City Commission - workshop

Thank you.

And now we move into a workshop of the McAllen City Commission held in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act. All workshops are open to the public and serve as an opportunity for city staff to present detailed information, reports, and updates to the commission in preparation for future action or decisions. While no formal votes are taken during these sessions, workshops play an important role in the city's policymaking and decision-making process.

And good afternoon. Welcome to today's City Commission workshop. And it's going to be a long one, so I don't know whether we're going to get through the agenda. But anyway, let's see. First item, questions to staff regarding our meeting for this afternoon. No questions. We'll go to item number two.

Mayor, if we could go to item number three and come back to number two last, I think that'll help the meeting flow a little bit better. And if all the items go as fast as number one, I promise we'll get through the workshop agenda during the hour that we have. Item number three.

Good evening. Today we're here to present on the Section 108 Loan Guarantee Program. We've already brought this to you before, but we're going to just give you a little refresher.

So it's going to be a brief presentation.

So we're going to provide you with some information as far as the requirements for this program. And I'm going to turn it over to Chief Gloria so he can have a discussion on what we're going to use this funding for.

Thank you, Mayor, Commission. So as Julia was saying, this is to present to you an option that we have for funding mechanism for a project that we have been talking about for quite a while now, which is the relocation of Fire Station 4. So Fire Station 4, that is the existing building on South 10th Street, is the oldest fire station that we have in the city, built in 1978. And currently it houses both services, airport services and firefighting services for the community in the area around the airport. And so on the next slide that we have here, what you see in green is the current area of the fire station for sure. And you can see this red dot is the existing location of the station. This is basically where the airport is. And you can see the expressway, McCall Road and so on. Of course, we will continue to provide services in the airport, and that particular service has another project that is brewing behind the scenes for the creation of a new airport fire station as part of the master plan of the airport. But fire station four covers all the way down here to Deacon Road and Jackson Road, and so the plan is to relocate it from that general location to an area near the area of El Rancho and McCall, where it would better serve the existing populated footprint of its district, but it gives us the opportunity to respond straight south to areas that will, you know, further develop in the near future. And so this is the project that we're talking about, and I'll pass it on back to Julia to explain a little bit more about the specifics of the funding mechanism that we're looking at.

Thank you, Chief. So the HUD Section 108 loan provides community with access to low-cost financing for community and economic development projects. It operates under HUD's Community Development Block Grant, so it has some of the same requirements, but not all the same. It's mainly used to finance large-scale projects. So moving on, one of the requirements is that it needs to meet a national objective. And an applicant must be an entitlement community, which with the City of McKellen is an entitlement community recipient of HUD funds already. So it will align with this federal regulation, and so it is an eligible project. Unlike our annual CDBG allocation, which is limited by the amount of funding we receive each year, the Section 108 loan program has access to upfront capital that can be used to complete projects that otherwise take many years to fund. We can request up to five times our annual allocation. Right now, our annual allocation is 1.608, 950. We already received the annual allocation for the next fiscal year, which will begin October 1, and it did get reduced a little bit. It got reduced to 1.5 million. This is what we're looking at. So if we are to apply before August 31st, we can request up to $8 million. If we are to apply afterwards, we would need to use the next year's allocation, which would get reduced to $7.7 million. So on our next slide, we did provide a small breakdown on the cost of the entire project. Just to take a look at the Section 108 loan financing cost of $42,000. Right now, the loan fee is at 0.58%. This will increase come October 1, is what we've been told. So some of the financial requirements, one of the key benefits is that it offers long-term fixed-rate financing backed by HUD. The loan is repaid over time, over a 20-year period, allowing the city to address today's infrastructure needs while spreading the cost over time. The most common repayment method is the current and future CDBG allocations. Not the complete one, but a portion of it, right? And another Very important item to note is that HUD will work with us to set the structure of repayment that will meet our financing needs. So we set our own, we structure our own repayment plan with HUD. And as any other loan requirement, it does have collateral. It does require collateral. In this particular case, we would use the land and the construction of the building. So the after value appraisal would be the collateral for this particular project. So we would not. These are examples of other collateral that are commonly used with our HUD Section 108 loan. Primarily, it'll be the pledge of your current and future allocations plus the building and the land. So one of the biggest benefits is that we have a five-year consolidated plan with our HUD field office already. And so the improvement of fire stations and fire rescue equipment is already an activity that is listed as a priority. So we would not need to make any changes there. And another very important item to note is that If we were to pursue this loan opportunity and repay with our CDBG funds, it would also help us meet our annual expenditure ratio that is imposed on us by HUD. We sometimes struggle to meet that ratio. We cannot have more than one and a half times our annual allocation in the bank, and sometimes it's quite difficult. So this will also help, at least for that 20-year period, for us to meet that requirement as well.

In addition to the benefits that Julia just mentioned, of course, it goes without saying, as we mentioned at the beginning that, you know, this replacing the oldest fire station that we have in town, of course, it will be a benefit to improve the infrastructure that we have in our city. And by relocating, as we saw on the map earlier, it gives us the opportunity to, like I said, be more centrally located within the currently densely populated area, improving on response times. And like we mentioned, having a stray shot south all the way down to our city limits, it also gives us the opportunity to provide additional services to areas that are already part of our city.

but that are you know basically coming up for further development in in the next years to come and so those are additional benefits uh to being able to proceed with this project so it's a so we get a loan and we paid with cdd funds over the year it doesn't affect our taxes at all uh we benefit immediately by what you're talking about i had a response time it's towards the south it's correct but we did number eight in the north and number south is underserved right now

That is correct. And so, basically, it's getting the new facility. This is an existing crew.

And if we do it now, we get a better, I guess, loan amount instead of our jobs at first.

What's the downside? Do we use a... existing CDBG funding for our agencies by doing this?

Our CDBG funding has a 15% cap for public services, so we wouldn't touch that portion. It would come from the 65% that we normally use for infrastructure improvement projects, but it wouldn't be the full amount. It's just a portion of it.

Our existing agencies that we fund through CDBG, will they be affected? No. That's the question.

You are making a decision, though, about using those available funds for this project as opposed to anything else that might come up.

Exactly. In other words... This would be the only project under this program under this program.

No, we would still be able to find other Section 108 loan will only fund this project right the allocation of CDBG funding eligible

for repayment would not be 100% captured. So right now, this is the only project we're looking to use this program towards.

I guess an extension is, could we still be eligible for other projects that are in the CBDG area for a 108?

Yeah, well, not through the 108. Not through the 108.

One project for 108. Well, because we're going to be using the available allocation. Oh, right.

The other thing that staff hasn't mentioned, and I think we shouldn't overlook is with the plans for expansion at the airport and our increased operations there, this also frees up the ARF. And so the fire station at the airport would then be able to focus on taking care of the airport and not be doing double duty taking care of the airport and the community.

The main question I had is back on your budget and the 42,000 on interest, I don't understand where you're coming up with that. Can you put that back up? Yes. What is the financing cost reference? Because that's not your interest rate.

No, that's the loan.

That's just the initial cost of the loan. The loan fee.

Like your origination loan fee?

Mm-hmm. Okay.

And the interest is whatever the T-bill is, more or less?

Well, the interest, based on what you said, it's going to be just over.

I provided you guys with a fact sheet.

It's going to be just over 4%. So you've got about $320,000 to $350,000 a year in interest carry through this loan program for the $8 million if that's what we use. So y'all have made the determination that that's worthwhile to do for the project.

I get a little over $1 million a year, so. I'm sorry? We get a little over a million dollars a year allocation right now. So that would be, we would still have some for the social service agencies, for CDBG administration, and then maybe a couple of other city projects like we fund now. We currently fund drainage, parks, and other city school projects. So it would reduce that amount for those projects, but it would also help, like she mentioned, with the timeliness test. That was trouble to me.

Should we use all of the allocation for this? There's a question. Do we have other projects that we need it for?

The funding would barely cover the fire station, and one thing that we haven't emphasized too much, Donnie, was on the slide, but we didn't verbalize it, is the ability to be able to get the apparatus.

Yeah, hang on, Chief. The answer to your question is yes. Of course there is. There are always other projects we can fund. Julia, explain to the Commission our ratios and the struggle we have to spend money. And so the reason we're comfortable using the entire allocation here is it'll soften another challenge that we have.

So on an annual basis, the award that we get with HUD, it fluctuates. It's a formula grant. So sometimes it increases and sometimes it decreases. But it is... It has been quite difficult to spend at least the 65% that is designated for construction because oftentimes some of those construction projects that, first of all, we're limited to the area that we can serve. So sometimes... Staff needs to get really creative with the types of projects because it's only in certain eligible areas. It's not citywide. So that's 1 problem. The other problem is that some of the projects do sometimes take time when it comes to design. Then procurement and then to be carried out under way. Right? So every August the 2nd. HUD goes into our system to do a test. They call it a timeliness test. And we can, at that point, we can have more than one and a half times our annual allocation. Right now, we're at 1.62. And we got our funding in October. Well, we could start in October. We actually didn't receive our funding until February. But the timeliness test does not change. The date is always the same. Years ago, When I first started working with the city, we were behind a few years, and then cobit hit, and then it became. Even harder to to spend that money more so because it's only designated for certain areas. So. This would help me that 10 minutes ratio as well, because if. If HUD sees that we are not spending that money, then it's just going to continue to get reduced and reduced and reduced. And we really, we wouldn't want to lose that opportunity.

If we don't spend it, we don't need it.

Exactly.

So I'll send you a link.

Yes.

One of the things that I see here is that $2.5 million worth of the $8 million is not for the brick and mortar design and construction. It's for... vehicles and other uses that can be used all over the city, you know, that it needs for emergencies. So that's also the good part of it that We know what a five-engine truck costs, which is that, $1,250,000. But it could obviously be used everywhere in times of need and to the other communities. So not all the $8 million is just for brick and mortar for a new fire station or other things that we need in our system.

or city, should there be a different project that we need to do? We have different resources to allocate. I think if you all don't deal with the HUD thing, you have to spend it, you have to spend it. Otherwise, there's issues, and that's what they're talking about. I think if we can do it, help the South. The South needs as much help as possible. It hopefully will help with their insurance and those rates and everything.

I will say that in order for us to grow to the South Square, you're saying that we're gonna be able to cover all the way to Dipper Road. We need to be able to have sewer in that area. There's water, but there needs to be sewer in that area, and we need to be looking at how we can get maybe some CDA funds or something to get some sewer lines in that area, because it is in our city limits, and it's Avalon, Texas that we could be generating there, But without sewer, that area does not grow. Yes, sir.

The other question I had on this, I imagine you're going to continue to use the current fire station, correct?

That's correct. The current fire station is staying in place, servicing exclusively the airport. And like I mentioned, there is another project working behind the scenes as well for the eventual also relocation and completely eliminating that fire station, which is a very old building, but getting a new station eventually also within the airport perimeter.

So I imagine that you're going to rehab and reallocate resources in that building to properly utilize it for what it will then be focused on and if you're gonna be doing that, do you have any sort of budget set on what work needs to be done on the existing once you make that move and its focus is realigned?

Yeah, so what would happen is the fire engine that covers the city is just moving out, and that personnel, they're moving out. The existing personnel and apparatus, there is nothing else that needs to be changed on the operation of the current station for it to continue to serve as the airport. or just the physical plant of the building.

Yeah, we'll have to assess the long-term feasibility of moving that station within the airport fence and deciding how much we want to invest into that building. Once that building comes down, it'll convert to hangar space or other airport use. Strategically within the airport, and we can talk about that at another meeting, there may be a better location for that fire station. That's not a burning problem at this point, unintended. It's not going to be a big item that we'll be looking at for that addition.

That'll be several years down the road. Okay. But you're still going to need three shifts to fill it, right? You are? Once it's separated out?

Yeah, but that's still being covered. Oh, that's being covered. That's already been considered? Yeah.

All right, so the other question I have, just to refresh my memory, we've already acquired the property to place this new station? No. No? Trial is set for October. Is it? Trial is set for October. Oh, that's right. I forgot about that. And then the second part was 55 is not held.

Our next steps are, as I mentioned, it does have some of the same requirements that our CDBG grant has. So we would need to publish and have a 30-day comment period with two public hearings. So we need to meet our citizen participation plan. We also need a resolution approval by the city commission, which we do have an action item in our upcoming meeting this evening. And then after that would be the submission of the application.

I remember. Historically, how we financed when we did a renovation for this redevelopment of Station 2 and renovation of 3. How did we finance it? I think we spent cash. That's what I thought we did. And the only reason why this project is eligible for this loan program is because of the location, location, location.

Okay. What is the timeline, more or less? Let's say we get the resolution approval, you do the application, we get it.

When do you think we're going to break ground? When is this going to be finished?

Because government is within about five years. Theme of the day, Mayor.

So the application, the good thing is that while we're under the public comment period, the HUD headquarters staff will be looking at our application. So by the time the 30 days are up, they'll already have helped us at that time strengthen our application so that it's ready to submit at that time. What will take a little bit longer will be the underwriting, and that will be a few months' process. So hopefully sometime end of next year we'll be able to break ground.

It should give Austin just enough time to get to trial. Yes. All right, thanks.

Excellent. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. Okay, we'll go back to item number two. Go to item number... Four, Mayor, we've got an airport update. Okay, item number four.

As you may recall, the last meeting we went over where we're filling the pinch, the terminal expansion, and we did touch on the parking where we're also filling the pinch on the land side. And so we continue shutting down the parking lot long term and opening the overflow parking lot. So I wanted to go through and make some recommendations on revisiting that parking program. So at industry standard, about 90% is considered full. This will typically shut down that long-term lot when it's about 97. It's becoming more frequent and more frequent, mostly in the afternoons, and I'll show you an example here. But we continue to have that. And so a large component of the parking is the meters and greeters, or the zero to 30 minutes visitors. And so as we continue to develop the parking lots, we got one new parking lot coming up across the street. It's almost about 200 spaces and then a 44-space lot adjacent to the taxi cab stand that's under construction. That's scheduled to be complete September. So one of the examples is Vegas. We're actually number two on Allegiance at this time. most popular Las Vegas routes, which is a big deal because for a low-cost carrier to do more than twice a week for any type of destination is unheard of. And we get a daily, sometimes twice a day. That's how many people . So one of the examples is when that flight turns in the middle of the day, about 11 o'clock more or less, So you have people that are getting to the parking lot to fly out and you got people that are arriving to leave the terminal. So you got that overlap one of people that are gonna depart and the people arriving, plus you got mirrors and graders. So we always have this issue and we have it multiple times a week where we have to shut down and open up the overflow lot. So currently we have about, Over 1,350 stalls. We've got our short-term lot, our long-term lot, and then what we currently use as the employee and overflow lot up on the east side of the terminal. Looking at transactions over a three year period, looking at month to month and then the different time slots of the parking in general, as you can see, zero to two hours is the majority of the transactions. What that's telling us is that we have the majority of people that are entering and leaving the parking lot are not the traveling public. And so when you see the 24 to 48 hours over on the right and that represents about 25% of the use of the parking lot. So we picked a small peak time in March. And in the short term lot, you see the light purple are zero revenue transactions. Those are people that are getting in and out for free. And then the darker purple is the people that are actually utilizing it to fly. And so you see how that disparity is there in the short term. And then the occupancy, as you can see, at that time of the day, that one sample that I used, you see it at the 90% pretty average from about 10 o'clock to 3 o'clock when all that flight activity is happening. In the long-term lot, currently we have more utilized by traveling public. So you can see the dark purple is the revenue transactions, and then the light purple is the non-revenue transactions. So you can see where it's more utilized by the traveling public. And in the long-term lot, the occupancy is about 90% pretty consistent through most of the day. Again, they'll shut that down when it's about 97% full and open up the overflow lot, send messages on social media, and we'll actually put a physical sign there in that long-term lot. And so you can see on the revenue, the zero, where we have the most transactions is the less revenue. And where we have the least transactions, it's the most revenue. And so that's where you can see where it's upside down, where the parking lots are being heavily used by meters and greeters. And so as we continue to grow and as we continue to implement, we've got to take a look at whether we're going to put the emphasis on the traveling public or the meters and greeters. There is some recommendations that we're looking at that I'll present to you here. Just one last look at the segments on the transactions and the revenue, where you can see we're heavy on the transactions and the zero to two hours and low on the revenue, and then vice versa on the 24 to 48 hours, which supports most of the traveling public with 25% of the transactions, about 89% of the revenue. Just summarizing, 6% of the revenue is on the 0-2% and 67% of the transactions. Again, it's almost upside down when you're looking at the people that are needing to park to travel out of the airport.

Well, okay. I hate to interrupt you on this question. If they weren't delivering... whoever's going to be using, I mean, whoever's leaving or picking up, they would have to leave their car there. So, I mean, we wouldn't have any room if they were just not delivering passengers. Because they're delivering passengers, and they're seeing them off, and they're doing it within 30 minutes, and that's why we're not getting any money, right? But if they wouldn't be delivering, they would have to need to park. And we wouldn't have enough parking space.

They wouldn't really need to park. They could drop their flyers off at the curb and not take up any parking spots to begin with.

Oh, if they didn't greet them?

No, if they're just dropping their family or friends off at the airport instead of taking up parking in the parking lot and just drop them off.

And there's a lot of traffic that does drop them off in the front also. And the other side of the coin is picking them up. I think that's what you're getting at.

And then picking them up, they go in there because by the time they get their luggage and this and that and whatever, I don't know. I mean, we've got a problem. How do we solve it? And then you can't, sometimes, you know, they keep going around and around and around, and there's not enough space for them to keep going around and around and around, waiting for them to get their luggage. It's jam-packed. Yes, it's jam-packed.

So the proposed lots that are currently under construction and should be finished here mid-September are the ones in orange. And so there's 197 total stalls that are being built in that lock, which we're also adding a bus stop to try to work with transit to see if we can incorporate something into there. Because we do have a bus that the airport is on the route, so we're kind of trying to work to see if we can get that involved into that parking lot.

Would the FFA, would they pay for parking?

No, sir. This is revenue generated, so they don't fund.

They don't fund. So a second floor there would not be, it would be fully funded by us.

And so that's why we continue with surface parking. So the 197 stalls and then the 44 additional stalls is coming at a cost of about $7,500 a stall. When you look at elevated parking, you're probably looking at $30,000 a stall. We've recently priced it at $22,000.

A private sector or public?

That's a good point. At 1,600 total stalls that we'll be getting, it'll look more like about a 17% increase in total volume in stalls. What we're going to propose, what we have on the table is a proposed rate change or some rate changes, not total everything, but how we operate the current lots. And so there's not a lot of airports that have a lot of multiple lots. We're going to have five lots. But if we start from the short term, you can see on the columns, there's the current and then there's a proposed. And what's highlighted in yellow are the rates that are looking to change. And so when we're looking at this, the short-term and long-term current, you have free zero to 30 minutes. And so what the proposal is to move the free to the cell phone lot, which would be an actual cell phone lot that would give the zero to 30 minutes free. And then on the short-term, going zero minutes to an hour, $5 charge. that one to two hours stays the same, two to 24 hours stays the same. And then we're actually looking at a reservation system as an enhancement customer service type deal that we'll bring to you at a later time. But we're working on that. In the long term, again, the zero to 30 minutes would be moved to the cell phone lot. And then zero to two hours would be currently, or 30 minutes to two hours is $5. It would be $6. And then the two to five hours would remain the same. Six hours to the day would go from 10 to 12. And the weekly rate would be $72 versus 60.

Are we trying to increase rates to discourage the use? or because we need to generate revenue.

It's kind of twofold. It would be, one, to generate revenue, and then also to put the emphasis on the government.

How large is that cell phone lot? I've never seen it. 44 spaces. 44 spaces. I would think that's almost irrelevant. I didn't even know it existed.

The economy lot or the overflow lot, the current employee lot, that would be moved to a daily only, an $11 a day. So that's more that a legion or that leisure customer that's going to be out for a week. We'd be looking at just a flat daily rate for that lot. And then up at the top left hand corner is where the new employee overflow lot would be. And so if all these four lots were full, we'd open up that lot across the street and tenant employees would be moved. Their free spaces would be reallocated to that lot across the street. If you see on the economy lot also we introduced a tenant employee rate also of $162 a month. Opposing that just because we have some tenants that are used to parking so close to some of the hangars on the general aviation side, which we're looking at. Most of the general aviation side of the house takes care of their own parking and has their own associated parking with their hangers. And just because we have not been as historically as busy as we are now, they've been able to utilize that. And so we've already started the conversations, the biggest ones, EVP or Marine. So we're working with city manager to look at some different options for them. But that is... the proposed rate restructure. And just to show you from the accessible path from the two parking lots that are furthest away from the terminal, they're about the same, about 1400 feet from the furthest parking zone. I just want you to give us some additional information there. I also wanted for you all to see that how it compares to the other two airports. Obviously, the other two Valley airports don't have the same parking structure or the same activity that we do. However, I just wanted to provide a comparison for you all to review on this. The timeline that we're looking at, which today's the presentation of this information, we're seeking some direction from Mayor and Commission on this proposed rate restructure so that we can start advertising and letting our suppliers know. for a projected start date of November 1st. By that time, the new lots should be ready to go with all the new equipment installed and ready to serve the general public, including our tenant employees.

So we don't have an action item today?

We do.

Huh?

We do. We're going to vote on the new rig structure. But the implementation will be told.

The implementation will occur over several months.

It's not a part of this action item and this presentation, I know, but I've mentioned it before and I think when you're talking about your long-term planning and when we go to renovate and expand the airport, I think it's also the time to think about finding an offsite location for the rental cars so that you have that space available for parking for our own residents. Most other cities are doing that now anyway, and we can find less valuable land that I think could be programmed into your overall structure.

Does our report master plan kind of identify that, where we have a car rental turnaround facility?

We've talked about that in the past, Commissioner, you're correct.

But it's not part of the master plan yet, or it is? At least the last one from about a year or two ago.

Yes, we are still working on that. We have presented at the retreat last year.

That's what I recall.

We're still in the process of working on that. So if I work with the city manager, that's the will for the next retreat.

Off the top of your head, what Commissioner Ballantyne is referring to, how many stalls are in the rental car lot? 209. How many? 209. or relatively speaking. Good presentation, thank you. Thank you so much. Just one question, aside from the office space, do they pay any rental space for the ?

There's a $50 processing fee just to get, when there's a new employee for it, just to get them all set up.

No, no, I'm talking about the rental. I'm sorry? I'm talking about the rental agencies. Aside from the rental, the space inside.

They rent each space, there's a cost associated with each space. Not that much. It's over $50 a month. Okay. And it depends on market share. It's a little complex, but just generally it's about $50 a month.

I might consider raising that too.

Any other questions for Jeremy? Thank you, Jeremy. Thank you so much. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Next item. So I just wanted to start by saying in February

of 2000, no, February of this year, we applied for a FIFA public viewing license. We were the only city to receive a public viewing license. And so what we ended up getting was something that I think that we would have never imagined. We were planning for a maximum of 5,000 people a day from La Cancha. and we had much more than that. Let me show you a little video. This is a nice aerial shot of one of our days, and I'll show you a little bit.

The world came alive for the game, and the city of

We are here at La Cancha, Chicago, Texas.

Woo-hoo-hoo! Let's go, USA! We're here at La Cancha.

Que viva México! Woo-hoo!

Where thousands celebrated together. 20,000 people are here.

And the entire Rio Grande Valley came together as one. Together, the city of McAllen created moments that will never be forgotten. Memories that will last forever.

The team has reached the final! The team has reached the final! The team has reached the final! The team has reached the final! The team has reached the final! The team has reached the final! The team has reached the final! And when a city comes together, the impact reaches far beyond the game. It created opportunity, supported families, and strengthened our community.

Everyone is out here, family, friends, and kids.

This is what the senior mechanic is all about. I can really feel it. It's really packed, and it's really... I can feel the tension coming up, and I think it's so good to be here today.

We showed the world the heart of our city.

It's the best thing ever. I love how everyone just gets together. The best community, best environment.

So 55,000 people had the opportunity to watch this game wherever they wanted. They could have watched it at home. They could have watched it at a restaurant. They could have watched it at a bar. They could have watched it on their phones. They chose to watch it with us at the McAllen Convention Center. And I want to introduce the team or part of the team that made that magic happen. If you could stand up. They're standing right behind you. I think that this event really gave our team the spotlight, but they do this day in and day out. A lot of times our events start when people are getting to go home for the day. That's when we open gates, that's when we open doors to a lot of the events that we have. We do 500 events a year between the two buildings, and what we saw over the last few weeks was that we've transformed the brick and mortar of our spaces to really a community space. We've really been able to get to that third place, right? We go home, we go to work, and the Convention Center District has been that third place, that sense of community where people feel safe, where they know that they're going to experience something memorable. It hasn't been overnight, and it wasn't because of La Cancha. We were just able to prove something pretty magical at La Cancha over the... the course of the last 20 years. The building has been open for almost 20 years. The Performing Arts Center has been open for almost 10 years. We're reaching our 10th year anniversary for the Performing Arts Center and our 20th year anniversary for the Convention Center. And we've really become that central place where people celebrate. And we were able to prove that over the last few weeks with Makancha. We had over 55,000 visitors over the course of the few weeks that we had the event. We showcased, it's not over yet. We still have the finals. The finals are at 2 p.m., so we have moved it indoors to the McAllen Performing Arts Center this Sunday. We would like to invite everybody to come this Sunday to root for your favorite team, even though the U.S. and Mexico are now out. We've had 55,000 people since June 11th over the 10 matches that we showcased. And what we see here is a heat map. This heat map was provided by Placer AI. It tracks your cell phone data. And so it shows us where people are coming from and where the city of origin is. And it's really impressive to see where people are coming from. It's not just McAllen. It's not just our 50-mile radius. We are seeing people come from all over the valley. And we're also seeing people from across the border to come to our convention center. What's really impressive about this is that Pacer AI also shows us where they go before and after coming, and we showed over 50% of people either went to a restaurant before or a restaurant after these games. About 30% of the people went to purchase apparel before the game, and if you went to Academy before going to La Cancha, you would see that it was full of people trying to get Lawn chairs trying to get last minute shirts to be able to support their favorite team. So there was definitely an economic impact that the event showcased. Here's some of the media coverage that we had. We had tons of media coverage, but the most impressive thing was that the event became viral. You saw it all over Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and our attendees actually became the influencers that made sure that people went out. We saw the event organically grow from 3,000 people to 6,000 people to 12,000 people, and the highest match had 23,000 people. Looking at the bright side, I don't know if we would have been able to host anything more than 23,000 people that we had during the last Mexico game. What that equaled for us was $586,000 in media value. So if we wanted to purchase that equivalent in media value, we would have spent $586,000. And the public sentiment for this event was extremely positive and extremely high. And what we saw was a reach of 62 million impressions throughout social media, news media, social media, as well as an additional 5 million through billboard impressions that we showcased on our expressway. The economic impact of the event was very substantial. It has showcased over $4 million in economic impact. It supported 190 jobs and supported the creation of an additional 28 full-time jobs to our region. That has added $268,000 in federal tax, $68,000 in state tax, and $38,000 in local tax to the local economy. What that means to us also is The impressive part of this is that the event was able to reach a break even in net profits through food and beverage and sponsor revenues for people that came to the event. We did have a broadcast partnership with Telemundo. Telemundo was all in on this event. They even had a program on that last match through their FAST channel, which is statewide. So we were receiving statewide coverage, and our Telemundo partners were actually showcased nationally for doing things right. They were wanting to do what we did in McAllen so that they could They wanted to see what we did in McAllen so that they could replicate this in other cities. The way that the event was organized, the way that we worked the partnership with Telemundo was something that was pretty monumental to Telemundo as well as a partnership with the city of McAllen. These are some examples of what Telemundo did in terms of their social media, their news media, as well as the activations that they had.

Hello friends of Telemundo 40, here we are at the center of Macallan's conventions, where the watch party is taking place. The watch party, the official fan fest of Telemundo 40, here in the Valle del Rio. It's been a long time. It's going to be the inaugural party of the FIFA 2026. Mexico is facing the South African national team. We can see them at the mariachi rhythm.

They also had on-site activations throughout the 10 matches. And this is some pictures of their statewide broadcast that broadcasted in all of the major markets in the state of Texas.

Vuelve a vivir la emoción desde la cancha para el partido México contra Inglaterra. Acompaña a tu equipo de noticias Telemundo 40 en una edición especial desde la cancha. Este domingo 5 de julio a las 5 de la tarde en el centro de convenciones de McAllen. Y llega temprano, las puertas abren desde las 4. México contra Inglaterra. Vuelve a vivir la emoción desde la cancha con Telemundo 40.

So that's just a little bit of what we were able to showcase. I think that, like I mentioned, we're able to become that third place. We're not creating culture in McAllen, we're just providing a space and opportunity for culture to express itself. And I think that that's something that's very important, being able to showcase the organic authenticity of the people that come visit, that live here, that play here, and that want to visit the area. I think that we have become the cultural epicenter of the valley, and it showcases in the amount of people that we had throughout the games that we were able to showcase for the city of McAllen.

It is just amazing. It was just amazing to the whole group, to yourself, the group, everybody. I didn't know it had been statewide.

Yes, yes.

That is incredible. Anybody, any questions, comments? Costs. The costs?

So we haven't finalized the cost yet because we haven't finalized the event. We still have the event that's coming up this Sunday.

Oh, I see what you mean.

Yes, and so we will provide a report. But up until now, the event has been able to hit a break even, meaning that it hasn't cost us anything. the expenses have been covered by the net revenues that the event has generated from the event itself. So it's food and beverage, it's concessions, and it's sponsors from that event. So right now we are at a small profit, and I think that we'll be able to hit a break even after the event.

But with the value of the media and all that stuff, it really doesn't matter.

No, the community was there. It was a beautiful event.

We have seen, I think, a positive return on investment with $4 million in economic impact to the region, as well as the media value and the positive sentiment that the event brought to the area.

Oh, yeah. But, you know, the pride was there. The pride, even in the courthouse, people talking about the conscience. And, yeah, the people were just, the families, tremendous amount of families. Where can they come free of charge to view something?

Absolutely.

Commissioner, we felt like if we spent $30,000, $50,000 putting this event on for the community, every penny of that was a penny well spent. So we never had an intent to profit from this. This was something that as a staff and with Yehida's vision and... the incredible people sitting behind you. We really felt like this was something that the community, the entire Rio Grande community.

They felt safe. Our police department, our fire department, our Parks and Recreation people and all of the staff. People felt safe. We had accommodations just in case they needed health care and We didn't need to. It was great. But with that many people and that much activity, we were prepared for any emergency.

I want to really give Yehida some credit here and Elvita. As this event grew, like Yehida said, we expected 3,000, 5,000 people to come out. We were prepared for that. But as it grew... she and her staff literally had days to pivot and plan and execute and commissioner to your point it was absolutely flawless remember they wanted to change the hour you know from the last game one thing i'll say is you know it was incredible

one thing that i'll say in working with the city is just we didn't skip a beat we uh when the event grew we brought in a lot of different departments we had public works we had parks and recreation we had fire we had police we coordinated this in less than 24 hours and then a time change and we had to pivot to a new time and then it changed back and so without skipping a beat, every single one of the departments that we worked with was ready, was able, and really provided a safe environment that the community has learned to trust. They know that they can come to our spaces and that they'll be safe, that it'll be orderly, and that they'll have what they're looking for. Weather being almost 105 degrees on some of these gains, the fact that people came out with 55,000 people there with 105 degrees and they chose to be outside instead of air conditioning is just a testament of what we do at the City of McKellips.

LNF distributors, canes, and... The soft drinks and everyone that came, oh man, they helped tremendously. It was just absolutely, I'm glad it was there.

You know, you had a lot of people that were really amazed and they were happy because we didn't put You told them they could bring their own waters, bring their own sandwich, whatever they wanted to bring in. So they were like, wow. Nobody's going to let you do that because everybody wants to make some money. But everybody was really happy. I was at the soccer shop in Lamont. That's how you heard. I want to share this. I think it was important for us to make that pivot and make sure that the community was able to come and enjoy it for free and that they did not need to purchase waters or anything at the facility.

IT WAS AMAZING AND I ALWAYS SAY, I'LL PUT UP OUR TEAM AGAINST ANYBODY. ANYTHING ELSE?

you

And we're back from executive session. They're being open to business. I will recess the workshop.

This concludes the workshop of the McAllen City Commission. Workshops are held on the second and fourth Monday of each month at 4 p.m. in the City Commission Chamber, located on the third floor of McAllen City Hall. The public is always welcome to attend or view online. Thank you for staying informed and engaged with the City of McAllen. And now, from McAllen City Hall, a meeting of the McAllen City Commission.

And good evening, everybody. Welcome to tonight's City Commission meeting. We'll begin with the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by an invocation by Commissioner Joaquin Zamora.

of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all if you could remain standing by your heads family father we come to you today asking for your guidance wisdom support and discernment as we begin this meeting