City Council - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call this meeting to order and welcome all of you to City Hall and to Council Chambers. Thank you for joining us this morning. This morning, our invocation will be given by Father Charles Silvas with St. Patrick Catholic Church. Father?

Good morning. Thank you for the invitation. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we give you thanks for the blessing and beauty of our community and for the opportunity to gather this morning in service to them. We stand together in this council chamber mindful of your goodness and providence, calling out to you on behalf of these elected officials entrusted with governance over our community. In this new day with a new beginning, we ask your blessing upon them for a renewed sense of mission in their pursuit of the common good. Guide their actions and speech that all they say may elevate discourse and be rooted in truth. Grant them wisdom to make sound decisions, courage to address the realities before them, and the patience to listen well. May they take to heart how the exercise of their office will affect the lives of all those in our community, especially the poor, the vulnerable, and those most in need. May the sacrifices they make to give of their time and talent and service to your people not go unnoticed, but rewarded by seeing your desire to renew the face of the earth come about by their efforts. We ask this in confidence through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Amen. Thank you, Father. And the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States and to the Texas state flag will be led by Adeline Grace Alvarado. She is a senior at Teloso Midway, student body president, and a varsity cheer captain. Adeline?

Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please join me in honoring the Texas flag. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. Adeline, thank you. Good luck with your studies.

City Secretary Rebecca Huerta, would you please call the roll?

Mayor Paulette Guajardo. Present. Council members Roland Barrera. Here. Sylvia Campos. Here. Eric Cantu. Here. Gil Hernandez. Here. Kaylin Paxson. Here. Everett Roy. Here. Mark Scott. Here. Carolyn Vaughn. Here. City Manager Peter Zanoni.

Present.

Interim City Attorney Buck Bryce.

Present.

Mayor and Council, a quorum of the Council and the required Charter Officers are present to conduct the meeting.

Thank you, Rebecca. We'll move on to Section E, and that is our city manager's comments and update on city operations. Mr. Zanoni.

Great. Thank you, Mayor. And good morning, Mayor and members of the council. We do have one item on the city manager's report, and Nick Winkleman, our chief operating officer at Corpus Christi Water, will deliver it. We thought we'd highlight today some of the work we've done, I think, well over a year in educating our region on our water supply, but more recently on our new water supply projects. And so Nick's going to highlight some of the activities that he and his team have done. We have held, I think it's seven or eight. community meetings in the city council districts and places like the island and a couple in Cal Allen but we've gone regional as well and we've done work in the schools to educate the little children on our water and where it comes from that type of issue as well so Nick's going to summarize that and I'm going to turn it over to him this morning Thank you Peter

Thank you, sir. Nick Winkleman, Chief Operating Officer, Corpus Christi Water in Corpus Christi, Texas. So I just want to, the goal today is just to give you some flavor, some of the, all of the efforts that have been done this fiscal year. I do have some numbers in this presentation, and those are for this fiscal year. So October 1, 2025, and project it to the end of this month, the end of September. I do want to highlight all of the individuals who made all this possible. That, of course, is the City Communications Department. Cecilia Orozco is here today. We appreciate Cecilia and the great effort by her team. We also have Ashley Marion with our CCW, Community Engagement and Outreach Department. And then, of course, not only our water resources group of CCW, but also all of the CCW employees who also attended these outreach events to talk about our water system, our water treatment plant, to talk about groundwater projects, to talk about billing, to talk about drought surcharges, all of that. With that, We'll go through the details. So this fiscal year, we've completed 247 total outreach events. Those included things like business associations. You know, I myself, I talked at the Flower Bluff Association a couple of times. The city manager talks at business associations frequently. Associations, apartment associations, advisory committees and more so that the team that I just named were attended and completed 247 outreach sessions. Additionally, we engage the community. We give school tours at Owen Stevens frequently. We do training sessions at Owen Stevens. We also go out to schools within the community. You can see some great pictures there. The picture on the top right is explaining to the students what can and cannot be flushed in a toilet. That's very important to us, especially as we work hard to improve and manage our wastewater system. The facility tours and the events focused on the youth consist of seven elementary school visits. That does include classroom instructions. We've also had seven facility tours at Owen Stevens. where we hosted 80-plus students throughout all of those tours. Those tours also include Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops. Those are always very fun. And in fact, our staff is willing to conduct those after hours when they're planned in advance. Typically, the Boy and the Girl Scout troops like to meet about 5, 30, or 6 o'clock at night. Again, the community engagement. We have the commercial and restaurant associations. We've done a lot of work with our realtor associations this year to explain the drought stages and what that might mean in terms of curtailment and people purchasing new houses, what all that might mean. And, of course, we have hands-on public demonstrations. The picture on the bottom on the far left is at Owen Stevens, and that's just one example of one of the school tours that our staff conducted. Now specifically, we've had a number of community water information sessions. Those have been done throughout all of the districts. And in fact, our last information session for the fiscal year is this week, it's tomorrow. And then we've added water supply project information sessions where we went into detail over our new water supply projects as well. And you can see those information sessions are not limited to the city of Corpus Christi. We are a regional water supply provider. So you can see we did some of them in Sinton and we did another one in Odom. Additionally, our outreach efforts also include city councils beyond the city of Corpus Christi. The city manager and I presented at eight different city council meetings. Those are council meetings outside of our city council here. So those were tremendous efforts and we've always received quite a bit of questions and the feedback was positive because we were there in person to answer the questions. As all of you know, we have different customer classes and our wholesale customers and our industrial customers are a large portion of the water distribution conducted by CCW. So there are individual meetings and group meetings with our wholesale and industrial customers as well. And then as we were looking at potential dates for a level one water emergency, We met with various stakeholder groups, those include healthcare and hospital institutions, of course our school institutions to let them know what this might mean, other commercial stakeholder groups, and then specifically we met with the Texas Department of Emergency Management as well to explain the situation here and how we're working to mitigate that and manage it. So we're thankful that today We were in stage one drought restrictions and we're not on the verge of level one, but if we were very close, so there's a lot of work done. In fact, we employed the city's own emergency management team, including chief Wade and Jace as well. And they were very helpful in setting up these meetings so that we can communicate specifically to these key groups within our community. And as a reminder, I said it earlier, but CCW is a regional water supplier. We supply water to 20 different communities across seven counties. They're all listed here. It's important to note that it's not just communication. We understand it's not just communication within our city and within the confines of our city limits, but our work involves Like I said, 20 different communities, 19 outside the city of Corpus Christi. So one of the goals this year is we worked really hard to be present, to answer questions, and to listen. And we're proud of all those efforts. Today, I do just want to reiterate the thanks that we have for the CCW staff who went to all these meetings after hours, the city communications team, the water resources team, and then also the CCW staff communications and outreach team. Thank you.

Thank you, Nick.

That concludes our report, Mayor, unless there's any questions from the council.

Councilman Campos. Thank you. Thank you, Nick. It was a great, great report. And thank you again to your staff. Um, I was just wondering, I don't know if I was seeing things or, um, when I went to one of my favorite restaurants, I think I saw like a sticker about the water. Is that something that y'all started? I don't know if it was CCW, but I think it's something like, I don't know, don't ask or, or ask, or I don't know how it went, but I was like, yeah, slide three, uh, actually has a picture of a restaurant owner putting a, uh, it's got a, uh,

a code on there, and it's got information about the water, and we've asked restaurants to put that on their window fronts to help provide more information.

Well, I think it just seemed a little vague. Like for me, I would have liked something like, you know... like, ask what... Something about water, like, ask for it, not assume you're going to get it. I don't know how we can phrase it, but come on, people, we can come up with something better than just the 3-1-1 or the water. I just feel like we need to be just a little bit more, you know, positive or try and just be a little bit more clear, I guess. If we could work on that campaign, that'd be great. Cecilia? I know the marketing team could... Oh, look, Cecilia's coming up. But anyway, I think that helps all of us just be a little bit more conscientious. You know what I'm talking about, right? Okay, so is there something that we can do to better enhance and engage our community to be a little bit more. Absolutely.

And that's actually a great point. So Cecilia Roscoe, interim director of communications. So we have met with the restaurant association and a lot of restaurants are doing that automatically where they're not serving water at the restaurants in that way. any customer that goes in is asking for it rather than automatically being served. So yeah, we can definitely look at that sticker again, maybe be a little bit more clear, a little bit more intentional, but restaurants have been a great support in this too.

And how do you, I mean, is it up to the restaurant association to reach out to you or how do you get this campaign?

So it's a mix of it. So the restaurant association is supporting us, but our water team, a lot of them do go out personally to these restaurants and they do reach out.

they educate they offer some guidance some material and that way more residents can see it too okay and i would also like to see it spread out throughout the seven counties if we could do that yeah for sure we'll definitely work on that but yes thank you so much all right thank you That concludes, Peter, your report.

Yeah, that concludes our presentation.

Thank you, your presentation. Thank you. So as we begin today's meeting, I want to take a moment to recognize two very difficult losses affecting our Corpus Christi family. So former council member Greg Smith and his family are mourning the passing of his beloved wife, Deborah. Deborah was a woman of deep faith who cherished her family, especially her six grandchildren. She devoted 14 years to teaching children in CCISD, first at Parkdale Elementary and later at Cocke Elementary. She never met a stranger and had a wonderful way of treating everyone that she encountered as a friend. Deborah truly lived a life centered on faith, family and friendship. Greg has devoted many years to serving our community both as a former member of this council and through his continued public service. Our hearts are with Greg and his entire family and we pray that they are surrounded by strength, comfort and peace in the days ahead. We're also deeply saddened by the passing of Larry Myers. Larry represented the city of Corpus Christi's interests in Washington D.C. and he was a valued advocate and partner for our community. His work helped ensure that Corpus Christi had a strong voice at the federal level and we are grateful for his years of service and of course his commitment to our city. We extend our deepest condolences to his family his friends, and his colleagues as well. And on behalf of the city council and the people of Corpus Christi, we offer our heartfelt sympathy and prayers to both families. I would like to ask everyone to please join me in a moment of silence as we remember and honor Deborah and Larry and the lives that they shared with our community. Thank you. So with that, we'll move on with our agenda, and that takes 11.49. We're gonna go ahead and start our public comment period. So I wanna just remind everyone that the City Council has adopted rules of decorum to help ensure our meetings remain orderly, respectful, and productive. Copies of the rules of decorum are available at the City Secretary's office across the hallway and are also available on the city's website. I ask everyone to please conduct themselves accordingly. We are here to do the people's work and we would like to proceed in that spirit. When you come forward, please state your name and the city in which you reside before beginning your comments. In-person speakers will have up to three minutes. For callers and Webex participants, Corpus Christi residents will have up to three minutes and non-residents will have up to one minute. The timer located at the city secretary's desk will help keep everyone within the allotted time. If you have a petition or any other material you'd like the council to receive, please provide that to the city secretary before you begin speaking. So today we have 20 public commenters, of which 15 are in person. We will start with Mr. Stephen Klepper.

Rebecca, I've got a slide to show. Can my time start when that displays? Very good. Steve Klepper, District 2. I'm going to change the order of my comments today thanks to the acting city attorney, who I appreciate. We had a brief discussion this morning on why he asked me what problem I had with the way in which the city auditor's position was being advertised, but he did. And so, and he also told me what my girlfriend tells me all the time. My comments are often disjointed and she can't follow them. So I'm going to start. So if you, if you watched what my issue was last week at September 8th meeting, item number 31, councilwoman Sylvia compost asked the deputy city manager, if the job requirements for the new city auditor required someone to have internal auditing experience. And he said yes. Now, either he was being ingenuous or he didn't understand. But the job requirements do not require someone to have had experience as an internal auditor. It requires that someone has experience doing government auditing, which one could do as an external auditor or a consultant, but not working as an internal auditor. So I think that the job requirements should be added to that, and it's not required in the Chapter 12 1⁄2, as the deputy might say it doesn't. but it's just obvious that you would want someone to have experience in the job for which you're hiring him for. So I think that position to be reposted and put the hiring on pause. I initially was gonna start with this slide right here. And this relates to a meeting on June 30th, item number 20, which I encourage anyone who's interested in independence, accountability, and a viable internal audit function, watch that discussion. And you're going to see a senior city auditor, Jody, who was one of the three who have retired, resigned, I'm sorry. She was discussing in large part government auditing standards and how human resources noncompliance has impaired their ability to issue, to say that they did these audits in compliance with government standings. Now the whole discussion for that day was about a motion brought by three council members requiring the city manager to tell, by resolution, instruct the HR department to comply with chapter 12 and a half. That ordinance passed, that resolution, it passed seven to two, WITH TWO VOTES AGAINST IT, ONE OF THEM BEING THE CHAIR OF THE AUDIT COMMITTEE, MR. ROLLIN-BARRERA, WHICH THAT JUST SHOWS YOU HOW MUCH BASICALLY WHAT THAT SHOWS YOU IS THAT SEVERAL OF THE RECENT RESIGNATIONS HAD TO DO WITH A FEELING OF LACK OF SUPPORT FROM THE CITY FOR THE INTERNAL AUDITOR. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

THANK YOU, MR. KLEPPER. SKYLER BARKER. Then we'll have Bradley Bartleson, Vidal Conde, William Garner, and then Susie Saldana.

OK, good morning, Mayor, council members. I'm here to speak in reference to the Museum of Science and History. My name is Skyler, District 5, and I serve as commander of Military Order of the Purple Heart, which is a congressionally recognized organization comprised exclusively of combat wounded veterans and active duty military members. just in case you don't know, the Purple Heart is awarded to members of our armed forces who were wounded or killed in combat as a direct result of enemy contact. Now, for the better part of two years, I had the privilege of working hand-in-hand with the museum to build a permanent Purple Heart exhibit at the Museum of Science and History. It represents and pays respect to recipients from Corpus Christi, as well as the Coastal Bend and it started with an idea that I brought to Karen and then that turned into emails, which turned into phone calls, which turned into more meetings. But on August 8th, we finally opened those doors and over 300 people showed up to that event. It was standing room only. And I remember thinking, we did it. But later as people began to leave, I stayed behind and I was looking at the names on the wall and at the faces inside that exhibit and something hit me. We hadn't done anything. We hadn't finished anything. As it turns out, that grand opening was just the hydration and stretching portion of the workout to come because there's still Purple Heart recipients missing from that wall. There's still photographs that need to be collected and stories waiting to be told. And in standing there, I finally understood what the museum actually does. It doesn't just preserve things, it preserves people. At the grand opening, I said, we built this exhibit not because history is in danger, because history will always survive, but because memory is. And that's not just true of Purple Heart recipients, that's true of Corpus Christi. Because forgetting happens slowly. A photograph gets placed into a box, a story gets told one last time, a name stops being said until finally someone said, who is that? And nobody has the answer. And this is how legacy disappears, friends. We can rebuild roads, we can rebuild bridges, we can even rebuild the skyline, but we cannot rebuild a story that nobody remembers. And I believe that's what's at stake when we talk about the future of the museum. It's not just a building, it's our memory. It's our stories. It's our people. And preserving that doesn't happen by accident. Someone has to decide that it's worth protecting and investing in. And that's a decision that lies before us. Because generations from now, someone will ask, who was that? And we need to make darn sure that there's still a place where someone can say, let me tell you their story. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Barker. Bradley Bartleson.

Good afternoon. Brad Bartles and Corpus Christi resources poured into Inner Harbor desalination date back to TCEQ application of 03 in an engineering study in 04. We would be wise not to repeat a lot of that history. Logic would have us execute on water strategy in advance of the next drought. Yet 10 drought-free years dampened the drive. Drought returned in 2011, renewing desal efforts. More emotions. Residents were left out of the loop, told half-truths. In 2004, industry stated that demand was only for industry, and they offered to do it. The city rejected that for want of revenue and control. They fought the port as well. The city and the port colluded in 2015 to 2019 in the Hillcrest buyout, scamming them with benzene scares. While in drought, the city sold more large volumes while falsely stating the demand was from us all. Their failure to get the MRP in full swing appeared to force Inner Harbor on us. The state's 2018 desal study should have ended Inner Harbor as it directed discharge and intake to be three nautical miles offshore. The green zones identified in the study placed Inner Harbor and her bays off limits. Studies found Inner Harbor's effluent going into Nueces Bay of grave concern. Poor circulation, high evaporation rates, and an already salinity-challenged systems were issues. Nueces Bay, focus of the agreed order and the fresh water releases was most vulnerable, as oyster and shrimp fisheries had already been decimated. Whether errant or deceptive, the city and TCQ continued to use an errant basis for the permit. Salt marsh flushing is cause for new Aces Bay salinity spikes. That kills fish. Yet the Spheros team avoided it in the far field modeling, so we didn't get what we needed. Environmental issues should have ended Inner Harbor long before, yet it was its skyrocketing price that caused it to fail. Three methods of analysis proved Inflation adjusted estimates of 400 to 576 million had the city done that we would have saved precious resources Upon the 1.2 billion dollar queue at bid our Fitch Rating stood to decrease leaving us with no room for other projects and now we've already spent some 100 million on on other projects. That risk analysis found negatives of nil population growth, a high concentration of water use, and high debt to operating revenues. Will a new council and mayor with new opinions fix it all? Whoever it is, we'll be best off using good homework, cost-benefit analysis to unite us on a path. Let's work together on good options. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bartleson. Vidal Conde?

Good morning, City Council. Good morning, Mayor. Good morning, City Manager. Today I'm here to advocate for North Beach Community Association on behalf of Kerry Myers. I know that you're familiar with Kerry over there at North Beach. And I'm here to discuss Agenda Item Number 11, and that is we're seeking to apply for a grant to pay for building that sidewalk along the frontage road near the harbors and Lighthouse Point. we would like council, if possible, to approve that $262,200 from the Tiers 4 fund for the grant match, and plus $365,000 for engineering, which would be a total of $627,000. Now, the Tiers 4 board already approved it, so we're halfway there, and now we're seeking approval from city council to approve it. It will come out of the TURS IV funds, so a portion of the property taxes paid by North Beach property owners will actually pay for it. In addition to that, there's here that project, there's number four on the list. The community has actually been working for years to get TXDOT to build this sidewalk along the frontage road. Now the city has an opportunity to help us out. This sidewalk will connect the residents on the west side of the highway with the residents on the east side of the highway. And we're encouraging the city council to please authorize city staff to apply for this grant that will bring in over $1 million in metropolitan planning organization dollars to North Beach. So with that, I'd like to just say that, you know, we're really trying to do a lot of great things out there. There's a lot of infrastructure being set in place. I normally don't read from a script, but, you know, that's exactly what they're trying to do out there is they're trying to do some upgrades and a lot of great improvements. But I went over with Kerry Myers, and there needs to be a sidewalk. It would be great for the community to go from the eastern side to the western side to where the lighthouse is at. And then... There's an undeveloped portion, if you're already on the west side of the causeway, from north to south, where the lighthouse is at, there's a piece of undeveloped sidewalk that's there. So that's part of the agenda item 11. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Conde.

William Garner. William Garner. Susie Saldana.

Susilena Saldaña, Corpus Christi, Texas. I am here today to tell you how wrong it would be for you all to pull the permits on the harbor project. And let me tell you why. You're all short-termers. You're here till December. and then the people will know what happens. If you were to pull those permits now, you are depriving the new council from being able to make a choice. You're depriving the people from being able to make a choice because they're gonna vote for people they want there. The people that come here before you, the ones that are always saying stop the desal plant. You know, I don't like the place that the desal plant is at. However, I think that's the choice of the voters. Not that you should make a decision now. to poll them, because you know what's going to happen? You're going to poll them, and then what's going to happen is the new council is going to come, and if they say, hey, we want to take another look at it, they're going to go back to it. There's going to be more money spent on it. There's going to be more taken out of the person's taxpayer money because people were not willing to leave the decision up to the voters. And that's what you need to do. The decision needs to be left to the voters. The voters will put people in those chairs that they want. And they should be the ones to make the decision. Not you all foolishly taking them out now to prevent the next council from having to have a decision on it. And you know there's going to be a next council. And you know that there are going to be new people, no matter which way you look at it. And that may change the perspective of things. Give it a chance. Like I said, I'm in favor of DeSalle. I don't like where the project is at. But I'm all for the choice of the voters and the taxpayers. We have spent a tremendous amount of money on this. Think about the money that's already been taken and the money we need to spend. Important and imperative that you make a decision for the people and not because you feel a certain way. That's what needs to happen. I pray to God that you guys make the right decision. I don't know how you feel, but I know that some of these decisions are being made because of politics and not because of the need of the taxpayers. Have a blessed day. Thank you. Alejandro Chavera.

Alejandro Chavera. Jared Suarez. And then we'll have Amanda Guerra, Janae Montalvo, Erin Price, and Isabella Riza.

Jared Swatt is District 2. Thank you for swearing me in this morning for the Type B Board. I will serve with fairness. Last Tuesday's meeting, towards the end of business, we witnessed two council members that had a fiery debate. One member had five minutes to talk and was horribly interrupted by another who should have set the example of decorum. The council woman showed great restraint and courageously fought for her First Amendment right. Mayor, your behavior was petty and lacked professionalism. While a council member speaks their turn, it's their five minutes. Simply wait your turn. If we learn to have patience and know when not to speak, just maybe we can be more productive. We need to check our egos at the door. This way your constituents can clearly hear what is said. Mayor, you said last Tuesday that the budget was the first time you're hearing of it. If memory serves me right, weren't you present at the council meeting on July 28th and wasn't the budget and agenda item? If we are to save and make up for overspending from previous years, I believe an evaluation is needed to look at the city workers' salaries that exceed an annual salary of $175,000. Does their field of work compare to similar fields in the private sector? What do other cities of our size pay for the workers? Is it justifiable to pay the city manager more than what the president makes? The president gets paid $400,000 $400,000 for a population of 342.9 million people, while the city manager gets paid $9,000 more for a population of 318,000. Corpus Christi is 0.093% of the nation, and yet the city manager gets paid from our tax dollars more than the president. Just think how much more we can do for the city's infrastructure if we cut the city manager's pay in half. On a completely different note, in Wales, their government passed a law that if you lie to the people, you lose your seat and forced to resign. I'd like to make a motion that we put no lying or resign into the city's charter. Do I have a second? Don't forget to pray your daily rosary and go to Latin Mass at the corner of Caroline and Gallagher. Have a good day, Mayor.

You too. Amanda Guerra. Amanda Guerra. Janae Montalvo. Janae Montalvo. Aaron Price.

Aaron Price, Ingleside. I'm here to talk about the... far-field modeling and the peer review process has been, for a better term, rolling at the pace of a snail on a hot summer day. I want to know why it has been taking three, four months to get this done. The first person was Dr. Val Levinson, was my understanding, and there was a conflict that he had done previous reviews. And he found problems with those previous models from the city in the past. So I don't think there was a conflict of interest, per se. I think the conflict of interest was that he found things that people didn't want to see. And he backed all that up with science and facts. And here we are. Last time I was at this room, I didn't leave this room until 2.30 in the morning. I also want to clear up something, too. And I hear this on the news. I've heard it all summer that the Dr. Wetz and Dr. Herzka refused to do the review. Let's make something very, very clear from a technical point of view. Hydrodynamic modeling is a form of engineering. It is not marine science. Those two people are marine scientists. scientists. Their schools are marine science schools. They are not academically qualified. It's why they said they would not be able to do the review of the model itself. Now, the city's been given a list of five people, and Dr. Levinson was first. He's off. Now they're working with somebody apparently from Woods Hole Institute out of Massachusetts. If you don't think about Woods Hole, that's where Dr. Robert Ballard is from. And he was the one that found the RMS Titanic. Okay. We all know what the Titanic is. So they're very accredited. They're one of the best organizations in North America. I would like to see some movement on this because I took five months out of my life away from my business to serve on a committee in, in impartial. Okay. I'm nobody's paying me to do this. I did it out of the goodness of my heart because there was no fishermen on that committee. And I asked to be on the committee. because the fishermen have the most to stand, to lose. Okay, so please, let's get some movement on this project. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Isabella Reza from PAXIM.

Thank you. Peter, I believe a month ago we had a firm selected and ultimately we're going to decide on a second term, a firm that was selected. Where are we at on that?

Let me have Nick come up and answer. I think last week we, I don't know if you engaged, if they returned our call yet, Nick, but last week Nick tried to reach out with the second firm.

We did. We did reach out to them. There was a meeting that was scheduled. However, that had to get rescheduled, largely in part due to our time in Austin associated with TCEQ and the freed order. But that doesn't mean work has stopped. We've provided the second firm the scope that the Heart Institute, UTMSI, and the Coastal Bend Basin Estuaries provided to us. So we've sent that scope back. We asked for the time to conduct the work and, of course, a cost proposal so we can evaluate that to move forward.

Thank you very much, Nick. Peter, our next meeting, is that October 6th or 13th?

I think 13th.

So we should have probably some decent progress by then. Can we get an update?

By that time, Councilman? Yeah, we can.

Any updates between now and then, of course, if we can get something.

Once we get the contract, has the contract been executed yet?

No, we're waiting on a proposal.

Okay, once we get the proposal, we'll forward it to the city council. The contract value, it was less than what's required by council to approve, so we'll administratively approve it. We just need to get the proposal and then enter into a legal contract with this firm. The plan is we're going to pay, we're paying for it? Correct. Correct. In the past, it was going to be the Coastal Bend Basin Estuaries, but now we're going to pay for it. That's correct. Right. And so we have to pay for it, but we're going to execute the contract with the city. But we get to get the terms from this firm that Coastal Bend Basin Estuaries recommended to us. Right. So, Councilwoman, we'll get you most likely before that October timeframe and update via memo. and then we can put something on to brief the council.

Perfect.

We have some pricing estimates from Coastal Bend Bays and estuaries. I'm not sure how it's going to come back.

But in four weeks, we should be able to have signed the contract, started work, and have a good update for this.

We'll update you in the interim, though.

Perfect. Thank you, gentlemen.

Thank you, Nick. Martin Longoria.

Good afternoon, council members. On behalf of the Purple Heart, Chapter 509 of the chapter, it is imperative that we preserve our history for our veterans because if we don't, who will? As Mr. Ramchavez used to say, if we don't remember, who will? And it's imperative that we keep that history as long as possible because we have a lot of members in this community that have served, have earned the Purple Heart, and have served our country in the most dignified way than anybody can. So, you know, consider, I know the city goes through budget and different things, but this is something that has to be preserved, not just for the veterans that are here present, but also for the future of our kids that are in school so they know the history of those individuals that have served our community and have served our country. I've been the chairman for the Mayor's Committee for the last 10 years, and it's always, You know, it's always imperative that we remember Mr. Chavez left a legacy for us, and we need to continue that legacy. I know some of you all that sit on this council are members, are veterans yourselves. But please, you know, when it comes to budget and things like that, please take into consideration those veterans that have served, that are back here in the back. Please. And thank you for what you do.

Thank you, Martin. Mr. Raisa, you want to go ahead and? Come on.

Isabella Raisa, District 2, co-founder of For the Greater Good. I would like item three pulled from the consent agenda. It is a tax giveaway to the owner of La Palmera Mall. The company is called Corpus Christi Retail Venture, but that company is actually not from here. Corpus Christi Retail Venture is owned by Trademark Property Company, which is owned by Terry Montesi. His company headquarters is in Fort Worth, Texas, with a second office in Dallas. This is a huge privately owned company. It has invested, developed, and redeveloped over 24 million square feet of real estate valued at $5 billion. That's billion with a B. They manage over 10 million square feet of property. In 2008, we signed a 380 agreement with this Fort Worth company. They have 25 years to get up to $15 million from the city of Corpus Christi. Over the past 18 years, the city has given them $6.5 million of our tax dollars. They have seven years left on their 380 program, but they're asking for another 10 years to be able to take nearly $8.5 million of Corpus Christi tax revenue. We won't even pay to maintain neighborhood parks for kids to play in or have decent evening library hours. Our animal care services is in crisis. How can you justify giving a huge private company our much-needed revenue? Mind you, the city still pays some workers $14 an hour, which is less than $30,000 a year. The poverty rate in 2026 for a family of four is $33,000. We are paying poverty wages. Per your memo, with the renovations of Macy's, La Palmera expects to double their annual revenue from $20 million to $40 million. Why does this large, privately-owned Fort Worth company need our tax revenue? Last week, y'all were laboring over the budget, saying that there wasn't enough money to give city staff merit pay and coal adjustments, or for abatements or homelessness services that our community really needs. Last week, you proposed reducing maintenance spending on parks, streets, and the PACRI channel. That's on top of services like trash and brush pickup that we've had reduced over the years, and on top of increased fees for parks and recreation services and for small local business owners. This 380 agreement is a giveaway to a company whose headquarters isn't here, whose owners don't live here. If you approve this agreement, every year the city shall... give to the Fort Worth company 70% of their ad valorem property taxes and 70% of their net sales tax, which could go to our general fund to pay for city services. The theory is that we pay property taxes and sales taxes so that we can fund city services. And here you are proposing giving this Fort Worth company our taxes. By your own memo's account, they stand to double their yearly revenue. They don't need the 380 agreement. They want it. The question is, are you going to give it to them? Are you going to continue to starve our city services so that you can give our tax dollars to the rich? Montessi's company manages millions of square feet of property. He doesn't need our revenue. Our city services, our city staff, our local businesses, and our residents need our tax revenue. End welfare for the rich or justify why you're going to continue it.

Thank you, Mr. Reza. Rachel Caballero.

Rachel Caballero, D1, thank you to the majority five that are representing this community, and hopefully the rejected four will not get reelected ever, ever again. I didn't come last week in hopes to make it easier and more comfortable for the elected official who was found guilty of one perjury. guilty of aiding and defrauding Corpus Christi taxpayers, and guilty of violating their oath to office, resulting in a 30-day suspension. I was hoping it'd make it easier for them to apologize for their illegal behavior, and hopefully we could all turn over a new leaf. Instead, tyranny was amplified. Vast hostility and anger and the mistreatment, the further mistreatment of community members, and now it's being spread to peers. No accountability, no responsibility taken, and no apology. Now that is disgusting and a disgrace. Let me make something very, very clear. You all depend on our labor to have successful businesses in Corpus Christi. Your power only exists because we keep showing up. You all are truly irrelevant without our participation. You all do not know how to run a government You know how to profit from it. We know if candidates support the experimental Inner Harbor desalination project, they will support data centers. Discernment is key in the elections coming. No one is paying me. No one has ever paid me. The community has come here year after year after year against the experimental Inner Harbor project, against its cost and its environmental implications. We don't need a new council. We need people that are gonna stand by this community. We need people that see the growth and the potential of our community. Where are all the beautification projects? Where are they? Where have they been the last seven years? Exactly. Crickets. Nothing. Yet it's okay to perjure yourself. It's okay to aid in defrauding the Corpus Christi taxpayers. And it's okay to violate your oath to office. We deserve better. We're going to vote better. Have the day you deserve. Robin Cox.

Hello, I'm Robin Cox, District 3. And first of all, I want to thank all the servicemen sitting in the back. My son is a Marine stationed in Okinawa. He became a Marine because of great men like that that he had to look up to. We constantly watched movies when he was little, military movies, and that's what he said, I want to be like that when I grow up. So I thank each and every one of them back here. On another note, last week was 9-11. I spent the weekend at home doing simple things, chores around the house, and watching some movies. We watched one really wonderful woman, wonderful movie about a woman, the last survivor of 9-11. And I thought about something. When she was lying down underneath the rubble, the fireman there didn't ask, are you a Democrat or Republican? They all bound together as New Yorkers and Americans. We were all better people that day. No one asked who did you vote for or where did you stand? Were you for Inner Harbor or were you not for Inner Harbor? No, everybody bonded together. Right now it's city council election time and we're seeing a lot of horrible horrible things written about people, written about supporters of candidates, things that are not true. And some of them, I know people make a good living doing this, but it's very hurtful to the people that are on the other end of it. My new friend, Vidal Condes, had some untrue things written about him. Before everybody believes these things, stop and think. Are they getting paid to say this? Because when you get to the gates of heaven, St. Peter's not going to say, what did you do? Did you write something bad about somebody? And you're not going to be able to tell St. Peter, hey, I've got some dirt on somebody. And if you don't do what I say and let me in heaven, I'm going to say stuff about you. No, he's going to say, you were put here on this earth to leave it a better place than you found it. Last week, I ran into Dr. Arisa and she hugged me. And it was a true heartfelt hug. We all need to be better people. Let's all try and be the people we were on 9-12. We were only those people for a short day, maybe even a week. And then we all went back to being those other people. When I was a small child, my grandmother, we were devout Catholics, but my grandmother took me to see Dr. Billy Graham. And Dr. Billy Graham's words said that we were all put on this earth to do good. So please try and remember that. Be the people we were on 9-12. Thank you for starting 10 minutes late, 10 minutes early, too, for those of us trying to work our schedules around it. It was very convenient to rush here.

You're welcome. Thank you, Ms. Cox. Ms. Huerta, do we have Webex?

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

Can you hear me? Hello?

Yes, we can hear you and see you.

Play my video, please. Thank you very much. Morning folks, C3 here, Sean Mayer, Corpus Christi Citizen, and this lovely lady here is running for D2. Her name is Jenna Londay, Jessica Gomez, Genevieve something or other. She has got more aliases than a 1950s Soviet spy. And I don't know what that thing is in her hand there, but it looks like it was used rectally. Anyway, over the weekend, we published why she shouldn't be running for D2. She has one, two, three, four, five. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 active warrants out on them. 12 active warrants and running for D2. Coffee with Jen every Friday at 930 at Price Chef's there, 1800 Alameda. Well, Jen, our advice to you is take care because September is Warrant Resolution Month. And you should go in there and get all those warrants and fines taken care of, baby. Or, I hate to tell you, but coffee with Jen might become booking with Jen. You might be behind there at the clank, baby, if you don't take care of them. Oh, and speaking of Jen and her friends, Damon Gibson. Oh, Damon, yeah, you had your little double agent try to extort money recently out of me and Jay Cruz because, be honest now, you love to extort money out of people, don't you? That's why you got mad at me in the first place, because I called you out on all your BS. And see that there? Yeah, that fake menu, again, fake menu I sent you there, Damon, was all to make you expose yourself. And you exposed yourself very well, didn't you? Look at all this. All these crazy allegations and made-up things you're sending people about me, including making fun of me for being homeless, don't even know what a Bowie knife is, you call it a machete. Oh, but then look. Phone calls, don't worry, I recorded all three with your buddy Shane. I've got all three of those saved. And I know you've twisted around that too, but then you go put out my home address, put out my call, you put out all kinds of things. And look, you've even taken pictures of my car, taking pictures of me while I'm out doing my job. Well, how about that, Damon? Now it's flattering having a stalker, but I hate to tell you, I don't swing that way, pal. But anyway, we know you do, because look at this. While you were in charge of the Rotary Youth, you were arrested for drug offenses and for child porn. But Corpus Christi PD lost the evidence. But see all these people here that you copyrighted their work and then fired them and ruined their Christmases? Yeah, see, that's what I found about you and why I sent you my fake menu. Because you are a scumbag, just like your little candidate there. And I got the truth on all of you. You got C3'd, baby!

All right, Mr. Merritt, thank you very much. Next is Captain Dave Heasley. Oh, I'm sorry.

Councilman Vaughn. I was just wondering, I've wanted to ask this before, do we run any kind of criminal checks on anyone running for council or boards or anything?

Yes, ma'am. Actually, I have a memo on that that I have not. I did some research on it because you've asked this question before. Yes, ma'am. And I have not sent it out yet, but I do have a memorandum. At this time, we do not, but we did discuss with staff and with PD. So we do have a proposal. Okay. I just need to send it to council. My apologies for it being late. It's okay. But we did look at it, ma'am, because you did ask. I think I asked to do that. Okay. Yes, ma'am. You asked before. Thank you. Okay, next is Captain Dave Heasley. Captain Heasley, not online, okay.

Yes, I'm here.

Oh, good, okay. Go ahead, sir.

Can you see me? Okay, can you hear me?

I can hear you, yes, sir.

Okay, great. Can you play my video, please?

Yes, sir. How would you describe your relationship with Phillip Ramirez? Uh, favorable. You guys go out to bars, some of that? I'm not judging you, okay? Well, I drink daily. How about that? And then what is your relationship with Devin Bokta? Um, just as, uh... same thing someone i know on a favorable basis okay do you consider him a friend also oh yeah i guess so philip and devin are both in the friend category correct yeah i would say so and both of them are in the category of from time to time get a drink with them uh yes sir both of them are also political donors of yours right oh of course They believe in good government. Certainly when it gives them $2 million for the forged document, right? I wouldn't. And they were more than just applicants here. They're also, like you said earlier, they're friends of yours, right?

They're friends. We call them friends.

Pardon?

Yes, I could call them everybody at this table is my friend, including you.

I disagree, but that's okay.

With what?

Okay. Is this what we're going to normalize? Are we going to normalize our city officials committing crimes against our taxpayers? Is this what the future for Corpus Christi is going to be? We've got a mayor that's committed, covered all the bases of what it takes to be removed from office, and yet our city's allowing her to not only maintain her position, but also to run for the mayor's office again. The district attorney, Jimmy Granberry, should have indicted you, should have indicted the mayor over these charges. It's very obvious they're true. Very obvious that the mayor committed them, but the district attorney refuses to indict her. We got other council members that are investing in data centers, and then they're lying to the public during the council meetings about the amount of water usage that they're going to use. They're telling everybody that data centers are only going to use a two-inch line. They're not going to use much water, but they're not telling everybody that the power plant down the road that's going to supply them with the electricity they need, has to put in an eight or 10 inch line to fulfill their water needs. Are we gonna continue to allow these council members, these scumbags to lie to us, profit off of us, and then at the end of the day, leave us holding the bag with billions of dollars in debt?

Thank you, sir, very much, appreciate it. Okay, next is Carrie Meyer.

Hello.

Okay.

Hi. We can hear you. Can you hear me? Yes. Hi. Okay, great. Okay. My name's Carrie Meyer. I can't see the screen, but I guess I'm on there. Is it all right?

We can hear you. We don't see you right now. Hold on one moment.

Okay.

Oh, thanks. How about that?

Okay, there we go. Now we can see you and hear you.

Okay, great. My name's Carrie Meyer. I'm with North Beach Community Association. I'm here to support agenda item number 11, and I wanted to tell you that this is a great example of the phrase, it takes a village, because... This will address a big safety issue for the public on a 45-mile-an-hour feeder road that is right up against a neighborhood because right now and for many, many years, the neighbors have had to walk on a very narrow shoulder. The highway was built in the 1950s. The homes were built in the 1980s. And then a large apartment complex at the Lighthouse was built just a couple of years ago. The TxDOT road is within the city limits. And it directly affects city residents, tourists, and businesses. The new Harbor Bridge shared use path is very close to that, but these people cannot access it safely. They also cannot access the new North Beach Eco Park that's just on the other side of the highway. So the residents on the west side of the highway approach TxDOT, the MPO, the city, and the state for help. And that's when... the village came together. And that's what this grant is. It's each entity pitching in. Thanks to the North Beach TERS Board for approving this, to Mike Waltz at TxDOT for working with Robert McDonald at the MPO, to Denise, Representative Denise Villalobos in Austin for coming to our assistance to try to bring attention to this. And thank you to this city council for the public improvements that you've spearheaded on North Beach to improve this historic part of the city. So please vote yes. And I still can't see the screen, but I just wanted to put this up here. The red line, that is where the sidewalk will be built. It's just a simple sidewalk. So thank you so much and appreciate y'all's service.

Thank you, Ms. Meyer.

That's it.

Next is Alberto Zertuche. Okay. I understand. Yeah. Is that you? Oh, there you are. Okay. Very good, sir. Go ahead.

This is Albert Sarkucha, D3, owner of Hard Life's Bait and Tackle and Team Hard Life U2. We've come up here multiple times asking for the truth. The truth needs to come out. I stand alone. with many others who are paying attention within our city and our community and are speaking out against the corruption. We love this city and are being forced to pay for these corrupt members in city council. Let's go back and look at our growing numbers of city council members who are starting to take more action and will be heard when we can't afford to be increased on our water bills, our light bills and our property taxes. November is coming. We are paying attention. We will vote accordingly. We have the majority vote at hand. Prayer is going out to those that are standing against corruption for protection for them and their families. With that being said, I want to know those who defend the corruption have to realize those paychecks they are making for going after hardworking citizens trying to make a better living for our families. Those checks will only last till those corrupt individuals are removed from office. But the corruption that they enforce upon us will remain for, if the Inner Harbor desal scam goes through, we're gonna be stuck with that for 30 years. Our kids will have to pay for our sacrifices now that y'all are giving away. For the city council members who are industry lobbyists, you know you're sitting in a position of a conflict of interest. which also can be seen as insider trading. When will the rest of the city taxpayers start holding them accountable for the decisions they push in order to keep taxpaying residents further in debt to industry? What is the end game? This is a very important question that everybody needs to ask themselves, because again, Why are they forcing so much debt upon our city? Why are they forcing us to keep paying for multi-billion dollar operations to function here with IDAs and or, I'm so aggravated right now, it's hard to hold a thought, but I want you to remember this question, what is their end game? Why are they taxing us to the brink of breaking everybody's bank accounts except their own? Are we pretty much on the verge of losing our city to industry? This is Parkland City by the sea, guys. We're about to lose it to these lobbyists on city council. Remember that come November, vote them out and keep the ones who fight for us in. Very simple. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Next is Shirin Delsous.

Hi. I'm Shirin Delsous. I live in District 5. And this is District 5 Corpus Christi public comment real life. You'll see behind me, there is a public school behind me. And they're building a trail. But on item 12 today, it's about getting some money so we can extend this. Because this school, and there's a cafe over here, It is so congested here. Pick up and drop off time like you wouldn't believe. The smog, I can smell it even a little bit in my house. When I go to jog, it's impossible for me to jog. I can't take my kids to the playground. It's that bad. If we have a shortcut here and here, and they extend this, this would be an incredible shortcut for families and kids to just get to their home faster it gets really hot so i can understand it can be dangerous to be outside for a long time so if we have this shortcut uh we could really alleviate the congestion here i'm really sorry for the wind but i really have to show you in real life and it's just so beautiful to see that this construction is being done in real life and it's happening and this is real life like we need to get this uh extended and uh it would also increase the quality of life like you'll see maybe a little bit behind me there's a uh cross cut um a track and it's packed on weekends people here they want to get fit they want to be active but we don't have much uh infrastructure here and if we have a beautiful trail um I wish you saw, there were some birds behind me. They were so beautiful. It would create not only just a nice place for exercise, it's beautiful memories of your day-to-day life. It's those small things that really make that quality of life good here. So item 12, please vote for it. It might just be some concrete, but it really changes day-to-day life for so many people. We don't have... trails in District 5. The ones that we do are just so small. And we have this. It could connect to the Del Mar, the bike trail there. And it would be so amazing to have. And I can't wait to use it. And I'm part of iBikeCC. And this is something that many people in the neighborhood have asked for. So I hope that you vote for it. So that's all I have to say. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Seuss. Um, I just want to clarify one thing, uh, council member on, I may have misunderstood your, your question. Were you asking about background checks for board members or for candidates for both? Okay. So we've done some work on board members on candidates. That's a separate issue. I can tell you that the application that a candidate signed, it does include a question about felony convictions on there. But that's a separate subject. So we need to prepare something for you on that. But that's, yeah, that's not something that we do now. The law doesn't require, but we need to explain to you why that is. So that's a separate issue we'll discuss. We'll send something out on. Okay. Thank you.

Okay, thank you, Rebecca. We're gonna go ahead and go. That concludes our public comment period. We're gonna go to the consent agenda, items two through 15. Do we have any requests from the council to pull any items two through 15? Item number three, eight. 10 and 12.

10 and 12.

No, Carolyn said 10, right? And Gil said 12. Anything else? Okay, any requests from the public to pull any items to make public comment on? Yes, ma'am. 13, okay. So I'm gonna, pardon? 11, okay. Oh, yeah, if you were going to speak on that, sir, you already spoke on it before, so we can't do it twice. Okay. I'm going to entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda with the exception of items 3, 8, 10, 12, and 13. We have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say no. The motion carries. Item number three was the first item pulled, and that is an ordinance amending the Chapter 380 incentive agreement with La Palmera Mall. And who pulled this one? Councilman Paxton, your question or comment.

Thank you. I noticed, I just had a question for clarification because the agenda memo, while it's asking to extend the time, it continues to reference the remaining balance without discussing if there's a delta to the remaining balance or not. So my question, I guess, is how much are they projected to receive before the original expiration date, which is the 15 million, and then now if we add on 10 years, is that changing? Is that with this? I just don't see that clear line.

So the remaining $8 million, they do the additional 10 years on the contract to receive the full $8 million remaining balance.

So it's still just the original amount, it's just the duration that's changing? That is correct. Okay, my next question on that item, on the memo, the second to last paragraph under backgrounds and findings. It's saying that this is expected to triple their annual visits and double their current revenue and double current employee count. But I don't see a projected timeline for those checkpoints.

I'm going to ask the, we have some folks that have joined us online, the general manager of the mall and a vice president from Miller Capital and they might be able to answer that question for you.

I just want to say on the record though, I support the project, like I really agree. I just would like some clarification on these items.

Do we have them online?

Yes we do. We have Andrew and Amanda online. Andrew?

Good afternoon. Go ahead. Good afternoon, Mayor and Councilmembers. I'm Andrew Wilson, representing Corpus Christi Retail Venture in La Palmera. First, thank you for your support on the first reading and for the work city staff has done on this amendment. Just to clarify, Terry Montesi does not own La Palmera, and Trademark has no interest in the mall. It serves as the outsource manager and leasing representative. This is not a request to increase the City's original $15 million commitment. It simply provides additional time for La Palmera to earn the unpaid balance through the same performance-based reimbursement structure. There is no upfront City payment. Ownership in Dick's Sporting Goods will invest approximately $30 million before receiving the benefit of the redevelopment. and the city's reimbursements will come only from actual incremental sales and property taxes generated above the established base. This investment will demolish and replace a dark, approximately 210,000 square foot Macy's with a new Dick's House of Sport containing at least 100,000 square feet of active retail, together with significant site improvements and new retail space connecting the project to the mall. The agreement also contains meaningful protections for the city. If ownership does not commence demolition, complete the required investment, and deliver the required improvements within the established deadlines, the extension is not earned. The city retains a portion of every dollar of new tax remit through the term and ultimately receives the full benefit of the improved tax base. Since the original agreement, ownership has invested substantially in La Palmera and helped maintain more than 100 businesses and approximately 2,500 to 3,000 jobs at one of the city's most important retail assets. This amendment allows us to address the loss of Macy's proactively rather than permitting a dark anchor to weaken the surrounding shopping center and its tax base like Sunrise. We respectfully ask for your approval. Thank you.

Thank you. I appreciate that background. I don't know that that answers my questions.

The development should be complete back to school 28.

In 28, and so originally the thought was that the maturity of this agreement, which the base year is 2007, and it's 25 years, so it would have been 32 if I'm not mistaken, and that expected max payout of 15 million is contingent upon delivery of the checkpoints or the maturity of the different improvements that the project was to bring to the city. And so what we're seeing is there's five or six years left on the original and a little over half of the total payout that was eligible, if I'm not mistaken. And so what we're looking to do is increase this by an additional 10 years at the same terms. But again, I'm just... Are we saying that in two years from now, we're going to triple foot traffic, double annual revenue, and double the employees in two years?

I want to make one correction. Yes, the agreement was signed in 2008. The payments didn't start until 2010, which is why the original 25 goes to 2035 and the new agreement would go to 2045. So there's a difference between 2008 and 2010. And the revenue projections and the employee count is specific to the Dix current location and the Dix House of Sport. And so once that is Dix House of Sport is up and running, it's their annual revenue and their employee count that's going to change from their current location to their expanded location. And we're saying we're going to actualize these forecasts in two years? I would assume that there's a stabilization period, yes, but the metrics in the agreement are not tied to their revenue or their employee countable. It's tied to their construction and their operating date.

Okay, so that's my original question. So I think what Mr. Wilson answered is that everything's done in 2028. But my question was still, what is our project timeline, the checkpoints of delivery for these forecasts? Sure.

Those forecasts are, again, would be based on Dick's House of Sports stabilized operations. Obviously, they're not going to be achieved on day one, but the stabilization period usually occurs over a 12 to 14 month period. I'm going to look for something real quick.

And so Jennifer, you said currently the payout would complete at 35. And so we're extending it to 45. Yes. So we'd have, um, you said first year would be 2025. So last year, is that what you said? No, I'm sorry. The first year was 2010, 2010. Excuse me. Thank you. I, there were so many numbers there for a second. So we have nearly 20 years to pay the 8 million. What year is it? 26 to 45. Yep, thereabouts, yes. Okay. I wish that there was something in here that could give us some kind of a compass. I feel like traditionally with retail or any project really, there's timelines put into when do we anticipate to meet these financial participation and staffing checkpoints. And so I'm hearing completion, and that sounds like when the doors open in 28, I'm just still not able to really close the gap on when are we expecting this impact to benefit, this benefit.

So the impact is not tied to Dick's House of Sports or revenue or jobs. There's no tie to the jobs creation in here. What it's tied to is them being up and running, anchoring that mall, bringing more people to the mall, and creating a stable operating environment for all La Palmera tenants. So the metrics are tied to the completion and the opening of Dick's House of Sports, but not their operating or their jobs.

Okay, that may be where my challenge is here. So I realize the request is to extend an agreement with the mall, not necessarily the retailer that is improving the space. I completely realize that. But on the premise that we are being asked to change the agreement, because of this new benefit that's coming as a part of the overall retail of the mall, I think that's what's missing there, and this is a room for improvement. If we're saying we need another 10 years on our original agreement because we're going to increase the improvement through this new retail, then some of those checkpoints, I feel like, should be considered in that agreement. Does that make sense? I'm not understanding your question. We have an agreement with La Palmera. La Palmera is saying we would like that agreement extended because of our new adventure with Dick's Sporting Goods.

Yes, but there's another piece of that. The extension is not just due to Dick's coming in. It is what has happened that slowed or arrested Dick. revenue and sales tax collection between 2010 and today, where there needs to be an extended period for catch-up. And that has to do with all sorts of market conditions that happened between 2010 and today.

Okay. That makes perfect sense to me, Jennifer. I know we continue to discuss the DICS portion. Mm-hmm. And I think that's a big part of what I would like to support the measure as well. I just think that's something that should be considered in an item like this. Like I said at the beginning, I support it. I'm very much in favor of increased amenities and things to do for our town and supporting our local businesses and things like that. I just think that having some of those tangible checkpoints, I mean, that's a big gap, but going from 20 million to 40, you know what I'm saying? So being able to see some of those timelines, I would have appreciated seeing, but I get it. Thank you, Jennifer.

Council Member Campos.

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Okay. So, yes, basically on the same kind of line of logic as to what is it that the city would be gaining for extending the 10-year agreement, and Normally, when we do these type of agreements, it's based on jobs or some kind of tax increments. So do we have an idea of what that would actually bring to Corpus Christi?

So because it's a retail 380, we are not tying it to jobs. What we are doing is trying to stabilize a community asset. When the malls lose their anchors, it's hard to, one, maintain a credit rating where they can recruit investors and raise capital or bring in new tenants. What we don't want to have happen is end up with another Sunrise Mall where the tenants end up leaving and we're stuck with the conditions that we've got. Also, La Palmera is... quality of life asset, a healthy La Palmera, make sure that we've stopped the retail leakage to the Valley, San Antonio, to Houston, for example, and in order for La Palmera to recruit a business like Dick's House of Sport that is going to bring in more visitors to the mall and stabilize and benefit all of the tenants.

We, no, we left on Meta Mall. I mean, you know, most people, I think. But we just need to make sure that we're using our tax dollars wisely, right? I did meet with Andrew and, you know, with Ms. Opal, And I was trying to see what more we could get out of extending this. And again, I'm going to ask for more trees. Because again, I think that's something that our area is lacking in. And I've not heard a commitment from them. I'm just wondering, is Andrew still

Yes, yes, we're committed to put in trees. We talked to our design team after we spoke about lining trees along McArdle at the entrances.

Okay, and so how do we make this a fact? This is my last term, so how do we know that it's in the contract?

It is in the contract.

Okay, people. It's in the contract, so I would like to see it in writing, and once I see it, then I will publicize it, but yes, I will be approving this, and I am grateful, like you said, I think I got a message that this project employs at least 3,000 Up to 3,000 people.

2,500 to 3,000 depending on the season. Right. But I do want to, if you have your packet in front of you on Article 4, Section 4.02, companies shall update landscaping no later than June 1, 2033 on the side of new investment that faces McArdle. Okay. To include 10 trees that are native to the area, to the landscape.

I think we can do better than 10, but okay.

Article 4, section 4.02 under development terms, paragraph B. That section is also where the metrics for the development are. The building improvements that they have to commence on or before January 1, 2030, they have to be complete. Such demolition has to be complete by June 1, 2032. OK. in the event that it's not done by June 1st, 2032, then it resorts, the extension doesn't happen and it stays with its same 10 years. But again, it's based on the development, not necessarily the operating or the jobs because it's retail.

Thank you. Councilman Roy.

Thank you for your presentation. I think the questions that were asked by council members so far, they were good questions. When I initially looked at this, one of the things that I had to do, I almost had to remove Dick's sporting goods from the equation. I say that because if you take a look at the time frame, the economic impact that we've had, unfortunately, going back to several years after this agreement went into place. So, you know, we had COVID, right? Which definitely had an impact in terms of the outcome of and looking at the performance overall. But then we had this whole phenomena with eBay, and I mentioned this last week, and some of the, what's the other one?

I think you're talking about Amazon.

Amazon and that, yeah. And so there's been a shift. And for one, Kyle Allen, for example, were right there on the crux of the outlet mall that failed um in the robstown area so that was a big kind of disappointment for us because we have this huge i don't even know the square footage but we have a huge facility there that's basically dormant and so then the impact that it has and just the overall eyesore in the community and hoping that somebody will come out and revitalize that space. So this is important. I really do think that it's important because number one, I think the pendulum always swings the other way. And so right now, there's a heavy development in terms of Amazon and all the mail house orders. But at the same time, I do believe that when you have an anchor mall in your community, I don't think we can support multiple sites like we did back in the day, in the 70s and 80s, or whatever. There were malls on almost every, I'm not gonna say every corner, but certainly more. And so this is an important project. In addition to the fact that I've been keeping my eye on, we had Synergy, which is an entertainment center, because malls are entertainment, that hasn't really kicked off. And we had talk about Bass Pro Shop, and I know that, I don't know where we're at with that, but I know that it doesn't appear that we've moved forward on that yet. It may come. So again, I think that the last thing we need is an empty space like Macy's there, because I do believe it has an overall effect on the other retailers. And when you have a robust space, mall that is fully occupied, I do believe it draws others and it allows you to continue to stabilize. So I'm very much for this project. Thank you.

Councilman Scott.

I'll be quick. You stole my thunder. Do ask me later about two-inch trees. Just remember that statement. There's those of us that have been involved in some of this a long time. I remember a city council argument in the 80s about two-inch trees, but I do have to admit, come on, really? Ten trees? We can't do more? Come on, Debbie. A few more trees and I don't know the logistics and all that, but I did want to get that out there. I think there's a lot of cities that lament not having the opportunity to help keep a mall vibrant. I think there's a lot of malls in the country that are dark, and I think those elected officials think back to a moment in time that they had an opportunity to help them, help those malls survive and regret missing that. So I would say thank you to the mall, whoever's involved for bringing this opportunity. I think it's good for the community. I don't particularly like incentivizing retail. I've done it, right? And I do it. But I do think there's a community benefit. And thank you for your work.

Councilman Vaughn. Well, Most people shop online now, which is unfortunate. I don't like that. I like to go to the store. So I support this. It's the last only mall we've got. So we've got to try and keep it here. I make a motion to approve.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Would anyone? Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, we have a motion and a second. Please submit your vote. Okay, the motion carries. Jennifer, thank you. The next item pulled was item number eight, and that is a motion authorizing execution of a one-year supply agreement with two one-year options with international corrosion control. And this is for the purchase of magnesium anodes for gas operations. Who pulled this one? Councilman Paxton, your question or comment?

Thank you. The way I figure, I think it's about $183 difference between the second to lowest and lowest bid. And my preference, of course, is always to go as local as possible. And that $183 per contract term difference would take us from investing in a New York company, who I understand has typically gotten these contracts, to Texas, Houston, Texas. And they have actually, I believe, a location here in Corpus Christi. And so I was curious the feedback on those two options.

I mean, I think that the fact that we have used the other company in the past and have had success with the anodes that they provided I think is why they probably selected that with that minor difference. You know, it's maybe something we could look into, but now I will tell you, when I first started with the city in 2009, we had switched anode vendors, and we actually got a bad batch of anodes. So I'm not saying that the other vendors have bad anodes. We don't know for sure. But there is always that risk of, you know, don't fix what's not broken, and we've had success with this vendor and the anodes that they are sending to us. But I'm sure it was just completely on the fact that they honored their original price. The price didn't go up. Actually, the price decreased on the 15-pound anodes and the fact that we've had success with the other vendor.

Let's have Sergio talk about this. It's a low bid solicitation. It has nothing to do with quality or quantity. It's low bid, so the question is can you bypass the city rules and pick the second lowest bidder?

No, this is a request for lowest bid, so the city recommends awarding the lowest bid.

Okay, so we'd have to cancel this and go for another solicitation then?

Right, you could reject the bids and then go back out.

Yeah, it's a low bid, Councilwoman Paxson. So, yeah, so.

Like I said, there's about 183, so dollars per contract year. So it's not a big discrepancy. It's very small, but it does put that one company that, again, I recognize we've used a number of times. Is there typically consideration in the bid tabs for local preference or proximity?

I don't think not for local. For scoring?

Sorry, for scoring?

Not request for lowest bid. Gotcha, gotcha. It's price.

I know that we've done business also with BK Corrosion. I don't believe they've had a contract of this magnitude, but I know we have. Is there an issue with going with that company?

Do you do work with BK Collision, Bill?

I mean, I think that if there's a local vendor, we probably do some small item purchases from them. But I don't know.

Bill, have you done work with BK corrosion?

I don't know that we have. Okay.

Do you know, Sergio, if we use them at all on anything?

BK corrosion? We'd have to go back and check and get that.

Okay, we're not sure, Council Member. We'll have to get you that.

I can, yeah, I was curious. I was genuinely curious because it is, I don't want to say it's splitting hairs, but it's kind of splitting hairs at $183 on a, you know, $400,000 contract. Yeah. And so to me, I know that from what I could find, we've given some smaller repairs type maintenance. I think the highest bid was like $40,000 that the organization has awarded to this company. So the reason I'm asking that is if there's no if there's no precedent that says they're going to provide a bad product or do a bad job. That's what I'm trying to get at.

Right. If that makes sense. Yeah, since it's following state bidding rules, we solicited this as a bid. So the choice is we select the lowest bidder or we reject the entire request and go back out. We can't, by law, we can't pick the second lowest bidder, no matter how good they are or...

I believe we could choose a separate one, but we typically would recommend or go with the lowest.

No, the state bidding requires us to recommend and council to approve the lowest bidder or we reject all bids and go back out. Those are the only two choices we have, right? Yeah. Okay, thank you. Yeah, because it's not a value-based or it's not a preference-based or it's not a, you know, I don't know what else you can call them, but. This was put out as a low bid, so the choice for the organization is pick the lowest bidder or reject them all and go back out for bid. I'm looking around to make sure it's right. Yeah, okay.

Okay, Councilman Hernandez.

Thank you. We do have some local preference in our bid. policy, I believe that was brought to us a few years ago, but I think that only applied to within Corpus Christi. I don't know if it applied to the state as a whole. I forget the preference.

Can you tell us? Sergio will tell us the range of preference, the geographic range.

That is for our RFPs for... nonprofessional services that are governed under 2254. So anything that's not engineering. That's right. Well, you can't do it with professional services. I understand that.

The question, though, is the geographic range. Is it just the city of Corpus Christi, or is it the MSA?

For the local preference. Right. I would need to double-check the ordinance, but I believe it's the city of Corpus Christi.

Okay. Okay, so... But to Councilman Paxson's point, there's really no reflection in the memo saying that this is under a specific type of procurement that you couldn't go with the second lowest bidder that was local to the state. I know we're kind of talking nuance here, but... It does give us a bad impression that we're picking New York over Texas. So if you can, for future purposes, I'm going to believe that you're saying to us is what's correct. But in the future, when you have this kind of situation, you need to tell us in the agenda memo that you can't do that. It's required for the lowest bid. There was no local preference associated with this. Or it didn't qualify per our policy. Just give us some information on it. I know the anodes are extremely important for what we're doing. You know, actually, you know, I actually did a little research looking at the difference between zinc and magnesium anodes and what their uses were. So I mean the details. But anyway, I appreciate it. Thank you.

Council Member Paxson.

I know we've had this discussion a number of times, is the consideration for local preference.

Agreed.

And I was told at the time that we already have that incorporated into our policy, that for procurement, there is a measure for local preference. I realize that the state has mandates for how you post a job, and we're looking at lowest responsive bid, but our local policy, the way it was explained to me, is that we have consideration for local preference.

Right, correct, Councilman. We do for certain procurement items like construction, do we have it for professional services?

Yeah, non-professional services. Non-professional. Like janitorial services. Okay. Landscaping services, things that don't fall under us, engineering, architect, CPAs. But this was an RFP specifically. The way it was procured was for the lowest bid, which is lowest price. So that's why it's being recommended to work to the lowest bid because that's how it was put out.

But the answer, Councilman, is that some of our contracts have local preference points and others don't. So the low bid process doesn't have any points for local preference. That's correct. Just all based on price. But others, like using janitorial services or security services, there's preference points if the company is local. You get points automatically if you reside in Corpus Christi, if you have an office or headquarters. Yes, sir. so on the low bid uh... procurement which is part of the majority of our bids on thing a little bit uh... for yes for specific uh... items of goods and for goods at least products generally it's low bid is the the method that we most often use so i

I realize it's not on the agenda today, but going back to my request for consideration to look at our local and state policies for procurement, this would fit right in. We're talking about on a contract of $370,000, $183 is the hair we're splitting between investing over a million dollars in three years in a Texas company that has an office in the city of Corpus Christi, versus a company in New York?

We'd have to check on that. You see where... We may need to check and make sure that International Corrosion isn't a Texas-based business also. Because the reason you see Houston and New York is these magnesium anodes come from overseas. I don't think there's an American facility that creates them. So you're looking at shipping ports. So that might be why... International corrosion out of New York is bringing them here That doesn't necessarily say that international corrosion doesn't have offices in Texas Or BK has offices in New York. I mean we would need to look into that I will tell you that you know, we've been buying anodes for you know 100 years for gas and you know the employee that is in charge of this program has been here for 42 years. So, you know, I did not ask him if he had a vendor preference before I came. There might be something to that, you know, level. Just like Gil said, there's zinc and magnesium anodes. We've gotten a bad batch of magnesium anodes in the past that were zinc and magnesium. when we didn't specify, and that was one of the issues I was talking about earlier, not to say that that was BK corrosion, but it could have been something like that. You know, so it's, like I said, we've been getting them from international corrosion. We've had a lot of success with those anodes, and so I'm sure that's kind of played into that decision, and luckily they did not go up on price.

Excuse me, Bill, it did not go into the decision. This is a low bid bid. It has nothing to do with somebody that's been here for 40 years or anything like that. It's a low bid. The purchasing department picked the low bidder because they're the lowest bidder. If we want to go value-based or local preference, we'd have to change it. We'd have to go back out for bid. We can do that.

Mr. Mahaffey, I appreciate the information, and I do understand that sometimes products... There's a preference to vendor because of the consistency and the difference of the, I completely understand that and this is technical, it's important, it's very important. And I support your department, please understand that. I'm just seeing that the history behind these procurement here and what's in front of us is awarding over a million dollars to label New York versus Texas. And I know that BK has bid on similar and they have come in just behind New York a time or two before. And so that, I just, I'm a huge, it's important to me, it's very important to me that we try to invest as locally as possible. And so that's, It's a bigger discussion than just this one topic, but it's relevant here as well. That's why it's relevant in other topics. So I appreciate it. And Peter, if there's ways that we can put more focus, that was what I had tried to say several conversations ago, is what we can do to try to invest locally. Of course, with the working knowledge of the departments of what needs done, that should be our preference as locals.

Yeah, we agree. Thank you, Mr. Mahaffey. I move for approval.

Okay, we have a motion. We have a second. I please submit your vote. Okay, the motion carries. Next item pulled is item number 10, and that is the motion awarding a construction contract to PM Construction and Rehab, and this is for the citywide wastewater indefinite delivery indefinite quantity. And who pulled this item? Councilman Vaughn?

Real quick question, and I'm sure this is what you do, but do they follow OSHA safety rules, all the companies that y'all contract with?

They darn sure should.

Okay, do you all check it? Do you do due diligence and check it and see if they've had any violations?

We check. That's part of what they submit at their bid and their statement of experience, and I don't have that here, but we ask that question when they submit their bids. But do we enforce their OSHA compliance? No, we don't, and there's reasons for that. You don't want to take responsibility for their safety. That's their requirement.

No, you don't, but you want to make sure they're following them because if they have a repeat incident where they're not following, that should be a flag. And so I'm seeing, like she said, these are Texas ones, but we have some local too. But in the local ones, you probably know better than you know the others. And I'm not saying don't do this. I'm just saying that to me that's due diligence to check their record. We do that. Okay. So you would know.

To this point, we have determined that that is –

Okay. You don't take their word. You check because you would know. You want to know.

They submit their incidence rate with the bid package.

You don't just take their words, what I'm saying. Correct. You check it. Just want to clarify.

And they're the incumbent. These are the folks that are currently doing this type of work for us, and they're going to hit their current contract ceiling estimated around end of the year.

Okay. Just making sure. Thank you. Okay. I'll entertain a motion. Oh, Councilman Paxson. Thank you.

Also, I noticed we're awarding the probable cost rather than the bid total. And the description was in the event the department needed to add on new items, new jobs, new details, et cetera. Could you talk a little to that difference?

So the IDIQ contracts, they just bid on kind of a menu of pay items and their estimates. that are done. We don't have full-blown sets of plans for this work. So the delivery orders are prepared on this contract internally by the engineering group and CCW, and they issue these out, buying work and basically orders. So you can think of it like a basic ordering agreement. And when we bid this out, we have an estimated, we have quantities and we have descriptions on those items of work, and that comes up with a bid, and we award the low bidder. But the contract itself doesn't have value per se. You're issuing drawings with each assignment to them. We call those delivery orders. So you're buying this construction work in little individual bites. Now, we can award this either in the past. We've awarded it sometimes based on the bid and sometimes based on the budget. because they're targeting a certain budget amount when they're preparing the bid documents, but you never hit it exactly right. So sometimes the bids come in at or near the budget. We'll award it based on the bid. Sometimes the bids might be over what we estimated, and then we'll award based on budget, which will be a lower number. You follow what I'm saying? It's unlike a project where you've got full-blown bid documents, and it's a... When you award that contract, you expect it to be exactly at that amount. Plus or minus change orders.

I just know that more often than not, we're awarding to the bid total. So that was my question on the difference in that recommendation.

Correct. And on this one, we're awarding based on the budget amount.

And is that... Do you feel like that decision is based on the type of work here and the variance between the estimate versus the actual cost, so it's the type of work? Because usually we do award for the bid.

I think the award is based on their need for the work, and they want to get all of these dollars at work on this type of work, and I think they're trying to stay on schedule with the consent decree.

I see. Thank you very much, Jeff.

Okay, I'll entertain a motion to approve item number 10. So moved. We have a motion and a second. Please submit your vote. Okay, the motion carries. Item number 11 was pulled by a constituent to make public comment. Okay. Oh, I'm sorry, we didn't. Yes, no, ma'am. Yeah, that one. So not item 11. I'm sorry, I meant item 12. Was that a constituent comment? No, that was Councilman Hernandez. This is a resolution authorizing the submission of a grant application to the Corpus Christi Metropolitan Planning Organization for funding, or I'm sorry, for a District 5 trail connectivity. Councilman Hernandez. Yes.

Yes, thank you. And this is something I pulled because I know it's something I've been working on for a while. There's currently work on being done over by Caffey Middle School as part of the Bond 2024 project from Proposition A for the District 5 trail connectivity. And I'm sure we're using that funding as the matching funding. Is that correct?

Yes, sir. Mayor, Council, Ernie De La Garza, Interim Assistant City Manager, Director of Public Works. So you're asking about this grant?

Right.

Yes, sir. So this grant is actually going to be savings from bond 2024 program.

Right. Yes. Right. So, OK. And I'd like to, you know, Sharon DelSouza actually made some public comments at the very last at the end there. but I'd like to thank her because she brought a lot of attention to this trail aspect, which actually encouraged me to look at it closer. And so I want to acknowledge her publicly that she had a lot to do with bringing this to my attention. And I appreciate us. I know we've been pounding for grants and the MPO, and I'd like to thank Robert McDonald over at the MPO and the staff over there for working to get this thing done. So I appreciate it. That also includes item number 11 and item number 13, which we'll talk here. With that, I make a motion to approve. Second.

Yeah, and I'm going to jump in quickly on all three of these. There are three grant applications, submissions that are very important. Each one is over about a million dollars. This is through the MPO, and as an MPO board member, I'm going to be obviously very supportive of this. This fund entails over $6.5 million for projects such as this, that address pedestrian sidewalks um i know the um the sidewalk frontage road sidewalk for along u.s 181 which is north beach that has been something that multiple councils have worked on um because of the you know public safety issue and so all of these are great news that the number 13 is london isd pedestrian safety improvement extremely important for the for the children that are walking and so we very much um i'm sure my colleagues all are supporting these This is a very good news item, and it will now go to the MPO to continue to move forward. We have to remember, though, these MPO funds are for Nueces County and San Patricio County. They're for cities, counties, and school districts. So it is very competitive. So we hope for the best here, and I'm very happy about these practical improvements that really make our community safer and more connected. So we have a motion and a second. You have a comment? Sure. Councilman Roy.

I just had a quick comment on North Beach. You know, it has been several councils that have worked on this project with the community and TxDOT and just everybody in the county. But one thing I just want to reiterate is that this is just kind of the first phase. I say that because when you take a look at where the sidewalk is and you look at how that neighborhood is separate from from the other side, you still have to cross the street. And I've been a really big proponent, I don't know if it can happen, but I've asked this before of TxDOT, and I know that the city overall and TxDOT has gotten away from pedestrian, what's the word that you call it, flyovers, not flyovers, you know, where you can walk over a busy intersection.

Yeah, for pedestrian bridges? Are you asking about pedestrian bridges?

Yes. Yes, sir. But something needs to be done there because people, they're flying when they go past that neighborhood. They're going pretty quick, and I'd hate to see somebody get hurt. So this is a great first start, but I just don't think we can stop there. We need to continue to make those improvements. Thank you for everything you do. Yes, sir. Thank you.

We have a motion and a second. Please submit your votes. Okay, the motion carries. The last item pulled was item number 13, and that was for public comment.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Council Members. My name is Mo Chavez, and I'm from District 4. I'm here today representing the London Town Homeowners Association Board of Directors in support of Agenda Item 13. and the city's application for funding for the London ISD pedestrian safety improvements project. In the past, we have worked with the city staff for a safe pedestrian connection along London Pirate Road. As the London area has continued to grow, so has the need for additional safe, accessible infrastructure connecting our neighborhoods to our schools. This proposed sidewalk would provide a dedicated accessible route between London ISD campus at London Elementary and the surrounding residential community, giving students, families, and residents a safe alternative to walking alongside a very busy roadway. On behalf of the London Town Homeowners Association Board, I would especially like to thank city staff and the Public Works Department for the work that they have done to bring this project forward. We respectfully ask the council to approve item 13 and allow the city to pursue this important funding opportunity. Thank you for your consideration, and thank you for investing in the safety of our community. Have a good day.

Thank you. Councilman Barrera.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Ms. Chavez. And Ernie, I just want to tell you thank you very much also. This is another great news item. Eight years ago, I think it was either in January or February, we annexed the developer. I had asked to annex the land to be able to build all those homes out there. And the city's recommendation, Peter, at the time was not to annex the road. And what we just said was kind of crazy because, you know, it's going to be, you know, refuse trucks that go out there. We've got to have attorney rates for fire trucks and all those things and, you know, get our ambulances out there that we're not going to have the road. And it was really controversial at the time. And what is it? I know the commissioner's court and I think perhaps Council Member Vaughn, you were a commissioner at the time. that the Commissioner's Court was supporting. They didn't like the idea, or at least Brent didn't like the idea of us not annexing the road because then he'd be responsible for all the stuff there. So I know I had, back then, you know, we had told the residents, I had sent them, hey, bureaucracy moves slow, and I guess for eight years it has. But on the other side, the thing that we had told the residents is that, hey, we're just going to have to wait for a bond election, and hopefully we can get it done. And then When we weren't able to do a bond election, I was like, man, oh, my goodness, you know, this is something we're waiting on. So, Ernie, I just want to say kudos to you and your team that I know that that area is just they've been asking for this for there's been they've gone to the news. They've had, you know, town hall meetings and they've been really frustrated. And the fact that you're doing it as I'm walking out really makes me feel good. So thank you so much. Thank you for you and your team. And thank you for all the projects there. Great job to you guys. Yes, sir. Thank you.

Councilman Hernandez.

Yes, thank you. Are we still doing Vision Zero? Yes, sir. Well, I mean, these projects for 11 and actually, you can actually make an argument for all three of these to be part of Vision Zero in terms of creating safe walking spaces. And I'm wondering why we didn't mention that at all.

Well, Vision Zero initiative is more of a campaign or an initiative that we go and try to make safe anything that we put into either design, operations, maintenance. So it's more of an initiative than it is a funding program.

No, I understand. But it is part of our initiative to have safe. Yes, sir. safe areas and we just uh if we adopted the policy we should include that in from i hear you yes sir part of that in there so i agree i don't want to you know sometimes we do something then we forget about it yes and i want to make sure we still have that in mind top in mind when we are doing projects and justifying Safe routes to school, right? Correct or safety for pedestrians, right? We want to make sure that people aren't getting you know, I'm being put in a dangerous situation Absolutely.

Yes, sir. Yeah, we need to like you said celebrate vision zero on the initiative more often We did not put that here, but you're correct. It's okay. Thank you. That's part of our mission make it's already got a motion to approve.

I don't go ahead Motion to approve we have a motion in a second. Please submit your votes. I Okay, the motion carries. Thank you, Ernie. Our last item of the day is under public hearings, item 16, and that is public hearing and ordinance approving the service plans, assessment plans, and updated assessment rules for the Corpus Christi Tourism Public Improvement District, or TPID.

Go ahead. I apologize for this. I see the people from the museum, and we approved it during the... consent agenda, but they've been sitting out in the audience. I thought we'd give them an opportunity to at least say something since they've been sitting in the audience. Would that be okay?

Yes, go ahead. Come on up. It's a good thing that it passed on consent.

Thank you so very much. I'm Karen Stevenson. I'm the president and CEO of the Friends of the Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History. And your support for this community asset will transform what the museum can do in our community. We are, over the last... As you know, a couple of years, we've been rebuilding our exhibits. We've been rebuilding our education programs. We are now at a position where we are attracting attention from outside funders within our community who are interested in providing education grants for us. Significant. education grants. We are working on new exhibits. We have brought together the community for a listening session to imagine what we could do within the museum to completely retell the story that connects our history and our science to our place. So I am deeply grateful to all of you. Please let me know if I can answer additional questions.

Thank you so much. And thank you for being here, everybody that's here or advocating for the museum. Thank you. Item number 16 is a public hearing and ordinance approving the service plans, assessment plans, and updated assessment rules for the Corpus Christi Tourism Public Improvement District, or TPID, as required under Texas Local Government Code Chapter 372.

Good morning, Madam Mayor, members of council, Mr. City Manager, nice to see you today. If you can believe, I've been with Visit now 17 months and it's the first official time I come before you. So I am actually delighted to be here So thank you for the opportunity. I do have a presentation. So what I thought we would do today is we're here to ask for your approval, this first reading, but ask for your approval on the TPID service plan. The memo and the service plans were in your packet. I thought we could talk about the history of TPID, when it was established, why we're here today, and then talk about some of the accomplishments. So it won't be a very long presentation, but I thought just a quick update to talk about TPID would be helpful. So with that, Let's see if the presentation works. So this is why we're here. We're going to talk about the background. We're going to talk about the service plans. We did when TPID was originally established. It is a 10-year plan. And then we'll talk about the benefit of that funding and how it works in conjunction with your generous contribution of the hot tax collection. So in 2001, the hotel community got together. This was led by the hotel community and by petition said, we would like to create the tourism public improvement district. At that time, the assessment was established at 2% and it was to come alongside the hot tax and make Corpus Christi more competitive from a marketing perspective. So the industry supported it. It started that process in 2021. It officially passed city council in 2022. So it's a 10-year plan, which is also in your packet. It applies for two hotels with 40 rooms or more. So right now there are 73 hotels in the municipal boundary that participate in the Tourism Public Improvement District assessment, funded by that 2%. Why was TPID created? The city is generous, so right now we receive 44%. of the 7% of the local hot tax. So every year that generates around $6.5 million. So we know that tourism is a very competitive business. So there's a lot of really great communities in Texas and throughout the US. This is our opportunity to be more competitive, to bring groups, meetings, sporting events, and leisure visitors. So that's why that funding for us It just gets our, it puts more muscle behind the effort that we have. So we're seeing it in group sales. We're selling the heck out of the Hilliard Center. I think you'll be delighted to know just in the last six months, we brought events that, we put them in the Hilliard Center. They've generated over 30,000 room nights. So it's been a great partnership. But again, those TPID dollars help us be able to market the city. So the service plan. So this is why we're in front of you today. It's basically a 10-year plan that says these are the estimated collections. This is how the money is going to be spent. So at the time the district was created, the TPID board of directors, who is the governing body outside of city council, said this is how we want to spend the money. That plan since inception has not changed. So while we're here to go back and say we'd like approval on the plans from inception, Nothing about the plans have changed other than the collections. So originally when established, and I know I'm getting ahead of myself, they thought that this 2% assessment would generate around $37 million. It has not generated the degree of collections of what they thought. So we are actually collecting less than what you'll see in the service plan. So every year the change to the service plan is actually what we collected. So working with city finance, we're now showing you exactly what was collected by year. And then the estimate is still staying the same till we get to the end of the 10 years of the district. So now I'm all over the place. So our estimated budget. So you can see that we did present by year. So now we even through today, we're bringing current through 27. So from the beginning of TPID, to today are the service plans that you have in front of you. We are not allowed to spend more than what TPID earns. So even though the service plan shows up to 37 million over those 10 years, we can only collect or we can only spend what we collect. If there's any money left, it goes into retained earnings and is spent the following year. Again, the TPID board works hand in hand with us or the hoteliers, and we make sure we spend the money in a way that benefits them. Okay, so how the funds are spent. This is also outlined in the service plan. So the hotelier said at the creation of the plan, we want to spend 50% of this money on marketing. We want to spend 43% on your sales efforts. We'll spend 7% on research and admin, and we want 2% in a contingency fund in case there's an opportunity for something that comes up, we would have money and be prepared for it. So that has not changed either. So every year when we go through our budgeting process, Those are the percentages that TPID needs to hit. So how have we invested the money? We were able to stand up the film commission. We were able to stand up the sports commission. We've gone really, really hard at our sales efforts. So we're selling this year almost we're putting 100,000 room nights in the market. So that money really has generated alongside the hot some really significant return. And we're excited about that because when tourists come, people have jobs. Businesses see their bottom line grow. So we want to be able to continue to do that work. We also, many of you know the Frontier Flight. The airport took the local marketing. We went into the Denver market and did the marketing. So we still know that air service is an important initiative. TPID funds are able to be used for that as well. Okay. And then I talked a little bit about this. Everything is in your packet about the 10 years and how we are actually showing you for the first five years what was collected versus what the estimate was. So we talked about a few of the accomplishments, so what's coming next? One is we know that we need to make sure that this service plan is approved annually. So we'll just call the kettle black right now and say, For the first three or four years, it was not approved. I was not here at the time. I'm not sure why. My first year, city finance reached out and said, hey, your plan is due. I'm like, what does that even mean? Your city finance team has been instrumental in bringing us up to speed, making sure that our assessment rules are correct. Uh, for the last six or seven months, we have been trying to get on council agenda. You have been busy and I understand that. So, uh, this is me saying, I apologize. It's not okay that we are not dotting the eyes of our paperwork, but it won't happen again. So today really is a request to say, we'd like to bring these plans current. We want to continue to work in partnership with you. We're excited about the results that we're getting and to just answer any questions that you might have about the budget, how the TPIT is allocated or how tourism is impacting the city. So with that, Madam Mayor, I would stand for questions. Okay, Councilman Scott, thank you.

I don't know the whole breadth of your organization. They seem to be doing fantastic. And as you know, I think the world of your... film commissioner um i've heard yeah so uh i think you're doing great work there and you know people say hey what else are we going to do in corpus and the answer would be let's get people to film films down here and the success that your organization has done to steal some scenes from places like galveston whatever uh or other places in the state is a testament to the success so Let me know what I can do to help, and you knew that already, for the film and music and all that you guys do. Thank you to our hoteliers that kind of put this together, and I think it's a success. I have no idea why it wasn't presented years past. That's behind me. Appreciate you being here. I'm confident we'll see this annually, or somebody will, going forward. So anyhow, I'm all in. Thank you for what you do.

Thank you, Councilman.

Councilman Paxson.

Thank you very much for friendly getting on our agenda. I know we've talked several times about trying to get you in front of council, so I'm very glad that you're here. Thank you for your efforts. Tourism is something that's so important to our city, and I know you get to live and tell that story every single day, so I'm a little bit jealous of you. But it's very important. So what I would like to do, and while I know this is a housekeeping item that we need to pass administratively, I would really love for you to be able to get back on the agenda and share some of those incredible stats with us. Talk to us about how the city of Corpus Christi is being shared in other markets, about what those trends are looking like, where we're seeing our traffic coming from, some of those things. I know you tell those stories, in your organization a lot and your own reports and things, but I would love to continue to be that great partner with you guys. I think it's a story that is valuable, meaningful, and well worth telling, you know, district four tourism's a huge thing for us out there. And so I appreciate your efforts. I'm glad that you're here today, but I would love, love, love to have the opportunity to hear even more of your daily story.

Done. We'll work with staff and make sure that happens. Thank you. Thank you.

Brooke, thank you. We appreciate everything. And you've really picked up the ball and ran with it. So you're doing a great job over at VC. So is your team. It takes a team. But thank you for that. And yeah, you should probably... Did we typically do quarterly or...

I was just checking with Jennifer and Michael Dye, so I think it's quarterly or at least annually. Quarterly, right. So we'll work with Brooke to make sure she comes in more often.

At least twice, yeah. That'd be great. We'll keep you entertained. Thank you, Brooke, so much. We appreciate that. Let's see, I'm going to ask for public comment. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to make comment on item number 16? Okay, there being no one, we'll close public comment. And I will entertain a motion to approve item number 16. We have a motion and a second. Please submit your vote. Great. The motion passes. Thank you, Brooke.

Thank you, everyone. Appreciate it.

So the council will now go into executive session on items 17 through 19 per Texas government code section 551.071 and 551.072. We will return. And there being no further business, the meeting is adjourned at 343.