Remarks by Roland Barrera
26 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 2
- Play at 1:58:26
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:34:55
“I'd like to move to approve items 4 through 13 with the exception of 7. Is that a possibility?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:35:09
“Yeah second reading or would have to consider seven individually the tax rate for record vote, but Okay, so we have a motion so I'd like to move to approve items four through 13 with the exception of seven Okay, we have a motion in a second”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:47:22
“Mayor, I move that the property tax rate be increased by the adoption of a tax rate of 0.599774 for $100 valuation, which is effectively a 0.5% increase in the tax rate.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:49:55
“Well, it's disappointing, especially after months of workshops. You know, as I say often, I think all Staff and developers and individuals that invest in Corpus Christi is a predictable regulatory environment. And to come at this time to request, and I tell you what, in Austin, this is called a bumper sticker initiative in order to be able to basically state that we're reducing the tax rate to save every homeowner $5 annually. And I think the consequences that we're not, you know, this year because of the tax relief that this council, the prior council did, that put us in a position where…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 2:03:01
“Okay, so do you want to make a motion? I move for approval of items 9, 10, 11, and 13.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 2:34:59
“Yeah, thank you, Mayor. I also want to echo that. I want to thank the developer. You know, there's been, I mean, 30 years of history to try and develop this property. And I wish you the best. You know, I'll say a few Hail Marys for you. What is it? Throw a Hail Mary pass. I mean, I can't tell you how much we appreciate it. And, you know, things like this, you know, once again, as I say, it's ad valorem to, you know, help CCISD with their situation. You know, projects like this, you know, it's not just for the city because there's an ag exemption. I think we're getting $5,000 a year in revenue…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:10:11
“I just want to, I guess, reiterate, as somebody that competes for professional services, not necessarily as an architectural engineer, I'm just going to make some comments, but... You know, and then I get stuck in between whether or not it's a professional service or you can include the pricing. I think the situation is when you have professional services, what determines the price is the market. And, you know, about two years ago, Corpus Christi, exceeded the the average wage exceeded that of the state of Texas and in some areas it was we exceeded that and if you deal down on it a lot of it…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:45:55
“It's all my fault. I know. I know. My wife tells me that all the time.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:47:04
“First off, I wanna commend Joseph Lopez, What is it? Tiffany Cheshire, right? And man, somehow or another, Samantha. It's just Chapa, right?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:47:21
“Yeah? Okay. And for the tremendous job which they're doing to fill in all the gaps. One of the things I want to commend Joseph for, he is the stellar leader of educating himself. What is it? He leads, which he didn't include in his report, he leads with, it's not CE, in my industry it's CE, what is it called?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:47:46
“Yes, of which he has by far exceeded that while still maintaining his workload. In addition, Several of the audits that we've had in the past, even though it has the auditor's signature, he's probably been the one, the senior auditor, him and Samantha, that have been the ones that have really been put forth all that effort. So typically, whenever we have some of our meetings, they're either referred to Joseph or Samantha. So I want to commend them for the fine effort of which they have. Joseph, how long have you been with us?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:48:20
“Over four years. And Samantha, do we know?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:48:24
“Three, and then Tiffany, you just came with us about a year ago, and I mean, she's also been amazing, and she provided excellent support staff for anybody that's been in the position and dealing with, she typically is the one who probably has to deal with all the other departments to be able to procure their information. So number one, I want to say what a tremendous job the three of you are doing. I would argue that perhaps, I can't explain why individuals leave, but I think now we're probably holding individuals to a higher standard of which, you know, we, we want to, we want to reward…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:49:37
“I believe it's two individuals from the audit committee. I mean, last time it was... Has it right here.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:50:14
“Okay, thank you, thank you. And so the last correspondence I got was September 1st, and that showed that we had, and you said we had 18 applicants. And at the time, three were from Texas. We even had one from Canada. Now, at the time, and so we have 10 that have been qualified, I guess. At the time, it was only eight. So we're just following through the process. We're using the same firm that we used in the last recruitment. And so what is it? I'm confident with their skill set. And then we've also made a pay adjustment. There was a challenge. The prior audit committee felt that they could…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 4:03:49
“And I might want to add, we only had the termination of the interim order last week. And that was Wednesday or Tuesday, and then we met Wednesday. And we had the holidays, so. But if I may, I'm sorry. Sorry to interrupt.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 4:11:07
“Let's see. Well, first off, anybody can pick up the phone and call me if they have any questions. I just want to leave that out there. And for the public that wants to know, 361-688-7111. Anybody can ask. Once again, 361-688-7111 for the four folks that are watching that are interested in the audit department. Yeah, please. Yeah, I'll tell you what, the Medicare people are calling me now. Anyway, so here was the process. Three months ago, we had a retirement. And so we quickly expedited the process of going through that process. We had to put together a job description. We put some tweaks to…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 4:31:31
“Yeah, and remind me, and I don't know, I was trying to frame my question and I should have continued to listen. So how much is the increase of the health plan to the employees?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 4:31:49
“Those are 15% increase across the board. How many of those, I mean, can you, and I know, just spitballing here, of the 3,500 belly buttons that we have, how many of them have dependent coverage? About 20%. 20%? And what's the contribution amount that the employee has to make for dependent coverage? I know it varies. Just on the HSA.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 4:32:35
“So then we're going to increase the premiums by about an additional $35. Right around there. $35 a month, so $35. So it's $360, so roughly $450 a year, right? So if an employee makes, I don't know, a blue-collar employee is making probably $15 an hour. They're making $30,000 a year. And so now we're going to give them a 3% COLA adjustment. So they're going to get $900, right? Am I math correct?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 4:33:24
“But the thing I'm more concerned with is that obviously you can afford, you know, Peter and the fifth floor and all the executives can afford. What is it? The 15 percent increase. but I'm talking about the blue collar employees. I'm talking about the people in landscaping, the people in asset management.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 4:33:42
“So, see, that's the thing I'm saying. So you get somebody that may be making $30,000, $40,000 a year, and if they have family coverage, now half of their COLA increase is going to increase. And I think the thing is, is that... And, you know, I've been intimately aware of what's been going on in the health plan, and I know we've had a... Not necessarily... We've had an increase in the number of claims. It hasn't been this year that's affected us with big claims. We've just had an increase. I mean, we've had an increase of about 300% of claims falling below the spec, which is 300,000 or 350. So…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 5:04:22
“Does it have to be somebody on the prevailing side? Does it matter?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 5:05:51
“You out there listening, Michael Hunter?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026