City Council - Regular Meeting

It should should be in our best interest not to put all that risk on our rate payers. This is a this is a good thing. Mhmm.

And I'll leave that at that.

So my comment is the first time we brought this and this time we bring this, we we brought this in a spirit of let's sit down and work through this and try to come up with a working document that we could all agree to and send over to the Port Of Corpus Christi to see if we could get their support for it. But we're we have not been provided an opportunity to do that. All we've been provided is, no, you can't do this. We don't wanna talk about this. We don't wanna have any collaboration with the port.

So I'm gonna say to the listening public out here, this is an opportunity that we're missing. This is an opportunity for us to save the taxpayers of this city millions of dollars with the Port Of Corpus Christi helping us pay for this, and we're gonna sit here today and vote against having that opportunity. We're gonna vote against voting for because I know what the outcome's gonna be, because the mayor's been talking to everybody in Corpus Christi about this since she found out about it. But this is gonna be an opportunity that this city council is going to once again pass up for us to be able to save the taxpayers of this city millions of dollars. K.

Thank you. One last comment.

No. No. I'm we're we're gonna you've I've only spoken once. Okay. So we're gonna go and call the vote. Rebecca, take a roll call, please. We're we're calling a vote. Please. Take a roll call.

We we still have questions here. I mean, they don't talk to the port. That we don't hear things from

them as well. Vote on this and move forward. You guys put it on, we're voting. Fine. Rebecca, please take a roll call.

Okay. So just it's a motion to approve the MOU, right, that was attached to Second. The

agenda? Okay. We have a motion and a second. Rebecca?

Okay. So for a roll call vote, council member Hernandez.

Aye. Hunter.

After waiting for seven and a half years for desal and following five and a half years before that for any progress in desal in the city, I have to vote yes.

Okay. Pesley?

Oh, yes.

Yes. Okay. No problem. Roy?

No.

Suckley?

Yes.

Barrera? No. Mayor Wajardo? No. Okay. The item fails. Great. Thank you.

4710 HACL. I come before you today because I'm really appalled that our city is being sued. It's being sued because of all the lack of process from this council. Our illustrious mayor is named 31 times in this lawsuit. Also, one of the things that really bothered me in looking at this lawsuit is that it says mayor Paulette Wajardo privately solicited a fellow councilman's vote during the public meeting in violation of Texas government code section five five one point zero two one and five five one point one four three.

You know, to me, you are the keepers of the process of Corpus Christi. Your job is not to run the city, it's to set up policy. I was also appalled that council member Barrera went on television and chaisteised the city manager, which would to me is a violation in itself for publicly reprimanding an employee in public on television. So it seems to me that this council people need to go back and review what their job is to set policy not to run the city. Set policy not to run the city.

So I am very appalled at this behavior. I'm grateful that the person filing the lawsuit is not asking for money from the taxpayers. He's making a request to get it straightened out in your process. It's a shame that we, the citizens, have to go through this extreme order to get things done by this council and especially the people who I've named. So have a great day.

You too miss Saldonia.

$2,000,000 has been appropriated to a company that is owned by your political donors, right? Objection,

form. Argument.

Yeah. An incentive has been appropriated for an economic development project. Of which they're owned of which the developer are my donors.

Okay. $2,000,000. And your city manager and your assistant city manager have testified that in their opinion, and I know you know they're not you you don't think they're qualified, but in their opinion it's a forgery. Right? You've seen that testimony. Yes. And you've seen the testimony where Peter, I know you think he's not qualified, but he says law was broken. Right? He said there was an appearance of the law. Okay. And so and then, of course, Ajeet came in front of you twice and made the accusation as well. Twice. Right? And showed you where the document where the federal FEMA website had been altered. He showed that to you. Right?

Yes.

And all of those things have happened, and you've told me that the only person that's qualified to investigate it and make a determination about whether or not there's been a crime is somebody in law enforcement, right? Yes. Yes. Okay. So, are you going to turn it over to law enforcement to be investigated? I no. Okay. That's all I have.

Thank you.

All right.

Anything from any other questions?

After I interviewed Philip, I did that same evening, I believe, have a conversation with the mayor on the phone, and councilman Pusley was there either the room or in a three way column. Not a 100% sure. But that was after the meeting with Philip. And so I explained to the mayor that Philip, who would be the only one that could explain what happened to this document, could not explain it. And so there was an obvious change in the document from the website to the PowerPoint.

And the only person well, there are probably two people that could have explained it. One was Mike Culberson and his team, and then the second one would be Philip Ramirez and his team. And I believe we had a conversation with Mike Culberson to rule him out and actually ask for a copy of his PowerPoint presentation and who created it. Did he create it or did Philip Ramirez create it? And Culberson said that the PowerPoint was created by Philip Ramirez, sent to Mike Culberson, who did nothing to change it, and just placed it into a template that had EDC heading on it.

That's why we ruled out Culberson as somebody that may be aware of or may may have changed the document and then started working with Philip Ramirez as the sole person that would know, should know what happened to the document.

And what you just told me is what you told the

mayor Correct.

In the phone call soon after the meeting with Philip. Correct. And it's the same information you also told to Councilman Pusley?

Correct. In that phone call that he was on. Okay.

Did you also let them know, Pusley and the mayor at the same time frame, same phone call, you were not satisfied with the explanation?

I did. Okay.

So at that point in time, then you are still communicating to both of them that this is something you cannot recommend?

That, yes, and that they should be concerned about it.

Yep.

Oh, definitely. Right. It was Alton. And then when you read the entire PowerPoint, the it's so it's so obvious that the the reader or the writer wanted one to be led to believe that the FEMA was just recent, even where it's like recently released and this and that. And part of it goes back to the narrative. Mike Culberson said, hey. You know, we can't this has to be tied to infrastructure. And so then they they catch the scheme that, okay. FEMA floodplain, that's infrastructure. You know, the the the the fixing the bottom floor so it meets the floodplain, and they stuck with it.

Got it.

And then they then they then they develop a narrative to fit it that they just found out because people would say, like, shit. They should have known about this long time ago.

After review of the presentations, deposition testimony, investigative materials, and applicable Texas and federal penal statutes, the PowerPoint slide at issue appears to have been intentionally altered to cover the dates that appear on the government website.

You agree that documents were altered? There's no doubt about that.

The the screenshot was definitely altered. Yes.

Did it look intentional? Can you, as a police officer I mean, you look at stuff like this. You can say

So it would be hard to argue that it was not.

Thank you.

Let let the city council know that there were there were some, you know, some improper information, some tampering, and all that involved also. You let them know?

I let them know. We're gonna let them know again tomorrow on executive session. I have I already have an executive session posted.

And then you go on. You said that, however, because the council wanted this on the agenda for them to consider, it's on. And so my question to you is when you are saying in that conversation with Achid that the council wanted it on the agenda, who are you referring to? Yeah.

I'm not for certain, but I know the mayor and I think possibly had were were were okay with the issue at hand of the of not having an explanation and wanted to proceed with having it on.

Both of them, you had informed them that there had been this altering or tampering or forging of a federal document, but they were still willing to support it. Right? Correct. I think what you're telling me is during that time frame you were not in the loop as to what the findings were for the investigation.

Correct.

And so therefore you had no knowledge that it was something illegal in the process that you were voting on?

Right. There was Okay. Okay.

It was apparent from reviewing all of the different depositions and statements that mister Ramirez was taking responsibility for the presentation of the altered item.

But the bottom line is that we are committed to the city's permitting process. We want to help you in any way we can if you choose to solicit our help. I know that the port worked very well with the city back during the days of the Mary Rose Pipeline. In fact, our our staffs who engineered and built the pipeline. So I think there's a lot we can offer the city with their desal plans if you want it. If not, we're here standing by hoping you get your permit wherever you want it. It's that simple.

I I don't there is no working together. Again, we're we we we are not going to the port and building docks. So we're unclear as to why the port is coming over this side to try to build desal with no customer.

And we're not trying to build desal. We're just going for a permit for the city to use if you so choose. That's all we're doing. Yeah. Just an alternative. I don't know how we can be more clear on that, mayor.

Chris, if you're doing it, buddy, I'm not hearing anything.

I'm sorry. It signed me out. Give me one sec.

And, Chris, the city secretary nameplates are looking a little funky too. Alright, Christopher. I'm listening.

Test test one two zero two.

I got you in the pipe. Five by five. Perfect.

K. Good morning, everyone. I'd like to call this meeting to order. Welcome to City Hall and to Council Chambers. This morning, our invocation will be led by pastor Greg Hood with Reach Ministries. Pastor.

Good morning, servants of God and of the people. It's good to see you. It's good to be back here. I was here a year ago about this time, Easter time. And so it's a good memory to be back with y'all at this time of year.

So let's, go to the one who created us, who sustains us, who has a future for us, through his son. Let's pray. Creator god, greatest servant of all, and your son who we see his walk on Earth was, one of service. His death was one of service. His resurrection, was one of service to take all who believe home with him one day, when our service is finished here.

Lord, help us to remember everybody in this room, not just our our staff and council, but us as citizens that we have a day to stand before the judge of the universe, give account for our service. May it be one that we can give joyfully and through our lord Jesus Christ that we're received, into the home beyond this beautiful city. And, Lord, I pray today in this meeting for those who are willing that truth versus deceit will win out. For those who are willing, humility versus arrogance will win out. For those who are willing, kindness versus meanness will win out.

And for those who are willing, servanthood versus dictatorship will win out. Thank you for our staff and our public servants. Lord, I pray, God, that you'll bless them this day and that there'll be profitability that'll honor you that comes from this meeting in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. Thank you, pastor Hood. And now our pledge of allegiance to the flag of The United States and to the Texas state flag will be led by Alfredo Solis. He is a senior at Calallen High School, four year football player, and accepted to TAMU CC I'm sorry, TAMU Kingsville. It's gonna study electrical engineering.

Go Cats. Yes, sir.

Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please join me in honoring the Texas flag. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the Texas. One state under God. One and then invisible.

Thank you, Alfredo. Good luck in

your Thank you.

Yes, sir. Miss box, would you please call the roll?

Mayor Pollock Guajardo? Present. Council members Roland Barrera?

Here.

Sylvia Campos? Eric Cantu? Here. Gil Hernandez? Here. Kaylin Paxson? Here. Everett Roy? Here. Mark Scott? Here. Carolyn Vaughn? Here. City manager Peter Zanoni?

Present.

City attorney Miles Risley? Mayor and council, a quorum of the council, and the required charter officers are present to conduct the meeting.

Thank you, miss Fox. Now we'll move on to section e, and that is our city manager's comments and update on city operations. Mister Zanoni, you have two items?

Yes. Two items this morning, mayor. Thank you. And mayor and members of the council and the community, we do have two items today. The first one is, is a great news story, which is a donation to this city of a $154,000. Yes. And so I'm gonna go over I'm gonna go over the detail here, and then we do have a check presentation, and we're gonna show you a small video. This has to do with our Oso Bay Learning Center, which is really a gem in our city. So the Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries program is awarding the city $154,246 towards the Oso Bay Learning Center. Our Oso Bay Learning Center is located at the Oso Bay Wetlands in City Council District 4.

And the learning center, has been around for about ten years. It was established in 2016, and it's comprised of a 162 acres of preserved land that features five miles of trails and a 2,500 square foot educational facility. And it provides educational programs to visitors of all ages focusing on coastal ecosystems and the significance of wetland protection for this generation and future generations. So in 2025, it attracted 22,000 visitors that went to the center and about eight a 188,000 trail counts. And so there's a tracker when somebody walks on the trail, and so a 188,000 trail counts at the center.

So the learning center encompasses this is the building. It encompasses numerous adjoining amenities such as a playground, there's a pavilion, there's an amphitheater, there's a storybook sentry trail, a learning pond, a wildlife water feature, and a pollinator playscape garden. Didn't even know something like that existed, but then we have one right here in Corpus Christi. The now the the Coastal Bend, Beijing Estuaries, we know them. They're a a foundation here in our community.

They have a long history of working in partnership with the city of Corpus Christi to both establish and enhance the Oso Bay Wetlands and preserve. Over the years, the Coastal Bend Basin Estuaries Program has provided significant financial funding for various initiatives at the preserve and citywide, really. They've they've been a partner with the city for for many years in many aspects of what we do here. So the background is in 2024, as we were developing that year's budget, we did we did have financial challenges and we were looking where can we reduce in various program areas. There was concern in the community about the impacts if we were to reduce the Olso Bay and Estuary program.

In response, the city considered a third party partner who could take over and manage the entity. Unfortunately, those agreements didn't come to fruition. However, since that time, the Coastal Bend Basin Estuary has, as I mentioned earlier and as we're here to acknowledge today, for this fiscal year, for fiscal year twenty twenty six, they're going to present us a check with a 154,246 so that this fiscal year, we can have the exact program that we've had there for many years. So on behalf of the city, I wanna thank the Coastal Bend Basin Estuaries for, their generous contributions and their ongoing support and partnership with the city, not just here at the Oso Bay, but throughout the entire city. With us today is doctor Kirsten Stanzel.

She's the executive director of Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries. Can you stand up to kiss us a few people here? Kirsten's here. And we thank you, Kirsten, for being here today. And we are going to have Kirsten say a few words, but first, I'd like to acknowledge the city staff that's here that helped operate the center. So Robert Dodd is here, our director Jonathan Natwood Sergio and then Tanya Watley, our program manager. So thank you all. Kirsten, we're just going to show this quick video, and then Kirsten is going to present to the city team that check, and then we'll let Kirsten say a few words. Just there's a nice little video here that the team put together that highlights the estuary.

The Oso Bay Wetlands Preserve and Learning Center inspires visitors of all ages. The preserve is owned and operated by the city of Corpus Christi Parks and Recreation Department. This 162 acre nature preserve is filled with the wonders of our natural world. We invite everyone to explore the two miles of nature viewing trails. You'll walk away with a new found experience and understanding. The learning center is open to visitors. Visitors of all ages will learn about coastal ecosystems natural resources. Come and learn about the importance of protecting the wetlands for future generations. As a student of nature, you will find the preserve's live classroom truly fascinating.

Alright. That's great. Good video. Right? Yeah.

Mhmm. Well well, thank you. Thank you, council, for the opportunity to come today. It is truly a celebration, the the partnership between the city and the bays and estuaries program at the Oso Preserve. And as a city manager Peter Zoni said, it's it's been a long partnership.

You know, the estuary program actually originally bought some of the property that makes up the preserve. We donated that back to the city so the city could use that as match for grants in order to construct the infrastructure that's out there now. So those are the great types of partnerships that we can try to provide as a nonprofit that works in this space. So, we were, you know, when the, as Peter mentioned, when there was budget issues a couple years ago, we saw the opportunity to step in with some funding that we had and make sure that, you know, the the staff at the preserve were were fully funded and able to provide those those educational programs that the community has become so familiar with and and really wanna participate in. They're worked to the bone.

You know, I think there's a waiting list for to get in there. So and they read the numbers off. I think, you know, in addition to just the education programs, the amount of people that run on those trails and just use them on a daily basis is tremendous. So, we were happy to step in and and provide the city with those funds needed. But I'm probably more excited about the fact that we're working on a longer term partnership with the city at the site.

So, we are close. We're making some final tweaks on an MOU between the estuary program and the city that will hope hopefully help us work with the city even more closely in the future, looking at ways to continue to fund the programs, the education programs, but also the maintenance and operations at the preserve. It's a great asset. I think, you know, I think the city leaders I wasn't around twenty years ago when this all started, but somebody had the foresight to see that spot for what it could be, you know, and now it's in the heart of the city, and it's it's still heavily utilized. So we're very excited about that, ways that we can look at, you know, building out our capacity out there. So we appreciate that and just happy to be here and and have a good news item to share with with the city and the and the community.

Great. Thank you, doctor. You guys can do the check for me. Yeah. Okay.

Can I say a couple of words before Okay? We go.

Before you do

the just wanna thank you. I wanna thank all of staff. I know this was a project or

I

don't know. It's not a project. It was existing, but it was at risk. It was very much at risk, it took some time to put all of this together. But Kirsten, your leadership, you weren't here the last twenty, but you might be the next 20. So what you do is is so important, and we just thank you because this is such a critical piece of of of Corpus Christi, and and it's so important the work that you all do there. And and it takes all of us, you know, all the the partnership. And really when this was I don't wanna say falling apart, but when this was, like I said, at risk of falling apart. Everybody came together to say how do we how do we continue this? Because it wasn't even an option to say we're closing it down. And and Peter, thank you for I think it was last year, wouldn't it? I think roughly.

Yeah. Two then the yeah. The '25 budget

Was it two years?

The two years ago.

Yeah. The

'20 had some challenges.

Right. Funding. Right. Yeah.

Well and it's taken all that time. So that speaks for, you know, what what our team and what we can all do in collaboration. So thank you for for your leadership and everyone here that's represented. Councilwoman Paxton. Hold on just a sec here.

Well, Stephanie, I don't have the button. The button is not here to I'm gonna have to talk loud.

There you go.

I'm keeping you called in here.

It's working now.

Thank you very, very much. It's it was, you know, it's always an a pleasure getting to work with your organization. You guys have such a strong impact in our coastal community that I am just beyond thankful for every opportunity that we get to partner with you guys. My district probably has some of the most projects in it, so I feel like I'm a little extra thankful. But I I really appreciate that you that you all looked at this project and really recognized what the community felt, which was how crucial, how important it is, and and there's such a variety of community members that enjoy this.

And, you know, we've talked a little bit about, I see this as such a future huge amenity for our city, and you guys, what you're doing here today, and in so many other ways, make that possible. So thank you very much for that.

Yeah. And I will say if if anybody else has questions about what we're doing in your district, I'm happy to, have a conversation because there's a lot of projects going on. And so, if anybody's curious, contact me.

Councilman Scott.

Yeah. I have a commitment tomorrow night. Right? But you have a big neighborhood presentation on your North Beach project, which is amazing. Thank you so much for for continuing

to pursue that.

Anyone, Scott?

So I chuckle when you said I wasn't here twenty years ago because I mean, well, I was. And I think it's important to note, Neil Lambsler. Neil doesn't live here anymore, but it was Neil's vision. And he went to he went to Tom Udder, former Yes. Governor affairs guy here, and he came to me. And we went to a guy named Skip Noni. Skip Noni was the city manager at the time. And Neil presented this concept for this amazing public space on the Oso, and and Skip made it happen. And and the guiding light at the cities on the city side was Tom Mutter, who's since passed. So just wanted to say those names.

I if you haven't been there, Corpus Christi, you gotta go. I used to do morning activities out there, and saw coyotes and bobcats and owls and

Yes.

Painted buntings. I mean, it's extraordinary, and it's right there. It's like in the middle of our city. It's really unique. And then the physical facility that the city built is unlike anything else, I think, in town. It's really if you have some time, do it before it gets to August. But Yeah. Go out to the facility, walk around, go in the building, let watch the kids having a great time. And thank you so much for helping us put this.

Very welcome.

Thank you,

Yeah. Councilwoman Campos. Thank you, mayor. Thank you so much, Kirsten. I'm telling you that that is the power of the people because, the mayor is right. It was in jeopardy, I think about two years ago, and and the people rallied and then y'all came in as well, you know, to help save this and protect this. And I know that there's other parks. I know personally, for us, for me, I also work for the greater good. We adopted a park called Carol Lane Park. And with the help of the Parks and Rec Department, we have been able to do so much more.

We've been able to get more amenities. So, I would encourage strongly other people, other neighbors to please adopt those parks because that's how we hold our, you know, ourselves accountable and also make those tax dollars work for us, we the people. So, thank you. Thank you so much.

You're welcome. Okay.

I think we're gonna do it. Presentation.

Now we're gonna do the Czech presentation. Yeah.

Yeah.

Perfect. You guys are good. The council members are still Coming together. Okay. Perfect. Caroline,

you shoot?

Perfect. There we go. Okay.

Have a look right here. Big smiles on three. One, two, three. One more time. Big smiles on 3. 123.

Perfect. Awesome. Thank you. Alright. Thank you so much.

Okay. Okay, mayor. I think we have time for the next item. So we this the Corpus Christi Economic Development Corporation provides a quarterly report on our economic status here, and we that's in your packet. So if we don't have time to go through the entire thing, that's okay. Because the more important thing is to introduce to you the new president and CEO standing to Mike Culberson's left, which is Aaron Bowman. And so Aaron joined a couple weeks ago, I think, Aaron. Right? It's Four. Four weeks ago.

Okay. And we I had an opportunity to sit down with him for a couple of hours as did many here in the city. So mister Bowman joins the CCREDC coming from Jacksonville, Florida, where he led the Jacksonville's economic development efforts in its six surrounding counties as well. While leading Jacksonville, the region saw significant growth in logistics and manufacturing, financial services, direct foreign investment, and information technology. Aaron has a real interesting background.

He is a distinguished retired Navy fighter pilot and was involved in naval aviation research and development, procurement, and logistics support. He was the commanding officer of Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville before he retired. And Aaron also served on the Jacksonville City Council for eight years, so he knows a little bit about what it means to be a council member, serving there for eight years. And his peers elected him to be the city council president during that term. So at this time, I'm gonna turn the microphone over to mister Bowman.

Thank you for being here this morning, and we'll we'll turn it over to you to introduce yourself a little bit more and and highlight maybe the you and Mike Hublison, the the quarterly financial update for the council.

Well, thank you, Peter. And and council, it's an honor to be in your city, and I've been welcomed so much by everybody. It it just feels like home. And my association with the Corpus started back many, many years ago down in Kingsville, and Corpus was where we went every weekend to experience the beaches, the life, and and all the entertainment venues have. So it's a real honor to be here.

I look forward to, and I'll be asking it on every one of your calendars to learn more about you, your your what what your passions are, where you're trying to take this city, and, of course, what what my vision is of where where we can go and where we we we will go with your support and everybody behind us. So it's an honor to be here. And with that, I'm gonna turn it over to Mike. He said he wanted to give be the last person to give one more brief to the city council. But please, if there's anything I can do to you, please reach out to me, and and I look forward to getting together with all of you.

Alright. Mike Culberson from your Corpus Christi EDC. Here we go. You know what we do? It's, I've always been amazed that there are companies like us that go out and try to find companies to help, help regions grow. Housing's kinda just we're reaching that steady state point. You can see the the housing prices, active listings, closed sales, and then days on market. So days on market, we have months inventory. A month's inventory, just make sure everybody knows. I know Mark knows this, but it's you take a look at the active listings divided by closed sales, and that's the month.

They say that anything under six months is a what is it? Buyers seller's market, and anything over six months is a buyer's market because sellers are trying to get rid of it. But, really, if you're trying to sell your house, it's gonna take a hundred and eleven days on average right now. Sales tax. Sales tax were kinda flat. You can see the very bottom when you take a look at the whole region. You know, we're 01/27, January. It's a little hard just from '23 to '24, but '25, which is this is calendar year. It's a calendar year total. We're going up a little bit.

You can see the reds. You know, they're puts and takes. Take a look at Ingleside. Ingleside's based on purchases in Kiwit for projects. I would hate to have to be there, but but most of the reds are just slightly underneath of what it was last year, so that's that's not a not a big thing. We're actually doing well in in in employment. 202,000. You know, we're up from November. We're up from December. You know, we're just kinda looking good.

Remember, whenever we talk school districts, we're those are in government. They're not in education and health services. Health services are almost entirely doctors and hospitals and all of those things. Unemployment rates were kinda settled down. The government got behind because of the shutdown, and so now they're just they just released December numbers. And you can see at the bottom, July, August, no no October. You know, we didn't just forget October. The US government forgot

it too. They were like,

this is too hard. Let's just jump to September and keep going. So December and we're actually doing well. We're kinda we're above Texas and US like we usually are, but we're actually not too far. We used to we used to lag them by as much as 1%. So I I think we're doing well for for what we're doing now. And you can see that by the strong by the strong number of jobs. So let me talk about the Eagle Ford and and Iran. I'm not gonna give you the political thing, but I'm gonna tell you, what are we gonna do? This is me, Mike Culberson.

The majors really took over the Eagle Ford. I don't know if you've been watching, but Conoco and Phillips sixty six and Exxon, they really moved into into the Eagle Ford. There's not, like, just wildcatters, land man kinda running around going crazy in Eagle Ford. So when they're looking at the Iran crisis or war or whatever you wanna call it, on the other side of that, they see oil prices going down. So don't expect them to go in and and do a well.

My father-in-law had they did a well on his property. He didn't own the rights, but they're fine. And eighteen months is what it took for them to show up, drill, frac, and close it up. Pump and close it up. It's not the Permian where they drill a well and pump for forty years. That's that's how long it takes. So eighteen months. So they think it'll probably be over in eighteen months. This whatever it is. And the biggest thing on on prices are not is not scud missiles or drones or whatever.

It's insurance underwriters. Because if insurance underwriters don't feel happy, they're gonna price out the, the cost of moving and the insurance you have to buy, and it's not gonna be worth it. So that's why you're not gonna see it. But they don't see it on the other side. However, if you do see a lot of people, if we do start drilling, you're gonna see, when the Eagle Ford was, blowing and going, like, 1415, and part of '16, and that's we'll have citizens from here.

They'll go up into the Eagle Ford. And just so you know, it's they do two weeks, and they do twelve and twelve. So we call it doing the fourteenth, 12, and twelves, and then they'll they and now it's all overtime. Right? So by the third day by the fourth day, they're all overtime. Then they come back here, they buy their 2 fifties, they barely they run out of money right about the time they need to go back up there, and then they do that and they cycle it, and everything goes great. And they have a lot of money. If you remember in 2016, or maybe you don't, Corpus Christi had a recession. Texas had a recession, but nobody else did. Because oil went down, so everybody had cheaper oil, but not us.

We had citizens that did not have jobs. Our unemployment went up, but our jobs didn't. Our jobs did not go down because those jobs are counted in in Karnes County and places like that. And so they lost jobs, but people came back home and filed for unemployment. And so our unemployment numbers went up, percentages went up, but our we didn't lose jobs. So it it took a while to figure it all out. So I want to thank you for your support. I want to tell you that I think that you're in very capable hands. Although this is my third attempt to retire, I think I'm going

to get it done this time.

Thank you. Any questions? Almost out of time.

Okay. Didn' know if Erin was going speak. No questions but I want to thank you. We want to thank you for your service to the CCR EDC. And I know this is a milestone. Like you said, you've been trying to retire for some time, but you know what? God has a plan for everything. And so as we welcome Aaron, we we thank you for everything you've done because you've done quite a bit. You have quite the history here with us, Mike. So thank you very much for your service to to this community.

Thank you, ma'am.

Yes. Thank you, sir.

Thank you. Thank you, Aaron and Michael. And, mayor, that concludes the city manager's report.

Okay. Wonderful. Thank you, Peter. Okay. Well, it's twelve. It's 11:58. So as begin as we begin today's meeting, I wanna take a moment to address the rules of decorum. This council chambers is a place of public business, a forum for civic discussion, decision making, and service to the people of Corpus Christi. It is not a stage for personal attacks, disruptions, or vulgarity, and we will not tolerate violations of decorum. There have been repeated instances of excuse me, individuals using profanity, shouting over others, or showing blatant disregard for the rules at governor proceedings.

And I've always asked for space for differing viewpoints, and we'll continue to welcome respectful disagreement. But I will not allow this council or the public we serve to be disrespected. So we're here to do the people's work, and let's proceed in that spirit. If you want to speak on a specific agenda item during its discussion, you do not need to sign up beforehand. I will ask for public comment when the council considers the item. At that time, you can come up to the podium and speak. At this time, I'd like to ask city attorney Miles Risley to review the, city council, meeting rules of decorum. And these rules will also be displayed on the television television screens above for your reference.

All citizens must be courteous, polite, and respectful of one another, including the city council and city staff. The mayor and council members shall be referred to by title and or title surname. All remarks must be addressed to the mayor and city council and not to the city council members as individuals. Citizens are only permitted to speak on city related subject matter. Speaking on any noncity related matter is prohibited. Loud, boisterous, profane, or obscene language or behavior is not allowed. Citizens must refrain from any disturbing noise, demonstration, or other act disrupting to the city council business.

Thank you, mister Risley. Please state name and city in which you live before beginning. In person comments are limited to three minutes for call in or Webex video speakers. Corpus Christi residents receive up to three minutes and non residents up to one minute. A visible time or position near the city secretary's desk will help in managing that allotted time. If you have a petition or any relevant information that you'd like to give us, please present it to her before speaking, and she will distribute it, to us. So this morning, we are going to start with Sharon Sedwick.

That's what happens when you don't sleep the night before your first one, I guess. Good morning. Sharon Sedwick, 5501 Saracen, District 3. First, I have something to say about what happened last week with the gentleman that said the horrible thing to our mayor. That you three women did not come out with a statement condemning that behavior, shame on you.

Shame on you. What was done that day was abuse and violence against women, and you should all be ashamed that you did not come out and condemn that behavior. Shame on you. To our police, he's escalating. Beware.

To the removal or sending to ethics of mayor Paulette Guajardo. There was a really good article in the Caller Times on Sunday. They didn't. Christian Crow did an excellent job. And as we know as was noted in that article, our very own CCPD, the Texas Rangers, the FBI have all investigated this.

An independent investigation was done, which cost the taxpayers money. We love to talk about cast taxing the taxpayers until it's something we want done. And they were all found without cause, without merit. Yet again, you're spending time doing something that is not not productive. I think a lot of this is noise.

Am I boring you? I think a lot of this is noise for the job that you have not gotten done, which is desal and our water problems. Your individual pet projects are failing as we speak. Evangeline, despite one council member saying, well, we're just gonna go get their water, is falling apart like a cheap watch. Barney Davis, not gonna work.

Cece Palmer said this week, yeah, we'll sell it to you. So this is noise for all of the pet projects that are not happening, and I hope that our audience today will recognize that. We we also keep talking about costing the taxpayers money. If this goes forward with a hearing, who do you think is gonna pay for that? Who's gonna pay for all the lawyering up that is done?

Yet again, the taxpayers, but you love to talk about how we don't wanna hurt the taxpayers. I'm gonna leave it with this. It is often said, pride goeth before the fall. I would urge you all to check your pridefulness and arrogance in this matter and quit making Corpus Christi the laughing stock of the country. I support our mayor.

Thank you, miss Sedgwick. Saundra Meyer.

Saundra Mayer, Corpus Christi. This is an amazing city, and we've got challenges, and we need every one of y'all to stop fighting and be your best self to try to get through these challenges we've got right now. I've spent the last few weeks or I guess it's been about a month trying to put together a complaint for the Institute of Internal Auditors about our auditor. It is very uncommon for an audit shop to have a failed peer review. Part of that complaint process requires that I have to be able to document every single thing I say in there, and I'm going back to when he got put on administrative leave.

And I have to have a timeline. And as I've put the timeline because he reports to y'all, your activities go on the timeline also to include having the Homewood Suites issues come up today. And it's kind of weird when you look at a timeline, you're kinda looking back in hindsight's 2020. We've got three council members that I'm aware of that have potential conflicts of interest with the hotel or somebody very closely associated with the hotel. I'm not sure why that's not been disclosed, but when I look at that timeline, I go back to August 2024.

How much money would we have saved had the auditor recused himself before he even started the Homewood Suites allegation. How much money would we have saved? And I'm saying this rhetorically to me because I'm trying to figure out the answer. How much money would we have saved if when the hotelier filed the lawsuit against the city, The auditor should have walked away at that point, and we should have been consulting the attorney's office. What should we do in this case?

He should have recused himself. The people that have got campaign contributions between August 2024, and I think it was February 2025 from the hoteliers, there's three of y'all that got two each that I see. How much would we have saved we were not paying for all these attorneys, for the attorneys that y'all authorized in September, October, November, all the law enforcement investigations? It's very confusing. I feel like we have spent a lot of money that might have been saved had our auditor walked away and said, cannot investigate this allegation back in August when he first got it because he was being asked to investigate somebody he reported to.

How much money have we wasted? And I really hope in executive session that somehow y'all can ask our city attorney, how do we get back on track? Because the I mean, it's just weird. I don't know how else, but I just feel like we have spent and wasted a lot of money, and we need to be able to rely on the city attorney. We need to be able to rely on our staff. But most importantly, we need the citizens, all of y'all. Thank you.

Thank you, miss Meyer. Diane Larue?

Good afternoon, mayor and council members. Diane Larue, four twenty six Cape Lookout. I'm in District 2. I'm here today to voice my support for mayor Paulette Wajardo. She continues to lead in the face of adversity. Her political opponents will twist any story to meet their own personal agendas. Rather than focus on our water crisis, some of you have decided to deflect from your mistakes by playing the political game. It's time for this council to put this nonsense to bed and do what you were elected to do, which is to continue moving our city forward. I thank you all for your service to our community, and I especially thank you, mayor, for the time and effort you put into our city.

Thank you, miss Larue. David Ainsworth?

Good afternoon, mayor and council members. My name is David Ainsworth senior, District 1, live in Castle River.

I'm a

Calallen High School class of 1978, aka River Rat. First, thank you for your leadership and for all the time you've invested in engaging with all of us on this issue. Over the past several months, we've worked extremely hard across the community, meeting with industrial operators, local businesses, and solution providers. I want to thank everyone involved because what we're seeing is something very important. There is a broad alignment across industry and the water recycling needs to begin immediately.

The major industrial users in this region are not waiting. They are actively looking for ways to reduce their dependence on the municipal supply and begin recycling now. That's the good news. The challenge is that while long term projects are absolutely necessary, they are still years away. And the pressure on the system is happening today.

We're asking for not a change in direction, but an expansion of approach. We're going continue advancing long term projects, but also seriously evaluate near term deployable solutions, work with all qualified providers, and more the level of urgency that matches the situation. There are options that can be delivering water in months, not years. We've also seen engagement from several council members, and we appreciate that. At the same time, this is the moment where full alignment across the council is critical so we can move forward decisively.

This is not just an infrastructure issue. It's an economic and community issue for Corpus Christi. We believe the path forward in collaboration, public and private, working together to bring solutions online as quickly as possible and responsibly. With that, I would like to take and turn it over to Judy and Kenny Korchinski, who are with me because I can't get any of y'all to agree. It only takes three of y'all to get someone on the agenda, and I've been assured by three of y'all that I was gonna get on the agenda so we can give you a full presentation that the city deserves to hear and all of y'all deserve to hear, but I keep getting ignored by all text, emails, and phone calls.

So hopefully, we can take and give you a ninety minute overview with the three of us doing this back to back and hope and pray you'll put us on the agenda for next week so that everybody can see what we're trying to take and present. That is a short term and long term solution of our water problem that I can't get y'all to listen to. Thank you, and God bless you.

Thank you, mister Ainsworth. And, mister Zanoni, if if that really begins with you and your office. So if I'm not sure if he's reached out to you, but I think that's something that I think that's something that you should

Right.

On Yeah. In terms of what what he's suggesting.

Right. Yeah. Nick Winkleman spoke with mister Ellensworth and Okay. Ainsworth. I'm sorry. Ainsworth. And we'll continue to speak with him.

Great.

Mhmm.

Thank you. Judy Mosley? Thank

you, David. Thank you, council members and mayor. My name is Judy Mosley. I'm in District 1. I live at 15317 Guadalupe River Drive, 78410. And I'm also proud

of

Wildcat. I'm here today as both business operator and a citizen of this community. Over the past past months, I have been directly involved with the effort to find solutions.

Miss Mosley, can you bring the microphone down so we can hear you?

Oh. Thank you. Sorry.

Over the past few months, I have been directly involved in the effort to find solutions working alongside David and many others. And I can tell you firsthand, this has been a full time effort on top of running our business. Long days, late nights, constant calls, meetings, and coordination with people across the industry, all trying to answer one question, how do we start solving this now? What I've seen is encouraging. Companies are willing to collaborate.

People are sharing ideas and concerns. There are peep there are real commitment to being part of the solution. But there is also a very real concern. We don't have the luxury of waiting years for relief. Businesses, family, and the communities as a whole need to see the progress much sooner.

And the reality is there are solutions that can begin helping now. We've seen the options that are available near term, more affordable than the large scales projects, and capable of reducing demands and systems quickly. As a community, we are doing our part, putting in the time, bringing the people together, and pushing for solutions. What we need is continued leadership and willingness, evaluate all options, move forward with practical solutions, and act with urgency. This is community is ready.

The effort is there. The solutions are emerging. Now it's time to take the next step and move forward. Thank you.

Thank you, miss Mosley. Kenny Krasinski?

Kenny Kerchinsky from Spring Branch, Texas. Thank you, council members. Our team has spent the last six months commercializing a patented prototype water treatment system, and we are now positioned to deploy. We can deliver a full scale unit in sixteen to twenty months. We understand that the city is evaluating a 1,000,000 gallon per day desal demonstration at approximately $10,000,000.

We can deliver a comparable modular unit in under $4,000,000 with lower operating cost, reduced chemical usage, with the ability to scale quickly through additional units. In addition, we we reviewed the new ACES groundwater project and can treat the water to closely match river quality allowing for direct augmentation. The approach would could deliver 20 to 25,000,000 gallons per day within the next twelve months at a significantly lower cost. We're not here to replace what the city is doing. We're here to help to accelerate it. More water, sooner, at a much lower cost. We welcome the opportunity to prove it. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Krasinski. Amy Cook.

My name is Amy Cook, and I live Corpus Christi, Texas. Good afternoon, mayor and council members. I'm here to speak to you today regarding the petition to remove the mayor. There have been many accusations made and repeated in these chambers and online, but we all know that just because you say something out loud doesn't always make it true. As you all consider this issue today, I think it's important to remember that the accusations from the petitioners have been investigated by multiple law enforcement agencies and an independent third party investigator.

They all came back with the same conclusion of no wrongdoing. So at some point, all of those fighting findings should be worth something. And for most people, would be enough for them to feel confident in how to move forward responsibly. Our city charter gives the authority to act, but it also requires sound judgment, fairness, and integrity, especially when it's already been examined. Our city and this council have real issues that need your attention.

Our water challenges are not gonna be solved by staying divided, and it is time to put this behind us. Please move forward together. Focus on what actually needs to be done in this city. I'm praying for each and every one of you as you make this decision, and I fully support our mayor. Thank you.

Thank you, miss Cook. Laura Dietz?

Good afternoon, mayor and council members. My name is Laura Dietz, and I reside in Corpus Christi, and I live in District 4. I'm here today to speak on the petition to remove our mayor. At a time when our city is facing important challenges, I believe our focus should be on the issues that truly impact our community. We have more pressing matters that require leadership, cooperation, and unity. My hope and my prayer is that everyone on the city council can come together, set aside differences, and work alongside our mayor to address those priorities. I support our mayor and urge this council to focus on solutions, not division, so we can move forward together for the good of the city. Thank you. Thank

you, miss Dietz. Tom Taglaboo.

Hello. I'm Tom Taglabue, District 2, and I wanna thank all of you for volunteering to serve the city. Being an elected local official is a challenge, and I know you make many sacrifices that and do difficult tasks that we take for granted. Despite what some folks thinks, I know you don't get rich off of doing this. While we don't always agree on the issues before you, I want you to know you have my respect and admiration.

I could not and would not do what you're doing. In my thirty years of working in government, the level of toxicity and public debate has grown exponentially, and it's disheartening. We've devolved to where every topic is now winner versus loser, us versus them, good versus evil, love versus hate, have versus have not, power versus weakness, rich versus poor, neighbor against neighbor. I'm not asking you to be in lockstep with each other. It's always better to have legitimate public differences to ensure good policy.

Where there is this much disinformation and public distrust in how we're governed, I think the answer is greater transparency and more communication about stakeholder roles and responsibilities, the mayor and council, city staff, regulatory agencies, consultants, consumers, bondholders, taxpayers. All of us need to understand the complexities of policy topics and how everyone's roles relate to actual governments governance and in in implementation. I encourage you to focus on transparency, fairness, open mindedness, equity, equality, and, yes, justice, not on performative political stunts like item 15 on the agenda. We are seven months away from another election. Today, we need stability, consistency, and continuity of leadership.

Thank you.

Thank you, mister Taglavu. Nelda Martinez.

My name is Nelda Martinez and I live in District 4. And I see all of you up there and I know that you put so much work and time and so much sacrifice that you do, and I wanna thank you for your public service. I'm also very concerned about the word curtailment. All of you are. Everyone, not only in the city of Corpus Christi, but also going beyond our city limits, our state limits, and frankly, we are known globally.

People here that you serve are worried if they're going to have their job tomorrow. There have been businesses that have shut down. There have been businesses that now are planning their exit plans. There are people and entities that had decided that they're not going to move here, whether they were going to be a new business or expanding existing business or whether they were going to retire here. We are at a crisis and I'm asking each and every one of you to please rise above the noise, rise above the hate and work together for why you all I know intend and are doing with your public service.

I do want to thank you for all the hard work that you've done in putting together a diversified portfolio. Did we anticipate problems some more so knew that we'd have problems with some evangelion? We're in an unprecedented crisis. Of course, we're going to have neighbors and everyone concerned, especially in groundwater that you have to recharge. And so, of course, we're going to have those issues.

But we have to think long term and what we've done is long term. Yes, I would have rather have seen us have the Inner Harbor break ground about right now, but that's not happened, but you're back on track. We're in the Wild Horse Desert. We've been known as a place that only rains in between droughts. That's been known for hundreds of years.

And so that's why we need a drought resistant long term water supply. So please rise above the noise and choose unity. Choose the priorities that we have not only with the crisis we're in with water, but also with all of the other twenty four seven things that this city has to do every time anyone wakes up at any point of the day. I do want to have a point of privilege and thank city staff. You've been working with your tongues hanging out, and it's incredibly difficult.

So, you all. God bless you for your work. I support our mayor and I support you all in your service.

Thank you very much. Paula Harris.

Hi. My name is Polly Harris. I live in Corpus Christi, Texas. And I want to talk in support of our mayor. But first of all, I wanna talk about a couple other things, you know, to everybody needs to look around what's what's going on. Our lakes are drying up, the cracked earth where water used to be. Everybody's seeing pictures of Lake Corpus Christi. Pretty sad. We are steering down a real crisis. No rain, no reserves, and businesses.

Our refineries, our jobs are on the edge. Yet five city council members keep voting no on the desalination plant every time. That plant could pump 30,000,000 gallons a day, fresh water from the sea, no more no more begging the sky. It's not perfect, but it's progress, and they've blocked it while our taps run low. Now they are pushing a petition to oust mayor Ricardo, the same mayor who fought tooth and nail for water solutions. She's focused always putting our city first. She doesn't grandstand. She works. She didn't have time to be my friend because she's so busy. Not true.

She she's pushed groundwater projects, rallied state funds, kept us from total shutdown. She's one vote. Sure. But she's the voice saying yes while others are saying no. This isn't about politics. It's about survival. The five that want her gone, that won't fix our drought, she's not flashy, she's reliable, and right now sorry. She won't wait. She's reliable. And right now, we need reliable more than anything.

So let's stand with her, not because she's perfect, none of us are, but because she's on our side. Vote no on that petition. Vote yes on water. Vote yes on Corpus Christi. And thank you very much.

Thank you, miss Harris. Alex Harris.

Alex Harris. 2138 Highway 286. Corpus Christi my whole life. Part of the reason that's a hard act to follow Polly because Polly is also lifelong person here at Corpus Christi. So I'm a fourth generation back here. In 1871, John o Luby was the first county judge in Duval County, the first county commissioner in Bancetti. So my family goes all the way back that far. We made this our home. Ranching, farming, you name it, that's what we did. So after I got out of college, 1975, I I had a computer degree.

I could have gone anywhere in The United States. I was one of 13 in a graduating class. I chose Corpus.

I made this my home.

I I have grandchildren here. It's an emotional thing to me. Sorry. Corpus is. But this is my life. I wanna tell you I support the mayor. I support her efforts in all that she has done and how hard she has worked, and I've been there. I remember when Peter applied for the job. I was there supporting him. I was supporting many of y'all when you ran for for office. And when I look at some of you and say, shame on you. Shame on you. Shame on you for what you have done over the last six months. Now, Desal may not be the perfect answer, but it's the answer that we need. It's something that we need.

Today, I got a call from someone on Padre Island. Mister Hammonds and I and his son, we built over 600 resort properties on Padre Island. I got a call today because our rental management company got a call because they were asked, am I gonna be able to take a bath after I go to the beach? Cause I understand y'all are out of water. So this is gonna kill our tourism in addition to the other items. I will tell you, we support the mayor. Move forward. Get this behind you. Quit playing politics, quit trying to sit here and dictate certain things instead of pulling together. You know, the election's in seven months.

What happens today is gonna play a big role in that election in seven months, and we need you to come together. This is I'm the fourth or fifth generation. I intend to stay here the rest of my life. My my grandkids are now made this their home too. Willard Hammond's son is my partner, third generation in Corpus Christi. So make the right decisions. Think about what you do. We're behind the mayor. We support you.

Thank you, mister Harris. Susie Saldanha.

Good morning Susie Luna Saldana Corpus Christi Texas. I am not here with a concern today I'm here with a $10,000,000 problem. A big lie about $10,000,000 and the public deserves answers. Not silence, not excuses, and not a sprint. Taxpayers should know about a big lie, about $10,000,000 lie.

Let me be clear so that there's no mischaracterization. This is not about being anti development, it is about truth, accountability, and whether this council was misled. I reviewed a full file on the residential end projects involving Shoreline Hospitality LP, a G Davids and Giroux. I am going to use your documents not rumors, not assumptions, your documents. In the turf presentation this project was sold by g David for $15,300,000 development.

That was put in front of council, that was just a justified deal and that's what the public was led to believe. By the official but the official building permits signed by a G David and Raju tells a very different story. 5,560,000.00, not 15,000,000, 5,000,000. So let's stop dancing around it and ask the question that matters. Achieve David, redo what number is truth because both cannot be right.

And counsel do not look away from this. If those numbers are inconsistent and then you approve was based on bad information and that should concern every single one of you. But it gets worse. We're seeing cost breakdowns claiming $4,000,000 in steel and concrete alone while the entire permit projection is just $5,000,000 in permits. That doesn't pass the smell test.

We're seeing reimbursements requested including a rooftop amenity and that is obviously a question was it ever built? So again this isn't small, this isn't technical, this isn't paperwork, This is a pattern of numbers that do not match. We all know that it is truth and let's clear up one more thing because the public cannot be misled again. The agreement caps the reimbursements at $940,000. So no it's not.

I give away. This is something much more serious. A $10,000,000 deficit in what was presented versus what is documented. Not speculation, not opinion, not misinterpretation. And we need to look at this. It's important that you look at it and that you find out what the truth is.

Thank you, miss Saldana. Lou Geiten?

Hello. I was I don't see a lot of people got a lot of pressing issues. I'm just here representing the Corpus Christi Rugby football club. We I was brought out here just to give us a little breakdown of what we do. Just figured we'd try to get our name out there.

We've been around since we're one of the longest standing Corpus Christi sports teams in Corpus. We've been around since 1974, and we've been through a lot of changes and a lot of early. We currently we just made the, Texas Rugby Union playoffs. We represent Corpus Christi against Oklahoma, here Saturday at Haas Middle School at 02:00. I just wanted, like I said, come out here and kinda toot our horns a little bit and just say thank you. It'd be great if we had support from the city, and that's really all I I really wanted to say.

Thank you, mister Guthrie. Thank you for your

great day, and hopefully we have some of y'all out there cheering us on. Thank you all.

Thank you. Moriah Forest.

Hi. Mehdi the Forest, District 5 resident. I'm here today to ask you to not act on agenda item number 15, the discussion and possible action on the petition to remove the mayor. I greatly respect the individual who put together the removal petition and the articles of impeachment, and I respect the 2,200 people who signed the petition. While I have strongly disagreed with some of the mayor's decisions, especially on pushing the Inner Harbor desal project before the far field modeling is completed and reviewed, voters should remember that this petition is based on one issue, Homeward Suites and the altered screenshot by Philip Ramirez that others city council members also knew about.

Since you will hear the petition details today, I ask you to take no further action. We must hold everyone involved accountable, not just the mayor, but other council members and the city manager. A petition targeting only the mayor does not accomplish that. I also believe this effort undermines local democracy and risks disregarding the will of voters, including the 46,759 votes for the mayor that she received in November 2024 and the 14,284 votes in the December 2024 runoff. Coming a city council member these days, I'm deeply frustrated by the actions of the people our city council meetings.

The disrespectful behavior we continue to see, not only from public commenters, but also among some of the city council members on the dais. And at the same time, I also appreciate those council members who are making common sense financial decisions. Those are y'all who are speaking loudly about it and listening to us public. We appreciate that. Whether someone supports the mayor or not, allowing this effort to dominate the council agenda only deepens division in our city. With the water crisis before us, we need stability, focus, and collaborative government governance, not more political fighting. I ask you today to reject this effort to escalate conflict. Do not act on this item. Thank you.

Thank you, miss Forrest. Scott Barassa.

Good afternoon, counsel. I just wanna clarify some stuff that I was here from last week. Peter Zanoni said he wasn't aware of an interconnect in Oasis County. And just in January 27, the council approved $1,700,000 for an interconnect with WCID three due to the water in the river being wrecked with TDS and arsenic. But you gotta ask yourself also, Alice Mathis and Beeville, they all get their water from the lake and they do not have an arsenic issue, although it keeps being stated it's from the lake. Wanna thank councilwoman Paxton for her dedication for this good neighbor program. I appreciate it. I still haven't seen anything yet. Nick did explain it briefly. Last week, he went over the well level and water quality testing.

That's all data collection that CCW wants it. The well owner can get that other places. It doesn't really benefit the well owner when he has issues. He also stated that participation is low. Trust is part of the reason that the participation is low. We are promised no new wells, and then we have the ERF come about. We're also told these wells were gonna be temporary, but then that turned out to be permanent. It turned out from a bridge to diesel to water diversification. Nothing's ever been said about the well mitigation program. That's part of this good neighbor program.

It's one of the special conditions on the permits that were required by the CCASRCD when they permitted those whales. They are over thirty days past due, and board member Jeff Edmond stated that those permits are not valid, but yet the CCW is still pumping and not only are they still pumping, they added new wells in production on the Western Well field. Why is that those the good neighbor program, why is it late? Zanoni has also stated that it's not all wells causing damage, it must be the drought. He stated this several times.

He stated this October '25, and again last Friday at the press conference. This doesn't inspire trust amongst all of us out in the country on whales when, corpus for corpus to help solve the problem they're creating. You don't get to dismiss the issue as another cause and then turn around and say, we have your back. The drought doesn't cause the whales to dry up. Over pumping does. Water is locked in the aquifer. Springs and pumping is the only way it comes out. More on that well mitigation program, I would like to know how much is allocated to it. Is there funding in it? Are we gonna are you gonna pay for new wells? Wells to get lowered for the pumps? What are the conditions to get that, to tap into those funds? Our wells have to go dry. Do they need TDS in it? What strings are attached?

Do we have to sell our souls to the devil to get help like WCID three did to get that interconnect? Again, it's it comes down to a trust issue. When you go to a bank and you get a loan, you sign that loan. It's not your signature that guarantees you that loan. It's your word. When you lose that when you lose your word, you lost it all. You don't have anything. So never lie to someone who trusts you and never trust someone who lies to you. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Barasa. Do you have a comment, councilwoman? Thank you, mayor.

I wanted to do a quick fact. And if Peter is Peter in the back somewhere? Peter or Nick, if they could come out real quick. I do want to say that while we have been discussing differ diversification of our water supply, the intention behind that definition still very much remains on projects that we know have long time sustainability. For instance, our studies on Evangeline.

We have every intention to still follow through with our words at this point on our on our Western wells, our Nueces River wells. For myself, and I know several up here, so that's a huge priority that this is a temporary short term project. I was speaking to a member of our ASR district just last week, and they feel exactly the same that we are going to continue to put things into place to where we can keep that promise that the more majority of those wells can be turned off when we reach water sustainability through our other supplies. And I wanted to take a moment to make that clear that we don't intend to go back on that. Peter, thank you for coming back out.

I wanted to get another time update where we're I'm still being told they still don't have anything in writing on the good neighbor prop program. Can you speak to that?

Say that last sentence again. I couldn't hear that.

The good neighbor program, they said they still don't have anything in writing. We talked about it last week.

Well, we handed it out last week, so we'll let me get Nick to give him a copy today, right now. If you can just hold where is he at?

Could you raise your hand?

Yeah. Where's the gentleman at? Okay. We'll take him wave right in the back. We'll take him a copy right now.

Okay. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you.

Joe Bettis. Oh, no. I'm so sorry. Nancy Bettis and then Joe Bettis.

Hello, everyone. I'm doctor Nancy Vera. I live in District 2 from Corpus Christi, Texas. As I was walking up the city hall steps this morning preparing to speak before you, I heard the church bells ring at Sacred Heart Catholic Church. And Sacred Heart Catholic Church was built in the nineteen forties and and my grandfather and my grandmother were part of the building of that church.

And as I came up and always, when I hear the bells at the church, that particular church, it brings me solace. It brings me hope. When my mother died and we were escorting the procession through the streets, the we went in for the Sacred Heart Church and the bells rang again. So I came here concerned because of the animosity and vitriol that has been spewed over the last few months against each other. I think all of us as public servants should know better.

And I'm not here to chastise anyone. I'm not here to say that you're culpable of doing things that are incorrect. Because to me, the desalination, water projects, and all of the city council stuff is a is convoluted and it takes a lot of study. I'm not a study of city council city council or city works. I know about schools and I know that our schools are suffering right now and that we need for you to do the best possible job you can to try and alleviate some of the concerns of our public.

However, today I need to ask to please for you to please work together. The church that was built was out of community. They fundraised money so that they could build a church. Let's all work together. I know I know that it's hard to be in in these positions, but please please, we cannot spend time blaming each other or or chastising each other and throwing someone out when we have a business at hand to help our human beings human beings survive in our community and to keep our city prosperous.

We need to stop in this futile activity and continue with the work that you were elected to do. So please do that and remember, the bells of Sacred Heart are always ringing and that's to bring us hope. Thank you mayor for all you do, city council members, and know that we support you even when we fight, we support you. Thank you.

Thank you, miss Betta. Joe Betta.

How you guys doing today? My name is Joe Michael Pettis, d four Corpus Christi, Texas. So everybody talks about that this isn't political. I think it's all about I I I think it's politics. Because when you have a certain individual who doesn't show up to an important rally, which is the president of The United States, and doesn't talk about what issues that we have that that that we have going on here at home. That's political. When you have three city council members I'm here to talk about the petition. Let's get it out the way. Alright? When you have three city council members who signed not one, not two, but three.

When you have three of them who sign it, they see something suspicious. And I put my trust in that. When when you have when you have an individual, not just one term, two terms, what is it, three terms, and something's still not fixed, then it's time to, you know, move on for accountability. Because if we don't have that, then the people in the background, our people who are here, they're gonna have a problem with that. Now, there there there are so many problems, guys. It's like parks. Okay. I understand we wanna be political correct. We wanna talk about parks. Yada yada yada.

Parks. Parks. But how many parks do we have where you have homelessness people out there sleeping on benches? You know, I kids till this day in this generation, they don't go to parks. You know what they're doing? On tablets, technology. Right? I mean, I I I can go myself and do a a quick little brief, not brief, but day by day, and take pictures and do videos. Day one, here's a homeless guy at the park. Day two, they're out there doing something that homeless people are not supposed to be doing.

We spend so much money at doing parks. So, anyway, then move forward. Guys, if we don't go forward with this petition, there's no accountability. There's not. We're gonna have the same problem. And if you look at certain previous leaderships, look at Joe McConnell. Joe McConnell was real quiet. It looked like Barbara Canals was pulling his strings. What happened to Joe McConnell? Run off. He's out. Then you had another, person. Water. Water was a big deal. What happened to that person?

Can I get it fixed? Boom. They're out. Now the previous election. Right?

A runoff. Close. Won by mail in ballots. Now this time, seven months from the election? I don't know. We got anyways, let's get it done. Let's move on with the petition. Thank you.

Thank you. Alejandro Chaveira. Mister.

Mayor, council members, Alejandro Chaveira, District 3, which we do. I'm here to talk about desal. I know we're going to do desal. I know it's in the works. There are four process to desal, I believe. And I believe we should add a fifth project. And that first process would be mineral extraction module. What a mineral extraction module does, it would take all those rare earth minerals

Sorry, mister Shivera, you speak more into the microphone? We can't hear you.

Mineral extraction modules do is they extract the brine material. Brine is made out of ore. It's precious material. It's got lithium, magnesium. All these things that are in brine are considered dangerous. Yes. But they aren't. We make batteries out of it. Tesla is right here close by making batteries. Why don't we extract these materials by adding another module to the desal? Not only will you satisfy the people that say, what are you gonna be doing to the brine? You're gonna be destroying all this and this because you won't. Why not do that? Kuwait did that. Kuwait did a study.

They extracted all these materials. They are doing this now. There are other countries that are also doing this. So if we're gonna go with desal, why don't we take that extraction material and pay for most of the desal? Because that's what you're actually gonna do. You're gonna make steady flow of money. So instead of being a problem, the brine will actually be, you know, a commodity. Another thing, you do know that we can use salt water to put out fires. Why are we wasting fresh water? We live right by the ocean.

You know? I learned this from the navy. That's what we used. There was no fresh water. We have to use salt water. Now you're gonna have to use certain materials, know, aluminum and stuff for the corrosion process, but hey, you won't be using fresh water. And another thing is fog nets. I already told you guys we really need to look into these fog nets. Chile uses them, Kuwait, all these other countries. All these countries that are dry are using these.

In the morning, I don't know if anybody woke up and if you go outside and you look, you see all these dew that's laying around? That's fresh water. Falkinets actually capture this. I built my own and it does work. I did not build a full scale model, but I did a small model and it does work. So I am actually going to build a full scale model out of my own money, which will be about a $150. Thank you very much.

Thank you mister Chaveira.

Encarnacion Serna, one zero five Lost Creek, Portland, Texas. Dear city manager and mayor, council members, request govern governor Abbott to issue four moratoriums immediately, do not delay. Here's the four moratoriums. Immediately order existing industry sites that use more than a quarter of a million gallons a day to curtail water usage, volumetric rates down to an agreed negotiated dictated and directed percentage that will ensure that none of the 500,000 plus residents of the seven counties will run out of water in their households. The narrative circulating now that these industrial sites can only operate on off and cannot operate at reduced rates is a false, half truth narrative.

The facts are that all of them can shut down in an orderly and structured way. They can do it now. As they always do when hurricanes enter the Gulf Of Mexico or when they do shutdowns for scheduled or non scheduled maintenance activities, these industrial sites have the necessary operating and shutdown procedures to accomplish the safety. I have written many of them in my career. The ones that can operate at reduced rates were smart in their designs and constructions.

The ones that were not so smart on their designs and constructions, they can operate at full rates, can certainly operate in a batch mode, on off, on off, until they can figure out something better for themselves. Number two, moratorium. Cap and reserve 40% of the water volume contained in Lake Tejana to be used only by households. Industry configure other water sources while they operate at reduced rates or on off or in the on off batch mode. Moratorium number three, immediately stop all future industry sites from coming to the area.

Any proposed industrial or commercial project that would use more than 500 gallons per day must not be allowed. The West Reservoirs are empty and their tributaries are dry. In Lake Tejana, the smallest of the three reservoirs is at 50% capacity and rapidly being depleted by the same Gargantuan users that empty at the West Reservoirs. 50% of what's in Lake Tejana, it's not Corpus Christi. That's Formosa in that county.

The 40% volume in Lake Tejana should be reserved and preserved for people's hospitals, stores, fire departments, and other entities needed for people's survival. Number four, immediately stop the city of Corpus Christi from drilling wells that steal in pirate in a pirate like raft

Mister sir.

Water from aquifers that do not belong to them. It is illegal, unethical, abusive, intrusive, invasive

Thank you, sir.

The city to be poaching water Thank

you, sir. Isabel Ariza.

From the rural areas. Thank you.

Isabel, I saw District 2. First, just before I get started, just want to say I've never seen so much of the old guard here at City Council at one time. It's pretty interesting to see all the like I guess the legacy colonizers here advocating for doing something about our water, because residents have been coming here for ten years asking you all to have a responsible plan for our water, but so I just wanted to point that out. It's interesting seeing all you guys here. The other thing is I'd like to take I'd like to continue where Mr.

Serna left off. Over 46,000 people, Beeville, Three Rivers, Sinton and Robstown, all of their water issues have been impacted by the city's irresponsible water management. I didn't have time to actually write my stuff down, so this is just things that I was jotting while I was listening to everyone. Former mayor Nelda Martinez, who took time to come out here and talked about us being in a wild horse desert, you know, needs to also remember that if we're in a wild horse desert, why are we selling so much water to high volume water users? Why are we recruiting them?

That Coastal Bend Regional Economic Development Corporation, Yes, thank you for retiring Mr. Culberson. Mean you guys actually created this water crisis for us. You've been recruiting these high volume water users and we don't have water and so now you're poaching other people's water and promising that it's going to be okay. And then we turn around and we celebrate the Coastal Bend Basin estuaries for donating a measly $154,000 when their funders Celanese, Valero, Sicko, Foothills, ConocoPhillips, Buckeye, Lyndal Basil, Gulf Coast Growth Ventures, they got an industrial district agreement in August 2024 that keeps them outside of our city limits so they don't pay taxes.

That $154 is chump change and how many of them have the drought exemption? Right? And we're not losing that drought exemption money if we pass the fair water amendment, we'll actually be gaining millions of dollars, tens of millions of dollars if it goes to which I think it would have residents had the right vote. The other thing I wanted to point out is I actually looked at my water bill, which is the utilities bill. It was a $165 for just three people.

Now, I was talking about it and one of my students told me, family of $5,200, You spent a billion dollars looking for water for industry and that doesn't even count with the diesel stuff. So what are you gonna do? You're gonna make people's water bills go up to $354,100 dollars? We have 30,000 people waiting for affordable housing in Corpus. That is not economic development. You guys got to get rid of the Corpus Christi Regional Economic Development Corporation because it's a pillaging corporation. Like if you want to be responsible city council members, center people in the environment. When we turn on our tap, we should get water. Water for people before polluters. Anything outside of that is irresponsible and malfeasance.

Thank you, Mr. Raizen. Brandon Kuner.

Hello, council members. My name is Brandon Kuehner. I work for TWC. I'm a state employee using my lunch break to come talk to you, I appreciate respect everything that you do. I'm a previous congressional district staffer, so I know the political sphere is very difficult, and there's a lot of things that the public doesn't always know that you, you know, have to keep to yourselves and and keep it close to the chest. I respect everything that you do. There's a lot of solutions that we're talking about. I think there's a lot of foresight that hasn't been done, in natural remedies. It seems like a lot of what we're doing right now is reactive instead of proactive, and I know not everyone has been here for decades. So I do appreciate the work that you have done while you've been here.

But one of the solutions is a simple but powerful one is partner with landowners across the counties north of us, because it's not just us affected by this, it's everyone north of us all the way to the hill country. This is a problem I'm from Seguin, Texas. I moved here for the TWC for a veterans rep job. And this has been an issue for for Canyon Lake, all over all over San Antonio area. This is an issue all over a large portion of Texas.

And a large portion of Texas receives the fuel, jet fuel, diesel, and gas that we make here. So when I hear the the council members talking about how much money it's gonna cost us, I feel like this should be spread across the state of Texas because it's a global market. Energy's a global market. If this energy goes down here, it costs everyone everywhere more. We're already exacerbated by the war. This would only make it worse. So when our energy and Three Rivers has a refinery as well. So if the refinery goes down, our refineries go down, everything costs more because our energy goes up. Right? So one solution is simple.

Landowners across the counties north of our reservoirs to remove invasive species and restore native grasses and vegetation. Native grasses absorb less water and slow runoff, increasing the amount of water that seeps naturally into the aquifers. This approach improves a long term water supply, reduces erosion, and supports local ecosystems. I know one of the major issues that we have in Corpus is Lake Corpus Christi is a very shallow reservoir, and a lot of sediment has been built up into it. So the shallower it is, the more evaporation that we have.

Right? So one of those things that can mitigate that is removing these brushes, planting native perennial grasses that will prevent that. Now there are grants set in place, this isn't all on the landowner. There's multiple grants already set in place for the state of Texas. I think one of the best things this council could do is coordinate with all of the counties, and I mean all the counties all the way up to the hill country, and coordinate with them and push a marketing campaign that basically highlights these landowners and what they can do.

Because we're all Americans, we're all Texans. Direction. So if there's a marketing plan where everyone can push in the same direction, say, hey, all hands on deck, all landowners, if you can get people to come out and clear clear your land, here's here's the grants here's the grants that you can stack that will help you eliminate the cost on you, and you can incentivize that. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Kuehner. Blanca Parkinson.

Blanca Parkinson district one. I'm here today to share a little bit from a news article that came out last week. It's called water shortage may hit Corpus Christi within weeks. It was an article written by Dylan Badore. And also I'd like moment to say that most of my comments are directed towards the City Council, but Councilwoman Campos has been aware of this issue and has been on the right side of this issue.

So, I'm sorry, you have to listen. Anyhow, this article, which was in regards to our current water crisis, states, Charles McConnell, a former assistant energy secretary who now teaches at the University of Houston, said local leaders should be planning how to shut down refineries and chemical plants. You don't design a refinery or a chemical plant to start squeezing off your water supply, so it's going to be a rather awkward dance, said McConnell, who worked three decades for the chemical company Praxair. They're going to have to do some pretty significant planning. As someone who's been watching this water crisis unfold for years and years and years, while some of you were, I don't know where you were with your head in the sand somewhere in this community, I'm here to tell you there is no way in hell that Peter Zanoni is going to come up with the amount of water that we need by the by by what?

April? It's it's too much. He has pushed nothing but in feasible financially in feasible projects, and now he's pushing just theft. He's pushing projects that are literally killing people, killing their communities, killing their towns. Those are the projects that he's pushing.

We've been watching for years, and like I said, he specializes in propaganda. That's what he does, image. Good job. He does press conferences, press releases, briefings, meetings, social media campaigns, billboards, new city logos, shirts, outfits, clothing lines, commercials, radio shows, podcasts, cosplay trips to go pose at desal plants, and endless endless spin on your local podunk news. He is not going to be a good neighbor. He is not going to give you a piece of paper that's gonna save the rural counties. He's not. We've been watching. He's going he's incompetent in that. Okay?

The governor, he's gonna look out for his crown prince friend and his billionaire pedophile friend. That's who he's gonna come look out for. You all need to have bring the leadership together and start talking. This is coming from an energy secretary in Houston saying they're gonna have to shut down. There is no way that we are going to survive. It's that's where we are. Is industry gonna come for our 16 MGD or 15 MGD or 12 MGD, whatever you have the entire Coastal Bend running on now? You're you're not gonna kill an entire Coastal Bend. And he's not gonna be a good neighbor, and he's not he's not. Go talk to people in three rivers.

Get out of your echo chambers. Get out of your ponds of scum, and go talk to your neighbors. And the neighbor, I mean, the mayor holder responsible.

Thank you,

miss But hold the city manager. Otherwise, is optics and shit.

Thank you, miss Parkinson.

Jared

Suarez? Jared? Oh, come on.

Jared Suarez, Corpus Christi district two. Good afternoon. Corpus Christi charter section 11 states that a council member shall be subject to removal by the council for misconduct, malfeasance, incompetence, inability, or willful neglect in performance of official duties. City's 02/20/2025 agenda packet relating to the Elevate QOF LLC project. The mayor directed city employees to delete the agenda memo, delete ordinance 24 dash zero two five six version one, delete FEMA flood maps, delete exhibit a, and delete the altered fraudulent presentation.

The mayor's motive was to steer the $2,000,000 to her friends. This act alone is fraud, waste, and abuse of our hard earned tax money. This is unbecoming of an elected position of a public servant to We the People. Currently, there is negligence from the mayor in this water crisis. The mayor has failed to guide the city council towards a timely solution for ongoing crisis facing our city.

It was only after escalating threats of state government takeover that was decided to call for an emergency meeting. Still, the meeting was set for April, causing unnecessary delay given how urgent the issue is. This delayed response raises concerns about the city's preparedness and accountability. I passionately believe that mayor Paulette has met all the requirements for the impeachment as outlined by the city's charter. Her actions have resulted in the forfeiture of the privilege to serve as mayor of Corpus Christi.

Through her conduct, she has brought shame not only upon herself, but upon the city and the voters who supported her election. The community will remember these decisions and actions she has taken, as well as the choices made by every member of the city council. As we move forward, it is important to recognize that actions have consequences, and these will be reflected when the people exercise their right to vote. It would behoove the city council to listen to us voters and to the likes of Rachel Corriero, a true champion of the city. I hope and pray that there is intestinal fortitude among the city council to vote in favor to remove the mayor.

As a combat vet of of Afghanistan, I know what leadership is. And whatever this is, this is not leadership. Thank you.

Statement of fact. Many of those, statements are absolutely not true, and we will, address accordingly. And I did not direct anyone to remove anything. Marshall Gardner. Marshall? James McKibbin. Adam Rios.

I brought props. I gotta pass these out for you guys real quick. Okay. Adam Rios, Corpus Christi district five. I wanted to start off by saying, last time I was here I was talking about something I'm passionate about which is EB research.

For those of you who don't know it is epidermolysis bullosa, which is a skin deteriorating disease that affects children, and it's something I'm passionately involved with. But that's something on a global scale as you know, I like to do things that support local as well. And so I want to take a brief moment. By the way, skateboard, we're gonna talk about BMX. The skateboard is something that I'm donating to the free store for them to donate at an auction, and I'm also delivering a couch to them after this because they've got some new offices and you know everything helps.

What I passed out to you is something that most of you know about which is the NEPA mitigation presentation, etcetera. It involves something that I've been passionate about and ties into Salinas Park, which is in District 3. It is the BMX park that I have been advocating for for now just over three years, believe close to three and a half years. When I got here at that time, I had gotten together with CC BMX and some other local BMXers and we figured it would be feasible to have a working BMX track sanctioned that would be in the cost estimate from our figures. And since we ride these and we build these and we know them, should have been in about the 50 to $85,000 range.

A grant was presented and unfortunately most of the grant money went towards design, left no money left over to actually construct the park. Again keep that number in mind, 50 to 85,000. What I have before you, we put this together, we had a meeting last night, do PR for CCBMX. This is just a quick background on why we're asking for what you have before you which is the Harbor Bridge mitigation dollars for the Salinas Park BMX Track. NAPA is the federal law that says any big highway project like the new Harbor Bridge must first study its impacts on the neighborhoods and parks.

When they couldn't avoid or fully fix the loss of recreation space on the North Side, the law required compensatory mitigation, that's roughly about $29,000,000, to the make it right fund, that the city now controls. It's not discretionary, it's the exact money the feds made, TxDOT set aside because the bridge took parkland. The city already used I think 16 and a half million of it successfully on six other projects and trails. I know that a comment was made earlier that parks don't have kids in them, I'd encourage them to go to any park that I'm involved in including the future skate park that's gonna be at Billish Park on the island and you'll see something highly different. I am excited to say that a design was, we did come together and create a design.

If you see the cost of it, the cost that they came up with was $733,596. For a 100% design project that that would basically replace what was already there. We are asking and I'm asking the district representative in any at large.

Thank you Mr. Rios.

Councilman to please reach out because we'd like to make this part happen.

You

Mr. Rios. Kathy Fulton.

Hello, my name is Kathy Fulton and I live in Port Aransas, Texas. And I do want to say that I don't have a problem making that statement like a few other people appear to. I do want to say that I was born and raised in Corpus Christi. Okay? I don't live here now.

And I haven't lived in Corpus itself, but I've got plenty of family members that still do. What happens here with this council and decisions and things that the city does affects the surrounding areas as everybody knows. So I stay up on the meetings. I if I'm not here, believe me. I'm I'm stuck at home watching the whole thing through from the bitter beginning to the bitter end.

I I want to say the reason I'm here is I am very I very much oppose this item 15 and I don't think it should even be considered and I support mayor Wajardo and I don't understand why this what's going on here with some council members that seem to wanna have a a bit of a Caesar kinda play going on here. And so what I would like to say here is that it shouldn't be on the agenda, but it should just be ignored or put it done away with. This agenda item to me is smoke and mirrors on an issue that has already been said. It has no legal standing by not just law enforcement agencies, but by outside agencies hired by the city. And so what I suggest is that I want to admonish the council members that put this on the agenda.

But what I also suggest is that all this council, everybody stop their childish playground behavior and start working together to deal with the issues that need to be dealt with. And as we all know, water is one of them. There are different solutions being worked out for water, and I commend mister Zanoni and others for looking at multiple options. Nobody's looking at just one. So I think this council needs to get refocused, try to play nice with each other, and stop stabbing each other in the back because that's what's been going on and it affects us in Port Aransas.

And believe me, we're worried too. So we need to see cooperation and work together. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Fulton. Richard Pittman.

Mayor, council members, my name is Richard Pittman. I live in District 4 on Padre Island, and I've lived there since 1987. I'm here to talk about item number 15. I'm here to support my mayor,

your mayor,

our mayor, the mayor that we voted for. We have got problems in this world. We've got problems in this country. We've got problems in this city. The world and the country, I don't know how much control we have over.

Some, maybe. But we certainly have you certainly have control over what's going on in this city. A mayor cannot support and get things done if she's not supported. That goes the voters, and that goes with the council members. So I encourage you to support so we can get some things done.

I also and I can't really say it any better than the lady that I do not know well, a couple of them, actually. But the lady in the blue that talked about the church bells, I thought she expressed it perfectly. We need to get some things accomplished, and it's time to move on. This item number 15 needs to go away. And while I'm here, because I know I still have a little bit more time, I wanna speak in favor of the Inner Harbor desalinization facility.

I, most all my neighbors, all my colleagues are in favor of that project. It's been studied for years. It is time to move on. It is time to bring that to closure and for us to end up getting our water that we need here so desperately. So let's come together as a council. Let's get some things done, and let's get this water issue resolved. And I think there are many more people that are in favor of that Inner Harbor project than those that come to this council meeting and object against it. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Pittman. Alex Benavides.

Hello. Alex Benavides, District 3. The city the city charter, I'm here to speak on item 15, and this isn't political. But what what what we are is this isn't a political thing, but city councils for decades have been tying us to industry and selling us out. This is about new members that have come in, and they've seen business done as usual.

But the problem is that business done as usual has been corrupt. The the old guard and the old members that have been here for a very, very long time, they they thought that they can just push the push the new guys down and say, look. This is the way it's gonna be. But they're not staying quiet, and we we have to get rid of the corruption in this city. We've lost confidence in the mayor. We've we've seen the we we've seen all the videos. We know about the winking. We know how you give deals to your friends. It we we do gotta move forward as a city, as everybody is saying. But you can't move forward as a business when you leave a thief at your cash register.

You just can't. You have to remove it. It's a cancer. Right? So when you come if we're gonna move forward as a city, we have to do that.

Remove the cancer, remove the corruption, or else we can't really move forward. And the criminal burden of proof is what a lot of people for the mayor has been talking about, how they're they say there's nothing that's been done wrong. Well, burden of proof in a criminal court is much different than the burden of proof in an ethics committee. The burden of proof in a in a criminal law is so that we make sure that we don't put innocent people behind bars or punish them. But that the burden of proof for the unethical commission is to make sure that the the the the city residents are protected and protected from people who are selling out our interest to to anybody.

They're selling they're selling contracts to their we have councilmen voting for voting so that their companies get contracts to the city. We have politicians that are giving contracts to their donors. That's not what this is supposed to be about. And just because the new people came out and said, look, we're tired of seeing the corporation and we're gonna make it corruption and we're gonna make a change. I'd I'd say with all the old guard coming out and saying something, we can see where the problems have lied, and it's corruption from the very get go.

So I applaud the council people who council people who have come forward and say, I'm not scared to stand up. I have integrity. Even if that means four other council members on here who are all from the old side, who are are doing business as usual, and that corrupt. They're standing up saying we're we're not gonna allow that to happen to our citizens any longer. So I vote that or I would have, I ask that you guys vote to see this through and let the, ethics committee take care of business. Thanks. Have a good day.

Thank you. Matthew Rankin.

Matthew Rankin, Corpus Christi, blatantly armed media. Gonna do constitution one zero one and talk about the city attorney today. But to start things off, as I promised, yesterday, I filed charges for criminal oppression against the mayor of Corpus Christi. Corpus PD made that a little difficult because they refused to even take the report, so I had to go a little higher up the chain. I'll keep you guys up to date whenever that process goes forward, what developments there are.

So Miles has told you guys if you wrote a rule down, it's a rule, and it has to be filed. You're pharaoh, so let it be written, so let it be done. That's not the way the constitution works. It's not the way state law works. So I'm gonna give you some examples, scenarios you can ask him to test his knowledge on what's legal and what's not. You guys require a name and address when coming up here. Maybe one day Jason could talk long enough to give you the case law, but I'll tell you that it involves witness protection, retaliation cases, and domestic violence victims who fear retaliation or stalkers coming after them, which is why you don't have to give your name and address.

But let's

take it a little bit farther. Can you write a decorum rule saying when I come up here, I have to give you my date of birth. I have to give you my social, my phone number, password to my Facebook account. If you write it as a rule, they'll have to do it. So let it be written. You say we have to come up to the podium and address you by title. Can the mayor change her name to Der Fuehrer? And when I come up to the podium, I have to give a little salute. Do can you do that? I don't think so.

Probably not. No clapping for the audience. That's probably one of the few things that's legal for you guys to actually have the decorum rules. But can you make a decorum rule saying that when the mayor speaks, you have to clap? There's dictators in history, quite a few of them, that it's a little apocryphal stories where the first person to stop clack clapping got sent to the gulag, that kind of thing.

So can you require somebody to come up here and clap? So I see there's pretty much three reasons possible for why Miles is telling you this kind of stuff. One, he's just an idiot. Two would be that he's telling you what you wanna hear. In that case, he's violated his oath he took when he joined the bar because he's ignoring case law.

Three would be he's one of the dozens of city attorneys around this country who favor tyranny if it increases their power or increases the power of the city government. See his local government as the people serve them instead of the other way around. I don't know which one it is, but ask them the questions. Find out for yourself.

Selena Obregon Penevides. Selena Obregon Penevides. Jesus oh, I'm sorry.

Selena Obregon Benavides, District three. Every time we start a council meeting, there's always a prayer. And I can only assume it's because of tradition and not for any reverence of the God of the bible because the bible is really explicit on how to treat immigrants. Yet, we welcomed ICE into our community. They say, if you don't learn from history, you're doomed to repeat it.

And I thought it was universally understood that what happened with the Gestapo and Nazi Germany was an atrocity. Yet we welcomed ICE into our community. It's not a secret that children are going missing. People are being denied health care. Children are being raped. Let me say that again. Children are being raped in these detention centers getting pregnant, but we welcomed ICE into our community. Shame on us. Let me read a scripture. Psalms one forty six nine.

The lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the way of the wicked, and may he continue to do that. Thank you.

Thank you. Jesus Hiladio. Henry Williams.

Henry Williams, District 1, and my respect to the mayor, city managers, city council members. I had written some notes as to what I wanted to speak concerning, but what came to mind to me was from the gospel of John chapter eight. And in the gospel of John chapter eight, these people came to Jesus, and they brought a woman to to him, and they said she has been caught in the act of adultery. The law says that we should stone her. What do you say?

And Jesus was riding in the on the ground, and he picked up some stones.

And

he said, let him who is without stone, let him cast the first stone at her. And they all began to walk out. And the woman and Jesus said to the woman, where are those who condemn you? And she said, they're not here. And he said, neither do I condemn you.

Go and sin no more. K? I think we must be very, very careful about casting stones. The water problem, if we will pray and if we will be a people of prayer, god will solve our problems. There's a scripture, second chronicles seven fourteen, if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven who'll forgive their sin and will heal their land.

We need to pray and ask God to bring healing to our land and to our city. We are the body of Christ and we must conduct ourselves accordingly. And I would also like to add that the the water project of David Amesworth and missus Anoni, we spoke of that. If you replace that on the agenda for the coming week. God bless you all. Thank you.

Thank you, reverend Zachary Bornstein Bornstein.

Good afternoon. Zachary Bornstein, district one. I stand before you to address a critical oversight in our long term infrastructure planning. For too long, we have witnessed the squandering of physical and natural resources on short term fixes while neglecting the fundamental necessity of water security. The abundance of a robust large scale seawater desalination strategy is a failure of oversight that our community can no longer afford. We must stop spending and instead commit to a definite plan for a saltwater desalination plant that ensures a resilient and independent water future. Strategic investment, especially from our own partners, is something we need years ago. However, that was an oversight and neglected, not by the people, but by the one person who was elected by the people. Can you please play my video?

But the bottom line is is that we are committed to, the city's permitting process. We want to help you in any way we can, if you choose to solicit our help. I know that the port worked very well with the city back during the days of the Mary Rhodes pipeline. In fact, our our staffs who engineered and built the pipeline. So I think there's a lot we can offer the city with their desal plans if you want it. If not, we're here standing by hoping you get your permit wherever you want it. Commissioner I

I don't there is no working together. Again, we're we we we are not going to the port and building docks. So we're unclear as to why the port is coming over this side to try to build desal with no customer.

And we're not trying to build desal. We're just going for a permit for the city to use if you so choose. That's all we're doing. Yeah. Just an alternative. I don't know how we can be more clear on that mayor.

Thank you.

Christina Christina McCabe.

Christina McKay, District One. Facebook is for pictures of your grandkids and for promposals. It is not meant for making government announcements. It's also two weeks out, and I haven't been able to find the special desol meeting the mayor announced on Facebook, anywhere on this city website, so that's confusing. I also don't wanna be friends with the mayor on Facebook to be able to follow the city.

I'd like to encourage the council and mayor to take item 15 seriously. Please dismiss perceptions of community drama or personal feelings you may hold about the people involved. Instead, focus on the fact that each signature on this petition represents a person who is trying to communicate with you. Each name is a person expressing that they do not want to be represented by a documented liar. I'd also like to remind everyone that Bill Clinton was not impeached for having an affair, for participating in sexual relations, or even for sexual harassment or abuse of power.

Bill Clinton was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice, lying under oath during a deposition. We often remember him ultimately beating that case, but collectively we forget that he was fined over a $100,000 and his law license was suspended. He received consequences. I will not apologize for wanting to spend time or money in pursuit of ethical governments. I also noticed that the mayor didn't comment on the outburst after the mention of Rachel Cabello's work in the community.

Selective enforcement of decorum is a hallmark of this body. Public comment should be held on Monday evening, Tuesday at noon and at each item. Virtual participants should have equal access at each of the time we're able to do it and it's discussing that we don't.

Richard Gabala.

Hello.

Twenty years, Since we saved all those jobs for the wastewater plants twenty years ago. Could you use $750,000,000? I know we the water issue could. In 1930 1929, there was an anomaly in the oceans that created surface temperatures that exploded. What ensued was the dust ball that lasted lasted approximately eleven to thirteen years.

After that thirteen years, the rains came. Move forward to now. There was an anomaly in The Gulf in 2010. NOAA says the last eleven years are the hottest on record after 2010, since 2010. This is a 10 state problem.

There are aquifers, there are rivers, there are reservoirs that are that are hitting Deadpool. We're not the only ones. The the people that caused that anomaly in The Gulf set aside $750,000,000 for an emergency environmental issue that may come up in the future. If this isn't that if this isn't that problem, then I'm barking up the wrong tree. And I hope that, city attorneys look into this because it's there. It's still there, and it could be more than 750,000,000 So I just hope you go after it.

Thank you

mister talk about. Right?

Jason Hale.

Thank you mayor. Good afternoon council members. Jason Hale, Corpus Christi. Today, I want to talk about economic growth, the future of Corpus, and I also wanted to promote an event on clean energy that is coming up. Alright.

So water is a resource we talk about a lot, But one resource I don't think we talk about enough is the climate, specifically the stability of the climate. Today, I'm gonna try to combine the two of them. So, for example, with water, you don't want desalination brine to accumulate in the bays to the point to where it becomes toxic to aquatic wildlife. Right? Well, similar to that, we don't want greenhouse gases accumulating in the atmosphere because it traps heat, and it disrupts climate patterns that we've become accustomed to.

We're not sure if brine will accumulate in the bay, but we are sure that greenhouse gases are accumulating in the atmosphere. It's a problem. It's bad. It's coming from us. We know it is. The good news is that we can do something to keep it from getting worse. The tough part of that is our climate resources are shared with the entire world, and it's hard to get everyone to share it responsibly. For example, can you imagine if anyone could come here to Corpus and use all the water they want without having to manage it sustainably? It'd be chaos. Right?

So if climate is a serious problem, and if everyone wants to take it seriously, how would that affect our economy? I want a bright future for Corpus. Right? And I want a stable climate. And I think, you know, a big part of that for Corpus is having sustainable economic growth.

So I guess the question that I would like all of us to think about is what would a climate friendly economy look like in corpus? And if that's where we want to go, how do we get there? Anyways, I think the most important thing is not trying to like cram solutions or force solutions on the people, but to have conversations, so we can come to a consensus about the problem and the solutions that we prefer for tackling that. So, if that's something you're interested in, or want to learn more about, I want to invite everyone to an event we're having on clean energy on Monday. It's at Lazy Beach Brewery downtown from 6PM to 8PM, and we'll be talking about offshore wind farms, battery storage, and solar.

Like I said, everyone's invited to come out, And if you're like me and you don't like to drink alcohol that often, they also have really good root beer. I had, like, three or four the last time I was there. Anyways, that's it. Thanks.

Thank you, mister Hale. Eshik David?

Thirty five seconds. Mayor, council, city manager, city staff, and members of this community, you can play my video, please. Thank you.

It it should not be so difficult for us to to work with another entity that is willing to pony up half the expense for this. And it it should it should be in our best interest not to put all that risk on our ratepayers. This is a this is

a good thing. Mhmm. I'll leave that at that.

So my comment is the first time we brought this and this time we bring this, we we brought this in a spirit of let's sit down and work through this and try to come up with a working document that we could all agree to and send over to the Port Of Corpus Christi to see if we could get their support for it. But we're we have not been provided an opportunity to do that. All we've been provided is, no, you can't do this. We don't wanna talk about this. We don't wanna have any collaboration with the port.

I'm gonna say to the listening public out here, this is an opportunity that we're missing. This is an opportunity for us to save the taxpayers of this city millions of dollars with the Port Of Corpus Christi helping us pay for this, and we're gonna sit here today and vote against having that opportunity. We're gonna vote against voting for because I know what the outcome's gonna be because the mayor's been talking to everybody in Corpus Christi about this since she found out about it, but this is gonna be an opportunity that this city council is going to once again pass up for us to be able to save the taxpayers of this city millions of dollars.

K. Thank you. One last comment.

Okay. No. No. I'm we're we're gonna you've spoke I've only spoken once. K. So we're gonna go and call the vote. I've spoken Rebecca, take a roll call, please. We're we're calling vote. Please.

Take a

roll call. We we still have questions here. I mean, they don't talk to the court that we don't hear things from them as well.

Vote on this and move forward. You guys put it on, we're voting. Fine. Rebecca, please take a roll call.

Okay. So just it's a motion to approve the MOU, right, that was attached to

the agenda. Second.

Okay. We have a motion and a second. Rebecca?

Okay. So for a roll call vote, council member Hernandez.

Aye.

Hunter?

After waiting for seven and a half years for desal and following five and a half years before that for any progress in desal in the city, I have to vote yes.

Okay. Presley?

Yes. Okay. No problem. Roy? No. Suckley?

Yes. Barrera?

No. Mayor Wahrabdo?

No. Okay. The item fails. Great. Thank you.

Mayor, what exactly was great about that? That meeting was several years ago. Your incompetence did not just squander millions of dollars, it squandered something far more valuable, time, years and fact. You.

Tina Butler.

Tina Butler, District 3. Actually, I don't even know where to start. I came down here about something else, but after listening all these housewives of Corpus Christi that showed up today, I I I it's just unbelievable. But if the desal was in their backyard, I doubt that they will be coming down here and making these comments today. But my reason for coming here today is to ask the question of how does recipients of the arts and grant be able to promote on the city's website as one of the only entities are being able to do right now.

The association that I'm a part of, we have received the grant for the past four or five years. We've never been allowed to advertise on the city's website, so I'm wondering how and I'm talking about bait jamming. Nothing against mister Nelson. I'm just wondering how we can get on there as well. And not only us, any of the other recipients of the of the HOT grant.

How how does one get on there? Now I have asked the staff, and I know that they have to go up the chain, but sometime that chain is very, very slow. My event is in June. We bring over 23,000 people to this festival, the only African American Juneteenth festival, coastal being wide. We are bringing Grammy nominated and recipients, artists to this city, and we don't even get funding from the city or sponsorship.

Well, I'll take that back. I did get $500 one year, but I'm spending more than that in my park fees. I'm putting three hotels on blocks for people that are coming to the city, but we don't get city support. So I wanna know how do we get on the city's website. And like I said, nothing against that.

I have worked with mister Dodd. He does work with us as well. But this year, we are bringing an even larger person who has been doing a lot of stuff for the city of Houston who did not get contracted this year, and we were able me and my daughter were able to get him for the city of Corpus Christi. So we expect a big influx of people to this area. I've always worked with Omni, but I and that was my question that I had, but I also wanna make this comment as well.

For the people who are here on behalf of the of the of the mayor, and as I said before, the housewife, and you talked about the quorum, everything is always supposed to be directed to the mayor. So one thing is that young man I've seen two people that came up here that did that did not give their name or their district. I've seen some that said they don't even live here, and they got three minutes. Let that man speak so he can get out what he needs to say. And for the other ones that came up here and said, shame to the other females out here because they did not write something in the community. Shame on her. Because she just sat up there and talked about that gentleman that just came up here with the hair. What happened to your hair? Shame on her. And shame on the rest of them sitting with her. Call the decorum back there.

Okay. Miss Butler, if Peter, could you address what her I mean, not in this moment, but can you have somebody speak with miss Butler?

I'll work with Robert Dodd. So she's referring to grants that we have funded with hotel occupancy tax, And she sounds like her agency may be a recipient and wants to advertise the event probably Juneteenth on the city's on the city's website similar to Bay Jam. And so we'll look into it.

That was any of her issues that she has some questions. If if we can please get with her.

Right. Yeah. Look at

Resolve that

thing. Call you. Miss Butler? Yeah. We'll call you.

Mhmm. Alright. Thank you, Peter. Robin Cox.

I'm Robin Cox, District 3, and it is good to see all the old oligarch here and since everybody giving that they've lived here for fifty years, what their kids are doing, I guess I'm not even a first generation here. My son doesn't live here. He is a graduate of UT, all fighting in the United States Marine Corps infantry, so the rest of you can all be safe. That man before didn't get a thank you for his service, so I'm thanking him right now. I have a video to play if you can please play it.

$2,000,000 has been appropriated to a company that is owned by your political donors. Right?

Objection, form.

Argument. Yeah. An an incentive has been appropriated for an economic development project. Of which they're owned of of which the developer are my donors. Okay. $2,000,000.

And your city manager and your assistant city manager have testified that in their opinion, and I know you know they're not you you don't think they're qualified, but in their opinion, it's a forgery. Right? Right? You've seen that testimony. Yes. And you've seen the testimony where Peter, I know you think he's not qualified, but he says, law was broken. Right? He said there was an appearance of the law. Okay. And so And then, of course, Ajeet came in front of you twice and made the accusation as well. Twice. Right? And showed you where the document, where the federal FEMA website had been altered. He showed that to you. Right?

Yes.

And, all of those things have happened, and you've told me that the only person that's qualified to investigate it and make a determination about whether or not there's been a crime is somebody in law enforcement. Right? Yes. Okay. So, are you going to turn it over to law enforcement to be investigated? I No. Okay. That's all I have.

Thank you.

Alright.

Anything from me? Any other questions?

When Councilman Barbera is laughing, he's not laughing, I've said this before, at the attorney. He's laughing at every one of the taxpayers. He's laughing as I got away with it. This is insulting. And y'all call me disgusting. And for those of you who've come up here, people, and said that your voters are gonna see you, I want you to know something about the voters in Corpus. There is a reason there are five Walmarts and one Julian Gold. So there's a lot more of common people, single moms, and working class people. For the lady who spoke about the church, I'm a good Christian, but I gotta tell you in the words of my dad, just because you stand in a church every Sunday doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in your garage makes you a Cadillac. Thank you.

Trevor Sloeck.

Trevor Slowick, Corpus Christi. Play the tape, please.

Oh, definitely. Right. It was all done. And then when you read the entire PowerPoint, it's so it's so obvious that the the reader or the writer wanted one to be led to believe that the FEMA was just recent, even where it's like recently released and this and that. And part of it goes back to the narrative. Mike Culberson said, hey. You know, we can't this has to be tied to infrastructure. Infrastructure. And so then they they catch the scheme that, okay. FEMA floodplain, that's infrastructure. You know, the the the the fixing the bottom floor so that it meets the floodplain, and they stuck with it.

Got it.

And then they then they then they develop a narrative narrative to fit it that they just found out because people would say like, shit. They should have known about this long time ago.

After review of the presentations, deposition testimony, investigative materials, and applicable Texas and federal penal statutes, The PowerPoint slide at issue appears to have been intentionally altered to cover the dates that appear on the government website.

You agree that documents were altered. There's no doubt about that.

The the screenshot was definitely altered. Yes.

Did it look intentional? Can you, as a police officer I mean, you look at stuff like this. You can say

So it would be hard to argue that it was not.

Thank you.

Let let the city council know that there were there were some, you know, some improper information, some tampering, and all that involved also. You let them know?

I let them know. We're gonna let them know again tomorrow in executive session. I have I already have an executive session posted.

And then you go on. You said that, however, because the council wanted this on the agenda for them to consider, it's on. And so my question to you is when you are saying in that conversation with Achid that the council wanted it on the agenda, who are you

referring to? Yeah. I'm not for certain, but I know the mayor and I think possibly had were were okay with the issue at hand of the of not having an explanation and wanted to proceed with having it on.

Both of them, you had informed them that there had been this altering or tampering or forging of a federal document, but they were still willing to support it. Right? Correct. I think what you're telling me is during that time frame, you were not in the loop as to what the findings were for the investigation.

Correct.

And so therefore you had no knowledge that it was something illegal in the process that you were voting on.

Right. There was Okay. Okay.

It was apparent from, reviewing all of the, different depositions and statements that mister Ramirez was taking responsibility for the presentation of the altered item.

Thank you, mister Sloeck. Let's see here. Stephanie, you wanna check if we had check to see if we've got Adam Alanis?

Yes, ma'am. We do have quite a few, virtual and phone individuals online. First, we have up Sean Merritt. Sean, are you present still?

Yes, ma'am. I'm here. Can you hear me?

Yes, sir. Please state your name, your city, and your comment.

Sean Merritt, district five, and I was actually gonna try to finish on my DSL talk, but I have a more important subject to talk about. I'm medically retired from the United States military. I took a oath to defend the constitution of this country against all enemies, foreign and domestic. And that oath doesn't end when you leave service, and it doesn't stop at the doors of this council chamber. Today, this council is considering a petition for removal. That makes what happens in this room matter because accountability starts here. Over the past two years living here, I've watched the same patterns play out. Citizens sign up. They follow the process. They wait their turn.

And when they step forward, they're required to publicly state their name and home address just to speak even though you already have that info, even though you just called their name. That's redundancy, and it creates a choice that shouldn't exist. Speak up or keep your privacy. People shouldn't have to make that choice. And then once they do speak, here's what actually happens. A citizen wanted to use his three minute minutes to talk about aliens. He signed up properly. He was respectful. He had been trying to speak for weeks. He was shut down and run off.

People in this room had been told that they would be removed for clapping, for chuckling, even for rolling their eyes. And a citizen speaking about domestic violence in this city just last week was called disgusting twice. And others have been pushed until they lose their cool, and then they're removed by police or taken to jail. These are not hypotheticals. These are events that have happened in this room. Texas government code 551Dot007 is clear. You cannot prohibit public criticism of this body. And once you open this floor, the First Amendment applies. The Supreme Court said in Cohen versus California, offensive protected speech. That means the standard isn't whether something is like.

It's whether it actually disrupts the meeting. You can address real disruption, but you cannot provoke it and then use it as a justification to remove somebody. That line matters because when it's crossed, people stop speaking, not because they have nothing to say, but because they know what will happen if they do. This council isn't here to be comfortable. It's here to be accountable.

The people don't come here to serve your ego. You were elected to serve everyone in this city and uphold your oath to the constitution, to the state, and of this nation. Nobody wants chaos, but we are demanding accountability to the people of this city, apply the rules evenly, remove redundancy, respect the rights of everyone in this room because the moment people feel they cannot speak freely in this room is the moment this government stops being accountable to the very people who elected you and put you in those high chairs that you're sitting in right now. And that is a line that should never never ever be crossed. Thank you for my time.

Okay. Next, we have Rachel Caballero.

Hello?

Yes, ma'am. Go ahead and begin your comment.

Rachel Caballero, d one. I am the petitioner, the individual who filed the petition to remove mayor Paulette Guajardo. I have not been paid nor was I asked to do this. I love my community. I fight for my community, and the truth will be exposed.

A lot of the information received by the first timer public commenters, they are, uninformed, and we'll leave it at that. The city charter violations, this is section one a one, two, and three of article two, show these are rules set by the council. This is the city charter. Willful violations of any code of ethics or conflicts of interest. Any prohibition of this charter, misconduct, malfeasance, incompetence, inability, or willful neglect, performance of official duties.

These are all thing that apply to this petition. We if we want a better represent rep better representatives, then we have to demand it because we are not receiving the representation that we deserve as a community. This is not political theater. This is exposing the truth for what it is. We've been attending these meetings.

We see the behaviors. We have the facts. We have the proof, and this is why we would like to proceed with the petition to remove the mayor. There we have a lot of things happening, but we still have car washes being opened. So business is continuing, and this is part of business right now. We there's a code of ethics that we must require from elected representatives, and we are not getting that. We are not getting that, and we deserve this representation. Our community is worth fighting for. Our taxpayer dollars are worth fighting for. We deserve truth, honesty, and accountability, and we are not getting that.

And I ask the the the city council members to please move forward with this petition so that we can demand better from our elected represent representatives. This has been a very difficult journey having to get this done, and we need accountability. Now is the time. Thank you.

All right. Next up is Taylor Johnson.