In his annual State of the City address, El Paso Mayor Renard Johnson laid out a broad set of strategies he believes are improving this region’s economic growth, quality of life and public safety.
“Today is an opportunity to reflect on how far our city has come and to look ahead to where we are going because El Paso is a city on the rise,” said Johnson, delivering his second State of the City speech to a crowd of more than 700 people gathered at the El Paso Convention Center Wednesday.
With 14 months behind him as mayor, Johnson announced: “I am very proud to say that the state of the city of El Paso is strong.”
Hosted by the El Paso Chamber, the State of the City is considered the mayor’s most high-profile annual speech, and is used to outline the city’s accomplishments, discuss its goals and introduce new policy initiatives. Many of the region’s elected officials attend, as well as city and county leadership and businesspeople.
As a city historically underestimated by state and national political powerbrokers, Johnson said El Paso is changing that perception and is now “something that the rest of the country is just now beginning to understand,” he said.
“We are not simply a border city; we are a gateway city. We are a city that connects two nations, two cultures and one shared future,” Johnson said.
The mayor spoke of the economic power of the El Paso, Juárez and Las Cruces region, calling it “one of the most important economic regions in North America.” More than $130 billion in international trade moves through area ports of entry each year, he said.
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El Paso Mayor Renard Johnson gives the State of the City Wednesday at the El Paso Convention Center.
Ben Torres and Maria Molina
German Meza and Myron Watkins
Youssef Laham, Jack Applewhite, Monica Aizpurua and Ciro Baeza
Tony Tomesheski and Vaney Villegas
Ryan Stern and Lacy Baron
Lori Guerrero, Yolie Diaz and Andy Renteria
Lillian Crouch and Richard Perez
Linda Nunez, Gina Lewis and Monica Galindo
Tracy Huhn, Christian Diaz and Liz Aragon
Jesus Zapata, Lilly Gutierrez Molina and Tim Davenport
El Paso Mayor Renard Johnson gives the State of the City Wednesday at the El Paso Convention Center.
Ben Torres and Maria Molina
German Meza and Myron Watkins
Youssef Laham, Jack Applewhite, Monica Aizpurua and Ciro Baeza
Tony Tomesheski and Vaney Villegas
Ryan Stern and Lacy Baron
Lori Guerrero, Yolie Diaz and Andy Renteria
Lillian Crouch and Richard Perez
Linda Nunez, Gina Lewis and Monica Galindo
Tracy Huhn, Christian Diaz and Liz Aragon
Jesus Zapata, Lilly Gutierrez Molina and Tim Davenport
Improved economic development was one of Johnson’s top campaign promises, and he visited that topic often. El Paso is “experiencing a new way of momentum,” he said.
“We are seeing investments in advanced manufacturing, logistics, aerospace technology and entrepreneurship,” he said. “Companies are choosing El Paso because of our workforce, our location and our culture of collaboration.”
Through partnership with the University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso Community College, the region’s trade schools and local school districts, the city is “building a talent pipeline that will power our economy for decades,” Johnson said.
The mayor mentioned the importance of quality-of-life projects like the proposed Downtown Deck Plaza that “will help reconnect neighborhoods and create new public spaces right in the heart of the city. Because great cities invest not only in roads and buildings, they invest in community.”
Public safety, another focus of the mayor’s campaign, was also a theme of his speech.
“El Paso continues to be recognized as one of the safest cities in America. That is a result of the hard work of our police officers, our firefighters, our emergency responders, our community partners and our residents,” he said.
Johnson spoke of a new city investment – “a new police and fire public safety complex” near the airport. This 50-acre project “will provide advanced strength and resources to ensure our first responders are ready to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow,” said Johnson, adding that it will also be used to train other law enforcement agencies.
Emphasizing the crackdown on DWIs, a short video was shown on the city’s “Enough is Enough” campaign to curb drunk driving deaths. After the video, Johnson said, “That is an area that I want to do more.”
Johnson said he’s been on police ride-alongs to get a better sense of the challenges law enforcement faces with drunk drivers.
“I’ve seen it, firsthand, how bad it is in our community,” he said. “We’ve got to do a better job, and that’s an area I’m going to continue to stay focused on.”
Three police academies have had graduating classes since the start of Johnson’s tenure as mayor, bringing about 109 new officers to El Paso streets. About 40 new firefighters have joined the city’s departments, he said.
A $2.5 million federal grant helped pay for 18 new police positions, and another grant paid for 15 new firefighters, Johnson said.
He announced that El Paso was recently selected to participate in the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, a program founded to equip mayors and senior city officials with effective city management skills. The initiative was founded by former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
“For El Paso, that means learning from some of the best minds in the world and bringing those lessons home to build a stronger El Paso,” Johnson said.
The importance of Fort Bliss to the region was also addressed. With more than 40,000 employees, the military base represents a huge presence in El Paso, Johnson said.
“What most people don’t know in El Paso is that 70% of that number lives in the El Paso community,” he said. “They go to our schools, they go to our stores, they eat at our restaurants. They are part of the El Paso fabric.”
He said the city’s close relationship with Fort Bliss was evident in two recent crises.
The first was the Jan. 11 water main break near the intersection of Girl Scout and Transmountain that left more than 100,000 people in Northeast and parts of Central El Paso with little or no water service.
As a member of the Public Service Board, which governs the local water utility, Johnson said he was aware of the 4,000-gallon water tank trailers – “water buffalos” – used by the Army post to transport drinking water to remote areas.
Johnson said he immediately thought of Maj. Gen. Curt Taylor, the commander of Fort Bliss and the 1st Armored Division, as a resource.
“My first call was to the general. I said, ‘General, we need some help,’” recalled Johnson. “He says, ‘What do you need, sir?’ and I said, ‘We need water.’”
Johnson said Taylor “did not blink an eye” and delivered water to El Paso residents.
The second incident involving Fort Bliss was the mayor’s communication with Taylor during the early morning hours of the El Paso airspace shutdown last month. Taylor called him personally.
“We were trying to figure out at that moment why the airspace was shut down,” recalled Johnson. “It was a mystery, and it still is a mystery, by the way.”
“He felt comfortable enough to call me at two, three, four in the morning. And he calls me and he says, ‘Mayor, this is the problem and this is what we’re working on to get the airspace open.’ So to have that dialogue is very important between the city and the military,” Johnson said.
Speaking about the future of El Paso, Johnsons said it “will be determined by how well we invest in people, our students, our workforce our families,” and added, “the best days of El Paso are not behind us. They are still ahead of us.”
After the opening remarks of his address, Johnson sat on the stage with KFOX broadcast journalist Robert Holguin for a question-and-answer session. Below are portions of the conversation, edited for brevity.
Q: Let’s talk about quality of life. What is the city doing to make sure that that’s happening?
This is an area that we’ve got a lot of work to do still, but quality of life is something that we have a major focus on. Winterfest, over 600,000 people in Downtown El Paso over a six-week period. That is ranked No. 1 in Newsweek, ranked No. 2 in USA Today as best holiday events, right here in the city of El Paso, Texas. So that is part of the quality of life.
The city has also made a real big effort in investing in our parks, our biking trails.
We’re going to continue to make more investments into the El Paso community for quality of life. We have to fix these potholes. We have to fix these streets. We’ve got to figure out how to get that done, so we will continue to do that.
One of the other biggest things that I hear from this community is, “Mayor, I have to take my kids out of town for sporting events.” We need an indoor and outdoor sporting event right here in El Paso to keep our kids home.
Our kids should not have to leave this beautiful community to go to Phoenix or go to Austin or anywhere else to play in sporting events. So we’ve got to do better.
Q: How do you make sure that El Paso’s economic growth is actually improving everyday people’s lives here for families across the city?
That’s the million-dollar question. Affordability is tough right now. Your grocery prices are rising, your gas prices are rising, your utility prices, we could go on and on.
But what I can tell you is El Paso’s economy is strong. We don’t see the big dips, up and down, like other major cities do.
In December, we had a record number of sales tax collections in the city, $16.6 million. That right there is how we start lowering your property taxes. You start increasing sales tax, and your property taxes will start coming down. So our sales tax revenue is doing really, really well.
Q: We are a deeply binational city with very strong ties to Ciudad Juárez, and regional partners, too. How are you strengthening those cross-border and regional relationships to create opportunities for the entire region?
You’ve got to put in the time to develop these relationships. I formed very, very good relationships with my amigo in Juárez, Mexico, and my friend there in Las Cruces, and all of the rural mayors.
One of the things that (Juárez) Mayor Cruz Pérez Cuéllar told me when I first came into office is that he was going to be very intentional about making sure that he was present in our community. And he has done that.
We find time to have dinners, we find time to have lunch together, the same with Mayor Eric Enriquez in Las Cruces. The mayor of Las Cruces and I are working on something that hopefully we can bring soon. We’ll be talking about some airport opportunities.
Q: What strategic plans are in place for 2026 and beyond?
We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with the Deck Plaza. Once in a lifetime. Many of us in this room may not ever see it happen, but we have to give it a chance. I think we would be doing a disservice if we don’t at least position this community for that opportunity, out in the future. We’ll be doing a disservice to our kids.
Q: Critics will say El Paso can’t afford it. What you’re saying is this is an opportunity because it doesn’t come along all that often; it’s one of these generational opportunities?
You’ll never see this again. If we don’t do this now, it’s gone.
We do not want this 100% on the back of the taxpayers. We are looking for federal funding. We are looking for additional funding to make this a reality. Why are we going to deprive this community of having something that every other community has?
The other thing I want to touch on is the convention center expansion. We have lost $70 million because our convention center is not capable of hosting the size of conventions that it should. Whether we like it or not, we’re in competition against Austin, Dallas, Houston, Waco, and I can name a few more that already have their convention spaces under construction. We have to step up to the plate.
We talked about lowering your property tax through sales tax, and more conventions. Many of us in this room enjoyed going to Coldplay. That increased our sales tax. There’s two more big concerts coming. There’s BTS, there’s Post Malone and Jelly Roll coming. And I’m not gonna be a spoiler, but I think there’s another big announcement coming here in the next couple of weeks. All of that drives sales tax and revenue for the city. I know this for a fact: The best days for El Paso are still ahead of us.