Good Morning El Paso 07.01.16

decide the fate of a former las cruces officer today accused of using excessive force. needs and wants … el paso’s city council is already looking ahead to next years budget. we’ll break down what city reps discussed at yesterday’s meeting. the pentagon has officially ended one of last bans on service men ad women in the armed forces. a very good morning el paso, las cruces, and juarez. i’m stephanie valle. and i’m hillary floren. good morning, everyone. deep moisture and an upper disturbance moves back in from the west. this means increasing showers and thunderstorms across the borderland today and cruces police officer. from our new mexico mobile newsroom… richard garcia is accused of using excess force on an inmate, ross flynn. yesterday,garcia told the jury his version of events from that night in december 20-14. garcia said ross flynn was not cooperating with the arresting officers. but – flynn said he was caught off guard when the officers came into his holding cell … and did this … when flynn was in handcuffs. he’s suing the city for 12 million dollars. garcia says his intent was not to hurt fynn…and if convicted, faces up to three years behind bars. the jury will resume deliberating at 8:30 this morning. from the el paso fire department to state troopers– all local law enforcement are sending out a clear message to the public this weekend– be safe and don’t break the law. good morning el paso’s denise olivas is live … denise? a reminder– the use of fireworks this independence day within city limits is illegal. fire officials say anyone caught using them can be issued a citation and a fine as hight as two- thousand dollars. independence day isn’t until monday but that means people will start celebrating through out the weekend. beginning tonight at 8 the el paso police department starts its dwi surge– and ends on tuesday at 4 in the morning. the texas department of public safety is another agency that will be on the lookout for drunk drivers– drivers and passengers– especially children who are not buckled up– and those who are speeding. this time last year… across the state as well” sergeant vasquez says dps troopers will also be assisting other agencies if need. city council wrapped up another budget meeting, with nothing approved or cut . city manager tommy gonzalez recommended a general fund increase of $17.3 million dollars for 2017. abc-7’s jerry najera has our complete coverage the city manager is recommending a property tax rate increase of 3.86 cents to cover debt and the city’s operations and maintenance. but at this point council members still want more time to go over the budget. “it’s ver important to me that we would have a zero tax increase” mayor oscar leese said in the meeting he would veto any budget that included a tax increase and directed the city manager to come up with proposed savings. he asked council to approve a balanced budget. some of city managers recommendations to keep that balance would be reductions in city vehicles delaying pay increases for city workers until march of 2017 and reductions in streets and other improvements. the second level of reductions needed to achieve a no tax rate increase would be to implement cyber security for the city in phases instead of all at once. to reduce the fuel budget and public safety items. leeser has expressed he does not want any cuts to those items. ” want to make sure public safety is not an option we have to make sure we maintain it and we don’t cut any part of public safety and that is the direction that all of council gave to the city manager” the third level of reductions according to the city manager can be harder to achieve that would involve more aggressive property and sales tax projections bond refunding and use of the fund balance. “those savings are really what we’re going to be using and give us the ability to have and not hit the cap” again right now city council is still sorting through the items and dollar amounts they will continue to have meetings –the next one will be july 12th. the budget needs to be adopted by august 21st. there will be public hearings before that deadline. the house will vote on gun control next week. speaker paul ryan made the announcement on a conference call with gop members. a source on the call said ryan called it “common sense”, talking about suspected terrorists not being able to purchase guns. he cautioned saying he intended to make sure due process isn’t violated- commenting on people being protected if they don’t believe they should be on the watch list. the move comes after democrats — including el paso congressman beto o-rourke — staged a sit-in last week and pledged to continue when the session resumes after the july fourth holiday. the pentagon is lifting its ban on transgender people being able to serve openly in the military. thursday’s announcement removes one of the last barriers to military service by any individual. there are as many as 11- thousand transgender active duty service members and reservists who will be affected. that’s according to a study cited by the pentagon. 6-07… weather and traffic on the 7s… deep moisture and an upper disturbance moves back in from the west. this means increasing showers and thunderstorms across the borderland today and tonight. lots of clouds and numerous showers and thunderstorms expected for southern new mexico and now it’s time to take a look at the tx-dot traffic cams… still much more to come here on good morning el paso — residents are now helping fire crews battle a brush fire that grew to over 2-thousand acres in a matter of hours. plus–thunderstorm s that caused flooding in another part of the country prompted swift rescues after rushing waters washed away streets. and this is abc-7, where news comes first! new this morning– what began as a