CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — On Tuesday, conversations got heated during the city council meeting regarding discussions of a proposed water desalination plant.
It began outside as groups opposed the idea to bring a water desalination plant to the Coastal Bend. Members of the For Greater Good community organization vocalized their restraint to support a memorandum of understanding that several council members brought forth during Tuesday's meeting.
The purpose of the M.O.U. is an agreement between the city and the Port of Corpus Christi, in effort to understand their roles and responsibilities in the potential business collaboration of an alternative water supply project.
Isabel Araiza, the co-founder of For the Greater Good said she believed the M.O.U. was an egregious violation act of the Texas Open Meetings Act, which states it's purpose is to help make governmental decision-making accessible to the public.
It requires meetings of governmental bodies to be open to the public, except for expressly authorized closed sessions and to be preceded by public notice of the time, place, and subject matter of the meeting.
"This is a pure violation of ethics and integrity," Araiza said. "This isn't a protest, but more of a demand that they [city council] start centering the people's needs and begin thinking about good governance and not just buffering the profit margins of heavy polluters and high volume water users."
Inside the city council meeting, that's where discussions went further as council members laid out the details of the M.O.U. Council members Mike Pusley, Gil Hernandez and Dan Suckley were the only three in support of the elements of the agreement.
"The M.O.U. is not a legally binding contract," Councilman Gil Hernandez said. "It’s just an outline of how we would work together and gives the Port some solid information to where they can know where to spend money and go forward with their process is."
Many city council members began expressing their frustrations that the M.O.U. was not brought to their attention with enough notice before Tuesday's meeting.
Pusley emphasized his frustrations with the council as he believed the potential agreement could be an opportunity that the city is missing out on. He added that it could be an opportunity to save the taxpayers of Corpus Christi millions of dollars, but will not happen if the city passes up the chance for the alternative water source plan.
Councilman Roland Barrera, who represents District 3, also expressed his lack of support for the agreement during the meeting.
"First of all, I think it's premature," Barrera said. "I personally have never been in favor of the Harbor Island location where the Port wants to build this desal facility. With no infrastructure, no customers, no revenue projection, no budget, it’s very difficult to engage in some kind of memorandum of understanding.”
KRIS 6 received documentation of an objection to the memorandum of understanding constructed and issued by city attorney Miles Risley. In the document, Risley emphasized exactly what Hernandez explained —that the M.O.U. is not legally binding.
The objection document further lists recommended modifications including MOU should be modified to not be an illegal perpetuity, it should be modified to delete language that purports to create a Partnership, an Appropriations Clause should also be added and finally, be rid of any ambiguous or otherwise unclear/unwise provisions anticipated by an M.O.U. for future agreements.
After intense moments between council members on whether or not to acknowledge the M.O.U., the council decided that the proposal failed in a 5-4 vote. They will not be moving forward until they have further communication with the Port of Corpus Christi in regards to their responsibilities and influence in this particular project.
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