City Council - Regular Meeting

Good morning everyone. This meeting is called to order. This morning our invocation will be given by Pastor Brian Hill with First Baptist Church.

Let's pray together. Father, as we come to this occasion, this day, what a beautiful day you've given us to celebrate living here in the Coastal Bin. We thank you for your creation. And uh may we never take that for granted. Father, as we come to this time, we ask for your wisdom. We ask for a reminder for each of us that the greatest command is to love you with all we have. And the second is like it, to love one another as ourselves. And so Lord, I pray today that you would remind us of those commands. You would remind us to be sensitive to the needs around us. I pray that you would start with me. I pray that we would each look for ways to make our place of residence better. And I pray for wisdom and a sense of unity for our council as they seek to do that each and every day. I I ask for your blessings on them. I ask for clarity for them. and I ask for wisdom for them. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

Thank you, Pastor Hill. And our pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States and to the Texas State Flag will be led by Adam Copeland. He is a senior at Annapapolis Christian Academy, National Honor Society Vice President and 2025 Christian Scholar Performing Arts. 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. Thank you, Adam. And good luck in your studies. Thank you, pastor. Miss WA, would you please call the role? Mayor Plet Wardo, present. Council members Roland Beretta here. Sylvia Compos here. Eric Anu is not here. Gil Ernnandez here. Kayn Paxton here. Everett Roy here. Mark Scott here. Carolyn Vaughn here. City manager Peter Zenoni present. Deputy city attorney Buck Bryce present.

Mayor and council a quorum of the council and the required charter officers are present to conduct the meeting. And uh Mr. For the record Mr. Kthu is here. Thank you. Thank you Miss Wa. And that takes us to section E. Our city manager's comments update on city operations. Mr. Cone have three two items. Great. Good morning, mayor, and members of the council and the community. We do have two items on the city manager report this morning. And the first is to talk about National Beach Safety Week, which will be next week, which is one week ahead of, uh, the official start of summer, uh, which is Memorial Day week. And so, uh, let's talk a little bit about National Beach Safety Week. As we know, we live in a vibrant coastal community,

uh, that's surrounded by beautiful beaches and waves. Uh but we also know that these conditions can be very hazardous and so we rely on our lifeguards, some of whom are in the front row this afternoon, uh to help our ourselves and our public that visits our beaches. Uh our lifeguards are nationally certified under the United States Life-Saving Association. And this is a uh a high a high level of standard uh that helps protect the public uh that use our waters. The role of the lifeguards very important. And last year these lifeguards and and their colleagues had 40,000 beach contacts uh meaning they interacted with 40,000 people uh to help them or to give them warnings. Last year they saved 53 individuals uh from the waters that could have been uh that could have led to a detrimental outcome and 90% of those individuals uh did not live here. So they live from outside of Corpus Christi. So the objective of National Beach Safety Week is to make citizens aware of the need to be safe uh while in the water. And with me here today is Robert Dodd. There's Robert. uh he's going to provide a little more detail about National Beach Safety Week and then we also have a video that we'll show.

Yes, sir. Thank you, Peter. I am Robert Dod, the director of parks and recreation. I'm proud uh of the dedication our beach rescue lifeguards demonstrate and ensure safety to all beach visitors. A few months ago, I had the opportunity to observe their daily fitness training and drills, which are designed to ensure optimal physical condition for quick response times and effective teamwork during the beach rescue operations. And they do an amazing amazing job. If if I would invite y'all, I know y'all are very busy. If you ever get a chance to go watch them uh practice and work on their things, it's it's very very good. And and what a great team we have. So, the team present today represents only a portion of the lifeguards uh that will be on duty uh throughout the summer. During the summer, we have a team of about over 50 lifeguards. Please be assured that all assigned lifeguards have completed a comprehensive training through their rookie school, which adheres to the national standards set by the United States life saving association, USLA. I'd also like to uh right now bring up Anna, our beach rescue superintendent, to share some beach safety tips.

Thank you, Robert. Um, I'm Anna Tordelloo. I am the beach rescue superintendent. As Robert shared, I too am extremely proud of the dedication our beach rescue lifeguards demonstrate in ensuring the safety of our beach visitors. However, we cannot do the job alone. An informed public also plays a role in water safety. Our campaign, know before you go, is for all beachgoers, both locals and our out of town visitors. Tips include learn to swim, swim near a lifeguard, never swim alone, designate a water watcher, alcohol and water don't mix, feet first water entry, jack life jackets save lives, beat the heat and block the sun, and most importantly, learn rip current safety and observe signs and beach warning flags. I would like to share a brief video regarding the flag warning system which provides an easily visible method for monitoring water and weather conditions. Your safety is important at Corpus Christie beaches. A beach warning flag system is in place to let you know what weather conditions you can expect before getting into the water. There are five different beach warning flags. The main three are green, yellow, and red. Green means go. The water is calm and it is safe to swim. Just swim with care. Yellow means caution. The waves are getting bigger and there may be a small rip current. We recommend adult or lifeguard supervision while swimming. Red means stop. Danger is ahead. The surf is dangerous with strong winds, big waves, and strong rip currents. Do not enter the ocean in red flag conditions unless you are a very strong swimmer. And do not let your kids swim at all. The last two flags are purple and orange. Purple indicates the presence of harmful sea animals, jellyfish, sharks, or other venomous marine life have been spotted close to shore. and orange means there is an environmental hazard in the air or water quality. The conditions are not safe for your health. Make sure to

check the weather and water conditions when heading out to the beach. When residing along the coast, beach safety is a year-round priority. Additionally, our beach safety outreach coordinator is available to conduct presentations to community organizations and schools to promote safety awareness. To conclude, I'd like to invite the public to Beach Safety Week kickoff on May 17th from 11:00 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Winward Beach. This is an informative and fun event with local organizations promoting summer activities and beach stewardship. For more details, visit our website at ccparkandrec.com. Thank you. Thank you.

Great. Thank you. And tell us that date again. So May 17th. May 17th, right? Is the And what time is it at? 11 a.m. 11:00 a.m. What day of the week is that? It's a Sunday. Sunday. Okay. At Winwood Beach. So that's the kickoff. The lifeguards here in front of us. I asked them early if they're working. So the we're you all are working now, right? The beaches are Yep.

Okay. You want to Can you all stand up? We'll give you all a round of applause for being here. Yeah. Yeah, Peter, I had um I had just told them how important and critical they are because they can turn around and look at anyone here and those that's a life you could be saving and that is it's extreme responsibility for you all and it speaks volumes. So, thank you for what you do. Yeah. Thank you guys for being here. We appreciate the service and good luck this summer.

Yeah. With the Yep. Good. Okay. Mayor, great. We're going to continue the city manager reports um with another beach related item which is beach to bay and that's the uh annual marathon. It is this Saturday um from the beaches to our great lawn and this will be the 49th annual beach to bay run. That's that's and it's going to I'm going to try Yeah, there's a ride out some of the cyclist ride ahead of the runners just to make sure uh the corridor is clear. Councilman Scott and I did it two years ago.

You'll have Exactly. So, our community is highly enthusiastic about this major run event, and we do anticipate a strong turnout of runners, uh, including veterans, active military, first responders, and visitors that'll be here for this run to our city. Uh the Beach Deb Bay Marathon was founded by a former Navy captain, John Butterfield in 1976 to honor the nation's military. So it has some great history to it. The event is held to commemorate Armed Forces Day and it honors men and women serving in the United States military. So it's a 26.2 2 mile run or walk uh if you want and it spans the Gulf beaches beginning at Ellis Road and Access Road 5 through Navalation uh Corpus Christie. They cut right through the base and then it ends at the great lawn at W's Edge where there's a lot of vendors and food and and refreshments uh for the runners and their and their families. So this year there's a record participation for the sixperson relay. record participation. Uh also a twoperson relay and solo runners. An estimated total 10,000 runners will be uh partaking in this event. 10,000 runners from our beaches up here to our bays. Our parks department has been working with the event organizer as well as public works and Corpus Christie police uh to ensure the event successful. So the city's involved uh through those aspects. We're going to have a coordinating meeting I think Thursday. make sure everybody understands the route and and all the safety procedures uh that go along with it. So, in concluding here, uh the best for last, Doug McB is with us today. He's the president of Corpus Christie Road Runners

and the race director and um he uh he's going to further explain the event and the highlights. Uh I asked Doug, I think last year he said it was his 37th or 38th year coordinating this. He's looking younger than last year or something. I don't know what he's running, but yeah, must be that running. But let's have Doug come up to the podium and just reflect a little bit more on this very important event. And Doug and his association, uh, they're the ones that really put this event on. We just help in the periphery. And so, Doug, we thank you because we know locally this is a a treasured event, uh, treasured event. It's very unique. And, uh, tell the council in the community a little bit more if you can this morning.

Sure. Thank you. Good morning, everybody. I I know you have a busy day, so I want to be berifa. So I want to start with thanking the mayor. If not for her, Beachade might not be here today. So she brought us out of the depths of COVID to officially being sold out for the first time in years. So we're completely fully full this year for the first time in a in a long time. So I appreciate everything that you've done. And I also want to thank the city council for your support. We have quite, as he mentioned, we have quite a few of you active. Uh Mark's going to ride the bikes along with Peter and Roland's going to sing the national anthem to kick off the race. So, there's a lot of involvement here. I of course I need to thank our presenting sponsor, Herman. And Herman, they're our title sponsor. And I need to thank Robert Dodd and Sergio and Lisa for all they do. Working with the parks and recreation department has been fantastic over the years. I can't thank them enough. It, as I mentioned to the mayor years ago, I used to have meetings and they were all can't do meetings and now they're all let's let's get together and see what we can do to help beach today and it's been really fantastic to do that over the years. So I want to thank Robert and everybody involved in doing that. It's much appreciated and that's really all I have.

Great. That's great questions. Thank you. Just you still have your dog Doug. Yes, sir. What's the name again? Itty Bitty. my tiny little dachshun. It's a basically a little runt. She's blind and deaf and sits she sits in my lap during our meetings that we have on our Zoom meetings. She's real. She's the little love of my life. Okay, good. We'll see her on Thursday then. Little Thank you, Doug. Thank you, Doug. We appreciate your leadership on this effort. Thank you. And mayor, that concludes the city manager report for this morning.

Thank you. Thank you, Peter. And thank you again, lifeguards, for being here. Okay, so we're about 10 minutes. we can start our public comment. Um, let's see here. Today we have about 28. Yep. About 28 public commenters. So, I'm going to take a moment to um address the rules of decorum. This council chambers is a place of public business, a forum for dis civic discussion, decision-making, and service to the people of Corpus Christi. It is not a stage for personal attacks, uh, disruptions, or vulgarity. We will not tolerate such violations of decorum. If you're, uh, or I'm sorry, we are all here uh, to do the people's work. So, we'd like to proceed in that spirit. If you would like to speak on a specific agenda item during its discussion, you do not need to sign up beforehand. I will ask for public comment when the council considers that item. At that time, you can come up and uh speak at the podium. I'll ask uh Beck Bryce, our assistant city attorney, to review the council meeting rules of decorum, which will appear on the television screens above. Okay.

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

Thank you, Mr. Bryce. Uh, in-person comments are limited to three minutes. For callin or WebEx video speakers, Corpus Christi residents receive up to three minutes and non-residents up to one minute. A visible time or position near the city secretary's desk will help in uh manage the aotted time. And if you have a petition or any relevant information, if you'll please present it to the city city before speaking. So with that, we'll start with Robin Sanders. Miss Robin Sanders. Okay. Uh, Ron Woods.

Good morning, Mayor, City Council. Ron Woods, Corpus Christi. The burning question from both the pickle ball and tennis communities is why does there seem to be so many empty courts now at the Al Cruz Tennis Center since the Alzando Foundation signed an agreement to operate both HB and Al Cruz tennis centers. We are still confused as to why the parks and recreation department let the Alzando Foundation move the entire tennis programming that included lessons with certified professionals, leagues, tournaments, fun events, and junior lesson program over to the HB tennis center. Therefore, resulting in empty courts that the tennis and pickle ball community are viewing. This has resulted in the Alzando Foundation not following the terms of the agreement for operating Al Cruz Tennis Center. The Alzando Foundation is supposed to be running the same adult program programming, junior lesson programming and providing the same certified tennis professionals that are working at the HB Tennis Center. See your highlighted contract. This is not happening and in our opinion a violation of the agreement. We respectfully request that the city council and the city manager or city attorney look into this matter. We also know that the city parks and recreation department has made an effort through two community meetings to get input from interested parties on what they would like to see in the way of court conversion at the Al Cruz Tennis Center. Please see the charts presented from the last meeting at the Lindell Senior Center on how the community voted from the last meeting. By the way, Mr. Alzando was not at that meeting. In the first meeting at Al Cruz, an option to leave the Al Cruz Tennis Center as is was not really

presented as an option. The second meeting at Lindell Senior Center. So, sh shows a 2 to one vote for that option to keep the center as is. Also, at this meeting, Mr. Dodd said he would set up a task force of which he invited me to be a part of. to further look into the possibility of conversion. So again, we ask that a hole be put on any conversion of tennis courts to pickle ball courts at Al Cruz Tennis Center until the results of that task force can be uh published. There are other options that I think can be considered to add pickle ball courts to the public facilities. Thank you.

Uh Mr. Zenoni, are you I'm I'm assuming y'all are looking into this. Yeah. So, this is u um this is something that needs more public engagement and um so I have I need a I personally need a briefing from the parks department and Michael Dicey, interim assistant city manager. So, we we're going to look into this. I was just looking at the map at the location of the two, the Al Cruz and the HB Tennis Center. Uh but we don't want to disrupt uh person's uh routines and enjoyment. So we have to I've asked the parks department to just put everything on hold for right now with the conversion. Put everything on hold so we I can better understand it and then you can report back to and then we'll report back to the council. Yeah. Thank you. Councilman Ku.

Thank you. Uh Peter, I think you already answered all my questions, but I just want to make sure that I've been meeting with these people the past couple weeks. Um they have concerns. I have concerns with the contract also. Um if you could just tell Mr. Dodd to put put everything on hold till we have a briefing on it. Right. Um if there's something we got to bring to council, we can. Um but just um please put put on a hold for now so we can figure out what's going on. Yeah. Correct, Councilman. That's what we're going to do. And we'll come back to council either next week or the week after. Yeah. With a report. Okay. Yeah.

Thank you, Julia Garcia. Julia. Oh, there you are. I'm here also uh speaking about the Alcruy's tennis center courts and just wanted to bring up a couple of points is that um they've mentioned that they would like to uh convert these courts into pickle ball but we have a couple of solutions possibly for um the sake of continuing to host large sectional tennis tournaments like little state and the city council and park and wreck can consider con the conversion of three covered courts at HB tennis center and convert them to pickleball courts. These courts are only used currently to be held outdoor for daily rentals or for rare occasions when tournaments uh and it rains in several days in a row. We know how much it rains here in Corpus Christie. Um so this will leave six courts at Al Cruz for the overflow for major tournaments. These uh this will help for six court for local league play. Local league play grew by 11% last year in terms that is 257 players for the year of 2024 to 2025. You only need 24 players for the six courts that are there that we are asking to to keep. The request for the pickleball community for the conversion of the three courts uh for year-round play for the weather will help to uh increase stream and revenue uh for pickle ball rentals and far surpass the income that is covered from the attendance courts at the projected pickle ball revenue from the three proposed additional courts at Al Cruz. They would be able to play year round with these courts that are indoors. the city, the Corpus Christie Tennis Association, the Coastal Bin Pickle Ball Association could collaborate to get these courts in use quickly. That is what was mentioned to us in the meeting

by Mr. Dodd that they were looking for revenue. There is also the uh potential place over at Parker Park or Pebble Park, excuse me, on Castor and Whitebird. These could be converted to four slabs or into four tennis courts on this current slab. Possibly using the adjacent uh basketball uh court as well that could also be relocated in the same park with the help of uh the tennis association to rebuild that as well. Um, so like you had mentioned a second ago, uh, we would like to ask that the city council and city mayor, city manager, um, look into the agreement, um, as well as the, um, the court fees, uh, the difference in what those have been over the past few years in the term using uh, open play for uh, pickle ball. Uh, the court fees have gone from $3 to $5 to currently $3. Is this something that the parks and recreation department is is saying is okay? Uh the sheets that we have don't have any city logos on there. They're just printed on a piece of paper that says uh increase decrease. So we would like that to be looked at as well. Um and we just uh we would just like the the keep the courts. I mean this is this is something that once you have a a tennis player, you will always have a pickle ball player. with the evolution of a tennis player is age and injury. You will always have a tennis player that will play pickle ball.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Miss Garcia. And I I know you're taking note of that. Uh Lys Woods. Good morning. Lys Woods, Corpus Christi. Robera Rodriguez of the city parks and recck department has said she could supply figures that were stated to be available for the reasoning of moving the entire tennis programming from Al Cruz Tennis Center over to HB Tennis. By doing this move, the agreement of providing the same programming and professional staff at Al Cruz as is provided at the HB Tennis Center was not followed. If the Alzando Foundation cannot run two centers by the letter of the agreement, then it should not have been accepted and signed by Ronald Elzando. This is why we are asking not only for a pause in the move to take the three tennis courts at Al Cruz and convert to pickle ball unless we get those figures, but again ask the city council and city manager to look into how this was handled. We've requested through the Freedom of Information Act from the city secretar's office records from 2020 to now to see what type of revenue and play numbers the centers have generated in the past and compare what has been generated up to this point to get an idea what the Alzando Foundation is doing in that area compared to past performance and performance of past operator at HB Tennis Center Sweet Spot Tennis and the past operator Al Cruz the Alzando Foundation. We also would like to interject that it is felt that the city and city parks and recreation department has made an error in combining the two tennis centers. They should be operated separately as was done in the past so there can be competition between the operators of each facility to grow the game of tennis and pickle ball through lessons,

programmings, leagues, tournaments, and other events to satisfy our community. Competition is good. When you have a monopoly in the running of two public centers, you end up with what you have now, the neglecting of tennis at one facility over the other for the sake of the bottom line of the operator and not the needs of the entire racket sports community. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Miss Woods. Mark Dapia. Hello. Same situation. Um, as a current board member of the Corpus Christie Tennis Association, uh, let it be noted that Ronald Elizono has attended no more than one or two meetings in the last four or five years since he has been operating tennis at the tennis facilities uh, for the parks and recck department. Um, yet the Corpus Christie Tennis Association, what we do is we uh, put on numerous tournaments, adult leagues, and youth programs, and we're the largest contributor to the rental of tennis courts at both HB and Al Cruz Tennis Center. This should be a good indicator of where Mr. Elizondole, the president of the pickle ball association, uh his heart lies in the growth of the sport of tennis and pickle ball. Him pulling up his tents at Al Cruz Tennis Center, moving his entire operation to the HB tennis center, therefore abandoning a a six court seven court facility that any top-notch director of tennis in the nation would tell you is a great property and opportunity to run a successful tener tennis operation if the right person was in charge. We now question whether or not the proper screening was done in the vetting process uh for running of our two tennis uh pickle ball centers. Any knowledgeable director of tennis will tell you that six tennis courts is the optimum number of courts for an operator to run a busy and prosperous tennis program. We have lost many courts over the years that had busy tennis uh court programs because of golf courses going under. Uh Chris Crawford at Padra Isles, uh Gerald Tjan at Pharaohs and Ken Doning at King's Crossing. Jerry Mango ran a very successful tennis program at Northshore and Bobby Hagermanerman is running a very successful program at the Rockport Country Club. If the right person is hired then a sixcourt facility can be busy and prosperous. Ron Wood started with six tennis courts at the Corpus Christie Country Club. I myself currently run tennis success community courts and center. I started in November in a very slow time and we are now triple the revenue of what we started

with. So I believe it is possible to have a minimum of seven courts and four pickleball courts to at least generate and create revenue if the room was there. Talking about history, the first tennis pro staff uh pro at South Bluff Park Tennis uh center was Jason Morton. Played and graduated for the University of Houston. The second pro was Al Cruz. Played for and graduated from Pan-American University Purple Heart recipient. The third pro was Shelby Torrance uh PhD from Texas, directed the PE department at Delmare and was a top player in the state. It was in this period the center was named in honor of Val Cruz. The third pro was Susan Torrance, state champion from King uh HS played for and graduated from the University of Texas, top 100 in the world. Rest in peace, Susan Torrance. Then Jimmy Alamman, Rockport state champion, uh former assistant at the Corpus Christie Country Club, now Ronald Elizondo.

Thank you, Mr. Tapia. Hope Castada.

Good afternoon. I'd like to speak on the proposed conversion of tennis to pickle ball courts at Al Cruz Tennis Center involving the middle section which includes two tennis only courts and one dualpurpose court. If we look at that current layout, we can conclude that for the potential revenue production that currently exists, the number of total courts in that section only grows by two and begs the question of whether it's a significant revenue boost for the cost of conversion. There have been two public information meetings so far presenting proposals. First on April 7th with two options and then on May 6th with three. We've been advised to avoid bringing this issue to the council's attention and potentially wasting yours in our time, but at the last meeting, there was a mention that a decision may happen as early as June, which concerns me. I speak for myself as a tennis player that does not play pickle ball, but do know plenty of people that enjoy both sports. My personal stake in this is to advocate for preserving courts while supporting that pickle ball needs serious consideration for building of new courts to add more access for them and not take away access for tennis players. I personally have a history of playing out of the Al Cruz Tennis Center and calling it my team's home for the last 15 years as a player in local leagues. I also have the experience of being an employee at Al Cruz from 2014 to 16 when the center was tennis only and remember it as thriving with adult and youth programs run by Susan Torrance. We were disappointed to find out after requesting additional information after the first information session that only point of sale numbers were being counted to track attendance which created an absurdly inaccurate disparity. between the two sports last year. It essentially said that our adult leagues, which do generate revenue for matches played at the center, did not exist because we were not POS transactions. On our own time and effort, we went through the USA records for 2025 to determine our numbers because the CCTA pays all centers through later invoicing. When it was attempted to update numbers, we were still being told that there was a significant difference. And of course there should be because 10 courts versus

six is a 1.76 67 ratio which would always have a numbers advantage without factoring in the dualpurpose court to benefit either sport. In 2018 there was a proposal for a new center on the southside featuring both pickle ball and tennis courts that was turned down. Four years later the first conversion of the bottom section took place. Four years after that, again, we are advocating to preserve tennis courts because, as the numbers show, both sports continue to grow, just at different rates, and both deserve access. We've been told this is about a short-term solution, but there hasn't there been ample time since 2018 now, to prepare for building new courts instead of the short-term solution of conversion. We the tennis community believe that more questions and answers have been created and it would be in the city's best interest to hold off on any decisions and until further review of all relevant information can be completed. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. U Macy Winchester. Good afternoon. I'm here regarding the proposed conversion of the Al Cruz Tennis Center court, specifically the middle section from tennis to pickle ball courts. I'm here to advocate for preserving our existing tennis court layout while also supporting the construction of new dedicated pickle ball facilities. Our goal should be to expand access for everyone rather than taking it away from one group to give to another. Growing up here, Al Cruz was a highly active tennis center. During my time in high school, felt like every single weekend there was a new program or tournament that you could play at at Al Cruz and HB Tennis Center. Recently, however, it seems like the programs and other local tournaments we used to participate in are no longer being prioritized or advertised at Al Cruz Tennis Center. They are all being pushed to HB Tennis Center. While I recognize that the pickleball community needs more space, I believe a separate facility would serve them better than the conversion of existing tennis infrastructure. The need for these courts is still very real. Recently, I saw this firsthand just a few weekends ago when the TAMU CC tennis club hosted a tournament at HB Tennis Center. Due to some scheduling misunderstandings, we were told last minute we could not use those courts and we had to scramble to find available space to suit our players. We ended up moving our tournament to Al Cruz, but if they had even one fewer court available at Al Cruz as they were pushing to do, our teams would not have been able to host that tournament and participating schools would have been put out hundreds of dollars they spent traveling to our sites. While I speak on a single personal experience from tennis club, this would be the case for a lot of individuals. I can't count how many tournaments I've played in where the Al Cruise Tennis Center has served as the sole site for match play. We shouldn't be dismantling the ability of our local teams to host home tournaments, matches, and programs for a short-term solution.

Finally, I want to address the data driving this proposal. The reliance on point of sale transactions has created a significant data gap because it only tracks individual over-the-counter payments. This completely ignores adult league players like myself, whose fees are handled by later invoicing through the CCTA. Just because the money didn't change hands at the moment of entry does not mean those courts are not in use. By excluding these players, the official records show an inaccurate and skewed comparison of court usage. We advocate for a decision based on comprehensive usage data, not just point of sale transactions. I urge the board to delay this conversion until a full audit of CCTA league usage and tournament schedules is integrated into the report. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Alejandra Chavea,

Councilman Paxton. Thank you, Peter. Um, it was referenced that despite the item not having come before us and a change being approved, already programming is being funneled primarily away from this one specific location and into another. and the change hasn't been presided over at all. Right. Yeah, I'm learning that as well, Councilwoman. So, I need to I have the material that the first speaker handed out. You can see I was looking at the contract myself. So, part of my uh work with Robert in these coming days will be to review this contract and see what uh what needs to take place from a if we haven't made a change then I then we should be able to put it back. Right.

Correct. Yeah. So that's part of the review. Like I said earlier and as Councilman Ku said, we're putting everything on hold. I don't even know. I guess there's a community meeting tomorrow night. We may not even have that. But I understand putting things on hold, but this took place before we could even evaluate it. So there needs to be a hold and also a reversion. Correct. That's what we're going to look at. Thank you, Peter. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Cha.

Yes. Alejandro Chave, District 3. and I'm here to talk about the main thing that we should be talking about and that's water. I'd like to ask the council if there's any way that I could meet the council so I can talk more than three minutes. There is no way that I can tell you this technology in three minutes. Just think of this. What feeds a new Oasis River? It's fed by all these little creeks, especially at the very beginning. Without that and water falling directly into the lake and the river, that's the only water you get. The rest is lays there on the land, you know, evaporates, uh, whatever. These, I don't want to call them sails anymore. I want to call them small man-made creeks. If you have a hundred, let's just say this is only a number. If you have a hundred creeks feeding the newasis river right now, what if you had a thousand? They're small. They don't take up too much space, easy to build. You're talking about thousands of dollars, not millions. I mean, this innovation has been used for centuries. I mean, I know you guys have a technology department, but your technology department only works on IPs, uh, computers, stuff like that. How come you guys don't have a technology department that looks into these other technologies? I mean, this is a band-aid, you know, that I'm offering you guys. You know what I'm saying? I don't want no money out of it. I don't want nothing. I just want to get water. And every time it rains, every time there's fog, there's millions of gallons of water that are being just, you know, disappearing where they could be in the lake, they could be in the river. That's why I need more time to explain this to

you guys. This is not a simple technology. I mean, this technology is thousands of years old. This was done by observation. How nature works. You know, they used all these bricks, you know, these dark bricks. Why? Because bricks heat up in the daytime and at night time they release that water. Not only that, they protect the water from evaporating the next day. I mean, that's what I tell you about lining the river and the lake right now would be perfect because it's real low. Line it with black rock, river rock. Why? Because eventually that riverwalk is going to make you water and it's going to keep the water there. I mean, I don't know more more way to explain this in three minutes. you know, the process. It might be simple to some people, but it's not. I mean, and it's simple to make, you know, and it doesn't take any water away from the land. It just takes water that might have fallen there, and it's, you know, it directs it. No moving parts. Uh, another thing I'd like to ask is whatever happened to the ram pump? You know, the ram pump had no moving parts. It delivered water everywhere. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chetta. And, um, Mr. Zenoni, could you have staff? I mean, he has a water project that he'd like us to consider. So, he doesn't have to reach out to nine people. He can directly reach out or we can help him with that through your office. We can. Yes, we'll do that. Okay. Mr. Chaveeta, they'll reach out to you or have somebody come down or how you doing that, Peter?

Thank you, sir. Uh Susie Sana, this is Salana, Corpus Christie, Texas. You know, the last time I came before you, uh I was asking you to look into two issues. One concerning uh Jeie David and Reu, and you told me to go back to the ethics commission. That's what you told me. go back to the ethics commission and have them look at it. Well, since you had a stop gap with the attorney that I believe hasn't been removed quite yet. Unable to do that because I have a concern about that. Also have a concern that it's tied to the auditor. Okay. the auditor, which according to an independent audit, the U-Haul commission was found to be um lacking in his proper uh way of saying it about sexual harassment with employees. That was one of the issues that was looked at. uh you got a response on that particular investigation and you were told to either get rid of him or put him on a growth plan and do something. None of which was done. So, I'm not looking for very much relief from you all. But I am looking for you to take a look at it because you guys can't seem to put to rest one particular hotel that you're taking into executive session, but you're not willing to look at the other ones that have taken money from the taxpayers. I have a big problem with that. I have a problem with you all not taking a look at everyone equally. So when you refer people to the ethics commission or look at the audit commission, we need to take a look at those. Who's in charge of the audit

commission? Who's doing what? And what is being done to correct the situations that need correcting? You can't ignore them. They're there. They're black and white. We provided documentation. You refuse to look at it. It's time that you wake up because if you're not willing to let one thing lay down and be taken care of by the courts, I guarantee you I'm not going to let up. So, take a look at it. Thank you. Thank you, Miss SA. Lisa Gerties.

Good afternoon. I just came to say thank you. Um I can't imagine the volume of information you all process in a day. I listen to it here and I'm overwhelmed. So thank you. Um at I'm here representing Rising Tide Ministries today and I tell you we all we pray for y'all every time we gather together because my goodness my I don't have words. Y'all are doing you know you can't make everybody happy. There's not enough funding to do everything. and we recognize that. So, we appreciate any time that we do get funding. Um, so this spring we had some funding, um, some private money. Uh, we we appreciate the federal, but it comes with lots of rules and regs and paperwork. Um, but we had some private funding. Through our safe at home program, we were able to um, assist 20 residents with $20,000. And the one that stood out to me was a woman my age. And for six months, she had been showering. Okay, we we fixed her house in January. She had been showering by bringing a water hose through her bathroom window. Okay, I I'm a tough girl. I I was raised in the country, but I don't want to do that. I don't want to do that for a day. Let you know, I appreciate my hot showers. For $650, we were able to fix that for her. Um, and there's 19 other stories that go along with that one. Our wave academy, um, you know, the the numbers, we may not impact a thousand people or 10,000 people, but one lady came to us. She was kind of being shuffled out of her job and she she saw the signs. She was in her 50s and um she said she'd been applying for jobs and not getting any. She we said, "Well, do you have a resume?" She said, "Yes." So we we said, "Well, can we help you with that? Maybe there's some adjustments. Okay, any of

y'all that interview people, her resume was 20 pages. Okay, we encouraged her over the next couple weeks. We worked with her, you know, day after day to help her to to get that down to a concise one-page resume. Um, she got another job. She was thrilled. And after a couple months on that job, she was approached by somebody who she had encountered on that job. They offered her another job making double the pay. Wow. So at Rising Tide Ministries, we're impacting people every day. And sometimes it's just one.

Sometimes it the numbers are small, but that person impacts so many others. So we just appreciate each one of you today and uh God bless you.

Thank you, Miss Grace. Eddie Flores. Thank you, Jesus. Hey, give me He gave me another day. Come and see you guys. I miss you guys. I do. Your job's not easy. It's hard. And everybody knows that. And first, I want to thank um uh I live in district, excuse me, Eddie Flores, District 2, News County. Um I live here in in in my neighborhood for 48 years, and we it's all senior citizens, man. And the problem we have is sidewalks. A lot of our seniors can't go to the Chrys King church down the street. They're in wheelchairs. They're on walkers. And it's very hard. And I want to thank uh Sylvia Compost publicly. She reached out to me. I I send her an email or a text and she came right back at me. And but six years ago when I retired from Delmare, I addressed the same sidewalk and they said, "Well, there's not enough funding unless it's a eastbound or it's a an emergency thing. we might be able to find the money. Well, six years later, I'm still facing that. And the reason I say this is uh one of our uh seniors fell down and the sidewalk is terrible. And I want to invite the mayor and city manager to come to my neighborhood and let me give you a tour. And if it wasn't for David Blackman, I think he's over here. Uh he was a he was my direct patrol officer back in the day. him and u I don't know it was Captain Wilson or Lieutenant Wilson but when he this man Blackman was there Mr. Blackman I mean we had a he runs a tight ship I remember we had a neighbor that had 11 people living in a two-bedroom home there were and he took care of that him and Mr. Wilson. But having said that, now we have a problem with not only bad sidewalks, but also

there's always 40 homeless people right there in Arlington between the dollar store or general store. And the police do a great job. They get them out of there and as soon as they leave, here they come back and they make their tents and they fight and and and again, you wake up in the morning, most of most of my seniors don't uh take a walk around Travis Elementary because that's all you find. And to the people who play uh pickle ball, uh the tennis courts is down where I live and the only people I see down there at the HB pool are your homeless people. And like I said, the the police do a good job. They do a great job. But they get them out of there and they come back and a lot of mers live behind the Ramada projects any given time. and they can tell you, you hear at 1:30 in the morning, you hear four or five bullets going out and everything, but it's it's our neighborhood. I love that neighborhood and uh we have a lot of seniors that that look at all of you and they and they know that you got a hard job to do and I want to thank all of you for that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Flores. And I I want to I want to let you know and my staff will meet you out here to give you the details, but we are actually um in the midst of a pilot program for sidewalks. So, just so you know. Thank you. And if anyone of you all want to be on my radio show, I do a radio show every Wednesday with my partner Orlando Garam. Um you're welcome to be because a lot of people call me and say, "Why don't you have this person and that person including the chief? They call about the chief." And much gracias Rachel Cavayoto, you you informed the public and and we appreciate that. Gracias. Thank you, Jared. He Yes, ma'am.

on the sidewalks. Uh it it has been at least two times for for me is uh since I've been in in council. Uh but there is I think a little bit of hope and there is a latest update. So, we'll get with you uh you know, Mr. uh Eddie Flores. So, thank you. appreciate that.

Um Jared Suan is Jerry Suadis District 2. I first want to publicly thank the Corpus Christie citizen, Miss Paxton, and Miss Compost uh for their rapid response and assisting and assistance regarding the failing infrastructure in front of my house. I greatly appreciate the help, Miss Paxton. When we talked the way you talked and your drive for a better city, I have no doubt that you'll make a great and genuine mayor one day, hopefully soon. Our infrastructure is visibly degrading. Roads across the city continue to deteriorate faster than they are repaired. Drainage concerns remain unresolved in many neighborhoods. Potholes not only damage our vehicles, but to those who have physical issues. The hard dips jerk our bodies around making us physically worse. I think all the Corpus Christi should mail in both their vehicle bill and receipts along with any medical bills to the mayor. Ask for compensation and our refunds of our tax dollars. Maybe things will get done with a sense of urgency. ADA accessibility is another serious issue. Accessibility is not a luxury or an optional checkbox. It is about dignity and safety to every citizen with mobility limitations and challenges when ramps, handrails, sidewalks or public access points fall below acceptable standards like they do here at city hall with its side ramp. Though it barely meets ADA standards, should we not go

above the standards and still add handrails throughout the whole ramp? It sends a message that some residents matter less than others. I asked the city council to make a special team within the code enforcement to aggressively go around the city to find ADA violations, a sub department for us to officially contact about ADA violations. Maybe there should be a new category in the 311 app specifically for ADA violations from the city and public businesses. True leadership means addressing the unglamorous problems before chasing the glamorous projects. It means fixing foundations before cutting ribbons. It means ensuring residents can safely drive on their streets, access public buildings, and trust that their concerns are are heard. This city needs Christ now more than ever. We must go to church and pray to end this political corruption. There is Sunday mass at 10:00 a.m. at Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Church on Carolyn in Galahar. And please don't forget to pray your rosary. Thank you.

Sorry. Can we please refrain from clapping? Thank you.

Wait, what happened? Click your button. Go ahead. Um, as an update on the ADA, I did contact uh, Mr. Deaga Gara, Ernie Deaga Gara, and he did state that now Corpus Christie or city of Corpus Christie is now the coordinator for the So again, we we need to get updated and and see what we do we need to do to to make sure that these issues are are uh, taken care of. Ronald Graven, Ron Graven, Amanda Geta, Amanda Geta, uh, Adam Rios. Okay. Uh, good afternoon, Adam Rios, Corpus Christi, District 5. Um, just wanted to talk a little bit uh about something positive that I've noticed uh in Corpus since I've gotten back. Um, I want to talk a little bit about the DMD and uh, at least what I've seen uh, the DMD accomplish and in the time that I've been back. Uh the downtown management district here in Corpus Christi uh I believe has become one of the true engines behind the rebirth of downtown Corpus Christi in helping transform it from a quiet corridor of empty storefronts into a living canvas of business, music, art, food, and culture. Uh what we're witnessing now is not the downtown that many of us grew up in. Certainly not the downtown that I grew up in. Uh if I would go to the Ritz and see a show two days before that, it was an adult theater. That was the the environment that I remember of downtown

and that's not what's going on now. Uh I think that uh turned into a club for a second. That's soon as I brought up downtown, the club music. Uh anyway, we're witnessing is again not the downtown that we grew up in. Uh, I believe it to be a district alive with energy, investment, and possibility. Uh, through public events, of which there are many, small business support, beautifification projects, live music, art initiatives, and strategic promotion, the DMD, the DMD has helped create an environment where entrepreneurs feel confident opening their doors and where visitors increasingly choose to spend their time and money. uh every packed restaurant, patio that you see, a gallery opening, a market, a concert or a festival creates a ripple effect of economic impact that reaches far beyond a single night uh generates tourism revenue, supports local jobs and it increases uh of course hotel stays and it's reshaping the identity of Corpus Christi itself. Uh perhaps most importantly, they've helped prove that arts and culture are not side notes to economic development. Uh they are a heartbeat of it. Um, I was going to come out and talk about a lot of things, but I I listen to radio talk shows and I' I'd sort of see what's on social media and a lot of people don't know really what the DMD does. And unfortunately, there are some who do know what the DMD does and try and almost uh stop some of what they're trying to do. This is just something that I believe uh to be important. Uh full disclosure, yes, my wife is involved in downtown management district, but uh I just wanted to take a moment and give them a thank you. uh from myself. Uh in terms of alternative sports, because this got brought up this morning, uh we were talking about the BMX park before I run out of time. Um we had gotten together with USA BMX and we had come to the conclusion that for probably about $125,000 we could get that BMX track in in in

District 3. I don't know how the number got inflated, but now for us to build it, the number that we got back was over $750,000. That is a huge increase from what we came up with as people who use the park. So, um, I'll be reaching out to some of you separately down the road to figure out a path to that. Thank you all very much. Thank you, Mr. Rios. Zachary Bournestein.

Good afternoon. Zachary Bournesting, District 1. I have a video I'd like to play. So apparently this discussion you're telling me about started a discussion between REDC and Philip and Devon where you're trying to say what infrastructure can we pin it to? Correct. And part of that discussion was a discussion about FEMA.

Correct. And the result of that is it ended up that FEMA was really the the poster child, the the face for why you needed the 2 million. That's correct. Okay. And then that obviously led to the falsification of a slide that we've seen in the five slide presentation. I I can't say that it directly led to it, but it was after that the falsified slide came up after the idea of we need infrastructure came up. Correct.

Okay. And you were looking for an infrastructure tiein in order to try to support this $2 million award or million award, whatever amount it was going to end up being. Correct. because you knew you couldn't get behind it without there being some infrastructure tie-in. Correct. And you couldn't get type B money in your mind unless there was a infrastructure tie-in. That's correct. And if you had known back then what you now know to be true about we would have tabled it uh and investigated it and tried to understand why and uh we would have gone several steps further.

Yeah. But other words, you would not have you would not have approved it as is with that falsification. Not on that day. We agree. Like we agree. Okay. And then it never came back because that never happened because you were lied to and you relied upon the applicant. Yeah. If it's true, then we got a problem. So if it's true that they falsified the document, you would have voted no. I would have voted I would have voted no against it. Yes. Okay. That's all I have. Thank you. Okay. We'll reserve. All right. Time now is one.

That is exactly what people with integrity ought to do. You just heard sworn testimony of the EDC CEO and the president of the type B Corporation. Council, please have the courage to act with integrity. Thank you for your time. Have a wonderful day.

Thank you, Robin Cox. Hello, I'm Robin Cox, District 3. I also have a video. If you could please play it. Um, I'm going to play exhibit number 16. This is a clip or portion of the deposition of Mike Colbertson. It's number 12. Ready?

Yep. But we can agree that forging or falsifying or altering a document in order to play into a narrative that it's a recent change when it's not really that recent is a misrepresentation at least about the need for the project. I would agree. And you shouldn't get $2 million. I'm trusting in your character here. You should not be asking for or receiving $2 million if you're misrepresenting material information like this on a project. I would agree. Yeah.

Do you agree with Mr. Colbertson's testimony? I do agree with it. Yes. Okay. Did you hear that video clip? Yes. And do you understand that that is really what you saw there and what the jury just saw is Zenoni watching Colbertson's deposition uh testimony and then commenting on it. Right. Correct. And what was being said by Mr. Colbertson was that when you have a document like this that's been forged or falsified or altered that at the least it's a material misrepresentation and there should not be an award of $2 million to a project that does that. Did you hear that testimony? I did hear that.

And did you hear that after that testimony of Colbertson was played that Peter Zenoni also agreed with that testimony? Yes. The EDC CEO and the city manager had the courage to testify under oath that one must not be rewarded with millions of tax dollars with misrepresenting material information like we all just witnessed. Please have the courage all of you to stand up for what's right. But on another note, just because I show some videos of y'all of all of y'all doesn't mean we're not all still friends. Thank you.

Thank you, Rachel Cabayto. Wow. Melinda Delos Santos. Oh, you're here. How did I miss that? Mayor Trevor Slick was also on the list. Did I miss him? I'm sorry. Yes, ma'am. Is Trevor here? Thank you, Rebecca. Trevor Sloic, District 3. Can you play my video, please?

We're with the project. Your point earlier is that you would only deny the money if the if the bad acts were the applicant, right? That's what you said earlier. Yes. Okay. And so those words, if I played them the audio and video, every one of those quotes that you just recognized as the false narrative came out of Philip Ramirez's mouth talking to the type B board. Do you understand what I've just told you? Yes. And so that is a clear indication that the architect, by the way, he should know FEMA rules, right? Right.

He should know he should know all about FEMA. Right. Correct. Yes, he would. He He should know even more about FEMA than the bankers probably. Yes. He should know more about FEMA probably than the insurance guy, Michael Hunter, who knew about FEMA rules and that there were no recent changes. You remember that clip? Yes. It's very clear now to you since I put it on the video. I hope that yes, it was Philip Ramirez who was promoting the false document, right? Oh, excuse me. Who is promoting the false narrative? Those are his words coming out of his mouth. Yes.

And you see on the screen that's still in front of you that it was Philip Ramirez who is using the forged document to help convince the type B board to give him $2 million. That's right in front of you, right? Yes. Okay. Exhibit number 27. First of all, again, Peter did the investigation and you heard him say essentially the false slide was created by Philip Ramirez, right? Yes. Okay. Again, more reason to make sure you don't give him a penny, right? Yes. Okay. And um they're donors, but I mean it's nothing to do with them being donors.

Well, then the truth is they shouldn't get money if they're cheating the system like that. Agreed. I don't think anybody should get money if you're cheating the system. Thank you. Thank you,

Rachel Cabo. Good afternoon, actual public representatives. Rachel Cavayto D1. On April 14th, two agenda items were put on the agenda by the mayor with no knowledge to city staff, council members, or without information. It was two retaliatory items. Last week, one item was put on the agenda at the request of council members by staff. Two and a half hours approximately later, the item did move forward. Four of you are playing a very dangerous game of political theatrics by putting the community against industry, government organizations against the community, and community members against the community. This community has made many, many contractors extremely wealthy via taxpayer dollars. Those people are now using our tax dollars that they received against our community via paid sensationalists. We have issues with employee retention, qualified hiring actual qualified candidates, having qualified employees, community services that are constantly being reduced, massive corruption, lies from city staff to council, budget issues, and most importantly, water issues, and I could go on and on. We deserve better than this. So, I am asking the honest people on this council who I we will support wholeheartedly to continue to represent this community and make the decisions

that need to be made to disclose and make sure that thieves are not receiving our taxpayer dollars. Um the community, if you guys need something right now, now is the time to ask because November is close and now is when it will get done. It is election time. So I ask too that you all respect after the performance last week, which was absolutely embarrassing, embarrassing. And it's embarrassing week after week. We have to respect all veterans. All veterans. No matter if you agree with what they're saying or not. They have earned the right to come here to speak and they defend us and allow us to do the same. Thank you.

Thank you, Melinda Deis Santos.

But she said not. Wait. Um, wait a minute. Okay, Melinda Del Santos, District 2. First of all, I do want to thank y'all for your work and stuff. And I did mention to one of the city council members at the property meeting that just dealing with the uh library board, you know, going do research for budget, going to do research for policies, that took a lot of time and y'all have a whole lot to deal with, which is why you need honest staff, you know, on our city and everything to bring you these projects and give you the right information and all that. So, I do want to thank you all that, but I do want to um give special thanks to those who voted to evaluate the business proposal of Acts 20. Um, and I I want to apologize to those generals cuz there's some of you I really just want to recommend that y'all go back and look at that video. There were some of y'all that I mean gosh it was I had a drink of beer when I was watching that you know this was in the morning and it was like I can't believe that y'all spent so much time on the process of getting that agenda item on the on the agenda. I mean, it's like I'm I'm I'm sure they know that according to city ordinance that I think it was uh part two 16D how to get the an item on the agenda and it was done properly. So why so much time was spent? Oh well according to that now according to Robert's rules you can take it off but it you you have to do it properly but you know despite there's so instead of asking I know there was one council person who was saying over and over I have so many questions I have so many questions it's like well then ask them and stop asking about the agenda you know let's ask these pertinent questions

because I go out and I go look at Acts 20 and I thought my gosh the these people they're incred incredible. You know, I mean, things for as a citizen. I'm not an engineer or anything like that, but number one, I like they're built by Texans and people first, privately funded. Uh they said they were build it in 24 months. Radical transparency. I don't think we've had transparency in a lot of ways regarding this water project. Um it's a Texas corporation led by two retired US Air Force major generals alongside a Corpus Christi chemical engineering business owner. No upfront reservation fee. I like that. Uh residential water use receives first priority if emergencies are declared and they have a a dedicated off-grid power reliability. You know, there's some brine is going to be treated as a resource and not a waist stream. The intake and this uh fuse is going to be three miles out. I you know the five stages is can each be operated and continuously optimized by a physical AI digital twin of the entire facility. I mean I just like guys yes it does sound too good to be true but I'm just like all for it. I support it. Thank you.

Thank you Miss Delos Santos Azique David. Yeah, I know you've admitted it's your slide and I know you've you're the one who Okay. Not yet.

Ajit David, District uh two, you can now play. Thanks. Douglas Ellison, District 2. I know you've admitted it's your slide, and I know you've you're the one who created the slide. I have a very specific question for you. Did you drop that text box, the one that's shown right now, the larger one that obscures the release date and the release number? Did you drop that text box there? I already told you that I had done that. Yes, that it was a there was a And did you drop the second text box that's now highlighted? That again obscures the release date again. Again, it was a formatting issue.

This wasn't an omission. This was somebody obscuring data on a federal slide. Right. Yes. That's different than an omission. Right. Right. Okay. That's what makes it criminal as opposed to an accident. Right. Right. And I understand.

Oh, definitely. Right. it was altered. And then when you read the entire PowerPoint, the it's it's so obvious that the reader or the writer wanted one to be led to believe that the FEMA was just recent, even words like recently released and this and that. And part of it goes back to the narrative. Mike Coberson said, "Hey, you know, we can't this has to be tied to infrastructure." And so then they they catch the scheme that okay, FEMA flood plane, that's infrastructure. You know, the the they fixing the bottom floor, so it needs the flood plane. and they stuck with it. Got it. And then they then they then they develop a narrative to fit it that they just found out because people would say like, "Shit, they should have known about this a long time ago."

After review of the presentations, deposition testimony, investigative materials, and applicable Texas and federal penal statutes. The PowerPoint slide at issue appears to have been intentionally altered to cover the dates that appear on the government website. You agree the documents were altered. There's no doubt about that. The the screenshot was definitely altered. Yes. Did it look intentional? Can you as a police officer, I mean, you look at stuff like this, you can say, so it would be hard to argue that it was not. Thank you.

And chief, uh, thank you and for your department also for acknowledging the misrepresentations that we're talking about were certainly intentional. All of the city's witnesses that testified under oath have testified to the same misrepresentations, the scheme as they call it or the crime as they call it. More recently, there was a new hire for the animal services department who was offered a job. Few days later, they found inconsistencies on his resume. What did they do? They rescended that offer. And that is a right thing to do when there is misrepresentations, misleading information, etc. I pray that council has the courage to do the right thing. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, that concludes our inerson public comment. Rebecca, we have a few WebEx. Yes, ma'am. We do. The first is Sean Merritt. Sean May, District 5. Can you hear me? Yes, we can.

Sean May, D5, I want to start by thanking Councilwoman Paxton and Campos. uh after our reporting highlighted uh Jay Cruz who was struggling with flooding, drainage, wheelchair access, uh they responded directly and was told public works sent a team out to help him. I also want to acknowledge item 19 regarding utility payment arrangements for seniors, veterans, uh requested by council members Cantou, Vaughn, and Hernandez. Big bravo zulu to all y'all for helping veterans and actually standing up. Keeping the essential water service accessible for seniors and veterans should never be treated like a secondary issue. And that brings me to General Olsen in the Axe H2O presentation. When someone with General Olsen's background takes the time to come here personally, present ideas, answer questions, this council should treat that seriously and respectfully. Now, I could go over all his qualifications, but folks could read them for themselves. The man has decades of military leadership, systems level, operational experience, and we ran a poll, and it was unanimous. We would like General Olsson and Axe H2O to come back, continue sharing information, and continuing answering questions publicly. Let's remember, all this controversy was simply over agreeing to evaluate it. Whether you support Axe H2O or not is irrelevant. Water security is the most important issue facing this city. We are in a drought. Our credit rating already dropped from double A to single A over water concerns, meaning borrowing and building will cost us more. And sitting in front of this council was a proposal for up to 150 MGD per day at Barney Davis using private capital instead of loading even more debt onto the residents. Now this does not mean act H2O should receive blind approval. It means that propo uh proposal deserves serious discussion. With that there are

still major questions. Pricing, site control, public priority during a drought, minimum recovery revenue, ownership, transparency, long-term public protection. Those are legitimate questions. They deserve real answers. Asking hard questions and showing basic respect. Those are not mutually exclusive. You can do both. Frankly, this city should want more discussion on proposals that could impact long-term water stability. Instead, some of you turned it into what we call on the YouTube chat a political circus. And judging by the public response afterward, we are clearly not the only ones who noticed. I'm embarrassed by how some of you behaved. If you were in uniform and treated a general like that, you'd be doing push-ups until Corpus Christi was submerged in the golf. And I don't care about your decorum. Thank you very much, Jay Cruz. Thank you. And thank you for my time. Next is Caleb Maguire. Mr. Maguire.

Okay, I'm going to move on to Taylor Johnson. Good afternoon, Taylor Johnson, District 5. If you could play the video that was provided, not just myself. And you voted for him? Yes, I voted for him. Okay. Okay. And so he made the motion here to recommend the award of 2 million and you seconded it at the CCR EDC meeting. Yes. And that failed. Yes. And the then there was a follow-up motion to follow the recommendation for a million43,000 and that passed. Right.

But all of that was based upon what we see up here on this document that the developer had stated that the funding request comes after changes in FEMA flood maps made additional infrastructure necessary. Right. Objection. Okay. And so if that is whether we we agreed earlier whether you want to call it a lie or disingenuous or they didn't do their homework. I mean the vote was relying upon information that was not quite accurate. I'm being polite. Fair enough. The vote was relied on what you're showing me here. Which is relied upon the FEMA maps. FEMA maps. Yes.

Okay. Um yes. the ones that had been changed really back in 2000 2020. Yes. According to that document, yes. To make the decision, it was based off the application and the information given was listed as the supporting document to the agenda item. Yeah. And so you had false information because it's altered being part of what was supporting the award. I'm using the word supporting because it says supporting documents. Yeah. Supporting the agenda item. Yes. Yeah. Which is approval for $2 million. Mhm. Correct. Yes. Okay. So there's a direct link even according to your memo of that PowerPoint presentation that has the false or misleading information in it and the award of the 2 million.

Yes. And that's a again that is a horrible thing to have in terms of a record for use of public money. Agreed. Yes. Okay. Right. Correct. Yeah. And therefore the first reading and the second reading were not the same. Correct. Okay. And so given that those definitions of same, is it clear that the first reading and second reading do not qualify as a as the same to that was to be considered and voted upon. Right. We I would agree with that. And therefore did not comply with the two reading rule in the city charter.

Yes. Okay. That is all. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Tracy Jenk. Afternoon. District 5. And I ask the video submitted be played at this time.

So if I give you this definition that forge like forging a document or writing That forge means to alter, make, complete, execute or authenticate any writing that happened right so far. Yes. So that it purports to be the act of another like FEMA. That happened correct. Yes. In this case. Yes.

Who do not authorize it. We talked about FEMA didn't authorize it, right? That happened in this case. Yes. If that's the a definition of forge, then the facts of this ca case meet that definition. Yes.

Yes. I'm going to give you another definition of forge. That forge means to be a copy to say hey this is a copy of an original when in fact no such original like we see in the slide exists. Do you understand? Yeah. If I purport to hey this is this is what it looks like and and no such original exists that looks like that. Yes. Then that's a forgery according to what I just read I think. But I want to say it to you again. You understand where I'm going? Yes. I'm giving you a second definition of forge. Forge means to be a copy of an original when no such original existed. You understand the definition? Yes.

And we have that in this case. Yes. Okay. Those are two different definitions and both of which you have agreed those facts are in this case to meet that definition of fortune. Yes. Okay. Did you hear and understand her testimony? I Yes, I did. I don't know if I completely understand it, but I heard Yeah. the two the two different definitions. Yeah. And then I also showed you my screen which had the actual statute language as I was reading along, so you got to see it, too.

Yes. And um she obviously testified that what occurred in her view here u met the definition the the penal code definition of forgery. Right. Correct. Do you agree with her? I agree with her. Yeah. Um thank you. Thank you. Next is Nishi George. Hi. Can y'all hear me? Yes, we can. Okay. Um, Nish George, District 2, can you please play my presentation?

Did you have an experience at Value Bank where there was a forged document or signature?

I did. Yeah. want to please tell us about that. As a commercial lender, I sign off and approve loans. Um, basically, you know, I submit the loan, I sign off on it and um my name was forged at Value Bank. Um, and that forgery, you understand, was a crime, correct? Yes.

And what was your reaction to that? I was disappointed. Did you did the person get the loan based upon a forged signature? I don't recall. Did it create an issue? Yes. Did that have anything to do with your leaving? No. Uh but you have direct experience then with somebody in your view we said a moment ago you did forging your name to a document right?

Yes. That it's not you don't approve a forgery do you? No. You know that forgery is a crime. You've already said that, right? Yes. you know that uh if if somebody in the banking business is going to forge documents to try to get money, I assume your answer to that is I think that's wrong for you to do that. I think forgery is wrong. Yeah. You don't condone forgery at all, do you? I don't condone forgery at all.

Yeah. Uh, and in fact, I assume in the banking world that if there's a forgery, and let's use your value bank example, that when you found out about it, you take action and deal with it and correct it if if it can be corrected. Correct. Yes. council, please acknowledge that it to reward forgery is a far greater crime. Be courageous, trust in God, and please do what is right. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Doug Allison.

If y'all are able to hear me, Doug Allison, District 2, please play the video. Yes, we can hear you.

Douglas Allison, District 2. Thank you for this opportunity to provide public comment. The timeline shows that QF provided misleading information to the CCEDC, the type B board corporation and city council. The question is well defined. Are friends of the mayor above the law? To fully appreciate the big lie, please understand that Newasis County's FEMA flood maps were first defined as of October 2020. You can see the dates on the screenshot below. Three years later, QAF was claiming the FEMA flood maps were quote newly defined. See my comments in red or otherwise highlighted. On this slide, you can see that as of February 2021, FEMA published additional information asking the public to make comment upon the FEMA flood maps. Again, the dates were well established on this slide. As of April 2022, FEMA again put up a new web page confirming that Noasis County's FEMA flood maps would become final as of October 13, 2022. All said the FEMA flood maps had been known for more than three years as of the date when Philip Ramirez stood in front of the type B board corporation to clean to claim the FEMA flood maps were quote newly defined. So how do you pull this off? To pull it off, Philip Ramirez altered the FEMA screenshot to support the big lie. Philip QF dropped the altered false misleading incorrect and according to Heather Hullbert and Peter Zenoni forged screenshot into the presentation being used to sell the big lie to the type B corporation. These are not my words. This is not my version of

the truth, but rather sworn to by several city witnesses. Please understand the misleading information was introduced into the CCRE EDC application by Philip Ramirez as of September 2023. In writing, Philip Ramirez 4 certified that the quote newly defined FEMA AE flood zone close quote. The flood maps had quote added additional unexpected infrastructure cost. The FEMA flood maps had been around since 2020, and it was absolutely misleading and untrue to suggest the maps were quote newly defined close quote. Yet, Philillip certified the lie as being true. So, the QF scheme to get money was repeated over and over again. Is it okay to mislead and lie to get millions of dollars of taxpayers money for friends? respectfully. The corruption of process must not be tolerated. Thank you.

Okay, your time is up, Mr. Allison. Thank you. Thank you. Next is uh last is Julian Ernnandez. Julian Ernnandez. Okay, Mayor. Um, I think that concludes our public comment period. Thank you, Rebecca. Uh, we're going to go on to section I, and that is our consent agenda. We have items 3 through 15. Would any council member like to pull any item 3 through 15 for discussion?

Number 13. Any other item? 11 and 14 and 14. Okay. Any request from the public to make public comment on items 3 through 15? Okay. We'll close that public comment. I'll entertain a motion to approve consent agenda with the exception of items 11, 13, and 14. So move. We have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I.

Any oppose say no. The motion carries. Item number 11 is a motion authorizing execution of a one-year service agreement with Euroins environment environment testing South Central and this is for chemical testing and analysis of water and wastewater samples for Corpus Christi water. Councilman was that you councilman Hernandez who had 11 you did. Okay. Councilwoman vaugh your I'm sorry Councilwoman Paxton your question or comment. Thank you. Hi. Um, thank you, Nick. My question was, I see that our annual cost here seems to elevate a lot in this new contract proposal and um, what I find in the supporting documents is that the citation for that and and in reaching out to staff to ask for further clarification. Um, the citation is for wells and general water testing like increases to that now that we've introduced the wells. And so it was I was searching for something to kind of help quantify going from 70 to over 200. If if if you could maybe shed some light there for me. I just need to understand that big jump.

Sure. Councilwoman Nick Wkelman, chief operating officer, Corpus Christi Water. So you're right. What has changed in this latest uh contract is the quantities for the testing. Additionally, we've also uh grouped certain um testing analysis together in an effort to obtain better pricing. So, the project was or the contract was bid. We received three bids. Euro Fins is the lowest bidder. They came in at 232,000 and we also received a bid at 301,000 and 3 361,000. Now, the reason for the increased quantities or a number of reasons. One is we're doing testing on all of our new wells. We're conducting our monitoring program with residential and livestock home well owners. So that adds to that. And then last fiscal year um or at the end of last fiscal year, CCW started taking on the laboratory samples from the health department. So if you recall the the health department laboratory closed and C the CCW lab took that um took that those clientels over as well. So all of that increased our numbers and then additionally to all of that is additional monitoring on Lake Corpus Christi and Cho Canyon Reservoir. With all of that, I asked staff to compile the total volume of tests that would needed to be done. And those are the quantities shown in the contract and the three biders bid pricing per those quantities.

And so this is um authorizing basically the ability to do three one-year extension options. Um but right now in the in in the package, it's continuing that cost across the three years. Are we anticipating to keep the volume of testing and everything throughout or or do you think once we get that RO on or something that some things might stabilize?

Yeah. And so the contract is an up to so it's not a guaranteed amount. So we actually get build on the tests that are actually performed. So it's the the contract amount is is just an annual ceiling of what tests we can do and we get bill for services rendered. Um, in regards to the wells, the correct the RORO will be coming online and we will be treating in that. However, we're still in it's incumbent upon us to test the raw water quality coming out of the wells. Sure.

Currently, we're on a quarterly sampling protocol and we plan to do that into the future. It's just another measure to continue to maintain the asset and understand the quality of the water coming produced from the wells itself. Okay. So, do we Do you feel it would um be logical that as you know in the near future once uh we are at a place where we can safely transition out of these intermittent water supplies into the long-term supplies that this could take a a different shape again in terms of total value of the contract.

We may not need to continue to test all the wells. we may not need to continue all that monitoring if we drop back down to a very low amount of water from the wells section as we move into reliance on other supplies. You know, if we uh and certainly that's part of the plan. So depending upon the water supplies and how they recover uh our commitment is to properly manage all of the water supplies. My recommendation however would be to maintain the monitoring sampling protocol on all the wells so that we can actively uh continue to track those critical assets. Maybe we're not using them in the future to their full capacity,

but they will be very beneficial when absolutely needed and we want to continue to maintain those. Okay, that makes sense. I appreciate that um explanation. One other thing that was listed in there is that uh while we conduct a lot of our own sampling and analysis, there are services that are outside of our scope of capacity to handle and this covers those. Is that um if we are looking at this being a more long-term need, is that something that we have ever looked at a cost comparison of increasing our internal scope to handle some of these tests versus contracting it out?

So, you're you're correct. There are a certain number of parameters that our water lab at the Owen Stevens water treatment plant uh that we do not process and and we we subcontract those out. Uh you know I was at the laboratory last week. Uh the laboratory is uh certainly um confined in terms of space. If if we wanted to expand laboratory services, I would recommend an addition to the building a larger building so that we can we can bring in more test equipment. It's certainly a uh we'd have to look at do a financial analysis anytime you bring on more equipment to do more tests. There's a capital expense. There's maintenance expense as well.

Sure. Okay. I appreciate the information. Thank you, Nick. Councilman Kent, quick question. Um, why can't we do our own testing? So, there there are some samples where we don't have the equipment to do it and we subcontract that out. How much does the equipment cost to do it in house? I I don't have that information for you, Councilman. Uh, adding I will tell you this, adding additional equipment uh and additional we would need resources such as personnel, the lab itself, and and like I said, I was just there last week, met with staff. It's pretty confined in terms of space. Okay.

Uh if we would expand uh testing services in addition to more equipment, I would recommend a laboratory expansion as well. Got it. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Nick. I will entertain a motion to approve item number 11. Second. We have a motion and a second. Please submit your vote. The motion carries. Thank you.

Uh, next item pulled was item number 13. That is a motion authorizing execution of two three-year service agreements for temporary staffing with AGCM of Corpus Christi and ND Global Consulting for $3 million each. Uh, who pulled this one? You did. Councilman Hernandez. Okay. Uh uh Jeff, I know we had talked a little bit briefly about this at a meeting um previous to our council meeting here and I was going through this and I was curious about how this how this ND Global was selected uh because I went to their website because I'd never heard of them before and they are a medical staffing um company that specializes is in pharmaceutical, medical devices, healthcare, in vitro technology, biotechnology and they have uh affiliated engineering and IT services around medical services. So I went and looked at it because it and engineering kind of is, you know, kind of a catch-all phrase, but it's R&D engineers, biomedical engineers, quality assurance engineers, uh manufacturing engineers, uh where's this other one? Develop ops engineers, which I'm assuming is has ties to it. uh software engineers, software developing engineers, machine learning engineers, AI engineers. I'm just curious. There's nothing that refers to project management or engineering services with construction or any of that. How did this staffing um that specializes in medical uh tech, you know, the medical sector get selected to do construction management uh and engineering services for the city of

Corpus Christi?

Well, let me back up and give you a little bit of the background on this. So, you might remember it was uh probably about a year ago we came for a mid-year adjustment on our uh staffing levels and there was some uh discomfort among the council about plusing up with FTE W2 employees uh to that degree. And then with the budget last year, we we kind of split it where we were doing half FTEEs and half through services like this. So, uh, we put this out through a a standard good and service because we're not requiring professional engineering lensure or anything like that. So, uh, people that could reply were anybody that was in any kind of staffing business. Now, of the respondents, we got 10 respondents. AccM uh, was the only one that really focused in an area that over overlapped our our scope. Uh we discussed giving a contract solely to AGCM. Uh leadership felt like it'd be better to have two companies and then we could compete for assignments between the two companies. And this just happened to be the second ranked firm.

Leadership. Can you define that? Who is that? Uh the leadership team. Uh Peter, Michael, we discussed it about uh let's pick two. We just went to the next highest ranked firm and added them. Peter, can you explain? No, I can't. Staffing company gets selected for this. No. Yeah. Um, so I um I did I wasn't too much involved in this. We did talk about having more than one firm a year ago. Uh but I wasn't I paid to say it, but I wasn't involved in this process. Okay. I'm sorry. Well, my conversation was with Michael, but we

Okay. Well, hold on a second. Let me let me kind of go through this now. When we first initially signed a contract with AGCM, I voted against it because they didn't like the process of us not getting, you know, doing a soul, right? And I told them that specifically. I voted against them because of that reason. Now, we go through the process correctly and I'm I'm going to tell you I'm going to vote for AGCM, but I'm having a trouble voting for a company that specializes in medical technology that has no background experience. And I'm I'm curious even on the matrix it says they they had uh firms experience out of eight they got 6.3. I mean just I mean how did how do they score so high if they have no experience in what we're talking about of understanding and even understanding of project scope out of 12 points I get 9.3. I'm just it it makes no sense to me. uh please uh kind of enlighten me how a medical staffing company gets this contract.

Um well, I don't know if I can enlighten you, but uh I could say that the nine of the respondents really seemed to miss the ball. You know, they were they were not close. Uh so none of these uh staffing companies uh and you had a bunch of them had any experience with staffing for project management for construction company for construction or engineering services. Uh my understanding is this is was the closest one and AGM it was kind of in their strike zone and for all the rest they they didn't really seem to overlap. Is there anybody here from from purchasing that can give us some insight as to the Yeah, Sergio's coming he'll come up from the back. Can Jeff, can you answer the question from

Well, so uh we had we had an evaluator from my shop and we had somebody from purchasing that reviewed the the SOQs. Yeah. Okay. I'm sorry. Go ahead, Peter. Yes. Thank you. Yeah. The question is, do they have experience in engineer in this type of project management engineering? The councilman read off a list, but I I don't know if anything was excluded. So, do in the either review of the written material or an interview if you did it, do they have the experience?

Um Senator Yasan, director of finance and procurement. Uh I need to go back and get that information. Council member, I don't have that handy, but I do know the team does check references when it's a new company or a company we've not worked with before. And so, uh I I'll have to get back to you on the specifics. Okay. So, pending that information, because I'm not comfortable with voting for them, I'd make a motion to accept the contract for AGCM and and uh postpone the one on a um AD Global ND Global uh until we can get some more information as to their qualifications. Second.

Yeah, we support that, Councilman. I'll work with the team on that. Uh, Councilman Kent got a couple questions. Um, on the firm from Corpus Christi, are we having performance issues or anything like that to get two companies? Uh, no. They're they're performing fine. Okay. And then um the other company's from out of town, right? McKini. Okay. All right. Thank you. Yeah, I told you only one local firm responded. So, AGCM was the only local firm. Councilwoman Compos. Thank

Thank you, Mayor. Okay. Um, yeah, it's it's very enlightening here. You can see that uh the AGCM by far was superior to any of the other companies. I mean, some of them were even zero. So, I don't see any comparison. I called you and I said that I had issues with that as well. And I that's the first thing I did is I went ahead and Googled some of these companies and none of them came even close. So I I agree. I mean I think as long as there's no staffing issues, as long as that the this company, this local local company, which is something that we should be embracing, uh is doing a a pretty bless you, mayor, uh is doing a a pretty darn good job. I would say stay with it. I mean, why why change, you know?

We we do not have any objection to that. We just uh the only reason these guys are here is not that we're recommending them and we think they've got great qualifications for this. It's really just a desire to have two firms. Okay. And I'm I'm okay having one. Okay. But in this case, there really are superior to all the other firms that you have listed here that applied. I agree. Okay. So, I would support the uh giving the contract to the AGCM. Can I just add to that, Councilwoman, that there's no, as we said several times now, there's no issue with agency. Great. And I think this would be the third year that they have a million dollar contract. The issue is if we need more capacity, they may not have it. This it's a there's a it's another one of those markets where there's more demand than supply.

Mhm. And so that's evidenced by in fact there's only really one company in the region that does this type of work. Well, I don't know about that only because lately we've been getting so uh issue uh proposals, you know, especially for the water and they all I mean, no, for this type of work though, for project management, this AGCM really is about the only one. I think there may have been one in Houston. Uh but it's a it's a somewhat of a specialty service.

We have project managers inhouse, but to staff augment using an AGCM like we've done for two years, and this will be year three with another million dollar uh worth of work. Well, you know, I do remember Jeff u last time when we had the uh this contract come up and how much you you actually valued what what they brought to the department. Yeah. So, I I see several of the employees when I come in and out of city hall. Okay. They're managing projects like the Hillyard Center. They manage the uh police training academy did. So, there's no issue with them. It's just if we need more help, there's that chance to use another firm. We're going to go back anyway because the motion Well, good. I hope the message is getting out there that we need more help.

Correct. Yes. And this with this. Thank you. So, Peter, unless you know, well, you don't. You just said you're not sure if if can they handle Right. They They're looking at this saying we're getting a $3 million contract, half the work. The other people are getting the other half. Right. Can they even handle the entire If we were to do that, don't Wouldn't y'all need to speak? We have to check that. Yes. Excuse me. Sorry, may I go ahead? I didn't No, I'm just saying would you need to speak to them first before we vote on something we don't even know they have the capacity and certain to to deal with.

Yeah. So, the motion is to do only the half the 1.5 million. The contract, the agenda item is for 3 million, 1.5 for AGCM, 1.5 for that other company, which the councilman's motion is just doing the first half, the 1.5 for AGCM. Uh, but we can talk to them if see if they can do $3 million worth of up to work. These are up to contracts again and it's uh it's if we call them for service and if they bill us then we pay them. But so we're going to do a couple follow-up things. One, see about this second firm that was added to give more supply, if you will. And then secondly, we'll talk to AGCM to see if we need more than 1.5 million. Can they handle it? I think their market's pretty tight, right, Jeff? they have a tough time just like we do hiring uh construction engineers or construction professionals.

I we we do fish from the same pond so to speak with uh getting applicants, but I think preferentially we have a vacancy. Uh I think we're kind of at a peak level activity now. So I'm going to probably lean more on the contract rather than bring in new full-time employees. Right. Right. Okay. Okay. So yeah. So we'll follow up. Mayor, everything's good. Councilman uh Beneda.

Uh first off, I want to say you're welcome uh because it was me three years that brought this to you and recommended that in lie of us going out and hiring personnel putting giving them full benefits and what have you. Um there was it was my idea three years ago. And uh what is it? Uh and then um secondly, I want to say that uh they're in a position where because of the fact that I know they do work in Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas as well as probably Mckini. Um what is it? Uh that they're pulling from resources just to the same one as anybody in McKenna would. So we're a different market, you know, when we're in a different situation because of the fact that we are pulling from people and we to do municipal to work for a municipality versus of having the flexibility that they have where they're working statewide and I think they're even doing work out of state. So the idea that they can only handle $3 million worth of work, I I I just because I'm sure they applied for the entire item of $6 million and I'm seeing them nodding in the back. Full disclosure, I've known Veronica since uh probably uh 35 years. So, what is she went to elementary school? My son. But my my point is is I think they're able to do the $6 million. And I don't think it's necessary that we go through this process where all of a sudden now staff is going to just go ahead and go back and spend more time to review it. So, uh what is it? I'd like to amend that motion so that way we can just go ahead and give them the full $6 million.

No, it's three. It's No. No. We're going to give them three each. No. Oh, so we'll give them three three million. $3 million. Yes. Okay. So, then we give them the full $3 million. Can we Excuse me, Councilman. We I um maybe can I hate to ask this, but can Veronica come up because we're not sure if they can handle three million? I Nobody's Have you asked them, Jeff? Can they Well, I think you can ask your project manager that's back. Well, so um either Matt or Veronica, but Jeff, have you asked him that question? Well, well, the way this works is when we've got an assignment, we we give them a description of the qualifications we're looking for and and they'll propose applicants for us and and the rate.

Uh I I have no doubt that they could fulfill our needs. They could handle $3 million. Hey, Jeff, you said that. Hey, you're former military rights, too, right? Veronica Longia, business development manager and assistant controller for AGCM. I'm going to pass it off to uh Kendra who's our director of operations for South and she can answer your questions better than

Hi, Mayor Administration and Council. I'm Kendra Hickman. I'm the director of operations for ACM South region. So that obviously includes Corpus as our hometown headquarters. And yes, we can handle $3 million. Um just to answer that question, quite frankly, we do pull from the same pool and we fish from the same pond, but our pond has a a really far reach when we're pulling staff. Um, for example, I just two weeks ago brought somebody from our Houston office who relocated down here to our Coastal Band region for a project need. We currently have six full-time employees dedicated to the city um in the middle of their projects right now. We have one who is unfortunately on leave who will be coming back shortly. And we have another resume sort of in in waiting and hold in case y'all potentially give us this award and and need a project fulfilled immediately. So yes, we can absolutely handle that and we would honor and appreciate the opportunity.

Okay. So Peter, you feel comfortable with that? Well, yes, we just heard the answer, so they can handle it. So we we we again we're very satisfied with the services of AGCM and um and we we would be fine with that uh what do you call it? Connor motion or second motion that was made, right? Amended motion. Yeah, amended motion. We have a few more com uh comments, but we do have an amended motion in a second to issue the here. Do I have any more time? Oh, you probably do. Okay. Yeah. So, I'm sorry. Go ahead.

No, I I just I just want to I just want to I understand what you're probably going through, but I think, you know, something like this, you could probably we could probably go through the process. And and one of the things that I worry is that, you know, one of the things that I've always been and I've always been a big supporter. I mean, um you know, AGCM was the project manager for what was the American Bank Center at the time, which is now the Hillyard Center. Uh they were the uh project manager I believe for the seaw wall. Uh they were the project manager for the uh um the the arena uh not the arena but the the expansion of the convention center. They were the project manager also for Waterburger Field. So I I I just I just think that with somebody that's had all that rich history that understands the dynamics, understands the market, understands uh the the contracting market, you know, I mean, this isn't this isn't all that of what they do versus and you know, I've always been I've always been transparent about how I feel about local, you know, I've always been very clear and you know, uh one of the things is that uh there's a lot of other communities, I mean, we've been in a situation like you know a company like Ardura saw the value of LNV and what they had put here as a local community and so then they came and invested over here and it's not that they're just going to be sending people out and that's just that way I see it. It's just you know if we're going to work with a temp agency then then we probably might want work with one here and if they feel that there's value then they can go ahead and invest here. So that's that's a lot of it. I think number one the rich history number two they've got an amazing track record which you you you acknowledge and then uh what is it number three they've invested here and they're going into other markets and investing there we need to encourage those other proposers to come invest in Corpus Christi so anyway with that um I u I I thank you very much thanks for the time and thank you for seconding my amendment

I would like to clarify something that you pointed out so what we're using them for is is not typically what they do. We we are using them as like a stack augmentation uh resource where they provide employees and we manage them like they're our employees because we have the capability the management capability in this this area. Now I would say their strike zone is really where entities don't have any of that project management capability in house and they outsource that to them. Uh so there there's overlap there. You know, the people that they staff those projects with are the kind of people we're looking for, but they also will wholesale take over the project management.

I'll take that as a yes. All right, Councilwoman Vaughn, for you, Jeff, because you can only choose by what you get. So, I think you did a good job doing that. That's the best you could do. That's all you had. And HCM is definitely a good company. But my question to you, are you comfortable with them doing the entire thing? Yes. Okay. Thank you, Councilman Ku.

It's going to ring today because me and Roland agreed on something. Um, he he uh he took my motion. I wasn't I wasn't going to make a motion for that, but uh he took it, so I second it. Um I just wanted to just I'm all about local. I think, you know, using a local company's good. Um, I'm sure if they need more help, they will find more help somewhere else. And I think Karen um asked the right question if you're if you feel comfortable with it and you said yes. So um I think um we're making the right decision. So um u thank you Hernandez.

Okay. U like to correct some historical information that Councilman Bedetta brought forward uh that I had mentioned that we should augment our staff with contracted services because I didn't think we would have uh the projects going forward. Come to find out that we recently had a discussion about not doing a bond in 2026, right? Because we have some capacity issues.

And I mentioned that during that meeting when we were talking about adding people to the engineering department. So, I'm not sure how Councilman Bunnett I got the idea that it was his idea, but uh and we can go look at the tape on that, but I just want to correct that. Uh but specifically, this is a good thing to do because it is a local company. They do provide this kind of services. The ND Global, I don't know anything about them, but just from their web page, they had no experience in doing any of the projects that we do or stuff like that. My guess is that they go out in the market, try and find some some guy off the street that says, "Hey, he does some of the qualifications. What do you think of this guy?" Uh, as opposed to a company that kind of does this for a living. So,

I think you're correct on that. Right. So, uh, I think it's the correct thing to do. I was willing to give, you know, the opportunity for them to provide us some more detail as to what they could do, but I'm okay with providing that full $3 million contract to uh, AGCM. Thank you. Councilman Roy. Um, I was just curious. Do you know offhand is anybody here from ND Global Consulting? No.

No. So, number one, that speaks volumes. Um, I know that McKenna, Texas is a little bit of a distance, but it's probably what maybe $800 roundtrip airfare to come down and and be here and be present. Uh, that speaks volumes uh, number one of um, AGCM because they've worked with us, but the fact that they're here and and here to answer questions, it speaks volumes of that organization. So thank you. Okay, we have a motion or actually we have

two amendments. So the first amendment um is Mr. Bedetas. So he uh he was um specifying the the amount of this contract. So it's 3 million to AGC. Yes. So you want to vote on that first and then we can vote on uh Mr. Nandis's amendment. What did you say? So the amount Peter,

what what is the first motion? The first motion was to award the contract to AGCM of Corpus Christi. So they and I I need to get into that because right it I think your amendment would be motion authorizing execution of one three-year service agreement for temporary staffing with AGCM of Corpus Christi in an amount and then strike the the ND global in an amount of 3 million right strike each per year up to three million per year sorry up to three million.

This says up to three million each for each one. So, I'm just saying up to three million and then to provide needed support needed with CIP projects located citywide, blah blah blah. And then um it says FY2026 funding of 1.5 uh 1,51,382. I wasn't sure if that's correct still. So, is it 1.5 in this fiscal year and then 3 million up to 3 million for the three-year contract? Is that correct? So, what's on on the table today for council is a three-year agreement for a total of three million for the entire three years.

For the entire three years. Okay. So, the part on the end about the CIP, that's just referencing what the where the funding for this year is coming from. All right. For the three year, but the caption reads $3 million each. It does each contract. So, the one contract is with um the uh AGCM and the other $3 million contract is Indie Global. Three million each. Yeah, that's why I said six million. But I think I thought we were going to double that and just do the one, right? I think that's what staff is recommending is just do one contract for 3 million. That should not spend double the amount for 6 million for 6 million. Yeah, it says 3 million each for one. It's going to be a threeear contract for 6 million. Okay. Right. So it's 6 million. Okay.

6 million. It's a three threeear contract with the one company AGCM. One company AGCM. Three years of a contract. Total amount 6 million. Okay. Or 2 million a year. Thank you. Okay. So, that was my amendment. Okay. So, his that's his uh his amendment was just the amount. So, now we are clear that the amount is 6 million just to AGCM. So, that's the first amendment we're dealing with.

Okay. I haven't done public open public comment. So, let me do that. We'll come back. We do have a motion and a second on that amendment. All right. So, would anyone like to make comment on item number 13, the AGCM comment uh item? Okay, there being no one, we're closing public comment. Please submit.

Oh, yes, sir. You can come up. Yes, sir. Jansen Abraham, District 2. Um, respected council members and mayor. um on this this agenda I would I I did not come here to speak behalf of that but when I heard this actually I'm a supporter of local business I'm an immigrant myself and global I search the website it's full of Indians I love them but I believe a company that is locally here and supporting jobs for local people here should be supported with that amount and uh the resources to to let them grow here. That's what this is for. So I believe bringing a company from Mckini and also uh lots of hired Indian people, my people uh I love them but uh I don't think what is their interest in the city. So I really appreciate all of your decisions. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you sir. Anyone else? Okay, I'll close public comment. Please submit your vote. Mayor, can we do that uh voice vote? It's hard to do the amendments on to program them. We don't have them ahead of time. We are.

So, do you So, the amendment on the floor, the first the first amendment was made by uh Mr. Ednandez, right? And he said he just to offer the contract to AGCM and then Mr. Baretta amended that motion to include the exact amount. So the first thing we vote on when we vote on um amendments, we vote on the last amendment made first and then we go down to the second one. So So Mr. Bedetta is first. That's the first one we'll consider and the amount is 6 million to offer them 6 million to AGCM. Yes, ma'am. To AGCM. That's correct. All in favor? Everybody clear? Okay. I Any oppose? Say no. The motion carries.

All right. So now we have Mr. uh Ernnandez's amendment. So, in his amendment, um, the way I the way I understand it, it's motion authorizing execution of one three-year service agreement for temporary staffing with AGCM of Corpus Christi in an amount of up to 6 million to provide support needed. So, the rest of it remains the same, correct, Mr. Zenon? And okay, ma'am, yes, Mr. So, the rest will remain the same, but what I've read, those are the the changes. So that's the Okay, Rebecca, everybody thinks we just voted on that. No, ma'am. We just voted on the amount. We voted on the six million. So initially, Mr.

Hold on. Hold on. So I thought what he said because Eric said I was going to do the same thing. What Eric what Councilman Baretta Mo amended was to give the whole contract to AGCM. Mhm. That was not But he was talking about an amount. That that was my understanding. He was he the amount was in question. So Mr. Baretta specified the amount. I mean, as long as gets to work for this for the the three-year contract for six minutes. Yeah. Because he made the amendment first. So Mr. Mr. Ednandez made the amendment first and it was seconded. Right. But then he amended the a the Right. That's fine.

So he amended his amendment. thought we voted on the whole thing as one. Just No, ma'am. It was the amount that was in question. That's what Mr. Redetta brought up. And then and then now we're going back to the original motion. I know. Okay. Okay. So, um, does everybody understand the motion that I read? Yes, we do. Okay. All right. Very good. So, please submit your vote. Okay. It's 12. Oh, you already did it. I'm sorry. I thought I was doing it.

You need a vote. we just well we all did but apparently okay the motion carries so the full contract goes to AGCM three your agreement all right item number 14 they voted as amended but I don't know if you want to do that but that if you want proper procedure we would vote on the whole thing as amended we will vote it as amended please submit your vote yeah Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Because that's the final step. We vote on the whole thing is amended. All in favor say I. I. Any oppose say no.

The motion carries. There has to be a cleaner way to do this. Okay. Um I can provide the council an email um this week going over uh Robert's rules and how we handle amendments. the ladder that we use which we use right now and I can use it on this example um specifically. So I'll provide that.

Item number 14 is a motion awarding this is the last item pulled a motion awarding construction contract to Bonco LLC of Driscoll, Texas for the installation. It's a I'm sorry. Asset management service center secure enclave project for the installation of an 8,700 linear linear foot linear foot heavy duty chain link fence and this was pulled Councilwoman Paxton. Thank you. Quick questions. Um I understand that this is a huge parameter to provide fencing for and that's that's expensive. I get it. Um, but going through this item, even the vendor that is being recommended, it looks like it's about $132,000 being spent on the decorative entry. Could you explain a little bit of that?

I I think I'm going to have to punch one. Councilwoman, good afternoon. Juan Rivera, asset management director. Um, yes. So that's a monumental entry way that's going to kind of direct folks into the Civotan service center. Uh this project has been longgoing in design since 23. So it goes back to 2023 when we initiated that design of that project. So that was part of it. Peter, $132,000 on a stone gate.

Yes, Councilwoman. So um I don't have the number one may but hundreds of employees go through this as well as contractors. uh right now it's it's uh undefined and hard to find and so it's we want it to be a sense of place especially for our employees uh but also for traveling public that may go there vendors. Um, so the the front gate has uh it's a little different than the than the periphery or the you know the surrounding the enclave. And so it has some it has more substantial uh treatment including brick work, heavier duty gate, lighting, signage.

Um so it's it's a low bid price and we we have the best price. It's below the engineer's estimate. Uh, but we do want this place has been I I tooured this when I was interviewing seven years ago and uh it looked pretty bad then and it still needs help today. What we're trying to do with this yard is make it really a good sense of place for our employees that go there day in and day out, our vendors, uh, and then the community itself that goes there to like to the animal care facilities right there. Uh, we have public meetings from time to time. So, it's nothing elaborate. It's a pretty basic design. Uh but the c the cost increase and Jeff the engineer can talk about why it's more is because it has brick and and and stone treatment and a heavier duty fence uh that has mechanical components to it as well. Well, I understand the cost to do fencing around a facility this size, but it's $35,000 for a foundation for monument size signage, $35,000 for electrical at Monument signage, $45,000 for LED lighting at Monument Sighting uh signage, $8500 $8,500 for landscaping on both sides of Monument Sign. So those costs um and the the monument signage itself 8,500 those don't have any bearing according to lead reading the detail on this on any of the um the mechanical gate openers on anything to the actual fencing. This is all just decorative. I'm having a little bit of heartburn because we've got facilities that that need air conditioner replacement that our that our community actually goes in and spends time in. They do researching. They do GED programming. We've got I've got a facility that has tarping over books because of roof leaks. I've got

So, I I'm really struggling to support. I'm sorry. I get it. It was approved in 2023, but $132,000 on decoration. I love our employees. I appreciate them and I will always stand up and support them, but I don't think $132,000 is the way to do that here. Excuse me. Um, it's part of the total project. So, I we we recommend it. That's all I can say is we recommend it that we wish the price was less. Uh, but it's going to be a longterm. It's probably 30 to 50 year lifespan. It is sir. Um it is sir.

And uh and again that that we do want we do want to recognize that this is the city's service center and that comes with with some type of a treatment that you can see in the in the presentation. Uh lighting, that type of thing. We don't dictate the unit prices. The the private sector does. But so here's the thing. I mean we could pick up the phone to a number of local vendors and say, "Hey, could you make me a pretty entrance way?" Yeah. for less than 132,000. And I could probably have three, five people tell me they could, but I can't do that because that's not process

and I want to support this item, but I can't support that expenditure. It's already 1.27 million. So, if you take that out, you know, it's still over a million. But I get it. I'm reading through the the process. There's some things that are an added in case there's an issue. Another thing is $4,000 on permitting. Is that a local permit for storm water pollution prevention? Most likely, but Juan, do you know? Most likely it is, but I don't I'm not for sure, sir. So, I I wouldn't answer that question with a yes. Um, Jeff, do you know that the permitting permit?

It just seems like that might be something administratively that we could say if you're doing this on a city premise, we don't need to charge you 4,000 to give us 4,000. Yes, we permit all of projects here through department services development services funded off of permits and we pay permits on city projects same as private projects. Yeah, it's an enterprise fund. So they you know the money Yeah. So the service when they go out there we have to pay them. Okay. Would they be in development services?

So that's my question. What what if anything can we do to take this portion of that provision and I get it. This went out to bed. have included four or five, I forget, bids in here. That's that's a that's astronomical for an entryway.

Well, so uh Councilwoman, uh some of the things that I think you're adding in there are are like the electrical to the electric motors that include the opening gate. So, if you just took out the decorative parts, it's going to be way less than the amount that you were siding. They're all listed as the as just the signage on um I don't know if you have the same packet I do, but it's the um the bid the

right. So, you've got the the foundation for the monument sign that was $35,000. Um uh and the monument sign itself was $8,500. Um other parts of this, you've got electrical motors and a and a gate that can open and shut there. A lot of it supporting that. LED lighting at signage 30. Uh the LED lighting at the signage is 45. Electrical at signage 35.

Correct. And and some of that is just specifically for the sign, but some of it is just have lighting. So I I guess what I'm saying is that the amount that you had is split between stuff that we'd probably want to do anyway and to support the decorative sign. Okay. Well, I appreciate it. I've said my piece. I think to me we we've really got to look at these designs and say, you know what, I want it to be beautiful, too, but we we're we're not at the place for wants, not needs,

right? I think we we did that, Councilwoman. In fact, we toned it down. It would have been more. They're getting me the price, but the you may you may see when you pull into city hall, we have a similar treatment. You know, we put in a gate system there, and it was I don't have the final number, but it was more than this. So, you know, there's something um something that I think is important that a lot of us have experienced or or taught our children or witnessed is you may have a home that looks plain, but it's clean and it has your essentials and it functions, right? That doesn't make it any less of a home. It's just not lavish,

right? And I think that we can still have a reputable, respectable, beautiful facility that's not lavish. Thank you. I move for approval. Second, Councilman uh Hernandez. Uh and maybe I don't know if Sergio Oh, there you are. Can you can you kind of explain to me why this is completely being paid for out of the wastewater capital fund when it encompasses more than just wastewater fund? Is that right? Is am I looking at the wrong item? On the agenda with city facilities fund.

Sorry, I'm looking at the wrong item. Hold on a second. Yeah, that's not the wastewater fund, Councilman. Right. This is the coming out of the uh city facilities. Yeah. Okay. But it's uh it's kind of a similar thing what I wanted to get to it. But there's a lot of departments that are covered in this area. So why is it just coming out of one area considering you have uh more than just the facilities? Juan Rivera, sir. Um it's coming out of a past CO. So that's CO funding. Well, I understand it's co funding, but you're it's it's coming out of the facility.

Yeah. So, that is coming out of a capital projects fund and depending how that fund the debt is issued for the the funds that are going into that fund, the service of that debt, if it's uh appropriate to chart to multiple utility funds or other funds, then that's how the debt payment is split. And so, but the budget to for the construction is in fund 3160. Okay. This is not always the way we do this. A lot of times we'll separate it out into the individual departments, right?

Yeah. So on we're looking at two different things here. So when you're budgeting the cost of construction for for let's say a facility and let's say the facility cost is split between u gas, water, wastewater. You would then have multiple construction funds because you're going to capitalize that spending under those utility system. Then when you're going to service that debt to actually pay for that expense, we're going to have transfers out from those different operating funds onto their respective debt service funds. So here you have one fund for the city's facilities. Um I'm not sure what's financing the service what what how this was budgeted during the capital budgeting. So I couldn't really fully answer your question. So you haven't have you done that work already to say who's going to pay for what because you're asking us to approve a CO I mean basically funding from a CEO without knowing what department it's going to be be uh charged to for the debt service.

Sure. We we know that during I don't have the information in front of me but when this is budgeted so it's budgeted under city facilities my assumption is that that's either a certificate of obligation or general obligation bond that was approved um in that case and that is funded through uh through the debt service fund which is supported by tax property tax. No, no, I fully understand what you're saying, right? It's just we don't know who's going to be charged that debt in which department.

Not off the top of my head, but that we can find out because we can tie this particular fund is funded by whatever debt proceeds we issued. And from the way we issued those debt proceeds, I can go back and see who's servicing that debt. that just is not part of this agenda item because this agenda item the number that's reported here is the fund that's paying for it for the project, not the fund that's paying for the debt service. I fully get what you're saying. I see where the money's coming from. It just I don't know what department that's going to be paying for that debt service. Got so it you know what if it all goes to animal control? Yeah.

Not not likely. But I mean what I'm saying is that we don't see that, right? Who gets build what? I mean you have parks there, you have public works, you have fleet, you have uh water, you have I guess gas is there, right? Uh you have lots of different departments uh that you're going to be charging, but you know there's there's I don't know what the the split is. I don't know who gets who gets what. Is it going to be split equally? What how I mean how is that all going to work? Um

so I can kind of answer that somewhat if it is a general government fund that's going to fund this facility. So here if facilities fund 3160 or city facilities is all government related then that that debt service is funded through the INS tax which is our debt service fund. Now if the utility fund is going to fund portion of it because if there are any utility uh buildings on there we're going to split that cost. You're doing it out of a co even though you have enterprise funds that are operating there. I did I don't know exactly what is funding that this like I said I need I need to go back and see what the funding source is for this specific CIP but if it is a certificate of obligation normally our property tax is what's supporting that.

Well yeah I I get that it it's you're just it's just where you're assigning the debt. You're not assigning debt to the water fund and then assigning debt to right uh the general I mean the general fundocations. So that's not that's not even. Okay. Okay. I bring this up specifically because we just had that meeting where we don't have the you know a lot of debt capacity because now we're 31% as certificates of obligation as a total as a part as a portion of our total debt.

Yes sir. I have the answer here for you. The item is funded through general fund. It's just it's not a debt. It's not tied to that at all. The capital improvement plan here um based on the capital budget page uh that's that's in the budget book. Okay. I I even though it it covers multiple departments that are not within the general fund. Yeah, that that is a a budget decision at the time when this is being budgeted. Yeah, it was a general fund transfer. Okay. Diego. Um Camille Tyrus, I was the CP manager at the time. So, this was a decision by council uh to do a cash transfer from the reserves that year to transfer cash directly into the the CIP. So, this is not debt funded. This is cash funded. It's cash fund from

from the general fund. So, we're not going to get reimbursed by any of the enterprise funds for this. Not to my knowledge. Okay. Thank you, Counciloman P. Uh Vaughn. So, how much are we talking about for the structure that we're worried about? The entire fence is 1.2 million for the entire fence that how many mile how many linear feet or what is it? $1.2 $2 million councilwoman and it's 8700 square f feet or linear square feet. Okay. And then you've got rock is it rock at the structure the entrance. Oh what is it?

So that small entrance is very small. It's just for the entrance but the rest of the perimeter the 87 um 87 acres. It's going to be a chainlink fence 8t high all around the outside perimeter. I'm I don't have a problem with it because we have got to start securing what we have. Yes ma'am. And I think you can still secure it with something that looks nice and you've got the rolling gate that's going to go through there. So you've got to have a solid structure. So I don't have a problem with it. I don't. Thank you. We have a motion in a second. Would anyone like to speak on item number 14? Okay. There being no closed public comment.

Can I just add one more thing, Mayor, that this is a a good use of of funds. It's protecting millions and and assets that have been stolen, i.e. Cadillic converters, whole vehicles. Uh, so this is the whole the big part of this is protecting taxpayer funded assets. Right. Okay. Councilwoman Paxton,

hold on. Just for clarification, I don't have a problem with the project. I don't. That's why I said at the beginning, I understand this is a huge parameter to cover. My preference is just when we do go to make those solid structures that we have the f the fiscal impact at the forefront. You can have things that look respect respectable. They're effective. They're sturdy and they don't have to be exorbitant on on necessarily the appearance. They can look quite nice and still be functional but not not luxurious. That was my point. Yeah, please submit your vote. Okay, the motion carries. Let's see. It's It's 2 o'clock. The council is going to go into executive session on items 21 through 24 per Texas government code sections 551.071 071 and 551.072 072 and then we will return.

That's interesting. What's your Fix it.

They fixed it. So whenever Okay, we're going to go ahead and reconvene our meeting. It's your turn. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion uh motion authorizing execution of one a real estate contract with Thomas Joe Smith for the purchase of approximately 112 acres. Oh, he's back. Okay, go ahead. Okay, I'll start over because you interrupted me.

Motion authorizing execution of one, a real estate sales contract with Thomas Joe Smith for the purchase of 112 acres of land near County Road 87 and County Road 22 near the Auadulce Hub in Noasis County, Texas. an amount in an amount not to exceed 1,668 $666,850 and two a real estate sales contract with Midnight Sun Inc. four for the purchase of approximately 2,99 acres of land near near County Road 87 and County Road 20 near the Auadulce hub in Noasis County, Texas in an amount not to exceed $23,277,520 for the purchase of for the purpose of the CC gas underground gas reservoir project that has been on the capital improvement plan since 2021. That's my motion.

Second. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. May I make a can? Yes. Can I talk? I'm I just want to make sure I did ask and was confirmed that Saninto title is not a party of this contract. Just wanted to make sure that got out there company. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, we have nothing to do with it. Thank you, mayor. Okay. Please submit your votes. Did you want to do open public comment on this, mayor? I'm sorry. Did you want to open public?

It's an executive session item, but this is a it's an item on the agenda we're voting on. So, does anyone in the audience would anyone in the audience like to make public comment on uh this item, which is a basically a ga do you want to explain in couple of sentences what it is, Bill? Um, yes. This is a uh underground natural gas storage facility that'll uh protect our customers from uh winter price spikes for decades to come. Okay. Would anyone like to make comment on it? Okay. There being none, we'll close public comment. Please submit your vote.

Okay. The the motion passes. Thank you, Bill. Thank you. Councilman Hernandez.

All right. Like to make a motion um under under section 15 of an agreement with Elevate QF and the type B corporation. Section 15 says event of default by company following the events constitute a default by agreement by the company. The corporation or the city determines that any representation or warranty on behalf of the company contained in this agreement or in any financial statement, certificate, report or opinion submitted to the corporation in connected in connection with this agreement was incorrect or misleading in any material respect when made with that with that section of the contract. Motion determining an event of default for misleading material representation made to the type B corporation under the business incentive agreement between Corpus Christie TypeB Corporation Elevate QF LLC for the development of a hotel and retail project.

Can we put that on the screen so that way the public can see it? So that way when it's uh when it's watched on YouTube and reread and reviewed so that way we're transparent. Second. You have to zoom in. because there's no way to zoom in.

Yeah, there is. Why don't you do one document at a time? Do the motion on the right. Zoom in so people can see it. Pull the page down towards you. Okay, there you go. Okay, they'll zoom in now so people can read it. Keep going. And now the other document. Put it back. Put it back. I was still reading it cuz I'm not sure what it is. Zoom in a little more, please.

Can we zoom in some more? I'm sorry. I'm 60 years old and wearing glasses. I guess we can That's not Can they not Can it zoom in anymore? Is that it? That's as far as they can do it. That's as far Okay, they said that's as far as they can get it. So So the motion is to determine an event of default. Determining event. And what is that event?

Can you put the other document up? Okay. You're going to have to I guess the the event is the highlighted part. That is the reference to the agreement that it that the motion is referencing to in terms of u where it states where if you provide the city with misleading statements which was covered previously and you know we didn't we don't have all of the information we had from uh from the executive session here but it's it's mainly the the misleading information we got with regards to uh the FEMA uh information the the the um alter Ed slide uh a lot of the the changes from one agreement from the agreement from one to the next with regards to this this project uh type being we saw some of that in today's um public comment

where where did this document come from this document? Yes. This is the city's agreement with um Elevate Qoof. Well, not the cities, but type B corporations agreement with LVOF. Now, this was before or after we voted, after the council on the second reading. This this contract is the one that's the final contract after two readings.

And so, this is a contract. So, we're you're alleging default prior to this contract. I'm alleging that we had misleading information provided to us by the uh the applicant.

So you're you're alleged that which is an event of default. So you're alleging mislead misleading information prior to this contract. So does this contract buck does is it retroactive? If you're asking whether um this pro the provision of the contract applies to events prior to execution of the contract um the language is somewhat ambiguous. So it could be read in in in two two ways. One that it does apply to uh uh representations made prior to execution of contract and you could also interpret it that it's only for representations made after execution of the contract. even though five council members understood that there was a alteration on a PowerPoint presentation and they supported this. They supported this. So I I I guess that's where I'm having a hard time understanding where the default was made. Five council members knew of the alteration of knew of the alteration and yet and the five council members directed staff to write this contract. So, I'm I'm I'm still at a loss of where the default is because this is after the council voted and and every every council member knew every council member knew um what they were voting for.

I didn't. You abstained, right? I abstained. Okay. But that's what I mean. You had the choice to either vote yes, no, or abstain. So, does staff recommend we move forward with the motion? Peter recommendation. Councilman Buck. Yeah, but it's illegal. Buck's gonna have to make the Yeah, I would I would advise um that the council take no action at this time.

Mr. Bryce, uh when you advise B to put them into vault, did they did they take your advice? Um not sure if the um rules of um disciplinary believe that I'm not sure if that confidential information can be relayed to the council at this time.

Okay. I understand that it's a legal department to give us a legal opinion and to give us the pros and cons legally in terms of lawsuits and that kind of stuff, but it is uh and you know, and I'm going to quote Miles here, not not you. It's not for for him to tell us what's right and wrong or what's ethical or unethical. It's to tell us what's legal and what's not legal and give us a recommendations based on that. It is incumbent upon us as a council to determine whether things were done correctly or incorrectly. It is our votes. It's our important. It's important for us to do what's right. And if somebody uh misrepresents themselves in writing and in slide to to deceive us in order to receive an incentive, that is something that should not be accepted by anybody whether and whether you know there was an example given earlier about uh hiring somebody that determined that their resume was not exactly accurate and we decided not to hire them. And I get it's different two different things, but the same theory the same thing applies. If you're being misrepresented, you don't want to do business with that with that group. Now, there should be they do have an opportunity to cure. Whatever that cure is, it has to be determined by type B. But ultimately, this is something that we should stand up for our contracts and do what's right.

So, so then that leads me to another question. What's the remedy then if it toes back to type B? Is that for me?

Yeah, I'm sorry I'm looking at you. How how would you cure this? I mean, we've already hired an attorney that we paid over $300,000 that basically stated that the lawsuit is my my term. It's not a legal term, and I'm not Barney Davis. Uh what is it? That it's a farce, you know. So, um, we will ar we paid an attorney over $300,000 to argue that that the city is moving forward lawfully. So, I'm How does it re how would we remedy? How does it get remedied? Uh, arguably, I guess the um

what are the legal options for the type B board? Well, the the um who's the um the the de the uh developer in this case potentially could submit corrected documents uh showing reflecting uh unmodified FEMA slides potentially would cure.

So of which we already know the answer. So I my thing is that obviously in my opinion this is theater so then they're going to we're going to have I I think it's going to go further that maybe we're not satisfied with that. I mean because we're we're not following staff recommendation right now. So I'm trying to play this out. We send this to the type B board. We have to figure out a remedy that the majority of this council is going to have to be satisfied with. Otherwise, are we gonna over do we have the ability to overturn it again or recommend being overturned again?

What being overturned?

Well, here's the thing. Staff staff decided to move forward. I mean, type B board said we're going to move forward with this. They're well aware of of of of the alteration. They're well aware of the extension that was requested because of the because of the challenges that they faced in the construction of the extension and yet we're going to send this back to the type B board. Yes, you're that's going to create a decision point for type B on how to deal with um the notice of default and and make a determination on whether to terminate or not. So the type B board but they but we have to give them 60 days to remedy. So if they don't fulfill the remedy that's what I'm saying what's the remedy?

Well that and then it seems to be the type B board determine whether they've have or not remedied the the violation the the uh default. So then so then it really does nothing because type B board in essence has already made very clear. I mean, that's my speculation that it's going to go to type B board and they're going to say it's been remedied. We're going to move forward. We're going to waste more staff time. Yeah, I think impliedly by them executing the contract and granting two extensions, they've kind of um they support they support the bill and the incent. Um, okay, I'll come back.

Councilman Kentu. Uh, a couple things. Um, so we do this default letter to the hotelers. Type B board could not do anything, right? Is that what you're saying? No, what I'm saying is by sending that letter, you're you're going to trigger a decision decision point for the type B to either choose to terminate or or allow the contract and most likely they're not going to do anything. Allow the contract to move forward. They would have done it before and the last time city recommend city recommendation was not to move forward. Right. And the last time the last vote I believe yeah city staff recommendation was not to extend the agreement.

Got it. And to councilman Betta's um remarks about the attorney's fees. The only reason why it's it's high now is because with all due respect, I'm not trying to fight with nobody, but um the mayor complect out the city attorney's office. So, I mean, that was told to me by Miles. That's the only reason why we're having to pay a lot more money in attorney's fees. We're still going to pay attorney's fees, but not as much if if the city's attorney's office was in conflict out. Is that correct, Buck? I guess the conflicting out incur an additional um expense but there's we still have to u we had already hired one mayor I mean one um attorney

but what I'm trying to explain is for a whole year you guys were doing the case correct y'all were y'all were doing the legal point the legal um stuff on the case for like a whole year I'm not certain on the timeline but we we did uh represent the city for for a good while for a while. Yes. Thank you. All right. So, let's let's address that. The man sitting back there in the back to the left, that's why we're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. So, um Yeah. Barney or now he called himself something else. So, um Ju

J Rule, that's who it was. Yeah. So, Mr. Canu, the disrespect is louder. Yeah, I know it is. It's It's disgusting. But um let let's let me let me give you a little fact check here. Yeah. What Miles said to me what Miles said to me because this lawsuit was brought forth that doesn't seem to end and today likely five people are going to continue to add taxpayer dollars to something. It doesn't matter what wall y'all hit. It is. It is. Nope. Let's keep finding something else. Nope. Let's It was immaterial. Everybody said so. Nope. It it wasn't. No. Let's Let's slap their hands somehow. And And so it's continuing to go on. What Miles told me since we're talking about what Miles said was that they are not capable. the same way that you and five other or four other council members didn't feel that a certain particular law firm was capable of investigating this very issue. So you went and hired another law firm. I think that was number three to say tell us something bad happened here. And Mr. Hernandez handpicked that law firm. He handpicked that law firm and they came back and said nothing here. That's a a waste of taxpayer dollars. Now again, back to your point, the reason we're spending money is because Miles said we we're not capable of doing this type of law. This isn't what we do. And then of course, of you had your time, Mr. Cantou, let's stop the disrespect. You can turn your light on again and talk. You can talk. You can turn your light on again. There's a process, Councilman Ken, too.

There's a There we go. Please. All right, let's just stop. No, there we go. You're out of order. You're out of order. You can turn on your light again. There's a process, Councilman Kentu. And that's the problem. That is the No, I You just No. No. You made a statement, sir. You made a statement and respect. Okay. Follow the process. Councilman Kentu, I'm asking you again to follow the process. And the process is what everybody else does. Councilman Hernandez has his light on. Mark Scott has his light on. Councilwoman Campos has her light on. None of them are speaking out of term because there's a process. So, Councilman Cantou, I'm asking you to stop the disrespect. I'm asking you to follow the process and have respect for your constituents. You decided to make a statement that involved me specifically and I am making a statement to clarify. Sir, sir, I'm again, Councilman Cantou, I am asking you to stop the disrespect in this chambers. There is a process, sir, you're out of order. There is a process. Everyone's following the process. Look at your screen. Everyone except you. So, Councilman Cantou, I am asking you again to please play by the rules the way your colleagues are. Councilman Scott,

I I I will tell you that I think that the legal department would have been uh witnesses at some point anyhow. So, I mean, I don't I mean, I understand what what you said, but I do think that there was there would be an opportunity if the lawsuit continued that they would be witnesses, which would have caused them to accuse themselves. I think hiring legal to protect the city prior to that was probably good good policy. Hey, look, none of this makes me happy. That's my first note. None of this makes me happy. I wasn't on the council when this happened. I I don't like spending time with this. We've got a DCP conversation that to be had. We have water issues. None of this makes me happy. My second comment was my sense is Elevate or QLF doesn't agree with some of the statements that have been made that they intentionally misrepresented, but I just that's my sense. I think others here would agree disagree with that and that's fine. My point was is that I think they signed they would say in a court of law that they sign the legally binding document in good faith and and that sets a bad precedent for anybody else that might want to come set a sign a a type B document to do projects in Corpus Christi. I am des my third note desperately trying to avoid uh spending any more taxpayer dollars on this issue. Uh and I think this uh potentially puts taxpayer dollars at risk uh because if the type B who is appointed by council members who are appointed by council members decides to do the same. My sense is the elevate will sue uh and it's I think city's legal opinion that they have good standing a good grounds to law to sue and it will cost all of us money and that they will win in the end. Um I um I I I do think the type B approved extensions multiple times. So there's

evidence there that they don't think there's there's they there. Um and um um I I I do think this to some extent it's political theater. Um I think people are voting their conscience and I understand that. But I think this is I think the fact that we're going to do something. I think council members are saying it's it's they believe in their personal ethics. I I think it's bad public policy to move this issue forward. Uh and as such I I don't support it. Uh and I'm really I'm really sensitive what the world is looking at when they're looking at doing business with Corpus Christi. I know we're saying that they we think that they signed a document in bad faith, but it's been several years and they've got several extensions and all this evidence that it's okay and city attorney says that he thinks they might win. And I think it sets a bad precedence for people that want to do business with the city in the future. So, and I hope I did that all politely. Thank you, Mayor.

Councilwoman Compos.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm think I'm um I'm grateful that you said that uh Councilman Scott about how uh the public views our city because um you know there are some things that that have we have seen and we've been told that what this what transpired was not illegal. But what we need to set I think right here is this was certainly unethical. I mean there is nothing there it's plain as day that this was unethical. So we need to set that tone. We need to be able to let any other uh companies or businesses that this is not going to be tolerated. So for me it may not be illegal but I will give you that second gill. Um and um for me it is about morality and and this what we're being placed here. It's not always about legality. It's about morals too. So this speaks volumes. So that's all I'm going to say. Mayor, if I may make a correction, uh that was not my attorney. It was actually Councilman Cantou's selection. And uh they did come up with several recommendations,

all the same. It was uh they had I just I just want to clarify it wasn't one that was handpicked by me. It wasn't the one I selected.

Also, they did come up with several issues that they found and made recommendations on. It wasn't like they found nothing. it the um but I want to I want to state that you know what we're trying to do here is protect our contracts you know we should we should do things we should expect ethical behavior when anybody comes to us with a a a request for for um funding in any aspect right we don't want to accept any that that anybody could misrepresent something and then expect us to just roll over on the next the next day or the next year or whatever it may be. We need to do what's we need to do the right thing. It has to be done correctly. And I'm all about process. Even just an example earlier when we voted on AGCM, uh I didn't vote for them the first time because they were because it came to us without I thought without proper procurement. So I have a a history on this council consistency about doing things the right way. I don't I don't take these things lightly. And honestly, politically, I could probably, you know, this would probably be best for me to just let it slide. But but we got to do things the right way. We got to do things the right way. And until we start doing that, we're still going to be a laughingtock down here of just, you know, a cesspool in den of corruption. And we don't need that. We got to hold the line. Thank you.

And you're right. It was a lot of internal recommendations that they made and um and I would say that um ad that Miles and that law department recused themselves because they vetted they vet every item that's on the agenda and therefore that makes them witnesses. So that item was placed on the agenda through the process that every item is well most items are placed on the agendas and I only say that because of last week's item and Gil I think you made the recommendation on that law firm. Councilman Bono,

um, you know, with regard to consistency, um, what's what's the name of that the firm that we that the audit committee hired or made a recommendation to do construction audits? Tal Talson. Tal Oh, Talson, right? Talson. Did we issue procurement for that? I don't um I don't think so. Yeah, we did. It's a It was a professional service. We sold sourced that contract, man.

You know, so 50,000 per contract of which it was not to exceed uh I think it was over a million dollars. So it's about 50,000 per audit. So of which they've been able to determine that we don't keep minutes, you know, at meetings. Um so I I I just think there's some inconsistency. example is putting operations and maintenance into a bond project to fund a swimming pool is a funding of convenience. Um, I think it's immoral to make this uh motion because it rewards the behavior of an individual that has tried to disrupt the system of the process that we have because that of a competing hotel year just looks for an option of which a competing hotel year has a stake a financial stake in the success or failure of this of which their paid employees come to public comment, it I think it's immoral to cherrypick items off of a deposition that was made public by that individual. That's immoral. And then it's created all this public perception so that way someone can come back and say, "I'm just doing the right thing because I just want to make sure it was ethical." Well, it came it came above it came through by unethical means. So, you're rewarding unethical behavior and you're validating that unethical behavior by doing this. And you know, I'm going to lose on this deal. And I've lost a lot lately because what's what's right isn't always popular and what's popular isn't always right. So, this undermines this. This this is what this is a a perfect example of the cesspool if this passes because we're utilizing

public dollars. Now, we utilize $300,000 to basically defend this to defend our position. And now we're we're possibly going to we're possibly going to use public dollars again in order to disparrage council members and developers and cherrypick and reward that unethical, immoral behavior. So, that's my opinion. All right. Uh that's my opinion of where it goes and that's you obviously know where I'm going to vote. I just think it's wrong. I think it's immoral and I think it's grandstanding and grandstanding is what I'm doing right now. Councilwoman uh Vaughn,

well, I think you're immoral and your ethics are totally different than mine because being e being ethical isn't always popular nowadays. Unfortunately, we've got a lot of corruption in our city, our county, our state, everywhere. We just do. And and to me, I think what Mr. Councilman Hernandez is trying to say is this. We're not telling or asking the type B board not to give them their money. That's totally up to them. I think it was recommended by the attorney to put them in default. They chose not to listen to the attorney. And that's okay if that's what they want to do. I think what he's trying to say is if you're going to do business with the city, then make sure that everything you turn in is honest and correct and you don't alter documents. And the the sta the council back then didn't follow the staff recommendations back then because they said it was a scam. But they went ahead and went with it. They didn't listen to our city manager and some others and Heather. They didn't listen to him. So for me, I don't think he's trying to be ugly or mean or I think he's trying to say who doesn't want to be ethical? I'll understand why you would not want to be ethical. This right here is just not a difficult thing for me. I want to be ethical and when you apply for the city, make sure you're telling the truth because this is taxpayer money and we owe it to them to make sure everything is above board. Thank you,

Councilwoman Paxton.

Thank you. I speak for myself when I say if ever there's something brought up to my attention that could be done below bar, I want to look into it. When I've had public commenters come out and question some decisions I've made, I reach out to legal because I want to know what's what is honest, what is ethical. At the same time, I am tired of this and any other item dividing our city. We have to stop fighting on the dis in the audience, in the community, and in the business industry. It's not going to change until we decide to change. I I can't stand sitting here and seeing both sides getting so elevated. It's not right. It's not why we're here. Yes, we absolutely have to pursue ethics. Yes, we absolutely have to say that if you submit something knowingly to the city of Corpus Christi, it is not okay. However, the facts are that in 2024, the majority of the council that was sitting here at that time, they decided that they did not find those amendments or alterations as material. There's validity behind that decision as well. This council has set a precedent in the last 18 months that when something smells, they're going to look into it. Might take us a little longer to information on some items, but we're looking into it if it's brought to us. We had an instance where a vendor was presiding over naming rights. And what did we do? We asked staff to bring them here so

that we could express to them how we felt about the issue. and we asked for their process to be delivered transparently and we provided to them our pleasure or our displeasure and it was handled and we moved forward. We had another organization that we discovered was working on property ownership and whether or not they paid taxes and whether or not this community that they swore to serve was being fairly served with opportunities for housing. What did we do? This council got together and said, "We don't agree with that. We may or may not have the authority to change what you're doing, but we at least have a voice and we're partners and we sent them that information and change happened. We may not always be the key drivers of change, but we have used this platform and our voices to discuss that. I think it's absolutely righteous to say we do not agree. If you're coming to the city of Corpus Christi, we have too much respect for our citizens to allow there to be alterations knowingly done to business contracts. But this council accepted it two years ago. We were not here, but a council did. What I recommend is that we table this and we ask staff to bring this group in front of us so that we can tell them we do not appreciate that it was presented. Whether or not you agree that it was accidental, the right presentation or not the right presentation, it was presented and the information was altered. We hired attorneys. We talked to the police department. We talked to a hundred several different organizations and they all said it was altered. So let's follow what we have done so far

because this is between us and them at this point. We're displeased with it. What we're trying to do with this action is send it back to type B. If our issue is with the presentation they made to the city of Corpus Christi, then bring them here and let us tell them that. That's an arena where we can tell them we don't accept that. We don't like that. That's us going straight to them and not sending it to another board.

Councilwoman Vaughn,

well, we're not sending it to another board. It's already there. They're going to make that decision whether or not they're going to give them the $2 million. You can vote however you want to. I disagree with you because if they were so concerned about being unethical, we wouldn't have them to go to them. they would have came to us. They chose not to do that and they're not going to do that because they're going to tell you they did not do anything. They've already said that. You know, they admit to doing it, but they're okay with it as far as I'm concerned. And it would be great if we all got along up here. That's not going to happen. It's called democracy. And it's okay to agree to disagree and when you walk away, you ought not to be carrying your feelings on your shoulder, which unfortunately some do. But I'm okay with democracy. I'm okay with sitting up here and going back and forth with you guys. That's what it's about. That's what being in government's about. And politics are tough, but you got to hang in there and you just got to try and make the best decisions you can. Thank you,

Councilman Kentu.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, Peter, that that's one of the problems I'm having with I'm going to say your city attorney because he's not our city attorney cuz we don't direct him to do things, but he tells me one thing and he tells the mayor another thing and then it gets us to argue because he says one thing and he tells us another thing, you know. Um, you can never get a straight answer from him. um you know it's either you know goes around in circles or whatever the case is you know um I have I have lost a lot of respect um for him as a city attorney you know um I really wish we have our own own city attorney for our council members because you know we don't know we don't know what's the truth and if sometimes you be saying one thing and he tells another council member something else and I'm just saying what he told me. Um, second, um, the city is in charge, city staff is in charge with our money. So, why can't we just, everyone's complaining about the legal fees. How about we just stop everything and don't pay no more legal fees and just stop the whole process? I mean, what can we do, Buck? I mean, can we just stop the process and and let it go already? Let this lawsuit go and just I mean, what can we do? You know, they're they're complaining about the about the the money. So, what can we do, Buck? The I mean the the second I think the the the city has a duty to defend its processes and decisions. Um and and um that's where we're at.

That wasn't my question. Um, how can I how can I say when I say we have a duty to defend that means hiring attorneys and paying fees? I mean, you can disregard that duty and and

how can we just just drop this lawsuit? How can we just say, you know what, we're done. I mean, they don't want money, Buck. I mean, they're not suing us for money. Okay. So that that you know like like they're not suing us for money. So what what are we representing? Like like if they I mean if they have a problem, go sue the other hoteler or something. I I have no idea. But how can we get off the hook on this and just move on? We can research that and get back to you, but I I couldn't say just uh a one statement answer on how to make this go away. To the councilman's point, we had been given we had been given options before I because this was brought up before. We don't know.

Um, yeah, I don't

I get it. Just bring bring me back that answer later. I understand, Buck. I get it, man. Um, and and and to Kayn's and Carolyn's points of trying to get along, I mean, we're trying. I'm trying to get along. I don't want to I don't want to fight every day, but I mean, the people that I talk to and the people that I represent, they want me to fight. They want me to speak up, you know? That's that's what I get. I don't get people, you know, telling me, "Eric, you need to chill out or calm down." They don't tell me that, you know. Um, and I just, uh, sometimes you're going to disagree on different issues, but majority of this council agrees 95% of the time. There's nine votes all the time, except for a few issues. You know, I personally don't have anything against you, mayor. I really don't. Policywise, we might have different opinions, but as a person, I care for you. I think you're a great person. I don't think nothing bad about you. I don't want no bad will towards you. But, you know, when I walk into the chambers and say good morning, start a gray day. I mean, it' be nice to have, hey, good morning, councilman. You know, it's it it works both ways. And you if you want to be a leader, be a leader and direct us.

Councilman talking about this. I know, but I have the floor. We We're more than I'm more than happy to talk to you about this. No, but I have the floor. See, that's what I'm saying. I can't speak, but you could speak and that's that's not right. The item, Councilman. I'm talking to the item. You were talking about that. So, I was I'm directing it back to you. I mean I mean just just let me talk. There's nothing to hide. What What are we hiding here? What are we talking about? You know, it just

God the peace and quiet is nice, right? Look, you know, I just I just um I pray every day that we get along and we um move forward and and um make right decisions for the people of Corpus Christie. That's all they want, you know, and um and uh that's that's all I'm asking, you know. I I just I just want respect just the way other people want respect. So,

um Buck, I would appreciate you if you get that back to me. figure out how we could settle this, you know? I mean, we're already at $300,000 you you said at one point. So, I mean, it's it's a lot of money for sure. We can um get back to you on that. Appreciate it. Thank you, Councilwoman Paxton. Thank you.

Eric's absolutely right. We've spent a lot of money on this already. So you guys, gentlemen, uh, city manager legal, you guys play a very important role in the organization. We say this is what we'd like to happen. You guide us how to do that in a way that protects the city and effectively meets the end. So if our interest is communicating that we prioritize ethical behavior particularly with our business with vendors how do we send that message because that's that's the interest you tell us how to do that I made a recommendation you tell us how what what's an effective way to send that message

I um I know that um the um economic development department internally, city-wise, they've updated their applications um to to kind of have um developers kind of uh certify that all the information is true and correct and and and create an affidavit to that effect. And so that's one of the recommendations from the attorney that we hired for the investigation made. and I and I and I can't remember off the top of my head some other recommendations that he made, but I think we've also moved forward implementing those as well.

I appreciate that. I'm glad that's there. So, the second step or the the next maturity of that is once we've gotten past that and now the council is saying we feel like an application came before us with with information that was not perfectly leading. It did change between reading one and two. the material changed. Whether anybody believes it was for good or bad reason, that doesn't matter. So if this body is interested in saying don't do that on this specific case. So So I would say the the city council always has the power to reprimand. So um if the city council would like to recommend the elevated QF that they they could.

So then would you say from a legal and a managerial point like I recommended to bring because now you council member count two has now asked for information. So we're in a waiting pattern for that. Are you saying that we that that's a viable solution? That's an option to table and wait for you to bring information and then us to address this vendor. I'm trying to That's an option. Peter, that's that's an option. Or or not to table as Hernandez said or I'm sorry

or not to table. Just consider the motion on the floor or deny the motion. There's several options. It's really the council's at this point. It's a policy decision at the council. We made our recommendation about a year ago or whenever it was. I thought you made no recommendation on the second reading. That was the recommendation to not do anything to do more study of what uh what was on that altered document. So see we didn't listen to a recommendation and now fast forward there's been all this drama. Correct. Right. Yeah.

So that's why I am asking how do we navigate this in a way that meets this council's end, protects the city and sends a message because our citizens deserve that. Don't don't alter your documents. Yeah. I mean, you discussed them. You could have Elevate QF come in. You could talk to the typeAB board. You could send the notice of default. You could request for the contract to be cancelled. But there's been a recommendation to take recommending the attorneys are recommending no action. So, none of that.

So, the the um I would say that the the motion that's on the on the floor is the most risky. your your alternative has a lot less legal risk with the calling them up to reprimand them. Forgive me, Buck. You speak real real low. I said the the the motion that's on the floor is the is is has more legal risk than the option that you propose, which was simply, I guess, tableabling this and having them come before you for potential reprimand. So that that protects the city. Yes. there's uh that's low low risk.

And if our objective is to set the precedent that we do not like to engage in business like this that meets that end. Yes, I believe so. And then if we feel like it doesn't meet the end, then perhaps we resort to further action. That's that's an option. Then I make the motion to table until we get that information and I would like to talk to them because that's how we have been addressing issues so far. Like to make a motion. So, um I just want to correct something. Peter recommended on the second reading initially. Correct. You didn't have Okay. I just want to make sure that's that's it wasn't fully uh aware. It wasn't apparent to us that there was something

you initially had no stance and then the second one you recommended. All right. Council, right? Because that's when we found out. She she has a motion on the table. Did anyone second the motion? Did somebody second this motion? Motion to table. Motion to table. Second. Okay. Well, she wants just to elevate the Yeah, it's to she wants to postpone it, I guess, until Yeah. So, if they have legal representation, does that work? I mean, if I mean obviously they have to agree to come, but but we can request their presence. Councilman Kent,

I don't know. I could do this, but can I do a motion to resolve case. Well, a motion to postpone is uh above a motion to amend. So, we would have to take her motion to postpone first. A motion to resolve this case. Have city staff resolve it. That's it. Done. How do you do that? Yeah. To postpone is higher. It's above an amendment. It just no more attorneys. Resolve the case. have city staff resolve table post.

I would re recommend a second executive session on that item if you'd like to discuss potential pass forwards on the current litigation. Repeat that. Said I would recommend a a a second another executive session to discuss uh potential remedy potential resolution of the pending litigation. Okay. I'm sorry. Could you say that out loud?

The mayor is asking if I want to table and wait until we have another executive session. I understand that recommendation. My issue true is I do prioritize setting the precedent of ethics in this organization because that's just and if we're saying that the city of Corpus Christie not the type B board has issue with a vendor that feels comfortable with misleading information then we should have the opportunity to make that crystal clear to them. So I would like to keep the second half of my motion for us to address them.

Okay. So what's your motion to table and then to address elevate? Did you have a time frame on that or just when it's postponed until a certain time or I don't. Okay. So just leave it open. Um the uh well today we'd have to post later today if you wanted it for next week and then I think that's the final agenda for for Mayune. So June 2nd would probably be more realistic. Okay. However, can you be clarify uh who do you want to come in from Elevate QF? Their representatives

their representative like their lawyer or Philip RmIrez and what about Devon Baka? What about all the 15 owners of the property? I mean, we don't even know who the owners are. So, can they do the LLC ownership? The investors, whoever. Okay. Councilman, what did you have? So, my motion won't work then. I mean, I I don't want to I don't want to I don't want to come back in June for this again. Let's go back to e session. Let's figure this out today. We can we can get you We can get you. Everybody says you're spending so much money on this. So, let's let's fix it right now. Let's go in the back. Let's let's let's hash this out. Let's figure this out in the back.

We have time to post an executive session for the 19th um to discuss potential resolution of the lawsuit. But Buck, the problem is is that, you know, we keep on saying we're spending so much money on this. It's causing us thousands of dollars to put an agenda item on the on the on the on the agenda. So, let's go hash it back in the back and east. Let's figure this out. But I will state right now the the um the litigation is is is on hold while it's um pending in the 13th Court of Appeals. So, at this moment, we're not currenting any substantial legal fees. I'm sorry.

I said the the case is currently um with the 13th Court of Appeals under review. So, there's no active the attorneys aren't doing any work at this time because it's just pinning the decision from the charges for every email and stuff. I mean, let's fold our cards. It's just, hey, let's fold them. Let's let's fold. Let's get out of here. Instead of the second said we'll be done with it. I don't know if we'd be done. Yeah. Well, the executive session would be to determine

do we uh withdraw the attorney hired attorney for the lawsuit at federal court. That's in layman's terms on hold right now. So, she's saying, can we put it on for next week? Is there are y'all able to do that? Yeah, we can do that for next week. All right. So, then your motion stands. Did you have a second? M Mr. Scott, are you good with that? Second. Yeah, he's seconded. Okay. Well, he's he's seconded another date, but if he's good, we can move forward with with May 19th. Do we need to have public comment on this? Yeah. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Would anyone in the audience like to make public comment on this item? Please come forward.

Susana, talk about unethical. Unethical. unethical is the fact that you all are ignoring the fact that there is another hoteler that has come and lied to you. A big lie about uh permits. You choose to ignore that. Is that ethical? Obviously not. So you choose and pick what is ethical. You have my my own representative. Was she ethical when you uh suit the city? Talk about ethical. You need to be ethical about yourselves. You need to know what ethical is. Ethical is you're not willing to follow through with the other ones. You're picking and choosing. And I don't care. You should have never gotten into the hotel business when I told you the first place. Okay? That should never have happened. But you did it and you're in this one. And what happens if you withdraw it? You're giving them what they want to because you have to pull away the two million to do it and giving him what he wants. What he's paid so many attorneys to come over here and get from you all. And how is that being paid for? That's my question. How is that being paid for? Because I am saddened. I'm truly saddened that you talk about ethics when you're actually not following them. That's what surprises me. I thank the council woman for asking for some time to look at it. I also want to have my faith in you because I still think believe you're good people. But show it to me. Show me that you can be fair, not picky, not choosing who you want to be ethical with. Show me that you want to be fair. That's all I'm asking. That's all the taxpayers are asking. Show fairness to everybody.

Don't pick and choose and don't give someone something because you think they're better than others. I resent that. The taxpayers resent that. The people resent that. Take a look at some of the comments I get on my tea time and then you'll know and I'll be happy to send you the private ones. Councilwoman, um,

statement of fact. You came up here and made an accusation. That does not mean that it is true. And that is unethical. And don't point your finger at me up here like that. And you get paid to come up here by whoever the highest bidder is. And you know it. Thank you. I Rachel Cavayto D1. I think we should have to wear our sponsorships on our shirts. That's the fair and right thing to do. Box, the one that's shown right now, the larger one that obscures the release date and the release number. Did you drop that text box there?

I already told you that I had done that. Yes, that it was a there was a And did you drop the second text box that's now highlighted that again obscures the release date again? Again, it was a formatting issue.

This was okay. So, it's it wasn't a formatting issue. This individual has admitted to forging documents, admitted to forging a federal FEMA document. This cannot be tabled. If we want to set a precedent to anybody that wants to do with a business with the city of Corpus Christi, we have to draw the line and say this behavior, this unethical behavior, this behavior that is is illegal. Multiple people have said that. Multiple people have said that. And we have to draw the line. This has gone on long enough for decades. Decades. Scratch my back. Scratch yours. Prid proquo quid proquo is the theme of our city manager. We have got to set the precedent and say enough is enough. You forged federal documents. We're going to take a stand against that. That is what I am asking for today. That is what a lot of community members are asking for today. We don't want to kick the can. We want to deal with this now. We want to say that this behavior is not acceptable when it comes to doing business with the city of Corpus Christi. This isn't rocket science. This isn't I I am not a paid propagandist. Th I am a community here that uses my own time to come here and say, "Guys, if we don't change the way that we do business, we're going to continue on the down slope that this city is going in. We have to have we as a community expect our elected officials to have a backbone to have a moral compass to be ethical to follow your code of ethics. kicking this down the ca the line is not going to help our situation. And we are sending a very

very dangerous message to contractors and anybody else that wants to do business in this city that it is okay to forge federal documents and say, "Oops, yeah, I did that. My bad." It is not okay. And I am tired as a community member, a taxpaying community member of this community. I am tired of the handouts to campaign contributors and to corrupt construction companies. I I I beg you guys. I beg you please to do the right thing here. Let's do the right thing here. Thank you. Anyone else?

No.

Robin District 3. You know, we come up here to speak and we get videoed like the dang paparazzi. It's It's very hard to come up here. I mean, I don't mind. I work out like crazy. So, if she wants to take my backside all day long, let's go ahead and do it cuz I think I got a little bit better backside than she does. It's embarrassing. We get come up here, we get called disgusting. The mayor points out people here, but we're not allowed to address people. That Yes, the public is watching and they're watching. And maybe she's not the only one who gets private messages. We get private messages, too. If I had a student that cheated on a test or forged their parents' signature, I would fail them. I would fail them immediately. And if I went to the principal I worked for, they would say, "You have the right to fail them." They forged a signature. But then we come up here, it's okay to forge a document and give $2 million. I know for a lot of you, that's not much. for people like Philip Ramirez who drive a Maserati when I work morning, noon, and night and I don't buy a new car. We have worked hard. Some of us can't take off to our Hill Country houses, other places because we built businesses here and we have to stay here. We've built homes. We have families and we voted and campaigned for some of you. We put our faith in you. So, we're just asking for you to do the right thing. We're also asking when we come to council, we have other things we could be doing. I have never once take gotten paid. I don't have a nonprofit. I don't have any charges against me. I've never filed bankruptcy. I have been a mo I've been a model student for that. Yet, we get put on little TV show, little radio shows and stuff for coming up here and trying to do the right thing. That's all we're asking. We're just asking to hear the evidence. And for one of you up here who said it happened a longgo, well, I got to tell you, if a woman was beaten and raped five years ago, would you say, "Hey, man, it was five years ago. Let's just let it go. No, a crime is a crime. And I want to thank the ones of you up

here are fighting to do the right thing. And yes, for Mr. K too, he's in my district. I'm a strong Republican, but I got to tell you, this is one guy with some guts and he will stand there and fight. When I make phone calls and say somebody in my neighborhood has a problem, he never asks me how did they vote. He goes out there and he helps them. Do the right thing and vote with your conscience. Thank you. And from Miss Compass, you blockwalk and you care about animals, dogs, everyone. The rest of you know here, my friends, but let's just try when I walk off, not call me disgusting. We'll try. Thank you. Yeah, right.

Hello, Sandy Fernandez Corpus Christi. It's kind of ironic that a few weeks ago when the subject of the hotelers came on, a certain council woman wanted to know why we were wasting time on it again, brought it up, wanted to know, saying that we were going it over and over again that the issue was done. And now here we are again talking about it. That's ironic. That's picking and choosing when the right time to talk about it is then and now. And that's not fair. What's unethical is when a council woman attacks someone in the audience. That's unethical. It's already I agree. Table it. Don't take action. Get out from under it. You had agencies that came. You had people that investigated. It was cleared. And now we're still stuck. We're there's no getting out from underneath it. But what you do for one, you need to do for the other hotelers. You need to be fair. Thank you. Anyone else? Good afternoon, Ajit David, District 2. Mayor, before I start my comments, what you did a moment ago was very inappropriate. I was sitting back there with the rest of the residents and you called me out. That is inappropriate. I'm sorry. We talked a moment ago about why the legal department had to recuse themselves. I would ask council to pay attention to the legal memo that was sent to

everybody September 30th. I'm going to read from that. It says the city attorney's office became a possible witness to an essential fact in this case when on September 9th, 2025, Mayor Guardo stated and he states everything, Mayor, that you sat on this DAS and you stated on that day, please take a look at it. Y'all are right. This is wrong. City manager, you made the right decision. When the animal services director could not talk about things that he claimed he had on his resume, you took back his employment. You never gave him a chance. You never gave him a chance to go ahead and fix his resume and come back. That is a standard that we have to set for people doing business in the city known as the body of Christ. That is what we need to do. We need to take a stance and have the courage to go and do that. When your city manager says it's a crime, when your assistant city manager in ter in charge of economic development says that this was forged, it was a forgery. At that point, you all need to take a stance and say we just cannot allow this. These kind of defaults cannot be excused. It cannot be cured and it should never ever happen again. Mayor, you and me are on the same team. I sued the city, you sued the city. I'm a plaintiff, you're a plaintiff. I sued you, you sued your fellow council members. The only difference, I'm not seeking damages. You are. It's on your lawsuit.

The other difference, at least I go local in local courts. The mayor is in a Houston court. Shame. Again, what you did, Mayor, was inappropriate. I think we should set the standard. If you're coming in front of the city and the contract is very clear. It says when misrepresentations or misleading information was given to the city, the default is triggered when they were made. It's a oneline sentence in the contract that council member Hernandez had it and the city does not have to give it a type B. It's a city's decision to do that. Again, I don't think this should go on any further. Look what we've gotten ourselves into. A simple thing. We should have listened to the city manager's recommendation. A moment ago, he was trying to clarify himself and the mayor, you stopped him. Thank you. So, statement of fact, the attorney's office department were witnesses before I ever said anything in regards to the statement I made in in council that day. So, I just want that to be clarified. All right. Anyone else? Okay. Uh, we're closing public comment. Councilman Hernandez,

hold on. Go ahead. Um I I want to understand what the motions are on the floor and maybe um this is what I heard. Maybe uh our city secretary can confirm this. It's to postpone the motion to give a notice of default until next week. Is that is that correct? My understanding was we are going to postponed uh the the motion or postpone this action to have an east to hold an e session regarding this issue on May the 19th. Okay. So I heard there was three different things. postpone this this motion. Yeah, your the the motion for a notice of default till next week.

A second one was to bring an agenda item to I guess con uh confront elevate QF in some capacity. I heard Miss Paxton say um that instead she wanted to have the executive session on May the 19th. Yes. Okay. Well, there's there's two Well, like I said, I want to clear this up. I didn't know if that was executive session or if it was an open session to address uh Elevate QF on questioning this issue.

And then a third one by uh Councilman Cantou to bring an executive session item to address settling the lawsuit with I'm assuming uh a Jeep David for the that that one. Is that correct? Well, I understand the e session is going we're going to talk about in the executive session um remedies I guess to to to this issue. So to Mr. Gthus's point, uh our our deputy city attorney said, "If you want to talk about that, we need to do it in executive session and Miss Paxton agreed to have the executive session on May the 19th." So that we're going to have that executive session to discuss those issues. If I

Okay, so there's three separate me separate items here for executive session. the executive session will cover um right your motion. Can you can you kind of say do you need that in three separate uh sessions or do you want them my my understanding of the I guess the intent of the council is is one table your motion to uh uh June 2nd on May 19th actually said May 19th. You said that you could put it on for May 19th but I thought they were going to have LVQ uh QF come on June 2nd. Not yet the goal is executive session next week. Yes. to talk about getting the paid lawyer off the project. Just withdrawing from the lawsuit. Yeah.

Is that it? Councilman Anend can't do. Okay. Like I said, there are three things that were discussed, right? Postponing this this motion till next week. Um post uh putting an executive session to discuss the existing lawsuit and how to settle it resolution. Right. And then third one to address uh or to bring in elevate QF or their members or representation uh to council for discussion. Is that those are the three things right? Am I incorrect? Um I understood it was the executive session. So Miss Paxton has her light on if she wants to clarify but we just had that executive session. Clarifying. Go ahead. Okay.

Thank you. this item, which by the way, my original understanding was we were discussing everything back there with possible action. So, this item I would like to revisit next week and I think with Councilman Ku's addition, I think both of those are good items to have side by side because they supplement. But I would like to bring Elevate here on that meeting. I don't know how you have to set up the agenda, but I'd like that to take place before the executive session. Okay. So, it be a public conversation with Elevate QF next week as well.

Before the executive session. Okay. Before exe is that yes, we can get that done, Rebecca. Ma'am, so just to be clear, we can get that done because we're we're able to go to executive touch, go to lunch when we want to. Okay. essentially put it on item. Wondering if that's legally. Yeah. So, there's three action items. Uh

postpone this one to next week. This motion to give a notice of default. Second to provide an executive session with the council with attorneys to discuss how to settle the lawsuit. And then uh third to have a open meeting item uh for to address elevate QF prior to the executive session. That is her uh motion for May 19th. So that's yes.

Okay. So I like I said just for clarification is it is three separate items two executive sessions and then one one open session item. Gil it's one Scott that is going to cover anything to do with this topic and one item on the agenda which is I don't know under brie I don't know where it was two executives cuz well he added one okay so I'd ask that we kind of cover what that agenda item would look like uh so I make sure that you know I would like to vote on this right now but you know I'm willing to give it a week as long as it's on the agenda. We can. So that just to be clear because we're the ones that have to write.

I don't I don't want to do this, but I want to go I want to go ahead and have that option. I don't think I don't think Elevate QF will come to council. Uh just, you know, just from my perspective, you know, they're in an active lawsuit. Why would they why would they come in in public? Uh but if you uh the captions are going to be the one that we showed on the tele on the TV camera, you know, the eye in the sky. So that motion that you read out will be one of the one of the captioned items then. Okay. And then the second one, the second one will be pretty much the same caption 23 that's on today's agenda. That would be for how do we get out of the lawsuit and then Buck can work on Yeah, it'll be modified a little bit.

Modifying that a little bit and then we'll put an individual item on uh requesting the presence of Elevate QF to speak to city council. I mean, I'm I'm not sure how we get out of this lawsuit without rescending the ordinance, but Okay. Well, listen, Councilman, thank you. That's clarified. I think that's that's their their job to do. We have the a clear motion. I believe we have a second. Please submit your vote. Oh, what's this for? Yeah. To to bring it back. We're bring it back. You just laid it out. We to bring it back in a week. Two executive sessions on the same topic and an item to request elevate to come. Yeah. Two items. Please submit your vote.

Yeah. Okay, I'm just fitting to postpone on here because that's that's all I can do. I can't add that right now. Do we need to have to put that in the Okay. Yes. So, it doesn't make a difference. Obviously, we have to And for the record, Mr. Roy abstains.

Thank you. Okay, so the motion fails. What's the next one? Rebecca, that was just a motion. Where are we? So then we go back to um Mr. Hernandis's motion that was on the postpone with all that other stuff. We're going to move this along. You're going to what? Go ahead. Okay. Can you put up the last vote, please?

I I want to make sure that we get through be able to vote on this properly. Um, I will change my vote to I so we can we can get through this uh because I don't want to lose this the opportunity to vote on this cleanly uh with the motion for to give notice to fall. I will only I will agree to one week and so I will um I'll change my vote to but that doesn't Yeah. So it still fill ties. Yes, it does. The motion still dies. It's 44. No. One. That's right. Yes. It only goes four. It doesn't matter anyway. Yes, sir. No, it doesn't. It won't affect the outcome if you change.

Yeah. But you would still need five because there's there's eight votes. Okay. Rebecca, can you clarify so we can move on? Ma'am, clarify what's happening officially. Oh, well, Mr. Anundis, you're not going to do it right. You're going to your vote is he's going to leave as the the vote stands. So, it still fails. It would be four 31. Um, who abstain? Just the mayor. Oh, the mayor and Gil. I mean the mayor and Everett. Mhm.

So then it would be um seven. It would be four, three, two, one. You would just flip-flop them. Okay, we're going to leave it. Okay. So, now what? Now what? So, now we go back to his motion. Mhm. So, the original motion.

Rebecca, do you Rebecca, would you like to read the original motion? Mr. So, so it's um so if it's present in voting on a motion then um it would be seven would be the council members that we would uh be looking at. So if you were to change your vote to I then the motion would pass. So you're but you said no, right? Okay. Just wanted to make sure that was clear. Okay. Okay. So, the motion is motion determining an event of default for misleading material representations made to the type B corporation under the business incentive agreement between the Corpus Christieb Corporation and Elevate QF LLC for the development of a hotel and retail project. So, we go back to his original motion because the motion to postpone failed. Now, is there a

second? You seconded it. Okay. All right. Okay. Well, please submit your vote. Councilwoman, Mr. Brace. Yes.

Help me understand this. What this motion is asking is to request type B to look at sending a default. This motion is is um designating is is finding this is the city is determining um a default of the contract which uh would result in the city sending a letter to to that effect. Say that again. I said if the city council moves on this motion is to determine a default which would which which which would trigger a letter to be a letter to be sent out of the default city to who?

Yeah this the city would send a def the city would send a default letter to elevate QF. What Buck is saying is that uh the type B board um would would have to take the next step which is to request the cure to the default and the type B board would take the next step if they chose to of considering default of the contract or not. The city council can't do that because the contracts with the type B board. So, we would issue the if the council approves this, we the city would issue the default letter. The contract requires a 60-day cure period, and that would be between the type B board and Elevate QF.

Correct. Yeah, that's correct. And then this the next choice in the contract is terminating the contract. But that can only be done with type B and elevate QOF since the contracts between those two parties. That sounds way different than what we discussed. That doesn't I don't that doesn't seem to be in parallel to what we discussed an executive. My understanding was this was asking type B to default and then because they would be the one seeking the cure. So they would be the one sending the default.

They would make the decision on whether to terminate based on the default or or or the cure thereof. Well, let's just yeah clarify about who's sending the def what's the motion who to send the default. The motion the motion's to determine the default which then will result which so the city will send a send a letter based on that direct on that action. You may want to clarify the motion to say that the city does it I don't have it in front of me but does the city sending the default notice or does it say the type B board should we Rebecca has it what does it say Rebecca

I was about to so it says motion determining an event of default for misleading material representations made to the type B corporation under the business incentive agreement between the Corpus Christi BC Corporation and Elevate QF LLC for the development of a hotel and retail project. And I'll send that to you in just a minute. So, we have it in writing. If the if the council wishes, that motion could be updated to to specify that the letter is sent.

Yeah. Who's we we I request that who's sending the letter? Councilman Hernandez, is it the city or is it type B? If you could amend your motion just to make that clear. Otherwise, we're going to be back here for, you know. Well, if you go back to the contract, it could be the corporation or the city determines uh that any represent representation or warranty on behalf of the company. So, can it based on the language in the contract, it could be us or the corporation, right? We understand that. We just want to know what the council's pleasure is. Is it we're the one that's that's asking for the default, it should be the city then. Okay, good. So, we're clear on that. So, the city would send the default letter then based on this that's what the motion's saying. Well, I'm going based on the contract. Okay. on what whether or not who can do it.

It says or in there, but you're clarifying the contract to say your desire is to have the city issue the default notice, not the type B board. I mean, we're the ones that are voting on it. I don't think type B is voting. I don't think that would be appropriate or legal. So, it would have to be the city as we're the ones voting on it. Okay. Y'all are sure that can happen. Well, yeah, the contracts. I mean in terms of legally yes the contract allows the city to send I'm going to go back to Miles but he had said we can't do it because the contract is between type B and elevate we can't we can't we can't but I know the contract says it so I think that's

what yeah what Miles may have said mayor is that that either party can issue the default notice the two parties being the city or type B okay either party can issue the default only one party can terminate the contract that's the type B the city can't. So that's what Miles was telling you that the city can't terminate the contract. Only type B can. But either party can issue a default notice, the city or the type B. So if the city if this proposed motion is for the city to send a default letter and type B does nothing with it, then what happens? Nothing.

Absolutely nothing. So all it is is us saying we found your information inaccurate. We found what? We found your information inaccurate basically because there's no teeth to it for lack of a better word. So nothing can happen unless type B chooses to take action. It gives type B the I guess the teeth u that it's non-existing now and because no letter's been sent maybe. Bucky, you keep confusing me. Help me out on the

the type B is is the only body that can terminate the the agreement. And we can do this because they haven't been paid out yet. So, the project's not closed.

We can do this because it's provided for in the contract that the city can make that determination and send notice of default. So if this motion prevails then type then it goes to type B and type B has two options. They either agree or reject. If they agree they give them 60 days. If they reject it goes nowhere. No, the the well the once notice is sent the um elevate will have 60 days to cure and it'll be up to the type B to determine whether that was sufficient um with whether they cured at to to their to their discretion.

So they don't have a contract with us, but us sending this a letter triggers them to have to cure. Yes. And and triggers the type B to make a decision on that. So type B decides if they've cured accurately. That's correct. But we're not giving them direction on what is a cure. Or you're going to tell them it's the slides. That's that's up to them, isn't it? I mean, the the I guess the letter was specified just as the motion stated the material u misrepresentation.

Okay. So we are back to the original. All right. Okay. Please submit your vote. Okay, the motion carries.

Okay, we're going to move on. Motion carries. Rebecca, you got that? Yes, ma'am. All right. So, item number 16 is a zoning case number ZN for approval. 9181 America Alpha Group LLC in District 1 ordinance. We have a motion in a second. Is there any public comment on item number 16? Okay. There being none, close public comment. Yes. Oh, Councilwoman, do you have something? Go ahead. Hi. Good afternoon. Um, I noticed in the packet that it was stated there was two residents in opposition, but I couldn't find their

So, there's only one resident or resident in opposition that lives in the 200 foot buffer. Um, and that resident uh stated that there were existing issues with drainage. So, drainage concerns with the existing property, which would be of course mitigated at the time of development. And can we, which we've done in the past, have the developer engage them on their resolutions? Absolutely. Okay. Thank you, Councilman uh Hernandez. Okay. Just the surrounding homes around it or what what's their their zoning?

So, and I'll go to that slide for you, Councilman. Um, so all of the surrounding are zoned as single family residential, which are still considered medium density, which is consistent with the future land use map for this property as well. But it it's all RS6. It's all RS6 and these would be the only ones that would be changed to RSTF is what's being requested. You know, I always stated that if if it was something in my district that I wouldn't do, I wouldn't do it in another district.

So, anything that's, you know, I I can imagine the people with families that are in RS6 and invest that kind of money into their homes and then have duplexes behind them. I don't think that would be necessarily appropriate if it wasn't that originally. Um I think it's uh I wouldn't do that in my district. So I'm going to oppose this resoning. Okay, we have a motion. Uh Councilman uh right? Oh, you know, let's go ahead and vote.

Okay, please submit your vote. Are y'all going to pet him?

The zoning case. One apartments. The the duplexes. Okay, the motion carries. Item number uh 17 is a one reading ordinance awarding a construction manager at risk or semar contract to Raych construction resources for the reclaimed water for industrial use project. I move for approval. Second. We have a motion and a second. I'm going to ask for public comment. Is there public comment on item number 17? There being none, I'll close public comment. Councilwoman Paxton,

thank you. Is this investment something that's going to further all of our efforts for effluent? Yes, it sure is. Uh Nick Wkelman, uh chief operating officer, Corpus Christi water. This is a huge part of the effluent project. It'll allow us to get 10 to 10 12 million gallons a day of water from the OSO wastewater treatment plant to Greenwood where we can better distribute it. The 16 million gallons a day projection of effluent won't happen without this conveyance line. Okay. And did we do um do we have an impact study to make sure that we're still going to discharge enough fresh water into the OSO to preserve it?

Absolutely. So our um consulting engineer, our design engineer, Ardura Incorporated, uh they did a a study for the discharge into uh what we call the Blind OSO and they've also met with the uh the Bay and Estuaries Foundation as well. Perfect. Thank you so much. Nick, can I just add to that, Nick? I think they I talked to uh one of the outdoor employees last night, but they did two independent studies, one on OSO and one on Greenwood. That's correct. We have two technical papers that we'll be sharing with the environmental community based on this research that shows uh no impact to the ecosystem. That's correct. Leaving enough water. Is that right?

Yeah. We are we're actually reserving uh minimum amount of flows going into both of those bodies of water. We have those two technical papers. So we'll put those uh maybe on our website, Dan, so pe Nick, so people can get them. They will they will go on our securing water uh website which has an effluent uh page groundwater and seawater desell put them right on the effluent page because there'll be a lot of interest and we appreciate Ardura doing that work. That's correct. We have that for the record.

We do. Thank you to Ardora. And just for the public, we kind of sped through this. This project's going to deliver non-pottable water from the OSO uh to the Greenwood wastewater plant to support industrial reuse of reclaimed water. So, this basically takes the the demand off of uh and the reliance on portable on our portable water system. So, this is a huge project. It's a first and I I this is a a huge milestone for us. And one of the pieces as we were talking last night at the water session of diversification. Um it's approximately 10.5 miles of 36 in uh force mane from the OSO again to the Greenwood. So it's it's a big project, but I mean this is a really big day. It really is. I don't want to I don't want it to be overcome by, you know, it's late. We're just trying to get kind of get things through, but this this deserves a lot of credit. And thank you to everybody who worked on it.

Yeah. And we want to thank the industrial partner Valero as well who's building the second leg of the pipeline, so to speak. Yes. Yes. From Greenwood to the to uh the ship channel, right, at their expense. And that one's uh 100 million for that project. 100 plus million is million bolero capital cost. And Bolero is paying for that, not the rateayer. Okay. And they're deed the line over to the city. So we're going to own the asset at their expense. So we want to thank Valero as well. Okay.

And if I could, I do want to recom recognize the team that's here. We have Dan Line Decker with Ardura, Chris Smith and Todd Fiser with Ray, uh Jeff Edmonds is here as well as well as Wes Nebkin. This whole team worked very hard uh to bring this to all of you today. Great. Thank you, Councilman Hernandez. Yeah, I'd like to personally thank Dan Dan Lind Decker on this. I know he had this as an idea well before we even thought about it

and uh he advocated for it and it was, you know, I I give him a lot of credit for it. Uh, Rayche is a contractor that we have that has been very helpful to us at the city and I appreciate them and stepping up to do this. Challenge is can we how fast can we do it, right? The faster the better. We need that water sooner rather than later. So, anything you could do to to move up the the timeline as much as possible. Uh, and anything you need from us, don't hesitate to, you know, if we need to acquire something or whatever, let's let's make it as quick as possible. Okay. Thank you, Councilman Scott.

Yeah, I thought that was poignant. What I learned is that you're actually going to break this up into three segments so that you can get it, you know, three different segments going at the same time, right, Dan? Is that was a question I had was why not start at both ends, meet in the middle, and you guys said actually you are.

Yes, sir. That's why we uh went out for the uh CM at risk method methodology so the contractor can assist us in in scheduling that. Um the idea though is to break it up into three segments and possibly more on the pipeline portion and then we also have the the pump station portion that we're doing this and back to accelerating this project. Uh, Councilman Hernandez, when we initially started this, this was design bid build and then midstream and and discussions with city staff, we decided to go see him at risk and we basically shaved off 3 months now off the original timeline. So, we're we're still looking for ways to save time uh councilman and uh but this is the first step in doing that.

Great project. Thank you for your work. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Councilman. Okay. Um, does anyone in the public I mean I'm sorry in the audience like to make comment on item number 17?

Josh Frederick, just one of the things I uh talked to Councilman Roy about and wanted to get across to the rest of you. Uh, it's a project like this, you know, if you guys could give them special dispensation to work maybe just a couple hours later into the day, 2 hours over the course of 20 days is an extra 40 hours. That's a full work week for a crew. um because we do need that water and we need it as fast as we humanly can. Um I know there may be some contractual things that might pop up, but any outside of the box thinking uh that could get this project done faster is something I think everybody in the community would be in favor for.

Thank you. Anyone else? Okay, we'll close public comment. Please submit your votes. Okay, the motion carries. Thank you. Thank you, Nick. Thank you, Dan. Item number 18 is an ordinance approving policies to be implemented during level one water emergency. Yeah, mayor and councel, I do have a presentation uh for you. I'd like to go over that and uh go into detail on some of the changes proposed changes for your considerate consideration to the drought contingency plan.

I think I think it's a little more so um this is an ordinance. It's a two reading ordinance approving policies to be implemented during a level one water emergency. As you know, on March 31st and April 21st, we had council workshops to review these items. Additionally, we have discussed and reviewed all of them in detail. To review the definitions, once again, a level one water emergency is initiated when it the city reaches a projected 180 days when the total supply is not enough to meet the demand. This is what we work to avoid every single day. Some of the other terminology that you will see and we will talk about in the subsequent pages. Baseline use usage. This is the determined usage of each customer class to establish its allocation. Curtailment percentage. This is the required water reduction of water supplies for customers for our supply to meet its demand and allocation is the amount of water a customer may use per month during a level one water emergency. First, we'll talk about the residential customer class. The city has approximately 91,000 residential accounts. The fixed baseline would be 8,000 gallons a month. The curtailment percentage is set at 25% resulting in an allocation of 6,000 gallons per month. Again, that is implemented at the date of a level one water emergency. This is some historic use of our

residential customers that we've seen. the residential accounts is are are below 4500 currently. And one thing I'd like to point out, you can see for almost all of our residential accounts, they're already achieving this allocation. So there would not be additional measures required for the majority of our residential customers, our commercial customers. All commercial customers would have an individual baseline established. This also includes uh multifamily units as well. We will review the data from 2021 to 2023. Exclude the lowest month for for exclude the lowest value for the each calendar month and we would then come up with an individualized baseline. The curtailment percentage remains at 25% which is how our commercial customers would get their allocation amount. Wholesale customers as you know we have a number of wholesale customers. San Patricio Municipal Water District is certainly the largest followed by South Texas Water Authority. We have the newasis county WCID number four and others to determine the wholesale customers baseline. We will use the data from 2022 to 2024. Again, we'll exclude the lowest monthly value and develop their individual baseline for each of the wholesale customers. The baseline would then be reduced by 25% which would then determine the

allocation. This is a change from the existing plan. What is presented allows for a larger baseline for our wholesale customers and we feel is much more appropriate than what was in the existing drought contingency plan. Large volume customers. This is the same methodology 2022 to 2024. You remove the lowest value of each calendar month and again the only difference in this case is there is uh seasonality and I do want to go back uh the wholesale customers also have seasonality. So they they have a number of different customers. So we're we're providing them with allocations per season, summer, spring, and fall, and winter. So three separate seasons that's implemented at the level one water emergency. During the level one water emergency, we have to ensure that the water supply meets our demand. That's the most critical that has to happen so that we can ensure consistent pressure so that we don't have issues with uh regulatory agencies and notices from TCQ. You can see on this slide where the majority of the of the curtailment is coming from. The total is about 15.7 million gallons a day. We have wholesale and large volume customers providing the majority of that uh curtailment. The residential customer is already below and then there's approximately 600,000 gallons a day that would be um

provided by through the curtailment of the commercial businesses. One thing that I absolutely do not want to skip over some of the other changes in the plan and I want to talk about it now as we talk about our residential customers. The document is being changed so that a residential customer will not be cited for exceeding their allocation or their baseline. That's a c certainly a clarification from what was in the previously approved drought contingency plan. Search charges are also a part of this plan. We've identified the search charges for our customer classes. For a residential account, it's an additional $4 per thousand gallons for a residential customer that goes over their allocation. And that is only charged to the amount of water over the allocation, which is 6,000. And then it goes to $8 per thousand gallons if that customer goes over their baseline, which for a residential customers, 8,000 gallons a month. The commercial businesses, you can see the amounts are all the same as well as for large volume users and wholesale customers. Also an important note, federal government, state government and political subdivisions are the state are exempt from search charges. Swimming pools and we this is a topic that comes out a lot. Uh the city

manager has worked closely with our parks and recck department and the corresponding uh other departments. The city has decided to maintain the same operating hours of as last year for the pools. The important note is is that the parks and recck department has purchased uh pool covers to cover those pools when they're not in use. They're using additives to minimize evaporation. And those those are significant steps that will save on water evaporation. And we appreciate the parks and wreck department taking those proactive measures for this upcoming summer season, which will be well ahead of a potential level one water emergency. Another item that we would like to cover is car washing. So the current restriction for a level one water emergency is the use of water to wash any motor vehicle, motorbike, boat trailer, or other vehicle is prohibited. We've we've worked on this and we are recommending the following change. First, I do want to clarify that the flushing of a boat motor is absolutely allowed. The use of um water at your house to wash a boat can be done with a 5gallon bucket. Additionally, commercial car washes and boat washes are allowed to operate as a commercial business and they will be issued in individual allocation just as any other commercial business. Something that we talk about is uh different types of water sources. It's

important to note that there are businesses that utilize other sources of water which may include uh water brought in from other entities or a well or some site type of recycled water. staff is recommending approval of the changes uh that we have worked on and I stand by for any questions.

Um Nick, thank you. Thank you for the um for the presentation and for working with all of city council to make the draft something that's going to become, you know, hopefully policy. Um there there is one thing that I um had brought up and I'd like to bring it up again because I'd like to amend the motion today and that has to do with boats. And we talked about this, the boat washing. Um boats are another huge investment as our homes and they're just as much or even more sometimes of uh that of a home investment or the swimming pool investment. And I think that in in uh talking to some voters who are here with us today, um it it's very apparent that it's not only recreational. I think a lot of people think boat owners are just recreational boat owners, and that's not necessarily the case at all, especially here on our island. Um it's a way of life and and a way of making a living. Um and of course, tourism and the impact. I think I said just last year 30 to 50 fishing tournaments were had on the island that that gave an or or uh that um yielded 30 to50$50 million economic impact. So it's it's extremely important. Um one gentleman told me he had two boats in the marina, two boats at home and and that is his business. So it's way bigger than than what I had even initially thought. And I believe that and they believe that the corrosion because of the salt is extremely important to be able to wash these boats. So in conversation it was brought about that a positive shut off nozzle and you know I spoke with you and staff about this would be a good everybody agreed that that would be a good recommendation something to bring forward so that we can wash the boats preserve the integrity of that investment as we do swimming pools and

of course watering our or uh dripping drip water whatever it's called there um for our foundations. Um, so as we have this conversation, I do want to make a motion to amend provision to allow uh boat washing, which would include vehicle washing because that's the same difference here in in this coastal community, the same issues we would have uh with the use of a handheld hose with the positive shut off nozzle. And thank you, uh, Councilman. And we can have that discussion, but I think it's it's a very important one. Um, and I'm glad that I was I want to thank you and I want to thank your staff for joining in that conversation because I wanted to make certain that we're all on the same page. And as I told uh the news media earlier, the draft, you know, the comment was made, well, y'all made all these these changes that are allowing things. Well, the draft is just that. It's a draft. and and doesn't mean we were inclusive of everything which is when you came to us and had these conversations and different people told you different things and then we tried to incorporate them in the best manner possible but it is my understanding that what you're bringing forth today is a good policy to move forward or do you want I mean in terms of of what your staff what you think

right I there's been a tremendous amount of work uh put into this and it's it's not just of of course on the document itself but on on our water supply modeling to understand and again this is uh we work every day to ensure we don't get to level one water emergency. However, these are things that we have to prepare for and we have to be ready for. So the the changes we're talking about today uh those are changes of that would go into effect when we get to a level one water emergency if we get to a level

yeah if we get to it. And I I do want to I I want to thank uh just the the staff, which is really the entire city staff. It's not just CCW uh that has put in a lot of hours working through all of this. Yeah, I agree. Thank you, Councilwoman Compos.

Okay. Thank you, Mayor. Uh and yes, thank you for bringing that up. I also did receive some information or uh tax uh regarding the the boat washing and I guess because I don't have a boat and I you know but they did also mention that the city also provides like I guess hoses or what have you when when they're coming into some of our city uh marina facilities whatever that will continue I would imagine right because I just needed to confirm that

so we're working with our marina staff. So, of course, the uh what uh the city manager has tasked every city department to do is to look at ways to reduce water reduction well ahead of level one water emergency. And I can honestly say that the departments are working very hard on that. The marina, let's talk specifically about the marina. they will be given a allocation and a baseline just like every other customer and we will make sure that they adhere to that. Uh we will look for them to uh quote unquote lead the way in their efforts but it would be allowed to be done at the marina as well but we we are going to monitor their allocation.

Okay.

And we've talked with staff about they understand that. Um I also wanted to bring to your attention and to uh offer another amendment to page four of the 17 um resource ma management. Uh the last sentence in paragraph 5, water emergency level one emergency where it says uh the last sentence, the city manager or designate can modify the timing of triggering a level one water emergency if the regional demands can be fully met with alternative water sources other than the combined reservoir storage. Other sources may include water from the Mary roads pipeline or future water supplies. I don't think we need to include such as the inner harbor desalination treatment facility. I would like to offer that amendment to eliminate that last sentence which or that last part of the sentence that says such as the inner harbor

desalination. But the mayor's amendments on the floor. You can offer a second amendment, but only if it's amending that one. That's a different matter. So, we're going to take yours separately. So, we would vote on the mayor's first and then um then we can do yours if there are no other amendments. Okay, that's fine. So, we'll just wait. Okay. Uh Councilwoman Paxton.

Oh, go ahead. Thank you. All right. Um, thank you, Nick. I appreciate you guys um, coming together and taking all of the feedback from council over the last few weeks and and making a lot of really big changes to the original plan. I really appreciate you guys being open to that. Um, couple of questions. So, you mentioned in your presentation that residential customers were not going to be subject to violations such as severe fines and disconnects.

So, the and I I really want to clarify this. So, thank you for asking. So, there will be no citations issued if if our customers go over their allocations or their baselines. That was what I wanted to ask because citations may be issued if if people conduct prohibited actions which is water theft uh uh irrigating uh inappropriately uh against the ordinance. Those are those are times when citations still could be issued.

So it's listed twice in the document how you have it how you just cited it is that no customers. So my question is what do we do then when we have you know someone that that has you know millions of gallons a day that we've asked them to reduce by and they continue to use.

So are are you referring to a large volume user as an example? Absolutely. So, one thing that we've been very clear on and uh I absolutely want to reiterate the those large users are key to making all of this work. CCW will pay very close attention to those accounts. If it feels like they are going over that allocation, we will be in communication with them. These are rep high representatives of the companies that we know that we can reach out. we have their cell phone numbers and if a if that case is happening and a resolution can't occur then we would have to start turning valves and and shut the water off to those users.

I think the other the other part about this is I know all of those large volume users are working very hard. I feel very confident every one of them are going to meet their allocation. they are working very hard to do that in an effort to be a good partner. Uh they are certainly stakeholders and they have certainly ex shown how they are committed to working with uh the city and corpus Christie water

and I and I appreciate that. I really do. Staff has said that repeatedly and in my individual conversations with industry partners I have every reason to believe that they feel that way. I have talked to other representatives of industry as a collective entity and they didn't give me that feeling. But talking to individual industry partners and talking to staff, I have reason to believe that. So my question is with it listed twice in the document as such, are we protected or are we given any kind of room that CCW can do that? like you said, if they can't find a resolution and they continue to go over now, we got to talk about some harsher some conversations. Can we do that with the way this is written? Do we need to add some kind of verbiage that says um or not subject to violation? you know, maybe put it in a generic clause in there as like however water use that threatens the water system, the city manager, water so CEO, whoever can do some something. I don't know. I'm trying to see if this document as written gives us gives CCW the room to do that.

Yeah. And one thing that to just mention when we and I know this is more than citations u but when you look at citations we don't have the authority to issue citations outside the city limits. So it's it's one point I do absolutely want to make clear. Um in in my opinion and I'm not an attorney but in my opinion understanding the documents and uh the state water code 11.039 039 when we get into situations like that legally. My opinion is yes, the city and CCW have that authority to do that. Do we don't want to but

has legal also backed us up on that? Yeah, I think in emergencies if there are violations we can Okay, perfect. Thank you so much. So, I'm going to try to go quickly. Um, unfortunately, we couldn't connect yesterday, but I do have a nice list of questions. Um,

great. in the package that we got the actual memo uh when it goes over section one changes to op optional measures in section 10.5 and 11 at the very bottom there's a section here when it's talking about wholesale it says except as otherwise provided by contract could you give me an example what would that look like it's it's basically saying that everyone's going to be asked to tell by 25% % but then it says accept as otherwise provided by contract.

You know one example that uh I can bring up is our effluent contracts with Valero. Uh they wouldn't asked to be curtailed from their effluent contract. Uh all of our wholesale customers the uh like I said the drought contingency plan had a very detailed u baseline methodology for all the wholesale customers. We didn't feel that that was appropriate. So we established the new baseline. Uh all customers are going to be uh provided their allocation. You know the residential customers have a set baseline but when you look at it the commercial large volume and the and the large volume users will all have individual baselines and allocations that we will track.

So it doesn't mean that we're exempt exempting people from curtailment. We are not exempting anyone unless of course they're on an alternate they're not on the portable supply like yeah if if that's correct this is this is all about water usage from the Corpus Christi water system. That's correct.

So another change that we're making is we're adding to the definition of motor vehicle that's on um changes to section 10.3 stage two response. So my thought is to take this definition and make it synonymous through the document everywhere that it's mentioned because right now it's it's there but then as we go into the other stages it falls off. So for instance it says C it says motor vehicle watching prohibited except C stage two or motor vehicle I'm sorry is allowed say C stage two. So my thought is to make it synonymous throughout the document. so that it's not confusing.

Yeah. Yeah. And it's it's a matter of um I'm not saying it's not confusing, but it's a matter of function of how the the DCP is written. So, you implement restrictions at stage two. At stage three, the same restrictions apply and you add more restrictions and then at level one, it's it builds upon itself. That's the methodology of the I guess my concern was if you actually read the next stage, it it specifically says motor vehicle and then it says motor vehicle um C stage two. So my concern was if we're in a stage three like right now and they pick up the drought contingency plan and it says my motor vehicle. Well, what about my boat?

Well, I get it. We're talking about it here, but the document just says motor vehicle.

Mhm. So that's what I was concerned with was the interpretation of it. And then um similarly irrigation is listed in section 55-153 subsections F1C1 and also in E3A. So there's two sections where irrigation is listed and my concern is it says irrigation of turf is prohibited entirely. I think it would be prudent for us to add um like like if you drop down that section in the F1C1 if you go a little lower it says um it talks about auxiliary water supply. So I would think to tag that on to there.

I understand. Yeah. And then um there's actually two references to what Sylvia brought up. One's on page 31, section 16.7. One's on page 7, 8.5. I would omit that entire last sentence to both of those sections. Yes. What is the section,

Nick? I mean, do we can you reference the section we're talking about? It's so there's uh page seven is section 8.5 and what the councilwoman is referring to is the last sentence of the per first paragraph. Last sentence of the first paragraph. Can you read it? I sure can. Other sources may include water from the Mary Roads pipeline or future water supplies such as the inner harbor seawater desalination treatment facility that's in section 8.5 and then and we want to take that out

of I know but why is that councilwoman compost made the record we're just otherwise to include I guess I should pull out in the exact same sentences on page 31. They're identical sentences. The Yeah, the sentence is referring to an example of what a new water supply may be.

I'm sorry, Nick. Can you say that again? the the intent of the sentence is to say that a new water supply might be uh it it's actually referring to increasing the production for the Mary Rose pipeline which we've done or uh such things as a new seawater desalination plant such as inner harbor so is ground sure groundwater reuse it's all it's all a part of our diversification plan what page was that Nick so it's page 31 and also page Seven. Okay, I'll come. Let me Okay, I'll read this while y'all talk here. Councilman Hernandez.

Thank you, Mayor. Nick, I I I know I bust your chops a lot, but on this one, I I appreciate the work that you've done on this. You listened uh address the concerns I had specifically. I appreciate that. Uh really do. I like the the fact that you thought uh how the baseline was was going to be hard to manage because it didn't match up with how we bill uh our customers and having the 8,000 6,000 giving it a round number goes along with our billing cycle how our billing works. Um still need to probably work on our billing. Some of those days are 32 days, some are less. It's it you maybe have a 445 type of a situation where you have consistent billing cycles that you know make sense,

right? We we send out a 100,000 u bills a month and the to close this cycle cycle requires a certain amount of effort. There there's certainly verification, there's field verification, there's office verification, and then the other thing that gets in the way are holidays, which is that affects when we close out a certain bill cycle. So that's the reason for for all of this. We have 22 separate billing cycles and that's why at uh certain points you may see 31 days your billing cycle, 30 days, 32 days. Um, the one thing that I do want to just reiterate is, uh, we're really excited. The IT staff has put together a really strong portal so our residential customers can review their usage. We are not ready to release it yet until we have an approval on the baseline. Uh, that way we can we can finalize it and and

Okay. The reason I say finish the programming on it. The reason I say that is that not every month is 30 days, right? Correct. So in the billing cycle and the billing cycle is not on it. You know you could have a billing cycle in the middle of the month type scenario. So um

I guess the question is here how does it best do this right? And I think maybe you need somebody to do an evaluation of your billing plan and see how you can improve it and simplify it so you're not going through all this these scenarios. And like I said, when I say 4, four, five, the first two months is four weeks and the the last the third month is five weeks. That way, you have a consistent um time all the way through. But but you're going to have to work that out. It's just when you have somebody's usage versus a different billing cycle, you you it it doesn't quite match up. You got a little bit of a of an offset there. So, I just you're going to have to work through that and then explain it to the public.

Right. And the and the portal is set up per 30-day month so it can match uh the allocation. Okay. Right. So the portal will take that into account. Okay. And like I said, I appreciate you putting it all together. Also taking into consideration what we had said about making sure we treat every customer class equally, have the fines there equal. That way we don't run into any PUC possible PUC challenges. I think you did some good work here. um for the purposes of you know trying to help out a fellow council member. I'll second uh Councilman Compos's uh motion. Thank you Scott. Councilman Scott.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh hey, when's the next dashboard update? So, it's going to be next next week. So, we hope to have it early very early next week. What we've committed to is uh doing a minimum of every 30 days and certainly we've seen uh probably getting ahead of myself some beneficial rain. So So we we feel good. We we'll be happy to present it next week at council right Nick at city council on next Tuesday. That's that's the initial thought. Yes. The plan if this is a because this is a two reading ordinance. This is a two reading. Second readings next Tuesday.

Yeah. So I guess my point is I think a conversation. It's good to have both sides of the equation. You know, where we at on our water. Yeah, I get that we need to come to a conclusion on what it is and what the what the allocations are going to be and how we're going to, you know, treat the the financials. But I think it's also important to let folks know that if it's moved back, that's a good thing, you know. Yes, sir.

And I I think it's I think it's I think it's moving back. Had a chance to look at other cities. Uh, I think this is in line with what your changes and I want to thank you for that, Peter and uh, Nick and and Steve and your team. I do think that we've gone soft. By the way, I looked at the 1984 ordinance and they charged $3 for the first thousand gallons over and then $5 for the next thousand gallons over and then $10 for the next thousand gallons and then $25 for each additional thousand gallon. O o over the allocation. So I I would I would ask that we kind of think about that. You know, some really outlier that says, "Hey, man, if you if you really misbehave, get ready. It's it's significant." So I I would I would throw that. It's not the end of the world, but I would throw a thought that maybe we need an outlier like a $25 in this instance. And I think you added it's like four and then eight is is eight on top of the four, so it's a total of 12.

That's correct. Anyhow, I I I would think about an outlier that it's a really high number. And that's what they did in ' 84. And I had opportunity to have lunch with Ed Martin. Uh I think the world ed and he was city manager back then. And he said it worked well. He said, you know, people were people people were cog most people were cognizant and they they reduced their water usage and then those that didn't paid a he hefty rate which softened the financial blow which I guess we're talking about in the next month or two, right? The the change in the in the water rates that we're going to have to implement to handle all this, right? That that's well it's a combination of uh reduced revenue from decreased water sales and also our water new water supply projects.

I appreciate that. Um mayor I I I agree with the um the pos the I'm supportive of the shut off nozzle positive shut off nozzle. U and I guess the way it would work, right? If you're if you're cleaning your your your boat at your house, you got your 6,000 gallons, right? And you use it as you see fit. So, it's as long as it falls under your 6,000 or well, yeah, the 6,000, then that's your business. And if it goes over, we're going to you're going to pay you're going to pay significantly. And if you're at a a car wash, well, then they've got their number. And so, I think boat owners that are going to car washes regularly need to get ready because I suspect those rates are going up because we're going to charge them more if they go over their allocation. And then if you're a marina, you've got the same issue. I wrote a note that I appreciate your statements about the city's marina. I think this is an opportunity for us to lead by example.

Yeah.

And I heard that in the community and I think they're supportive, but like hey, what are you guys doing? You know, and I think that we can uh we can lead by example. Um the last comment before what I really want to say is I do think industry supportive. Everything I've heard and I'm I'm I'm in conversation with a lot of those folks regularly and I think they're all in. They've been very supportive. I I haven't heard anything different. What I what I do want to circle back around and I'm going to walk around the edges of this agenda item is to me, let's get this done. Let's come to a conclusion, but it's really all about the efforts of today's water and moving that date back, which to me is really all about the 16 million gallons a day that are going to be sitting in our wells by the end of June that we don't have permission to use so far from the TCEQ. And I would hope and I think you're working towards a a request of TCEQ for some sort of variance to those guidelines.

It's been submitted.

Okay. Because if we put if we can put 16 million gallons a day into that river, that pushes that date back significantly, I would think. I mean, 16 MGD a day is significant. Then when you bring on the other items that you guys have been working for, I think that's a great story to tell. I I suspect that we want to say that, hey, we just need a 12-month uh uh waiver because in the end of 12 months, we're gonna we're going to have that interconnect online, which you guys have done, and then we're going to have that well-filled pipeline to our desalination efforts. So, I appreciate that. Anything I can do, I've been in Austin, I've had conversations with friends. I want to help make that happen. Thank you, Mayor.

Councilwoman Compos. Thank you, Mayor. Okay. Um, yes. I I I'm going to say I I pretty much agree with uh Councilman Scott regarding maybe looking into increasing uh the um allocations, you know, once you go over the 6,000 or yeah, the baselines and then it it's actually a larger amount that we could charge because again that would be a deterrent. The only problem is that this would this is only for emergency level one. Correct. It doesn't apply to the other two and three or what this what these

the search charges I think you're asking yes about. So they can be enacted. That's a a council vote that would have to happen. They can be enacted at uh drought stage three which is what we're in today. uh with the uh provided that the first this first read gets approved today, next week there'll be a a resolution for council to approve sir charges when level one happens.

Okay. So I I think it's important that we we do visit that. The only problem though right now is because of the drought exemp exemption sir charge that's still in play until hopefully we get it uh taken care of by the voters in November it it wouldn't affect them right I mean even if we were to adopt it now I mean that's correct that the search charges would not that's correct the ones that are signed up for the that are paying the drought exemption search charge fee it would not affect these these rates they're paying that they've been paying them yeah So, but again, I mean, it would be good to, you know, get those rates established, but uh back to um

compost, I hate to interrupt you, but just we want to make sure I'm I'm hearing it right here. We're recommending that, uh even large volume users that pay the drought exemption search charge fee in search charges. Yeah. Yeah. They pay sir charges if they go over their allocation and double the amount if they go over the baseline, right? Yes. And only but only in the water emergency. Right. Correct. Okay. Not in stage two and three. That's what I'm trying to see. Okay. Yes, ma'am. Okay. So that's why I'm, you know, I'd be in favor of of of doing the level the emergency only to try to get our uh host or okay

industrial users to curtail some of their, you know, water usage because they have to cut back 15 million um gallons per day. Okay. So back to the original um amendment that I wanted to to make. Um I wanted to make sure that whenever we have that line uh because we have other water projects that's why I wanted to eliminate about just solely on the inner harbor desalination because we have like the groundwater we have the effluent the water so let's just leave that line out and that's why it would be just more consistent. Okay. So uh I just wanted to make sure that I you know was was making sure that y'all understand why I was saying that. Okay. To include all the other water projects

include you want to include all of them. No, I if we just No, but what I'm saying is we just say future water supplies period. We don't have to say exclusively what they are. It's just other water supplies. Right. Right. So, I think the key is the sentence before which which I'll I'll read. The city manager or designate can modify the timing of a level one water emergency if the regional demands can be fully met with alternative water sources. Right. Other than the combined reservoir storage. And I think what the council woman's saying is just end it there. That's it. List them all, but end it there. Same difference.

Okay. Councilman Ku.

Thank you. Um, I just don't understand um why this has to be the on the burden of the residents of Corpus Christi. I mean, this is not their doing. This is not their fault. and to to camp them at 6,000 gallons a month on a 8,000 gallon family for a month. I mean, it's just um I don't agree with it. I really don't agree with none of the stuff for the residents. I think the residents have already been trying to cut back for the industry of not wearing the grass and doing their part. Um, and there's no fines right now, right?

So there's no citations, councilman, there's no citations for going exceeding your allocation or your baseline. So the res residential, commercial, and the large users are all paying the same per per thousand gallons. Correct. For the sir charges. Yes, that's correct. So we've we've made that consistent. So they go over a th000 gallons, they're going to pay $4 extra and if industry goes over 1,000 gallons, they'll pay $4. Correct.

So So that initiates when they go over their allocation just just like everybody else. What is your usage right now? like what are you gonna if we go to a level one say for example Valero what is Valero could use per month so current currently Valero is using about 8 million gallons a day okay right uh and it's and we know they're working very hard to uh on the effluent project we'll take that back

so what we've done is uh they will have an individual baseline and then that will be reduced by 25% % to come up with their allocation and then they will have to they will have to meet that mark on a seasonal basis and those are the accounts that CCW will monitor. So right now they're using a 248 million gallons per month. So they're going to from that amount they're going to go down to 25%. Well the you got you got to remember how the baseline is determined. So, if let's if we could go back. I'm just going to go back to the large volume user. What page is that?

Uh, it is um looks like it's eight slide eight. So, they will have um we will look at three years worth of data. That's 2022 through 2024. We will remove for example we out of those 36 months we'll remove the lowest January February March April May we'll take those low months out and then we will average the remaining data to come up with their baseline and then whatever that number is they have to reduce that by 25%. Okay.

The the it's important to note so the 25% is equal ac across all customer classes. Yeah. Well, first of all, I want to thank you for, you know, doing this and putting all your effort in this um you and and your staff. I just, you know, I it's hard for me to it's not the people's fault. And right, I mean with the the issue is and I can speak confidently in this is the lack of a diversified water supply and five years of drought. Yeah, th those are the things to point towards.

No, I agree with you. I believe the drop, you know, messes up and all that good stuff. But, you know, I just don't think that it's fair for the residents to to um cut back if, you know, they're not using all the water and they're not the problem, you know, and I'm okay with industry using the water. I mean, the city city told them to come to Corpus Christie. We had water for them, you know, and that's why we're looking for water. We're not looking for water for for the residents. We're looking for water for the industry. And and I'm okay with that. But at the same time, I don't I don't feel like it's the resident's fault that they have to cut back. I don't think it's right for them to cut back. You know, um we use very very little of water versus industry. And I understand they're the that they're the powerhouse here in Corpus. They they provide jobs. They provide an economy. And I I understand it and I get it. But at the same time, it's not right for the people to cut back, for the families to figure out, okay, we can't go over this much water, you know, take less showers, don't flush a toilet, you know, it just um just it's um it's tough. Um

I think we've we've shown that largely the residential customers are there and and largely they won't have to make any adjustments. Um and and for those uh we do know there are situations with large families, extended families certainly understand that. Yeah, we are absolutely working staff is working to uh streamline the exemption the variance process. Uh and we're once these items are we can move forward on them, we'll be rolling that out. How's the condition of the water meters? are are they pretty accurate?

So, we do have uh a capital project in our capital plan to it's a multi-year project to replace the water meters. One thing it's important to note, when water meters get old and they don't read accurately, they read low. So an old meter reads low which it doesn't benefit uh the rate pay f rateayers but that benefits the individual customer.

Yeah. Okay. Um I think that's all the questions I have right now. Um the water we had the rain that we had a couple days ago was it um Monday, Sunday night, has that reached our lakes already or no? So, we're we're Oh, yeah. It was just just the other day. So, we didn't see too much of an increase uh of of course yesterday. We're watching it closely. You know, one thing to note, I think the rest of the week is going to be relatively dry, but it looks like better chances next week. All of that plays into the update to the uh water supply dashboard, which we'll have for you next week, Councilman.

And level one, you don't estimate to be in level one till what? What month now? Well, you haven't figured that out yet. So, it's so it's September, but once we have the new water supply dashboard and projections, that might be modified. And we're we're committed to to providing updates at a minimum every 30 days, and we'll be we'll be about there next week. So, we want to make sure we we get it updated for everyone. Okay. And then one last question. How are we doing with um the contracts for um for the refineries and stuff? water contracts. Are we working on that? So, we we're working heavily on effluent contracts. Okay.

And then uh one of the other contracts that uh we we really need to, you know, I'll make you aware of is Lionell was had to install a backflow pre which they they've done. They'll be starting everything up this week and then we'll be initiating a a contract negotiation with Lionell Lionel Basel. Okay, thank you, Councilman Roy.

Uh, thank you for the updates. I appreciate you guys working on this and kind of fine-tuning it some. But one of the things I had a school reach out to me, a private school, and one of the things that they asked me was that um they have a uh a football field that is grass. you know, most of the like the CCISD ones, they have uh artificial turf. But with that being said, um I want to make sure I understand because their question was if they do a good job in terms of conserving water in all the other places, can they water their football field? Per the drought contingency plan, irrigation is prohibited. Is prohibited.

Yeah. Yeah. So that would even be at a residence as well. Mhm. So they're not, you know, cuz because And I understand that because if if if we were to just hold them to the numbers and throw out some of the restrictions, then I think that would be counterintuitive as far as what we're trying to accomplish. But um that that's correct. It can it can get uh it can get really complicated. Yeah. to to a point where you would be um monitoring every single customer every single day. Yeah.

And and the the intent is to set up uh uh guidelines that we can follow and that will provide the results we're looking for so that we can make sure we always have enough supply to meet our demand. on, you know, on the on the same lines as that though, have we ever thought about doing something where we give some type of rebate if somebody changes their entire like their residential property to Zeroscape or their you know what I mean?

Yeah. And and it has been brought up uh before. Um and I'm I'm not saying we shouldn't look at it, but I'm just saying that those kind of activities do have an impact on the rateayer. As you know, we're an enterprise fund and all of our operations, maintenance, and capital projects, debt service is fully funded by the rateayers. So to initiate programs like that and say you would say you set aside x amount of dollars for that, that same amount of money has to be recovered in the rates so we maintain the balanced budget.

Yeah. And I think it's a challenge. And I, you know, the good thing is is that I'm hearing a lot of dialogue out there where these commercial accounts are starting to come on board and they're really looking together, getting their boards together, getting their staff together and saying, "Okay, what can we do here?" Um, you know, where are we using water? And and and so I I think it's a good thing. So I know like like everybody has said, we know that the residents have done a phenomenal job in terms of conserving and um industry's been aware. Now we've got that middle layer that's also looking at it. So hopefully we'll be able to extend the dates out even further. So thank you. I appreciate the presentation,

Councilwoman Paxton. Thank you. Um on the section relating to variances, I wanted to verify that we would be able to kind of modify the application to be a little more cognizant of medical um sensitive information.

Yeah. And you know that that question came up earlier. It's come up a couple of times. I'm going to be very clear. Uh CCW uh or nor the city. We do not want any medical information. Um what what we're looking for there's some key components to the variance requests that we're looking for is you know a customer to show a historic usage show what they're doing some of the specific conditions as to why and what also what they have done to reduce their their water usage right it helps if you show okay I've done this this and this and because of that I require this.

That's a very strong uh application. Yeah. I think the confusion is where it says um list the reason you're asking for this exemption or something and um at one point it says is there you know a medical issue or something. The impression that I've gotten from community members is that they're interpreting those words and that request is like upload a note from your doctor. prove that you have a medical issue. So, if there's a way that we could maybe put something on there that's like, "No, we don't want your sensitive medical information. We just, you know, just declare it, you know." Mhm.

Um and then I was I was going to reiterate, but thank you for reading the sentence before um that final sentence on page 31 and 7. uh on section 55-152 5B2 it's talking about um a level two emergency and it's similarly saying how would how we would undo triggering that and it it just says if the city manager or water COO determined that we can they see it necessary do you feel that if we is there a section somewhere that says, you know, under a level two that's saying, god forbid, but something terrible happens to our water supply immediately or suddenly or there's a interruption that's not drought related necessarily. So, is that I guess my question is do we need to put something that's like once water is restored?

Does that make sense? I you know my my I I I think it's I think it's worded appropriately because if you Well, let me back up. So, a level two water emergency, there's a significant event. It might be a natural event such as a hurricane. It could be a major infrastructure failure at uh at the water plant or on the Mary roads pipeline. Those events uh require immediate and swift action. It's it's I think it's it's written well. When those issues are resolved, you come out of a level two water emergency. If you start adding language uh once water is restored, is it restored to the whole city? Is it restored to the island? Is it restored to Cal Allen? Is it restored but not having enough pressure? I think it it almost gets so limiting on how you come out of it. You're you're almost limiting your ability to come out of it as quick as you want.

I appreciate that. That's fair. That was just my thoughts. Mhm.

Um, so my last question, um, something that kind of stuck out to me in one of our more recent presentations is, um, basically that even though there's such a a level of self-crutailment by the resident class, we're still kind of using the same amount of water. The way it was described is some of our large volume users with the condition of the water that's coming through the higher uh TDS the composition of the water is slightly changed that they actually have to use more in order to facilitate their needs. So basically everything that was conserved ended up being used anyway. And so my concern is even though a lot of people put they went through a lot of sacrifice to try to cut back, it didn't actually yield a net gain to the system. Is there something that we can do to to safeguard that?

Does that make sense?

I I think I understand your question and and I'm going to answer it. Please correct me if I'm off track a little bit. Um the the safeguard. So water quality is in important to all of our every customer class and there there are certain customers that because of water quality they may use more or less or may change the amount of usage the effort that we're making in terms of effluent reuse that that is what safeguards that. So it's bringing on those other projects and utilizing it. The the the complicating factor is and we need to remember this is our wholesale customers also have large volume users. So it's it's incumbent if if we're providing an allocation to a wholesale user, it's in incumbent upon them to issue allocations to their customers. And one thing we do not want to get involved in in their business or overstepping our authority as well.

Sure. um that might go back to the status or existence of contracts because you know if if we've got somebody that uses I'm just going to throw a number out there 12 million gallons a day and we go into a a stage three drought for a year and a half and the community has been cutting back. We've got small businesses who can't function because of restrictions. We've got all of these really tight restrictions. Then we say, I have a contract you for with you for 12 million. That's it. Everybody's kind of cutting back right now. It's not going to be 12 plus two because it's higher TDS. It's not going to be it's 12 million because we're trying to preserve the system. Is that a provision that we could explore? Or is there one in existence and I'm not aware? because it looks like it's it didn't actually cut back a lot on the system.

I I I guess I don't understand where where you want to get to or what what the I mean to to impose uh actual limitations which which I think is what you're talking about. But that that's really the allocations once we hit level one water emergency and we provide those allocations. Those are the affirmative restrictions. Well, I guess like so we have the slide that you gave us that says this is our target if we reach level one. Even though we're not in a level one, we're in a drought stage three. There's a lot of provisions that ask customers to cut back on essential use. So the understanding is even though we haven't given that a firm number, I think in the drought contingency plan it actually says 15% is a is a rough target. I could be wrong on that.

There's goals. There's goals. goal is is the word. Yeah. Perfect. So in a stage three which we're in, the goal would be 15%. So this is indicative of a 25%. So this is saying all of our customer classes have yet and will be asked to reduce by these amounts. A residential class has already superseded that even though our goal there was 15%. So during level three while we asked for a goal of 15%. and they and residents went down to 30. We didn't see an overall system decrease. Does that make sense?

So, what? Right. And there's there's certainly different circumstances throughout all of our customers. Some of them are bringing on new uh water supplies as well. And I'm not just I'm talking about uh our wholesale customers uh that are they are bringing on new water supplies also. I think what we've seen is in stage three efforts, monumental efforts made by our customers and and I'm referring to think about uh Matthysse and Beville. Those communities are drilling wells. Um maybe maybe they didn't achieve that desired result, but those communities have stepped up and they're they're moving forward with those projects. And the same you can say for um uh industry and large volume users. They are they are making those efforts. Sure the reductions aren't seen yet. Uh but they they are coming they are coming and um everyone is preparing for that level one water emergency just like our new water supply efforts are coming and and we're reporting through all the council support on the projects. we're we're starting to see the benefit. So, it's hard to when you bring on transformational projects, it doesn't happen overnight. It takes time. And I think as a as a community throughout all our customer classes, we've seen significant efforts at stage three. And those efforts are going to be realized if we get to a level one water emergency.

Thank you. I acknowledge that. I'm just specifically mean as far as increases, but thank you. Nick, thank you for the presentation. At this time, I'm going to ask for public comment. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to make comment on item number 18? Come on down.

Hi, good evening, council mayor. Um, Dan Harrington, District 4. Serve as president for Padre Island Business Association, also on the marina advisory committee. And, uh, I'm a boat safety instructor. So, I'm here to talk about boats. I appreciate your amendment. Um, and I just want to give you a couple little stats on boating here in the Coastal Bend. According to Texas Parks and Wildlife, there's 8,043 registered boats in Noasis County. About 3,000 of those are stored behind uh houses on the island and in um Flower Bluff. There's 330 active guides in the Corpus Christie area. Um, they generate about 18,700 private trips annually. excuse me, 18,700 for paid trips. And then there's about an additional 71,000 trips that just boat people go out on their boats annually. So, it's it's a lot of folks on the water. Um, Corpus Christi also accounts for 21% of all saltwater fishing licenses sold in the state of Texas. So, that's a ton. Um, there's, as the mayor mentioned, there's 30 to 50 tournaments locally. Those generate anywhere between about four and a hundred and $800,000 annually in economic impact directly to our community. Um overall fishing adds in excess of about a billion dollars in the state of Texas and we get a big chunk of that here in Corpus Christie. If you don't have tournaments, if you can't wash your boat, they don't come here. Uh things like Gapada, uh I know there's a breast cancer awareness riata. There's a there's a lot of things that go on that economically um are very very positive to our community. Um I appreciate the amendment for the the water hose to be able to with a positive shut off valve. It is not if you've ever washed a boat with a 5gallon bucket, you're going to use about 40 50 gallons of water because you're going to keep refilling that bucket. It's not efficient. It doesn't get the the snapper or the whatever off the boat and clean the boat. And you

have to do that uh in order to maintain the vessel to be able to use it. And uh if you're a guide and you're fishing 360 days a year, you've got to use it to keep the boat clean and keep the customers happy. So um I would just encourage you to um support the mayor's agenda um the mayor's initiative there to allow that. I appreciate it. Thank you, sir. Anyone else?

Rachel Cawero D1. Boy, I wish I could be up here talking about owning a boat and having those problems. Um, also that's another reason why we shouldn't have inner harbor diesel because we are a tourism community and so we need to protect all those anglers and everyone else that comes into our town. Um, I just want to thank Mr. Wkelman, which I've never done in or anybody in CC water for in the last six years, uh, for actually listening to public servants and looking out for the community. So, I want to thank Mr. Ku, Miss Vaughn, Mrs. Vaughn, Mr. Nandez, Miss Compos, and Miss Paxton for putting pressure on staff. This is what we're asking for. This is we're asking for leniency on the people that use the water the least and are trying their hardest to conserve the most. So, I just wanted to say thank you guys for um handling that. That is leadership. Thank you.

Anyone else? Susie Salana, I do want to thank you for looking after the people. As long as you keep them in mind, that is the best thing you can do. And as long as you keep their uh ideas of what they need, that is the best thing you can do. When I judge people, I judge them for their overall performance, not for one issue. But I do ask you to take a look that when you take a look at the what we call the high water users. One of those as our interest uh our industry in our industry is producing a lot of oil right now which we need a lot of it. So we cannot cut them back to where they can't produce. We have to be able to produce that in order not just for ourselves but for our nation as well. So I want you to keep thinking about our people first, but I want you not to cartel them back to such a point to where they cannot perform what we need. And what we need right now is oil. We cannot afford to lose that. We cannot afford to lose what's going in and out of the port. So it's important that you take that into consideration as well. As far as everything else is concerned, you need to just chill out. There's more to come.

Anyone else?

Good evening. My name is Steve Indra Lunis. I'm a recreational boat owner. I keep my boat in the Corpus Christi Marina and I'm not affiliated with any yacht club in any way. I am a member of the Marine Advisory Committee. We've heard people speak both in this chamber and at a meeting last week with um Mr. Scott, the mayor, Mr. Barrera. Appreciate uh the time that you spent with us. We heard from the boat owners about the importance of maintaining their boats and what impact there would be if the boats were not maintained. not only for the boat owners, their engines, their boat systems, sanitary conditions on the vessels, but the impact to the local industry. Mr. Harrington spoke as well about the impact that boats have on our local industry. I hope the city council will respond by adopting the amendment to allow washing of boats. Uh we've talked about the five gallon bucket being impractical. You can't flush an engine with a 5gallon bucket. And if you're using a 5gallon bucket, as Dan said, you're going to be spilling all the water on the the ground and it's not going to get to the parts of the boat that really need the high pressure. So, what I would like to do is I'd like to stress that beyond granting permission, city council involvement in boat washing is not necessary. I say this because roughly 50% of the boats are going to be washed at local car washes after their use. The car wash owners and the managers of those are going to be on allocation. They can best determine how to handle the usage. They can have timed washes for boats. They can put sir charges for boats being washed. They can ban boats being washed in their operation. The car wash owners and the boat owners can work this out. City council doesn't need to be involved in it. Roughly 40% of the

boats are washed at residences. These boats are stored on in the canals, on trailers in their backyards, on boat lifts, and the residents can decide how they want to use their allocation. City council doesn't need to micromanage that. The remaining 10% are in the marinas, and we've discussed taking steps in the marina, allowing boat owners to wash their boats using low volume, high pressure nozzles. This is an effective way of keeping the boats clean and it doesn't require any more of your involvement. We had talked earlier about the staff being overwhelmed with all these different things that they're tasked with. We can clear this from the staff's plate. They don't need to be involved in this. Let the owners of the businesses, the managers of the marinas, the residents, and the owners of the boats work this out. Adopt the proposal, the proposed amendment, and then you're done with it. You don't have to worry about it anymore. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, sir. Anyone else? Okay, we're going to close public comment. Councilman Hernandez. Yes, Nick. I was kind of going to ask same similar thing. I mean, we're if we're leaving the car washes on an aotment and I I would imagine, you know, most boat users would go through the bays and have spray. The benefit of that is we capture that in our wastewater system because it it captures it in a drain that we could we're working on a project to reuse water. So, I think that that's an ideal situation. Um, I don't know how much water we actually talking about here with people washing their boats. So, I can't imagine it being a large amount of water.

Um, in commercial car washes, councilman, or at residences, I would say at residences. It's hard. I I can't give you that number. I I don't know. I mean, I just I mean, I I can't imagine it being a a huge some water. Plus, if it's at a residence, it's part of their aotment for I mean, they have to account for it in their usage at at home. Correct. Well, you know, one thing that I that I do know is uh commercial car washes, they do the the newer ones do recycle water. They capture it better. Uh at home, there's it's very hard to capture any water used.

I guess we would encourage them to use car washes uh to wash their boat so we can capture that that waste water. I think it's, you know, I um think I think it's important to provide some optionality, which I I think the the DCP does because you don't want to limit all circumstances.

Okay. I just I mean I think, you know, we're getting in the weeds there, you know, and I'm I guess I'm I'm guilty of that as well, but uh you know you know it's we need to make data driven decisions and it's not a huge amount of water. It shouldn't be something we we should be too concerned about. And the aotments for car washes should be based like any other commercial operation. I know we had this conversation that there's probably some restaurants and some commercial businesses that use more water than a car wash. So, I think we uh um we just need to treat them fairly. You know, they invested money in a business here. We shouldn't treat them any differently than anybody else who's invested money in in businesses here locally. Um, other than that, I think we're we're okay. And like I said, I do appreciate the the you listen you guys listening to us and telling us and us giving you the feedback of what we hear from the community. So, you got some thanks from some public comment as well. So, I think you you hit the mark here with the with the amendments that you made. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman. Okay, Nick. So, um, we have we're done with public comment and and uh all the input. Thank you for taking in uh well, yeah, we're going to make these amendments, right? What you um heard today, we're going to add them and change them. I think there's a couple amendments. Um

actually, there's some on the floor. Okay. And and for the record, I want to say I'm heard somebody say earlier, I'm not sure how they knew all the individual conversations, but um it's my understanding that every council member up here had something to say about sir charges, about citations. It wasn't just three, four, five council members. It was everyone. Um, and that that I know the two I that were in my meeting certainly did. And so this was a a council effort. Uh, maybe in separate meetings, but it was a council effort to come up with what's here today. It wasn't specific people. It was that certainly was a team effort and I'm thanking you for taking all of that in. Um, all right. So, Rebecca.

Okay. Mayor, we have your amendment first, and it's on page eight of the ordinance, uh, letter E, and you you have the wording here that you want to use, mayor. Uh, yes, it's the one to make a motion, uh, let's see, to, I'm sorry, to amend provision to allow vehicle and boat washing with the use of a handheld hose with a positive shut off nozzle. Okay. And you do have, and there's in parenthesis, it provides the full section that would be amended on E. Do you see that? Um, so it's use of water section. You're changing. not part of the that's not part of the motion. I don't think it that's the language I believe that they that going to be inserted into the ordinance ma'am.

Okay. Yeah. So, okay. We can read that. Okay. So, it says use of water to wash any motor vehicle, motorbike, boat, trailer, or other vehicle. Is that right, Mr. Romos? Yes. Okay. Right. That whole section is going to go in the ordinance. That section. So the first part of her uh the mayor's amendment will allow us to add it to the proper

Okay. So I just for the record. Yeah, I was going to read it. So but yes, I understand. Okay. So boat, trailer, or other vehicle not occurring on the premises of a commercial car wash station if is allowed on any day if washing using a handheld hose equipped with a positive shut off nozzle or a 5gallon bucket or smaller. So that's the what would actually go into the ordinance, but that's what the mayor was saying. So, we have a motion and a second on that one. So, we're just going to take that. Are you ready? And I have this one written. Mayor, if you'd want to do an electronic Oh, you do have it written. Okay. Yes, ma'am. I do. Sure. Go ahead.

And I just put in your caption. Wait, do we Okay, Mr. Betta. Okay, Miss Swan, you thinking? Didn't take it. Okay. Okay. The motion carries. Okay.

It came up twice for some reason. Okay. So then now we have So it passed. So I think did it show the result of the voting? I thought I think it did. It did pass. Yeah. Okay. I just don't know if it didn't show it up here. So then we have uh Miss Compos's amendment. So her amendment is on page four of the ordinance. We need to show that. Did it show it on screen? Can they put it up on the screen again? I was looking here. I don't I don't think it did. I I think that it flashed up the 90. Can I put it up again really quickly?

Hello. Okay, I'll try. Thank you. Okay, let me go back to it and see if it'll show. Okay. And it's doing this weird thing it does, but it did pass. Oh, okay.

Sorry. All right, Rebecca, what's the next one? Okay, so then the next one is on page four and is miss of the ordinance. It's 5A1. And in that paragraph, we're striking the sentence, striking the part of the sentence, the last sentence that says such as the inner harbor seaw wall desalination treatment facility that's stricken. So the last line, so the sentence reads, other sources may include water from the Mary roads pipeline or future water supplies. Period. Okay. And we have Yeah, it was on two places. So I I'm just going off of the ordinance. I'm not sure where else it is. U Mr. So it's in two places in the plan, right?

But it's one in one spot in the ordinance, which is what we're voting on today. So the plan would be modified to to match the ordinance. Did we Did you The ordinance is the Yeah, you did. Yes. Please submit your vote. Okay. No, ma'am. Just the the last part of the sentence. No, ma'am. No, I thought the whole sentence. Yes. If water,

right, it either needs to be struck out completely or include all of our water projects. But I don't that's not fair to say take out one water project that is real. So either way you Yeah, she's just striking that part. Well, I mean, she just asked sentence. Yes, it is the sentence then. No, that's just that that part of the sentence. Okay, but it does Okay, it does other sources. It'll be two votes. So, we'll Oh, yeah. Yes, ma'am. It's a one reading, right? Yes, ma'am. It is right. I misunderstood. This is awesome.

Councilman, is this Look, I just want to say it's it's a such as it's just giving an example. It's not it's not relevant to the plan. It's just verbiage that is unnecessary. It's just verbiage that's unnecessary. That's all. Okay. So, we have a motion and a second. Please submit your vote.

Okay, the motion carries. Okay, we have a motion in a second. Please submit your vote. Okay, the motion carries. Was there anything else? No. Okay, thank you, Nick. Thank you.

Yes, thank you. Um item number 19 or well not quite the last item but almost discussion and possible action regarding revisions to the city's utility payment arrangements policies for seniors aged 65 and older and veterans with the goal of making payments more accessible and affordable to prevent disruption of essential water services as requested by council members uh Cantu von and Hernandez. Who's going to speak on that? Councilman Ku. Thank you. Um Nick, so I brought this to

city council um because I'm getting a lot of phone calls in my district that seniors and veterans are having a hard time um getting their water reconnected because the city policy is 50% down on what they owe. So, for example, they owe $1,000 for whatever reason that to come up with 500 bucks to um be on a payment plan. I feel that we need to protect our seniors and our veterans 65 and over um with a better policy um more affordable. I don't think it's right for um a senior or veteran to decide if they're going to pay their electricity bill or medication or the water bill, you know, and there's there's families out there that are waiting for the end of the month to come to make a payment plan with the city of Corpus Christie. and water is not a um a want a need and you know I believe that the city will get their money um and we need to work with these families and these seniors and these veterans because it's hard right now for for those people and um I just don't think that they should live without water till their next paycheck. For an example, we had a meat processing company some some time back that didn't pay their bill for almost a year or over and we didn't shut them off. You know, why are we shutting off seniors and veterans? You know, they helped us build this community. They they worked their butt off their whole life and then for

them to be shut off and require 50% 50% down payment for for their um water to be connected back on is I think it's ridiculous and I think we need we need to do better. We must do better as a community and you know I don't know what we can do but you know I'm I'll be I think 15 to 20% down is more reasonable than 50% down and maybe a longer term to pay it back so you know they don't have to be disconnected again you know um I know there's some there's some times that um they get disconnected they try to make a payment plan they can't afford it, so they go and tamper with the water meter and turn the water meter back on and then you guys go back and lock it and charge them more fines and whatever the case is. I don't blame them doing what they're doing. I mean, they need water, you know, and and I just I just feel like, you know, we we don't punish the big users, but we always punish the small people and the ones that are trying to make it. So, what do you think we can do to better that policy?

Sure, Councilman. I appreciate those those comments. I I would if if if I'm if you afford me some time. I do have a just a couple of slides that goes over what our standard process is. Okay. We talk about payment arrangements. So, if I could just ask for the communications team to put the

Thank you very much. So, the the payment arrangement policy um and I'm going to roll through this. This is just a couple of slides. Uh but but all payment arrangements require some sort of down payment, right? We we always view that as as a as a way for the customer to show in earnest that they're willing to to pay the debt and pay for the water. The reason for that is is we are trying to work closely with the customer but also protect all of our other rateayers who any delinquent accounts they have to they have to sub they'll be subsidizing if it's not collected. So we're always cognizant of that. But if we go through this and and I do want to recognize the the UBO staff who I think does a great job day in and day out working with all of our customers. Uh Margaret Morren is here today. We appreciate Margaret being here with me. Uh the team ever since I started CCW, my opinion has gone above and beyond to work with our customers. All that being said, if if a full payment is not possible, then we request 50% of the past due balance with a fourmonth uh payment plan or payment arrangement. So at the end of the four months, you'd have everything paid off. the cut off meaning if the first plan the four months was not achieved and payment was not made then and if if staff turn the valve and shut the meter off to reinstate it. It's a 75% past due balance and it's a threemonth arrangement. So that time frame is shortened a little bit. If there is what

we call unauthorized usage, that's when a customer essentially opens the valve or uses water without setting up an account. For instance, uh someone could purchase a house, not set up an account, manually turn on their water valve. That's theft of water. And we take that very seriously because that affects our rateayers. Uh in fact that's part of the water loss numbers that we talk about a lot. That is a 100% of the past due balance required. There are situations where a customer may move and they have a balance from a different residence. So those are what we call closed accounts. It's 75% of the balance is due and it's a threemonth arrangement. the arrangement terms, they they do not appear on the bill, but they're they're made directly with UBO staff and they're entered into the account system. Um it's it's important that they deal deal with our resolution specialist uh so that can be so that can um uh be taken in account and documented within our system. the accounts. The account owner has to request the payment plan. And if the account owner is not available, then we just request a letter of authorization just to prevent another uh person for trying to make a payment arrangement that is outside of who they count as with the there. We do have some maximum to the arrangement uh limits. So, a maximum of two broken payment arrangements is allowed within 12 months. There's no payment arrangements allowed

for unauthorized usage. Again, that's theft of water. We take that very seriously. Uh tampering or history of tampering with city valves and infrastructure or or just having non-sufficient funds where we can where we can properly make the account whole. One thing that uh we do offer is there are a number of different agencies that provide utility assistance. The staff at the utility billing office is willing and absolutely willing to get our customers in touch with those other entities so that it can help them pay with their utility bills. Uh all of this is a big part of the project. I the staff does go above and beyond every day to work with us. One thing that we do not do is we do not ask a customer's age ever. So, uh that that can complicate things, but we do not ever ask for a customer's age or their their status, things like that as well. But we do every effort that we can to work with them and get them back on track.

Do you guys um when they set up services, don't you guys um ask for a driver license, social security number, and all that good stuff? We do, but it's uh you know, I mean, we we're not tracking age. Um and and a lot of times the uh not all of our historic accounts, longtime accounts have all of that information. Nick, can I Councilman, if you don't mind, Nick, u if a customer says, "Look, I can't do the 50% down." And I'm and they may say they're a senior. Mhm. Uh does the UBO make exceptions based on the appeal of the customer at the time? AB: Absolutely.

Talk about that a little bit about what type of exceptions are given. Is it It's not a hard and fast 50% or you that's it. We hang up the phone, right? You negotiate with the customer. That's correct. Okay. Talk to the councilman about that. That's what he's that's what we're interested in.

Yeah. So the the 50% is not a hard and fast rule. That's where we start and it certainly shows a level of commitment. However, there are cases as the city manager said where a customer may say look in this first payment I I can do 20% or X and we will absolutely work with them. The the the goal is is to get them back on track and get get the paid bill over a period of time. So that 50% it's not a hard and fast number, but we've got to tell our resolution specialists where we would like them to start. So when do you guys disconnect? How many months behind?

Well, it it it all depends on a couple of factors. One are is there a theft of water, right? If that is uh ongoing, we will absolutely reach out to them, but we take that very seriously. If there's a payment plan set up, we don't shut the water off. If if they miss a payment, we will reach out with phone calls, emails. Uh that way we can work with them to set up a payment plan. Sometimes we can't get a hold of the customer, but we're going to continue to try.

So, um you guys don't go and just shut the water off. We we don't have a uh team of people standing by uh waiting to shut water off. Uh there are uh notices that we provide. If a if a client is up for disconnection, uh we will send them what's called a disconnection notice.

Correct. More times than not, once that's issued, the customer will pay that immediately because there are situations where um may maybe that something happened in life, right? They were out of town, things happened, and they they just missed a payment. But it doesn't happen immediately after that disconnection notice is sent. It none of this is immediate. It happens over multiple weeks and days. And as you can see from how we set up the payment plans, this is over a period of three to four months.

It just it just disturbs me because there's a lady that called me um a couple months ago and she's probably about 80 years old and she couldn't afford her 50% down payment. Yes, she did and go or her son went and go and um turn the water valve back on and um she had to use the water hose for her next door neighbor till her paycheck, her social security check came in. So, you know, there's people out there that are struggling. You know, I remember in my 20s I struggled paying my water bill, you know, and I'm guilty of doing what people do to get by. That's what people are going through right now. And um a lot of people are not open about it because it's embarrassing. But and I I I get what you're saying, but you know, these phone calls that I get and and there's more than one, you know, that they they can't afford the 50% down and you guys hold them to the 50% down. Just because they went to go open a water valve doesn't make them a criminal. They need the water to survive. I get that's theft of water, but at the same time, you guys have a water meter on there. Y'all know how much water they taking and you you guys could build it. So, you know, I really want to fix this policy. If you guys need more time, I'll give you guys more time, but we really need to fix this policy and figure things out for these seniors and veterans because you guys are telling me one thing, but I'm hearing different from from these residents, and I just we need we need to help them. And um I just I just feel that we have a a we have we have to we have to do something for them because you know nobody should be without water in Corpus Christi. And if if the big users could go with months without paying their bill then why not residents

could do that? You know it has to be an even playing field. The uh uh in the the reference to the to the to the the big users uh I'm not sure when that occurred. I can attest. I'm I'm sure I wasn't here at that time. Uh, one thing when you when you look at our policies, um, I think what I would recommend, what I would like to do is, uh, to set up a meeting with you, councilman, meet you in our UBO office. Okay?

I we can go into detail the steps staff makes. Uh one thing that that we do feel uh confident in is the the SOPs are put together and established by our expert staff from the UBO office. That is the team that deals with our customers every day and they've developed these guidelines for our resolution specialists to assist as many people as possible and to protect our rateayers. So there there is there's a balance. We recognize that. Um I I I would like to to better explain uh to you how we go about things. I know uh we take a lot of notes in our call system on our calls and I I know typically when when I investigate complaints from um from any customer there's there's a large amount of information that I have to vet through to better understand the situation. Yes sir. So um we do uh we feel strongly that it's best that SOPs standard operating procedures are developed by the operations department because they understand them. They they are involved in all the circumstances. Uh however, I'm absolutely willing to go through this with you in more detail.

Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you, Nick. I'm going to try and speed through this because we've got all lights on, but I I have had quite the opposite experience in working with Margaret. And Margaret, I'd like you to come up if you would. Um because I know you deal directly, if you don't mind, um Nick, you deal directly with customers and I I I feel like um I guess what what Nick just articulated, which is we try very hard or we do and you can take it from here, but to work with everyone. We are not here. We're here to facilitate I would think and I'm taking words that I've sent you so many people over years and I've seen you work on payment plans and making certain that people we don't just flip some switch and say, "Oh, well, sorry you didn't pay." I mean, and I think that's what was just articulated. um you know this is an internal document and it's an a standard operating procedure but you've explained to me and sta my staff many many times it has to start somewhere you have to hand something to some if I went in to work there tomorrow you have to show me something and say this is where we start however our goal is to help to facilitate that is my understanding of your department and and the experience I've had but would you please tell us a little bit about how what are the real workings the ins and outs of what you deal with over at the UBO?

Yes, thank you mayor. Good evening, Margaret Morin, utility business office manager and Mr. Nickelman is correct in what he said that we try to do every day. Um the f first and foremost two objectives that we have when we have a customer call in that cannot meet that payment is first we ease their anxiety. We hear it. We have compassion. We have empathy and the second thing is we put the water back on without even thinking about the payment at this time. Okay. Each case is unique. So we have to hear their story first. But nine times out of 10 we work through it. It takes weeks because we have to work with the meter shop guys also the gentlemen and the ladies that work over there and we work with them to if whether it's a constant flow whether they had a major leak um we we will put their account on exemption which means their account is not going to get cut off disconnected and or they're not going to incur any penalties in the meantime. So, in your in the particular case that you're talking about, councilman, is that the lady did call. We worked with her and um there was some pertinent information that was missing um on the email andor call, but we worked with her. End result, we had a nonprofit agency pay off the entire balance of $2,200. So, it works out. We go above and beyond with these nonprofit agencies that we work with and we will we will continually call constant communication. We also helped a um veteran. He his wife passed away. His wife paid the bills. He didn't know how to pay the bills. Um a friend of mine contacted me when I was out of the country and on vacation and she said, "What can we cuz she knew the position I was in. And she

said, "What can we do to get his water back on?" It had been off a year, y'all. And he didn't have any AC either. He was like probably 80ish. And uh in working with the with the nonprofit agencies, we turned the water back on immediately. We didn't worry about We didn't worry about the payment at that time. We turned the water back on. We got him an AC. Worked with the Newasis County Veterans uh office out of New Asus County. Got him an AC. His refrigerator was broken. We got him a refrigerator. Yes. And uh um we got him a fan from parks and recreation also. So we all network together. We work together and his uh Salvation Army paid off his bill completely. So those are just a few of the stories that that we um work with with the customers. It's a guideline. The SOPs are guidelines, but we are very flexible. But each case is unique though,

right? Thank you, Margaret. Thank you, Margaret. Thank you so much. Okay, Councilman Bada. Thank you, Mayor. Um, in addition, uh, one of the things that, um, we I mean with Thank you, Margaret. Thank you so much. We appreciate your compassion and I know I I we've worked with you before and I know one time I know the individuals in Jennifer's department when she was there before that they coordinated with you whenever they had those challenges. So, I I I you guys do the Lord's work and we appreciate it. You know, the other thing is is that um um when we had when the water conference or symposium that we had, how much money did we raise from there?

It was 80,000. I think it was about 80,000 or so. Okay. Well, I the only reason I bring that up is I say that, you know, first off, um um I guess if you ask Waterburger, um I'm a Everett, Mark and I are are both senior are all senior citizens and we could afford a pay water bill

and and then and uh Everett and Gil are veterans and they can afford their water bills. So, we just need to make sure they determine it's need-based. And the reason I asked that is because we had mission 911. Uh we we we had them go out and uh what is it? Facilitate when we have individuals are in that situation. So I ask Lauren to come and Lauren, can you come up and tell us how the program works? I know you've helped uh share with us how much that you've dispersed so far and and

Yeah. Um absolutely. Hi everyone. I'm Lauren Cargill. I'm the executive director with Mission 911. Um yeah, so with the American Waterworks Association, um the one water summit last year that was hosted, um we were selected as the recipient of that funding. So we got about $86,000, um dedicated for CC water bills. Um we've done a total of about 48,000 in assistance. We've helped a total of 803 people um 20% of which are seniors um through that funding. We still do have a small amount left um of that funding, but those will be up here very quickly. And so, um, something, you know, as y'all are kind of thinking about shaping this policy, um, kind of to what Councilman Betta said, um, really taking into consideration need-based, um, because there are far more demographics to take into consideration, um, you know, we serve a lot of families that are at risk of homelessness, and so we have a lot of single moms that come to us, um, who can't pay their bills, dads, um, you know, veterans and seniors of course, but, um, just families in general. So yeah.

Yeah. And and you know, thank you so much for what you're doing. And I guess that's the one thing I'm glad you brought this up because you know, how much funding do you have left? We have about 29,000 left. And as y'all know, we're coming into summertime and so kids are about to be home. Um those are going to go very quickly. The the needs about to go up. Um especially utility bills. Um you mentioned, you know, people having to choose between their medicine or their bill. We see that a lot where we have families who come to us and they're trying to decide between paying their rent, paying a utility bill, um making a car repair so they can get to work and keep their job. Yeah. And thank you, Lauren, for what you're doing and thanks for coming. Absolutely. Yeah. Thank y'all. Does anyone else have any questions? I'd be happy to to answer. I think we're okay. Thank you'all so much.

But but Nick, Peter, I think, you know, that was very creative of what the water department did. I mean, it was it was I I know it was Drew's uh you know, dream child, but you know, basically uh they u uh it was all the department that went and did it. So, we just need to look at some program like that so that way we can we can raise the funds and so that way we can continue to do that and that way it's not necessarily the challenge is is that when we cut these these breaks, you know, we want to be able to to manage it. But it's the it's the the rate regular rateayer that ends up paying the difference because we have to make up the difference somewhere. And so we need to do our part to raise funds for an amazing program like that. they work with the that population of the people that need to be served. Um, and so we we really need to get creative and we we just have to assure that they're not that they their funds don't get depleted. I mean, it was a great idea and we need to continue on with it. So, thank you,

Councilman Wright. Um, thanks for reminding me that I'm approaching that senior and veteran thing, but uh,

I'm already there, I guess. Yeah, I'm already knocking at that door. But, um, couple things I want to mention. Nick, we've talked about this before and I just went through right now and check what I was looking at before. Um, I I know that there's people out there that, you know, ultimately it'd be nice if you could just sit there and set up autopay, but sometimes people can't do that for whatever reason. Maybe they get paid different times, maybe they get paid on commission, and it varies. I don't know. But one of the things that when you use your phone and so I want to just bring this up. When you use your phone and you go through the application and you go through the process and you make the payment and you put your debit card in and you put your information and then it populates and it goes to that screen on your phone. The last thing that you have to do is you have to hit confirm. There's a green confirm button way at the bottom. Okay. The problem with that is is that when you see your credit card information was taken, it was successful, and then you have the confirm down there. I know a lot of complaints that I get are people don't hit that confirm button. If you don't hit the confirm button, then you didn't pay your bill, and then all of a sudden you get a notice later on. I would, and I made this recommendation before, but I'm making it public now because maybe we can do something about it. The confirm button needs to be moved up further so that people can see it and it's not the last thing that's on there. And I think that people won't miss that because really what's happening is you then it's fielding your phone calls. I'm sure you get phone calls about that, right?

No, I get people that talk to me about that all the time. Um, but anyway, uh that was one suggestion. The other thing is what I'm hearing and this goes mo mostly for people that are landlords or that are rent. And I want to get a clarification on this. I had somebody contact me the other day and they said, "Look, I'm a landlord. My my tenants are responsible for their utilities." Okay? In this particular case, their tenants didn't pay a couple tenants didn't pay their utilities, and they're saying that ultimately he said that he had to come back and make those payments. Is that is that true? Does it ultimately fall on the responsibility of the landlord

if the tenant doesn't make the payments and they signed up and then water's in their name? So, yeah. What I can say is if if uh the tenants sign up, it's in their name and and they cannot be reached. They they move out of town, out of state, we've got to reach out to someone who is a responsible party. And many times it starts with whoever the property owner is. So you have somebody. So that is that is that I don't know. Is that the norm? I'm not I hate to say it. The only people I rent to are family members, but um Well, the the goal the goal is that responsible party that property owner would know how to get a hold of the the tenant unless they skipped on them too.

Yeah. And that's that could be next. So, that is an actual valid thing cuz I I really never heard of that and I thought I'd just bring that up because uh again any of these situations that happen when people don't pay for whatever reason, it falls back on the rate payer. Somebody's got to pay it. It it sure does and we take that very seriously. As all of you, we watch the the the rates very closely. Every action we take, I tell the our the entire department, every action you make affects the water or wastewater rate. So, not chasing down, not trying to find the the uh the unpaid balance affects it as well. So, staff, they do their best.

Yeah. And it sounds like you guys do everything you can. I haven't I haven't received many phone calls of people that are saying that they called because they were delinquent or had an issue and somebody didn't work with them. I have seen that on the commercial side, though. I had a guy that called me and um basically he was delinquent on his current commercial water bill and then he wanted to expand his operation next door and they wouldn't give him a um a new uh what do you call it a water meter because he hadn't paid for the one he had next door. So, I understand those circumstances and I think on the commercial side it's a little bit different, but it sounds like you guys are doing a great job as far as looking out and trying to come up with resources to be able to help people. So, thank you,

Councilwoman Vaughn.

Well, most of us up here, all of us, and you out there are blessed. So, you don't think about this about your water being turned off. And if you've never been there, never done that, you don't comprehend it. I grew up with a single mom, eight kids. It was nothing for our water to be off. They turned it off and they weren't kind like they are now. I mean, they just turned it off and you were without it till you could pay it. So, when Eric brought this to me, the first thing I thought about was single moms because I think a lot of that goes on. And I appreciate you because I can tell you're very compassionate and that's what they need because they're embarrassed about having to come to you and tell you they can't pay the water bill. Um, so I think I think like Mr. Coney said, I think it's not just those two. I think it's the circumstance what they are. Do you charge a reconnect fee?

There is there is a reconnect fee. Well, then that might be something we look at because if you cannot afford your water bill, you sure you're already short of money. You sure can't afford a reconnect fee. So, maybe we need to kind of look at that. And my other question is, do we have a is there a high rate of people calling in that they cannot pay their water bills? Do we have a lot of turnoffs because of that? I you know, and and uh we I talked to staff earlier this morning. We we have a some of the lowest amount of delinquent accounts that we've had in the last 10 years or so.

Uh it's it's very low compared to other utilities as well. Um and certainly um and it's not just residential accounts. The delinquent with residential and commercial are are the lowest we've seen. You know, I I don't want to overspeak, but in approximately a decade. Uh, and then the our wholesale and large volume users, there's no delinquent accounts at all. Well, that kind of figures, right? I'm just going through the classes, right? Yeah. So, yeah.

And I think a lot of it has to do because you do have organizations that are out there helping. So, that makes a difference. And I'm with Roland. I think that, you know, what Drew Molly did on that when they raised over $80,000, that certainly has come to use. And that might be something that we look at as a council mayor to come up with some kind of fundraiser that we can do for that. Already thinking about it. Okay. Thank you. I'll talk to you uh Council or Councilman Hernandez. Thank you. Um just some uh questions here. How many um how many assistance organizations are there that that we work with? Mhm. 23.

23. Um, late fees. What's our late fee? I mean, there's there's no Yeah, there's no late fees. Oh, you're talking about the total. What's the total? Yeah, like a dollar amount. Like if you have a late fee on a month. Oh, five% of the bill. 5%. Okay. So, and then you have a reconnection fee. What's the reconnection fee? 550.

Okay. And and there's no uh I was looking at the website. You know, the utility bill doesn't just include water and wastewater. Includes uh gas. It includes solid waste. Now, it's includes storm water fees. But on the rate page, the only thing you really see is the utility rates for water and wastewater now. And it's been like that for the last couple years. You don't include the other fees on the on that rate page. Um probably need to add those back in so you can have an understanding. So you have some ser some situations. So if you're this and it's self-defeating, right? So 5% you owe $200, your late fee is what? Uh $10.

That's correct. Yeah. Okay. So, if if if you're behind a month and you're $400, then that becomes $20. Yeah. Okay. So, that's great. I just think uh if and then a reconnection fee of $50 on top of that, you know, you just it it kind of you can never catch up. No, I understand. And just remember the reconnection fee is entirely meant to to reimburse for staff time. Yeah. sending somebody to the house, you know, unlock it, turn on the switch, turn Exactly. So, we're trying to cover that additional labor that is expended because of the situation to keep to keep the rate whole.

I get you. I understand. But what you end up having is uh you know, the bill becomes the fees. And I think you, you know, if you have some dispensation with some of those fees to help people that are struggling, you can include that as part of your as part of your policy. You have this thing where you have three-month arrangements, four month arrangements. Um, does anybody have six-month arrangements?

Think you you know I Margaret did a very good job. There's a number of different circumstances. We're not these are these are guidelines. I I like how Margaret explained it. They are guidelines. So, we absolutely work with our customers. I and in the people listening today, it's absolutely critical you reach out. If if you're if you're having an issue, we get it. It happens. Please reach out and and help us help you.

Okay, I understand. Um, you know, and a lot of people don't always know what the resources are available. Um, you know, I didn't know there's 23 organizations that can help with utility bills. Uh, maybe we put something out on a regular basis on on your Facebook page or or whatever. You know, just kind of constantly communicate that. Um, I don't know what the appropriate um help is for who. I know uh Councilman Kantu mentioned veterans and people over the 65, but as Councilman Betta so artic made it so articulately clear that not everybody that's 65 and not everybody that's a veteran needs help, right? So, uh it it's one of those things where you have to be more judicious with who who needs that help and who's struggling and how do you do needsbased? I don't think we're set up to do that, right? Who do we have somebody that that kind of qualifies people?

So, right, we we are we are not equipped to do a needsbased assessment, right? So, if if any of our customers reach out and they need our assistance, we do our best to assist them. I I don't have a team looking at the the needs of of customers. If they call out to try and assist.

Okay. So, I I think what what Councilman Cantou is ultimately trying to get at is that we don't have a method to assess people. Uh I mean, I'm sure Mission 911 has a the ability to do that. I'm sure the Salvation Army has counselors that can do that. But if we I don't know if you want to partner up with an organization that can work with all 23 uh to give a kind of a standard um qualification to where you can get assistance uh quicker because I think you have too many um connections to get try to get people connected to assistance organizations. Uh, if you have 23 of them, who's to say one goes to another and one goes to, you know, okay, well, do we send this one to this organization? Do we send that person to that organization? I I I think you need to kind of standardize your process so you can I mean, because what effectively happens is that somebody ends up without water for for two, three months. And it's very difficult and and I understand what Councilwoman Vaughn and her family went through. I went my family went through the same thing. I remember filling up the bathtub so we could flush the toilet. It is it is a very real thing that people experience and is not comfortable at all. So, uh I have a lot of sympathy for this particular situation. And so if you can, you know, if you have these situations where you can wave late fees, where you can, you know, maybe give a discount on the reconnection fee or it's at cost, u certain things you just got to put together a policy that takes into consideration on how you get uh people to organizations that help. Get a standardized way to do it. Uh you know, look at look at the terms that you have and does that work for everybody? uh just think about it you know in a open you know take assistance from people that you know the organizations that do help get solicit ideas from them I mean they're the ones that do deal deal with it on a regular basis

okay and then I you know I don't think there's going to be an action coming out of this right now but maybe you can come back to us in a couple weeks and give us your recommendations yeah I'm very confused I almost thought you worked there because I thought that's what you just said we did and and And and I guess I want to know more about I don't think that having 23 organizations is a problem. Do you I mean isn't that a good thing that you're able to say we can go here here? It's not just one avenue. So there is an abundance of assistance. Is that an issue benefit having them the additional resources?

Well, me too. But I want to clarify those points because go ahead and come up. But Margaret just walk us through it because I'm I'm I'm conflicted with what was just said which if it is an issue then I understand those statements but if it is not I see it as a benefit that's that already exists.

So for the 23 nonprofit agencies that we have at active right now a lot of them have stipulations like some of them are only for the 78413 zip code. Okay. But for the when we talk to the customers and we email it to them or mail it to them or come into the office and hand it to them, we tell them that these are funded right now 100% and they've been active in in sending us the uh the the assistance to us though. So we we help them and we walk them and we will wait and we make outbound calls on top of all the calls that were uh that are incoming to say, "Okay, where you at?" or we called the we called the nonprofit agency ourselves. We do the leg work sometimes for them because for whatever reason they just don't feel comfortable calling into the nonprofit agency.

Yeah. Okay. Thank you, Margaret. Uh Councilwoman Compos,

thank you, Mayor. Um I have from time to time um reached out to the water department for you know uh different reasons for different people calling in and and the ones that I've had have been commercial but I think I ended up um reaching out this was because the the water bill is one you know we've got the gas and all that. It ended up that one particular customer, it was actually their gas that was the issue. And I didn't know this, but I uh the gas department uh had like a plumbing a plumber pro uh program because they couldn't turn on their gas because, you know, they couldn't afford the plumber to fix the gas to. So, they have that. I'm just wondering and when I said when I called them on a different issue which was the water there I the water department does not have a plumbing program for people that I mean it ends up that they don't realize right that they had this water leak and it ends up being like super high and that's how they end up you know getting cut off. So is there a

so yeah sometimes it's referred to as plumbers to people a plumbers to people program

uh CCW currently does not have those programs. Uh we are looking at them in earnest. We we hope to um present uh something for council consideration so we can take it live October 1st. However, as uh uh a number of you have said, there's a funding component to that. So, if it's if it's funded by uh operational funds, there is an impact to the overall rateayer. So, that's something to consider. And then the administration of it, we have to be careful of. So, what I can tell you is we're looking into those programs and trying to develop something, but um that that'll that'll require consideration from the council because it will affect, you know, affect rates.

Well, well, okay. Well, that's good to know that in October y'all are going to be possibly looking into adopting or or getting maybe like a plumbers program. So yeah, we're looking at a number of different programs with the intent to bring uh it it may be one of them or a couple of them to go to go live in October, but there's there's a lot of details to work out. The biggest is the funding component and for some reason the gas department has it going. So I'm just saying why not speak to each other and we do.

Okay. And and why is it that the gas department has pl the plumbers program but the water department doesn't? But I understand it is funding and I I understand that they went also I guess they were able to get grants for the gas department as I understood. So anyway yeah right and we do talk to the gas department. Uh I I would say the water department and gas department talk frequently. It's not just myself and Bill Mafy. It's others.

Yeah. cuz I Anyway, the other um I think issue that has come up for some of my constituents is um the water bill actually being under somebody else's name and them not being there but they're living in that household and it just you know it's like it gets cut off and they can't like negotiate because they're not the one that has that water bill. I mean, it's just that occurred to me because I I was like, "Well, why can't you just get it up?" He goes, "It's not under my name. It's under somebody else's name. We don't know when when property is sold. We don't know when houses are sold or or when spouses or partners split up, you know, or whatever.

We don't we don't know. So, it's incumbent upon the account holder to to reach out and make arrangements. But that's what I'm saying. They cannot make the one that is that left is left there in the house is not able to make the arrangement because that bill is not under I'm just saying because that came across when I was blocking and I was like oh I it didn't even occur to me but okay so

I mean it's it's important the the account holder needs to provide authorization so we can change it. I know. I know. But if the account holder is out of the house or you know what I'm saying, but the family is still living there, that's where they were having problems uh speaking to the water department because they're not the Yeah. I mean, we do have to be very careful. There are a number of of schemes that happen as well. So staff works very hard to try and make sure that things are legitimate and changes to an existing account holders account are done appropriately.

Okay. So we do have a way to make sure that that our department or water department works with these type of scenarios I guess. Right. They they're working with people every day and and a lot of times they'll request information so that they can come back and we we can get it figured out. Uh we are really cognizant about though making changes unauthorized changes. We don't ever want to make unauthorized changes to an account. No. And get us into a lot of trouble.

I know Nick, but at the same time you've got a family of four living there and you know the parent that's there is not able to make the arrangements because the partner is out of the house. You know what I'm saying? Although, I mean, this is what I was told. You know, she said, "We owe $500. We can't get it. It's not under my name. It's under my partner's name." And you know, that kind of thing. And I'm like, "Well, I'm sure there's got to be a way." And she said, "It's because I'm not in that in the contract that I can't make arrangements." Is that true? We we Margaret, right?

I mean, this is just like one scenario, but again, yeah. Yes. And and that has come up in the past. Uh, councilwoman, what we do there is we will talk to the talk to the customer. We'll close the account and then activate a new account under their name. Okay. Okay. So, when I suggested that to her, she says, "Well, I don't have my ID." I'm like, "Okay, so this is another obstacle." So, I guess that's where these other agencies can hopefully help. Like I I tried to refer her to another agency that would help with IDs so that she could get her ID cuz you have to have ID in order to open the account.

But there's different forms of ID that are accepted though, valid IDs. There's different forms.

Okay. But I am glad that this uh you know the the council some of the council members did bring up this issue because it is something that you know people are struggling on a regular basis but every like you said every situation is different. I just wanted to highlight that um I am grateful that uh Drew Molly was able to you know um get about 86,000 I think y'all said or 80 okay um but I was just calculating what what that person had said and I think she said it was for it was 48,000 and 48 480 accounts so that's like a thousand for each account something like that I mean I just heard that I'm like wow that's a lot of money per person But it's okay. I mean, I'm just saying that um we I think that if we keep working at this, we'll come up with with the with a solution. So,

thank you, Councilwoman. Councilwoman Paxton Nick, do we have um or what's the difference between a standard reconnect and a a reconnect if it were done after hours or on the weekend in terms of price? Yes, I Excuse me. forgive me. Yeah, there's no there's no price difference really. Okay. I had some people reach out just while we're having this discussion saying that that that their experience is it's like $250 to try to turn on after hours as an emergency reconnect. Uh I'm I'm not aware of that. We can look into that. Okay. Um

I do I do know other systems have that. I mean I' I've lived in other places and I've seen that.

Sure. So, I guess first I I commend Councilman Cantou for bringing this forward. I appreciate that that his efforts are always thinking of the community member and I appreciate you having this presentation, Nick. This is actually very helpful to work with this item. the things that I hear in the community and and what I'm hearing from you guys is the 50% is a guideline, but what I hear from the community alludes nothing to the 50% is that if there's a disconnect and they can't pay their bill, it's 50% non-negotiable upfront or there's no reconnection and they kind of come very distressed and they're distressed. They're embarrassed and their feeling is, "I couldn't pay. I couldn't afford my bill in the first place. I don't have 50% right now. I'm still dealing with a disconnect. Now I'm having to tell people about it." I feel like they don't reach out to us unless they feel like there's something that's still a barricade if they're not getting through to city. And I and yes, some people will go to their representative before calling city and we try to redirect them city. Um, but it's it's it's usually that 50% is is one of the top things that I hear, which is a barricade to to folks when they've fallen into a delinquency situation. So, I don't want to say that what you guys are saying is that it's a scale. I don't want to say that's incorrect. So, I I'm not sure how it's connecting to the actual caller or the the end user, but somewhere that feeling is I don't have 50% and I need to get my water back on. Somewhere that's broken down and and I'm again I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but that's the feedback

that I get from customers. The other thing um so you said a maximum of two broken payment arrangements is allowed within 12 months. Um that's another sticking point is they'll call and they'll be like, "I got my water back on, but of course my water got disconnected because I was in financial hardship and now I finally got it back on and now I'm still in financial hardship. So I missed another payment. So now my water's back off. Now I'm in another another trouble situation. know I owe 50% of two bills and it's really a distressed situation and I'm encouraged to hear that there's 23 orgs or agencies but the problem from the users is when they're trying to call either one those agencies are usually so busy they're not getting through often

or two sometimes they're saying their funds are exhausted that there's a lot of challenge still so it becomes really daunting so I'm curious how if there's There's still I think she said 50 did she say 30 or 50,000 left in that fund. I forget. I'm curious how we can create that situation to where they're not chasing 23 orgs. I'm glad they're there, but it's it's not always a guarantee that help is available through any of them at a at a given time because a lot of them are helping with other things as well. So, their resources are limited.

Right. We we don't control those agencies and how they operate. They all operate under their own separate uh rules and and and guidelines. Our goal is to try and direct people to someone we think that can provide help and assistance. So, but at the end of the day, I can't control who has, you know, who can help out and who who can, who's busy, who's open, who's not.

I absolutely understand that. I'm just saying if we insert this uh partnership with Mission 911 as like a first threshold, especially while there's still funding available, it may cut out some of those other points where there could be failure. And then where you say in the agency assistance portion that their pledge um is part of the down payment and the customer is responsible for the other half. Have you been have you guys experienced where even having this water fund that their pledge does not match the 50% or the bill total to get service back on or

right I think that those are one of those circumstances that Margaret was doing a great job of explaining is where we'll work together. So, say say you have an agency that uh may cover 28 and a half% like Margaret said, they're they're working with us. The the goal is not to to shut them off uh from water for all the reasons that that all of you have talked about tonight.

Maybe that's something we can look at is why do they have this impression that the 50% is just a cold, fast, hard, we don't move around it. Maybe maybe they just see it on a website. Maybe they hear it from their neighbors. I had to pay 50%. Somewhere something is like, I I can't get you 50% so I'm going to suffer without my water on.

Right. I can't I can't speak to that. Uh but I can speak to how staff interacts with them and and and the the level of effort that they make to try and help and assist. Has there ever been something um to Councilman Cantou's thought like a a rate class or special designation for our senior slash mil veteran? Because I know when we were when we've been going over this variance uh discussion, there are some minor differences among rate classes that we have levers to exercise. Just a question that may be a resource.

Yeah, right. I I I know it's I know historically well before I came to the city, it's been talked about where we run into problems is to inappropriately uh assisting a certain group in totality and focusing on that group and not and not having the ability to to help all of those people who need help. Right? So you you don't want to put all your efforts into a certain group, whatever it is, and and maybe 10% of them really need help, but you but you're foregoing the help on the other uh individuals who need assistance. So it's it's hard it's hard to set up a program because you may be dis uh proportionately assisting

a a a segment of the population. Councilman Scott,

I'll be quick. Hey Margaret, thank you so much for what you do. I think you're amazing. This has been wonderful to listen to all that you do and the compassion your team has. Uh you're amazing. Uh um it sounds to me like we need to work hard to create more more really good paying jobs, which means we want to support industry in any and every way that we can because that's what's helped increase our average pay rate, which you know helps keep people the ability to pay their utilities. I I remember the days when we had a massive unpaid uh account and and the the community went was really angry and the sense was hey that we have to we have to pay that the the community does. So that's the flip side of this is that we need compassionate uh support, but we also need to understand the financial and I think frankly you guys are. So I I just want to say that. Lastly, uh do other cities just take an amount and set it aside and send it to some organization like Mission 911? Is that or is that always through a um uh you know some other financial avenue?

You you know I I can't speak to a lot of different cities. what what we would like to do at CCW is is set up a program inhouse to manage that uh going forward in the future. Would you take a an an amount like you know we we write y'all raised 86,000 and we we gave it to Mission 911 but we didn't have it this year. Do some cities just allocate a certain amount of money to to an assistance for uh fund? Could if you're going to come back and talk to us about that later, I'd love to kind of We're going to come back and talk to you. the mayor's working on we're working with the mayor on a program but um I can speak for San Antonio so the city of San Antonio dedicated certain amount of monies every year

and and the utility did San Antonio water system and then uh there's opportunity for individuals to to contribute money throughout the entire year that maybe one time philanthropic donations uh so there's there's it depends on who's giving the money some of the entities have a fixed amount they try to give that's what I was wondering yeah but so we I talked to Drew through about this because it it is something that we do not have did not have at CCW and we really do need to have a utility assistance program. It's pretty common. Okay. It's very common in across the utility sector, you know, across the country. We just never never did one. Okay. I appreciate it. So, we'll have more information coming. The mayor's working on something pretty uh pretty earnest uh pretty aggressively and and that'll be a good news story for the community.

Okay. Thank you. It's all ahead. Yeah. Councilman Hernandez.

Okay. I think there was a little bit misunderstanding of what I was trying to say here is that I don't know what your formalized policy is. If somebody asked me, I wouldn't be able to explain it. I don't know where I would find that policy online on our website. I think what we need is just more better information as to what that is, what it isn't. And you know, to Councilman Cantou's mention, I think it was Sam Kaine beef that hadn't paid in a while. But I also have the example of uh the old King's Crossing golf course where they owed us like $65,000 in back water bills that we never collected. As a matter of fact, I tried to get uh Paul Chapoa to put it on a on a lean so we can put a lean on the property to get try and recover the funding. I don't think we ever did that. Um, so there there's just want a formalized understanding of how that's how this works, how we work with with the partner agencies that help do this. um and then have, you know, maybe look at those policies cuz if you have I mean does a late fee apply to your um if you're on a payment plan

that there is no there's no the late if you're on a payment arrangement a payment plan we're not continually charging you the late fee. Are you sure? Yes. Right. If they're on a payment plan we're not charging the late fees. That's correct. Okay. So, yes, I'm sure. Okay. But by the time they got to that payment plan, I mean, they're probably $500, $600 in in a rears. Hopefully, they have reached out and are are working with us, especially if they're having issues paying a bill that we can set them up on a payment plan to avoid that.

Okay. uh if you can come back to come back with you know some formalized policy plan something because like I it's not on the it's not online uh maybe we put that online if you're having difficulties with your your payments that you could do that okay thank you council excuse me councilman Kentu real quick um first of all thank thank you guys for everything you guys do but it's unfortunately that you know I hear different stories from different people um I really like to meet with you Nick and your team about this

and make some make some um um different policies. Um I just um somebody just text me uh inbox me on Facebook told me that, you know, they they owed a couple grand on a water bill and um I guess she owed it from some time ago and um she moved into a new house and they made her pay that $2,000 before they put the water on. Um, so I think everybody's story is different. I think everybody every operator sometimes is different. Sometimes they don't like maybe having a bad day doesn't tell them, "Hey, we got this resources." You know, nobody's perfect. Um, but I would like to to sit with you guys and figure out a plan and just to make sure that people do have um access to water if you know if they don't have that much money. You know, we can't pick and choose. I think we need to protect everybody who who needs help, especially when it comes to um water. Um it's a it's a need and um and I do know you guys do help Mission 911 and other other um places cuz I reached out to them a few times and they did help and whatever the case is. But a lot of times, you know, um they don't have all the documentation they need to to um be set up with Mission 911 or someone else, you know, and um and these are seniors that we're talking about, you know, they they can't work. So, I mean, they're they're older people, you know, that's that's who we got to protect. So, thank you. Appreciate it. Um, you know what? I'd like to see some data. Maybe you can keep us informed on how many how many accounts are delinquent, how many are senior

citizens, and most importantly, how many you help every month and and break those down to some of the things you've heard. the senior citizens. How many of these senior citizens water their water's being just cut off? Because that's a very big concern for me if that is happening. But I think this has brought forth a good thing because you y'all are doing a great thing and I'm not going to go on and on. It's 7:40. But but I think it would be very helpful for the council to know how many like you said, Nick, nobody none of us would have known that we have very few delinquent accounts. And that's impressive and that goes to show the work we're doing because there are there are people in need everywhere. And I was Peter and I were in a meeting yesterday on finance, our finance and the outlook. It it was countrywide you know inflation um and unemployment um you know oil and gas our gas prices is it is not good and we all see that you know at almost $5 a gallon. I mean it's fluctuating but my point there is I don't see things getting better before they get worse unfortunately and that means struggles for people who you know I mean it was such a good uh conversation or discussion um but but anyhow I think it would be very helpful for us Margaret to to really break it down so we can see and there's always you know the the kind of like the sideliner that that may fall in you know between the cracks and I know y'all probably do your best But um obviously this you know we we care quite a bit and and I also wanted to make it a point I I love that you have 23 organizations because for example the $30,000 we have that is only for people who are on that on Tannif and SNAP if you don't fall in

that level of income you can't touch the money so it's very Yes. So, so it's very much um I guess it's it's it's it's got those parameters that if if they don't fall in that category, then you've got to thank God you've got the 23 because I'm sure people call you who make over $54,000 a year but are having hardships. Maybe they don't make 70,000 and and those 23 organizations are who's going to help them. So, anyhow, two quick things. Can we put a rain barrel or can we consider putting purchasing a rain barrel on the utility bill? If somebody said, "I'd like to p maybe just one per year or something." I I don't know. I don't know if people need more than one, but if somebody said, "I would love to buy a rainarrel. Put it on my bill." Can we do that? Look into that. And um what was the second thing? Oh, uh a little flyer. So, so maybe some of these people don't know as was mentioned earlier that there is help through you can go to Catholic Charities, you can go to Mission 911, you can go to community action or uh Noasis community action committee. Um or or you can call the water department and and look at those 23, right? But maybe a little flyer in the utility bill saying these organizations can also provide help might help us help them. All right. So, oh, we have two more. Councilwoman Paxton,

I forgot to ask real quick. Do you know how many reconnects you do a year? I'd have to get you that information. Yeah, I can I I'll get it for you, but I I don't know in in a calendar year or fiscal year or what do you calendar year is fine. Okay. I appreciate it. Thank you, Councilwoman Compost.

Uh, Mayor, thank you so much for uh opening that line about the uh rain barrels because that is a pet peeve of mine. I don't know how many I've I've have purchased for our nonprofit organization, but that is an issue and I hope that we will. I know this is not gerine to this, but I'm glad that she the mayor brought it up. Um, the other issue that happens with the rain barrels is just picking it up. Like I have a small car. I mean, I could barely fit it into my car, but it would be something if we could get the waste department to be able to deliver like they do our, you know, our um recycle or our our bins so that when somebody purchases, they can take it to the to the home, you know, deliver it whenever it's scheduled or whatever. But again, this is yeah,

not really part of the conversation, but I'm glad you it you said something. Well, it is because the other part of that was um somebody asked me about delivery. I just forgot to mention it, but that could be something y'all can just think about like um a senior citizen or 65 or and over. I I don't know. There's a cost to that. So, someone has to pay for that. So, something to think about. I I think it's a good point. Okay. Thank you. All righty. Okay. So, with that, I'm going to ask everyone to submit or did we do No, there's there's no vote on this. Oh, I'm looking at the ordinance. I'm sorry. Okay. Um, we do have a water supply update. Yeah, we have one more item. That's a water supply update by Nick Wkelman. Margaret, thank you for staying so late.

Oh, Margaret, thank you so much for staying for being here. Thank you. Yeah.

Okay, mayor and council, uh, our water supply projects update. So we typically we go through all of the projects that we are working on uh in regard to diversifying our water supply portfolio. We'll review our surface water sources, groundwater, the wastewater reuse, and then our seawater projects. We'll start with the surface water first. I I'd like to uh just show this is uh information from the National Weather Service that they provided to us on Monday. Um generally there was uh a little bit of rain 0.5 in to two inches within different areas of our watershed. The circles on the map donate or denote the reservoirs. The one on the left is Choke Canyon. Uh closer to the city is Lake Corpus Christi and then the one furthest to the east of course is Lake Teana. So with the the storm was beneficial. have provided a little bit of rainfall to all of the relevant areas of our surface water supply. Little bit of history on uh Lake Corpus Christi and again uh this information was compile compiled by our partners at the National Weather Service. We really can't thank them enough for sitting with us every week to go through uh both what has happened and what is projected to happen. So on May 11th, uh you can see Lake Corpus Christi was over 11% full. Uh whereas a year ago it was 21.2% full. And you can see we were uh one month ago and one week ago as low as 8.5%. Just a little bit of historic information for you

current and this is numbers from yesterday. Lake Corpus Christi 11.4, Choke Canyon was at 7.4. The combined western reservoirs were 8.5%. Yesterday, Lake Texana, the Lvaka Navad River Authority reported a reservoir capacity of 79%. Uh that is welcome news. And just as a reminder, and we say this a lot, but that reservoir uh drains relatively fast, but it fills relatively fast. It's a pretty efficient watershed, and we're thankful for the beneficial rain there. The lower Colorado River uh has also benefited. There's currently all of the water that we have requested from the lower Colorado River Authority has been available and there's no uh we'll call it a watch uh on our request. So they've been they've been saying the water we are requesting is available. The groundwater projects we have the Evangeline groundwater project also known as the San Patricio County groundwater project. Uh we have not yet heard any information from the administrative law judge uh on her opinion from the preliminary hearing. Uh we did through the sellers's attorney receive some correspondence yesterday um essentially stating that that that opinion would be forthcoming uh later this week. So we are we are watching that carefully and seeing what happens. Currently uh 48,000 linear feet of pipe has been delivered to the project site. Um, Garnney Construction has mobilized. They have their construction trailers set up and their offices established so

we can continue our efforts in developing this project. The again the administrative law judge, we hope to have some kind of information this week so we can understand a path forward and uh how that affects or doesn't affect our well permit applications. the newasis groundwater program. Um the program continues. The eastern well fields operating the western wellfield. There's seven wells online. The eighth well will be online uh later this week. So we're excited about that. And then the ninth well we will be test pumping and conducting a water quality analysis uh this week as well. Drilling continues on wells 10, 11, and 12 on that on that site. Uh one thing to note that uh we have uh submitted a variance request to the TCQ uh for the western well field to relax the water monitoring program that does essentially limit the production of our wells uh due to various TDS levels in the river. So TCQ has received it and we will wait for them. I'm sure they will reach out with questions. We'll have subsequent meetings.

And Nick, about approximately how much water are we getting from the western wellfield? Sure. So, so currently the the western wellfield is about 9 to 10 MGD and then the eastern wellfield is about 4 and a half MGD. That is with the current restrictions. And then we'll be bringing on another well later this week. So about 15 in total then. That that's that's a fair number. Yeah, it's about that amount. Okay,

our brackish groundwater uh treatment project. This is a big component of the puzzle. Um we are working with TCQ on the permitting for the discharge for the required discharge of the plant. Again, the plant will be located at Owen Stevens. The the advantage there is uh the proximity to distribution as well as we have available power at Owen Stevens. Uh the conveyance line is is at 58% design. Garver is conducting that. We will have multiple contractors working to bring that conveyance line from the western wellfield to Owen Stevens. The projected completion of that line is in uh December of this calendar year. Uh the pump station is in design and we are getting ready to finalize um the procurement of the pumps associated with the pump station at the Western field. Uh there will be two 500,000galon ground storage tanks at Owen Stevens. There'll be one 3 milliongal ground storage tank at the Westernfield. all of those tanks. Uh the procurement is complete and they are uh on order and we are working with our our um our supplier, our contractor to to get those installed and fabricated as soon as possible. Uh there's ongoing site civil work at Owen Stevens. And then electrical I mentioned uh power was available at Owen Stevens which is a very very important part of this puzzle. There is uh we will be working with a uh they will be providing some temporary transformers so that we can have power available for the first phase of the

project and then there will be permanent equipment after that wastewater reuse. Thank you all for your affirmative vote today. That was an extremely critical part of this project. Um, this is a it's a multi-phase project and it includes work that's being done by uh private partners such as Valero and Flint Hills. There's work that's being done by the city and our design engineers and now our construction manager at risk, Raych. All of this is is coming together in the effort of being able to utilize 16 plus million gallons a day of effluent water that is beneficial because it's a water supply demand offset. We are um one of the advantages of our situation is we have large users that can take that water. Uh if you look at Valero who is will utilize 8 million gallons a day. That's 8 million gallons a day that go to one place. We don't have to have multiple lines. We don't have to pump it in different directions. It really sets us up for success in a manner that will reduce our water supply in a very efficient manner. the um the the the Seymar project that that you approved today and uh because of the great support. We didn't go through the uh presentation, but the projection is to have that line and pump station completed. It'll be middle of next calendar year. So, so look at uh July time frame plus or minus. We'll know more as the team continues to work through that. Our next efforts involve seawater

desalination. Um the target is to bring a contract to this body for consideration on June 2nd. That's with the Corpus Christi Del partners staff continues to work with them both surrounding the technical parts of the proposal and of course the legal parts of the contract as well. Uh we have additional meetings this week and we are working ve very diligently both city staff and the Corpus Christie del partners we can bring uh a a good contract to this council for consideration on June 2nd. The farfield modeling committee meetings continue to happen. We had a meeting last week. Our next meetings are May 21st and May 28th. The farfield modeler would also be presenting his findings to this council on June 2nd. The um we are we are working if if the project is approved, we would be working to award a contract for an owner's representative as well. And then fourthcoming would be an RFP for an operations and maintenance agreement. the Harbor Island seawater desalination project. Um just a repeat from last week, the TCQ draft intake permit is in hand. The draft discharge permit is in hand. There's a public meeting scheduled on u May 27th. That's at the Ortiz Center. That's a function of the the requirements of the discharge permit. The NRA has contracted with LN, Lockwood, Andrews, and Norton to design their conveyance line. We um we are

coordinating a meeting with them. CCW is we want to understand where they're at on the design of the conveyance line because if there will be a water supply agreement we need to understand the most costefficient manner in which we can make our connection and provide that get that water into our system. So that meeting will be scheduled within the next week. Uh Barney Davis Seawater Desalination as all of you know CPS Energy has agreed to collaborate with the city and that collaboration will be in um the form of potentially a lease agreement on the property or maybe even a sale agreement on the property. The city uh continues to look into options which may include creating a public possibly a public utility agency. We will continue to evaluate potential partners uh for a public utility agency. CC Polymers uh we met with Aquitech uh last late last week and that was a very good meeting. Aquitech has uh stated they would like to provide some information to city staff to consider. We're hoping to have that next week. They continue to work closely with CC Polymers on the path and their schedule on the full buildout of that plant. Um the the work is proceeding. If you recall, the first phase of the project is about 9.4 million gallons a day. that potentially would be available tw one year from the date of uh uh financial

you call a financial close or basically when that contract is said agreed upon and uh all parties have agreed to it. So we don't have again we're waiting on some information from Aquatech. I don't we made some initial uh statements about how we like to see the contract structured but those those discussions will continue in earnest once we have a little more information. One thing that Aquatech did um state during our meeting this past week is um they feel that there there's no additional modifications needed to the intake or discharge permit. One thing I do want to remind everyone is there will be a TCQ permit required for the because it will be a portable water supply plant and TCQ will have to permit that new plant. There's been no changes to this uh this plan two meetings ago as requested by the council to include this as part of the presentation. This is the projected delivery of new water supplies. This is the same chart that's on the uh last page of the water supply memo. One thing to note, there's a couple of things to note. One is once we have the information from the administrative law judge that may or may not affect the delivery of the evangelene project. Uh we plan to update it once we have that information. The other things that may change is our reuse projects. We know uh Valero feels very confident about uh delivering their portion of the project ahead of schedule which means they could

take the initial 3 million gallons a day a lot sooner than what was initially projected. Uh they've requested a little more time before I update the schedule just so that they can confirm the dates. And then the other component is Flint Hills Resources. So their their contract is starting with 1 to two million gallons a day and going up to three. That is from the uh Allison wastewater treatment plant. Flynn Hills is working very hard to move up that time frame. Um, I'm waiting for some confirmation from them, but we we're we're believing that it'll be very favorable that they'll start using one to two MGD as early as as late summer, July, August kind of time frame. So once I once I have a little more better information and the team is confident on it, I will update this this document. Another item that we talked about last week is the water conservation plan. So the the committee has been working very hard on that. Uh the the draft will be available for the committee and all of you to review on May 13th. We've we've worked to set up some uh council discussions on that so we can get input from you. We are expecting to bring this uh to council for consideration on May 19th. And I do want to applaud uh both staff and the committee for their hard work on this. Uh there were some very insightful meetings and very insightful discussions. So that that process we're we're thankful to all the volunteers who assisted in that and the full committee who provided their input. With that, mayor and councel, I'll stand by for any questions.

Uh, Councilwoman Paxton. Thank you. Um, I was curious when we did that, um, we did the motion to authorize or direct staff to talk to or look at the proposal from Axe H2O. I would have thought there'd be like a little reference to that since it was an official action taken um under Barney Davis just to kind of you know we're building a a story here. We're built we're we're staying consistent. We're keeping everybody just transparently up to date with all the actions we're taking. Sure. I thought that would have been referenced even though we're not taking action.