City Commission - Special Meeting

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon and welcome to the City Commission of the City of Brownsville. Mayor, may we call this special meeting to order?

Yes, please.

Pursuant to Chapter 551, Title V of the Texas Government Code, the Texas Open Meeting Act, notice is hereby given that the City Commission of the City of Brownsville, Texas, in accordance with Article 5, Section 12 of the Charter of State City, will commit an 2026 at 4 p.m. in the Commission Chambers on the second floor of the Brownsville City Hall All Federal Building, located at 1001 East Elizabeth Street, Brownsville, Cameron County, Texas, 78520. Next, we have roll call. Mayor John Cowan, Jr.

Present.

Commissioner Tino Villarreal.

Present.

Commissioner Nuri Tolonsky. Here. Commissioner Brian Martinez. Commissioner Linda Macias. Present. Commissioner Gustavo De Leon. Commissioner Pedro Cardenas. We do have a quorum. Next, we have public comment. Mayor, we received more than the limit. We received 49 public comments forms submitted before the deadline. Out of those 49 forms, 30 individuals open to speak before the commission. At this time is a discretion of the City Commission whether to suspend the rules and allow all 38 speakers or whether to adjust the time limit.

I'll move to suspend the rules so that everyone can speak.

Second. All right, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye 7. Aye.

As a courtesy reminder, all registered public speakers have acknowledged city public comment, conduct roles and display on the screen and agree to comply with addressing the commission. All comments should be made to the mayor and city commission at whole and not to individual commissioner member or staff member. Speakers are not allowed to use their time to conduct moments of silence or may not conduct filibuster. Speakers will be allowed three minutes and should state their name and address for the record. First, we have Ms. Rebecca Hinojosa. State your name and address for the record.

Can you repeat the name, please?

Rebecca Hinojosa.

For the record, Commissioner Cardenas is here. Please state your name and address for the record.

ma'am i think you're i think your mic is off uh hello my name is baka inohosa i'm with the south texas environmental justice network we are a local environmental organization based here in brownsville we've got an office just a few blocks from here downtown i have with me over 400 petitions opposing this 444 acres giveaway. We are urging you to vote against this agenda item. So I will hand these to your secretary. Those are letters from your constituents urging you to vote no. It is. We shouldn't have to be here on a Saturday because of SpaceX. It's absolutely ridiculous. It's clear that this agenda item is being rushed through on such short notice for the benefit of SpaceX and at the expense of our low-income people here in Brownsville. Just please remember that SpaceX always lies. They lie. SpaceX lied to Tony Martinez, Mayor Tony Martinez. They told him They told Brownsville residents that they would launch the Falcon 9 rocket. And then after they got their permit, they lied and then launched the largest rocket in human history and used this as an experimental laboratory. You cannot trust anything SpaceX says. It is clear you all are not totally aware of what you're even voting on. There hasn't been enough information for the public. We need at least 30 days information and notice. We just found out about this a couple of days ago. QB didn't even understand what this was about, and they voted no decision during their meeting on Thursday.

We urge you to vote no.

Thank you.

Speaker Wendy Garcia. Please say your name and address for the record.

Can you repeat the name again?

Brandy Garcia. We will continue with the next speaker. Adriana Barrientos.

Adriana Barrientos.

Next one, Shayla McCorking. Good afternoon.

I'm Sheila McCorkle. I'm one of our leaders at SpaceX. I live in Starbase. I want to thank you all for considering the matters before us today. So as is on the agenda, we're seeking to de-annex around 400 acres. This land is tucked between the landfill near the port and other industrial activities. And the reason we're seeking to expand there is that we have key operations that would take advantage of the shipping channel and the port operations. And the reason we're asking to de-annex it is because right now there are no services provided by the city in this area. There are no utilities or other critical services. And so in partnership with the city of Starbase, we can bring these services online quicker and more economically. But we realize that when we ask the community to support SpaceX growth, That growth should benefit the entire Brownsville and greater community, which is why, in part, we would like to commit to spending up to $220 million to help expand the water infrastructure for Brownsville and the greater area. This is the reason why we thought deeply about what we could do to make sure that we give back to the greater Brownsville community, and water is something that will support uh you know we think of it as liquid gold it's something that will support families here residents um it'll support existing businesses and it will allow for more jobs and economic growth in the region what much beyond what spacex is doing um and so in partnership with vpub they brought to us some critical projects to um greatly expand the water resources in the community for decades to come and and we talked about how we could invest and that that critical infrastructure. Why are we doing this? This is our home as well. We're here. This is our headquarters. We're raising our children here. I'm raising my children here. We are here to be here forever, and we want to invest in critical infrastructure that allows Brownsville to grow alongside of us. I think you can see this commitment with the thousands and thousands of jobs that we've created. Any given day at SpaceX, there are over 5,000 people working. And indirectly, tens of thousands of people help support our operation there. 70% of the folks that work at SpaceX and Starbase are born and bred in Brownsville and their surrounding areas. This is great wages, health care, purpose. We want to expand that. We want to grow near the port and We have grand ambitions to do more here in Brownsville. We're super proud to be here and we want to continue that investment. So today I'm asking you to allow us to keep growing alongside Brownsville. Thank you.

Next speaker. Next speaker, Blanca Campbell. Please say your name and address for the record.

Mayor, city commissioners, my name is Blanca Campbell. I was born and raised in Brownsville. Boca Chica Beach is not a place I found later in life. It's a place I grew up visiting. The gulf, the wind, the long stretch of sand that always felt like home. I never imagined that same stretch of coast would become a place where my children could watch the future lift off in front of them. I'm here today to support approval of this ordinance. The annexation of this property lets the city focus its time and resources where residents and businesses already receive or can more efficiently receive police, fire, streets, and other municipal services. SpaceX has brought jobs, investment, and the kind of energy that used to feel reserved for other cities. More than that, it has given our children something we used to only watch in movies. My boys have stood here in our own backyard and seen rockets rise in the sky. They have seen what it means when significant work takes place in the community that raised us. I consider myself fortunate to share in that moment, and I hope that same sense of possibility will continue for the next generation of Brownsville children. I respectfully urge the commission to vote yes on the second and final reading of this ordinance.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Next speaker.

Before we continue, I just ask everyone to respect each other. We're all people here that deserve respect, and I just encourage you guys to keep a good decorum here. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Next, Uriel Gavito. Please say your name and address for the record.

I'm going to be honest. I have not had enough time to gather my thoughts on this, and I suppose that could be my thesis. Why are we rushing this?

Why are we here on a Saturday? Why can't we know what they're going to do with the land?

Why can't we know why they need it to be outside of the city's jurisdiction? These are valid questions. These are questions that a regular city should know and ask and understand before voting on something. They say Starbase is a company town, but I fear that we are becoming one too. Alan Gard in an interview said with you, Mr. Villarreal on your podcast, that his most favorite thing about Brownsville is the people. I share that same sentiment, but the people have a massive distrust in you.

It's real. It's common. It's every day. You can earn their trust back.

But it is going to take courage. It is going to take genuine leadership. And so I, on behalf of everyone in Brownsville, ask you all to become genuine leaders that we need. Alan Gard said that in 15 years, Brownsville is going to be the biggest epicenter of growth in the country. But according to the American Lung Association, we're already ranked number two in pollution year round. So is that going to grow too? And mind you, this is before the LNG terminals are up, before the oil refinery is up, and before the continued expansion of SpaceX. Brownsville is considered what they call a sacrifice zone. A sacrifice zone is a place where the health and safety of people in these communities is being effectively sacrificed for the economic gains and prosperity of others. It's not the best feeling as a born and raised Brownsvillian. I worry that I will grow up and get cancer if I live here. I'm worried that my children will get cancer if they live here.

I am worried that we won't stand up for ourselves. Thank you.

Next speaker. Seth Morfin. Next speaker, Mary Gallegos.

Please say your name and address for the record.

My name is Mary Teresa Gallegos and I've been a Brownsville resident since 1990. I can't imagine any ethical reason for de-annexing so much of our city, especially considering the inevitable result. If you commissioners vote to do so, Brownsville will lose its jurisdiction and power to control any development out there, including data center construction. Currently, we can use our zoning laws to have an impact, but we will be giving that away to SpaceX, which we know we cannot trust. We know that the minute that land is no longer under our jurisdiction, there will be data centers there. Trump, Trump, same thing. Musk has already made it clear he wants to put a data center out there. So no matter how much you want Musk money to fund your next campaign, you need to know that if you support this de-annexation, you will lose your seat in this room. Because as you can see, we are paying attention. And the people who live at a star base are not voting for you. It'll be the people of Brownsville who make that decision. And we are paying attention, and we are not stupid.

Thank you. Next speaker. Jorge Cervantes. Jorge Cervantes. Next. Jahaira Enriquez. Jahaira Enriquez. Next. Bobby Peden. Bobby Peden. Next, Johanna Rangel. Johanna Rangel.

Are any of these online? Have you checked? Is anybody online?

Please state your name and your address for the record.

Good afternoon, Mayor and City Commissioners. Johanna Rangel. I'm here on behalf of the Greater Brownsville ADC to express our support for the Project Quantum and SpaceX continued investment in Brownsville. The economic impact SpaceX has already created in our community is significant. Since 2014, more than $3.2 billion has been invested in Starbase infrastructure. Today, Starbase supports more than 4,500 full-time employees, and contracts is estimated generated more than $24,000 in direct jobs throughout the community. Its annual gross economic market value is estimated at more than $6.5 billion. But those numbers tell only part of the story. Continued investment creates opportunities beyond the gates of Starbase. It means more opportunities for local contractors, suppliers, and small businesses. It strains our ability to attract aerospace, advanced manufacturing, and other companies that want to be part of Brownsville. Most importantly, it creates opportunities for our people. It gives our students and residents a pathway to build careers in an industry that is growing right here at home. We have already seen how one major investment can create a ripple effect across our economy. Project Quantum gives us the opportunity to continue building on that momentum, creating jobs, straining our supply chain, attracting new investment and expanding economic opportunity for Brownsville. Greater Brownsville EDC is committed to working alongside SpaceX and our community partners to ensure that as this industry continues to grow, Brownsville grows with it. For those reasons, Greater Brownsville EDC is proud to support Project Quantum.

Thank you. Sorry. Next speaker, Adrian Barrientes.

Thanks for letting me speak here. I'm not used to doing public speaking in these spaces, so thanks for having me. I've shaken hands with some of you, including you, Cowan. I've seen you reach up for my dad's Memorial Day and whatnot. I just want you to highly consider the people here. I don't know what it is about handing these sorts of huge conglomerate businesses to somebody like Elon. I know you know that this guy's like an extremely volatile person. You know, what he did with Doge and cutting all these FEMA cuts and whatnot inside of our revenue services. I just... I know like you guys know this is like weird, right? Like these huge conglomerate business in the hands of like ketamine fueled people. And I know you guys are more level headed than this. And it just like this past week, it's something like me and my friends, my family, we've just been like really unnerved with what's going on. And sorry, I didn't prepare any notes or anything. It's kind of just been. going through our head a lot. And I know a lot of like people from up north are coming down and getting like, we've been here for six months and now we're like residents of SpaceX and whatnot. And now we have some sort of sway and what we could do with this Brownsville that has like a huge legacy way bigger than them and way bigger than us. So I just really, and I hate to be super cynical because I feel like the hands have already been shaken and the contracts have already been signed. I know you guys think about y'all's legacy. I know that worries y'all. And I just wondered, do you want us to look back on your legacy as you're putting up the wreaths and you guys are doing these small acts of green kindness when you're literally introducing these humongous energy-throttling industries into our backyard? And it's just in the name of pretty much pennies on the dollar to what people like Elon have. And I just really would like you guys to think about that. It's really important to us. I'm not trying to be provocative or throw insane provocations or anything. It's just something that's been heavily on our mind. And if you want us to look back on y'all's legacy for something that's actually good, and not radical. This is not a radical view. Please talk to people outside of just business. Not everything has to be business assets, investments. We care about our health. I just want to leave off. The one thing I did write down, it's pulled from your website, Mr. Cowan. It's Luke 1248. To whom much is given, much will be required. And I just want you to reflect on what you give. You do have power. You guys do have power. So I just want you guys to reflect on that. Thanks.

I yield my time.

Next speaker. Brandi Garcia.

Hello, my name is Brandi Garcia. I too did not prepare a speech, but I wanted to look you guys in the eyes and ask you if this is really worth it. Again, I want to echo what do you want your legacy to be when you guys flutter away? Okay, this life is temporary. Everybody's talking about kids. You guys like to take this angle with the space fest and what it's bringing to our children. You are bringing like just unimaginable environmental decay here. It's a beautiful area. It's a spiritually charged area and you guys are selling it for pennies on the dollar. I don't, I can't even comprehend what you think this place is worth and like What like what's the dollar sign? What how much is a child's life worth to you? Because when they get cancer and you guys are, you know, putting your little GoFundMe and you're supporting GoFundMe and you're going to these festivals and you're going to these fundraiser events saying, oh, I'd like to support the children. You can support them right now. OK, and I don't want to be cynical either, but I have to be. Everybody that I talk to, especially people that are a little bit older than we are, are saying this is a done deal. This is just how things are. When people grab power, they can do it and they can distort it however they'd like. And I want you to know that people are no longer going to allow you to do this. OK, we are not going to be silenced. We're not going to ignore it. Unfortunately, you know, a lot of us have the time because the world is crumbling around us. Do you guys understand that? Do you guys know that we prospectively have like less than 30 years for life as we know it now before everything goes completely haywire and you are contributing to that? Okay. SpaceX, LNG, AI data centers. Do you think that these things are good for the environment? I'm sure at this point, you all are practically experts because people have been pleading with you for years. Okay. Just sit with that. Could you guys ever sit and think and meditate? Or do you just go from fundraiser to fundraiser and drink yourselves to death or something? I like, I don't understand. I don't understand ribbon cuttings. And like, I want a soccer team. It's like just superfluous things. Just like this meeting. This is a second meeting. Like how deep is SpaceX pockets? And I really want you to meditate on that today. What is a human life worth to you? How much money is it? because i know you people are not going to be staying here when the valley becomes like completely unlivable your children are not going to be here your children don't even go to public school so i yield my time you guys discuss me next speaker gilberto salinas

Gilberto Salinas. Please state your name and your address for the record.

For the record, Gilberto Salinas, President and CEO of the Greater Brownsville EDC. Mayor and members of the Commission, we're here in support for the proposed de-annexation of the item that you will be discussing today. I'll start by saying that public-private partnerships are essential in allowing city governments and other public entities to fund and to deliver on large-scale projects, which otherwise these projects could take years, if not decades, to develop and sometimes not at all. For example, the deepening of the Brownsville Ship Channel. That project was built through a P3 model. And what it did is provide the viability for this particular model to be used here in the Brownsville area. Pretty significant one. That partnership opened the door for billions of dollars in investment and thousands of job opportunities being created by our local residents. So it's been done before, which is why this investment and this job creation that you're seeing today It's in record levels here in Brownsville. This is a model which hopefully you'll see and you'll use with one of our premier corporate citizens, SpaceX, to allow us in Brownsville to accelerate the delivery of this massive project that we're looking at, reduce the costs, share risk, because the private sector is the one that can really shoulder that risk. and allow the city not only to tap into private sector funding but also expertise knowledge which leads to innovation so this is how super cities are built well balanced super cities through public private partnerships a project of this scale will no doubt benefit every resident in our community by expanding our capacity for water as well as reliability and sustainability of our water resources. I'll leave you with this. Whoever addresses the water needs first in Texas will be that next super city of the future. For us, that future is today. Mayor, members of the commission, Brownsville is on the driver's seat. Your decision today is not for today, not for tomorrow. This decision is going to shape this city for the next 100 years.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we do ask for you to keep the quorum and hold your comments while someone is speaking.

Next speaker, Jerry Briones. Jerry Briones.

Just say your name and your address for the record.

For the record, Jerry Briones with the Greater Brownsville EDC, and I'm here in strong support of SpaceX's request for the deannexation of this 444-acre track. Mr. Mayor? City Commissioners, this request offers our community an important chance to work together to attract major private investment, support emerging industries, and create quality jobs. By preparing this area now, we are not just planning for development, we're planning for people. Strengthening infrastructure in this part of the region ensures our residents will have access to reliable services, expanded opportunities, and more connected communities. These improvements help support Brownsville's growing population encourage responsible growth and lay the groundwork for a stronger, more resilient future for families across the area. Additionally, SpaceX investment will strengthen critical community resources. Upgrading our water capacity not only supports future industrial growth, but also reduces long term infrastructure costs, improves system efficiency and increases our ability to attract high value employers. These enhancements create economic stability while ensuring reliable services for generations to come. The momentum created by this request will far outweigh any short-term effects of the annexation. Approving it positions Brownsville and the surrounding region for future success, continued investment, and capital projects that benefit us all. I respectfully urge you to support SpaceX's request for de-annexation and allow this area to prosper for all.

Thank you for your consideration.

Next, we have Herendida Martinez. Herendida Martinez.

Please state your name and address for the record.

Good afternoon, Mayor and City Commission. For the record, Erendida Martinez with Greater Bronzo EDC. I'm here to support SpaceX requests. SpaceX has been part of our community for some years now, and we have seen the first handed the impact that the industry can have in our region. But opportunity goes beyond the job created directly by SpaceX. It reaches our local contractors, suppliers, vendors, restaurants, hotels, transportation companies, and small business. These are business that helped our local economy moving every day. As SpaceX continues to grow, so does the opportunity for our local business community. We have an opportunity to continue connecting our local companies with the demand created by this industry to help them expand, create jobs, and build long-term partnerships that keep our economy strong. Now, this is a time to make sure that our goals creates opportunities, not only for SpaceX, but for the city of Brownsville and for the people in business that call our community home. Thank you for your time.

Next. Benjamin Pena. Please state your name and address for the record.

Good afternoon, Mayor and City Commission.

The City of Brownsville is on track for the most significant transformation in its history. The growth is coming in terms of population and development, an opportunity for our small businesses, Economic development in Brownsville is accelerating at a very, very fast pace. However, we have growing pains. We have water concerns, we have utility concerns, and we have infrastructure concerns. We can't afford not to take advantage of this opportunity. Economic growth will happen either because of us or in spite of us, but make no mistake about it, it will happen. A significant financial investment by SpaceX for the advancements of a long-term regional water solution is not something you can ignore. I truly believe this commission can find a win-win solution for everyone, for all of us. And lastly, I ask that you weigh carefully the opportunity lost should you not approve this de-annex. Under Texas law, a property owner has the ability to pursue de-annexation through the courts even if the commission declines to approve this request.

Let me go. Let me go so I can leave. Let me go so I can go.

Again, I repeat, under Texas law, a property owner has the ability to pursue de-annexation through the courts even if the commission declines to approve this request. So, there is a possibility that if you reject this request, we get nothing and still lose that land so now is the time for wise and sound leadership consider that before you make your decision we have the possibility to still lose this land through the courts and a financial commitment for a for a advancement in long-term regional water solution is not something that we should take lightly for that i support this request for de-annexation Thank you very much.

We appreciate your leadership in this matter.

Next speaker, Hugo Izaguirre. Say your name and your address for the record.

My name is Hugo Izaguirre. I didn't have a lot of time. to prepare anything because the urgency of this meeting. So I'm going to start this off.

I saw a Corps strip farmers of water and eventually of land, saw them transform Night City into a machine fueled by people's crushed spirits, broken dreams, and empty pockets. Corps have long controlled our lives, taken lots. These are words taken from a piece of fiction, a video game that resonates deeply with what is currently happening to our city. Elon Musk is taking the same incompetent chainsaw that he used with Doge to hack up our city and twist it into a machine that will not benefit the residents of Brownsville, but instead Those that grift off of these expansions. The way I see it. We are the last bastion in protecting that land from what we know are going to be detrimental effects on the environment. Don't think we're stupid. If you allow Elon's land grab to go through, they're saying it right now. It means it gives you all the green light. for a data center to green light the data center concerns that we've been bringing to your attention multiple times now. Brownsville residents are finished with these apartheid tactics. What you are all doing, what everyone here is doing is putting profits over people. At what point are you all going to reject this Epstein class freak and the schemes that he has for our city. When are you guys going to protect our city, the residents that have been here longer than apartheid Clyde, huh? You guys have lost our respect, our trust, and right now, you guys, they're paying for it. At what point are you going to put us ahead of these grave expansions? Because at one point, I would love to say that the city of Brownsville put people over profits, that it stopped sacrificing the people that have lived here and start protecting them.

Thank you. Next, Christopher Basaldu.

This is still your name and your address for the record. Brownsville's brand new, Somisek has been here forever, and this is where Creator put our people. I'm a co-founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, and I'm a member of the Kariso Kome Kurudo tribe, the original people who are here. All of this land, especially along the river, is sacred, and the mouth of the river is sacred, and you are allowing a fascist to destroy it, take it, unbury our ancestors who are already buried there. SpaceX has already stopped our people from being able to pray out there, and we've been praying there since the time our people were created on this land. So you guys have proven to us today that we cannot trust you. Thank you for taking away our weekend. Thank you for teaching us that you're going to put together a special meeting so lickety split because they tell you to. When in the history of this country, which has stolen everything it has from native people and from kidnapped Africans, when has a city given away its land to a different city? If you do this, you will prove to the world that Brownsville and Cameron County are up for sale to the highest bidder. And this man who repeatedly makes the Nazi salute on live television, his money comes from us and our taxpayers from the Department of Transportation and the Department of Defense. It's not even his money. Everything he has, he takes or inherits. or cons people out of? Why are you letting him con you out of 400 acres on a promise of we're going to make things better? When have any of these companies made anything better? Since the first plantation happened here in Brownsville, 10 people get rich and the rest of us get enslaved or murdered or raped or just poor. That economic system has never changed since then. This is just an extreme example of that economic system that just puts a few people on top and it miserates all of the rest of us. Why you guys don't see that, I do not understand. Except you've lulled yourself into comfort with your own privilege. Elon has proven that he is a bad neighbor. He's trying to destroy Louisiana now. Nepal is melting and people are dying because of fossil fuels. and the refusal to protect the environment. This is the stupidest thing you could possibly do, just when I thought you couldn't get stupider. And desal is not a solution. It is environmentally destructive and you will destroy our fishing. You will destroy the landscape and our wetlands. You are on the road to destruction and you want to take us with it. Do not trust them. They are lying and they have always lied. And they are taking everything. They are growing like a cancer on the land and you want to just let them continue doing it.

Stop it.

Pre Palestine.

Next speaker. Anneliese Rosas. Please say your name and your address for the record. Hello, my name is Anneliese Rosas.

I never make decisions as a parent without any consideration of risk. Today I'm confused, like many others here, trying to understand why there is a rush hearing to give SpaceX land without knowing what they will use it for. Why are you blindly doing whatever that company asks from you? Why are you not demanding answers for us and providing it? Why are we having to ask you to be transparent? Is this how you run a city? All the arguments the community has already made against data centers remain relevant today. The annexing land for it to become a data center is a loophole that does not absolve you from responsibility. Yes, I'm assuming that that land will be used for a data center, but that's all we have to work off of because no one is demanding answers. You cannot vote in favor for this in good conscience without the facts. You will be hypocrites if you give away this land, yet stand against data centers. My daughter, your children need leaders that will stand up for what's right. who aren't afraid to demand accountability, who don't give it to anything big corporations ask. It is becoming harder and harder to trust this panel when these rushed hearings happen on matters that have so many unanswered questions. Vote no on de-annexation and demand answers from SpaceX. Protect us.

Brownsville is for our babies, not for billionaires. Next. Sofia Valdonado. Sofia Valdonado. Next, Gustavo Sanchez. Please state your name and your address for the record.

Before I start, I want to let you all know that on the Teams meeting there, a lot of people are having issues trying to join. And this meeting is also not being recorded online as it should be. Please reset my time. Thank you. Hello, my name is Gustavo. I am one of the co-chairs of Brownsville YDSA and a student at UTRGV. And I understand the point of this meeting is to decide whether or not to de-annex a piece of land that is part of Brownsville and let SpaceX do whatever they please with it. I think this isn't right, and a lot of us here think that this isn't right. It's not right. This company is trying to exploit as much land as possible from a Rio Grande Valley. This company, SpaceX, is in as great as many say it is. Many say it brings jobs and growth, but at what cost? Many people complain from the heat as it is more hot than ever, and this company will still continue to launch its rockets, which pollute the air and worsens climate change. We see this firsthand as each summer is hotter and hotter than the last. The resaca on the Brownsville campus has started to dry up, and the water is becoming far too shallow for the wildlife to even live there. And I've heard this from testimonies from people who have lived here for 20 years saying it's never been like that ever. It pains me to see that God and Mother Nature are punishing us for what we've done to our planet, our local ecosystems. And I would lastly like to point out that the CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk, has done hideous things in his life that should not give him a warm welcome here or anywhere else on the planet. He spreads the gray replacement theory on Twitter, which means he believes that the white race is being replaced. He has also had access to our social security records in his time at Doge and also cut life-saving USAID aid to other countries, which have resulted in thousands of deaths. Also, in the most recent Epstein files released by the Department of Justice, Elon Musk begged Jeffrey Epstein, who was a notorious sex trafficker of children, to invite him to his parties. These two had numerous email exchanges over years. It disgusts me so much to even say this part, but that same Jeffrey Epstein that Elon Musk was sucking up to in those emails also had friends implicating those files, which I won't talk about, but are also very important to know about. He referenced the not only abused children, but also cannibalized them, even those of newborn ages. This is the most disgusting thing I've ever read in my life, and I wanted to throw up when I read it. and it pained me so much to see that Elon Musk was in there and he is a part of this city too and y'all suck up to him. My point is this man is disgusting and he doesn't care about us. His company SpaceX and any other big corporation shouldn't be given this much leeway to be here in the city. We all want to have our kids grow up successfully and not die from cancer or the pollutants in the air from these rockets. All the industrialization is killing us. So we have the right to get mad, boot people out, because our lives are at stake. Our children's lives are at stake. And I yield my time.

Before we move on, can we just verify if it's being streamed online? I just got into YouTube and it's not reflecting on there.

There should be a... We are working on that, sir. Thank you.

Next, Joseph Holman. I see your name.

No, just for the record.

Howdy, all. Joseph Holman. Get ready for the booze. I am a board member with the Public Utility Board, Brownsville Public Utility, and I am the president of SRWA. That's our regional water authority. I am here because I want to make sure that we answer any questions that both you guys have, as well as the public has, about the water and about the electrical impact. We will answer any question we're able to and try to help you guys understand what's going on from our perspective. And we will also try to help you understand what the quarter billion dollars, almost $220 million, We'll be going to. Just a quick correction of the record. We actually did vote to approve on Friday. So just wanted to let everybody know. I don't know if I'm allowed to take questions. Quick question. PUB has nondisclosure agreements with all their customers. We don't divulge y'all's information, and we don't divulge other customers.

Yes, ma'am.

City Attorney, I remind them that it's public comment, and so they're limited to three minutes. I just want to make sure that he wants to use his three minutes this morning.

Right, right. So I can talk about that. I will stay around when they go into closed session, and I will answer all your questions about that. to NASCA as well. I joined, right? Absolutely. No, no, no. And I joined the board just before the NASCA audit came out. And so I got to live it firsthand and would love to talk about that as well. So I am here for everybody. If there's anything I can do to help, please let me know.

Thank you very much.

Before we continue, I want to make sure this is being streamed. If it's not being streamed, I think we should call a recess before it until we get back up.

So it is being recorded as per TOMA laws.

We don't have to live stream it. We don't have the team in place for that, but it is being recorded and we will upload as soon as the meeting is over.

Yes, Commissioner, Mayor, this is Doro, Deputy City Manager. The meeting is being broadcasted via Teams. The link is functioning. We have confirmed it.

Next speaker, Etienne Rosas.

Just say your name and your address for the record.

but it is a problem where they can't access the link.

He's online. They're working on it. Okay.

We can move to the next one, and then when he's ready, we can have his comments. Jesse Gonzalez.

Alessandra de la Tejera. Alessandra de la Tejera. Just say your name and your address for the record.

Right here. You can come to the mic, ma'am. Yes.

My name is Alessandra de la Tejera.

So I don't really have any statement prepared. I do have something I want to quote. But first, I just want to say that I am as Proud of everyone who's spoken in opposition to this, as I am disgusted by the few sellouts who have spoken in support of it. And just so you know, most of them, once they wrapped up, they all just left in a group contingent. They're gone now. Hi, Mike. I want to quote Elon Musk in a 2018 press conference where he was asked about a new rocket launch. And he said, most likely it's going to happen at our Brownsville location. because we've got a lot of land with nobody around, and so if it blows up, it's cool. That was Elon's attitude towards our city, towards our region, where I was born, where I grew up, where he's making a lot of money. That was his attitude in 2018, and he has demonstrated that that's his attitude throughout and until today. Earlier this month, on the 5th, A four-ton chunk of a SpaceX rocket the size of a school bus crashed into the moon. And I heard people talking about the speed of economic growth in Brownsville. This rocket crashed into the moon at 5,400 miles per hour. It left a new crater that wasn't there before. This arrogant Nazi fascist left a crater on the moon. And as somebody already mentioned today, Nepal is melting. Can we show a tiny bit of humility before nature and stop talking about financial growth for a second to notice what's going on around us? I know we can. Can you guys please, please?

That's it. Free Palestine.

next we're gonna go back to jesse gonzalez who's online gonzalez jesse gonzalez uh hello can everyone hear me uh hello council and mayor my name is jesse gonzalez i was born and raised in brazil and i come to y'all as a citizen as mentioned before It's getting tiring to come back again to these repetitive decisions that are just selling out our people and our land. Decisions that only exist to benefit the large corporate interest. And this is not the only decision that has been made in favor of SpaceX. Yesterday, TxDOT approved a $190 million to extend and improve Highway 4, a 14-mile road connecting Brownsville to SpaceX. As stated by representatives of SpaceX and greater Brownsville corporations, billions have been invested in SpaceX and Star City infrastructure. So why does our poverty rate rise with it? Corporate infrastructure and those invested in it sure do gain. But the average person in Brownsville is not invested in this type of asset. And so the majority of people are left in the dark. We, the people of Brownsville, are your priority. This community takes pride in its culture, its people, and its geography. To propose giving it away for corporate interest, mind you, a corporation that's only been here for five years, undermines a culture that we, the people of Brownsville, have been building for 178 years. We are not for sale, and we are not to be given away for the advancements of industrial projects that bear no benefit to our economy or our environment. These projects only harm the majority. From temperatures rising, economic social purges, and lack of community protections to water. Brownsville is at the center of political chaos. And as leaders, the money you spend on misguided projects and fueling the chaos is energy not spent putting change into the real systemic issues that have to be made for the people of Brownsville. It is your obligation to work towards a bigger and better Brownsville, not a smaller and weaker one. This disannexation does not benefit people, and we must ask, who does it benefit the most? And who it benefits the most is SpaceX and SpaceX alone. I'd like to work closely with you, Council, and I will be reaching out to you on what future decisions in Brownsville could and should look like. You can expect an email from me in the future. Thank you, and I yield the rest of my time.

Next, John Cuvier. Please say your name and your address for the record.

Good evening, mayor and city commissioners. My name is John Cuvier Jr. I'm a member of the RGV Democratic Socialists of America. And I'm here tonight as a Brownsville community member to urge you all to vote no on the de-annexation of the 444 acres for SpaceX. For the last month, we've been organizing and packing City Hall alongside our community to demand a robust community-led moratorium on data centers. People have been showing up week after week because we believe that the future of our city should be decided by the people who actually live here and not by corporations with money and political power to get their way. So now we have to ask, Why should we remove 444 acres from Brownsville's jurisdiction for SpaceX, especially right now when our community is fighting to establish a moratorium on data center development? We have serious concerns about what de-annexation could mean for our ability to regulate what happens on the property in the future. Could SpaceX build a data center there? Could it build other large-scale industrial infrastructure? Would our community-led moratorium even apply? These are basic questions that need to be answered before you vote on something like this. But instead, the public has been given less than a week to understand what's going on. Hell, Brownsville PUB discussed this proposal behind closed doors for roughly two hours and didn't even reach a decision. Yet here we are being asked to move forward. Y'all are not being transparent and it's not unreasonable for residents to expect more time and information before the city changes its jurisdiction over hundreds of acres of land. SpaceX already has an enormous footprint in South Texas. We've seen the concerns around pollution and habitat destruction, public access and the impacts of its rocket launches. We should not be making it easier for SpaceX to expand its operations without the public's explicit consent. Look, I want to remind this commission that elections are next year. The people that have been packing this room for the last month are going to remember what happens here. We're going to remember who stood with the community and who chose to make it easier for SpaceX to expand. So please listen to the people who are actually showing up. Vote no on de-annexation. Keep these acres within Brownsville's jurisdiction. And most importantly, don't make a permanent decision that can undermine what our community has been fighting for. Vote no. Thank you.

Next, we have Aiden Villarreal. Please state your name and your address for the record.

Good afternoon, commissioners. My name is Aiden Villarreal, 1440 Palm Boulevard. I've been reading a book. It's called Dry by Neil and Jarrod Schutzerman. It imagines a town where the water simply stops. not all at once from some dramatic disaster, but because a slow moving crisis got managed with half measures and vague reassurances until it was too late to manage at all. The neighbors in that book don't lose their water because nobody saw it coming. They lose it because almost everyone kept being told that a deal was almost done. An agreement was in process. A solution was being negotiated. That word negotiated. Is that the word a city uses in its own is that is the word this the city use in its own negotiation about this vote not finalized not guaranteed negotiated you're being asked today to give up 444 acres of brownsville permanently. And with it, this city's zoning authority over that land in exchange for a financial contribution to a regional water project that by the city's own admission should not be considered final until an agreement is completed. SpaceX says the land won't be used for launches or testing. That's a statement to the press, not a comment recorded with the deed. Once this land is out of city's limits, Brownsville's ability to enforce that promise, go with it. We've been here before. The state parks land swap a couple years back came with the same kind of language, guarantees, conversation commitments. Mutual benefits for SpaceX haven't even purchased promised yet. Promises made before a deal closes have a way of getting renegotiated after leverage changes hand. I'm asking you to notice that you're being asked to make an irreversible decision, removing land from the city forever in exchange for a reversible one, a significant investment. That's still just a conversation land you did annex today doesn't come back if that water deal falls apart in committee next year. In the book, the mistake was interesting people. It was trusting a timeline. Nobody had actually put in writing. don't vote to give away land based on a promise that isn't binding yet if the water investment is real tie the de-annexation to it contractually on paper before the vote you all love documentation live by it thank you next

Alexis Diaz? They say you're naming your address for the record.

Buenas tardes. My name is Alexis Diaz and I've been a resident of Brownsville for most of my entire life. Growing up here, you'd kind of often hear how there isn't much to do around here and it's kind of better to leave Brownsville. I did end up leaving, but I came back, right? And I discovered so many wonderful and beautiful things about this place I call home. And there's so much beauty in our scenery. There's a wonderful community, a chance to see so many unique and exotic birds that you don't get anywhere else. I fell in love with Brownsville because I made an effort to know and understand the city a little bit more. So my question to y'all is, do y'all really love Brownsville, our community, the nature that we have here? because when you love something, you fight for it and you care for it. Behind closed doors and with barely any notice, our leaders are now considering giving away more of our precious land to this company town. SpaceX pollutes. This is not up for debate. It disrupts our fragile ecosystems. SpaceX has damaged nearby homes. They have forced out longstanding residents of Boca Chica Beach. Elon, as someone mentioned before, doesn't think there's much around here, so it's okay to blow stuff up and nobody's going to be affected. The moon will have something else to say about that. Elon also thinks that there's a whole bunch of water. He said this a couple weeks back, I think. But we're in a drought, and we're even considering desalination that affects our ecosystems even more so. He's already pressuring the federal government for 715 acres of wildlife habitat that is very, very sensitive. He has enough space. I know some of you wouldn't spoil your kids this way. It's clear that this company and Elon don't love Brownsville. They don't even let the public go into this city. So why should we give them our land? The development of this land shouldn't go to one company. We don't need SpaceX to better our systems, but we might need better leaders. The ambitions of this company shouldn't come at the cost of our city. They want Starbase to grow and let Bronzeville shrink. Y'all as our commissioners have a duty to protect us and our biodiversity that makes the Valley so unique. Vote no on this resolution, please.

I yield my time.

Next. Next, we have Lauren Castillo. I see you're naming your address for the record.

Hi, I'm Lauren, Harlingen resident, but Raisin Brownsville with roots still here. I didn't think I was going to get emotional, but I'm upset. First, I think it's funny how these SpaceX bootlickers speak about growth and care when they can't even clean up the lands after Elon is done playing rocket ships. The claim is that they'll invest in infrastructure, but what's stopping them now? Do it. He's been here for several years. He could have done it a long time ago, but we know it's a lie. What I'm about to say is not to be mean or rude in any way, but you guys look depleted and drained. As if you all know that this is weighing heavy on your heart because you know this is wrong. You guys are in a tough position. It's tough to be up there. But you have to be held accountable. Before I ask my questions, you already know this isn't just my concern. Petitions are happening. Simply, we don't want this to happen. So vote against this. And I want to say this with some understanding, not just anger. I can understand that a personal goal of all of you is to create jobs, generate wealth, and grow our city. That's not a bad ambition in itself. Get off your phone. Pause my time, please. is playing on his phone. And he laughs. OK, so he doesn't care.

It doesn't weigh heavy on him, but he's still depleted.

That's not a bad ambition in itself. You know, we all have goals. But at what cost? Ecological destruction won't just impact us here at home. It's going to be a ripple effect. It will cause destruction far beyond Brownsville to places that had no say in this decision. So I ask you plainly, mayor and commissioners, are you negotiating for the people who elected you or for a narcissistic Nazi billionaire who has no roots in this city? And when Brownsville looks back to this moment, when the ripple reaches its end, what do you want them to say you chose? Is that the legacy that you want? Is that how you want to be remembered?

Next. Let me Sanchez.

Help me, Frances. Is that your name and your address for the record?

Hello, everybody. I'm here again today on a Saturday. I could be spending the time with my daughters. Let me Sanchez. I was born and raised here in Brownsville. I'm raising my children here. I represent different organizations, which you already know. I give it up to a lot of the people that are still here in this room that have spoken and did not walk out. 10 years ago, almost 10 years ago, some of us were optimistic about SpaceX, myself included. They promised jobs. They promised economic growth. And after almost a decade, I think we have been let down time and time again. we hear of these, you know, not having enough skilled workers to fill these jobs. Um, but how we asked ourselves, what have we done in the last 10 years to build that workforce? BISD has a CTE program welding, for example, they have a two year program where they provide students hand on experience, um, and get certifications and provide them a, um, prepare them for these high demand jobs. But it's not just the ISD. They have their super elders Academy, TST, TSTC, STC and other technical programs in the valley that offer these programs. But yet our students are not allowed or not able to pick up these jobs. They invest their time, their education because they want opportunities right here at home. And we were told time and time again that there's not enough qualified workers here in the Valley. But I think we need to ask ourselves, are we creating a pipeline between our schools and technical programs in these industries that we continue to incentivize? Because if our students are completing these programs and still not getting the experience and the skills and opportunities they need to compete for these jobs, then something is broken. And this is not just about jobs. It's about what we continue to give up as a community. We continue to give these industries tax abatements while residents are asking for better infrastructure, basic community needs. We're also watching our house industry become increasingly afford and affordable for long time residents. Just a few weeks ago, I had a discussion with the GBIC president who was here, Gilberto Salinas, and I told him these exact issues. And his response was, yes, we dropped the ball. We're trying to fill in those gaps. But we've had 10 years. How about doing that first before bringing in more industries like this?

So that brings me to question.

Let's stop bending over backwards for SpaceX and entertain them, giving them even more land. So.

Please listen to your constituents today here, please.

Thank you. Next we have Valeria Caballero, who is online.

Please say your name and your address for the record.

Hello, my name is Valeria Caballero. I live in Brownsville and I'm here with the South Texas Environmental Justice Network. We're here to ask you, our elected officials, to vote against giving away 444 acres of land to SpaceX. It may be unsurprising, but it's still very disheartening that our community finds out about the city voting on this agenda item to help SpaceX just within this last week. At this point, SpaceX has been colonizing Boca Chica Beach for over half a decade. Starbase is already attempting to annex about 7,000 acres of private and public land and is looking to take over 700 acres of wildlife habitat to blow up more rockets. Now they want to try to take another 400 acres from our city, for what? We ask that our commissioners vote to reject this agenda item because it is entirely disrespectful and irresponsible that there's been so little transparency about what plans the City, BPUB and SpaceX have for this land. We've been left in the dark about what this land will be used for. There's talk about this being part of a SpaceX-led regional water solution. What does that mean? That is really alarming. SpaceX is a known polluter. They've been found to be in violation of the Clean Water Act. They've dumped wastewater. I wouldn't consider that liquid gold if they're dumping wastewater on our environment. They actively make our environment and our water worse. They litter our beaches and our wildlife refuge with metal scraps. They're terrible neighbors affecting not just us on the US side of the border, but people with no representation in Mexico. Our region is in a state of drought and the city and county are ushering in water intensive industries when the needs of local people could be prioritized. What would their role be? And being part of the regional water solution with this mean that they got to privatize and profit from our water, but this potentially mean desalination. We know that the brackish water from diesel destroys ecosystems. We have not been informed enough about what this decision would mean for our community at the very least. We should be given more information and a 30 days notice for giving away so much line land. In the meantime, I asked that the city commissioners vote no on this agenda item. The city of Brownsville has been complicit enough in the harm that this greedy, insane, evil billionaire has caused. Elon Musk now has Starbase as a creepy company town. We have less access to Boca Chica Beach. Starbase and SpaceX harm our wildlife habitat. They pollute our air and our water. They operate at our expense. It's really telling that the people representing financial interests are supporting this and people that are worried about the health and safety of their kids, of their neighbors, and of the livability of this planet are telling you to vote no on this. How much is our health and our planet worth? Increased economic development does not mean increased quality of life. Most of us can attest to that. I find it really weird that people meant to serve the public would choose to rush a decision that would allow SpaceX to expand their sacrifice zone and allow Elon Musk to cause more harm to our home. Please vote no on this disannexation of 444 acres of land.

Thank you.

Next. Next, we have Leah Hollingshead. Please say your name and your address for the record.

Good afternoon, everyone. I'm here today because I'm concerned by the incredibly rushed process unfolding before me. The city is considering giving away 444 acres of land, which would give you absolutely no control over what happens there. And you're proposing giving this land away with no written agreement in place about how SpaceX plans to use this land. The representatives here from SpaceX today have said that they plan to use the land to invest in water infrastructure that will bring jobs and economic growth. They say that water is liquid gold. On that point, we agree. South Texas is a major agricultural hub. They call this place the Magic Valley. So I have worn my vegetable dress today because I want to remind everyone here of the true value of our food system in our everyday lives. In fact, I want to take a moment to address the whole room. Everybody here, whether you're from SpaceX or you've lived in Brownsville your entire life, as you look at the tomatoes, the corn, the carrots, and the radishes you see here today, I want you to think about the food that shows up on your plates every day. And irrigation makes this possible. Water is life. But all the growth in the world becomes irrelevant if we don't have enough water to grow our own food. And I'm concerned because another reason that people want access to water is to build data centers. If those of you on the council or on Elon Musk's payroll think that playing along with him will protect you, then you have not been paying attention to his track record. He will use you for as long as it's convenient for him, and then he will discard you once he has what he wants. Trying to secure your individual safety against the world's first trillionaire is counterproductive. United we bargain, divided we beg. I would like to end by quoting a Native American proverb. Only when the last tree is cut down, the last fish eaten, and the last stream poisoned, will you realize that you cannot eat money. Thank you.

Stacy Samora. Stacy Samora. Please say your name and your address for the record.

Hello. I'm Daisy Zamora. I am a longtime resident of Brownsville. I'm a mother. I'm a public health scientist. And in my spare time, I'm also on the board of the Brownsville Public Utilities Board. I am here to thank Mayor Cowan and the rest of City Commission for all your work in helping to secure funding to improve and expand our water system infrastructure. That is, you have a lot to wait today. And I am extremely humbled by your willingness to give so much time to this, to be here and present and listening to all the comments and to be here on a Saturday. Um, this, this is something that is, is taken away from the other things that you do. So thank you so much for being here and for listening to us and thank you. And God bless.

Next. Let me see. Good year. You see your name and your address for the record. Good afternoon.

My name is Leti Kuvalier. I'm a resident in Brownsville and a neonatal nurse practitioner. I have lived here nearly all of my adult life and have been providing care for our newborn population since 2001. I have also raised two children here, now 21 and 24 years old. This is our home. Not our headquarters. It's our home. Over the last 25 years, I have witnessed the evolution of Brownsville, and I wish I could say that all of that change has been beneficial for our community. Unfortunately, that isn't the case. Instead, it seems that Brownsville has been bamboozled. We have given up our land and resources for the promise of jobs and economic growth. But at what price? What was once a beautiful playground for our community is now occupied by SpaceX and its ever-growing city, Starbase. Somehow, not only have they taken the land, but now it is also within their power to restrict us from going to the beach on any given day. And when we do go, instead of watching a gorgeous sunset behind the dunes on the beach, you'll see it setting behind billows of smoke and whatever those towering SpaceX structures are. We have already sacrificed so much to SpaceX and LNG, yet our city, county, and port commissions continue to invite more and more industry here, despite vocal opposition from this community. For the umpteenth time, this is not what the majority of Brownsville and Cameron County citizens want. When are you finally gonna stand up and represent us instead of bending over backwards to accommodate these billion dollar corporations that are polluting our land and taking our resources? When will it be enough? And how do you call this democracy? The lack of transparency from you and so many of our other elected officials is creating an environment of frustration and mistrust between you and your constituents. This special session called out with less than a week's notice is a prime example, as is the fact that this is a second and final session when the community wasn't even aware you all had approved this disannexation the first time? Why are we being kept out of the loop? And why and how are you all possibly considering this disannexation without even knowing what the land will be used for? I'm telling you right now, you are quickly losing our trust and you must do better. Listen to us, engage with us, and let your votes reflect the opinions of our community. That is the only way to regain our trust and to show us that we, the workers and everyday citizens of Brownsville, are your priority. Stop selling us out to companies and corporations that don't care about this community and our future. I urge you to vote no to just annex 444 acres of land for SpaceX. Thank you.

were unable to log in on the teams but i have them on speakerphone you can do my phone okay you can go ahead and unmute desto hello can you hear me yeah okay afternoon my name is desto huerta and i'm a masters of social work student at ut rgb i'm here as a district 3 resident and member of dsa rgb joining online because i have school in west lago right now i would have liked to be in person with all the special session notice didn't give me enough time to schedule in with my first day of classes. I am very upset that this is the final hearing to vote on an ordinance to de-annex 440 acres of land to SpaceX. I have been to past city commission meetings as a new resident of Brownsville and have gotten to learn more and more on why we have a billionaire in our backyard. The Valley is a beautiful land that can meet the needs of our people, but this is not what these billionaires see. They see us as a playground for their own selfish needs. Haven't you all learned your lesson? These corporations don't do anything but exploit the land, its workers, and your constituents. If you all pass this, you have lost all my hope that you won't continue to sell out your own home. Honestly, this doesn't even sound promising knowing your constituents are having issues joining online. So that is very shameful and I'm very upset about this. I don't trust this ordinance. I don't trust people to have been a part of this, especially that the use of the acres are undisclosed to us, the public. We should have oversight to such a huge piece of our land. Whatever is developed on those acres affect us. It affects me. It affects my family. It affects my neighbors. It's literally in my backyard. I urge you all not to let the billionaire class continue to take over our home. I ask you to better represent us and vote no on the ordinance to de-annex 440 acres of our land.

That's all. Thank you. Thanks. Eddie Espinosa.

Good afternoon, everyone. Eddie Espinosa, Green Party of Texas, FAR, say no to this land grab. Here's an alternative to the corporate world that rules over us. And here is a vision of we, the people. We envision a South Texas in which our towns are self-sufficient in food, water, and energy. and have world-class flood control infrastructure and always taking into account the effects of government policies on our ecosystems and freshwater sources that allow us to survive and thrive. We envision South Texans living in harmony with nature Shifting our economic focus away from profits for corporations to long term green solutions for the benefit of all. This will visit to relax, fish and bird watch on our healthy beaches and experience our thriving ecosystems along the Gulf Coast. Every family will have access to comprehensive medical, dental, vision, and mental health care. Our children will receive a quality education, including tuition-free college and trade schools. South Texas will become a farming and renewable energy powerhouse rooted in healthy soil and water. While we may not be financially wealthy, our spirit, history and culture possesses an invaluable richness that you can't put a price on. Good health, good spirits, clean air, clean water and clean land. By securing everyone's basic needs and building world-class public infrastructure, we empower each other to become the best version of ourselves. Make your decisions not based on today, but several generations into the future. The droughts, storms, wildfires and crop failures will be more frequent and more devastating. So we better be prepared because our future depends on our actions today. The eyes of the valley and all of South Texas are upon you. So be courageous and do what is right. And what is right is canceling this land grab, putting the billionaires and corporations in their place as they are destroying our ecosystems and freshwater sources. Protect the subtropics of Texas. People, planet, peace, now and always, vote Green Party and let's take the 34th. Free Palestine, free Congo, free Sudan, free South Texas.

Thanks.

Next, we're going to have Etienne Rosas, who's going to speak on the phone. Just say your name and your address for the record.

hello and thank you for putting me on speaker normally i would be there in person with all of you because this is an issue dear and close to my heart and of all my colleagues but clearly this is being rushed through in a way that's irresponsible that is trying to sidestep democracy so this is the best we can do with this short notice now before i get into the obvious reasons why voting on this proposal is absurd i'll propose some context uh give you some context to what colonization looks like to see if it rings any bells Colonization is a process by which a foreign power takes control of the territory, builds permanent settlements and rules over the local population. And usually when we think of it, we think of foreign armies arriving from unknown lands aiming to upend our country's government and our way of life. to enrich themselves and extract as much as possible. We rarely think of it in terms of corporations and financial entities from our own country, but this is exactly what keeps happening to border communities like ours and is happening all across Texas. Domestic colonization can be more pernicious than other kinds because it happens under our very eyes and often through the support and complicity of our authorities. It happens through the co-optation of our democracy by moneyed interest, to the suppression of our votes and collective voices of people, to the corruption and complicity of our representatives and media who tout the one-sided benefits of the plunder but never bother to discuss the costs, and through the withholding of the benefits of our own resources and labor. It happens when we fool ourselves into thinking that our own self-determination as a people will somehow come about when we surrender to the authoritarian designs of another. A vote in favor of distancing Brownsville land to give SpaceX more unilateral authority over our community is another form of unconditional surrender. The easiest way to spot a scam is always a fake sense of urgency. under the premise of some future benefit that will eventually arrive. The way this is being considered, at breakneck speed, with minimal details, let alone discussion or analysis, and with zero guarantees from a company owned by an oligarch that is famous for breaking the law, exploiting workers and destroying our environment and institutions, encapsulates perfectly how we give up our democracy. Could you be voted to take no action on this because we simply do not know what's on the balance? If you vote in favor of this, you will be admitting to the community that you will not hold Musk or SpaceX accountable, not because you can't, but because you just don't want to. That makes you a private servant, not a public one. And remember that trust is as hard to build as it is easy to shatter. But yet again, you have a choice. In times of fascism, solidarity is our strongest weapon. soon enough there will come a time when all of musk's unfulfilled promises will come to light he won't ever have to face the citizens of brownsville but you our commission will so make decisions as if that time has already arrived and stand up for your community as you would for your own children's future because they are one and the same The community belongs to all of us. Elon Musk doesn't get to decide and determine our destiny regardless of the zeros on his bank account. We deserve transparency, respect, and to have our voices heard.

Say no to the de-annexation of this land.

Next. Next and last one. Rosemary Martinez. Good afternoon, everyone.

I think most of you all know me. I'm Rosemary Martinez, and I live in District 4. I'm not here to oppose the proposed SpaceX disannexation. I'm here to offer a word of caution about transparency and the sequence in which decisions are being made. I think you've heard that over and over again. The public is being asked to trust that removing 444 acres from the city is in our community's best interest, while important details about the proposal, including the related water investment, remains undisclosed or under negotiation. I understand that legitimate economic development negotiations may require some confidentiality. But an NDA should not prevent the public from receiving information that Texas law requires to be public, nor should confidentiality prevent residents from understanding the basic terms of a major governmental decision. Before final action is taken, the public should understand what Brownsville is giving up, what SpaceX is receiving, what Brownsville will receive in return, and whether those commitments are binding and enforceable. A significant water investment could be very beneficial to this community. And frankly, $220 million is not going to get us down the road 100 years. You guys are spending half that on your new police station. But if the investment is part of the justification for this annexation, it's essential term should be settled and understood before, not after the city makes its final decision. This is not about opposing SpaceX or economic development. It's about ensuring that decisions with long-term consequences are made with appropriate transparency, due diligence, and protection of the public interest. Once the vote is taken, the public cannot ask the questions that should have been answered before it. And finally, please remember who entrusted you with the authority to make this decision. You were elected to represent the people of Brownsville. Starbase is a whole different city, okay? They have their own governing board. This is not it. You were elected to represent the people of Brownsville, and when the interests of private entities and the public intersect, your first obligation must always be to the people you were elected to serve. That's what being a public servant is. Thank you for your time.

I will come through slowly. Will we comment section?

Mayor, may we enter into executive session?

I'll entertain a motion. Yes. So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Ayes have it. Motion carries. Thank you.

Executive session item number one. Closed session presented in Texas Government Code section 551.071 related to Project Quantum. The time is 5.41 p.m. The City Commission will be in executive session.

Bye. mic check check check yes

So I think that's really the way to I don't know why this also I like that that's that's all. Yeah, I'm really worried about how to do it, but I'll produce the. Like you're sorry. Thank you so much for asking. Yes. So why don't you introduce yourself and what's up? Awesome. Great, great job on speaking there. Put it out there. You know, what's that saying? That's what it's all about. People are supposed to be taken care of. You know, it's a shame that they're trying to get themselves back, but we're going to see how they roll. I know you're going to record them. I want to record them. I want to say thanks to all the work you're doing. You're putting it out there. You went to SpaceX. I saw that video, and it was fantastic.

You know, and putting it out there, that's what it's all about. Thank you. So yes, there is something to bear in mind. Okay.

Mayor, may we reconvene to open session?

Yes, please.

Time is 7.02. The next item is possible action on any items as discussed in executive session.

So, Mayor and City Commission, I believe you all have instructed me to present what Project Quantum is, and so we will do so shortly. So Project Quantum is a joint investment in the city's regional water resources. It's in conjunction with Public Utilities Board, which they did vote last night to approve this, as well as SRWA. And SpaceX would be the partner that's investing in the two projects that we'll discuss shortly. This type, this project, the reason why it's called Quantum Leap is because it would provide the city a leap forward in being able to double the city's capacity to produce water for the region. The two projects that are proposed to be funded is the potable reuse wastewater reclamation project. that would increase the water supply by approximately 8 million gallons per day. And the SRWA plant expansion, which would also expand the water supply by approximately 10 million gallons per day. What is the indirect potable reuse initiative? It is a project that is designed to secure the wastewater treatment plant to be able to produce up to 8 million gallons per day more using advanced treatment and environmental buffer and potable water treatment. More so, it is estimated to cost approximately 40 million dollars and there has been grant funding that's 12.7 million That has been awarded by the Texas Water Development Board. But as we all know, water scarcity is pretty big in Texas. And so the original estimated completion of this project was 2030 because it wasn't fully funded. This agreement would fund the project so that we can move forward and faster and be able to add up to the 8 million gallons per day that the project would be able to supply. This is where the current water treatment plant is, and this is where the connection with the Risaca de Languera system would connect to. And Dr. Holman is here to answer any questions you have about these particular projects. Now, with the SRWA, this particular project is estimated at $202 million, and this would increase the capacity from 10 million gallons per day to 20 million gallons per day. It consists of reconstructing 20 wells as well as construction of two new wells, and it would upgrade and increase the capacity of the microfiltration system. It does use brackish water, is my understanding, but brackish water is a little bit different than desalination plants that use seawater. It has less salt intensity, so the The byproduct is not as much as if we were to use sea salt water, because it's using the aquifer. This expansion would again produce up to 20 million gallons per day. It would expand and enhance the pretreatment system, and it would allow an upgrade to the system entirely. So the parties. The parties would be SpaceX and the City of Brownsville. and it would be for the benefit of the Brownsville Public Utilities Board and SRWA. The Brownsville Public Utilities Board is an entity of the city of Brownsville, and they have about 92.3, I believe, 92.38, if I'm not mistaken, Mayor, ownership in SRWA. SRWA is a partnership with the Port of Brownsville, Los Fresnos, and the town of Indian Lake. SRWA did have a meeting on Friday morning at 9 and they voted to move forward with continue the negotiations on this agreement. And speaking with some of the members of that board, they are supportive of this as well. Now the purpose is to expand the regional water availability by funding water and wastewater facilities that would benefit Brownsville and the broader Cameron County community. The funding commitment and cap BPUB and SRWA have funding in place. And as I said earlier, the Texas Water Board doesn't have enough grants to go around. And so there was a funding gap. And that funding gap was found to be about $220 million. And SpaceX has proposed to help invest in the infrastructure. Within 30 days of signing the agreement, if approved, SpaceX will deposit into an escrow agreement $40 million that will be used for the first project. The remaining $180 million would be paid in six quarterly installments once the second project is able to go. Now, for security purposes, the money would be placed in an escrow and would be controlled by an escrow agreement. So it's restricted, subject to public funding limitations as well as putting it in a reserve fund so that it can't be used for any other projects. The funding payments are a contractual contribution and not a purchase of capacity, ownership, interest, or prepayment for volumetric rates. So X would be receiving service like any other customer of Uh, the qualifying projects that we have discussed earlier would be, of course, be, uh, identified and following documents that would be adopted by city commission and be pubs board. Um, that would describe the scope and, um, the funding subject to milestones for the 1st project. Much of that has already been designed, uh, spending cost and, uh, payment of the 40Million. The 2nd project for the, uh, plant. is pending further design. It is a project that was not in the works because of lack of funding. And so BPUB is stepping up the gas per se to get the design and the engineering done for that project. Any questions regarding the MOU or the projects

Thank you, Will. I'd like Dr. Holman to come up and really give just a brief overview of where we get our water from, how much we use per day, and really what this would do for the community from a big picture perspective.

Absolutely. So we have two water sources right now in the city of Brownsville. We get about 30% of our water from SRWA, which is a brackish water desal plant. This is important because this is not an ocean water desal plant. So what happens is we are taking water from the Rio Grande alluvium, which is below all our feet. 10 times, I think, roughly less salty than ocean water. That's pretty cool because then it takes a lot less energy to make that drinkable. The other really neat thing is the affluent, the water that's left over after we produce the desal or the water, the affluent, we can release back basically into what is San Martin Lake. And that has helped revitalize the lake because that water is still way less salty than ocean water. And so you can actually look on Google Maps and see kind of a little bit of a green stretch where we have our water go all the way into San Martin Lake. So that's roughly 30% of our water. The rest of it, 70% of our water, Massa Menos, depending on the day, comes from the Rio Grande River. And that has been a problematic source here in Brownsville since I was a little kid. Just because we have our reservoirs, you know, between basically it's on the Rio Grande, it's Mexico and the U.S. have to share that water. And they're in kind of horrible places. They're in very high, dry desert areas. It's Falcon Dam and then Amistad Dam. So this gives us a way to basically reduce our dependency on the Rio Grande River for our water. So if things go wrong, which they do, we are still independent of that water source.

Did that help? Yes, and can you comment on how much water do you think is in the aquifer or below the

Great question. I was just answering another question about that. Okay, I'm going to turn to you guys. If you don't want to look at me, please let me know. So this was actually a big concern of mine when I came onto the board for SRWA, which was about three years ago. It turns out the alluvium is, even if it was sealed and not refilled, we could pump for 1,000 years. and we would decrease the volume of water available in the alluvium by a couple percent. So it's a massive, massive water source. The great thing about it is it is brackish, and that means that nobody uses it for agriculture. It's just not usable. So that really limits the number of people who can actually draw water from that. like us. A lot of cities are actually trying to avoid using water from the alluvium, which works really well in our favor. But it is important that I say that this is definitely not ocean desal.

Dr. Holman, how much current water do we use from the city of Brownsville? How much do we pump out today?

Pump, okay. Or like how much, yeah. Right, so we use seven and a half megagallons of water from SRWA. We generate seven and a half megagallons per day. That water, roughly 92% of that comes to the city of Brownsville. We also provide water to, I think it was said, Las Fresnas, Valley Mud, I'm going to get it wrong, number nine, which is basically Rancho Viejo, the Port of Brownsville,

and other folks. And that is currently our capacity, meaning we can't currently, unless we invest money.

Precisely right. We have been working under the hood trying to generate low-cost to no-cost improvements on that plant so that we can optimize whatever water we get. But yeah, we're pretty much capped.

And Brownsville currently is? has a need for how many MGD?

Mega gallons per day, million gallons of water per day. Great question. That, again, will change. So seven and a half is roughly 30% of our water usage. So basically 22 or so million gallons of water, I believe. Is what we currently use.

Yeah.

Per day.

Per day. Per day. And obviously the shortfall comes from where? Like if we're getting 7.5 million gallons a day from SWRA, where does Brownsville get the rest, the other two-thirds today? Great question.

That water is from the Rio Grande. And that is an important point. You have seen a lot of discussion about this in the news. There's been a lot of high-level discussion where people have been complaining about Mexico hasn't been releasing enough water to honor their part of the treaty. We do have a water treaty with Mexico as a country, not as a utility. And they have struggled to meet their requirements under that treaty. And that's been a huge issue. Right now, we have had some rain in the reservoirs. So that's been great. But they're still roughly at about 30% capacity, which is fairly low. I actually have something on my computer where I track it every day. And I have a nice little plot if anybody ever wants to see data. But yeah.

So I just want to recap for myself and for anyone who's listening, because these are a lot of numbers, right? So if Brownsville is using our citizens, all of us, we're using about 22, 21, 22 million gallons of water per day. We're getting about 7.5 million from SWRA. The rest is coming from the Rio Grande. Everybody's afraid of we're in a drought. We don't want to continue exhausting the Rio Grande because everybody's feeding from the Rio Grande. correct? But not everybody's feeding from SWRA. Only the small communities like Rancho Viejo that you said and Los Fresnos, but 92% of it comes to Brownsville from that plant. This project would potentially increase Brownsville's water by 18 million gallons per day. Like both projects, project one, project two that's on the board right now.

It actually, small detail here would be even greater than that but um so right now we're producing seven and a half megagallons per day part of this project would help us expand that to 10 megagallons per day and then double that so that would be 20 megagallons produced by just by just the swra plant yes and then on top of that the potable reuse water Yes, that indirect potable reuse would give us another eight megagallons per day.

So we would be producing 28 million in full. I mean, obviously, this takes its time, whatever. But one project, one project, two on the board would be done. Brownsville would be producing more water than it actually uses today. Yes, yes. So if the Rio Grande went dry tomorrow, we would be probably the only city in South Texas that could live and have water.

And this is extremely important. Water scarcity has been an interest of mine since I was a little kid. Yeah, don't judge too hard, but I've actually been focused on this issue since about third grade. And so the idea that we could all of a sudden have the ability to step back from worrying about what's happening in the Rio Grande, what's happening way out west at Amistad Dam and Falcon Dam is extremely important. and I think critical for our region.

So I do believe, and I'll ask this question to Commissioner Galanski and the mayor, because you guys have served on this commission from before pre-COVID. Brownsville has been trying to leverage state funds to be able to do what's on the board right now. For how long?

Since I was on the PUB board in 2013 to 2019, that was a project. At that point, SRWA had a smaller capacity, and I think since I served on the board, they've increased the capacity at SRWA. So what I'm hearing is just they want another expansion, which is natural.

Right, and I think just to add, You know, for both projects, we've been able to secure a grant, just one grant from the Texas Water Development Board for the potable reuse project, and that's $12 million?

Something like that, yeah. And that's extremely important. You know, there are a lot of communities through the Southwest, but especially in Texas right now, that are realizing that they're behind the eight ball. Like, oh, my goodness, they just don't have the water. So a lot of communities in our area are right now taking out significant loans. And they may be low-interest loans or, heck, even 0% interest loans, but $200 million spread across our roughly 50,000 water users would be about $4,000-something per ratepayer that we would have to charge the ratepayer. And so we did not want to do that. We have been really aggressively and, you know, trying to get federal funding, as mentioned, for at least a decade, I guess. And we are struggling trying to find that money. So being able to advance these projects would be a huge benefit.

So I know the state of Texas developed a water fund about a billion dollars a year to dedicate to water projects. My understanding is that that fund is 50 times oversubscribed. So there's 50 times more projects going after this money. I would imagine the odds of fully funding either one of these projects is probably not very, very good.

And I may misspeak here, but I think a lot of that is actually loan money and not grant money. So it's an important distinction. I agree with that. Thank you.

So with the scarcity and the drought that we're going through right now, would you consider or when do you think we'll be in panic mode of not having enough water for our citizens here in Brownsville?

Oh, wow. That's a great question. You know, so we had a massive rainstorm in West Texas, what, in July? And we got to about 35% capacity in both our water reservoirs. I have watched that, and I've sent you pictures, linearly drop like a rock because nothing's happened in the last month. So we lose roughly about 0.67% of water capacity. And it doesn't sound much. but it is per day. Every day it doesn't rain in West Texas, not here. So we have lost that amount per day every day this month. And so we're roughly at about, I didn't check it today, I need to, 30% mass metals. So now if you extrapolate that, if it doesn't rain for another 30 days, we're gonna be roughly at 25% again. If it doesn't rain, Again, I mean, it doesn't go linear. So the less it rains, the more people use. You know, in months, if it doesn't rain, which is always the asterisk. And so why do I keep saying that? Man, we are so dependent on the weather right now. We got to sit there and basically do a rain dance, just hoping that we get that water. You know, you've heard it before. I remember that was kind of the big thing in the early 2000s. Everybody in Brownsville was hoping a hurricane would hit us so that we could get the water in the reservoir.

So we're talking months, year? Depending on the weather. The reason why I ask you, sir, is because I think it's important that the citizens that are sitting in those chairs behind you and in front of me understand the importance that this water project is going to cost us to make sure everybody gets what they deserve and what we want to give back to them uh so my my my question is when do we start panicking it's because you got to let us know so that we can make sure we do the right thing for them and for the people that cannot be here today?

That is a great question. And I'll face you guys again, if you don't mind, sorry. This is a very hard question. I think in general, we started panicking in, and I'm going to say my, I'm going to date myself, in the mid 90s when we had our first trout, roughly 98, is when I graduated high school, there was extreme panic, which is actually when SRWA built its first desal plant. And then it rained and rained. And, you know, you can look at the reservoirs. They went from basically nothing to, I mean, there was no water flowing down the Rio Grande, but it went from basically nothing to 100% full. It was awesome. everybody forgot about water. All of a sudden it was plentiful and we were set. Luckily we had the desal plant. I don't know if you guys know this, but we were for about a year in stage two water restrictions. That's not common. That had never happened in the history of the city of Brownsville before. And so What that meant though, I don't know how many people followed it, I did, you couldn't water, you had certain days that you had to water your lawn. There were certain restrictions on when you could wash your car and a few other things. We got to roughly 19%, I believe, capacity at one point, which, like I said, I watch it daily. That was scary. Oh, my goodness. You're you're you're one dry month away from cutting people off from water, not. Citizens water, but like industries starting to tell people, I mean, I don't know if agriculture has been able to to irrigate their property. In fact, based off the water draw, I'm pretty sure that they still can't irrigate using Rio Grande water. So, yeah, no, we're we're. It's not when, guys, we are in panic mode here. Like you turn off the water, Brownsville becomes unlivable. Like it's just, that is the fact. We all need water. And it's not like Brownsville becomes unlivable slowly. Like the next day you can't survive. And so, you know, we spend a lot of time. I mean, like I said, since I was a kid, this has been an issue that I've cared about greatly. which is a weird thing for a kid. So I saw, I'm sorry. And this is great by the way, I have a captive audience. I never get to talk about water and sorry, I'm loving this, but yeah, it's extremely important. I don't know if I can take questions. Okay. Oh, I'm not allowed to take questions, but afterwards I will answer questions.

So I did want to ask you, Joseph, what is your title? You mentioned SW. Tell us a little bit more about that.

Okay, so I'm here in three different capacities today. I am a citizen of Brownsville. I was born here, actually. Went to Pace High School, if anybody knows. Anybody cool? No, okay. So no Pace High School people. But I am also a member of the Public Utility Board. I've been on the board now for four years. In case anybody's wondering, that is a volunteer unpaid position. I am also the president of the Southmost Water Regional Authority. And again, another unpaid position. I've been on that board for about three years. If anybody cares, I am also a PhD in electrical engineering, and I run a research group actually, lead a research group in Boston. So any questions you have, I can try to answer as clearly as possible.

So do you get paid to do this?

No, actually, and this is another really important thing. It's my daughter's birthday today. How old is she turning? She is turning 10. So it's an important one. And but I thought that this was important enough, critical enough that I come here and support the city commission and support you all by answering any question I can. And I've been at it for an hour and a half hour. I don't know how long it was. And I will continue to be at it afterwards. Although I do at some point need to get home to my daughter because I'm Not popular right now, but OK.

I truly thank you for being here. You have been so great to answer as many questions you sit on the BPUB board. You have a greater understanding as to the issues in place and you sit there for hours at a time and you really know what the complex issue is. We were elected May 2023rd and since then we have gone up to the state. We've advocated. For water, we understand and we've heard the stories across the state of Texas, and it's a scary one. I know Mayor John Cowan at the State of the City did announce that 25,000 jobs will be in Brownsville in these next five years. We currently have 800 houses under development. We have 26 subdivisions also being developed. And so as we can tell, we are growing at a rapid, rapid amount. And so water is a necessity. And I want to talk about if and what other options do we have for this funding? I mean, we've gone out for state. We just heard right now that the state right now has a billion dollars, but there's a $50 billion ask. We've gone out to federal. We were able to get some monies, but it's not enough to cover the gap there. So if I want to know what other options do we have?

Right. So, you know, you've captured the funding situation because it's not just Texas. It really is the Southwest. Heck, it's creeping up further north as a problem, you know, yearly. So the other option we had. given the scarcity of funding sources available, is to take out a rather significant loan to fund this project.

And when we talk about loan, who is responsible for paying that?

That would be our rate payers.

So the people would be paying for that. That means increased rates.

Exactly.

I just want to be transparent about the conversation.

This is a very important issue. The $220 million to roughly our current base right now, which is roughly $50,000, comes out to like $4,400 per ratepayer that is being subsidized. That money, if we didn't have it and we decided to go forward with these plans, would have to come from ratepayers. It would have to come from all of us. You know, P.B., S.R.W.A., they're both not for profits, which means, you know, nobody makes money off them. They have employees that get paid. But like, you know, you have a whole volunteer board that spends, you know, spends their free Saturday hanging out, answering questions. You know, we don't get any money like it's not generating a revenue for shareholders. Um, but what that means though, is that like money in money out? Um, so if we want to spend this money to add this resilience, um, resiliency to our community, if we don't have a funding source, an alternative funding source, it has to come from rate payers. There is no other place that can come from.

Our other option is to do nothing.

And then our third option, is there another third option we've talked about? They would be essentially a bond.

Right. I mean, the do nothing option, kicking the can down the road is something that other communities here have done. And they are paying heavily for it now. We could kick the can further down the road and like, hooray. Literally, that's it. Our option is to pray for rain in West Texas, not here.

And there are other cities in the state of Texas already going through droughts and already in a situation where their water is depleted.

There are cities, I think in the state of Texas, I can't swear to that. But I mean, I definitely know there are cities and heck in Mexico, there are towns where there is no water. Like you turn on your tap and you get nothing.

Okay. No, I really thank you for this information. I just want to know what the options are because I do not want to be in that place. I myself have a family and I would never want for my neighbors, my friends, our communities to be suffering at the cost of not being able to have water. So thank you so much for that information. Thank you.

Thank you, Dr. Holman. I appreciate it.

Any other questions? Like I said, I'll be around after. I can't do it now because of the rules, but I will be around.

So I do have a question on the MOU. You mentioned this is a binding MOU. Can you explain what that means to the public?

Yeah, so it's like any other contract that you enter into with two parties. It has certain requirements and obligations for both parties. With that, Uh, there are also funding commitments and so, like, we were talking about with the 1st project, the 1st project, um, is. Currently underway, but we would able to complete it a lot quicker, uh, with this 40Million dollars that we would receive within 30 days. If this is approved. Um, the rest of it would be, uh, funded once we have, um, fully designed out the. Um, expansion and so, like, with any agreement, um, both sides have remedies as well as obligations. And so if if you're asking if there could be a breach of contract, yes, there could be a breach of contract. Um, there is the funds that will be, uh, in an escrow agreement and so or an escrow fund. And so those funds would be committed to the projects that we have proposed and agreed to by the parties.

And can you talk, I know you mentioned within 30 days, 40 million would be deposited into an escrow account. Can you talk about the remaining and when that gets triggered and how that would work? Yes.

So if you Looking at this project overview, we understand that the expansion is estimated at two hundred and two million dollars. Um, with faith with, I won't call it project to, uh, with project to, um, being that it is, um, proposed. Uh, haven't gone through the engineering for it yet. Um, obviously, if we had the funds, we would have started that process already. My understanding is that this gets approved, they would be moving quickly to release an RFP for engineering that can handle this project and move forward fast. So once the parties have agreed that that qualified project is ready to go, the remaining 180 would be deposited in six quarterly installments so that we can pay for the phases of the SRWA expansion. in the phases of the construction of the project, right? And so there are certainties with the MOU that's before you. Any other questions?

I have a question, Will. Yes. Can both projects be started at the same time?

Yes. I will say, though, caveat, that is contingent on BPUB and their speed. And so... I will say that SpaceX has additionally offered the use of their engineers as well. I don't want to put them on the spot, but they did say that we could use their engineers. But for the process, they do have a process in place with the RFP to move forward. Now, I will say that BPUB has engineers in-house, but with any project, They have other work that they are working on right now. And so, Dr. Holman, you wanted to say something?

Just one clarification, just because there are so many moving parts. Part of the SRWA, it's an optimization and expansion. We've started some of the optimization already. So that has kicked off. We can sit there and figure out if it qualifies or not, but we are doing that now.

Dr. Oman, I did have one more question. Is there any data that informs us as to what is a projection of water needed in these next five years, in these next 10 years? I know that the variable of water and being dependent on a river, that would be based off of the weather and that's an uncontrollable variable. And so that's the scary part for us too, right? We have to be proactive in creating solutions to avoid these problems. And so I did want to know, I'm a data person, I would love to have quantitative data presented, but I understand that maybe that was not, has not been solidified, but I wanted to know if you have that data actually.

We, as prudent utility practices, requires us to sit there every year and kind of project out what we think our growth is doing. One of the things we do, and I think I've had this conversation with at least a few people, is as industry, as companies come in here to Brownsville, we ask them to provide us with an estimate of both their water and power needs so that we can sit there and continue to improve our infrastructure, continue to make sure we're able to serve our customers. So that is something we do, yeah.

And do we have that number? Can you share that with us?

Unless Gerardo says he does. Nobody has that number, do you?

If you had the data for what is the demand of water for these next years?

Not at the moment, but I did want to add that we do meet both with the Greater Brownsville Economic Council and also we have a joint committee with the Port of Brownsville where we specifically look at any projects that they're looking for to make sure that we're anticipating any water usage. I know that's always a concern about industry. We're still, you know, within our operating mode. And then the last thing... My name is Gerardo Martinez. Yeah, the last thing is that there's a subtlety, but there's capacity source of water. So going back to the 21, 22 million gallons that we process every day, we could probably do more, or we can do more for sure. The problem is that we don't store water. So same as electricity, we only make what the demand is, right? There's no containers where we're storing, you know, large amounts of water. So that's why even though we might get industry to come, we still have the capacity To process that water. So obviously we look at source and we look at capacity.

What would be, so the source obviously is 22 million gallons. Well, the source is the dams. Correct. What are you saying? And the groundwater. Yes. Yeah. That's the source. And we're able to right now, Brownsville consumes 22 million gallons. Yeah. What would be the capacity?

I do want to add, you can also add about the water rights that we have that we currently don't, We have excess water we can pull if we need it from the river. Correct. The risk is if it's not reliable.

Yeah, so I want to allow Joseph to, he's more on the water details, but he can cover that. I just wanted to add, since I was in the back and making sure that people understand, people understand, you know, the issues that we're looking at, right, capacity. And even when industry comes, we are looking, we're having meetings specifically, we make a list of everybody that's gonna be asking for water to make sure that we have enough water. And we and the whole board are making sure that we have enough before we sign up for anything.

Gerardo, before you leave, so when industry comes, citizens come first?

Most of the water is used by citizens. I will get that data. There's a breakdown and we sell to like at Jardin water. Most of their use is for residents. So we combine all of the residents. We're looking at around 7, 75% of the waters for people. Yeah. And yes, if there's a drought, people get the preference. So that's a standard. If there's a drought procedure. Yes. And that is controlled by, you know, ordinance and everything.

Good. Thank you. Yes, to add on to that, we never guarantee anybody that they're going to receive water, which sounds weird. If there is water available, we are going to do whatever we can to get it to the citizens first. That is not in dispute. Nobody supersedes you, me, in the right to water. And actually that is why agriculture has been cut off because, and we still can take water from the river, is because we are providing water to citizens. And that is the first and like, that is the priority. We do have water rights and, you know, we do have processing, excess processing capacity at our two river water plants. We could draw more water immediately if necessary. if the water's available. We do have water rights for a significant amount of water. And again, I can't tell you that number. I just don't remember it. I know we've talked about it. It's definitely been said often, but yeah, we can come back with that information.

Thank you so much.

I was talking to Commissioner. I think we have 12 million in grants right now. We're a long ways off. Yes. To even try and do something like this. And when I tell you, and I look at these citizens in here, I want them to know it's our top priority to make sure that we have enough water for the citizens of Brownsville, because it would really break my heart that the elderly don't have water. and we didn't do our damn job because we could be a hero today and then they're gonna start saying we're as heroes because we didn't do anything. So I think I would rather do something and say I did something than not do anything at all. I think we're way off because there's not a lot of grants out there. I think we need to find the money where we can get it to be able to provide and make sure our citizens, our families, our kids, our mothers, fathers are not worrying to have to worry about taking a bath, washing dishes, washing clothes or anything.

Thank you so much, Joseph. I really appreciate you and the greater depth of information that you have provided so we can make an informed decision. Did you want to say something else before we move on to the MOU?

I am here for any other questions. I heard you guys had some questions you wanted to ask. Sorry, I missed that. But anything you guys need at any point, let me know. Thank you.

I truly appreciate you being here, especially on your daughter's birthday. Happy birthday to her. She turns into the double digits.

OK, go ahead. Happy birthday.

Yeah. So.

So just for clarification, Dr. Holman can probably clarify as well. But BPUB does have in writing that customers come first. That is built in a lot of their agreements and non-standard service agreements as well. And you had a second question. I think it was in writing. Yeah, we do have a proposed agreement. I think that was a question that one of you or maybe the public had asked.

So on this MOU, I do see that it's $40 million.

Correct.

And then the rest of it would be deposited through installments?

Of $30 million each into the escrow account.

And that's to do both projects?

Right. That is to do the potable reuse project, which is the $40 million, and then the SRWA expansion, which is... but 180 million that they're proposed to.

And BPUB would be ready to do those projects? Like, do we have the manpower? Do we have a plan that, you know, we just want to ensure that if this were to occur, that this plan follows through and it's not money just sitting there or.

Yeah, by understanding that, yes, they are ready to proceed.

Yeah, so these projects have been in the works for a while. We will do everything possible to execute them as fast as we can.

And then... Go ahead. Yeah.

Hi. Ma'am, we can ask the attorney about what are the downsides to this agreement? I think that's a fair question.

You know, This is almost like a facility funding agreement. And so to me, and I have a colleague here that can mention some of the cons, but to me the con would be that there is provision in there that should, circumstantial changes for either party, either party can terminate the agreement. And that could be because lack of ability to expand the SRWA plan. or it could be because um you know there's no telling what the federal or state government will do right um there is language in there that if something comes up like a forced merger meaning something that pauses the project um funds that have been committed so that we're not left holding the bill for a project that has started would still be paid out um but there is a a pause button that if, let's say, we're not able to get permits from TCEQ, for example, there is a mechanism in place that would pause those disbursements. And once we get the permitting, then they would continue with the disbursements for the project.

So there are moving parts to this.

Dan, do you have any? Thank you.

Yeah, like my colleague was saying, there are certainly some risks associated with this. Probably one of the ones that we're thinking of quite a bit is about legal prohibition. And again, it stems from not able to get certain permits from state and federal government is a big one. So there is language in there that if those permits don't happen over a certain amount of time, then everything gets paused, and if it exceeds a year, then the project gets canceled, and there could be a refund of uncommitted funds, or what's called, what's defined in the MOU as uncommitted funds. And those uncommitted funds would be funds that aren't already applied to a qualified project, and that's also a defined term within the...

I have quite a bit of questions, sorry. I have quite a bit of questions for you all, and then I have quite a bit of questions for SpaceX that's here. Once these 444 acres leave Brownsville, what control or jurisdiction does the city lose? And I think it's a self, I mean, I know the answer. I just want to hear it. Do we lose taxation? For the properties?

For the 444 acres? Yeah, I have a presentation on the de-annexation. You want me to go through it? I'm just... Part of this whole deal, right? Okay.

So the MOU for me is a water source. So is this what we're seeing, the purpose on Project 1, Project 2? So my question is for SpaceX.

Is this MOU tied to the de-annexation? Did the proposed MOU change from day one to today?

No, it hasn't changed. It was fleshed out with the lawyers, but it's what was discussed with BPUB. They approached us with the funding gap. We talked about the two different projects and how we could structure it, and then we got to work with the staff on papering it.

I think the big question that everybody in the room, if this was public comment, would want to know is, what's the rush?

It's fair enough. Well, it's no secret SpaceX has very grand ambitions. We are trying to make a reusable rocket. We are trying to send astronauts back to the surface of Mars. We're trying to expand, sorry, surface of the moon and to go to Mars. Apologies. Thanks for the catch. and additional projects related to expanding our Starlink constellation, which brings the internet around the world. These are really hard engineering projects. They have long lead times, millions of engineering hours. And so we're just constantly trying to make sure that we can meet these goals. And so we like to do things as quickly as possible. And in terms of this particular project, We think this is a really great opportunity for Brownsville partnership with the port. Like I said, it's between a landfill and other industry, so it's not very disruptive from that perspective. But if the council decides to not de-annex, we will look at other opportunities at our other facilities.

Are you willing to sign the MOU before the de-annexation?

No, they have to be together. Do you own these acres? We are under contract for the property, yes.

Okay, so you're in the midst of buying the land right now? We are under contract, yes. And the de-annex process, I know we usually get a lot of de-annexation projects in Bronzeville. Well, not projects necessarily, they're residential homes that have been asked to de-annex for whatever reason. What are the options here? If we decide to say no deannexation, is there another route that they could go through? I think that's important to know, too, and clear transparency. what could happen.

Yeah, so we do have a presentation on that. I can answer your question, just cut to the chase, or I can do the presentation. I will say while SpaceX is making them contingent on each other, they do have to be two separate votes because there are two separate items.

Yeah, and the reason I ask that is because we put the MOU on before the deannexation. And I just want to make sure that we are clear about the MOU and And the timeline, because of the rush, and I think it's very important, is I do believe that these same action items are on Tuesday's agenda, right? And so, I mean, I just don't, I don't, I get the answer of we would like to move fast. I don't know what, you know, potentially 100 to 120 hours does to this.

I did have another question. If we were to de-annex, can we annex back? What that, how would that process look like?

Yeah, so this particular de-annexation is under a provision that we could de-annex. And then if the property owner Because now we can't no longer do forced annexation. If the property owner agreed to annexation, then we could bring them back into the city limits.

So once it's done, that's it? Once it's done, it's done. Okay. And I think that's very important information to put out there as well. Once we de-annex, there is no coming back from that.

Right.

Thank you.

Will, I'm sorry, you got another question? Okay. Does this property that we're being discussed today, this evening belong to the city of Brownsville?

I don't think we're, I think we're at the MOU part. Okay. All right. Right. Then it's action item one to talk about the de-annexation. I just, am I right, Will?

I think you have a different presentation for that. Yeah, there is a different presentation for the de-annexation and I don't know if you want me to proceed to that and then just kind of wait to proceed on the possible action.

I mean, I think we need to clarify, and I do want to provide some context here to this process, right? So about a week, week and a half ago, this opportunity came to the city. Basically, they need, they want, SpaceX wants to move quickly and they're willing to provide water sustainability for our community. That's the deal that we have in front of us. We normally, this is very unique thing that the city does. We don't hold special meetings like this. This is not how we operate normally. I want to make that very clear, but I think it's incumbent upon this commission to entertain this because it has a tremendous impact to the city of Brownsville, to our future, future generations. And I think the de-annexation presentation will show they can do it anyway, right? They will likely be granted the de-annexation through the court system. And so we have that, this decision, it's a tremendous, it's a very heavy decision on this commission to entertain. But I think I just want to provide that context, because I know that, and I agree with you, you know, we really, we always aim to be as transparent as possible. We issued a press release on Monday with all the information that we knew about what was happening. We didn't have the terms of the MOU developed. Staff worked with SpaceX all week to develop what works for both of us. It is rushed. There's no doubt. I wish we had another month or two to really work this out. But this is a take it or leave it deal. My opinion. And correct me if I'm wrong.

No, that's correct. And it's based on our own roadmap and plans. If this were to be drawn out, which it's obviously the right of the commission to do that, but we would just have to pivot the project.

I did want to ask, with the project, what is the usage of water?

Yeah, that's a good question. It's quite low. I think there's the current projection, and some of my civil engineers are here, but it's under 2 million gallons a day for all of our operations for Starbase. So this project plus everything we're already doing, the manufacturing, rocket, the homes, everything.

So if we go through and we expand our water capacity to 42 million gallons a day, you know, 2 million out of that would be potentially used by the full build out of this operation.

Correct. And that's, as it was mentioned many times, we're not guaranteed any water by BPUB through this agreement. We are in line like everyone else. We have discussions and they can commit what's commercially reasonable based on all their other commitments. This is really trying to expand the pie for the whole community and address what we saw was a really acute need in a way that we think is beneficial to all.

I also wanted to ask, are there any future plans of possibly having more land? Because that's also you know, my concern is that how much more into bronze are we going to go into?

No, there's no future plans for additional deannexations. This was a unique property where it was located at the port. And most of that land actually is owned by the port or its Department of Interior Wildlife Refuge. And this was a unique parcel that was available near the water, near the channel. So it was just kind of a one of one kind of property.

If If the Commission would allow, I would like to go. Yes. Deannexation presentation. Just to go to the presentation.

No problem. I just have one final question about the MOU specifically, and I'm sorry, but I just want to be perfectly clear that if this Commission were to say that we would like 72 hours, then the deal is off the table.

Yes, sir.

Okay.

It's a decision of just having to pivot the project and I apologize for the rush, but it's just the reality.

So, may we go into the next agenda item? Yes, please. Place on the table the action item for executive session. Blanca.

Items for individual consideration. Consideration and action on second and final reading on ordinance number 2026-1823 of the City of Brownsville, Texas to the and hereinafter reduce the City of Brownsville's corporated and extracurricular jurisdiction boundaries limits, properly described as being a 444.45-acre tract of land, more or less out of the tract A, share 7 of the San Martin Gran Cameroon County, Texas, together with all adjacent right-of-way, as shown in exhibit A to the ordinance district 2.

Mayor and City Commission, I just wanted to show you first the City of Starbase City Limits and ETJ as well as the City of Brownsville City Limits and ETJ. This is important because I think part of this, this annexation request also involves the City of Starbase. As you all know, Starbase was created by election from the voters. When they were created, properties that were included in the initial incorporation um became part of the city limits and of course because of their population size their etj grew by a half mile um it's hard to see there but you can see the darker blue being the city limits of starbase texas and it goes through past you see monica and then the four there's a parcel there very very small one that that's where their city limits goes up to um we are and i'll discuss that shortly We are in the process of negotiating boundary agreement with the city of Starbase. Details of that have not been fleshed out. And I'll go into the reasons why that's important for the city of Brownsville. As you all know, there has been an informal request to de-annex the parcel that is right next to the city's landfill. I do want to make it clear, Did hear some misinformation that the property was the city of Brownsville and we were giving away land. The city has never had ownership of this particular property. Um, in fact, it's been privately owned and as you all heard, there is a, um, closing would occur next week on this property. Um, should this property be the annexed. I also wanted to show that this particular property. is owned by forty eight individual families or trust members. And this is off of Cameron County Appraisal District. The total value of the property, even though it's pretty, pretty large, given that there's no improvements on it, is a total of three thousand nine hundred and sixty eight dollars from all the taxing entities that you see before you. They would get whatever their tax rate times the taxable value of that property. I also think it's important to note that currently right now, the property that is zoned, that's in the city limits that you see there in the yellow, it is zoned as heavy industrial. And the reason for this is because it is right abutting the Port of Brownsville and the channel there. And so when the city, prior to the UDC adoption and even at the UDC adoption, Um, this area was always perceived as being, uh, industrial and so there is a very small portion. It's about a 105.8 acres. That is zone agricultural, but it's important for the city commission to know that this property being 353.6 acres, um, being zone heavy industrial. Um, there are quite a few uses that are what we say zone by, right? Meaning that they can come without the city commission or planning and zoning approval. Some of those heavy industrial uses for the 353.6 acres includes, um, putting asphalt or concrete batch plant. Uh, transportation equipment and automobile type of, uh, industry. many of your chemical, metal machinery or manufacturing type of uses. Telecommunications equipment and facilities, a self-storage or mini storage center. All of these are by right and all they would have to do is just pull a building permit and the only regulations we would have is to ensure that they follow the setbacks that the zoning ordinance requires for heavy industrial use. as well as the building codes that the city has adopted.

Councillor, this right is by state statute?

This right is by state statute and also by local action. So we have zoned, we have adopted a UDC that characterizes these particular uses as heavy industrial. And in our UDC, And we could amend it, but this property is vested. So it means it's grandfathered. So even if we try to change the ordinance, the UDC, the zoning for this property, this property will forever be grandfathered into for these particular uses. Unless we rezone the property. The other portion that is 105.8 acres is agricultural. And it has various uses in there just for your review. And I did want to point out the particular statute that we are proposing the de-annexation under has very few requirements. One is that the population of the city be more than 4,000. Population of the City of Brownsville as of July 1st, 2025 from the United States Census Bureau is 192,957. The other requirement is that it is in a county that has more than 205,000. Currently right now is July 1st, 2025. The United States Census Bureau shows that the county population is 433,946. The reason for negotiating the boundary agreement, which I know is not before us, but it's tied to this, is because my current understanding is when this property is deannexed, you see it there in blue. My understanding is TxDOT has already authorized the City of Starbase to annex all the way using the highway to connect to this property. When a city annexes, they have to use either the roads or streets to be able to annex if the width is more than 1,000 feet. And it has to be contiguous. And so by using the Highway 4, Starbase is able to annex all the way to that property. And that's my understanding is they are looking to annex it. As you can see in this particular slide, The coloring is important because the boundary agreement that we're negotiating right now, there is a friendly dispute or discussion with Starbase in that the darker blue being their city limits and then the lighter blue next to that. Don't pay attention to the blue after that. Due to the size of the city, Starbase, their ETJ, which is their extraterritorial jurisdiction, goes out half a mile. And as you can see, the lime green color is the city's ETJ, the yellow being the city's city limits. Our ETJ goes out five miles from our point of the city limits. And so we currently have right now, I would argue first in time, our ETJ stays intact. Starbase would argue that when they were incorporated and being that the state allowed Highway 4 to be annexed, their ETJ grew. So the effort for the boundary agreement would be to negotiate where the ETJ is. And further, that opens up a policy question is, what is the city's outlook on annexing land past where the landfill is? given that most of this is owned by the port and by other federal agencies. As I said, annexation for an unimproved area, there is a requirement that the population have 4,000, county have a population of 205,000, that the area be at least three contiguous acres. We have 444.45, I believe, and that it be unimproved. and adjoining the municipal boundaries, there is an argument that can be made that if you meet one, two, and three, that you then would have to de-annex it. But an argument can be made on the other side that it's a may. Whether or not that is a question that's for the courts to decide I do want to talk about the history of this annexation because I think that's important for the city to take into consideration for this. One of the things that a lot of people don't talk about is the Texas legislature has made it really easy for citizens to de-annex from the city limits as well as be removed from the city's ETJ. The city is currently in litigation with the state and it's so far an appeal that many cities that are participating are currently losing. But we're still fighting for that to protect the city's ability to protect their ETJ. Unfortunately, with annexation no longer being forced, the abilities for cities to grow and the ability for citizens to de-annex has been made to grow, so really, really difficult to de-annex. Very easy. Within the last two years, the City has received approximately three petitions for de-annexation for lack of services. And each one, once you determine that there are no services, the City was advised to go ahead and de-annex those properties. Since the ETJ disannexation or release has the bill itself has been adopted by the Texas legislature, the city of Brownsville has received numerous requests for release from the ETJ. The concern with that is even though we cannot fully regulate within the ETJ, that does cause cities to have kind of what I would call a Swiss cheese territorial boundaries for its ETJ. In reviewing the minutes of the City, because a question was posed, how many times has the City had this annexation? I do think it's also important to note that the City of Brownsville, besides having the three in the last two years, now that it's a little bit more easier to de-annex, it's important to note that in reviewing the minutes in 2009, there was quite a bit of controversy by some of the annexations that the city of Brownsville had. And it drew the attention of that particular legislature that was in effect. And they had several bills that were put into play or proposed to invalidate or just annex many of the areas because they saw it, quote unquote, being a land grab. What came from that was a compromise that the city of Brownsville would enter into boundary agreements with the neighboring cities where we by would release certain areas to them. And therefore, these bills were not. The next annexation that is in the history books is March 15th, 2005, the city de-annexed by petition. the Rio Bravo Subdivision River Bend Resort. It was a request by the property owners. They also claimed that they didn't have services. We went far as the 1930s and 40s, and we had one in 1996, which was the Paseo development. They asked for a total of 13 acres to be annexed, disannexed, and then a couple of disannexations occurred between the 1930s and 40s. And so, As you can see, the de-annexation has increased now, being that it is quite easier to de-annex. And what I mean by that is, how can we be challenged? Currently right now, you have this ordinance before you, and if the property owner proves that the commission's decision was arbitrarily capricious, they could challenge that decision. They also have the ability to petition by, to de-annex by petition. And what that does is if they prove that they don't receive services, they would be able to de-annex. If the commission takes no action within 60 days, then they are able to then take us to court and have the court declare the area de-annexed. I do want to state that currently right now, BPUB has confirmed that the property that is in question lies within BPUB's water and wastewater service areas for water and sewer, but there are no existing water lines there or sewer lines there. And so it is a property that is unimproved and does not receive services.

This time I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have.

I do want to close that being that the property is zoned heavy industrial, if SpaceX purchase it, they could do any one of these uses. The thing with that is too, we are currently undergoing updates to the UDC but a lot of that would be grandfathered in. So even if we adopt provisions in place, we don't have the regulatory scheme to regulate. I will say that Starbase is asking to annex this into their territorial limits, and they have adopted a zoning ordinance that addresses the type of uses that SpaceX has as part of their operations. So their zoning ordinance does have place things in place for their setbacks, the other regulations that we would normally have with zoning, certain barriers, if you will, that's next to residential, they have those provisions in place. We would have to rely on ours and kind of interpret what the use will be based on what our current regulations are in place.

Well, I don't want to sound repetitive, but I want, I guess there's a lot of misconception about this property. It does not belong or the city is not the owner of the property that we're talking about, right? That's correct. Okay. Were we ever owners of this property that we're talking about ever at any time?

Like the last few years. You can only say up to 2000. I don't know. We owned it before 2000. I would,

I'm sorry? Is it in the flood zone? I wouldn't believe so, yes. Yes?

Yeah, I would defer to Donald if he's able to answer that, but I do believe it's in the flood zone.

It is in the flood zone? So did you know? I'm checking for you. Okay. Okay. We'll come back to that question.

Okay.

And you did say it was for, it is, has an exemption for commercial use. heavy industrial and ag all the time, right?

I mean, all three? Yeah, no, so 353, the largest chunk of it is zoned heavy industrial. The bottom half is zoned agricultural.

Okay. I just wanted to make sure that everybody knows that the city of Brownsville does not own that property. It's a private owner, right? Right.

Yeah. So this is not, I think the question that they have to be kept separate, But I think the question on this particular item should not be, I know it's difficult because people have certain emotions, but it shouldn't be about who is asking for the deannexation. It should be the property owner. The property zoning is asking for deannexation. And what is the city's, are we even servicing it? Do we have the regulations in place for it? And what is our ultimate goal in growing the city limits?

Do we have any intentions of growing that way that you know of or you've heard of? Anybody from planning ever saying, hey, they want to build a Starbucks out there or anything like that?

No.

Okay.

Yeah. And I will say I have received some some, I guess, got in trouble a bit for suggesting that we would annex the port or even back SpaceX back in the when I first started with the city. But being now that I'm here quite a bit, and I know the lay of the land, it is my understanding that the Port of Brownsville is not interested in being in the city limits of the city. And that was the city Starbase.

I also just want to make it clear because I guess a lot of misinformation was put on social media that we were just giving away 444 acres. That is not true. It belongs to someone. Right. And it's not the city. Right.

Okay. To clarify, sorry, just wanted to clarify in the flood zone, it's a flood zone AE. It is in a designated flood area. Sir, yes.

Thank you. I do have a question about obviously this area, this 440 acres is potential, an area for potential investment that my understanding was through the Greater Brownsville EDC, they were looking to potentially bring more industrial companies into the city limits of Brownsville. And so I think my question to SpaceX, Um, you know, we, we were work, I mean, we, I know the city was actively working on trying to put investment there. Um, what is your position on working with the city with our about, uh, helping. SpaceX vendors or SpaceX suppliers locating in the city limits of Brownsville, because ultimately our goal is to increase our tax base. That's how we improve infrastructure, quality of life, all of the above. I know this is by losing that territory, it does restrict our ability to.

Yeah, understood. We understood that to be a concern. And in fact, the property goes close to the channel down to State Highway 4, and then it goes all the way actually to the Rio. So we also are under contract for that area from south of State Highway 4 to the Rio. And we are not requesting that that be de-annexed. We're keeping that within the city jurisdiction. And the reason is if there is an opportunity to partner with some of our vendors or others who want to bring industry, That's the location that we are suggesting that they go to.

And to piggyback off of that, being that that particular portion of the property would be in the ETJ, that gives us the viability through the boundary agreement and subsequent action or petition of the owner to annex those properties in so that we can then collect the ad valorem taxes.

Yeah, now we're back to the de-annexation.

So again, just obviously we lose, if we de-annex this today, we lose taxing, zoning, building standards, environmental protections, inspections, permitting, future annexations, rights, and every other municipal authority of that property.

Our base would then assume those responsibilities.

I just, I just want to know the value of what Brownsville is surrendering guaranteed against the value of what Brownsville is receiving. That's 444 acres that in the future, obviously, we don't tax. With the ETJ that you were discussing, if State Highway 4 becomes, if you want to go back to that map, if State Highway 4 is a connector right there in that one from the blue to the new blue, then the potential loss is also possibly a lot of the commercial corridor on Highway 4?

Potentially. I don't know what is planned for that area right now. It could be that SpaceX is going to purchase those parcels. My understanding is there's nothing right now.

No, I get it, but don't whoever claims that ETJ have a certain amount of heat from the connector?

Well, yes and no. So Highway 4 would be within the city's limits, and Highway 4 is not a taxable property. Correct. The area surrounding Highway 4 would remain in our ETJ, Their ETJ would not grow beyond that. That is the reason why we're negotiating a boundary agreement to prevent this overlap that you see here. Because our ETJ, we're releasing our ETJ along Highway 4, not necessarily the areas above it. We haven't been, we don't have a request from the property owners in that area to do so.

Do you know when we'll get that boundary agreement?

We're going to meet next week, and we'll probably get it to you as soon as we can negotiate it. It's something that we had started, but then Starbase had a change in attorneys, and so we had to start from scratch on that instance.

Is the MOU legally linked at all to this property? To this particular property? Yes. No. So there's no language in the MOU that we would sign?

There's no language that addresses anything about this annexation in the MOU for the prior topic. They are two separate actions. And I think what the rep, I don't want to speak for them, but I think the representative from SpaceX was basically indicating that if the de-annexation does not occur, they would not enter into the agreement.

I have a quick question, Councillor.

Yes, sir. You said it was half a mile of star base for their ETJ and four or five miles for us as a City of Brownsville? Correct. Is that based off of population?

That's based off population.

So, would it be possible as they continue to extend their limits and grow as a City that they would have a larger ETJ?

No. That would only be determined as they annex and that would be, the ETJ would be set based on when they would, based on the population at the time they annex. So the current, it's difficult because you have different areas there, but let's say where it says star based there, their population, they went to the first lighter shade of blue. let's say that in, I don't know, 10 years from now, they go up to past 500,000 residents, then whenever they annex that particular lot, their ETJ in that area would expand by a mile. But that doesn't automatically mean that their ETJ for the rest of the city would expand as well.

Thank you.

I have a question on the petition process, right? Dave, we both know, and they, uh, decide to, to take it through the court system to prove, you know, that we, we, we're not providing services in that property, right? You listed out all the criteria that, that they could use. What, what's your opinion that we would not, what that, that they would still get that this annexation approved, uh, approved at the court level.

It would, it would, um, much latitude is given to city commission as far as what findings you make given that there are no services there in place the question that will come up in court is what services were promised when the property was annexed and what is the city's ability to be able to extend services to this particular parcel Being that we are under the gun to de-annex so that we can enter into an MOU that would grant the city and BPUB and SRWA $220,000 to expand certain facilities, I would say that it would be very difficult for the city to be able to expand services to this area. $220 million. Yes, $220 million, sorry.

If I may provide clarification, I think this is where you're going. How easy would it be for SpaceX or Starbase to petition to de-annex through the courts? The problem is they would have to close on the property and become the legal owner before they could do that. And from what I've heard, the final sale is contingent on the de-annexation, correct? Or the closing of the sale is contingent on de-annexation.

No, it's not contingent on it. The contract, the existing owners have given us explicit permission to pursue the deannexation while we're under contract and the closing will happen next week. So, yeah. So you'll become owners next week? We will become owners regardless. We just won't do the project there.

Okay.

I have a follow-up question. Should this commission approve the MOU or will you be Ready to sign it today?

Yes, sir.

Okay.

Just want to make that clear.

Yeah, being that they are scheduled to be the property owner to answer your question about how easy it would be, they would use the minutes of this meeting and the fact that we don't offer services out there to have the property de-annexed. And because we have de-annexed other properties, three at least, within the last two years, we have treated all the de-annexed petitioners the same. When the commission finds out there are no services, you have de-annexed. I doubt that SpaceX would pursue this, but they could have an action for equal protection saying you didn't treat us like any other petitioner.

What would be the timeframe for that to be done?

The process, the process, um, as soon as they, there's certain statutory requirements for the annexation, they would have to file the petition with the city secretary's office. Um, so that could occur as soon as they close. Um, we will then have a period of time to add it to an agenda. There is some requirements that you have to publish notice in the newspaper, uh, place signs out on the property. We'd have to have a meeting, rather special or called, or special meeting or regular meeting in which we would have the ordinance heard. All that to say, if you don't act within 60 days, then that's when the process starts for them to petition the courts. Thank you. And keep in mind, if they do close on the property, and they become the landowners they can do any of the heavy industrial uses that are on that particular property the 101 hundred and some acres that are not heavy industrial they're agricultural depending on what they want to do there they would have to seek a rezoning under the city's ordinance for starbase if they were to annex it in starbase depending on their ordinances can bring it in as whatever zoning classification they their their commissioner court uh feels necessary so regardless whether we vote yes or no they're going to be the annex from the city of brazil right if it's their desire one way or another they are leaving the city limits yeah with us or without us or through the courts they are going from brazil right right

I have questions now, like everything. I know they're two different things, but at this point, they're kind of the same thing, because one's contingent on the other. Can I ask questions about everything that's in my brain? Sure, yeah. Sorry. It's a lot of process, and for me, it's a lot. I mean, we were given the MOU after public comment today. Like having to internalize all of this and make a vote is pretty tough, right? I mean, for me, if we sign that MOU today, what are we exactly receiving in exchange for the final approval today? Like what is confirmed, not promised, not discussed, not anticipated? What's the number today? What are we receiving if we enter into the- From a financial standpoint for the water improvement plan.

If you want to give it a value such as that- I sincerely hope you go to Mars. You're looking at the value of the property right now is a little under 4,000?

No, no, no. If we sign the MOU, what is actually irrevocably committed today?

Yeah, it would be the $40 million since that project has been agreed to and identified, and it would be deposited within 30 days of signing.

So to answer your question, $40 million.

$40 million. Now, for whatever reason on the agreement that is to be for second project identification, Um, there's language in there of potential one year, one year that nothing happens that then I think if there's no project identified or something like that, then the rest of the money's canceled, something like that. Right.

There is language that dictates that, but the projects are identified. You have the two projects, which being the potable reuse project and the SRWA project. The reason why we have that language in there is because BPUB is in the process of finishing out their engineering. And assuming that they have the funds in place, they can then speed through that process and finish designing it.

So who carries the risk? of this total project if by the time it gets to be, it becomes a $325 million project?

The agreement does have language in there that SpaceX reserves the right to contribute more. The reason why the initial...

But if they don't want to contribute more, like contractually today sign in the MOU. If this project in the future becomes a $325 million project, who who carries that risk?

It would be the ratepayers. And I will say, too, this is, with the exception of the de-annexation, this is no different in the sense of the private-public partnership that we had for the fiber project. In that instance, we had grant funds that were granted to the city close to $20 million. It was 19-some. And the private company put in the other amount. And in this instance, SpaceX will be investing the 220 and we put in our portions too, whether it's from grants or general fund or what have you.

And Paul is the general counsel for PUB. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, commissioners. Paul Gonzalez, general counsel and chief legal officer for Brownsville PUB. One of the things that we've been working intensely on is defining the provisions to make it work. To make it work so that you heard there's a $12 million grant that we've been able to secure. There are other federal grants we're going to continue to seek where we can and other state grants to continue to seek where we can. And this is a substantially greater amount that is being made available. So to the extent, are we highly motivated to leverage the projects that we need and the foreseeable future that increase resilience of the system? For example, this indirect potable reuse is making use of the effluent. So it's increasing, lessening our dependence on surface water when it's fully implemented. Right. And that's up to a MGD of raw water. And then we got to produce it through one of our surface treatments and treatment plants. So so it's it's a leveraging and a highly it's really great when there is a funding source that is not the ratepayers that we can we can turn to. So I just want to clarify that we've looked at the provisions on putting a qualifying project together. within the timeframes that are set out in the MOU. We've looked at that carefully and fully intend to take advantage if that opportunity is presented.

And I do also, a point that came up when Paul said something, I do want to also add that the ability to be able to tell the feds or anybody that offers a grant that there are funds and that we're shovel ready, the quicker we can get funding for that project.

I just, I mean, I have to ask, I'm sitting up here as a commissioner of the people sitting in this room, and I have to ask the question, is if we sign the MOU today, are we going to be guaranteed that the Brownsville taxpayers are not going to be required to make SpaceX Promise contribution whole, should it not be whole?

I'm sorry, can you restate that?

That if we sign the MOU today and something were to happen, where the agreement is no longer, the phase out, the timing, the whatever, ultimately to get to those millions of gallons per day, is us signing the MOU today, does that guarantee that to fulfill these projects in the future, the Brownsville taxpayers won't be required to be responsible for any of SpaceX's promised contribution that was not made whole?

Let me restate as I see that I'm understanding you correctly. Paul, did you get that?

I think I did, Commissioner. I think their commitment in the MOU at this point is the maximum amount, which I think is right there at $220 million. If the difference is, do we have to, in order to complete the a project that is needed, finance 80% of it or finance 50% of it. Unless somebody else comes in and contributes a difference, it's better to finance just the 50% and be able to get the additional money and apply it where it makes sense because the ultimate...

I think I'm asking questions about the actual MOU, for example, whatever the $220 million covers. there are some provisions in that MOU and I'm trying to again wrap my head around it because we, I mean, it's still trying to figure this out. So we signed the MOU and the $220 million are certain triggers and certain monies to be deposited based off of the project. And if there's delays and there's no permitting from the federal government and everything y'all just said, And if the delays last a year or whatever that was, then at some point whatever's not funded gets lost in the MOU. Am I right or wrong that I heard that and read that somewhere right now that we were presented this today? Wrong. OK. So then what is right?

So I think I understand his question. I think what you're asking is if a project is started and something happens where TCEQ says, no, you can't proceed at this point, the agreement is stated in such a way where if the funds are committed for a qualifying project, right? Like the pension, for example, those funds would continue to flow from the escrow, you know, SpaceX to the escrow account, to the project. So that BPUB, the rate payers are not left with that project open-ended, right? So that provision you're referring to is really for a project that hasn't commenced, that hasn't been identified as a qualified project.

So once engineering starts, that triggers the project to be commenced? That's my understanding, yeah. That's correct. I want to make sure that's what's in the MOU if we approve it.

Yeah, Dan's going to talk about the provision in there.

Hi, Commissioner. Thank you again. Yeah, there's a provision in here, sir, in the MOU. It's a two-year commitment condition that goes into some specificity that SpaceX's obligation to make then unpaid funding payments is suspended until signed contracts exist and any uncommitted funds could be refunded to SpaceX. And so, conversely, that means that committed funds are going to remain in the project, right? So once we have a qualified The qualified project and a qualified project is a project that has been identified by the commission and the term identified has a specific definition in this that it has to be by resolution and signed by the parties, right? It has to be an acknowledged. Project, which makes it a qualified project. Now we've got committed funds. Those committed funds will go to that project. However, if there are uncommitted funds and the definition of uncommitted funds being pull that up here. Uncommitted funds means funding payments held in escrow or by the parties that are not committed funds. So there is that provision that if they are committed, they're committed and they will continue to flow to that project. And then if there are uncommitted funds, those funds will have remained in escrow. We haven't had any kind of resolution identifying what to do with those funds or how to allocate those funds. And therefore, SpaceX would be entitled to get a refund from or pull those back out of the escrow.

But I do want to add that the agreement that's before you all does identify two qualified projects already.

But he just finished saying that they're identified, but they don't mean anything until we pass a resolution.

Right. So that will be the next action that you will adopt at the next available meeting. But As I said, they are eligible to identified this is exhibit a that's in the agreement and it does list the two projects. So, and as you heard from these projects are either commenced or about to start.

Okay, what if, uh. Spacex water demand grows dramatically. What what's in the and the provisions there? Let's say that right now, I think we heard something that up to the capacity of 2 million gallons per day would be something that would be their maximum ask. What happens if that dramatically grows? Is there anything in the MOU?

No, the MOU does not define that. It's essentially a funding mechanism for future water source infrastructure. It's the relationship between SpaceX and BPUB as a retail water provider is Any developer that comes to us, we will either have a standard or non-standard development agreement that might apply. We have rates that are approved by this commission to apply to them. We will receive contributions in aid of construction as needed. In some instances, if we build to oversize, uh construction in order to serve say a subdivision or something we might oversize it because we see where development is and we decide well we need a slightly bigger pipe and we will pay the difference between what they need for theirs you know and do do something that's fair in in dealing with any developer but it's basically under our service policies that have been around for a while uh development pays for

Uh, development and and to add, there is a provision in the agreement that says that funding payments are contractual contributions is the 1st part their nature of payment and no purchase and not a purchase of capacity. Ownership interest or Pre payment of volumetric rates. So they still have to pay whatever rate is at the existence at the time. And there's nothing in the agreement that specifies that we are required to fund a certain amount per day per year, et cetera. As Paul said, just to reiterate, that would be through BPUB service policies.

My final comment, I guess, is just to SpaceX. And mine is, I mean, if we're really $220 million and all those million gallons per day is an opportunity that can secure Brownsville's future water for generations. I do believe it's important for us and massive enough for us to get this right. It's not important enough to get it done fast. And I really hope that you have a change of heart for at least 72 hours because we were just given this at 6 p.m.

I think I would just invite SpaceX back up here again and answer that in response.

I appreciate the comment and my position stands. I think we've worked really hard all week with your staff and the lawyers. It's a really good deal. I think we've partnered with BPUB in the past to extend the pipeline down State Highway 4 and wastewater back. And so we have a really good working relationship with them. And I think I have all the trust and hope that we're going to sort this out, but it needs to be done today. And unfortunately, we're just out of time on our side. And so, yeah, that's where we are.

Any questions from the commission?

Mayor and city commission, I don't know if you have any additional questions.

Exploitation. Exploitation.

Comments.

I move to go back into executive session.

Second.

All right.

We have a motion in a second. All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye. Nice to have it.

City Commission is going back to executive session at 8.53 p.m.

I'm so proud of you.

Mayor, may we recommit to open session?

Yes.

The time is 9.55 p.m. Is there any possible action items? Sure.

Is there any possible action items?

Council, so we have two votes, correct?

Yes, the first item that was left on the table was the Project Quantum, which was the MOU with SpaceX.

So I will move to approve Project Quantum and the memorandum for improvements to our water sources.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion on this item? I do. I have a question for SpaceX.

Just to be clear on the second project that is to be identified, the desalinization, yeah, the SRWA. So what necessarily, and from you, you're an attorney, right? And so I just want to hear from your side, because I've heard from our attorneys, what triggers the start of that project? Is it an adopted resolution?

project the milestones um and basically like the schedule and then voila so let's just say i'm sorry i just have to i mean for me if this project is identified in the next month that would potentially suffice to trigger that yes if all of those conditions are met yes we want bpub to get going as soon as possible we want the project to happen so we are incentivized and the agreement reflects that we want the work to get done as soon as possible. So we want to give the money as soon as possible so that work can be done.

Thank you.

Any further discussion?

With that said, all those in favor, please say aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Actually number one consideration action second final reading on ordinance number 2026 dash 1823 of the city of Brazil, Texas to this annex and hereafter reduce the city of Brazil corporate and extraterritorial jurisdiction, but during limits appropriate describe us. being 444.45-acre tract of land, more or less out of tract A, Share 7 of San Martin Gran, Cameron County, Texas, together with all adjutants right away, as shown in Exhibit 8. To the ordinance.

So, Ms. McCorkle, I appreciate you and people from SpaceX being here and presenting your case. It's been a really difficult decision, a difficult week with lots of questions and details and then second thoughts and afterthoughts. You've given us a lot of assurances that this is something that you're willing to partner the city with us and we hope that honestly that everything works out well. We need the water. This is for the benefit of the community, for the benefit of the residents and we hope that by I'm going to move to approve the petition to Dysannex voluntarily, but I really do hope that you deliver on your promises.

Second.

I appreciate that, and we absolutely will follow through.

We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? No.

Sorry, what was the question?

The question was, if this was a public hearing, I believe you all have had public comments earlier and heard the individual speak.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. All those opposed? Ayes have it. Motion carries.

Next, we have adjournment.

Second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Ayes have it. Meeting adjourned, everyone.

Meeting adjourned at 10 p.m. Thank you.