El Paso Mayor John Cook addressed a full house Wednesday afternoon during his annual State of the City in the El Paso convention center.

Cook first addressed the city recall and Traditional Family Values Ordinance which tried to take away health benefits from gay and unmarried partners of city employees.

"The collateral damage caused by the ordinance impacted far more people than the 19 domestic partners of city employees," Cook said. "Eighty-four retirees, 42 dependents of retirees, and 40 children and grandchildren would have lost their health coverage had we not overturned a poorly written and misleading ordinance. Bigotry disguised as religion is still bigotry."

Listing the city's successes in the past year, Cook praised the $18 million investment in the El Paso ports of entry and added Customs and Border Protection agents. He also introduced a plan for a new light-rail system to ship merchandise from one side of the international border to the other without the use of manned vehicles. The Universal Freight Shuttle would run above traffic from secured loading docks on either side of the border.

The last challenge the Mayor touched on was his worry that "El Paso" and "Public Corruption" are becoming interchangeable words.

"We make headlines with public corruption, but we also have things that are beyond our control like the violence in Mexico," Cook said. "When I first covered my first State of the City address, I struggled with how to cover the public corruption cases that were just beginning to surface. Seven years later, the list of people implicated continues to grow. Our success or failure as a community will be dictated by how we respond to this particular challenge."

Cook encouraged every registered voter to research candidates running for office in order to curb public corruption in El Paso.

Specific 12 Successes:

• Invested $18 million dollars in our ports of entry
• Added Customs and Border Protection Agents
• Adopted a billion dollar Comprehensive Mobility Plan
• Funded transportation projects using TRZ legislation
• Secured State and Federal transportation funding
• Progressing on the completion of Loop 375
• Developing a real Rapid Transit System
• Awarded "Outstanding Public Transit System"
• Adopted a $10 million Highway Aesthetics Plan
• Weather the economic recession
• Completion of East Bliss Military Complex
• Visible progress Downtown

Specific 13 Challenges:

• We need to attract manufacturers and suppliers
• We need to address the weaknesses at our ports of entry
• Must continue to improve mobility
• Need to find new funding tools for transportation
• Must address commercial truck traffic on I-10
• Development of a fixed-rail trolley system
• Develop a competitive economic development strategy
• Focus resources on distressed neighborhoods
• Need to re-examine annexation strategy
• Improve our customer service
• Need to expand convention and hotel capabilities
• Must attract shoppers to downtown
• Deal with public corruption