City Council - Regular Meeting

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to City Hall, and welcome to Council Chambers. I'd like to call this meeting to order. This morning,

our invocation will be given by deacon Richard Longoria with Saint Helena of the True Cross of Jesus.

Holy god, holy mighty one, father, son, and holy spirit, we ask that your graces come upon our city council, on the individuals, and all our city, those who work for Corpus Christi, and those who live here in every way. We ask for your blessings of kindness, grace, mercy. May all friction and jealousy among our council be ended in every way. May they work together for the goodness of our people, for the goodness of our city. May you come upon them and send your holy spirit upon all our city council members and all who are here today, and grant them the wonderment.

May they all reflect the light of Jesus Christ upon each other and upon all who are in Corpus Christi. We ask your blessings and your mercy upon them. We pray this in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen.

Amen. Thank you so much, deacon. And this morning, our pledge of allegiance will be to the flag of The United States and to the Texas state flag will be led by Mallory Rayna. She is a senior at Harold t branch academy, top 10 in her class, and she is in the paramedics program.

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. The Texas pledge. Under the Texas flag, I pledge allegiance to the Texas one state under god, one and indivisible.

Mallory, thank you, and good luck in your studies. Miss Huerta, would you please call the roll?

Mayor Paulette Guajardo? Present. Council members Roland Barrera?

Here.

Sylvia Campos? Here. Eric Antu will be late. Gil Hernandez? Here. Kaylen Paxson?

Here.

Everett Roy.

Here.

Mark Scott. Here. Carolyn Vaughn. Here. City manager Peter Zanoni.

Present.

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

Thank you, miss Watson. Section e is our city manager's comments and update on city operations. We have one item, mister Zanoni.

Yes. We do. Good morning, mayor and mayor and members of the council and the community. We have one item for the city manager's report, and that will be an overview of the eighty eighth annual Buck Days Festival, which will be celebrated this year from April 30 through May 10. And so as we know, Buck Days has been around for a number of years.

This Buck Days will be eighty eight years since it was first started in 1938, and it's one of Corpus's largest community events, and it draws tens of thousands of visitors from the entire Coastal Bend region. So it's held at the Bayfront, and the event has something for everyone. As Johnny Filipello will tell us here in a moment, there's rodeos, concerts, a carnival, and parades, and much more. An important note is that since 1996, the Buck Commission has awarded 2,600,000.0 in scholarships to local students, and those monies come through the Buck Days celebrations. So this morning, have Johnny Filipello.

He's the president and CEO of the Buccaneer Commission. And, Johnny, thank you for being here. He's gonna give us some background on some of the prior Buck Days that we've had here, and then talk more importantly about this year's Buck Days event. So I'll turn it over to you, Johnny.

Thank you. Thank you, Peter, and and mayor council. It's an honor to speak to you guys today. We're excited about the upcoming Buccaneer Days Festival. Before I get into this year's events, I do wanna do a just brief recap of our successes from last year. We we typically do this once a year. 112,000 unique visitors participated in Buck Days last year. Of those 112,000, almost 20,000 were from out of our market, so out of out of the Corpus Christi region. You can see the makeup down at the bottom of this slide. We have people coming from all over The United States and certainly San Antonio, Rio Grande Valley, Houston are our big drawers of folks for the event as well.

And then our makeup, when you look at Place for AI, it truly is a makeup of the Coastal Bend and and a reach of of folks that are attending. What I'm really excited about is this is a pretty new information. We just conducted a, economic impact report with tourism economics. And so of those 20,000 folks that came from out of market, they brought about $10,000,000 of impact with them to our event. That's not counting the other a 100,000 or so people that participated in the in the region.

So really excited about those numbers. Buckdays also contributes to about 555 jobs during the eleven day period. And then our tax base, the local and state taxes, about 600,000 is generated off of those those 20,000 people coming from out of town. So that's pretty hot off the press information. We just finalized that study and really proud of those numbers.

And then more importantly for organization, it's what are we doing to support education in the Coastal Bend. At the end of last year's event, we were able to award over 364,000, a lot of that in the form of scholarships to local students. But we've also helped the museums, the science and history museum, the art museum, Harbor Playhouse. There's a variety of ways that we we reach those those different students in in what we're doing. And then our leadership program takes on 20 high school seniors from Kingsville to Senton and everywhere in between to really learn.

Then at at the end of Buck days, we'll award a little over a $100,000 to those those folks as well. So as we dive into this year, really excited to take two traditions that have typically fallen on the last Saturday of the event, the the night parade or sorry, the children's parade and the five k, and we're moving those to this coming Saturday. We're we're partnering with the city of Portland on that and utilizing 5th And Elm as kind of the center point to make it a kickoff regional event for the community to come in and enjoy. We'll have a cowboy breakfast that morning, free food, live music, fun for everyone to to come together. And really just trying to say, hey, we're all part of Buck Days.

Come come be prepared. It's it's coming up for the whole community and kinda taking that first that that children's parade that gets lost on the back end and really giving it its own footing, for this. So really excited if you don't have anything going, it's April 18, this Saturday, come out and enjoy with us. The night parade, the the the big tradition that has been with us from the very beginning is April 25. The stadium show will again be back at Buck Stadium.

We'll start there, go down Leopard and end on the bay Front. And our friends at Chris six will be broadcasting that live as well on on their their stations for the evening. So, I look forward to having each of you guys participate in that with us as well. But, numbers are up on both parades. So, really excited about the number of people coming out.

When I talk come early, stay late, there's a lot happening over the course of the eleven days. April 30 to May 10, the first weekend, we partner with Crawfish for a Cause, who supports charities to have a big crawfish festival. There'll be 5,000 folks right there on the bayfront inside the footprint. Our shopping in Stripes Carnival, shopping's really continued to grow year over year. We've got a lot of great vendors coming in into the exhibit hall for that.

The STEAM Expo, I'll touch on even more in a little bit, but it's really taken off with a lot of the out of town participation you see in in things. And then I mentioned earlier, the Science and History Museum and Art Museum. For the price of admission, you get those two museums as as part of the the attraction as well. So when you come to Buck Day's, stay all day. You go check out the museums, come shop and enjoy the live music.

And then barbecue showcase, our last weekend, we've got 10 of the best barbecue joints in the whole region for you to sample barbecue that last Saturday and and make it a a fun experience. But I'd I'd think it's important to stress here at the top right corner, 51 bands will perform with most of those being local over the course of the eleven days of the event. So, we're supporting the music community very much so with with their activations as well. And then, western sports, of the the mainstays since the early nineties. PBR will again bring the Velocity Tour finals here May.

Again, that's one of three championship events they host throughout the year with Las Vegas and Fort Worth having the other ones. We're really proud that the city of Corpus Christi, the branding, the mantra, all roads lead to Corpus Christi on a 30 tour stop are mentioned at every one of those tour or every one of those competitions leading up to our event in Corpus Christi. And then Rodeo Corpus Christi is May. We're part of PRCA this year, which puts us there's 800 and some odd PRCA rodeos. We'll be the twelfth ranked rodeo in all of pro rodeo this year, which is pretty cool for our size market.

We'll be broadcast on Cowboy Channel, which has about 200,000 eyeballs watching for that, for all five of the performances. And one of the really neat things that I think is showcasing our community to the western sports world is we'll be hosting the Association of Rodeo Committees conference during the event this year. So there'll be about a 150 rodeo organizers, executives from all over, from Calgary, Canada to Houston and everywhere in between coming to the Omni, participate in the conference, attending our event. And so it's a nice way to let let let the rest of the Western sports world see see what we're doing down here in Corpus Christi. The concert series expanded this year.

The PBR nights will have concerts as well. We're really excited about this lineup. You can see there's just about something for everyone to enjoy on on that lineup as well. I'll point out the the May 8 concert with Midland sailing super fast, but that's also military night and we've got some really great things in store within AS Corpus Christi and the Coast Guard and and folks to recognize some individuals during that. We'll save it for that evening, should be a great night to check out.

The STEAM Expo, this started about six years ago, a concept that Sitko and us came up with saying, let's do something called rodeo robotics rodeo weather, and it's just exploded. You can see all the great partners that have jumped on board with us. We'll have robotics competitions both the first weekends and second weekend. We've added lot of new things to the programming. An aerial drone competition for young people that's already sold out in in new competitors.

It's, I think, in its second year in in existence, but there's a lot of excitement around it. And then we've added what's called VEXU, which is a university robotics competition this year. So we'll have teams from the University of Michigan, University of Central Florida, A and M College Station, A and M Kingsville, and a few others sprinkled throughout coming to compete in our robotics competition right here in in the coastal bend on the university level. Really excited about those things. We've got some great four h programming as well, food challenge, public speaking, those type of things.

Overall, about 90,000 will be awarded to these young people as we compete in in those different segments. Ag and industry awareness days. Last year, we did one day of this. It filled up super fast with third graders coming and learning about agriculture and just the variety of things that Coastal Bend has to offer. This year, we've got the Heart Research Institute, we've got the aquarium involved.

We obviously have a lot of different agriculture aspects, but we'll have 1,500 students from all over the Coastal Bend coming in and doing tours on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of of that event as well. The STEAM day open to the public with the price of admission at the Science and History Museum. Last year, had about a thousand students come in and just engage and immerse in science and technology. Mad Science will be back. Anum Kingsville's engineering department will have a lot of programming and Tesla will even be there doing some stuff with our students.

So if you have a youngster, third grade to high school, bring them and let them have a fun time on that May. It's a lot of fun for them. Couple of other regional partnerships we formed this year. ANAM Corpus Christi is gonna have ISFEST at Buckdays. So the first Friday with PBR, we'll have 1,500 students enjoying the PBR bull riding event and concerts to follow with that.

We're gonna have a cookout for all those students right on the Bayfront that Friday night as well just to to have some fun with them and and really bring them in to be part of our community as well. Aingham Kingsville will have had the Lena night on May 7. They'll have a huge group of alumni come over, have a reception, but then they'll also have a ton of student involvement. We'll have their marching band out front playing as guests come. They'll have ballet florico, mariachis, all all sorts of activities going on showcasing what their school has to offer to the Coastal Bend as well.

So, really excited about engaging them. And then, Del Mar College has taken another approach with us this year. They have dress up days on their campuses but then on leading up to the event on the twenty eighth, twenty ninth and thirtieth, they're gonna have pancake breakfasts at each of their campuses. We'll push out more information, but their culinary program is just gonna serve pancakes to the public and get folks excited about Buck Day's coming up as well. So, really really pleased with what they're they're offering there.

And then the newest thing we're actually gonna push out press on this tomorrow is Buck Days Build. We've partnered with Habitat for Humanity. We're gonna build the frame of a house right there on the festival grounds. And then once the over the eleven days, once it's done, we'll move it to where the foundation is and let the home be finished. It's a fundraiser that we've started a commitment.

Hut eight, our our presenting sponsor, has has pledged us a starting amount and we're promoting with QR codes at the festival and on our website, for folks to make donations. Our goal is to help fully fund this house, for a single mother and her children to move into as soon as we can get it accomplished. But really really proud of the partnership we're able to come up with with Habitat on on this as well. So you can see there's a a ton happening, a a lot going on each year. It's how can we do it better, and how can we bring more people into the tent to work with us and and all here and, look forward to having the whole community out during Buck Days.

If you have information or need information, buckdays.com is the best location for that. And I'd be remiss without talking about the RTA, our transit authority does an amazing job of shoveling folks from all the outer line parking lots, but then also helping us on parade night with those disabled being able to catch a ride to their bus center on on Leopard Street and then being able to enjoy the parade in their footprint. So really a lot of great partners, over a 100 plus companies that come together to make it happen and 300 volunteers and then the city staff. Y'all's team is always top notch on helping make it all come together. So thank you guys.

With that

Thank you, Johnny. And congratulations on eighty eight years. This is amazing. And we appreciate the numbers. I would love to maybe ask you to to email those to the council Absolutely. Or that presentation.

Yeah. Absolutely.

Thank you.

Thank you

so much. Yes. Yeah.

Yeah. Good job, Johnny. That's great. Yeah. Thank you, Johnny, for that. And, mayor, that concludes the city manager's report.

Great. Thank you, Peter. It's 11:48, so I think we're gonna go ahead and start public comment a little early. As we begin the meeting, I'm gonna go ahead and take a moment to address rules of decorum. The council Chambers is a public I'm sorry, 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, Corpus or vulgarity. We will not tolerate violations of decorum. We're here to do the people's work, so we'd like to proceed in that spirit. If you would like 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 may come up to the podium and speak. At this time, I'll ask our city attorney, Miles Risley, to review the council meeting rules of decorum, which will be displayed on the television screens above.

All citizens must be 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 council members as individuals. Citizens are only permitted to speak on city related subject matter. Speaking on any non city 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. 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. A visible timer position near the city secretary's desk will help manage the allotted time. If you have a petition or relevant information, please prove present it to the city secretary before speaking.

Our first speaker is, Tom Taglaboo.

Good morning. Tom Taglabue, District 2. I'm asking the city council to end the chaos that continues to embarrass the city statewide. Courts have ruled the removal process not legal. You knew it, staff knew it, but no one was willing to prioritize reputation, the financial burdens involved, and let the electoral process take its course in just a few more months.

I don't think it should ever have gotten this far. Do any of you honestly think this process is gonna be resolved before the November elections? Do you have such little faith in the integrity of the local, state, and federal law enforcement professionals that you're willing to turn your back on their findings to score a political point? There are so many critical issues facing this city. Take a step back and think what's in the best interest of this city and the residents long term.

Is the chaos worth it? Personally, I think it's a sad reminder of how vindictive and nasty politics can be. It's hard enough to be a public servant, and this process fosters mistrust, weakens faith in our leaders, and causes damage that will linger. Please stop, make peace, choose democracy, continuity, and justice, and get back to your roles as policymakers.

Thank you.

Thank you, mister Taglicher. I'd just like to remind everyone that there is no applause just to keep our decorum. I know. That's okay. Thank you for understanding. And just so everyone knows, have about well, we have 47. 47 people just speaking today. Not necessarily all in person, but 47 total. Bradley Bartleson.

About presentation to feed up there. There we go. Okay. Good morning. I'm Brad Bartleson, Corpus Christi.

Lack of strategic planning yields crisis mode operation dealing with only with what's urgent and important. Perhaps you're right now thinking, why are we listening to something that's not urgent? False exaggerated statements are assigned. A councilman stated that he is unaware of any potential negative effects substitution of desalination in place of Inner Harbor desalination in a meeting called workshop instead of Inner Harbor Inner Harbor Rally meeting. We see the effects of anxiety, reactive thinking, staff turnover, erosion of trust, and resource waste.

Truth number one is we have and expect no residential demand increase. Number two is that the city oversold the water. Number three is that projects other than Inner Harbor were slow walked or not investigated at all. Our water dashboard is a status report, not a strategic plan. I provided this strategic outline for this last October with planned capacities going forward and sales limited to 85%.

Without control of sales, we are without a rudder, subject to whatever walks in the door. Our plan to filter by prospective users, by employees per MGD, percent revenues and higher percent higher management to remain local, what we need. The flawed bootstrap deal consumes 600 homes over the water, has four employees instead of 100, and hundreds of millions of dollars going offshore to Nigeria. The cost details of projects are not still shared, and comparison is sketchy, undermining trust. It's time to also share that the city revenue is a motivator in project decisions.

The signs include heavy promotion of Inner Harbor while knowing TCEQ permit granting was a dereliction of duty. Good news is that we have options, and you can perform strategy, and you can lead. Such Such as using all the political influence and perhaps federal money to make Barney Davis happen. You can easily proceed to let the lakes fill up instead of evaporating everything that comes in with floating solar for free. And you have more water now using storm water collection as per my home system.

You see up there, 800 gallons in the past week. We can avoid the trifecta of salt, nutrients, and temperature causing hypoxia in our bays by using this water. And more water now can be had by not wasting the water running underneath our Mary Roads pipeline. Thank you, and may God bless.

Thank you, mister Bartleson. Clint Mericol? Clint? Yeah.

Do I just start? Just go?

Yes, sir.

Okay. Clint Miracle, Corpus Christi. I try to emulate retired navy captain John Butterfield, founder of Beach to Bay Relay Marathon and former executive director of the president's fitness council. I have history with the Corpus Christi Roadrunners. I'm the founder of what is now Corpus Christi Triathlon Club.

Last year, June 17, I spoke here about fairness referring to a permit for a run September 1, believing assistant parks and recreation director Sergio Gonzalez was hindering. Recently, swimmers at Collier Pool have asked about a swim, run, swim event that I have directed for over twenty six years. Everyone should be entitled to the same privileges that vFITZ, Victor Bentancourt gets from city officials. Sergio Gonzalez is apparently in cahoots with vFIT, then taking advantage of Corpus Christi Triathlon Club. Examples, July 7, Corpus Christi Triathlon Club president asked my approval to have a swim run swim like mine yet evasive on details.

He mentioned the club was approached to have one at Billwit Pool Labor Day Weekend. Heard nothing more about it until August 6 at club meeting where we were told Sergio's idea, but only date available was Monday, September 1, same day and time as my run. I let them know my objections and the reasons why. Someone asked the pool rental fee. He nervously responded, don't think there is one. I pay pool rental. I said, it's still going ahead with it. VFIT should not be involved. He said he asked, okay. Without VFIT, replied, September 1, skeptical me drove to Bill Bill Whitt Pool after my run.

Sergio Gonzalez, v Fit, Victor Bentoncourt, and their equipment tray trailer were all there. The name of the vent was mine. It conflicted with an event of mine on my birthday. Parks Recreation should have the invoice and proof of payment from Corpus Christi Triathlon Club. Their entry was also two and a half times more than mine. Fair is fair. If pool rental is waived, I could avoid charging participants, making it easier to put on. None of this seems coincidental or fair to me. People lose jobs with this kind of conduct.

Thank you, mister Clint. Councilman Paxson. Thank you.

Peter, this is the second time that this community member has come to us asking for fair consideration for his events. I believed that last time we had staff look into it, and now he's back again. If we could please have a direct conversation with him, determine what's what his details are, and see how we can make it correct.

Yeah. We can do that, Councilman.

Today?

Yep. That's

something. Yep. Councilman Hernandez.

Yes, Peter. This is multiple times where we had issues with this v fit organization. I'd like to have some documentation as to how we're how we're treating them versus other organizations. I know that they've participated, you know, in when we had the COVID thing a long time ago. But if we're giving them special treatment, then that's not fair. So I I wanna make sure that parks and recreations, whether it's Robert or Sergio, give us a report on on how that's being administered. We need to make sure we treat people fairly. Thank you.

Okay. We'll look into a councilman.

Thank you, sir. Abel Sanchez.

Thank you, mayor and council members. I have some documents. I turn them into the secretary. Mhmm. So briefly, as a son of Corpus Christi, I found that there's a lot of concerns with our work.

And listening to some of the residents behind me have some very interesting statistics and numbers, which I do not personally have. But I have presented a document with the option to deregulate the city water billing company. And it's very simple. There's five basic steps. And if there's any questions I would like to answer, This is a very simple problem that has a very quick resolution.

Corpus Christi has a very high temperature, very high sun and humidity. With all that excess moisture, we can actually draw that from the atmosphere and purify it for clean, safe drinking water. That technology does exist. So I'm just pretty concerned as a resident here of what our plans are to do moving forward. That's really all I have to say.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We appreciate. Thank you. Saundra Meyer.

Okay. Saundra Meyer, District 4. You all know I come from an audit background. And as an auditor, we love policies and procedures. Policies and procedures will keep you out of trouble.

I have a feeling I've tried to hint at some of the ethics rules that y'all need to be complying with to stay out of trouble, and I'm almost thinking that maybe it's gotten to a point that y'all are embarrassed to go ahead and bring up the issue. So today, I wanna put it out public record because for transparency and public trust, everybody needs to know that there are three of y'all that have gotten donations from either David Ajit and his hotels or and or Doug Ellison, the attorney. You need to disclose those. Councilman Gil Hernandez, he chaired the audit committee. The city auditor returned to work.

On August 28, the same day, the Allegation was assigned to the auditor. The next day, he receives a campaign donation from mister Ajit's hotel, September 30 when the lawsuit is filed. Is Doug Allison is the attorney that worked with the auditor also. He gave or I'm sorry. The Ajit David's hotels gave mister Hernandez a campaign donation then.

The proper thing is to say, I've had these donations. Ethics policy says, I cannot deal with this. And I've quoted the top two things at the top. Eric Cantu is when in January, he received two campaign contributions from Doug Allison and the mister Adjeet's hotel. On the sheet, I've written down which hotel it is.

Kaylin Paxson, this tears me up because we want you to do well. We we trust you. Please disclose that you got two campaign donations also from the hotels. It is not fair for y'all to be complaining about paying paying donations and not disclosing conflicts of interest when y'all have some that's very relevant, it will protect you if you disclose it. It's still not time or there's still time.

Everybody makes mistakes. Everybody may forget about the policies and procedures, but this is important for y'all, please. And like I said me and my church members, we want you to do well. We want all of you to do well. We don't want people getting kicked off the council. Thank you.

Thank you, miss Myers. Kenneth Castro. Mayor. Councilman Kunjoo.

Miles, I got a question. What's the maximum donation we'll receive that we can't vote on an issue? Is it 2,500 or how much is it? Do you know? Is there any kind of guidelines?

Can you

turn on your microphone, please?

I believe the ethics ordinance refers to certain items at at 2,700. I have to look up that particular provision.

There's a there's a there's a limit.

It's with respect only to a certain specified Yeah. Subsection.

And I'm with you. I I I think I think everybody should close that. That's what I did. I put on my financial report. I really like the city of Corpus Christi to be just like Austin, Texas. Everybody only gets $300 per person. I mean, you know, I don't think I don't think, you know, all these donations for a city's seat, you know, like a marriage raise, a half $1,000,000. I mean, that's that's pretty crazy. So thank you.

Thank you for clarifying that, councilman. Kenneth Kent Castro.

Yes, sir.

Good morning.

Good morning.

My name is Kenneth Castro. First time here. I don't have statistics like everyone else, but hey, mayor, city council member, city manager, the necessities of life are food, water, and shelter. As for stage three water restriction, public has sacrificed water usage, but the refineries continue to use more than the than the past. Questions are, are the refineries being fined for using more water than the year before?

According to the city manager statistics. While the public and small districts, schools, colleges, NAS, and etcetera have sacrificed the usage of water at the sake of the refineries, Sitting manager and CCW officials, y'all doing? It seems like you're unqualified and logistic. City manager he stated on the last video that you cannot just turn off the refineries water because it will blow up. What kind of statement is that?

And you gave that to the public. Really?

Groundwater

pumping. Groundwater pumping. That's good for the residents of Corpus Christi. But it's like rearranging the deck chairs with the Titanic when you factor in the refineries. Corpus Christi needs desalinization plant ASAP.

US Navy ships use desalinization. Giant cruise ships use desalinization. Other countries use desalinization. Cities, they lost their fresh water sources. Those cities now are thriving, and population is not at a lack of water.

And this is my opinion, but for the future of Corpus Christi and it's is to establish a law on high volume users in the foreseeable future to have their own standalone water system and stay away from the community's water system.

Thank you, mister Kestrel.

Thank you. Thank you.

Sean Flanagan.

Hi. My name is Sean Flanagan. I live in District 2. I got two purposes talking today. The first purpose is to talk to you about alert you to an event that's gonna happen at Coal Park Amphitheater from 06:30 to 8PM on Sunday, May 17. We're having a one nation under God prayer rally to celebrate two hundred and fifty years of being a nation under God. This coincides with a national rally with the same title being held on the same day in the National Mall in Washington DC. Through prayer and song, we will organize around three themes. First, thanksgiving for our nation. Second, prayer for unity among our citizens.

Third, forgiveness when we as an individual or a nation has fallen short of the mark of Christ. We have 10 ministers inters burst with songs leading the praying. I've given you each a flyer and sent you you got a PDF that's up on the screen. And everybody everybody in the audience, everybody in the city is invited to this event. It's a nonpolitical event.

We're trying to pray for our country and our city. Second deal is that this is a difficult day. Seems like y'all have difficult days every time you meet. What I wish, and this is for me and for everybody who's gonna stand at this podium like I'm doing now, is remember Christ teaching when the apostles were chastised for eating improper food, breaking the dietary laws. Christ said, hey, it's not what you put in your body, it's what come out of your body that makes you impure.

Your words. If somebody stands up here, or you all amongst yourselves, and disagrees with you, or tells lies about you or does personal assaults against you, personal complaints against you, you have no control over that. You have total control over what you say. When you are replying to things of that nature, you can disagree agreeably, you can point out falsehoods agreeably, and if you you're better off meeting personal invective with humor and humility. In other words, and that goes for not just you all, but everybody is standing up here.

It's like, you know, here's the deal. This is our city council, and we're gonna disagree. You guys did. I disagree with you about a lot of things, but you gotta do it with dignity, and we gotta respect each other. And and that's the example we're hoping to see throughout the day today. So thank you.

Thank you, mister Flanagan. Jason Falwell.

Do I have the floor?

You do.

Thank you. So I'd like to talk about decorum, time, place, and manner. Time is, now. Time limit's three minutes. Right? That's equal treatment under law, which is the fourteenth amendment, which you're aware of, what you're using to combat counsel. Right? So you agree with your rights, but not our rights. Shame on you. Manor at the podium or virtual. Is that right, mister what is it? Weasley? Is that right, Weasley? Alright. So, place is here. That's it. That's all that's all your Texas Open Meeting Act. That's all your rules. That's it. Anything else does not matter, and you can't violate people's constitutional rights.

With that said, I tried to finish my conversation last time I was here, but these gentlemen over here threatened me with arrest for my First Amendment right. I want you to know equal treatment under law. Right? Thank you. Okay. So today, if you all threatened to arrest me, make sure you actually have the law that I broke. Go ahead and get GPT chat. This is gonna happen in a minute, and I'm gonna ask for it before you threaten me with arrest so I don't look stupid. Okay. Men.

So in this population, have roughly 350,000 people. With the 350,000 people, about 70% of them men. 18 years and older, about a 120,000 men. If just point 1% of the men in this town would do what I do, this city council meeting would be overflowing with men, over 200. If there's more than 200 men here, what do you think happened to these cops when they try to illegally arrest us? What would you do? Would you arrest 200 men for telling you, I don't believe in you and you're a piece of shit? Would you? You see how the tides would turn if y'all would just listen? And then you could take those 200 men and do it across the entire United States at every city council meeting.

And it would take the men, what, one hour a month to change the entire world. Men could change the entire world if they just sat up here and do what I did. Thank you for not threatening me for arrest. I appreciate it. Cussing is legal. Right, mister Risley Weasley? Mister Weasley, last time I was here, said cussing was illegal. Do you have no statement now? You all learned. Thank you for your time. Before I leave, your officer also understands constitutional rights as he told me fuck you in the hallway last time I was here. So fuck you and have a nice day. Andrew.

I'm sorry. Alejandro Chaviria.

Alejandro Chabiria, District 3. I don't know how I can follow that one. I'm here to talk about the most important thing, water. Not the mayor, not the whether somebody should be talking about other stuff or that. We have to do something now because the water is getting critical.

Now last time I was here, I told you guys what you could do with a desal plant, and you could add add an extra process to it and then take those that brine and sell it because those are rare minerals. Well, you guys know that you don't even need a company to make a desal plant. You guys, the city can make their own. All they gotta do is set up where they can boil the salt water. Once that salt water becomes steam, you can put it to a turbine, make electricity for the city free while you're doing the process.

At the end, what you're gonna get left is what's called solar assault because they use solar energy to heat up the water to make the steam. That also becomes fresh water at the end. So, why aren't we looking into that? Water is the most important thing right now. Not the mayor, not anything else.

I looked into the mayor's thing and if you guys proceed with this thing, all you're gonna be doing you're already costing the city money, our money. By continuing with the mayor, you're gonna cost us even more. Because if I was the mayor, I'd sue every one of you. And I'll tell you why. The people that voted both times should not be allowed to be judge and jury. Right. The people that did not that voted no both times should be allowed to be the judge and jury. And I tell you why. The other people are gonna become witnesses. If I was her lawyer, I'd make sure that the other people become witnesses.

Why did you turn? Why do you wanna do this now? You took a small percentage of the population and decided to do all this drama when you could have waited until she left office or election and we'd still have that extra money for water. You know, you guys need to really get together.

You know, you're a team, but

you don't look like one right now. You know, you're causing these people aggravation, you're causing them money, all these things. And you should be concentrating on the main thing, water. I have filmed. I collected six gallons of water since Easter on a three by three by four panel that never moves, that stayed at one spot, and collected this water. You imagine if you had all these panels how much water you would collect? Thank you very much. And I got my prototype.

Thank you, mister Chaveta. Scott Barraza.

Good afternoon Scott Bourassa noises county wanna talk about the well mitigation program you'll have. This was a program not that I asked for this is a program that the city employees acting as board members of the aquifer storage and conservation district. It has a special condition on the well permits. The well permits were approved on 12/19/2025 and had sixty days to comply. It's listed on the securing water website that they were approved January 13.

On the permit, the special conditions on well permits number four states the permit is to develop a well assistance program, good neighbor program that will a, assist any owners with periodic water level monitoring, b, assist well owners with water quality data sampling, c, review well construction formation with well owners, and d, include a well remediation program for wells that have been confirmed to be impacted by the permit ease operations. Now no evidence that four d has been done or is being drafted. I cannot find it anywhere, as of this morning. I was here in February asking about this. I was told we're gonna look into it.

I came back again in March, and Peter said he would look into it. Now on March 26 at the aquifer storage and recovery conservation district meeting, Nick gave a briefing report like a quarterly report. He did not bring forth a written well mitigation plan. It is now April, and let me guess, you have to look into it. Less than a week of the partial operation in the Western Well field, Orange Grove had well issues, and that was not pumping at the planned capacity. There this wasn't supposed happen, but did. World well owners are both concerned and worried and rightfully so. Will our wells be like orange groves and have issues caused from your wells? It wasn't supposed to happen there, but it did. Would our wells be any different?

No well mitigation program exists just a data collection program. Council will be different and staff as well next year. This needs to go beyond word-of-mouth and be codified somehow. Esteban Ramos the CCW water resource manager he couldn't answer my question on well spacing rules and told me I to do a public information request, and I did. And still, there is no response from Belinda Bauderis, the senior management and an analysis for CCW.

These are both the general manager and administrator for the Corpus Christi aquifer storage and recovery conservation district. I sent my request February 19. I also sent a request asking about the well mitigation program. That too was met with silence. With this type of behavior from them, I don't expect any help from the Corpus Christi Aquifer Storage And Recovery Conservation District in regard to well issues caused by their permit holders.

And with that lack of action forming a written well mitigation plan from the city, it appears rural well owners won't see any help if those wells, the city's wells caused their wells issues. Hire a consultant or do whatever you need to do. Just get it done. My opinion on this as well as many others in rural Nueces County and surrounding counties, we're all opinion that we're just shit out of luck if all wells have issues caused by the city wells because nothing is being done. Don't you just love good neighbors?

Thank you, mister Baraza. And Miles, would somebody please address his his inquiries? Jesus Wong.

Jesus Wong, District 4. Good afternoon, council. I stand here as a community member, organizer, and a university student. About a year ago, a colleague and I were sitting in the council chambers when a community member spoke during a public comment about the adopt a park program. Inspired by that moment, Texas rising adopted dog park located along Ocean Drive and committed to monthly litter cleanups.

We wouldn't have otherwise known about the program, so this is our way of paying it forward. Across our 11 park cleanups, we've engaged about 90 volunteers ranging from university students, business owners, and community members just simply looking to get involved. Over the past year, we've collected roughly 78 industrial grade trash bags, roughly equivolating to five seventy three cubic square feet of waste. And trust me on the math, I am confident in my grade school skills. And most of that trash is consisting of plastic bottles, straws, Styrofoam, a handful of vape pens, disposables.

And tomorrow, April 15 at 6PM marks our twelfth park cleanup and one year since we initially adopted Dottrich Park. We invite members of the community to join us as we celebrate this milestone, and also encourage other individuals and civic organizations to consider adopting a park through the city's adopt a park program. According to the website, about 33 out of 132 parks have been adopted. And again, picking up trash once a month for an hour and a half may not sound like the most fun thing, but surprisingly, up trash and witnessing the beauty of that park is the few enjoyable things that have come about despite turbulent times. Thank you again. I invite everyone here to attend our pot cleanup tomorrow, and I look forward to it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Wong. Suzy Saldanha.

I'm Susiluna Saldana, as you well know, and I'm here today to bring up some concerns that I have and they are involving Rejew and the Island Hotel Marriott and David Agiev and the connection with the residential in hotel. On August 27, the city of Corpus Christi entered into a business agreement with Padre Island North LLC on Borreju for the development of a dual brand island hotel Marriott and a conference center. The agreement clearly state that the company would invest an estimated $34,000,000 into construction projects including 200 hotel rooms and a conference center during the space. Based on that representation, the developers received an approval of $2,000,000 incentive. Heard 2,000,000 before have you?

However, just one month later on 09/24/2025, a commercial building permit tied to the same project listed a total of construction for only $10,300,000. That is a discrepancy of nearly $34,000,000. So the question is simple which number is the truth? Because the permits appear significantly under valuing the reduction fees of the city permits. Money that's paid to the city.

Is the real cost 10,300,000.0 or 35,000,000? Which one is it? Because either way it looks like there's a possibility of something that is fraught. And I hear rumors said that, oh, the staff agrees that then we we can't talk about this. It'll open a Pandora's box. Okay? Everybody does this. I'll tell you what I told my kids in school. Everybody may do it, but if you got caught, you're the one that got caught. And there's documentation in what I have provided to you.

Strong documentation that shows what it is. And you cannot have preferential treatment for anyone. Hey, I agree with congressman councilman Hernandez. I agree with him that there should be no preferential treatments. So you need to investigate these things. You cannot let it go that, oh, everybody does it. That's a third of the money and permits that is not being paid to the city. And they'll tell you, oh, but we have receipts. No they don't, or they would have been on your website. They would have been in public information that I received.

So you obviously don't have them. Is somebody countering them up? Is there a deal going on behind closed doors? Oh my god. Is it possible that we have people doing things like that in Corpus Christi? I want every one of you that came out and demanded answers from the Homewood Suites to demand answers on this hotel. It is appropriate that you do so. Thank you.

Thank you Miss Saldanha. Jared Suarez.

Jared Suarez, District district chair. The city is in severely compromised position over basic human necessity, water. We are mission status critical. This alone ought to be the singular utmost importance of reasons to impeach the mayor. The responsibility lies with the mayor.

The mayor and the council's implied consent of approval from the city's manager's actions have resulted in epic failure. As a result, the community now faces the consequences of the leadership from the mayor and that has not prioritized the needs of its citizens, but that of her own. Of course, allegedly, that is. Is the agenda to impeach the mayor a political power move? Maybe.

Maybe not. What I do know is those running for city council somehow all seem to be tied to the mayor. If she stays in if she stays in and her pawns elected, they will obey her every demand, refineries first, and then possibly consider the residents, again, allegedly. Also, the city is roughly $1,900,000,000 in debt, yet we are paying the city manager more than what the president makes. Why?

We, the people, should vote on the salary and that of the council and mayor. No more self pay raises. My opinion, he should be paid minimum wage for his performance. I am not against desal plants. I'm against the experimental desal plant being in a closed bay and not even a plan to make profit from the salt that would be extracted. Dumping the salt back into the water will kill our wildlife ecosystem that will stop the revenue we get from the fishing industry. The salt dumped back into the water, it'll eventually overload the diesel plant. The salt content of the water will become higher as the years go by. The salt will be too much for the filters. How much would that cost us to fix when that breaks down?

Sources say that the mayor already presold all the water that will come from the diesel plant to refineries, again, allegedly. Yet our tax money will foot the bill for the desal plant to be built, which in turn raises our water bill. The refinery should pay for the desal completely since they will only benefit from it. Aristotle in his book of ethics says that to be a politician is of the greatest good a citizen can do because a politician self sacrifices for the city they serve. How extremely far we have gone from self sacrifice for the greater good to now, how can I best serve myself and get the best kickbacks?

Our judgment before God sees all our intentions of what we do in secret. We cannot hide from nor escape God's perfect justice and punishment. Do what is right even at the sake of your reputation, even if you can't afford any more Gucci bags in the near future. Thank you.

Doctor Rick Barrera.

Good afternoon, everybody. My name is doctor Rick Barrera from District 5. I gratefully serve as the pastor and a proud commissioner and vice chairman of the Ethics Commission. A few weeks ago, councilman Scott had asked for clarification on the procedures when a complaint is presented to the ethics commission, and he was told that they were all distributed through the city attorney's office and then forwarded to the ethics commissioners, and that's not entirely accurate. Two years ago in March 2024, a member of this council was brought before the ethics commission following a complaint concerning from a concerned citizen alleging a violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act, involving interactions with the council members and some court officials.

That council member was ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing. However, shortly after that meeting, that hearing, a revision to the code of ordinances, was presented to and ultimately approved by this council. That revision capped legal expenses and allowed city officials to retain their own legal counsel, and there's no significant concern over that. The concern arises with the provision directing the city attorney's the city attorney's office to review all complaints and determine unilaterally whether or not they're forwarded to the ethics commission. Not not the city attorney's fault.

Miles and his staff do a fantastic job for the city. That change, however, is contrary to the very reason why the ethics commission even exists. Since that change was made please hear me. Since that change was made, not a single complaint has made it to the ethics commission in over a year and a half. All of them have been dismissed by the city attorney's office.

The ethics commission exists to get to give citizens a voice to ensure transparency and and accountability to in public service. The commission guards against conflicts of interest and clarifies what's permissible and investigates complaints fairly and makes recommendations to this council. But most importantly, it preserves public trust. Even when a city official acts appropriately, appearances matter. When a city employee determines whether or not another city employee is in violation, that's that's hard to take.

It it can be it can be something that doesn't look right. Not because the city attorney won't be fair or has an agenda, but simply because they're a city employee. They may have professional or personal relationships with individuals who could be the subject to complaints. Early last year, the commissioners voted unanimously to recommend restoring the original language to the code of code of ordinances, allowing all complaints to be reviewed by the commissioners that you folks appointed. That recommendation still hasn't made it to you folks over a year later.

And now the word on the street is you guys have been pretty busy here in the council chambers. I don't know something about water or something like I don't know, I don't know anything about that, but what I do know is that it's time. It's past time, guys, for you guys to review that recommendation that the ethics commission gave you. The commission believes restoring the original language of that, section would strengthen transparency.

Thank you, doctor Bonita.

Yeah.

Dearhart Jackson? Yes.

Councilwoman. Thank you. Peter, can we review that recommendation from that committee, please?

We can. Yes, Thank you.

Hello, Corpus Christi. Yesterday, I was at your school board. They passed a new Texas senate bill 13, went into effect at the beginning of this school year. All school boards in Texas have to have a library review committee for books added to or removed from the school library. I have been taking autographed copies of doctor Judy Wood's book, where did the towers go? She took the National Institute of Science and Technology to court in New York's Southern District along with several military contractors, and none of you know her name. It's not mentioned on the news. It is hidden under the table. The fact is no plane hit the World Trade Center. It is in your face obvious.

You look at page two here after her quote, it shows an f four phantom jet. That's Newton's third law, instant and opposite reaction. The instant that nose touches, the explosion begins. All debris field forms externally to the collision. You watch it on nine one one, and the building flies right through it. The plane doesn't even wrinkle. It goes right on by, not a single piece of dust as it enters and goes completely into the building. Finally, a fireball after it reaches reaches the center. Another one is the free fall. You look at page three, the time it would take in free fall for a vacuum compared to the collapse of the tower times and so forth.

Mister Jackson

I'm bonds.

I'm sorry to interrupt you, but it must be city related.

You're I can't understand you. I'm hard of hearing. May I please finish my three minutes?

Your your it must your comment must be city related. So It

is Texas senate bill 13, and the school board must review this book. I'm putting it in your face. You are a gullible fool if you think an airplane knocked down the World Trade Center Building. Doctor Judy Wood goes 500 pages of publicized information that is beyond doubt, and it is in your school board and will be. All Texas school boards need to review this. Thank you very much.

Thank you, mister Jackson. Rachel Caballero.

City secretary I need a a clarification because my agenda item is later, so I need to know what to speak on my public comment now. Will I be given the opportunity to speak on my petition later in the meeting if I speak about it now? Or should I speak about something else?

Well, you have a choice to speak now on the item or when the item comes up, when it's being considered.

David I mean, Rachel Caballero, district one. It's comical that we're getting attorneys to fight for our constitutional rights, and here I'm fighting for my constitutional right to speak on the things that I need to speak on. I'm gonna speak about the Inner Harbor experimental Inner Harbor desalination plant. I think the joke of an emergency meeting last Friday was proof that things are not moving forward. The meeting was unnecessary and that we are pushing a horrible, horrible project.

This community and this city manager and others are wanting to put this all of the rate payers to pay to have quadruple water rates for approving an experimental Inner Harbor desalination plant. We're already in debt $3,000,000,000. 3,000,000,000. And there's no water to show for it. 60,000,000, one of our lovely, thank goodness, last term council members said that, yeah, they have squandered about 50,000,000 of that money.

It's been squandered because there's nothing to show for it. Corruption comes at a really, really, really expensive price for our community members. Chris Sick did a story on April 3 and showed how we as a community are conserving. We have dropped in usage from February to March from 395 MGD to $2.03 61 MGD. So when we conserve water, where is the water that we're conserving going?

Oh, large volume water users, their usage was eight seventy one and it is increased to 900 MGD. So we're saving water, and industry is taking it because we don't have an administration or we haven't had in the last ten years, twenty years, low elected public officials that represent the community. The scales are upside down. It is time that we get public servants who serve this community and do not serve themselves, do not serve their industry partners, do not serve their contribute contribute contributors from their campaigns. We cannot continue to bear the weight of what industry is taking.

We've been a good partner to them. You can drive up I 37 Corridor and see how good of a partner we've been to industry. You can go up Joe Fulton Corridor and see how good of a partner we've been to industry. But you can't look at your property tax bill and see that. You can't drive our streets and see that. Start representing people. It's time.

Robin Sanders.

Madam mayor, city council, and all, we've reached a point where you just have to have a reality check. If this were a marriage, it would be dissolved for irreconcilable differences. If this was a jury, it would be disbanded because it is a hung jury. Individually, you're all just great people. As a team, you are dysfunctional, not your fault, and it's not the fault of the mayor of this city.

It's our fault. We voted you into office. We can take you out of office. There's only one solution, and that solution was given by governor Abbott when he said that he can come down here and take over this project. He's going to have to do it because you're small town thinking people.

You can't do it. Been after the mayor, you don't have to you don't have to put up with this. You are the one that can contact governor Abbott and say, please come and take this burden. I, as a citizen, a lone voice in the wilderness, am going to do the same. I'll people to follow me.

The city can't go any further. Right now, there are 120 tankers on the way to the Gulf Of America. Venezuela is sending oil. Do y'all think that president Trump came down here just to make your acquaintance? No.

Corpus Christi is becoming a major industrial hub, and there's nothing that the hotel industry, the hospitality, tourism can do about it. This is economic Stop it. You're not going to stop progress. You can't be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral. You cannot confuse education with wisdom.

And the puppet master that is the hospitality industry, throwing money around because they wanna beat tourism. They're nothing. We're talking about billions and billions. Right now, a major data center, AI, is sending out a survey for jobs that pay a $120,000 a year. Thank you all. Madam Mayor, I'll be in touch with you again, and I'm gonna go talk to the governor's office.

Thank you, miss Sanders. Joseph Gore.

Thank you, mayor, city council, city staff. Very good to be here. Thank you for having me. Joe Gore, District 5. Corpus Christi needs water, not witch hunts.

A chronica independent poll showed that 64% of Corpus Christi residents wanted the city to move forward with an Inner Harbor seed desal plant, but six votes on the council killed the Kiwit contract at taxpayer expense. This is not representing your constituents. This is called activism. Water has always been a serious issue here in Corpus Christi, and this decision was mulled over by hundreds, if not thousands of experts, city council persons, citizens in studies already. For twenty years plus, several successive councils have moved this desal plant closer to completion.

All this council had to do was take the ball and fall over the goal line. That's it. Simple. No problem. But they didn't. Now some of the council is wanting to impeach the mayor to just just distract from this mistake that they made. I bring this up because it appears that some of these councils are not only experts on water, but also experts on investigations as well. It seems that even after a thorough CCPD investigation and another one paid for, what, $50? You're still not happy. You didn't get the results that you wanted.

Well, I'm not happy. I'm a taxpayer. I don't like wasting money, and we're wasting a whole lot of money. If I would I would believe that the person of integrity would when they didn't get the results that they wanted, they would offer to pay for that investigation themselves. You know, if if witch hunts is what they what we want, maybe we ought to investigate everybody's donor roles and see maybe what's making what's motivating everybody's actions here.

Anyone can see that this is all just a classic act of projection. You know? You know, accusing others just to cover cover for yourself and your own actions. It's not the mayor's ethics that need investigation. It's the it's the people that are making the accusations and and accusing and and stirring the pot and making dirty in the waters is who really need to be looked at.

I support the mayor in her defense of herself and these baseless accusations and very much appreciate that she's fighting for what is right for her and this city. And also to the council members who stood on the right side of the issue of the water and have not been swayed by the intimidation and bullying tactics of these activists. Hopefully, the voters will remove these radicals and elect more adults to serve along your side in the next election. Time will tell you, but we'll see. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, mister Gore.

Statement of fact.

Statement of fact. Yes. Go ahead. Councilman Moore.

Yeah. I just wanted to present a statement of fact there. As far as the council goes in desalination and the and the vote to terminate Kewitt, we saved the taxpayers about $350,000,000 when we did that. We didn't kill. I didn't vote. I've never voted once to stop desal. But what I did do was take a look at their price tag, which they couldn't substantiate and save this community $350,000,000. If that's not something, then I don't know what is. Thank you.

Grace Canales.

Hello. I'm Grace Canales, and I live in District 4. As a lifelong resident of Corpus Christi and a student, I am not just frustrated, I am alarmed by how long this water crisis has been allowed to escalate. Right now, our reservoirs are sitting at roughly 14% capacity overall, with Lake Corpus Christi around 8.5 and Choke Canyon near 7%. If you don't see that as a warning as a warning sign, then the residents of Corpus Christi are screwed.

Our water supply constitutes for seven counties and over 500,000 residents. Industry accounts for a significant portion of, of the city's water use, often estimated at over half of the total supply. Yet despite that, the burden of conservation continues to fall heavily on residents, while long term solutions remain unclear or delayed. This is not a new issue. For decades, we have known our water supply was vulnerable. So the question is no longer what is the plan? It is why were stronger actions not taken sooner? Great idea for desalination plant, but dumping that sludge right back into the bay. Yeah. No.

Y'all are ready for real solutions, but don't want to invest. People are already leaving the city because they are losing confidence in its future. That's sad. What concrete actions are being taken right now to reduce industrial strain on our water supply? What measurable steps are being implemented to secure a a sustainable source of water for residents? Why does it feel like we are still reacting to this crisis instead of having prevented it? Water is not optional. It is basic necessity, and right now, it does not feel like it has been treated with the urgency it deserves. We do not need more reassurance. We need accountability, immediate action, and a clear timeline. What are you doing today to ensure that Corpus Christi has water tomorrow? Thank you.

Thank you, miss Canales. Jody Fetler?

Meeting Jody Fettler, Corpus Christi Police Officers Association District one. I'm here today to express the POA support for our mayor. Public safety is one of the most fundamental responsibilities of any city government. Mayor Paulette Guajardo has been a champion for public safety since she was elected in 2016. And as a proponent for public safety, mayor Guajardo, excuse me, has been committed to two things, protecting the citizens of Corpus Christi and making the city safer and protecting the officers of the police department.

We would be remiss if we did not take a moment to recognize the near decade of steadfast support given by this mayor and council to improve public safety throughout our great city. These efforts include adding additional staff, new facilities, updated equipment, advanced training, and continued public support. There is little doubt these efforts have added up to the safety of this community. Equally important is the investment in officers. Funding for 506 officers demonstrates a serious commitment to maintaining a strong and effective police force.

It's not just about numbers. It's about making sure our departments are properly staffed so officers can do their job safely and effectively, and so our community receives the level of service it deserves. We respectfully urge all city members correction. We respectfully reserve urge all members of city council to conduct themselves in a manner that ensures that all actions taken are guided by established laws, proper protocols, and a commitment to fairness above all else. In the world we live in, unfortunately, versions of events and or opinions of events are many times dictated by social media, emotions, and misinformation, and not by facts that dictate the truths of this case.

Thank you.

Thank you, mister Vedler. Ron Graben.

Ron Graben district one. I say meant to what was just said. Austin, there's no go zones for the police department. I have a friend that works up there. And so I'm a mess with you a little bit and say I don't wanna be like Austin.

And I know what you were saying, but that's why I live in Corpus because I don't wanna live in Austin. But I wanna thank the city manager who has been called a lot of different names for an incredible job on North Beach. If you go down there, you'll see something that is happening that hasn't happened in decades on North Beach. And I thank our council, just one representative, for your work over there. I know you're not running again, and that's sad to me, but I understand.

And, mayor Guardo, we rode around. I gave you seven things to do. We got three six of them done, and the seventh one was really a wish list. So thank you for for what you've, been able to accomplish. The the far field study isn't gonna really settle anything.

Either you're for it or you're not. It's just not the point of contention that you're gonna be able to argue about. Al Gore predicted twenty years ago certain things. He still says he's right twenty years later. So, you know, you need to look at that and say, what are we doing? Environmentalist I'm an environmentalist. You know, our family has a owns a a forest in New Zealand. And we take those trees and we harvest them, and we bring them all the way over here. And you know what we make out of them? Toilet paper, which everybody, I assume, uses.

And I haven't heard anybody address the issue of the economics of the environment impact of making that tree into a toilet paper roll in your bathroom. So if you don't have toilet paper, hopefully, you have a bidet, but now you're taking water away from the industry. If you don't have a bidet, I don't wanna shake hands with you. All due respect. I've been to India before.

So I'm just trying to point out to you that there are certain things that are highlighted as environmental, and it's like a smorgasbord environmentalist. We have to survive in this world or else we can go back to living in caves and cooking over wood. I got off the plane in New Delhi, India, and I said, Jay Raj, what's going on here? I can't hardly breathe. He said, well, that's all the poor people. They cook with using cow dung patties. They put straw in there, and they then they cook it. So I wish I could get to the mayor, but I'm sorry.

Thank you, mister Craven. Christian Resendez.

Hello. Hello. Good afternoon. Hope you all have been having a pretty good day so far. Gil, Eric, good to see you guys again. My name is Christian, affiliate and member of CDF, Citizens Defending Freedom. I did have some stuff to say, but I just wanna still go off of some encouragement that I saw this morning. I am a Christian, and we I live in this beautiful city, Corpus Christi in Texas. And what does Corpus Christi mean? You know, in Latin, I'm sure a lot of people know it means body of Christ. Correct?

So

a lot of us

Corpus Christians hold that dear. And because we stand on truth, we stand on morals, leadership, respect, compassion, and of course, yes, love. And so the encouragement I wanna share today with you guys is this. We've all done things that weigh us down and make us wonder why do I seem to do what I know is wrong. In scripture, sin is described as actions that miss the target that God's asked us to aim for, living a life centered around loving God and others.

While there are universal actions and dishonor God, small acts of disobedience also pull us away from him. The apostle James wrote that it is sin to know what the right thing to do is and then to not do it. James four seventeen. In other words, if you know what God is asking you to do, yet you still decide to disobey him, then you are undermining God's authority in your life. Sin entices us because it is self gratifying, but it results in eternal separation from God and others.

That's just some good encouragement I wanna share with you, ladies and gentlemen. You're still doing a great job. I am an athlete and a coach here in this community. Working as a team is very important, and I hope that you all continue to work as a team together, and you listen to us community. And I know there's a lot of enticement, negative, but I hope y'all guys can make the right choices and the right decisions for this community. There's a lot of wasted projects that have happened in the past. I mean, I know a lot of some of y'all were behind it. If not, the the outlets slidered on. A lot of businesses that continue to go bankrupt and leave here. Corpus is a beautiful beautiful city.

I'm electrician. I work for American Electrical Power Company, and I've traveled around Texas. And everybody loves Corpus Christi. I love Corpus Christi, and we need to continue to make this company I mean, this community grow and flourish. I mean, it's I see it all the time. Austin, San Antonio, Dallas. I used to live in Fort Worth area. Houston is all flourishing and booming. I mean, they have high rises going up like crazy. And why is that not happening here? It needs to happen here because this is an amazing beautiful city, guys. Thank you, guys.

Thank you, mister Resendez. Samuel Andre Fryer.

Salmeandre Friar district four. I'm thinking about a movie quote, and it says, this town needs an enema. Now before I'm misunderstood, I'm not talking about necessarily removal of the mayor or anyone else per se, but I am talking about a process that needs to take place. In Proverbs the sixth chapter, it says, a scoundrel, a wicked man is one who goes around with a perverse mouth, winking his eyes, shuffling his feet, pointing his fingers, who continually plots evil with deceit in his heart, stirring up strife. Therefore, his disaster will be sudden.

In an instant, he will be broken with no remedy. Six things Adonai hates. Yes. Seven are an abomination to him. Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that plots wicked schemes, feet that run to evil, a false witness whose spouse lies, and one who stirs up strife among a brother.

You know, it's interesting because we're sitting here, I know in May 17, they're talking about a national time of prayer. And if we really think about that, a lot of times, the second chronicles seven fourteen when it says, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, if they will seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven, forgive their sins, and heal their land. The problem is most people overlook the fact that it's really referring also to if the lord allows the heavens to be like iron and there's no rain on the land. Are we not in a drought? Is it not time for certain things to take place?

We hear inter interesting things, for example, efforts to obstruct what? My pet project, the inner harbor desal, when it comes to individuals who are just standing in their ground feeling doing the the right things that they feel is the right thing to do? Well, guess what? What do you think God could prepare us more about? Does he care about disrupting or obstructing the progress of a pet job or something, or does he care about obstructing justice?

I think he cares more about obstructing justice. Now let's think about a few things. I know that the count, the code of of ordinance article two eleven talks about different things. Oftentimes you hear, oh, we're obstructing we're o oh oh, look overlooking the democracy. Well, first of all, if I'm not mistaken, we're in a constitutional republic, not a democracy. So why do we use those kind of words? We're not a democracy, a constitutional republic. And guess what that means? We the people are the government. That means we have a responsibility.

Just because someone's elected, it doesn't absolve them from any criminal actions from above the law. It doesn't elevate them above scrutiny, and it doesn't elevate them above accountability. We need to hold everyone accountable and owe what owe what tangled wealth we weave when we first seek to deceive.

Thank you. Julian Hernandez.

Good afternoon. I was actually on the phone last council meeting at the end. Almost waited two hours and y'all couldn't hear me. I didn't know if I could have any of that time back. I just thought I'd ask.

But there was a lot of things I wanted to say that I'll probably say today in reference to that day. Julian Hernandez, District 3. First off, condolences to the family, mister Cantu. From from my family, and I I found a lot of stuff that my uncle anyways, condolences to the family. And, also, to that day that I wanted to speak, there was a the first lady that came out here, think I she was crony to somebody, but she pointed out missus Campos and missus Paxton.

And I was so angry at that because she was complaining about a person that came in here and pointed out some other ladies. But yet she came into the same exact thing, and nobody said anything to her. K? But just wanted to address those two things from last time. Two minutes.

Okay. My deal is on ethics and the law. I used to do transmission utilities. And just to set the scene, we're in South Dakota, farmer parcel right of way easement. And the corner of the easement was a wetland area.

And for those that aren't familiar with that, can't just you can't just put dirt in it. We drilled a hole about 15 feet in diameter, about 60 feet down, so we had a lot of spoils left. And I knew that I could push that dirt into that hole. But the farmer I could give that dirt to the farmer and he could push it in. If I did it, it was against the law. Right? I could be fine. The company that I work for can be fine. But if he did it, it's his dirt. Okay?

It's the same exact thing. It would cost me money to fill a dump truck and remove all those spoils from that job site. Or I could leave it for him to do. It wouldn't cost me anything. He could fill up that that that little watering hole that I'm not allowed to do.

And I say this because it was against the law for me to do it. But ethically, it was right for me to take the spoils, pay for it, and remove it from that location. Some of these things that that that I started following when I started coming to the council meetings, yeah there's a lot of stuff saying that it wasn't against the law that some of the things that happened here, but ethically the fine line that that was crossed that I could have easily crossed that day. And those things beat action. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Hernandez. Adam Rios. Adam Rios. Kathy Fulton. Kathy Fulton. Selena Guerra.

My name's Selena. I'm District 2. When a system becomes flawed, when it lacks integrity and drifts into unethical behaviors, it no longer serves the people it was designed to protect. In my work, I've built a model centered on advocacy, ownership, and removing unnecessary barriers, along with a critical soft skill called listening. Not listening to respond, but listening to understand.

Because when we listen only to reply, we are not truly listening at all. What I have consistently observed, not just in this issue, but across many, is a pattern of division, manipulation, and harsh responses. When individuals question decisions or offer diff differing perspectives, this is deeply concerning. Leadership, especially elected leadership, carries a responsibility to remain steady and principled. Personal emotions should never dictate decisions or responses.

When accusations arise, the response should not be defensiveness or retaliation, but transparency and accountability. If actions are just, they can withstand scrutiny. Everyone deserves to be heard, including the mayor. Avoiding dialogue of silencing concerns does not resolve issues, it deepens them. When we silence, we veer on the side of socialism.

Justice should never be something we evade, it should be something we pursue. And according to our city charter, we have that right. Retaliation is not a sign of strength, it is often a sign of resistance to change. True leadership seeks truth even when it's uncomfortable. It invites accountability rather than punishing those who raise concerns.

When over 2,200 people, and today, 2,355 to be exact, people recognize that a system may be flawed, that is not something to dismiss. It is something to examine closely. It becomes a responsibility to advocate, take ownership, and acknowledge the reality of the situation. At the end of the day, leadership exists to serve the people. We, the people, not the other way around.

If a system protects injustice instead of addressing it, then that system itself must be questioned. That should never be a political thing, but it's about doing the right thing. As it is as it is written in Proverbs thirty one eight says, speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly, and that's what the people in this courtroom have done every week. I watch it live almost every single week. Thank you.

Thank you, miss Guerra. Jasmine Evans?

Hi. I'm Jasmine Evans, District five. What's being passed out right now is just an invitation to our park cleanup that we're doing tomorrow. It is one year of Texas Rising adopting Dodgeridge Park. I always come out to these council meetings wanting to stay up to date with city issues that are going on, making sure that we are opposing desalination here in our bay.

But also, I just really wanted to shout out the Adopt A Park program. I really loved hearing about it last year. There was one gentleman from, I think, a skate organization who had brought it up, and I thought it was a very lovely program. And I really wanted to make sure that more organizations, more people know that they can adopt a park. And I'd love to see our council as there.

Definitely, especially with it getting closer to, I don't know, campaign season or something. I know there'll be a lot of promises about how y'all serve our community, but we would actually love to see y'all out there serving our community and making sure that Corpus Christi is a beautiful, lovely community. And really making sure that, you know, we are actually taking care of the body of Christ and making sure that it is clean and it is beautiful. And so, that was just what I wanted to share out here today. The QR code is to sign up. If you all would like to scan it right now with your phones, you absolutely can. But we would love to see you there tomorrow.

Thank you, miss Evans. Elida Castillo? Eli De Castillo? Michael Savag?

Good afternoon. My name is Michael Savod. I'm a recent legal immigrant crossing the border from California to Texas. I left California a few years ago, three or four years ago, because of what I considered the despicable political environment that I was living under. I moved to Dallas.

I thought that would be a much better situation. But when I got there, I realized there was a city council that must have had a very strong California influence. This influence, I think, is under the misnomer of political correctness. In fact, they started to do things that reminded me way too much of why I left California. In fact, they took the governor I'm assuming the mayor, Eric Johnson, and he actually left the Democrat party and became a Republican because of the way the city council was acting.

Last summer, I decided, okay, enough of Dallas. I'm gonna move to Corpus Christi. I had been here a long time ago as a young Navy officer at the Naval Air Station before I went to Vietnam. And I said, there's there's a place. It's on the ocean.

I miss that part of California. And I came here last year, and one of the first events we attended, my fiance and I, was the was the Corpus Christi Jazz Festival. We were sitting at a table by ourselves, and we watched this lady walk around talking to all the people who were there, think I'm thinking she must be a representative of the jazz festival. Well, she came over to our table, sat and introduced herself as Paulette, strictly Paulette, no sign of a mayor, and we said we just moved here and we were interested. She sat down with us and went on and told us how much she loved Corpus Christi, how beautiful the city was.

And then by coincidence, she says, by the way, I'm the mayor. That kinda took me back and I said, You're doing one heck of a job. And since then, she has helped me find places to go and make what I think Corpus Christi my final resting place. I hope that doesn't sound too bad. But I wanna stay here.

I want to see Corpus Christi continue to grow. I think it's a great place. I don't think we need to change a system that is working. So I read about this. 50,000 almost 50,000 votes for a mayor candidate, not because of promises she made, but because she had been an elected official doing that job for already two terms.

This wasn't campaign promises. People liked what she had done. In a campaign filled with six or seven candidates, she almost got 50% of the vote and wouldn't have needed a runoff like many of you have. Don't let that take place. City Council don't California Kate Corpus Christi. You.

Thank you Mr. Savod. Robin Cox.

Hello. I'm Robin Cox, District 3. And the first thing I'm gonna read to y'all is the definition of decorum. Decorum refers to proper, polite, socially acceptable behavior, emphasizing on dignity and good taste in conduct. We all hear the word decorum constantly here. And today, with the cameras rolling, decorum seems to be right on spot. So everybody asks how I can get along. I'm a I it's no no secret that I'm a staunch Republican. How am I friends with many, many Democrats, even socialists? I'll tell you how.

I show them respect, and they show me respect right back. And we found out we have more in common than we have differences, But I would never insult them, and this council has done some things that I can't believe, and I'm not saying who's responsible. I would never stoop to the level of hiring someone to do reels and insult other council members and be bullied, even it's gone to the point of bullying people that come up to speak. Now, I know about 20 people who wanted to speak today. They called me, but they're afraid.

I say this every time. They're afraid of their businesses, code enforcement coming after them, restaurants. You should not use your power like this. Don't know who's doing it because we can't say names, but you should never use your power to bully people. Another thing I wanna say, nobody pays me. I've never taken a dime from any one of y'all. I don't have a nonprofit I can ask y'all to give to me. I do this simply because I care about this community. Another reason many people haven't come out today, they're middle class people, they can't take off work. I'm lucky that I work for myself and I'm able.

Many people have given place things they've quoted today. I'm not gonna quote the chronica because, gosh, I might as well quote Tiger Beat or the Enquirer. I mean, that's just not gonna be a social, a person to quote. And when we talk about decorum, I don't think I've ever called anyone disgusting here, but yet I've been called disgusting. Wear it as a badge of honor.

So you come up here and you give people time that talk about things you like and smile. I would like for each of you that didn't weren't part of that horrible video to at least admit it, and then we can get down to the bottom of who's doing that because it's terrible. And I know Buck Days is coming up, many of you are excited about riding on a float. And the words of my dad when we used to ask to go, there's a reason those floats are all made of toilet paper, you know, it sits on top of them a lot. Just wanna let you know that.

And as far as being nice people, we had the police department come up and give their say who they thought the police is supposed to kind of stay out of things. This makes me a little afraid of when they take sides. And as far as quoting who's nice and a nice person, my dad met Sam G and Connie years ago, said he was one of the nicest guys he ever met. Ted Bundy was pretty nice too.

Thank you, miss Cox. Zachary Bornstein.

Councilman, my condolences on your loss. Zachary Bornstein, District 1. I have a video I wanna play from the emergency

No. No. No. How much staff time we have spent

from the special meeting workshop focused on the worst desal project ever considered, the Inner Harbor desal project. Play the video, please.

No. No. No. How much staff time we have spent in an entire year before five council members put in put a halt to the original desalination project, the Inner Harbor. Let's talk about that.

By rejecting the key win, and it was six council members, not five.

And then you can add the 50,000,000 that was also flushed down the toilet when that action took place. And that is factual. That is that is factual.

On your on page nine, he identifies that we're a 25 reduction. So even if we have spent 50,000,000, we save 336,000,000. So we we're we're in the black by 286,000,000 just by rejecting key with projects.

As a citizen and a taxpayer, this is not about abstract budgets. It's about our money, our homes, and our future. We're not only need, but demand reasonable and sensible spending. When you consider new project, you must look beyond the initial cost. We, the citizens, pay the long term operating expenses. We need to know how these decisions influence our utility bills, our taxes, and the services we rely on. Every decision made here directly affects us. We expect you to act in the best interest of every family, every business, and every person in this community. We are your rate payer, your taxpayer, and we hold you accountable. Clear thinking and disciplined planning lead to practical, substantial solutions.

This is what delivers better outcomes for us. Our goal is a city where the cost of living is stable and affordable. We expect choices that ensure our city's financial health translates directly into a better, more secure life for all of us. No excuses. Just deliver. Can I play the video one more time, please?

No. No. No. How much staff time we have spent in an entire year before five council members put in put a halt Mhmm. To the original desalination project, the Inner Harbor. Let's talk about that.

By rejecting the key win, and it was six council members, not five.

And then you can add the 50,000,000 that was also flushed down the toilet when that action took place. And that is factual. That is that is factual.

On your on page nine, he identifies that we're a 25% reduction. So even if we had spent 50,000,000, we saved 336,000,000. So, we're we're in the black by 286,000,000 just by rejecting key with projects. Thank you.

Oh, thank you. Melinda Delos Santos. Sure. And then we'll go. I see Kathy Fulton is here, so we'll call Kathy Fulton after that.

Good afternoon. Melinda Delos Santos, district two. I'm here to support the petition regarding the mayor. Our citizens have a right to truth and transparency. I mean, we just gotta look at the corruption that's, coming to light everywhere.

First off, I wanna say that the twenty twenty election was still stolen, and it's gonna come out. Second, Ken Paxson is reviewing all the property tax increases in Texas cities and stuff that have been unlawfully done, childcare fraud in Minnesota, California hospice fraud. So, yes, there's a level of mistrust that's going on, and I'm just gonna take it a step further. I sent a text to some of y'all that I had gone to recently gone to a a human trafficking course in Greenville, Texas. The information I received validated much of my research over the years.

It awakened me of the depth of corruption which nefarious activities occur at the global, federal, state, county, and city level. I was this very disheartened upon hearing of cases in which our government, police, sheriff's department, city councils, school boards, CPS, judicial system, and religious organizations failed in protecting one of the most vulnerable of our society, the children. So, yes. And I'm just gonna give you an example because people are saying, well, everything was investigated and stuff like that. Well, let me give you an example of a 12 year old daughter who was sold by her dad to a pimp.

The first client was a police chief police along with his investigators. And you know what she was told? She was told, you call the police, you will get us. Another client was a right hand aide to the governor of the state. So not so, yes, there is a big mistrust going on with people in power.

So all I'm asking for, I'm not saying that I'm not here to argue that there wasn't some type of investigations or stuff. I'm not saying some may argue that no legal conduct was found with the mayor from the investigations by our police or our legal representatives, but I can only laugh after the numerous cases I heard going to this course from people who go and save these kids, and these same entities, the police, the sheriffs, the the judges, they all failed these kids. So, yes, I I'm sorry. I do have a mistrust going on with people in power. So I'm not here to condemn you, mayor. All I'm asking for is some truth and transparency. Thank you.

Thank you, miss Del Santos. Kathy Fulton? And is Adam Brios here?

Hi. My name is Kathy Fulton. I'm from Port Aransas, Texas, but I was born and raised in Corpus Christi. Still stay involved, still have family here. I I I I've got a couple of things and I wanna say that I was trying to get here as quick as possible, but I was at the Nueces River Authority meeting, which was very quite interesting.

And on I'm still I really don't understand how this council how certain people on this council seem to think that they can remove the mayor based on I'm I'm still confused about the whole thing with five signatures. It really makes no sense. She was elected by the voters of Corpus Christi, like over 47,000 people voted for her. So how can y'all decide, well, we're just gonna take that right away from those voters? Doesn't matter if you're democrat or republican.

To be honest, I don't adhere to either party. What to me does matter is that this is a democracy. And you just don't wipe out those 47,000 people by saying, well, we're gonna do it our way. I just think that this is just a it's a it's it's a witch hunt for a reason I don't understand, and I think it's wrong. Very wrong.

Now I and I support the mayor. We've you know, I have my differences with all civic leaders on a regular basis. Just ask the mayor over on board Aransas. That comes up kinda regularly. But at least I can express that civic discord in an environment and then have discussions about it.

And we may not come to an agreement, and we may come to an agreement. And that's what needs to be happening here with this council. Y'all need to kinda, like, line up and get into a better agreement. By the way, one of the things going on at the Nueces River Authority meeting today is just that. That is something that needs to be the focus here because the Nueces River Authority has violated multiple open meetings act laws.

And this has only been I mean, they just did it again last week. Okay? And they're doing they're gonna be they're they've they've hired a quote outside firm, but they also did it again on that because they had already selected somebody but without having it done by the board. So to the meeting today was because they got caught. Okay?

And in the meeting last week, they got caught by me because they didn't do the posting proper. Back in February, they had a meeting without the required quorum, and they got caught by me yet again. And they had to hold another meeting. This is the group that y'all decided to go with for investing money for Harbor Island? They can't even do proper open meetings. So and that's not the only thing going on. There's gonna be more coming out, believe me, about the wrong things. Thank you.

Thank you, miss Fulton. Jason Hale.

Thank you, mayor. Good afternoon council members. Jason Hale, Corpus Christi. Okay. Today, I'm a little thrown off because there was some news about the modeling for the Inner Harbor. But, yeah, today my today my comment is about the Inner Harbor. It's coming up for a vote in two weeks. We're supposed to have preliminary modeling results available then. Apparently, that's getting pushed back thirty days. But today, I just wanted to raise some questions about that, because I was curious.

We were supposed to be voting on the project with the preliminary results, but what I was wondering is, do we have a vote and a meeting scheduled for when we get the final results? And the reason that's important is because, you know, we're doing this to make sure it's safe for the environment. We wanna know the ecological impacts, but we're not even gonna have that once the final results are available, because those are water quality results, and we have to translate water quality results into ecological impacts. So, you know, that's like a month, maybe longer, after we get those final results that were supposed to be in June, may now be July. So I wanted to raise that.

Also, since it is a contract, I wanted to ask if, basically, if the ecological impacts were determined to be severe and unavoidable, will the city be able to exit the contract without penalty? We need water, we need our water dollars to go to projects that are gonna happen, and so we wanna make sure that we're responsible with our great peer funds. So, I have a minute left. I just wanted to raise a statement of fact. At the workshop on Friday, I think city staff had mentioned that DO, dissolved oxygen modeling, was being done.

And I just wanted to clarify that as far as I'm aware, it's not being done. Although it would be great if we did get it done. The ecological experts have stated this. I know we were kinda late to that when it came to the statement of qualifications, request for qualifications, all that kind of stuff. But if y'all do move forward with the Inner Harbor, it would be great if you also chose to do dissolved oxygen modeling. And yeah, that's it. Thanks.

Thank you, mister Hale. Melody Cooper.

Melody Cooper, district five. Good afternoon. You may or may not remember that I sat where you are sitting for fourteen years between 1993 and 02/2009. During that time and since and since then, I have never seen a situation such as presents itself with the current council. I stand here in support of my mayor, Paulette Guajardo, has worked tireless for this tirelessly for Corpus Christi for the past ten years.

This removal action is unprecedented, and it is wrong. What do the citizens really think is going on here? Seeing the seeing social media talking to people, they think it's about water. They think she's being removed about the water issues. Why is that? Do somebody who want them to think that? I'm gonna say a five letter word that hopefully won't meet get me kicked out of the meeting because of decorum rules. Water, w a t e r. The water issue is what you should acting on and not this preposterous removal. I initially believe what you were doing is in part of a diversionary tactic to take the heat off of yourselves for voting against inner heart of her desalination.

Costing us a great opportunity and causing us to lose millions and millions of dollars that we have to repay. But perhaps this completely politically charged movement is even more sinister to remove the mayor and stop desalination altogether or to remove the mayor and accomplish some political agenda, some hidden agenda you may have. Do you really believe this is a point in time to attempt to make your personal agendas a priority over the best interest of our citizens? Is there a puppet master somewhere behind? I don't know.

It's a good question to ask. I was appalled after seeing the news, a report of last year week's water workshop in disbelief of several of who thought the meeting was a waste of time. Waste of time? Water is the most important issue facing us today. If you haven't noticed, our city is dying. Professionals are moving out. Houses, although taxes are raising, can't be sold. I have a business with seven employees and another home. I'm afraid. My employees are afraid.

Our citizens are afraid. The salination must be implemented and measures to stop to bridge the gap before it's operational secured now. But working on the solution through a workshop on water is a waste of time, really. But it is not a waste of time to try to remove a mayor when two investigations have found absolutely no wrongdoing on her part, and we have elections in five months. Those of you who support removal appear to intend to act as judge, jury, and executioner of our mayor.

Whether or not she is mayor again for another term should be up to the voters, not for those in support of the removal. Might those to support the removal and want to run, which several of you may be planning to do, be a conflict of interest, might that be the subject of a recall? Think about it. Thank you, council member Barrera, Mark Scott, for your support, and thank you, mayor.

Thank you, miss Cooper. Isabel Ariza. Isabel, not here. Gigi David.

Good afternoon. Ajit David District 2.

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 I've only spoken once. K. So we're gonna go and call the vote. Rebecca, take a roll call, please. We're we're calling vote.

Wait, please. We we still have questions here. That we don't hear things from them as well.

Vote on this and move forward. You guys put it on, we're voting.

Alright.

Rebecca, please take a roll call.

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. Hussleigh.

Okay. No problem. Roy?

No. Suckley?

Yes. Varera?

No.

Mayor Ojarzo? No. Okay. The item fails. Great.

Thank you. Sorry. I'm just tired of hearing all this fancy talk about desal and the process and this. It's simple. How much is the bill gonna go up? Because that's what the people of Corpus Christi care about. They don't care about, you know, the process of desalination or reverse osmosis and blah blah blah. No. Some people may. Most don't. My parents don't. They wanna know what is this gonna do. And by the way, desal is a long term plan. That is not a short term plan. We will have that plan in eight years. We will not have it in two or three or four or five. I'm gonna leave that alone. I don't wanna get into a

whole another discussion, but it

is let's let's make that clear.

Alright.

Let's We're not gonna get a desal plant in the next three years.

We'll call you a time out. We'll quit camp we'll campaigning, and let's just vote Excuse

me? 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 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.

The port doesn't need docks either. There are no shortage of docks by the way.

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.

No.

Just an alternative. I don't know how we can be more clear on that, mayor.

And that is why Corpus Christi doesn't have diesel today. Thank you.

Thank you. Statement of fact. I'd like to clarify something. What was left out of all of those cliffs, where had we done that, ladies and gentlemen, we would be giving our water authority away to the Port Of Corpus Christi. So billions of dollars of infrastructure that you have paid for over decades and those before us would be that would have been handed over to the port for them to control the regional water.

That's why I was against give port the green light to to handle our water. We're the water authority. None of that is said. But mister Rajeev, I appreciate your passion. No. No, sir. We're good. Thank you.

Thanks.

Alrighty. You have a statement of fact, ma'am?

Councilwoman. Statement of fact. I believe what we saw was the option to partner with another entity to provide regional water quickly. That was what was discussed. And I think regardless of the face of that partner, if we can all come together and find water, that's actually what we want. Yeah. Also, I don't think we're supposed to directly call out public commenters.

Yes. So, again, what's always left out as a statement of fact is that our water authority would have been given away to the port. We cannot heads all you want. I was there. So thank you. Christopher Olivarez. Christopher Olivarez. Okay. Now we'll move on, Rebecca, to Webex video.

Yes, ma'am. The first person is Sean Merritt.

Usually do. I do want to, clarify, before I get started that I'll be able to speak, later on on, item 21.

Are you speaking on it now? Or

No. I'm gonna speak on something else now if I'm allowed to speak on item 21 later.

That's fine. Yeah.

If you would if

you're gonna speak about that something else, go ahead.

Alright. Thank you. Sean Mett, District 5. I've been here two years, and there seems to be three sides to this discussion. There's industry, there's residents, there's environmental protection. The issue isn't choosing balance all three evenly? Today, we are running on single digit reservoir levels, limited groundwater that isn't fully online, and future supply that hasn't been built yet. Residents, about 14% of total use, have cut billions of gallons. They're monitored, restricted, enforced. Industry, the largest water user, roughly 60% of the system is industrial use.

Then the pressure isn't accidental. It's by design. And that's not shared responsibility. That's an imbalance. You don't tell a guy eating one bologna sandwich a day, he needs a diet, while the guy at the buffet twenty four seven keeps eating his fill.

And this isn't anti industry. It's about aligning cost with demand. If we build these out a traditional way, costs are gonna go up and get passed to the residents by about 9 to $11 per bill. If we build it smartly, capture brine instead of dumping it, we create revenue that helps stabilize rates and fund the city, and this is already being done. Elah Israel, salt recovery, Reyshal Kea, magnesium recovery, high sand plant, Dubai, large scale solar integrate integration in a similar industrial corridor to ours.

Salt sells anywhere from 50 to $230 per ton. Bromine is currently 2,800 per ton. Magnesium is trading roughly 11,000 to 20,000 per ton depending on market and grade, and this is a key input for fertilizers which ties directly to rising agricultural and food costs. By the way, those home tests that you all are doing, they're showing dissolved minerals. These sow will concentrate those same minerals in the brine stream.

At the Inner Harbor scale, that's roughly 30 to 40,000,000 gallons of brine discharged every single day, billions of gallons a year. And we know PFAS is present. It was identified in the Inner Harbor reports. Desal concentrates that into the brine stream. That's exactly why we shouldn't dump it.

Capture the brine, recover the minerals, and handle contaminants in a controlled process instead of dispersing them in a bay, which, by the way, jet diffusion and ship propellers, they're just gonna spread that around more. So the question isn't how to dispose of the brine and poison the bay. It's how to protect it while monetizing what you call waste. Because if we get this right, desal doesn't just produce water. It helps pay for itself, pays the city back, and supplies our good neighbors. That's how you will learn industry, residents, and environmental stewardship. Industry isn't the problem. Imbalance is. Revelation twenty two seventeen, whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. And I'll be back to talk later. Thank you very much.

Mister Merritt, I'm so sorry. I when I said that you could speak again, we don't do remote when the item comes up. So I'd like to offer you a minute to make your an extra minute to make your comment regarding item 21. My apologies.

I appreciate that, but just a minute is not gonna be enough, for what I've got to say. So I'll just try to condense it the best I can. What we've seen take place, in this council chamber, even today, we saw how rules in the chamber are not always applied consistently, and that matters because of the process of consistency or what how it's how you build public trust. So public comments operate under constitutional law as limited public forum, and access access to to speak speak should be structured consistently. Rules must be applied equally.

When enforcement appears to change based on the message, that standard is not met. Now there are a series of violations that are gonna be, discussed later on. I have about 18 listed here. According to the city charter, only four standards must be met, incompetence, misconduct, malfeasance, neglect of duty. So and, again, this is not a criminal proceeding.

I wanna stress that. This is clearly based on the city's charter and the ethic ethics violations defined therein. So we don't need a criminal proceeding. We don't need any of that other things. If you find any instance of those 18 violations where there was incompetence, misconduct, and feasting of the duty, there you go. Thank you very much for my time.

I appreciate it, sir. Next is Taylor Johnson.

Good afternoon, Taylor Johnson, district five. If you could please play the video that was provided.

Do you have any interest in Elevate QOF LLC? No, sir. You understand that's the company that owns the hotel that's being built downtown. Right? I learned that today. Okay. You know, you voted on it before. Right?

Yes, sir. Okay.

Yes. You voted on it and not knowing who they were?

I just had to be refreshed.

Did you just think of it as Devons and Phillips Project?

Well, I guess not necessarily, no.

Well, you know they own it, right? Yes, sir. Okay. And you knew that when you were voting for it, right?

Yes, sir.

Okay. And because both of them are also political donors of yours, right?

Oh, of course.

Yeah. They believe in good government.

Well, when it gives them 2,000,000 with a forged document. Right? I wouldn't $2,000,000 has been appropriated to a company that is owned by your political donors. Right?

Objection, form.

A Argument.

Yeah. An an incentive has been appropriated for an economic development project. Of which they're own 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? 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 any other questions?

That is all. Thank you.

Thank you. Next is Tracy. My apologies for mispronouncing your last name. Jenk.

Yes. Thank you. Tracy Jenk, district five, I'll ask the video submitted be played at this time.

Yeah. I know you've admitted it's your slide, and I know you've you're the one who created the slide. I have a very specific question for you. Did you drop that text box, the one that's shown right now, the larger one that obscures the release date and the release number, did you drop that text box there?

I already told you that I had done that, yes. That it was a there was a

And did you drop the second text box that's now highlighted that again obscures the release date? Again, it was a formatting issue This went an omission. This was somebody obscuring data on a federal slide. Right?

Yes. But

that I know. Different than an omission. Right?

Right.

Okay. That's what makes it criminal as opposed to an accident. Right? And I understand.

Oh, definitely. Right. It was altered. 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, 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 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.

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?

There was Okay. Right. Okay.

That's all. Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you. Justin O'Neil.

Video that I provided.

I'm sorry?

Justin O'Neill, district five, could you please pay the

Go ahead. 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 Guajardo 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 chaistised 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 in order to get things done by this council, and especially the people who I've named. So have a great day.

You too, Miss Saldana.

Thank you. That's all.

Thank you.

Next is Trevor

Hello. Can you hear me?

Yes. We can.

Trevor LeBlong, District 4. Oh, I couldn't make it today. My informanties get the best of me quite often. I've been watching as much as I can and trying to pay attention.

I

served with a squadron, b a w one fifteen on the USS Midway, home ported in Yakuska, Japan, which is our sister city, which everybody's always surprised when I point that out. I think there should be a lot of more coverage on that to bring international, borders together. But during that time, I served during operation earnest will when the USS Stark was fired upon. And in that time, the admiral gathered us in the folks hole and said, I'm gonna make a a huge demand of y'all. I want you to have an e two c Hawkeye on Station 247 until I say stop.

That was a huge undertaking because we only had four aircraft. So you have to cover the time to be in on station and back and having one there all the time. And in that time, our squadron won the AEW excellence award from the Navy back to back and the, Battle E and Safety Award. So I have seen good leadership in my life. And as a crew leader on the base, for a good long time, fifteen years or so, I saw a lot of good leadership out there.

I'm not seeing it in this case. Back in August, of 2025, August 21, actually, I had messaged my councilwoman, Kaelin. How you doing, Kaelin? Glad you're there. About, maybe a sample project at the airport to give the whole airport covered parking with solar panels and huge banks of dehumidifiers.

I haven't seen any kind of thinking outside the box like that or maybe, a huge campaign to get residents to get rain barrels. We need more thinking outside of the box like that. And I think trying to do that would help exercise the minds of the city council members who who might need it to help realize that the Inner Harbor is not a place for a desal project. I came, I think it was back in October and addressed the council in person because I was able to make it that day.

Thank you, sir. Your your time is up.

No way. That wasn't three minutes.

It was. Man.

Thank you. Next is Laura Madden.

Hello?

Yes, Ms. Madden.

Hello?

Can you hear us?

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Okay. Thank you for allowing me to take the opportunity to speak today. Lord Madden District District 1. So I keep hearing everybody talk about how many votes the mayor got, and I'm not sure where that comes into play because the mayor didn't take any votes away from any other council members. We all, as a community, voted for the mayor and then voted for our district representative.

So it really doesn't have any play in how many votes she got. I think that we need to stop chastising the, other council members for following city procedures. You know? Blame the citizen just you have to blame somebody that wanted to put a petition into, action. I don't know how much how we got to give so much power to the mayor that the mayor could have held this off for so long for so many months.

And then all of a sudden, we wanna, address it because months have gone by. And now it's like, everyone is against the citizen for actually bringing something to attention that needs to be noticed. We have a council member for each district, and each council member represents the ones in their district. And the mayor and, you know, in case everybody has forgotten what a mayor does, a mayor acts as the chief executive officer of a city or town responsible responsible for for overseeing daily operations, managing municipal departments like the police, fire, and public works, and implementing city laws. They work with the city council to set policies, budgets, and service the main public representatives.

But each district has a representative. You know, the mayor does not act as, you know, the one person that makes all the decisions, and everybody is upset at the council members and, you know, calling them three or five because they voted the way they should. They're not going against the mayor. They're just voting what the district wants. And, you know, using social media and the tea lady and the tea guy and the car salesperson to, conduct your, business is not right.

I don't see any other council members going to the Konica or the T Lane.

You very much,

miss Madden. Address.

Your time is up.

Okay. Thank you so much.

Thank you, ma'am. Micah Hunt Hertz, are you online? Okay. How about Alberto Sertuche?

Hello?

Yes. Mister Sertuche?

Give me just a second. Okay. I got a quick question before we start. The, I saw earlier that y'all gave a gentleman an extra minute because he was gonna he was on video call rather than in person to speak on the agenda item. Mhmm.

No. I did that because I when the gentleman asked me at the beginning of public comment whether he could speak twice, I I misspoke and told him that he could. So what we did what I did is offered him an extra minute. That way he could still make his comments since I since I misspoke and gave him the wrong information. So if you're just be you can address both topics now, sir, in the three minutes

if that's your if that's your goal.

But I'll still only be reduced to the three minutes. Correct?

Yes, sir. Well, that's the it's not a reduction. That's the time that that's Okay.

Alright. My name is Albert Santucci at district three. I'm a veteran owned business with Hard Lives Bait and Tackle on a YouTube channel called team Hard Life. I started paying attention to what's going on in politics and where the money is going and not going. I have seen pay raises for city officials while closing in or reducing public service areas while streets get neglected, city water problems on the rise, and city where the monies that are asked for for taxpayers or businesses that charge the public for entry, launder their proper, the American Bank Center being one, amongst dozens of other failed projects.

Also seen where they fear mongering over the selling of overselling water while not holding industries accountable for what they are using while taxing the taxpayers and making them pay for it all. Our property taxes grew over $20,000 in one year. How in the world does that happen? What is that supposed to be paid for? Thank god Paxton is looking into this for the state of Texas.

I kept up with the detailed information that is being given and made public. When the mayor ran for office and used the promises for those who voted for her, years later, we have seen where those promises turned into lies. We have seen where the mayor keeps saying all of the tests that have been done, another lie, being told to the public. The bar pill models haven't been done. The deal hasn't been done.

While she speaks down to those who don't support the experimental diesel plant because it truly is an economical and ecological disaster waiting to happen. Where is the transparency and accountability to what is being told to the public? Why is this city chartered? And this is why the city charter is important. Where there have been other proposed desalinization plants or sites with way better and easier ways to produce water to get rid of the brine into deeper water and more.

Don't release the sludge TCEQ to stop the permits where the pollution is gonna be released into the saltwater environments, killing our base estuaries and killing hundreds of local businesses. I was an abused child and seeing this firsthand and having seen where the mayor publicly attacked citizens when they addressed it, the attacks of abusive men against women within our city. And this is her her is this her way of saying she's defending abusive men, or are those who defend her also okay with abusive men? We see where there are so many questions not being answered also on the plant. How much will the city be held accountable if the experimental plant gets approved and then has to be stopped because of the pollution in the bays that's too extreme?

Who is who and how much is it gonna cost to clean our bays, the estuaries, and regol all the death created by the brine and sludge? What it's gonna cost to remove the hazardous materials, truckers, driver permits, and so forth for the new experimental desal plant? She demanded her questions to be answered. Why aren't you getting the questions that we're asking answered?

Thank you very much, sir. Alright. Mayor, that concludes the public comment period.

Thank you, Rebecca. We're gonna go to boards and committee appointments now.

Alright. The first board for your review is the airport board, which has four openings. Ricardo Talavera, Jeremy Taylor, and Mark Almaguer are seeking reappointment.

I move to reappoint. Second.

We have a motion and a second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say no. The motion carries.

Okay. And then that would leave you with one position to fill.

Okay. We'll open

Oh, I'm so one moment, mayor. Can gentlemen, can you show the on the screen, our control room, the our voting template, please? Thank you very much. Alright. Okay. So to start nominations, mayor.

Thank

you. We're opening nominations. And this is for one vacancy. Correct?

Yes, ma'am. Mhmm.

So Jeremy Taylor?

Yes.

Did. We'll

nominate Michael

Sanders. Michael Sanders. Anyone else? Alex Garcia. Is there anyone else? In closing nominations, and we are again trying to fill one vacancy.

Yes, ma'am.

I'll start with Councilman Vaughn.

Sanders.

Sanders.

Garcia.

Garcia?

Sanders.

Sanders.

Garcia.

Okay. Mr. Sanders is appointed. Okay. Next is the Board of Adjustment, which has seven vacancies.

And are categorized as follows, five regular members and two alternate members. Staff recommends postponing the filling of one alternate position to allow for further recruitment. And please note that the board typically requests the appointment of an alternate member to an open regular member position and the appointment of a new individual to fill the alternate position. Board members Croson, Manzaneres, Lopez, Rios, San Miguel, and Potter are seeking reappointment in their attendant. Okay.

And we have a motion and a second to reappoint. All in favor say aye.