2026-10-13 - City Council

She's

the lady that's going to announce it. Who's crying?

You are a two little

kids

Oh, he's not a real doctor.

Yes, I do. Thank you.

Well, good morning, everyone, and welcome to City Council Chambers.

We're getting ready to get started. Ms. Prime?

Good morning, Mayor, and good morning, everyone.

Welcome to the presentation of the mayor's recognitions and proclamations.

We begin this morning with the pledge of allegiance.

And to lead us, we have students from Dr.

Sue Ashoke Elementary School at the invitation of Representative Lily

Limon. This morning, we have Santiago Garcia and

Citlalli Garcia.

It's beautiful.

It's okay.

I already know that one.

I already know

that.

We don't even have a pen.

What's

this here?

All

right.

You guys ready to smile nice and big? Perfect. Ready?

Normal smile.

Perfect. Looks good. On three. Ready?

One, two, three.

One, two, three. Can give a few more.

All right. One, two, three.

Ready?

One, two, three.

Thank you.

Good

job.

Good learning everybody.

That brings us to the proclamations.

For those of you receiving a proclamation, your group will have up to four

minutes collectively to come to the podium and speak,

and receive your proclamation. The first proclamation

is

National Disability Employment Awareness Month.

Representative Rocha.

Thank you, Mayor. Can we get everybody from the Pen

Project that's here and all of our Ability Fellows that are

present to the podium?

And I'll read your proclamation. Welcome.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Proclamation.

Whereas our nation's recognition of the contributions of

people with disabilities began in 1945

when Congress established a week of observance

dedicated to workers with disabilities, later

expanding it in 1988 to the month of

October as National Disability Employment

Awareness Month. And whereas this observance

reminds us that disability is a natural part of the

human experience and that every person

deserves the opportunity to pursue meaningful

employment, contribute their talents, and build

a future without barriers or discrimination.

And whereas while landmark protections such as the

Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation

Act have helped advanced equal opportunity,

people with disabilities continue to experience

barriers to employment, reinforcing the importance of

inclusive workplaces that recognize ability,

potential, and the value of every individual,

oh, excuse me, that every individual brings.

And whereas for 40 years, Partners Resource Network has

empowered Texas families and individuals impacted

by disabilities or special healthcare needs by helping

them understand their rights, navigate special healthcare

needs by helping them understand, their rights and...

Excuse me. I'm sorry. Helping them navigate special education and

become confident advocates while the Pen Project continues

this work in our region by supporting families,

increasing disability awareness, and creating

pathways toward greater inclusion and opportunity.

And whereas here in El Paso, that commitment is being put into

action through the Ability Fellows Program, a

partnership between the City of El Paso, Marathon Petroleum,

and the Pen Project. Through this collaboration, young adults

with disabilities have the opportunity to complete paid

fellowships within city departments, gain meaningful

workplace experience, develop professional

skills, and demonstrate the valuable contributions they bring

to the workforce. And whereas the City of El Paso celebrates

individuals with disabilities who contribute their

skills, perspectives, and experiences to our

workforce and community And encourages employers,

organizations, and residents to continue creating

workplaces where opportunity is accessible.

Inclusion is intentional, and every person has the chance

to succeed. Now therefore, be it proclaimed by the

mayor and council of the City of El Paso that the month of

October 2026 shall be known as

National Disability Employment Awareness Month.

Signed by the Honorable Mayor Renard Johnson.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning, everyone. My name is Julia Vera, and I work for

the Office of District Three.

First, I want to thank mayor and the rest of the council members

for recognizing October for National Disability Employment Awareness

Month. This month, again, reminds us that everyone

deserves the opportunity to work, learn, and succeed

regardless of any disability.

That's why the Ability Fellows program is important for our city.

Through partnerships, again, with the City of El Paso, Marathon, and the PEN

Project, we're helping these young adults

to gain real work experience, building confidence, and

develop professional skills.

But today, I'm proud to introduce Estefania Garcia.

She was my fellow, my intern, and she will share some

words on what it was like to work for the City of El Paso.

Good morning.

Good morning, Mayor Johnson and council.

My name is Estefania Garcia, and I'm proud to be in Ability

Fellows.

National Disability Employment Awareness Month is important

because it helps people

understand that individuals with disabilities

have skills, talents,

and a lot to offer.

The Ability Fellows program has helped me learn new

skills, gain work experience, and feel more

confident about my future.

Everyone deserves a chance to work, succeed, and be

included. Thank you everyone,

especially District Three, for supporting opportunities

for people with disabilities. Thank you.

Good morning.

Good morning, Mayor Johnson and council.

My name is Diana Serrano, and I'm truly honored to serve

as the regional coordinator for Region 19 here at Partners Resource

Network, PEN Project. During National Disability

Employment Awareness Month, we celebrate not only the talents and

contributions of people with disabilities, but also the employers,

the leaders, and community partners who believe in inclusion and

opportunity.

On behalf of our families, the fellows, and future workforce

leaders, I want to thank you,

City of El Paso, Marathon, and everyone that's involved

for opening doors and creating pathways where

abilities are recognized, valued, and empowered.

Every opportunity you provide truly helps build

confidence, independence, and hope.

Together, we are all creating a community where everyone belongs

and everyone has a chance to succeed.

We look forward to continuing this partnership and seeing even more

opportunities grow for people with disabilities in the years to come.

Thank you, everyone, for helping make El Paso a more inclusive city for all.

Good morning.

Hi, good morning. Thank you so much for having us and allowing us the

opportunity to thank you in person.

My name is Bonnie Perez. I am the director for Partners Resource Network's PEN

Project. And at Partners Resource Network, we are truly grateful for the

relationships that we get to build

with different organizations, different cities throughout the state of Texas.

But I'm a bit biased and say that El Paso is the best.

And I

always say that outside of El Paso.

As the PEN Project director and a mom,

I want my son and every young adult with disabilities to have a

future they help to choose.

That they get to decide. And through the Ability Fellows program,

every single one of you involved helps make that happen.

I want us to keep building. I want us to keep building the

relationship. Thank you so much, District Three, for

having faith in us and our fellows. So, thank you so much.

Anyone else want to come up and introduce themselves?

Okay, sure. And let us know what department you're working in, too.

Good morning. My name's Alexis Judico, and I'm with Parks and Recs.

Oh.

Good morning. My name is Oscar Perez, and I'm working for the fellowship program in

District Three.

Good morning.

Morning. My name's Javier Cervantes.

I'm with Parks and Recs.

Oh.

Good morning. My name is Julian Ramirez, and I was with El Paso Animal

Services.

Oh, good morning.

Good morning. My name is Estefania, and I was

with strategics and legislative affairs. I'm with District 3.

Well, thank you guys so much. And,

I want to applaud the city, the Ability Fellows program that we have in place,

because it's obviously working. So thank you guys for all

that you're doing for the city of El Paso, and you are an example of

what can be done when we work together as a municipality,

and a group like yours to advance this forward.

So thank you guys, and congratulations.

Representative Rocha.

Real quick. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to personally thank Julia Vera because

she has really helped to bring the whole program and brought it all

together. We coordinated with HR, who helped us coordinate

with all the other departments within the city.

But Julia really was the glue that brought all of that together to make it

happen. And so thank you, Julia, for all the work that you personally

put into it to be able to make this as successful.

The first cohort was great. We just started our second cohort last week,

and it'll last for five more weeks. Four and a half more weeks.

So thank you so much for everything you do. Appreciate it. Thank you, Mayor.

Why'd I wear a heel?

Hmm? What?

I said, why did I wear a heel?

It's a nice little heel.

It's a cute little heel.

Yeah. We got you, girl.

Yeah. I can't do, like, a stiletto or anything.

I got to do, like, a chunky heel, and that's as far as we get with it.

Look. And the next proclamation is

LGBTQIA+ History Month.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning, everyone.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Representative Acevedo, I believe he's on with us, Ms. Prime?

Yes.

Good morning.

Is he going to be able to read the...

Can he hear us?

I can. I can read it, yeah.

Okay, perfect. Good morning, Representative.

Thank you. Good morning.

I have the honor of reading this proclamation.

Proclamation City of El Paso, whereas

LGBTQIA+ History Month is observed each October to

recognize the people, culture, movements, milestones, and acts of

courage that have shaped lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender,

q***r, intersex, asexual, and diverse identities on the spectrum

of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Whereas LGBTQIA+ history is an essential

part of the history of El Paso and our borderland, where generations of

LGBTQIA+ people have built

families, created art, organized for justice, saved their neighbors,

and strengthened the civic and cultural life of our community.

And whereas El Paso's LGBTQIA+

history includes celebrated Borderlands author

Benjamina Lima Signs, activist Maria Norma Montellano,

whose organizing helped establish El Paso's first LGBT

community center. Don Ward, the founder of historic Diamond Little

Club, and photographer and community documentarian Manuel

"Manny" Rivera, whose work preserved decades of

LGBTQIA+ life in our region.

And whereas preserving and increasing the visibility of

LGBTQIA+ history is especially

urgent during a time of renewed challenges to

LGBTQIA+ recognition and civil rights,

including federal actions that have removed transgender people from portions of the

public historical record and narrowed Title IX protections

related to sexual orientation and gender identity

And whereas when LGBTQIA+ stories

are erased, diminished, or excluded, our shared

history becomes incomplete, and preserving these lived

experiences and cultural contributions affirms to

LGBTQIA+ young people that they have always

been part of our community and belong in the future we are building together.

And whereas the City of El Paso recognizes the importance of

honoring those who came before us, while continuing to build a community

where every person is treated with dignity and has the opportunity to

participate fully in the life of our city.

And now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the mayor and council of the City of El

Paso that the month of October 2026 shall be recognized

as LGBTQIA+ History Month, and

that we encourage all residents to learn about, preserve, celebrate,

and share the histories and contributions of

LGBTQIA+ people throughout our borderland

and beyond. Signed the Honorable Mayor Renard Johnson.

Good morning, Amber.

Good morning, Mayor. Good morning, Council. Thank you, Representative Acevedo.

Thank you, first of all, for the proclamation.

Celebrating Q***r History Month is incredibly important, especially in

this day and age, as things have become a little bit tough.

I think that's probably an understatement when things have become incredibly

difficult for our community.

Oftentimes, people will ask, "What is the importance of honoring this?

Why is this being done in a public way?

Is this really the best way to do things?" And the answer is yes.

And the reasons behind that is because there are so many people

who sit at home who are q***r, who are trans,

who don't know whether or not they are safe to walk out of their homes.

This may seem like something that you can actually

relate to. But when we think about it, there is an entire demographic of

people who don't leave their houses, or who only leave it for

essential needs, who have lost the sense of community and family, chosen

family. Because oftentimes we've been kicked out of our homes because of

things that we cannot change, because we are who we are, and we love who we love.

So things like this, when we come to council, when we come to the county, when

you all sit here and talk about how much you are partners,

how much the q***r community are still members of this

community, what it does is help shine that light and remind people

that this is a safe community. Not only is this a safe community,

this is a community that will stand up for their rights.

This is a community that will sit here and say, "Not in my

neighborhood. Not in my place." El Paso has always

been a place that is progressive. It has always been a beacon when it comes

to other cities in Texas. And I'm so grateful for the

fact that we continue to do these things and continue to push the envelope

in what real progressiveness means.

And I want you to know that it does catch people's attention, that we do see

funders coming from out of state, national funders who have their

eyes on El Paso because of the work that you all are also helping do,

which is to shine a light on marginalized communities and to say, "No,

not here." So thank you for everything that you do.

I will introduce my partners as well behind us because it isn't just Borderland

Rainbow Center. My name is Amber, by the way.

I'm the executive director of Borderland Rainbow Center.

I'm here with MFactor and El Paso Sun City Pride, and also the activist,

of course, Lisa Turner, who you all are familiar with.

Good morning.

Good morning, Mayor, City Council. My name is Javier Aguilar.

I'm the president for El Paso Sun City Pride.

I just want to say thank you so much for this recognition, for all the work that

you guys do for our community. Thank you for being always

supportive, for the BRC, for MFactor, for every single

q***r organization here in El Paso and the region, especially Sun City Pride.

We had an amazing event

this year thanks to you guys. I really

appreciate it and I hope that next year we can work together again,

as well with BRC, to make El Paso more inclusive.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Good morning.

City Council and Mayor. My name is Sarai Gutierrez.

I'm the health project coordinator for the HIV prevention program within the

Department of Public Health within the City of El Paso.

We provide free HIV

testing for all community members.

Thank you for your time today and

helping us do this proclamation today.

Thank you so much, Council. And to spotlighting this History Month, it does

encourage everybody to get tested.

As Amber mentioned, some people don't leave the house.

But if we spotlight the safeness of the city, we can encourage people to

get tested as well.

Last thing, because Stan will kill me.

We also have our gala on October 23rd at Artevino's Desert Crossing.

You took the words out of my mouth. Monster Ball, right?

Correct.

Yes.

Ms. Turner?

Oh, I'm going to yell at you later.

Okay.

My name is Jimena Duran, and I'm the treasurer for El Paso Sun City Pride.

Thank you.

Good morning.

And thank you for everything.

Yes. Well, thank you guys so much. There was a name mentioned earlier,

Don Ward was mentioned. There's another name that

I think should be added to the list, Gilbert Salazar.

Ah. Of course.

He was a performer and manager that ultimately became the owner of the

OP here in El Paso. And when I looked that up, and he did

so much for preserving this history and this community here in El

Paso, so I wanted to recognize Gilbert Salazar as well

today. And you told us a little bit about the Monster Ball on October 23rd.

What time, where, and all of that good stuff, Amber?

So, it's at Artevino's Desert Crossing.

It is at 6:30, from 6:30 to midnight.

It is the Borderland Rainbow Center's largest fundraiser of the year.

Okay. Very good. Congratulations, you guys. And thank you so much for what you do.

Thank you.

Mm-hmm.

Thank

you. I wasn't sure.

You want to do a spiral out?

You guys ready?

Yeah.

Group hugs.

I saw you automatically get into base mode.

I was. I was about to be like-

She put the hands, she had the-

And the next proclamation is Assistance League of El Paso

Month.

Representative Nino.

Good morning.

Good morning.

It's an honor to read today's proclamation.

Proclamation for the city of El Paso, Texas.

Whereas Assistance League of El Paso, chartered in 1970 as the

50th chapter of the National Assistance League, is celebrating 55

years of service to the El Paso community.

And whereas Assistance League of El Paso is a non-profit, non-sectarian,

100% member volunteer organization dedicating to those in

need in the El Paso community, with over 25,000

hours volunteered each year.

And whereas Assistance League of El Paso's Operation School Bell annually provides

a week worth of school clothes to over

2,500 elementary school children, with over

115,000 children served to date.

And whereas Assistance League of El Paso annually runs three additional

programs, PASO, Put a Smile On, Bears,

which provides 500 bears to first responders to be distributed to

children in distress. Assault Survivor Kits, which are

packaged with clothing and toiletry items.

This small act of kindness helps victims of assault take the first steps towards

recovery.

We Help provides everyday basic needs to the families living in La

Posada home, meals to families staying at Ronald McDonald's house,

and decorated baseball caps are created for cancer patients, and handmade

quilts and blankets are sewn for those in need.

And whereas Assistance League of El Paso runs a thrift store, fundraises,

and writes grants to support our programs, which provides over

$323,000 to the El Paso community each year,

with an 88% return to the community rate.

We're very proud of what we have done and will continue to do for the El Paso

community.

Now therefore, be it proclaimed by the mayor and the Council of the City of El Paso

that October 1st through October 31st, 2026

shall be known as Assistance League of El Paso Month.

Signed by the Honorable Mayor Renard Johnson. Congratulations.

Good morning.

Good morning. Thank you for the proclamation.

My name is Lisa Merchant, and I am serving as the

public relations chairman for this year.

And I wanted to just give you a little

overview of our organization. We are probably the best-kept secret in El

Paso. We have been serving children in the El Paso area for

57 years.

We are celebrating our 55th year as a National Assistance League, but before we

chartered with them, we were two years in working in El Paso, and our main program

is Operation School Bell. So as to date, we have clothed

115,000 students,

and we do clothe children in every single elementary school in all nine districts.

So, we are very proud that we are able to serve all of the El Paso area,

and hopefully, the children that are the most in need are able to get clothing,

and it is a complete week's worth of clothing for them, and are all brand-new

clothing.

Mm.

We do have our other programs that we run throughout the year, our Bear program,

our Assault Survivor program, our Hats program, and our

program for our blankets.

We are a dues-paying membership, and we do not have any

employees, so all of the money that we bring in, other than running our

facility, which is at 2728 East Yandell,

goes back to the community. So we do have a huge return to community rate at

88%, and we are very proud of that. And we appreciate

the spotlight on our organization.

We are hoping to get more members. We are hoping that

maybe more donations. Our thrift shop is our main philanthropy

program, which is at 2728 East Yandell.

So any time you're cleaning out, we hope that you think about us and donate to us

and know that all of those funds go to really good organizations.

And everything that we do give out- To our children, through

our bears, through our hat program, through our

blankets. It's all brand new. We don't recycle anything that is given to us.

That's the stuff that we sell, and that's how we make our money to fund ourselves.

And of course, we do write grants because we have a wonderful grant writer.

Rita is our wonderful grant writer.

And as you can see, the ladies behind us, they all volunteer their

time to work for this wonderful organization. So, thank you for your time.

Lisa,

do some of the volunteers want to introduce themselves?

They all said no, but I could probably get Rita to.

I could introduce them if you would like me to.

Whatever's easier.

Rita Peyton is our grants writer.

Del Maltop is my mom.

Ah.

Judy Roseberry is our

corresponding secretary.

Mary Lou Long.

What do you do, Mary Lou? Oh, I just- Just a member.

She's been on the board for many years, so don't listen to her.

Jill Horner is our first vice president,

and Emma Morales is our- I think second

membership ... membership, second vice president, and Pam Moore is in

charge of our caps program. So she's the one that decorates all these gorgeous hats

that we donate to the children that are going through cancer treatment.

Oh.

And our president was not able to be here as she fell and broke her femur.

Oh.

So we wish her well.

Yes, we do.

Thank you.

Well, yeah, this is great. And thank you guys for

everything that you're doing for El Paso.

And

were you founded in 1967, or when were you founded?

We were founded in 1967, yes.

With 24 members?

Yes.

And now how many do you have?

You read our website, didn't you?

I did.

And our membership now is at

988.

Yes, it says 88.

Wow.

We have lost a lot of members in the last couple of years. It's been hard.

COVID was really hard on our membership, as you can tell.

Most of our members are retired. A huge majority of them are retired school

teachers because they know about Operation School Bell.

Mm-hmm.

So we're trying to find ways to get the word out to other people to join us.

That was my next thing. So if somebody wanted to be a member, how do they get in

touch with you?

If they go to our website, there is a little button that says Join Now, and then

when they click on that button, they will get

a form that they fill out. The form goes to Emma, and then Emma gets in touch

with them. And then we have a very simple, it's like a couple of

hours of an

orientation, and then we have them volunteering, and they can work in any of the

programs they want to.

Very good.

And they can serve as much time as they want or as little time as they want.

It's up to them.

And we want everyone to go by 2728-

East Andale

... East Andale. Got it. Con-

Go to our thrift store.

You got it. Congratulations, guys.

Thank you.

Mm-hmm.

Would you like us to take the photo for you? Yes, ma'am.

Of

course.

All right. Mom, come on.

There we go. We were close. So close. I always hit the thing.

Which is going to echo.

Great. I feel like the heel would collapse in the back. My gosh.

So I think because they were in the closet for so long, it was the pressure from

being like just broke down, you know?

I'm like, "Oh, my God." I was actually worried about that.

And the next proclamation is Cher Legate, Lights

Parade, Winter Fest 2026.

Okay. Representative Fiero.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good morning. Let me start reading, Mayor.

Now, whereas the City of El Paso is proud to celebrate the 11th

anniversary of Winterfest, a cherished holiday tradition

that brings together families, friends, and visitors from across our

region to celebrate the joy, spirit, and magic of the

holiday season. Whereas beginning November 21st,

downtown El Paso will be transformed into a spectacular winter wonderland

and more than one million lights, larger than life holiday

decorations, magnificent 45-foot holiday tree

Illuminating in San Jacinto Plaza, Cleveland Square, and

surrounding areas. Whereas, led by the city of El Paso

and Recreation Department, Winterfest offers six weeks

of free family attractions, entertainment, activities,

created lasting memories for residents and visitors of all

ages.

Whereas, Winterfest welcomes more than 580,000

people to downtown each season. That

deserves applause. Yes, thank you.

Where they can enjoy interact holiday displays, free pictures with

Santa sponsored by GECU, live performances at San

Jacinto Plaza, and Holiday Food Truck Village.

The spectacular music displays of lights in Cleveland Square.

Whereas, the Scherr Legate Lights Parade, sponsored by Scherr Legate

Injury Attorneys at Law, continues to shine as one of El

Paso's signature holiday traditions, featuring more than 70

illuminated entries, drawing more than 68,000

spectators to the streets of downtown.

Whereas, more than 3,000 participants joined last year in the one-mile

parade, filling downtown with dazzling lights, music, holiday

cheer in a free festival and family-friendly celebration.

Whereas, Telemundo El Paso 48, the main broadcast

television sponsor for Winterfest, plays a vital role in sharing the

celebration with viewers throughout our bilingual community,

helping bring the spirit of Winterfest into our homes across the Borderland

region. Whereas, the spirit of Winterfest extends throughout our city

with holiday experiences and activities presented by El

Paso Streetcar, El Paso Libraries, City Museums,

El Paso International Airport, El Paso Animal Services, Park and

Recreation Department, celebrating tradition, culture, and the vibrant

character of El Paso.

Whereas, Winterfest exemplifies the power of the community partnerships,

bringing together more than 20 city departments, Destination El

Paso, the Downtown Management District, local businesses,

community organizations to create unforgettable holiday

experiences. And whereas, more than a decade,

Winterfest has helped make downtown El Paso a gathering place where our

community comes together to celebrate, create memories, share warmth

and generosity of the holiday season.

Now therefore, be it proclaimed by the mayor and council of the City of El

Paso proudly recognizes November 21st,

2026 through January 3rd, 2027, as

Winterfest 2026. Signed, the Honorable Renard

Johnson, Mayor.

Good morning.

Good morning, sir. Good morning, everyone.

Pablo Caballero, Parks and Recreation. So it's that time of the year again.

It's not easy. It's been 10 months of hard work from

20 city departments working together.

Behind us, you can see a lot of people

represented by its own. But again,

Winterfest, like you said, Representative Fierro,

attracts more than 580,000

visitors every year.

We're hoping to increase that number year after year, making it better and

making it safer. So with that, I would like to thank

each and every one of you for all the support.

To our sponsors and our partners, without them, this couldn't be

possible. And of course, our Parks and Recreation

departments that goes above and beyond for this

event, like I said, working for 10 months in the

logistics and meetings and safety and everything that's

very important to have a successful event.

So with that, I'm going to introduce our Winterfest coordinator,

Diana Zepeda.

Thank you, Pablo.

Good morning.

Diana Zepeda, special events manager at Parks and Recreation, and on behalf of the

Parks and Recreation Department and over 20 city

departments, we would like to thank you, Mayor and City Council,

for all the support we have received over the past 10 years.

Winterfest is one of our biggest celebration in downtown El Paso.

We can probably say it's an economic

driver and a tourism attraction,

and one of the biggest holiday tradition for the El Paso

community. So it's thanks to all these teams, Destination El Paso,

our sponsors, the Scherr Legate law firm, who has sponsored the Scherr Legate

Lights Parade for the past eight years, GECU for sponsoring the ice

skating rink, the free picture with Santa, and of course, Telemundo El

Paso 48, who are going to be our media sponsor of the year.

We want to thank you again for all the support. We hope to see you there.

We invite you to be part of the biggest celebration in El Paso community,

and thank you.

I would like to invite Maricela from Destination El Paso to the-

Good morning.

Good morning. Good morning, mayor and council members.

I'm Maricela Huerta, director of event services for Destination El Paso,

and we're thrilled to bring back the rink for what's very hard to believe, its

11th season. And we couldn't do it without the support of our

presenting sponsor, GECU. And this year,

we're actually providing a couple of stops in the holiday destination

that includes not only the ice rink, but the new holiday display at the

visitor center and the surrounding area, which we're excited for you to see.

And building an ice rink in 90-degree weather-

... is nothing short of miraculous, but trust me, I have just the right

team to do it, and I would like for you to meet them.

Good morning.

Good morning. Good morning, mayor and city council.

Good morning.

My name is Stephanie Rivera, and I am the special events and sponsorship manager at

Destination El Paso. So for us at Destination El Paso and many

families in El Paso, the rink has become an immense holiday

tradition that we are incredibly honored and excited to continue this

Winterfest season. I do want to take my time to recognize

and thank GECU as our presenting sponsor, who without them, we couldn't

make this happen. It is an honor, and we're grateful to have them alongside us

to help create this holiday magic.

And it is a big team effort, not just us who are here, but also

labor and engineers who are back at the Convention Center.

And we do more than just skating, so I will let my better half and my

second part of my duo talk a little bit about that.

Very good.

Good morning.

Good morning, Mayor Johnson and City Council. My name is Yasmin Contreras.

I am the special events coordinator for Destination El Paso.

We're super excited for another magical season at the rink at Winterfest.

And this year, we have so much more planned than just skating, with some special

events and exciting theme nights.

Be sure to check our social media and our website for all those details.

And speaking about holiday magic, we wanted to bring you a little gift.

We have a special Winterfest blanket to keep you warm and cozy this

holiday season. And with that being said, I would like you for all to open your

gifts.

Ah.

Yeah. Thank you.

We're just going to take a moment to introduce every single member of our city

departments. Okay?

Good morning, Mayor and City Council.

Good morning.

Emigdio Salazar, assistant director.

Good morning, Mayor and City Council.

My name is Carlos Rodriguez, recreation manager, Parks and Recreation.

Good morning.

Good morning. Nicolas Valdez, Parks and Recreation.

Good morning.

Good morning. Phoebe Grijalva, special events at Parks and Recreation.

Good morning.

Good morning. Vic Courts, Parks and Recreation.

Good morning.

Morning.

Good morning, Mayor, City Council.

Margarita Gomez from multimedia design specialist for strategic communication.

Good morning.

Good morning. Henry Cavazos, strategic communications.

Good morning. Linda Hammond, Parks and Recreation.

Good morning.

Good morning. Jocelyn Corona, program supervisor.

Good morning, Mayor and Council. Raul Diaz, Parks and Recreation PIO.

Good morning.

Good morning. Elba Aranda, special events with Parks and Recreation.

Buenos dias. Rick Isaias, communications office.

City impact, I was waiting for that.

Well, with that said, I know we took more than four minutes, but we

hope to see you all November 21st at San Jacinto Plaza. Thank you so much.

This is very good. Very good.

Well...

And like we mentioned, we want to thank GECU.

Yes.

Representatives from GECU and also Telemundo El Paso for-

We had the president of GECU here. I think Alex should come up and say

hello.

Good morning, Mayor. Good morning, Council. Thank you all.

It's a pleasure to be a partner for this program, for this initiative with the

city, and something that we look forward to doing every year. So, thank you all.

Good morning, Mayor and City Council.

We're here to represent Telemundo Cuarenta y Ocho El Paso.

We have the opportunity to

stream Winterfest for the first time in Spanish for our

community, and we feel honored to be able

to stream this Winterfest again this year.

Thank you so much.

And I know they were not able to attend today, but we want to give a round of

applause to Scherr Legate law firm for sponsoring the Scherr Legate Lights Parade

for the past eight years.

And this just shows us that it takes a village to put this

on. And congratulations to everyone.

Over 580,000 visitors to Winterfest over a

six-week period, and

we could not do this without our sponsors.

So thank you to GECU, Telemundo, and Scherr Legate, and all

the other sponsors and vendors and food vendors, we could go on and on, for

making this such a successful event here in the city of El Paso.

You've created a tradition.

To see the little kids that come out, to see the families that come out.

To see the kids that try to ice skate on the

rink and fall, and

to include my kids who tried to ice skate for the first time, and it didn't go so

well. But-

... it is so much fun that you create and all the memories.

So, thank you for 10 years. We've got 10 more years to go.

But congratulations, everyone. And again, it takes this entire village to put on

Winterfest, so thank you guys so much.

Mayor, we're going to get you out on the rink this time, right?

You tried

it

last time.

We didn't have any to record.

And the final proclamation is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor. If I could get Lucy and her team to the microphone,

please.

Buenos dias. Good morning. Welcome to City Hall.

Good morning.

Whereas domestic violence is a serious public health and community

issue that affects people of every age, background, culture, gender, and

socioeconomic status. And whereas domestic violence may

include physical, sexual, emotional, psychological,

financial, and digital abuse, as well as stalking,

intimidation, and coercive control.

And whereas according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

more than one in three women and more than one in six men in the United

States have experienced violence or stalking by an intimate partner

during their lifetimes. And whereas the Texas Council on

Family Violence reported that 161 Texans were

killed by intimate partners in 2024, leaving

104 children without at least one parent.

And whereas behind every statistic is a person whose safety, dignity, and

future matter, along with families and communities affected by the cycle

of violence. And whereas Domestic Violence Awareness Month provides

an opportunity to honor survivors, remember those whose lives have been lost,

raise awareness about available resources, and reaffirm our

shared responsibility to prevent abuse.

And whereas the Run and Walk Foundation, led

by founder and president Lucy Riojas, advances its

mission through three essential pillars: empowering women,

empowering youth, and honoring veterans by creating

opportunities for healing, growth, and renewed hope.

And whereas, guided by its belief that where everything is

possible and second chances begin, the Run and Walk

Foundation works to help individuals reclaim their strength,

rebuild their lives, and move forward with confidence and purpose.

And whereas, preventing domestic violence and supporting survivors

require a united community committed to education,

advocacy, accountability, compassionate services, and

healthy relationships. And whereas every person deserves to live with

safety, dignity, and freedom from violence, and every new survivor

deserves the opportunity to heal, rebuild, and begin

again. Now therefore, be it proclaimed by the mayor and council of the

City of El Paso, encouraging all residents to learn the

signs of abuse, support survivors without judgment,

share trusted resources, wear purple in solidarity, and join the Run and

Walk Foundation and its community partners in building a safer and more

compassionate El Paso where everything is possible and second

chances begin. The month of October 2026

shall be known as Domestic Violence Awareness Month,

signed by the Honorable Mayor Renard Johnson. Congratulations.

Good morning, everyone.

Good morning.

Good morning. My name is Lucy. I'm the founder to Run and Walk Foundation.

Here I have with me,

Miss Alejandra.

Good morning.

Good morning, everybody. My name is Alejandra,

and I'm proud to be here today with, if you guys don't already

know, my beautiful mother

Aw.

Who is our founder and president of Run and Walk Foundation.

Before anything, I want to say thank you to Mayor Renard

Johnson and the city of El Paso for recognizing

Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

I've always believed that even the smallest act of

kindness can make a huge difference in somebody's life.

Sometimes all that someone needs is a helping hand, a

little bit of encouragement, and reassurance that we truly care and

believe in them.

And that's exactly what we want Run and Walk Foundation to be for our community.

A helping hand, a shoulder to lean on, and most importantly,

a place where anyone affected by domestic violence knows that they

don't have to face it alone.

Through the workshops that we've created, we want to help people see life from a

different perspective, rediscover their worth, build their

confidence,

and most importantly, feel empowered to take control of their future.

I truly believe that everybody deserves an opportunity to start all over again,

regardless of what they have been through.

I would also like to invite everyone to be a part of our mission, because together,

we can make a difference, lift each other up, and remind those who are struggling

that we have a whole community standing behind them.

And if there's one thing I hope we can accomplish, is to remind our community

that it is never too late for a new beginning. Thank you all. God bless you.

Thanks, Alejandra. Here today I have Emily.

She's from D**k Pope, and also Sadie.

They've been a really great support with Run and Walk Foundation,

supporting us 100% always.

Miss Emily?

Good morning.

My name is Emily, and I'm the BDC manager for D**k Pope Motors.

Ah.

Sorry. My name's Sadie, and I work under Emily as one of her BDC

representative for D**k Pope Motors as well.

Good morning.

Good.

Buenos días. My name is Manuel Diaz. I'm a volunteer for Run and Walk.

Thank you. Have a great day. Thank you.

All right. Good morning.

Everyone's so bashful this morning.

Yeah. We need our coffee.

Yeah. So,

tell us a little bit more about Run and Walk.

Do you guys have any events coming up here?

For the month of October, we don't.

Okay.

We did have one coming up this month.

We canceled due to some family. I

got to travel to Dallas for my father.

But we are planning an event, a run and walk

marathon next year, and that's where everyone asks me,

what is Run and Walk? What is the meaning behind it?

Run means you're running from someone, running from crisis.

Walk is when somebody can see the succeed, the pathways already.

And then everyone always asks me, "Is it a marathon?" They always

confuse it from the logo. But I tell them, I guess when someone's going

through any kind of abusive situation, they want to run.

They don't find the exit to run, where to.

And then when they start seeing that they can walk, it's because they see the path

already, where they see a light where they can start walking.

And that's where I

created Run and Walk Foundation because from a survivor

from domestic violence and as a child abuse as well,

I felt that at my young age, that I had to run

from the abuser when I was young.

And as I started growing and I

met my husband, I learned to walk a right pathway,

and that's where Run and Walk comes in.

It's a difficult situation when they're going through that situation, any

abusive, they don't see that. I've had the honor to have

so many womens in our office, and yesterday I had

this woman come in and she just tells me, "What is Run and

Walk? Is it a marathon? What kind of office is it here?

They told me to come and visit you, that you can help me." And I said, "Yeah, I can

help you. What is it that you need?" She goes, "Well, I need help.

I don't want to lose my kids, but I need a job and I need a

career." And I said, "Well, before you get a job and a career, we need to

walk you in to get you situated, see, identify you,

where is it, the issue, the help that you need."

And that's where we come in. Our therapist evaluates them, and then

we start seeing, okay, we have a workshop, a 14-week workshop that

we ask them to attend, that we help them identify the issue

until the end, to where we get them in a career already.

And that's what Run and Walk does. We help them get their career in the right

pathway.

Very good. And let me ask you, so if someone might need help

that's experiencing domestic violence, do they call the national

domestic hotline number? How do they get in touch with you guys?

We have a website. They can reach me.

I answer the call 24/7, and I have the therapist

on call all the time with me as well.

And if there's a situation that we see that we need to-- If the person

calls me and tells me, "I need to get out of my home," I automatically call the

sheriff department or the police, and they escort us there, and we

remove them from the home. For some reason, if they want to go overnight to

a hotel just for 24 hours, we escort them to the hotel,

and then we call another person to come in with, if they have kids,

we bring them in with clothing. If there's a baby-

Wow

... there's milk. We provide them a meal also for that night

until the city police department comes in, and we start

investigating more about the case.

Wow. Well, thank you guys for all that you're doing in that area.

And Representative Chavez?

Thank you, Mayor. Lucy, can you tell us where you're located?

I had the honor of attending your ribbon-cutting ceremony in District One.

Can you tell the audience where you're located and also your

veteran outreach as well, that you have that program?

Yes. Run and Walk Foundation, we're at 6431

Doniphan Drive, Suite B.

We are on the

intersection of Doniphan and Borderland, close to Canutillo.

We do have a veteran program that we also work with the veterans.

It's a weekly

council. We do group meetings there that we have the veterans come in,

and if they need to speak with the therapists, we've had few of

the veterans also come with us. It's either a woman or a man.

We never discriminate whether either one or what it is.

The therapist will bring them in, and we'll talk to them.

We've had a few of them say, "Well, I go to the military, and

they don't listen to me. We need someone else," or they don't want to be

identified because they're veterans.

So the therapists, we keep everything confidential.

If they tell us they don't want military to know, we keep it confidential.

And we also have the military spouses also there.

We have weekly meetings for the military spouses.

We've had a few

women come up to us and ask us, "Is this confidential as well?"

Because they had cases at the military already, and

there's never been a support for them.

So there's sometimes they come and ask me, "Would this be confidential?

We don't want the military to know that I'm here." Or

they already have a case with the military, and they don't see that they're helping

them. So that's where we keep everything confidential.

If they don't give us the permission, we don't reach out to the military.

Wow.

Well, thank you guys for all that you're doing, and congratulations on Domestic

Violence Awareness Month.

Thank you.

Congratulations.

Thank you so

much.

After you.

Thank you. See that. Perfect. Let's

bring

your chest down a little bit. Perfect.

Beautiful. All right. Ready? Big smiles.

One, two, three.

One more. One, two, three. Okay. One, two,

three.

One, two, three. Yeah,

I believe it.

One,

two, three.

One, two, three.

Okay, Ms. Franco, I believe we're ready.

Yes, sir. Good morning, everyone.

This is a meeting of the El Paso City Council for Tuesday, October 13th,

2026. Mayor Johnson is present and presiding in council

chambers, along with Representative Maldonado Rocha, Representative Boya

Trejo, Representative Nino, Representative Limon,

Representative Canales, and Representative Acevedo is joining

virtually. It is 10:09 a.m.

Will everyone please silence your electronic devices so as not to disturb the

meeting, and rise for the invocation delivered by El Paso

Police Senior Chaplain David Mayfield.

Good morning, Chaplain.

Good morning, Mayor Johnson, Council.

I invite all those present to join me as I pray.

Almighty God, we come before you this morning with gratitude for the city

we call home,

and for the people who make it a community, and for those who have

accepted the responsibility of serving and leading it.

We ask your blessing upon this council and all who participate in the work

of governing our city.

Grant them wisdom in their deliberations, patience in their

disagreements, and the humility to listen carefully,

especially to those whose voices might otherwise go

unheard.

Remind us that public office is a position of trust,

that authority is given not for personal advantage,

but for the benefit of those we serve.

May the decisions made here reflect not merely what is expedient,

but what is just, responsible, and worthy of

the confidence placed in our leaders.

As we observe Domestic Violence Awareness Month,

we remember especially those whose homes,

which should be places of safety and peace,

have instead become places of fear and suffering.

Grant courage to those seeking a way forward,

compassion and wisdom to those who respond to their needs,

and a renewed commitment throughout our community to protect the

vulnerable and restore hope where it has been lost.

And Father, remind all of us that the measure of a community

is found not simply in its prosperity or accomplishments,

but in how it treats its neighbors, particularly those who

are struggling.

May those gathered here today approach their responsibilities with integrity,

exercise their authority with compassion,

and remember always that the highest calling of leadership

is service.

We offer this prayer in the name of the Father, the Son, and the

Holy Spirit.

Amen.

And thank you very much.

Thank you, Chaplain. And for the record, Representatives Chavez and

Fieger joined the meeting at 10:11

AM.

Okay.

That brings us to public comment on agenda

items at 10.

I don't see anyone signed up to speak at 10:00 AM, so we'll move to

call to the public.

Okay.

The El Paso City Council is a local government body charged with serving the

citizens, and the citizens must be focused on the meeting

at charge. The city council meetings are public meetings under the Texas Open

Meetings Act. Public comment is an accommodation and not a requirement of city

council. All persons in attendance are expected to display civility and

decorum that is respectful to other persons without the use of insulting, profane,

threatening, or abusive language.

Public comment will not be used for personal attacks, nor may any member of the

public use this forum 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 seven members of the public that signed up to

speak. The first person is Mary Holguin.

Miss Holguin's topics are liens on elderly homes due to weeds,

DWI task force and police presence on I-10, and

water manholes updates. Good morning.

Good-

You have three minutes.

Good morning.

Good morning. Good morning, Mayor and Council.

My name is Mary Holguin, constituent of District One.

First, I would like to address liens being placed on the elderly's homes

due to non-compliance on upkeep of their yards.

Maybe these people can't afford someone to clean their yards or have

health issues. What if each district, from their discretionary

funds, help these people? Maybe working with student

advisory board and high school students from each district

volunteer to clean both front and backyards.

Have the city provide the tools, bags, et cetera, for them,

and each representative provide them with pizza and water.

And Mayor

Johnson, maybe recognize these students during a city council

meeting for volunteering their time for a good cause in

helping the elderly.

Second, would like to address having undercover

DWI task force inside the bars. If they

see that someone has had too much to drink, call them an

Uber and take their keys and license from them.

Tell them they can pick up their items next day at a police station.

There has to be stricter laws in place for drunk drivers.

Drunk drivers are released too soon.

It's useless to educate drunk drivers with ads because they don't pay

attention to them.

There is absolutely no police presence at night on I-10

East or West. Several times a year, we attend events in the

East Side. Coming back to the West Side, there are crazy drivers

speeding and swerving in and out of the lane, 70, 80, or

90 miles an hour.

Never have I seen the presence of police units during those

times around 9:00 PM, 10:00 PM. Where are they?

Third, I want to give you an update

on the El Paso water manholes. Would like to read an

email from El Paso Water representative Rene

Leon. I received this communication almost one week later

when I spoke at the city council of September 29th.

Monday, October the 5th at 1:50. "Good

afternoon, Miss Holguin. I'm reaching out to you to discuss the concerns

you brought to City Council last week.

I would like to talk to you to gather additional details about the

locations of the manholes you mentioned in your remarks.

At your convenience, please feel free to contact me at,"

email and his phone number, "So that we can discuss possible solutions."

I responded to him the next day, October the 6th at

3:11. My daughter sent the email for me.

If you are able to call me today by 5:00, which was Wednesday,

October the 6th, or tomorrow morning between 9:00 and 11:00,"

gave him my phone number, "to discuss the details of the

manholes. Thank you for your assistance." To date,

I have not heard

a response to my email I sent him.

Thank you, Ms. Saldivar.

Not even a courtesy call.

Thank you, ma'am.

The next speaker is-

Thank you

... Ron Como. Mr. Como's topic is exercising

his constitutional rights to the Rescue 1983 Animal Services.

He will be followed by JD Martinez and Patricia Osmond.

Good morning.

Morning. Well, congratulations, folks.

Ms. Limón, I'm sure you remember when Animal Services was actually functioning and

working properly, and we were the shining light. Look what they've done.

Well, to some of you, I mailed a

top 10 list of the worst shelters in Texas.

We're number five. Congratulations.

Yeah, look down.

We achieved going from

everybody looking at us as a great facility

where people were working together,

to now we are in the top 10, number five

worst shelters in the state of Texas.

Poor management,

poor decisions,

all the way to the top.

I have been very vocal about we need a board of trustees lately

because no offense, but I am tired

of how horrible the shelter runs. We don't have

enough people to take care of animals that were hit by cars and

brought in by community members.

But while that community member's trying to leave, we have enough people to go out

and try and stop him.

They surrounded his car.

Is that customer service?

Is that how we treat the people that are paying your salary?

What's wrong with this whole entire picture?

I'll tell you what's wrong. It's management.

It's lack of anybody doing anything about the problem.

I'm hoping that we finally get a real director who's

qualified,

and that's, I think, everybody's hope.

I'm hoping we can get somebody to go in there and fix the customer service

problems that we have in our shelter because everybody's been on

this mode that we don't have to be there, we're doing you a favor,

and that's not the case. We pay them every day to

be there to take care of animal issues,

and we're number five.

I really would like you guys to stop and think about what we've done in the last

six years.

We turned a highly successful shelter

into a shelter that is now in the top 10 worst in the

state.

Congratulations to the people that are in control of the shelter.

Congratulations to not hiring people that are

qualified to run our shelter, and they hire them anyways.

Again, I'm hoping we've learned from past mistakes

of hiring unqualified people.

Ladies and gentlemen, once again, I'm up here

begging for you guys to fix the shelter.

We need money to find out what we need to finish Moorhead.

Thank you, Mr. Como.

The next speaker is-

Thank you

... JD Martinez. JD Martinez, star six, please, to unmute your

telephone. Go ahead, your microphone is ready.

You have three minutes, and the topic is public safety.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes.

Yeah? Okay.

So last month,

during the first city council,

I

was telling you guys that I went out.

I've gone out seven times this entire year, and six out of

those seven times, I almost got in a car accident.

Since then, I've gone out two more times, and

unfortunately, someone ran a red light in front of me,

and

it sucks that it happened. I

know you guys can't control the drivers driving wherever they're going, rushing

wherever they're going,

but

that's just what's happening right now.

And

I brought it up last month, and I'm bringing it up again because

now it's been, what is it? That's eight out of nine times I've gone out

past 7:00. And I'm not going out at 2:00 in the morning.

This is from

7:00to midnight.

So,

eight out of nine times,

almost got into really bad car accidents.

And

it

worries me.

And also, I believe in you, Mayor, I believe in the city council and the team that

you have, and I believed in all the mayors before you,

all the way to John Cook. That's when I really started paying attention to

the El Paso politicians. You guys got the power to change things.

You guys got the money to change things.

I believe in the state of Texas.

But the fact that I've gone out and

had these bad experiences,

it's just concerning. And

again, I know you guys can't control the drivers here,

but something's got to be done. Nine out of eight times I've gone

out this entire year,

or eight out of nine times I've gone out, and

just almost car accidents either with me or I've seen people

getting bad car accidents. And again, last month I brought it up,

and I'm just bringing it up again.

There's more stuff I want to talk about, but I don't have the time to do it right

now because,

fingers crossed, I get this

job today. I have a job interview later today, and

God bless. Thank you, guys.

Thank you. The next speaker is Patricia Osman. Ms.

Osman's topic is transparency, First Amendment civil rights of citizens, and

undue influence of donors and vendors on elected officials.

Go ahead, Ms. Osman. Your microphone is ready.

First, I would like to thank a previous speaker, Ms.

Hodegh, for addressing issues that I have addressed in front of

city council for years now in regards to, and Mr.

Nino will attest to this,

volunteers to actually help the elderly

so that they don't get those clean.

You all will do volunteers so that

city work is done,

but you won't do that

for the disabled and elderly.

I'm glad somebody else is finally speaking at city council

about that same matter,

requesting the exact same thing I have.

Well, I'm glad I'm not the only voice on that.

But what I am disturbed about

is the fact that

last city council meeting,

I attempted to address

an expense on p-card,

a $1,250 expense

for Representative Trejo

to a company that was a political consulting

company

created

in part by Vince Perez.

Vince Perez, whom I spoke to

in regards to

that political consulting group, and on camera,

I've got video, him claiming that

it was no longer

a functioning company.

So everybody should be highly suspect.

If I have a state rep stating that that company isn't functioning,

because he was part of it, and yet a city rep is paying

tax dollars, like I

told him when he asked, "Well, what's the problem?" Well, because tax dollars are

not supposed to be used on anything

campaign or recall related.

Now, our city attorney and our city manager have made it very difficult

for any citizen

to file ethics reports,

to file

anything, or to even

get FOIA documents.

The slap in the face of what

our city officials have done.

You all need to remember, these funds,

they're not your personal piggy banks.

The reason people get to speak is because those are the

people's funds, not yours.

That discretionary-

Thank you, Ms. Osman

... money you get-

You've reached the time limit. Thank you

... is not yours.

The next speaker is Lisa Turner. Ms.

Turner's topic is city manager and council failure.

She will be followed by John Muniz and Michael Ramirez.

Good morning.

Good morning, mayor and council. I have a city agenda,

says it starts at 9:00. And when we started at

9:00, there were four people missing.

That's unacceptable.

I don't know what you have to do to make people show up on time, but you got to do

it. Now, City of El Paso has a

food insecurity rate of 40%. State of Texas, just over

17%, nationally 12.5%.

Children are going hungry,

and this council

has no problems

doing absolutely nothing.

You don't care. Don't tell me you do because you don't.

I haven't seen anything. You go out and you solicit

money for movies in the park.

But you don't care.

$3,000

budget.

You cannot-

I'm going to ask that we remain quiet in the gallery to allow her to

speak, please. Thank you.

We're talking about your responsibility, your number one

responsibility, health and safety of the

people in this city.

And you're abrogating your responsibility.

You see animal abuse because it happens in front of you,

but you don't see that child saying, "Mommy, I'm hungry." And

the mother saying, "I'm sorry, honey, we don't have anything." "But I'm still

hungry, Mom." "We don't have anything.

Maybe tomorrow."

You don't see it.

And from what I've seen so far is you don't care.

Now,

here's an ideal. You've got Winterfest coming up.

How about a food drive at Winterfest?

How about that?

You're going to bring a lot of people down, maybe people can bring a lot of canned

foods down, then you can get it out to the pantries that are

starving for food

to distribute.

So maybe that can be done.

So we have to do something

You have to find a way to address this problem

and behave like the elected representatives you are and

fulfill your responsibility for health and safety.

Oh, by the way,

the brain drain. Do you know why people leave this community?

Because they don't get enough money in a job to feed themselves,

so they go to another city where they can get a job, earn

enough money,

so they can have three meals a day.

That's the basis of your brain drain.

If you can't earn enough money to feed yourself, you're going to

pack up and go.

This is what you all have to do. You've been ignoring it, and it's just not

you all, it's the councils before you that have ignored it.

I'm slow on the uptake, but now that I'm in on the loop,

I'm here to push you on this, and I'm not going to go away.

I'm going to keep reminding you of your responsibility as leaders in this

community.

You've got children going hungry-

Thank you, Ms. Turner

... students going hungry, parents-

Thank you, ma'am

... going hungry. Thank you, Ms. Brown.

The next speaker is John Muñiz. Mr.

Muñiz's topic is El Paso Fire Department rising non-emergent EMS

runs and strain on city finances.

Good morning.

Morning. Ms. Turner hit it right on the head,

and the reason those people are going hungry is because who's not here?

And which department's not here?

The fire department and Mr. D'Agostino.

The animal problem,

who oversaw that before?

D'Agostino.

Who oversaw the public health department?

D'Agostino.

He made a mess, and now he's not here to talk.

The only time the fire department, D'Agostino, and Killings is up here is when they

want more money.

See, people are going hungry because you all do not have the

resources to be able to allocate to tackle the problem. Why?

Because of those rising non-emergent calls.

It's a quick solution. I don't really like coming up here and just milking a dry

cow. I really don't.

It's a simple solution. You bring forth Killings, you bring forth the

MIH team, and you bring forth D'Agostino, and you bring forth Jay Nicholson

since he feels that the union had their name dragged.

See, that's the problem. You have an entitled union.

During the budget workshop,

I don't think any of you dragged the reputation of the public union, did you?

No.

You were simply asking questions, rightfully so, because that's a $200 million

department,

and they still want more.

Now,

me standing up here today and asking questions is not

to denigrate that position or that occupation. Far from it.

Would you also like to guess why people are going hungry?

Because of institutional bureaucracy.

See, when D'Agostino was overseeing the public health department, are you all

familiar with the Public Health Information Exchange led by Emily Hartman, PHIX?

So PHIX operates in a way to where they are the local public health

infrastructure.

Every clinic, every hospital feeds them data,

food insecurity data.

They collect data from UMC. How are they trying to

monetize publicly funded health data,

especially from a county hospital?

Of course, Emily Hartman's going to say, "Well, it's up to the board." Do you want

to know who's on the board?

Hector Ocaranza. Do you want to know what Hector Ocaranza did when he

still was the interim health director?

He gate kept the public health department from PHIX.

See, it's a much convoluted

web of problems that somebody on this council

needs to take a lead on.

And now you have an interim health director, Sara Sara, who lives in her own

world and doesn't see that the department has a workforce problem.

Mind you, they had a grant, $10 million to tackle

that workforce problem, and they are still experiencing a turnover problem.

There's no accountability. Everybody thinks this is a playground

territorial problem. You have an entitled union, and like Ms.

Turner said, you have people going hungry.

Thank you, Mr. Muñiz.

Thank you.

The final speaker is Michael Ramirez.

Mr. Ramirez's topic is water concerns, extra funds from HOME, and what is

being done with them. Good morning.

Good morning.

I do have a couple of questions for you guys.

So

back in, what was it? March, April,

I found out at the PSB, at the Public Service Board, that we're building an

infrastructure all the way from Del City, a multimillion-dollar

infrastructure for water.

So

my question is, if the CEO of El Paso Water claims that we have enough

water,

then why are we building an infrastructure from hundreds, probably thousands of

miles away just to get water? That doesn't make

any sense to me.

I've heard things like, "Oh, we have property there.

We have water rights there." So what's going to happen to that city when they run

dry?

It's not our concern, though, right?

The other thing is, if we have so much water,

why are we constantly telling our people to

save water, to cut on

water usage, but then we have all this water to give to the data centers.

So there's not only now one or two, but there's four going up.

Now, I understand you guys don't have control of all the data centers going up

right now, but you guys do have

some kind of authority to intervene and step in.

You guys chose not to do that on June 9th.

Understood.

But

it goes further than that.

Why are we not having incentives if we have so much water?

Why do we not give our customers incentives to use more water?

If we have it, why do we not give incentives to use more to justify the

charges? And that's another thing.

What are all these charges, all these extra fees?

They just-

Our fees are higher than the actual charges we're getting for

using the water. How do you justify that?

Another thing I'd like to mention, or at least bring up, is about

two, maybe three weeks ago when I was here, a woman came, I guess,

representing the home

company or foundation, whatever you would call it, and talked about a

couple million in extra funds that they wanted to do something with.

Instead of trying to build these

more low-income housing properties that are just going to keep

low-income people where they're at, why not disperse some of those

funds to current property owners who, as she mentioned herself,

can't afford to

build or continue renovations on their homes to meet those property

value

limits,

instead of just keeping people where they're at?

Because I can tell you right now, I'm very familiar and know plenty of people who

live in these low-income housings, and they're not

moving into their own home anytime soon.

So that excuse doesn't sit right with me.

Thank you.

Council, that concludes call to the public.

Per the rules of order, no use of personal cellular devices, nor 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 item. Please speak into the microphone and refrain

from side conversations at the dais while the meeting is in session.

For those of you joining virtually, please make sure your microphones are muted to

reduce any background noise or interruptions.

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 Pro Tem?

Thank you, Ms. Prime. I make a motion to approve the consent agenda with the

following revisions.

Request to participate via video conference by Representative Acevedo.

Page five, item 11,

revised per city clerk's office.

And that revision is to the name of the board to add the word service after

public so that it reads Public Service Board Selection Committee.

Page eight, item 25, revised per Office

of Management and Budget.

And that revision is to strike out September 29th and replace with

October 13th.

Page nine,

item 27, revised per city attorney's office.

And that revision is to note that this item is relevant to all districts

in the city.

Okay, there's a motion. Is there a second? Okay. Ms. Prime, we have public comment?

Yes, Mayor, there's public comment on the consent agenda items. We have Ms.

Lisa Turner that's signed up for item number 14,

which is a donation of $3,000 for Movies in the Park, and item

17,

which is receipt of a campaign contribution. I don't see Ms. Turner.

I believe she's-

Yes

... she's not in chambers.

Representative Lamond?

Yes. I'm sorry, Mayor.

I wish to move item number eight to the regular agenda, please.

Okay.

Thank you.

So we'll move on to Ms. Osman. Ms. Osman signed up to speak on items

15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20 on

the consent agenda.

And items 15 through 20 are

campaign contributions.

Go ahead, Ms. Osman. You have three minutes.

I want to highlight

and emphasize

for every citizen

in the city of El Paso,

in the county,

to look at these donations

and see

how it is that the same

vendors

and entities

that come through

on agenda items

to get approved

for funding

for rate hikes and so forth

are on this donation list

for various current city council members.

It is a slap in the face to every

regular resident in this city

to look at El

Paso's elite and all their donations,

so that

as everybody knows,

they will expect something for their money.

Because nothing is free.

Our Winterfest isn't free, actually, even though you've stated

that.

People will-- There's a cost to everything.

And there is a cost

to every one of these donations.

I find it highly suspect even when

current politicians in other

offices are donating money

for our city council.

That should be suspect as well.

But when you have

Kelly Tomlin,

the head speaker for El Paso Electric, that has

spoken

in conjunction with Meta

for rate hikes,

donating,

that's a slap in the face to every citizen

And it shows the insincerity of every one of these

individuals who have taken those donations.

And you bank on the fact that most of this city doesn't pay attention to

the agenda.

And that is why a lot of other citizens have had to take it upon ourselves

to make sure we emphasize that information

around town in other ways.

So you all need to pay attention, because everybody else is

actually paying attention, even if they're not in chambers, to

whose money you're taking

and who you're actually voting for, because it's not the

regular citizens of El Paso who are storming

and are getting harmed-

Thank you, Ms. Osman

... by the folks you make.

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

Turner back in chambers. Ms. Turner, you signed up for items 14 and 17 on

the consent agenda.

I think that's fine.

Okay.

And forget 14.

14 is the donation from Saratoga Homes for

Movies at the Park.

No.

No. And the other one, what did you say? Was it 17?

17 is-

17?

... campaign contributions. Yes.

Oh, the contributions.

I'm not picking on anybody. I know this is what happens during election season.

But what worries me is I don't know if we have a donation policy or

not. I think we do have one.

I think when we are about to

do a contract with either the police or fire union,

we shouldn't be seeing contributions to members of council.

I think it puts the police or fire union

in a bad light, and it puts the individual receiving them in a bad

light. So I'd like to see some kind of

rules about the donations, especially when you're considering

a contract with, say, the police union or the fire union.

I don't want anybody to look

like their votes are being influenced by a

campaign donation.

It's just me being overly cautious,

and suspicious.

But that's what keeps me usually out of trouble.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Turner.

That concludes public comment on the consent agenda.

Okay. There was a motion and a second, Ms. Prime.

And the motion was made by Mayor Pro Tem Chavez, seconded by-

Representative

... Alternate Mayor Pro Tem Fierro.

This is to approve the consent agenda with the revisions read into the record.

On that motion, call for the vote.

Representative Acevedo?

Aye.

Thank you.

Ms. Prime, I'll have to do Nino. Representative Nino? Aye. Thank you.

End the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously.

Okay. Ms. Prime, I believe we're going to take item number 8, but Ms.

Prime, I'm unable to see Representative Acevedo, so I have

no idea if he's going to need to comment.

Okay, sir.

I'll alert you.

Item number 8-

Okay. You'll let us know?

Yes.

Okay. Thank you.

Item eight is a resolution renaming March 31st as Farm Workers

Appreciation Day.

Okay. Representative Limón.

Thank you, Mayor.

For several years, March 31st was recognized as Cesar Chavez

Day. It's unfortunate that a year ago,

a new light was shed on the life of Cesar.

And while most anything could've been done, like doing away with the day, I

really appreciate the work, Ms. Prime, that you and Laura Cruz

Acosta, and

Dion Mack to bring back

a very honorable recognition, and that would be Farm Workers

Appreciation Day. I think it stands,

the work that has been done throughout the years, and it's the farm workers.

And so I'm just very happy to see this and move to approve it,

Mayor.

Very good. There's a motion to approve. Is there a second?

Second.

Second.

Okay.

There's a motion and approve and a second. Ms. Prime, call for the vote, please.

Yes, sir. The motion was made by Representative Limón, seconded by Representative

Nino, and this is to approve the resolution on item eight.

On that motion, call for the vote.

Representative Acevedo?

Aye.

Thank you. End the voting session.

And that motion passes unanimously.

Okay. I believe that brings us to the first reading of the ordinances, Ms. Prime.

That's correct. This is item number 22, and this is an

introduction of an ordinance.

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

Okay. Is there a second?

Second.

Okay. There's a motion and a second. Ms. Prime?

The motion was made by Representative Limón, seconded by Alternate Mayor Pro Tem

Fierro, and this is to approve the introduction of the ordinance on item

number 22. On that motion, call for the vote.

Representative Acevedo?

Aye.

Thank you.

Okay.

Representative Nino? Aye. Thank you.

End the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously.

Very good. Let's take agenda item number 23, please.

Item 23 is a public hearing of an ordinance amending El Paso City Code Title

20, Zoning, chapter 20.10, Supplemental Use

Regulations, Appendix A, Table of Permissible Uses

for Correctional Facility and Halfway House Uses.

Okay. Is there a motion to approve this item?

So moved.

Okay. Is there a second?

Second.

Okay.

Good morning.

Good morning, Mayor, City Council. Kevin Smith with Planning Inspections.

Item 23 is the second reading of a ordinance amending

numerous sections in Title 20 for correctional facility and halfway house uses.

This item is based on council direction received earlier this year to address the

correctional facility.

As staff was looking at this ordinance, there were some items for the halfway

house use as well that we felt appropriate to amend as well

and are recommending

for council approval at this time.

So just an overview is we'll go over the clarification of the definition for the

correctional facility use.

We'll be discussing the special permit, as well as supplemental use

regulations. Currently, there are no

supplemental use regulations for correctional facilities, and we

are recommending some adjustments for halfway house, which I will go over in a

moment.

Just as a reminder, and this was discussed earlier this year as well,

in looking at zoning, as the zoning chapter does not apply

to any item, a building, land, that's

under the control, admin, or jurisdiction of a state or federal agency.

So that was discussed quite a bit at the previous council meeting, and this still

applies

for this as well.

So the proposed change for the correctional facility definition is

before you on the screen. The modifications

are shown in blue.

And

mostly it's to clarify that it can relate to

any person detained who is pending a legal

process. That currently was not in the code, and so we're making this

recommendation to make this

change here.

In terms of the use,

both uses we're requesting for a

special permit to be required, not by right.

Again, the special permit, just for the public and members of council,

is

a requirement where the use is disclosed throughout the process,

and it is publicly notified on the letters that

are sent out, as well as it is disclosed during the City Plan Commission as well as

City Council.

So it is not a by right requirement.

We're asking for the special permit.

We're also recommending changes to allow it to be in

the C-4 zoning district and the M's, the M-1 and M-2

and M-3 for both of these facilities.

We're also recommending the removal in certain zoning districts as well,

where we did not feel it was appropriate to be included in

those zoning districts.

So the supplemental use regulations that we're recommending, and these are the new

for the correctional facilities, is we're recommending a half-mile distance

requirement. And again, this would be from property lines to

any residential district or use, parks, schools, day cares, or

churches.

And even though that is a standard, we are putting

language in there that

if,

council may approve a modification to that distance requirement.

And that would be an additional request by an applicant where

they may want a shorter distance, and it'd be up to council to decide whether

that's appropriate or not.

For the halfway house

regulations, and these are revised, is we

are removing the two-year limitation to operate.

Right now it's kind of unique in the code where it says you have to

submit every two years

for this, and so we're recommending to remove that provision.

As well as a clarification right now in 1,000-foot distance that

currently exists in the code.

That does exist for residential. We're clarifying that does

include apartment uses as well. And this language

does mimic that of the correctional facility, so we just wanted to

ensure that those are aligned.

Again, for any existing facilities or uses that either don't meet these

requirements,

they would

still be able to operate

if there's minimal changes proposed as part of the legal nonconforming that

currently exists in our code.

So just some quick takeaways is the strongest one is a special

permit requirement that we are requesting.

Again, it allows stronger oversight by City Council for these two

uses,

as well as the notification would be throughout the

process. The supplemental regulations as

well as the regulations, again, do not apply to federal or state agencies.

And with that, staff and the City Plan Commission do recommend approval of these

changes and be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Okay. Representative Caneles.

Thank you, Mayor.

Kevin, I just wanted to ask a couple of clarifying questions about

the halfway house

use. So

I'm looking at the red lines, which were included with the backup,

and I see, for example... Let me get to the right place.

I'm looking at it.

It shows that C-5 was previously allowed via

special permit.

That's

struck out in the red line.

C-5 shows up in the list of not permitted as

well, but doesn't show as an addition.

Was it previously listed both in the via special permit and also in the not

permitted?

And that's actually, there are often some discrepancies in the code, so

we are removing it from the C-5 and recommending that

... that change to the code for these.

Okay. But again, I don't see it as an addition to not permitted.

That

would be if you look at the last page of the red lines.

Yep.

The table of permissible uses, there's an X, which that would mean it is not

permitted.

I understand.

It's listed and not permitted. It's not listed as an addition to not permitted.

Was it previously there?

It was required a special permit before.

Yeah.

And so

we're recommending it not be allowed in the C-5.

Okay.

I

guess I'm not understanding the question you're asking.

Was it previously double listed in two different categories?

It is often listed under the table of permissible uses, and occasionally it is also

listed under the supplemental use regulations.

So often what we've found is certain uses, there is a discrepancy between the

two,

and so we're making sure this aligns as well.

Okay. I guess what I'm asking, Kevin, and I'm sorry to harp on it.

No, you're okay.

Within the table of permissible uses-

Mm-hmm

...

it is listed in via special permit.

Correct.

That it existed there previously, and it is struck out.

It is listed in not permitted as well right now,

and it doesn't show it as an addition.

In the red line, it's not red.

Was it there previously? Should it be red?

The red indicates a change, and so if it was-

Right

... that would've been a change. So it was included previously under a special

permit.

Right.

And-

And it's been removed, and it's red.

It's been removed.

Red also indicates an addition.

Okay.

It's not red in the not permitted section.

Okay.

Was it previously also?

That is a clarification that we should make.

Okay.

So that should've been

struck out as well in the red lines.

Got it. I just wanted to make sure, because I got a question about it saying, "Was

it double listed before? What happened here?

Is

it allowed or not allowed? Is there a change here?" And I just want to clarify for

the person who asked me-

Okay

... if it was.

But yes, it is not allowed, and that was a just minor mistake-

Okay

... on the red lines.

Sure. And then

I had one other question, and that is just

there's a pretty wholesale

strikeout of

the supplemental use regulations and then a replacement.

That's mostly just language cleanup. Is that correct?

That is correct.

Because they are functionally almost exactly the same, it's

just reworded-

Correct

... so that the section about correctional facilities is

mirrored in the language here. Is that correct?

Correct.

Okay.

Yeah, I had, again, somebody asking me about

what changes were coming

as a result of this, and I went through line by line with them, and we mostly

explained that

it's not necessarily changes, just changes in the language to align

with other sections surrounding this one.

Yeah.

And then I had one final question on the

definition of halfway house, which is not proposed to be

changed. Is that correct?

That is correct.

Okay. And so anything that would have been classed as a halfway house

use before would still be and vice versa.

More than likely.

Yeah. The definition itself is not changing, and if, for example,

an applicant was asking for zoning verification,

that determination wouldn't change as a result of this-

Correct

... change in the code.

Correct. For halfway houses, correct.

Okay. Just wanted to make sure,

trying to get

questions answered from constituents.

Okay.

Thank you, Kevin.

Thank you.

Very good. Representative Rocha.

Thank you, Mayor. Kevin, thanks for this. I just have one question.

Mm-hmm.

On the special permit requirement, it says that you are going to now be, or

maybe you have previously, abutting property owners are notified by mail.

Previously, in other zoning kind of changes, it's about

300 feet, but the requirement here that's being

recommended, which can be changed, is half a mile.

So that's actually the distance between

these or between

this use and a residential area.

So it could be any commercial owner?

Correct.

Okay.

Correct. And

for the notification, that remains at 300 feet.

The distance is when we notify for a rezoning.

Right.

All we notify is that it's a given zoning district.

Okay.

And typically, we say a proposed use, but now it's

general.

Okay.

For this, it is specifically for that use specifically, so that is

called out and identified and informed for the public.

Thanks, Kevin. Appreciate it.

You're welcome.

All right. Any other additional questions for Kevin?

Okay. Ms. Prien.

The motion was made by Representative Limón, seconded by Representative Canales,

and this is to adopt the ordinance on item 23.

There's no public comment on that motion. Call for the vote.

Representative Acevedo?

Aye.

Thank you. End the voting session.

And that motion passes unanimously.

Okay. Ms. Prien, that brings us to item number 24, please.

Item 24 is discussion and action to direct the city manager to analyze and

develop a recommendation for a city-initiated rezoning within

the Rio Grande neighborhood to align the zoning ordinance with existing

established development and the city's adopted comprehensive plan, with a

recommendation returned to council for discussion and action by December 8th,

2026. This item was placed by Representative Canales.

Okay. Representative Canales?

I'll start off with a motion to approve.

Second.

Okay. Representative Canales?

Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, this is

something that's responsive to a pattern that

We've noticed within particularly the Rio Grande

neighborhood,

which is an older neighborhood that actually predates the city's

zoning code. So the neighborhood was developed, most of

those buildings and properties within that

neighborhood were developed before the city had zoning authority.

And as a result, a prior look at this

neighborhood,

and this analysis looked at 799 different

parcels within the neighborhood, found that

83% of them are non-conforming with the zoning code in one way

or another.

Of that

83%,

only, let me make sure I get this number right.

Only 12% of those

non-conforming parcels are registered as non-conforming, so they

have their non-conforming use registered with the city.

Again, this isn't necessarily

through their fault.

This is simply a district that's quite old and

that predates the rules that we have for the zoning code.

So there are lots of uses within that

neighborhood, and it's one of the more

dense, gridded, walkable neighborhoods within the city.

But there are multiple uses there that are not in compliance with the zoning code

and have been that way for, in many cases, more than 100 years.

And so

I want to be clear, this isn't asking for any specific change

to the code, or to our zoning regulations, or to the

specific zoning of any particular parcel within the district.

I wanted to ask staff to do a

deeper dive, a more thorough analysis of the Rio Grande

neighborhood to look at ways that we can align the zoning

ordinance and the way it treats that particular neighborhood,

with the actual development that we see on the ground to help the property owners

there,

to both legalize the things that are already there and to

essentially replicate themselves.

So

we're in a situation now where there are

potentially neighbors next to each other, where one has a use on their

property that's legal non-conforming, and if their neighbor wanted to do the same

thing, the zoning code would tell them that they couldn't.

And again, that applies to

83%, 662 out of the

799 parcels that were looked at in that neighborhood,

which I think

that's

something that is unfair in the way that the zoning code currently treats

these older neighborhoods where those uses are very, very

longstanding.

So I know that gets a little technical, but again, this is just

directing the city manager and staff to

analyze the situation further and develop a recommendation or a set of

recommendations for what we could possibly do to

amend the zoning code in the future, or to initiate

a city-initiated rezoning for parts of that

neighborhood

in order to, again,

give the property owners the ability to

legalize their properties and to

replicate the conditions

that

their other neighbors already have on their properties.

Okay.

That's all, Mayor. Thank you.

Okay. Representative Fiero.

Thank you, Mayor.

Could we have staff? I have some questions, please.

Morning, sir.

Good morning. How are you?

Good. Alex Huffman with City Planning Design, for the record.

Alex, what is your understanding of what

this rezoning is going to do, or what is the rezoning?

Well, so it really depends on the direction the council gives us today.

But the analysis that was performed was looking, like Representative Cannella said,

about the existing conditions in the area.

So the area was developed primarily before 1930, which is

the date that the city first adopted zoning.

So these areas were developed before rules existed.

And what we see is from that time to today, the non-conforming

conditions still exist. And so really what we're looking to do is to

create alignment not only between existing developments and the zoning

ordinance, the regulations that apply to the land, but also to the future land use

map. So just as a reminder, we also are bringing forward an update to the

comprehensive plan. And so the other idea here is that we want to create alignment

between the future land use map, which is guiding development with the

existing development

on the ground today.

We're talking about 799 parcels?

So we looked at a general area. Like the representative said, we were looking at

the Rio Grande neighborhood, so we looked at it collectively.

So one of the things that would be helpful today would be to get clarification on

the exact boundary. But when we look at the neighborhood as a whole,

yes, we're looking at about 800 different parcels, and the existing conditions that

are very common in this area is that they don't comply with the

required setbacks, so how far the buildings are from the property line.

We also see issues related to use. So sometimes there are multi-family

properties that exist and have existed in single-family

neighborhoods. We also have single-family dwellings in commercial districts, which

is not allowed either. And then we also see things related to parking.

So again, these would have been developed prior to us having parking regulations,

and so a lot of these properties do not have off-street parking.

And so any type of improvement or building permit that would go

to planning and inspections to be approved, if they do not comply with those

standards, would have to go to City Council to get that approval prior to getting a

building permit. And so it's just part of really looking to streamline the approval

processes, which is one of the priorities in the strategic plan.

And so this is also in alignment with that as well.

So part of this would be to potentially rezone to

Commercial, residential, multifamily, in the

whole 800 parcels.

So one of the existing zoning districts that we have is a residential mixed use or

a general mixed use zoning district.

And so I was speaking with Kevin in plan inspections, and so that was one of the

things that we were thinking about would be, since this area is a mixed use

neighborhood, would it be more appropriate for it to have a mixed use zoning

designation? And so one of the things that we would do would be to analyze what

those standards might look like and bring them back to city council, to

provide an overview or a recommendation of what

standards may look like for this area.

And it would be just specific to this neighborhood.

So would it limit or open up the opportunities

of people to open businesses next to

single dwellings, multi...

Yeah, I don't understand how

I could potentially have a

bar, restaurant, coffee shop next to my house. Is that correct?

So one of the things that you can do through a residential mixed use

district is to create a master zoning plan.

So part of that would be outreach that's conducted with the neighborhood to

identify what those uses are that the neighborhood would find to be appropriate.

And so this wouldn't be us imposing zoning regulations on the neighborhood.

It'd be working with the neighborhood to develop what they want their neighborhood

to look like. And so you're able to go on a use-by-use basis

to say that, maybe we want certain personal services, so like a

barbershop as an example, as a permitted use, but we don't want bars.

And you can make that distinguish between those

differences in a

master zoning plan as part of a mixed-use zoning district.

And we're not going to limit people's property owners.

No, the idea would be to create alignment.

So as a baseline, it would be to permit existing conditions, and

then anything beyond that would be working with the neighborhood to set what those

limits are.

Out of these 800 parcels, have we done any outreach to any of

them?

Not yet. We're awaiting the council direction, and so we didn't want to go beyond

doing that initial analysis. But if we receive that direction today, we will

begin that process before we come back with a formal recommendation.

Representative, this came to us because he has an issue, and we heard

from a community member that they were having issues with a specific

property. And so the team said that

we need to start to resolve these problems as we see it across the city and

do it in a very comprehensive way, working with communities, so we don't continue

to sort of see this happen to others as

Representative Canal has described.

So I think it gives us an opportunity to try to resolve issues that we

see now, really work with community to make sure that that entire

area

is represented within our zoning code in the way that it's being

used. And I think it's a good opportunity for us with the

timeline that is provided to have the type of outreach that we need to

have in the community. But I think we see this in multiple districts.

I think some of you, we've had conversations about areas that don't have

consistent sidewalks, and the code didn't require it at the time, and does the

setback

allow for it. And so the team is starting to try to think about how we get

better at resolving those issues that allow for us to work very closely with

community to make sure that people who may come later moving into

those areas don't run into the same problems and conditions.

Well, I still have lots of questions in regards to this,

but I'll yield my till next 10 minutes.

Okay.

Thank you, Mayor.

Okay. Representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor. I guess my question's more for Kevin or

the city manager.

My first question is, has the city ever initiated a

rezoning for an entire neighborhood like this in the past?

So we went through and tried to determine the last time.

The last one I'm aware of is the Medical Center of the Americas.

A lot of it was through the MCA that was spearheading that,

but that was rezoned back in 2011 or 2012 to

Smart Code. That's the last time I can remember

a city-initiated rezoning of

another property.

Did it include this many parcels, Kevin?

I think it was actually larger.

Okay.

Again, some of it was through the medical center, which did have...

Again, they were the ones spearheading it, but it did also include other private

properties.

Okay. And was it mostly residential like this one is?

There was a large amount residential.

Okay. What is the cost to do this for the city?

Because if the city initiates the rezoning, then

I'm assuming that means that we're paying the cost of the rezoning and

whatever cost is involved in the outreach and all of that.

So what would be the cost?

So I don't have an answer for you right now.

Obviously, there's some fees that would be associated to try to come up with a

legal description to verify what properties

would be included as part of this process.

I don't have a number for you right now.

I think if this is approved by council,

then at the December meeting, we can come back with more information on that.

What is the cost to rezone something today if it's just-

Just the applicant's cost to the city is a little bit over $2,000.

So one applicant is $2,000?

Correct.

So potentially we could multiply 2,000 times

799?

Well, typically, it's the whole cost of one application.

So

it doesn't really matter the size. It would just be the one cost.

Right. But there's 799 parcels.

Yeah. The other item would be the notification, which would need to take

place. We would need to follow still our required zoning

requirements as dictated by the state in terms of

notification. We would have to put up the signage as well to

notify this area's proposed to be rezoned.

So if I'm doing my math correctly, that's about $1.6

million.

Again, I don't think it'd be that much, but we'd have to come back and come

up with a better estimate.

Well, even if that's not the true cost to the city, we would still forgo

Having that income coming if everyone did it individually. Right?

Potentially?

In theory.

Or forego whatever revenue would come from each individual

going through the rezoning process as other individuals do across the city?

In theory.

Right.

In theory.

Are there other areas of our city that are also non-conforming?

Yeah, I believe there are.

There are. And what is the natural process when someone's non-conforming?

So typically, they would come in and go through the typical rezoning process

or special permit process for whatever's being requested.

Often it is the lot size, and that's something we're actually dealing with right

now in many parts of the city, is the lot sizes are too small.

They were developed back in the day that met their requirements.

Now they don't meet the

specified standards. So that is one.

The other one that often comes before you is operating in

an improper zoning district, which is where they start

changing the use,

which is the zoning aspect, but then often there are other repercussions such as

need to bring up the standards to a commercial venture if that's a change.

And what is the process exactly? What does that look like?

Do they go through CPC and then council, or what does that look like?

Yeah. So the typical zoning general process is an

application be submitted to staff.

It would be distributed to the reviewing agencies, the different departments within

the city for recommendation. Then we do the public

notification that occurs.

We then bring it forward to the City Plan Commission for a recommendation, and then

we bring it forward to City Council.

The other aspects which are more on the building permit side are handled after

the fact, and often we work with the applicants as well to try and

remedy whatever's outstanding on a property.

Okay. So just to recap,

it is your understanding that there are also other areas of our city that are also

non-conforming.

Yes. Yes, ma'am.

And we've done this maybe once in the past, but we're

not typically doing it across the city of El Paso.

In historically, in my time with the city, I haven't seen it done very often.

And the cost to rezone a property is

about $2,000, and there's 799

properties in question through this agenda item.

Correct.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Representative Canales.

Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, just a few things I want to clarify.

When you're saying there's a cost, that's a cost to the applicant that they pay to

the city.

Correct.

That doesn't mean the city would incur the same cost if we were

doing a city-initiated rezoning.

So the-

There would be some portions of the cost, but we would not be paying ourselves

for the things that we charge for.

No, the $2,000, again, was estimated to be the

cost of service to process an application.

There are additional costs that an applicant would incur, often would require

either a surveyor, potentially an architect or engineer

throughout, and typically, the city doesn't see those costs

as we are not often the applicant.

And yeah, the Rio Grande neighborhood is a relatively

low-income neighborhood, one of the lowest income

census tracts in El Paso.

Theoretically, through a city-initiated rezoning, we would be saving

some of those costs for the private property owners.

They would not have to incur those costs on their own in order to

rezone each property individually.

Is that

safe to say?

That could be argued, yes.

Okay.

I wanted to be clear too, this is not directing a city-initiated

rezoning today. This is direction to the city manager

to analyze and develop a recommendation.

I think that this is something that warrants

a much closer look at.

This didn't come out of nowhere. This neighborhood has,

I've just throughout the course of my term, dealt with situation after situation,

after situation where there are very complicated zoning cases within

this particular area because of the built conditions

there.

And this is something that the neighborhood has broadly been interested

in over time. And so,

as Ms. Mack said earlier,

I brought this forward because there is an issue that I think it's

worth taking a closer look at and that the neighborhood has brought to me.

So I know

Mr. Hoffman answered as well that

staff hasn't conducted outreach.

That's because we haven't given them any direction yet.

I have conducted outreach in speaking with lots of private property owners,

and folks connected with the neighborhood who

have been very interested in this type of thing.

Again,

it would reduce a lot of the burden on them,

and

essentially create a

more wholesale solution, broader solution for the entire

neighborhood,

as opposed to having these complicated cases that have to come forward one by

one that can get really expensive for these property owners simply because they

live in an older district that

existed before our zoning authority.

And so I just wanted to make those clarifications.

We are not saying if this gets approved today, the rezoning is

going forward, and

that we're directing staff to do that

right away. This is just directing the

analysis to see what's possible here, what might make sense here, and then

a recommendation to come back to the council.

I think if I could just... One other request, and I think Alex also asked the same

question, is we just-

Ah, boundaries

... need to know the boundaries too

that are being considered.

Sure. So typically, the neighborhood would

kind of define itself as

Missouri to the southeast. I'm happy to send this to you if you want to.

Okay.

But Missouri to the southeast,

approximately Ange to the southwest, Cliff to the

northwest, and then Dallas to the northeast.

... it's a rotated rectangle.

Okay.

Again,

how does a neighborhood define its boundaries? There's a neighborhood association.

That's not necessarily exactly the boundaries, but I think this is roughly the

area that we might consider.

Okay. Appreciate that. Thank you.

That's all.

Okay.

Thank you.

Representative Fierro.

Thank you, Mayor. Kevin, when you spoke about

cost, I believe that Representative Canal has mentioned that

it would be a cost savings to the homeowners,

to go through this rezoning exercise.

But it wouldn't be a cost saving to the city. We still have people power.

We have surveyors.

There's cost to it that's going to go to the taxpayers. Is that correct?

There would be costs incurred, yes.

Okay.

Again, I don't have an estimate of what that may be at this time.

It would be the homeowners who are having their properties rezoned,

whether they want to or not, that wouldn't have to pay the cost.

Am I correct?

Eventually, if you look at it, eventually the taxpayer-

Yeah

... would be the ones paying. Typically, when we have these applications, the

applicant pays for it-

Right

... which would be the property owner, would be the one paying for it.

In this case, the city would be the one incurring the costs.

Isn't one of the duties of the planning commission is to go through these

difficult rezoning issues one by one,

and there's a reason they're one by one, because they are difficult situations or

unique situations. Is that not their responsibilities, their duties, and then

they come with a recommendation to council?

Yeah, often it is one by one.

I have seen it before where it's a larger area.

Well, but it's not 800 at one time.

Again, I haven't seen it like that.

Typically, it is multiple property owners, and trying to get multiple property

owners on the same page is often difficult-

Right

...

but not insurmountable.

Yeah.

I'd be curious to see,

if we move forward, we can reach out to Get Part and see

what their opinion is on some of these personal properties that

we're talking about rezoning.

That's it for right now. Thank you, Mayor.

Representative Nino.

Thank you, Mayor.

I have a few questions that I'm trying to understand.

The FLUM was mentioned earlier, the comprehensive plan, and I know that we've had a

lot of conversations about the FLUM, the comprehensive plan.

A lot of us are also part of different committees from the housing strategy

plan that we've identified different neighborhoods and

different needs all across the city.

When are we foreseeing the comprehensive plan or the FLUM come forward, Ms. Mack?

Coming next month, I think the 23rd.

And what I'm trying to understand is, does a comprehensive plan, the

FLUM, identify these 799 properties

needing to be visited and come forward with recommendations?

It doesn't say so specifically.

So if you recall, Representative Nino, that we worked with the council broadly,

both in our cross-functional team and our housing supply accelerator to identify

growth areas. And so working directly with District Eight, these

parcels were in this growth area boundary, which is where we would

propose zoning intervention. And so

when we would bring forward an implementation strategy, broadly speaking,

these would be parcels that the representative has identified for

some type of zoning action on.

So they're already pretty much going to be identified through the FLUM process.

I'm just trying to understand, again, I know there's a need all across the city in

different neighborhoods.

Yes, sir.

And I was trying to understand what this action would do in regards of us.

Essentially, you're already working on something as well as bringing

recommendations for different areas and different neighborhoods. Is that correct?

Correct. And so, broadly speaking, we do try to create alignment between the

city's comprehensive plan and our zoning ordinance.

Historically, it's been some time since we have done that.

And so this would be a step towards that implementation if an

action were taken on these parcels because they have been identified as growth

areas in the future land use map that is coming forward for adoption.

Okay. Ms. Mack, in regards of

working with 799 parcels,

the timeline to December 8th, is that sufficient time for you to

do outreach to each individual property owner and do an analysis?

I'm trying to understand what happens if there's one specific property owner that

doesn't wish to touch their zoning, then what

happens in that process of

when you come back with recommendations, essentially?

So my understanding is that we're not coming back with a recommendation for full

rezoning. We're being asked to take a look to really understand

more deeply what that process will be.

Some of the questions you have about costing, all those things will be what we can

present to you at a future meeting before we implement that next

step.

Okay. And in regards of these 799 properties, do we know

if any of these have requested zoning changes in the

past?

So there have been a number of these items that have come up before council.

Just

the individual properties to come into compliance.

Often, it is

an office use

that has been operating in

a residential. So that often has had to be rectified, that council has taken action

on previously.

Okay. And again, just for clarification, part of this

recommendation that essentially could come back forward in December, is there going

to be input from these

799 property owners?

Yes, I believe that would be part of the process.

It would be to receive what information. Again, this is preliminary.

Obviously, we cannot do a rezoning in

roughly 60 days. So, it would just be the initial outreach

to

get the initial gauge the temperature, if you will, of the

community.

Okay.

I have no further questions, Mayor.

Okay.

Thank you.

Representative

Rocha.

Thank you, Mayor.

So I don't know if it'll be a combination of Kevin and Alex that I need.

So you previously answered, Kevin, that people have reached out for some

zoning changes in this neighborhood.

But how many neighborhoods would you say that it's in each of our

districts that has

this type of

situation in each of them?

I can come off the top of my head-

Or several of them

... but I'm aware of, in talking with each of you and also hearing from the

neighborhoods as well, of unique issues that are impacted

to each of these neighborhoods.

There's mechanisms in the zoning code right now to address them.

I think Representative Canales addressed that with the legal non-conforming.

Mm-hmm.

There is a large amount of illegal non-conforming areas that are either addressing

the use of a use that has been existing

for a while or the lot sizes. So that is something that

we have dealt with quite a bit in this general area.

Okay. And then if this is included in part of the

comprehensive plan that we're doing,

does singling out this neighborhood

remove from the overarching complete plan

to do this work on this one neighborhood instead of

looking at each... Because I believe you spoke with each of us, Alex, if I'm not

mistaken, to talk about what each of us have as

far as

challenges within our district to create that additional infill

or additional opportunities for redevelopment.

So how does that affect the overarching plan that's coming in

October, where it's more comprehensive to have

each of our districts accounted for versus

separating this one?

No, that's a great question. So, I think what it would do would be, it would

jumpstart that process, so it wouldn't necessarily derail anything that we've been

working on.

Mm-hmm.

One of the things that we know is that when we do bring forward specific

solutions for each of the representatives' growth areas, that we'll have

to kind of tailor what those requirements are.

And so this would be an opportunity to do it

on the specific area first. And so it would not necessarily derail

anything. It would just be the first one that we look at.

I guess I'm just concerned with the fact that we're going to do one neighborhood

versus looking at every single one of our districts in the

comprehensive plan. And

what if something happens in the October plan

where

there's more discussion or more issues and one of

ours doesn't get approved, for example?

Yeah, so I think when we do the initial outreach, if council does give us that

direction today, we could take the temperature, and if there isn't support for

it, then that's what we would be reporting back.

Mm-hmm.

And then I think that what we'd end up doing is really having to

recalibrate what we're proposing.

This isn't going to be a one-size-fits-all solution, and that's one of the things

that we've been discussing with each of you.

And so what's maybe going to work for this particular neighborhood will not

necessarily be the solution. We also are probably going to need to be looking

at new tools that don't exist today to address, I would say, the

citywide issue, because we're dealing with a specific subset of

issues that maybe don't exist in District 3.

And so, again, this wouldn't necessarily be derailing that.

That would be just coming up with a, I would say, a district date solution to

address these specific challenges that may be different in each of the districts.

This is a little different, though, considering that, I guess part of what we

discussed in the cross-functional team did not include

the reduction of cost to an individual.

And I won't say it's the property owner, to come and

have those costs reduced

or subsidized, I guess, by the taxpayer,

or the city of El Paso. Right? So I don't know if that

was a discussion that maybe I wasn't included in.

I don't know if you'd be able to

elaborate on that.

So that specific strategy was not discussed.

We were talking about specific code changes.

Mm-hmm.

And so one of the code changes that we did discuss was the

consolidation of apartment and commercial districts.

Right.

So in order to do that, that would require that the city do a

rezone of those properties, because right now we have all sorts of commercial

districts. We have all sorts of new apartment districts.

And so through that process, that would be a city-initiated rezone

to bring forward that recommendation.

So again, it's not anything that's outside of the housing strategy.

This is just,

I would say, making this one be the first one that we test it out

on. But again, to be clear, to achieve that specific strategy

that we do have,

there was interest from the various council members on, that was one of the

priorities. That would require a city-initiated rezone-

Mm-hmm

... to achieve that particular strategy that is identified in the housing strategy.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor.

Representative Limón.

Thank you, Mayor.

I think that this item is up because of one

incident. Is that not correct,

Ms. Mack?

That we discussed this, that this was going to be brought forth?

Correct.

Okay.

Well, okay, I can only speak for me.

It came to my attention, and I'm putting it within the context of

just recent information that was shared with me.

I cannot speak on behalf of the representative and what he's heard in terms of

what's happening in the community.

Okay.

And I became very interested in that one property that was up

in question. And so I think that this is a very

good, strong, elaborate plan, but I would

hate to see us spending months and months and months without addressing that one

issue. And so my question is, what can be done

to address the issue of the bookstore?

Is that this agenda item?

It's in that district, Mayor.

So again, as I mentioned earlier, often what has been found is

that if a issue is identified, that property owner has to go through either

rezoning or a special permit to address

the

deficiency in that property.

Okay. They would need to do that.

Correct.

Even though they've been in operation for many years.

Correct. As you all are aware, they're often people operating

improperly, at least per the zoning code, which then it dovetails

into some other things for the building and fire and safety.

But obviously the agenda item here is about the zoning, which is one of the

first steps to address these

items.

Very good, and I support it.

Okay.

Can I just clear... The specific question was asked.

Go ahead.

Can I clarify, Mayor? Again, there is one particular issue with the one

property within this district.

It's separate from this, and that property owner is going through the

established process for their own property separate from this as

well.

This is something that has come up over time.

That neighborhood was very engaged, for example, with the process for

the comprehensive plan and the public feedback.

They've been very excited about the possibility of

a change like this.

So this is something that's coming from longtime engagement with the neighborhood.

And

again, there's one high-profile case currently, and

I know that it seems like those things are maybe connected.

It

ultimately might help that person.

I think on a shorter timeline, they're going to have to fix their

own individual issue, potentially separate from this process.

But

I think that

the current case is just indicative of

the issue that we've seen in this particular neighborhood over time,

where it has undergone 100 years of transition

that leaves it with a very different built condition than what's

reflected in the code.

And

at least among District 8 neighborhoods, it's unique in that sense.

It's one of the most nonconforming neighborhoods in...

It's definitely the most in the district,

probably one of the most in the entire city, just because of where it's

situated geographically and its economic situation, and

there's just a lot of different factors that lead to a focus on this particular

neighborhood and my decision to bring it forward.

Okay.

Thank you, Mayor.

Representative Troje. I mean Rocha.

Oh. Thank you, Mayor.

I need permission to address Rep. Canales, Mayor.

Okay.

Rep. Canales, in this particular situation, now that you've laid all of this

out, why bring it forward now and not wait for the comprehensive

plan to address it

later this month or early November?

So the comprehensive plan is something that is very future facing.

Right.

It talks about

possible strategies that might be used.

It talks about what we want to see in the future.

This is essentially an implementation step.

Basically, I'm asking staff to start the analysis of

what the implementation step could look like.

But this

wouldn't happen before the comprehensive plan comes forward.

No action would be taken, I should say.

And so it's essentially starting to look at

implementation of the future growth

that

is described in that comprehensive plan.

Thank you.

So with that, I'll use this as my second opportunity, Mayor.

So Alex, are we all going to be allowed to bring this and jumpstart

these pieces within our own districts?

So I think that's going to be the next step after the comprehensive plan adoption

would be-

Prior to the comprehensive plan. We're pretty much setting a precedent at

this point. If this gets approved, then we, each

of the other seven districts, have an opportunity to bring that to you

prior to the comprehensive plan, if I'm not mistaken.

It's up to council to decide when items are on the agenda-

Okay

... and for us to give us direction in terms of how you would like these-

Okay

... items to be implemented. Again, we're a few-

Great

... weeks out from that item being posted.

I think we're doing briefings with you all right now.

Okay.

In terms, it's up to council.

Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, Mayor.

Okay. Representative Troje.

Thank you, Mayor. I have a question for

Representative Canales.

When you're speaking of they

with the neighborhood, how many have you spoken to?

Quite a lot over time. This is engagement with both neighborhood

association,

which they're one of the very active neighborhood associations in my

district.

And then again, also with individual property owners.

This is probably,

I think very safe to say, the neighborhood within my district that has the most

zoning cases that come forward. It's very frequent.

Some of them because they are looking to legalize the existing

use, some of them because they're looking to change

use. There's been a lot of rezoning in this area, in particular to

more mixed zoning districts. Whether that's apartment office or the

residential mixed use.

There are a lot of

properties there that lend themselves really well, I think, to this type of

mixed-use zoning, and the property owners over time have wanted to take advantage

of that

through these rezonings. And so

I can't give you a number exactly,

but there's significant interest in this from the community.

That's where this has come from.

So there's 800 residents

of those eight-

There's 800 prop-

800 property

... well, there's 800 properties.

How many of those 800?

Approximately have you spoken to?

I cannot give you a number.

Again, this is something that there's been broad interest in from the neighborhood.

Okay. Thank you.

But the outreach is something that if we give direction, that the staff would

conduct more individualized to the individual properties.

Thank you.

Okay. Ms. Pryne.

I believe there's a motion and a second on this item.

Yes, Mayor. The motion was made by Representative Canales, seconded by

Representative Limón, and this is to approve the direction on item 24.

On that motion, call for the vote.

Representative Acevedo?

Aye.

Mayor, there's a tie.

Okay.

End the voting session. And the motion fails with the mayor breaking the tie.

Representatives Chavez, Trejo, Nino, Fierro, the

mayor voting nay. Representatives Acevedo, Rocha, Limón, Canales voting aye.

That motion does fail.

Okay. Ms. Pryne, let's convene the Sun Metro.

Okay. Is there a motion to recess?

So moved.

Second.

There's a motion and a second to recess the regular city council meeting.

All in favor?

Aye.

Anyone opposed? The meeting is in recess at 11:36 a.m.

in order to conduct the Mass Transit Department Board.

Good morning. This is a meeting of the Mass Transit Department Board

for

Tuesday, October 13th, 2026.

Board Chair Johnson is present, along with board members Chavez,

Rocha, Trejo, Nino, Fierro, Limón, Canales,

and Acevedo is joining virtually.

It is 10:37 a.m.

and there's no one signed up for

public comment, so that brings us to the consent agenda.

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 up for

separate discussion, the item has been approved.

The Mass Transit Department Board may, however, reconsider any item at any

time during the meeting.

Motion approved.

There's a motion and there's a second.

Any discussion? Okay, Ms. Pryne.

The motion was made by Board Member Fierro, seconded by Board Member Limón, and

this is to approve the consent agenda.

On that motion, call for the vote.

Board Member Acevedo?

Aye.

Thank you. End the voting session,

and that motion passes unanimously.

That brings us to item number five on the regular agenda, and this is a

presentation regarding an update on Sun Metro Rising, September 20th,

2026 service modifications.

Good morning.

Good morning, Mayor and City Council members. I'm going to apologize, Mr.

DeKaizer is not here today, so I don't have his

charisma or enthusiasm.

I'm not as energetic as he is, but I'll do my best.

So we're here this morning to present a quick update

on some of the service modifications we just implemented a few weeks ago on

September 20th. This is in response of the

feedback that we received after the implementation of the Sun Metro Rising

restructuring plan back in June

of this year.

So this-- Can we-- Where's the click?

There we go.

These adjustments

or this quick

update, these adjustments are intended to improve the

overall accessibility,

reliability, and efficiency throughout the overall

system. We're going to see how we enhance the

community access with the modification on some alignments on Route

2 and 65. We have some schedule modifications to

reestablish the reliability of the overall system.

We made some adjustments to the contracted service that we have with Proyecto

Amistad because there were some concerns on the

capacity on their vehicles. And we're also

doing the six-month evaluation framework that is going

to guide us through the future

service modifications that we're going to be doing.

But these changes are not following that six-month

framework that we normally follow because there were identifier routes that

those changes needed to be happening as soon as possible because of the impact that

was having

in the community.

And then I'm going to give you a brief summary of what those service

modifications were.

In the enhanced community access

after--

I'm sorry. After the implementation

of the Sun Metro Rising,

if you remember, there was a restructuring of the overall system.

So most of the routes were changed on the alignments, the schedules,

and the connections points that they used to have.

So after that implementation, we identified two areas where

the people were impacted because of those changes in the routing

And we met with these people. Some of them were through your offices, and

some were for the feedback that we received, even some prior, before the

implementation. But we just needed to let the routes establish

and actually find out exactly what the situation was going to be.

So we ended up meeting with these groups, and we made changes.

We came up with a plan where we

presented

changes to Route 2 and 65. Those were the two that were

identified as needing the immediate changes

to continue providing the service to the,

Lafaye Clinic for Route 2 and the senior center that is

right in the vicinity. And then the Route 65, because there

were some concerns on the service being provided through

Paisano by the Chairman Apartments and the Hilos de Plata Senior Center.

So by doing those changes, we also look at the overall

system, how we were doing. And because Sun Metro likes to

maintain a 90% at minimum on the on-time

performance, meaning that our buses are constantly on time,

we realized that because of the realignments on the

other routes, there were seven routes that were constantly being behind

schedule. So we needed to address those as well, because that was

not providing the people the opportunity to make their connections

and plan their trips on a daily basis.

So we identified seven routes

throughout the city, it's not just on a specific area.

We have Central, Northeast,

Far East, and

the Downtown area where we needed to make these changes.

So that's why they happen right three months after

the implementation of the Sun Metro Rising.

The contractor service realignments, we heard some

concerns from the people.

Some routes, Proyecto Amistad has been helping Sun Metro, providing service to some

of the routes that have low ridership, because they have smaller

units that provide that service. And since the routes

were modified, we presented the routes to them

that under our previous alignment, were

identified as being low ridership.

So it ended up being that some of these routes actually had an increase in

ridership already, and that's without the school being

in session yet. So there was a concern of once the students came

back, that there was going to be some concerns on the capacity

because of the smaller vehicles Proyecto Amistad utilizes.

That was the case on Route 43 and 44 in the Northeast, and the 86.

So what we did, we brought those back in-house with Sun Metro,

with

bigger vehicles. And then now that we had a better understanding on some of the

routes that didn't have the ridership that we expected to have, like on

Ash Meare, Pebble Hills, and the Route 62, the Mission

Valley area,

we now send those to the Proyecto Amistad.

So we're switching three routes

with just with lower ridership to them.

So that way people will not see any inconvenience, and we're addressing

the concerns brought up to us

by the people, by our riders.

The six-month service evaluation framework, we're going to continue with

that. It is actually something that is best practice in the industry,

where we provide six months for any change to

actually the route establish itself and actually provide

data that is more accurate for any change.

It takes about six months for anything to actually fall into place and

provide that additional information for us to be able to make additional

decisions and changes in the future.

We also look at ridership trends, any changes in ridership, the

on-time performance on the routes,

any information from our operators, our customer

service, our transit supervisors, the ones that have direct contact with the

public, so they know on a daily basis what's

going on. We also have our

own outreach people ready.

After the implementation, we have our people in there trying to get the feedback on

the people to see if they're happy with the changes or what we need to improve,

and we're gathering all that information. We're doing that internally as well.

And we're also obviously listening to your office when you

get something and you let us know, we're looking at

that as well.

These changes, like I said, happened right immediately after the implementation of

Sun Metro Rising, just because we knew that needed to happen right away

in order to

not impact the

ridership

that much. So we made those changes

as soon as possible. And the next service modification that we're

scheduling now, that we're going to go back to the public and see if

these adjustments made just in September are

in a level that they're comfortable, or we need to make additional ones.

We're looking at probably early

spring of next year.

And here is just a summary of what those changes were.

We have the two routes that I mentioned, the Route 2 and the Route 65, that

actually have changes on the routing.

And then we had seven routes that had minor schedule

adjustments in order to mitigate the impact.

Mainly, it was due

to the construction in some areas, the heavy

congestion in some, and we actually have to make an adjustment on

the one going into Fabris, because we were getting stuck

at the gate during the hours where there's more

traffic going in there. So we were able to identify the

times where people actually were needing to go into Fabris, and we're just getting

that peak hour service in there to not affect the overall route.

And all these changes, this is just our commitment to quality

service, and we're going to continue our reviewing the

service overall to continue making the adjustments necessary.

So you don't have any questions?

Very good. Any questions on this particular item number five?

Representative Nino.

Thank you, Claudia, for all your hard work in Sun Metro Rising.

Can you share a little bit, I know that I had asked when I saw you last,

the increase of ridership for Sun Metro Microtransit through the Sun Metro Rising

that got piloted in District 5?

Yes. Yeah, we have seen an increase.

We start with very little, two to four passengers. Now it's more.

I haven't gotten the one for this month,

but I know we have been experiencing up to 70 or 80

people when we were having four or five.

So-

Yeah, no, that's great. No, I'm grateful for you for providing that data.

I saw that some of the numbers were like 400 and something riders in one month

last month, I believe.

Right.

So it's great to see that the ridership is increasing.

Public transportation is extremely important.

When that specific program came forward, it was talking

about having individuals that have access to jobs, to healthcare, to going to the

groceries. So I'm very grateful for the access that we have for public

transportation across the city, and I'm glad that we piloted Microtransit in

District 5. So thank you for all your hard work.

We're happy to be of service, and we're happy to see that increase in

ridership. It's also very

fulfilling for us to know that some of the services are actually

providing what is meant to be the service to

allow that commute for those people who don't have access to a

particular car.

Grateful for you.

Thank you.

Representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Claudia, for the presentation.

I think it's great for you to give us an update on Sun Metro Rising and

everything that's happened since we implemented it.

Could you please let me know if you've gotten any feedback from my community

regarding the changes in the routes that

you did just recently? Or if you could just send those to my office, I would

appreciate if there's any feedback that you've received.

We have one area,

one person in one specific area, and then we

just got a request for service into the

new subdivision, now that reserve was open.

So those are the areas that we're still looking into to see how we can

accommodate and make adjustments.

Okay.

So these were just changes that needed to happen right now because

of the impact that was created, but that's not leaving anything else that we

have pending to see how we can

help with that.

Okay. I was particularly concerned about Route 14, which I think is the one that

you changed.

That was-

Actually, it was the Route 19, the one that we have service on

red area.

Okay.

Yeah.

I'll follow up with you so I-

Yes

... can get that feedback from you. Thank you so much.

You're welcome.

Claudia, thank you for the presentation. Ms. Bryan, there's no action on this?

No action, sir.

Okay. Claudia, thank you guys.

Thank you so much.

Good job. Mm-hmm.

That brings us to the end of the agenda.

Motion to adjourn.

Second.

There's a motion and a second to adjourn the Mass Transit Department Board Meeting.

All in favor?

Aye.

Anyone opposed? And the Mass Transit Department Board Meeting for

Tuesday, October 13th, 2026, is adjourned at

11:50AM.

Okay, and we need to reconvene the other meeting, Ms. Bryan.

Yes. Is there a motion to reconvene?

So moved.

Second.

There's a motion and a second to reconvene the regular City Council Meeting.

All in favor?

Aye.

Anyone opposed?

And the regular meeting is back in session at 11:51 AM.

Okay, let's take item number 25.

Item 25 is discussion and action on a resolution that Schedule C

attached to the FY 2027 Budget Resolution and effective

October 13th, 2026, is hereby amended effective

October 13th, 2026, to add or revise certain fees for the annual

services and code enforcement departments as set forth in Attachment A of the

resolution.

Is there a motion to approve this item?

So moved.

Second.

Okay.

Good afternoon. Oh, it's morning. Good morning, Sasha.

Good morning. Sasha Donduy, Office of Management and Budget.

We have a short presentation for amendments to Schedule C.

So as you probably already know that budget resolution

regulates all the schedules that are attached to the budget process.

In particular, paragraph 43 regulates

the Schedule C, which is our fee schedules.

And whatever we have some changes or how the fees are set up,

we need to come in front of you guys for the approval.

So today, we have changes for two departments,

Code Enforcement and Animal Services, and I will let

Steve and Michael to explain their changes.

Good morning, Steve.

Good morning, Mayor, members of the council.

Steve Alvarado, Code Enforcement Director for the record.

Some of these changes were an oversight.

They should've been included in the original adoption.

However, we do need to make these changes.

And what we're proposing for council today is to actually consolidate several

fees. Prior fiscal year 2026, they were broken up into

four categories regarding those food establishment fees.

Category one was 3,000 square feet and under, category two was

3,001 up to 6,000 square feet, category three would be 6,001

to 9,000, and then category four would be 9,001 and over,

as far as that goes. We're consolidating.

What we've found as a department time-wise to do the

inspections is similar in 6,000 square feet and under and

6,000 square feet and over. So these are fees that are for services that are

provided to the community

that we continue to incur. But please don't forget,

don't ever doubt that our commitment to public health and safety is

priority number one in our department.

So we're proposing to consolidate these fees, also some language cleanup

to include plan check with all facilities-

And therefore, so those are some of the establishments, and they do align with

state mandates. The lowest state mandate fee is

$258, and we can charge a charging instrument up to

$773, but we are under that fee.

And Steve, the fees are going to remain the same. This is mainly consolidation?

One of them is going up.

I'm sorry, let me go back to my fees here.

Previously, it was $174, it's going up to $344.

The minimum the state allows is $258 right now.

So they're actually going up $86

more than what the state allows from $258.

So that one's going up to $344 to align with the previous

Category 2.

Category 3 and 4 are going to $515, and Category 4 is

actually going down somewhat.

Okay. Representative Chavez, you have a question on this one?

I do, Mayor. Thank you.

Mm-hmm.

And I know I had a really good conversation with Steve and with Sasha in my

office, and I think when we went through the budget, we clearly

understand that we have to adjust our fee schedules to

compensate for increasing costs as the city needs to

operate. So I completely understand that.

I also think that it's extremely important to protect our public health, and these

inspections are vital to that wellbeing of the community.

But

many of you also know that I used to own and operate a restaurant for over 20

years, and so this is something that I would routinely have to experience, which

is my food inspection, my kitchen inspection.

And I know that you've separated the tiers, Steve, but I

also know that small business owners are facing extremely high costs

with labor and food purchases, gas

prices, rent, and everything else that they're paying.

And I'm a little bit concerned about the nearly 50% increase in the new

fee schedule.

I just want to know how you arrived at that increase, if there was

some sort of method you used or how you determined

to get to that 344, which is about 49% higher than it was

before.

Yes, ma'am. And I'll bring up my service manager too.

He did the research-

Okay

... and analysis on my behalf.

Thank you.

Anthony Morales.

Good morning, Anthony.

Morning. Anthony Morales, sanitary services manager.

So the 344 was already on the books, it's just to consolidate.

So the K1, K2, K3, K4 that Mr. Alvarado has spoken to,

the K2 and K3 fees were what was kept, and it was just the details of

bringing the 6,000 square feet and under, and then 6,000 square feet and over for

the fees.

So how many establishments do you

have altogether, all across the city?

I believe it's in the range of approximately 4,800.

4,800? And how many of those were under 3,000 square feet

in the past?

So Category 1 was inclusive of 2,528.

2,528.

Category 2 included 454

under 6,000 square feet.

And for Category 3, it was 127. Category 4 was

123 above 6,000 square feet.

So Category 1 was 2,528.

Yes.

And those were under 3,000?

Those were under 3,000. Yes, ma'am.

And those are the ones that are getting the increase of 49%?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

Could you explain to me a little bit about how you determined that increase, what

your thought process was or what your procedure was to get to that increase?

Why was it 49% and not, for example, 20 or any other number?

Certainly. So what we found as a department is that the time-wise for these

inspections was similar to the ones at 6,000 square feet.

Some of them were a little simpler.

And keep in mind, we conduct these inspections not only within the city of Paso,

countywide and our neighboring cities, Ruidoso, Los Alamitos, Clint,

Socorro. Therefore, we do them all, all the restaurants, food establishments,

countywide. So, and these inspections, these fees include not only the first

inspection, but in many cases, we're finding corrective actions where we have to go

back a second time, and sometimes a third times, but we do have an

extra re-inspection fee for extra inspections

amongst that. So,

drive time, time of inspection, follow-up inspection, that's all inclusive in these

fees.

And the square footage we're referring to is the kitchen, right?

Not the entire establishment.

Not the entire establishment. Any areas where food prep's done.

Also where there are buffets, if you have them.

Big

box buildings, Costco, Sam's Club, they have food out on the floor,

and that means the bread, everything.

We have to check labels, expiration dates, things along those lines as well too.

Yes. And when was the last time that we did a fee increase?

The last adjustment was in 2019. And I say adjustment because it was

actually a decrease for $2, and I'm not sure what the reason was.

I just found that out yesterday, so.

So it's been seven years since we've done any adjustment?

Yes, ma'am.

And what is the maximum amount that we could charge potentially, according to the

state?

Yes, ma'am. That is $773.

$773. And we would charge 49%

more, but it would be 344, significantly less than what

the state allows.

That is correct. Yes, ma'am.

And how does this compare to other cities? Do we know what they charge?

Yes, I'm glad you asked. So, in comparison with one city that we

pulled from, City of Dallas, not because I work there, Anthony did this.

So,

they're doing a gross annual volume food sale.

So there's several charging instruments that different jurisdictions can

charge. We do the square footage,

Dallas does gross annual sales income, and other cities do a number of

employees, and there's various other ones they could use as well.

Dallas uses gross annual sales. Anything under $50,000

is $258

for that fee.

Anything $50,000 to $149,999

is $515, and anything $150,000 or

more is $773.

So they do it based on their sales?

Yes, ma'am.

Not square footage.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, and that's the only other city you have to compare to?

I think you did some more, right?

Yes. I don't know the exact cities, but vast majority of them

had taken the model of the state and just followed their fees to max out to the

773.

Okay.

And I just think understandably so because most of our food establishments,

probably because of the numbers you just gave me, Steve, are under the 3,000

square feet category, 2,528 of them.

And they're going to be the ones that probably have the smaller operations, but are

going to be seeing this increase in 49% for their fee schedule.

And I just want to be mindful of the impact that would have on their operations.

Yes, ma'am.

I don't have any other questions. Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other questions for Steve?

All right. Michael? I think Mike is up next.

Thank you.

Mm-hmm. Thank you, Steve.

Good afternoon, Michael.

Good afternoon. Michael Wachsmann, interim director for El Paso Animal Services.

Go on to the next slide.

If it pulls up. There you go.

Oh.

Next slide.

Yeah, there we go. All right.

So, Animal Services, we have three line items up for

discussion.

The first one being adoption fee. Just for the record, our adoption fee for dogs

is $30. Right now, Schedule C allows us to charge

up to $110.

What we are proposing is the increase from no charge to $198.

Currently, we are assessing our adoption fees, and so,

what we're trying to do is not have our older dogs who have been at

the shelter for six months,

competing against puppies

at that same adoption price. And so, what we're doing is data collection for

our adoptions. This compares other shelters in the

city, other nonprofits in the city, and we are wanting to build a

fee structure,

to essentially recover some costs associated with taking care of animals.

By comparison, on average, our

surgery packs to

get an animal

ready for surgery is about $48. And again, we're charging $30

for dogs, and we're charging $5 for cats.

So this first line item is just prepping

in order to address the fee structure within

the shelter.

The second item is the fee description for correction.

So back in February, we approved the aggressive and vicious

dog ordinance. The way it's worded in Schedule C is

registration for an aggressive dog.

That is not correct. There's a registration for a vicious dog.

So as a reminder, aggressive is a dog that's running around, chasing people,

acting aggressive. Whereas vicious is the designation for an

animal that has

physically attacked another animal and/or killed that animal.

So that registration fee is just more of a title change.

And then that last item was the six new fees.

We

redid our partnership with EPVMA back in

April.

And so what we're trying to do is consolidate those prices that we are offering to

the public. And so,

what we kind of done is we created these combos.

So as constituents come to Animal Services

requesting

who do we know that can offer lower cost spay/neuter services, we

actually play that part in connecting them with EPVMA.

And so what we're trying to do is,

you have a small female dog,

the city can partner you with EPVMA at this

cost. And so what we've done is created combos, and so you can say, "I want

combo one, combo two," and then in turn, we collect a fee off

of that. And so what we did is consolidated that price

for the six new fees.

And that is it, and I am available for any questions that you may have.

Michael, on your line 880, adoption fee.

Yes.

Explain to me again that first sentence, range increase.

The range increase from no charge to $110 to no charge to

$198. Right now, Schedule C allows us to charge

up to $110

for an adoption. We are currently charging $30

according to our fees. And so what we are trying to do is increase that to

198. So as we have completed our data collection,

it gives us a maximum range to charge at

adoptions. Doesn't necessarily mean we're going to charge 198.

Again, we don't charge $110. But if we think that

puppies are going too quickly at $30 and we want to

increase it over that $110,

this would give us that flexibility to build a fee structure

that is competitive within our own animal adoptions.

Michael, I think you need to mention that the 198 is the cost recovery

for the animal.

Yes. So cost recovery, again, I touched on it a little bit.

The surgeries are costing about $48, but that is just

a surgery pack. There's still staff that are involved.

Mm-hmm.

Our doctors are involved. So in general,

with this fee restructuring, just trying to recover some of those costs that we're

putting into animals.

We're not trying to get rich in the system. It's more just, again, like Ms.

Mack said, it's cost recovery. We put a lot of resources into these

animals,

to the tune of over a couple hundred dollars, and

currently we're only getting about $30

per dog and about $5 per cat. So we're just trying to get

a little bit of cost recovery going with this.

Okay. Representative Rocha.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Michael.

Real quick, would you be able to level set that for me for

other companies or organizations that

do adoptions? By any chance, would you happen to have that

information on what they charge?

I do have some of that information.

I don't have it memorized because-

That's okay

... it's a lot of companies.

Yeah, I know. But just in general, maybe.

Yeah. As an example,

there are some companies charging $230 per puppy.

We are charging $30.

Dogs are $140, $139.50.

Again, we're charging $30.

Kittens, they're charging $120 per

kitten that's adopted. We're charging $5.

Adult cats are $95 in some areas, and we're charging, again, $5.

And so one thing that we don't necessarily have implemented is,

again, a discounted system. Right now, we're charging $30 for a

dog. If I want to offer a discount to attract more

clients to Animal Services, I can't really

discount more than-- If I say 50%, we're talking $15

off. And so, having

a restructuring fee allows me to offer bigger

discounts and in turn draw the public toward us.

And so, as you can see, we're really far off of

what

regionally people are charging for adoptions.

Again, not to emphasize, we're not trying to get rich.

I know it's a different business model.

We're just trying to recover some of the costs that we're

doing.

Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you, Mayor.

Okay.

Representative, I think it's important to note that

even within the organization, we collected $300,000 less

last year. So I know we really try to get the animals out and really try to make

sure we're moving, but we do have to figure out some balance to

ensure that we're not continuing to have to add to the operation when possible.

Not that it would preclude us from doing any of the discounted programs that are

super important for the community.

Okay. Representative Caneles.

Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, Michael, I think that maybe the most apt comparison is to

the Humane Society next door, who

people can

walk out of one facility and walk into the other.

They are literally across the parking lot from one another.

And Humane Society, their range for dogs is $70 to

$300,

and their range for cats is $95 to $250.

And so even the highest of the range here,

which would, of course, not be for the typical animal, would be

significantly less than the Humane Society across the street.

So it's still providing a lot of options to the people who want to come adopt from

El Paso Animal Services at a reduced rate compared to almost all the other

peer institutions.

Right. Yeah. So, the $70 reference at the Humane Society, again,

those are involved with animals that are

up there in age, seven plus years or older.

They've been at the shelter for an extended amount of time.

There might be some bonded pair, which is a dog can't get along

or can't go home with another animal unless it goes home with its kennel mate.

Again, we don't have these options currently at our shelter.

And so what we are trying to do is not necessarily build off their model.

But again, we're right now in that data collection.

To emphasize a little bit more about the Humane Society, they do have a pure breed

adoption price. And so,

if a Dalmatian were to come into the shelter, we're charging $30.

Whereas if a pure Dalmatian ends up at the Humane Society, they could

charge up to $300.

Mm-hmm.

And so that's what we are competing against

as the city.

Very good. Thank you, Michael. Okay, Ms. Frank, we have a motion and a second.

We do have public comment from Ms. Osmond on this item.

Ms. Osmond, go ahead, ma'am. Your microphone is ready.

If we're going to recoup

costs for the animal shelter, perhaps the city needs to

do some sort of contract with Fort Bliss

to recoup cost.

Because I have to constantly remind

council

and city officials that Fort Bliss used to have its own

animal shelter

where

on the property where the old Beaumont was, where VA

currently stands. And when they

removed that, did away with it, the city did nothing

to enforce that Fort Bliss take up those costs

because their families, and unfortunately due to BRAC and more

military families in this town, our city tax

dollars are spent because military families come

in, they come in with pets, they cannot get shipped out with some

of these pets when they're going overseas, and they're dumped in our city.

And our tax dollars,

our locals are having to foot that bill and cover those costs.

You're doing a deal with Fort Bliss

for some

EP water. Why not for this?

Because those costs have been thrown onto the

city.

Now, in regards to the food-- Well, you know what? Let me stay on that.

Higher costs for adoptions are going to mean less pets get adopted,

as is you're not even taking in. The reason of

those costs and taking in pets is so it's a safety issue

for every citizen in this city. Every citizen who has a pet, and

every citizen out walking in a park,

so that stray animals do not

pose any further harm.

Now, I'm going to step over to food. Ms.

Chavez mentioned that

she had 20 years in the restaurant industry. I raised a chef.

Two degrees, and he was a culinary instructor

Now, yes. Did he leave this area? Definitely.

But he and I have had many a conversations about the fact that

restaurants,

even here locally, if you have to run a business on

hiring people at less than $3 an hour and on tips

making customers pay for your business, your business should not exist.

You also have,

what? Maybe

$300 that you have to pay,

$350 to be a legitimate business? When you

have people that are on Fort Bliss selling

food out of their homes, little bakeries on their front porches.

This doesn't even address that. These sales are on

Facebook Marketplace and on Nextdoor.

Does this address any of that?

Thank you, Ms. Hausman. You've reached the three minutes.

Okay, ma-

That concludes public comments, sir.

Okay, Ms. Frye, we had a motion and a second on this item.

Mayor, if I may, just I want to correct the record.

We do have an interlocal agreement with Fort Bliss, and it's in good standing.

Okay. Thank you. Ms. Frye?

Yes, the motion was made by Representative Limon, seconded by Alternate Mayor Pro

Tem Fierro, and this is to approve the resolution on item 25.

On that motion, call for the vote.

Representative Acevedo?

No.

Thank you. End the voting session.

And the motion passes six to two. Representatives Chavez, Rocha, Trejo,

Fierro, Limon, Canales voting aye.

Representatives Acevedo and Nino voting nay. The motion does pass.

Okay, let's take item number 26, Ms. Frye.

Item 26 is discussion and action to approve a resolution to amend the

2026 Public Art Plan as approved by the Public Art Committee,

PAC, and the Museum and Cultural Affairs Advisory Board, and that the

city manager or designee is authorized to enter into any contracts and

amendments to contracts to carry out the 2026 Public Art

Plan amended as described in Exhibit A of the resolution.

Okay. Is there a motion to approve this item?

Motion to approve.

Is there a second?

Second.

Okay. Good afternoon, Ben.

Good afternoon. For the record, Ben Fife, Managing Director.

Before I begin walking you through this brief presentation, I would just like to

take a minute to

provide a thumbnail sketch of the public art program and hopefully dispel

some misconceptions that tend to come up every time we are in front of the

council. The public art program was established by ordinance

in 2006, so we are celebrating our

20th anniversary. That ordinance specifies that

2% comes out of any debt issuance allocation,

specifically for public art integration.

The program was modeled on the thousands of existing public art

programs that exist that are municipally, state, or federally

funded across the country.

I just want to specify that that ordinance restricts

those funds. And so if you were to not do public art,

you would not be able to use that funding to, say, buy a new police

car or patch a street. It is specifically

for artwork integration. I'd also just like to

mention that

as part of the preparation for any bond issuance, which is

primarily what has funded the over 100 projects we've completed,

public art integration is actually factored into the budgeting that is

presented to the council, and ultimately, it leads to the final ordinance.

So it is something that is approved by the majority of voters each time a

bond has gone through.

And so if IT will bring up the presentation. Thank you.

I'd also just like to mention that...

Sorry, I don't know what's going on.

That 77% of the projects and payments that have come

out of the program are to local artists.

Right. IT, for some reason, the slide is not advancing. There you go. Thank you.

So today we're bringing forward an amendment to our annual

2026 plan that was approved by the council in February.

We have a couple of amendments we would like to request the council

approve.

Those amendments have already been approved by both our public art

committee as well as the council-appointed Museums and Cultural

Affairs Advisory Board.

Essentially, the simple way to explain this is we are using program

savings in one project, and that is specifically

that first one you see there, Arts Festival Plaza water wall

improvements. We're taking $225,000

in projected savings that will then be put towards

four other allocations.

The first two are actually increases we are requesting to

already approved budgets and projects.

The first is for Eastside Regional Park.

Largely what we are dealing with there are increase in the cost of

materials for the artist due to inflation and also

tariffs. And so in order to be able to deliver the project that we

promised the community, we are seeking to increase the budget by

$25,000.

For railroad reconstruction, the artist has actually

outpaced the larger project, and so he has completed

his work. That $10,000 is to pay for storage while we

wait for the project to conclude. We want to make

sure that when we actually go to install, it's not weathered.

It hasn't been sitting outside rusting, so it looks brand new.

Storage is not in that artist's contract, and so we do need to increase the

allocation there. And then the last two projects would

be two new projects we would be initiating with those

savings. The first is a piloted graffiti

abatement program at Dixionaut Skateboard Park.

As Representative Fierro can attest, and my colleagues at Parks and Rec,

since opening that That skate park is really hit

hard by vandalism on a continual basis.

What we'd like to do is pilot a program in which a street artist with

a demonstrated capacity working with youth would actually go in, do a

project there at the park with users, and hopefully create a sense

of ownership with them, where we might see that mitigated.

We've seen it work in other communities, so we're very hopeful that that will be

something that will work here, and that we could also potentially take to other

parts of the community if fruitful.

And then lastly, a trailhead project

in District One. And so essentially what you're seeing

is $225,000 in savings are then

dispersed amongst four other projects.

As a reminder, we will be back in front of the council in either January or

February with a 2027 plan, in which you'll see a more

extensive

outlook for projects to be initiated in the next calendar year.

And I am open for questions.

Very good. Representative Fierro.

Thank you, Mayor. Ben, first and foremost, thank you to you and your team for

doing such a great job of having

a specific art project in each one of our districts that just shines.

It just makes them better and more beautiful.

And then thank you all for making sure that you're good stewards of

taxpayer dollars. And this savings really does a lot.

When

Ben mentioned the graffiti in the skate park,

this was a vision that we had talked about many months

ago, and we were trying to figure out how to fund it.

But it wasn't only Ben's brilliant vision,

it's also

the people who work in the park. The parks and recreation

team that's there, they're amazing.

And they've pulled me aside many times as I've been out there, and they say, "Look,

we have to do something about this graffiti."

They identify it immediately. They address the

issue by removing it immediately.

But we have to do something to really address the issue.

And so this, I think, is going to address the issue, the ownership.

There's also this excitement from the community, the neighborhood.

In fact, one of our famous muralists,

Gabriel Gaitan, who lives beside the park, has

volunteered to help on the committee and to help whomever

the artist is going to be, to choose from.

So thank you very much, Ben and your team, for the savings and

doing something for our community that's going to really make a difference when it

comes to graffiti.

Thank you, sir. And actually, I will correct you.

It's actually been something we've been thinking about for about four years-

... in that park. But thank you.

A long time.

Representative Canales.

Thank you, Mayor.

Ben, I have some concern here-

Sure

... in that

a reduction of $225,000 from an existing project is

quite large, and it was presented as project savings.

I don't think that this is necessarily project savings.

The project is listed as Arts Festival Plaza water wall improvements.

From what I understand, water wall improvements are no longer happening at all, and

this will be a totally

different project.

It will be a different project, sir.

So this project has been on the books, I would say for about maybe

six to seven years.

Yes.

And we have not really been able to tackle it.

There's a lot of complexities on that site.

Ultimately, what we have decided to do is proceed

with a much

more feasible project, which will initiate those savings.

So what we are looking at doing is actually constructing a wall that will have a

rotating mural program in the Arts District.

That's something we get a lot of requests for, especially from our muralists.

They're looking for very high-profile locations in downtown.

So what we're budgeting for is creation of that wall and then to be able to have a

new mural

pop onto that wall once or twice a year.

We've also discussed that with my other department at Destination El Paso,

and so we would be able to time that strategically when we know we also

have a lot of visitation in the community.

So for example, NAACP state

convention that was just here a few weeks ago, they had one of their

opening receptions there in Arts Festival Plaza.

If this project was already in place, you could actually have a local muralist

working

during those times so that visitors actually get to engage with a

local artist. So it will be a much more feasible and affordable project,

and it's something we know we can accomplish here pretty quickly.

Is there funding into the future ongoing for the continuous-

Yes, sir

... refresh of the mural?

Yes, sir.

That's included in the remaining 375,000?

Yes, sir. And then once we exhausted that, which we anticipate would be

years and years from now, we would find other funding.

Okay.

I know, and I've been coordinating for, it's been a couple of years, actually,

and

more closely over the last just handful of months,

with the El Paso Community Foundation about

investments that they wanted to make in Arts Festival Plaza adjacent to this

project,

using one of their

private dedicated funds.

Has this change been discussed with them?

And this change in scope from the previous project on the books to

something new.

It has not, but they have not discussed that project with us either, so we can set

up a meeting to be able to do that. But the property is

municipal property. It actually does belong to the El Paso Museum of Art,

but we will go ahead and set up a meeting with them.

And I believe the fund

you're speaking about, is that the one that was initiated by Simmy Alvarado?

Yes. I don't know.

Okay.

I don't want to share their business, but-

Okay. Yes

... it is somebody's private managed fund.

Okay.

Through El Paso Community Foundation.

Well, I'll check in with

Eric Pearson

Again, I just have some concern about a scope reduction of nearly

half of the cost of a project that's been on the books for District 8

in a very high-profile

location for art,

specifically in the Arts Festival Plaza, immediately outside of the Museum of Art.

And to say that we are going to take out $225,000

from a project that's been promised to the public is of great concern to me.

Understood, sir. But again, I would say that we know we cannot accomplish the

project that we originally envisioned.

We know we're also staying away from water projects at this

point just due to the high cost of maintenance and the life

cycle of those. The last time, and this was not through public art, but when the

plaza was redesigned,

the water feature lasted, I believe, maybe four years before it was

completely out of commission.

So it's just really complicated. But

what I would say is that this is a project we feel really strongly about.

The convention center feels really strongly about.

We know it meets a need that we hear from our local artist community about that

high-profile space.

So understand your concerns, and we will work to address them with the

community foundation.

Okay. And then I guess one final concern is just that

I was not made aware of the change until last week on Monday.

It's a very short amount of time to have conversations with others who are

interested in this particular project in this location.

And again, it's the reduction of $225,000 from a project.

One week's notice is very difficult to work with in terms of

having the conversations I need to in order to be prepared to make a decision at a

meeting today.

Understood, sir. We did offer briefings to all of the council on

this. Again, we have not had any reach out from the community

foundation or other stakeholders about this project over the last

five to six years as well.

Okay. Thank you.

Representative Limón.

Okay.

First and foremost, I want to make it clear it's not about you, Ben.

Yes, ma'am.

We had a very robust conversation.

Eddie and Luis were present in the office.

I cannot understand

how this recommendation is being made.

And now I hear more, that the representative that the funding is coming

from was not made aware during this process.

When the Arts Festival Plaza Water Wall improvements

was decided as a project, who'd made that decision?

Who decided on that project?

That was myself, ma'am.

You're the one-

Yes, ma'am

... that brought it forth. Okay.

All right. And then as you made these four

changes, who made that decision? Who

did the line item, say, "Let's take this here and put it here"?

That would be the assistant director for the Museums and Cultural Affairs

Department, working with the public art staff she manages directly,

and then it goes to the Public Art Committee once they approve.

And sometimes in this process,

it's a little bit of back and forth. We may have several meetings.

Then it goes to the Museums and Cultural Affairs Advisory Board before it comes to

the full council.

Well-

And I would like to be very clear, we are still doing a project

in Arts Festival Plaza. This is not-

Understand

... about defunding-

No, I understand

... or zeroing out a project.

I understand.

Yes, ma'am.

Were the four representatives that are reaping the benefits,

were they involved in the conversation?

I have conversations routinely with any representative who approaches

me with ideas about public art.

I can say that sometimes I let them know that something-

Specifically on these four... I have very little time, and I want to make sure I

get to it.

Yes, ma'am.

Very specifically. On these four projects.

Specifically, not every representative spoke to me about these projects.

Okay.

But oftentimes, we keep an inventory of ideas or projects in our head

that we've had either community talk to us about, representatives talk to us about,

stakeholders talk to us about. As we identify funding, we sometimes bring those

onto the plan.

Okay. Let's go to

how I rank these. Look at

the project in District 4.

It seems to me that the artist, you said,

outpaced the need.

Correct.

Why does that become a city responsibility for

storage? If the artist knew the

timeline that should've been completed, why are we

paying $10,000 for storage of this

project?

That's a very good question.

Thank you.

And so what I would say is that oftentimes, as you all are aware,

projects speed up, slow down, get paused.

We never want to be the reason that a project is not able to finish because

we're waiting on the artwork. And so the artwork was actually

pacing with the project. The project itself has been with

TxDOT for approval now for over a year.

So the artist has continued to work on that.

We do not feel we can punish the artist for actually going

on the timeline that we had originally agreed to, and so that's why we're working

to increase the cost for storage. This has been something that has happened in the

past,

to my knowledge, about maybe three other times when an artist has worked a

little faster than the overall project.

Okay, and the artist was well aware of the

pauses in the project?

The artist is apprised, but

what we need to understand is that artists oftentimes have a whole litany of, or a

whole cadre of, subcontractors they're working with as

well with those timelines. And so, again, as

the project pace changes, accelerates, decelerates, they're

also managing multiple contracts under them, fabricators,

insurance, et cetera, engineers.

And so sometimes it's hard to slow down.

But that's a business entity.

The artist is a businessperson. Okay?

Let me go to number two. Why

the additional

allocation to

The Beast?

So The Beast, the project there, which is a veterans' memorial project

that was requested by the community,

the cost specifically for aluminum and steel has increased

significantly in the last year. And so we

would either need to go back to the community and say, "What we wanted

and what we promised is not doable now, and so we need to

significantly reduce the scale of the project itself."

But that conversation was not held.

The conversation was not held to re-bring it to the amount of money that was

allocated.

It was not, because we identified savings.

Okay.

And I would say, ma'am, that we have done this in the past multiple times.

I think the best example is the Men of Company E,

where we did not want to go to the community multiple times to tell them the scale

of the project needed to be reduced.

Rather, we would rather find funding in our allocations to

be able to do so.

Was the Men of Company E not a donated project?

No, it was not, ma'am.

It was not. It was done by the city.

The city put in about $600,000. Community and Accion put in about

$20,000.

$20,000. Very good.

Let's go to the third one, which is the skateboard

park.

Yes, ma'am.

Having worked in education with young people for many, many years,

you're not getting to the root problem.

And the root problem is vandalism and graffiti.

Has any discussion been held as to how, other than art

project and expending $40,000,

has there been any conversations as to what to do rather

than just allocation of money? And there's no

guarantee because, yes, art projects like this are done

across the country. Do you know how many fail?

I would say that what I know about our program is that we do

not routinely see a lot of graffiti on any of our projects.

Specific to things like skateboard parks,

you will find many times the action is

based on the dislike of the way the

park was developed. I share that with you just as a thought.

And then number four,

a whole new project,

150,000 for a brand-new project that was

not on the books.

How did that come about?

So I think what we're looking at there is that this project likely would've come

forward in January or February, but we did see the savings

that we could allocate towards this project to be able to bring forward now.

I will say that District 1 is an area that we're looking at in terms of parity

through the program. Currently, District 1, in the entire

history, 20 years of the program, only has five public art projects.

And so thinking about how services and

artwork, which is part of our master plan, can be taken to areas of town that have

not received the benefits yet is something that the council agreed we needed to be

thinking of.

I really wish, Ben, that you worked in streets and

maintenance. I have the highest number of unpaved streets or streets

in under 20

in a PCI.

But we're looking at

spending money for art projects. As I look at this, I

am totally against this. I think it's a disgrace

that we're going to have a project that should be finished and should've been

finished by now, and if it couldn't be a water wall, that it should've been

something else. We have put in a brand-new sidewalk and

trees and everything in front of the Museum of Art.

Let's finish this project. Let's not expend the money out and around.

It's time that our downtown area does not have all of those orange

cones and barriers that don't allow the people to walk.

I am totally against this. And you know why else?

Because if you really look at these amounts that are being allocated,

if people really, really wanted it,

they could allocate out of their discretionary funds, every one of them.

And I'm disappointed. I

can't believe that we're going to do this.

And

by this afternoon, we'll have mass media, social media

announcements, "Look what I've done in my district." I think it's a

shame,

and I'm just totally against it. Thank you, Ben, for putting up with my comments

today.

Understood, ma'am. And again, I want to be very clear, we are completing a project

in Arts Festival Plaza. We actually would've come to the council

sooner on this to be able to have it completed at the same pace as that

concrete project outside the Museum of Art, but we didn't

want to have orange cones in that highly programmed

area during festival season.

Representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Ben, for the presentation.

This question is directed to the city manager. Ms.

Mack,

could you please tell us how these projects are funded?

These projects are funded through the 2% for the

arts. If you look at the ordinance, it's a very-

Hey, how you doing?

... prescribed process in terms of how-

How's your dog?

... projects are

approved. I think that most of these you see

annually, and then we come back when there's any changes.

As Ben explained, when we have artists who are attached to projects that are

major capital projects, they are a contractor, and they have a contract

schedule within those. And so some of that is inherent to some of those pieces.

Sometimes we have opportunity to come back to these projects.

For example, the D**k Chenot Park in District 6,

we have had vandalism on that park since the moment we opened that

park. It is costing us more than $40,000 a year

to maintain the graffiti. We even added security

to be able to drive through some of those parks.

And so sometimes we're looking for solutions that are actually going to save us

money in other ways. The projects that we are continuing to

work on sometimes come To fruition because there are things that are

happening in our community, like a donation or starting a new project, and

it gives us an opportunity to put public art along with those.

None of these move forward without council's authority.

None of this is secret in terms of the work.

There's multiple boards that you all appoint that see these items.

I think public art has enhanced every part of our neighborhoods and

parts of our community. And I think that it's up to council to

decide whether we're going to continue to support these, but we always

see the

investment and the opportunity for us to continue to

support local artists through these programs.

And I'm pretty proud of the things that the team have been able to accomplish since

I've been with the department and overseeing it.

I would also mention that we also periodically partner with other

entities to be able to implement public art using their budgets as

well. So the airport, using enterprise funds, has initiated

a significant amount of aesthetic improvements on the airport using our process and

program, but with their funding.

But the 2%, Ben, where exactly does that money come from?

So the 2% comes out of a capital issuance when

certificates of obligation, when a bond goes forward, 2% by

ordinance comes out and it is restricted for the use of arts

integration into municipal

infrastructure. And so it cannot be used, again, like I said,

to buy a new police car, to patch a street, to

plant more trees in your park. It is earmarked specifically for

artwork.

Okay. I think Robert Cortinas, our CFO, is behind you.

Robert, why is it earmarked specifically for

public art and we cannot transfer it or use it for any other purpose?

Is that correct?

It's the ordinance that was approved by city council that's been referenced.

And when was that approved?

2006.

2006. Okay. So in 2006, the

council decided that they were going to earmark 2%-

Of every debt issuance

... of every debt issuance towards public art.

Is that correct?

Yes.

And I think that we have seen other projects come forward

in the council all around the city of El Paso that has art

components to it. Ben,

can you tell us about those? I know that there were other projects around the city

that were, I think, funded through COs that have public art components

to it.

Correct. So everything from every new rec and community center that

opened with quality of life bond funds, your Brio

stations,

library improvements, your remodeling or renovation

have benefited from public art integration,

fire stations, our police headquarters, et cetera.

I would also mention that the artwork that is selected

serves a variety of interests and appeals.

So if you don't like this particular project, there's probably one you will

like. And so there's contemporary art.

We have bronze soldiers

commemorating the sacrifice of a lot of our Native sons and daughters

in foreign wars. You have artwork that's inspired

by what makes El Paso unique and special.

What we saw time and time again in our year-long master planning

process is that the community was very happy with the public

art program. If anything, they just wanted to see more, and they wanted to see us

accelerate.

And I think there's some parks also that are getting done through other

initiatives that will have some public art components to them, too, that we

voted on a few months ago, the Sun City Lights project.

Sun City Lights is actually its own initiative that goes through the Capital

Improvements Department. However, we do partner with them to be able to

ensure that there is a public process there.

They use, oftentimes, our procurement processes as well.

So we are embedded in that, but they are leading that from another department.

And they will have-

That's a great example of partnership

... and that is funded through the 2% as well?

No, ma'am. That is funded through Capital Improvements budget.

But there are art components in that.

Correct, ma'am.

Okay.

So again, just to be clear and

very concise and everything, I think Robert made it clear enough, we cannot

use this money for any other purpose.

We cannot use this money for any other purpose, and where the 2% allocation

is coming from bonds that were approved by voters, the 2% was

carved out

as part of the bond package as well.

So it is approved by the voters as well.

Do you have

any idea how many projects you've done since this ordinance passed?

Just over 100. We actually just installed a memorial

bust to the late Chief Allen day before yesterday, so that

is our 101st project.

Okay. Thank you, Ben. I appreciate it.

I'm going to go to Representative Acevedo.

I see the hand up there.

Thank you, Mayor.

Ben,

can you talk a little bit more about the graffiti project

that you're doing at this park? Because I have the same issue at

a park in District 2. It's a skate park owned by El Paso Water.

It's more drainage, but

there's constant graffiti there, and we've

been

hitting our heads against the wall trying to figure out what we can do there.

So the project that we want to initiate at Dixonont Skate Park would, as I

mentioned, pair an artist with a

background in street art, which of course, as we all know, is

a nice way of saying graffiti, but also a strong history of working

with youth, and specifically

youth that might be predisposed to

vandalism or

other types of behaviors. The idea being, and something we've seen in other

communities that works, is that by working together,

they have a sense of ownership. There's a sense of pride in that place.

I helped create that. That's the part I painted.

And so there tends to be a

cessation or at least significantly less graffiti that

happens in that area.

As I mentioned, we're piloting this.

We know there are other areas of the city, and specifically other skate parks, that

sometimes we see these issues at, and so it could be really exciting to

see this work and see how we could roll this out to other areas.

What I would say, Representative, is in the past,

El Paso Water has not wanted aesthetic improvements by the

program in their property, but I'd be happy to have those discussions again.

Thank you for that. And I would love just to kind of get an update

on how this pilot is going, to understand what we've learned from

it, and if we could put it in District Two, but other parts of the

city that might need it.

I'm also kind of curious if you can kind of explain

how this 2027 art program is going to

be rolled out once the new year starts.

So by that ordinance we've discussed, we are required to come

before the council on an annual basis to do an update

on how the program

is doing, provide updates on projects that are

in process, as well as projects that are recently completed.

We take that opportunity to be able to bring forth a

roster of projects that we want to initiate within the calendar year

to be able to get council approval all at one time.

We develop that list working with the Capital Improvements department.

They let us know what projects they'll be initiating in that calendar year.

We figure out where the opportunities for artwork integration might be the most

strategic,

at which point we then have to get approval from both the Public Art Committee and

the Museums and Cultural Affairs Advisory Board, and then we come to the council,

typically in January or February.

What this accomplishes, sir, is that instead of coming to the council

17 or 18 different times throughout the year, we hit you one

time with all of those approvals, thereby saving you some time and

some

paper with all the agendas.

Okay. Thank you, Ben. I appreciate it.

Representative Nino.

Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Ben, for

your presentation.

I do want to make it clear, we didn't have a conversation prior to

having this specific present-- Well, I got briefed last week on what your

item was going to be, but there was never a strategy that took place in order to

find additional allocation of funding.

Correct, sir.

Is that correct? Okay.

Ben, a question for you. Do all districts have or have had some sort of public art

project-

Yes

... in their community?

Every single district has had some public art, some more than others, as I

mentioned, and part of what we now are doing is we have 20 years behind

us, is looking to see areas of town, neighborhoods, et cetera,

that could benefit, who have not seen public art integration in

their areas.

Thank you, Ben. Would you be able to share how many or what percentage of local

artists have been supported with such public art funding?

So about 77% of artists that have been paid

by the program have been local artists.

And I see that as economic development or economic mobility, specifically

how we just recently adopted our strategic plan and talked about

residents seeing economic development happening around them, but not for them.

But when we talk about economic development, it's important for also to

highlight the different individuals or businesses or

demographics that are a part of our community and ensuring that we support them

through other means, right?

Correct. And so, for example, sir, we have a program that actually

is essentially a journeyman or an apprentice program for local artists

to be able to work to support a much larger project in which they

develop their own capacity to be able to engage, compete, and

complete larger projects. We do a lot of professional development with our

local arts community to be able to teach them how to operate as creative

entrepreneurs in businesses, and not just as

somebody showing up

not on time, a little messy, not understanding what a project

schedule looks like.

So we do a lot of work to be able to help them be more

competitive within our own program, but also outside

of El Paso as well. We're really proud just recently that an artist who has

gone through our program before got a major commission from

Houston's Department of Transportation.

That's one success story that shows the power of investing

in our local artists to be able to succeed, not just here, but elsewhere,

and take the story of El Paso's talent outside of El Paso.

Yeah, and I

could share with you that District Five residents have seen a lot of the

improvements that have taken into our community, and they get excited whenever we

are able to beautify our community even further.

The art project at The Beast that's being put in the roundabout within the park

itself is paying homage to veterans, our first responders,

law enforcement officials. And

there's a lot of veterans and first responders that live in District Five,

and to be able to have a space where they could go and pay respects of some

sort and enjoy these beautiful art pieces is extremely important for them.

So I'm grateful for the work that has taken into that account, and I'm looking

forward also to the graffiti. I

see it as empowering our youth in taking part of their community, and that pride

and that ownership that could take into account whenever, again,

we're taking responsibility of our community.

But I just wanted to thank you for all your great work that has taken into account.

This is now also a new conversation that we've had.

We did

adopt this public art plan back in February, and we've been able to have a lot of

different conversations that has taken into account.

So I just want to highlight that, again, this is not a new conversation, and we're

not voting today on approving $8 million allocation to

projects.

Correct.

Rather, we're strategizing of how do we, one, complete

projects all across the districts, and ensure that we continue to

have that pride and ownership all across the city of El Paso.

So thank you for all your hard work, Ben.

Thank you. And just for clarification, sir, the idea of doing a

memorial piece to first responders and veterans at The Beast first

initiated at your predecessor's very first community meeting, so it was about seven

years ago.

Okay. Okay. Representative Trajo.

Thank you, Mayor.

Ben, I also did not have a conversation with you prior to being briefed last

week, correct?

Correct, ma'am.

Okay.

I do have a question for Ms. Mack regarding the

railroad reconstruction. What was the initial expected

completion date for that, if you have any information?

I don't have it handy, ma'am

Yeah, generally who can answer that question?

I provided you with the project manager, ma'am, from-

Mm-hmm

... Capital Improvements who can provide the most up-to-date information and also

the history on that project.

Okay. So it's

been with TXDOT for a year?

About.

Okay. Is that typical, Ms. Mack, to be waiting on

something like this?

Yvette may answer, but she's not going to make this a Railroad project discussion.

Right.

Sorry, I tried to do what Ms.

Margarita did. Didn't work. Yvette Hernandez for the

record. Yes, ma'am. When we work with TXDOT,

one, we have to put it into their planning.

It has to get approved from the MTP.

It goes to the TIP, and then once we get it into the TIP, the

longest part takes getting it funded, and that's with our AFA,

our funding agreement. And so that's the process that we're going through.

I also believe with Railroad, since it's an widening, we also have

a consultative call. And so that is not just TXDOT, but

also environmental partners that we need to call and

coordinate the

project scope details. They see everything, and then they approve it.

And so I think

it's about three or five individuals that are on this call,

and it is quite an undertaking to get that

scheduled, even though there's only about five people on that call.

So that's kind of the background with Railroad.

Okay. Is there anything that the city can do to try to

expedite that or get that moving forward?

Is there anything on the city's end, in our court, that can be done?

Unfortunately, no. It's with the federal process.

Okay. Very good. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Representative Canales.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'll start here. The

entirety of the program

currently, all the

projects that are currently approved in the program, they total about

$13,225,000. Not about. Exactly.

Correct. Yes.

$13,225,000.

That's correct, sir.

And

look, and

I've made a point to never do this. Whether it's with the public art plan or

streets funding or anything else, I try not to

look at funding going to this district versus this other district.

I've always thought that that's--

Perfectly

equal distribution of funds across the districts doesn't necessarily mean

that's an equitable distribution.

I'm always trying to

stay even-keeled there. Sometimes District 8 has more funding and sometimes it has

less funding, but the funding goes where the needs are.

And

so I hate doing this type of breakdown, but looking at the public art plan,

if there was an even distribution across the districts, it would be about 12 and a

half percent of the funding for each district.

In the public art plan that's currently approved,

District 8 has about 5% of the funding,

and I was very happy to approve that when it happened.

Again, I know District 8 is blessed with some wonderful public

art,

and so that's not something that I brought up at the time.

But then to now hear that

a significant portion of that funding is going to be reduced,

it's about a third of the approved funding for projects in District 8,

and it will leave us at 3% of the overall public art

plan.

That's

very difficult to hear. That starts to be a number where

it's hard to justify to my constituents that we are only looking

at 3% of the public art funding because of a reduction

to an established project that's been on the books for quite a while.

And so I just wanted to point that out.

I think if any

member of council was told that

their

allocation within a particular program was being reduced to just 3% of the total,

they wouldn't like to hear that.

It's a difficult thing to explain to my constituents,

why

the public art funding for District 8 has

decreased so dramatically. And again, it feels almost icky

to say it now because this isn't something that I ever

kicked up a fuss about because, again, I understand these things

happen, and the allocations shift over time.

It's the fact that we're coming forward with such a dramatic reduction

that bothers me.

Understood, sir. I think, though, that you need to, or I would ask your

constituents to think about approaching this not as the lens of

the current allocation in current plans, but to think about the fact that

District 8 has 40 projects.

Yeah, no, I know. I know.

Historically, over the 20 years, out of 100 projects, 40

projects have gone to District 8. And that's not necessarily

an indication of preference from the

representative at the time or the program.

It's really a representation of the amount of money that the city

has invested in downtown, which District 8 has.

However, though, as we begin to think about parity and making

sure we catch other districts up, I think we are going to continue to have some

of these conversations in the next few years as we bring forward plans.

Yeah, and again, that's why I didn't bring anything up when we approved the plan.

It's just hard to then say we're taking money out of an already

allocated project, an already established and funded project.

That's where it becomes more difficult.

I'm okay with--

I understand that the District 8 allocation was smaller.

It's just now being cut into again, making it

even smaller. And this is a project that we have promised to the public, and I

understand there will still be a project, but it's a large change

in scope

from what was approved.

Is the name of the project remaining the Water Wall-

So the project names are always just placeholders.

Right.

And so when we actually get closer to completion, we would change the

name. But that's how everyone knows the actual feature itself is it's the former

Water Wall.

Okay.

That's all, Mayor. Thank you.

Okay. Represent-

No.

You're good? Okay.

All right. Ms. Prime, we have public comment on this item?

Yes, Mayor. We have Mr. Sam Armijo,

followed by Patricia Osman and Lisa Turner.

Good afternoon, sir.

I'll give you this and one of you take it.

Okay.

I submitted

Make sure these are due the day before the meeting.

Hmm?

Anything you want to present is due the day before the meeting.

Okay. Good morning,

Mayor Johnson-

Good afternoon

... representatives.

I have prepared a detailed policy brief.

It's for the record and

for the City Council.

It's quite detailed, and

to meet the time constraints, I'm going to summarize the contents.

I come here today as a private citizen to speak

against the continued discretionary spending-

Are we speaking on item number 26?

Item 26.

Okay

...

to speak against the continued discretionary

spending of millions of dollars on public art

while neglecting

our streets and many other things that our

citizens desperately need.

In 2024, the City Council approved the

expenditure of

almost $8.6 million

for public art.

In February 17th of this year, the City Council

unanimously approved a 2026 to

2036 public art master plan, which

called for an additional

$8,348,000

spending in 2026. Now, the City

Council is considering adopting an amendment, which is just the

pluses and minuses, which do not affect the total budget at

all, and you spent a great deal of time on partisan

issues of who's getting the most out of that pot.

Now, the City Council is considering adopting this amendment,

which really is no

significance except to the various

districts' representatives who seem to think they are getting the short end of the

stick. Today, I'm asking the City Council to table the

vote on this amendment, and instead

vote to divert the entire

$348,000 from the public

master plan to the repair of our streets.

I've heard the

statements by the previous speaker

about how you're locked in. A previous city council

established a perpetual public art program

that taxes our people, our citizens,

and

can't be changed. Well, you're in charge.

You're the City Council. You can overturn a previous ordinance

that no longer fits the needs of our city.

Our city needs a lot of repairs on our streets.

If you go on Westwind today coming into this meeting,

there's a huge hole there that people are at the

last minute discovering and shifting away safety

issues, and it remains there.

So I'm telling you, you have the authority to

overturn the decisions of a prior city council.

Thank you, Mr. Armijo.

Okay. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

And please take action on this, and I think the taxpayers-

Thank you

... will reward you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, Ms. Prime, let's call for the vote on this side item number-- No, we have

more comment.

Yes. Ms. Osman, go ahead, ma'am. Your microphone is ready.

She will be followed by Lisa Turner.

I

also was going to mention the fact that

any city council

can

decommission,

completely change an ordinance from previous.

There's no reason why certificates of obligation,

which as they stated, is debt.

Citizens should not be incurring debt for these vanity

art projects.

I find it very strange that these two new projects are going

to the districts

for people who are currently running for office.

Oddly coincidental.

Quite frankly, this city already has a huge issue that none of you

even consider in regards to urban sprawl.

But let's keep wasting money on vanity

projects.

The Water Wall project,

if the water features were such an issue

with what happened in the plaza, why was it even proposed

to begin with?

Is it because now it has to be changed due to all the water issues stemming from

meta in the data centers?

Because that's what it appears to be.

And quite frankly, I'm going to say,

your vote earlier

against the zoning changes for Rio Grande

show that all of you that voted against that are really

for gentrification because you don't understand the history

of various neighborhoods across the city

You're willing to

put artwork wherever

for, quite frankly, campaign purposes

as versus decommissioning and reallocating

those funds to essential improvements.

But you don't do that.

As far as graffiti, the probation department goes and wipes a lot of that

away.

If you think that kids aren't going to graffiti over murals,

you're lying to yourself. They're lying to you.

It happens around the city all the time.

Percent. That 2%, how much of that 2% to

vanity projects could have gone so that we didn't have to

incur a rate hike?

The gentrification and the senseless vanity project

waste that you all will approve

shows the slap in the face

to the real residents of this city, who aren't the

ones that are throwing donations into your discretionary fund-

Thank you, Ms. Hausman

... or your campaign.

You're at the time limit. The next speaker is Lisa Turner.

Good afternoon, Ms. Turner.

Good afternoon, Ms. Prime.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, mayor and council.

I'd be crying if it wasn't so funny

how this discussion was going one way,

and it should have gone that way, and how it got turned

around

270 degrees and it's going off in another direction.

You people are blind.

Okay?

We got an election season. We're taking

money from already approved project and move it into

people

who happen to be running for election.

Now, I don't know about you, but as a taxpayer,

I keep coming up with a word that starts with the letter C.

I don't have to tell you what it is. You know what it is.

I expect more out of you.

I know you have a health plan.

Some of you need to go get your eyes checked because you can't see it.

My city attorney should be yelling at you.

My city manager should be yelling at you.

You don't do this. It's an election time.

This is all election pushed.

There's absolutely no reason, and you want to hold District 8

at fault

because it has downtown in it.

What happens downtown is driven by the downtown business district,

not District 8, because there's a lot of us in District 8 that need things, and we

don't get them because

downtown comes first.

I'm really quite disappointed

in the people that I'm looking at, that you would pull something like this,

so blatant and obvious,

at election time.

I'd

be crying if it wasn't so funny.

Okay, Ms. Prime, I believe that concludes public comment?

That's correct, Mayor.

Okay. Let's call for the vote on this item, please.

Yes, sir. The motion was made by alternate Mayor Pro Tem Fierro, seconded by

Representative Maldonado Rocha.

This is to approve item 36-- I'm sorry,

26, the resolution on item 26. On that motion,

call for the vote.

Representative Acevedo?

No.

Thank you. End the voting session.

And the motion passes five to three.

Representatives Chavez, Rocha, Trejo, Nino, Fierro voting aye.

Representatives Acevedo, Limon, Canales voting nay. The motion does pass.

Okay, Council, we have two more items.

Let's take item number 27. Ms. Prime.

Yes, sir. Item 27 is discussion and action on a motion from City

Council on September 15th, 2026, directing the city

manager to refrain from entering into, executing, renewing,

or extending any contract agreement or other arrangement with FLOCK Safety

or any other provider for the acquisition, installation, operation, maintenance,

or use of fixed networked automated license plate reader,

ALPR cameras, or substantially similar technology.

Okay. Is there a motion to approve this item?

I move to approve.

Is there a second?

Second.

Okay. Representative Canales.

Thank you, Mayor.

This is

in language exactly the same as the direction that the council already voted to

give

a few weeks ago. This is just effectuating the same direction

through the

resolution that was developed by the city attorney's office, but the language is

the same.

Thanks, Mayor.

Any other comment on this item? Okay. Ms. Prime, we have public comment?

Yes, on item 27, Patricia Ossman and Lisa Turner.

Ms. Hausman, go ahead. Your microphone is ready.

My main issue with this is that it did not include

Chief Garcia

in this.

It says city manager.

But as we know,

under the cover of darkness, Chief Garcia is who

instilled FLOCK into our community.

And

to keep up with current legal

matters on Flock Everybody should be aware of the case that

just happened out of San Antonio in Texas,

where Flock was considered unconstitutional

because the way in which it was being used to track.

It is not just

license plate readers, it is a tracking device.

If you can see every place a car has been,

it is being tracked. That is a Fourth Amendment

constitution violation,

and a Texas court determined it was

unconstitutional. So not only should Dion Mack,

our city

manager

or the city attorney, be added to this, but Chief

Garcia, so the same underhanded contract

doesn't hit our community again.

That's not the only case across this nation that has

determined Flock and any

license plate readers, automated license plate readers, so whether

that's Axon,

Flock, Mirror,

any of them, unconstitutional.

Most of y'all don't even ask the real questions, and Chief Garcia

and his people don't even understand how

any of this data is actually used, actually

tracked, because they don't own the data. You don't own the data.

The contracts with Flock have been changed.

They own the data. So even though you don't have access to that,

it's forever on their system.

So every

car that was tracked with every bumper sticker, whatever, they still own

that.

And all of that is unconstitutional.

That is what you allowed

Chief Garcia, what our city attorney allowed,

what our city manager allowed Chief Garcia to do,

put us in an unconstitutional

state here in this city.

And I don't know about anybody else, but when our law enforcement

can't even adhere to our Constitution in the founding

laws, the supreme laws of this nation, there's an issue.

Thank you, Ms. Houseman. You've reached the time limit.

The next speaker is Lisa Turner.

Good afternoon, Ms. Turner.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Council. The use of Flock is a national

security issue.

There's a lot of people at Fort Bliss, a lot of people that work out at White

Sands, have security clearances from secret, top secret,

and above.

And what do you think these cameras can do?

It can track them down.

It can endanger their lives.

It can endanger national security, but nobody ever thinks about that

because it's not your area of expertise, but it is

mine.

Flock has top priority

on band 14

on Wi-Fi towers.

If the chief has to make a call, his call won't get through

if he's having to go over a Wi-Fi tower or any other

officers, because Flock has top

priority. It could overload the channel, and the

information can't get through, and when it is, it's late.

Flock is taking this information,

it's bundling it with information from data brokers, and it's

selling it.

They'd be silly not to

because cities across this nation have given them

free rein.

Right now,

usage want to terminate it. Well, right now, those Flock

cameras are still running until such time as you terminate the power

or you block that camera lens.

It's still collecting data on everybody. Ms.

Houseman is correct about if you've got something

saying you

got three kids and two dogs or whatever, and you've got those stickers on your

car, guess what? Flock knows it too,

and everybody that has access to Flock has access to that too.

You married and you got something on the side, guess what?

You can't hide from Flock.

You can't hide from Flock.

That's just it. You have no privacy, period.

You trying to have a meeting on the side so nobody else knows,

guess what?

Flock's there, Flock sees. You can't hide.

You've got no privacy. You can't even do anything bad.

It's worse than having your parents following you around on a date.

You can't do anything.

I'm trying to tell you, and I'm being serious.

One, it's a national security issue,

and on that issue alone, they should not be in this city

because of our access to Fort Bliss and our access to White

Sands. Just alone.

It's just that plain and simple.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Okay, Ms. Pryor, I believe that concludes public comment?

Yes, sir.

Would you call the vote on item number 27?

Yes, the motion was made by Representative Canales, seconded by Representative

Maldonado Rocha, and this is to approve

the action on item 27.

On that motion,

call for the vote

Mayor, can I just-

Okay

... make a clarifying point?

Yeah. Representative Canales.

Just to clarify, the motion is to approve the resolution attached.

Correct, to approve the resolution.

Representative Acevedo?

Aye.

Thank you. End the voting session. And that motion passes unanimously.

Okay. Let's take item number 28, please.

Item 28 is discussion and action on a memorandum of understanding between the City

of El Paso and the Office of the Governor, Texas Military Preparedness Commission

in support of El Paso Water's application for funding through the Defense Economic

Adjustment Assistance Grant program for an expansion of the Kay Bailey

Hutchison Desalination Center.

Okay, hang on. Representative Chavez.

I see-

No, I was going to speak before this item was called into-

The record?

Into the record. I would like to reconsider my vote for item 25 after this one.

Thank you.

Item number 25?

Yes.

Okay.

And I know I'll need a second, but I'll do that afterwards-

Okay

... before we adjourn. Thank you.

Okay.

Okay, is there a motion to approve this item number 28?

So moved.

Okay. There's a motion and a second. Okay.

Good afternoon.

Oh, good afternoon. My name is Bianca Arriaga, and I

am the utility grant program manager for El Paso Water.

I'm here today to just request the signing of a memorandum of understanding.

This would be between El Paso Water and the City of El Paso,

and that would be for the ability to accept grant funding from the Texas

Military Preparedness Commission.

As the item was read, this would be for

the project of the expansion of the Kay Bailey Hutchison

Desalination Plant.

Any extenuating

match would be met from El Paso Water.

There would be no cost to the City of El Paso for this.

Okay. Very good. Representative Canales.

Thank you, Mayor. I've seen

many rounds now of

DIAG projects-

Yes

...

come forward, and I have to say, this was my favorite one.

When I first heard that

El Paso Water was pursuing this, and

I hoped with appropriate support from the city,

it made me very happy. And I love to see the

US Bureau of Reclamation as well

as part of the funding mix for this.

So, just wanted to say that. Kudos to El Paso Water for looking for

solutions for expansion of the desal plant.

I think it's such an important part of our infrastructure for

supplying good water to the public, which El Paso Water does a great job of.

And,

yeah, very happy to see this as the focus of

an application to the DIAG grant. So, thank you.

Very good.

Thank you.

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

Yes. Ms. Osmond. Ms. Osmond.

Go ahead, ma'am. Your microphone is raised.

I just want to point out a few things.

One,

is this an existing project

or is it going to be a new project?

Reason being, I'm sure that

6.5 million,

if the grant for the 4 million is granted,

are going to hit

our water rates.

I also find it

somewhat ironic

that Fort Bliss, that is bringing in

a data center,

is who you're getting this grant from,

because they are going to

funnel out our community water.

So at bare minimum, they should pay

to improve the local water system.

I was kind of disappointed when it was named Kay Bailey Hutchison

because back when she was in DC, I actually

lobbied her offices in DC.

She wasn't a very good representative, so it was kind of a

disappointment when it actually got that name.

But this is the thing, is that I've been to

the Army

Corps of Engineers meetings with the water company

in the studies that were done due to the flooding here in town, and I

can't understand why it is that grant funds

aren't being applied for,

to allow for street drainage, which is the

issue.

Not ponds. We don't need ponds. Our streets need sewers

to flow that water off the streets.

Not higher curbs, not bigger ponds,

not stealing people's property to create bigger holes.

Army Corps of Engineers determined

we flood because we have no drainage, no place for

pennywise to hide, for example.

So why isn't

those funds

being applied for?

Why aren't the projects that will actually help the community,

not help the data centers,

being applied for?

Because every time we get a hard rain, people get flooded out

like crazy all around town.

That's because we don't have any actual sewer system and drainage,

proper drainage. You can build a big hole in one place,

but that's not going to help everybody a block away.

But I guess we should be thankful to Fort Bliss,

our DOJ, for handing $4 million, if we get it-

For the data center they're going to build.

Thank you, Ms. House. You've reached the three-minute limit.

Okay, Ms. Frank, I believe that's the end of public comment on item number 28?

Correct.

Okay. Would you call for the vote?

Yes. The motion was made by Representative Ore Trejo, seconded by Representative

Nino, and this is to approve the memorandum of understanding on

item 28. On that motion, call for the vote.

Representative Acevedo?

Aye.

Thank you. End the voting session, and that motion passes unanimously.

Okay, Representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to

make a motion to

reconsider my vote for item 25.

Okay. There's a motion. Is there a second?

Second.

There's a motion and a second to reconsider item 25. All in favor?

Aye. Anyone opposed? No. I'll do roll call.

This is to reconsider item 25.

Representative Chavez?

Aye.

Acevedo?

Aye.

Rocha? Aye. Trejo?

Aye.

Nino?

Aye.

Fierro?

Aye.

Limón?

No.

Canales?

Aye.

And the motion passes. We're back on item 25.

Okay. Representative Chavez.

Thank you, Mayor. And I'm very torn with this item just because I want to fully

support animal services, and unfortunately, we're voting on both.

And I've been sitting here thinking about the cost increase to small restaurant

operators for their fees. I, again, want to reiterate the fact that

I'm very cognizant of the fact that we have increased costs at the

city, operational costs that we have to meet.

But at this time, given the financial situation of our

community and people hurting for different reasons, I would just like

to support restaurant operators at this time and vote against that

high increase of 49%.

It in no way is a vote against

that department specifically, code enforcement or animal services at all.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. Okay, Ms. Frank, call for the vote, please.

There's not a motion to approve this.

Move to approve.

Oh, I thought there was... Okay.

Move to approve. Is there a second?

Second.

Okay. Ms. Frank.

Yes, the motion was made by Representative Canales,

seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Chavez, and this is to approve the

resolution on item 25.

On that motion, call for the vote.

Representative Acevedo?

No.

Thank you. End the voting session, and the motion passes five to

three.

Representatives

Rocha, Trejo, Fierro, Limón, Canales voting aye.

Representatives Chavez, Acevedo, Nino voting nay.

The motion does pass.

Okay. I believe that brings us to the-

Motion to adjourn.

Okay, there's a motion to adjourn.

Second.

There's the second. Thank you, Council. Ms. Frank?

There's a motion and a second to adjourn the regular city council meeting.

All in favor?

Aye. Anyone opposed? And the regular city council meeting for Tuesday,

October 13th, 2026 is adjourned at 1:22 PM.

Thank you, Council.

Get out before 2:00.