b'immense public pressure on the City Council to say yes, at that moment and withoutBack to At-Large Councilperson Paulette Guajardo, whom we asked if she stood further discussion or delay, was compounded by the hole that McComb and Zanoniby the Mayors move to disband the Task Force. She replied, He did not consult me on had dug for themselves and the City of Corpus Christiand it was much more thanthat decision. Had it come forward, we would have had a discussion. We werent part political. Their contradictory public/private statements about the working conditionof the discussion. We asked Legal, who said they had performed their tasks.of the storm sewer system on North Beach, while probably not a crime, could veryI am going to do whats right for the entire city. I want to see progress and for well be the basis of a class-action civil lawsuit by property owners against the City ofNorth Beach to flourish, starting with fixing drainage, said Guajardo.Corpus Christi, which is legally obligated to provide storm drainage as a paid Utili- No one can tell you with more swagger and self-righteousness, as a legacy busi-ties Department service. ness owner, than Joe McComb, about the inefficiencies of government. He will go on After more than two hours in executive session, which followed hours of publicand on about how the sure-fire way for anything to be priced out of existence is for debate in Council chambers where Jeff Blackard and Lynn Frazier were seated nextany government body to be in chargeand thats where his plan to kill North Beach to Doug Allison, one of the most influential attorneys in the city whose clients in- and get rid of Jeff Blackard sets at present. Instead of City staff working with Black-clude The Port of Corpus Christi, the City Council and Mayor voted unanimously 9-0ard and the Task Force on the RFQ process for the canal, they have sent them away for an ordinance directing the City Manager to fund a $41.2 million navigable canaland withdrawn their credentials as a City entity. Right alongside the Mayor and City on North Beach. Manager in this effort was District One Councilman Everett Roy, who was elected to For most Corpus Christians, whose last news on the Grand Canal project wasrepresent North Beach property owners and who was a member of the Task Force, it passing in December, the assumption is that its a done deal and going through asalthough he rarely attended meetings or work sessions.promisedbut here is where the Mayors backroom plan kicked into action. The firstIn his letter disbanding the Task Force and officially handing the Grand Canal trick was to find legal deficiency in the ordinance itself, so two days after it passedproject off to the City Manager, McComb twice emphasized the no more than $41.2 on December 10th, the City Attorney issued a list of problems to the City Managermillion budget for the canal, a clumsy psychological projection of exactly where he and Council. When the Task Force attorney proved that the same legal standardsintends for the redevelopment plan for North Beach to end upin the dumpster, join-were not applied to the 800+ acre London annexation ordinance that was passed ating Landrys, Bass Pro, Intrawest Resorts, SeaWorld and all the other lost opportuni-the very same meeting, the list of deficiencies floated into the ether. ties for Corpus Christi to finally grow up, and offer an attractive place where our When that didnt work, and after Mark Van Vleck was unceremoniously shownkids, and their kids, will want to stay and build their lives.the door on January 2, 2020, McComb simply declared by fiat that the North BeachAs Chief Good Ole Boy, whose leadership mantra is Nobodys in a Hurry, May-Task Force was disbanded, having done their work as described in the ordinance creat- or McComb could come up against an opponent, or opponents, in this Novembers ing it in April 2018, the one he voted against. That was in late January, just as City staffhigh-turnout election, who is ready to lead Corpus Christi to places of prosperity was starting the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) process for the Grand Canala pro- where San Antonio and Austin are nowsomeone who sees our unmet potential and cess that the City Manager was then free to execute without consulting the Task Force,a new way of seeing ourselves as a community, like so many outsiders see usas a.k.a. the source of the entire plan and budget, a.k.a. Lynn Frazier and Jeff Blackard.the Sparkling City by the Sea that painfully yearns to sparkle again.60 THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINEQ2.2020 TheCoastalBend.com'