The specter of the stalled Inner Harbor desalination plant may cast influence in the upcoming Corpus Christi City Council election for at least some voters — in certain cases, potentially a litmus test when making final selections between candidates of who they want to represent their interests.
The likelihood that the project could hold some sway at the November polls is a sentiment that incumbents seeking to return to office — on both sides of the issue — have generally agreed on.
The question, though, is more about what percentage of the population would consider it an issue notable enough that their vote would hinge on candidates’ positions in what has now been a yearslong debate.
The project will have some bearing for a portion of voters,
said Paul Gottemoller, a political science professor at Del Mar College — both those who support the plant and those who oppose it, because there are “strong feelings on both sides of the issue,” he said.
But that won’t necessarily be true for everyone, according to Gottemoller.
“[There’s] a portion of the population who can look at an issue and just feel kind of turned off from the bickering and just say, ‘Well, I don’t care how we get the water, just that we get the water, and why are we spending so much on this issue as opposed to other ways of fixing the issue?’” he said.
Gottemoller, who is chair of Del Mar College’s Social Sciences Department, noted that he is supervisor of Isabel Araiza, a candidate for District 2 representative.
However, individual candidates were not discussed as part of the interview with the Caller-Times.
The vote
The latest decision by City Council incumbents is relatively fresh ahead of the election. The majority of the council on Sept. 1 turned down a second potential design contract for the plant, representing a crucial moment on whether it is ultimately realized.
It marked the latest chapter in the ongoing debate among council members and the community on the merits or dangers of the endeavor.
Voting against proceeding with the Corpus Christi Desal Partners’ proposed $78.6 million design contract were City Council members Carolyn Vaughn, Gil Hernandez, Kaylynn Paxson, Eric Cantu and Sylvia Campos.
City Councilmen Roland Barrera, Mark Scott and Everett Roy voted in favor.
Mayor Paulette Guajardo, who has long championed the initiative, was unable to participate in the vote due to an unrelated 30-day suspension.
Vaughn, Hernandez, Cantu, Guajardo and Scott are all seeking to return to the council for the upcoming term.
Election influence
Inner Harbor critics have generally cited concerns of costs, potential environmental effects to the bay and a site adjacent to the Hillcrest neighborhood, a historically Black and Hispanic subdivision.
Advocates have contended the project — planned to generate as much as 30 million gallons of treated water per day — would help to meet water needs in drought and sustain the economy in an environmentally safe way.
A divide exists between the two on the fate of the estimated $979 million facility.
Proponents have speculated that the next council slate — to be seated in January — could pick up the mantle and move forward with its development, while some opponents have expressed interest in terminating the permits altogether, possibly eliminating a future council from the chance to act on the project at all.
Several council members in the wake of the vote defeating the latest design contract have indicated significance in the path the Inner Harbor desalination plant has traveled — some suggesting that their votes on the project could either make or break a successful campaign.
There are council members opposed to the plant who have relayed the sentiment that they had been given “a lot of pushback” and announced that they would vote their conscience, Scott said on Sept. 2.
He’s been doing the same thing, Scott said, clarifying comments he had made on the dais the day before.
“I’m not making a vote based on a political outcome,” he said. “I think the implication was those of us that were voting for [Inner Harbor desalination] were only doing it for politics, and I wanted to communicate that that is not accurate. My vote was based on my own personal position and not based on politics.”
Decisions like those made about the Inner Harbor will always influence elections, Hernandez said Sept. 3.
“It may be the defining thing … people vote on, and that's OK; that's everybody’s right to,” he said. “I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing.”
Vaughn told the Caller-Times on Sept. 9 that there have been coalitions formed seeking to continue pursuit of the project and oust council members who had voted against it.
She added that she was hopeful voters would see a question — if they wanted to continue with what she described as corruption, and if they wanted “the same ones that have run it for years continue to run it.”
Guajardo in a Sept. 13 message to the Caller-Times wrote that water security “will absolutely be an issue in this election, and it should be.”
“We are in a dire water situation and the people of Corpus Christi understand this,” she wrote. “Ultimately, the voters will decide. I absolutely believe in the voters of Corpus Christi and together we will work to build a water supply and protect our future.”
For some candidates, what transpired with Inner Harbor desalination is among the reasons influencing whether to seek office again.
That was true for Roy, according to his Sept. 8 interview with the Caller-Times.
“I just decided that I needed to spend more time with my family and retire from politics,” he said. ”But did it have something to play with it? Yes.”
The project will likely “have some bearing” on the election, Roy said.
“I don’t know how much of a bearing it will have,” he said. “But I think it will have some bearing.”
What's been learned
Several council members identified lessons that could be learned from the experience with the Inner Harbor, although each cited a different takeaway.
Guajardo wrote in her message to the Caller-Times that she believed “that major infrastructure requires consistency, discipline, and the courage to make long-term decisions.”
The Inner Harbor, like other “projects of this magnitude will always face scrutiny,” she wrote, asserting that five council members who had opposed the project had “changed direction repeatedly, created delays, drove up costs, and undermined public confidence.”
“Going forward, we need to rely on the facts, respect the rigorous regulatory process, and make responsible decisions based on Corpus Christi’s long-term water security, not short-term politics,” Guajardo wrote.
Vaughn had a different take.
The lesson, as she views it, is centered largely on the project returning to the council multiple times, despite earlier votes — what Vaughn described as continuing “to beat a dead horse.”
“There have been so many disagreements over it,” she said, pointing to the mayor as the driver behind the project coming back to the council repeatedly. “After a point you just stop.”
Opponents have generally indicated that they have been looking out for the bays system, ratepayers and residents.
Cantu on Sept. 2 asserted that what could be learned is that “the people are tired of paying for something that industry is profiting from.”
“While the people are there struggling, there’s big corporations that are making millions and millions of dollars on the backs of people,” he said.
Although something can be learned from controversial projects — Hernandez named among those the Mary Rhodes Pipeline — “we'll always have something where it polarizes people one way or the other and we continue to move on and move forward.”
“It's just the nature of our type of government,” he said. “It's good to have healthy debate on any of these kinds of issues. … You move on and go to the next thing after that.”
In hindsight, the proposed La Quinta desalination plant location would have been a better choice to start and would likely have lacked the same opposition as the Inner Harbor site, Roy said.
He believes that to be the case, in part, because of the Inner Harbor's location in the Hillcrest area.
“I think we would have been a lot further along,” Roy said. “But that being said, that’s not the way it went down.”
Early voting, as of Sept. 16, is a little more than one month away.
Kirsten Crow covers city government and water news. Have a story idea? Contact her at kirsten.crow@caller.com.
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This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Inner Harbor could influence voter choices in Corpus Christi election
