b'Ignoring the flock of eagle-eyed and highly trained sentries hovering aboveChristi Mayor Joe McComb stated in a Channel 6 news interview, This confirms them, Mayor McComb and his favorite henchman, Mark Van Vleck, nevertheless putthe storm water system is working.their plan of misdirection and deceit into action. Joe McComb has a habit of this. Someone told him once, perhaps twice, how amazingly brilliant he was, and he seems to have assumed that applied to him versus THE SMOOTH OPERATORS all other humans. This comment was reminiscent of his now-infamous claim to the In the week leading up to the October 29th City Council vote on the North BeachCaller-Times that a 200-million-gallon-per-day saltwater desalinization plant would TIRZ, as well as the Citys report on North Beach storm drainage, the Mayor and Citycontribute to lowering the worlds sea levels. Either he is uninformed enough to Manager Peter Zanoni found themselves answering pointed questions and defendingbelieve that, or he assumes we are all uninformed enough to believe him, and/or he their official, untenable position on the state of the storm sewer system on Northdoes not care and has little respect for any of our intelligence. All of the Above is Beachthat it was a properly functioning system. certainly an option as applied to both ridiculous statements. Councilman Hernandez joined members of the Task Force on a tour of NorthWhile not so many of us are shocked by our Mayor playing fast and loose with Beachconveniently timed to find City Utilities crews, dispatched by Van Vleck,the truthvery fast and very looseit was particularly disappointing to see our new, working on storm sewer lines. Video shot by Blackard Global shows two utility$25,000-per-month City Manager doing it, in front of the same reporter and con-workers trying to locate manhole covers in the middle of a street, that had beenfronted with the same facts and video, the very next daybut Peter Zanoni did.paved over at least once, maybe moreone worker is using a metal detector, while[The sewer lines] are self-cleaning, essentially, and when theres a large storm another is working with a homemade set of diving rods that appeared to be a wireevent, the scouring effect from heavy flushes of water tends to clean the system out, clothes hanger in a prior life. More of the video showed rectangular, 48-inch stormZanoni told KRIS-TV reporter Greg Chandler. Where you dont have heavy concen-sewer lines at least 80% impacted with mud, sand and even seaweed, with saltwatertrations and where things can stagnate is the inletsthats why our preventative pooled on top, on a sunny day in the spring. maintenance program focuses on the inlets. Under the gun and with a camera in his Mayor Joe McComb at City Council 10.29.19:Weve heard people say the reason it floods over there is that the storm water system hasnt been addressed in yearswe just saw they work! If the tide comes up, the waters gonna be pushed in and out on the property, and when the tide goes down, the water goes back in So, the storm Video posted on YouTube courtesy [water] system works! of Carrie Robertson-MeyerThis condition of the sewer lines results in dry land, hundreds of yards inland,face, perhaps Zanoni was nervous in the interviewinlets would not become stag-as well as streets throughout North Beach, becoming flooded with saltwater in highnate if there were no heavy concentrations of mud and debris, apart from the fact tide, even when it does not rain. This kind of tidal flooding is expected in low-lyingthat manholes would not be paved-over if the storm water lines below were subject areas near a beach where there is no storm sewer system in placebut this is a de- to regular preventative maintenance.veloped, urban area with paved streets, sidewalks and curbsnot Gilligans Island.Zanoni went on to admit that utility crews were dispatched to North Beach in Apart from that, the tidal flooding on North Beach does not come from bay waterslight of the upcoming presentation at City Council, despite the storm sewer lines be-cresting the dune line, such that it is. The saltwater is fed through the storm sewering self-cleaning. Even after being shown video of those self-cleaning lines packed system because the lines are so filled withthe beachthat they have no capacity forfull of mud, with seawater pooled on top, the man who gave so many of us hope that seawater entering the system when the tide exceeds the height of the exit culverts. competent leadershipalbeit at a big-city pricehad finally been hired at Corpus WhatwouldbeobvioustojustaboutanyC-studentschoolkid,strictlyChristi City Hall, towed the lie, undoubtedly against the voices of reason inside his through observation and the most elementary of elementary analysisthat theown headand we shook our collective heads.storm sewer system on North Beach does not worknot only seemed to have es- They got to him. They corrupted a good man just like they always do.caped the fertile minds of our top City leaders, but they came to the completelyMcComb and Zanoni kept the joke going for more than a month, until their No-opposite conclusionpublicly, at least. When shown the video of clogged stormvember 18, 2019, meeting with the North Beach Task Force and a group of engineers, sewer lines and the resulting flooding of North Beach streets in high tide, Corpuswho presented to them a report from a licensed and bonded utility contractor who 52 THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINEQ2.2020 TheCoastalBend.com'