THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINE 45 TheCoastalBend.com • Why hasn't Corpus Christi grown? The simplest answer is, “40 years of corruption and incompetence of elected leadership.” Generally speaking, nothing gets done in Corpus Christi that does not benefit the preferred interests of some set of elected officials in the form of construction and consultation contracts, property purchases, or favored proj- ects. The ongoing water supply crisis is the glaring example. It started decades ago when City officials decided to sell off the great majority of our public water supply to industry at rock-bottom rates, with no plan to replace it for public use. Since the 2020 census, Corpus Christi has experienced a population de- cline of about .5% a year, and residential water use is less than 15% of the City system—industrial use is over 60%, which has been growing as area industries have grown. For over a decade, City leaders have known that we were running out of water, but each faction of politicos had chosen their preferred project, to the exclusion of all others, and were not interested in hearing about any alternative. For desalination, one side only wanted Inner Harbor and the oth- er side only wanted Harbor Island, and neither wanted to hear about other options—that is, until now, with their backs against the wall. This is modus operandi in our city that applied to all of the big projects we've lost out on, from a convention center hotel and bayfront entertainment district, to island resorts and theme parks, to Costco and Bass Pro Shops, to a Riverwalk-style development on North Beach—we've lost them all because one side of each issue would rather see us all lose, than see the other side win—and now that attitude has taken Corpus Christi to the point of total collapse. • The billionaires we ran off. Tilman Fertitta: Landry's owner who wanted to build a sister property to Ke- mah Boardwalk in 1999, but was told he needed to hire a preferred local con- struction company. Robert Rowling: Corpus Christi native who owns Omni Hotels and proposed Bayfront development projects that were obstructed at the City level. Jeff Blackard: Respected developer who spent two years and a small fortune on a North Beach redevelopment plan, only to be abandoned by City leadership. Johnny Morris: Founder of Bass Pro Shops who wanted to develop the old Memorial Coliseum site but was blocked by local boat dealers. Tilman Fertitta Robert Rowling Jeff Blackard Johnny Morris • The Cisneros Leadership Lesson. “‘The people voted not for the person, but for an agenda, and we are here to follow their agenda.’ The job was to make it easier to invest in San An- tonio and converting that into higher wages. I had no patience for a $100,000-a-year City employee calling the shots for the people who put them there.” —Henry Cisneros, former Mayor of San Antonio One of the most successful mayors in the history of Texas, who set San Antonio up for four decades of uninterrupted prosper- ity, was Henry Cisneros, who took office in 1981 at age 33. His list of accomplishments is endless, but his first job was cleaning up self-dealing at City Hall, particularly within City staff and management, who were no- torious for leveraging their influence with- in the bureaucracy on behalf or against councilmembers, City contractors, and even average citizens—not unlike what we have seen at Corpus Christi City Hall for de- cades, that continues today. The Cisneros prime lesson in leadership starts with running for office on a well-articulated agenda that voters embrace, which, ul- timately, is a shared vision for a better city—one where our kids would want to stay and raise the next generation. That agenda never, not once, included catering to the preferred (financial) interests of councilmembers, staff, and their allies, the status quo that Cisneros tackled at full speed. “Before long, the hold-outs stand out,” he said in describing how he assessed the progress of a new culture permeating through City Hall. Henry Cisneros' record of success as Mayor of San Antonio is one to behold: expansion of the Riverwalk to what it is today, the Alamodome, SeaWorld Texas, Fiesta Texas, two major golf resorts, major expansions of the biomedical and aerospace industries, and even Toyota Texas, the seed for which was planted when he lead a mission to Japan that included a personal audience with Dr. Eiji Toyoda, the generational chairman of Toyota Motor Corporation. In Cisneros' four mayoral elections, he never lost any of San Antonio's ten council districts, and won reelection for his second term with 94.2% of the vote. After four terms as mayor, he served as U.S. Sec- retary of Housing and Urban Development under President Bill Clinton before entering the private business sector for good. Can we all close our eyes and envision how Corpus Christi could succeed with Cisneros-style leadership? • Where the revolution must start. As the editor of the region's largest community magazine, I can report, unequiv- ocally, that I have not met a single Corpus Christi resident, whom I've asked, who trusts City Hall. Not one, and that is not hyperbole or exaggeration on any level. Step one in saving our city starts with fixing the water problem in a way in which the people can have confidence that their money is not being wasted or stolen and that A-students are on the case, not the C-class. We must stop the financial bleeding now, in a year when the City has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on dubious water projects that all come with a high “desperation premium.” Private companies make money all over the world producing and selling desalinated wa- ter, thus there is no reason that we have to go into another billion dollars in debt for a desal plant. See our Community section to read about the best option at our doorstep. Current management is failing us, they've proven that they cannot be trusted, and we deserve better. Through this process, a new leader, or newly-en- ergized current leadership, will emerge, and the healing can finally begin.
View this content as a flipbook by clicking here.