City Council - Regular Meeting

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to City Hall and Council Chambers. This meeting is called to order. Today, our invocation will be given by pastor Kevin Jennings with Mount Olive Lutheran Church. Pastor?

Good morning, honorable mayor, council members, and citizens of our city. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. Eternal lord, ruler of all, graciously regard those who have been set in positions of authority among us, especially the mayor and city council of our city. The guided by your spirit, they may be high and purpose wise and counsel, firm in good resolution, and unwavering in duty, that under them we may be governed quietly and peaceably through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Amen. Thank you, pastor. And our pledge of allegiance to the flag of The United States and to the Texas state flag will be led by Audrey Cox. She's a senior at Arlington Christian Academy, a National Honor Society member, and a nine year participant at the Nueces County Junior Livestock Show. Audrey?

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

Audrey, thank you, and good luck in your studies.

Thank you.

Miss Huerta, would you please call the roll?

Mayor Paulette Guajardo? Present. Council members Roland Barrera?

Here.

Council member Sylvia Campos will be participating by Webex. I don't know if she's joined us yet. Miss Campos?

Yes, here.

Okay. May we see you also?

Yes.

There you are. Thank you. Eric Antu? Gil Hernandez? Here. Kaylin Paxson? Here. Everett Roy?

Here.

Mark Scott? Here. Carolyn Bond? Here. Deputy City Manager Michael Rodriguez?

Here.

City Attorney Miles Risley?

Here.

Mayor and council, a quorum of the council and the required charter officers are present to conduct the meeting.

Great. Thank you, miss Wapna. That takes us to section e, and that is our city manager's, comments and update on city operations. And today standing in for mister Zanoni is Michael Rodriguez.

Thank you, mayor. Good morning, everyone. We have one item this morning.

We have a presentation that Jeff Admins will provide to the the city council and community. Just wanted to give you a quick heads up on a North Padre Island seawall community meeting we have tomorrow. So I'll turn it over to Jeff to give you the details.

Okay. I'm gonna go over a little bit of review about the project, and this is the the first meeting that we've had that's really directed at the the general public. So this review for everybody, the the seawall prior to the project, the situation was that the seawall was privately built back in the late sixties, early seventies. It is in a poor state of repair. The owners,

due

to prior legal rulings, they cannot restrict public access to it. They couldn't get insurance on it. The any catastrophic damage was not eligible for FEMA public assistance. And some of these questions over the the seawall were an impediment to to development there. So these are some prior actions.

This is a project that was first included in the FY '24 CIP to rehabilitate the seawall. We've had some various meetings, like I said, that were directed at the the property owners and acquiring the the easements that we needed to assume maintenance and to construct this project. In January '25, the city voted to accept the easements and to assume maintenance responsibility of the seawall, which is a a huge boon to the the adjoining property owners there. And I think that has the potential to really unlock development in the area. Now one thing that I've been pursuing over based on the challenges that we had with the the PACRI channel and the the FEMA reimbursements, we tried to take action to help ensure we don't go through a similar, I guess, do loop with FEMA if there's ever any catastrophic damage to the seaball.

So we've we got a letter in February 25 that we think is going to help enable us to receive FEMA public assistance in the event that the seawall is damaged. And you may recall we had some funding issues with Tirsch too. And in January, we took action to be able to fully fund this project. That might be a little hard to read. That's the current CIP page that was adapt adopted at that January and just under $17,000,000 total project budget.

Next steps. So we have incorporated some landscape architecture features into the design that is gonna be previewed for the first time with the public. We have, as per the easement agreements, the adjacent property owners have reviewed those and and approved that. Some prior looks at this that you might have seen, we had some benches and some shade umbrellas. The folks primarily in the condos were not in agreement with that.

They didn't want any of those in front of their property. So the the adjacent property owners have previewed this and agreed to what we're proposing. We're having the meeting tomorrow and to to go over the path forward on the project. We're planning on advertising for bids this summer. Hope to start construction shortly after Labor Day. And this is the advertisement of the meeting. Everyone is invited. It's at Wyndham at 05:30 tomorrow. That concludes my comments.

Great. Thank you, Jeff. Councilwoman Peckson.

Thank you. Jeff, thank you for the presentation. I'm really appreciative to the staff council and the board for prioritizing this for especially District 4, but for the whole city. This will be a project that adds tremendous protection and enhancement to that area. And so I really do hope everyone tremendous takes note and comes out and provides some feedback so that we can make sure when we go into that a 100% design and we move forward that it looks good. But I I just wanna say thank you for your hard work. I know that the teams had worked tremendously diligent to make sure that this was fully funded and highly prioritized. So thank you for that.

Jeff, is there going

to be you you said the meeting is for kinda to overlook what the path forward looks like. Is there we don't have a timeline right now in terms of what we think we're going to how much time we're gonna need to take care of this, improve it?

For the construction? Mhmm. I I think it's gonna be over a year of of construction. I don't have the exact amount. Craig Thompson with Hanson is the project manager. He's gonna go over the details about the construction. And I'm gonna go over some of it's gonna be review. I'm I'm gonna go over some of the background on this that that you've seen previously. And, you know, why we're doing this and the steps we've been through and kind of the some of the issues that legacy issues that have existed on this. And then Craig is gonna go over the current condition and what they're proposing to do and and what these new features are.

Okay. And that's great. I think it's important that we get input from the community, the direct community out there. So thank you. We appreciate the the briefing. Is was that the was that all you had, Michael? Oh, Councilwoman Paxson, do you have another comment?

The question on the timeline reminded me. I appreciate also, and I'm sure we'll bring this up tomorrow at the meeting. One of the things we talked about rightly was trying to facilitate our peak seasons in that beach with that construction, which you said it could take a little over a year, and I think that would drive that number as well. So I'm sure we'll talk in detail on that tomorrow.

Absolutely. Yes.

Thank you, Jeff.

Jeff, thank you for the presentation. Michael, thank you. So it's 11:42. We're gonna go ahead and start our public comment. And so as we begin the meeting, I wanna take a moment to address the rules of decorum. The Council Chambers is a place of public business, a forum for civic discussion and decision making and service to the people of Corpus Christi. It's not a stage for personal attacks or disruptions or, vulgarities, so we're not gonna tolerate those violations of decorum. We're here to do the people's work, so let's proceed in that spirit. If you would like to speak on a specific agenda item during its discussion, you do not need to sign up beforehand. I will ask for public comment when the council considers the item.

At that time, you may come up to the podium and speak. And I will ask city attorney Miles Roosley to review the council meeting rules of decorum, which will appear on the television screens above.

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

Thank you, mister Russeling. So in person comments are limited to three minutes. For call in or Webex video speakers, Corpus Christi residents receive three minutes and non residents up to one minute. A visible timer positioned near our city secretary's desk will help manage the allotted time. And if you have a petition or any relevant information, please present it to the city secretary before speaking. And today, we have 22 speakers, and we will start with Robin Sanders. Miss Sanders.

Good morning. I'm Robin Sanders, district 1. Wanna start with the oath of office that each of you took. I was here and watched it. You end your oath of office with and so help me, God.

I wanna speak today about the travesty of the FEMA fraud attempted. We know that this happened. We know that it was let go criminally, But what we did not hear about or discuss was who are the people that perpetrated this fraud? One of them is Devin, actually, Devandra Bhakta. Who is he?

He's the chief of the board of directors of the appraisal district. How did he get there? You appointed him. Are there any repercussions to Devin Bachto for attempting to steal $2,000,000 in potential tax money? And we wonder, why are our taxes going up?

It's because of that type of action. So what do we do about it? You have to do something about it because you appointed him. You can remove him. He's in an extremely powerful position.

And I can tell you now, as a land man, he fully takes advantage of that position. You don't just wake up one morning and say, gee, I think I'm gonna rip off $2,000,000. I'm going to do it by committing fraud on a FEMA document. That's premeditated. He's probably done it before.

He'll probably do it again. It is your honor that's at stake, and it's our money that's at stake. How can you allow someone with that low of credibility in a position to do that? For our city attorney, Texas State Tax Code chapter 6.033. That's where you need to look.

You file a resolution. The exact pathway to do this is written in that code and also reference 6.035. Please do your duty.

Thank you, miss Sanders. Bradley Bartleson.

Think you have the order out there. This isn't slide one. Still, gotta go back, please. Brad Bartleson, Corpus Christi. We can no longer stand to have one vote at a time and selling water to all comers.

We need a city strategic defining our values and strengths, what we want to become. For example, do we continue taking on more industry for city revenue at the expense of our beaches, fisheries, and tourism? With a city strategic plan, we can decide how much water we need to produce and for who. Our strategy will protect us from AI data center operations that that incur high power demand, raising the cost of power, have high water demand, offer few jobs, and revenue going elsewhere. Our bad bootstrap energy deal saw huge tax abatements, didn't get the jobs, and incurred high water use.

So are we making good deals or simply funding campaigns based on economic growth when our industry tax abatements cost millions of dollars per employees. From our city strategic plan, we generate a water strategic plan displaying cost of living impacts and use figures of merit to make water sales decisions. Cost benefit analysis of water resource options moves us from one at a time and opinion votes onto physics and finance and using portfolio decision making. Cost benefit ratio needs to be our common lingo. On the left, our water resource options are ranked by this, ranging from point zero three to point seven three.

The green highlighted group is a portfolio selected by best cost benefit ratio meeting a demand of 163,000,000 gallons a day. Recently, water projects were advanced on a one at a time basis, totaling four zero eight million with no referendum, no cost benefit ratio, no portfolio analysis. And we've not seen transparency that our shortage has been driven by industrial demand amidst decreasing residents demand. The Mary Roads pipeline is our largest current source, was recently brought up to 70 MGD. Now we understand it has a potential of 100.

Forty year and and recent precipitation maps show that this can be relied on in periods of drought in our watershed. The pink area has the San Antonio, Mission, Guadalupe, Blanco, Aransas Rivers running under the MRP offering cheap fresh water to swiftly add to our capacity. As a point of fact, the voice of the people is three to one against Inner Harbor when this is done on an equivalent fair basis. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Bartleson. Sandra Meyer? Sandra Meyer? Mister Polowell?

Ready? Thank you, ma'am. Okay. So I'd like to start with mister Cantu. Thank you, sir. Last time I was here well, a couple of times ago, you were talking to mister mister Weasley off Harry Potter, and you were saying that asking him if it was legal, illegal, for him to violate my rights, and he said, it wasn't as simple as that. Well, it was and is as simple as that. That's why I'm talking right now. So, mister Weasley, from Harry Potter, you're either corrupt, you're a liar, or my personal opinion, you are both. And if you are both, the council controls your job.

Citizens control council. So if y'all don't want him working anymore, tell them. If they keep them here, get rid of every single one of them. That makes sense? And you got one less corrupt person here. Right? That's how that works. Alright. I'm again here to talk about mister officer Martinez. I had a little chat with the chief last time I was here. Gave me some excuses of why they got into the house with no probable cause. Either way, mister Martinez is not allowed to beat women. Okay. The excuse is is that he has a badge, so now he gets to sit at home and we gotta pay for it. I think that's BS.

What do y'all think? BS. Alright. I am wearing a police shirt. I went to the police academy. I got certified. Can I go in into your houses and beat up your sister or daughter? If I did, would I be sitting at home getting paid? No. So that's aggravated assault, which it says person, not cop. Person. He's a person. There's no exemption from being a cop. None. He should've been thrown in jail until he could bond out. Of course, if he's poor like most people, you sit in jail for a hundred and eighty days till you get a speedy track. He didn't get no bond. He gets to sit at home on taxpayers taxpayers dollars sitting there getting paid. I don't think that's right. How about you?

Laws lose authority the moment the people enforcing them become exempt. If the law only applies to citizens but not the badge politicians or or government in general, that is a form of control. A free society cannot survive under double standards. So what are we gonna do about it? One law equal accountability with no exceptions. Power without accountability becomes corrupt. Rule for thee is never freedom for me. That makes sense? So, mister Weasley, whenever you're ready and you want to, you can give me public apology. If not, I'll be up here every single time coming up here and talking just about you.

Does that make sense to you? Can you get that through your brain or not? What you did was wrong. You're a tyrant, and it's not fair to the public. So I thank you for your time. Appreciate you letting me talk. Mister mister Cantu. Good job, sir. He's piece of shit.

Chris Gilbert. Chris Gilbert. Statement of fact.

Yes. Statement of fact here. Just wanted for for mister Falwell's information. With regards to the police officer, we do have a, an agreement with the Police Officers Association that is kind of like a union agreement. So we do have some requirements that we do have to fulfill. It is not something that we are are doing intentionally. With respect to Miles Risley's employment, the under our charter, it is he's hired by the city manager and affirmed by council. So we don't have direct, authority over him direct in terms of his employment. However, there are opportunities to change the Charter at some point in the future. Thank you. Chris

Gilbert. Is Chris Gilbert here? Alejandro Chaviria or Chavira. Sorry.

Alejandro Chaveira District 3. I'm back today to talk about these how could I call them rain cashiers that I've been talking about. These systems are in place already in other countries, but they only run like five or six panels, maybe 15 feet tall feeding 20 to 30,000 people in villages. What I'm talking about is making the whole river system a way to get more water into the river. This would require more than the Oasis County.

This would require every county that sits along the Oasis River. And the reason I'm saying that is I've studied the underground rivers and I've seen them. When I used to build water burgers up in West Of Houston, Northwest Of Houston. We saw the big holes and you could see the rivers underneath running underneath. I mean, might have been maybe a 100 feet down you could see these rivers.

What's happening is man is just building and building, not realizing that how are you going to keep up with this you know, this people, this industry? You're you're just draining and draining. We're not having no rain right now. So that's even worse. These require rains to happen for them to you know put more water into the system and all we're doing is draining and draining and draining.

What I'm talking about is something that's never been attempted by any country, nobody. Like I said they do five six panels. I'm talking about hundreds of panels. I mean, I've already collected on a three by four panel that doesn't move. Remember the rain last night? Well, I already got close to 10 gallons on a little panel. I mean, you know, we're we're here we're wasting time. That's why I needed this meeting with you guys. I cannot talk about everything right here in three minutes. Another thing is foundations.

Everybody's having problems with foundations? Get black river rock. Take the soil away from the foundation. Go about maybe about eight inches down and come about a foot out and then slant right into the bottom of those eight inches and then pile those rocks in there, keep that place clean, you will see that those rocks are gonna make water. They're gonna keep that area moist.

I mean, me fortunately I have grass. Another thing is the problem that I'm seeing is that when they're building houses and stuff like that everybody forgets about solar orientation. These guys if we took another hour to plan these houses, sorry. I'll I'm still waiting for the phone call.

Thank you Mr. Chavez. Scott Barasa.

Good afternoon council. Scott Barraza, Nueces County. Let's talk about the administrative stonewalling of information by the city. I recently submitted two public information request, one for the hydrologist reports and another for the well mitigation plan. Included in your packets are the results of those PIRs.

An outrageous price tag to produce two reports and the permit special conditions and the same four page document posted on the securing water website. Notice that condition four d is not fully included. The sentence literally ends with a comma and a blank space exactly as I pointed out during my last council comment. Since February I have repeatedly requested the written well mitigation plan contemplated under these permits. I submitted a PIR specifically seeking that document, yet to date the city has failed to identify any actual mitigation plan.

A monitoring program is not a mitigation plan. The permit contemplates action, not merely observation. So I have to ask, why can't the city produce this document? At some point, continued refusal to clarify compliance obligations begins to look less like oversight and more like deliver indifference. The repeated production of unrelated monitoring documents while refusing to answer direct questions regarding mitigation procedures appears to constitute constructive denial of information.

My request remain unanswered so I have filed an AG complaint in response to the documents I received in my PIR. I also requested a hydrology report I previously referenced here. First, I was told it could not be released because it was a draft. Then after resubmitting the exact same request, I was told it would require forty hours of labor and $723.50 to fulfill. That gives the optics of not wanting to release it, doesn't it?

Forty hours to place what is essentially two reports onto a flash drive. I requested clarification with the city on those costs. When that went unanswered, I submitted an AG cost complaint. I judge institutions by actions, not press releases not talking points and not promises actions. If I'm having this much trouble now just trying to get answers to how the city will deal with the issues caused by the wells what can I expect when actual real world issues start?

I've yet to see clear cut plans on how to deal with damaged whales. I've yet to see the source of the proof that these whales won't cause issues. The only thing I've seen is a stonewalling of information. If the Evangeline whales can potentially cause issues and is now granted a contested case status, what does that say about the noises groundwater wells? 24,000,000 gallons a day on 22,000 acres versus 27,000,000 gallons a day on 265 acres. I think you all know what is coming. And based on the actions I've seen, not the promises, the actions, if wells start filling, rural residents are going to be left shit out of luck. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Badassah. Michael, can we address that? Mister Rodriguez?

So our city attorney's office manages the freedom of information request. So Miles.

We've administered a public information request in accordance to state law. We handle between two and four thousand every year.

So are we working with him to get the plan he's asking for?

We have responded to the requestor in accordance with state law.

Councilwoman Paxton. Thank you.

I can give this to our constituent coordinator and ask for a copy to be made. Michael, if you could get a copy of each of these pages in mister Winkelmann's possessions, I would like a response to each of these questions so that it's relating to each item. I don't know where the breakdown is. Every time I ask mister Winkelmann, he feels he's provided the information. So I think this gives us a good outline that perhaps we can close some gaps. Can we do that? Yeah. Thank you. Do that.

Susie Saldanha. Oh, councilman Cantu.

Miles, are we really charging the public this kind of money to get open record requests? $15

an hour is actually a pretty I mean, it's hard to find people who will work for $15 an hour.

$723 for their information is pretty pretty. That's that's a lot of money. $723 for documents that they want to see.

$15 an hour is the statutory charge. We get that from the department we made the request to. And that's the time it takes for them to compile this information. Normally, our cost is going to be much higher than $15 an hour because it's hard to hire people at fifteen. So our cost is probably gonna be $1,500 to respond to the 1,500, maybe 2,000 to respond to that. And those departments don't have that Yeah. Just sitting around otherwise.

Is there cities that don't charge fees?

For information that's not currently available? I mean, I think also that this is the statutory methodology. It's a statutory cost plan. $15 an hour is I I that that's the statutory amount. I don't think there are cities that are charging less than 15 that I know of. Cities make vast amounts of information that are available to the cities, available to the to the public online. This is what he's requested is information that's not that hasn't been made available online, and we're simply charging the number of hours that have been reported to us by the department.

Okay. Thank you.

Susan, hold on. Yeah.

Okay. Now, where do I put this? I need to show it for it to show up on the screen.

Okay. We'll have to use that. There's a dot camera there. Let me get that free. Here.

Can someone assist?

You show me.

Thank Thank you. This is Susie Luna Sardagna and I come before you because you can be handling some things today and I need for you all as well as the people of Corpus Christi to understand where it's coming from. Who signed petitions and who signed impeachments. These are the people that are responsible, These are the people that are responsible for what you're going through. These are the people that are responsible for bringing it and you gotta tie the things together.

You've got people there and we all know about miss Corriero, she's the one that filed it, everybody talks about it. However, there are other people in there. People that need to be brought to the light, that people that need to know who is doing this and why. You've got a hotel in there that you refuse to look at the permits that they allegedly misinterpreted and were fraudulent. You refused to look at them because they were good people, but you're willing to hear about a $2,000,000 of a person whose life you have actually tried to destroy, that tried to destroy, tried to bring it down.

This is more than a witch hunt. This is on you, On you sitting on those benches to try to get it straightened out. Impartial are you impartial? Ask yourselves, what are you doing about this? These are the people that signed your removal and your impeachment. And why? So that someone else can sit in that chair from here till the end of the term? Is that what it's been looked for? It's a bit it's gonna be the highest boat getter. We all know that.

Who's gonna sit in that chair if you succeed in removing or impeaching the mayor? I am interested in justice. I am interested in stop spending our money. Stop spending it on things that are not easy to do and that you're doing as a political thing. Let's face it, it is political.

Don't tell me you're doing it for dignity and respect. If that was being done, then you would have found another way to do it. This is being done for political reasons, and I'm tired of it. And I'm tired of coming here and telling you what you need to do because you're not gonna do it. But the people, the citizens of Corpus Christi have a right to know who started it, why it was started by a competing hoteler, who you do not wanna touch, who is being paid, whether under the table, on top of the table. Let's find out.

Eddie Flores.

Eddie Flores, District 2 Corpus Christi, Texas. I am here. Let me tell you good afternoon. Good morning. I had a great visit with a a a in my district. It's a little district, and it's in District 2. I believe it's Silva Silva, Campos. She's my representative. But they send a city staffer. What a great attitude, man.

I mean, she explained everything. We we walked the whole block, the city staffer and I. And and and I come here because where I live, the sidewalks are terrible. And if you're in a wheelchair, even if it's a battery powered, you're gonna you're not gonna make it. But this city staffer was very polite, very knowledgeable, and, she took the time to explain to me. And I know my district is a Nolo district. I've lived there forty seven years and it's changed. And my District 2 where I live, it's by Del Mar College. Right off of Ayres or where the Ayres Bowling Lane is. And the problem there too was our streets is because we have no drainage.

There's no drainage. There's no sidewalks. And the sidewalks are there. They're broken up. Time and replacement needs to be done. But I came here to to say, look, I appreciate what everybody's doing here. It's not an easy job being a city council. I I realize it. And I don't wanna be like Austin and or San Antonio. I wanna be like Corpus Christi.

And you'd be surprised how many people love Corpus Christi. And our kids don't wanna live. They did not wanna, you know, go away from Corpus, but, you know, again, know, education, and so on and so forth. But in our area, and I I will invite the mayor and the the city manager or any city councilman, take a tour with me, walk with me. This morning as I did my walking and it rained some in my area, but we have no drains.

So the water just stays here and it's terrible. So I wanted to thank, personally, if Sylvia Campos is listening, thank you to the city staff for she was very polite, very knowledgeable, and mayor, she did a great job to explain to me how the system works. Thank you. God bless.

Thank you, mister Flores. Jaden Birdwell.

I'm Jaden Birdwell. I'm a resident of Corpus Christi. I'm here to ask this council while building our local pipeline infrastructure was never treated as a priority while protecting public integrity and regular families clearly isn't one either. You spent five years and millions of taxpayer dollars chasing a failed billion dollar desalination plant all while all while letting treated wastewater flow straight into Oso Bay instead of piping it into the refineries. Now regular families are paying the price well with mandatory water cutbacks this September.

Meanwhile, our neighbors are drowning in economic hardship. We have a visible heartbreaking homelessness crisis on our streets right now, including disabled individuals and veterans who served our country while working families can barely even afford the soaring cost of basic gas, water, electricity, and groceries. Instead of taking care of the people already here, what do you do? You roll out the red carpet for a massive multibillion dollar AI data center campus to pull from our regional power and grid resources. The city is already warning us that the utility rates are going to spike again to fund these supply expansions, and we've already seen the insane rate projections heading towards 2030.

You are, forcing local residents to subsidize the extreme energy and infrastructure demand of massive tech companies while our own people are priced out of their homes. If you wanna know why residents don't trust your planning, look at who you are hiring and managing. We just watched a regional water tester get indicted on 10 felony counts for falsifying water quality document. Go straight to our city laboratory. Meanwhile, look at our streets while former officer l c Elliot oh, Alicia oh, Alicia Martinez was arrested for assaulting a victim on a service call.

The other officer caught on viral video just last month who went to a home for a wellness check, slammed a young woman to the ground, and beat her, hasn't even been arrested. He is still walking free while the department just investigates it. How can we trust your multimillion dollar or multibillion dollar infrastructure plans when we can't even when you can't even secure the safety of our homes, the stability of our wallets, or the integrity of our tap water. Stop chasing corporate quick fixes. Stop sacrificing our resources to data centers in every industry.

Clean up our city departments and take care of the citizens of Corpus Christi. And, when I was walking in here, I had, you know, homeless people asking me for money. You know? This is very sad, you know, to have all this, you know, going on, especially disabled people, veterans. There's people, you know, literally missing limbs, you know, sitting right behind this place. You know? And I know they're getting little bits of help, but, I mean, it's basically nothing. You know? But thank you. That's it. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Bergwell. And and as a statement of fact, I want to point out that the area there where where we do see homeless is right behind City Hall, but in front of Mother Teresa shelter. And they yeah. So so there are their their clients and they wait for the the shelter to open and and whatnot come in and out of of that shelter. It doesn't make it okay, but I'm just letting you know that's why they're there. Miriam Guerra Rashidi.

Yes. Thank you. I just wanted to take a real quick statement of fact while you're coming up to the last speaker. We realize and we prioritize that there's members in our community that need some some additional services to get directed to. And in our last budget, we created a new position. We added one back so that we can start to address the issue. And taking that a step further, we're also working with the university to really try to address the issue as in in in new ways that are affected effective, and it's it's the beginning of the process, but but we we do recognize it's a priority. Thank you.

Go ahead, Miriam.

Okay. I'm a little frazzled, so hope you're having a a great day. Miriam Garavashiti, District

1.

In 2015, Pope Francis wrote the encyclical Laudate Si on the care of our common home. The same year that the Obama administration repealed the crude oil export act, which greatly impacted Corpus Christi to the detriment of many residents simply trying to defend their homes and their environment. Pope Francis begins with a prayer by Saint Francis who called this planet our sister mother earth. But then Pope Francis continues, and I quote, this sister now now cries out to us cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters entitled to plunder her at will.

The violence present in our hearts and I'm inserting here by greed, pride and arrogance, lack of compassion towards the animals and the people whose people whose homes have been stripped from them is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air, and in all forms of life. This is why the earth herself, and I'm including here in Corpus Christi and throughout the coastal bend, burdened and laid waste is among the most abandoned and maltreated of the poor. She groans in travail. We have forgotten that we ourselves are dust of the earth. Our bodies are made up of her elements.

We breathe her air, and we receive life and refreshment from her waters. The earth, including especially the water, is not a commodity for us to sell to the highest bidder at the expense of people who deserve the right to access to clean drinking water. Not just the people here in Corpus Christi, not just the people, but the animals, everything, our ecosystem, we are all suffering and we need to do something about it. Let us make a stand here in Corpus Christi against the Trump administration that has again rolled back regulations for environmental for the protection of our environment. We have to take a stand.

Please, I beg you. Water is not a commodity. Our bay is not a commodity. Thank you. God bless you and your families. And I just wanna let you know I really enjoyed the prayer you sang the other day. It was beautiful. Thank you. God bless you.

Thank you. Fatima Gera Rashidi.

Fatima Rashidi, District 1. Today, I'm going to quote sir David Attenborough who's beyond wiser than I am. After living for nearly a hundred years on this planet, I now understood understand the most important place on earth is not on land, but at sea. The future of humanity and indeed all life on earth depends on us. The ocean's power of regeneration is remarkable if we just offer it the chance.

We are in reach of a whole new relationship with the ocean, a wiser, more sustainable relationship. The choice lies with us. If we save the sea, we save our world. But in Corpus Christi's perspective, if we save our bay, we save our city. Water is not a commodity. Thank you, and god bless you and your families.

Thank you, Fatima. Julian Hernandez? Julian Hernandez. Jared Suarez.

Jared Suarez, District 2. Well, I see we still don't have handrails throughout the entire ramp on the side of the building. I suppose disabled residents are not entitled to the same level of care and consideration as everyone else. Instead of spending over $100 on an elaborate gated entryway, perhaps some of that money should be used to widen the entrance to this chamber so wheelchairs can safely and comfortably enter and exit. The narrow doorway and limited time allowed for the automatic doors to remain open create what I believe to be a serious safety and fire hazard.

I also respectfully request that the city add a dedicated ADA violation category to the three one one app. At the last meeting, the mayor told Eric Cantu that he was out of order while striking her gavel. Maybe the audience should have gavels themselves to strike when the mayor breaks the quorum. Several weeks ago after my speech, the mayor laughed at me, which can be seen and heard on camera. Then last week, multiple speakers discussing tennis and pickleball received applause without issue.

Yet when they applauded for me after my comments, the mayor immediately ordered the room not to clap. These actions are hypocritical and selective. A petition to pursue the mayor's impeachment was legally filed and passed by majority vote to move forward through lawful channels. If everything was done legally, why is the city and the council members being sued over exercising lawful civic action? Majority of the residents want your removal.

For a city known as the body of Christ, our actions should reflect those values. Instead, what we see are actions of another Judas. Many residents feel betrayed by the very officials elected to serve them. That is why I hope that this council will consider placing a full independent financial audit on a future agenda so the public can have transparency and confidence regarding potential conflicts of interest and financial influence. May Christ through the intercession of our blessed mother renew the faith, integrity, and unity of this city. Don't forget to pray your rosary. God bless.

Isabel Ariza.

Okay. Isabel Isad, District two. I'm a co founder of For the Greater Good and I just wanted to talk about the eight projects, water projects that we're manically pursuing. Our group has estimated it'd be about $2,100,000,000 of costs and about $47,000,000,000 in terms of operating costs. And we think that the water rates are going to increase about a 115% and all of that is like this claim for economic development and the impact that the petrochemical industries would have on our local community.

But I wanted just to share with you that I went to Texas Workforce Solutions page and looked at their targeted occupations and I also went to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics to look at their data. And the Workforce Commission only bothered to report 2,324 jobs directly related to the oil and gas sector. There are a 187,690 jobs according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics in the Corpus Christi Metropolitan Statistical Area. That includes all of Nueces County, all of Aransas County and all of San Pat County. So, went through the listed occupations in the Bureau of Labor and Statistics and I read all of those and I tried to identify all the jobs that were connected or that had like industrial or chemical connections, and I came up with 5,150 jobs.

That's still only 2.7 of all of the jobs in the area. And I want to just kind of talk about how in February 2023, there was a group called the Gulf of Mexico Youth Climate Summit that came to court came to City Council in good faith and had really asked for and done their homework around a sustainability committee and got time to meet with Zanoni and you know the cynics who've been around for about ten years now were like, oh these poor people have all this hope in our city council. And I just want to say that had you all listened to them and thought about the sustainability committee, like this is the stuff that we would be talking about is those industries that we are recruiting, do we have enough resources for them? Now, there's that rumor of the data center that's gonna use millions of gallons and it's only for 200 full time jobs. And then, you're magically pursuing things and we're this water crisis and one of the proposals is to actually send people have people work only four days.

Well, guess what? That day that public institutions aren't gonna be operating, people are gonna be in their homes. They're still gonna need water and their allocation is going to go up. You guys aren't solving the problem, you all are just doing this smoke and mirrors and I'm glad that people are starting to pay attention because you're seeing the hypocrisy, the unfair treatment, the catering to industry that for the greater good has been talking about since 2016, since the water boils. It's never enough time.

Thank you, miss Sariza. Adam Rios. Do you have a statement?

Statement of fact. I've heard the data centers mentioned a couple of times. Those are out of the city limits. They are in Robstown. It is New Asis County, but it's out of the city limits. So we wouldn't be the provider for that. I wouldn't think. Or or would we? Well water supply. I know.

And we are getting water from the city's doors.

Yeah. That's fine. It it is outside, minus like a parking lot that's inside. Alright. Thank you. Mister Rios.

Yep. Adam Rios, Corpus Christi district five. I just wanted to talk about the support that I have for a local nonprofit known as the Golden Mike. And I wanted to talk about the work being cultivated through their nonprofit wraps and apps. What is happening through this program is far more significant than a single showcase or a community event.

It is building infrastructure for artists in our city that have long possessed immense creative talent, but have often consistent pathways for that talent to be nurtured, elevated, and sustained. As both a supporter and participant in this organization, I have witnessed firsthand the effect it is having on local artists. There's a tangible energy surrounding the program, one rooted in opportunity, collaboration, and belief. Musicians who want felt who once felt unseen are finding confidence in their voices. Audiences are reconnecting with the power of local art, and young creatives are beginning to see that a future in music and culture is possible here in Corpus Christi, and that matters.

Because for years many artists in South Texas have created in isolation, carrying the weight of limited resources and minimal visibility despite possessing world class originality and perspective. Programs like the Golden Mike and wraps and apps help bridge that gap. They create spaces where artists are not only encouraged to perform, but also given tools, mentorship, visibility, and community support that can genuinely alter the trajectory of their creative lives. I've heard consistent praise surrounding the program through conversations with community leaders, artists, business owners, and even elected public officials, of all whom recognize the importance of investing in creative infrastructure that supports local talent and strengthens community engagement. What excites me most is that this still feels like it's only the beginning.

Corpus is filled with artists capable of standing shoulder to shoulder with creatives from other larger cities. The difference is opportunity, and programs like the Golden Mike and Rap Snaps are helping create that opportunity here in Corpus Christi in the coastal bend. They are proving that artists from South Texas deserve not only recognition, but investment. As an artist and creative myself, I understand how rare it is to encounter programs that genuinely uplift creative as well simultaneously building community around them. The Golden Mike and Raps and Apps is doing exactly that.

It is planting seeds that will continue to grow for years to come, not only for musicians but for the culture, the cultural future of Corpus Christi itself. I ask everybody to get involved and learn more about this nonprofit, and I believe that investing in this is not only beneficial to artists but for the future and cultural identity of the creative city that all of us call home in Corpus Christi. Anyway, that's I got. Just wanted to spread that for you all. Wraps and apps. A lot of videos being filmed here, a lot of producing going on here with Grammy Award winners. There's a big movement happening in Corpus, so just pay attention to it because it's coming. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Riaz. Melinda Delos Santos.

Good afternoon. Melinda Del Santos, District 2. On a positive note, I wanna give kudos to Sean Flanagan from Citizens Defending Freedom for an outstanding one nation under god prayer rally held Sunday, May 17 at Cove Park, where we celebrated two hundred and fifty years of one nation under God. There were many citizens that united to pray and see. Now we look we had, rain last night, and we have a 30 to 80% chance of rain all week.

Thank you, Sean. What is truth? There has been a lack of truth regarding our water, some fraud documents, etcetera. I came across this while doing some research that throughout history, systems built on deception have depended upon hidden accounting, manufacturer scarcity, narrative control, selective enforcement, institutional opacity, fear conditioning, and the manipulation of perception over reality. When genuine transparency enters such systems, those benefiting from darkness often experience revelation itself as a threat.

Not because truth is evil, but because truth removes the protective camouflage surrounding corruption. The greater the deception, the more violent the reaction to exposure. False authority fears verification. Truth welcomes it. Because what is true does not fear examination, and systems aligned with honesty, mutual consent, transparency, and accountability become stronger when exposed to light, not weaker.

The deepest terror for manipulative power structures is therefore not war, scarcity, or chaos. It is a humanity capable of thinking critically, verifying independently, rejecting fear based control, withdrawing consent from deception, and recognizing that no institution outranks truth itself. For that reason, I do support the pretrial hearing regarding the mayor because the citizens of Corpus Christi deserve truth. Lastly, regarding the city health. Some of you may remember a group of citizens speaking requesting adding information to the form consent the informed consent regarding the COVID vaxx.

There is an abundance of information regarding specific lot numbers where there's a 4000% more adverse events than others. There are certain lot numbers with near zero adverse events because those had a saline, placebo, or water with the label. There are lot numbers with the moderate adverse events where people experience fatigue, myocarditis, blood clots, hospitalization rates increased three hundred percent. And there are a lot numbers with catastrophic or stroke, cardiac arrest, neurological damage, death rates of eight thousand one hundred percent above the statistical norm for any pharmaceutical product in history. Please parents, do your research.

There's a lot coming out of there. There's even the Children's Health Defense is seeking potential plaintiffs. Thank you very much.

Rachel Comero.

Rachel Caballero d one. As far as the public information requests, I'm not sure that the community is aware that over the course of the last two years, there's been at minimum 13 findings by the attorney general's office where the city of Corpus Christi overcharged and and worse they were forced to provide public information that they were fighting against supplying. I personally, the fact that it's $15 an hour is a little bit of a is misleading the community because the city also charges a 20% overhead charge. I got charged a $107 for three text messages. A $107.

So this is not working with the community. This is a bureaucratic office withholding information that belongs to this community because we pay it via our tax dollars and that is 100% clear that it is not transparency. So there is an issue in the legal department with providing information to the general public via public information requests. And I'm asking this council to please address that because whenever city staff does something wrong by lying, it looks bad on the council. So please look into that further.

Second thing is I am a proud I am very, very proud to be the originator and filer of the petition for the hearing today to remove mayor Paulette Guajardo. Sensationalists make this something bad because they're getting paid to do that. They're getting paid to make this be negative, And they're getting paid to think. They don't think for themselves, they think based off of what who is paying them how to think. We should all as a community be standing up against violations of the city charter.

We should all be standing up against corruption. We should all be standing up for demanding accountability by our elected representatives, and we should all stand up against tyranny. Truth fears no investigation, and they don't fight and sue your peers, and you don't fight to not be disposed again unless you have something to hide. So far, there's 2,489 votes on my petition to remove the mayor, and that is not just five or six people. That is a good chunk of this community and it's five times more signatures than any petition in this city has ever filed online.

So I ask you guys to please do the right thing this afternoon. You did not file this petition. You did not file anything else. We did it as a community, and I ask that you follow the city charter today. Thank you.

That concludes our in person public comment. Rebecca, do we have the phone?

Yes. Sean Merritt is the first person signed up.

Oh, okay. Sean,

Thank you very much, counsel. Can you hear me?

Yes. We can.

Very good. Sean Burke, d five. I'm speaking because the public record surrounding this removal petition is becoming blurred, it needs to be clear. The process began with Homewood Suites incentive issue. Questions were raised involving disputed FEMA material approval concerns, later litigation expansion, testimony disputes over what was known, when it was known, how decisions move forward. Those questions eventually led to a citizen petition under the charter. That is where this started. The petition itself is not a criminal proceeding. It is a charter removal process. The allegation raised include malfeasance, incompetence, misconduct, neglect of duty.

Evidence is reviewed, Findings reached. Process moves where the record leads. Federal court has spent time examining how the charter functions. And when citizens' petitions, removal authority, and interpretation questions collide, at one point, the absurdity was highlighted with, well, I guess we can't remove the mayor at all because the charter says he and she's a woman. And that was an exact quote.

Behind that moment was a larger issue. Citizens initiated this process. Counsel did not write the petition, create the allegations, or originate the complaint. The mayor has publicly argued this effort is really about Desouth, tied to Inner Harbor, tied to Corpus Christi's water future, tied to water interests, tied to democracy itself. Public dis discussions have shifted from Homewood, FEMA questions, conduct allegations, and the petition process toward the desal narrative. Record clarification means separating those subjects. If removal becomes the desal fight, the public gets pushed into false choices. Support desal or support corruption. Question in a harbor or oppose long term water planning. Demand accountability or be labeled anti water.

You can support desal and still demand evidence review. You can question in a harbor and still support future water supply. You can reject corruption without opposing desal. The standards should stay simple. Establish Establish facts, review evidence, apply equal standards, protect transparency, maintain the public trust. If the allegations fail, let the record show it. If evidence supports findings, follow the charter. Do not bury a removal process inside a water argument. Do not turn accountability into a political label. Establish the facts. Review the evidence. Reach findings. Protect accountability. Truth fears no investigation. And I'd also like to say, mister Hernandez, did you go to the mayor's school of law here?

Imagine a trucker in contract with the city gets a DUI and hit somebody and injures them severely. Is he gonna pull out his teamster's card as a shield from arrest? Come on now. Same thing with this officer Martinez. He committed a crime. He needs a answer to the swift Texas justice. Thank you very much for my time.

Thank you, mister Merritt. Next is Alberto Sertuche.

Hello?

Hello, mister Sartuche?

Yes.

Okay. We can hear you.

Go ahead, sir.

My name is Albert Sartuche. District 3, owner of Hardlife Bait and Tackle, and team Hardlife YouTube. Our channel has over 200,000 subscribers, and we're growing. We have been coming and paying attention to city council on what they are doing and or not doing. I would like to also thank the Fab five for standing up for tax, taxpayers against these industries and lobbyists on city council.

I'm speaking on item 15 now, and it has been made abundantly clear how this is so important to the state that we are tired of being taken advantage of, lied to over and over and over again. Enough is enough. We have sat here and seen firsthand that the mayor doesn't care and will lie straight to our faces, especially when it concerns the Inner Harbor desal plant. On that, let's speak on that experimental desal plant. The word experimental gives whomever is doing it no accountability.

They can say when it fails to operate, it was experimental. When it has to stop operating because of the ecological disaster it created, those same people can say, oh, yeah. It was experimental. K. So now that we cleared that up, who is going to be responsible for those lawsuits that come from those companies that will have to shut down because they don't get the water that was promised from this desal plant?

That question has been asked by me numerous times and is still yet to be answered. Are we still gonna be financially responsible for this desal plant that doesn't work? I'm assuming yes because we paid to have ourselves financially ruined by this deal. The government loans still have to be paid back. And guess what? Now we have an ecological debt disaster which will affect our tourism, fishing industry, and hundreds of local businesses.

Why are

the city taxpayers being held accountable first when we don't even account for the amount of water that industries use? If we were to stop using water completely, industries could use up that all that water within a month. Industries are making billions per year in profits, and that's how the rich stay rich. While fighting for the amount of taxes that they are supposed to pay, they refuse to pay. Industries need to be held accountable first for the water they're using over taxpayers because they're the ones using the majority.

And then they are also paying less per gallon for it with no accountability. How are you gonna hold the taxpayers accountable when you can't even do that with industry who are using it the most and paying the least and not even paying their fair share? Hold them accountable. We are done with this lie. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Zertuche. Next is Tanya Bergstrom.

Hey. This is Tanya Burke. Can you hear me?

Yes. We can.

Okay. Hi. This is Tanya Burke from district four. So I was I came here today to speak about, Corpus Christi meeting the AP and X track. It gives kids, teens, and families a safe and positive place to ride and stay active.

Right now, many riders practice in parking lot streets or unsafe areas because there's no official place for them to go. A BMX track would provide a safe environment where riders can exercise and spend time outdoors. Right now, the closest BMX track is about two and a half hours away. That makes it difficult for local riders and families to participate, practice races, and events regularly. Many families can cannot travel that far every week just for their children to enjoy the sport they love.

Corpus Christi riders deserve the same opportunities as Cape and other cities. A bit, BMX track could also help keep kids on ebikes off of dangerous streets and sidewalks across the country. E bike injuries and accidents have increased as more kids ride in traffic in crowded public areas. National studies show that e ebike injuries in The United States significantly rose between 2017 and 2022. Residents in Corpus Christi have also raised concern about reckless e bike riding and safety issues on local streets and sidewalks.

A BMX track would give young riders a safer and more controlled place to ride, learn responsibility, and stay off away stay away from traffic. The me BMX track would also benefit our community financially and social socially. BMX community would also bring visitors to Corpus Christi helping local restaurants, hotels, and businesses. Most importantly, BMX, teaches discipline, confidence, and hard work while giving kids something to something positive to focus on. Corpus Christi is an active outdoor city, and adding a BMX track would be an investment in our youth and our safety and our future. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bergstrom. Next is Kareli Lael.

Hello, guys. Can you all hear me?

Yes. We can.

Alright. Thank you. My name is Karendi, district three. I'm calling today to speak about the water issue, and I I'm still not a 100% told that things are being fair between our water usage classes water usage classes. I'm still seeing a special treatment on large volume water users and also water users when it comes to the seasonal averages.

I think that residents and commercial water usage class should also have some sort of seasonal average, at least in the summertime or wintertime because of holidays and because of increased tourism during the summertime. It's not fair for families who already have to spend a lot of money during Christmas to have a larger water bill or for small businesses that get an influx of customers during our peak summer months to have to dig into their profits because they're having a higher water bill. Well, there's these huge companies that make billions of dollars, so much money that we can't even imagine, that are trying to be cheap and not pay what they're supposed to pay. I noted that in the drought contingency plan during stages two and three, large volume water users and full solar water users aren't expected to pay $4 after the 1,000 gallons. And to me, I know that they use a lot of water.

So when you get a lot of water, can buy stuff full solar, you usually get it cheaper. But this is not something that we can just waste like that. Water is very important. I believe they should be paying at least the $4 a gallon as well over the thousand over their baseline allocation, and that would possibly be more fair. I think it's important that we put those people first.

We put our ecosystem and our wildlife first, and then we protect the body of Christ from further pollution and corruption. And I was also a person who signed the petition as well just because if there's anyone in office that's that's doing corrupt practices or doing something fraudulent, I believe that they should be investigated. And if there is something found, then to be, you know, persecuted or charged or taken care of. And it and it it also applies to officers. If they're abusing their power, they definitely should be prosecuted because it's not fair to the citizens that they're supposed to protect. But that's all I wanted to say. Thank you, guys. Have a good day.

Thank you, ma'am. Mayor, there are no more online people signed up.

Thank you, Rebecca. Mister Julian Hernandez, did you wanna go ahead and come on up?

Hello. Thank you for receiving me. I understand y'all started a little earlier or something. Julian Hernandez, d three, council mayor. I guess, initially, I was gonna reference the DCP.

I was on a call last week that also they they they couldn't hear me or what have you. But I know it's gonna go before the the you guys to vote on the next revision. And and, you know, the last time I was here, I stated when the different DCPs came by or when they were introduced. Drew Molley sat up here, and I quoted him that that one day that it's reviewed every five years. And, of course, we're here year later reviewing it again.

Looking over both of them, and I don't know if if you had a chance to review them both. But the the first transition when he stood up here and that was passed, it it took out the large water volume users industry. It it changed the whole format between one and four and had one and three and then emergency stages one and two. With that, the large volume water user weren't put back in there. Then reviewing the current one now, all of that was trashed and they're still not in there.

We're still having to pay the brunt of it. That leads me to somebody that said something on the comment on the phone earlier. I heard it last week that the residents are paying for a pipeline to the refineries for them to use the non potable water, the the effluent water. When on 09/02/2025, item number 1425Dash1383, it was determined that city residents have to pay $15 up to 300 gallons or $30 up to 600 gallons. So my question is if if were the residents are providing the line to get to the refineries, what are we charging them?

Are we charging them according to what was set out for the residents to pay? You know? Because what I read it's only like $4 or something like that when we go into stage four. But have have we explored the the the options or or have we explored what we're what we're gonna charge them or we've given it to them? Because now we're paying for the line.

Eventually, we'll pay for the for for the for the diesel and everything else. So with my thirty seven seconds left, that's something to think about because we're paying more for that per 300 gallons or 600 gallons. Lastly, I read a quote, and I don't know who published it or or whatever. It's it was online. But I'd to say we were a city of people before we were a city of industry. And where we got lost, I don't know. But our compass is way off because the way I see it is we're not a city for the people anymore or of the people. Know? So thank you.

Thank you, sir. You have a statement of fact. Go ahead. Thank you.

Nick, would it be possible to address some of his concerns? I believe that the procurement that you're referencing from last week for that major pipeline issue, the effluent program was identified as a big component to our immediate water supply needs. What we knew is we needed to mobilize our effluent water into our system, and we had a few of our industrial partners step up and say they wanna help with that capital cost and also take some of that effluent straight to their facilities so that didn't all have to go back into the potable system. It could be used at an industrial facility. So it was a project that we were gonna use in our total system, and they came in and offset a little bit of it.

But perhaps you can meet with mister Hernandez and address some of those questions, mister Winkelman. Absolutely. Thank you.

Okay. That concludes our public comment. We're gonna go to consent agenda items two through nine do we have any requests from the council to pull any items two through nine item two item three Four. What was your other one, councilman Cantu?

Seven, please.

Four seven.

Okay.

And, mayor, I think item nine, we have to make a staff amendment to that one based off type b action yesterday.

So pull item nine. Alright. Do we have any requests from the public to pull for public comment at this time? Okay. That's been pulled. So at that time, we can make comment. I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. I'm sorry. Okay. You can come on up and make public comment on item number eight.

Julian Hernandez d three. I thought they were gonna read the other thing first and then comment on it. But I guess in reference just reading over this comment on eight, it looks like nothing against the fire department or anything like that. All have health insurance. Help me understand if I read this incorrectly but the residents are paying with their tax dollars for the most part, lack of a better term, insurance for them.

Am I reading that correctly the way I read it? Resolution eight, it says resolution authorizing sixteen month agreement with four year options frontline mobile help, plc, from Georgetown, Texas in the amount of 503, not to exceed $2,000,000 for options to exercise annual physical exams. And I guess from my employment, I mean, nobody subsidized that. And like I said, I'm not taking anything away from the fire department or anything like that. I I you know, they do a tremendous job for us and and we need them. But, again, this is I first read it, it seemed like we're subsidizing it or the taxpayers are paying for it instead of their insurance. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Hernandez.

Yeah. Mayor, I could provide an answer to that. Sure. So during the most recent Texas legislature, they approved the requirement that the firefighters have to go through cancer screening, moving forward. So this is just abide by that requirement.

Thank you, sir.

It's not extra health insurance.

Thank you. I'll entertain a motion to approve item number eight as presented.

So moved. Second.

We have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed say no. The motion carries. Item number two was pulled, and that is the approval of the May 12 regular meeting minutes. Councilwoman Paxton.

Thank you. I just wanted to miss Rebecca, on page eight, at the very bottom of page eight, page eight of the actual minutes, not of our packet. There's just a slight typo on that last line.

On the last line? Okay.

Move to approve an ordinance as amended. Mhmm.

On first reading as amended. It was amended. So I don't how do you can you explain more If you read that

very last line?

Oh,

mayor. Gotcha. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

K. I'll entertain a motion to approve item number two.

So moved.

Second. All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposing no. The motion carries. Item number three was pulled by councilman Cantu. That is an ordinance approving policies to be implemented during level one emergency or water emergency. Your question or comment, mister Cantu.

Thank you, mayor. I like to table this, agenda item till we meet with the Corpus Christi Apartment Association. It's my understanding from our city manager that he's gonna work with them, so they won't be categorized as commercial, but they will be under residential. And I believe we're having that meeting this week to with some board members from their apartment association.

Yes, councilman. Nick Winkelman, chief operating officer, Corpus Christi Water. The multifamily units, apartments, they are categorized as commercial. That is a benefit to them. So if you look at the commercial accounts, you take the three years of data from '21 to '24, which is largely before stage three drought restrictions.

You remove the lowest month of of each of those three years, and you come up with a baseline, and from there, you get your allocation. So that allows us to provide a baseline based on historic usage. Now one thing that I did say is at both of our workshops is we do know that there's a vacancy with a multifamily unit, say an apartment. There may be a vacancy rate of, say it was 80% from '21 to 24, and currently, hopefully, they're a 100% full. If they find that that baseline still won't allocate enough water for them, that is an ideal reason to request and receive an approved variance.

And you are correct. We're meeting with the executive director of the apartment association tomorrow, and those are the same things that I will explain to them, that treating them as a commercial unit actually benefits them in terms of looking at historic usage for their facility and understanding their needs.

I I just feel that apartments or homes also I mean, I used to live in an apartment. That was my home. And I should be under residential, and I should be able to use 6,000 gallons of water per unit. I don't I don't think it's right what we're doing to them. And when I heard their concerns on their town hall meeting, I was very concerned for them.

And I really don't look I don't if I don't get a second on my motion, I understand, but I don't feel feel comfortable moving forward without talking to them because it's I don't think it's right for for them to be under commercial just because, you know, their apartments. You know? Because in reality, you know, we all cannot just afford a home or a mortgage, you know, and and that's their home, their apartment. So, you know, I don't feel like we should leave them out. And there's 50,000 doors, homes, and apartments today in Corpus Christi, and that's that's a lot of people.

And so I really would like to see this tabled and figure it out how we're gonna do it tomorrow with their meeting and see what we could figure out, but I just don't feel that it's right for apartment complexes not to be considered homes because that's that's everybody's home. That's I used live in an apartment. That was my home. So, I mean, it just I don't feel like it's right. And I think they should be categorized under residential.

Thank you. I certainly understand, councilman, and I agree with you. Those are people's homes. That is why we wanna take go the extra step and provide individual baselines for each of those commercial entities based on their historic usage. We feel that'll be much more favorable for them.

And then, of course, we've we've outlined, in terms of vacancy percentage, they can absolutely, request a variance. And I think that would be well supported just on the number of, apartments they have rented out as opposed to those those historic years. So the goal was always to to take that into consideration, and the the staff and the modelers want to go above and beyond and assign an individual baseline for those complexes.

Nick, where is where is Peter on this? Because I don't think this is about whether you live in a home or a an apartment. Most of us have all lived it. Well, maybe not. I don't know who has. I certainly have lived in apartment. But I guess my point is is it's about allocation. It's about allocation to a residence. Right? Right.

And I didn't have an opportunity to talk to Peter before this meeting. But, Nick, do you know?

I I did. So the city manager and I talked last week and then, again, yesterday. And we worked in earnest to set up that meeting with the apartment association so we could sit down and show them in detail how we're presenting and how we're looking at their units so that we could provide those that individual baseline for each complex. So he's aware that there's a meeting tomorrow, and he you know, we talked about the importance of sitting down with the apartment association. They were unavailable at the end of last week. That's why it didn't happen on Friday.

Okay. Thank you. Councilman Kent Hernandez.

Thank you, mayor. Nick, I was part of meeting, with some of the apartment complex owners, and they were concerned that some of the the baseline that we have set from 2021 through 2023 included some of the back end of COVID where they had lower occupancy. And some of the solutions they had provided was to extend that for multifamily to include 2024 and 2025 to account for the baseline for the most usage in a month and add those two years for multifamily. Would that be an issue if we could make that amendment today, or would you like to look at some language on that and bring it back at the end of the meeting?

The I appreciate that, councilman. We I haven't reviewed the data to extend it to those years. The the re I can tell you the reason why we didn't include those years to begin with is because the city was largely in drought restrictions, and we figured that we figured, we saw, and we identified that those customers were utilizing less water. So that may inadvertently decrease their baseline, which is something we didn't want to do.

Well, you're you're taking the highest month from those time frames. Right?

We're take so over a three year period, we're removing the lowest month.

So I Is that on a per month basis, or is

it just So you'd the lowest January of the three years, the lowest February of the three years, the lowest March of the three years.

And then you'd average out the rest?

That's correct. Yes, sir.

Okay. It seems I would have to agree with councilman Cantu about delaying it until you can get some of that information about that. So if you well, let me ask one more question. With regards to the variance, would it be a variance for all multi families, or you would have to be individual variances?

So our approach is to look at each complex as an entity, so we would provide them with individual baseline. So they would all they would have to ask for a variance for their specific unit. For the simple matter of fact, we don't understand how many units are full in each complex. The business owners know that information. We just ask that they share it so we can approve the variance.

Okay. I'm I'm not comfortable necessarily without having that formal discussion that they that Peter agreed to with the, apartment complex association or what do they call themselves? I forget. But I'll I'll listen for other comments. Thank you.

Councilwoman Fawn. And I see that you're trying to help them, and and maybe they don't know that that is the better issue to do it that way. But I think that for the simple reason that they were told there was going to be a meeting, they're not expecting us to approve it, I would not think, until they are heard because they may have some more information for you. That's just my point. I just think for the the reason that mister Sonone did tell them because a council member went and called him, and he said he would meet with him. I just think we should keep our word, meet with him, and then vote on it.

Councilman Scott.

Yeah. You know, I thinking about whether I was gonna ask this question, so it'd be nice if I'm way off base. I would think that COVID would have helped residential water usage numbers because everybody went home and worked out of their houses and their apartments during COVID. Am I missing something? I know a lot of our employees work from home. That's just the way we did it.

I think largely they were they were home at that Yeah.

I would think using generally speaking. Right? Generally speaking. Using COVID numbers would help apartment apartment complexes.

Yeah. It would it would result

You're not

an elevated baseline, a higher baseline. Yeah.

That's a good thing for them. Right?

For water usage. Yeah.

Okay. Thanks, sir. Just just had to clear that mum

Mhmm. Councilman Varedo.

Yeah. Just in the event that I mean, if this is gonna offer an an item to hold us up, could we approve the rest of it with the exception of that component?

Is

there a possibility?

Eric. Well,

I mean, I wanna see if it's possible.

Yeah. Let

me find out, councilman.

Yeah. Is it possible for Steve? Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Could we amend it later? I mean, because of the majority of the council wants to the thing is is that I don't want everybody's conscientious to make sure that we move forward on this, you know, residents and and obviously commercial. So there's not a reason why I couldn't a three signature memo couldn't come back to be able to review that so that way we could amend it later.

Councilman, we're gonna look into that to see if we're able to make that change now and come back later. But I don't think we need a three signature memo. We could bring it back if if we take it out and we need to come back to make that amendment. We'll find out.

Yeah. Just from a parliamentary standpoint, the motion to postpone our table is higher than a motion to amend. So we'd have to kind of go through that first before we could amend it.

We're making changes to the city code. I don't recommend doing those Palmetto without having a chance to really look at it and determine what you're really requesting. So if you're going to put it off till next time, that would be preferable to making a change on the fly and trying to figure out what the effect of it is later. So

the motion to table

Motion to table to June 2?

Yes. I was gonna ask, is that date will that date work for y'all? Okay. June 2. Okay.

And, Nick, do you have an issue with that? Holding off on the

Yeah. There's just a comment. The the biggest comments I get is the planning and the and the preparation that people are trying to make. So they're looking, and it's it's commercial businesses with schools. They're trying to Right. Better understand what what the allocation is gonna be so they can move forward and meet it. That's the comment I have on it.

Right. So councilman Barrera was suggesting that we pass the document without that part in it. Is that correct?

Or something of that nature. Just so that way we can

forward councilman Cantu, would you be open to that? Because you're concerned with that piece. And and if we put everything else through, took that piece out until June 2.

Ted, are are we are we using COVID numbers for everything?

Okay. So

we're no. We're not we're not talking about using COVID numbers. We were that time period was selected because the city was largely dealing with stage three drought restrictions. And and we know we know that our residential population has adhered to those, so so we we went back earlier than that so that would be, beneficial to the the constituency there.

Alright. Thank you, Nick. Go ahead.

Miles is recommending to table at this point and bring it back at the next council meeting.

Yeah. The challenge is is that we have interconnected sections in here. Okay. And so when you say that piece, I don't know what section or piece we're talking about. And I think we need to be able to war game this and go

back So we have a motion in a table. I'm sorry. Motion in a second to table the entire document to June 2, which is our next meeting after today. Councilman Scott.

Yep. Sorry. Quickly. So you may address this. Hotel ullers, hotels that purchase water from the other water authorities have and especially on the island have vastly different water usages between, you know, in season and out of season. I heard one of them, you know, 10 times higher in season than it is out of season. But because they're not we don't sell water to them directly. They adhere to I don't know what it was. Water district number four.

Four.

Four.

Yeah.

And tell me how that how that works. And because my point is if we're getting two more weeks, then I'm just gonna get a bite at that apple.

So the we this city has a number of wholesale customers. Those are our customers. One of them is Nueces County WCID number four, which largely serves Port Aransas. They, as part of what's spelled out in the drought contingency plan, they will receive a baseline and an allocation, and then it is up to that wholesale provider to determine and work with all of their customer classes. One thing that I've tried very hard and feel very passionate about is CCW shouldn't overstep.

Those aren't our customers. We work very closely with our customers, but we shouldn't overstep into another entity's business.

It's fascinating because some of those are inside city limits. You know, they they're they they pay taxes, the city of Corpus Christi.

Yeah. And and I'm, you know, specifically thinking about the enterprise fund. Remember, CCW is an enterprise fund, so all of our services are funded by water rates, and our customer classes are set up as such.

So tell me alright. So we we don't step on their toes. They get a 25% reduction, and then it's up to them to deal with these large hotels and how they and how they operate, you know, 10 times more water needs in in season compared to others. Does that does that negatively impact these hotels? As opposed to being inside, you know, inside sitting them as buy water from CCW.

You know, I I have experience operating a water plant. I don't have experience operating a hotel or a a school.

Well, I guess my point is I'm I get I get the certainty, Nick. And and I I think you really are going above and beyond for the apartments. So I'm okay today. But if we do have a two week wait, I'd like you to kinda think through that. But without stepping on toes, I think we did some of that with the San Patricio municipal water district. We recognize some strange, you know, conditions. I'd like that you to think through that with, you know, number four, when it comes to these condominium hotels and how much water they use during the season. Because we don't wanna negatively impact tourism as little as we can. Right.

So the the original the baseline for the wholesale customers was very detailed in the drought contingency plan. We thought that was too drastic, so we worked to modify it, and that was what was approved at the first reading, which essentially gave our wholesale customers a higher baseline than what was in the original plan. We thought that was more appropriate for them looking at the data. Sure. If we modify any wholesale customers right now, all the wholesale customers' baseline is determined using methodology.

If we modify one baseline, I would absolutely recommend you do it all the same. And then we we do we may get into a component where the 25 curtailment is no longer 25% curtailment, and it could be an elevated number just just so that because at the end of the day, we've gotta hit a mark so we can always have enough water to meet our demand.

I'm not completely sure I agree with that, but the good news is we moved away from fines and turning off taps for using more than you need. We're just gonna charge them a lot more,

structure.

Right. So there there's for our residential and commercial customers, we are not issuing any citations if they exceed their allocation or their baseline. There is surcharges set up at that at those levels. No citations.

Well, if if it passes today, I can live with that. If it goes two weeks, I'd like to have a conversation. Like to edge you you'd educate me a little more on that. Thank you.

Thank you. Yes, sir.

Councilman Hernandez. We

also received a letter from the mayor of Portland with regards to some of the the way that, San Patrician Municipal Water District is restricting their residents versus our residents. Now I don't know if this is, why they decided to use a different methodology than we did or, you know, I that's to your point, you don't wanna overstep your bounds with regards to how they do it. But have you given them our methodology to, San Patricia Municipal Water District for them to review and how how we went about it?

We've had a number of conversations with the San Patricio Municipal Water District. We've talked explicitly about their customers. They absolutely know our approach to our residential customers, and we've explained in detail that the revised baseline methodology actually provides more water for the water district than what was in the original drought contingency plan. And then, councilman, just like I said previously, I you know, we've stated emphatically that we're not gonna manage their business or overstep into another municipality like Portland or Rockport or Taft or Odom, those are their customers, not ours.

Okay. Okay. I'll I'll wait on this vote. Thank you.

Councilman Kentu.

Nick, just first of all, I just wanna say thank you for everything you're doing. I just didn't I didn't know that the apartments association was left out. I thought you guys have talked to them before before you did this. I didn't mean to do this, you know, but when I heard their concerns, I was very concerned. And all the phone calls I got from them, from property managers to property owners, you know, and they have a lot of questions, a lot of concerns.

So I'm I'm sure that this will be great news for them so they could understand it better. This is water related. I wanna ask this one question. Someone someone texted me and asked me, are we enforcing, the pool regulations that that to have a, cover on the pool? And if we're if if we are unfortunate, how are we unfortunate? So

the those are, certainly, it's best practices to cover proud to say our own parks department is doing a great job of leading the way in in that manner. One thing to to remember, pools are typically in residential backyards. Correct. We are not going into people's backyards, monitoring that, and regulating that. That gets into a whole another set of a whole another situation. So what we've got are regulated, and we've got best practices that we promote and we encourage.

I just don't understand. If we're not enforcing it, why even have it on there? And just

It's it's a recommendation

recommendation and all that stuff, but it just you know, we're not if it's on there, you know, we're not enforcing it. You know?

It's a recommendation, councilman. It's best best practice.

So so you guys are not giving out tickets for that or anything like that. Correct?

Not for covering a pool.

Okay. I just wanted to no, sir. Make sure. Mhmm. Okay. Okay. Thank you so much.

Councilwoman Paxton.

There's two question. We had spoken when we were going through our meetings on this item. We had talked about communicating to our customers, particularly the ones that are wholesale providers

Mhmm.

That we have a commitment to residential users, and that's across our seven county district. And my question at the time was, how can we communicate to them that we have placed a top priority on maintaining service to residents regardless of if they live in the city limits of Corpus Christi or not? And, basically, what I had asked was that we could say, you know, whoever you are as this wholesale provider, if you can tell us what percentage of your water use is residents, then we still have the baseline and the request for the 25%. But just like we would treat our citizens here, we would not we would not look at a disconnect to those residents because this is health, life, and safety. And at the time, you had said the way we do that is we communicated in our press releases, our media statements, those types of things.

I think this goes to the concern raised by our neighboring city. You know, they're a customer of a wholesale purchaser, and so their concern is for their residents. And this is kind of that why it was important to me that we stress that.

I think we we have absolutely stressed it. Again, though, even specifically with Portland, even the the San Patricio Municipal Water District wouldn't cut off someone's water in Portland. Right? The Portland residents is a customer of the city of Portland, and then this and then the city of Portland buys water from the San Patricio Municipal Water District who buys water from the city of Corpus Christi.

I think in our talks, as you're articulating our schematics and how we have delineated the different water uses and rate users, I think if we continue to stress that, yeah, as as the regional provider and leader, perhaps that's something that we can can cause that trickle down, no pun intended, to our different customers and then to theirs because it's written throughout the drought contingency plan, throughout the water conservation plan that as a water provider, it's it is within reason for us to require our customers to adopt similar policies. So if that's our commitment and policy, maybe that can help rest assured some of those customers.

No. I I understand that. I think then, to speak frankly, we'll a lot more increase for increased baseline, request for increased baseline, which ultimately results in a higher curtailment percentage across the board. And it it's it's sort of a a loop. We we've got we've gotta pick a fair point in the sand and and move forward.

I and I don't disagree, Nick. I totally agree. I see that what we have to do is maintain integrity of the system because that's paramount. I I agree with you there. I just think, you know, if if we're telling everyone there's a baseline and a percentage we're asking for reduction and that's what we're gonna protect, then that's hopefully what everyone would would continue to operate at. Thank you.

Okay. Well, I support I do support the apartment association having a voice in this, and I would have hoped that y'all would have spoken with him before this, you know, came forward because just like the voters, you know, they have they have concerns. But I think after all you've said, Nick, it may be that this is back, you know, just the way you have presented it. The fact that we haven't spoken with them yet, though we've been able to maybe communicate or coordinate with them, it does warrant, you know, putting a a little hold on this. And I know we need to get this through.

So let's make certain that, you know, between now and then, June 2 is gonna be a big meeting to begin with. And this is gonna we we need this to be as clean as possible. Have that meeting with them, and let's make certain that we've got the best plan that works on both sides. So with that, we do have a motion and a second to table for the next meeting. Please submit your vote.

I forgot

public comment. Is would anyone like to make comment on item number three? Just for this item. Yeah. Number three.

Hi, as a landlord and a member of the apartment association, the reason we don't like to be called commercial is words do matter, and we provide homes for families, children, single mothers, mom and dads. They may live in an apartment for the rest of their life, but it is their home. I've had some tenants for twenty years. And that other hard part is we have complexes we're totally remodeling. We may have only two rented right now, but in six months we'll have eight rented.

Sometimes we have two family members in there, sometimes we have four family members, but we also no one's taken into consideration we have utility rooms with washers and dryers. And do we need to pull the washers out? There's just a lot of questions. And I hope when they meet with Michelle and Melissa tomorrow, they're really smart ladies, we can all come to a conclusion, excuse me. And because we have a very different need than anyone else. We fluctuate constantly, and we should never refer to our residents as commercial. They're people.

At the risk of making everyone feel bad, I use less than a thousand gallons a month. Can I sell my water to somebody else or give it can we have water credits? But perhaps what would make more sense and to make your life more complicated would to incentivize people instead of penalties. So maybe we could get some people doing some do good things and give our water to people that need it more. I don't know if you have a way to do that. Thanks,

mister Bartleson. Anyone else?

Shadows wash all my tears of flame. And I wake up to a sunny day because I love a rainy night. Anybody remember Eddie Rabbit? Yeah. The late, great Eddie Rabbit. Hi. My name is Tom Hollingsworth. My office is in District 4, and I live in District 3. This was really supposed to be more public comment, but I didn't realize that I had to be here by 11:00 in order to register. Thank you for having a water emergency on the consent agenda so I can tag on here. Questions of confirmation, feel free to fact check me. Number one, we have a permit from the TCEQ for an Inner Harbor desalination plant. Yes or no?

Mister Hollingsworth, so we can ask we can answer questions that are asked, but we can what we can do, you can make your statements that you would like heard, and then we can have mister Rodriguez's staff directly address any questions you may have after you finish.

Alright. I'll go ahead and assume that my questions are all yes then until you fact check me otherwise. So we we have a permit for a desalination plant. Whether it's approved or not, I'm not interested in just debating that. But we have a per an environmental permit to discharge brine into the Inner Harbor. That's fact. Now we we also have, right now, a requirement to discharge from our lakes if we're above 30%?

Fair.

I thought I heard somebody. But, Yes. Now that hasn't been

It was miss

Gonzales. I'm so sorry. Hold the time. Who was that? I think

that was miss Gonzales.

It is. It is me. I Oh. Sir, we are discussing

She item

hadn't he hadn't finished his statement, ma'am. That that's all. Well We should Yeah.

But the statement the statement should be related to the item.

We allow them to finish their statement before we interrupt Speaking.

She she's she's on Zoom. She's on Zoom and so she's in the meeting but on Zoom. Yeah. Who is? Miss Campos. I'm sorry. Sylvia Campos.

Gotcha.

Yeah. Okay. Mister Harling

So we haven't discharged anything, since 30% for a long time. Salinity may have gone up already without even a desalination plant, but we have a permit from the environmental agency that says it's okay. Now we have an agreed order that says the city of Corpus Christi, the city of Three Rivers, and the Nueces River Authority are part of the the agreed order that says you've gotta release that. State representative Denise Villalobos has interacted with TCEQ and said, what do we need to do to stop this? And TCEQ says all we gotta do is have three signatures.

Three Rivers, Corpus Christi, Nueces River Authority, and that is done. When I checked with state representative Villalobos just about a week ago, no action has been taken. We're talking about emergencies, and no action has been taken. If we already know that the increased salinity is approved environmentally, then why has no action been taken? What are we fiddling around for? What state representative Villalobos told me was that Corpus Christi wants to do a study.

Really?

We we gotta hire consultants to do what Sherlock Holmes would say elementary, my dear Watson. Sign it.

Thank you, mister Hollingsworth. And our Michael, will you make sure the staff gets with him and updates him on the memo that Peter had sent on that and the other messages? Thank you. Anyone else?

Melinda Delos Santos, district team. I really like the the wording about that in making decisions under this article concerning the allocation of water between conflicting interests, highest priority will be given to allocation necessary to support human life and health. But, like, when I read on further, it's like when we get into level one water emergency, then it's implement a planned public campaign to inform all customers of the water emergency and to mandate the immediate curtailment of water. And then we go to the wholesale customers, it's like, okay. We're gonna discuss it with them.

And then

we go to large volume industrial users. We're gonna discuss it. Well, like to discuss that since I just like Brad said, I use 1,000 or less. And I don't know. I've just kind of would like to be able to use the water I wanna use if I have 6,000.

Let's say I don't wanna take a a shower for, three days. If I wanna use that water I I I do daily, but, you know, but if I wanna use that water to go out and throw it on my grass or do stuff with my grass, you know, I mean, I should be able to it it seems like there's so much specific when it comes to the residents, but when it comes to the large volume users and stuff, I mean, we have this I didn't know the drainage that drip drainage has to has a positive what is that? Positive something control? You know, you can't use your regular water seeping hoses. I'm like, you know, there there's so much rules with the residents.

You should be able to say Melinda Delos Santos, District 2, you get 6,000 gallons and the way you wanna use it, you just wanna use it. You know? I don't have a pool. So but if I wanna go out there and water part of my grass that's really dying or some of my other, you know, or have a six gallon bucket instead of a five gallon bucket, I should be able to. So I just would like a little more consideration with the residents as opposed to just and discussing with us, you know, what we wanna do with our water and as opposed to just discussing with large wholesale users. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? Okay, we're going to close.

Mayor mayor council. Like the other gentleman too, I didn't know the rule. I didn't read the rule about public comment, but I like the tabling idea. So all the information is in before they make commercial residential homes and stuff in the definition what defines a home on the issue that they're gonna come up with. You know, mayor, what astounds me what astounds me a lot to to even to to get me out of my to get me out of my home to come over here today is, you know, I hear so many words like corruption.

You know, when I was you know, because because those that don't walk in the trenches with us, Eric, councilman Tukantu, those that don't walk in the trenches with us for thirty four years, like George Ortiz and I, you know, the Western District of the federal system, the Southern District, the Eastern District, freeing people from federal penitentiary and civil rights group for sexual harassment, wrongful termination, firefighters, police officers, county employees, RTA, CCAD. They come up here and and with the bravado that they're councilman I mean, that they're activists. You know? They're I I believe in advocacy. Wrong terminology.

And when we went doing an investigation, and we're we're we're working on one right now. It's twenty five years old. We're about to solve that one. Long term investigations corrupted like former county chief of appraiser George Moff that Excuse me.

I'm so sorry to interrupt you.

I'm I'm sorry, Mary.

Sorry. This has to be in relation

With with with the waters item.

It was just This

item. I'm sorry I got sidetracked, but just give me five seconds. I'll wrap up.

About the item.

Using the word corruption, councilman, and then they can throw arrows and spears at all of you, all nine of you. But it it offends me when they bring is that what you which could say here, throw a spear to miss Gunn to miss Eric or mister Hernandez. It's what you can prove in the courtroom. And we as civil rights and labor activists, we've proven our cases in courts multiple times. And and and my heart goes out to you for taking all those arrows. But on back on the water issue, mayor, I think that if you have five council members that can vote to to attempt to remove a city council member voted by the people of the of our community, you have five council

members has to water contract. Item number three.

On June 2. Okay? Thank you for for your time. Appreciate it. Thanks so much. Follow the rules. Okay? Thank you. Thank you so much. God bless.

Anyone else? Okay. With that, we're gonna put oh, we've got one more.

Mark Minster, Corpus Christi. I just wanna say that residents shouldn't face any surcharges for our water situation because they don't use the majority of our water, and residents have been coming for a long, long time telling you that our drought contingency plan, our city should be working to get to the root of the issue of what's causing our water issues, and it's not residential water use, so they shouldn't face the consequences.

Thank you, sir. Anyone else? Okay. We're gonna close public comment. Please submit your vote.

Aye.

Thank you, Ms. Campos. Can we see Ms. Campos also?

I'm here. Aye.

I just need to see on the camera, ma'am. Aye. There you are. Perfect.

Okay. The motion carries. Thank you, Nick. Our next item pulled is Mayor yes.

I'm sorry to interrupt, but we we haven't we need to vote on the consent agenda. We didn't give miss Campos an opportunity to vote on that. When our consent agenda with the exception of those items.

Aye. I thought I I thought I did.

No, ma'am.

Let's go

ahead and do

that. So I'm gonna entertain a motion to approve consent agenda with the exceptions of items two three four seven and nine. Aye. Okay. We have a motion and is do we have a second? Second. Second. Please submit your vote for the consent agenda item. Miss Campos, now you may vote. Aye. Thank you. And we saw are you good with that, Rebecca?

Yes.

Seeing her?

Oh, no. I'm sorry. I'm trying to do this deal too.

We're voting on consent agenda.

Yes.

Okay.

Okay. So do you see that on your screens? No? I'm sorry? No.

We didn't was where was six, Rebecca? You have six on there?

Yes. I had six.

Who who pulled I don't think we pulled six. Are we done? Okay. I'm I'm sorry. Six, seven, and nine. Okay. Are we gonna tally the vote?

I'm sorry?

Can we tally the

vote? Yes.

Yeah. It's just a table.

No. This is to pass the consent agenda.

I'm sorry. Consent.

Yeah. It's to pass the consent agenda.

Consent agenda. Yes.

Okay.

Alright. Okay. The motion carries. So We pulled two, three, four, six, seven, and nine.

Essentially. Alright.

Item number four is a zoning case number ZN9181. This is America Alpha Group rezoning a property at or near Hearne Road. Councilman Hernandez, your question or comment.

Okay. I voted against this last week, so I pulled it so I can vote it again vote vote against it again. I would restate that I would not vote for something like this that was in my own district, I'm not gonna do it for some in a different district. So

Okay.

Make a motion to approve. Second.

Okay. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to make comment on item number four? There being no one, we'll close public comment. Please submit your vote.

Aye.

Aye. Thank you, miss Gumpos. Okay. The motion carries. Item number six was pulled. A resolution authorizing an interlocal agreement with Harris County Department of Education. Councilman Paxson, your question or comment.

Yes. Thank you. Looking through the information on this, I understand this gives us an opportunity for basically an added, you know

Like a buy board.

Yeah. Like a buy board. That's the word. Thank you. But my concern or the thing that I am interested in determining is if we have a layer that we can still defend making a local purveyor our first preference. A lot of these specifically for the health, which it was it's prioritizing health variety services. A lot of these vendors are not in the corpus area. Several of them serve the corpus area. My my concern is by going through this process, are we making it more difficult for us to select local vendors?

So thank you for the question. And Rebecca should be here shortly, but I don't believe so. Typically, when we go through a competitive process, we check locally first and we ask them to bid on different procurements. So that's what we'll continue doing moving forward. I don't think it will exclude any local businesses.

Do we need a specific note on this motion or anything that we would still prioritize local vendors in any event of going through this procurement measure?

Give me one second.

Does did my issue make sense? I mean, if we are looking for a service and we elect this buy board and there isn't local vendors on it, how will we get bids from locals to prioritize them?

We can

We'll we'll take a look at that if we need any type of amendment, but I I think we we do that anyway. So if if you would like to, you know, make that motion, we'd be supportive of it.

Well, wouldn't the procurement process kind of look like I have a specific job or need, and I know a specific class of vendor, and if I go through a buy board collective, I don't need to go out to a formal procurement process. So then if that's correct, the department that's going through this buy board process, they don't need to go to a normal procurement process. Therefore, the local companies can't actually bid.

So so again, before we go and I'll let Sergio maybe provide an answer. But before we use buy board or any kind of source or like that, we we check locally. But go ahead, Sergio.

Yep. Sergei Liosana, director finance procurement. This specific item, council member, is to join similar to a cooperative. Here, the cooperative already has the roles and the participants. There aren't any entities, part of this co op, what we can do is guide them and help connect them to cooperative to get them signed up so they can be part of that list for this specific co op. But we can't this has already been procured, so we're just going, and we would select off a list of vendors that have already been procured.

Well, there's only about two or three that are locally based. While a lot of them do service Corpus Christi, only two or three vendors are from Corpus Christi or office in Corpus Christi as a headquarters. So if if the answer is in order to seek a service and they and they be local, then we're gonna have to direct them to sign up to the cooperative. That's adding more layers to our local vendors. That makes me not wanna support this. How can we still prioritize local vendors? I don't under I don't see how we can do both because you you don't you don't even go out to bid if you're going through a buy board.

Correct. The the purpose of the buy board is to save time as well as to take advantage of discounts already built in and to comply with any procurement rules. And it's fair to say that it is a process to sign up, for the local vendors to sign up.

I appreciate your transparency in that answer. That's my first focus, that we can continue to prioritize local businesses that we do business with. And I fear that this adds a layer of separation between us and a local vendor. So where I don't have an issue with this cooperative, Choice Partners, I have an issue with how it could adversely impact local businesses in our relationship.

Most definitely. We recently actually met with a separate cooperative, a TIPS cooperative. They actually have a group that will meet with local contractors to help facilitate that paperwork, to remove some of that burden, to sign up with a cooperative. What we can do here with Choice Partners is ask if they have the same kind of service to help, an outreach to local vendors to help them sign up for these. But it is true that it would be an extra burden.

I appreciate that. And the issue is right now with the BuyBoard, the reason we go through BuyBoard is for expedited service. And so if they're not already signed up, they're not eligible.

Right. Right. At the time of of trying to issue an award. Correct.

Okay. I appreciate those answers.

Thank you. Councilman Hernandez.

You know, I have to agree with, councilwoman Paxson. There's this has been a problem for a while. And ever since the state has increased the number from the amount approval from Peter's approval authority from 50,000 to a 100,000, this makes this even more of an issue. What efforts have you done with all our cooperatives to ensure that local vendors can sign up with them? Because as know, there are several of them.

And we even had an example of where we had a fencing company that was from somewhere else because we didn't we didn't even look locally because they were part of one of the cooperatives. So explain to me what efforts your department has done in creating that environment.

Sure thing. Back in October, we've carried a vacancy for the assistant director position for some time. To recruit someone specifically trained in local government procurement. We finally got some recruitment. And we're working.

That person was reached out to multiple cooperatives and looking to have an event for local vendors to sign up. That person then had to move so that position has been vacant. So we've been filling that gap. What we've done, so that is a long term goal here or short term goal as soon as we can fill that position with a qualified individual is to have these cooperatives come down, meet with contractors, but to the council of Paxon members point, it is a cumbersome process. We recently met with tips who has a service to help facilitate that.

So we want to find these cooperatives that offer that service contractors to help them enroll. And so that is in our plan here. We also recently I do have a My contract manager is coordinating with the APICS out of the local college to have a vendor to meet with To have a vendor city meet and greet and see what their challenges are. So that is coming here in the next few months. So that is in the works, actually. So I

went to that over. It was at the Del Mar campus on the South Side, and there was no city representation at all.

Correct. We're working on a new this one will be happening during the summer. The one that happened during the fall winter time, the city was not a participant of. You're correct.

Okay. I'm I I have to, again, agree with councilwoman Paxton. I'm hesitant to prove something without something concrete that we're doing. I mean, there's just you really are telling us that because of the vacancy, we really haven't done very much. Okay. Thank you.

Councilman Barrera.

Specifically, I guess, Michael, are we looking at as a group of services? And the reason being is I bring it up, there's times that we're engaged in such services such as alcohol and drug testing that we assist. And as a public agency, requirements with regard to being you know, it has to be, you know, DOT certified or with regardless of some heavy equipment that has to be man handled. And so my question may be for for Now, if it's in the private sector and somebody's doing specific drug testing, it just depends under which regulatory process that they have to fulfill. Because I've been involved in some these procurements and you don't you get no solicitations.

And and the reason is being is because the regulatory requirement that we're required to follow. Somebody at a private sector may be go back and say, I don't have the same requirements. So I'm not going to spend the time to go through a procurement process. And then plus the challenges that come with bidding in the public sector. Mean, I don't know if HR is I'm just what I'm asking are are additional regulatory requirements that that we have that that come with whatever it is we're trying to procure.

Yes. Rebecca Castillo, the HR director. So that is correct. So we do have two different services when we do drug testing. We have the DOT and then we have the non DOT.

Yeah. So see that's that's really what the challenge is is the market. And in my opinion, as somebody that does work here in the Coastal Bend, the market for those that just serve those that are non dot. It's a it's harder to get those individuals. Simply because the market that's available. Of in the private sector doesn't require them to have the same. Regulatory. Requirements. So I could see I mean, support this simply because dealing in public procurement that I have to deal with, sometimes it's easier. Then you have the ability to negotiate.

But I think that's the thing. I don't know if there's a way to break it up. I don't see anything wrong with approving it other than whatever opportunities that you have, whatever opportunities that you have that are non DOT, then possibly those ones can be exercised by the city manager because we still have to get three bids.

That's correct.

So see, that's the thing. If if we have an opportunity for those that are non d o t, we still get three bids and that way we can utilize local if it possible. And and I think we do that already. Yes. Is that correct?

Yes, sir.

Yeah. This is not a way for us to bypass, you know, trying to work with local entities. This was just another avenue for us to look at.

Yeah. And I did wanna mention, like I mentioned before, before we use a buy board or source well, we do check local. Right? And the city manager and myself will work through the procurement process, and we'll ask that question. Is there anybody local that can do this? And the answer is yes. Let them put in a bid so we can look at that. I just wanna make sure that the council and community is aware. We care about local. We ask those questions, and we we make sure we go through that process.

Thank you for clarifying. Okay. I'm gonna go in. Yeah. Councilwoman Paxton. Thank

you.

So is there is there a way with this caption that we can accomplish both? We can still establish that first right of preference for local vendors to the extent that, you know, if if a procurement comes comes up and we're gonna use this cooperative, we can show, you know, there was no local vendor that could provide this or there was no because somehow for me to feel to to know that this process is is not going to burden our local vendors, there's gotta be something.

Yeah. So since we already go through that process, we're we're we could definitely, I think, do that. And I'll ask legal on their advice on how we can make that happen.

I don't think you'd wanna make that extreme of a condition because we can always get a vendor with enough of a premium paid to them. Them. I mean, if we if we put enough money on the table, we'll always have a local.

Well, Miles, I think the the question is how can we make sure we check locally first before we use a buy board, not that we spend extra money to use local. Is that correct? Yes.

Council Member, I wouldn't recommend changing the resolution because this is part of resolution to give to the the cooperative as us joining it. Perhaps it could be a practice as part of the of our procurement practice, which is something we do have already, is questioning departments. Is there anything local that can be done for the services they're trying to procure?

And you feel like that would cover the concern?

We are working towards connecting more locals, whether to cooperatives or to our own supplier portal, they can register and be notified of the opportunities. So that's part of our outreach that's gonna be happening this summer to the local contractors and vendors.

Well, know that was a concern of mine over a year ago, and I know that we had a vacancy in the department, and that was kind of that held up some of those efforts. And I know the Del Mar Small Business Development Program tries to prepare local vendors so that they can apply successfully through the city of Corpus Christi, but there still is that need to gap that existing structure. Now we're kind of adding another program to it. So how long is this term? Okay.

And we do have a local preference in some of our procurements where there's points awarded for being a local preference. So we are doing some of that already. But, I think our outreach as well as education on our supplier portal where the local vendors can can get notified of these, opportunities electronically is the way to go for us.

But I have heard from some vendors that as bids will come up, they've tried to subscribe to that, and they don't get the regular notifications. So we may need to evaluate that system, because I know we have one. But hearing from vendors, don't know that it's super reliable. Can you tell me, in our current policy, purchasing policy, do we have a specific caveat for local vendors?

We do have I'm not sure if it's in the policy itself. I'd have go to back and double check. But I know we did work on, prior to my arrival, there was a policy as far as how to, incorporate scoring for local vendors.

Yeah. And and to what our legal said, I'm not advocating that we're willing to pay any dollar for a loan. Right. I'm advocating that we try that avenue first. That's our first preference. So if we find a responsive bidder there, great. If we don't, we can broaden that search. So if we don't have it specifically in in that policy, I'd be very interested in it coming back so that we could establish something to protect local vendors.

Sure thing. Sure thing. We we understand the value of the local economy and and wanna have local jobs and how that feeds into our system. So we definitely do support that as well.

I I know that's not the item here, but hopefully we can keep working on that.

Yes,

Thank you. Councilman Barrera.

Hey. Just just real quick. Hey. I've been meaning to get with you on this. It's just we've been real distracted. But can you and your team please get with me? And I'd really like to I think there's some improvements that we could be made, and I I wanna be able to use my network to be able to get more people out. And I've been I've been, like I said, distracted with some of the challenges that we've been facing. I've been meaning ever since you got on board. And you're doing an amazing job. But please, can can we organize a time to get together?

Yes, sir. Will do.

Thank you

very much. Appreciate it.

K. I'm gonna go ahead and open public comment. Would anyone like to make public comment on item number six?

Julian Hernandez d three and I wanted to with this on board from what I heard, I wanted to circle back around the agenda that I brought up earlier about them reaching out of town for, I guess, the cancer screenings and whatnot. And in part to that, wanted to ask, have we searched locally for that process instead of bringing somebody else from the outside in and and keeping that money in house? But that too goes to I want to reiterate that and and bring that to the forefront because I meant to say that earlier. And the second thing on this, you know, for non d o t and d o t persons, I I didn't read through the whole agenda item here, but I I know there's a lot of local people that that actually do that because I'm a d o t carrier and and and card carrier everything else. So I usually get them here and whatnot.

There's a lot of people you'd be surprised who actually does it and who doesn't do it. So thank you.