City Council - Regular Meeting

Well, good morning, everyone, and welcome to City Council Chambers. We're about ready to get started. Ms. Pryor?

Yes, good morning, and welcome to the presentation of the mayor's proclamations. This morning, we begin with a Pledge of Allegiance led by Abigail Holguin, Rebecca Holguin, Juliana Fierro, Kennedy Christian Medina, Javier Montes Valls, and Diego Luis Macias at the invitation of City Representative Lily Limon.

United States of America. So there's your picture. Is it there? No.

All right, big smiles over here. Ready, one, two, three. You can have several more, keep those smiles.

Oh, no.

Thank you.

Okay, Ms. Bryan.

That brings us to the mayor's proclamations. For those of you receiving a proclamation, your group will have up to four minutes collectively to receive the proclamation at the podium and say a few words. We begin this morning with the proclamation for Grammy winner Zoo Bailey and 25 years with El Paso Pro Musica Day.

Good morning.

Good morning. Good morning, my friend. How are you doing?

Oh, I'm doing wonderful. It's such an honor to be here. I'm standing with Jordan Barron, who is the president of the board of directors of El Paso Pro Musica. And it's what an honor and a... what a humbling experience it is to be here in front of you today, as El Paso Pro Musica is so enamored with everything that's happening here in El Paso, Texas, everything that every representative is doing here for our community, and what we hope to do is give back, give back to our future, so that students in the region, the hundreds that we reach, their lives are touched through the power of music no matter what it is they want to do that they receive inspiration and love and Dedication and discipline and I do believe we have a message from our Artistic director Zul Bailey if I could read the proclamation Let's hold the message I know I know I love I love the energy represent represent Chavez

Whereas in 2021, cellist Zul Bailey was overheard practicing his cello in Anthony, New Mexico, and was asked to consider the position of artistic director of El Paso Pro Musica. And whereas Zul Bailey chose to make El Paso his home and bring a new level of chamber music performance to El Paso, serving as a musical ambassador for El Paso and bringing the finest musical artists in the world to our region. And whereas under Zul Bailey's guidance, El Paso Pro Musica has grown as a music organization that reaches close to 15,000 students a year through educational outreach and community engagement, El Paso Pro Musica provides music programs for patients in area hospitals, senior centers, and various healthcare facilities and collaborates with such entities as the El Paso Museum of Art, La Nube, the Mexican American Cultural Center, and the UTEP Center for Arts Entrepreneurship to provide music to soothe, heal, educate, comfort, and inspire. And whereas for the last 25 years, making music accessible to all has been the mission of artistic director and Grammy winning cellist, Zul Bailey. Now therefore be it proclaimed by the mayor and council of the city of El Paso that July 7th, 2026 shall be known as Grammy winner Zul Bailey and 25 years with El Paso Pro Musica Day signed by the honorable mayor, Renard Johnson. And congratulations. And now we have a special message from Zul Bailey.

Hello, I'm Charles Zul Bailey. Greetings from beautiful San Francisco. we need to, including our box lunch series at the museum, our affiliation for 20 years with the El Paso Symphony, UTEP. Everything is, the sky's the limit. But again, we couldn't do it without you, and I thank you for letting me be your fearless leader, El Paso Pro Musica, as the artistic director. Now, to serenade that and to celebrate a bit, here's a little bit of Bach.

so ¦ ¦ Thank you. ¦ ¦

Thank you. Incredible.

Thank you so much for this wonderful honor, for allowing us to be here with you today, and for continuing to support us as we support our future through, like Sewell Bailey said, through the power of music. Thank you so much.

You're very welcome. Representative Fierro.

Thank you, Mayor. First and foremost, I need to thank Jordan for your leadership as the chair of the board. And the great things that the board has done, the lunch at the museum, that's just amazing. And for the record, Mayor, we tried to steal him to another committee and he would not budge. And Philippa, 30 years of broadcasting. You've been a mentor. You've shown us the news. You're an amazing person. Everything you touch turns into gold. I won't watch a movie unless you've already critiqued it. Thank you for that. And thank you for bringing this great artist to El Paso. I mean, he just opens hearts and just brings peace and great to any room he's at. So thank you for your leadership. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mary.

You got it. And Jordan and my friend Felipe, congratulations on 25 years. I can't believe it's been that long, but it's been incredible. And for Zul to take the time to record that video for us was very special. And it sounded just as good coming over the computer as if he was sitting here. And as we know, Zoo Bailey is a household name here in our community. And we can't thank you guys for all that you're doing at Pro Musica and everything that you will continue to do. So it's only 25 years. We need 25 years more.

We'll keep it going.

Good. Congratulations, guys. Thank you.

Thank you so much.

All right, ready? Big smiles.

One, two, three. One.

And the next proclamation is Bill of Rights Day.

Representative Nino.

Thank you, Mayor. Are the honorees here?

Yes. Yes?

Perfect. Thank you, Mayor, for allowing me to read today's proclamation. Good morning. Good morning.

Hello.

Hello.

Good morning, everybody.

Good morning. I'm about to read the proclamation, and then we'll hand it over to you.

OK. Very good.

So proclamation for the city of El Paso, Texas. Whereas the Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the Constitution of the United States, was ratified on December 15, 1791. And whereas the purpose of the Bill of Rights is to protect the rights of American citizens, and among these rights are freedom of speech, assembly, and religion. And whereas the National Society of Colonial Dames of America actively promotes appreciation for the people, places, and the events that led to the formation and the development of our country and our national heritage through historic preservation, patriotic service, and educational projects. And whereas the El Paso Town Committee of National Society of Colonial Dems of America joins the 44 other corporate societies across America in the preservation of our history and respect of our constitution. Patriotic service, preservation of history, and educational projects are the focus of each town committee. Now therefore, be it proclaimed by the mayor and the council of the city of El Paso that December 15th, 2026 shall be known as Bill of Rights Day. signed by the Honorable Mayor Renard Johnson.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Good morning to you all. Let me introduce my fellow members from our El Paso town committee. This is Carly Pine and this is Catherine Brown and I am Suzanne Hubbard. We really sincerely. Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of this Proclamation and we thank you mayor Johnson City Council and the members of the city of El Paso We're very grateful for you sharing your time with us. You've already told us about the Bill of Rights and the purpose so I won't go into that again but It is an honor for us to receive this proclamation declaring December 15th, 2026, this year, as Bill of Rights Day. It was written to protect the rights of American citizens, such rights as, you said, freedom of speech, assembly, and religion, and they are the first 10 amendments to our Constitution, and how different our lives would be without these protections. We gratefully and sadly accept this from you, the proclamation, in memory of our beloved member, Nancy Lynch, who founded this project in our El Paso town committee many years ago. So this is really dedicated to her. On behalf of our El Paso town committee, I extend our appreciation to all of you for including us this day. Thank you.

Catherine or Carly, you guys want to say anything? What? Do you guys want to say anything?

No, we're just proud to be here and to have the time with y'all.

It was Nancy Lynch, am I right?

Nancy Lynch, she put together this so many years ago, and it was just this year that she passed away and so we just feel like it's important, just like you just said, but she was a special lady and we really just want to dedicate it to her this year.

Just thank you very much for giving us the proclamation. We appreciate it very much in honor of our country.

You're very welcome. And tell me a little bit more about the organization. Don't you guys give out scholarships and do other things?

Actually, since you asked, we are the Colonial Danes, National Colonial Danes of America, and it's in the state of Texas, and our table is El Paso Town Committee. And our mission is to promote our national heritage through historic preservation, patriotic service, and educational projects. We do this by collecting and preserving manuscripts traditions, relics, mementos of bygone days, and to preserve and restore buildings connected to the early history of our country. Educate, stimulate a spirit of true patriotism and a genuine love of country and, of course, to impress upon the young the sacred obligation of honoring the members and memory of those heroic ancestors whose ability, valor, suffering, and achievements are beyond all praise. We our project this year is to support as a patriotic services or service to support a project called Endeavor and that is a project for veterans who have maybe recently come out of the service or have been out of the service for some time and they have a brand new facility over on the east side and that is our project this year to support veterans.

very good well thank you guys for all that you're doing and all that you're doing for the el paso community and keeping these stories and values alive about you know everything that shapes our our nation and our in our history so thank you guys so much and congratulations thank you for letting us join you of course it's an honor to be a part of this absolutely congratulations thank you

Thank you.

One, two, three. One more, one, two, three.

And the next proclamation is Westside Regional Command Center, Command Center of the Year.

Representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor. Good morning. As you make your way up to the microphone, I'm going to start reading the proclamation. Whereas under the leadership of Commander Steven Lopez, the Westside Regional Command Center has established itself as a premier model of modern policing through innovation, operational excellence, compassionate service, and an unwavering commitment to the safety and well-being of the El Paso community. And whereas the city of El Paso recognizes the dedication and excellence of its public safety professionals who serve and protect our community. And whereas the Westside Regional Command Center has demonstrated exceptional leadership, innovation, and commitment to public safety through data-driven policing, operational excellence, and strong community partnerships. And whereas during 2025, the Westside Regional Command Center achieved a 10% reduction in overall crime, reflecting the effectiveness of its coordinated strategies and dedicated personnel. And whereas the Westside Regional Command Center established high standards through its field training officer FTO program, strengthening officer development, mentorship, and professional excellence. And whereas the Westside Regional Command Center spearheaded the Humanitarian Engagement Action Response Team Heart Initiative, a citywide collaborative model integrating law enforcement, housing, healthcare, and community partners to provide coordinated response and support for individuals in crisis. And whereas the HART Initiative reflects not only program success, but WSRCC's pilot of a new approach to policing, one that integrates compassion, accountability, operational excellence, and community trust. And whereas the Westside Regional Command Center advanced the Ride Share Hub Initiative, improving safety and coordination in key entertainment and transit areas. And whereas the Westside Regional Command Center continues to strengthen community engagement, through proactive partnerships, special events, and cross-agency collaboration that enhance public safety and quality of life, and whereas the leadership of the Westside Regional Command Center promotes a culture guided by the philosophy, remain steadfast in the face of adversity, communicate, show compassion, empower your direct reports, exhibit empathy and praise, Always. And whereas the Westside Regional Command Center is united by its guiding mantra, we cultivate our future by acknowledging that they exist for a greater purpose than ourselves. Now therefore, be it proclaimed by the Mayor and City Council of El Paso that the Westside Regional Command Center is hereby honored as the 2025 Region of the Year and is commended for its outstanding service, innovation, leadership, and unwavering commitment to the community of El Paso, signed by the Honorable Mayor Renard Johnson. Congratulations.

Good morning.

Good morning, Mayor and ma'am. What you just said, I cannot you know, we were busy last year. So, well, thank you for that. It was very eye opening as to everything that you listed. So my name is Lieutenant Milner and I am here on behalf of Commander Lopez for the West Side Regional Command. My current assignment is community services and special operations on the West Side. Here I have with me today the guys and gals that are boots on the ground and hardworking and made this happen for 2025. So I will recognize our patrol officers for the Westside Regional Command. Our patrol officers were awarded the highest awards possible, Purple Heart, Medal of Valor, and Life Saving Awards. Amongst everything else that you just mentioned, our patrol is the backbone of the department, 365, 24 seven. So here I have with me today, community services. Here I have with me today is our tactical crime suppression unit. I also have the CID detectives. And last but not least, our civilians that we would not be able to do this without them. So. Wow. Congratulations. So the other thing that I am proud to EXPLAIN IS WHAT IT MEANS TO HAVE THE REGIONAL COMMAND AWARD OF THE YEAR. IT MEANS LOWERING IN CRIME STATISTICS SIGNIFICANTLY. IT MEANS LOWER CITIZEN COMPLAINTS AND MOST OF ALL INNOVATIVE STRATEGIES THAT YOU MENTIONED. SO I'M GOING TO TURN IT OVER TO DR. MILO WHO IS THE CITY'S SENIOR CRIME ANALYST AND HE'S JUST GOING TO GIVE YOU A LITTLE BIT OF THE STRATEGIES USED FOR VIOLENT CRIME.

GOOD MORNING. Good morning, Mayor. I'm Emiliano Villarreal, senior crime analyst for the department. So we did reduce crime overall 10% last year. But specifically, violent crime was reduced by 9% for assaults, 25% for robberies, and we also reduced overall crime against property, burglaries of vehicles were reduced by 37%, vehicle theft by 3%, overall theft by 10%, and we also took 23% more drugs off the street. So overall 10, but those are the key numbers. Thank you.

Good morning, Mayor. Good morning. Members of the Council. My name is Officer Machoro. I'm an officer at the Westside Regional Command Community Services, and I'm going to talk to you about the H.A.R.D.S. program, or Humanitarian Engagement Action Response Team. It began as an idea originating out of the Westside Regional Command to rethink how we engage with individuals experiencing homelessness. Rather than relying on traditional enforcement, the vision was to create a service-first approach that connected people to the resources while supporting public safety. Before HARDS, agencies often coordinated on specific issues. that arose, but today nearly more than 40 organizations meet biweekly to share information, collaborate, and respond as a network rather than an individual organization, making it a cultural shift. Our cross-functional teams includes El Paso Police Department, Fire Department, MIH, Community Development, Code Compliance, Street and Maintenance, Animal Services, United Way, Amistad, Opportunity Center, Welcome Center, U.S. Veterans Affairs, nonprofits, and healthcare partners. We as a whole respond to each call. HEARTS, the City Innovation Team, and El Paso HELPS has created a coordinated response system where outreach, transportation, shelter, medical care, and navigation happen together instead of separately. Instead of PD being called and we go and enforce, now instead a community concern request comes in through 311, hearts coordination, outreach teams, transportation, welcome centers, case management and long-term navigation all get activated. As of right now the 311 portal is now active and there is a section for encampments in there. From May 2025 to now, 549 3-1 tickets have been generated. 60 council requests have been submitted. Along with 3-1-1, our officers, while on patrol, can call El Paso HELPS number and get a response within 20 to 30 minutes, 24-7, citywide. And that's a big difference. We have a documented call before the HEARTS initiative where it took 18 hours to get services to an individual. So narrowing that down to 20 and 30 minutes is amazing to get help out to those patrol officers. As of June, 2026, 80 individuals were safely transported by the police department to the welcome center for immediate access and services. Along with that, we do community partner events. Last year in 2025, we had a VA surge where approximately 300 individuals were engaged, 43 individuals accepted services, 30 pets were treated, and all of this couldn't have been done without coordinated services. This year in April, we had a three-day event where we met with 140 individuals, 34 of them got placement. And then we have a scheduled event for this month at the end of the month. And that's the impact that the hearts initiative has had on the city.

So as you can see, we have been very busy and these initiatives are ongoing and they are measurable. And I do want to add that they are in line with the city's strategic goals, the five pillars. So we are in line with that. We thank you so much for honoring us.

Absolutely, and congratulations on everything that you guys have accomplished and will continue to do. And you're a model not just for El Paso, but for the country and everything that you're doing. And a 10% reduction in crime, that's not easy to do, and it doesn't happen by chance. So it's great officers, great leadership, and a shared commitment that you guys have for excellence. So we cannot thank you enough for all that you do. 365 days a year seven days a week 24 hours a day congratulations well deserved but we would love to let them come up and introduce themselves if you don't mind lieutenant absolutely good morning i'm officer w ringer with the west side tactical unit good morning good morning i'm officer johnson with the tactical unit as well nice to meet you mr johnson

Good morning, sir. Officer Buster on with the community services for the West Side Regional Command.

Good morning. Good morning.

Officer Eric Segura, Household Community Services.

Officer J Hernandez with Community Services.

Good morning.

Good morning. Detective Raymond with West Side CID. Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Detective Salvador Dominguez with West Side CID.

Good morning.

Good morning. I'm Rebecca Aguilar. I'm with Community Services.

Good morning.

Morning. Melinda Ramirez with Victim Services.

Good morning. I see some brass back there. I'm going to ask them to come up and say a few words. Good morning, Chief.

City representatives, how y'all doing?

Morning, Chief.

I appreciate the honor of being at the proclamation for Westside regional command of the year. They did some great work. But as you know, the whole department, all six regional commands, every unit in our department, they go above and beyond. And I know a lot of you all have been on ride-alongs, so you know exactly what I'm talking about. But we're proud of the Westside regional command, the HART program, their investigations, the reduction in crime. And we're very appreciative of the recognition of the proclamation, and thank you very much.

Thank you, Chief.

Good morning, Chief. Good morning, Mayor, Council. Thank you very much for the proclamation recognizing the Westside Regional Command as the command of the year. These officers and supervisors work very hard day in and day out. And the caliber of officers around the department says a lot about what this unit did because everybody out there is working very hard. where I can sit is truly a privilege. I get to see the phenomenal work every single day that these individuals do along with the civilian support staff that we could not do our job without the civilians that are the really the silent service within the El Paso Police Department. So as a whole they're working as a team and what they accomplished in 2025 is phenomenal. We're all very proud of each and every single one working out at the west side, along with all our officers out there. And I'll say it again, we have great people on the El Paso Police Department that go out there every single day, regardless of their assignment, whether it's civilian or sworn staff, doing their job and keeping their oath and promise to keep this one of the safest cities in the United States. I'd also like to recognize, it was incredible the proclamations that you did earlier, the first one on culture, the second one on the Bill of Rights, what these individuals live every single day. They spoke about Endeavor's program, and I cannot thank this organization for supporting Endeavor's because they have done a phenomenal job helping our El Paso police officers and their wellness across the board along with all the other first responders. So Mayor, Council, truly appreciate your recognition of the Westside Regional Command. We're very proud of them.

Representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor, and congratulations once again to the entire team at the Westside Regional Command Center. Thank you for your leadership, Chief Pasillas. Thank you for Commander Lopez's leadership. Thank you for your leadership as well, Lieutenant. I want to touch a little bit more on what Officer Machoro mentioned because he's 100% correct, Mayor. Many times we think of the police department just as enforcers of the law, but in reality, I have gotten to witness firsthand in my last year and a half in office the engagement they've had with the community through different programming and event. So they are continuously working to make sure that they're positive representatives in our community as well. And it's not just enforcement, it's also a public engagement and help with everything in our communities day in and day out. So we appreciate you being present in our communities through different programming and events. having not only being part of the the heart initiative but having the heart to serve the community in so many different capacities thank you for your leadership thank you for your service thank you for all that you do I am I'm proud to serve this community alongside the department thank you so much thank you congratulations represent Rocha

Ditto what Representative Chavez said, and just wanted to say thank you for everything that you do day in and day out. Please get home safely, and congratulations on this wonderful honor.

Congratulations, guys.

There's no moral support, really.

I walked off so fast.

Okay, Ms. Bryan.

And the final proclamation is Sylvia Talley Day, celebrating 30 years of service to the Center Against Sexual and Family Violence.

OK. Representative Rocha. Yes, they're coming up. Oh, yeah.

Good morning, it's so great to see you all in council today.

Good morning everyone, come on up.

Whereas Sylvia Talley has devoted 30 years of unwavering service to the Center Against Sexual and Family Violence, demonstrating extraordinary compassion, leadership and commitment to individuals and families affected by domestic violence and sexual assault. And whereas throughout her three decades of service, Ms. Talley has been a steadfast advocate for survivors, working tirelessly to ensure they receive the support, resources, and hope to rebuild their lives with dignity and strength. And whereas serving as Assistant Director of Advocacy, Ms. Talley has played an instrumental role in advancing CASB's mission, empowering countless individuals and families while fostering a safer, more compassionate community. And whereas Ms. Talley has remained dedicated to CASV because she has witnessed firsthand the profound impact of the organization's work, families healing, children growing into resilient adults, and generations breaking free from cycles of violence. And whereas her unwavering commitment, empathy, and leadership have left an enduring legacy that extends far beyond the walls of the organization, inspiring colleagues, volunteers, community partners, and those whose lives have been forever changed through her service. And whereas Sylvia Talley's 30 years of dedication exemplify the highest ideals of public service, advocacy, and community leadership, making her a role model for future generations of advocates. Now therefore, be it proclaimed by the Mayor and Council of the City of El Paso, recognizing Sylvia Talley for 30 years of dedicated service to the Center Against Sexual and Family Violence, signed by the Honorable Mayor, Renard Johnson.

Good morning.

Good morning, Council and Mayor. It's an honor to be here with you this morning. My name is Sandra Nevarez-Garcia. I'm the executive director for the center, and so I'm going to be brief. So I'm going to try to test this out. It's an honor to recognize Ms. Sylvia Talley for her 30 years of dedication to the Center Against Sexual and Family Violence. For these past three decades, Ms. Sylvia has been an entire advocate for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. Her passion and compassion touch countless lives, and her commitment to ensure children affected by violence receive the care and support that they deserve has become a defining part of her legacy. Those who have had the privilege of working with Sylvia know her as a compassionate leader, mentor, and unwavering servant to our community. Her kindness and courage and dedication make a lasting difference in so many lives. Today, it's only fitting that we ask for the city to proclamate July 22nd as Sylvia Talley Day in recognition of her 30 years of advocacy, leadership, and compassion. Sylvia, thank you for your unwavering commitment in making our community stronger, and congratulations. And thank you for all that you have done and what you will continue to do.

Wow. Good morning, Sylvia.

Good morning. Good morning and thank you, the City of El Paso Mayor and City Council for this incredible honor. And recognizing this proclamation is something I never imagined when I walked through those doors 30 years ago at the Center Against Sexual and Family Violence. Over the past 30 years, I've had the privilege witnessing survivors find safety, family begin to heal, children grow into resilient adults, and people rediscover hope. Those moments are why I've stayed and why it continues to inspire me. CASB has changed countless lives, including mine. It has given me the purpose lifelong friendships and opportunities to be part of something much bigger than myself. This recognition may have my name on it, but it belongs to everyone, every coworker, volunteer, community partner, donors, supporters who have stood beside me through the years. Thank you for believing in our mission and for helping me make a difference in the lives of so many survivors, which I have a lot of them here behind us and present, some volunteers, coworkers, family. I also want to thank my family because this milestone belongs to them too. Thank you for my siblings, Rosie, Laurie, and Joe, and Alfonso, who have always believed in the work we do at CASB and have supported our mission over the years. And to my nieces and nephews, thank you for volunteering at our events and always supporting and cheering me on. To my son, Gino Ray, thank you for spending so many weekends and evenings volunteering at the event because mom had to work. You grew up alongside this organization and your willingness to help has meant more than you'll ever know. And to my honey, Gino, who is here present today. for standing for 26 years. Thank you for understanding the late nights, emergency calls, which were plenty, the mists, the celebrations, and the moments when this work needed a little bit more of me. Your support has made it possible for me to continue doing what I love. Most importantly, thank you to the survivors who have trusted us during some most difficult moments in their lives. Your strength and resilience have inspired me more than they'll ever know. It has been a privilege of a lifetime to walk beside you. Thank you again to the city of El Paso for this recognition. I'm truly grateful and I hope forward to continue serving our community. Thank you.

Well, Sylvia, you said it takes a team to do this. Do you want to introduce your team or have them come up and introduce themselves?

Sure. We have our coordinators, Ms. Jasmine. She's my boss.

Good morning.

Hi, good morning. Jasmine Perez, Director of Client Services. Thank you so much for helping us celebrate Ms. Sylvia and her legacy at CASFE.

Good morning.

Good morning, Marta Orozco, Advocate Coordinator. Hi, good morning. I'm Alicia Martinez. I'm the Children's Program Coordinator, and I've had the privilege to work with a great mentor, and I really do appreciate that all the guidance that you have given me throughout these years that made me grow from a child advocate and now to a children's program coordinator. Thank you.

Good morning.

Good morning. Good morning. Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

I'm the adult advocacy coordinator at the shelter.

Good morning.

Good morning. My name is Kristen that I'm the executive assistant.

Good morning, everyone. My name is Sarah. So I'm the associate director of sexual assault services at the center.

Good morning.

Good morning. I'm the director of administration and that you are also nice to meet you all.

Good morning, thank you all for having us here today. My name is Guadalupe Rubio, and I am the director of development with Cassie.

Good morning.

And I want to recognize Miss Imelda, who has been volunteering with us for so many years here, too. And then I have my niece, Janeda, and my nephew, Marcus, and my honey, who's shy and sitting back there.

Well, Sylvia, congratulations. And today is more than 30 years of service that we're celebrating. We're celebrating 30 years of hope, compassion, and your unwavering commitment to our community. Thank you for dedicating your life's work to changing the lives of so many uh in el paso and we cannot thank you enough for all that you're doing and your team is doing and your nieces and nephews and your husband and everyone else so again congratulations on this special day on 30 years thank you guys I believe we got a minute or so yes sir

Good day to you. Thank you.

Okay, Ms. Bryant, I believe we're ready to go.

Yes, sir. Good morning. This is a meeting of the El Paso City Council for Tuesday, July 7, 2026. Mayor Johnson is present and presiding in council chambers along with Mayor Pro Tem Chavez, Representative Acevedo, Representative Madonado-Rocha, Representative Boyer-Trejo, Representative Nino, Alternate Mayor Pro Tem Fierro, Representative Limon, and Representative Canales. It is 10.01 AM. Now, everyone, please silence your electronic devices so as not to disturb the meeting. and rise for the invocation delivered by El Paso Fire Department Chaplain Captain Isaac Saddlemeyer.

Good morning.

Good morning. First, I want to thank you, Mayor and Council, for allowing me to be here and pray the invocation over this meeting. And I also want to thank the El Paso Police Chaplains for allowing me the opportunity as well. So if I could ask everyone to bow our heads, please. Almighty God, I come before you today humbled with a grateful heart, thanking you for the opportunity that you have orchestrated to pray over this council and this meeting. As we gather in service to this community, we acknowledge that every good and perfect gift comes from you, and we ask for your presence to guide this meeting. Lord, I thank you for our great nation and the 250 years of independence that we have just been able to celebrate. Thank you for our freedom as Americans and all the military and service men and women who have sacrificed so much that we may experience liberty. May we remember and honor the sacrifices that have been made and continue to be made in the name of the United States of America and our freedom. I ask that you bless all our military and service men and women in all they do. I thank you, Lord, also for the freedom to have an organized government and the leaders that you have appointed over our country and our city. I pray now for the members of this council, our mayor, city leadership, and all who have been entrusted with the responsibility of serving the people of El Paso. Grant them wisdom to make sound decisions, discernment to seek what is right, and courage to act with integrity. May they listen with respect, speak with humility, and lead with a genuine desire to serve the common good. In the Book of Kings, Lord, it was pleasing to you when your servant Solomon asked for wisdom. So I ask now for wisdom for this council and the leaders of our city. Give them an understanding mind to govern your people of El Paso. Strengthen them to govern efficiently and make wise decisions with the authority that has been entrusted to them. I ask for unity among the leaders. Though they may not always agree, may they always remain united in their desire to serve the city faithfully and pursue what is best for its people. Lord, I also lift up the firefighters, police officers, public servants, and all employees of this city, including every individual who works tirelessly each day to make this a safe and thriving community. Protect them, strengthen them, and bless the work of their hands. and now lord may today's discussions be marked by wisdom civility and a sincere commitment to the welfare of every citizen i ask that your peace rest upon this council this city and all who call it home we ask all these things in the name of the father the son and the holy spirit amen thank you you can be seated thank you okay miss frying

Yes Sir, thank you Captain. That brings us to public comment on consent agenda and regular agenda items for those that sign up to speak at 10 a.m. The first person is Victoria Quinola. And Ms. Quinola signed up to speak on item five on the consent agenda, and that's a resolution that the mayor is authorized to sign an amended interlocal agreement between the city of El Paso and Texas Department of State Health Services for the testing of milk and dairy. Good morning. Good morning. You have three minutes. Good morning, everyone.

So sometimes I don't know whether to start state, federal or just here. But I'll say that in regards to here, we tend to see right now a very a growing popular interest in raw milk and what it can do with our bodies synergistically in regards to the nutrients, the nutrient density, the vitamins working together and the amino acids that are present in raw milk. And there is an argument going around that raw milk may actually be more helpful to our bodies than unpasteurized milk. And this has us look into the laboratory testing of how we are testing our milk. And so I am neutral in this position at the moment, but I do believe that we can potentially have some sort of program that allows people to research more on the difference between raw milk and unpasteurized milk and also be able to have them both go through the same test standards as well as identify what particularly we are putting in these testing standards. So there are federal testing standards and they require chemicals in the sterilization process as well as The genes of cows, the difference between A1 and A2 milk, vitamin K2, which is something that I think overall in the United States we can look into. And just seeing with some of the popularity too outside of the United States, like the soccer player Erling Haaland, We are seeing that these movements of looking into science is getting more and more popular. It would be really cool to see if El Paso had a program in which we can potentially have federal grants or state grants to fund research projects for people in our area. And I think it would interest a lot of either doctors, scientists, farmers, people who potentially are looking for a job. This would help them, bring them into the scientific research department of a sort that we can have here in El Paso. So that is my comment on this item. Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Marco Sanchez. Marcos Sanchez, he signed up to speak on item 23, which is an item to amend the City of El Paso's 90th session state legislative agenda to include advocacy for sustainable state funding in support of crisis behavioral health services.

Good morning. Good morning, Mayor Johnson and Council. I wanted to speak to you guys about item 23 because I believe it isn't just a contract or a procedural update in our legislative agenda, but it's about long-term funding for this community improvement. We all know the reality of El Paso's mental health services. El Paso's mental health system is strained, fragmented, and under-resourced. Usually the only access that youth have to mental health resources is their underfunded and underpaid school counselor. So item 23 is your chance to change that. Kids in crisis usually end up in ERs, in police cars, or simply sent home and their parents, who might be abusive or something like that, are told, hey, deal with your kid. We don't know about it. So it determines whether this kid campus has stable recurring funding for the foreseeable future. And it's not just a political stunt to pull for the next couple months, bring up ratings, and then we move on. I think it's really important that we prioritize this for the long term. I do want to ask if we could have all the representatives looking at me. Mr. Acevedo, please, thank you. I do believe it's extremely important that we have an actual system that works for our people and our constituents. Because mental health is one of those resources that we don't really think of until the worst happens. Because you don't usually associate mental health care with a crucial city resource like policing or education. But it's extremely important. Because once you see those headlines of child commits suicide, man jumps off a building, it suddenly becomes the only thing that people want to talk about. So I believe it's extremely important to be preventative about this instead of just responding as offering a treatment. We should be preventative about it. So this will only be able to happen if we are able to commit this to the state legislature, and it passes. But this starts here with you guys, making sure that you guys vote yes. And it would make me very happy to be able to say that we were able to make a difference in our state legislature. So I'm asking you to please adopt this and to please fight for this funding. Please make the Behavioral East Campus a permanent, reliable part of El Paso's mental health services. And thank you very much for your time.

Thank you.

The next set of speakers signed up to speak on item 25.

Ms. Prime, Representative Rocha.

And I just want to just be clear that, and you're exactly right, there's a lot of programs that are underfunded when it comes to mental health, but there's also an exclusive offering that's available to everybody here within the city of El Paso, within the county, where you can dial 988 and you get directly to a healthcare professional, a mental healthcare professional. So I hope that people understand that, utilize it, it's free of charge. And so it's something that I feel is definitely an option if you find yourself needing to speak to someone. That is available to you for free. So 988, anybody can call at any time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year in the interim. Okay?

Very good. Thank you, Representative. Ms. Frey?

Yes, the next speaker is Leticia Diamond. She signed up to speak on item 25. She will be followed by Anthony Duncan, Rico Velez, Nicole Stewart, Sean Bratton, Maria Asael, Christina Munoz. And item 25 is an item to deprogram the Piedra Street Reconstruction Phase II project. Good morning, Ms. Diamond.

You have three minutes. Good morning.

Good morning.

Well, I'm here representing the businesses in the Five Points area. I've been in business there 35 years, and I know that if we do not stop this project, it would kill all the businesses on the street, all the businesses around the area, and we're here to ask, stop on the project, please. We want the street back to the five lanes that we had and nothing else. That's it, thank you.

All right, thank you.

The next speaker is Anthony Duncan, followed by Rico Velez, Nicole Stewart.

Good morning, council. Good morning. My name's Anthony Duncan. I was born and raised in El Paso, lived here for all but four years of my life. I'm one of the owners of Manhattan Heights Tavern and Grill. It opened in October of 2023. My partners and I made an investment of over $1 million to open our business in the Five Points area of El Paso. We employ over 35 people, many of whom live in central El Paso around the restaurant. One of the reasons we opened the restaurant was because of all the activity and growth that was and still is happening in the Five Points area. And it's growing, fueled by individuals investing their own money to build their own businesses. It's not growing because of anything that the city has done trying to attract us to the Five Points area. And now the city wants to beautify the area between Yandell and Montana Street to make it more attractive, even though it's already 100% occupied there and already busy. And to do this, Pietra Street would have to be shut down for a minimum of 10 months, which means it would be closed probably closer to at least a year or longer. I'll tell you how that works. I also own Border City Alehouse. Around 2023, the city closed the northbound lanes of Lee Trevino right below Vista del Sol to work on some gas lines below the street. That project lasted about a year and a half, during which time my sales dropped over 40%. i can't afford for something like that to happen to me at manhattan heights we're still paying off loans and a loss of sales like that would most likely cause us to close one thing i've discovered over the almost three years we've been open at manhattan is that we're a destination restaurant in 2023 ranking the 25 most wealthy zip codes in the el paso area 79903, where Manhattan Heights is located, was ranked 24th. We have to attract people from other parts of El Paso to come to our businesses to be successful. We absolutely don't need to make it harder for people to get into the Five Points area by closing down the one main street off of Interstate 10 for a year or more. I also owned a business in the Cincinnati Street Entertainment District. The city came in there trying to clean up the street and change its reputation by extending sidewalks, putting outside dining areas, new lighting, and trash cans, etc. It didn't work. The area is only about 50% occupied and still struggling. What the difference is, is the five point business area has property owners and business owners that all work together to make the area successful for everybody. They've done it all by themselves without the city's help and will continue to make it even better. What the city needs to do is just stay out of the way. Don't close Pietra Street down. Instead, restore Pietra Street back to what it originally was. Two lanes going north, two lanes going south from the freeway to the railroad tracks. Then give the rest of the money you saved back to the taxpayers and watch our businesses grow. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Rico Velez. Rico Velez, followed by Nicole Stewart and Sean Breton, also speaking on the same subject.

Good morning. Good morning, Mayor. Good morning, members of council. My name is Rico Velez, owner and operator of Dewey's Corner Pub. In the heart of Five Points, I'm here today to speak on the proposed Piazza Street project. I want to be clear. We're not against improving Five Points. We do want better sidewalks. We do want better streets. We want to drain a system that actually works and keeps our businesses from flooding. We want better crosswalks. What we really want, we want investment. What we don't want is a project forced on us without meaningful collaboration, a project that closes our street for well over a year, threatens small businesses, and offers no meaningful protections if it runs over schedule, which historically it has shown us that that is very likely to happen. We have watched our city approve tax abatements and incentives for companies like ADP, Amazon, Caldwell Collective, and even the controversial Meta Data Center. Yet the small businesses that have paid taxes here for decades are being asked to absorb the financial impact of this project with no tax relief, no incentives, and no safety net. Why is that? If you vote to end this project today, the remaining funds don't just disappear like we've been told. They can be moved into the unprogrammed project balances fund. After that, our district representatives, together with the business owners, can build a project we can actually support. Don't confuse opposition to this project with opposition to progress. The last time I stood here, I invited every one of you to come walk Pietra Street. I even made a joke about it. handicap rap that could launch somebody 50 feet in the air like the General Lee. I'll ask today, how many of you actually went out there and looked at that area? If you haven't, you're about to vote on a corridor you haven't even visited, haven't experienced. Our own district representative didn't even know who I was until these last few months, and I'm at my business daily, but you're going to vote on our livelihood? For months we've been told what is going to happen. Today I'm asking you to, I'm not asking you today, I'm telling you cancel this project. It doesn't feel good to be told what to do, right? It probably makes you feel disrespected. But that's not disrespect. That's individual egos overriding the fact that you were elected to represent the people. This is a reminder that you need to get back on track. We are the people. Our voices should shape this project, not ignored by it. Cancel this project. Move the remaining funds. Bring everyone back to the table. Protect the small business that put five points on the map. Anyone in power can force a project on their people, but real leaders will build one that the people want to stand behind. That's the legacy I want attached to my name if I was a sitting member of council. I appreciate your time and thank you. Thank you.

The next speaker is Nicole Stewart. Nicole Stewart. Sean Brighton. Sean Brighton. Maria Azael. She will be followed by Christina Munoz.

Good morning.

Good morning. And thank you again for having this discussion. Today is very important for all of us. I think that very important decisions are going to be made here today. And I just wanted to tell you that I stand with the business community of Five Points. And I really think that stopping this project is what is going to let us progress in that area. I stand for a project that brings us together and puts our heads together, our minds together and improve the area without disrupting the businesses that we are already there. I personally employ 65 people. The majority of them live in the area. If the business is affected, of course, their lives would be affected as well. And this will only be a domino effect affecting other vendors as well. So please think about the purpose of this whole project and the price that you are willing to pay for this project to go on. So thank you and please think about us and let us survive and thrive in the Five Points area. Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Christina Munoz. She will be followed by Paul Dipp and Andres Martinez. Claudia Contreras-Ziller also on the same topic.

Good morning, Council. Good morning. Mayor Johnson, my name is Christina Munoz. 16 years ago when my husband and I founded a local cafe called Jovenian Bronson's Bohemian Cafe. I recall telling that landlord to remember that day because sooner than later Five Points would be revitalized. I believed it then and I still believe it today. I knew then that I wanted to be a staple for our community. We moved back to El Paso from the Dallas Metroplex in the early 2000s. We own a home in the neighborhood nearby. I was on my neighborhood association board that initiated park improvements and trees. I served on the city planning commission during Mayor Oscar Leaser's term and sat on the Five Points Development Board. During that term, I worked with Mr. Alex Hoffman and their team and loved the vision that they had for El Paso. I too had the vision that Five Points would serve its neighbors and have a haven for the locals. As a business owner, the focus has always been on our neighboring community. During COVID, we put the safety of our patrons and employees first, and in exchange, our community fiercely supported us. Five Points has been good to us, and I've loved it for its demographic diversity. I am an advocate of progress, sustainability, and organic change. We need to understand the surrounding communities and the impact we as business owners have on them. But as local business owners, we infuse a lot of personal investment into our businesses and to the community. I have witnessed firsthand the contribution our small business made to Five Points. It was Coconuts Bar and Jovenia Bronson's on that Piedras block. Now there are businesses surrounding us on all sides up and down Piedras. Seven years ago I supported this project without hesitation. I still support the vision. What has changed is not my belief in revitalization, it is the reality our businesses are operating in. As a business owner, every day I make decisions by separating what I can control from what I can't. I cannot control inflation. I cannot control consumer confidence. I cannot control interest rates or economic uncertainty. But this council can control the timing of the project that will directly affect the businesses who have invested everything in this corridor. When one small business closes, it's not just one storefront, it's employees, vendors, property owners, families, customers who lose a place they gathered. We invested when others wouldn't. We were supported through COVID. We built community one customer at a time. We recreated destinations without incentives before there were studies and before there were plans. I am simply asking you to recognize the economic reality we are living in today and consider this project to be canceled. I oppose the phase two reconstruction project for Piedras and ask that you direct the city manager to reprogram the project, to deprogram it. As my husband likes to say, don't forget who brought you to the dance. Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Paul Dipp. Paul Dipp, followed by Andres Martinez. Good morning.

Good morning, Mayor. Good morning, Council. My pleasure to be with you today. My name is Paul Dipp, and I'm speaking today in the capacity as President of Economy Wholesale Grocers and also in my real estate capacity. On the economy side, I'd like to tell you that you've heard from several of our customers, people that we're the local wholesale supplier of food service in the area. And I understand what they're going through, and I can only share with you and absolutely reaffirm to you that last year was a bear. It was unlike any other. It was an anomaly. And today we're faced with a rebuilding year. And this year is better. It's not there yet. We have a lot of work to do. The ladies and gentlemen in this room, regardless of what size their business is, and many of them have been there from 75 years to seven months, regardless of that circumstance, they need support and they need confidence. The food service industry, we have the easy part. We sell the product to them. They have the tough part. They have to open early in the morning. They leave much later than all of us go to bed. And they put to work a number of El Pasoans that thrive and need those jobs in order to sustain their families. It's a tough job, tougher than you can ever imagine unless Like myself, you happen to have done a little bus boring along the way and a little bit of cooking along the way. But I can only share with you, and I know as many of you have been in the industry before, I am here to support this group and I'm also going to talk now about parking and about accessibility and about viability of that. Parking is essential and access is essential to these business owners to do what they need to do every day. I know they have my respect and you all have our respect. We're asking for a very simple formula. We've asked for it before. I'll ask for it again. Communication, collaboration equals cooperation. And I'd like to repeat that. Communication, collaboration equals cooperation. If we could only sit down, imagine the possibilities. If we could only talk to each other before consultants get involved. If we could only respect everybody's opinion on the same table. This group of people are brilliant. I encourage you to take action on this matter. Allow them to come back to the table. Put that money aside so that they can work with you in a meaningful and thoughtful way. I thank you for what you do. I know your job's not hard. I know your job's very hard. I take that back. Please correct the record permanently. I'll be banned from their offices for time and eternity. But I also would like to say we can all work together on this. Why don't we start doing that? We have the chemistry here. You're a wonderful group of people. Thank you so much. And this is an amazing group of business people. I'm grateful to be their customers as well. Thank you.

The next speaker is Andres Martinez. Andres Martinez. Followed by Claudia Contreras-Ziller, Robert Estrada, and Tony Labrado. Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning, city council and mayor. My name is Andres Alvarez Martinez, and I'm here to talk by the group El Paso Youth Alliance. I'm here to talk in favor of canceling the Piedra Street project that will, at the end, cause many harmful on the business over there. So the representative Art Fierro and then I am Maldonarroda brought this here because of the impact that we will have on the businesses on Piedra Street. Quoting Leticia Diamond, that has been in there for 35 years as a businesswoman, say that the economic crisis is bad over there. That she has been over there for 35 years, and of course business goes up and down. But the economic situation right now, we all have seen that slow down on businesses. So this will catastrophic for any of the businesses if it were to happen, Diamond said. Small businesses depend on being able to reach them when the roads are closed. For long periods of people stop to shop or eat over there. And that can mean a loss of income for businesses that are already working hard to stay open. So, investing in infrastructure over there is important, but it has to make sense for the people who are affected. If a project risks hurting a local business more than helping them, it's worth to rethink that investment. Thank you for your attention. Have a good day.

All right. Thank you.

the next speaker is claudia contreras ziller followed by robert estrada and tony labrador good morning good morning hello good morning i agree with mr fred evans there has to be communication with the local businesses and who better than them knows what's going on and the representative We all agree that making access easier for people with disabilities, it's a must to do the sidewalks, lights, and avoid accidents. Last week, I was with District 7, Lilim Limon, and Joshua Acevedo, District 2, and I can tell that the problems in different districts are not the same as 79936. I am District 6 or Far East. So I think we need to listen to the people and their representative. They need to come up with a better formula about this item. And I understand that the water pipes are very, very important. I was at two events at the El Paso Academy, EPPD El Paso Academy, and the water pipes broke. I've been a witness on how the police department need more money for their infrastructure, water pipes. And I would appreciate for everybody to look at me and stop being on your phones. Thank you. Gracias. And I think just listen to the people. And there's several million dollars in this project. And focus in whatever the people want. And whatever is left, use it for the police department that it's in Rainier. They deserve better business. And always advocate for our first responders. And like the lady said, remember who brought you to the dance? And it's easy, it's ABC, do the dance. Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Robert Estrada, followed by Tony Labrado.

good morning good morning good morning mayor johnson and members of city council my name is robert estrada and i have been a five points business owner owner for the past 16 years and a proud resident of district 2 for the past 24. i stand before you today to borrow a line from metallica by myself but not alone asking you to stand with our community and vote to deprogram the unnecessary and unwanted piedras project Over the past six weeks, we have shared our concerns with each of you and with multiple city departments. Out of respect for your time, I will not repeat every detail. I believe you understand the issues we have raised, otherwise this project would not have been postponed from its originally scheduled June 15th start date. To vote in favor of commencing this project today would be negligent. Had construction begun as originally scheduled, it was expected to continue through approximately October 31st, with additional time possible due to unforeseen conditions or construction delays. If work begins now, the project will inevitably extend into the holiday season, one of the most important times of the year for many small businesses. The result will be months of disrupted traffic, reduced accessibility, diminished visibility, and continued uncertainty for local merchants who depend on customers being able to reach their businesses safely and conveniently. For many of us, this is not simply an inconvenience. It is a direct threat to our livelihoods, our employees, and the long-term vitality of the Five Points Business District. last month several of you received well-deserved praise for your position on the meta contract many in our community felt you listened to your constituents understood their concerns and acted accordingly i hope your vote today reflects the same commitment leadership is measured not only by the decisions that are easy by the consistency with which elected officials listen to and represent the people they serve Let me be equally clear about something. We are not opposed to progress. We are not opposed to investment, revitalization, or thoughtful development. In fact, we look forward to working alongside the city to help shape the future of central El Paso. We believe progress is most successful when it is collaborative, practical, and responsive to the people and businesses who have invested their lives in this community. I respectfully ask for you to vote against moving this project forward in its totality.

let us find a better path and build a solution that strengthens not weakens the heart of central el paso thank you for your time and consideration thank you the next speaker is tony labrado this is the final speaker on item 25. good morning good morning members of council good morning mayor i come to you on behalf of the as part of the five points development association i've been there for well over 10 years. I became a board member recently in the last three years. So I have a statement here. I ask you to vote today in the best interest of the business owners whose properties and livelihoods will be directly affected by this project. The success of High Points did not happen overnight. The vibrant business district that exists today was built through years of hard work, private investment, and personal sacrifice by local entrepreneurs. The business owners invested their own capital, took their own risk, created jobs, renovated buildings, and helped transform the area into a destination that people want to visit. The Renaissance was not created by government. It was created by the people who chose to invest their own futures in Five Points. Today, many of those same business owners are telling you that this project threatens their ability to survive. They have repeatedly expressed concerns about access during construction and the long-term impacts of their businesses. on their businesses, they understand their customers better than anyone. The reality is simple. When access becomes difficult, customers find other places to go. Once those habits change, many businesses never fully recover. What concerns me most is that the people who have the most at stakes are overwhelmingly opposed, while many of those making the decision will not personally bear the consequences. If this project harms the business, it is not City Hall that loses its livelihood. It's not the staff that loses the years of investment. It's not the consultants that are closing their doors. It's the business owners and their employees. We also understand that this project is funded through certificates of obligation. That means we're asking taxpayers to incur debt for a project that many of the affected stakeholders do not want and believe will harm their businesses. Something about this does not sit right with me. When the people whose livelihoods are on the line, whose properties are affected, and whose businesses have helped revitalize Five Points are asking you to stop and reconsider, I believe they deserve to be heard. Today you have the opportunity to respect those voices and recognize the years of investment that have made the Five Points what it is today. We respectfully urge you to deprogram this project and allow the business owners and property owners of the Five Points to continue on the success they have worked so hard to create. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Eileen Diaz de Leon. Ms. de Leon signed up to speak on item 26, which is a presentation on the driving while intoxicated strategy.

Good morning.

Good morning. El Paso is failing families like mine. Angelique Diaz de Leon, my little sister, deserves better. She should still be here. Angelique was killed by an intoxicated driver January 1st, 2026. She was 18 years old when she was killed. We celebrated her 19th birthday without her. Angelique was a daughter, a best friend, a big sister, a little sister, a tia, a girlfriend, and so much more. She's a beautiful soul, caring, giving, funny, confident, happy, mature, yet so innocent, close to God. She never needed a reason to smile, but became everyone else's reason to smile. Angelique didn't drink. She was responsible and honest with my parents about everything. She did everything right. At 18, she already had her future planned out. She graduated high school with her associate's degree and was already working towards becoming an occupational therapy assistant. She was going to finish her career by the age of 20, and that was taken from her because someone made the choice to drink and drive. Angelique was not the only victim that night. Her boyfriend, Nicholas Ramirez, survived the crash, but survival does not mean he walked away with his life untouched. In many ways, his life was taken that night, too. People hear the word survived and assume the story somehow ended better for him. It did not. I cannot begin to imagine the weight he carries every single day knowing that someone else's reckless decision changed his life forever. Since losing Angelique, I have heard a lot about process. I have heard about timelines. I have heard about procedures. I have heard about studies and future recommendations. What I have not seen is urgency. My family waited more than four months just to speak with prosecutors handling our case. Four months. The only reason we were finally heard was because I stood before City Hall while grieving my sister publicly demanding accountability. No family should have to beg after losing a loved one. And now I see another timeline, 45 days for a report, 90 days for recommendations, more waiting. What exactly are you waiting for? We already know people are driving drunk, people are dying, families are being destroyed. We already know arrests alone are not solving the problem. What exactly are you still studying? What actions can be taken now instead of 90 days from now? I stand with Sober Streets Movement and every family that has been shattered by impaired driving. We have a petition pushing for stronger laws that you can find on Facebook, Instagram, or online. We have collected more than 2,000 signatures because people are tired of watching the same tragedy happen over and over again. Our mission is not just awareness. Awareness alone has not stopped the deaths. Our mission is accountability. We are fighting for our community's safety. For stronger laws and consequences, people should not be able to take a life through a reckless decision, then be met with a system that softens the consequences. And if you leaders are serious about stopping drunk driving, then today should not end with another promise to study the problem. It should end with a commitment to act. We need stronger consequences for first-time offenders, mandatory ignition interlock devices, No easy plea deals in serious DWI cases. No probation for cases involving death. Faster action and transparency for families like mine. People continue making this choice because too many believe the consequence will be manageable. A fine is manageable. Probation is manageable. Community service is manageable. Burying your child is not. Losing your sister is not. Living every holiday without someone you love is not. Will you publicly support stronger consequences for first-time offenders? Will you advocate for policies that prevent repeat offenses? Will you demand accountability that matches the devastation that these crimes leave behind? Or are our families going to leave here today with another timeline, another study, and another promise to revisit this issue later?

Thank you. That concludes comment on agenda item. Excuse me, sir That brings us to the call to the public The El Paso City Council is a local government body charged with serving the citizens and the meetings must be focused on the meeting at charge The City Council meetings are public meetings under the Texas Open Meetings Act public comment is an accommodation and not a requirement of City Council a All persons in attendance are expected to display civility and decorum that is respectful to other persons without the use of insulting, profane, threatening, or abusive language. Public comment will not be used for personal attacks, nor may any member of the public use this form for political statements or campaigning. Please note that during call to the public, the city council may not deliberate or decide any subject that is not on the agenda. However, council may propose that a topic brought forth be posted on a future agenda. This morning we have 15 members of the public that signed up to speak. The first person is Elizabeth Crawford. Ms. Crawford's topic is America at 250, Abortion and the Bible. Good morning, Ms. Crawford. Your microphone is ready. You have three minutes.

Thank you. Good morning. Thank you. We read in Psalm 33, 12, Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord and the people whom he has chosen for his inheritance. America at its 250th anniversary. As Texans, we've been exposed of late to statements by legislators such as, God is pro-choice, he gave the Virgin Mary a choice, or God is non-binary. We've also been exposed to others who don't twist around the scriptures in such blasphemous ways, who verbally represent God's truth in many ways for what it actually says, but in sadly in many cases whose personal lives are scarred by the infidelity of extramarital affairs who shout out the impression with their lives that they really may very well not believe the bible that they claim to believe our nation has gone crazy the founders of our nation will be really in shock if they could see the circus that is happening in america of 2026. Someone very clear, cleverly put together another, an acronym for pride for LGBT. It's excellent. LGBT L let G God B T for true. LGBT let God be true. It's a small, very powerful, powerful phrase tucked away in Romans chapter three, let God be true. And every man, a liar, some translations render it. Let God be true though. Every man be found a liar in the book of Romans. God properly diagnosed with the natural human heart that we were all born with using the words, deceptive and evil. Outside of an abortion center in New Jersey, where I was serving, one group was giving out pieces of literature that read, follow your heart, don't have an abortion. The craziness is that for many of the young ladies entering the abortion center, they were indeed following their heart. For the majority of them, their heart was to do whatever it takes to continue a lifestyle of sexual promiscuity with no responsibility or accountability, even if it meant destroying the life of the little baby growing inside of them. LGBT, let God be true, that every man be found a liar. There is one and only one hope for a truly transformed heart. The hope is not in any political side or candidate. It's in a person, the divine person, the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 5, 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. The Lord Jesus is the one and only hope for a truly transformed heart and a changed life. That's not flattering to hear, but it is the truth and it is the precious truth. Thank you and hope you have a good day. Thank you.

The next speaker is Lisa Turner, followed by Claudia Contreras-Ziller, Luis Ponce, Veronica Carvajal, Saul Gonzalez, Sabrina Soto. Ms. Turner's topic is lack of leadership.

GOOD MORNING, MR. TURNER.

GOOD MORNING, MR. TURNER.

GOOD MORNING, MAYOR COUNSEL. LACK OF LEADERSHIP. A COUPLE WEEKS AGO, YOU ALL WERE, QUOTE, FORCED TO TAKE THE RAISE. 15.2%. THERE WAS A LOT OF DISINGENUOUS PONTIFICATION, A LOT OF TALK, AND NONE OF IT SERIOUS. IF IT WAS SERIOUS, THERE'D BEEN SOMETHING ON THIS AGENDA TODAY about a charter committee. I want to remind you that people on Social Security got 2.8%. Could that cover their food increase in food?

No.

Utility bills? No. Fuel for the cars? No. Medication? No. Rent? Mortgage? No. Taxes you levy? No. You got 15.2%. And the veterans, 2.8%. Same thing. Everybody's sliding backwards. You all are going forward. Why? If you were serious about this race, then I would see on the agenda next meeting a resolution to establish a charter commission. So you can take take care of this because it makes every single one of you look like I'm here for me. Screw the rest of you. That's what it makes you look like. You see, when I was raised to hold a position like you was a chance for the individual to give back to the community, not take from the community. That's how I was raised. But it seems like things have changed now. To hold a seat like this is an opportunity to take from the community. That's not what you're supposed to be doing. You're supposed to be working yourself to death for the benefit of the community. I'm not begrudging you a raise, 15.2% though. Oh yeah, I'm gonna begrudge you that. Especially when the elderly and veterans are getting 2.8%. I'm looking for leadership. I'm looking for leadership from nine people that I know that work hard. I want to see something on this agenda to establish a charter commission by your next meeting. Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Claudia Contreras-Siller. Her topic is El Paso Strong, and she will be followed by Luis Ponce, Veronica Carvajal, Saul Gonzalez, Sabrina Soto.

Good morning.

Hello, good morning. So El Paso is strong when we respect life. So I'm here presenting this beautiful flag from Venezuela. I've been watching in social media how they're suffering. I went to Caracas Latin Food on 5901 Brook Hollow, and they're collecting help to send to Venezuela. And I'm just here to... to stand by them by their side and the number of the owner of the restaurant his name is jorge the number is six eight nine two four one two four one one that's his phone number i'm gonna repeat it six eight nine 241-2411. And I was there volunteering one day, and I could see what beautiful people they are. They're very grateful, united. And even though they're passing through a lot of pain, they're still coming together, and they're part of El Paso. So I came up with ideas. There should be a team ready to help those who need the help the most. those that are asking for community service, that want to volunteer, this is a perfect chance. And I want to request help for them. Everything a baby needs, a person that has been through an accident, they need everything. Their country is going through a lot of disgrace right now. The city smells like death. There's a lot of people that died, and human trafficking is going on. So they ask for lanterns, tools to keep rescuing people. So the name of the restaurant is Caracas Latin Food, and I'm very thankful that they're giving back to their country and moving forward about El Paso. I wanna stand with the first responders, EPPD, EPSO, HCPD, SCPD, DPS. And if we focus in helping our first responders, the cities around and the countries around are gonna be benefit like Anthony PD. I wanna say that we need to invest and look for more grants for our first responders a firefighter should not be worried about the retirement money i know about a firefighter that has to have a second job at peter piper and i don't think it's fair i think that everybody that is in charge of um you know like uh of something they need to be applying for grants. And if someone is looking for a hobby, please help them out. Education is the key and respect life from animals to human beings. Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Luis Ponce. Mr. Ponce's topic is abandoned structures in his neighborhood, fires in these structures and their causes.

Good morning.

Excuse me. Good morning, Council. Good morning, Mayor. My name is Luis Ponce. I'm an advisor and officer with the Rio Grande Neighborhood Association. We're also members of the Sembrando Esperanza Coalition, and we've submitted a letter for your review with the city clerk. On June 29th, two properties, we lost two properties in our neighborhood due to total fire loss, 1025 Yandel and 809 Octavia Street. One structure had already burned on April 20th of 2026. And at the time, fire officials stated that the fire may have been the result of arson. Our question is, why didn't the city protect us from that second fire at the same location? The owner of a neighborhood grocery store in our neighborhood reported that she had reported people living in these abandoned structures and nothing was done. The city failed to honor its obligation to secure the buildings and vacate the occupants. Now we have two more dangerous buildings in our neighborhood. We cite municipal code in our letter, and we are asking the city to secure the properties, notify the owner, place liens on them for the cost of not just securing the property, but also the cost of putting out the fire. And finally, to enforce the liens and foreclose on those properties. For decades, our neighborhood has hosted services for people who are struggling. We're asking the city to meet us halfway. We're asking for code enforcement, El Paso police, and fire department to work with us. We also ask that the city restore funding for the Welcome Center because these fires, the homicides, the arson, illegal dumping, public indecency, and public substance abuse in our neighborhoods are only symptoms of a more human issue. These problems will continue to persist unless we come together to solve these issues with our friends that are spearheading these problems on the front lines. We need more funding for clinicians that specialize in substance use disorder, mental health treatment, as well as transitional living. While the city has funding and energy for a deck park, we hope to see the same energy for funding to help us solve the issues that are threatening our health and safety today. We also invite you to walk our neighborhoods after dark. We are asking for a meeting with city representatives most impacted by these dangerous buildings in District 2, 4, 7 and 8, the Director of Code Compliance, a member of EP Fire and El Paso Police. We would also like to meet in our neighborhood and we will have a list of vacant properties we have identified as needing immediate attention. We ask city staff to provide us with a short timeline of actions to be taken. Direct liaison at the city who will follow through on our complaints and who will contact us as issues arise Timely enforcement of existing ordinances including penalties liens converting liens to judgments foreclosures and quick resales as Well as funding for the Welcome Center for unhoused El Paso ones. Thank you City Council.

Thank you Her topic is dangerous buildings. She will be followed by Mezcarrabajal is no longer here, so we'll move on to Saul Gonzalez. His topic is fires and vacant buildings.

Good morning.

Good morning, Mayor and City Council. I know you want me to talk about data centers, but today you get a little break from me. Well done. For the record, I'm Son Gonzalez, an organizer with Sembrando Esperanza and a resident of District 3. Today, I am here to support one of our members, the Rio Grande Neighborhood Association, and the residents who continue to deal with fires and vacant buildings throughout their neighborhood. The numbers of fires of abandoned buildings have become alarming. Every one of these fires is a threat to nearby homes, exposes residents to smoke and toxic materials, puts firefighters at risk, and leaves neighbors wondering which building will burn next. In June, firefighters responded to a dumpster in fire and after extinguishing it, they discovered a person's body. That strategy should be a wake-up call for all of us. These are not isolated incidents. They have real human consequences, and if we fail to act, we risk seeing more preventable deaths and more preventable fires. Last month, this council voted to close the welcoming centers. Because of that, we will see an increase of unhoused people in your districts. My concern is that without a comprehensive transition plan, where are all those people going to go? They will look for empty buildings, parks, et cetera. At the same time, we continue to spend money on projects like the Deck Plaza, conferences, and even the $12 million for infrastructure for the metadata center. but not to house those who need it most. We have an opportunity to prevent future tragedies. We can reduce fires in vacant buildings, protect firefighters, keep neighborhoods safe, and connect unhoused residents with the services that they need before another life is lost. Work and support with our veterans, our people with addictions, partner with nonprofits, community members, law enforcement, And let's find a solution to this problem. I ask City Council to treat this issue with the urgency it deserves. Prevention is always less costly than responding to another fire, another emergency, and another attack. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Sal.

The next speaker is Sabrina Soto. Ms. Soto's topic is neighborhood issues, and she will be followed by Pierre Andre Buzaraga and Chris Baer.

Good morning.

Good morning, Mayor and City Council. My name is Sabrina Soto, and I'm with the Rio Grande Neighborhood Association and Sembrando Esperanza. I'm sure we've all seen and heard about many fires and vacant buildings in our neighborhood. It's a very serious matter. and issues that we are facing that will worsen and already has, from people being displaced, other houses and businesses being in close proximity to the fires, and unfortunately finding deceased people under the rubble. The current funding that was cut from the Welcome Center doesn't help. People in the community have taken it upon themselves to use their personal time and money to help and feed the unhoused. With that being said, I ask the city council to go out and visit the shelters or walk in the neighborhoods that you say you represent. People in the community who are also part of nonprofits and organizations have wanted to voice their concerns and are hesitant to speak to you for many reasons. We need change and we need help with these issues and many other issues affecting our communities. I hope with the help of city council these issues will get resolved. Thank you for your time. Have a good day.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Pierre Andre Buzaraga.

His topic is 2028, United States Presidential Elections. And I'll just remind you, Mr. Buzaraga, that you cannot use this forum for political statements or campaigning. You have three minutes.

Good morning.

Good morning. Before I start, I want to inform the El Paso City Government that I am approved via the Federal Election Commission. So I supersede and outrank your municipal jurisdiction and laws. So with that being said, I'm going to introduce myself not so much to the city governments, but to the people behind me. My name is Pierre Andre Boy, and I am an independent presidential and commander in chief candidate elect. Since you all are on your phones, go to fec.gov and type in my name and you'll find that I am approved by the FEC. And again, to address the people in the back, I've been hearing a lot of your concerns. And I sympathize with each and every single one of you, despite how you feel about me personally and or professionally. For instance, Ms. De Leon, I feel sorry for your daughter, for your sister and her loss. So after hearing Ms. De Leon's story, I immediately thought up of some legislation that I would like to pass as president in 2028. And let me tell you, I just thought of this off the top of my head. We should have at least a PD officer with a box of breathalyzers at the door for those who are suspected to be intoxicated. And if they are intoxicated, don't arrest them, but call them a cab, an Uber. That would reduce the number of deaths via manslaughter, via alcoholism, et cetera, et cetera. So I'm here as an independent. I'm not a Republican. I am not a Democrat. I am American. Third generation American. My grandfathers have served in the military. And so I'm well within my federal legal rights to stand up here and address each and every single one of you, whether you be government officials as myself, or whether you be a man and or a woman of the people like myself.

So I'm hitting three minutes.

Thank you for your time. If you want any further information, you can find me on Facebook, Threads, and or Instagram. God bless America.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Chris Baird. And I also remind Mr. Baird this is not a forum for political statements or campaigning. His subject is upcoming election.

Good morning.

Good morning, Mayor.

Good morning, City Council.

My name is Christopher Ray Bear Jr., Staff Sergeant, United States Army, retired, for combat tours. I'm watching some of you up here being disrespectful to your constituents. Why don't you have a law that says to get off your phone while you guys are up here listening to people? That's number one. She lost her sister and I'm watching you. I don't know who you are, but you're a little scumbag right there. You cannot sit there and look down.

Sir, you're out of line. You cannot.

Okay, whoever in the city council then does not look at the it's sister that's the person those are the people that are disrespectful but number one if you're not a uh fan of talrico this has nothing to do with you but talrico if you want to vote for him sir you're voting for child pornography you cannot use this you cannot use this for political statements you guys that are voting for james talarigo are going to vote for child pornography all right sir thank you thank you for the comments give oral sex to adults thank you please thank you i'm allowed to say where is the city attorney i'm right here sir

Mr. Baird. Mr. Baird.

Sir, you're disrupting the meeting. Mr. Baird. We'll need to move on to the next speaker.

Mr. Baird. Wait. Hey. Mr. Baird. The next speaker is Patricia Osmond. Ms. Osmond's topic is transparency. First Amendment civil rights of citizens to criticize our government officials. Ms. Osmond, star six, please, to unmute your telephone. Good morning. Your microphone is ready, ma'am.

So here you all thought I was the crazy one, eh? Anyway, 20 and 50 years, we celebrate it. Y'all can hear me, correct?

Yes.

Okay. Oh, United States. Quick history lesson about existence without the Hispanics that fought with the revolutionaries. If you don't understand that, the king of Spain put down a proclamation that his colonists from the southeast and the southwest go fight supplies and arm the revolutionaries, and that is why the United States exists. If you don't believe me, just understand and look it up yourself that those descendants from those same Hispanics are part of the Daughters of the Revolutionary. Either way. Bill of Rights. Y'all had a little presentation on that. He said freedom of religion. It's also freedom from religion. Okay, I think y'all always forget that. Freedom of speech. It criticizes our government, meaning you, each and every one of you, including every employee within the government that receives our tax dollars. Y'all want to raise, but then y'all want to overtax. Strangely, I don't know how my property taxes went up $75,000 in value. That's insanity. But okay. Let's see. Brightest? Best? No. Another one just got arrested. Why? Because it's top-down. Horrible leadership. From Pacillas down. Okay? The violent nature is his doing. Whether it's them taking it on the streets All the lawsuits taxpayers have to pay for because of it or them taking it back home. But bad leadership. Let's see. Y'all started the meeting by some of these female council persons being physically inappropriate when a male council person went up there and you're hugging and kissing. I would think Ms. Wiggins would be fired if she wasn't holding her HR properly for that inappropriate physical conduct because if some subordinate did that, they would be reprimanded. But y'all could do that on camera. And it's supposed to be fine. It's not. Example, step one. Yeah, I'm a little upset because a dear friend of mine got murdered today, murdered this weekend. So PD doesn't do their job. They don't keep this city safe. It's the most skewed numbers ever.

Ms. Osman, you've been for three minutes. No, sure, after the fact. Thank you.

And don't do anything prior.

Thank you, Ms. Osman. The next speaker is Marco Sanchez. His topic is incongruencies between El Paso Water's public claims and the real impacts of the Meta Hyperscale Data Center. He will be followed by Herman Armenta.

Good morning.

I'd just like to state before I start my comment that I respect all of you and I'm addressing you guys as one of your constituents. And I implore you guys to hear me out with due courtesy from myself to you guys and from you guys to myself. Thank you very much for listening to public comments. I know it's not a requirement, as mentioned, so thank you. With that said, yesterday evening I listened very closely to Mr. John Beilu's addressing you guys. And within my two minutes and 30 seconds left, I'm going to try and go as fast as I can, just blitz through it. He claimed our infrastructure is fine. And I disagree with that, because who is paying for the pure water center, the desalination expansion, and the aquifer storage that Meta will draw from? These projects will cost hundreds of billions of dollars, which John Bailu said META will pay for through paying a large user water rate. The concern with that is that the large user water rate addresses the same output of input of water as a golf course. I know he said, and I quote, that that is comparable to a large hospital complex or a golf course. Statistics, however, disagrees. I submitted my sources to City Clerk for your guys' references because Mr. John Bailu lied. The amount of water that Meta is using at over 100 million gallons of water a year on the conservative estimate is equivalent to four golf courses. And on the high end at 2.5 million gallons a day or almost 1 billion gallons of water a year is comparable to 16 of the former. That's a lot of water. He also stated that we have to execute a water infrastructure project every five years. And my concern with that is that META won't be paying for that. Rate payers will. If what he is saying is true, then why are working families having their rates increase? Just recently, you guys were the ones who voted against an electric, an El Paso electric rate increase. I also made a statement on that. And I feel like John Belu lied to you guys. I watched it as long as I could. I've read and analyzed everything, and as much as I can fact check it, he also mentions the Mesilla Bolson Aquifer Cap under the Texas New Mexico settlement. And when they don't have a plan, they're not gonna throw Meta under the bus. They're gonna throw us under the bus. You guys under the bus. You guys will be paying for this when your children or even during election time. With 30 seconds left, I just want to say that he also said that industrial pollution was a benchmark for safety. He's sharing the losses with the city and privatizing the winnings for a private company. He also said that our Meadows wastewater is fine because it's less toxic than our refineries. That's admission that our water will come back dirtier than it left. And with that said, I have five seconds left, so please protect the people, not the profits. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Germán Armenta. Germán Armenta. I don't see him coming forward. Elisa Aguirre. Ms. Aguirre's topic is Northeast Meta Hyperscale Data Center. She will be followed by Elliot Markuki.

Good morning.

Good morning, Mayor Johnson. Good morning, city council. Today I stand before you to add to the many voices continuously urging you to make the best out of the decisions already made. I'm sure the disapproval of the META Center is engraved in each of your minds. However, the disapproval should not serve as discouragement to continue to listen to the suggestions brought to you by El Paso citizens. The people should always be the priority, not the corporations, not the companies. Yesterday, John Ballew from El Paso Water stood before you with the clear intention of validating the decision of implementing the data center. However, as Marco Sanchez stated, there was an alarming number of contradictions within the presentation, such as the comparison of a golf course. Today City Council, I urge you guys to continue to put the people first in priority because the people are who you all are representing and it is truly disheartening to see us being pushed to the side just because of the negotiations set in place between META and El Paso Water. I urge you to not only learn more about what John Ballew said, as it is clearly stated that he was lying within his presentation, not just for your knowledge, but in favor of the people and with us in mind. Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Elliot McCreary, also speaking regarding the Northeast Meta Hyperscale Data Center. And I'll remind speakers that you cannot use this forum for insulting, profane, or abusive language or questioning people's integrity. Good morning.

Good morning. Good morning, everyone. First of all, I'd just like to just give my respect to the mayor and the council here. I do not wish to be part of what seems to be a trend today of insulting your integrity or insulting the integrity of this council. However, I do wish to bring just forward a concern that I and many other constituents of this community have and that is the continued concern of water use on the Northeast metacenter Just like my two previous people that have come before me miss Aguirre and Mr. Sanchez have stated there's genuine concern for the effects of that this data center will have on the use of water. It was Mr. Sanchez that brought forward the statistic of 480,000 gallons a day, a statistic that was brought up yesterday by Mr. Balu, 480,000 gallons a day on a conservative estimate. Yet this is all being paid for by the taxpayers. This is not being paid for by Meta, the company that is using these 480,000 gallons a day on a conservative estimate, 175 million gallons a year, up to 912 million gallons a year on a more liberal estimate. My concern is not the introduction of new business into this community. My concern is that we are paying for its effects. My concern is that we are leaving ourselves very vulnerable to a drought. We are leaving ourselves very vulnerable to the effects of big business coming in and taking vulnerable resources away from those who need it most in a desert community. Like many people here today have said, progress is not something to be feared. However, reckless progress is something to be feared. And that is something that I, along with many other constituents, have a problem with, along with this AI data center expansion. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

And the final speaker is Selena Serrano. Ms. Serrano's topic is protests to close all YMCA branches in El Paso. Good morning.

Good morning.

Hi, good morning. I'm Selena. You guys don't have to look at me. I hope that you guys look back on these meetings when you have time. But the reason I'm here, and honestly, I was a little hesitant to be here to tell you guys this because I honestly, I was fearing, I fear for my safety. Okay, so the reason I'm asking you guys to help me with closing temporarily for right now, the YMCAs in El Paso is because they need to go under investigation for misallocating funds, okay? The YMCA opened, El Paso was maybe 13 years when the YMCA opened back in, I believe, I could be wrong, but it was 1844, okay? So they've been here for a long time. They closed down because they couldn't afford the rent. And I mean, I'm not going to judge you guys, but you guys couldn't give them a cheaper price for them to pay too. So now they're closed down, right? But the problem is that there's members, there's people that have donated. I want to speak out for one person. Her name is Regina. She's legally blind. She's been a member for 40 years. She donated over $50,000 to the YMCA. I know you guys were there that last time with the heat, which is great. It's been a blessing, right, that the heat went there. But if you went to like the aquatics area, people were literally like showering in rust. No, not even kidding. So the reason I'm here is because I used to work there because I'm recovering from multiple surgeries. I had a tumor in my spine and my ribs. I took out two of my ribs. Anyway, I'm a sole provider of three kids. It's very difficult for me to go to physical therapy. We're from Chaparral, and I started going there so I can swim and do everything there. So then after my fourth surgery, I couldn't work anymore. So I decided to work there because I wanted to keep the kids and, you know, to make sure they have sports and we can go swim and all that. But the last time I was here, I was trying to do a protest so they can keep the YMCA open. But when I went back to work, and I've been working there for like more than a year. When I went back to work, they did not, I went in there and they said that I was not scheduled, okay? And they said that because I needed a break. And it was because I came here. But the reason I really need to stress this, the YMCA raffles out, I'm sorry, yeah, the YMCA raffles out houses every single year for everybody to know. Everybody should know. They raffle out houses, and you can get one starting already. Okay, so I'm sorry. So I'll come back, but all I have to say is that the YMCA raffles out houses every single year.

Thank you, ma'am.

How can they not afford rent? okay they're stealing from people just think about it thank you thank you thank you

Council, per the rules of order, no use of personal cellular devices, no personal communication should take place on the dais while the meeting is in session. Once you obtain the floor from the mayor, you will have up to 10 minutes for debate and may speak twice per debatable motion. Please speak into the microphone and refrain from side conversations while the meeting is in session. That brings us to the consent agenda. All matters listed under the consent agenda will be considered by city council to be routine and will be enacted by one motion unless separate discussion is requested by council members. Prior to the vote, members of the audience may ask questions regarding items on the consent agenda. When the vote has been taken, if an item has not been called out for separate discussion, the item has been approved. Council may, however, reconsider any item at any time during the meeting. Mayor Potem.

Thank you, Ms. Prime. I make a motion to approve the consent agenda with the following revisions. Page 8. Item 23. Take the item at 11 a.m. for Representative Nino. Page 8. Item 24. Postpone two weeks per representative Canales. Page 12. Item 31. Postpone two weeks per capital improvement department.

Okay, we have a motion, is there a second? Second. All right, and Ms. Prime, we have public comment?

Yes, we have Ms. Turner, who signed up to speak on item 10, and item 10 is a notation of delinquent hotel occupancy tax report of May 31st, 2026.

good morning good morning mayor morning council i'm just curious if uh this uh included the airbnbs no but they're supposed to be paying a hotel motel tax right are they going to pay Hotel motel tax. Are you going to have a list of them? Mm-hmm You know, you can answer answer if it's a factual answer according That piece is being set up miss Turner.

Huh? The council just took action on that a few weeks ago We're still in the process of having it set up once is, you know fully implemented I'm sure the team will work on ensuring that we have an audit process for that as well It's just a few weeks old

Well, a couple weeks ago, I was incapacitated. All right, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Turner. Okay, Ms. Frey, we have a motion in the second.

Yes, sir, the motion was made by Mayor Pro Tem Chavez, seconded by Representative Limon, and this is to approve the consent agenda as revised. On that motion, call for the vote. And the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. Representative Maldonado-Rocha not present.

OK, Ms. Bryan, let's take the first readings, and then we'll take that item per representing you.

Yes, sir. The first reading of ordinances are items 14 through 16. These are starting on page number 5, items 14 through 16.

Make a motion to move on the first reading of the ordinances.

OK, there's a motion and a second. Ms. Bryan?

Yes, sir. There's a motion made by Representative Limon, seconded by Alternate Mayor Pro Tempiero, and this is to approve the first reading of ordinances, items 14 through 16. On that motion, call for the vote. In the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously.

Okay, Ms. Brown, let's take item number 23 and then we'll take 25 after that.

Yes, sir, item 23 is discussion in action to direct the city manager in coordination with the city attorney to amend the city of El Paso's 90th session state legislative agenda to include advocacy for sustainable state funding during the upcoming biennium to support the operational costs, staffing, and service delivery of the recently announced Behavioral Health East Campus, a community-based crisis behavioral health facility to be operated by Emergence Health Network and located within the city of El Paso. Such advocacy shall support the expansion of crisis behavioral health services for youth and adults and help ensure the long-term success and sustainability of the facility. And this item was placed by Representative Nino.

Thank you, Mayor. Is there a motion to approve?

Yes, motion to approve. Okay, Representative Nino. Thank you, Mayor, and I know EHN is here to answer questions and probably talk about the item a little bit, but over the last year or year and a half, I've talked a lot about mental health and how important it is to know that individuals should be okay not being okay and asking for help. Access to mental health services has been extremely important for me and I've constantly shared to this body again of how important it is to advocate for health access for our entire community. We often talk about how important it is to prioritize public safety, affordability, quality of life components including economic mobility. However, I've also shared how all of these priorities are defined differently by many different individuals based on our perspective districts. currently in the far east of El Paso, we're in District 5, within District 5, there is no direct access or branch, brick and mortar access of mental health services within District 5. Many persons or residents have shared with me that oftentimes they might have to travel 15, 20, 30 minutes to have access to mental health services. And that has been extremely concerning to me, specifically sharing with you all how I always schedule my therapy sessions the day after council. And again, just thinking about how important it is to ensure that members of our community have access to any health is extremely important. Now, I've met with EHN, our mental health authority, and I know that they previously shared with us of how they've been planning a Eastside Behavioral Campus in the Eastside of El Paso, and I know that last month they officially purchased land, and I'm proud to share that it's within District 5. It's going to be located on Zaragoza and Edgemere. Now, they were able to secure state funding for the full construction of the project, nearly $50 million from the state legislature. So they have, again, the funding for the actual piece of land and the construction of the project. And in the conversation with them, we were talking about just access to health. They shared how this proposed building will have two buildings, a crisis center, and an outpatient space. They're going to have 16 diversion adult chairs, 16 extended observation beds, 16 residential crisis beds. But what was more important for me, too, was that currently in the city of El Paso we have zero beds for kids. However, this space is going to have eight beds for kids, which is gonna be something that is gonna be super impactful for our entire community and for the far east side of El Paso specifically, how fast it's grown and it continues to grow. Now, this item is us prioritizing and amending our state legislative agenda to ensure that we help with advocating at the state level to find long-term funding for the operational cost of this facility and set it up for success. Now that they've gone through the process of securing funding for the actual building, now it's important for us to now further advocate to ensure that they have operational cost to ensure that they provide the services for the entire city of El Paso and El Paso County. Again, specifically mentioning how important mental health is. So I know EHN is here. I don't know if you all want to touch briefly into the project and kind of, you know, the background on it, but I'm very grateful for all the work that you all do and how important this work is for our entire community. Good morning.

Good morning. Good morning, Mayor and council members. My name is Crystal Davis. I'm the Chief Operating Officer with Emergence Health Network. With me is Abril Silvadore. She is the Chief of Diversion. And Catherine Longoria, she is, no. Oh. Our director of policy. I also want to thank you for the previous consent vote, which helps us continue those services. It is our first start with diversion services. And as Representative Benigno has mentioned, we are planning on building that facility out on the Far East side. The Bayville East campus will expand access to community-based crisis services and outpatient clinic in El Paso for both youth and adults. Services there include extended observation, crisis residential, adult diversion, and child and adolescent services. This will be the first dedicated youth crisis observation and stabilization service in the county. This will also directly support law enforcement officers, including CIT teams, by giving them a dedicated place to bring someone in crisis. That means less waiting time in emergency rooms, faster return in the community for officers And a person in crisis is met with a clinical staff instead of being routed through either the emergency room or to jail. Our ask is that these items be directed by the city to advocate at Austin for sustainable funding to support this operation and staffing long term, and that El Paso's legislative agenda be given to our delegation to have a clear, unified ask for the 90th session. We also want to thank Representative Nino's office for bringing this forward and to the council for your continued partnership. We look forward to working with the city on this effort. I don't know if you have any questions for me. I'd be happy to answer for you.

Any questions?

I just want to thank you all. I just want to thank you all for all the work that you all do and for meeting with me and all the comprehensive information that you all have shared. I know that there's many more conversations that we're going to have. that I shared of priorities for me, but I hope I could have the support from the council. Thank you, Mayor.

Very good. Representative Fierro.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor. First, thank you, Representative Nino, for putting this on the agenda. You know, our community is in dire need of more mental health services. And thank you for all the work you do with our community of all ages. And I just want to not let this item go forward without thanking our legislative group, who does such a great job in championing The directive that Council has has set force but also to thank our delegation. Yeah, you know our senator Blanco and speaker pro Tim Moody. They're champions for El Paso and for mental health issues to no end. So thank you again for putting this on agenda. Thank you all for being here.

Thank you guys for the great work that you're doing too. Thank you. We really appreciate that. All right. Any other questions or comments? Thank you. Okay, Ms. Pryor.

The motion was made by Representative Nino, seconded by Representative Limon, and this is to approve the direction on item 23. On that motion, call for the vote. And the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously.

OK, Ms. Bryan, let's take 25, and then we'll do Sun Metro.

Yes, sir. Item 25 is discussion in action to direct the city manager or designee to deprogram the Piedra Street reconstruction phase two project due to potential impacts to neighboring businesses and that the city manager or designee be authorized to make necessary cash budget transfers and execute any and all necessary documents to transfer the remaining funding to the unprogrammed projects balances fund. And this item was placed by Representatives Fierro and Maldonado-Rocha.

OK, Representative Fierro. Thank you, Mayor. Is there a motion to approve that?

Motion to approve, Mayor. But with the following amendment, I'd like to add on to this that we keep all the funds.

Representative, let me get a second on that. OK. OK, go ahead. Representative Fierro.

The amendment is to keep the all the inappropriate funds in District 2 for that area.

Okay, so you're mending it to say that?

To keep all the unappropriated funds in the area of in District 2.

Okay.

OK. Mayor, thank you again for allowing me to place this on the agenda. I placed it on the agenda because the community has repeatedly opposed this project. Bringing it forward allows city council as a whole to formally reconsider the project, withdraw the funding, respond to transparency and the concerns raised by the community and the business community in particular. And Mayor, what led me to put this on the agenda was Not all the times that this group has come out and spoken to us and their voices were on deaf ears, but it was also the, I happened to be at lunch at a small little diner right there in the corridor with a friend whose business is down the street there. The proprietor comes over to my friend and says, you know, I understand they're going to close on both sides. And in tears, and this keeps me up at Nightmare, in tears the lady says, this is going to kill my business. I won't be able to pay my employees. I won't be able to pay my taxes. I won't be able to pay my rent. And then she was misled also that there's rumors going around that the infrastructure in the water is so bad that it's gonna collapse. And I think I saw Rene Leon and I'd like to ask him in a few minutes if that's true or not. But it's just, this is just a disservice to that area and a disservice to the community. So thank you again for allowing myself and Representative Rocha to put this on the agenda.

Okay, Representative Rocha.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Rep. Fierro. And this was, I have a couple of friends that own businesses within the Five Points corridor. And one particular business, she owns another business within my district. And this particular business is going to be directly affected by it. She has not been to council, but she has shared a lot of concern for the project. And I think the thing that I was believing was that it was an El Paso water project at the beginning. So Ms. Mack, just to clarify on the water piece, El Paso Water, if I'm correct, was going to do the project as a result of the city coming in and doing the reconstruction of the street?

So when we do reconstruction projects, we coordinate and collaborate with the water utility to ensure that we do all that work at the same time. So we were going to do both some improvements to the water lines as we were doing the reconstruction project.

Is that now a separate project? Yes. Yes. Rene. Yes. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Good afternoon, Council. Rene Leon with El Paso Water. It was a separate project. We decided to take it on separately from the city's construction project, and we're going to do it ahead of the actual street reconstruction to take advantage of the street being open, being reconstructed. We go in, we install new lines so that we don't have to go in in five or ten years and tear up a newly reconstructed street. So it's a cost savings for our rate payers. It's a cost saving for city taxpayers.

Thank you, Renee. And what's the situation now? Is it at a point where, and sorry, Ret Fierro, but I'll just take the moment to ask Renee myself. What's the situation with the area in that particular neighborhood?

The lines are not at risk of collapsing. They are old lines. They're old cast-iron lines and the impetus for us replacing them was not that they were at risk of collapse But they were losing capacity So cast-iron lines tend to lose capacity inward that reduces the flow that reduces ability for fire protection for some services to come online So we're gonna replace that upgrade the flow upgrade the capacity and then turn it over to the city for the reconstruction project but it was an opportunity and not a necessity and

Thank you for that, Renee. I appreciate it. And then the other business that, and I don't know if this is where Rhett Fierro was going with this, but there is a business that's on the side right off of Piedras that does a lot of work for the convention center. and that would put them at a situation where it would be detrimental to what they're trying to do in order to conduct their business as a vendor for the city. And I'm not saying that just because they're a vendor for a city, I'm just saying that that's another piece of it because I don't see them here either at council today. So those are two additional businesses in addition to those that are being represented here today. that have reached out, they're directly impacted, they want progress and two things can be true at the same time, I've heard. And so we want the progress, we want to be able to provide beautification for the area, but small businesses are the backbone of the city and we are very well aware of the impact that they provide and the jobs that they provide to other citizens of the city that provide for their families. And so I support the small businesses. I absolutely want to try to be a person that will advocate for them and understand their concerns, their genuine concerns for what the project would impose on them. So thank you.

Mayor, point of order. If we have an amendment on the floor, debate should be limited to the amendment. Okay. Until we vote on it.

Okay. We can come back to this one. All right, so we have an amendment on the floor. Discussion on the amendment? Okay. On the amendment? Okay. Representative Chavez?

Thank you, Mayor. And I'm just wondering... Miss Mack, the funding source for this project was certificates of obligation, is that correct? That's correct. So have those certificates of obligations already been called or where is that money right now?

So the cash was drawn down for this project and that cash is on hand. So if the dollars were reallocated, they would be available for other projects than there are many in the district.

And I think it's important for the public just to have clarity on this. Certificates of obligation are not voter approved. Correct. Okay. So that is directly on the taxpayers' back without them having any input on it. Is that correct?

That's correct.

And when was that approved?

2017 or 18.

17 2017. And what is the total amount of dollars allocated to this project.

One point nine million.

OK. So essentially I just want to be very clear if we continue do not continue the project but continue allocating the money then this council would again approve of those funds being used without voter approval. Is that correct. Correct, thank you.

Any further comments on the amendment represent canals.

Yeah, I guess just to clarify the bonds were sold already the city has the cash on hand at this point there's no way that There's not necessarily undoing that. The cash is available to fund the project.

My understanding is that question before us, because there are options. Council could choose not to reallocate the dollars. The funds could be deprogrammed completely. The bonds could be defused. The dollars could be used towards debt. My understanding of the action on the floor is that our staff would be coming back with critical projects in District 2. that would require a vote of council because we're now taking the action to have those be unprogrammed, which means I need to identify the funding and the programs for that that would require a council action for those to be reallocated to a different program.

Understood. Within the district? Within District 2.

Within District 2.

Okay, just wanted to clarify. Okay, any further questions on the amendment? Okay, Ms. Pryor?

Yes, sir, the motion was made by alternate Mayor Potemfiero, seconded by Representative Madonado-Rocha, and this is to amend the direction on item 25 to include the words and keep the funds in district two, is that correct? Or would you like it to say transfer the remaining funding to the unprogrammed project balances fund for district two?

I think the second option is better.

Okay, thank you. On the amendment, call for the vote. in the voting session, and that motion passes unanimously.

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

There is public comment, sir.

Okay, yeah, and we've got the main motion still, but we have representative, okay, we'll do public first.

Okay, let me call on.

And then we'll come back on the main motion.

Yes, sir, Mustafa Raffaei? Mustafa Raffaei? I don't see. Good, good morning. You have three minutes.

Hello?

Yes, go ahead. Your microphone is ready. You have three minutes.

Okay, thank you. Good morning, Mayor City Council. Thank you for bringing this to discussion today. I have a lot of colleagues and friends sitting there with you and hoping to talk about the details of how this project would have impacted our business and everyone else in the neighborhood. I just want to take advantage of this moment and talk to you about The main subject that's always been on my mind and the idea that why this project needs to be reversed and why the funds need to remain in place and for us to properly approach this project. This project, this is the proper time for us to learn from this and from the experience of going through this, for this city council to set in place a new ordinance that mandates the proper communication with the affected party for any project where it is a requirement to send notice for everyone within 300 feet of the area it is proposed to take place before having one penny spent of taxpayers' money. If I have to rezone anything, modify anything pertaining to straight alley, what have you, as a taxpayer, I have to inform all within 300 feet. Then it goes to discussion, et cetera, council, and you know the rest. But a city rep can decide to close streets, tear down alleys with no mandate in place, forcing him or her, as I am forced to, inform everyone around me of what needs to get done. It is time for this unclean and clear way of operating and always fogging the truth to stop. With all due respect, to have one person who is supposed to represent their constituents decide to do any kind of project without informing the affected party is not acceptable and should not be acceptable going forward. It is time, and the time is now, for a new city ordinance, making it mandatory for a city rep, just as I am, as it is mandated for me to do, to inform the taxpayers of any proposed project affecting their livelihood and their communities prior to any money spent. Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Ellen Smythe. Ellen Smythe. Alonso Santiago. Alonso Santiago will be followed by Cassandra Castillo-Rugger and Patricia Osmond.

Good morning.

Good morning, Mayor. Good morning, Council. My name is Santiago Alonso. I'm the owner and operator of the Italian Kitchen. I would like to think we are a local staple of the El Paso community. We were established in 1948 and have been working hard to continue our legacy for the next generation to come. A few of us small businesses were able to overcome the financial repercussions of COVID, and we struggled and fought, and with the support of the community, we're able to rise above and make through. A few months shortly after the pandemic, our west location was hit with the closure of Thorn Bridge, which had an estimated negative 25% impact on our business. The project was expected to be 12 months long, and it ended up being over two years. Thank God for our patrons. They supported us through and we were able to overcome that blow. As far as Five Points, Italian Kitchen has been here for 78 years, which is three generations ago for us. In our lifetime, I've never been so happy and proud that we are on the map and more and more local businesses are opening and beginning to strive. We are now, more than ever, a true destination point. Finally, we see the light. And you want to shut us down? It's not right to do this to us. We have invested our lives for what we have here. We have families and employees that depend on us. The backlash of this project here will absolutely destroy our businesses. I'D LIKE TO ADD ALSO THAT IT WON'T TAKE 12 MONTHS. EVERYONE IN THIS ROOM KNOWS THAT THE CONSTRUCTION IN THIS CITY NEVER IS AS PROJECTED. THIS COULDN'T COME AT A WORSE TIME. THIS IS WHY I'M OPPOSING TO THIS PROJECT, AND I HOPE YOU ALL UNDERSTAND WHERE OUR SMALL BUSINESS IS, WHERE WE'RE COMING FROM. THANK YOU SO MUCH. THANK YOU.

NEXT SPEAKER IS ELLEN SMITE, FOLLOWED BY CASANDRA RUGGER AND PATRICIA OSMAN.

Good morning, Mayor, City Council, City Manager, City Attorney. This is my first time back here. I'm Ellen Smyth and I am speaking on behalf of this item as well with the Five Points Business Association. Many of you knew I was born and raised here in El Paso, went to Austin High School, grew up like a block from Piedras. My grandparents were half a block from Piedras. all my childhood at the Pershing Theater, and et cetera, et cetera. OK, so we would really like you not to do this project. And hearing that it is funded by a C of O, a certificate, I can't believe we still have those floating around. And so my advice would just be refund it. You know, it's got to be over 10 years old, that old money. I thought it was part of the bond, the Community Progress Fund. Yeah, that money should probably just go back to the bank and not spend it at all. And just put it back the way it was. I know the street department can stripe up stripes pretty quickly and put it back the way it was. My point, which I don't think it's been said, is the police headquarters is under construction and hopefully will be moved in the next two to three years, hopefully. And then you're going to have that whole block right there to contend with right there at Piedras and the police headquarters. And at that point, you're going to have a whole conversation if you're not already having the conversations on what you're going to do with that property, which will definitely impact the traffic of Piedras. Right. And so just, you know, cool your heels, give it a couple of years and then you can roll it all together and then come up with a new plan and make these people very happy. SO THAT'S ALL. GOOD TO SEE YOU ALL. ELLEN, GOOD TO SEE YOU AGAIN. I WAS LATE. I KNOW EVERYBODY. I WAS CHATTING. SO WE'RE LIKE A REUNION HERE.

GOOD TO SEE YOU AGAIN, ELLEN. GOOD TO SEE YOU TOO.

TAKE CARE. SO, YEAH, JUST REPROGRAM OR DON'T REPROGRAM. JUST DON'T SPEND THIS MONEY. IT'S THE CEO.

THANK YOU, ELLEN.

THE NEXT SPEAKER IS CASANDRA CASTILLO-RUGGER, FOLLOWED BY PATRICIA OSMOND AND SUZANNE DIPP.

GOOD MORNING.

Good morning. I am Cassandra, a manager at House of Rock Early Bird located on Piedras. I'm also a resident of the Five Points area. I'm speaking behalf on my team and myself when I say we're in favor of defunding the project that will close down Piedras Street. Without a walkable street for patrons or accessible parking, we will struggle to keep our establishment full. Without customers as employees, we will struggle the most for most of us rely heavily on tips as our source of income. Not only will our establishment suffer, but the working people in our community will suffer to make ends meet. Please consider all of us and how we contribute to our community without a steady income. We will struggle to do so. Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Patricia Osman. Ms. Osman, star six, please, to unmute your telephone. Go ahead, ma'am. Your microphone is ready.

So in regards to the Piedras project, yes i do live up on north sierra i used to also own a business on north sierra so i understand how the traffic impacts all businesses um the city did a project where you reduced the lanes and in doing that they eliminated the bike lane which made the entire street less safe so i do agree with a lot of the business owners it needs to be put back as it were two lanes, the four lanes prior. That was the safest for the entire area. I know because when I owned my business, I know when Christina opened Giovanni Bronson. That's why it was known as the Bohemian block. I would go over there, taking a break, go sit down, do some work there with a and enjoy myself. I understand the importance of that area. But every time the city makes all sorts of changes without really considering the impact to the residents within not only that neighborhood association, but surroundings. But then again, you all have a process where you bypass citizens' rights by sending one letter to a neighborhood association president who some of you might have paid off because some of them get away with some legal things. And then residents in that area have no clue what's going on. I've been involved with and got an attended meeting for the Five Points Business Association before. I understand the impact. It is ridiculous that this was even considered. It was ridiculous when you all eliminated actual driving lanes. It didn't make it more safe. In fact, it did the opposite. Now, mind you, do I feel like we could do with less bars in El Paso as a whole? Because when you look at the later agenda item, yes, some of the problems with DUI happen to be in that area. But as far as the restrooms go, we already lost Capetto. I would hate to lose the Italian kitchen. I know I've got cherished family memories there. But this is the thing is that all the businesses in that area provide far more than 50 jobs than what you all are handing $12 million to metaphor. And you all thought our city leaders thought it was fine to kill all of these jobs and businesses? while handing over $12 million in. And honestly, it doesn't matter that they're going to be high taxpayers because they've got 35 years down the road after they've already killed the community before they're going to be paying taxes.

Thank you, Ms. Osman. You've reached the three minutes. The next speaker is Suzanne Dipp, and she will be followed by Fred Evans.

Good morning. Mr. Mayor, members of council, good morning. Good morning. I hope you all are well. I am compelled to speak today to share my own experience just up the street on Piedras. With 100% certainty, this project will kill the businesses of Five Points. i created a major disruption to my own tenants recently when i decided to re-landscape the front of my building mind you there were no street closures but the parking and access were disrupted because the project was short was a short time i ended up having to offer rental concessions for a minimal duration to my retail tenants this project became a hardship for all involved All construction projects today are taking longer than anticipated. My two-week project became a two-month project. This five-point project surely will be very lengthy, and the landlords will not be able to subsidize their tenants' revenue losses. More importantly, I want to draw attention to the way these projects are rolled out. Our business owners and landlords are not the enemy. We are the backbone of the community. Progress is not made with large infrastructure projects at the expense of our precious businesses. The ability to dream and bring a great product to the marketplace, whether that be a restoration of a historic building or a trendy restaurant, shops or services, are an integral part of the fiber of this community. This Five Points area is successful because it was developed organically. Businesses can be responsive to the market and have been in this situation. The business owners are not working from a theoretical place. They have developed incredible knowledge from creating and growing businesses in extremely difficult situations. Yet time after time, the stakeholders who build the projects get boxed out of municipal planning. Why is that? I think the answer is clear to anyone who interacts with these city projects. A serious discussion is necessary in this vein if we're to change course. If we're going to stop hemorrhaging our youth to more vibrant and exciting cities, we need to cherish our business's owners who advance opportunities. The approach should begin with the business owners. Then the needs can be enhanced from ground up in a healthy partnership with infrastructure improvements, and probably at a much reduced cost to the taxpayer. My hope that after moving this monetary allotment to the Unprogrammed Project Balance Fund, the city approached the stakeholders about their needs that will enhance their project as a fresh new start and in alignment with urban design practices. And I want to thank you all for always finding your way through the woods and doing the best for our city. Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Fred Evans.

Mr. Evans will be followed by Craig Peters.

Good morning.

Good morning. Mayor Johnson, members of city council, I'm Fred Evans, the president of Five Points Development Association. Since 2020, our neighborhood has unfortunately been engaged in a war of sorts, not of our own choosing, with the planners of the city's capital improvements department. over its plans to permanently reduce by one-half Piedras' ability to bring customers, employees, and residents into our neighborhood, and also to prosecute a plan that would close the street completely for at least 10 months, a plan that would undoubtedly result in business failures, and a devastating effect overall to the neighborhood. These are two specific battle issues that we're facing, but the overriding importance of this war for all neighborhoods, not just Five Points, is the determination of who has the final say in the future of our neighborhoods. Will it be the businesses and residents who live, work, invest, and pay taxes in that neighborhood, or will it be a paid city staff member to do so? One would think the obvious solution to our problem and defender would be the city representative for that area, but that would be wrong in this case. Our pleas for relief to that city representative who actively promoted CID's actions have fallen on deaf ears. At my last appearance before city council, I expressed my hope that one would have the courage and good sense to right this wrong. I'm grateful today that two city representatives, Representative Fierro and Representative Rocha, have recognized the wrong I've been describing and have placed item 25 on the agenda to at least stop further damage to the neighborhood. And on behalf of our neighborhood that's been voiceless, I want to publicly recognize and commend their courage and good sense to see the injustice here and also give them our thanks for standing up. We must, however, note that the war is not over. We're in a ceasefire position only. While your affirmative vote on item 25 today will halt further harm to the neighborhood, it will not make reparations that are required to put us back to where we were in our original positions before the start of this war, a street with a full ability to handle the commercial and residential traffic that's fueled the renaissance of our neighborhood and will speak to our success in the future. Before we in Five Points and indeed all residents and businesses in El Paso can declare the end of this war, funding must be set aside to restore the half of Pietra Street that the city removed from service to give us once again a seamless access to all of Five Points, not just one particular area. This is a war that never should have taken place. No neighbor should have to defend itself against its government in whatever form that government takes, bureaucracy or elected officials. We must also put in place changes in the way the city deals with the projects so that something like this will never happen again. We in the Five Points neighborhood sincerely hope that once we put this issue behind us, we'll have a clean slate. We want to develop a truly collaborative relationship with all facets of the city that will result in the best outcome for our neighborhoods as mutually respectful partners in moving El Paso forward. We can and must do better.

Thank you.

The final speaker is Craig Peters.

Good morning, City Council. Mayor Johnson and representatives. My name is Craig Peters, resident and current Manhattan Heights Neighborhood Association acting president. I'm here as a resident of Manhattan Heights in the Five Points area. I'm not speaking for others, only on my behalf, although I've heard some of the same concerns that I also have. I want to thank the City Council members, although not from my district, that brought item 25 to the table. In 2010, I was working with a group of citizens with the city to bring the first smart-coded district to El Paso, and that would have been Five Points. It did not pass City Council at that time. When I hear that what is proposed for Five Points, and some have said a smart code, that is not factual. You need a business district in neighborhoods with a certain radius for it to work. It has many benefits for businesses and residents alike. Most people that were here are business owners, but you also have to include all the residents and neighborhoods that are part of that Five Points area with any decisions. The issue I would like to talk about is the narrowing of Pages Street and major artery to the freeway. It was believed that if parking and narrowing the street, Pages would become safer for patrons and the local bars and restaurants. This is not the case. Now, if the car is parked on the street, one cannot see the pedestrians jaywalking between the cars, let alone see what is on the sidewalk. It has created clutter and disorder. There has been an increase in accidents at the intersections of Piedras and Montana, as well as Piedras and Pershing, continuing north to the railroad tracks to guard rails on both sides of the street are torn off their footings and orange barrels in place so cars have ended up in the ditches on both sides, and that's there at that section. This is all due to the bottlenecking that has occurred. Pieta Street driving south is a wide two-lane street and easy to navigate. Once you hit the train tracks, it becomes a four-lane street, dropping down to two lanes with turning lanes. Today, a study came out indicating the increase in accidents in certain areas, and Five Points is one of them, regarding drunk driving. But it's not only drunk drivers that are having accidents in our area. It's even sober people. To avoid the problems I myself no longer, if you can help it, drive down Pietra Street or frequent the businesses in the area due to motorists' erratic behavior, driving to position themselves in the one lane they need to be in, I drive to Copia, to Alabama, as do many others, because they are four-lane streets, major arteries. I do want to say I also agree with the Five Points Business Association regarding the issues regarding item 25. The on-street parking does need to be removed and allocated to the side streets, and the four lanes need to be brought back from the tracks to the freeway. We need to protect the integrity of what is left of what should be the historic Five Points district, as well as the surrounding neighborhoods, because Five Points covers a huge swath of land, all the way down to Alabama, Alameda, Rio Grande, Hondo Pass, Chelsea, and so forth. We need to protect that integrity, which also protects the neighborhoods around us. Five points does not need to look like the rest of El Paso. Its character is what makes it five points. I also gave you pictures that you all have from 1940 of that area. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

That concludes public comment on this item.

Okay, we're back on the main motion on item 25, represent Canales.

Thank you, Mayor. I'll start with the bottom line up front. I plan to support this proposal to deprogram the peer registry project. And I want to be totally and absolutely clear that I don't mean this as any disrespect to Representative Acevedo. I believe the project is technically contained within District 2. And I recognize that the action that's proposed today is reaching into your district. That said, while I don't represent the exact bounds of the project itself, I do represent the immediately adjacent businesses and properties on the west side of Piedras Street. The dividing line between District 8 and District 2 is at their eastern property lines, bumping right up against the project. Last week, I held my Cafe Con Chris open house that I have monthly for five hours at Monstera Deliciosa Cafe. It's right at the corner of Yandel and Piedras. And lots of the folks in this room came. I spoke at length with many of the local proprietors there, many of the people who commented earlier. as well as members of the Five Points Development Association and several other interested people. Interestingly, including lots of other people who came to speak with me about other things but became interested in this project when they heard from the other people there at the event. And the message I heard was almost unanimous, that they don't want this project to move forward. And I was clear with every single one of them, as I have been in the past, that my personal opinion is that I actually quite like this project. I think the improved walkability it would bring, the new pavements and sidewalks, a more attractive streetscape would really serve Five Points well into the future. And if it were only up to me and a vacuum, I think there would be almost no question that I would support proceeding with the project. But it's not only up to me, and we don't make our decisions in a vacuum. If the neighborhood doesn't want this project, and the surrounding property owners and business owners don't want this project, and if next to none of the stakeholders support moving forward with it, then why should it proceed? Who would it even be for? So just to be thorough, I was also clear with the folks who I spoke with that deprogramming the project doesn't mean that the funding will necessarily stick around in five points in particular. We have had the amendment today that it will stay within District 2, but District 2 covers a large area. The universal response to that was that that's OK, that people are OK with that. So if there's near universal opposition From those in the surrounding area and everyone understands and is okay with the idea that the the funding might go somewhere else Then I have no issue doing what the neighborhood is asking for and deprogramming the project I think that's the right thing to do. Thank you mayor.

Thank you represent Chavez

Thank you, Mayor. And I want to speak today to my colleagues and friends in the hospitality industry, many of whom I had the pleasure of working alongside with and have known for many years. And I want to name a few of them. Steph, who was on the phone earlier today when I first started a restaurant decades ago, he was also in the industry and supported my efforts and became a good friend. Tony, who's also in the audience today, her whole family has been a big supporter of mine, but I've also known them for decades. And they are very savvy restaurant operators in the industry. Anthony Duncan, who's standing in the back, and Chago, I don't know where he went, but he's also a good friend of mine. And so I'm speaking today on behalf of of them in the industry because they were colleagues of mine for many years. I want to speak a little bit about how the industry functions. First of all, it's widely known that the hospitality industry, the restaurant industry is a very tough business. It's such a tough business that actually when you want to get a loan, when you want to access capital to start a business like that, it's very difficult to get a loan because a lot of them, the majority of restaurants end up failing. And so it's not easy to access capital. Toni spoke a little bit about this during our last council meeting when she's talked about the loan that she currently has in a restaurant at Five Points that I frequent and I love to support. And so it's a very real thing to know that you have a loan that you have to pay off. CASH FLOW EQUALLY IS VERY DIFFICULT IN THE RESTAURANT INDUSTRY BECAUSE THERE ARE SO MANY EXPENSES THAT GO INTO OPERATING A RESTAURANT THAT HOLDING ON TO CASH IS VERY DIFFICULT. AND SO RESTAURANT INDUSTRIES, WE HIRE A LOT OF PEOPLE. WE STAFF A LOT OF PEOPLE. AND, IN FACT, OUR CFO, ROBERT CORTINAS, JUST RECENTLY TOLD US THAT THE ACCOMMODATION AND FOOD SERVICE INDUSTRY IN OUR CITY IS THE NUMBER TWO REVENUE GENERATOR IN TERMS OF SALES TAX FOR OUR CITY. SO THIS IS A BIG INDUSTRY FOR OUR COMMUNITY, AND WE NEED TO MAKE SURE THAT WE CONTINUE TO PROTECT IT. MY OWN EXPERIENCE IS THAT I ALSO, WHEN I HAD A RESTAURANT, HAD TEXDOT DO A PROJECT RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY RESTAURANT THAT GREATLY AFFECTED MY BUSINESS AND MY SALES. BUT THEN THE CITY OF EL PASO ALSO DID A PROJECT THAT WAS ADJACENT TO MY PATIO. Now, people love to eat outside in El Paso because we are a Sun City and we have great weather, but it ruined my business and it actually decreased my sales by 30 percent at the time when they were doing all of the construction on the street that was adjacent to my patio. What happens when you lose business in the restaurant industry? You staff a lot of people that work hourly. When your business declines, What happens is you end up cutting those positions or sending people home because you don't have the capacity to pay them and there is no business for them to be working. That's just the way the industry works. You can have 10 servers show up one morning and if you don't have the customer base to support those positions, then you end up cutting that staff. We just recently heard earlier how many people these restaurants, these businesses, these bars employ. And these people's livelihoods are dependent on those customers showing up day in and day out. Customers are not able to show up to businesses if they don't have access to those businesses. If the street is literally closed off, they won't have access to those restaurants, to those businesses, to those bars, and those people that are employed by those businesses will therefore end up losing potentially their jobs. There's also another whole component to this, right? What about all the distributors, the food distributors, the alcohol distributors, all the people that also rely on these businesses being open and thriving in order to access those businesses and supply them the products that they are distributing? we will potentially be affecting distributors in this process as well, affecting their bottom lines as well. The restaurant industry is a complex industry, but again, it is the backbone of our economy in terms of sales tax revenue, employment, and I would hope that this council protects the interests of that industry and that we also respectfully listen to these VERY SAVVY OPERATORS THAT HAVE BEEN OPERATING AND HAVE BEEN CONTRIBUTING TOWARDS OUR ECONOMY FOR A LONG TIME, MAYOR AND COUNCIL. I STAND WITH THEM BECAUSE I KNOW HOW DIFFICULT IT IS TO OPERATE THESE BUSINESSES. I KNOW HOW DIFFICULT IT IS, ESPECIALLY WITH OUR ECONOMY WITH RISING COSTS IN FOOD COSTS AND INFLATION AND EVERYTHING ELSE THAT'S GOING ON IN OUR COMMUNITY. I WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT YOU KNOW THAT I STAND WITH YOU TO SUPPORT NOT ONLY YOUR OPERATION BUT YOUR EMPLOYEES AND THE FUTURE OF THIS ECONOMY. SO PLEASE CONSIDER VOTING IN FAVOR OF THIS ITEM. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU, REPRESENTATIVE.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm going to use part of my time to read some of the statements that were sent in. There were two, and it's for purposes of the public to hear these statements. Dear Mayor Johnson and honorable members of the City Council, my name is Jason Barreras, and I own five commercial properties in the Five Points District, located at 2601 East Yandel, 2829 Montana, 2900 Pershing, 3002 Pershing, and 3029 Pershing. Together, these properties represent more than 100,000 square feet of commercial space, serve over 100 local tenants, and reflect millions of dollars in private investment with additional redevelopment planned in the near future. Enclosed is a brochure showcasing our property portfolio along with our website, which features photos and additional information about each of these properties. First, I would like to apologize for not being able to attend today's meeting in person. I had a prior family commitment accompanying my son on a college tour. Although I could not be present, I feel it is important to share my perspective regarding agenda item 25 As a property owner actively investing in Five Points, I understand firsthand that construction can create temporary inconveniences for businesses and their customers. Many of my own buildings have undergone extensive renovations while occupied and our tenants have experienced the same challenges. I enclosed a brochure of these properties for your reference. However, those temporary disruptions have resulted in safer, more attractive, and more functional properties, that continue to benefit our tenants, neighboring businesses and the community. I respectfully encourage the city to view Pedra's reconstruction project through the same long-term lens. Revitalization requires, I can't see, sorry. I have new glasses, so I apologize. Revitalization requires patience and a shared commitment from both public and private sectors. We ask the city to continue demonstrating that same commitment by investing in the infrastructure necessary to support the neighborhood's continued growth. And I'm going to read through this because there's another letter that I want to read through. The success of Five Points depends on more than preserving the status quo. It depends on making thoughtful investments today that will strengthen the district for decades to come. I respectfully urge the City Council to consider the long-term prosperity this project can create and to continue supporting improvements that encourage revitalization rather than delaying them. I read this today because it is in the other aspect of it. I feel that it's important to show both. Even though I support the canceling of the project, I definitely wanted to provide Mr. Barreras his voice today. In addition to that, I also ask that I read Mr. Campos's. Mr. Campos to Mayor and City Council, my name is Omar Campos and I'm a business owner that would be affected by the Piedra Street project if it were to continue. I respectfully ask that you support item 25 on the July 7th council meeting. Many of us have invested a surplus of resources to ensure our businesses in this corridor thrive and the extended construction would only set us back. While some of the improvements are recommended, the closure of the street would significantly disrupt our businesses and threaten the livelihoods of the employees who depend on these businesses to support themselves and their families. Deprogramming this project would allow the city to reassess the needs of the community and come back with an affirmative that would not be a burden on the businesses such as mine. I support progress, but it should not come at the expense of small businesses. So Mayor, I thank you again for allowing me the time to speak. I'll use this time just to say that I support the small businesses. While I am not an entrepreneur, and I know that takes a lot of guts and a lot of courage, my family is full of entrepreneurs. And I feel that this is an opportunity to support what you all I do believe that there's an opportunity for everyone to come together and to be able to create something that would be beneficial for all of the area and would also make sure that we take your voice and voices into account. You all are the ones that will be directly affected. I've said this time and time again. We have got to include the stakeholders that are directly affected with any of the choices that we make. and this is an opportunity to do better at that point. So I appreciate you all being here today, and I ask for support in favor of this item. Thank you, Mayor.

Very good. Representative Acevedo.

Thank you, Mayor. I just want to start with Jason Barrera's letter. There was one part that was left out by my colleague. I respectfully encourage the city to view the Pedra Street reconstruction project through that same long-term lens. While construction may temporarily affect access and operations, the lasting benefits, including improved infrastructure, increased property values, enhanced public safety, Stronger local businesses and greater economic activity far outweigh the short-term inconvenience So just wanted to make sure that that was quoted appropriately and Jason Barreras is the property owner of? Where Papa Lovelace was? aviators more Ramiya Manhattan Heights de Certo and then a building on Yandel it I believe was a former nonprofit that had it so I just wanted to say that and This is a very difficult project and I recognize that and this is something that has been in the works since 2017, 2018 and it started with owners that were in that area and community residents that were also in the area wanting to beautify this area but also wanted better safety, public safety in general around this area that has grown organically. I inherited the issue when I came into office. At the time when I came in, we were going through a leadership transition. We had an interim city manager probably for a little too long. And I remember that this came up in the summer of 2024 that we were moving forward. It was going to be in 2025 that moved on to 2026 and then kind of got us to this point. So I have been doing a lot of engagement with with the business owners, with community members in general, whether It is a community meeting that that we put together whether it was one-on-one with business owners this has been something that we we have gone for almost two years and It is it is difficult because there there are people that Are not here that do support the project some of them got to the point where they didn't want to show up because they were going to be chastised by certain people for being on the opposite side of it and so privately they were saying you know this is something that needs to happen we we need to to do this project at the same time we also have residents that live in that area right and and that's what is really important when we're thinking about quality of life We have projects that have been disruptive across the city, you know, I can think about Pelicano and how that project Had a bankruptcy that really affected it and took forever to get to completion it affected the Alamo Drafthouse that was in the area now flicks, you know projects on be some soil on Pebble Hills on airway and on um you know just wrestler any anywhere that these projects go they they affect um for a temporary time and it could have implications and i recognize that But how do we balance the quality of life with good infrastructure? And that's what's been really difficult for me on this matter. I feel like it has been very, very divisive, to say the least. And I recognize that. But I also think about where we're at with this project. It comes at a time when there are people that can't access some of these businesses because they don't have ADA access. And they've been grandfathered by this. by this street, by these businesses, because they're so old that they don't need to provide ADA access. So I don't like being in a position where somebody with ADA disability a different ability cannot access these these places because of that there's also been people that have been hit on the street and we have had a call for lights this is going to bring those lights the much needed lights that we need in that area to make it brighter to make it better for pedestrians that are crossing piedras There are people that are jaywalking, absolutely. But it was going to transform them into better streets for people to cross safely. um the wider sidewalk was also gonna allow for people to have their patios on the jbb site now kinky side uh you were also gonna have better traffic flow in that sense right and and that is according to engineers i know that some of you might not believe me on that But it is very hard when we're thinking through how can we make places safer? How can we make them more accessible? How can we look at our infrastructure? The street has not been touched for maybe 60 years at the very least. We have pipes that are in there that we're not meant for for them to be providing water to these businesses that are now bars and restaurants which i love which i frequent which i hang out in quite a bit of time and spend a lot of time in this area and so we were going to get bigger pipes for that we also have the the police headquarters that will be leaving in the next few years and we probably agree on this that we want housing there we want commercial on the bottom that's gonna need better infrastructure if we want it to work out the way we want it to. And so at a time that the city can be reactive at many times, I think this was a very proactive measure to take to better the water infrastructure in that area. There are also businesses on the neighborhood side that have been flooded in the past, especially during our monsoon season. This wasn't going to be the full solution to prevent that flooding, but it was going to help with the different landscape that they were going to install, that they were going to have so it could prevent water from not flooding those businesses as much as they've happened. And so that's what puts me in a really difficult position where there are community members that are saying, yes, we understand where this is coming from. It can be painful, but at the same time, this is very old infrastructure. You have Central El Paso, District 2 is very much one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city. When you talk to people in District 2, the first thing that comes to mind is infrastructure around water. because people have had flooding occur all over. I have been a victim of flooding that happened at my house 25 years ago. I grew up on Pershing and Rosewood, three blocks away from this. I remember going to that area when you had a Five Points video, when you had a Walgreens where Morramia is, where you had a hair salon where JVB Kinkies is now. And it did grow organically after coconuts came in. That was the first business to come in. And so I have seen that entire growth. I've been there my entire life. That's where I see it. And so as you start considering those things paired with, you know, the Central Neighborhood Association saying, yeah, we need this infrastructure. We love this area. We're going to go to that area. We have had countless community meetings. They've been lively, to say the least. We have also promised that there would be a campaign to make sure that these businesses would thrive. I've been to Morramia like six times in the last two weeks alone, and that's not an exaggeration. There's been really great entertainment there with the World Cup. And so it brings us to today where We are going to say no to this, and I understand the pain of people, but I want you to know that this is very divisive. The voices that could not be here have reached out throughout the weekend, and they have said, you know, try to fight for it as much as you can. And then I hear a lot of you that have become my friends as well, right? And Fred, we have gone out and had drinks together. We... I've had conversations for three hours, and I always enjoy my time with you and with Jeffrey and with Leticia and the Five Points Association, the Eriksons. I love going around all of you, right? And this has just been a disagreement where I want to prioritize public safety, ADA, better lighting. I want to be able to tell you that this is a safer area where people are not going to get hit because now there is lighting. And you disagree, and that's okay, and I accept that. But I also want you to know that as we're looking through this, another issue that has come up quite a bit from the Five Points Development Association is your opposition to the deck park, and it's for the same reasons. the same reasons that this could affect your business with the downtown corridor being closed for years. How are people going to get to Piedras? And so I just want you to know that that is still something that is a reality. And this today is not the end of a lot of what can impact you. And we need to do better in terms of how are we going to look at that project, if it's going to move forward, if we're going to help the businesses, the people that are going to be affected by it directly in downtown. That is also really important. And Piedras is, what, a mile away from downtown. And so I want you to think about that as well. And we can't come into this about any project without thinking about the businesses, but at the same time also, are we not gonna do any more streets because it's going to affect people and we're not gonna have quality of life? And then one of the number one issues that we discuss a lot as a council are streets and how are we gonna fund streets? They're going to be a pain when we reconstruct, when we repave, whatever we're doing there. So I'll leave it at that and I'll come back in a bit.

Representative Trejo.

Thank you, Mayor. I want to thank the business owners that came out today and shared your concerns. you know the the effects of how having this project move forward can affect your businesses your businesses are service oriented and and in food service and so it's so important to keep your doors open and have uh your your customers have access to your businesses I understand you know I I have a business as well and so I totally understand where you all are coming from This doesn't only impact you all as entrepreneurs, but it also impacts those that you employ and their families. And so I just want to share that I will be supporting this item today, supporting the business owners and the families who have asked us to stop this project. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you all for this lively conversation. Thank you all for being here and sharing your thoughts, your concerns, and your fears. And, Mayor, I encourage all the council to really vote in favor of the business, vote in favor of this five-point organization to make sure that we can deprogram these monies now before we waste any more dollars. This is our opportunity to keep the roads open, to keep the business open, to keep the employees employed, and for these businesses to continue to pay taxes. And so with that, Mayor, I ask that we call the vote and move forward.

Mr. Mayor, since I was addressed directly and personally from the council, I'd like to make just two corrective statements.

I know, but Mr. Evans, I get it, but we already had public comment.

If you're going to say mistruths, all I want to say is Five Points has taken no official position on the deck part. Okay. And that's a mischaracterization. And to say that I'm opposed to safety and those kinds of things is wrong. We're opposed to this project. That's all we're talking about. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Representative Acevedo.

Thank you mayor and I apologize for that Fred. I thought that when you told me that you were opposed to Deck Park that meant the whole development association. So thank you for correcting the record on that. And I don't think you're opposed to safety at all. I'm just saying that what is kind of driving the thought here is safety for me when it comes to public safety ADA access and all that. So I apologize for that but that's the clarity that I want to bring to this. I also want to talk about where we go from here in terms of this project being dead. One thing that was going to happen here was this was going to be about a 12 month to 18 month project. When we were looking at that over the last year, we were kind of saying, will it actually go to 18 months? Could it be longer? Heard from the business owners in multiple meetings. And so we worked really hard with staff. Joaquin, I really thank you for how much time you've dedicated to this event. Ms. Mack, just your team has been really incredible throughout this time. And I really, really appreciate all of you. When we heard from business owners kind of worried about this being 18 months this being 2 years we went back to the drawing board we had a meeting with El Paso water in late 2025 and at that meeting I requested that El Paso water go in and do the project themselves instead of this being a contractor that would be doing it in conjunction with the city. Luckily, within a few months, El Paso Water came up with the plan that they would go in first, they would cause less disruption to the street and move the work forward in little batches on different street segments. And what also happened is last year I was talking to Toni from Morramia and realized that she was operating on a temporary permit that could not give her full permit status because her sprinklers could not turn on. And that had been in operation for over a year at the time. And so El Paso Water came in and did a project right there on Piedras and Pershing to increase the water pressure in that area so she could get a full permit and be fully operational at that time. And so there are other issues that are also happening around Manhattan Heights with water that we're gonna have to tackle at some point. Manhattan Heights Tavern, I'm sorry. And so we thought that we could get to a better place by saying water come in, do this project for four months, and then we'll be done and out for the holiday season. The city would have come in next year. So I just really wanted to be factual about all of the work that we've been doing on this project. And I do worry that this year has been very interesting with what we have seen in the city, in the Northeast. We had a large water main break that really affected Northeast residents down to central El Paso. And so I just want to be clear that this could be on the horizon and we're going to have to be reactive at some point. And I understand where everybody stands on it. So I just wanted to respectfully say that. But overall, I mean, this is also a rare move to have people that are not in the district put this on the agenda. It's happened before, but it rarely happens. And so I just wanted to state that for the record. There are a lot of concerns that I have with the item, with what has transpired, but I'm also respectful of what the council as a body does and acts. I'm hoping that we'll get to a better place. There's no animosity coming from me at all. I will still continue going to your businesses. We'll still continue having really good conversations with you. And really, I live up the street. I walk down there all the time. There are issues with the railroad that Craig brought up, and I don't understand how people crash into that and go into the ditch all the time. That's really insane to me at that point. It happens a few times a year. I'm constantly going down there and we'll continue to do that, but I appreciate all of you for being here today. And Ms. Mack, can you give us a list of the projects that have CEOs that are still active? My understanding is that the Sun City Lights project was funded through COs in various districts and that was done about eight or nine years ago. So if you could provide a list to the chancellor so we have an update on that.

Sure, we just did a full presentation to the FOAAC and so it's posted for the public as well. You can see all the projects that we have pending and what phase they are in terms of completion. We'll make sure we forward that out to you as well.

Okay, I appreciate it. Thank you so much.

Representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor. And I think it's important to just make a note, again, that the restaurant industry is a very difficult industry. And I'm going to list, actually, the closures for the last two years in the city of El Paso. Grown Together, Cineholic, Boston's Restaurant and Sports Bar, Chihuahua Charlie's, The Baked Bear, Cantina Mano Lam, Toastique, Mateo's Authentic Mexican Food, Papa Doble and the Rock House Bar and Grill, Red Lobster Cielo Vista, Sabertooth Food Company, Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt and Humboldt Donut Company, and the Singapore Cafe. There may be others that I'm missing, but this is a restaurant that is, this is an industry that is very difficult to maintain open, especially through inflation, and like I mentioned earlier, increasing food costs. It is important that we continue to protect this industry. As I mentioned, it is the number two revenue-generating industry for sales tax in the city of El Paso. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. Representative Limon.

Thank you, Mayor. I guess I'm going to start with the first question was whether Representative Fierro and Rocha had a conversation with Representative Acevedo on this topic?

I had a conversation with the people in the audience.

Okay, but you didn't have a conversation with him?

He did not take action for years. Thank you. I had a conversation with the people in the audience. Thank you. He asked a question. I did, and you answered it. I did, thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. this is a very slippery slope that we have taken today mayor under this term and that is that an outside representatives would take action on another person's district I think it's disrespectful I think it's unprofessional and I cannot believe that something like this there would not have been a conversation I support the issue but the thing is the lack professionalism and the lack of leadership on this topic we heard today communication and collaboration equals cooperation we didn't have that today and our representative for that area was pushed aside now the issues that the community has those are issues that we have heard and that I certainly support it and and have been in favor of looking at this and There appears to be a lack of communication from the get-go on the project. And this is truly a haven of local businesses. I am a frequenter of local businesses, as you can tell by my open rewards. And so this is an area that I go to not every day, but frequently from the Italian kitchen to Manhattan Heights to other restaurants in that area. And so I understand clearly what you were going to be or what you were going to be post with, with this closing. We have seen these situations across the city in different areas from airway, to other areas in the city where we have gone in to do projects, whether it be the city, water utilities, or construction companies. I am in full support of going back to the drawing board in whatever case this is going to take, whether it be completely defunding, returning the money, doing whatever is necessary. But if it's going to stay around, then it should definitely be reprogrammed to district two. I apologize. This is not the way we should be doing business. We should be respectful and treat each other with dignity and courtesy. My apologies. Thank you, Mayor.

Representative Nino.

Thank you, Mayor. And I'm grateful for everyone's thought process through this. And I'm also a freaking visitor of all the businesses in the area. I know Toni very well. She was one of my very first employers when I was in high school. And we've often said that small businesses are the backbone of our community. I've been doing also some research, and I know that I asked Ms. Mack a few minutes ago in regards of this item saying phase two. However, there's a phase one and a phase two. Just can we clarify if any work has been done for phase one already? Or can we just get some background on that, Ms. Mack?

Design work is complete.

For phase one. Okay. No, I think that's important to highlight because essentially there's a phase one and a phase two. Phase one has a $1.9 million budget. Phase two has a $560,000 budget. So would those two total funding strings be put together?

They have been because it was efficient funds for both parts of those projects that have money under consideration would be all phases as is present in the 2024 presentation.

Okay, so phase 2 is the entire project face one face to put together. Okay, no, I just want to get that clarification again, you know, I was doing research on the project itself, including the initial project scope of work for phase one, the project scope for phase two, and I'm looking forward to seeing the project list that comes forward of the needs in the representative's perspective district and see what we could further advocate for his district. Thank you, thank you, Mayor.

Okay, thank you. And again, I want to thank everyone that's come out from this morning to this afternoon to speak to City Council. And I am also an entrepreneur, as many of you know. I know a lot of you that own businesses in that community. And times are hard right now. I mean, gas prices are high, inflation is there, grocery prices are high. I know it's difficult. I know, you know, Representative Chavez and others that have been in some of the same industries that you're in, the restaurant industry, how difficult that is to keep a restaurant open. So I appreciate the dialogue this afternoon. And Ms. Pryor, with that said, we will call for the vote.

Yes, sir. The motion was made by alternate Mayor Pro Tempiero, seconded by Representative Malonado-Rocha. And this is to approve the direction as revised. On that motion, call for the vote. in the voting session, and that motion passes seven to one. Representative Acevedo voting nay. The remainder of council voting aye. The motion carries.

Okay, thank you, Ms. Bryan. We're going to convene for Sun Metro.

Yes, sir, is there a motion to recess?

Second.

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

Aye.

Anyone opposed? And the meeting is in recess at 9.41 p.m.

Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Sorry. Good afternoon. This is a meeting of the El Paso Mass Transit Department Board for Tuesday, July 7th. It is now 1241 p.m. And present and presiding is Board Chair Johnson. And also present in Council Chambers are Board Members Chavez, Acevedo, Maldonado-Rocha, Boyar-Trejo, Nino, Fierro, Limon, and Canales. We do have one member of the public signed up to speak sir.

Okay.

And that would be Mr. Kirino Villa. Mr. B, are you here? Yes. And his topic is change to the bus stops on Route 24 and 65.

Good afternoon.

Sir, you will have three minutes to address Mayor and Council.

I WAS GOING TO SAY GOOD MORNING, BUT IT'S GOOD AFTERNOON. YEAH, GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON, MAYOR. GOOD AFTERNOON, COUNCIL. MY NAME IS GUERINO VILLA. I'M HERE TO SPEAK ON THE SUN METRO RISING CHANGES, AND PARTICULARLY THE CHANGES TO THE BUS STOP THAT AFFECT ELOS DE PLATA SENIOR CENTER IN A NEGATIVE WAY. BEFORE THESE CHANGES, SUN METRO SERVICE WAS GOOD. THE BUS STOPS WERE ON COMANCHE RUNNING RIGHT BESIDE THE SENIOR CENTER. The seniors would get off the bus almost in front of the center. That was bus route 24. Bus route 24 would travel going east on Delta, turn on Tobin, then turn on Comanche, continue east where the bus stops are located. I brought some pictures, and please see those pictures from one to six. Also, picture six and 11 will show bus stops for passengers going west. Also for bus stops going east and west are located in good areas with shade and a covered bus stop. Comanches Street is not a heavy car travel street. Bus route 24 has been canceled or eliminated. The new bus route 65 places bus route 24. Bus Route 65 does not turn on Delta and Tobin. It bypasses the intersection and continues going east on Delta. The bus stops that were on Comanche are now located on Delta and Shelter Street. Delta Street is a high volume car travel street. Shelter Street has a caution sign for truck crossing. Those new bus stops on Delta and Shelter Streets are hazardous to the seniors. Now, when seniors get off the bus on Delta and are going to the center, they have to deal with crossing a street that has no crossing walk and have to walk a long distance to get to the center. And these bus stops on Delta have no cover from the sun or from the weather. You guys can see pictures from seven to 11. For the safety of the seniors and all passengers, I think it's reasonable to request that the bus stops on Comanche be placed back on Route Bus 65. You know, the mayor, I know you've been there to and other members of the council have been there when they were running for elections. I invite you to go out there and see for yourself the situation. It's like, you know, walking our shoes. What we had before was good. Everything was right there at the center. Now they push this out to a street where it's very dangerous to cross. And remember, seniors use walkers and canes to cross this street, and like I was saying, this is a heavy travel car street, and there's a caution sign for trucks. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Villa. All matters listed under the consent agenda will be considered by Mass Transit Department Board to be routine and will be enacted by one motion unless separate discussion is requested by board members. Prior to the vote, members of the audience may ask questions regarding items on the consent agenda. When the vote has been taken, if an item has not been called out for separate discussion, the item has been approved. The Mass Transit Department Board may, however, reconsider any item at any time during the meeting. We do have the approval of the minutes. Item number one for the consent agenda.

Okay. Okay, there's a motion and a second. Yes, call for the vote.

And we do have a motion made by Board Member Fierro. Seconded by Board Member Limon. And this is to approve item number one, the minutes. Voting session is open. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And the voting session is closed and the item has been approved unanimously.

Okay, let's take the consent agenda.

We do have the regular agenda. It's item number three.

So nothing under consent?

No, just a minute, sir.

And no approval of the board members? Okay, perfect. That's great.

Thank you. And item number three is presentation and discussion on the report by El Paso Transportation Authority on the transit services offered in El Paso County.

Good afternoon.

Jerry Demiros, deputy transit officer for Sun Metro. As you all know, Sun Metro provides transit services within the city limits. Outside of the city limits, those services within the county are provided by the El Paso Transit Authority. That helps county residents get into the city. It helps county residents do business within the city, recreate within the city, make medical appointments, et cetera. Sun Metro historically has partnered with the county in transportation initiatives. For example, we provide a space for them to maintain their vehicles over at Union Depot. We provide fueling for all of their natural gas-fueled vehicles. And most importantly, we provide transfer points for passengers coming into the city to do business in the city. So we formally briefed Council on Sun Metro activities routinely. The director of the El Paso Transit Transportation Authority has requested an opportunity to brief you about his services. So without any further ado, I'd like to introduce Mr. John Handel, the executive director of the El Paso Transportation Authority.

Thank you. Good morning, John.

Top of the morning. Good afternoon, actually. Good afternoon, you're right, yes. Top of the afternoon, Mayor and Council, John Ando, Executive Director of the El Paso Transportation Authority, and I'm also the Executive Director of Transit Operations for El Paso County. Here to give you a presentation about the newly formed El Paso Transportation Authority and how we partner with Sun Metro and the services that we provide outside the city limits of El Paso. Next slide. Or do I do it myself? Yep. So this is our mission statement for ETA. Our ultimate goal is to provide safe, reliable and accessible transportation solutions that connect the rural communities of El Paso County. And we do that through fixed route and 88 paratransit services. We're committed to enhancing mobility, fostering regional cooperation and improving the quality of life for all residents. So we were formed in 2020 by the El Paso County Commissioner's Court. We are a local government corporation created under the Texas Transportation Code Section 431. Presently the staff to ETA is through the El Paso County Transit Operations Department. We've contracted with the Rio Grande Council of Governments to act as our fiscal and administrative agent. And we presently contract with Kemp Smith for legal services. And going to our history of El Paso County Transit, we started basically in 1995 based on a countywide transit plan that was completed by the El Paso MPO. And over the course from 95, we've formed new services and partnerships. We started the New Mexico Park and Ride service between El Paso and Las Cruces. We started a vanpool program. We entered into a contract with Sun Metro to operate Route 84. and the South County. And then in 2015, we did a renewed interest in wanting to expand transit. We first started a new route along Takora Road, the Mission Trail. We then partnered with the Texas Transportation Institute to do a regional transit study to figure out how can we better connect county residents to the city and vice versa. That study basically yielded a recommendation to form what is known as the El Paso Area Transportation Services, LGC. As part of that LGC, we added additional members, Clint and Anthony. We've expanded services. We did reduce services in the south, and as a result, the services provided by Sun Metro was discontinued. We did rebrand services as ETA. And we also started a new paratransit program. And then in 2025, I was hired, and we started microtransit service in San Elizario and Clint. So we presently have 12 members of the board of directors on ETA. Three of them are from El Paso County. One are from each of the jurisdictions outside of El Paso County. We also have ex-officio members on the board, which includes the El Paso MPO, Sun Metro, City of Socorro, and the West Texas Regional Transportation Committee. We presently have an administrative staff of five. Four positions are filled, one is vacant. We are in the process of hiring three more positions. At transition, we'll have eight individuals working for the Transportation Authority. We did form an Access Advisory Committee to help us give us guidance on how we can provide better transportation to seniors and persons with disabilities. And we contract all of our services. Transdev is our present contractor for our fixed-drought paratransit and microtransit, and Enterprise Mobility is our contractor for the vanpool program. I'm going to be summarizing each of our transit programs that we presently offer, but we presently operate seven days a week, Monday through Friday from 5 to about 8 at night, Saturdays from 7 to about 7 at night, and Sundays from about 7 to 5. We're closed on seven major holidays. All of our vehicles have bike racks, security cameras, either wheelchair ramps or lifts. We have heating, air conditioning, Wi-Fi, electronic fare boxes. Back in December, using funds from El Paso County, we made all of ETA services free. It's a great opportunity to help allow those that are low income to reinvest their money that they were using in transit in the community. It also has helped increase ridership, create mobility options for those that didn't have transportation, and as a result, we've seen so far a 46% increase in passenger trips. About 3% of those are new riders to the transit system. Most of them are existing riders that are making more trips on the transit system as a result. So we're going to start with the ETA Paseo. That is our fixed route transit service. These are buses that operate on six routes throughout El Paso County. We connect to three of Sun Metro's transit centers, West Side, Mission Valley, and Upper East Side. And we're looking at implementing four additional routes in the future per the regional transit study. The map on the left shows you basically the ETA Paseo network. Access is our paratransit program. It provides services within a three-quarter mile radius of ETA Paseo routes. We also provide service into El Paso within the Sun Metro lift service area. One of our unique partnerships that we have with Sun Metro is that Those that live out in the county can use access and go anywhere that Sun Metro lift goes and those that live within the city could use Sun Metro lift to go to destinations that access serves in the county this way we're not Creating transfers between the passengers and it's making a seamless for those that are very sensitive in our community Undelay is our microtransit program. It's a pilot program that we just launched in the South County regions of San Elizario and Clint. Connects people to Socorro, Mission Valley Transit Center, and El Paso Community College, Mission Del Paso campus. The service operates similar to your recently started microtransit service in the Upper East Side area of your city. Bombino's van pool is a program that we operate in conjunction with Enterprise. We subsidize vans at $500 per month per van. It operates anywhere within El Paso County. It's fairly simple to use. A group of seven to 15 people can create a van, determine where the pickup point and the destination is, and basically they would operate the van to those points. We will subsidize it at $500. The rest of the group subsidizes the difference. We presently have about 139 vans operating throughout El Paso County. Many of those vans serve the city of El Paso. This gives you a perspective of ETA's performance. In fiscal year 25, we did 572,000 passenger trips between our various programs. In fiscal year 24, we did 559,000 passenger trips. We're anticipating that we would exceed 600,000 in fiscal year 26 because of the fare-free promotion that we've implemented. We are doing a lot of capital projects to make ETA a great transit system throughout El Paso County. We're getting ready to install 155 bus stops, which could include shelters, benches, and signs countywide. The pictures shown gives you a perspective of what the bus shelter will look like in our jurisdictional areas. We also are in the process of building a new transit operations and maintenance facility in the east side portion of El Paso near Windermere Avenue. That facility will house the entire ETA fleet as well as ETA administration. The purple sign is what our new bus stop sign will look like as we install those throughout the ETA service area, as well as also at some of the Sun Metro stops we serve within the city of El Paso. It will help people tell passengers where we're going. People can scan the QR code to get route information. They'll be able to text a number to a system where they will actually tell them in real time when the bus will arrive at that bus stop. We're also getting active in technology. We've partnered with Move It In Transit to help people be able to plan their trips, schedule Lyft and Uber rides. Hopefully, we're working with the RMA so that we'll be able to unlock bikes within El Paso, pay their fares through Token Transit should we charge a fare again, book micro transit trips through future software. You can also track our buses in real time. And we're also available on Google and Apple Maps. We have a lot of upcoming projects as we continue to work through ETA's implementation. As I mentioned, we're doing capital projects. We're in the process of purchasing electric vehicles that we'll use on our access and on delay program, similar to what you guys have with the Sun Metro Lift. We're making service enhancements to the transit system to make better connectivity to Sun Metro services. We've renegotiated and implemented new contracts with our contractors. We're actively working with Sun Metro staff on partnerships. We're also separating from El Paso County as of September 30, and on October 1st, we'll be independent of the county. and the board of directors of EPATs, the jurisdictions plus the county, will govern our activities, similar to how this Mass Transit Board governs Sun Metro's activities.

We are actively pursuing a partnership with Socorro.

They are interested in joining ETA. That's one of the last cities left to join ETA and we're hoping that will take place in October. We're also working in collaboration with Sun Metro staff so we can use some of the urban area funds to support ETA services since approximately 90% of our services operate within the urbanized boundaries of the El Paso area compared to the rural boundaries where we've previously received funds from TxDOT. Our contributions of passenger trips to the urbanized area will grow funding for not only Sun Metro but Socorro and ETA as a whole. We're also in the process of transitioning the rural transit district status from the county to ETA. And as I mentioned we're hiring for positions building additional capital projects. We have connections. Our services connect primarily to Sun Metro Service. We also connect with the New Mexico Park and Ride at the Westside Transit Center in Anthony, South Central Regional Transit District for services into New Mexico, and then the city of Socorro's micro transit system. So our relationship with Sun Metro is evolving. We presently have interlocal agreements in place with Sun Metro for jury duty passes, putting our schedules in your schedule pages, purchasing bus passes. We also have a license agreement so we can utilize your bus stops and transit centers. We're grateful for the CNG fuel that you provide to our 26 CNG cutaway vehicles. As I mentioned, we have the paratransit coverage to prevent transfers between the two systems and make it seamless to the disability community. And then we're in process of doing interlocal agreements with Sun Metro so that we can use 5307 and 5339 urbanized funds. We would like to convert your seat from an ex officio seat to a fully voting seat on the EPAT's board of directors. So then once the city of El Paso joins, then every municipality is participating in this regionally coordinated transit system. And then lastly, we've historically have leased the Union Depot maintenance facility to our contractor Transdev. We're hoping to shift that lease over from Transdev directly to ETA so then we can utilize that facility until our new facility opens in 2029, 2030. So the value that ETA provides to Sun Metro is we bring a lot of our riders to your services that you operate throughout the city limits. We recently did a survey that I presented to the EPATS board last month where approximately 47% of ETA riders transfers to a Sun Metro route, whether it's at Westside, at Mission Valley, or at Upper East Side. Also, as our routes travel outside the city limits, we provide extra services along your corridors to help supplement Sun Metro services that operate on those corridors, particularly Donovan Drive when traveling to Anthony, Montana Avenue when traveling towards Montana Vista area, and then Socorro Road and Alameda Avenue when traveling to the South County cities. So in theory, your residents could ride ETA service within the city limits to stops that our routes presently serve on the way outside the city limits. And we're hoping that as we in the future bring an interlocal agreement for your consideration that one, We would have our route stop at all of your Sun Metro stops that I just mentioned on those corridors. ETA would accept Sun Metro passes for trips along these corridors should we charge fare. And these trips would provide benefit to Sun Metro in between your regular services that you operate on those streets, particularly Route 12 on Donovan, Route 60 on Socorro Road, and Route 52 along Terra Este Road and Montana Avenue. So that concludes my presentation about ETA. Happy to answer any questions if you have any about us.

John, great presentation. And we have a couple comments or questions representing you.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, John, for the great presentation and all your hard work. Specifically, public transportation is extremely important. In District 5, we just launched the microtransit program, and I've said that this could really set someone up for a future job, education, and just having access to even just health care, right? You answered a lot of the questions that I was going to ask. as of December 2025, you did the free cost to ridership. And I was going to ask, what is the increase of ridership ever since then? You mentioned it was 46%. Did you mention it was 23% new riders?

It's about 3% new riders, and the majority of the existing riders are now making more trips on the transit system.

Great. And I was going to ask what the increase of ridership with Sun Metro is, since you collaborate, you work together, you essentially could take them, like, for example, in District 5, you'll take them to the Upper East Side Sun Metro Transit Center. You said that there was a 47% increase that are transferred from your services to Sun Metro. Is that correct?

That is correct, yes.

Great. Now, since you all offer free ridership, is there a cost when they get transferred to a Sun Metro route, or how does that happen?

So presently, since they ride us for free, most of our riders would purchase Sun Metro passes to then ride Sun Metro services throughout the city limits.

Okay, great. Now, thank you for that and that clarification. In regards of the Vamonos pool, you said that you all subsidize $500 when someone creates this program or opts into this program, right? That is correct. What is the full cost of one van or if someone wants to create a partnership with the Vamonos pool?

Number of the vans range from about $1,500 to $2,100 a month. Okay. And then the users are also responsible for the fuel.

Okay. And then those costs get divided between the users that want to use that nominal support, right?

That is correct. So the more users on the van, the lower the cost of the entire van.

Very cool. How many vans did you say there was 100 within the city?

About 139. 139 vans within the city.

That's great. I've seen them parked in different strategic locations. I've seen them on Montana and Loop 375 at PetSmart. I've seen a couple of vehicles there, so it's great that people are using that, and I'm glad to know that. Well, I have no further questions. You really tackled all my entire thought process, but thank you for all the great work and partnerships and collaborations that are extremely important, because overall, communities don't see the boundaries between our governments, right? And I cannot tell you how many individuals from the far east side, Montana, Vista, and other unincorporated areas reach out to my office asking for different services. So I'm grateful for all your work and the partnership that we have.

Thank you. We're great to provide this service.

Representative Limon.

Thank you, Mayor. Congratulations. You just gave us a full presentation without any notes other than PowerPoint that you were doing. And it was very clearly presented. I commend you for the ability to do that in front of counsel. Thank you. What a difference a year and a half makes. I can still remember meeting with Javier Banales when they were talking about this. It's only been a year and a half and look at all that you have. I'm very excited because of the connection to the Nestor Valencia, the Mission Valley transfer, which obviously goes out into the county. And I'm hopeful that Socorro will jump on board and be a part of it, because it'll be a completely loop around the entire area. Congratulations. Thank you very much. I'm very proud of you. Thank you.

Representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, John, for the presentation. I'd like to hear a little bit more about the Donovan Corridor that you mentioned, how you're servicing it. I did see it on your map here, and I made it bigger because I think it's slide number 11. If you could maybe just tell me a little bit about that corridor and who you're servicing.

Yeah, so presently we have our Route 10 that travels on Donovan from Westside Transit Center all the way to Anthony. And Sun Metro, you guys operate Route 12 on that quarter about every, I believe, 60 minutes now with Sun Metro rising. So we basically are serving those that are ultimately trying to get to Anthony, Westway, Vinton. However, there are some times where if there's not a Route 12 coming by, that there will be city residents that will take the Route 10 and also go to destinations along Donovan like the Walmarts and a lot of other shopping opportunities that do exist. So one of our projects that we're working with Sun Metro staff is how can ETA provide that value to the city for your ultimate participation in ETA so that the city can see that the extra services that we provide on our way into and out of town, basically between Westside Transit Center and Borderland Road, would provide that value to help overall support those that live along that community. So instead of having a bus, a Sun Metro bus come by every hour, for instance, combined with ETA and Sun Metro, you would have a bus potentially every 30 minutes.

Yeah, providing a lot more service to the community.

Providing a lot more service, yeah.

I appreciate that, John. Maybe we'll have you at a community meeting so we can discuss this further with the community. We'd be happy to, yes. Thank you so much.

john again thank you for the the wonderful presentation and congratulations on all the ridership and everything that you're doing thank you very good job and we look forward to working with you more you got it thank you john happy trails

Miss Nunez next item there's no action on that item and next item is the last item number four discussion in action and a resolution one authorizing the mayor to sign an amendment extending the term of interlocal agreement 2023-0067 between the city of El Paso and the Texas general land office for the purchase of natural gas for two additional years Two, authorizing the mayor to accept, reject, alter, amend, or terminate the interlocal agreement without further action by the Mass Transit Department Board. And three, that the expenditures under this agreement are governed by Mass Transit Department Board's approval of the city's annual budget.

Move to approve.

OK. There's a motion to approve. Is there a second? Second. There's a motion and a second. Ms. Nunez?

And we do have a motion made by board member Limon, seconded by board member Chavez. And this is to approve item number four. Voting session is open. we voting session is closed and the item has been approved unanimously with board member rocha not present for the vote okay is there a motion to adjourn second all those in favor anyone opposed and the motion carries and the advanced transit department board meeting for july 7th is adjourned at 1 10 p.m

Mayor, did you want to go back to the regular meeting or remain in recess?

We're going to recess from lunch.

Okay. And then reconvene at what time, sir? 2.15? 2.15. Okay. So the regular city council meeting remains in recess and we'll reconvene at 2.15.

Lots of work.

I like the green. You want candy?

I heard that. I was being legal. Yeah, exactly. So do you see that going on there? Thank you.

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

Yes, sir, is there a motion to reconvene? So moved. Second. There's a motion and a second to reconvene the city council meeting. All in favor?

Aye.

Anyone opposed? The meeting is back in session at 2.16 p.m.

Okay, I believe that brings us to item number 17.

Yes, sir. Item 17 is a public hearing of an ordinance authorizing the conveyance of real property owned by the city of El Paso to Osvaldo Olguin and Rocio Segovia for the purchase price of $53,000. The property described as lots 18 and 19 block three mountain home subdivision in addition to the city of El Paso, El Paso County, Texas.

Mary Lou, you're up. I think. Mary Lou, you're up, right? Good afternoon. You had a small presentation on this one?

Yes, sir.

Okay. Is there a motion on this one?

Motion approved.

Okay. All right. Go ahead, Mary Lou.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Mary Lou Espinosa with the Real Estate Division. For the record, this item is on a property sale agreement for Turquoise and Edgar Park, property identification number 404043. Okay. This item was brought before council in September of 2025 and it was put on the surplus listing and it was listed in accordance with that Texas local government code and marketed via a broker for at least 30 days on that multi-listing service. The cross streets on this is Turquoise and Edgar Park. It is 0.36 acres. In size, it's zoned R4 residential. It was listed on October 4th of 2025. The proposed buyer is Osvaldo Olguin and Rocio Segovia. The appraised value is $50,720 based on an appraisal done in September of 2025. The purchase price is $53,000 plus closing costs. We did receive one offer on this one and we're recommending selling this to the highest offer.

Okay, any questions from Mary Lou on item 17? Ms. Bright?

The motion was made by alternate Mayor Pro Tem Fierro, seconded by Representative Limon, and this is to adopt the ordinance on item 17. There's no public comment on that motion. Call for the vote. Representative Nino, we're on item 17. Not sure if you want to vote. Yes, I will. Thank you, sir. In the voting session, and that motion passes unanimously, Representative Maldonado-Rocha not present.

Okay, let's take item number 18.

Item 18 is a public hearing of an ordinance authorizing the conveyance of real property owned by the city of El Paso to Maria Andrea Garcia for the purchase price of $36,581. The property described as southernly 40 feet of block 21, block 5, revised map of Sahara subdivision in addition to the city of El Paso, El Paso County, Texas. Motion to approve.

Okay, okay. Mary Lou, you're back up.

Yes, they're very just been us again for the record this item is on the property sale of Arabian nights and Aladdin property identification number 2, 6, 7, 2, 4, 4. This property is located inside of district for this was brought before Council in July of 2025 where it was vetted for surplus property and approved for its listing in accordance with the Texas local government code. It was listed and marketed via the broker for at least those 30 days on the multi listing service. The property size is .09 acres. It is zoned R4. It was listed in July of 2025. The proposed buyer is Mariel Andrea Garcia. It's got an appraised value of $31,000, which was appraised in August of 2025. The purchase price is $36,581 plus closing costs. We only received one offer on this property, and we are recommending that we sell to the highest offer.

Any questions from Mary Lou on this item? Ms. Bryan.

Mr. Chair, the motion was made by Representative Oretrejo, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Chavez, and this is to adopt the ordinance on item number 18. There's no public comment on that motion. Call for the vote. In the voting session, and that motion passes unanimously. Representative Madonado-Rocha not present.

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

Item number 19 is a public hearing of an ordinance amending Title 12, schedules, speed limits, subsection E, 30 miles per hour to add Northern Pass Drive from Northern Desert Boulevard to Ressler Drive and add Northern Drive from Trade Center Avenue to Desierto Rico Avenue. To delete item 98, Northern Pass Drive between Desert North Boulevard and Helen of Troy Drive. And to add item 111, Northern Pass Drive from Ressler Drive to Helen of Troy Drive. And in ordinance amending title 12, the section of 40 miles per hour to delete. Item 34, Northwestern Drive from Trans Mountain Road, Loop 375 to 500 feet south of Westport Drive. And at item 47, Northern Drive from Trans Mountain Road, Loop 375 to Trade Center Avenue.

Representative Chavez?

Motion to approve.

Second.

Okay. You want to do the presentation? Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. I'm Joshua Larma, a planner from Streets of Maintenance, Mayor, Council. Thank you. So this presentation is going to be the speed zone improvement on Northern Pass and Northwestern Drive in District 1 on the west side of El Paso. Alright, so we received the, this is a speed zone improvements on the subject streets. This is warranted through a speed zone study, contracted speed zone study with CID. This is to enhance the growing commercial area and improve safety for pedestrians and crossings, pedestrian crossings and for on-street parking. And we have to codify the speed limits. All right, so the existing conditions are on the top. So it kind of bounces around. So with these speed zone improvements, we want to bring some continuity with the speed improvement. So it'll be 30 miles per hour in the commercial area where Northwestern and Northern Pass intersect. The next six slides are gonna be a little repetitive, but there are action items and they basically go over the different amendments we make to amending the speed zones. So this slide right here is going to be deleting the existing 35 mile per hour on Northern Pass. This is adding the 30 mile per hour speed zone improvement on Northern Pass. And this is amending the new 35 mile per hour on Northern Pass. Moving on to Northwestern, this is deleting the existing 40. Adding the new amended 40. And then finally, adding the new 30 mile per hour speed zone improvement on Northwestern. And this concludes the presentation. Are there any questions?

Any questions for Joshua? Okay, Ms. Pryor.

The motion was made by Mayor Pro Tem Chavez, seconded by Alternative Mayor Pro Tempiero. And this is to adopt the ordinance on item number 19. There's no public comment on that motion. Call for the vote. And the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. Representative Madonado-Rocha not present. Okay, the second number 20 police item 20 is a public hearing of an ordinance terminating the pinnacle media LLC non-exclusive franchise to place benches at bus stops on city right away personally to the city of El Paso code that was granted by ordinance 0, 1, 8, 0, 0, 2.

Is there a motion to approve this second. Good afternoon.

So good afternoon, Jerry DeMuro, Deputy Transit Officer for Sun Metro. So this item is to terminate the bus bench franchise with Pinnacle Media LLC. So back in 2014, the city granted non-exclusive franchise rights for advertising benches on city rights-of-way. This action initiated because many of the residents indicated our bus stops did not have benches So this was a way for us to fund benches at bus stops And allowed the commercial entities to advertise on those benches to recover their cost Right now the agreement is structured to last through 2029 franchisees pay an annual franchise fee of $100 and $5 per month for each bench placement and There were three franchisees awarded El Paso bench pinnacle media and River Elms and a condition of the franchise award was that the franchisees could not be Trent franchises could not be transferred or assigned to another party without consent of the city and So the Pinnacle Media was granted in 2013. In 2020, the business owner of Pinnacle Media formed Metro Signs LLC and began doing business for his bus benches as Metro Signs LLC. Pinnacle was actually delisted from being able to do business in the state by the Secretary of State's office. So in looking at this item, you may ask why this happened in 2020. We're just discovering it and just bringing it to council at this point. So these benches exist all over the city. And one of the things that we needed to get our hands on as Sun Metro was, where are these benches? Who owns these benches? Are they where they should be? Are they allowed to be there? So we spent the better part of almost two years doing a very detailed inventory of who had the benches, where they were, what they were. And it was during that discovery process, which we initiated in 2023, and it completed late last year, we determined that Pinnacle did not have a valid franchise. And so we approached the business owner in February of this year. We indicated to him that our record showed that he did not have a valid franchise. FRANCHISE, HE ACKNOWLEDGED THE FACT HE DID NOT HAVE A VALID FRANCHISE. WE SAID WE HAVE TWO CHOICES. WE CAN EITHER GO TO COUNCIL TO GET ANOTHER FRANCHISE AWARDED, WHICH WAS NOT IN THE BEST INTEREST OF SUN METRO BECAUSE ULTIMATELY OUR INTENT IS TO TAKE OVER THE BENCH AT ADVERTISING ENTITIES ONCE THE FRANCHISE AGREEMENTS EXPIRE. SO WE'D BE COLLECTING THE REVENUE AS SUN METRO AS OPPOSED TO PAYING AN ADVERTISER TO DO IT. So he agreed that he indicated he was unaware that he needed council approval to transfer the franchise. He agreed that he wasn't interested in pursuing any additional activities with Sun Metro and agreed that we could go ahead and terminate the franchise. So if council terminates the franchise, Sun Metro takes ownership of the benches and initially our actions will be under Texas Department of Highways authority. Benches are not allowed, advertising is not allowed on their rights away. So many of the benches of Pinnacle exist on TxDOT right away. So those need to be removed because it's not permissible. We also want to remove any benches that are constructed of an old design style. You'll go out there and you'll see benches that are constructed of metal with metal grates, and you'll also see ones that are concrete bases with wooden slats. We no longer allow the concrete benches with wooden slats because they're very easy to tip over. People could get hurt and they get damaged very easily. So our new standard has been metal benches. And so we're trying to get rid of all of those concrete benches as part of this action as well. And then we will retain the aluminum benches for the benefits of Metro customers. We will remove the advertisement and in future actions with the council would bring an advertising ordinance to you that will allow us to begin the advertising on those benches. So requested action is that the non-exclusive franchise for Pinnacle be terminated and that once the termination is granted that Sun Metro becomes the owner of the benches.

Okay, represent Kanellis.

Thank you, Mayor. Slide forward shows you met with the business owner or some metro met with the business owner on in February 20 February of this year That he agreed with the termination of the franchise at that point he was aware that that would mean the the Forfeiture of his property essentially he was made aware that the part of that that termination he would Forfeit his his mention. Okay. I just wanted to make sure that that was understood at that time This isn't something that he's learning about after the fact

And it is within the ordinance to allow us to? Of course.

OK. Thank you. That's all, Mayor.

OK. Any other questions on item 20? OK. Ms. Bray?

The motion was made by Representative Limon, seconded by Representative Canales. And this is to adopt the ordinance on item 20. There's no public comment on that motion. Call for the vote in the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. Representative Malonado-Rocha not present.

OK. Let's take item 21, please.

Item 21 is discussion and action on a resolution approving the expenditure of District 8 and District 6 discretionary funds in an amount not to exceed a total of $15,000 per cost associated with aesthetic improvements and installations at Pride Square.

Representative Canales.

I move to approve. Okay.

Second. Okay, there's a motion and a second.

And then- Representative Canales. Thank you, Mayor. Yes, I'll speak for myself. I think both of us are very happy to cover these costs. obviously the state of texas has determined that we can no longer have paint on the right-of-way and that was a threat to multiple locations but i think in particular to the road markings that we had at pride square the rainbow crosswalks and other markings and so they're already deployed i think folks have already seen that we have uh wraps on the poles and some other aesthetic improvements and I believe we're working on refurbishing an informational kiosk that will be located at that location as well that I think will be nicely programmable we can do you know history of Pride Square and other information that we can deploy through that kiosk and so The city manager and staff were able to front the cost initially to make all of that happen right away because we wanted to make sure that that was already in place for Pride Month and the events, the parade that was passing through Pride Square. BUT REPRESENTATIVE FIERRO AND I WANTED TO BACK UP THAT COST. THEY WEREN'T ABLE TO BEAR THE FULL COST OF THAT UNBUDGETED EXPENSE. SO WE'RE HAPPY TO STEP IN TO DO THAT.

VERY GOOD. REPRESENTATIVE FIERRO.

THANK YOU, MAYOR. FIRST I WANT TO THANK THE CITY Of her, if you want to spend money, you need to come up with it from somewhere else. So thank you, because that is a great policy, Ms. Mack. Also, I want to thank you and your office for coming up with an alternative. When the governor came up with this, let's take this off the streets and let's take it off the sidewalk, your office stepped up and came up with an alternative right away, a way to keep the pride and the atmosphere and the feeling going on in Pride Square. So thank you very much for that. OUR OFFICE IS VERY PROUD TO CO-SPONSOR THIS WITH REPRESENTATIVE CANALAS AND LOOK FORWARD TO BETTER AND GREAT THINGS. THANK YOU.

MS. MACK, CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT THE KIOSK AND HOW THAT'S GOING TO WORK? I know Representative Kanellis alluded to it, but how does that work?

Sure, so we have several wayfinding kiosks in the downtown area. So Representative Kanellis and I were talking about how we could possibly add one in Pride Square. So what we're gonna do is repurpose. So actually we sent Richard Bristol to walk downtown and we found an area that had five, like on one block. And so we're just gonna take one out of that area and refurbish it for this space. And so it really will be repurposing what we have and really the cost and expense will really just be the relocation and then we'll come up with some History and other things that the museum and cultural affairs will help me with very good.

Very good.

That's awesome Okay, any further questions on this particular item?

Miss Brian the motion was made by representative canal is seconded by representative Limon and this is to approve the resolution on item 21 on that motion call for the vote in the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. Representative Madonado-Rocha not present.

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

Item 22 is discussion in action to authorize the expenditure of district 6 discretionary funds in an amount not to exceed $800 to fund representative art. Piero's attendance to the National Association of Latino elected officials educational fund annual conference in Los Angeles, California from July 13 2026 through July 16 2026 and that it serves the municipal purpose of setting the standard for some government.

We're severe. Okay. Is the motion second, Ms. Bryan?

The motion was made by alternate Mayor Pro Tempiero, seconded by Mayor Pro Temp Chavez, and this is to approve the resolution on item 22. On that motion, call for the vote. And the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously. Representative Maldonado-Rocha not present.

Okay, I believe that brings us to item 26.

That's correct. Item 26 is presentation and discussion on motion from city council on May 12, 26, directing the city manager in coordination with the city attorney to number one, prepare and present to city council a comprehensive overview of driving while intoxicated DWI date in the city of El Paso within 45 days, and number two, to develop a citywide anti-DWI strategy and return to city council with recommendations within 90 days.

Good afternoon, Chief.

Good afternoon, everyone. Executive Assistant Chief Zee Silva with the El Paso Police Department under the watchful eye of Chief Pasillas. As Ms. Prime mentioned, this occurred on May 12th of 2026. Council asked the police department to come back with a comprehensive data presentation on DWIs. So I'm gonna give you an overview from our CRIS data. That is where we do all of our accident reports, which are now called crash reports. I'm gonna talk to you a little bit about alcohol-related fatalities, traffic fatalities, alcohol-related accidents, and traffic accidents as a whole. We're gonna talk a little bit about when and where they're occurring, a little bit about DWI arrests, some information about our DWI task force and our overall staffing levels. a key data review, and a little bit about the process of making a DWI arrest and the penal code for Texas. So this is our snapshot. This is a very strong glimpse as to what's happening on our city streets in El Paso. We use data from 2023 to January to April of 2026 because back in June of 2023, the city put together Vision Zero and we did a very strong presentation back then. So we're using data from 2023 to current data of 2026. The first column shows your alcohol-related fatalities, which is what you all are very interested in. And as you can see, over the last three and a quarter years, we've had 81 traffic-related fatalities that involve drinking and driving. But I also want to point to you to column number two, which is other fatalities. This is what we don't generally talk about. We always talk about DWI-related fatalities, but there are other traffic accidents that are happening on El Paso City streets that do not involve alcohol that are occurring more often, and we don't talk about those. So when you look at the combination of alcohol-related fatalities and other fatalities, they're well over 200. So the alcohol-related fatalities only make up about 35% of all fatalities that are occurring on our city streets. If you look at the next column, you'll see our alcohol-related accidents. We've had almost 2,000 of those in the last three and a quarter years. But overall, all accidents in El Paso over this time period is almost 64,000. THAT'S THE NUMBER THAT I WANT YOU TO REALLY CONSIDER STRONGLY BECAUSE AS YOU GO TOWARDS THE LEFT, YOU SEE THE NUMBERS ARE SMALLER. BUT WHAT WE REALLY NEED TO THINK ABOUT FOCUSING ON HOLISTICALLY IS THE TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS THAT ARE OCCURRING IN EL PASO. AND THE NUMBER 63 IS JUST THE INCIDENT. THAT IS NOT THE NUMBER OF VEHICLES THAT WERE INVOLVED IN AN ACCIDENT AND THAT IS NOT THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE THAT WERE INVOLVED IN AN ACCIDENT. that number is exponentially higher. So I want you to be very, very considerate when you ask us to go forward and look at if we're going to just review DWIs as our main focus, or are we going to look at traffic accidents as a whole? So to look at it a different way, I broke it out into each year, we do about 20,000 reported accidents a year. And for most of these 20,000 accidents a year, your police department is responding. We do get some accidents that are called in, but for the most part, we are actually actively going out there and handling those scenes. So our fatalities, and believe me, every police officer that's ever had to handle a traffic accident will tell you how sad for the family, for the victims, for the officers that have to sometimes make notification to the family members that aren't there. This is an impact to the entire community and this impact goes on for years and years. So one life loss is way too many. But you have to keep in mind the other 20,000 accidents where injuries are still occurring and other families are still being impacted. So we can't just single out one type of accident. We really need to look at it as a whole. And I just wanted to bring that to your attention. The police department is reactive when it comes to accidents. An accident occurs, we get called and we respond, but we do a lot of proactive work that sometimes goes unnoticed because we don't tell the world all the good work that we do all the time, which we should. One of the things that we notice and that we know is that speeding is one of the most noted reason for trafficking accidents. It's not drunk driving, it's speeding. And followed up by speeding is driver inattention, and then followed by that is unsafe lane changes. So when you take that into account, what is the police department doing about speeding? Well, we write about 19,000 citations a year, proactively, trying to get ahead of it. And we don't know how many accidents we prevent just by our presence alone, because we can't put a number to that. When you see our cars show up, people's driving tends to become better. They become more attentive, they pay attention, they slow down, they look for their traffic signals. So we don't know the accidents that we prevent just by our visibility alone. But we know that we're issuing over 19,000 citations a year, and currently, We're going to increase that by 34% this year. That's how much work we're doing just on writing speeding tickets. And just so you can get an understanding, we only do about 60,000 citations a year, which is a lot. I shouldn't say only. But what I'm trying to get at is that of those 60,000 citations, the majority of them are speeding. So we are doing a really good job in trying to get people to slow down and trying to get people to understand that this is important for our community. Again another way to look at it just so you can see visually on a side by side chart. You can see our alcohol related fatalities compared to our non alcohol related fatalities and again they make up between 35% this year increasing a little bit to 37%. I TALKED TO YOU A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE 63,000 INCIDENTS AND THAT DOESN'T COUNT HOW MANY CARS, IT DOESN'T COUNT HOW MANY PEOPLE. SO I LOOKED AT JUST THE ALCOHOL RELATED ACCIDENTS, WHICH IS JUST UNDER 2,000 FOR THE THREE AND A QUARTER YEAR PERIOD THAT WE'RE LOOKING AT. AND I BROKE OUT THE INJURIES THAT PEOPLE ARE EXPERIENCING. OF THOSE 1889 ACCIDENTS, 1153 PEOPLE EXPERIENCED SOME TYPE OF INJURY. So if you multiply that by 63,000 incidents, you can see exponentially a lot of people are impacted by traffic accidents as a whole. So when and where are these alcohol-related accidents occurring? Pretty much what you think, between Friday and Sunday, 10 p.m. to 3 a.m., when our entertainment districts, our drinking establishments are opening. And where are they happening? Again, in our entertainment district areas, our I-10 corridors, downtown, Five Points, Litrovino, and Zaragoza, which is pretty much what we expect them to be. Again, I want to direct your attention because I want to make sure that I let you know that the police department, although we're reactive to traffic accidents, we've been very, very proactive on trying to get a handle on trying to reduce traffic accidents. This is a monthly activity report that we put out that only talks about high intersection collision intersections. And this is put out every month to every police officer, but this is used majority for the command staff so that we can strategically deploy our resources directly to impact where we know accidents are occurring. So we're not just trying to figure out where to go and what to do. Our resources are limited, you know that. And so we want to make sure that we deploy directly to the areas of occurrence. And this information is pretty fresh. It goes out every month. And we strongly send our motor units out to these high intersection collisions, as well as our traffic units and our regional command patrol officers. So let's talk about arrests. We make a lot of arrests for DWIs. We take it very seriously, and we make a lot of arrests. This chart is just doing a January to April comparison year over year, so you can see how many arrests we make. We make over 1,700 arrests a year just for DWIs. And we're trending up. This year, we're probably going to increase by almost 30% if we keep on our current trajectory. So it's something that we don't take lightly. We put a lot of effort into it, and yeah, we're making a lot of arrests. This is kind of for Ms. Turner. She couldn't stay with us today, and I don't know if she's watching at home, but she made comments about... repeat offenders and so this chart shows of the 1700 arrests we make a year 90% are only first-time offenders 90% we arrest them one time and we never see them again Now, whether they continue to drink and drive, we don't know, but we believe that they learn their lesson and they do not reoffend, 90%. And that's good. That's really good. I mean, it's sad that they're engaging in drinking and driving. We understand that. But at least we know that they're not reoffending. However, 7% to 10% will reoffend a second or a third time. So when we look at DWI arrests and we compare them to all the arrests the police department makes, it does become a bit significant. They make up about 12% of all of our arrests. And again, our trajectory is trending upward. So this year, it'll probably make up about 14%. And you need to understand, I'm going to give you a little briefing on how we make a DWI arrest. It is a very time consuming and it takes a lot of resources to do a DWI arrest, especially if it includes a traffic accident and even more so if it includes a fatality. So it's a significant impact on our resources. All right, so who is involved in our DWI arrest? Which members of our community are committing this crime? And most people think it's somebody under 21, somebody that's not legally drinking, somebody that hasn't been driving for a very long time. a teenager that just got their license, just came out of their defensive driving class. Actually, none of that is true. What we found is that males between the ages of 25 to 34 are our highest offenders. And you have to keep in mind, they've been of legal age to drink for quite some time. They've probably been driving since they're 18 years old. So they're not new. They're doing everything legally. And they're probably married. They're probably upstanding members of our community. They probably have a family. They probably work. And yet, those are our primary offenders. And our question as a police department, because we do a lot of community outreach, we do a lot of presentations, we're in the high schools, we're in the colleges, we're at the VFWs, we're at the safety events, Anytime that there's a major city sponsored event, we're there and we're sending that message. We do the Fatal Vision Goggles, we do Shattered Dreams, we work our STEP grants, we work with DPS, we work with ESO. We're out there, we're doing everything we can, but this 25 to 34 year old male It's a very difficult person to get to. How do we get to that person? Is it going to be through social media? Is it going to be through the church? We're going to have to find different ways to get our communication to make sure that we're reaching the right people because it's not our teenagers, right? It's not our underage drinkers. It's somebody completely different. Again, I want to bring to your attention other things in traffic that impact the work that we do. Of the 63,000 traffic accidents, I keep bringing that back up to you, almost 5,000 a year are hit and run. That's 29% of all traffic accidents. The people that are responsible for investigating hit and runs is the same unit that's responsible for doing your traffic fatalities. That group of people are working really hard to solve some of the most difficult crimes. And again, when I talk about resources, 29% is not an insignificant number. So we've really got to get a handle on our hit and run accidents. And some of the hit and runs also contribute to our fatalities. So I wanted to bring that to your attention. So when we make a stop for suspicion of some type of event, whether it's making an unsafe lane change or speeding or whatever reason the officer makes a traffic stop, and once we realize that the person may be intoxicated, One of the questions I will ask is, where are you coming from? Very simple question, where are you coming from? And we found that 36% of the time, the person is coming from a bar, which is what we expect. Actually, I thought it would be 50% or more. that 50% is actually coming from a home or a residence or from a bar and grill. And I don't want to name any restaurants, but we all know the local neighborhood restaurants that primarily serve food. so it's not the bars that are primarily our problem area it's people having barbecues and watching fifa and getting together with their family and their abuelas again the 25 to 34 year old male is probably coming from a residence how do we target that individual How do I get into the home and educate them against drinking and driving? It really makes our job that much more difficult because I already partner with all the bars. We meet with them and we talk about the incidents that we have. We talk about safety concerns. We give them training. We talk about security and all these things. We do all that we meet with T A B C we work with our partner law enforcement agencies we again proactive Police Department doing everything that we can to mitigate driving while intoxicated but how do I get into that House and that's where we're going to need the community's help. So a little bit about our staffing and our DWI task force again proactive Police Department We have 13 officers now who work seven days a week on 10-hour shifts between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. doing nothing but DWIs. This is their only job, their only responsibility. Unless some major event occurs and they get called away, this is what they're doing 24-7. So the El Paso Police Department has dedicated an entire unit to just this type of work. They make up about 34% of all arrests. The rest of the arrests come from the patrol section of the department. So what is a DWI? Keep in mind that when you look up penal code laws, you have to make sure you look for the laws in your state because every state has their own penal code law. And it's relatively simple. It simply states that the person is intoxicated when operating a motor vehicle in a public place and we're looking for a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 or more. Now, I know everybody thinks that driving while intoxicated is a felony offense. It's not. It's a Class B misdemeanor. And if you are convicted, you could receive punishment of up to 180 days in jail and up to a $2,000 fine or some combination of the two, or neither. You could get deferred adjudication. So the district attorney, the judge, the jury, they all play a role in the outcome and the conviction of a DWI. And again, if it's a second offense, it boosts it up to up to one year in jail and a $4,000 fine. It doesn't hit the felony until either there's a fatality involved or it's your third offense. So these are misdemeanor offenses. A little bit about the process, I will say that, in my opinion, a DWI is one of the longest processes that we have for making an arrest. It starts with the traffic stop. Again, it can be for any reason, running a stop sign, being involved in a traffic accident. the officer makes contact with you, there's something about you, whether you smell of alcohol, you're slurring your speech, the glassy eyes, the unsteady gait, where we believe that you're intoxicated, we'll provide you with an opportunity to give us three standard field sobriety tests, And after that, if we believe that you are under the consumption of alcohol, then we'll offer you the opportunity to give us your breath or blood. We'll bring you back to the station, have a certified intoxilizer operator handle the equipment and take the specimen. If you are above .08, we'll call the district attorney's office and present the case. We'll file an incident report. And within the incident report, we also have to file three DPS reports because DPS manages your license and DPS will suspend your license based on whether it's a first offense and based on your age. And then after we've done all of that, then we'll take you to booking. And you all know booking is a whole nother issue by itself. So it could take anywhere from three hours on up to complete a DWI arrest. And again, remember, a first offense is a misdemeanor. And in addition to that all the time that we spend in the field if we have to wait for a tow truck to tow your car if you're involved in an accident, we've got to clear the roadway we have other officers helping us direct traffic again a lot of resources are involved in making a DW IRS. So in summary, I already talked to you a little bit about alcohol related fatalities, other fatalities, and in total how the alcohol related fatalities only make up about 35%. I talked to you about speeding being our number one contributing factor. I talked to you about DWI arrest and how they're increasing by almost 30%. I talked to you about DWI arrest making up almost 14% of all arrests. And I talked to you about where it occurs, when it occurs and which age group and which gender is more likely to be involved in drinking and driving. And I also explained to you where they're saying these events are occurring. I also talk to you a little bit about what the police department does and being prevented and everything that we've already done the partnerships we have with the community, the partnerships that we have with the schools, the partnerships we have with other law enforcement agencies, the grants that we use to help us be be available. We work the 4th of July weekend. We made about 28 to W D W IRS just on that grant alone. We work. We have to Different groups that we work with with TxDOT we meet once a month with them to go over safety tips safety initiatives Other events and then we meet quarterly with TxDOT with their traffic incident management team And that's when we do road closures on major traffic incidents and we talk about safety initiatives and other ways for us to keep the roads open and other ways to make sure that we are being safe on TxDOT roadways, so I gave you the presentation that you asked for. I gave you a lot of information, a lot to think about. The next step was for us to come back with DVI information and a strategy on how we were going to implement it. And my question to you is, how would you like your police department to move forward based on all the information that I've shared with you?

Chief, thank you for the great information. And this is something that has stayed with me trying to work on this to get the numbers down. One of the things I learned, though, is that someone can have multiple DWI arrests but not convictions. Can you talk that? Someone can be out there with three or four but hasn't been convicted of one yet.

No, they can be convicted but still reoffend. So what I showed you was the ones that are reoffending. So once we make an arrest, say we make an arrest this year, we don't know how long it takes for it to go to the district attorney's office before they go to court and whether they go through a deferred adjudication process or whether they plead guilty. That is between the district attorney's office and the offender. The police department at that point is just waiting to be called in to testify but our tracking system goes in different directions once we make it the arrest the information goes to the district attorney's office and then we're no longer able to track when that event comes to a conclusion another question i get asked is why doesn't el paso have checkpoints Well, we, I don't know, where did my chief go? We haven't done checkpoints in a very long time. They're very resource intensive. So we haven't done them lately. But we can look into it. There you are.

Chief. Peter for the record. So DWI checkpoints are not allowed in the state of Texas. Checkpoints are also very labor intensive on there because you have to set it up a certain way so it's safe for the officers and the traveling public. Those checkpoints are limited to driver's license insurance checks so in Texas so like Chief Silva was talking about when we're looking at stuff We have to look about what we can do within Texas other states do have DWI checkpoints, but we're not allowed to do it.

Okay And indeed I'm gonna give you time cheat to think on this one But if you had a magic wand on things we could do what would you suggest we do? But we're gonna go to represent Nino first

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Chief Silva, Chief Macias, and Chief Briones. I know that I've had numerous conversations with them about this ongoing cultural issue is what I would call it. I want to thank you for your service, and I also want to thank the DWI Task Force and all our law enforcement and first responders who I know work every day and night to ensure that they keep our community safe. I was able to do that night shift graveyard right along with the DWI Task Force a couple of weeks ago or months ago. And I also want to thank my colleagues for supporting this item that I put forward along with the mayor back in May. And the purpose of this wasn't simply to collect numbers. It was to better understand the problems that we could develop a thoughtful, data-driven strategy to reduce impaired driving. and ultimately save lives, additional lives. And now even possibly discuss other solutions to other problems such as speeding. You guys are the professionals, right? So it's important for us to get this data for us to move forward with what policy recommendations we essentially can move forward with. And it's important to note that behind every statistic is someone's parent, child, sibling, or friend. And there's also a lot of survivors who have lifelong impacts. I'm a data-driven individual, and I believe that good policy begins with comprehensive data, with reliable data, where we could identify the trends, the target resources where they're needed most, and measure whether our efforts are working and make informed decisions that ultimately, again, save lives. and also this data could essentially help us straighten our voice in austin at the capitol you know when the city of el paso advocates for changes of state law funding or additional resources that we need we need evidence right so a comprehensive local data shows us to that we're able to further demonstrate the magnitude of any issue and justify legislative priorities and advocate for policies that reflect the needs of our community and that's why Mayor Johnson and I included that legislative component to this. We wanted to ensure that the information that we're collecting doesn't just stay here at City Hall, but it continues to shape the future policies and further guide our anti-DWI strategy, and again, other solutions such as speeding when it comes to keeping our community safe. Now, in regards to slide number six, when you mentioned speeding, I'm glad that you were able to present that data, right? Because it's also important for us to understand the big issue here. When I did my ride along, I witnessed two individuals were speeding down Zaragoza Road at 75 or 78 miles per hour, where part of that street is 40 miles per hour. Now, those individuals did fail the, they call them clues, where potentially they were impaired. However, exactly what you say, an impaired individual, in order for the police department to go through the entire process, it's resource heavy, it takes hours, and by the time that we were able to do the whole testing, they came down under the actual limit. At that point, those individuals couldn't get charged for drinking while intoxicated, although visually they were. However, according to state law, they were not. I think now the challenge was we showed them a citation for speeding and whatnot. I know that those are some of the challenges. And I think one of my questions would be, for example, on Zaragoza Road, I know that I've mentioned numerous conversations with the city manager. Zaragoza is a textile road and we provide safety for everyone. In regards of, Zaragoza appears repeatedly amongst this presentation. I don't know if you could answer this, but is it due to traffic volume or corridor-specific issues on Zaragoza that give us a high number of related incidents when it comes to just either speeding or DWIs? I don't know if you'd be able to answer that.

I wouldn't be able to answer that. We'd have to get with streets to talk about traffic volume.

okay i think i'm i would be also interested on how is it that we could possibly advocate with tech stop for example right knowing that saragossa is a high volume accident corridor or with dwis or speeding um i would like to know how further we could have those conversations because i mean it's tech stock right that owns that street but I think if there could be further enhancements and further communication, even not just on Zaragoza, but there's other roads across the city of how is it that we're collaborating with them to ensure that we continue to provide that safety component. I know previously I mentioned that on Zaragoza Road, There's over 23 light poles that have been damaged in the last year or so. And that goes through different districts, five, six, and seven. However, residents are having to pay for that damaged infrastructure as well. And I know I've had conversations with Chief Pasillas as well about that. He's mentioned about like the police report ensuring that there's like a section that says if there's an asset that's damaged that we're somehow recovering those costs because again, you know, on the streets department, they only allocate over about $2 million for illumination or lights across the city, but then we're having to pay for that damaged infrastructure. Now, I'm also glad that on slide 16, you mentioned the places of last location to drink. Again, I mentioned the cultural problem, right? That it's not just happening at a bar. I'm glad that you mentioned that it's happening also in private residences. And I know that we mentioned that, I mentioned that during my briefing with the Chief Pacillas of how is it that we essentially address that issue. And I know that it's a challenge for the police department. And I'm grateful for all the partnerships that you will have with the bars, restaurants, schools, or shattered dreams that you all take part of, of continuing that education component. But I think also it's the more we talk about it, we understand that more and more members of our community are becoming more aware and they see the great work that the police department is doing. And also that we start talking about the issue because it is an issue, right? And I think that sometimes we might not talk about it enough. But I know the police department and the mayor has that enough is enough campaign. But I do want to talk about it even further as much as I can to bring more awareness to it. Because I believe there was some data that I think since the item came forward, there's been no fatalities related to DWI incidents. which is a big win for me, and I think that we have to continue that narrative of like, hey, we gotta protect each other, we have to take care of each other, because again, like you mentioned, this is preventable. Now, I know that also in previous conversations I had, and I know it's not part of the presentation, but one thing that I'm interested in learning further is the cost to the taxpayer when it comes to such related incidents or accidents or traffic stops, right? I know, again, when an individual is arrested, they go through an entire process. It could take three, four, five hours, but I would like to know the cost of what it costs to have one DWI incident, either if there's a fatality or not or an incident or not. Because again, I think it's important for us to have that data when it comes to even advocating at the state level. I know another challenge that some of the DWI task force mentioned is also when they're trying to get a warrant by a judge and say that they're at the Upper East Side Regional Command Center, by the time that they have to transport someone to downtown, an hour has passed, two hours have passed, and I would be interested in knowing how we could also advocate with the judges or the courts of possibly having virtual hearings where a police officer can jump on a virtual call from the Upper East Side Regional Command Center, for example, to be able to have that that time that is extremely important for them, I think is something that would be important for me. Today's presentation confirms that impaired driving and reckless driving remains one of the most preventable causes of death in our roadways. While alcohol-related crashes represent a small percentage of crashes, they still account for roughly one-third of traffic fatalities. And I think this is really an opportunity for us to use this data to build on further anti-DWI strategies, focus on prevention, enforcement, education, and measurable outcomes. And I know you guys already do a lot of that work. but I'm here to give you guys further tools to support the efforts that you all are doing. And now I'm even more interested on learning more about the speeding component of it. And I use that example of those individuals that were speeding, they were impaired, but even then, some of this data might show that initially they might have been stopped because they might have, someone might have assumed that they were driving impaired, but state law didn't show that they were impaired, right? So I think it all encompasses together and I'm looking forward to further conversations and what strategies you all come with. And again, it's about providing the tools and the advocacy for you all to continue enhancing the great work that you all are doing for our community. So I'm very grateful for everything that you guys are doing.

Thank you. Thank you. Representative Chavez.

thank you mayor and thank you chief cena for that wonderful presentation full of important data um i'd also like to start by thanking the police department for all of their efforts i know that um chief off i mean officer herrera and officer carzoli were present at uh pep rally at canada high school a few months ago along with mad and teens in the driver's seat and it was a very productive pep rally um in terms of Making sure that we were getting the word out there before graduation and summer break for those high school students Speeding comes up a lot with my constituents a lot of them reach out to me and they complain about speeding on their streets or in in their neighborhood and I think the question becomes, what can we do about it, right? Because we understand that we can't put a police, a cop car in every corner. And so I've implemented some speed feedback signs. I know that the city does a lot of work in terms of traffic calming measures, either by striping or different things that they do on streets. But what can we do, right? That's what this agenda item is about. It's about a DWI task force because that's something we feel like maybe we can do something to benefit the community, but how can we take action on speeding?

Our neighborhood watches the fact that your constituents are calling in and making us aware gives us an opportunity to go out there again as I mentioned just somebody seeing a police vehicle we don't know how many crashes we over and how many people will slow down when they see us. So we do respond when we get a request for speeding issues or other type of neighborhood complaints. We will go out and assess the issue and generally our presence alone will calm the situation down. But what we found that really works best is the traffic calming devices, the speed humps, you know, changing the speed limits and just having your constituents call.

And there was an agenda item just today for an area in my district regarding speed limits for that same reason, because there was a casualty not too long ago there. There was also a casualty just a couple weeks ago on the west side on Shadow Mountain, also 25-year-old female, You know, really early in the morning. I don't know if alcohol was involved in that incident specifically, but I know speeding was the cause of the accident. And I guess... There has to be an education component to it, but I just don't know what the right message would be or who would be the appropriate person to send out that message. How do we control speeding in our community? I definitely think it's an issue, but I do think that's something that we have to explore further because again, we don't have the resources to put someone in every single neighborhood at all times. But I do appreciate the fact that we have speed humps and striping and other traffic calming measures that we've implemented.

And lighting is also.

Lighting. Yeah, I think it's worth exploring more, and thank you for that data. In terms of the hit and run accidents that you mentioned on slide 15, what systems are you using to identify these vehicles that have flood scenes?

We have to go by whatever the investigation reveals. So if the victim happens to catch a plate or if we have witnesses, bystanders that catch a plate, that helps us. If there's a lot of times there's debris left behind, Sometimes the bumper is left behind or the plate falls off or someone recognizes the vehicle. That's what we use to continue. It's handled like any other investigation. So whatever we can find at the scene, that's what we'll use. And of course, we'll canvass the area and try to get as much information. There's cameras everywhere. So we'll pull camera data. But we conduct it like any other investigation.

Are most of these resolved or do they go unresolved?

I don't have the data on the solvability rate, but I can find that out.

Okay. And I know FitFam publishes some of them as well. Yes. I've seen it. Yeah. Okay. In terms of DWI, and I know that you mentioned the difference in terms of the number of DWI incidents versus speeding incidents, I guess my question is, Chief, somehow we feel that maybe the DWI ones are preventable, right? They're preventable either by not letting a friend drive while intoxicated, not letting someone grab the keys to their car. Not letting someone leave your house if they've been drinking or, you know, if they've been with you wherever they've been, you know, we feel like we can prevent them somehow. But I guess what I'm trying to work through here today is how can we prevent the speeding?

So to answer the mayor's question, I thought really quickly of what my magic wand would do if I had the opportunity to have all the resources at my disposal to try to impact traffic accidents as a whole to include DWIs and speeding. One of the things that I would do is get into the defensive driving courses. Those are people that have already been stopped for different reasons. and try to get the education out to them. The other thing I would do is work with municipal court to work with the judges to see if we can get them to make sure that they're holding people more accountable. I would also try to use social media differently. We talked about the age group being 25 to 34. Those people are generally on social media platforms, whether it's Facebook, Instagram, or X, or Twitter. We need to reach out to them that way, but we also need to use our local TV media, because at some point, most of these men are watching sports. or they're watching the news or they're watching something on TV. And if we can get to them that way, that would be the way for us to get into those homes and start interacting with people that are either having issues with drinking and driving or having issues with speeding because those encompass more age groups. But I think that's where we really need to start because it's not just at the high school level. We're probably preventing lot of people from getting involved in drinking from the beginning but the ones that are already drinking we need to do more to get into those households and I think probably social media and local TV media is going to be the way to get to them also I would like to add that we need to engage more with our uber and our lyft services and our regular taxi services and try to make that either more affordable more available or more accessible

Do we have any data to show what time those speeding collisions are occurring?

That I don't have, but I can look into that.

I think that would be interesting. I don't know if that data would also help us identify what approach to take. Well, I thank you for the presentation. I think it's full of valuable information. I think all of us here on the dais really want to help out, help the department, help the educational piece component to this. I know you do the heavy lifting in the department, Chief Pasillas. Thank you so much for all of your efforts. You guys do most of the heavy lifting. We want to be a support. for all of you. And I guess we're just trying to figure out what the best approach would be to get the best outcome for our community going forward.

One of the things that you all can do pretty quickly is help us revitalize our neighborhood watch groups. They've kind of lied dormant for a long time. I remember back when I was a PAR officer 100 years ago when I first started on the department. And they've kind of gone by the wayside. There are some that are still very, very active. But if we can get them back online, and get the community to start participating with law enforcement, that would be a good line of defense. And you all could help with that.