City Council - Regular Meeting

Just kind of interesting facts, you know, you know, people hear it, but they're really not sure how it's going to impact them. So I guess in closing, would you say if somebody is interested and wants to learn more about climate, climate data and weather with regards to the National Weather Service?

Our invitation will be given by Reverend Dr. Chip Blackshear with First Presbyterian of Corpus Christi.

What a privilege to be able to join you and to lead us in prayer this morning. Would you join me in prayer? Almighty God, we pause this morning to ask that you would be present with us in this gathering, in this meeting, in these deliberations. We also pause to thank and praise you for your many blessings. And today we especially thank you for answered prayers for rain and water in our reservoirs recently. And we humbly ask that you would continue to provide for our needs and that we would recognize our need for you. Lord, you tell us in Psalm 133 that it is good and pleasant when your people live in unity. And so we come before you today with gratitude for the opportunity to serve our community, to demonstrate that unity. We thank you for the freedoms that we enjoy, for the citizens we represent, and for the responsibility entrusted to those who serve in public office. God, we ask that you would grant wisdom to the members of this council as they deliberate on matters affecting the lives of their neighbors. Give them discernment to seek what is right, courage to uphold justice and humility to listen carefully to one another and to the people they serve. Help them, Lord, to look beyond personal interests and political differences and to work together for the welfare, safety, and prosperity of this city. And Lord, I ask your protection and blessing on those who serve our community every day. Our first responders, our public employees, our educators, our healthcare workers, our business leaders, our volunteers, our pastors and churches, and all who contribute to the well-being of our neighbors. Lord, bless their efforts, strengthen them in their work. I ask all of this in the holy name of Jesus. Amen.

Amen. Thank you, Pastor. And this morning, our Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States and to the Texas state flag will be led by Hiley Morgan, who is a sixth grader, or will be, right? A sixth grader at Flower Bluff Intermediate. She's a Navy Honor Royal. She's a pitcher for Little Miss Kickball Southern Screamers team. And when she grows up, she wants to be a U.S. Marine.

Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please join me in honoring the Texas flag. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state, under God, one and indivisible. Thank you highly and good luck.

Ms. Werenthen, would you please call the roll? Mayor Paulette Guajardo. Present. Council members Roland Barrera. Here. Sylvia Campos. Here. Eric Cantu. Mr. Cantu? Yeah. Gil Hernandez? Here. Kaylin Paxson? Here. Everett Roy? Here. Mark? Here. Carolyn Bond? 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, Ms. Huerta. We will move on to our city manager's comment. Oh, I'm sorry. When I think Mr. Roy. Mr. Roy, are you online? No, he's right here.

Oh, there he is. Oh, my gosh. I had a note on there. I read my notes very seriously. I thought you were going to be here.

I canceled my vacation.

Oh, okay. Man, I missed him. Okay, thanks. Thank you.

We'll move on to our city manager's comments and update on city operations. Mr. Zanoni.

Great. Thank you. Good morning, Mayor and members of the council and the community. Today, we are going to have a briefing on the hurricane season for 2026. We know that the season began yesterday, June 1st, and it will run through November 30th. So for a total of six months, we'll be in hurricane season. Our community knows it well, but it's always good to be reminded about what we do here at the city. and what we want our community to be aware of so that we're safe in case a hurricane is close by. So just some quick background, Jace Johnson, our emergency management coordinator, will actually give the presentation this morning, but what he'll highlight is that we are expecting a below normal hurricane season this year. That's from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric uh... administration and so they they have forecasted anywhere from eight to fourteen name storms for for the for the country and of those between three and six are predicted to become hurricanes and including one to three of those could be a category three four or five so as you'll hear mister johnson say it just takes one uh... even though the odds are lower this year uh... we do have to be prepared so We do want the residents of Corpus Christi and throughout the Coastal Bend to know about NOAA and the National Weather Service and to know that they are using the most updated tools to do this forecast over the next several months and they'll use those same tools and same professionals to keep us updated in the event of storm approaches. So after Jace Johnson gives his briefing, Ernesto De La Garza, our public works director, will come up to the podium as well just to remind the community of what we announced yesterday or the day before, which is our free sandbag program. So over the past several years, we've perfected the distribution of sandbags free to the community. And we have two events that will take place, not this Saturday, but the next Saturday and then the following Saturday, all at Cabinus Field. The first Saturday is in the morning. The second one's in the afternoon. But it's a great service for the community. So the pre-made sandbags and there's certain protocols that we want the residents to follow. But Ernie will go over that with us as well. And so with that, Jace Johnson is going to come up and he has a brief presentation to talk about the forecast projection and then to remind us about what we do as a city and how much we rely on on our partners throughout the region to help us and help the community stay safe. Jace?

Yes, sir. Thank you. Mayor and council members, thank you so much for giving me a little bit of time this morning just to give you guys an update on our city's preparedness on the hurricane season. It's good to see all of you. As we jump in, the Office of Emergency Management, I'm very thankful to say we are fully staffed this year. We have an emergency management deputy, Jonathan Weslow, and Scott Rogers is our new emergency management specialist, and we're very thankful to have them on board. so this is operation centers over twenty four six leper street at the very uh... top fourth floor of the uh... the fire administration building uh... and that is the location that uh... should there be an emergency whether it's a hurricane uh... or as a sizable response we will activate that emerge operation center that's evergreen it's ready to go and be activated twenty four seven uh... all year round uh... we are supported bill is supported by gas generator you know where where and ready to go over there, but what do we do over there? We have representatives from each one of the departments, also the coast guard as an example, the weather service, red cross, tedum, potentially fema, that' s a place for all of us to meet along with representatives from the various departments to include public works, solid waste, gas, parks as an example, for all of us to meet and basically work together to support the response. Strategic control over there, it's where we make decisions, it's where we take in information and make plans for the next operational period, and it's really where we order resources, right? Especially if it's a large area response, resources are always at a commodity and that's where we work through that. So the city emergency teams, we have fourteen emergency teams and I did the math this morning of all the city employees that aren't fire, aren't police, aren't department essential. We have about six hundred employees that make up fourteen emergency response teams and that includes everything from the evacuation teams, supporting the EOC, IT, points of distribution, volunteer management, all of those categories that we have city employees that year-round around the clock that list is always updated those teams are identified the leaders are identified and those teams are trained really especially kicking into before hurricane season to make sure that were at our best and ready to go. but the important thing is is for the city you know if you catch me saying I really I mean we I'm up here representing a team I simply manage and I coordinate but with the team approach what does that mean that means strong independent collaboration with all the departments we work together all the time prepared for worst case scenarios focus on most severe possibilities you may hear me say again once or twice that whatever the forecasted emergency is the level the threat level We always at least plan on one level higher or two. We' re proactive not reactive. While the challenges are inevitable, our approach emphasizes our preparation and our early action with our need to stay ahead. We never rest. We are always moving forward and leaning into the possibilities. So this is the beginning of yesterday, the 2026 hurricane season. Here we go again. But as a manager mentioned, the National Weather Service has forecasted a less active. And if you look up here, so El Nino is to emerge soon, 82% chance. May and July continue through the northern hemisphere through winter. 96 chance in December and moving on into February 2027. So what does that mean? So the El Nino, how does it affect the Gulf for us? And there's always a lot of confusion around there. There's a lot of information and it is forecasting, it's not certainty. But I'll give you this, guys. This is a freebie. We had a meeting with the National Weather Service last week, and two important things that they put out is last year they basically used AI in their forecasting process as a test run. This year they're using it real time. And I can tell you, according to them, their leap in technology is estimated to be 10 years. that they've moved forward in just these past couple years with regard to the product and the percentages that they put out and that's a huge deal for us the the cone of possibilities that you've seen in the maps where's the thing where's the storm potentially gonna make landfall that has narrowed on the coastline so when we look at it that would give us the confidence that we need when we have to make the tougher decisions as an example do we evacuate do we not. So, what does El Nino mean for us? Fewer Atlantic hurricanes overall, a lower chance of major hurricanes in the Gulf, stronger wind shear can weaken the developing tropical storms. So, those storms, they need to rise. They need to take that energy up. But the way the jet stream is working in an El Nino year, it basically disturbs that upper building and kind of sends it off to the east coast, making it impossible for those storms to rise and build up energy as they need to. Important to know El Nino does not eliminate the hurricane threat. Destructive storms can still occur. And like Peter said just a minute ago, and you'll see another slide here, it says that it only takes one. We can never let our guard down. But what does that mean particularly for the Central Gulf, for Corpus Christi? Hopefully that means more rainfall. We've seen a little bit of it this early summer. We're going to continue praying it right in through the rest of this season. Could also include flooding, rapidly developing storms, and early and late season tropical systems. So that's really, to me, that's what we think of for this region. We just need to be prepared that that is what we can expect with an El Nino year. All the names came out for the 2026 season. I just want to read this out so no matter how many storms there are it only takes one have serious impact on Corpus Christi that's why it's critical for the city to stay proactive in preparedness and planning and that is what our office is and the departments the partner alongside of us that is what we that's what we do year-round so who are the coordinating key agencies that we work with and this does not include all of them this is just a top-level list but we partner with the county the National Weather Service again we're blessed to have the Weather Service office here and we we are in contact with them all the time. Porta Corpus Christi the Department of Public Safety, Texas Division of Emergency Management we just finished their big conference in Fort Worth last week where they had over 4,200 emergency management professionals from all over the nation attend. the Coastal Bend Council of Governments, the Coastal Bend Regional Advisory Council, the hospitals, and then 211 Texas, the Public Information and Assistance Line. These are primary partners, but again, the list goes on from these. We work together, we know each other very well, and we stay in communication all the time. agencies involved in past disasters you've seen this after the winter weather response presentation we have the same partners that step up and support us as we as we operate during emergency big partners AEP, Red Cross, Catholic Charities, Coastal Bank Community Foundation, the Food Bank, Weather Service, Del Mar, we have the the races are ham radio operators they are fallback should we lose every other means of communication we can never lose fact of the loose side of the basics the school districts are huge partner kale ux they've been around forever and they are a huge partner when it comes to communications during storms the port. Corpus Christi, Regional Transportation Authority, Salvation Army, Texas A&M, TENEM, the Coast Guard, and 211 Texas are all agencies involved should we have a disaster. So the city uses layered communication to reach out to our community partners. And when I say community partners, who do I mean? I mean the businesses in the area, the hospitals, the dialysis centers, schools, nursing facilities, our STEER, which is a State of Texas Emergency Assistance Registry participants, and the general public and how do we do that. An example would be once we have a storm that involves briefings, storm forecast involves briefings from the National Weather Service and groups of us meet to watch this forecast and and plan on the future, soon as we're done with those meetings, I have lists, I have groups within my email and I blanket send out these forecasts to all these groups, including hospitals, including the schools, superintendents, the dial centers, et cetera, doing everything I can to give them as much information and more importantly, time to make these decisions that they need to make. I want to keep them in the loop. So engaging with the community before the storm, how do we do that? This year we sent out over a hundred thousand flyers in the utility bills. Those have mostly gone out. There's a few still to go out, but those have been sent out. Public presentations, we do around thirty of those a year to include schools, small business associations, social clubs, whoever will take me, I'll go and present to that group and gladly do so. Our Facebook and social media accounts, regional verse alert and I'll touch on that again here in just a moment telephone and email hurricane special that we've done in the past on the news and then multiple interviews on TV regarding hurricane awareness especially once we know that there is some activity in the gulp those requests will start to come in and we'll meet those requests So communications, again I just want to part out our partners and how the methods that we mostly use, but again aren't limited to, but our regional reverse alert, we've since activated that in the past year to include our neighboring counties. We had a statewide test this past month and every system within that's under our umbrella, under the regional reverse alert, all of them worked well, they activated well. now our main goal is to continue to push to get people signed up and we're doing that year-round continuously. KLUX I mentioned before, our city website whether it's going to Ready CC or the Office of Emergency Management and I will touch on that again in a second. continuous news releases the news media and then again social media we have our Individual accounts and we work closely with the city of Corpus Christi's communication and their social media to make sure that Should the need arise we use all methods to reach as many people as possible So community messaging, again, the regional reverse alert. Like I said, all the counties in our area, Refugio, Nueces, Aransas, and San Pat, we have all joined together under one umbrella, one branding, one location to sign up. Individuals who live in one area but work in another can sign up for both. all of those areas are geolocated so san pat can't send a notification into corpus christi and vice versa but since we are the administrators we have the ability to do a force multiplier and send out messaging for them should they become incapacitated or need assistance we're always looking for redundancy in our systems So Corpus Christi, as you know, is an evacuation city. You can see the map up here. We're always trying to freshen this map up and get this out to as many people as possible continuously all the time. Letting folks know, please, you need to know what evacuation zone that you live in. And not only that, what are the potential evacuation routes? I don't want everybody being on a 13 hour drive to San Antonio all at the same time, right? So there are many ways to get out of the city and we encourage everybody to know what those are. But you'll see the map up there. So if we do need to do an evacuation, the way that it works is we activate our city evacuation teams. We use the city natatorium or Corpus Christi gym as the evacuation hub or base. We partner with... a lot of community members but pointing out the corpus Christi regional transportation authority and the plan is is once the word is given will activate our teams at the natatorium include fire police the evacuation teams the Red Cross so on and the RT will start picking up residents at a bus station near their home they're asked to pack lightly like they would have carry-ons onto a flight they can bring pets dogs on a leash cats in a crate They will be picked up there. They'll be taken to a transfer station and ultimately brought to the natatorium where they'll be processed. We'll gather their information, give them a band, make sure that families stay together, pets stay together, necessary medical equipment, all is tied to an individual or a family. And once the transportation is ready to go, to the outlying area where we' re going to take them most likely san antonio that we will then partner with the corpus christi independent school districts and potentially supporting buses from texas department of environmental conservation or texas department of emergency management. and then we will transport individuals and their pets to a shelter in San Antonio. We are set up that city employees will go with these individuals and they will stay with these individuals and be there until it's safe to return and then we'll simply reverse the process and bring them back into the community and get them back to their homes. So Corpus Christi, if we do have an evacuation, it's important that we control who and when individuals come back into the community. We do have a tiered reentry process. The first tier is obviously getting in our search and rescue teams, mass care and damage assessment. Once it is deemed safe for tier two, which would be a restoration of essential services would be AEP would be the partners that they bring in or the organizations that can help with points of distribution mass care and other operations they will be allowed in and then most importantly once safety is established and what I mean by that is once we have water once we have gas once we have grocery stores once we have electricity residents and small businesses will be allowed back into the community but we don't need to compile the emergency we understand the desire to get back in but we want to make sure that it that it is safe to do so before we allow that allow that to take place that is the high-level briefing for this season and again I just want to stress that I merely represent up here a city that is dedicated the departments that are dedicated to working together to supporting each other to make sure that we each understand what our role is every year these departments they turn in their emergency response plan for this season to make sure that we've got all of our ducks in a row. And then also the city also pits in annexes to the state that covers the bigger emergencies, and all of those are current and up-to-date and in place. And so we're prepared and continuing to make preparations as we move into this hurricane season. Any questions, please?

Okay. Did you have something, Peter?

Ernesto is just going to close it out with a quick update on the sandbag drives. On the what? On the sandbag distribution. Oh, the sandbag. Yeah, sandbag. Jace, thank you.

Thank you for the presentation.

You're very welcome.

Just to let us know where you are and how prepared we are. So thank you. Thank you for the time.

Good morning, Mayor, Councilor, and Delegates, Director of Public Works. So in preparation for the hurricane season, Public Works Department will host two free sandbag events. The first one is on Saturday, June 13, and Saturday, June 27 is the second one. Providing this service before inclement weather gives citizens more time to focus on other preparation measures during an approaching storm. The first event on June 13 will go from 8 in the morning to 12 p.m. And the residents can pick up the bags at Cabinus Athletic Complex at 3061 Saratoga Boulevard. And the second event is Saturday, June 27 from 1 o'clock to 5 p.m. a little later. And then again, it'll be the same address. I think we might have a map here, if we can pull it up. And if not, it's... And also I have it here as well. But with that said, it's behind the Cabinets Athletic Complex at 3061 Saratoga Boulevard. We will have all of the stormwater team there. We've had this event here at the same location. We coordinate with CCISD, and so it's behind the football field and behind the natatorium, and we've had good success with queuing and efficiency of the traffic flow. Before we used to have it at Public Works and we would back traffic up into Holly, but this go around, this works pretty good for efficiency. So with that said, we're gonna give eight bags per customer. We will do all of the loading. we will do all of the loading for the residents so they don't have to get out of their car and so in the past we would only give six bags per customer but we figured four bags should cover a whole door threshold and for a front door and a back door and so we've upped it to eight bags per customer if you can see there on the map you will come in off of saratoga you would turn right at the natatorium and then come through the back side of the And we will cue you with our traffic control and then load you up and then send you out. So we've been pretty lucky with this setup. We really want to thank CCISD for their partnership in this event. And then as well, we also coordinate with TxDOT for the street closures on Saratoga.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ernie.

Thanks, Ernie. Okay, Mayor, that concludes the City Manager's report for this morning.

Okay. Thank you, Peter. It is 1158, so we're going to go into our public comment period. And due to the large number of public comment speakers, which is 103 speakers today, I am limiting remarks to one minute per speaker to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to be heard. We ask that you be mindful of the time limit and focus your comments on the matter you wish to address. So thank you in advance for your participation and cooperation. So as we begin the meeting, I want to take a moment. Excuse me. Hang on, just hang on, Councilwoman. Yes.

As you can see, this is a very, very important meeting. We have pros and cons on this issue on the Inner Harbor and the far field modeling. I would ask that you please allow all these people that plan to speak for three minutes, allow them their right to speak. They don't have much. I mean, I know that you say that they can write to us, they can call us, they can do all these things, but for them to show up in person means a whole lot more. So I would ask that we leave it the same at three minutes per commenter.

Okay, can we please—can we please respect decorum, I would ask? Sir, sir, okay, so we have a very long meeting today, and I'm asking everyone here to respect one another. Otherwise, we're going to have to make changes. We'll never get through the day. And this is very important, as mentioned. So I am asking—I'm sorry, I am. I'm asking to please respect decorum so that we can move forward efficiently.

Mayor is my light on?

Councilman, yes.

Thank you. I think one minute is not right. I think we should give them three minutes. One minute is like a countdown. I mean, they don't even have enough time to explain themselves. You know, even if it's 200 people here, we still have to give them the three minutes that this council approved. So I encourage you to give them the full three minutes, and hopefully we could give them the three minutes that they deserve. And if you want to put up to vote, I think that would be the best thing to do.

Well, it isn't to cut anyone off by any means. It is to get... the efficiency of the meeting moving forward and to make certain that there's enough time for everyone to be heard. If the council chooses to, if the majority wants to do three minutes, we can do, I mean three minutes is the max, we can do two minutes, we can do one minute. I want to hear from people.

I make a motion to allow the three minutes. Second.

Okay, we have a motion in a second then to keep the three-minute time slot for everyone. So all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed say no.

No.

Okay, we have two nos. Did you get that, Rebecca? No? Yes. Councilman Boneta and everywhere. Okay, Councilman Scott.

Sorry, could you point out to the public that we have a lot of TVs in the back and we can do the math? Not well, but 300, I mean 100 times, 103 times.

Oh, it's five hours and 15 minutes.

Right, so if we're not here, it doesn't mean we're not watching.

Oh, yes, I'm sorry. That's my point.

If we're not in the chambers, it doesn't mean we're not watching. It could mean we're in the restroom, but we do have televisions in the back rooms. I just want the public to understand that.

Councilman Roy.

Yeah, I just want a statement of fact for the record. I was actually looking at maybe two minutes as a compromise, but if the votes support three minutes, three minutes it is. Thank you.

Okay. So, again, as we begin the meeting, I want to take a moment to address the rules of decorum. The Council Chambers is a place of public business, a forum for civic discussion, decision-making, and service to the people of Corpus Christi. We're here to do the people's work, and we'd like to proceed in that very 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. And at this time, I will ask City Attorney Miles Risley to review the council meeting rules of decorum, which will be displayed on the television screens above us here for your review. Mr. Risley.

All citizens must be courteous, polite, and respectful of one another, including the City Council and City staff. The Mayor and Council members shall be referred to by title and or title surname. All remarks must be addressed to the Mayor and City Council and not to the 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, Mr. Risley. So in-person comments are limited to three minutes for all call-in or WebEx video speakers. Corpus Christi residents receive up to three minutes and non-residents up to one minute. A visible timer position near the city secretary's desk will help manage the allotted time. And if you have a petition or any relevant information, please present it to the city secretary before speaking and she will distribute it to us. So we will start with Elisa Cuevas. And I think we have, Rebecca, how are we coordinating people that are outside?

So the audio for the council meeting is being played outside in the, yeah, so the individuals who are outside will be able to hear when their name is called.

Okay. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to call out the first 10 people so that everyone kind of has an idea of who's coming up. So at this moment, we have Elisa Cuevas. We'll hear from Brittany Clendening, Sandra Meyer, Stacy Hester, Dale Switala, Alejandro Chavera, and then Tom Bridges. Yes, Ms. Cuevas.

Good morning. My name is Alyssa Cuevas. I live in Corpus Christi, and I'm here to voice my opposition to locating a desalinization plant in the Inner Harbor. My personal background is relevant to this, so I'll go into that a bit. I was born and raised in a town called Bayshore, New York, which is literally on the shore of the Great South Bay, the bay between Long Island and Fire Island. My great-grandfather, my grandfather, my father, and I all grew up with an intimate relationship with the Bay. I learned to swim in the Bay. My father and grandfather went fishing or duck hunting on the Bay every week for most of the year. We ate wild duck, oysters, fresh clams we dug ourselves, and a variety of fish caught in the Bay. My father said that during the Great Depression, his family relied heavily on the food that came from the Bay. My point is the Great South Bay was an amazing natural resource, teeming with life, as our Bay could be. My father was not a biologist, but he understood how a food chain works. He saw what happens when development is allowed to go full throttle without safeguards to natural habitats. He saw what happens when greed is considered a value and environmental concerns are ignored. He tried to warn against that. By the 1980s, fishing was seriously declining. And today, the Great South Bay is noted more for dead zones, fish kill, and algal blooms than for fishing. Swimming is not encouraged due to the bacteria. Organizations like Save the Great South Bay are trying to raise money to right those wrongs. In Corpus Christi, we are at a critical juncture. The city council members are aware that they have the power to protect or condemn the delicate ecosystem of our bays and estuaries. Allowing the desalinization plan to locate in the inner harbor and hoping for the best is not smart. Hoping that the latest industry-friendly study is trustworthy is not smart. Common sense tells us that churning up the waters and dumping concentrated salts and toxins into the water cannot be beneficial to wildlife or to residents who will benefit, corporate stockholders who do not even live here. It is a big risk and a super expensive one, one that residents of Corpus Christi are not willing to pay for. I plead with you to find a better way for industries to get the water that they want. Vote no for the Inner Harbor desalinization plant.

Thank you, Ms. Cuervas. Brittany Clendening. Brittany. Rebecca, maybe we need to figure something out for somebody.

So the volume is as loud as it can be.

I know, but a person?

Yes, looks like the security guard has volunteered to do that. So we appreciate him taking that on. Yes, ma'am. Yes, so he's checking to see. He's letting people know. But the volume is as loud as it can be. If the folks outside could keep the volume down a little lower from their conversations, that would help. But for now, thank you very much, Mr. Alanis, for helping us.

Okay, thank you.

All right, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to speak and making sure I heard outside. My name is Brittany Clendening. I live in District 5, and I want to see Corpus Christi reach our full potential of being the sparkling city by the sea. When I moved here back in late 2020, we were well on our way. We had new investments. We had new restaurants, bars, and coffee shops opening all the time. But ever since curtailment, we haven't seen that. Ever since stage three, we haven't seen that. Water insecurity has discouraged businesses, both big and small, from investing in our communities and investing in us. Continued delays in securing water will cause job loss and could push us into a regional recession. Tackling this water challenge head-on will not be easy, but we have done tough things before. This City Council has turned around our aging infrastructure, investing millions in repairing our roads and making improvements. This City Council has revitalized our parks, investing in new equipment and expansion, especially one really near to my heart at Bill Whitt, close to my place. City Council members, you have the opportunity today to put us back on track to economic prosperity. And I encourage you to move forward with the only fully permitted long-term solution of Inner Harbor desalination so that Corpus Christi can be a leader in South Texas and truly become a gem of the coast. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Sandra Meyer. I'm from Inner Harbor, but I'll skip my talk right now. Okay. Stacey Hester.

Good afternoon, Stacey Hester, Corpus Christi District 3. As a member of the community and representative industry, I join the Farfield Modeling Committee. As an engineer, I've had the opportunity to live across the United States and in another country with very different infrastructure and resources. Those experiences have shown me how critical it is for communities to come together, rely on sound science, and make informed decisions that balance growth with environmental stewardship and risk management. As the modelers present the deliverables they were tasked to provide, I feel confident that they have done what was asked of them. The model they have developed can be used as an effective risk management tool in the process of building and operating the Inner Harbor desal plant. What stood out most to me about the committee was the diversity of perspectives, academia, technical experts, and community members, which strengthened the process. I may not have been the loudest voice in the room, but listening, observing, and working to understand impacts is just as important. Our role was to help select a qualified hydrodynamic modeler, provide input, and ensure collaborative and transparent process. And I want to be candid. At times, the discussions were tense. These are important issues, and that's to be expected. But through it all, the modeling firms remained professional, responsive, and grounded in their expertise. They listened, they engaged, and they delivered within the time frame the city asked of them. At its core, the far-field model answers a quick key question, where does the salinity go once it enters the bay, and at what magnitude of change proposes a risk beyond natural variability? This work helps us better understand potential impacts across Inner Harbor, Corpus Christi Bay, and Nueces Bay, and gives you clear, science-based information to consider. This model sets up a foundation for future study and refinement. My ask is this, remain open to what the modelers are showing you, recognize the strength of the process that got us here, and use this information to make decisions now. This work should serve as a foundation for the future, but not a barrier to action in the present. This effort positions our city to move forward thoughtfully as we continue addressing our water challenges. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Hester. Dale Switala.

Somebody left something here. Dale Swartella, District 1. Let's make a comparison on the two proposed desal plants. Inner Harbor will dump brine back into our two bays fragile ecosystem. Axe H2O will pipe brine over three miles out into the Gulf discharge zone, approved for such use by the 84th Texas Legislature, Texas Parks and Wildlife, and the General Land Office. That's the approved areas. Corpus Bay is not one of them. Inner Harbor says that their water will cost $9.90 per thousand gallons, a whopping 52% more than Axe H2O, which says they will only charge $6.50 per thousand. Inner Harbor wants to put us on the hook for over a billion dollars to build their plant paid only by the Corpus Christi utility taxpayers. Raising our already $2.5 billion debt to $3.5 billion and risking a lower bond rating again. Axe H2O says they are privately funded, charging the $650 per thousand. No public debt for us utility rate payers. Inner Harbor takes longer to build and is limited to 30 million gallons a day. Axe H2O can be ready in two years and produce 150 million gallons a day. Plus, what is the electricity cost for Inner Harbor desal plant, which we will have to pay? Axe H2O has an electric plant at their Barney Davis location with powerful generators ready to go and won't charge us for the electricity. None of my neighbors want to drink water from the dirtiest place for water on earth, Inner Harbor Ship Channel. And now you're only going to filter it with six filters instead of the original seven as proposed in the earlier plan to save a few bucks. please do not approve items 11 and 12 on the agenda. It'd be a waste of $88 million. And one last thing, we're only three days away from the 23rd anniversary of Corpus Christi getting a TCEQ wastewater permit, number WQ0005289000 for a desal plant at the corner of Narcissus Bay Boulevard and East Broadway. In 2003. Yes, that's right. This Friday is 23 years. Of course, nobody in Hillcrest knew anything about it because it was kept secret from us until recently. We were constantly told we have no plans for this property. Also, they said we will never build anything in the buffer zone. Beware neighborhoods of Corpus Christi. You never know when the city might be playing with something in your location. Maybe a refinery at that golf course at Everhart and Saratoga. Or data centers in Kings Crossing. Who knows? Oso Creek could supply data center water. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Switala. Alejandro Chavira. Is somebody going out? Or somebody did? Rebecca, would you print another one of these to give to Mr. Alaniz? Yes, ma'am. He could call it out there. Yes, ma'am. Let the next 10 people know. Tom Bridges?

Mayor, council, thank you. My name is Tom Bridges. I am a resident of Portland where I'm privileged to serve as the president of the board of directors for the San Patricio Municipal Water District. I wish to comment on today's agenda item regarding the level one emergency, water emergency. As proposed, this ordinance will place 49 plus percent of responsibility for water saved on wholesale customers. Let me say that again, wholesale customers will be responsible for serving nearly half of the water under the ordinance plan. The resident customers of Corpus Christi will have no responsibility under this ordinance and I'll tell you why. The baseline amount signed for wholesale customers is calculated on past average use. San Patricio Municipal Water District and its 80,000 plus residential water customers are in effect indirect wholesale customers. Using the ordinance methodology, they will be assigned a baseline of approximately 5,800 gallons per month. Application of the curtailment in the program will put that at an allotment of about 4,350 gallons. Perversely, the ordinance provides a baseline for residential water customers in Corpus Christi of 8,000 gallons per month. an apparently arbitrary number not based on average past use, providing 2,150 gallons more for their service for their baseline than their friends and neighbors across the bay. Even with application of the curtailment percentage, which will put them at 6,000 allocations, 6,000 gallons per month allocation, that will be more than their average use for the last five years. The net effect of this current plan is that water use in the region will require less use, which is appropriate and proper, except for the citizens of Corpus Christi. The citizens and I of San Pat and Aransas County simply want to ask why. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bridges. Bradley Bartleson, and then we'll have Bruce Switala, Judy Mosley, David Ainsworth, Kenny Krasinski, and Melissa Zamora.

While she's passing that out on Brad Bartleson, extremely low water user. Brad Bartleson, Corpus Christi. Inner Harbor is a flawed project with flawed partners. Lagos, Nigeria was at one time a pristine coastal freshwater basin like Corpus. Adding just one more detrimental load at a time, it lost that pristine nature. Incremental acceptance led to long-term devastation, aka the slowly boiled frog. At $1 billion or $33 million per MGD, Inner Harbor is a bloated desalination project with essentially no intake, effluent, or product piping. It should cost half of the stated $1 billion. Inner Harbor's prime partner, Aconia, is accused of paying bribes in Spain, in British Columbia, and they agreed to pay $235 million in severe cost overruns. The agreed order resulted from a first slowly boiled frog step, in this case, a slowly saltier frog, as it created the saltwater dam and greatly reduced the freshwater inflows to Nueces Bay. That TWDB study found up to a 400% increase in fish populations during high freshwater flows that were jeopardized. since the completion of choke canyon in 1982 those flows are reduced by 99%. The saltwater dam along with the creation of the reservoirs was responsible for that reduction. Inner Harbor is that next step in boiling our frog. The far-field computational modeling effort was engaged to expose just how much further the damage would be done by discharging concentrated brine into Inner Harbor and transfer into New Aces Bay. Given insufficient time to complete a viable study, it lacked the scientific rigor and transparency needed. Model run details were not shown, model checks were not existent, and no justification for adjustment of the boundary conditions used to get a desired result. Nueces Bay has historically seen periods of extremely high salinity since the saltwater dam was installed. Yet this model wasn't allowed to run long enough to display that experience, thus the model can't be declared as valid. Recent conditions were leading into this. We got where we are by a lack of strategic planning, draining nine years of stored water capacity while running the Mary Roads pipeline at half capacity. Counter to the interest of our fisheries, the agreed order relieved the requirement for freshwater releases when they were needed most. Delaying Inner Harbor allowed us to learn and find a better option, that's Barney Davis, it has expandability, won't destroy our fisheries, it's cost effective, and removes the taxpayer burden. Thank you.

Thank you sir. Bruce Swintala.

Bruce Swetella, District 1. I would like to start by thanking God for providing wonderful rain for South Texas and starting to refill our lakes. May he continue. I also pray this is the time, this is the last time I defend my neighborhood against the trespassing of the industrial buffer zone that we Hillcrest residents were promised wouldn't happen since actually the 1970s, early 80s. SWIFT loan? We don't need no stinkin' SWIFT loan. We need our country dependably supplied with the water needed for vital energy production and export so the world keeps turning, and sooner than later. Our residents need to keep drinking and watering, and our businesses need to keep our paychecks coming without wringing their hands or leaving town. The facts about desal costs are clear. The Barney Davis area is the best desal choice for the Corpus Christi area and my backyard is the absolute worst choice. Why would one want to throw even more money at such a low production, high cost, high risk venture like the Hillcrest neighborhood desal for a saline fish kill catastrophe when the AXE H2O plan will be none of that? near normal water cost for discharging in for residents scalable water supplied in two years powered with their grid their design and phenomenal streamlining from expertise discharging into Gulf allows for a mere 30 business day permit review superlatives can't even describe the acts h2o teams qualification NASA, thanks for letting us use John Olsen. As always, Council, I pray you make the right choice in this stressful decision. Barney Davis has finally been the right location for discharge, and a private enterprise like H2O is the answer, including a rocket scientist on a 24-karat gold platter. Could we work with their request for using 75 million gallons a day? Thank you and God richly bless you all.

Thank you, sir. Judy Mosley.

I forgot to do this last time. Good afternoon, Mayor, council members, and city staff. My name is Judy Mosley. I am here today as a citizen who truly cares about the future of Corpus Christi and the families, businesses, and industries that depend on reliable water supply. Like many people in our community, I have spent the last several months learning about challenges we face, listening to discussions, and possible solutions. One thing has become very clear. The decisions being made today will impact Corpus Christi for decades to come. As you evaluate these projects, I encourage you to consider not only the immediate need for water, but also the long-term commitments for that come with those solutions. Many of the proposals discussed involve significant financial obligations and contracts that could extend 20 to 30 years into the future. My question is simple. What happens if those conditions change? Texas has always experienced cycles of drought and rainfall. We received several years of above average rainfall and reservoir levels recover with cities still being obligated to purchase large volumes of water under those long-term agreements? What protections exist for the tax payers, rate payers if demand projections or weather conditions change? I also encourage the city to look carefully at the complete life cycle impacts of each alternative water produced is only part of the equation. We should also understand the operating cost, environmental impacts, concentrate management, energy requirements, and long-term flexibility. For example, large-scale desalinization can play an important role in the future water security. However, 120 million gallons per day seawater desalinization facility could reject approximately 14 million tons of minerals every year. That roughly is equivalent to filling 140 large cargo ships annually or a thousand dump trucks every day understanding how those byproducts are managed is important to evaluating any project I do appreciate the work being done by the City Council and the staff. My hope is that all options are thoroughly evaluated, all assumptions are clearly communicated, and has confidence that the decision made today will be right decisions from years now to come. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Mosley. David Ainsworth?

Good morning, Mayor and City Council. My name is David Ainsworth, Sr., District 1. I'm a proud Kyle Island graduate of 1978, aka River Rat. I'm a homeboy born and raised here. I want to thank you for your continued efforts to address one of the most important issues facing our county community. The purpose of my comments today is not to advocate for or against any particular project. Rather, it is to encourage a strategic and objective review process that ensures every viable alternative is evaluated fairly and consistently. Over the past several months, I have spoke with industrial users, engineers, water professionals, business leaders, and citizens throughout the region. One concern I hear repeatedly is that the different proposals are often presented using different assumptions, making it difficult for decision makers and the public to compare alternatives on an equal basis. One example involves water volumes. Many proposals highlight the amount of water processed or treated, but often does not clearly distinguish between water entering a system and the amount of usable water ultimately delivered to the customer. desalinization and reverse osmosis systems recovery rate can vary significantly and the difference can have a major impact on project economics and actual water production. I believe the City would benefit from an independent third-party technical review that evaluates all alternatives using common criteria, including water delivered versus water processed, capital and operating cost, energy requirements, environmental impacts, reliability and scalability, contract obligations, and long-term risk. This is not about delaying process, it is about ensuring that the decision made today are based on the most complete and objective information available. Corpus Christi is making decisions that will shape our water future for generations. We owe it to our citizens to make sure every alternative has been properly evaluated and every assumption has been verified. Thank you for your consideration. God bless each and every one of y'all. I will be back.

Thank you, Mr. Ainsworth. Kenny Korzynski.

My name is Kenny Kerchinski with Puronix from Spring Branch, Texas. I'm here to provide a brief update on our progress since our initial discussions with industry and municipal stakeholders earlier this year. We have completed significant engineering and supplier engagement for a 2.5 million gallon per day treatment system. Our technology partners have provided firm budget pricing, technical performance data, documented before and after treatment results. In conjunction with this work, we have predictive treatment models for different water types, such as industrial reuse, groundwater treatment, and desalinization applications. Our patented water system is now available for a rental pilot testing at 50 gallons per minute with no upfront cost from the city. The key difference in reducing long-term operational cost is reducing RO fouling, reducing power, and extend membrane life. We appreciate, we estimate delivery of a 2.5 million gallon a day input system approximately six to nine months from date of order and stand ready to participate in any independent testing for evaluation please add puronix to your next agenda thank you for your time have a great day thank you mr krasinski melissa zamora

hi my name is Melissa Zamora district 2 thank you to those who voted for us to speak three minutes you were voted from the public to serve the public the least you can do is hear us out so I'm back I am a local teacher I was born and raised here in Corpus I'm never able to make the council meetings until summer because that's when I'm available I know a lot of other teachers and working class people who wish they could be here that are not able to. So hopefully we can represent them. I'd like to share first a quote from a student I had a couple years back that lived and probably still does live in the Hillcrest community. He said, I hate going to play outside near all the factories because it always stinks and my eyes burn. I'd also like to share a quote from the book, The Serviceberry, Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer, the author of Braiding Sweetgrass. She's a native writer. This pertains to Corpus and the world at large. Why then have we permitted the dominance of economic systems that commoditize everything, that create scarcity instead of abundance, that promote accumulation rather than sharing? We've surrendered our values to an economic system that actively harms what we love. Our metrics of economic value like GDP count only monetary value in the marketplace of that which can be bought and sold. There is no room in these equations for the economic value of clean air and carbon sequestration and the ineffable riches of a forest filled with birdsong or a grassland or a marsh or a bay such as ours. Where is the value of a butterfly whose species has prospered for millennia and lives nowhere else on the planet? There is no formula complex enough to hold the birthplace of stories. It pains me to know that an old growth forest or a seagrass bed is worth far more as lumber or what we can get out of it than as the lungs of the earth. And yet I am harnessed to this economy in ways large and small, yoked to pervasive extraction. I'm wondering how we can fix that and I'm not alone. So I'm here standing with many others who are going to speak today who have spoken in the past about how we deserve better as a community. I was so proud of us in September when we voted no against the Inner Harbor desalination plant. I was like, wow, they actually care. They're actually making substantial changes. And now here we are again. So I'm here to plead with you and to pray and hoping that you make the right decision today. and that you stand with the people of Hillcrest. There are so many other places and things that we could be finding water, and we need to really make industry sacrifice. The people of this area are done with being a sacrifice zone. The billionaires need to make sacrifices. Thanks.

Thank you, Ms. Zamora. Sage Jimenez? We'll see. Is Sage? No, he's not here. She's not here? Okay. Captain Dave Heasley and then Eddie Flores, Elida Castillo, Mark Menster, Armand Alex, Chloe Torres.

Where's Peter at? Pardon? How come Peter's not here?

Mr. Rodriguez.

We typically don't respond during public comment, Mayor.

Pardon?

We typically don't respond during public. Yeah, I think Peter should be here, don't you? It's pretty serious. I'm here on behalf of Peter, so thank you.

So he's here on behalf of Peter, sir.

Go ahead. I want the four of y'all, y'all know who you are, to make this make sense. So years ago, first far-field study, environmental study, city and the port, I guess, we're looking into it. We had the smart guys been looking after our base for 20 years, the Heart Research Institute. They looked into it and said, it's dumping all that brine into the bay, be detrimental for the bay. Board said, okay, we don't wanna do that, so we won't. So step forward a year or so, somebody else gets a hold of and says, we don't care about the bay, we'll do it. I'm a very experienced desal guy. I'm an offshore captain, a yacht captain in the Caribbean. I've worked with desal units for many years. And we don't run desal units in muddy water like this, ever. It's gotta be clear. The cost to do it when it's clear is unbelievable. You can only imagine having to get all the dirt out of the water. But fast forward and now, and this, I call it the kangaroo crew, a desal far field study guys, you know, one of the guys that was on the first study, he didn't agree with the narrative. So he either got fired or quit, I don't know, one or the other, but he was on the kangaroo crew. Other people on the kangaroo crew are real estate investors with no environmental education. No nothing? And we're going to look at that one and turn away the one by the experts that did it in the beginning? It's ridiculous. It's beyond ridiculous what's going on here. The dumb fuckery in this place is unbelievable. And these are the people that are going to pay for it. And it needs to stop. This Inner Harbor desal is a fraud. These people can't afford that. This city is a company. I look at it like a company. And when the managers of your company are doing a terrible job, you have to replace them. That's the way it works. And y'all people are misunderstanding that y'all think we work for you and you work for us. Amen. We pay your salaries. We pay that man over $400,000. He needs to be sitting in that chair listening to this shit today. These people are pissed. We've had enough of it. This clown show of this Inner Harbor decile is ridiculous. And the five, the fab five that have been on our side, on these people's side for the whole time, we thank them. We thank them 100%. And the rest of you guys should be ashamed of yourself and 100% ashamed of yourself.

Okay, so I'm going to ask this group right here with the fan, if you can maybe put the fan down so you're not blocking view of the people behind you. I'm going to ask you all to stop with the snapping and the noise that's coming from over there, please. It's just disrespectful to the people around you and the person at the podium. That would be the first, second, third row. Almost the whole row there. Thank you. And if not, you're welcome to go outside and snicker and clap and do what you want out there. But inside here, I'm asking you to just have respect. That's all. Thank you. Eddie Flores.

Good afternoon. I want to thank all of you for being here. I mean, it's a full house back here. And let me start by saying Eddie Flores, District 2, I didn't forget. Let me say this, Mayor. I did get calls from your staff, and we're going to get together in my area, and to the Carrie Lamont, Gil Hernandez, and our city manager who went to our meeting Tuesday. Thank you. It was a good meeting. I was surprised how many people there were. And to the CCPD, the police department, in District 2, we have a problem with homeless people. There's usually about 40 people. And sometimes they're doing things they shouldn't be doing. But what can you do? And so... I know that your hands are full, all of you. You got a lot of decisions to make. I am not here to be part of the problem. I'm here to say, look, man, I know you guys have your hands full. I know that it's not easy being there, watching out there, watching in here, but what was refreshing for me was that Kayleen Paxton, she came into my area in District 2, and I had no idea, but she walked the block with me, and she saw what I saw. In my district, too, we are all senior citizens. There's no young people like here. We're young at one time, and we lived there, and we loved it there, but time changed. I realize that time changes, but I want to thank Katelyn because you walked in your business suit. You walked in your high heels. It was the day after the rain. It was hot. Mosquitoes were everywhere. And believe me, my people, the people that were in District 2, and also to Sylvia Campos, her staff called me. She was at that meeting in Greenwood. I am saddened that you're stepping down, and I know health reasons are what they are. I realize that. But to all of you there, you know, I appreciate your time being there. I'm sure you got better things to do. But it is what it is, you know. But I want to thank all of you for your time and your patience with me. And thank you again to every one of you for doing your job. Whether people don't like you or not, that's what you sign up for. You know, it's like I tell CCPC, you know, this is your job. You got to enforce the law. It might not be popular, but they got to do it. And with that, I say thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Flores. Elida Castillo.

Good evening, Council. Elida Castillo from the City of Taft and also a resident of Taft. Just wanted to repeat what everybody else has been saying about Inner Harbor. Please deny this vote. We don't need to go to a 60% design build. Back in September, that cost was 50 million. Now, for a 60% design build, it is 78 million. This project was supposed to be less than the project that Kiewit was proposing, and yet they're already increasing the cost for the design build. What indicator does that give to the community? And that this is going to exceed the billion dollar price tag that everybody is concerned about. They are cutting corners left and right. We saw what they did when Mr. Jordan quit from Spheros. He either quit or he was made to quit. Why are they trying to fudge the numbers? Why are they not being real and giving accurate data to the community? We deserve that much because all of us are paying for this project at the end of the day. We had a meeting with young people last week who are concerned about this project because this is a 20, 30, 40 year project. Who knows how many years and they're going to be assuming that debt. So please do your due diligence and deny this project. Go for something that is more feasible. Y'all are doing great work in finding alternative solutions as it is. Like we commend the Fab Five for all the work that has been done. We wouldn't be here if it weren't for y'all trying to get us out of this situation. And we are in this unfortunate situation because councils in the past have acted without looking at the data. They did not look at the long-term situation and we need to be better neighbors to our Hillcrest residents. they are bearing the brunt of these burdens. And we're already hearing from the Port of Corpus Christi who's already clearing out land in Hillcrest because they're trying to remove residents from their home. This is not fair. So please, you as a council have the ability to act right, to do the right thing, to make the right decision. And also for the neighbors in San Pat, we appreciate the conversations that y'all are having with us. It's a little bit too late, but let us continue with it because we are concerned about how it's going to impact our community members as well. 4,350 gallons per month is not something that people can live with. especially larger families kids and people who have kids in school people in dialysis you know we have to consider all of these things so um just once again vote no one into harbor um please you know continue doing the right thing and i also have fans for anybody because it is hot in here thank you miss castillo mark minster

Mark Minster, Corpus Christi. These couple slides are from previous years, 2018, budget shortfall 10 million. 2024, $25 million shortfall from tax revenues, budget shortfalls as well. The past couple years, there's been library cuts proposed, just different city services cut. 2025, $7 million budget hole. 2027, potential 0.9 million budget hole. This was just proposed at the last council meeting. So we see, this is from the city slide, step one is monitor revenues. So we see the revenue for the sales tax that's paid by the consumers, by residents, is going up every year. It's around 70 million. The property tax revenue going up every year for residents, homeowners, it's around above 100 million. The pilot payments, where the industrial district gets their property tax breaks, it increased 0% in 2027 and it's only 29 million. And these are for the top water users who just the interest alone on a potential water project, the interest alone is over $50 million. The total they pay in the property tax is 29 million. And if you look at, there's the industrial district right there, 29 million compared to what residents pay property taxes, over 100 million, over 74 million. Just the interest alone for the Inner Harbor desalination project was over $50 million. So when you say that we need these projects for economic drivers, us residents are saying it is not equitable because they get their water rates, residents subsidize their water rates, and then also, through these industrial district agreements, it's just not fair. You look at the expenses that we spend on the library. What we were voting on today for Inner Harbor of 78 million, that's the total library project, library, health, parks, solid waste budget, just right there, 76 million. So yeah, those are the city expenses, and as we saw, it's at a shortfall again this year. This is what y'all presented at the last meeting. And with the budget timeline, as I've seen the last couple of years, you let the budget give input, then you have the community input sessions right before you adopt the budget in September, where you've already made the budget. So you don't really care about residents. So residents are here today saying that we want a government that actually works for the working class residents and not for the large corporations. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Armand Alex.

Good morning, Mayor and council members. My name is Armand Alex. I'm a resident of Corpus Christi. I want to speak about our city's climate resilience, but also about the political and economic choices that determine whether resilience is even an option. We are told by city leaders that Corpus Christi must continue growing because industrial expansion is inevitable. We are also told that we must constantly build more infrastructure, consume more resources, and accommodate more demand and assume growth. But very rarely are we asked a different question about growth for whom. As our city faces drought, extreme heat, stronger storms, and increasing climate uncertainty, residents are being asked to conserve more, pay more, and accept more risk. Meanwhile, many of the largest beneficiaries of our water, land, and infrastructure continue to be multinational corporations whose primary responsibility is not to our community, but actually to their shareholders and greedy executives. They don't care about us. That doesn't look like resilience to me. Resilience is not how effectively we subsidize industrial expansion. Resilience is whether working class families can afford to actually stay here. It is whether neighborhoods have the infrastructure that they need to thrive. It is whether our water system is managed as a public necessity instead of as a commodity, Councilman Barrera. It is whether our children inherit a healthy day, a healthy bay, a stable climate, and a city that prioritizes people over profits. As someone born and raised here along the Gulf Coast and in Corpus Christi, I have watched our city become increasingly shaped by the interest of fossil fuel industry. We cannot claim to be preparing for the future while continuing to deepen our dependence on the very industries accelerating our climate crisis. At some point, we must be willing to say that not every form of growth is good. Not every project marked as progress serves our public interest. Climate resilience requires more than infrastructure. It requires the courage to challenge an extractive model that treats communities, treats ecosystems, and even water itself as commodities to be extracted rather than relationships to be stewarded. Will Corpus Christi be organized around the needs of its people or around the demands of capital for a few white rich men? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Alex. Chloe Torres.

Okay, Chloe Torres, District 2. I'm actually gonna be speaking about the drought contingency plan and what I think we as residents can do to make it more equitable. So back in 2018, or I guess, let me back up. I think most folks now know it's public, very common knowledge that the majority of our water is being used by heavy industry, particularly fossil fuel and petrochemical industries. Some of the wealthiest corporations in the world who are draining us of our most precious resource, right? So maybe that's a reality that folks can sit with and accept. But what I think a lot of people don't understand is what the drought exemption surcharge fee does to us and how unjust it is. So first of all, industry, I've said this before, gets to co-govern with council. community members have never had that privilege. So we're taking it into our own hands with the Fair Water Amendment. So what the Fair Water Amendment is about is the fact that industry got to negotiate a special change to our drought plan in 2018. They said, we'll pay 31 cents per thousand gallons of water extra on top of our regular water bill and that money is going to go into a special dedicated fund and I don't think it's any coincidence that this was in 2018 and when the the calls for the need for desalination Were first heard by industry and then started to be echoed by the council right so same year this special dedicated fund is only for new water projects and something that only industry needs. We don't because we don't use the majority of the water. So they saw the writing on the wall. They wanted the public to subsidize all of this new infrastructure. And so what in exchange, they said, will not be bothered by the city in times of drought when the city could levy surcharges. So Because they pay the 31 cents per thousand gallons of water extra, they don't have to pay the potential $6 surcharge per thousand gallons during drought stage three. So for example, Exxon's Gulf Coast Growth Venture pays $125,000 extra dollars a month based on their 2024 usage and avoids having to pay $1,506,000. thousand dollars monthly. Valero pays an extra $81,000 a month and avoids having to pay $975,000. So residents were never able to decide whether or not this was fair. That's what the Fair Water Amendment would do. It would put this issue on the ballot in November. If you would like to sign and help us get it on the ballot, I will be in the lobby collecting signatures. Thanks, everyone.

Thank you. Rosa Vashti. And then we'll have Amanda Breeland, Celina Obregon-Benevides, Sarah Tindall, Fatima Ghedda Rashidi, and then Miriam Ghedda Rashidi.

Good morning, everybody. My name is Vashti Rosa. I am a resident in District 2. I am a transplant. I'm from California, but I moved here when I was 15. Graduated from TAMUCC at 19. I traveled the world. I went to 30 countries teaching English, meeting people from all corners of the world. And when I came back, because I wanted to make a difference in the community, that meant so much to me, Corpus, I came back here. And when I came back, I thought, what in the world is going on? I just didn't understand. I'm proud to be a crustacean. I prefer that term. And I understand that there's a lot of things going on and I know that y'all are doing the best you can do and I have so much respect for that. However, the kids that I work with, I work here in the school district. I'm an educator. I haven't been able to come out because I have school. And before that, just trying to make ends meet. And you propose these charges, these surcharges with the level one drought fees coming up. And industry, residential, commercial, and wholesale are all the same. They're all the same. And I know that you say it's equal, but it's not equitable. And we're hearing that word going around a lot. Families should not have to pay the same fees as these industrial users. And I hate, it sounds like a broken record, I know. But in reality, it doesn't make any sense. It really doesn't. I prioritize my health, I practice yoga, I practice ahimsa, which is non-violence. And it seems like the actions that are actively being taken at every step of the way are harming somebody else. And y'all and everybody else is sitting in positions of power and they're not actually feeling the direct effect. A lot of people can't afford a plane ticket out of here, let alone a bus ticket. Y'all can. So whatever happens here is going to affect so many more people than maybe you realize. And again, I'm not here to shout at anybody or be angry or get emotional. But everybody else did their research. So I didn't want to, you know, they did the work for me. I appreciate that. School's out. Give me a break. Anyways, I appreciate y'all. Thank you so much for your time. Hopefully we can keep having. constructive conversations because again, we want to move forward. I'm not trying to villainize or demonize any of y'all. I really do want to see this, but this desal plant in the Inner Harbor is not good for us. All the data supports that. Let's come back to the table, redraw plans, find a way forward. Anyways, thank you so much for your time. Have a great day. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Vashti.

Amanda Vreeland?

Got a document, please. Okay.

All right, so Amanda Corpus Christi. I'm on my lunch break, so I can't get arrested. So I'm gonna save my comments on desal for later. I'd like to first thank Sylvia for all her service. It's always been welcome. You're always my eye contact person when I come up here. I hate coming up here. But I'd like to talk about my weekend. So my kids and I and my niece spent the weekend helping sort, well a couple hours from this weekend, helping sort clothes with a free store. So I'd like to give them a shout out. They are needing assistance. with getting their showers for the community ready. So shout out if anyone, if any plumbers, electricians, handyman, cleaners are willing to volunteer their time, I suggest you get in contact with the free store. They need our help. I think this is a service that they're providing that the city should be providing. There should be more money in the budget for services like this. Y'all are willing to spend so much money on projects that people don't want, that are a detriment to the community, detriment to the environment, but y'all aren't willing to actually invest in projects and making things better for the most vulnerable in our community. And I think that's sickening, honestly. What else should I rant about? The budget, the budget's coming up. So I have a question. I know y'all can't answer it, but I know y'all do get back to people, so someone can get back to me. I'd like to know what the process is for adding a line item to the budget, because I'd like to see trees as a line item for parks and rec budget. We need more trees, we need more greenery. Let's see, what else? How much more time? Okay, I'll observe a moment of silence for victims who've been murdered by ICE and for the people suffering an ongoing genocide in Palestine now.

Thank you. Selena Obregon-Benevides.

Selena Obregon-Benevides, District 3. I am here to support our historical Hillcrest community and say no to Inner Harbor desal. Now, I took time from my day of work today, like many people here. And for a lot of us, missed work means a missed paycheck. So these two cents, pretty costly. Now, I know a lot of y'all look at me and don't care what I have to say or what I think or want, because when you see me, you just see a couple of pennies, especially compared to those backdoor deals, am I right? But should I have lost my train of thought? These pennies, we sure do matter a lot when it comes to making up these deals and contracts that don't help the city at all and only seem to help the same people over and over again. And if we're being honest, it's not about the water. It's about the money. the money that the real estate developer is going to get for the land, the money that the contract to build the diesel plant is going to get, and the money that was paid to past and present council members and bribes to make sure that that deal happens. And if I'm being further honest, I bet you my bottom dollar it will never even get built because it's all about the land. In the end, the land will be stolen, Hillcrest will be nothing more than a plaque of once was, and once again, Corpus Christi will be on the hook for some more billion dollar fraud. I'd like to read a scripture, 1 Samuel 17, 47. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves, for the battle is the Lord, and he will give all of you into our hands. So on behalf of this penny, all these pennies, vote no on Inner Harbor Desal because every penny counts.

Thank you. Sarah Tindall.

Good afternoon, Saratindal District 2. I am here today in support of Item 11, the Inner Harbor Desalination Project. The Coastal Bend is a remarkable example of a thriving economy coexisting with one of the most beautiful natural environments in the world. For decades, our economy has been anchored by the Port of Corpus Christi and the industries that support it. over the last 20 years that foundation has been strengthened by investments in sectors such as steel manufacturing lithium refinery and chemical production these industries have created new opportunities for local businesses and expanded economic pathways for students and working families. The results speak for themselves. Corpus Christi enjoys higher median income than comparable cities such as San Antonio and a higher home ownership rate than Houston or Dallas. These outcomes are possible because the industries that chose to locate here provide high paying jobs and, thanks to the strategic advantages of our port and infrastructure, continue to reinvest in our community for the long term. They are here to stay. These industries have also provided a stable and growing tax base. Recent investments in steel, lithium refining and plastics manufacturing have generated significant sales tax revenue through construction activity and beginning in 2029, new industrial district agreement payments are projected to provide an additional $763 million in revenue to the city of Corpus Christi alone over the next 20 years. Just as importantly, our economic success has not come at the expense of our environment. Through the tireless efforts of our academic institutions, environmental organizations, civic leaders, and industrial partners, we have protected the natural resources that make this region special. We remain in air quality attainment and our bays and waterways continue to support world-class fishing, boating and water recreation. Corpus Christi remains a place where people can build a career, raise a family and enjoy an exceptional quality of life. Today, We face an important decision about how to secure that future. You and the City Councils that came before you have spent more than a decade conducting extensive due diligence to ensure that this project protects both our environment and our taxpayers. The scientific analysis, including the far-field modeling, demonstrates that the project can be developed responsibly. At the same time, the projected impact on ratepayers amounts to only a few dollars per month for the average household. Those findings should give us confidence that we are making the right choice. The Inner Harbor Desalination Project represents our best opportunity to drought-proof our water supply, support continued economic growth that has brought such an economic boon to our area, and ensure that future generations inherit the same opportunities and quality in life that we enjoy today. Thank you for your hard work and diligence.

Thank you. Fatima Ghedda Rashidi.

Fatima Rashidi, District 1. Today is the day you will vote for or against approving the Inner Harbor desal plant. I know for a fact that the scientists involved in the desalination far-field study are very aware of the delicate balance that may be disrupted if this desalination plant is approved. I have heard that they need more time. So I hope and pray that you will have the courage, wisdom, and fortitude to listen to the science and defend our precious bay. And even more importantly, I pray that you remember the residents of the Hillcrest community who happened to be in the way of this project. Their lives, homes, and well-being matter. Do we need a solution for our water crisis? Yes, but we all know why we have run out of water. The huge industrial refineries have been taking our water every day. To their credit, some are finding solutions on their own through recycled wastewater, for example. This being said, desalination, especially at Inner Harbor, is not the solution. Water is not a commodity to be sold to outsiders while citizens in our habitats come last. It's not that the people of Corpus Christi and surrounding areas don't matter. It's certain people that don't matter to progress in a booming economy that you're willing to push them aside for the sake of profit and progress. In response to those who put the economy first, we cannot drink money. I know some of you really and are truly trying to root for the people and our delicate ecosystems, and I continue to thank you. In the end, we are all going to have to answer to God. Thank you, and God bless you and your families.

Thank you. Maryam Ghedda Rashidi.

Hello, good afternoon. Miriam Garibashidi, District 1. I just want to say that every moment that I can, I keep our city, our state, our country, and our entire world in prayer. And yesterday I remembered the Beatitudes, which is universal for everyone. And I'm just going to say one small part because it's long and I don't have very much time. One of them is, blessed are they that hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall have their fill. I was thinking of this because I know in my heart that the people, the land, and the water are crying for justice, justice against greed that continues to ravage the land and displace people. and ravaged the water and continues to now identify water as a mere commodity that is for sale. It is a precious resource. Our earth and our water is a gift endowed to us by God to be stewards and he is listening and he is watching. I'm going to digress and I want to say that I was remembering I went to, oops, I was walking along shoreline last week and I was observing some people swimming in the water when I happened upon several bright orange signs that said, and I quote, warning, Contact with water may cause illness. Bacterial levels exceed health standards. Yes, these are all along shoreline if you want to look. This wasn't even at Inner Harbor. Are you expecting residents to drink this? Of course not. Because the Inner Harbor desal plant is meant for crude oil and petrochemical plants. It is not meant for residents to drink. And if it is, I am not willing to drink it. That is all I have to say. God help us. God have mercy on us all. God deliver us from all evil that continues to ravage us. the land and the water. Without it, we cannot live. I pray that you make the right decision. Thank you, and God bless you and your families. Thank you.

Rachel Caballero, and then we'll have Susie Luna Saldana, Hannah Leach, Scott Barraza, Carrie Meyer, Guillermo Gallegos.

thank you. Rachel caballero d1 I' m not an exxon engineer that was put on the far field committee to protect I'm here today because I'd really like to thank this council, or five of you at least, for moving forward with the proceedings to remove Mayor Paulette Guajardo. I want to also thank the federal judge that denied the preliminary injunction on May 28th. There's a reason why this community has lost so much trust in this local governing body. We have a city manager that is paid half a million dollars. He took out a certificate of obligation without certificates of obligation do not get voter approval to spend a million dollars to redo the chambers. There was 24 people sitting outside earlier that were not allowed in here because of capacity. There was no overflow rooms available. There was no, you could hardly hear out there, so if your name was called, you wouldn't have been able to hear it. These are some of the things that infuriate our community. Some of you voting to infringe our First Amendment rights and limit our time to speak to you all, which you've already tried before, and we fought that. So the confusion here is that we want a local governing body that is going to work for this community, be prepared for this community, and understand that we have been underestimated for several years and several decades. That's why you have the same people sitting in the same positions across all the boards in Oasis County and the Coastal Bend. We're awake now. Thank God some of you are timing out. We are going to make sure that we endorse candidates that are for people, that are making decisions for people. They're not going to other candidates that will go to other municipalities and ask them to provide services in your position of power. And we're not, we are done with the corruption and the lack of being prepared to provide services to this community. And you all should be too. Thank you.

Susie Luna-Santana.

Before I start, I do want some clarification. If you speak on DeSalle now, can you speak on it on the action item?

Just a point of clarification. No. I'm sorry, ma'am. What was the question? Are you speaking, you can speak generally, you can speak on an item now, right? Or you can do it when the item comes up. But not twice. Yes, ma'am. Yeah, you can speak on it twice.

You can speak on it twice. You want to speak on it, which agenda item were you speaking on? No, I'm speaking, if people are speaking on DeSalle, will they get to speak on DeSalle on the action item? Well, the rule requires, it's about an item.

So... individuals have cited on their form what item they'll be speaking on. So that's what we gauge when we're determining that, if they signed up for an item. Is that correct?

It's not really proper to be asking and answering questions during a council meeting from citizens in the audience. My service is to the city secretary and to the city council here. So I'm not gonna be answering questions from the audience.

Okay, we'll make that clarification. I mean, it needs to be made here today, so.

Come up with you with another subject. A little while ago, I was sitting here at the hearing for the mayor and there was a one minute restriction done and it was passed by everybody. Then we come up here and there's a three minute. So there's some disparity going on as I see it. The other disparity I see is that there's people on the council that have, automatically come across as being against a certain individual which has spoken previously to me that said, hey, you guys are doing a great thing because you're going after the mayor and all the things that they're doing. Let me tell you, I'm not against some of the things that are being done, I'm against the inequitably. The difference that you have shown in your votes, the difference that you're showing now, on the way you treat people. Either you treat everybody the same or you don't treat anybody the same. I have brought up a request for an audit on David Ajiv, Ajiv David, for his, what I believe is fraud that's being done with permits, both in the hotel downtown and the one at the Flower Bluff and the Island. Why are they being treated differently? Why are you not taking a stand to be equitable and doing the right thing? Why is this council so far-fetched on these things that are going on instead of water? And I agree that water should be our main priority. I do not agree with people that are rude, that make signs, that don't stand up for the pledge of allegiance being done. I don't believe in those. I really don't. I believe in country, I believe in God, and I believe in the right thing to do. And that is common courtesy to everyone. And I expect it. Thank you. Hannah Leach.

I assume you can hear me. My name is Hannah Leach. I'm from District 2. I come before you as humbly as I can as a pastor's kid. And I find it very ironic that the city named Corpus Christi, the body of Christ, is being bled dry for industry, the blood of Christ, the water. It is, as residents understand, it is for industry and not for us. And we are not just people who are uneducated. We understand what's going on. We are called by the creator of this world to be stewards of this earth. Wherever we live, the grass is greener where we water it. It is dishonest at worst and naive at best to assume that desalination will save us. It won't be until years from now until the plants are finished. I imagine that the pressure from the companies both inside corpus and all over the country and all over the world imagine the pressure from them whispering in your ears is great and looming but i imagine that their threats to withhold support for the city if you do not let them do what they want is looming I understand that the world is watching Corpus and what it does, the Gulf of America, the Gulf of Mexico. It is the nursery of the world, is the nursery of the ocean. And even though the world is watching, so is God. I had plans to move from the city, but seeing the support, the overwhelming support and binding community willing to risk their lives and their jobs to stay in the city despite the threats, despite the chaos, has let me, made a decision that I will stay and I will help as much as I possibly can because ultimately this is not just a community. These are groups of individuals who are asking you, please be aware that we as believers of Christ and those who are not, we are all members of this community and we care about the water and we care about living here and we care about the environments but ultimately cancer cancer's method is progress for the sake of progress thank you thank you miss leach scott barasa

Good afternoon, Council. Scott Barraza, Nueces County. Let's take a minute to not talk about desal. I'd like to talk about Miles and his exposing the city to liabilities and his criminal actions regarding open records violations. Last fall, he started by attempting to prohibit licensed firearm carry in these chambers. Ultimately, that could cost the city $1,000 to $10,000 a day for each violation. After some complaints to the Attorney General, he ultimately got smacked down. As state law clearly says, he can't prohibit. It's pretty cut and clear that he can't prohibit carry. In the demand letter that was sent to the city from the AG, it was stated that no opinion was requested, even though I had been told that the city was going to request an Attorney General's opinion regarding the signage for the carry. So that was just the beginning of the lies about the AG opinion request from the city that I have received. The well mitigation plan, open records violations, the city responded with documentation that doesn't answer the request. Does legal not review what they send out? The appropriate reply would have been no documentation found. But we can't state that now, can we? I still have yet to see this plan even after multiple requests. So there's one violation, the hydrology reports. I was here at the last meeting talking about it. Miles focused solely on the hourly costs and nothing on the excessive time, 40 hours. 40 hours to find essentially two reports on a server somewhere if I had paid it and the Attorney General found that the request was excessive in cost it would expose the city to pay me three times the overcharge amount pretty confident you know that you know, should I just roll the dice, see if I get paid on that? But 40 hours for two reports, maybe two hours tops to get the report. Unless they sent Esteban to Office Depot to get a flash drive and he stopped to get a taco on the way back, then it's maybe three hours. The hourly rate is irrelevant. It's about the hours needed to fulfill, not the cost of the hours to do it. It's ridiculous. And I even asked for a clarification on the cost on April 29th. I have not received a cost clarification and it's been over a month now. So I'm pretty sure that that's another violation there. The Good Neighbor Program data, I requested that. The city responded back that they were seeking an AG opinion on my request. But yet to date, no AG opinion I have seen has been submitted. In the package you have, you can see that was there. The opinion that was sought by another entity on May 22nd was sent on May 22nd. Yours is dated April 29th. It's safe to say it was never sent. It's another records violation. I even sent another one explicitly allowing redactions and that was denied to being too similar. I must wait on the AG opinion of the first request. What's being hidden here? Fairly certain that the request denial is also a violation. It wasn't the exact same request. Mike Pusley said recently that a few years back the city requesting AG opinions was a tactic used to withhold information from the public. Seems to be a standard operating procedure now, doesn't it? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Podesta. Carrie Meyer.

Good morning city council, or good afternoon, I guess. I'm here to speak right now on agenda item number 10, the far-field advisory study presentation that you'll be receiving. I'm on the far-field advisory committee. I was appointed by city manager Peter Zanoni, which I was very honored to receive that. appointment and there are about 17 other people. I was chosen for the North Beach community. I own a business there that relies on Bay water quality for its success. I'm also a beachfront homeowner and also very invested in a healthy beach. Hillcrest as we know is ground zero for the Inner Harbor plant, but North Beach is only two miles away. I have a map here showing that. So you can see the yellow line, that's the swimming beach. The red dot is the Inner Harbor location. The distance on Google Maps shows two miles. And from the Inner Harbor location, this picture, is that swimming beach. It's full of thousands of people every summer weekend, locals, San Antonio people, a lot of low income people because it is a free beach. And this is where I operate my business. This is a picture of one of my clients with his family. We're right now in this picture out in front of the USS Lexington looking at the mouth of the Inner Harbor. This is where the desalination salinity that we know is gonna be higher in the Inner Harbor will likely spill out into the bay. So this is the water that people are, the bay water that people will really be affected by because it's so close to the Inner Harbor. The modeling, so on the committee, my perspective was not a modeler, not a scientist, but someone who actually gets my body in the water, that gets wet in the water, that I have hands-on experience for years and years being here, I'm invested there. So the modeling shows a higher salinity in an inner harbor, but it does not predict how the high salinity or stratification will affect marine life. This very narrowly focused study also does not model what would happen if the elevated salinity and the pollutants discharged by the plant spills out of the inner harbor and negatively affects the bay near North Beach. Also, what will the economic impact be to communities like North Beach that rely on a clean, healthy beach for their livelihoods and their quality of life? We're basically sitting ducks because it's anyone's guess. What would happen if we are not able to fish, kayak, recreate, swim on our beach? I would likely sell my house and move, probably away from Corpus Christi. So what are you willing to sacrifice? Thank you.

Thank you. Guillermo Gallegos.

Guillermo Gallegos, District 5. The mayor and council have heard the multitude of reasons to not move forward with the Inner Harbor desal plant. The location, which would further burden our last historically black neighborhood of Hillcrest, which has already faced enough environmental racism from the city in decades past to file a civil complaint. The cost, which if we can learn from recent history, will almost certainly balloon back up into the billions. This is a disgraceful use of funds when our homelessness department is a single person and our libraries are closing while the sun is still up. The amount of water produced, which will be far too late to prevent a water emergency and far too little to meet current demands. I would also like to remind everyone that current demands are not being driven by residents or projected population growth. Rather, they are driven by water guzzling petrochemical industries to which we oversold our water out of greed. I'd also like to remind everyone that despite their greenwashing attempts, these industries routinely exceed their air pollution levels, are behind the water ban we faced about a decade ago, and are more than happy to kill all of us if it means their stocks rise another dollar.

After all, just look at how quickly companies left town when the coal mines dried up.

This false solution has been allowed to go on so far because the capitalists in power have decided that this is their expensive, wasteful, fascist pet project. And because our city was relatively unknown on the national stage, they were allowed to move in the dark. Now, we are in the spotlight. So the question is, do we want to be known as the city sucked dry by Exxon, or the city that stood up to the people killing the planet? That's all I have to say. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Guillermo. Hector Villarreal. Rebecca, do we still have people outside?

I can check, ma'am.

Joe Amon.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Council. My name is Joanne Amon. I am the Mayor of Ingleside-on-the-Bay on the other side of the bridge. I am here to support the request from the San Pat Municipal Water District in asking for a review of the allocation your city has proposed for underwater curtailment should we get there. The problem is that there are mostly cities that the district is selling to. They do have heavy industry on our side of the bridge, but we have, I understand, about 80,000 residents that make use of their water. The allocation on the table would not allow the residents of these cities to enjoy the same baseline as the residents of Corpus Christi. It seems you are using historical data for the water district and have not heard that that is the same for your residents. I am concerned in my city about the amount of flushing that Ingleside on the Bay has to do, and when there is less usage by the residents, then more flushing is necessary to keep up the residuals required. Unintended consequences. All of us served by the Water District would like the same consideration as the Corpus Christi residents. The proposed baseline of 8,000 gallons per month should be the same for all the residents served by Corpus Christi, whether direct or indirect. Thank you very much.

Mayor, thank you. Brandon, or did we find Mr. Hector Vieto?

I understand, Mayor. There's no one waiting outside to speak. Oh, there is not? No, ma'am. Okay, thank you.

Brandon Boom? I'm sorry, Broom. Sorry.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Councilmembers. As mentioned, my name is Brandon Broom. I'm a retired ocean engineer and I live in Aransas County. I spent a lot of time in the deepwater offshore oil and gas business doing deepwater projects. I was recently appointed to lead a committee of citizens in Aransas County who share a concern about water supply sustainability. So one of our initial goals is to become better informed about our circumstances regarding the subject. Using the website lakesonline.com, we can access charts showing the key reservoirs at the source of our coastal bend's water supply. At Lake Texana, we see a chart that depicts the three-year cycle of springtime replenishment followed by drought conditions that And the drawdown burden that occurs due to the Mary Roads pipeline system. The chart reveals that the replenishment to full pool level has occurred in the last month. And it occurred more rapidly than in the previous two years. So it's a very good fixation in the mind of how that dynamic works. Also important to note is a similar scenario in the Choke Canyon and Lake Corpus Christi system with levels at Lake Corpus Christi up by 30% towards pool level in the month of May alone. Future near-term weather forecasts are indicative of continuing positive trend of rainfall in our area. It would seem that there could be a correlation in the current year to the strong influences by El Nino that meteorologists have cited, and it would be interesting to learn more about the connection, just like your Office of Emergency Management representative talked about. On the other hand, LakesOnline, on the same page has a u.s. Drought monitor that continues to indicate the condition of long-term drought that typically is sustainable for greater than six months in the coastal bend and rgb areas. So it would be totally folly to assume that we are not in a bad position with regards to sustainability. Since we in Aransas County live at the extreme limits of the water distribution system overseen by the Nueces River Authority, our citizens are fraught like a bird on a thin twig, unable to fly to a sounder perch. We have watched the City of Corpus Christi attempting to implement the Inner Harbor solution with dismay and concern about the compounding cost increases that only adds to the growing concern. Thankfully, our local government has begun to make contingency plans to augment our water supply with groundwater resources, and this will be a key focus for our committee going forward. The bottom line for us and our committee is we do not support furtherance of the project at Inner Harbor. Finally, I would like to repeat the words of a well-known populist in grandparents' area, Will Rogers, when you're in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Broom. Sarah Dolson. And then we'll have Jared Suarez, Damian Morales, Marisa Cantu, John Green, Jeff Price, Leah Aguilar.

Hello.

Hello, my name is Sarah Dolson and I live in District 2. I got out of work early to be here today like many others in this packed room to state my position on the Inner Harbor Desalination Plant. But before I do that, I'm going to leave you in suspense for a moment because I think we tend to separate from one another when we don't agree. And I think it's important that we don't lose sight of how connected we all are. So I thought we could maybe all take a beat to acknowledge what a strange moment in time we're all going through together. I was born and raised here and I really love this city. I like to think just about every single person in this hall does. There are generations of Corpus Christians in here. This room is full of stories of love, laughter, loss, and lifetimes shared throughout our city. For many of us, giving up on our home is not an option. But I think we need to be honest about how we got in this water crisis. I think everyone kind of gets it now. It made national news. It wasn't the residents. Our city officials oversold our water to industry. But also not helping is the environmental impacts of pollution, which the seemingly ever-expanding petrochemical industry directly contributes to. No matter how many times they say it, industry will never be corpus. They may have their tentacles all around our city, so a lot of their residents and businesses feel beholden to them, but they are not paying for this desalination plant, our libraries, or the things that our community actually needs. In fact, they get to pay a drought surcharge exemption fee, so they also save millions while we're in a drought. So their tax write-off donation throughout town may be nice, but they're not actually getting to the root cause of any of our local issues or helping lift anyone out of poverty. To be clear, the roughly 3% of actual residents that work on Refinery Row, they are our family. We stand with the workers and want the best for them. When they eventually have to cut back, I really hope they take it from the pockets filled with dumb amounts of money at the top, but I think we all know from experience the direction those ordeals tend to go. You've probably figured out where I stand by now, and I'm sorry for anyone I disappointed, but I beg of everyone to really contemplate what actually matters, the livelihood of residents or the profits of industry. Anyone who lives here should be standing with the people, and it's never too late to stand up. Okay, here are three reasons I'm against moving forward with Inner Harbor Desal Rapid Fire. One, nobody in here would welcome it in their own backyard, so we shouldn't be okay with it in anyone else's either. Arguably, especially in Hillcrest neighborhood. Two, the cost. Residents will be stuck with high water bills, paying for a diesel plant built for industry, and many won't be able to afford the new costs. Plus, it will likely require regular expensive maintenance. Three, the environmental impact. It will require a lot of energy to run. Thank you in advance for anyone who goes with your heart and decides to vote no. Thanks.

Thank you, Ms. Dolson.

Jared Suarez, District 2. As a former Army chef, I really got good to a point that I can quickly smell the individual food item and know what tweaks to make without taste testing. I say this because whatever is in the saucepan that some of the city council is cooking, this does not pass the smell test. I'm sure if I were to taste test it, I would taste oil, money, and greed. Here are some of the things that do not pass the smell test. One, why is Inner Harbor desal being pushed so far down our throats? Two, time and time again, the public has said that we aren't against desal. We are against it being an experimental Inner Harbor desal paid for by us taxpayers who will not benefit from the water. Three, we know inner harbor waters are heavily polluted, oil and fuel runoff is leaked, heavily salted water, sewage contamination, and not to mention that boats and ships generally avoid running water makers in harbors and marinas. Why? Because the filters cannot handle such a capacity. Knowing this, why are some of you still pushing for inner harbor decel? Four, I read in the news outlet that the Nueces River Authority has got with a company to put a desal plant on the Gulf waters, but the brine being put back miles into the Gulf. So why are we still trying to vote for Inner Harbor? Five, what about Axe H2O? Are we not going to hear them and what they have to say? They are quoting a lot more MGD versus what the Inner Harbor desal can produce. Six, there are three of you guys up there that I ask, If you will have the testicular fortitude to say publicly who has given you kickbacks to push for an experimental Inner Harbor desal plant. Stop playing games with our money, with all the ungodly amount of taxes we are paying to. Last week with that storm, my street flooded and yet on my utilities, I have to pay a storm water fee. My street, like many, do not have an inlet for drainage. I believe that the city should owe me more than $1,000 of back pay for a fee that I do not have privy to. I was told after I complained about this that the fee is to umbrella the whole city. If that's the case, why are we having major flooding for one night storm? Where is our tax money going to? To another point, if the city is allotting us to use so much water at a certain cap amount, why can't I use my water how I want to? Is the city using water restrictions to line their pockets out there Or is there something we're not being told? It is repeatedly said by others that the residents aren't running out of water, so what gives? The legend of Billie Jean said it best, fair is fair. We demand the refineries pay their fair share, not overuse water, that forces them to tap into our reserves. May Our Lady's seed of wisdom, and who is the undoer or not, is guide your conscience to justify, to vote justly for this city, not in greed's pocket. Thank you and God bless.

Thank you, Mr. Suarez. Damian Morales.

Damian Morales, District 5, Corpus Christi resident, commenting on the Inner Harbour desal project. First, I would have liked to thank the mayor and city council for seemingly unprecedented levels of activity. However, a closer examination reveals haphazard private sector developments taking priority, while infrastructural improvements lag behind. Note the EPA cited ancient sewer system and skeletal community centers. Key factions in this council have overseen the reckless surge in approvals of high-volume water users in the past decade, displaying rash caution and an eager lack of forethought, and yet have the audacity to equate the further expansion of the swollen private sector residents resource needs resultant is the water crisis we see today the need to diversify the city's water portfolio has been common knowledge for 30 years several officials have emphasized the relation of cost and accessibility noting that more accessible sources such as groundwater are the cheapest and fastest to secure and operate amidst the incredibly delayed scramble to broaden the portfolio some members now want to re-deliberate the once deferred inner harbor project which with an estimated $47 billion annual operating expense, a $1 billion capital cost, and an ETA of 2028 constitutes a mere 30 million gallons of water, cost excluding reverse osmosis and large particulate filter maintenance in an EPA-cited excessively high benzene zone. All in all, this project is supposedly dependent on the far-field model, a debacle fraught with key departures and inadequacies, to prioritize the least reliable, least timely, least safe, and most expensive water rather than more accessible water sources, with public funds at stake, whilst beckoning industrial expansion shows a refusal to seriously engage the city's water and infrastructural crises. I urge the council to vote no on the Inner Harbor desal project and find a legitimate use of public funds. Given the lack of integrity and mounting controversies, I would like to request immediate conducive resignations of the mayor and city manager. Thank you.

Marisa Kintu.

Good afternoon, City Council, Mayor. My name is Marisa Cantu. I'm the president of the Corpus Christi Apartment Association. I'm here to address how the city's drought contingency plan impacts multifamily residents. The current plan relies on historical usage to set water limits. However, many apartment communities, especially newer properties or those with changing occupancy, do not have a reliable baseline. This creates a real risk of penalties, not due to overuse, but because of how the policy is structured. The variance process is also difficult to navigate. There are no clear timelines, no consistent standards, and no assurance that charges are paused during review. As a result, properties may be penalized even while actively trying to comply. This challenge is even greater in allocated communities. where water usage is shared. There is no practical way to determine individual consumption, making it difficult to fairly assign usage or cost to the residents. We support conservation and responsible water use, but any allocation should be fair, consistent, and aligned with how single-family homes are treated. Multifamily residents are no different from the other Corpus Christi residents. Without adjustments, this plan will unfairly penalize them based solely on where they live. We respectfully ask the city to adopt a fair and consistent approach to water allocation. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Cantu. Mayor John Green.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Council. Thank you for the opportunity for being here with you today and being able to speak. on behalf of an item on your agenda that would basically, in the event that we get in an emergency for curtailment, and how the current policy is written. On behalf of the Portland City Council and our residents, we respectfully request that the City of Corpus Christi revise its proposed residential water allocation methodology for level one emergencies to ensure fair treatment across the region system. The Portland City Council has unanimously passed resolution 947, seeking equitable water curtailment measures. While we support regional conservation, efforts ahead of the potential end of the year 2026 emergency. Know that the current proposal penalizes communities outside of the city of Corpus Christi. The issue lies in the baseline calculations. Wholesale customers, San Patrician Miss Water District in Portland, the allocations are based on actual historical use limiting potential Portland households to an average of 4,754 gallons per month. Corpus Christi customers, the ordinance grants local households a flat allowance of 8,000 gallons per month, regardless of historical use. Data shows households in both cities, Corpus Christi and Portland, use comparable amounts of water. I just handed you a copy of basically the chart showing both averages. The chart provided to you was taken from the slides presented in your April 21st City Council workshop. and we just took Portland's numbers and we put them on top of those numbers so you could see the comparison. Applying a 25% reduction to Portland's lower actual use base limit of 4,754 gallons while giving Corpus Christi residents a higher arbitrary limit of 8,000 gallons creates an unequal and unjust burden on all regional partners. We all get our water from the same reservoir. We are all equally pulling from it now and we follow all the same restrictions. We're all customers of Corpus Christi Water District regardless of who distributes the water to our residents of Corpus or the regional area. What's left of the water in the reservoir at the time we get to an emergency state should be distributed equally in any and all residents who are pulling from it now. That should not change because we're in a state of emergency and the new policy should be adopted to reflect it. No resident should have preference over another on water we all have left in the system. To resolve this equitably before final policy adoption, we humbly request the following actions. Postpone the final vote on curtailment ordinance to allow for regional policy alignment. our direct Corpus Christi water staff to collaborate with San Patrician Minnesotan Water District to establish uniform population adjusted baseline for all regional resident customers and form a joint regional task force to review equitable drought allocation frameworks before the curtailment timeline. Thank you again. I'll urge you to adopt uniform allocation to standard protects all residential users.

Thank you.

Thank you all again.

Chair Price.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Council. I appreciate this opportunity. My name is Jeff Price. I'm the incoming general manager for the San Patricio Municipal Water District, and I've had the pleasure of meeting a few of y'all, and I look forward to meeting the others as time goes, and I also look forward to working closely with you. I know y'all have an unenviable task here today, a lot of water items that are critically important. repeating what the mayors of all the communities that we serve have said. They've said it as eloquently as I can. I will just say that I've spent the first three weeks of the job spending a vast majority of my time trying to understand how the allocation was developed and how it can be allocated across our customer classes equitably. And I think that's the difficulty at hand is we want to be in line with y'all. We want to work to make sure that our... demands meet our supply. And from the data that's been publicly shown and that I've had access to, we're roughly 3 million gallons per day short of being able to apply the allocations to where our municipal customers would have the same amount and be able to have the same allocation as Corpus Christi residents. With that, again, I appreciate your time and I'll cut my comment short. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Price. Leah Aguilar? Leah?

Okay.

And David Love, I think, is not here, but might be back later. It is 2 o'clock. We are going to break for 30 minutes and be right back by 2.30. There is no executive session, so we're going to break for 30 minutes for a quick lunch break, and then we'll return to continue public comment. Sorry, Paul. We're going to go ahead and reconvene our meeting and continue with public comment, beginning with Stacey Garrett. After Stacey will be Julian Hernandez, Victoria Hernandez, Manuel Izquierdo, Delia Moreno, Mackenzie Moreno, Christy Bock, and Peyton Campbell. So again, first is Stacey Garrett.

Hi, I'm Stacy Garrick and I'm District 4. I started a garden last year to be more self-sustainable. This year, Corpus Christi is facing a stage one water emergency where I can't water my garden, I can't water my grass. Meanwhile, big industry can apparently use as much water as they'd like. I grew up in Johnson County, Kansas. In 1957, they formed a public water district called Water One, owned by the people, for the people, run by water experts. They have a water plan through 2050. They're nowhere near an ocean, they've never run out of water, and they win awards for best drinking water in the state. The difference, politicians aren't using water as a political tool. In my 52 years, I have never seen a city mismanage its water this badly. And I have lived in eight cities across the U.S. In Ingleside, Chemours, a spinoff of DuPont Teflon, is the most legally exposed operation in the PFAS industry. PFAS, forever chemicals, are linked to pancreatic, kidney, and testicular cancer, thyroid disease, hormone disruption, and more. PFAS has been detected at the Chemours fence line, and we wonder why PFAS is in our bay. This city oversold our water. Now you're asking citizens to pay nearly a billion dollars for an Inner Harbor desalination plant. pulling water from a harbor with PFAS levels above the EPA's recommended limit, sending it to our taps to drink and discharging PFAS contaminated brine back, concentrated brine back into the bay where families fish and feed their children. We've been told PFAS is basically everywhere. That's not leadership, that's surrender. PFAS is everywhere because people like me voted for people like you to have our best interest at heart. I spent nearly two decades fighting for my life with a serious pancreatic condition. My father died of stage four pancreatic cancer from a chemical exposure. I no longer take my health for granted. I'm asking you to not take the health of Corpus Christi residents for granted either. Please vote no on the Inner Harbor desalination plant until more research and studies can be done by water experts. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Garrett. Julian Hernandez.

Good afternoon, City Council. Ms. Sylvia Campos, I appreciate giving us three minutes. Here in a second, you'll see why. Mr. Everett, when I first started coming here, I made a comment about my children. And we're the ones making all the disruption in that back row over there. So those are my daughters. A couple of them couldn't make it because they are working. But that's the working class right there. My birthday was a couple of days ago, and I asked them to come here for my birthday. Y'all started opening up this... this council meeting today with fathers. I wasn't a lot around because I worked all the time for them. So what started me coming here, I say was them, when I heard about the fees that the The residents were going to be assessed if we went into curtailment. First thing I did is I messaged them to find out what their rates were, how much consumption they were using, whether they can afford it. One of them that's not here, she commented, Dad, don't judge me because I pay my bill every other month. Okay. These are their families. You know, all my grandchildren are not here. All my children aren't here, but there's a couple of grandchildren that I brought with me today that they will comment today. But it's come full circle for me, and this is a proud moment for me. Mind you, they don't speak as eloquently as the other young lady they speak or they're going to speak with my granddaughters. I didn't want to have a say in what they said, so I just sent them the agenda so they're winging it. I'll be here to help them out. I guess the initial thing I was going to talk about was the Fair Water Amendment because that's what started it all for me. I went block walking last weekend and I had some time to think about, Using my time appropriately, am I taking away from my kids, my wife, my family, to get people to sign this paper? And I did speak to a friend of mine, a deacon, and he asked me, why did I start doing this? I said, it's because of people that don't have a voice. Like my kids, because they got to work. And I learned that when I was knocking on doors. Hey, can you sign this? Do you want to sign this? Kind of explaining what's going on. And a lot of people are oblivious to it. Like I was at 50 years old coming to my first meeting. but the response that I got from those people out there, I don't know if anybody here I heard you did, kudos to you, it was hot. I don't know how many other people actually knocked on doors and asked, hey, how do you feel about this? The real residents, the ones that pay their utility bill every other week. Thank you. You'll see me here with holding their hand. Thank you.

Victoria Hernandez.

Good evening, City Council. My name is Victoria. I am a District 1 resident.

Can you move the microphone closer to you?

I have serious concerns about desalination in Corpus Christi, especially if this project is mainly being built to serve refineries and industrial. I support jobs, I support industry, but if industry needs this water, then industry should pay for this water. Residents are already paying water bills, wastewater fees, and storm water fees, and barring last week, we're also paying drought fees or runoff fees. Where's the water? We have no rain. Now we're being asked to help pay for another massive project. We've had rain for much of the past week. Our reservoirs have received relief. More importantly, with responsible planning, conservation, and stewardship, Corpus Christi can have water. The real question is not whether Corpus Christi has enough water for its residents. The question is whether industry has enough water for unlimited growth. Those are not the same thing. We're told some refineries operate closed-loop systems. If that's true, why are they still using tens of millions of gallons of new water every day? Before asking residents to pay more, we need full transparency on who's using the water, how much they're using, and whether the largest users are doing everything possible to conserve. If residents are expected to pay for this project, then residents should clearly benefit from this project. But if the primary purpose is to provide water for industrial growth, then let's be honest about that. Let's stop calling it community investment and call it what it is, an industrial investment. I'm asking city council who benefits, who pays, and who protects what God gave us. Corpus Christi families should not be asked to finance a project they may never meaningfully benefit from while accepting the risks that come with it. That's it.

Thank you, Ms. Hernandez. Manuel Izquierdo.

Good afternoon. Mayor Guajardo, ladies and gentlemen of the City Council, thank you for the three minutes. I don't think I'll need that long. My name is Manuel Izquierdo. I've been paying city taxes in District 3 since October 29th, 1991. I think I deserve a few minutes. Unfortunately, and I'm ashamed to admit, I am not ready for this meeting. I am collateral damage from Mr. Julian Hernandez. He's my best friend and he said, In lieu of a birthday present, will you come to the city council meeting? Well, coming to the city council meeting and speaking eloquently, intelligently, knowledgeably, if that's even a word, is not something you do with a drop of a hat for your best friend, but I'm a citizen, I'm a conserved citizen. I've already done my share for community service with two different very rewarding projects. I heard a comedian say a bit about he was born into a very, very poor family and his family just had no money for anything. So what they did is they submitted a credit application when he was one year old and it got approved. So by the time he was two, he had a black mark with the credit bureau. He was $10,000 in debt and the bill hadn't been paid in three months. So that's good for a comedy bit, but that's not good for real life. You guys are in charge of maybe choosing a project that the people that I care about the most, my grandkids, my great grandkids that I'm yet to meet, are going to be in that position where they have no say and they will have to pay a higher water bill for all their lives. Thank you for the three minutes. Didn't need him. God help us all.

Thank you, sir. Delilah Moreno.

Good afternoon, my name is Delilah Moreno. Though this Inner Harbor desalination has the benefit of fresh water, it also comes with many disadvantages like high energy consumption, environment damage, ecosystems being impacted, and super high cost to build. I don't think that the Inner Harvard desalination project should move forward because it could have no negative effects on our environment and cost taxpayers a lot of money The plants use large amounts of energy which can increase pollution and contribute to climate change it also creates a salty waste that is often dumped back into the ocean and can be harmful to see animals and their ecosystems and That's all I have thank you for your time

Thank you, Ms. Moreno. Ms. McKenzie-Moreno?

They too like lefty got it at a drop of a hat for them to speak, so.

Mackenzie and Corpus Christi. Mackenzie and Corpus Christi, I am asking you to vote no on the Inner Harbor project in Corpus Christi. I am scared about the cost of my future. This project cost a lot of money. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Moreno. Christy Bach.

Hello, council members. My name is Christy. I'm a resident of Corpus Christi. I don't have anything prepared. I'm just kind of going off the cuff here. But I, for the last five years, have worked up until just the beginning of this year in one of Corpus Christi's refineries. I worked as a security officer. In that capacity, I coordinated with CCFD, CCPD, the Texas Land Commission, Coast Guard, all of these different groups and commissions and their response to our events that happen, our environmental events. We've had oil leaks. It happens. It's the oil field. We've had chemical leaks, benzene leaks. It happens. It's the oil field. It's not perfect, but our response has been fantastic. I can confidently say after five years of working there that the ladies and gentlemen that work in that refinery are doing their absolute best to respond to these incidents to the standard that they are held to, the environmental standard that we set. So where does that leave us? It leaves us here where the standards are set. Our standards Mayor Guajardo, our standards for the environmental protection of our community are too low. And this desalination project is only going to further the standards for our environment in this area. Those businesses, the refinery that I've worked at, are only going to perform to the standards that we hold them to. Largely, by and large, the... The main part of my job as a security officer at that refinery was kind of like a kindergarten teacher. These guys are going to get away with what they think they can, and half of my job is, no, no, no, guys, guys, what do we do when we see a badge scanner? That's right, we scan our badges. That's what we do, guys. They're going to operate to the standard that you hold them to, and you guys are the ones that set the standards. your standards for this desalination project need to be high because we already have lower standards compared to the country at large for our environmental protections. Corpus Christi has allowed refineries to get by with these environmental contaminants, these exposures. I've been exposed to benzene. Me personally, the person standing here in front of you, I know what it's like. I know the damage it does. I know that it can be done because one of our plants sits 20 feet across the street from a protected marshland. I don't know if you guys are familiar with the layout, but you probably know which one I'm talking about now. 20 feet across the street is a protected marshland that has, apologize, that hasn't had an exposure in years. It can be done with the proper planning, with proper time, and action taken for action's sake is never a good choice. It's never a well thought out choice.

Thank you, Ms. Buck. Appreciate it. Thank you. Peyton Campbell. Peyton Campbell. Oh, that's you, I'm sorry. That's okay.

Good afternoon, mayor and council members. My name is Peyton Campbell. I'm a Corpus Christi resident of District 3, a geologist and the science director for the Coastal Watch Association. Like many people in this room, I understand the importance of securing a reliable water supply for this region. Desalinization may ultimately become part of that solution, but if we're going to move forward with a project of this magnitude, we must ensure that it is done in a way that does not sacrifice the long-term health of Corpus Christi Bay. I'm asking you today to listen carefully to the scientists who were appointed to review this project. A recent scientific opinion signed by leading experts from the Heart Research Institute, the University of Texas Marine Science Institute, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, and Texas Parks and Wildlife concluded that the current modeling effort has not produced convincing evidence that desalinization would avoid detrimental ecological effects across the Corpus Christi Bay system. Their review found that the desalinization discharge is expected to increase salinity stratification in the inner harbor and Corpus Christi ship channel. In simple terms, heavier, saltier water settles near the bottom while lighter water remains near the surface. When the layering becomes strong enough, oxygen from the surface cannot easily mix downward. The scientists warn that this process can increase the risk of hypoxia or low oxygen and even anoxia where oxygen is absent. These conditions can stress marine life, compress habitat, and in severe cases, to fish kills. The report found that these effects may extend at least five miles from the inner harbor discharge area through the corpus Christi ship channel and could lengthen the period of stratification from a summertime phenomenon into the fall and early winter. Perhaps even more concerning is what the model did not evaluate. The scientists repeatedly requested dissolved oxygen modeling, yet dissolved oxygen was excluded from the analysis. Without directly modeling oxygen, the study cannot fully evaluate whether increased stratification will result in harmful low oxygen events. The scientific committee also identified other major deficiencies, including inadequate vertical model resolution, unresolved validation questions, limited scenario testing, and the lack of an independent peer review of the model and its assumptions. They're not making political arguments. These are respected coastal scientists asking for the same thing scientists always ask for, better data, independent reviews, sufficient time to understand the consequences before decisions are made. As someone who grew up in Corpus Christi and works in environmental science, I believe we can meet our water needs without gambling with the health of our Bay. The Bay supports fisheries, recreation, tourism, and the quality of life that makes this community special. Please listen to the scientists that have repeatedly asked you to not approve an Inner Harbor desalinization. Any Inner Harbor brine discharge is inadvisable and the risk is not worth taking. Please do not consider this. Vote no for the Inner Harbor. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Campbell. Reagan Reeves. And then we'll have Darcy Letson, Jaden Birdwell, Gus Hernandez, Sylvia Salas, Piper King, Eli McKay, Christina McKay.

Hello, good afternoon. My name is Reagan Reeves. I'm a resident of District 2. Even if the Inner Harbor project wasn't being built on top of our Hillcrest neighbors or going to kill our bay, it's still not to the benefit of our city. It will not quench the insatiable thirst of the companies that rely on us to outsource what many people here today recognize as our most precious resource. A vote in favor of the Inner Harbor desalination plant is not out of need, but out of greed. Corpus Christi deserves much better than this. Please don't spend any more time entertaining this project. It's a beautiful day for democracy, and thank you all for my three minutes.

Thank you, Ms. Reeves. Darcy Letson? Darcy Letson? Jaden Birdwell.

I'm Jaden Birdwell. I'm a resident of Corpus Christi. I'm here today to talk about the HUD-8 data center deal, and I want to skip the corporate talking points and address the absolute truth on public record. We all know that what is actually happening here, the state of Texas has systematically stripped away local control because this project is on unincorporated agricultural farmland. The state system has intentionally tied your hands and made it so everyday residents have zero say while our power grid and water resources are handed over to big tech. But hiding behind closed doors, executive sessions, and staying silent is a total betrayal of your office. Your primary job is to protect the citizens who live here and pay taxes here, not to quietly manage our resources as they get drained. If the state is the one hurting everyone, then you need to stop being quiet and start fighting them. Therefore, I have three direct demands for this body today. Weaponize our state lobbyists. Our local tax dollars pay for professional lobbyists in Austin. I demand that you immediately order those lobbyists to fight to overturn the data center sales tax exemptions and restore county zoning powers during the next legislative session. Pass a formal resolution of opposition. Put it on paper on the record that this local government formally opposes state laws that strip our zoning rights and put our Costa Bend power grid at risk, defunding the Economic Development Corporation. The Corpus Christi Regional Economic Development Corporation is sitting here using our local tax dollars to actively recruit these awful data centers that bring absolutely nothing to our community. I demand that you pool our public funding from the Corpus Christi Regional Economic Development Corporation. If they are going to use our money to bring in industries that drain our power grid, risk our water, and price residents out of their home, they shouldn't get another dime of taxpayer funding. And stop lying to us. We have city and county leaders out here telling residents that the city isn't the provider. We're trying to claim the facility will only use 10,000 gallons of water for the bathrooms. That is flat out lie by omission. You are intentionally hiding the millions of gallons of water the regional grid has to consume just to put a massive gigawatt of electricity into this data center. You are lying about how This is going to destroy our environment, strain our grid, skyrocket utility rates to price everyday people out of their homes. You're only lying because you are too embarrassed to stand up here and admit that you are completely powerless against these corporations. If you are too afraid of political fallout in Austin to gladly stand up and protect our water and our electricity, then you are not doing your jobs and the residents of this community will remember exactly who stayed silent when it's time to vote. This is institutional corruption. It needs to be stopped. And are you aware of what is happening to citizens who stand at this exact microphone? Federal law enforcement and internal intelligence bulletins have now officially created the category of anti-extremism. They are using it to intimidate regular people like me and like your neighbors in this room who simply show up to town hearings to talk about grid strain, water use, and AI data centers. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Birdwell. Gus Hernandez. Gus Hernandez? Silvia Salas? Silvia Salas? Piper King? Piper King? Eli McKay?

Hello, everybody. Been a minute. My name is Eli McKay, and I live on the historic north side, District 1. I'm here to talk about the budget right now. So I want to remind y'all, because it seems like it's been forever, but on February 24th, y'all were provided a budget development calendar. uh this calendar showed that there were plans for community input before the city manager started meeting with department heads i was really excited to see that as it was something that the community had continually asked for for years i understand that we're in an emergency situation with our water i watch every meeting Like I've told you, y'all are like a train wreck, can't look away. But instead of getting community input on the budget, we are getting water information sessions and news that our water bills are gonna be increased in October instead of January. I think most people expect an increase since we started reviewing the water rates yearly. But I'm just not satisfied with that. I think it's bad faith that we didn't have those budget input sessions before department heads begin to prep their budget because as we've learned from the past, the community has a lot of great ideas. The community knows what's happening in their neighborhoods and they know what we should prioritize as a city um so i think y'all should know and i think y'all already know that the community is capable of doing more than one thing we can walk and chew gum and text and send emails at the same time and i know that y'all are too we have a lot of really talented people in our city staff and the department heads So I think we could do better. I think that the budget, aside from anything else that's happening, is the number one thing that y'all do as city council people is to approve the budget and to make sure quality of life programs are funded. I think that's what the community wants. If you were to ask them ahead of telling them what's in the budget, I think that's what you would hear. So that's all I have for right now, but we'll chat again real soon.

Thank you, Ms. McKay. Christina McKay.

Christina McKay, District 1. Thank you so much, Sylvia. There's a lot of important issues on the agenda today, and like at every other meeting, we are going to intentionally ignore a huge swath of our population. According to history's quickest Google search that I did, 9.3% of Corpus Christi's population under the of 65 lives with a disability over 65 is 47.3 even more have children unable to that they're not able to leave unattended they don't have flexible work options they face financial barriers are just as simple as not having gas money all these things and countless others are keeping our neighbors from being able to sit through an entire meeting to speak on a item So when they can't come to the meeting in person, they get to speak less. Their voice is less heard. It's disgusting that we're choosing to do this despite being able to have them participate virtually on every item. We have the technology, guys. Public comment should be held at 530 on Monday noon on Tuesday and at every item virtual participants should have equal access at each of these times Why is it required for you to sign up at noon, but not to sign up on an item? I think that it's meant to be a barrier Most people don't know that you have to do it or how to do it and on an item You don't need that barrier because the time it takes to wait for the item is a barrier on its own So that's that's weird The city claims that we have to sign up so that you can provide we need to provide contact details so that you guys can do follow-up that's weird because I asked publicly directly several times for follow-up from this body and got it many weeks after it's requested so it doesn't seem that that's actually the issue. What it actually does when you combine it with the behavior of the mayor and the thugs who collaborate with ICE at CCPD, it's an environment of fear. It instills fear. And I want you guys to know that in my role with the Fair Water Amendment, I've had an opportunity to speak to so many people I wouldn't normally have spoken to. People call me and have long conversations about their concerns with the city, and they have expressed fear to come here. I encourage them, please come talk at council. And they say, we're afraid. Everyone laughs at Robin Cox for saying that. It's true. One family told me that every time they think about coming here, they think of that woman who got arrested. And you know, guys, I don't even know what incident they're talking about because so many women have been arrested here. If you're a white man of a particular build, it's a little less risky. I encourage them to speak virtually and they're still worried. It's not as easy to confront your government when you give them your location where they can seek you out for retaliation. People are worried to speak from home even because they have to give information about themselves. Maybe they'll be harassed by the police in their homes or in their cars. Also crazy, trying to go down to one minute.

Thank you. Andrea Peugeot.

Okay. Andrea Puyol, District 2. Hey, everybody. I didn't really have a lot of time to prepare a better comment, but I just want to say it's great to see so many working class people here. I mean, it sucks, but shout out y'all. Y'all took the time and maybe even came on your lunch break. So that's great that you came to speak out. But yeah, I'm here to give a comment about Inner Harbor. It's really disappointing that we're here again. Back in September, there was so much opposition for it from the community. I don't understand the economic prosperity argument because because we need to bring more industry here so that we have a bustling economy. It doesn't matter if we don't have water, if we don't have the resources to run a city. And desalination is a false solution. It's too experimental. The location is terrible. It doesn't make any sense, and it's not sustainable. Capitalism is not sustainable, and this constant growth in production is just not going to work. So we have to rethink about this. We have to curtail. Unfortunately, they should cut back, not residents. It's insane that residents have had to cut back so, so much, can't use their water how they want. An industry can just use it willy nilly and just pay a little fee and they get whatever they want. Y'all are truly, some of y'all are, they're puppets, and it's so disappointing and disgusting. And by the way, the people here in navy blue shirts are not paid. We are here because we care, and we love this city, and we love this bay, and we don't wanna see it die. If that bay gets affected and it dies, what is this city gonna be? How much time do I have? Great. Yeah, you also just listen to the residents because we live here and we're important and we're the majority. These industrial goons are not. They don't pay taxes. They don't contribute to the city in actual meaningful ways. They pollute, they destroy, and all they want is the land. They want the resources. They don't want us here. They don't want us even speaking to you all right now. Yeah, just vote no against Inner Harbor. Listen to the people of Hillcrest. They are a neighborhood and they deserve to be protected and have wonderful lives. So please just vote no on Inner Harbor. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Pujol. Alejandro Benavides.

Hello, my name is Alejandro Benavides and I live in District 3. This problem's been a problem for a very long time. We got tied to industry and refineries over 50 years ago. It's not necessarily all y'all's fault, right? Absolutely. Then we got tied to these drought exemptions for industries in 2018. That actually is some of y'all's fault. We do need to understand that we've been sold out by career politicians. Not everyone up here is necessarily a politician, though you did run for an office. But these career politicians have continued to sell us out over and over and over for their, one, their own best interest. And their own best interest is being paid by the interest of others. And those interests, that's why it's so easy to see who's paid out. Because the evidence shows that they cannot prove that this will not affect our bay negatively. But yet we still have council members that are willing to jump and do mental gymnastics up here and do cognitive disassociation from reality and the facts because they've already been paid, spent it and can't get that money back. Giving donors kickbacks, it's unethical. Giving your own companies contracts to the city, unethical. Insurance contracts to the city, unethical. That's why some people I believe are walking away saying, hey, I gotta go take care of family now. Because we see what's going on and we're about to start holding everybody accountable. So some people are getting while the getting is good. But don't think we're gonna stay quiet about everything that's been done. This city is ravaged, walk outside, there's homeless people all over the neighborhood. We can't feed our own people and they're starving to death and they're thirsty and we have no water to give them. Why? Because industry's thirst never ends. Feed the people. We don't have money to feed the people, but yet we're going to get into debt, even more debt. The free store, creating a shower for people who aren't able to afford a shower. That should be the city. We shouldn't be forcing our community activists and leaders to have to do it. You should be the leaders. You are the leaders. So step up to the plate and do it. Because people are starving and they're thirsty, they're going hungry, they have no homes. We're closing libraries, we don't have streets that are worth the crap. We don't have sidewalks in so many neighborhoods, which is what against the ADA. You wanna make these beautiful parks without sidewalks or streets where they can go to them. Whose is that help? It's just like giving money away to the water companies. Who does that help? Not us.

Thank you. Craig Pierce.

I am Craig Pierce from Gills District 5. After we went on break, I was up talking with Rolette and Paulette. The rest of you were on break, so you didn't hear this. I went into the city manager's office to suggest while earlier that there was a whole bunch of people in the lobby standing in line, and we could use some chairs out there in the lobby to sit on. And the report that I got, I think I walked into the city manager's office, hung a right, went to that first office there, and I asked the lady, may I just go ahead and sit quietly in a chair in that office just to monitor this event? And she said, no, you can't sit here. And I said, why? I mean, I'm president of the city. I won't, you know, cause any problems. He said, no, you know, you've got to be out in the lobby. And I said, well, you know, could you bring some chairs out to the lobby? Well, we'll look into it. Never happened. Never happened. We are the citizens of the city. Why were we not provided chairs? Just a thought. You've got to look out for the citizens of the city. Just a thought. I am definitely not in favor of the Harbor desal project. I would suggest that you look at the mayor of Corpus Christi who really set the bar on taking care of the city, Mayor Mary Rhodes. She was very controversial in her day when she proposed a pipeline which was going to be needed, not then, but several years into the future. And the visionary nature of her foresight wasn't really fully realized until after she died. Think of that as a standard of what should be done. We don't need that desal plant right now. We've been given a reprieve with all of the rain that's come in, the water that's filled up Lake Corpus Christi. We can certainly give it a little bit more thought, a little bit more research. I mean, having a gunky water sucked up into a desal plant sounds like it's gonna be a big mess. Industry should pay for that water. They're the ones that are sucking it up. They should pay for it, and they should pay to build the desal plant. I just do not see that the residents should have to pay for it. If the industry wasn't there, the desal need would not be there. or the increased water supply need would not be there. I really think that we need to take the time to do this right. We've got to reprieve. Look to Mayor Mary Rhodes. She did it right. We can follow in her footsteps.

Thank you, Mr. Pierce. Erin Price.

Good afternoon, Council Mayor Aaron Price, Ingleside, former 38-year resident of Flower Bluff. I've come here to talk about the Oso Bay Trestle Bridge project. It's been in the work for many years. We had a meeting years ago in Flower Bluff regarding some very, very early designs of it. We have a concern as a fisherman, and many people in that area are fishermen, and there are people that fish with airboats and shallow water boats past the bridge that was actually destroyed by Hurricane Harvey. The email that you all have a copy of now is my correspondence to engineering. No response. I would like some follow-up is all I'm asking. We're requesting 10 feet in the middle section from the water line to the bottom of the structure. That is all we request. So thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Price. Mayor Naldo-Martinez.

Good afternoon, Mayor and council members and staff. I want to thank you all for the time that you have spent looking into our water solutions. It's been very challenging and certainly there's been some spirited debates. So thank you for your service and your commitment. I will say back in 2000 and when I was mayor, we had the opportunity, I had a great council and we were able to finish the second road the second phase of Mary Rhodes, phase two. And thank God for Mary Rhodes. Craig, I was so happy that you recognize the wonderful vision and sacrifice and the courage that Mary Rhodes has. But I will tell you, in 2014, we also knew that we had to look long term for a desalination project, because we knew that was infinite. We also knew that that would not have to depend on water, rain, in order to recharge. because we figured out after many history lessons in our droughts that rains what comes in between droughts. We got with HDR, did a long-term study on desal, and here we are today. I have been watching this for so long, and one of my biggest concerns were about many of the facets of the feasibility study and that I questioned also along the way. I believe that we have spent a great deal of time studying this, environmental effects. We've gone through several reiterations. And we have also recognized that this also will be resilient for us, something we own. We have a low-interest loan. We also have a state representative that went to bat for us to take off the $30 million cap on the Bureau of Reclamation for the grant that we are administratively complete, that correct, city managers and owning. So with possibly a half a billion dollars, it appears that is going to happen for us. So I encourage you to please finish what was started in 2012 and even before that. There's been a lot of effort and a lot of time. And I will tell you, everyone here in this room cares. I don't question anyone, their intent and what they believe. But I believe that this is the right project. It's sustainable. It's long-term, it's drought resistant, and we don't need any more delays. We need to get her done.

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Jasmine Evans.

Hi, I'm Jasmine Evans from District 5. I had much nicer things planned to say, but as I've just been listening to everyone, kind of like... Beg for their communities, for their livelihoods, and for their futures. It's just been really hard listening to that all morning or just every time I come here. And it's like the whole time I'm here, I hear my grandmother's voice. Um... It's been a year without her, without Miss Jackie White, and I love her very much, and I love this community, and she's just instilled so many values in me. She was a very beautiful woman and very loved by her community. My comment is related. She worked at a laundromat for my entire life and she made me work at that laundromat with her to take care of my community. I have a lot of love for the people around me and the people around her they loved her so much she passed it was a so full funeral home outside we're all wearing animal onesies because she wanted us to be silly on her day and I just sometimes think about like when I pass or when each of us pass like who's gonna be there and what are they gonna say about us and what we've done because at the end of the day we don't have any of our material possessions we don't have any of this money that we suffer so much for. We just have the stories of us and the people around us who's touched our hearts. And the people here in Corpus, they've touched my heart. And I want to call this place home. My grandmother, she had passed from cancer. She had beat it, and then it came back, and it spread everywhere, and it was really bad. And I remember her telling me at the end of it that she was just so tired of, like, where we live and the conditions that we live in and that she just couldn't wait to go home. She doesn't have to think about what the future is gonna be like. And hearing the older folks come and they talk about how they want a future for their future generations for their children and grandchildren. It's like as a grandchild, I don't wanna hear my elders telling me that they're tired and that they don't wanna fight anymore and that they don't wanna be here anymore. I want to have all the time that I can have with them in such a beautiful community. And so it's just, it's hard to hear everyone, our older folks, our younger, like we shouldn't have children here begging for their future. You shouldn't have people saying that they have plans for wanting to leave, because at the end of the day, who are you gonna sell your house to? There's no water here, no one's gonna buy the house. So, that's all my time.

Thank you, Ms. Evans. Melinda De Los Santos?

Okay.

Melinda De Los Santos, District 2. Regarding item 4, I am opposed to the surcharge charges imposed on residents should they consume more than their allocation because the majority of residents use well below their allocation, allowing a water fund for those with the larger households or special needs. I want to donate my non-use allocation to residents, not industry. Item 5, regarding the ordinance amending the drought contingency plan, I do not feel it's necessary to micromanage the residents. It has already been established that most of us use well below the proposed allocations. So I'm recommending on your 17-page ordinance still that on the best management practices per page, I mean per stage, that number three, instead of under threat of penalty for violation, the following water use restrictions shall apply to all persons during stage one and then stage two, stage three, that it should be changed to the following restrictions are recommended. I don't want to feel threatened, okay? I just don't. Okay, now going to Inner Harbor. I'm still amazed at the number of diverse water sources that were made available through the various ongoing projects. However, I find it even more amazing is how the Inner Harbor is still being considered. It's as if critical thinking, deductive reasoning, strategic planning, common sense does not apply to this project. We know the site is going to affect our Hillcrest presidents. We know all the previous studies had concerns of environmental impact affecting the fishing and tourist industry. We know the cost of just under a billion dollars for 30 MGD does not compare to the other desal projects. We have heard AXH2O could provide up to 150 MGDs, no cost to the residents, and at 650 per thousand gallons. They will not use our electricity and instead of dumping the brine back into the water, they are going to recover critical minerals which support the US supply chain. Regarding the Inner Harbor being fully permitted, let's just see what the reliability of TCEQ is. The critiques of TCEQ transparency issues. The Sunset Advisory Commission labeled TCEQ a reluctant regulator, citing a lack of transparency and public input, which has generated distrust among the public. Regulatory failures. The EPA has invested TCEQ for failing to adequately enforce protections under the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act. Scientific criticism. Some scientists have criticized TECQ's conclusions on environmental studies, suggesting that important data may have been omitted. I know there's polling out there, I think by Kronika, and I think in the website Voices for Coastal Bend Energy, they're indicating that 63 to 64 percent of citizens support the Inner Harbor. I've been trying to look for that poll. I cannot find it. From what I gather, that they might have gotten that from that city when city council advanced the Inner Harbor in February, that it was a five to three, and you get 62.5 percent, so that makes 63.

Thank you. Thank you, Ms. DelSantos. Pat Craig. Pat Craig. Matthew Rankin.

Matthew Rankin, Blatantly Armed Media, out of Corpus Christi. Let's talk about the First Amendment, but we're going to change it up a little this time. I'm guessing a lot of you watch local TV news. You get your morning traffic updates. You want breaking news. You want to know what's happening. You might have noticed for the last six months that those reports don't happen, or they just suck. There aren't any more live breaking news shots from the scene anymore. Traffic reports are delayed. You find out about it 10 or 15 minutes later than you used to. Two people are responsible for this, a city manager and the police chief. Back in October, with no public notice or comment, even to the city council is my understanding, Corpus Police completely encrypted their radio network, every channel. For a long time now, it's been open. And it was easy. for anybody interested in what's going on locally to find out what's going on locally. They changed it apparently because of me. Last October, I had announced to the council and gave you a demand letter that I was going to have to sue a Corpus cop because for the first time in six years of recording in here at this town, my rights had been violated and I was illegally detained. One week later, the radios were encrypted. And my understanding is it was for officer safety. Well, considering in six years I've never assaulted or interfered with a cop in the city of Corpus Christi, it seems kind of like BS to me. So the only officer safety issue is that officers were getting themselves in trouble having to deal with those pesky cop watchers. And this was the easiest way to stop us from being able to record and keep track of what's going on in the city. Problem is you pulled the media into it. You hit them in the back with an ax. It's been a long time, maybe a hundred years since the police blotter was the way the local news figured out what was going on in a town. Listening to the main scanner traffic is how media keeps track of what's going on. So they know if there's been a shooting, they know if there's a guy who's about ready to jump off the bridge, the bridge is getting shut down. They know if there's been an accident on SPID because on the scanner radio, the call comes out five times over. We need units to shut down SPID at this exit. Now media has to wait for local tip-offs or you have to rely on the police department to tell you what's going on in your city because there's no way for you to find out anymore. So if shady things are happening, if DUI traffic stops are getting called in and then all of a sudden let it go because maybe it's a retired cop who got pulled over or somebody with connections, And now, oh, mysteriously, the caller who got reported for driving the wrong way down the freeway didn't get arrested. And now you don't know that ever happened because there's no arrest report for you to even know about it. You got to change this. It's up to the city council now. It's been six months. Police chief's not doing anything about it. It's time for you all to get involved and make a change here. Make sure that we have transparency and access in this city to know what's going on day to day.

Thank you, Mr. Rankin. Samuel Andre Fryer.

Good afternoon, Council. Samuel Andre Friar, District 4. First of all, Mayor, I'd like to thank you for proclaiming June as Responsible Fatherhood Month. As a father of four myself, I can understand the mantle of authority that men and fathers have in the families, and we can see the devastating effects of fatherless homes within our society. But this is not necessarily the case when it comes to our form of government, where we the people have a responsibility to form a more perfect union in our constitutional republic. Now, what does that mean for a home rule city like we have? First of all, you are elected to represent your constituencies. In particular, the preamble would state to establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, promote general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves. Ourselves meaning we the people. not your own personal interests, not the interests of your families or your partners or anyone else or any particular interest group. It also means that you are not above the law when you're elected, that you're not above public scrutiny or accountability. Now that places you in a conundrum, doesn't it? Because you have a due process to look at and a city charter, but you also have a water issue to deal with, whether it be bolstering our water supply or whether it be a drought contingency plan that is equitable across the board. Now, it's very important to understand that the only true source of reliable water is from God himself, the creator of the heavens and the earth, the God of Israel, the God who sent his own son to die, the penalties for our sin, which is death. Now, I'll give you a quick example. David, in the scriptures, he was the king of Israel, and he decided to do a census of Israel. And that displeased the Lord because it was something he was not supposed to do because it would put his focus on his own efforts and the efforts of men versus on relying on God to ensure that things take place. Now, our God is just, and he's righteous, and he is holy. it required tens of thousands of people died as a result of what he did in the leadership position he was in. And it wasn't until he fell on his face, repentant for what he has done, asking for all of that to fall on himself, and then to sacrifice on the very place where the temple was later built in Jerusalem before the Lord actually stopped that. Now, what does that mean to you? I saw a shirt today and it said, it's never right to do wrong and it's never wrong to do right. So what am I asking? For you to do what is right. Follow your city charter, regardless of what's going on and all the hearsay is going back and forth and rely on the creator of heaven and earth to do the right thing for the people and not put a tax burden on us. Thank you very much. God bless.

Thank you. Amber Balk. Ember Bach. Sierra Bernard.

Sierra Bernard, District 4, 10th Generation Texan here.

Thank you to my council member, Caitlin.

I had written up something. I thought it was kind of eloquent. I was going to lay out like a little TED talk thing or something. I don't think you'll need that at this point. I think you've gotten the facts. You know what the right move is. You've probably already made up your mind. But I just want to thank you guys for showing up and taking the public scrutiny and still standing here and doing your jobs. I find that something that I personally couldn't do. I also pray that God speaks to your heart on what the ethical thing is to do. I feel like ethics is a very important part of our human soul. It's what makes us special and there are a few things that stick out to me that are absolutely icky and not ethical. One of those is scientific studies. I was into water science prior to this and I worked for some oil and gas companies and we were doing studies on water out in West Texas where they would throw out their oil derricks, um, because it was cheaper to just go put them in a field than it was to process the contaminants out and things like that. Well, I was told by this company that I was to not do research on certain things. I was to only focus on these elements, and we're talking about the nuclear level, so there's a lot of factors that I suggested to them that we study for public safety. And they said, no, we don't want those results come to find out it's because then they can claim that they didn't know better. And so when I see this far field study, I can't ethically stand behind it because to me, if you don't have other parameters in place, it is not true science. It's selective science. And in the scientific community, that's dirty science. Um, it's one of the reasons I left the field of science. was being forced to do science that was incomplete. When you don't have PFAS, you don't have dissolved oxygen. I looked at that and that's like the bare minimum that I would have included. I don't know how that even got co-signed on. But anyways, let me get to the point. I was going to bring a fish from my saltwater tank and put it in a little bucket here for you guys to see because sometimes visuals are great. And I was just going to slowly start adding water to it, you know, mixing it in like a ship or something. But I thought to myself, I'm not going to kill my fish. That's unethical. I love my fish. It's hazardous. And then I thought, well, god dang, that's what we're going to do to all the fish in the whole bay. I just can't find that to be something I can co-sign. I also believe that the company, Axiana, that you guys have doing on this project, There are a lot of questions. What happened to the one in California that was broken? Why haven't they built it in a neighborhood? Why haven't they built it in a closed bay system? Well, gee, I wonder, maybe because it's unethical. It's unethical. It's not practical. We need way more than 30 million gallons of water per day. Everybody knows it. And what we're doing to those farmers out there in their groundwater is unconscionable. Please treat them right.

Thank you, Ms. Barnard, or Bernard. Tina Butler. Tina Butler, oh, sorry, thank you.

Good afternoon. My name is Tina Butler and I'm in District 2. To the Mayor, I'm here today to ask that this desalination item be postponed and carried forward through the regular City Council process rather than this advanced special meeting requiring only one reading. Council meetings are normally every Tuesday. I don't know what's special about this Tuesday in June, but being that it's a special meeting, my understanding is that you only need one reading versus two when you have a normal process. This project has been discussed for years. It is not new business, it's old business. It is a matter of significant public interest that deserves full transparency, multiple opportunities for public input, and careful consideration that comes with regular agenda process. I'm also concerned that the far-field study has not yet been completed. The city is being asked to move forward before critical information is available to decision makers and the public. Good public policy should be guided by complete information, not incomplete information. Let me be clear. I do not support locating a desalination facility in a neighborhood and naming it in a harbor. For me, this issue is both professional and personal. My family has deep roots in Hillcrest. My father still owns a home there today. My family, like many others, have invested generations of time, resources, and memories to this community. We are not talking about an abstract location on a map. We are talking about people's homes, the neighborhood, churches, and family legacies. Hillcrest, Washington, Coles, Leathers, and Coles represent the historic heart of black Corpus Christi. These neighborhoods were among the few places where African Americans and Corpus Christi could purchase land and bury their loved ones. For generations, these same communities have experienced displacement, industrial encroachment, and environmental burdens that were not clearly shared across the city, such as some of these various cancers that I just heard some speak about that the Hillcrest residents have. And because of that history, many residents view this as another environmental justice issue. When historically black communities continue to be surrounded by industrial development, residents have every right to question whether equity and environmental justice are truly being considered. The city should not be rushing this item forward through a special meeting only requiring one reading vote. I respectfully ask that the council reject the proposed Inner Harbor location in items 11 and 12 on the agenda. provide the public with transparent and deliberate process this issue deserves history will remember not only the decision you make today but whether the community affected were heard respected and protected thank you thank you miss butler henry williams reverend williams

Henry Williams, District Two, to the mayor, council, city manager, city secretary, city attorney. You know, we have come here many, many times now, dealing with the matter of desalination. And I am a Hillcrest resident. I grew up in Hillcrest. I live in Hillcrest now. The Inner Harbor desalination is not the city's solution to its water problem. You know, I believe that a part of the city's problem, well, a great part of the city's problem, it has to do with the money problem that the city is in where the state of Texas is concerned, okay? And it has to do with the 200 plus million dollars, okay, that was borrowed, okay, and the city would have a very difficult time. Well, the state will not allow you to transfer that funds to another project. Is that correct or no? Okay, therefore, and there are very, very high interest rates on that money. It would seem to me that what you all should do is contact our political representatives from the area. They need to deal with that and change it at the level of Austin so that you will not be, as it were, tied to that financial picture. There is a scripture, if my people, and you all are familiar with the scripture, who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. Then will I hear from heaven will forgive their sin and will heal their land. And you all have heard great, great knowledgeable people who have come to this podium and who have spoken indeed well concerning the solution to the problem. Political, social, economic, scientific, personal. The Hillcrest residents and the Hillcrest neighborhood deserves to be protected. What we want to do is to rebuild our neighborhood. We would like your help in doing this, okay? We as Corpus Christians need to understand who we are. We are the body of Christ. Let us begin to conduct ourselves as such.

Thank you, Reverend Williams.

God bless you all.

Thank you. Maggie Peacock. Then we'll have Brian O'Callaghan, Myra Alaniz, Robin Cox, Barbara Baker, Julie Rogers, Jake Hernandez, Rosario Lopez-Cardenas.

All righty. Maggie Peacock, District 2. Happy Pride Month. First of all, I want to know what's going on like in y'all's heads when community members are coming up filled with so much righteous indignation and just like begging for quality of life. If you're not moved in any way, you're evil, truly. Anyways, I'm going to talk about hurricane stuff and then I'll talk about desal stuff at the agenda item. As a member of DSA or the Democratic Socialists of America and an open socialist, I want to amplify Cuba's hurricane risk management, which can be found on the UN's website. Our presentation today really had me, this was just really weighing on my heart. A lot of the material that I'm reading today is from a dear comrade. You know who you are. I love you. As Ivan stormed across the Caribbean, the United Nations stated that Cuba was a model in hurricane risk management in developing countries. The Cuban way could easily be applied to other countries with similar economic conditions and even in countries with greater resources that do not manage to protect their population as well as Cuba does. said the Director of International Secretariat for Disaster Reduction, or the ISDR, in Geneva, the United Nations body that focuses on disaster reduction. So the figures speak for themselves. Only four people were killed in Hurricane George hit Cuba in 1998, far less than approximately 600 killed in countries in other regions or in the region with similar economic conditions. More recently, Hurricane Charlie killed four people in Cuba and 30 people in Florida. So many reasons can explain the low level of hurricane mortality rate in Cuba compared to its neighbors. Education is possibly the main one. Disaster preparedness, prevention, and response are part of the general education curriculum. People in schools, universities, and workplaces are continuously informed and trained to cope with natural hazards. They also have every year a two-day training session in risk reduction for hurricanes, complete with simulation exercises and concrete preparation actions. This facilitates the mobilization of their communities at the local level when a hurricane hits Cuba. So Civil Defense and Meteorological Institute and two other pillars of the Cuban hurricane risk management system. Everyone knows how to interpret information given by the Cuban Institute for Meteorology. Television and radio play a vital role in informing the public as the level of alert rises. All institutions are mobilized 48 hours before the hurricane is foreseen to hit the island to implement the emergency plan. and measures such as massive evacuations are taken. Every individual has a role to play in the community level. Local authorities know who needs special care and how to assist the most vulnerable. I have one more sentence. It is part of their development planning and their culture which plays a key role in saving lives and livelihoods. Socialism fundamentally differs from capitalism because of socialism prioritizes the people. So we can learn a lot from their hurricane preparedness program.

Brian O'Callaghan.

Hello, Mayor and council members. Thank you, Councilor Campos, for your service the last two tours. We pray for your healing, your body. Heart Research Council 2015 said it wasn't a good idea in Inner Harbor. Another one in 2022, I think. And then the latest from the Farfield study tends to concur that it's not a great idea. Love desalination, don't like the site. So... I also want to thank you guys for serving in less than minimum wage. Since you guys only get paid about $6,000 a year, there's no way you even get close to minimum wage for all the time that you spend. So we are enjoined. First Timothy 2 says we are to pray for our leaders. So we do. And mostly what I pray for is that you are not tempted because of the low wages to... augment your salary from the influence that your position holds. That's my main thing. So why do we have tunnel vision on the Inner Harbor site? I just pray that you're not tempted by the low wages, that your integrity stands above, because there are people who have served in these places whose careers took off in their day jobs. So shalom, pray for you.

Thank you, Mr. O'Callaghan. Myra Alaniz? Myra Alaniz? Robin Cox?

Hi, I'm Robin Cox, District 3. And you know, every time something bad would happen, my mom would say, see the good in it, what's happened. And I can tell you what the good in this Inner Harbor has done for us. It has brought together people from all walks of life and all different wages, different backgrounds, different educational levels, because we know it's a bad deal. It's bad for the environment. It's bad for the neighborhood. We Googled some things earlier. The discharge threatens marine life, sucks in larvae. Environmental racism. How many of you would like to live there? When we talk about environmental racism, I didn't really know what that was and I had to look it up. We are picking an area of town to put it in. This is a neighborhood where people have families, have built businesses. Some of you say, well, they can move. We'll give them money to move. How would you like them to tell you, let's go to your house, you move, where you have built families, friendships, you've shopped, you walked to school there. There was another, I was a history teacher, and there was another point in time where people came in and just took over people's houses. It was in Nazi Germany in 1939. And we're doing it again. We're just moving people for the cost of the almighty dollar. I like nice things. That's why I work two jobs. That's why I got an education. Guess I went into the wrong field. Teaching and management doesn't pay half as good as what the managers of Corpus Christi make. Should have maybe looked into a different field. So that one was wrong. And when you say that the environment That it's safe and you've done studies. Well, there's some other times in history where they've said that. When my uncle was in Vietnam and they were spraying Agent Orange and they told all the military guys in the Army, it's safe, don't worry about it, you're going to be fine. They came back, died of cancer. Hinkley, California, they told all the people there, it's fine, it's great. Nope, Erin Brockovich proved that and little scared y'all. She said, if we get enough people on petition, she'll come to Corpus. So maybe we need Erin Brockovich here. And we can go to other places, Flint, Michigan, their water, they told them that was safe. So if y'all think it's such a safe thing to do, I have a great idea. We can take all of you that live in Kings Crossing, give you some money and move you to Hillcrest and put your homes there. We'll build you a big home and give you a tax break. I think that's an awesome idea. And some other people that are claiming to know everything about the science and what it's like, maybe people who got a degree in New York from a liberal arts college are now claiming to be scientists. You know, my dad had a great saying, every village has an idiot. But the problem is when that idiot starts to think he's Einstein. But what's even worse is when the people in the village start thinking the idiot's Einstein. You cannot take a boat out. I saw this on Facebook. One of them said, let's just take a boat into the inner harbor and we'll stir it with a stick. I'm sorry, Einstein, that doesn't work. So please vote no. These are people and thank you. Barbara Baker.

Barbara Baker. Julie Rogers. Julie Rogers. Jake Hernandez.

Right on. Howdy, y'all. Howdy, y'all. Jake Hernandez, District 2. I'm here once again to speak out against the Inner Harbor desalination plant. And I just want to real quickly say how much I love to be following Ms. Cox right now. Well, y'all laugh, but I want to tell you guys a little bit of an anecdote real quick. I'm a member of the Corpus Christi chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, one of the co-chairs even. And last week, we hosted a webinar where we invited chapters from all across the state and across the nation to talk a little bit about the water situation here in Corpus Christi and offer a bit of a perspective on it, both... from our viewpoint as lifelong residents of Corpus Christi and as socialists. I actually used Ms. Cox as an example during that webinar. There's several people in here who were on that call and they can raise their hand and confirm that I did. Please do so. Thank you. I did so to talk a little bit about the way, and she said this herself, the way y'all have united citizens here in Corpus Christi or residents here in Corpus Christi. I'm a socialist. I know Ms. Cox is not. They seem to agree with me on that one. And it is true, it's true. But the thing is, the thing that's serious about it is, Y'all have turned us against this council, against this city. There is a long, decades long history of past city officials refusing to responsibly steward our interests, driving us into this water crisis that we are in now. This has been years in the making, decades in the making. And when y'all continue to show disdain for residents like us, We're going to act in kind. One of these councilmen tried to fight me. I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding. Yeah, it was Roland Barada, I'll say it. It was Roland Barada who tried to fight me because I called him out because I didn't appreciate the fact that he... proudly, openly stated that he was shilling himself out for industry. When you have somebody going on the radio, an elected official going on the radio to state openly that, yes, you guys are correct. I belong to the billionaires. What are we supposed to do? Seriously. We know everything we need to know now. And a lot of people say that we deserve better. I disagree. I think we deserve control because y'all don't deserve it.

Thank you, Mr. Hernandez. Rosario Lopez-Cardenas, I'm going to ask y'all to please hold your applause. Please. I'm trying here.

Hi, my name is Rosario Lopez. I'm from Portland, and I oppose the inner desalination plant. I'm sorry if I stumble. I'm a little shy, and I had a lot of coffee. I only have a short amount of time, so I will just list some facts and hope the council can connect the dots on their own. Number one, Corpus Christi is running out of water. In 2025, adjusted net income attributable to Valero stockholders was around $3.3 billion. The Valero CEO had an alleged compensation of between $22 million and $34 million in 2024 stock sale. This is just one company that is a part of Corpus Christi's industry. The median salary in Corpus Christi is $60,000 a year, with 17.1% of our population living below the poverty line, according to the 2020 census. Industry accounts for 60% of our region's water usage. The Inner Harbor desalination plant will cost $978 million of taxpayer dollars, at least. The industrial sector in Corpus Christi hopes to expand in the coming years. Expansion means more water, but Corpus Christi is running out of water. And we, the residents of the Coastal Bend, have to pay for that water. Okay, so I know this is a dirty word, but let's pretend climate change is real for a second. I mean, I know you know it's real. The city follows EPA and NOAA guidelines, but for those of you that aren't convinced, let's just pretend. ExxonMobil's own research from the 70s with highly precise climate forecasts predicted a 0.2 degree Celsius increase in the climate per decade due directly to the emissions from their fossil fuel industry. This report came out in 2015, but they knew this in the 70s. If climate change is real, and remember, we're pretending it is, that means that the coastal-bound fossil fuel industry is directly responsible for the prolonged drought conditions in the region, because climate change allegedly increases the likelihood for drought conditions. I know the folks at ExxonMobil get paid a lot to do this kind of research, and they covered it up for decades, so I hope you get what I'm saying with this. So in this hypothetical where climate change is real, the industry in our region not only accounts for 60% of our water usage, but they directly are contributing to the drought conditions. And they want more water and for us to pay for it. I read in a report by Marketplace that Bob Paulson of the Coastal Bend Industry Association joked with the reporter that we Coastal Bend residents are saying that hurricane season couldn't come fast enough. Like we're praying for a hurricane to solve our drought problems. The last hurricane, Harvey, cost $125 billion in damage, tied with Katrina for the number one costliest hurricane. I guess me and Bob just have a different sense of humor, but I'm definitely not praying for a hurricane to devastate our community once again. I'd rather he and his buddies at Valero, Cheniere, and Keywood just pay for their crimes against us. Bob Paulison also threatened laying off Corpus Christi workers if his plants don't get the water he demands. I frankly do not like being threatened. Maybe we should threaten him and his buddies back. Those are all my facts. I could say much more, but I would just like to ask city council to listen to the people they represent and are accountable to instead of the industry. Thank you, Ms. Lopez. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Melody Cooper.

Melody Cooper, District 5. Just briefly on the Inner Harbor, I support it 100%. I've studied it. I've analyzed it. I've listened to everyone, the experts on it. I believe that is what we need now. Our economy is suffering. We are suffering. We are losing our bond ratings. We are losing jobs. We are losing all around. It needs to be implemented, and it needs to be implemented now. As a 14-year veteran sitting where you sit, where you sit, I ask that you approve it and do what is right. I'd like to turn to the debacle, which is the removal proceedings. Today, we continue to witness a severe miscarriage of justice in a kangaroo court, steamrolling as fast as it can. I'm an attorney, and I spend a lot of time in court. I've been contemplating an analogy to these proceedings in the real world. It is almost funny if it weren't so serious. Say a judge decided to bring, or in this case, approve of a proceeding against an individual. In our case, your approval of the removal proceedings. The trial begins and lo and behold, who's the judge on the case? The judge who brought, or in this case, the counsel which approved it. The case begins. Testimony is taken, and the judge states, excuse me, but I need to move to sit in the witness chair. He takes off his robe, sits in the witness chair, and testifies against the person against whom he brought the proceeding, in our case, the mayor. Then he returns to the bench. Testimony continues, and the case is about to go to the jury. The judge again states, excuse me, but I need to move so I can act as a juror. He removes his robe again and goes into the jury room for deliberations, in our case, liberating the fate of our mayor. Anyone with any familiarity at all with the legal proceedings would laugh and say, this is not possible. This will be thrown out of court. But this was happening in plain sight and in front of our very eyes. Just because an arcane proceeding may be allowed by the city charter does not mean it is constitutional, much less just and appropriate for the situation. If the mayor is removed, she may run again in November, four months away, when the voters can decide her fate. So why waste precious time and taxpayer funds now? If the mayor runs, I will vote for her. At least then I will have a say in who I want as mayor. The voters' choice of Mayor Guajardo 17 months ago should not be eradicated by this politically motivated maneuver. Spend your time and our money instead on not just water, but how about public safety? How about infrastructure and economic development? Oh, just forget about economic development. If you vote Inner Harbor down, there won't be any. The city, the state, and the nation are watching you today and over the next few weeks. Decide carefully what you do. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms. Cooper. Wayne Dolcefino.

I knew I was 83, that's all I knew. Afternoon, Mayor, Council. I don't like to pile on, but a few days ago I communicated with your city attorney, Mr. Risley, that I think the city is violating the law in the way it's treating my requests for records during our investigation of water contracts and hotel fights and all things Corpus Christi and South Texas. I asked for the phone records of one councilman for two years, which is about 24 phone bills, and the city sent me a cost estimate of $10,000, which is amusing. I asked for some emails, and I got a cost estimate of $3,900. I paid it. We have a thing called computers now, it's actually a pretty easy thing. So I paid the 3,900 and then 10 days later, after deciding what they could give me and what they couldn't give me, your city went to the AG after I paid my money. You tell me how much something's gonna cost, I pay you, you're supposed to get it. So I didn't get it. Instead, you went to the AG to try to withhold every single email communication. Every single one, every single phone record, right? Now, look, I've been doing this a long time. I know BS when I see it, and so I wanted to communicate to you personally, which is why I came down from Houston. I told Mr. Risley, not you, told Mr. Risley that I wanted him to communicate to the council that if I'm forced to sue, I will pursue legal fees. I'd like you to look up Dolce Fino versus Texas Tech. and the hundreds of thousands of dollars that university fought to hide records about Mike Leach. Look up Texas City, where their games on public records just got everybody thrown out of office. I don't play this, right? The city attorney is the people's attorney. They pay his salary. I know he thinks he works for some secret entity out there, but this is actually the people's stuff, right? I warned him that if I didn't get my records, except for the ones that are legitimately being argued about. I've only had one brief email conversation with him. I guess he doesn't know there's telephones, too, still, because I've tried to call him several times. Bottom line, if the city attorney doesn't stop playing games, I'm going to sue the city, and you're going to be spending these people money to defend it, and you will lose like virtually everyone else loses if they go to court, and I will. Look up the cases in the Texas Supreme Court. I'm just not going to play with the city's ridiculous cost estimates, which are violative of the law, and withholding records that you know are public. That's all I have to say. I know you're getting beat up, so I'll just say have a wonderful afternoon. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Aline Trejo Chavez.

Hello, my name is Alin Trejo Chavez, District 2. I'm not going to speak on detail because I want to wait for the agenda item to come up, but I did want to mention that the elections are coming up. It hurts my heart that Sylvia will not be running again, but it has been an enormous honor to have you represent me in Sorry. I love you, Sylvia. OK. Truly life-changing, honestly. Getting to know Sylvia has the reason why I'm here, And it's the reason why all of us are here, and it's because we love the city. We love the people who work tirelessly to defend our dignity and quality of life in the city that everybody deserves to have. The way that the city has managed the water has put us on global news. It's put us on the Fortune. We made Fortune the other day, the WAPO, all of the headlines we have made. So all eyes are on us. And like I said, elections are coming up. And last election cycle, there was a clear line drawn about decel. A councilwoman was upset that we had put them on the anti-decel list, so to speak. And then later on, since they have changed their mind and said they are pro-decel, but only if it's going to be a cost-effective decel. So this is an example of changing the narrative, right? So even though we did not win, even though our candidate did not win, throughout the entire process, we changed the narrative of what you as running officials had to meet and what you had to present to the people, right? So these lines are gonna shift. They're coming up in November. The public, I've been talking to them, hundreds of people, doing a fair water amendment. and the people are very aware that the way that the city manages the water does not favor them as residents. That we are in a hostage negotiation right now where industry is using up our water and putting their workers on the front lines to do the negotiations. These workers are up here begging for their livelihood, saying that if you put restrictions on them that they are in danger of losing their jobs when the CEOs of that company have gotten bonuses that amount to billions and millions of dollars. So there's no reason why restrictions on these industries should put their livelihoods at risk, because it's not true. If these workers truly, truly wanted to have power and have force, they should consider unionizing, unionize these industries. Possibly, as a population, we are really, really, as young people, we are considering nationalizing our resources. Petroleum is actually a necessary product, and we shouldn't have to be in hostage negotiations for the dignity of life for these residents against the products that we need. But we don't need to produce petroleum at a rate that produces infinite profits. We can just produce what we need. But this is an example of nationalizing our resources. Anyway, join DSA. Proud socialist.

Thank you. Jennifer Burke Holt Stewart.

Good afternoon, Council. Thank you. My name is Jenny Burkholz. I'm with Coastal Watch Association, and I'm here to stand with and amplify the voices of our local scientists, our community members, and our hillside residents. and also our future generations, which is very important. I also come here as a mom and a person of faith with the United Women of Faith, and we participate in the World Council of Churches with a high priority for climate justice. I think what I find hard here is that everybody in the room can agree on one thing, That one thing is that the decision made today will impact generations. That's a lot for y'all to have on your shoulders and on your mind. And I hope y'all are ready for that decision. I hope that you have all the information that you need. I want to say that my family has been visiting here before I can even remember on vacations and we have enjoyed the bay, the fishing, the everything here and I can't wait to have my grandchildren come here and hopefully my great grandchildren come here. But right now what I have is my child who has come here, my son who has come to love fishing. Do y'all have a memory of maybe y'all's first fishing trip or maybe a grandchild fishing or something like that? Is that beautiful, right? Well, what happened this past time is that my son was fishing on the dock and all I could do is smell diesel. and the humming of dredging, right? And that's not the Corpus Christi. That's not the Bay here that I remember. And that's not the future that I want to have here. He sees Corpus as his home and our home in Round Rock is actually his vacation home. Like he wants to live here. This is his dream. And I hope that y'all will understand that this, your decision is gonna be impacting multiple generations forward. And they don't care about money if they can't go out and enjoy their city. They don't wanna be stuck in a factory that's gonna kill them, that's gonna kill the bay, that's gonna destroy the nature around them. So please do not vote for the Inner Harbor desalinization for your current community, for your future citizens,

and for the bay thank you all thank you jennifer ms wertha do we have uh webex yes we do the first person is sean merritt how you doing council i'm going to uh wait for the boys to get my slide up

And I wanted to say thank you to Eric and to Ms. Campos for earlier. Ms. Campos, thank you for your years of service. We wish you well and we wish you good health. Slide one is the source material. February 2026 peer review article published through Science Direct titled, Impact of Brine Discharge from Desal Plants on Marine Ecosystems of Review. This is not a rushed project. It reviews 15 years of desal brine research across multiple studies and locations. Slide two please. This documents phytoplankton reduction, disruption of aquatic food pyramid, elevated pathogenic bacteria concerns, reduced benthic diversity, fish growth, survival impacts, toxic metal accumulation in marine organisms. Slide three, please. Continues with seagrass decline, core stress, reduced calcification, ultramarine physiology near discharge zones. Slide four, please. summarizes the broader problem. Impacts to fish, shellfish, plankton, seagrass, bacterial activity, ecosystem stability, potential human health concerns including cholera, gastroenteritis, skin infections, respiratory infections, identified within the review literature, and this is up on my page. Brad Bartleson asked a simple question. Are we gonna kill fish? The review article documents fish growth and survival impacts directly. It also documents reductions in phytoplankton abundance and diversity. Phytoplankton sit at the bottom of the aquatic food pyramid. They are the foundation that supports everything above. When the foundation is affected, the impact moves upwards through the pyramid. The final fall field committee report did not conclude the project was safe. It concluded the modeling had not produced convincing evidence that this plant would not have detrimental ecological effects across the Corpus Christi Bay system. And mixing is not removal. Spreading contamination across the water area is not the same thing as eliminating contamination. This is not an open gulf discharge proposal. This is the Anna Harbor combined industrial waterway already dealing with stratification and industrial stress. The same committee report warned that desal discharge increases stratification and the potential for low oxygen events harmful to marine life. It also identified important oversight, salinity, temperature, density strat were evaluated, but dissolved oxygen was not. Dissolved oxygen is what fish, shrimp, crabs, countless other marine organisms depend on to survive. The study evaluated conditions that can contribute to oxygen problems did not evaluate dissolved oxygen itself. Residents are being asked to trust long-term supply environmental decisions based largely on dilution arguments, yet the Farfield Committee concluded ecological harm had not been convincingly ruled out and dissolved oxygen, again, not evaluated. This is not good enough for a project with potential multi-decade ecological consequences or billion-dollar public debt. Thank you, Mr. Merritt. Not directly to citizens and ratepayers. Thank you for my time.

Thank you. Next is Arlo Nichols.

Hello, City Council. Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

All right, I'm Arlo from District 2. Today, I'm commenting in favor of Inner Harbor desalination. We need to support our heavy industry. Residents are wasting up to 40% of this area's water to do things like cook and drink and survive, when that water could be used to make jet fuel for Israel or plastics for Saudi Aramco. Have you looked at the stock market lately? We are just a few months away from our first trillionaire. How exciting. In this talk about dead zones, it's ridiculous. If all the fish die, you should be working, not fishing. Who cares about the fish? All of this whining about high cancer rates, high asthma rates among people who live near or downwind of refineries, it's ridiculous. Get an air filter if you want to breathe. Get gas masks if you want to go outside. It's not that hard. I want to thank the mayor. I want to thank our cohort for teaming up with President Trump and bending over backwards to support heavy industry over all these whiny, unprofitable citizens. Soon, with robotics and AI, we won't even need them. Inner Harbor DeSalle is the first step to a glorious future of huge profits, AI data centers, and so many flares throughout the region, it'll never get dark. But if we are not careful, the socialists are going to take over and start putting people over profit. Did you know the Corpus Christi Democratic Socialists of America is one of the fastest growing chapters in the entire country? That's scary. Did you know they're all over social media in our community, infecting the minds of our youth with ideas like sustainability, affordability, universal health care. Our youth should be focused on getting rich. That's America. These socialists even have a website, corpuschriskydsa.org, and anybody can join. That's not right. Have you heard about the Fair Water Agreement? These tree-hugging commies want to stop giving heavily discounted water to some of the most profitable oil companies in the world. They are here right now, all over town, getting petition signatures. They even have a website for that, fairwateramendment.com, where you can learn more. That's unacceptable. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Councilman Scott Barrera, for standing steadfast against people and for standing with true patriots, like the CEOs of our great oil companies, Elon Musk and President Trump. Thank you for your time.

The level of disrespect that was just shown to this caller is really sad. So I'm gonna ask y'all again. I'm gonna, no, no, no, there's no. So I'm gonna ask y'all again to give that same respect that you all got. I didn't interrupt him because it was his time, he's on the phone, but the level of disrespect Because he's speaking on the other side of what you speak. No, sir, there is none. I'm making a statement, and I'm asking for your respect, or we are going to start asking people to leave the chambers. I mean, come on. All right, so, officer, officer. This row right here? Because we're not going to do this. We're not done with public comment. You're done with your public comment. You're mocking people who you don't agree with. No one mocked any of you. And that is so wrong. We are here to give you your time, right? So, officer, can you stand over here? Because this isn't a second-grade classroom. So if we're going to disrespect and continue to laugh and mock people, I'm going to ask you to leave. I'm going to ask you, this row here, arm on to the right, and the second row behind. And I'm really sorry that I'm having to even say this, but it is out of respect for everyone sitting in this room. I'm going to stand over here. Pardon? no no right now I just want you to stay there because it isn't fair that we have to stop because they're laughing and mocking someone who is speaking yes they can stay now but I'm letting you know if you if we continue this immature the behavior of disrespecting people in this chambers or on the telephone you're going to be asked politely to leave and and I mean I It's just really unacceptable. So please, I'm asking you.

Go ahead. Ready? Next is Ashlyn Counter.

Hi, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Okay, perfect. Yeah, my name is Ashlyn, District 5. Also, the person who just went before me is a DSA member. So calling out other DSA members for his comment, absolutely ridiculous. They weren't laughing at him. They were laughing with him. Thank you. And also, funny, ExxonMobil decided to put up a paid advertisement on Instagram during this meeting about what we are talking about right now in regards to DeSalle. So I just wanted to point that out, too, addressing all Corpus Christians. I speak today as a new Corpus Christi resident. I speak also as a DSA member. Being a new resident, I had to face the grisly reality of becoming educated on the water crisis very quickly. I learned of the gross collaboration between city leadership and the corporations driving this crisis. Gross collaboration perpetuated by members of this council, such as Mayor Paulette Guajardo, Councilman-at-Large Roland Barrera, Councilman-at-Large Mark Scott, and District 1 Councilman Everett Roy by their decision in favor of resurrecting Inner Harbor desal. And now I am forced to take time out of my busy schedule as a full-time worker, full-time student, and an active member in this community to babysit my city council. Let me be abundantly clear. A vote yes to Inner Harbor desal is a vote yes to worsening the water crisis. This city council is responsible for the water crisis alongside the high volume water users in our city, such as Valero, Exxon, who decided to make that post, and Sitco. This council has been presented time again over years with solutions for our water crisis from experts and yet this council is choosing to waste time we don't have on a disastrous desal plant that would not immediately address our water crisis and would destroy our environment. Other industries like fishing and tourism and the historic Hillcrest community. Experts have expressed repeatedly their concerns over this experimental project. The right choice would be and has always been to hold high volume water users accountable and have them reduce their usage and focus on water conservation solutions that would address our water crisis immediately. To the council members who wear the collars of fossil fuel and petrochemical corporations stealing our water, and Governor Greg Abbott who has threatened us with a hostile takeover for exercising our political sovereignty to vote down Inner Harbor the first time the nation is watching, And most importantly, of all the people in Corpus Christi who were just comfortable enough are no longer comfortable. There's been a shift and more people are getting angry and desperate. And I speak to your self-interest and really self-preservation at this point, since that's all you care about, that a decision against the people is a decision towards your ruin. The people met you at the last Inner Harbor desal vote and expressed overwhelming dissent. We have met you here today, and we will continue to meet you at every step you take away from us and towards profit. The path this council is on is not sustainable. The industries you bear your necks to would see nothing of Corpus Christi, and nothing else matters if there is no water. I have to get back to my job now. You should do yours for once.

Next is Trevor Leblanc. Trevor?

Hello, good afternoon.

There you are, okay. Go ahead, sir.

We do have enough industry. The T-34s that were the trainers out here on the base, they had to go through extra inspections, corrosion inspections, because of the air that they were flying through, more so than our counterparts in Florida. So we need to also take that into account. The new T6s will soon have to follow as well because metal is metal and that's what happens. Ships and boats do not run their desalinators in a harbor. A quick Google search will tell you The system contains, or the harbor water is often contaminated with sewage, silt, oils, and chemical runoff. These impurities can quickly clog filters, permanently damage the delicate reverse osmosis membranes. I'm not against desalinization. I served on the USS Midway in a squadron. It kept us, it sustained us for our times at sea. But the site is the problem. We should go with Acts H2O, no cost to citizens, because how double-dog dare you want to go with a plan that the citizens have to pay for when the citizens weren't the ones that got us into this mess? So I want to make a direct request on public record to my councilwoman and District 4, Galen Paxson, to after this vote fails, to make a motion to completely, the only thing that I've heard about this Inner Harbor that is supposed to be good is that it's shovel ready. Well, I asked her to make a motion to take that shovel and bury it. Because it's ridiculous. Also, how dare you even try and limit the times that citizens can go up? If I was on the flight deck and I said, hey, every launch has to go off in one minute, they'd have thrown me overboard and I would have deserved it. Also, CCPD radio should be public because we pay for it. Thank you very much. I hope you listen.

Thank you, next is Sandra Sanchez. Ms. Sanchez. I was trying to do the unmute.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

So good afternoon, Mayor and Council, Sandra Love Sanchez, District 5. I'm speaking today about DeSalle because while the vote may be about funding, it is also about direction. Every dollar approved for this project opens the door wider to a plan that will become an environmental disaster for Corpus Christi Bay and surrounding waters. The city's own consultants have discussed impacts extending miles from the discharge location. If we are evaluating effects miles away, then this is clearly not a local issue cornered to a single point in the inner harbor. What happens in one part of Corpus Christi Bay affects the rest of the bay as well. Hillcrest has already carried the burden of industrial development for generations. Residents should not be asked to accept more risk so industry can continue expanding. As Indigenous people, by the way, I'm a co-founding member of Indigenous Peoples of the Coastal Bend, and I'm a part of the Kronkwa Tribe of Texas on the environmental liaison. So as Indigenous peoples, we view Corpus Christi Bay as an ancestral cultural landscape. Our concerns are not limited to one shoreline. They extend across the bay to places such as Donnell Point and other areas that hold cultural, historical, and spiritual significance. A local fisherman recently told us that crabs have disappeared from areas where they were once common down the channel. Whether that is due to pollution, habitat loss or other environmental stressors, we don't know. It's a warning sign though, that this ecosystem is already under pressure. What is especially troubling is that the residents are being asked to conserve more water and face restrictions while the largest industry users continue to receive priority. Logically, if water supplies are strained, what i would think is we should look at who is using the most water instead we are being asked to accept a risky desalination project so industry can continue expanding that puts profit before people and that's wrong we are also being asked to trust a model yet many scientists and community members have already said that this discharge will harm will cause harm if there is still disagreement and uncertainty why are we continuing to spend public money moving this forward this vote is not just about funding it is about whether we continue down a path that will permanently damage our bay our fisheries our communities and our ancestral lands and waters this is this is now on record Yet again, we are warning you, this desal plant, any desal plant anywhere will destroy the waters it sits in. I ask you to vote no and stop opening the door to a project that carries risks our Bay may never recover from. Thank you.

Isabel Araiza.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Hi, yes, Isabel Issa, District 2, co-founder of For the Greater Good. I'm actually on vacation because city council is not supposed to have meetings on the first Tuesday of the month, and yet here I am. Just to reiterate that I'm against desalination, especially in the Inner Harbor, that people who are making the argument that desalination will preserve economic development are not... looking at the evidence that's in front of them. We've had landscapers, people with pools, fish boat captains, kayakers, all types of local businesses coming forward saying that they were worried about their businesses, that their businesses have gone down because of the water crisis. We need to stop pursuing this path. We deserve better. We don't need more industrial development. People don't want to live by ammonia plants. They don't want to live by industrial plants. They don't want to have their skies light up at night with ginormous flares. And that's what we're looking at with this pursuit of desalination. The solution to our water crisis is to stop the industrial expansion. The solution to our water crisis immediately is to get industry to curtail. Residents have reduced their usage by almost 20% in three years, and industry has not done anything except use more water. And so you need to focus on them instead of focusing on residents. Thank you.

Next is Alberto Sertuche. Mr. Sertuche, we noticed you're in the audience, right? So, okay.

That's fine.

Sorry, I need a second to collect myself. My name is Albert Sartuccia, District 3, owner of Hard Life's Bait and Tackle and team Hard Life YouTube. So motivated today to see more of our community coming together to stand against corruption with this experimental scam. A primary example of a larger portion of our community is paying attention to the city and what they are doing and or not doing. As of right now, we stand 47 against the Inner Harbor with six for it. Speaking today is not including the names who are people who have been called, but they are at work. I would like to also thank the Fab Five for standing up for taxpayers against these industrial lobbyists on the city council, which I deem is a huge conflict of interest and they should recuse themselves today. Still to this day, these questions I will ask again because they have not been answered. Who is going to pay to fix the debase when this experimental plant destroys it? Who is going to pay all the local businesses that will lose profits because their livelihoods have been destroyed and upended? How much are those industries going to sue Corpus Christi because the plant shut down that was giving them the water as per their contracts or will you request the residents curtail again to give those industries water to offset the lawsuits? Here's an example. Noyes County threatened the company $10,000 a day if they weren't ready by the day they were supposed to open. How much will our water bills increase because the city has already spent $1 billion on alternate water resources? How much will our property taxes increase because of this? How much electricity will it draw? How much is it going to cost to build an energy plant to run it so our city doesn't have rolling blackouts? How much is it going to cost for these hazardous byproducts that will actually happen to pull and dispose of trucks, drivers, fuel, permits, fines, because y'all are pretty good at getting those. Just from the simple math that we're doing, we're talking over $3 billion to start this project and excess over $30 billion in the next few years of lost money because of this experimental desal scam. Where do we get those numbers from? Easy, lost local businesses, lost tourism, lost fishing, harvesting industries, lost homes in the Hillcrest area and around the bays, loss of life due to increased risk, lost marine life and animals that live in the ecosystems that will be lost. Remember, this is an experiment. It doesn't mean it has to work. It was an experiment. If it pollutes, it was an experiment. If it fails, it was an experiment. Who pays for the experiment? Us, the taxpayers. This is our plan A. We are fighting for our right to survive, not for people to continue filling their pockets with underhanded deals, getting fed scraps from the table. This is crazy.

Okay, next, Amanda Guerra, if she's online. Got James Perkins. Oh, you're here in person, okay.

Yeah, sorry, I wrote in the call-in because I didn't know if I'd make it due to work, but I made it in here today. James Perkins, District 2. Well, this was... Sorry, I'm gonna take a second to acknowledge that I am also here today because of Councilwoman Campos and I'm gonna say something controversial. I think all of y'all kind of chase that feeling of love and adoration that she is receiving today because she is for the people. She always has been and Even is as she is stepping down even as the next District person to take that chair. Hopefully we'll be following in her footsteps Thank you for your years of service miss campus Originally I was going to speak on the water items, but because I have I have made it in today I would like to speak about the budget Mainly that I feel like we are misusing a lot of our money thankfully we Thankfully, there will be opportunities for us to fix that, but if over half of our budget is spent on police and firefighters, and yet we are not seeing a decrease in crime, we're not seeing an increase in safety, I feel like there needs to just be a pivot. We do need to fund different things. We need to fund things like houselessness programs so that we can get people off the streets. There are empty homes. They can be filled. We need to... Y'all just had a meeting about the getting people assistance with getting their water bills figured out. We could fund that. Y'all spent $70 million on a handful of cars and a few more police slots, and that could have gone to funding an entire department to assist residents who have difficulty utilizing utilizing phone and communications resources to access the water system that we use. And it is a very odd system. I tried to do the online bill payment thing and it just would not take my, I use the internet, did not want to take my card, didn't want to take any of my cards, kept kicking me back. It's almost easier to come in person, but I work 9 to 5, and so that's a ridiculous window to make. And y'all, we could be doing a lot better for the residents here at Corpus Christi with the money that we have, but we're not. We could fund the hurricane preparedness system. because as hurricanes as the weather is getting more and more crazy it is going to hit us hard and i know corpus has had a few uh near misses but it's we're not gonna it's not gonna happen forever you know one day the house of cards is going to come down and we gotta we gotta be we gotta be ready for that and not only us the resident we you are the city your job is to help the residents your job is to make sure the residents can continue to fund the city to continue to You know, it's a circle. We're supposed to be a symbiotic relationship. The moment you cut people out of it is the moment that it's parasitic. But you're going to run out of people to parasite, you know. And it's not that we're going to move. I can't afford to move. This is my home, but I can't afford to leave anyways. People will die, and it will be on the city's hands.

Next, Jessica Villarreal. Kareli Leal? Lauren G? Oh, is someone online? I'm sorry? Yes, is this Kareli Leal? Okay, yes, we can hear you. Go ahead, please.

Kareli Leal, District 3. I ask y'all to truly deep in your heart and make this decision with the community of Cochran and Lyons. Think about the families in Portland, Port Aransas, Ingleside, and please think about the wildlife that call the beautiful bay home. This is supposed to be the sparkling city by the bay, but when you drive into Corpus and Portland, Sometimes you can't even put your window down because you get a file stench. These areas are already prone to stratification and high salinity. So why would we think it's a good idea to discharge our grain into the sensitive ecosystem? The FARPA model is listing more details about the duration of time that these areas will have hypoxia and how truly accurate the salinity level readings are. That 0.5 or 1 or 2 increase or decrease of salinity difference can truly affect the wildlife. And another thing is that the seagrass is already delicate in those areas and with total disappearance, it can be disrupting the food chain. And one question is, What do you want Corpus Christi to be remembered by? A beautiful city by the beach where fishermen plow from worldwide and catch red drum in our beautiful bays and statuary? Or are we going to keep looking crazy by showing the whole world how South Texas and the Gulf is being used as a sacrifice zone? How most of our politicians are just puppets for industry? How our city is corrupt and our leaders continue to allow industrial expansion on the backs of our black neighbors? This inner harbor desal plant is only promising water for industry, not for the people. So please stop trying to persuade the community that it is needed in order for us to grow out the city. I've been here for five years and my water rates keep increasing. How do you expect people to want to stay in the city? What we need to do is adjust the elephant in the room and pluck this leaf from its root. What we need is a city council who will stand up to huge corporate corporations that are giving incentives and tax breaks A city council that will put their foot down and say you can no longer use X, Y, Z amount of water. You must conserve or figure out a way to produce less. We need a city council that will see the reality of our impact across the world. Yes, we have some of the biggest refineries in the United States, but does that truly make you proud? Are you happy that our city is one of the main exporters of jet fuel that is used to bomb children in other parts of the world? Are you okay with continuing the immense pollution that plastic pellets are spreading all around the world? We are being poisoned. So when will we stand up and say enough is enough? We have the chance to show the world that we will put people over polluters. So I hope that you have a heart and think about the families first living here and not industry and they choose corporations. And please do not short the residents of San Patricio over God-given resources. Water is precious. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am.

Next is Lauren.

Thank you.

Thank you. Lauren G. I think I called Jennifer Gracia also. Jared Garcia? Jeffrey Ibarra?

Wait, hello?

Yes, Jeffrey?

Hello? No, no, this is Jared.

Oh, Jared, okay. Jared Garcia, go ahead. Or Gracia, I'm sorry.

Okay. No, you're good.

Go ahead, sir. You can make your comment now. Mr. Gracia, no? Oh goodness, okay, we had him and we lost him. Okay, how about Jeffrey Ibarra? Eugene Navarro? Wilson Strain? Mr. Strain, I thought you were on there, no, okay. How about Angel? Oh, who is this? Okay, Wilson, go ahead, please.

Wilson Strain, District 5. Like most humans on planet Earth, I'm not currently sitting on the board of directors of Chevron or some other billion-dollar oil and gas company. It's for that reason I'm telling you to not go forward with the Inner Harbor desalination plant. We said this years ago, we said it months ago, and we'll keep saying it until you finally listen to your constituents. If you think you can tire us out, you won't. We will continue to show up, which I know some of you find very annoying, and I hope you are annoyed. Think of it as another one of your undeserved privileges. If only the people whose lives you destroy could just be annoyed. If you accomplish your long-term goal of turning Corpus Christi into a Mad Max-style dystopia sponsored by Valero and Exxon, we will remember who is responsible, and you won't get to feign ignorance when the time comes because you're clearly well aware of our concerns right now. I don't know if the stooges in our government that are bought out by billionaires genuinely believe their anti-working class propaganda talking points. They obscure with an ostensibly innocuous pro-business, pro-industry veneer. I don't really care. Whether you're malicious or just misguided, it doesn't matter. The result is the same. By giving more and more to the CEOs of some of the richest companies in the world, and that is what you're doing with this proposed plant, you are hurting workers. End of story. You're not helping the people that work for Valero. You're not helping Corpus' economy. You're certainly not solving our water crisis. If those that claim to be pro-industry are not advocating for the workers to collectively own those industries, they're merely useful pawns for our parasitic, wealthy overlords. This Inner Harbor desal plant is offering up the people of this city and our resources as a sacrifice to these vampiric corporations, plain and simple. We currently live in a society where profit for a very small number of individuals is the driving force. And this proposed desal plant is one of many examples of that dynamic playing out in front of our eyes. Our government works for corporations, not people, not even the workers that make those corporations profitable to begin with. The ruling class is single-minded in its pursuit of ever-increasing profit. Someday, if good tribes over evil, we can create a world where that isn't the case, and the workers that make society run will be the ones running society. People over profit now and forever. Also, it should be noted, because it's always brought up, this council's creepy fetish for what they call decorum is incredibly embarrassing. The audacity of our mayor to talk about respect as we casually discuss potentially committing social murder so rich people can get richer is so frustrating. Why would that conversation be civil? What's worse, mean words, the prospect of giving people cancer? Why not show a shred of respect for your residents before expecting them to lick your boots? Council members are supposed to be public servants. You are owed nothing. You owe us, and you keep racking up more debt. At some point, you'll be forced to actually do your job and give residents what they deserve, you know, like an actual democracy, a concept that I'm sure haunts your dreams. If I have any more time, I'll say this. Free Palestine. Let Cuba live. Abolish ICE. It's socialism or barbarism. Workers of the world unite.

You have nothing to lose but your claims. Mr. Strain, I'm sorry. Hello? Hello? Who is this?

Oh, this is Jared. I lost signal earlier.

Oh, okay. You're back online. Go ahead, sir.

Okay. I just want to say that, you know, I don't know why we keep on talking about this in our harbor stuff. I mean, nobody wants it. Why are we still talking about it? Just enough. We know it's bad for the water. I just didn't learn the first time when people told you this a long time ago. I don't understand. What are we doing here? What are we doing here? I've been watching for two years, literally two years. I've never called. That's the first time I'm calling. This is a show. This is an entertainment show. This is what it is. City of Corpus Christi, it's a show. It's the equivalent of like Dutton Ranch. It's a good show. You watch and it's entertaining. Y'all guys are, it's for fun. People look at y'all guys and good lord, mock y'all on Facebook, YouTube. I mean, it's sad, but it's also funny. I mean, it really is. It's You know, I tune in every Tuesday just to watch the show. You're always doing this on purpose. I'm not understanding. Nobody understands. In fact, the whole corporate little city doesn't understand. You know, I have friends that work inside the city of Corpus Christi in the water department. They know it's a joke. Good Lord, you know? I mean... It's annoying. That's what it is. It's really annoying. And I want to say thank you to Compost, Councilwoman Compost, for taking my call last week and doing something about the park, a specific park. I really do appreciate that. That was very nice and awesome. I've heard of you. But yeah, that's all I gotta say. It's just like, stop with the inner heartbreak. We know it's bad. Why do you keep on, why are you going for it if you know it's bad? It's like doing drugs. Like, you know it's bad, but why do you keep on doing it? It doesn't make sense. And everybody else is telling you to stop. Like, no, it's bad. Anywho, thanks, I appreciate it.

Thank you. Last is Angel. I'm sorry, who's this? Yes, who's this?

Hi, I think this is Lauren. I think WebEx is messed up because it's not responding correctly.

Okay, I'm sorry about that. Would you care to make your comment now?

I would. Okay. Lauren G. District 4. I just want to refer to this as the desal deal that won't die. My question to you all is, Why are we still here? I'm kind of confused about that. I keep hearing people say, oh, it's fully funded. It's fully funded. By who? By us, the taxpayers, is my question. It's simple. Do you Corpus Christians want to pay for industry to have water? um again like it's been said before this water is technically not for us it's for the big guys at a big cost for us i'm not against industry i'm not against detail but i'm not but i don't want to see this in the inner harbor why is this continuously being resurrected and shoved down our throat this has already been voted down but some of you have an agenda And some of you are benefiting by looking like a friend to NS3 alone, but you are not a friend to the people of Corpus Christi. I want to stop being lied to because that's how I feel what is happening is that we're being lied to. The weight of the cost of this is being heaped on the back of Corpus Christian. A few more dollars here, a little bit more on your bill here, a little bit more of this. The problem is, is that everybody everywhere all over is doing that to us. and it's bleeding us dry. Now you want to give more money to draw up plans again to possibly move forward again. But my question for you all up there is how did that go last time? The plant is a want, industry wants it because it definitely doesn't solve the need we have. We need water. They want all the water. So industry wants it, they need to pay for it. industry can pay for it and they can afford it i heard people say the abbott's office is trying to twist the arms of council members and other city officials big government is saying we have no choice we have to do this that is tyrannical at best so let me ask this question will you allow yourself to be twisted by wicked greed keep this in mind you are elected city government officials and you swore an oath before people but most importantly i want to remind you that you swore an oath before god Know that he alone changes times and seasons, and he removes and establishes governments and kings. Dishonest leaders oppress people. If a ruler listens to wicked falsehoods, all his officials will be wicked. Keep that in mind. Keep it in mind that there's consequences. Woe to you who make unjust laws, who deprive the poor of their rights. What will you do on the day that there is punishment? I believe what the word says, that the Bible warns dishonest leaders that corrupt society, exploit the weak and invite divine judgment on themselves.

Thank you, Ms. G. Your time is up, appreciate it. Next, the last person is Angel Ulloa. I'm sorry, it's a different, I've never heard that name before. That's okay. Thank you.

Yeah. Hello. So my name is Angel Yoa, and I'm actually calling in from El Paso, Texas, which is another Texas city that is currently on guard regarding our depleting water sources due to industry. I wanted to speak today in solidarity with the Corpus Christi community members who I've seen fighting the Inner Harbor desal plant relentlessly for so long now, and I have many friends there as well um and let you city council members know that many eyes are on you today around the decision you make in the nation um you truly can set the president on how the state approaches water conservation and know that other cities will feel the impact of your vote So posing the question of if you're gonna allow industry to steamroll you with a false solution and in turn put the weight of the impacts on your constituents, or will you live up to your role as a council member and take the time to explore better alternatives to this water crisis you're currently finding yourself in? for the greater good of your community. So asking that you listen to the majority of our constituents there today, because they've been there for a long time. I've been here on the phone for quite a long time. Thank you.

If you don't live in Corpus Christi, you get a minute for public comment if it's virtual. So I'm sorry, your time is up.

Thanks, just vote no to do so.

Thank you, ma'am. All right, Mayor, that concludes the public comment period.

Thank you. Thank you, Rebecca. Okay, so that takes us to our consent agenda, items two through nine, that's section L. Do we have any requests from council to pull any items two through nine? Yes. four, five, seven, eight, and nine. Okay, I'm going to, any requests from the public to make any public comment at this time on items two through nine? You can come up. He's making public comment on three. Item 3 is a resolution awarding a construction contract to Anderson Columbia for the reconstruction of Flower Bluff Drive from Yorktown Boulevard to Don Patricia Road. Your public comment, sir?

Yes, they're passing out some flyers there. I don't think I have enough. I'll give you a moment to look through those. I got little notes on them and whatnot. I said I'll give you a second to look through those for those that have them. They have little notes on them. My name is Julian Hernandez, Corpus Christi. That is a street that has just been completed. What you see there is stormwater protection. We call it in the industry SWPPP. It's to protect the stormwater drains. This item number three, you're awarding the contract to Anderson Columbia. Some of these, this is what I see all over the city. Each time we get our contractor out there, there's, you know, anytime you disturb over one acre, you're supposed to put these BPs in place to protect our stormwater. So when you have all these deals that when it rains, it floods and everything else, and the residents are paying for these vac trucks to go in there and actually, you know, suck out this stuff. But a lot of it is because the contractors aren't actually doing that. There's a place over there on old Brownsville Road where they're building a soccer park. And all the silt fence, everything out there is in disarray. And I did call the TECQ. They actually called me today with a response back. They said they'd call me back, email me tomorrow, the day after tomorrow in reference to that. But this is going on all over the city. all over the city and all the projects. I wanted to bring it to y'all's attention because I haven't had the chance to do it and these pictures and there's some more pictures all over that I've taken and this is just driving by. Who's responsible for these contractors? I've said it before, who is vetting these contractors? I understand that these contractors that do these paved roads, we only get one year warranty on them and they're not even doing it right to begin with. Why are we losing these roads within three months? West Point was done in my neighborhood. It didn't even last three months and City of Corpus Christi came and did it again because they didn't do the foundation wrong. They didn't do the subgrade correctly. But this is going on all over the city. And I don't know whose responsibility it is, but it's going on all over all the districts. And us taxpayers are paying for it and not getting the streets we deserve. So I brought this because y'all were talking about number three. I missed it the last time when we were pulling these items. They were awarding these contractors and are we holding them to their potential or what we deserve? Because we're paying for them. We have streets that are lasting less than three months and we paid for those. And what are we doing going forward? Are we awarding the same people the same contract? Are they kin of ours? Are they, you know, are we giving them breaks? Are they a shoe-in like Mr. Barretta with the RTA and the insurance? Are they shoe-ins? Sorry about that. Did he? Well, but I don't think he won the contract, but I actually called some insurance friends. Hey look, you know, it's not it's open now, but anyways But yeah, I just wanted to bring this to attention And I will every time I get a chance now that I know that TCQ's contact name and number Every time I see this I will give them a call It takes three minutes, but I don't know who's responsible for it. Thank you very much.

Thank you. And we can have our public works. I just saw him. Where was he? There he is. Yeah, Ernie can speak with you, sir.

He doesn't need to speak with me. He needs to speak with the contractor.

Well, it was a courtesy. So if you don't want to speak with him, that's fine. Yes, sir. Yes, Councilwoman Paxson. Thank you.

Peter, thank you. Just for note, I handed those photos over. We've talked a little bit about that. My understanding is we do have protocol, but it, of course, comes down to the volume of staff to be able to address that. i say it every single time the more you can tell us when you see an actual issue the more we can address it with staff's help so thank you for identifying those i know most of those had street names on it that's very helpful okay that gives us a lot of good data i appreciate you bringing that up thank you councilman scott

Is this about the inlet protection? Is this the pictures? So if you send us a memo, could you also include what we... Because I think part of what happens is when big rains are coming and you leave it covered, then it floods the street, and then we get a lot of calls saying, hey, the street's flooded, idiots. Can you at least open up that which was created for that very reason? So if I'm missing that, just include that if you do respond to us about what we do with... construction projects that have stormwater inlets covered when we know there's big rain events coming. Because I thought, I think there's a protocol but I'd like to confirm it. Thank you.

Okay, sir, go ahead.

James Perkins, District 2. I'm going to speak about two of our agenda items because you're asking for agenda items between 2 through 9, right? Yes.

And then what, 4 is on the- 4 we're going to talk about, 5, 7, 8, and 9.

Yeah. Okay, cool. 4 being the city manager to initiate surcharges during a level 1 water emergency. I don't think we should be leaving it up to a singular person to decide what is a level one water emergency In my opinion we hit level one water emergency like three drought levels ago But I am just a simple Person do works and goes home and comes back, you know But you know the idea that we are in a deficit consuming a deficit was the like hey we need to get on this water thing that My humble opinion. But I think that it needs to be kind of a more public, a more people-focused decision to say, hey, what is a water emergency? Because, I mean, that's honestly a vague, non-thing. That's not something that has... We don't have a parameter for that to say like, hey, like, is it a water emergency when the hospitals can't use water? Is it a water emergency when residents are, you know, having to stockpile water? Is it a water emergency when the industry is having to slow down production? That's a conversation that has to be had between the people, the city to say that. And then do I? Okay, number five. ordinance policies implemented during level one water emergency. I'm going to assume that's referring to the levels of surcharges that we'll be getting once the policies hit. I don't think, on that as well, I don't think that the policies need to be the same across the board. Residents have made sacrifices for the last three years. People have told you, people smarter than me have told you that residents have cut back well beyond their means. I myself only take a shower once every other day unless it's a particularly bad day. And I myself have started to not cook as often so that I'm not running water, not washing dishes, not having to, you know, reusing the same pan to make grilled cheese to eat because it's kind of that bad for us and I can afford to make that cost. People with families can't afford to make that cost. People who have to, you know, immunocompromised, disabled people, they can't afford to make those costs. They can't afford to make those cuts. So to ask for the people to be paying the same rates or even steeper rates than industry, than businesses, is ridiculous in my opinion. And we do need to take a look at those and levy those from our ability to our need. And if somebody needs more wiggle room, they should get that. And if somebody is paying their CEO billions of dollars a year in profit, they should be paying well more than what we are as people who are just trying to live, not trying to gouge innocent folks for money. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Armand Alex. I'm a resident of Corpus. My comment as it relates to agenda items is about surcharges. Drought is ultimately about scarcity, and when resources become scarce, fairness matters. For far too long, residents have been asked to conserve water, to pay higher bills, and shoulder the burden of protecting our water supplies, while some of the largest industrial users continue receiving preferential treatment. through lower rates, through exemptions, and policies designed to accommodate their growth. That is not fair to residents and taxpayers, rate payers. Water is a public necessity. It is not simply another input for corporate production. If we are serious about drought management, then everyone must pay their fair share. The largest users should face the greatest responsibility. During periods of drought, industrial users should be subject to meaningful curtailment requirements, not voluntary measures. They should face drought surcharges proportional to their consumption and financial capacity, not special treatment. and they should pay rates that reflect the true value and scarcity of our water. Residents should not be subsidizing water for industries that use it to generate private profits, while many simultaneously benefit from tax abatements and the city manager's pilot program, which stands for payment in lieu of taxes agreement that reduces their contributions to our community. We are repeatedly told these arrangements are necessary for economic development, yet residents continue facing rising costs while corporations receive continued accommodations. A drought contingency plan should prioritize protecting people first. It should prioritize affordable household access, conservation, infrastructure improvement, and equitable distribution of responsibility. The principle is simple. Those who consume the most should contribute the most. Those who profit the most should bear the greatest responsibility. And those who depend on water simply to live should not be asked to carry the burden for those who use it primarily to expand their profits or their friends.

This is regarding agenda items four and five. So mayor and members of city council, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak today. My name is Nicole Harmon. I'm the vice president of the Corpus Christi apartment association board of directors. I'm here regarding the proposed treatment of multifamily housing under the city's drought contingency plan. At its core, the issue is simple. Apartment communities are not warehouses, they are not shopping centers, they are not office buildings, they are homes. The water being used in multifamily communities is being used by Corpus Christi families, seniors, teachers, nurses, students, and working residents who happen to live in apartments. Yet under the current proposal, those residents are being treated differently simply because their homes are served through a shared meter. A 150-unit apartment community is not one commercial user. It is 150 households sharing one water connection. Apartment residents live in residential housing and are part of the residential population of Corpus Christi. But when drought allocations are discussed, you suddenly want to treat those residents as commercial users. I've heard concerns that allocating water on a per-unit basis would be difficult because the city does not know how many units exist to each property. Respectfully, the city has already demonstrated that this information is available. For years, multifamily communities were assessed street user fees based on unit counts. If the city could determine the number of units for those purposes, then determining unit counts for water allocation purposes is clearly achievable. This is not a small issue. Tens of thousands of Corpus Christi residents live in multifamily housing. I would also like to share actual water use data from two Corpus Christi apartment communities that I manage. Over the last 12 months, residents average between 74 and 80 gallons per apartment per day, or approximately 2,000 to 2,240 gallons per month. These are newer communities with low-flow fixtures and water-efficient appliances. Our residents are already conserving water. Under the proposed 25% reduction, those residents would be limited to approximately 1,500 to 1,700 gallons of water per month. Meanwhile, a typical single family residence receives approximately 6,000 gallons per month. So you should think about that. Apartment residents would be expected to live on roughly one quarter of the water allocated to other Corpus Christi residents. Residential water use represents only a small portion of overall demand and multifamily housing represents only a portion of that residential use. Yet this proposal places a disproportionate burden on apartment residents. If two Corpus Christi families use the same amount of water inside their homes, why should one family receive a residential allocation while the other does not simply because they live in an apartment? We're not asking for more water than anyone else. We're asking that apartment residents be treated the same as every other resident in Corpus Christi. Conservation and fairness must coexist. We respectfully ask that the council to classify multifamily housing as residential and allocate water on a per-dwelling basis. Thank you.

I'm also speaking on the same topics. Mayor, members of the council, thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Cliff Caldwell and owner of SPV Property Management. We own and operate four apartment communities totaling 373 apartment homes and housing 678 Corpus Christi residents. These residents include refinery workers, health care workers, teachers, retail employees, service workers, retired seniors, and families who contribute to our local economy every day. I'm here today to discuss the proposed water restrictions and surcharges on multifamily housing. While apartment communities are classified as commercial customers, we are fundamentally different from office buildings, car dealerships, convenience stores, and other commercial businesses. We provide residential housing. And the people living in our communities use water for the same essential purposes as every other resident in Corpus Christi. Unlike single-family homeowners, apartment residents have very limited discretionary water usage. They do not irrigate lawns, wash cars, or water landscaping. Most of their water use is tied to basic living activities such as bathing, cooking, laundry, and sanitation. We support water conservation. And have demonstrated that commitment through action. Across our portfolio, we have invested more than $85,000 of private capital in high efficiency toilets, low flow shower heads, aerators, leak prevention measures, and smart water management systems. These investments have significantly reduced our water consumption without any public funding or incentives. However, one of our primary concerns is how water usage limits will account for occupancy changes. Our communities can fluctuate by 5% to 10% occupancy from month to month. And if more families move into our apartment homes, water usage will naturally increase. That increase is not wastewater or water waste. It is the result of housing more Corpus Christi residents. I would also respectfully ask the city to explain how the proposed $4 per thousand gallon surcharge was determined, how much revenue is expected to be generated annually, and specifically how those funds will be used. If the goal is conservation, residents and housing providers deserve transparency regarding how those funds will improve our water infrastructure and future water supply. We are not asking for special treatment, we are asking for fair treatment. We respectfully request that multifamily housing be treated as residential housing and that any other water allocation methodology account for occupied units and resident population. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, sir. Anyone else? Okay.

Good afternoon. I'm Kathy Caldwell. That is my husband, by the way. We do own a property management company and four communities that we own and operate. We have 375 three families. I didn't say people that live on our property. There's 373 families. That's a lot of people. I would like to recognize the unique challenge faced by apartment communities and the thousand of residents who depend on those communities for housing. Unlike single family homeowners, Apartment residents generally do not use water for discretionary purposes such as watering lawns or washing vehicles. Most apartment residents use water exclusively for basic living needs, drinking, cooking meals, bathing, flushing toilets, washing dishes, laundry, cleaning, and sanitation. These are absolutely not optional activities, but necessities of daily life. During your discussion regarding consumption for residents of apartments, a fundamental question must be asked. How is an apartment resident supposed to reduce essential water use by 25% without sacrificing health, hygiene, or quality of life? A homeowner is able to achieve significant reductions by turning off irrigation systems postponing vehicle washing, or limiting other non-essential activities. Apartments do not have that opportunity. Many apartment residents have little or no outdoor water use. Asking them to reduce water use by 25% means asking them to reduce activities directly tied to health and sanitation. Apartment communities have limited ability to control individual housing water consumption. We have no control of the daily habits of hundreds of residents. So the apartment community itself could conserve water, right? Yes, and we have already implemented many of the conservation measures available to us, including all the low flow fixtures and whatnot that my husband mentioned. Any water curtailment strategy should recognize the fundamental difference between discretionary water use and essential household water use. On a final point, any water surcharges imposed on apartment communities will ultimately be passed on to the residents. The people who live in our apartment communities are often the very people our community says it wants to help. Working families, seniors, people with disabilities, and those struggling to find affordable housing, which I love to talk about the need for affordable housing. Many of these residents are already living paycheck to paycheck. In some cases, their paycheck is gone before all of their bills are paid, often their rent. Even a small increase in housing costs can create real hardship, making our affordable housing challenges even worse. We all support responsible conservation. We simply ask that any solution recognize the realities faced by apartment residents and the limited ability that they have to actually reduce water use beyond what is necessary. Daily living. Thank you all so much for your time. I appreciate you.

Thank you I Wasn't kidding about benevolently sharing my water and Nick we Peter you showed me the app that we have now that people are going to track and my idea is why don't we create a benevolent fund and I could give 4,000 gallons a month into that, and you could allocate that around. So I'd ask you to consider that. Also, I have about 1,500 gallons of water off my roof. I know you folks don't like that water, but it'll process nicely via reverse osmosis into drinking water. So if I have more of that, I would benevolently give that to you. Thank you.

Robin Cox, District 3. I also want to talk on the same agenda because I am a landlord and have several apartment units. And like the other one said, they are not commercial property. They are people. They are families with children. And I rent to a lot of elderly people because the taxes have gone up so high. We're getting more of a need for people to move to apartments. We're also bringing college students in here. We tell them we have to limit their water. And I understand the water has to come from somewhere, yet I still go to restaurants and and they're serving us water every time before. I've literally told my fiance, can we get the to-go cup and we'll take it home. We're all doing our part as residents. We walk every night and I'm seeing all the residents and I applaud them with their rain barrels, ready to water yard, we're doing our part. But the apartment complexes, most of mine are low income and we do not have washer and dryer. We do not have dishwashers and they are still having problems. And I've done the same thing. I've installed low flow toilets. Even when you install low flow toilets, I hate to tell you, you gotta flush them more times to work. It doesn't work. Even the front load washers, they do smaller loads. You're doing more loads. I'm doing my part. We wait till our laundry's full before we do a load. My residents, they use laundry mats. So, and what if we have a leak in one of our apartments? It goes way up. And I want to thank the girls. They always tell me when I call the city how I can get a reimbursement. But there's some things that are just not part of our, they're out of our reach. So please consider apartment, your residents. They're not commercial. It's so hurtful when you call people items. And I think I started thinking the other day, If some of you people up here, if the nail salon was cut down, you couldn't have water to do your nails, there might be a little bit of a conniption fit when the rest of us have to do sacrifices for hygiene and hospitals. Or if your hair salon was shut down for a week, you probably would cry. I doubt many of you would use dry shampoo. So think of people that are making sacrifices. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Jessica Linhart, and I live in District 4, but I work throughout the entire city of Corpus Christi and Texas. I do utility billing for Water Works of Texas for over 23 years. We pass utility bills on to residents for multifamily through allocation or sub-metering. Each month, my team reviews more than 85 Corpus Christi water bills for the properties in this region. This gives us clear firsthand view of how the city water decisions impact thousands of local families who all share a single master meter. Corpus Christi water has upwards of 90,000 accounts, but many of these are not single houses. They're commercial master meters for apartments and multifamily buildings. Each of these meters covers water for many families at once. In fact, almost 50,000 families in our city get the water this way. This means that when the city changes water rates and adds new restrictions, it affects thousands of families living in apartments and similar homes, not just people in single family houses. I know the city is working fast to set new drought rules and encourage people to save water. We support these efforts and many apartments are already doing their part. For example, one property we work with which has 304 units is 98% full and uses about 5,480 gallons of water per household each month. less than the city's residential benchmark. Some properties already use much less water than the city's proposed target of 6,000 gallons per household, but under the new 25% cut proposal, that would still mean they would have to cut back even more. Asking residents who are already using water efficiently to reduce further is harsh and could actually be harmful. If this rule passes, it could mean less water for basic needs and add more stress for families who are already doing their part to save water. Apartments and multi-home buildings use water differently from single-family homes. Sometimes water use goes up for reasons people cannot control, like leaks, emergency repairs, fire safety checks, cleaning for health and safety. For example, cleaning up stairwells to prevent falls is necessary. There should be a simple way, a variance process to get exceptions to these cases so properties aren't unfairly penalized when water is needed for safety or repairs. The process for getting an exception or a variance should be simple. Property managers should be able to ask for one easily when something unusual happens like a leak or emergency repair. The city should clearly explain what counts as a valid reason, review requests quickly, and give everyone the rules in writing. This way no one is punished for things they cannot control. Without a clear variance process, property managers are left guessing what happens if they go over the limit for reasons they cannot fully control. Having a clear and simple exception process is fair for everyone. It means penalties only happen for real water waste, not for things like leaks. Thank you for the staff and the city leaders who have coordinated with us. I appreciate it very much, Mr. Winkelmann.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else? Okay. We'll close public comment. I'm sorry, I'm going to close public comment, but we're going to three.

Two, three, and six.

Yeah.

Make a motion to approve items two, three, and six on the consent agenda.

Second.

We have a motion and a second to move forward. Items two, three, and six. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say no. The motion carries. The next item pulled was item number four, and that is a resolution to authorize city manager to initiate surcharges during a level one water emergency. Who pulled that one? Councilman Paxson.

Thank you. I would like to make a motion to table or postpone this item for at least 30 days or until the next meeting after that. And I would like this to apply to items four and five. We've gotten some very beneficial rain in our water systems. We've heard from our apartment leaders who represent an incredibly valuable portion of our community. We've heard from regional mayors who have come, taken their time and hours to represent their cities. I so acknowledge and appreciate the work that staff has done. We're almost there. I think there's a couple more things to push over to a finished document. And with this beneficial rain, I think we have the time to leverage that. I myself have a lot of feedback and questions and things, and I would like to have all of that information for our community. So items four and five is my request.

We'll hear from the council first.

If I could comment on that, Mayor, is that okay?

Yes.

Or do you want to get the... Okay.

Let me go through this because I know you probably have a lot to say on that. Councilman Cantu.

It was under my understanding that we had taken care of this issue, but for some reason we haven't. And I really believe that we need to table this because apartment complexes, I mean, they have a lot of doors, a lot of families that live there. And, you know, it's, I think me and you talked about this, you know, we really need to give them a say at the table. I really wish we could just do, like, per door. Like, that's what they want. I think the last conversation I had with them was they wanted to have some type of guarantee, you know, so many gallons per door type of deal. And I think that's perfectly fine. And I really do not think we're going to go to level one. I mean, it's just we're way better off right now with the rain we got than a year ago. I mean, the percentages in the lakes, Lake Texana is at 100%. I mean, I just feel that we need to revisit this and figure something out what the apartment complex is because, you know, my understanding, it's about, what, 50,000 doors in Corpus Christi? And, you know, that's a lot of families, you know? If you do two people per door, that's 100,000 people in Corpus Christi. I think they have a say in this. So I'm hoping that we could figure this out, Nick. I hate to stall this again, but I mean, I'm gonna second Kaylin's motion.

Thanks.

Councilman Scott.

Nick, I guess you're gonna go over. It's my understanding that you had been meeting with the mayors and the San Patricio Municipal Water Authority. You had a series of meetings with the apartments. association and then i'd like you to so i'd like you to address those two i would prefer not to table this if we think we can find some resolution tonight i do agree i think the level one is going to be pushed back pretty significantly but i also think we need to resolve these issues when we can lastly i'd like you to kind of work through the variance process i do think that spooks a lot of people so that's what i'd like mayor if he can respond to that okay but we'll go through

I think you're writing the notes, right? Councilman Royce.

Yeah, Nick. I think that we need to fix this. I thought we actually did fix it as far as the apartment complexes go. So whether we table this or whether we try to fix it now, we definitely need to. I don't think that just because how the family's structured that we need to treat them different than in another unit. And the other problem is that nowadays, because it's so hard sometimes to become a homeowner, that the number of people that have given up on that dream and have chosen to live in apartments, it's huge. And it's just getting bigger. So I think we need to tackle this and make it make sense. And then the other thing is that when I was listening to San Pat and their issue and how they were talking about... their concerns i think we need to address both of those issues so i'm kind of in agreement with the other council members on that thank you councilman bond

You know, we have water. And we need to quit saying we don't have water. We do have water. We have water. No wonder our credit rating is down. We keep saying it all over the city. We need to stop it. What concerns me is we keep having to table this stuff because when we think it's done, we come back it's not done. I don't understand. I thought we had the apartment thing taken care of. I know we met with San Pat. Mayor was in a meeting last week with San Pat. And so are Wes. So what do we need to resolve? It just concerns me, does this have anything to do with our credit rating because we have not approved this?

It does. Fitch, who recently reviewed and downgraded this, did say that the inability for the council to make, I'm just repeating what they said, the inability for the council to not make policy decisions that will help manage through the drought does give them concern. It was one of the factors in their report. Nick can talk to, I personally was with Nick and we did meet with the apartment association that represents the area, a pretty big area. They were in agreement after a two hour meeting on a Saturday, last Saturday. She's there, okay. Yeah, I'm just going to tell you what they told us before everybody left. So they were in agreement that day. If they're not, then we can. One thing you could do an alternate because you do have a lot. There's a lot of a lot of a lot of different customer accounts that we serve.

Yes.

It sounds like the only ones that might be an issue is the apartment metering and then the wholesale contractors. You could approve everything else except for those two things. At least we have some progress and some policies, so it's just one option out there. But when we're presenting this to council, it's because at the time, people at the table were in agreement And that's why we move forward. So people can change their mind. I'm not saying you can't do that.

So this is what, the second or third time we've tabled it?

This is the sixth time we've been at city council.

See, we cannot keep doing this. I just don't think we need to keep doing this. I like your idea. Vote for what we can vote for, and then let's go back and revisit the two things that we're having an opposition on.

Yeah, some of our commercial and large volume and residential accounts want to know some basic guidelines so there's some predictability in the future. And we said it up here several times, we do have better water availability. Lake Texana has more water and Lake Corpus Christi than a year ago. way more water. However, we're still not out of the drought, and Chope Canyon is at the lowest it's been still. It's at about 8%. So predictability for the future is helpful. These are just policy guidelines. We're not saying tomorrow any of these happen. In fact, the last forecast was December. of 26, but we're going to be updating that at the end of the month. And it's probably move forward a few more months still. So it won't be until 27 before any of this, if any of it gets activated, but it's just so it's so apartments, it's so single family homes. It's so, it's so businesses and large industry and wholesalers can just plan schools, hospitals. So just guidance out there. It's not saying we're doing this. It just sets up some written policy.

If something were to happen, because we're required to do it, it doesn't mean we're going to do it tomorrow. I don't believe it's ever going to happen. We're going to get rain. We're going to have those other projects done in several months.

Yeah, agreed.

So I think we have to be responsible as a council. I do agree with department owners. They are homes. They're their homes. So that does need to be changed. So as for me, I'd like to make a motion that we approve everything but the two items that we're concerned about.

I would recommend that because it's not so much because of a credit rating, but more because we have a lot of customers. Yeah, certain. 500,000 in seven counties and they want guidance. Yeah. They want guidance.

I'll second that. Well, we already have a motion in the second.

All that could affect the baseline percentage. Yeah, all that could affect the curtailment percentage. Yeah. And I would like to go through my presentation when I have the opportunity to answer your questions.

Okay, so let me hear from Sophie Kompels.

Um, you know, it is, it's frustrating. It's frustrating for us to be here still again. I think I heard six times, six times we have postponed this. And other times, I mean, you have told us that you have spoken with the apartment complexes and here they are standing and saying, no, they did not agree to this. So it's very frustrating and it's just, oh. And again, I agree with my fellow council members that apartments are people. I mean, this is who live in these apartments. Now, if they need to be recategorized, maybe that's what needs to happen. I don't know. But this should have been done long ago. The other thing is, of course, we also heard from the people that are some of the cities living outside our county, how they were also being affected. And here we are communicating with San Patricio, you know, manager, and he is not communicating with his residents. So again, you know, this is not... This is not done. This is not complete. I will agree that we can probably, you know, I would probably support the supporting everything else but these two. But this is so frustrating, Peter.

This for us, Councilwoman, I hate to, because I don't want it to look like we did something wrong here. We personally have written information and confirmation from Sandy Green that says I'm in agreement with everything we just went over. Nick sent an email.

That's right.

You have it here with you, Nick?

I don't have it with me.

Okay, so it's frustrating for us too, Councilwoman, when we finish a meeting and everybody's in agreement, only to come here and say, you know, the staff didn't listen to us and that's not what we agreed to. Well, I would like to see that. We're telling you the facts of what we know them to be, the truth that was there.

I mean, I don't think they would come in person and put themselves online here in person saying, but I'm just, you know.

We have confirmation in writing. Okay, sorry, Michelle.

Okay, so, all right. Again, I'm sorry that, you know, that the apartment association had to come here and, again, reiterate what y'all have been asking for, which is to treat them like people. I mean, this is who lives in these apartments. anyway I again I will support going ahead and approve everything else but but those two categories which is the wholesale and the apartment complexes councilman Hernandez okay Nick I went through the red line

document where you had the items in yellow and you did separate multifamily from commercial and you put it in its own category correct right

We did, yes, Councilman, just waiting to get to the presentation.

And looking at it, there is a monthly baseline for multifamily accounts, and you did separate it from commercial, and you changed the dates for their baseline from 2023 through 2025, excluding the lowest monthly usage for each calendar month.

At their request.

At their request. And I remember that being a specific conversation because we were doing for commercial accounts from 2022 to 2024. Is that right? It's 21 to 23. 21 to 23.

Yes, sir.

Now, when we had that conversation, I thought you should probably take into consideration from 21 through 25 because the fluctuation of apartment complexes in terms of occupancy changes significantly over time. I was just having a conversation with one earlier that they took over a kind of a distressed property, only had 30 percent occupancy, and now they're at 90 percent. So it really is based on occupancy of the particular, you know, of that particular apartment complex throughout that timeframe because if you, you know, in his situation, if you looked at it from just the 21 to 23, it would be detrimental, right? So I don't know how you solve that specifically. There's some discussion about asking on a per door basis, but I think that's maybe administratively very difficult to do. Is that correct?

we actually believe using historical usage is more accurate because you know previously we had some public commenters talk about the usage being from 2500 gallons per month to 5400 gallons a month so we the thought with the city staff and the modeler was looking at for these larger accounts looking at historical usage we thought that was more accurate, all done in a manner so that those communities wouldn' t have to change their behaviors because like we said they' re largely doing their part and we' re proud of them for that. The goal was to use historical data so they wouldn' t have to change their behavior. I' ve got a whole slide on it in the presentation.

I' ll wait for your presentation and then I' ll have some questions for you afterwards. Thank you.

Councilman Cantu.

Thank you, Mayor. I still don't agree with this level one water emergency. I just don't feel that residential is paying $4 per thousand. Same thing with commercial, large volume users, wholesale customers. You know, the problem, like I said before, it's not the residents, it's industry. This is their problem. I just don't understand why we have to punish the residents of Corpus Christi. I just don't understand it. And my understanding was, Like today, we're going to use 83 MGDs, 83 million gallons a day. 60% is industry. The residence is using 14, 16 million gallons a day. And then we have to punish people. We have to tell them, hey, cut back. know like there's no way we could just tell industry to come back not the residents of corpus christi i mean it's just it's just ridiculous is like yeah i i disagree we are not punishing anyone councilman this is difficult and it's a difficult situation for every customer class and we're all working through this but the thing is is that the residents of corpus christi is already cutting back they already stopped wiring the grass you know they're they're cutting back doing they're doing doing their their part of it you know and just It just doesn't make sense, you know, and I'm just disappointed with this whole thing, and I just want to voice my concerns, and I will not be voting for this today. I don't think it's right for the people of Corpus Christi, and I'm going to stick with the people. Thanks.

Councilwoman Vaughn. Okay, first off, it's not that I'm not sticking with the people. I think we can vote for it and we can come back and amend whatever we need to amend so we can change it at any time. Am I correct?

Excuse me, yeah, that's correct. We may have to amend the curtailment percentage as an example if we were to allocate more to the wholesale contractors. But at least this is a start on having some level of approved policy that our customers can use.

Because as a council, we have to look at what we're supposed to do. We are policymakers and we have to move forward. We cannot just sit stagnant for six times. That's too many times to do it. But if we can change it, because I want to be fair to everybody. I think it should be fair. And I agree, industry should pay more. I'm sorry. I do agree with that. I think our citizens have sacrificed. But if we can pass it today and just do an amendment, It's just an idea and I know he wants to use it.

No, it's the fact. It's the truth that you can amend it. It's not once it's approved, you can never be looking at it again. So it can be amended. It may have to be amended if council wants to do something different than what we're recommending. As an example, for the wholesalers, we're recommending that that allocation That we recommended is what we would recommend still. The San Pat Water District, as an example, needs to do some work and see how do they allocate it to all their different customers and sit down and talk to them, which I don't think they've done extensively yet. So they need to develop a business plan on how they allocate their baseline to all their different customers.

But we do need to change for the apartments.

Right. And when we met with Michelle, and my apologies, Michelle, for getting the wrong name there, but we did look at several examples. So it could be a case where an apartment community could get more water under the proposal that Nick has. But there's also a case where they could get less if we go to the per door. option. We ran several scenarios with Michelle for a couple hours on Saturday, and that's the truth. I mean, when you look at it, we looked at several apartment communities that she recommended we look at, and when you do it by per door, the allocation would go down versus the actual use from the meter. So we have to work through that, and we have no problem doing that.

So can you say maybe that you meet with them again so that y'all can get it straightened out?

We're going to meet with them again because we see a lot of shaking, no heads over there, but a lot of them were shaking yes a couple of Saturdays ago. So we're going to figure it out. No problem. Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you.

Yeah. Okay. Peter it's a no. Okay. I just want to remind everyone that you know, had we not Signed that drought exemption surcharge back in 2018 We would have been charging we if Council would have approved the surcharges when we hit stage one stage two stage three We would have been getting additional monies from industry, but we chose not to. We chose to give them a drought surcharge exemption for the 31 cents for 1,000 gallons. So that's where we're at now. In order to fix that, We have to take it to the ballot. We have to take it in November. So hopefully people will pay attention and from now on, we need to make sure that whatever we're doing here is equitable. I hear what you're saying, Councilman Cantu, that you're standing here for the people, but it's one thing to say it, but the other thing is to do it, to make sure that we're able to do it. I understand that we have to be equitable, and I've learned the hard way. You know, you can't treat one class different from the other. And so we're trying to fix that now. But again, because you know what happens? They take you to the Public Utilities Commission because that's what they're doing right now. Valero is still, you know, challenging their water rates because we raised them. So again, we need to just watch what we're doing and make sure that we're doing everything equitable. So that's all I needed to say.

Thank you. Nick, go ahead and make your presentation. Yeah.

Thank you. And if IT could pull up the presentation for item four, it answers the questions largely posed by the council.

Well, we're on item four. So he's presenting on item four, aren't you?

What's five? Okay. No, it's the other one. Right. It's the presentation regarding ordinance approving policies. Okay, that's it. thank you. I' m nick winkleman chief operating officer of corpus christi water. Today I would like to talk to you about the first I' d like to review the definitions just so we all have a baseline. Level one water emergency is defined as when the city is 180 days projected away from when total water supply doesn' t meet demand. Currently that projection is December of 2026 we' ve had recent on June 23 at the council meeting. Baseline usage is the determined water usage for each customer class to help establish the we can get to a point where we can get to a point where the curtailment percentage is the amount of water reduction across all classes so we can get to a point where supply always meets demand and we don' t have to deal with the effects of operating a currently the curtailment percentage is set at 25% reallocating additional water for other large users could certainly change that percentage can use per month during a level one water emergency so it' s your baseline minus your curtailment percentage gets your allocation. We' ve had a number of community engagement sessions I' m thankful for those one of the most common questions that I get is the same that we' ve heard today is a residential customers may be using and they believe they have to reduce by 25% that is not the case is 25% from a customer' s baseline. In regards to these updates we first had a council workshop on March 31st we had one on April 21st we first it was tabled so that we could include all of the updates to the dcp in one read. On May 12th these updates were approved and then on May 19th this was tabled and we' re here on June 2nd representing with the additional changes. overview is the curtailment percentage for all customer classes is set at 25% the baseline for corpus Christi residential customers is 8,000 gallons a month which results in an allocation of 6,000 gallons a month that's a 25% reduction the baseline use for commercial wholesale and large-volume customers are calculated individually the allocation is calculated individually. And then we have the other resolution for the optional surcharges that would be implemented at the date of level one water emergency. Next I'd like to carefully go through each customer class and I believe this will be the point where most of your questions will be answered. for our resident or for commercial customers this does not include multi-family units is councilman Hernandez stated earlier this is our commercial customers. We will use the historical years of 21 to 23 will exclude the lowest monthly value from that set of years and then we will that will establish a baseline and then the baseline will be reduced by 25% to get a monthly allocation. The process is once this is approved once the methodology is approved then we can reach out to our commercial customers and issue their individual allocation. we know that the date of level one water emergency is projected to be December that means we have about six months to review the customer is about six months to review if that's accurate if they don't feel it's accurate we are we have a variance process that in a online form to because the baselines aren' t set it' s not appropriate for anyone to ask for a variance so we' re not accepting any variance applications because we don' t know how to process them yet until this is approved. we' re using the historical years of 22 to 24. Wholesale customers will have seasonality and again they will have a seasonal baseline and there will be a 25 percent curtailment percentage. I do want to share some numbers for the well the first let me take a step back the existing drought contingency plan as is has this prescribed approach to creating a baseline for wholesale customers. So in the regards of san patricio municipal water district using the existing approach they would have a monthly we had a baseline of 34 million gallons a day. Working with our consultants and city staff and the city manager we realized that wasn' t an appropriate number. For example in April the san using this new method would actually it's interesting how the numbers worked up it would provide a baseline of 38 million gallons a day across the whole year however wholesale customers have seasonality So in regards to San Patricio Municipal Water District, their summer baseline would be 41.9 million gallons a day. Spring and fall, they would be at 37 million gallons a day. Winter is 34.8. I know earlier, the general manager of the San Patricio Municipal Water District stated they needed an additional three million gallons a day. in reality in the summer they will be issued 41.9 million gallons a day as a baseline and that is actually 3 million gallons more it's actually 4 million gallons more a day than what they used in April. Please remember currently in April they used an average of 38 million gallons a day. The other thing to note about our wholesale customers is they have customers and their customers have residential and ccw does not know how san patricio' s municipal water districts customers operate for example you could have a they could have residential customers that are full-time residents they could potentially have a large volume of short-time residents they could have residential customers that are rv or mobile home units and of course they could have multi-family units as well to blindly allocate large amounts of water across all of these different potential categories that' s not the business of the city of corpus christi or ccw we certainly don' t want to overstep in the business of san patricio municipal water district and we don' t want to over overstep into the which makes all of this more confusing we've worked really closely with the san patricio municipal water district we're thankful that they've met with us a number of times many times we met on short notice we're thankful to their staff for being available. the allocation presented to them they will have to work with their customers to determine how to distribute that allocation in other words the city of corpus Christi doesn't get to decide we shouldn't decide how much water goes to industry how much water goes to commercial that's that's their business and we respect that. the other comment I would I definitely want to make about wholesale customers we have a number of them it' s not just san patricio municipal water district the approach outlined on this slide is the same for all of the wholesale customers. If the decision is to allocate more water well beyond what they' re using today to one we have a lot of customers in the south texas water authority I would recommend we are consistent to all of our other wholesale customers that includes south texas water authority that includes new asus county wcid three it includes violets and on and on all of those places have customers and they will have to work on how to that is more reasonable than what' s in the established plan in my opinion much more appropriate than what' s in the established plan and can be administered throughout all of our wholesale customer classes. Recognizing the amount of water that we have and without having to large-volume customers the years of historical uses 22 to 24. They also have seasonality as well just like the wholesale customers their baseline will be. Developed per the same methodology they will also have a 25% curtailment resulting in the allocation. one thing to note the city of corpus christi has large volume customers this is the process for our large volume customers. The san patricio municipal water district also has large volume customers who are not during many meetings we' ve had I' ve clearly stated that the large volume customers of san patricio municipal water district will have to work with their district to develop an allocation so they can understand their baseline and what they' re working towards. One comment before I go to the large-volume users the large-volume users in the area are working very hard and very diligently to get to a point where they can meet the allocation they are at a point right now where they need to understand what that percentage is so that they can get further approval from their corporate offices to make those investments so that they can reach it. additional amendments is largely focused on multi-family units. We met with the executive director of the Corpus Christi apartment association on May 20th and May 23rd. We're thankful that they were available to meet especially on the Saturday we're very thankful. for them to have the ability for miss green to come in so we can talk. Their request was simply we looked through historic data to review the historic years of usage that would be used to previously as we stated the recommendation was 21 to 23 looking at the data with the apartment we were able to understand what was going on we all came to the conclusion that the apartments typically use more have been using more water from 23 to 25. So if we use that years for historical usage that will give them a higher baseline and which will result in a higher allocation. additionally we reminded them that the date of level one water emergency isn't until projected to be until december so largely we have five to six months one of the comments was that not all of the apartment buildings have the ability to track and determine their water usage. We explain the portal process they stated that that can be confusing so what ccw offered to do is during that five month periods we would look at the multi-family units to identify any potential units that might not be able to hit their allocation. and then once we've identified that we would bring the owner or the representative in so we could work with them together to fill out a variance process. One of the items that we talked about in the initial workshop which was on March 31st and councilman roy brought it up is the issue of vacancies so certainly that changes in the example given today a new building the vacancy rate is much lower today than it was in 23 to 25 that is a perfect reason for a variance. So then CCW would work with that owner and set up their specific allocation. Please remember that each of these apartment complexes have specific allocations. we were able to do that. We came to the conclusion that was good city staff and ccw would work with them to make sure everything was addressed and everything was in order by the date of level one water emergency December. This would ensure that all of the residents would be able to meet the allocation basically doing the same thing the request was that the apartment association would help us host informational meetings we stated the ccw would would definitely like to meet with different members of the association larger owners so that we can explain all of this again we've got five or six months to figure this out and that that's very important. Another key part of the of the meeting was and I didn' t know this but there' s 50,000 units apartment units 6,000 gallons of 50,000 units is 300 million gallons a month or it' s 10 million gallons a day. If you have apartments that are using 2500 gallons a month and we basically triple that current usage and we need to be looking at many many more water supply options and that can be the same to go with our wholesale users. The intent here was to be I do want to be honest if we over allocate water we need to be pursuing many more water supply projects even more than the one other items that we talked about as a result of working with the council use of water to wash any motor vehicle motorbike boat trailer or other vehicle not occurring on the premises of a commercial car wash is allowed on any day if washing using a handheld hose equipped with a positive shut off nozzle. Currently Currently you're only allowed at your house to wash your car under stage three with a five gallon bucket This was a change that that council recommended and we added in it would go into effect So this would go into effect at stage three all the other things I talked about don't go into effect until level one water emergency and additional water. Additionally working with and a comment by councilwoman bond was to further clarify foundation watering so drip irrigation or soaker and then additionally working with councilman paxton and councilman hernandez we removed a couple of other descriptive We continue our community water information sessions our next one is June 3 in district 5. We had two so far they' ve been very beneficial we have the utility billing office staff there we go through water bills we show people that they' re using 2500 or 3000 gallons a month and they are well below their allocation and they don' t need to make any changes. we have other ccw staff there in the city team there as well to go through how to access the water usage portal we look forward to the to the next one we got one tomorrow. At district 5 so we do look forward to the next one as well. I think I did my best to answer all the questions that came up. I do want to stress and it comes out a lot the variance process so the team ccw nit working together on an online form to initiate the variance process we have gotten some variance requests using the old form. we are not processing them yet because this has to be approved so we can process it. The commitment from ccw to every one of our customer classes we will continue to work with them to ensure that everyone understands the past so they can properly manage if we ever get into a level one water emergency. Again the goal and what staff does every day is to not get there but we do want to be clear and transparent none of this is easy at all for any customer class but we want to provide the right details and make sure that we are fair in providing realistic targets so the system can always have enough supply to meet its demand. Mayor I will stand by for additional questions.

Thank you, Nick. Councilman Barrera.

Here, have we had any concerns raised by, I guess, our other wholesalers, Beeville, Mathis, Alice, South Texas Water Authority? We have not. Okay. And I get it. They have a different, a large, a different class of customers. And then WCID number four, is that the one in... Port Aransas. Port Aransas. Have they expressed the concerns?

They have not. So WCID 4 is, they are both a customer of CCW and St. Pat Municipal Water District.

And with the interconnect, number three, how does that work out? It's working out well. Is it a customer or is the allocated X amount of what we're doing? explain that how it works in this particular instance.

Absolutely, so Nueces County WCID 3 is essentially a new wholesale customer of Corpus Christi Water and there are provisions built into that contract. We have no and this is a good example for customers with no historical usage. So once the policy is set ccw will work will work with them to establish a baseline. But it's important to note and this goes for for some of our other customers they have other water sources you know I do know in oasis county wcid three for the last week has been taking water from the river. Right so those allocations are only based on water from. The city system corpus christi water.

Has the San Patricio Municipal Water Authority, or San Patricio, have they provided an outline of what the baseline usage is for each one of their customer classes? Do we know if they've been able to to at least review that or analyze that? Do we know if they have?

They have provided us with residential customers and usage for residential customers across all of their customer classes. a couple of things we noted in that data is and we know this because of managing our own system there are active accounts inactive accounts what houses are active you know it goes back into you know do you allocate the same amount of water for a rv unit and a residential house and all of that we've asked them to better we've asked their customers to better understand their water usage And again, the other point there is, of course, the city has no enforcement mechanisms outside of the city jurisdiction. So we can't control what they're doing, nor do we want to.

Yeah, I agree. Their business model is their business model. We just need to allocate it. But I guess the thing is, is that the concern is that their concern, and I would be too, is that they see what our allocation is and they compare it. But the thing is, is have they determined their own baselines? And I mean, I hear, and this is anecdotal, I don't know it to be one way or another, and I haven't asked, I mean, my wife works at Chenier and there's a bunch of people in Portland and I mean, they just may, I shouldn't have said Chenier because of the fact that I'm outing them, but someone says, well, we don't have water restrictions. So I don't know that to be true or untrue. It's just chiefs mayor gossip. But I'm just saying, do we know, do we know that to be true that they're underwater restrictions? City of Portland. I mean they they have adopted our trial contingency plan okay good I can say that that's a good answer so now I can go back and tell them that hey this is what what we're told okay so I guess that's my thing what's the sticking point then if have they been able to Then we ought to know if they're going to come back and ask for a variance because we're going to allow our wholesalers, if they ask for a variance, we're going to review it. Am I to assume that?

Any customer class can ask for a variance.

Then I would think that they've already done their homework to come back and say, okay, this is what we're looking at. Have they done that?

what we what we don't have we have an estimated number of residential households but there we can't underestimate the commercial and their large volume and that's what i'm saying nick have they provided that for us councilman yeah no they have not no they have not gone sir okay okay i mean they haven't are you what are you an attorney now are you going to miles risley school of answering questions yeah that's why we uh

Okay, so the answer is no. Okay? No. The answer is no. Okay. It's no. Okay, so I think, number one, I understand everybody's consternation. I understand that we want to ensure that everybody is treated fairly. And I think the thing is, is reviewing this six times, is that I agree with Council Member Vaughn, and happy to say that, by the way. Yeah, and because I am concerned. I mean, I remember the processes when we were first downgraded because we couldn't make a decision. And I think that's what we've been criticized for, for not making a decision. And I think the situation is, is we're willing to amend it, but there just has to be some, there has to be some type of analysis done. Do we know, thank you, do we know how much, I mean, you were given this number of what? What did you say? How many million gallons a day for multifamily housing?

They were requesting an additional 3 million gallons a day. No, no, no. Multifamily housing. Oh, it's individual.

So we're going to look at his... Okay, but you just gave some numbers a while ago. 50,000 units.

50,000 units, 6,000 gallons a unit is 300 million gallons a month.

So 10 million gallons a day, 10 MGD. And how much are multi-family housing using now? Have we determined that?

So anywhere from 2,000 to 5,000? No, no, no, as an aggregate. Oh, I don't have that today. An educated guess is 5 million gallons a day.

Okay, so I would urge, I know I would, I mean, I'm not in that business, but I guess I would urge the organization to come back and at least give us the number. If you give us the number, then we know what we can work with. And I think that's my frustration right now is that, and you know, are we blaming, you know, one thing I want to, I get frustrated, I get frustrated because I can count on one hand how many times I've yelled at somebody at the dais, you know, and it was Jeff Edmonds. All right, and I apologize for that. I think I apologized for it back then. I think, I've done it to you three times? Three times, three times in eight years. So I think that that's the thing. And see, there's this cynicism with government. you know, that is obviously shared and then the council exemplifies it and so it makes it very difficult for people to make decisions. So I think the thing is, is that if you're a business owner or what is it, you have to have the responsibility of reviewing your usage so that way you can be the best steward for your customers. and make sure that they get. And that way it's just not carte blanche. And we have to vote on an analysis, not on carte blanche. And I'm not saying that's the case, but you have to review each individual case. And so if they're only using five gallons, five million gallons a day as an aggregate, then I don't see why we'd need to go back. And I think you've done this in good faith where you've visited with everybody on a regular basis. And so, I mean, I support approving it now. I mean, if somebody wants to make the amendment to go back and wait, I think you've done a great job, Nick. Your team has done a great job. So thank you.

Councilman Hernandez.

Okay, thank you. And I think you yelled at Eric a couple of times as well.

No, I'm talking about staff. Like you've probably done it 50.

No, we just go back and forth on passive aggressive comments. All right, guys. Okay, in looking at... Multifamily units, you know, data is the key here. We want to make data-driven decisions. Obviously, they have a per-door thing that they're looking at. We're looking at actual usage. I think there's some place you could have, you know, a compromise or have some good data information that you could share with them, they could share with you. But however, I do think we need to pass this and they can come back to us in 30 days maybe to correct anything that's associated with it. But since you did break them out separately and we're probably in December when we go into curtailment, if we do, I doubt we'll make it there. We can address it within the next 30 days. I do have some questions about wholesalers though. You said that Portland had a drought contingency plan. Does San Patricia Municipal Water District have a drought contingency plan?

They do. Yes, sir.

Okay. Does that include requirements for reduction in usage for their customer base?

Yeah, you're right. So their drought contingency plan approves the baseline that's currently in our plan that we want to change to give them more water.

But it doesn't have curtailment percentages, though. Oh, no, it does not have percentages. Right. It doesn't have the policy. All what we're trying to create here would be new. We don't even have it, right? So San Pat doesn't have it either. Okay, so I mean, I haven't seen their drought contingency plan, so I don't know how that...

They said it was essentially ours. Okay. Which is a... Well, we've made a bunch of changes to ours. Right. So I think if they're mirroring ours, then there has to be some aspect of that there. But you also have... We also have a water loss... you know, in our conservation plan.

Do you know what their water loss is? I do not. We don't, Councilman. That's why that's important to note because we don't run their systems. We don't run their businesses. Right. So the conversation of treating their customers exactly like ours, we don't manage their systems. I understand that. I'm bringing up your point, so...

But what I'm bringing up in asking those questions is that we have to understand what their actual needs are, what actual usage is, and what they're losing. I mean, they have to do the same thing we do and provide us the data to make data-driven decisions and not knee-jerk reactions to... specific things. To go in line with what Councilman Barrera said about getting the data and understanding it completely in order to make those decisions is the best process going forward. I think you have two things. I say 30 days because I think that is going to be a little bit harder to crack in terms of wholesale. If you do something for them, you open up a Pandora's box with other entities so I want to make sure that we have all the data and if if there's another entity that wants to come and ask us for something they have to provide that same data right with what you know you know what their usage is what their curtailment is what you know what their water loss is you know all that information so we make good good decisions. And I'm trying to be fair here in terms of like, you know, I want to hear them out, but I also want to make sure they give us the information so we can make good decisions ourselves.

Now, I think I'll leave it at that. Thank you. Yeah, Councilman, just for some dates as we continue to talk, we probably could bring the apartment material on the 23rd or the 30th of June. And then if we need more time, it would be July then for the wholesalers. Yeah. Okay.

Okay. Peter, did y'all, I mean, in these meetings that you've had with them before, did we not ask for the data or is it not?

We did. We asked what type of, just what Hernandez is asking, what type of sit-down meetings meetings have you had with your customers, like with the- No, I understand that, but did you already ask them? Right, and so we've asked them for that type of data, like how many citations have been written for watering on days that you're not supposed to water, but they don't have it. What's your water loss numbers? We don't have it. What's the allocation plan that you have? They want to just copy ours, but it doesn't work because it's a different, you know, they have different customer bases, different cities. So we've asked for it. We did get a one-page handout that had a lot of, we had a lot of questions on it. Right. And that was what Nick was referring to. So we just, we don't manage their systems and we certainly don't manage their governments. We can't go across the bridge to Portland and issue tickets. Right, so we can ask for more time and try to get more data. We'll start by asking first, is it likely we're going to get it in 30 days? And if it's not, then we'll have to come back and report that.

Because they'll have to get that info from their customers because their municipal customers will have water loss data that they have to get.

And you feel that we can do that within?

I don't think so. Well, I don't know because we haven't seen it. So each of the wholesalers is different. Obviously, the San Pat Water District is more complex. They have 11 large industrial users. They have numerous communities, probably in excess of 10. like Portland and Odom and Taft and Aransas Pass and Port Aransas and all those additional cities. So they have to sit down with those cities at issue and manage their water systems. We don't do that.

Right. Well, no, and nor should we. You know, we don't want to micromanage someone else's city by any means. And y'all have said that.

But the whole thing on the baseline, the reason we're confident in our recommendation is the baseline should be what you generally typically use. And in this case, Nick was spot on. But the analysis is they're using 38 million gallons a month in April. And the recommendation to use a series of years and taking out the 12 lowest months gets them exactly 38. And that's what the whole baseline should be. It shouldn't be some new number. It should be generally what you're using as your baseline.

So you all are gonna go back and sit down with them and ask for data that it's gonna take them some time to get. But that's...

Yeah, we'll see. We'll request it. We'll go back to council on the 23rd. I would point out the customers that want certainty are the larger volume users, and they have 11 of the 20 largest volume users in the territory. So they're going to be, you know, the exons of the region are going to be asking, what's my percentage? We can't tell them. They can't tell them. Right. So we'll work with them and we'll report back to you.

Yeah. Well, it's important. And I think now that we've established the data and needing that data. The other thing of importance that was mentioned is by passing, even though we're not passing the entire plan or policy. Right. will that, I guess, will not passing part of that affect the credit rating, affect anything with the credit rating agency?

I think passing something will improve our position. Okay. And it'll improve the council's setting of policy. It's in this last report that came out from Fitch, which says the governance's inability to pass policy needed in a water emergency is one of the reasons that they evaluated our credit rating.

And that was from two weeks ago.

That was from Friday.

No, I'm saying postponing the plan.

Oh, right.

Because we tabled it.

Yeah, correct.

All right. Councilwoman Gumpals.

I just had a question from a constituent regarding the... She's spoken twice, just for your information.

Yes, ma'am.

It's just a quick question that was... Oh, would you? Yeah. Yeah.

It's about the boats the boat washing that might be I'm recording myself now a Garden house connected to the engine and turned wide open while the engine runs. The only shutoff is the hose bib on the house. I

right but we're allowing the flushing of boat motors that would write apps and I think that's what they're referring to and that's correct engine we're allowing that which we can do the drill yeah the current plan allows flushing of motors right councilman Paxton

Thank you. I do want to recognize that we are kind of talking about item 4 and 5 right now. We are. So as far as cutting someone off at 2, we may have, we're presiding over technically two portions.

We are. We probably need to read item 5 because that motion was for item 5. And we were really on item 5. My motion to table was for both.

I haven't given the presentation on the surcharges yet. We did this presentation because it largely answered your questions.

Let me read item five. That's an ordinance approving policies to be implemented during level one water emergency. We've been talking about item five.

My motion was for both. That's what I was saying. A couple of questions. On section 55-159, where it says in the highlighted and redlined version, we're striking a sentence out of the center. The limited to the allocation established for each month, I thought we were doing quarterly averaging.

so the allocations for resident corpus christi residents are monthly the allocations for corpus christi commercial accounts are monthly the allocation for multi-family units are monthly the allocations for

Wholesale customers are seasonal the allocations for large volume users are seasonal Okay, and that that has been the same since the first workshop Okay Could you explain on the next page for SEC for item for section B the customer agrees to transfer part of its allocation to another raw water or wholesale treated water customer I

Can you read that? I don't have it in front of me.

Yeah, I'm sorry. It's technically page, I guess page 16. It's in the same section. It's just...

that' s not a change it was what it' s the initial drought contingency plan had a large section on wholesale customers which is largely guided by the state requirements they really need some requirements in there so what it says is that at request to the city manager one wholesale customer can request for its allocation to be changed and potentially moved to another wholesale customer.

okay thank you there was no changes to that worrying reading it all with all the red lines I was trying to make that kind of a fit so thank you for clarifying that on page 18 of the drought contingency plan my question is kind of as it relates to the sections of, so to provide some reference, we're looking at stages one, two, and three. There's different provisions in each. But on page 18, assuming that we're reading under stage three, it's saying basically use of water to wash any motor vehicle, motorbike, boat, trailer, or other vehicle is absolutely prohibited.

the change that' s presented it goes back because how the restrictions are they' re additive as you go through the stages so the changes that we' re making for vehicles that' s why I said earlier that it would allow for that to happen in stage three so we wouldn' t have to wait for those changes in regard to vehicles we wouldn' t have to wait for level one water emergency for that change it gets changed all the way up through the document.

but it wasn't redlined or anything, so it's going to change in all the sections?

Yes, that's correct.

It'll change in stage two, then it would be carried through the rest of the process.

because initially the restrictions on car washing is stage two right so that language gets inserted there and then as you get through each progressive stage it says and the restrictions stage two and then three and then so that's why you have to change it into so even though all three sections are not redlined they will all be updated that's correct absolutely and then um another concern with that section i know we're updating how they can use it

But I was a little concerned that it says all washing is prohibited. I would think that we would note some kind of... That doesn't apply to auxiliary or...

that' s an important note auxiliary water non ccw distribution system can be utilized to wash your car water your plants all of those and that is further defined there' s a definition with your input on for auxiliary water and I think the definition clearly defines that.

I have two things real quick. One, if you look at the conservation plan that we passed, you set, and I'm trying desperately to find the page. I apologize. I haven't quite found it yet. You guys had set, what is our current? Average per person daily use of water and we had targets. What are we going to try to shoot for? I think the target was going to be like 53 gallons a day. So my question is, you know, while we are debating over, you know, a multifamily residence like an apartment, we haven't gotten into a granule type thinking where what is the reality of how many people is in the unit and we're talking about indoor water use which is things like flushing toilets, taking showers, washing dishes versus just a carpeted you know six thousand per month type thing. When we continue this dialogue on this type of user, I think that it may be helpful to visit some of that thought process to actually evaluate. They probably can't fully curtail 25% because they aren't watering lawns and things. The overall meter, like the master use of water may be landscaping and things like that. So barring that use, I don't know that the bulk of their their residents could even do that. If you look at, you know, however many 50, 100 units, it may not be 25% of that total meters used to landscape the grounds. It may be way less than that, and we can't actually cut back. So that's something to think about.

Yeah, that is exactly why we set up the historical usage baselines based on historical usage for that very reason, Councilwoman. So yeah, you're absolutely right.

So I know I have a motion and a table, motion and a second, excuse me, to table this item and the previous four or five, whichever one we're looking at now. I don't want to rescind that unless we're, you know, I'm amenable to rescinding that if we're gonna pass the item excluding apartments, excluding, thank you, thank you, Peter, the wholesale. Because I don't feel comfortable passing something that I'm not ready to say that this meets all those needs. I'd rather not pass it and come back and amend. If that makes sense. Okay, there's more comments and I'm out of time. Thank you.

Councilman, well, we've got two more. Councilman Cantum.

Thank you, Mayor. First of all, Thank you, Nick, for everything you and your team is doing. You guys are doing as much as possible with the guys.

This is Mr. Guenthus, third time speaking, just so you're aware.

Third time, sir.

It's taking me two minutes, Mayor. Two minutes. I don't take my full five minutes.

Pass your question on. Write it down.

Go ahead.

Write it down. What? Write it down for him.

What, me?

No, I'm going to go on to you, but you can give them your question.

The other question would answer. We set the present.

Okay, I get you. Councilman Scott.

Now, I don't know what I was going to say. Nick, I got to tell you, thank you so much. I got a text earlier saying, please tell Nick how much the community appreciates all that he does, because we know he'd give you a lot of, would put you on the spot a lot. It would seem to me that we need, that any major change in anything left out could affect that 25% number. It would seem to me that a better solution is to pass as is, unless there are motions made tonight. with the direction the staff to meet with really any of these groups that want to further refine their number, but it does put the onerous on them because if we pass this 25% and then you have a meeting with wholesale and it ends up being a big reduction, it may change to 28%, right? Because this is really all about hitting that 25% overall reduction in usage that we're required to provide the TCEQ. So that was... My thought is that we ought to pass it as is with the direction of staff to go meet with our friends at the apartment association and any of the wholesale customers that feel compelled to come show us a better solution. I don't know if that's, I'd be curious to your response to that, Peter and Nick, because I may be off base.

councilman we' re committed to meeting with all the wholesale customers and the apartment association absolutely and you' re absolutely correct further increased allocations across the board we want to be consistent with may result in higher allocations which may result in a need for an increased curtailment percentage we don' t know that yet and I think that' s to your point.

Well, so my thought was pass as is direction to meet with our apartment folks and our wholesalers that are interested and report back within a 60-day period for any additional revisions that that we feel need to be made. Um, I do appreciate the seasonality that you've worked. That was my sense is you've been working with the wholesalers and gave and understood their numbers better. So I want to thank you for that. I'm still interested in the variance request. I thought it was very pertinent that comment that was made that needs to be easy, quick, you know, understandable. Cause I think that's, that's where this is all going to end up is the focus is going to be on the outliers. Uh, And you have told me that other cities, so I do think there's an opportunity to say, if you buy our water, you've got to kind of play by our rules. And if we can't water our grass, you can't water your grass if you're buying our water. And I've always thought that there were loopholes to some of the communities that buy water from our wholesale customers, that they can have different restrictions that we have to live by. What's the answer? And tell me if I'm wrong.

That's the right assessment. And the other part is the enforcement. Some smaller communities have told us we just can't enforce it. They don't have co-compliance staff or other water enforcers.

That bothers me. You know, I drove by through a city fairly recently, you know, and they had the water. It was a city facility, and it was really green grass. You know, they were watering away. And I thought, well, that's because they buy water from a wholesaler. that buys water from us, but they also have their own well water and I'm sure it was like, hey, that's well water, you know, like that makes a difference. So if there's any way that we can strengthen those relationships contractually, I think, And I hear what you're saying. They're probably at the end of the day, unless we're willing to drive around in the enforcement of it. But I do think that's a burr in our citizens' saddles, much less when they see Corpus Christians maybe cheat. It really bothers us when we see other communities doing things we can't. My recommendation is pass as is, direction to come back in 60 days with any additional revisions. That way we tell the world we've done it and we're open to change because I do think a further conversation with our apartment friends is relevant. Thank you, Mayor.

Okay, so right now we have a motion and a second to table. Councilwoman, do you want to amend to put the whole thing through and they come back with those two pieces after they speak with them so we pass it? Was it 60? How many days do y'all need to go look at those?

We believe we can bring the apartments back by the 23rd or the 30th of this month, and then probably another 15 to 30 more days for the wholesalers.

So 60 days?

Yeah. For both. Or sooner.

Within 60 days.

Or sooner, right.

And if you amend it and we pass the whole thing, they come back within 60 days and we fix those two items.

Yeah. Right? But there's a new one, so I just want to make sure that we're hearing the question the right way. So there's two options. One, you don't do apartments and wholesalers at all in today's policy approval, or you approve what's in the recommendation.

Right, and you come back and you fix those. That way we pass the policy as a whole.

Yeah.

And then fix it. Right, right, within 60 days. Yeah. Yeah.

It's two different items, so one's a one reading, the other one's a two reading.

Well, the other one, this is the second reading for number five. It is the second reading today.

So today, this would be the... Is this a second read on this one?

Yes, it is.

Okay, so this is the last time we would vote on a subject as approval.

What item?

Four is a one read for today. And we already did a one reading approval. So this is for number four?

This is for number four. That's what I thought. Five, not four.

Yeah. The surcharges are one reading resolution and then the ordinance is two reads and it's already passed once. This is the second read or it would be the second.

It's under the first reading. It says first reading ordinances and it's number five, approving policies, level one.

I think that was a typo on the agenda, Mayor. But in all the documentation, it says it's a second read ordinance. The ordinance was first approved on May 12th.

So this is a second reading, the final reading. Okay. And we're talking about item number five. All right. So do you want to amend it where we pass the whole thing and then bring it back? They come back within 60 days to address those items.

Yeah, you would withdraw your motion to postpone and then you could make that amendment if oh if that's what you'd like to do This is a second reading yeah, I mean No, no, we're doing separate.

We're gonna do a presentation for item number four after this Yeah Gonna pull your No, you're going to pull the motion. Okay. You're going to withdraw it. Okay. We're withdrawing the motion to postpone. And so we're, do you want to do the, go ahead.

Okay, so we'll do this in order. So we'll make the motion to approve item number four.

No, no.

Or do you want to do five?

We're on five.

Okay, so we want to do five. So we'll do a motion to approve number five as it's presented. You'll come back in less than 60 days with information for the apartment complex, which I think you said would come back in 30 days, and then with wholesalers on that one. I think that puts the requirement onto the wholesalers to get us the data. If not, they just end up with a 25% haircut.

Right. Okay, we have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Public comment. Oh, public comment, sorry. Okay, we're on item number five, which is second reading.

We had public comment, Mary. You asked for it at the beginning.

Oh, we already did? Yes. Okay, gosh, my God.

Yes, you did. At the beginning, she said, does anyone have public comment on items two through nine? I do. And the people came up and spoke about it.

All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say no. No. The motion carries. All right, so now we're going to item number four. That is a resolution to authorize the city manager to initiate surcharges during a level one water emergency.

Mayor, I make a motion to approve as presented. And again, it equalizes all the surcharges equally amongst all customer classes.

Second.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. Councilman Cantu?

So we're doing number four now.

Councilman Cantu?

Yes. Yes.

We are going to see the presentation. We are. But go ahead.

I'm just going to go back to my questions real quick. First of all, thank you, Nick, for everything that you and your team are doing. I want to thank the Corpus Christi Apartment Association for coming out here and voicing concerns. Hopefully we could figure this out, fix the problem, and... go from there. In my personal opinion, we won't go to level one. I mean, that's just not gonna happen. We have water and so we're not gonna run out of water. Roland, I know he was talking about me yelling at city staff. I wasn't. Yes, you were. But if for whatever reasons you thought I was yelling at you, Nick, I just talk loud because I can't hear myself. I like loud music, so I'm deaf. When do you think level one, if it does happen, with the percentage of the lakes right now, we don't get no water at all, when do you think level one will be pushed back? Because I know that December is out of the question. We've got a lot of water right now. When do you think level one will happen and we don't get any more water?

I do believe it will be pushed back into 2027 like the city manager said. I couldn' t provide I wouldn' t provide a guess right now that' s work the modeler is doing and will have that data to present on June 23. The pools are staying open? It' s the same hours as last summer.