b'BC: Somebody said to me, you have the best politi- house, come up as budget items as neededas in, the moneyB arBaraC analescal instincts Ive ever seen. I have a dear friend inis requested at or close to the time when the item in ques-PR [public relations] who said, you have the worsttion breaks down. A sign of a well-managed municipality, political instincts I have ever seen. large corporation with huge assets, or sizeable facility of any The person who said I was great at it said it was be- typeup to an including ones own homeis the creation of cause I know how to evaluatelike a runner sees thea capital improvement plan, which Nueces County has never field in football. I know where to duck, and I knowhad, until next year when the first of its kind will be released how to do the run after catchthat was the meta- by Judge Canales office. Hundreds of county facilities and phor. The friend who said Im terrible at it says thatother assets are being evaluated based on their current state if the umpire says, okay, all you girls go sit down,of repair and what the short- and long-term needs of each I drop that ball, and then I turn to him and I just letwill be, thus injecting an element of predictability into the him have it! So, a lot of politicians dont have thebusiness of managing billions of dollars in county assets.political courage to do whats needed, to say whatAmong those assets are prime plots of land setting un-needs to be said, or to create some accountability forused and undeveloped in what have become highly-valued themselves. areas of the county, including a prime tract on N. Alister St. in Port Aransas, which is now booming two years into the I think that in the six months Ive been here, Ive hadrebuild after Harvey. That property and others are up for sale two 4-1 votesOut of all the votes, our agendas areas part of Canales effort to close the budgetary gap and add very long, I have governed from the middle. This is ato the countys deficient reserve fund, while taking advan-wonderful thing if anyone is making an observationtage of a hot real estate market. Other issues left for the new about the shift in the paradigm between what wascounty judge, however, are clean-up jobs that are requiring then and what is now. Everything went 3-2. It was soof her an equal level of innovative thought and action.contentious here.Carolyn [Vaughn] and Ishe was highly uncomfort-able with my position on Pride, that hurt her deeplyNothing is by the because she was attacked for what she believed was her own viewbut I know that she is somebody who I can count-on on ten other major issues that also af- seat ofmy pants. fect what I consider the welfare of our communityWe agree 98% of the time, to be honest with you,Everything isbecause she is a no-nonsense person and she wants to see new ideas foster new growth.Judge Canales delivered her first State of the County deliberate.address to a standing-room-only audience at the Richard M. Borchard Fairgrounds on May 30, in which she addressed a number of the most urgent managerial issues that her officeBC:Ihaveaskedeachdepartmenttoprioritize is tackling first. The countys cash reserve balance should betheir infrastructure needsweve done this county-at least 25% of its annual operating revenue, which is aboutwideLets get an engineering company to look at $100 millionit currently stands at about 21%, $4 millionour top-priority county assets and evaluate them for short. While property tax revenue will increase by an esti- what is wrong, including coastal parksand it might mated 8% this year as the Nueces County tax base is expectedbe scary-huge, astronomical, it could be $150 million to grow from $28 billion to $31 billion, millions in new billscounty-widebut we are then going to marry those are coming due at the same time. Over $700,000 is owed toprojects with a funding source and a timeline. So the county employees pension fund; payroll for the sheriffsthis Band-Aid stuffwere done with it. department is expected to increase by $350,000, some of which is associated with the opening of a 96-bed expansionI am really pleased to say that working with Brent of the jail annex; county judges need an additional $137,000Chesney [Pct. 4 Commissioner] on coastal parks is-or so; $250,000 is needed for county beach parks; an addi- sues, we had some big issues, tough issueslike re- Top to Bottom (1): Dr. Hector P. Garcia tional $500,000 is required for road and bridge worktheseally toughso were not in compliance, constructionreceiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom are all estimated increases in county budgetary needs, andprojects that were not on time, contractors that werefrom Ronald Reagan. (2): Canales grand-before many repairs and required upgrades to county prop- not getting paid.I said, lets agree, all of this hap- mother, Dr. Clotilde P. Garcia, who delivered erty are paid for. pened before our watch, and you and I are going tomore than 10,000 babies in Corpus Christi. Some of those repairs are to county facilities damagedcome up with some real world solutions, and were(3): Bob Hall Pier on Padre Island, a subject by Hurricane Harvey in August 2017when Canales took of- going to do it quickly so we can restore confidenceof controversy inherited by Judge Canales fice 16 months after the storm, only about $1.6 million ofthat I.B. Magee [County Park] is going to be doneassociated with the use of federal funds for $20 million in insurance claims had been collected by theright, that Bob Hall Pier will still have their belovedimprovements in 2011. (4): Homeless in prioradministration.Anticipatedexpenseslikeelevators,Mikel Mays, and that Coastal Parks [Department]Corpus Christi, many of whom are in need of roofs, or a $2.5 million air conditioning chiller for the court- integrity will be restored. mental health services that are unavailable.TheCoastalBend.com THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINEFall 2019 37'