temp for also allowing me to be part of this item and further engage in the conversation. I'm very proud to sponsor this item because it also continues on the work that the City Council has already been doing to advocate for and protect El Pasoans. And I know that I mentioned earlier in regards to the CCN, so over the past several months, we've heard concerns from residents about utility affordability, rising electric cost, and ensuring that local families and small businesses aren't left paying for infrastructure that is built to serve large-scale users such as data centers. Those concerns have guided actions that this Council has already taken, I mentioned earlier that in December 2025, El Paso Electric filed the application to the PUC for the McLeod Generation Facility, and recognizing its potential impact, this city council unanimously voted in January to intervene with the PUC proceeding. That action was about making sure El Pasoans had a seat at the table. It has allowed the city to participate in the case, retain independent experts, review the evidence, and advocate directly on behalf of our residents and businesses throughout the regulatory process. Since then, the city has remained actively engaged. You know, we retain that those independent experts reviewed the technical filings, engaged in settlement discussions, and ultimately filed testimony with the PUC, recommended that the application be denied as proposed because concerns about affordability, transparency, and the potential financial risk for existing rate payers. And through this process, our goal has been simple. It's been to protect all Pasoans. We have consistently advocated that families and businesses should not bear unnecessary cost or risk associated with serving a single large customer. And today's item builds further on that work. Last month, we amended our state legislative agenda to advocate not to provide tax incentives for data centers and further protections for our community. And I mentioned also, I echo what the alternative Mayor Pro Tem mentioned in regards of Governor Abbott's calling for state policies that protect residential rate payers from the utility costs associated with large data centers. However, it does not include El Paso's grid. And today's item, again, I echo what has already been said, directs the city to support those efforts during the upcoming legislative session to ensure that El Paso's electric grid and our community are including those statewide conversations and discussions. and I believe it continues to send a clear message that protecting our residents should never be a partisan issue, it's our responsibility. We can continue protecting affordability, ensuring accountability, and standing up for families and businesses who already call El Paso a home. From intervening before the PUC to advocating for stronger protections in the regulatory process and now supporting legislative reforms at the state level, the city has consistently taken action to protect Opaswans. And again, I appreciate my colleagues for bringing this item forward along with myself, and I'm proud to support it because it continues to show our commitment to advocating for the community that we represent, Mayor. Thank you.

Representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you to Representative Fierro and Representative Nguyen for co-sponsoring this agenda item with me today. I'm happy to have my name on it. So just as they stated recently, we cannot simply assume that because policies are being discussed at the state level that they are automatically including us. As Ian just mentioned, we are not part of ERCOT, so it is very important that we send our delegation and our lobbyists to the state to advocate for our community because our residents pay electric bills just like every other Texan. And so they deserve the same considerations that other Texans are receiving at the state level. We are asking the governor to examine how residential customers can be protected from those costs and associated with large data centers. El Paso should definitely be part of that conversation. I do want to mention that just earlier today, the governor announced that he is considering rejecting all environmental and air quality permits for data centers for a six-month period. So again, these are ongoing conversations that are happening at the state level and the national level. We amended our legislative agenda just a few weeks ago to include data center conversations, generally speaking. This just makes it a little bit more hyper-focused on electricity specifically. So again, our residents in El Paso deserve to have a seat at the table, just like every other Texan. Thank you, Mayor.

represent fear.

Thank you very one last thing. I'm the mayor pro tem brought up our residents and having to see the table and I want to thank of course a delegation our senator in our speaker pro temp for for reaching out and working so hard for us but also I want to make sure that we mentioned that Ian and his team are always focused and always being proactive and and thorough and making sure that that they're taking care of the residents of El Paso. Thank you very good.

Any further discussion on this item, number 31? OK, Ms. Bryan.

The motion was made by alternate mayor Pro Tem Piero, seconded by mayor Pro Tem Chavez. And this is to approve the direction on item 31. On that motion, call for the vote. And the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously.

OK, Ms. Prine, let's take item number 32, please.

Item 32.

Mayor?

It possible, Ms. Prine, could we take 32 and 34 together? They're the same, for the same goal? Sure. 32 and 34.

Any objections to taking 32 and 34 together?

Item 32 is discussion in action on a resolution to authorize the expenditure of discretionary funds from City Council District 2 in an amount not to exceed $6,500 for costs associated with meeting the amount required for El Paso Sun City Pride to pay the license and use agreement to use a city hall parking lot for a pride event, which serves a municipal purpose of increasing visitors to downtown, contributing to the cultural enrichment promoting economic vitality and enhancing community identity and pride. Item 34 is discussion and action on a resolution to authorize the expenditure of discretionary funds from City Council District 7 in an amount not to exceed $1,000 for costs associated with meeting the amount required for El Paso Sun City Pride to pay the license and use agreement to use the city hall parking lot for a pride event which serves a municipal purpose of increasing visitors to downtown, contributing to the cultural enrichment, promoting economic vitality, and enhancing community identity and pride.

Representative Acevedo? Move to approve. Okay, there's a motion and a second.

I just wanted to say something quickly. I want to thank Destination El Paso, Brooke, appreciate all the work that you and your team have been doing for this event. It really has been a lot of people at work, a lot of city staff. Ms. Cody, thank you so much for all your help in the last few weeks. SERP M5 also bringing in a lot of great ideas for this event and Apostle Sin City Pride. It really has been a lot of organizations together. So just really thankful and I know that you did a lot of promotion around this event to get some people in from Albuquerque, maybe some people from Arizona to come in for this entire weekend that starts on Thursday and ends on Sunday. So just very, very thankful.

Representative Rocha?

Thank you, Mayor. And I just wanted to say that I support Sun City Pride. I support the organization. Thank you, Brooke. I chose to make a personal donation outside of my discretionary funds to the organization as a response to Representative Nino. Thank you for the request on that. I think it's very important to support these types of efforts. And so thank you, Rep. Nino, for asking for support in regards to that, but I made a personal donation to the group. Thank you.

Thank you Mayor and I also made a personal donation to the organization. I also support the event and everything that's taking place. Thank you Mayor.

Very good. And Brooke thank you guys at this destination El Paso. I didn't see you back there but thank you. Representative Acevedo.

And I forgot to thank you for the cookies that you brought the council today. I know you asked me to bring them from last week and so thank you for those amigo man pride cookies.

They're going to be delicious. Okay, any other discussion on item numbers 32 and 34? Ms. Bryan?

The motion was made by Representative Acevedo, seconded by Representative Limon, and this is to approve the resolutions on items 32 and 34. On that motion, call for the vote. In the voting session. And the motion passes unanimously. Representative Boya-Trejo, not present.

Okay, Ms. Bryan, let's take item number 33, please.

Item 33 is discussion in action to approve a resolution that the City Council declares the expenditure of District 8 discretionary funds in an amount not to exceed $2,500 for the establishment of a scholarship fund to cover costs of attendance by youth residing in District 8 at any city-run youth summer or seasonal camps or programs hosted by city departments, including but not limited to museums and cultural affairs department department of parks and recreation el paso public libraries el paso animal services el paso zoo and botanical gardens etc this item was placed by representative canales represent canalis move to approve okay there's a motion second represent canalis

Yeah, just really quickly, there are several neighborhoods and zip codes within the United States, within El Paso, which is within the United States, that fall among the poorest zip codes in the United States. 79901 is consistently among the 10 lowest income uh zip codes within the united states and 7905 is typically within the top 10 in texas and so i thought it was important to provide an opportunity for uh young people in district 8 who want to be able to attend our camps which are very uh affordable i think we offer you know very low cost uh summer and seasonal camps for for youth in el paso typically not more than you know, $25 or $30 maximum for a multi-day camp, but I don't want the cost to be an impediment to any young people, particularly from those lower-income neighborhoods within District 8, and so that was the purpose of this item. Very good. Thanks, Mayor.

Any questions on item number 33? Okay, Ms. Bryan.

The motion was made by Representative Canales, seconded by Representative Limon to approve the resolution on item 33. On that motion, call for the vote. in the voting session, and that motion passes unanimously. Representative Fiedro, not present.

Okay, Ms. Bryan, let's take item number 36, please.

Item 36 is discussion and action on agreement number 2026-0393 with Acela Inc. to continue providing permitting, licensing, plan review, inspections, compliance monitoring, and code enforcement software along with any related products or services as authorized each fiscal year through City Council's approval of the annual city budget.

Is there a motion?

Move to approve.

Second.

All right. You want to show us the presentation? They've worked on it, so.

I, for one, have been very happy with RSL service. Yeah. Happy to continue.

Hello.

Good afternoon, evening. Yeah, it's close. Carolyn Patrick with the IT department. IT, would you bring, thank you, thank you. So as mentioned, this is a request for approval for council to approve the agreement directly with Acela. Just briefly, this is a common platform used by multiple departments for licensing, permitting, inspections, code enforcement in a centralized platform. It also provides a portal for online access with the ability to submit applications and track progress. It provides a GIS function and mobile app. Again, used citywide by planning inspections, fire and code enforcement, streets and maintenance, environmental services, and public health. Just a brief history. We have been in partnership with Acela for over 15 years, going back to 2008, in 2019. We entered into agreement through a reseller for three years and now is being proposed to enter into agreement directly with Acela due to the long-term investment and the planned long-term modernization goals. Any questions I can answer on the platform?

Any questions on this particular item? Okay, Ms. Bryant.

Thank you.

The motion was made by Representative Canales, seconded by Representative Limon, and this is to approve item 36. On that motion, call for the vote. in the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. Representative Fierro not present.

OK. Ms. Bryan, let's take item number 37, please.

Item 37 is discussion in action on the request that the director of purchasing and strategic sourcing be authorized to issue purchase orders for solicitation 2026-0169, propatch proprietary parts to HD Industries Inc. the sole and authorized distributor of the pro-patch asphalt pothill patcher and associated parts for a term of 3 years and an estimated amount of $360,000. OK. Is there a motion?

Move to approve. Second.

All right. There is a presentation. It's three slides. Three slides, yeah, 20 questions. And four friendly amendments.

Go ahead. The public should be very happy to hear that we're repairing a pothole patch. That's great.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Randy Garcia with Streets of Maintenance. So this is the parts that we use to actually do the maintenance on the pothole patchers. They're proprietary, so we do need a specific vendor to buy them from. So you can see a picture of the pothole patching. I think everybody in council is very familiar with those activities and what that equipment looks like. Again, here's just a brief overview. We have 16 pothole patchers trying to cover the entire city. We break the city into five different districts, of course, and we try to handle as many of the potholes as we can. Basic overview of the award to HD Industries for those parts for the pothole patchers. Any questions?

Any questions for Randy? Any friendly amendments? On amendments? Okay. Ms. Pryor, we're good. Thank you.

The motion was made by Representative Canales, seconded by Representative Limon, and this is to approve item 37. On that motion, call for the vote. And the voting session. And the motion passes unanimously. Representative Fierro, not present.

Cambridge brand the second 38 police.

Item 38 is discussion in action on the request of the director of purchasing a strategic source to be authorized to issue purchase orders for solicitation 2026 dash there are 2, 3, 1, Volvo do send and superior boom parts in service to romco in DBA romco equipment company LLC the sole source and authorized distributor of Volvo do send in superior boom parts in service for a term of 3 years and an estimated amount of $750,000.

OK, there's a motion. Is there a second? OK, motion and second. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, Eduardo Maldonado with Purchasing and Strategic Sourcing Department. I'll just go over the procurement information of the request that the Director of Purchasing and Strategic Sourcing be authorized to issue purchase orders for Solicitation 20260231, Volvo, Doosan, and Superior Broom Parts and Service to Romco Inc., DVA, Romco Equipment Co., LLC, the sole source and authorized distributor of of Volvo Doosan and Superior Broom Parts and Service. Supplier will be required to provide an updated sole source letter and affidavit each year.

Okay, any questions on this particular item? Okay, Ms. Bryant.

The motion was made by Representative Limon, seconded by Representative Canales, and this is to approve item number 38. On that motion, call for the vote. In the voting session and that motion passes unanimously represented to fear of not present.

Can stick and number 39 place.

Item 39 is discussion and action on the award of solicitation 2026-0354, scrap metal recycling services to W Silver Recycling Inc. for an initial term of three years for an estimated revenue of $1,204,788.31. The award also includes a two year option for an estimated revenue of $803,192.21. Is there a motion?

Okay, there's a motion and a second. There's no presentation on this particular one. Ms. Prine? There's, Representative Canales? I'm sorry, Representative Acevedo.

Thank you, Mayor. Ms. Prine, just for the record, I did not receive a donation from Lane Gatti, and I've been going crazy all afternoon looking through all my campaign finance reports, and I did not find one, so I just wanted to state that for the record.

Thank you.

I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT TO CLEAR IT UP. THE BACKUP SHOWS ON THE CONTRIBUTION FORM, SHOWS CONTRIBUTIONS TO ALL THE MEMBERS OF COUNCIL AND THE MAYOR ASIDE FROM REPRESENTATIVE LIMON. I ALSO DID NOT HAVE NOT RECEIVED A CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION FROM Lane Gaddy or anyone else associated with W Silver Recycling to my knowledge and I also checked my like double checked and triple checked my campaign finance reports I didn't remember that having happened and it didn't and so I'm not sure how that ended up in the disclosures I guess just to be clear to the public Lane Gaddy has disclosed a campaign contribution to me but I have not received one

Okay.

At any point ever. Thank you, Mayor.

Okay. Any further discussions on this particular item?

I do have one quickly. Okay. And that's just, so this differs significantly to all the other purchasing items in that this discusses revenues. Can you just touch on that for one minute?

Yes, Nicholas Ibarra with Environmental Services. This is a revenue generating contract for all the metal that we collect at the five citizen collection stations at the greater El Paso landfill. In the last fiscal year, we collected $287,000 worth of metal recycling, and that's why we have it listed at approximately $400,000 annually because it's all based off commodity rates.

And so essentially, this ends up being somewhat of a profit share with a contractor, right? They're also realizing some revenue from the recycling process, but we take a portion of that revenue as well. Okay, thank you. I think it's important for the public to hear.

Any further questions for Nick? All right, Ms. Bryan.

The motion was made by Representative Limon, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Chavez, and this is to award the solicitation on item 39. On that motion, call for the vote. in the voting session, and that motion passes unanimously.

Okay, let's take item number 40, please.

Item 40 is discussion and action on the results of the Sun Metro Accounts Payable Audit A2026-09.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, my name is Miguel Montiel with the Internal Audit Department. I'd like to bring up the presentation.

There you go.

We're discussing the Sub-Metro Accounts Payable Audit. This audit was presented to the FWAC meeting of May 21st. Okay, so the objectives of this audit, The objects of this summit will come to a lot of work to determine whether comes pay with transactions working complied with the city policy with Texas prime payment act and applicable contracts and agreements for required documentation supported all AP transactions if transactions were properly reviewed. And the proof of any of the unallowable purchases such as food or alcohol occurred. We determine if some Metro monitored utility payments appropriately, including those made for a vacant facilities or to ensure they weren't pain on any vacant facilities and internal controls were adequate to prevent inappropriate expenditures. Okay, so the scope. So the audit scope covered fiscal year 2026 activity from September 1st, 2025 through January 31st, 2026. To achieve our audit objectives, we interviewed some Metro facilities staff. We took the time to understand their AP processes, reviewed relevant city and some Metro policies and procedures, analyzed fiscal year 2026 invoice data, and we reviewed a sample of 50 invoices. 28 of those invoices were We're just regular invoices, you know, they're buying bus parts, they're buying office supplies, what have you. And then 22 other invoices we looked at were for utilities. Sun Metro pays, you know, water, electricity at like the Brio stations at the different depots. So we looked at those utility payments. So we have finding number one. Finding number one dealt with payment of invoices. So from our review of the 50 invoices, we identified 11 invoices lacked a recorded receipt date and people saw financials and only recorded the invoice date was documented. So what that meant was that the receipt date differed from the invoice date. So what you have is sometimes a vendor might create an invoice, I don't know, let's say June 1st, and we don't get their invoice, let's say today, June 23rd. So technically, if you go by the invoice date, you know, we have only seven days to pay, you know, to be within the 30 days of Prompt Payment Act. So once we identified those invoices, we went back and asked Sun Metro to do some more research on those invoices, and what happened was that invoices that appeared to be 31 to 77 days late actually were paid in time, within 12 to 30 days of... actually receiving the invoice of the goods or services those are those are good. So then we looked at also another set of 11 invoices those were not pay within 30 calendar days of receipts of these were actually late in payment. So these were post these payments were posted from anywhere from 33 to 74 dates from the invoice receipts. So our recommendation for that finding was that some metrics should record the actual invoice receipt date in PeopleSoft Financials to clearly establish payment timelines. And then they should strengthen processes to ensure invoices are paid within the 30 calendar days of receipt. Sun Metro will address their management responses after the conclusion of slides seven and eight. Okay, so just this is a short presentation. So our conclusion, so Sun Metro did good. They met the audit objectives where they're maintaining appropriate documentation to support accounts payable transactions. They're ensuring accounts payable transactions are properly reviewed and approved. They're limiting purchases to allowable items. They're monitoring utility payments for facilities that are in use. They have implemented controls to prevent unauthorized or inappropriate accounts payable activity. And where they need some corrective action is in processing of accounts payable transactions in accordance with both the City of El Paso accounts payable policy and the Texas Prompt Payment Act. Do we have anybody from Symetra too?

Good evening, Jared Amiro, Deputy Transit Officer of Sun Metro. So Sun Metro appreciates the efforts of the Internal Audit Department in reviewing our payables, policies, and procedures. We acknowledge the findings, and we've made some adjustments in how we do things. First and foremost, we actually looked at the number of invoices that we pay and where they're mostly coming from. We pay about 8,000 invoices a year. The bulk of those invoices are coming from our warehouse and parts facility. So we have augmented the resources to identify a dedicated resource to put in the warehouse to focus on invoice processing and payment. We've also adopted the city practice of recording in PeopleSoft the actual invoice receipt date, which didn't used to be the policy, as Miguel pointed out. So we are now doing that. We're not changing dates on invoices. We are just recording the date it was received in PeopleSoft and strive to pay within the allowable state guidelines for payment processing. And that's where we are.

So requested action is for City Council to accept the results of the accounts payable.

Is there a motion to approve this first? Motion to accept the results. Okay.

Representative Chavez.

No. I just wanted to make the motion to accept the results. Okay.

One of the things that drives auditors crazy is oftentimes a vendor will stamp an invoice one date and then mail it another date. Is there a way to put in the notes the date of the envelope? Because sometimes those could be 15 days apart. And then they're being held with an artificial timeline that they can't meet.

That's one of the new processes that the city manager implemented a few months ago. She instructed departments to make sure that you put the ladder of when you receive either the invoice itself or the invoice date, whichever is the ladder of, or you receive the goods and services. latest uh or most current date whether you receive goods and services or when you receive the invoice just to prevent those uh misunderstandings where yeah the invoice might have been uh printed out march 1st and we got the invoice today and if we process it in two days we're still late right correct okay very good okay there's a motion in a second miss prime

The motion was made by Mayor Pro Tem Chavez, seconded by Representative Madonado Rocha, and this is to accept the results on item 40. On that motion, call for the vote. In the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. Representative Acevedo not present.

OK. Representative Trejo.

I JUST WANTED TO MAKE A CORRECTION. I ALSO DID NOT RECEIVE ANY FUNDING OR CONTRIBUTIONS FROM LANE GADDY FROM THE PREVIOUS ITEM.

REPRESENTATIVE FIO?

MRS. PRIME, I DID RECEIVE A CONTRIBUTION FROM LANE GADDY.

THANK YOU.

SO DID I. OKAY. WE'RE ON ITEM NUMBER 41.

Item 41 is discussion and action of the hotel occupancy tax review. This review is performed annually to ensure that hotels operating within the city of El Paso are accurately reporting and remitting the required hotel occupancy tax, which I'll refer to as HOT hereafter. So this review cycle was completed by Newmont April 21st, 2026. The primary objective of this review was to assess whether El Paso area hotels are complying with local HOT requirements. This is a component of our tax compliance oversight and helps ensure accuracy and consistency across local tax industry. The review period covered four years, January 1st, 2022 through December 31st, 2025. 20 hotels were selected for testing. For each hotel, NUMO analyzed gross room, miscellaneous and exempt revenues, and then reconciled those amounts back to the tax returns filed with the city. This approach allows us to verify the accuracy of reported revenues and identify any discrepancies that warrant additional follow-up. As far as findings and recommendations go, the review identified tax deficiencies totaling $1.13 million across 19 of the 20 hotels selected for testing. Now, I want to frame these figures carefully. This 1.13 million represents the initial assessment amount based on the information available at the time of review. Moreover, these numbers more often than not represent the starting point in the audit process not necessarily the final amount that the city ultimately realizes. We have recommended that the office of the comptroller begin the standard collection process based on these initial assessments including any applicable penalties and interest. However as I'll discuss next these numbers typically change after hotels petition for redetermination. So initial determination letters were sent to deficient hotels on April 23rd with payment due 30 days thereafter on May 23rd. Now, it's important to clarify the role of the redetermination process because this part of the audit cycle often gets overlooked and underreported. Under Texas tax code, any hotel receiving a deficiency assessment may request a redetermination, basically a re-audit. This process allows them to submit additional documentation or to clarify information that may not have been available at the time of the audit. As a result, the redetermined amounts often differ from what is initially assessed. Now as far as round 10 is concerned, four hotels have petitioned for and have completed the redetermination process. Their deficiencies have been adjusted accordingly, thereby resulting in an overall decrease of about $111,000 from the initially assessed $1.13 million. So as of today, we're sitting closer to about $1.02 million. One hotel is currently in progress with its re-audit process, and another two hotels have requested redeterminations but have yet to provide any additional supporting documentation. So this context is important for understanding the numbers presented today. Again, the initial $1.13 million assessment was the starting point. The final realized amount will depend on the outcome of all pending re-audits, and I will update council once those re-audits are finalized and redetermined. So all said, unless there are any questions, please accept the results thus far of round 10 of the hot review.

Representative Nino.

Thank you, Mary. Did we already do a motion to approve? Motion to approve?

We already did.

Oh, we did? Okay. Thank you, agent, for your presentation. It's been a long day, so thank you for sticking with us. I'm proud to be part of the FOWAC. I think there's a lot of... misunderstandings among members of the community when it comes to the hot tax that is identified. It's a good thing that these hotels are being audited because then we find those deficiencies of funds that are owed to the taxpayers. It's not necessarily something that staff didn't identify. It's rather a process that goes through its entire audit evaluation process and we find any discrepancies and therefore we go through the process of then collecting those missing funds. And it's part of the process that we've done for many years to collect taxes owed to the community. Adrian, can you tell us a little bit about The process of when there's any deficiencies, we notify the hotel. And how successful we've been in collecting those missing tax deficiencies?

As far as tax deficiencies that are for hotels that are subject to testing. Correct. So we test 20 on an annual basis on a rotating schedule. And it's a look back period of about four years. So we assess the initial deficiencies. Each hotel has 60 days under Texas tax code to request and petition for a redetermination. And then that process typically goes back and forth. Usually what we've seen historically is the initial assessment is reduced some, and then we collect 100% of that predetermined amount.

Great. And I know that we then recommend to the Office of the Comptroller to start collecting these tax deficiencies. I don't know if the Office of the Comptroller can talk into what the process is for us to collect those deficiencies and what our success rate is in regards of collecting those deficiencies as well.

GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON.

GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON.

GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AF about 186,000 so far, that total amount. So there's still quite a bit outstanding. The Office of the Comptroller has been working with identifying and notifying them again, sending out letters of notification of the amounts owed. There are still a few of those that are still going through that process of that redetermination. Those are not finalized yet. But we're providing updates to the council on a quarterly basis with where we are with these collections, but for the most part very successful Again, if we don't get a response or if we don't get cooperation we do go work with our city attorney's office and Our collection agency to begin the process of filing the the court order perfect So that goes through the whole legal process that each of these hotels is allowed to follow and so that process usually takes quite a while to get through but for the most part the hotels are fairly cooperative with getting these amounts paid and

Yeah, and I think that's important to highlight, and I know every quarterly update that we receive, these are questions that I ask all the time, right, of the process, the success rate of us collecting those tax deficiencies, and overall how important these audits are so that we could identify those tax deficiencies and then collecting those missing funds that are owed to the taxpayers. So again, I want to thank you guys for all the work that you all do, and looking forward to the next audit.

Thank you. And I appreciate you making that comment. So at the last black meeting, I wasn't there, but Ms. Marine, the deputy CFO, did get up and make the comment because there was a story that came out with this particular audit that was done this round. KFOX ran a story and basically it was a very misleading headline that said audit finds hotel phones missing. So very questionable on that headline. And we spoke with them. Ms. and I spoke with them and let them know, hey, those funds are not missing. Those funds were identified through an audit as being owed to the city. I mean, they tried to sort of imply that somehow the city had done something wrong and wasn't handling those funds correctly. So they corrected the story three days later. You can imagine, so when we did the community meetings, Ms. Mack and I got a lot of questions about what is the city doing to collect the money that is owed? And so provide us an opportunity to go through and clarify exactly what Adrian just mentioned and what we just covered today. So again, I know there's no media here right now, but just for the public record, those funds are not missing. Those funds are identified through the audit. So I appreciate you bringing that up.

Yeah. Thank you, Robert. And thank you, Adrian. I appreciate you guys. And the team, the audit team. Thank you.

Representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Adrian, and thank you, Robert, for the clarification. I do think it's important, once again, just to state that there are redeterminations made. At the FOAC meeting, we also discussed just different operations have different processes in place. Sometimes hotels get sold. They change managers or whatever it might be. So we definitely don't want to say that these funds are intentionally not paid to the city. But it's good that we have a strong audit team to find THESE THINGS. SO WE APPRECIATE YOUR WORK AND THE TEAM'S WORK, ADRIAN. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

THANK YOU.

ADRIAN, IS THIS YOUR SECOND PRESENTATION?

TO CITY COUNCIL? YEAH. I BELIEVE IT'S THIRD.

THIRD? OKAY. VERY GOOD. FOR THOSE GIVING COMMENT, RIGHT? YEAH, YEAH.

MAYOR, IF I MAY, THEY ALSO RECEIVED A LETTER FOR RECOGNITION FOR THIS TYPE OF AUDIENCE, RIGHT?

from the Institute of Internal Auditors, yes.

I think you should mention that. Can you mention it a little bit?

We did get recognized by the Institute of Internal Auditors for our work related to this, so yes.

Thank you. I think you should share that letter to everybody. We'll do. It's impressive because they've been doing a lot of great works, and it's important to really highlight that.

Yeah, congratulations.

Awesome, thank you.

All right, so I know we have a motion and a second on item 41. Any further discussion? Ms. Pryor?

The motion was made by Representative Limon, seconded by Alternate Mayor Pro Tem Pedro. And this is to accept the results of the audit on item 41. On that motion, call for the vote. And the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously.

OK, Ms. Prime, let's take item 42, please.

Item 42 is discussion and action on the results of the Code Enforcement Division Audit A 2025-05.

Is there a motion to approve? Approve. Second. Okay, good afternoon.

Good afternoon, again, Miguel Montiel with Internal Audit Department. Okay, we're discussing the Code Enforcement Division Audit. When we began this project, they were a division, now they're a department. We discussed this audit during the May 21st FOAC meeting. So the objectives of this audit was to perform an assessment of enforcement efforts for nuisance cases. To accomplish this, we identified and reviewed the top five types of violations and associated data. Reviewed if established enforcement processes are in accordance with city ordinances, ordinances, ordinances, sorry. Evaluate whether imposed penalties are in accordance with established fees and or fines identified and documented education outreach efforts Evaluate budget staffing levels for the core enforcement department. Okay, so the scope Covered activity from January 1st 2024 through December 31st 2025 which included reviewing civil passive policies and procedures interviewing code enforcement management staff and Examining case files and court dispositions for the top five violations, which are brush, illegal dumping, junk vehicles, illegal parking, and sidewalk obstructions. Okay, so when we initiate the assessment, we're instructed to provide statistical data on the top five code violation categories, which I just mentioned. The last five pages with the actual audit report contain an analysis of the top five case violations. Those are appendices A through E. Our review identified some good news and a couple areas for improvement for the department. Okay, so finding one dealt with department department procedures sort of review of eight policy and procedures manuals Identify that the eight manuals reflect still reflected the Paso Police Department hate name instead of the course enforcement letterhead, you know the department two of the manuals do not have an effective date and the remaining six manuals included effective dates region from 2017 to 2023 The list of manuals did not outline specific procedures followed by the code enforcement regarding illegal parking and sidewalk obstructions. Code enforcement is currently in the process of developing a department-wide standard operations manual. So recommendation from finding number one is for court enforcement should continue developing a department-wide procedures manual that incorporates the new department letterhead includes an effective date and documents and procedures for legal parking and sidewalk obstructions. Okay, so the department will discuss the management responses after the end of finding number two. We had two findings. So finding number two deals with the timely completion of inspections and follow-up visits for those inspections. So we reviewed a sample of complaints for the top five code enforcement violations, which we discussed were brush, illegal dumping, junk vehicles, illegal parking, and sidewalk obstructions. Code enforcement, actually this is positive, code enforcement has a KPI, Key Performance Indicator, that requires that 80% of cases are completed within 30 days of receiving the call or the complaint. And then our review identified that 93.808 of cases were resolved within 30 days, which is they exceeded their KPI of 80%. However, some required timeframes for initial inspections and follow-up visits were not consistently met. So like we mentioned here, initial inspections, they're required to be performed within five days of receiving the call. 110 of 130 cases or 84.6 met the requirement, and then the remaining 20 cases were completed between six and 39 days of receipt. There's follow-up visits, so if they go investigate and the car didn't get moved or brushes didn't get cut or what have you, there's first and second follow-up visits if required. So the first follow-up visits are required within seven days after the initial inspection or 10 days for junk vehicles. So 23 of 65 cases met the requirement of the 7 days or 10 days and then 42 cases occurred between 8 and 34 days after initial inspection. And then for second follow-up visits, they were also required 7 days after the first follow-up or 10 days for junk vehicles. Two of those 12 cases met the requirement and 10 cases occurred 9 through 34 days after the first follow-up. So our recommendation for that is for court enforcement should evaluate and strengthen their controls to improve compliance within the required five-day initial visit and seven-day or 10-day for junk vehicles for follow-up benchmarks. This includes implementing workload monitoring tools, adjusting case assignment practices, or leveraging automated alerts to ensure timely inspections. While the department's meeting, it's overall a 30-day case completion KPI of 80%, which is a positive thing. I mean, they receive, as we all know, they receive thousands of cases per month. A lot of calls for, like I mentioned, for those top five, it's just mind-boggling how many cases come in every month. Improving interim milestone performance will support more effective enforcement, reduce backlogs, and improve service responsiveness. So for conclusion, court enforcement met the audit objectives in the following areas. They documented their procedures manuals for three of the top five violations for brush, junk vehicles, and illegal dumping. And they're in accordance with city ordinances. They met the KPI, exceeded the KPI of 80% of cases are resolved within 30 days. Ensuring the imposed penalties and costs are in accordance with established fees and our fines. They established education and outreach efforts to the community. They evaluate their department's budget to ensure current needs are in future department growth is met. Code enforcement did not meet the audio objectives in the following areas. Developing a department-wide standard operation procedures manual and ensuring that the initial and follow-up inspections are completed within the requirements listed in the ordinances and code procedure manuals. That's for match responses. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Steve Alvarado for the record. For finding one, we are fully aware that we just became a department September 1st of 2025. No excuses, but our team is diligently working on a draft right now, which we'll get to city attorney's office for review within the next two weeks and have those conversations. It's a more comprehensive draft because now we went from just having nuisance to having parking enforcement zoning fire code you name it eight divisions recycling vector food safety so we're trying to gather all that and make a comprehensive SOP standard operating procedure plan that'll be overview for all those different sections within the department for finding two So we're fully aware that we do have some bottlenecks in some areas that we can improve on. 80% is a very achievable KPI. 93.08 is a lot better. But if we can get closer to 100, that is our ultimate goal here and our objective. We are holding interviews this Friday and Monday, I'm happy to say, to... onboard a quality assurance and training specialist that will be taking the data, looking at it, identifying the bottlenecks, and more importantly, working with the managers and myself, the executive office, to focus on ways to better develop plans to overcome these challenges. My objective is as close to 100% as we possibly can. We can always do better, and I can always do better. That's my personal objective here. We are working on that. We will do better, and next time we're here, provide an update, and hopefully we'll have a 96, 98% achievable rate.

Very good.

So our requested action is for council to accept the results of the court enforcement audit.

Okay. Representative Limon.

Yes, thank you. Miguel, how much time do you anticipate it would take to have a department-wide standard operating procedures manual? Is that an ongoing kind of task or is that something that is going to be done and completed once and for all? Or is it an ongoing, Steve, I guess Steve.

Yes, Rep Limon. We are working on that. It'll be ongoing. We plan to have a city attorney's first review within the next two weeks. Our target goal is August 31st, by end of fiscal year, to have it for next fiscal year in place.

Very good. So one year, like one year's time. Department started in September, so by this time. And that would be normal, right? I mean, given the fact that this consolidation of numerous departments into one, or people in it. Ms. Mack?

think we've ever had that many be grouped together I know so I mean they're coming from all over the city you know four or five or six departments and so it's a lot you know it's not just a situation where we're talking about refresh he's really thinking about how we integrate those services together and think about going to work in a very different way and so I think the team is just being thoughtful about how that works and align that with the training so I I thank them for all they've done

I think that's good. I think, good, great that you've been able to pull all of these different areas and make them into one cohesive department. So thank you very much. Thank you, Miguel.

Any questions on item 42? Okay, Ms. Pryor.

The motion was made by Representative Limon, seconded by Representative Boyer-Trejo to accept the results on item 42. On that motion, call for the vote. in the voting session and that motion passes unanimously.

OK, Ms. Prime, we're going to actually take item 53 next.

Yes, sir.

And then maybe take a break.

Item 53.

53.

Is discussion in action for city council to amend agreement 2023-07 33r with consort North America for the El Paso Public Safety and Fire Department headquarters and maintenance and a logistics center project for an additional amount not to exceed three hundred forty four thousand four hundred twenty six dollars sixty four cents for added project management services such as commissioning and building envelope to incorporate the police department headquarters into the El Paso Public Safety and Fire Department headquarters and maintenance and logistics center project management services contract

Okay, there's a motion and a second. Yvette, you wanna?

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Yvette Hernandez, City Manager's Office.

YOU LOOK SO EXCITED.

I AM VERY EXCITED. THIS IS AN AMAZING PROJECT. 200 ACRES, I MEAN, 50 ACRES, $200 MILLION, AND THIS IS JUST ONE PART OF IT. SO THIS IS AN AWARD TO CONSOR. THEY ARE CURRENTLY GOING TO BE PROVIDING THE SERVICES FOR THE REMAINING PORTION OF ACADEMY. IF YOU'LL REMEMBER, PD HEADQUARTERS WAS A STAND ALONE. WE'RE NOW PUTTING TOGETHER 70,000 additional square feet. So this is to include the PD portion. Quick look at the site plan. There's the headquarters now consolidated both fire and PD together. So that's about 110,000 square feet. So this is a lot of wording, but really what we're doing is getting the commissioning and building envelope. We're investing so much money into this. We want to ensure the building is correctly designed. and operating as it was constructed. That means it's efficient, it's reliant, The occupancy's occupants have a comfort load. It's not too cold. It's not too hot. All the commissioning agent will be checking this. It also extends the lifecycle of our building. One of the things also we have some glass ministrations that we're looking at. Really want to make sure that those are constructed correctly so we don't have any air leakage, water infiltration. So really this is to ensure that it's constructed correctly, and we are having a quality check in addition to what our local staff that will be there every day is doing. So we know that this money that we're investing will last for the long term. Here's the project renderings. And so as I made mention, the building envelope is quite complicated. So this is also another reason to have this third party Provide the inspections and so asking for City Council to award to concert three hundred and forty four thousand four twenty six Okay, any questions for you that?

Okay, miss Brian the motion was made by representative Maldonado Rocha seconded by representative Limon to approve the agreement on item 53 on that motion call for the vote in the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously.

OK, Ms. Prime, I know I said we're going to take a break, but let's try to do 43, 44, 45, 46, and then 47.

Yes, sir. Item 43 is discussion and action on a resolution that the city council.

But it's Joaquin.

Approval granted in the resolution of July 1st 2024 to allocate funds from capital asset sales to fund the city of El Paso's local match Obligation for the playa during shared use path project is rescinded item 40 forest is For the Sunland Park shared use path project item 45 is for the railroad drive project item 46 is for the Sun Valley project and item 47 is for the traffic management center updates

phases two and three tmcu project for motion to approve okay joaquin you know how this works mayor we could also do items 48 through 52 if you'd like thank you joaquin that's why we called you up

I have 48 is discussion in action on the resolution solution that the City Council here by accepts a state infrastructure bank said the loan agreement in its substantially final form in order to secure receipt of funds in the amount of $458,000 to be fully repaid over no more than 25 years for civil own number to s 2026 dash there's a 5 dash 0, 7 player drain shared use item 49 is to accept the SIP loan agreement to secure funds in the amount of $3,813,000 to be fully repaid over no more than 25 years for SIP loan number S2026-008-10, Sunland Park Shared Use Path. Item 50 is to accept the SIP loan agreement in order to secure receipt of funds in an amount of $4,067,000 to be fully repaid over no more than 25 years for the SIP loan number S2026-006-08, reconstruction of railroad drive. Item 4051 is to accept the civil on agreement in order to a secure receipt of funding amount of $484,000 to be fully repaid for over no more than 25 years for civil number is 2026 dash 0, 0, 7, dash 0, 9, Sun Valley Street improvements And item 52 is to accept the SIP loan agreement in order to secure receipt of funds in an amount of $6 million to be fully repaid over no more than 25 years for SIP loan number S2026-001-05 Traffic Management Center upgrades phases two and five.

Motion to approve.

Okay, Joaquin has wonderful presentations on each one of these. Representative Rocha?

Just a point of order, Mayor. Those are a lot of items. They're posted individually, so I make a motion to make sure that we vote on them individually. Independently? Yes, please. Absolutely. Thank you.

Joaquin, you wanna walk through one of the presentations at least?

Absolutely. I can break it all down in just a few minutes. I think Ms. Prine pretty much covered it with reading the items into the agenda. But essentially, items 43 through 47 rescind previously granted authority to use capital asset sales funding for our federal match requirements for these projects. That approval was granted in July of 2024. And then items 48 through 52 are approval of the final loan agreements for those projects with the TxDOT State Infrastructure Bank to replace that funding that's being rescinded by the other items. Council previously approved the applications for those loans in April of 2025, and this is the last step in executing those loan agreements.

Okay. Council, at any moment you want to see a presentation, just stop me. Let's take item, Representative Chavez. We're gonna do one at a time though.

No, I do have a question. On the loans, Joaquin, could you talk a little bit more about the interest rates? And I know it's 25 years and 3.44% interest rate. If you could compare this to other SIP loans we've gotten or any other information that you could give to the public regarding these loans specifically.

So we've received one other Sib loan for the Sean Haggerty project. I believe the rate on that one was 4.05% and similar term. These rates are very competitive compared to the sort of standard debt financing tools that municipalities might use. But in addition to that, there are no There are no costs associated with borrowing this money from the state infrastructure bank. It's strictly just the lending costs over that period of time. There's no origination fees. There's no fees of us hiring outside council to prepare the debt documents. It's just those. So it's a very competitive financing tool, very efficient financing tool for the city to use.

Do we anticipate having to use all 25 years to pay it back?

I'd have to defer that to Mr. Gortinas, but most likely, yes.

Most likely, yes.

He's nodding yes, so.

OK. And just for public knowledge, I think that we just recently started using Sibloans. As you just mentioned, we've only done it once before. Correct. What was the traditional way we were doing it in the past?

In the past, we were using certificates of obligation to fund our grant match for federal transportation projects.

Okay, so the total amount in all of these agenda items is what I haven't added it up do you do you know.

So the total amount of loans in these agenda items, it's 14 million 822,000 we have an upcoming second set of applications which will be 6.9 million and the total for all city of El Paso civil and projects right now is going to be about $29 million.

Okay, could you also mention how these projects were selected? Have they been kind of part of our plan from years ago or?

So the action taken by Council in April of 2025 was to approve some SibLoan funding for federally funded transportation projects that are part of the Transportation Improvement Program. So that's projects that are considered regional priorities that are programmed by the MPO Transportation Policy Board.

Okay. Do you have any others in the pipeline?

The others we have in the pipeline are all projects within the 2025 to 2028 Transportation Improvement Program. So the other ones coming up would be a grant match for our Safe Streets and Roads for All grant. That's another federally funded project. The Buffalo Soldier Street Reconstruction, connected bike lanes. That's a transportation alternatives project. The Brown Street shared use path and the Shadow Mountain Drive shared use path.

Okay. I just think it's important for us to have the discussion since we're approving all of this and it's a lot of money today.

Just to put into perspective, so the general obligation bonds that we just priced earlier in this month, that interest rate came in at about 4.36%. So compare a geo versus the sibling, the sibling with that 3.44 amount. Very, very, again, favorable interest rate on these siblings.

So it's a pathway to getting projects done at a very reasonable interest rate compared to other options.

Yes, it's leveraging a substantial amount of money through the NPO process.

And I think it's important. Thank you, Robert. And I think it's important to publicly say this because it's a lot of money. And we need to make sure that we're communicating that we're trying to be as fiscally responsible as possible.

Absolutely.

Thank you. I appreciate that.

OK, Ms. Bryan, we're going to take them one at a time. And again, Council, at any moment you want to see a presentation, just stop me. Let's take item 43. Yes, sir.

The motion was made by Representative Borja-Trejo, seconded by alternate Mayor Pro Tem Fierro. And this is to approve the resolution on item 43. On that motion, call for the vote. And the voting session? And that motion passes unanimously.

OK, Ms. Bryan, let's take 44.

Is there a motion? Motion approved.

Second.

There's a motion made by Alternate Mayor Roten Piero, seconded by Representative Limon, and this is to approve the resolution on item 44. On that motion, call for the vote. in the voting session and that motion passes unanimously. Item 45.

Is there a motion? Motion to approve. Okay. There's a motion, is there a second?

Second.

Okay, Ms. Bryan.

Yes, sir, the motion was made by Representative Boya-Trejo, seconded by Representative Nino, and this is to approve the resolution on item 45. On that motion, call for the vote. in the voting session, and that motion passes unanimously.

Item 46. Motion to approve. There's a motion, is there a second?

There's a motion made by Representative Boyer-Trejo, seconded by Representative Limon, and this is to approve the resolution on item 46. On that motion, call for the vote. In the voting session, And that motion passes unanimously.

Okay, let's take 47. Move to approve. Okay, there's a motion to approve. Is there a second? Second. Okay, Ms. Bryan.

There's a motion made by Representative Limon, seconded by Alternate Mayor Pro Tempiero. And this is to approve the resolution on item 47. On that motion, call for the vote. in the voting session, and that motion passes unanimously.

Okay, 48. Okay, there's a motion and a second. Ms. Pryor?

There's a motion made by Representative Limon, seconded by Alternate Mayor Plouton-Ferro. And this is to approve the resolution on item 48. On that motion, call for the vote. in the voting session, and that motion passes unanimously.

Let's take 49. Move to approve. Okay, Representative Canales, you want to second this one? Second. All right, there we go. Ms. Bryant, call for the vote on 49.

Yes, the motion was made by Representative Limon, seconded by Representative Canales, and this is to approve the resolution on item 49. On that motion, call for the vote. in the voting session and that motion passes unanimously.

Okay, let's take 50, Representative Trejo.

Motion to approve.

Okay, okay.

There's a motion made by Representative Boyer-Trejo, seconded by alternate Mayor Pro Tem Fierro, and this is to approve the resolution on item 50. On that motion, call for the vote. In the voting session and that motion passes unanimously if it to represent real motion to prove.

There's okay, that's right.

There's a motion made by a representative for the whole. Seconded by mayor Pro Tem Chavez. And this is to prove the resolution on item 51 on that motion call for the vote. in the voting session, and that motion passes unanimously.

Okay, Ms. Ryan, let's take 52. Okay, there's a motion and a second.