City Council - Regular Meeting

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you, your presentation. Thank you. So as we begin today's meeting, I want to take a moment to recognize two very difficult losses affecting our Corpus Christi family. So former council member Greg Smith and his family are mourning the passing of his beloved wife, Deborah. Deborah was a woman of deep faith who cherished her family, especially her six grandchildren. She devoted 14 years to teaching children in CCISD, first at Parkdale Elementary and later at Cocke Elementary. She never met a stranger and had a wonderful way of treating everyone that she encountered as a friend. Deborah tru

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

Thank you, Mr. Barker. Bradley Bartleson.

William Garner. William Garner. Susie Saldana.

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

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

Thank you, sir. Isabella Reza from PAXIM.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In 28, and so originally the thought was that the maturity of this agreement, which the base year is 2007, and it's 25 years, so it would have been 32 if I'm not mistaken, and that expected max payout of 15 million is contingent upon delivery of the checkpoints or the maturity of the different improvements that the project was to bring to the city. And so what we're seeing is there's five or six years left on the original and a little over half of the total payout that was eligible, if I'm not mistaken. And so what we're looking to do is increase this by an additional 10 years at the same term

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

And so Jennifer, you said currently the payout would complete at 35. And so we're extending it to 45. Yes. So we'd have, um, you said first year would be 2025. So last year, is that what you said? No, I'm sorry. The first year was 2010, 2010. Excuse me. Thank you. I, there were so many numbers there for a second. So we have nearly 20 years to pay the 8 million. What year is it? 26 to 45. Yep, thereabouts, yes. Okay. I wish that there was something in here that could give us some kind of a compass. I feel like traditionally with retail or any project really, there's timelines put into when do w

Okay, that may be where my challenge is here. So I realize the request is to extend an agreement with the mall, not necessarily the retailer that is improving the space. I completely realize that. But on the premise that we are being asked to change the agreement, because of this new benefit that's coming as a part of the overall retail of the mall, I think that's what's missing there, and this is a room for improvement. If we're saying we need another 10 years on our original agreement because we're going to increase the improvement through this new retail, then some of those checkpoints, I f

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

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

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

Okay, and so how do we make this a fact? This is my last term, so how do we know that it's in the contract? Okay, people. It's in the contract, so I would like to see it in writing, and once I see it, then I will publicize it, but yes, I will be approving this, and I am grateful, like you said, I think I got a message that this project employs at least 3,000 Up to 3,000 people.

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

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

Amazon and that, yeah. And so there's been a shift. And for one, Kyle Allen, for example, were right there on the crux of the outlet mall that failed um in the robstown area so that was a big kind of disappointment for us because we have this huge i don't even know the square footage but we have a huge facility there that's basically dormant and so then the impact that it has and just the overall eyesore in the community and hoping that somebody will come out and revitalize that space. So this is important. I really do think that it's important because number one, I think the pendulum always s

I'll be quick. You stole my thunder. Do ask me later about two-inch trees. Just remember that statement. There's those of us that have been involved in some of this a long time. I remember a city council argument in the 80s about two-inch trees, but I do have to admit, come on, really? Ten trees? We can't do more? Come on, Debbie. A few more trees and I don't know the logistics and all that, but I did want to get that out there. I think there's a lot of cities that lament not having the opportunity to help keep a mall vibrant. I think there's a lot of malls in the country that are dark, and I

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Okay. Okay, so... But to Councilman Paxson's point, there's really no reflection in the memo saying that this is under a specific type of procurement that you couldn't go with the second lowest bidder that was local to the state. I know we're kind of talking nuance here, but... It does give us a bad impression that we're picking New York over Texas. So if you can, for future purposes, I'm going to believe that you're saying to us is what's correct. But in the future, when you have this kind of situation, you need to tell us in the agenda memo that you can't do that. It's required for the lowes

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

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

Mr. Mahaffey, I appreciate the information, and I do understand that sometimes products... There's a preference to vendor because of the consistency and the difference of the, I completely understand that and this is technical, it's important, it's very important. And I support your department, please understand that. I'm just seeing that the history behind these procurement here and what's in front of us is awarding over a million dollars to label New York versus Texas. And I know that BK has bid on similar and they have come in just behind New York a time or two before. And so that, I just,

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

Real quick question, and I'm sure this is what you do, but do they follow OSHA safety rules, all the companies that y'all contract with? Okay, do you all check it? Do you do due diligence and check it and see if they've had any violations?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yeah, and I'm going to jump in quickly on all three of these. There are three grant applications, submissions that are very important. Each one is over about a million dollars. This is through the MPO, and as an MPO board member, I'm going to be obviously very supportive of this. This fund entails over $6.5 million for projects such as this, that address pedestrian sidewalks um i know the um the sidewalk frontage road sidewalk for along u.s 181 which is north beach that has been something that multiple councils have worked on um because of the you know public safety issue and so all of these a

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

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

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

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Ms. Chavez. And Ernie, I just want to tell you thank you very much also. This is another great news item. Eight years ago, I think it was either in January or February, we annexed the developer. I had asked to annex the land to be able to build all those homes out there. And the city's recommendation, Peter, at the time was not to annex the road. And what we just said was kind of crazy because, you know, it's going to be, you know, refuse trucks that go out there. We've got to have attorney rates for fire trucks and all those things and, you know, get our ambul

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

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

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

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

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

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

I don't know the whole breadth of your organization. They seem to be doing fantastic. And as you know, I think the world of your... film commissioner um i've heard yeah so uh i think you're doing great work there and you know people say hey what else are we going to do in corpus and the answer would be let's get people to film films down here and the success that your organization has done to steal some scenes from places like galveston whatever uh or other places in the state is a testament to the success so Let me know what I can do to help, and you knew that already, for the film and music

Thank you very much for friendly getting on our agenda. I know we've talked several times about trying to get you in front of council, so I'm very glad that you're here. Thank you for your efforts. Tourism is something that's so important to our city, and I know you get to live and tell that story every single day, so I'm a little bit jealous of you. But it's very important. So what I would like to do, and while I know this is a housekeeping item that we need to pass administratively, I would really love for you to be able to get back on the agenda and share some of those incredible stats with

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

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

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