Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: What's going on, y'all? Corpus Christi Originals, back at it again. Coming to you live from the Produce Streamlab Studios downtown. Corpus Christi, Texas, here at Produce Sound Studios. Today we. Today we have. Right now we have Rachel Caballero.
[00:00:13] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:00:13] Speaker A: City At Large running candidate.
[00:00:15] Speaker B: Yep. Yep. City Council Candidates for At Large.
[00:00:19] Speaker A: At large. So at large. When I first heard that, I was like, what is that? At large?
[00:00:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:00:23] Speaker A: So you have to put at large on it, right?
[00:00:25] Speaker B: Yeah. So basically, like, Corpus Christi is broken up into, like, five districts. Right. So district one is here, like, downtown North Beach, Calallen. District two is, like, a little bit over to the left, the Bay area. Right in there, and some of corpus. And then district three is Molina. All that. Those neighborhoods. And then four is the island and flower bluff.
[00:00:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:00:51] Speaker B: Then five is the south side, Yorktown.
[00:00:53] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:00:54] Speaker B: Saratoga. Excuse me. Sorry about that. And then so there's those five representatives. And then you have citywide, which is at large.
[00:01:03] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:01:04] Speaker B: So we would be representing the city as a whole.
[00:01:08] Speaker A: Right.
[00:01:08] Speaker B: And there's three at large candidates.
[00:01:10] Speaker A: Wow. And so they. At large, can they vote for, like, one that's only, like, one bill or whatever you do inside one specific area? Can you vote for that? Or do you have to vote for.
[00:01:21] Speaker B: Only, like, let's just pretend you live here downtown. Right?
[00:01:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:24] Speaker B: So you could vote for your district person, which is district one. And then you can vote for an at large person.
[00:01:31] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:01:31] Speaker B: So you can vote for up to three at large people.
They say that, you know, there. You know, there's, I think, ten candidates right now for at large.
So you have three choices.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: And on the city council, there's three at large.
[00:01:46] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:01:47] Speaker A: So you have three choices and then one for each district.
[00:01:51] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:01:51] Speaker A: Okay. Okay.
[00:01:52] Speaker B: But you only vote for the district, for the neighborhood that you live in.
[00:01:56] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:01:57] Speaker B: So you get to vote for three things. You get to vote for. Well, I guess five things. You get to vote for mayor.
[00:02:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:05] Speaker B: Your district person, and then the three at large options.
[00:02:09] Speaker A: Wow. So crazy, man. Yeah. Growing up, we don't learn none of this stuff. No.
[00:02:13] Speaker B: They don't teach us. They don't even teach us this in school.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: They don't.
[00:02:16] Speaker B: It's horrible.
[00:02:17] Speaker A: No. So a lot of us are just illiterate to this stuff, and a lot of us don't even vote.
[00:02:21] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:02:21] Speaker A: So the people that are in charge of the city are just doing what they do without. Yeah. We don't even know what's going on so.
[00:02:31] Speaker B: Well, and they do that on purpose. Right. Like, so me, I didn't really get involved every once in a while, I think. I don't know if you remember when they were trying to, like, keep Uber from coming to town.
[00:02:41] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:02:41] Speaker B: So I went, got petition signed and all that stuff, you know, showed up to city council and they still voted against it, even though they said that that was the most people that they'd had at the city council meeting in like, ten years.
[00:02:53] Speaker A: What?
[00:02:54] Speaker B: And they still. Well, luckily, you know, the governor at the time, the governor said, hey, we're just making this decision for the state of Texas.
[00:03:02] Speaker A: Right?
[00:03:02] Speaker B: So then Uber was allowed to come into corpus.
[00:03:05] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:03:07] Speaker B: I got involved in that and then I kind of just touched on a few different things. But in 2020, with COVID and all that stuff, when they shut down our beaches, that sent me over the edge.
[00:03:18] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:03:19] Speaker B: So that's whenever I decided to get involved because I'm like, this doesn't make sense. You know, like the vitamin D, the sun, you know, we're not touching anybody. We, we can park our cars on the beach. Like, we can park 6ft from each other. Like, we're solid.
[00:03:34] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:03:34] Speaker B: And they still close the beaches. And so that was upsetting, obviously. So I got involved in that. And now it's been four years of learning how the government works, learning their language. They have their own language. It's crazy. Like, you any, if I were to hand you the agenda right now, you'd be like, what? No, like, what is all this? And so I've learned how to read them and what they really mean because it's like jumbo, you know? Oh, well, this from, article this from La La. You know what I mean?
[00:04:05] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:04:05] Speaker B: And so, you know, and they, but they don't teach us that in school. And it's frustrating, you know, that's why it's hard for me as just a regular person. And I don't, I didn't go to university. Like, I don't have a degree, right? I tell people I have a doctorate in hard knocks university because I grew up in a single parent home and I had to bust my butt. Now I have a small little bookkeeping company that's been successful and I do well. And, but they don't teach us this stuff, dude.
[00:04:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:33] Speaker B: And a lot of our folks, I know, Rasa who say, like, our rasa. Yeah, we don't vote because they don't, you know, everybody's tired, too. You know, they're just like, ah, it doesn't matter how I vote, you know.
[00:04:46] Speaker A: We still get screwed.
[00:04:48] Speaker B: And I get it. I've been there, you know, but here, you know, this is what I tell people is, like, here at a local level, this is where it matters the most, because this is the instant impact right to our pocketbook right here. These are the races that we should really be giving a shit about. The ones, the presidential races, you know, it'll trickle down eventually to us, but these local races are the ones that we really should be, you know, thinking about, like, man, we need to get some good, solid community representatives.
[00:05:20] Speaker A: Wow. Yeah. Whenever I see those signs, whenever it comes time for voting, me personally, like, as a Hispanic, I'm always prone to looking at the hispanic last name. Oh, they're hispanic. They're gonna be for me. You know what I mean? And I notice now that, nah, no, they didn't know. That's not how it's gonna work here. So how do we. How do I know that person's gonna actually do, you know, for the people, you know what I mean? How do we know that?
[00:05:46] Speaker B: We don't.
[00:05:47] Speaker A: We don't.
[00:05:48] Speaker B: We don't that, like, for me, what I'm telling people now, because they're now, like, their people are like, okay, I'm gonna vote for the first time this year.
[00:05:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:56] Speaker B: So what do I do? And I said, okay, go to their. Listen to the banter on social media. People like, oh, you can't trust social media. Well, it's starting to get true, right? Because there's a lot of bots, there's a lot of fake accounts, there's a lot of trolls. So this is what I tell people. Even with me, they're like, hey, you need to do this. You need to do that. Like, I get all these messages, and I'm like, look, let's have a coffee. Let's meet.
[00:06:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:22] Speaker B: Oh, well, I can't meet.
And then you. That's a red flag, right? Yeah, because they're probably not a real person.
[00:06:28] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:06:29] Speaker B: And they try to send you on this, like, yeah.
Like, you're never gonna find the answer. I'm like, look, I tell you what. Whenever you can meet, let. We'll have sit down, have a conversation, and we'll figure out your problem. Yeah, but until then, I'm not gonna spend my wheels on somebody that I don't even know if they exist.
[00:06:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:47] Speaker B: So that's what I tell people. Just like, look, go on social media. Find their Facebook accounts, go to the city pages, see what people are saying, and only trust what you can see and touch or have a meeting with.
[00:06:59] Speaker A: Yeah. Do you think the. So it makes me think about, like, people that have been on the city council, maybe they're rerunning or whatever. We can look at their. Their history. Right?
Do. And do you think.
So how does it go in with, like, news and newspaper? Like, is it at, like, the way the national level is to wherever is fake? Is that the way it is locally? Really? Oh, my God.
[00:07:23] Speaker B: I mean, they just, you know, and I have. Once you start getting involved in all this, the names, all the people start becoming familiar, and then they want to ask you questions, and then they clip your comment to make you sound like an idiot. You know what I mean? But then, you know, their job, because I had a conversation with somebody in the local media, and their job is to tell the story and not pick a side.
But I'm like, a lot of y'all stories, you're. The story's going towards the. In favor of the government. Right. So how are you telling us the story without, you know, you're kind of, like, helping them out.
[00:08:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:04] Speaker B: Like, well, that's not intentional. And blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So, I mean, it's tough. It's tough. Like, there's a lot of discernment involved in this stuff. Like, you gotta follow your gut. Like, what's your gut telling you about it? Is this a good person? You know, and then you get, you know, for me, my public comments, people always give me grief. Right? Like, oh, you need to be nicer. Like, you attract more, you know, bees with honey.
And, you know, I started off that way four years ago.
[00:08:34] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:08:34] Speaker B: Like, hey, guys, thanks for the opportunity. Thanks for all your hard work, blah, blah, blah. Because I didn't know any better. I thought they were working for us.
[00:08:41] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:08:41] Speaker B: And now, four years in, I'm going, like, y'all are all sellouts. Oh, we need to replace you all. I mean, there might be one, two, you know, but everybody, it's like. It's kind of like this.
[00:08:52] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:08:53] Speaker B: Cause some of you're like, why did you vote like that?
That don't make no sense.
[00:08:58] Speaker A: Oh, man.
[00:08:59] Speaker B: So. And we're. There's a few big things coming to corpus that is going to, like, change the structure of our city. And that's scary for me because I grew up here. I'm from here.
[00:09:13] Speaker A: What?
[00:09:14] Speaker B: Um, that one of the bigger projects is, I don't know you. I'm sure you've heard about it. Desalination.
[00:09:19] Speaker A: I was going to mention that. Yeah.
[00:09:20] Speaker B: Yeah. So it's basically, we're running out of water. They keep saying we're out of water. We need water. Water, water, water.
[00:09:26] Speaker A: Right, right.
[00:09:27] Speaker B: And then you. You look right. Me and you, a regular people, and you're like, there's an ocean right there, bro. Like, what do you mean? We're out of water. Right?
[00:09:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:34] Speaker B: And so it doesn't make sense. So I start, like, what. What is going on here? Right, basically. And all the numbers that I pull are from the city of Corpus. They're either from the port of Corpus Christi, city of Corpus, or Oasis county, because I'm not somebody who's going to bust out with, like, you know, just making up information and putting it out there. That's dangerous.
[00:09:56] Speaker A: Right.
[00:09:57] Speaker B: So they're saying that we're running out of water. Their own documents show that the US, me and you.
[00:10:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:05] Speaker B: We are the people that use the least amount of water. At 16%.
The rest of the water is going to industry.
[00:10:16] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:10:17] Speaker B: And so what's going on now? After doing all this research and talking to the different, like, environmental groups, the different, like, sea life protectors. Right. They're protecting our environment, and we don't need the water. The community is fine.
[00:10:36] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:10:37] Speaker B: It's industry. They want to grow. It's called economic development.
[00:10:41] Speaker A: Right.
[00:10:41] Speaker B: They want to grow more refineries.
[00:10:45] Speaker A: Right.
[00:10:46] Speaker B: Refineries take a lot of water to push out whatever they're doing. Clean, whatever kind of stuff that they're trying to get through.
[00:10:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:56] Speaker B: And so they need more water. And, you know, I hate that they keep misleading the community on that because we don't need more water. They need more water.
[00:11:06] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:11:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:08] Speaker A: Yeah. And so the whole thing with that is. So it. They voted on it, right? After all that? Because I saw a bunch of people at the bank center. Right? You guys showed up there.
[00:11:18] Speaker B: Yeah, we did.
[00:11:18] Speaker A: And so they still voted through it. It sucks, man. Because you're like, all these people are here against it, and you guys are still voting for it. Like, there's something weird here. Anyway, so they voted for it. What's happening with it now? Like, is it still gonna. Gonna go through? You know, do you know the default, the news about what's going on with it right now?
[00:11:38] Speaker B: Yeah. The mayor said a lie on Tuesday.
[00:11:41] Speaker A: Right.
[00:11:41] Speaker B: She said, you know, people keep asking, you know, with desal, you know, if it happens, if it happens, it's happening. And it's not because the permit that they have. Right.
A draft permit. There's a lawsuit against the city of corpus right now.
It's a title. Title Vi lawsuit. The community of Hillcrest, where they want to put the plant, is suing them and saying that it's a civil rights issue. Because guess what? Hillcrest is.
[00:12:09] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:12:10] Speaker B: Like, 85% black and hispanic people.
[00:12:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:14] Speaker B: Actually, probably a little bit higher of a number than that.
[00:12:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:17] Speaker B: And so they're saying that you guys are picking on us because we're minorities, poor people, which is true.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:24] Speaker B: Because you. You think they're gonna try to put that stuff over on the south side?
[00:12:27] Speaker A: No. Damn. Wow.
[00:12:31] Speaker B: So it's crazy.
[00:12:32] Speaker A: It is. I was talking to my wife earlier. I was like, dang. And we were talking before air, like, earlier. I was like, man, I don't know what I'm getting myself into. I know, but, like, truth is, like, it's.
It hurts, but at the same time, it's like, damn, what can we do to change it? You know what I mean? What can we actually do for that type of stuff to change?
Oh, man. And so. And my wife was telling. We were talking about Zinoni, right. My wife was telling me, too. She was like, man, he gets paid like a doctor.
[00:13:01] Speaker B: No, more than a doctor.
So he, like. So a neurosurgeon.
[00:13:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:06] Speaker B: Gets paid, like, 250 to 85,000 a year. Homeboy is pulling in, like, 450.
[00:13:13] Speaker A: Damn.
[00:13:14] Speaker B: And they have to, like, what jobs do we get, right in our community, where your employers, like, we're gonna add five days of vacation, and you have to take them, and they need to be in a row.
You gotta take five consecutive days off. Okay. We're like, man, come on. And then his parting package, 18. It was for twelve months severance to 18 months severance.
[00:13:41] Speaker A: So. Wow. So what is this? Is it legal for him to do that? Like, is it all our money?
[00:13:47] Speaker B: It's all our money.
[00:13:48] Speaker A: It's all ours.
[00:13:48] Speaker B: All our money. And so when you guys are on Facebook and you see, like, oh, the city of Corpus is sponsoring this. No, they're not. We are. Oh, this is all our money.
[00:13:58] Speaker A: Oh, my God.
[00:13:58] Speaker B: It's all our money.
[00:13:59] Speaker A: Yo, so, man, are. So. Are we in debt? Yes, we are.
[00:14:04] Speaker B: A lot of debt.
[00:14:05] Speaker A: A lot of debt.
[00:14:06] Speaker B: And this is. I don't want to get too complicated, right? Because this. All this information is overwhelming. This is how I felt when I first got into this mess. Right. It's. It's very overwhelming. But they're. They have. They figure out loopholes. So we don't have to vote.
[00:14:22] Speaker A: Oh, no.
[00:14:23] Speaker B: So we don't have to vote on things.
[00:14:25] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:14:26] Speaker B: And so I think Peter Zanoni, in the last five years, has taken out something called a certificate of obligation, which is basically like a promise or, like, a note.
[00:14:36] Speaker A: Right.
[00:14:37] Speaker B: That you get when you get a loan. Oh, and he. Instead of forcing, like, the city council members should call him out on that, but they don't, because they're corrupt. But he's getting those certificates of obligation and not getting a community vote. So he's already put us in debt outside of the bonds, outside of the tax rate increases. $101 million.
[00:15:02] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:15:03] Speaker B: In five years.
The one he got this year was, like, 50 million.
[00:15:07] Speaker A: Damn.
[00:15:07] Speaker B: So nobody's stopping him. Nobody's doing nothing. They're. They're promoting this dude when he's, like, chingalaying us.
[00:15:13] Speaker A: Damn. Why, though? Like, how does it get to that point?
[00:15:17] Speaker B: I think that. That they think he's doing a good job because he. There was. There's this dude on social media from San Antonio who says that Peter Zanoni is a part of, like, some RICO investigation. A RICO investigation, or is, like, money having to do with government money? I don't even know. Right. It's complicated.
[00:15:38] Speaker A: Like. Like, a bunch of people are involved in, like, a scheme or.
[00:15:41] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And so he's a part of that. And he apparently warned our city council.
[00:15:47] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:15:47] Speaker B: And they didn't do nothing. They hired him.
So it makes you wonder, like, are they hiring him because they know he's shady?
[00:15:54] Speaker A: Oh, no.
[00:15:56] Speaker B: You don't want to believe that.
[00:15:57] Speaker A: Yeah. It's like, oh, he can get us more money up here.
[00:16:00] Speaker B: Right? And so far, our city budget started off. Whenever he started, it was, like, 980 something million.
This year's budget. I just left a budget meeting. That's why I'm ran a little bit late. But is at $1.8 billion.
[00:16:17] Speaker A: No. Wow. That's. That's the money that doubled it in five years.
[00:16:22] Speaker B: He's doubled the city budget in five years.
[00:16:25] Speaker A: What's it all going to? What's it going to?
[00:16:27] Speaker B: That's my biggest complaint. Right? Because I'm like, I don't see it.
[00:16:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:31] Speaker B: I don't see it in our streets.
[00:16:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:32] Speaker B: I don't see it in our infrastructure. I don't see it like that. We're getting all these amazing amenities. I don't see it anywhere.
[00:16:39] Speaker A: There's some streets that it seems like they're working on. Do you think they're like, oh, we gotta do something.
[00:16:44] Speaker B: Yep. I feel like that's, like, the. All right, here. Look, look. Mira, mira, mira. You look at that street.
[00:16:49] Speaker A: Here's the bone.
[00:16:50] Speaker B: Yes, yes. And all Alameda, they've done. I've been. I've been. So I grew up here, and then I left when I was 24. I went to go live in Denver, Colorado, and I lived there for 13 years. So now I've been back the same amount of time in corpus. I came back to be with my parents because they were older, and they've worked on the same streets. Dude, they've worked on the same streets, like, three or four times. Alameda, at least. At least four times. Yeah, like, it's nuts. And then you start, like, I start researching, like, okay, well, you know, there's this group of people. There's this group of people and all these different things, right? And it's all the same people.
[00:17:32] Speaker A: Wow, man. We got a question here from Ben de Leon from the recycled corn podcast. Shout out Ben de Leon. He says, if you could set the city down a path of change, where's the starting line? And what do you see the city becoming?
[00:17:47] Speaker B: The starting line would be to elect people who actually want to represent the community. Like, right now, we have people on council that will say behind there that they represent industry. So they're. Right now they'll say that. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So there's a few people that represent industry. There's some banking people on there, some insurance people on there. There was a roofing guy who's trying to make a comeback. Title companies.
So they don't care about us. They care about their industries and that their industries succeed.
Because, see, like, think about it this way, right? Our beaches, they're. They're. They're ours, right. Because of the Texas open Beaches act. That is a law, and we're. A lot of us are trying to protect that law. Right. The Texas open Beaches act.
[00:18:39] Speaker A: Right.
[00:18:41] Speaker B: Well, the one dude that's running for city council at large, one of my opponents, he was the one that tried to privatize the beaches in, like, oh, six.
[00:18:51] Speaker A: Privatize the beaches.
[00:18:52] Speaker B: Yep. So no more vehicular access.
It's all privatized to.
[00:18:57] Speaker A: Privatized to who?
[00:18:58] Speaker B: Like, to whoever. Like, so they can build. They develop. So they can develop. Oh, and, like, if you go to.
[00:19:03] Speaker A: JP, it'll be their land to do whatever they want. Oh, shoot.
[00:19:07] Speaker B: I. And then we don't have access. Like, have you ever been to Florida? Okay, so Florida. In Florida, when you go to, like, the beaches out there.
[00:19:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:14] Speaker B: It's all houses, it's all rich people that live on the coast, right. So only they get that view. And then you have to drive, like, a mile, a quarter, you know, half of a mile to find a public access door, and so. And why does this dude want to privatize?
[00:19:33] Speaker A: That's our beach like, we grew up going to the beach.
[00:19:36] Speaker B: One of the guys that I talked to, the son of one of the guys that's trying to privatize out there, and he's like, why are you so passionate? Like, why are, you know, what's your problem? Like, because, I mean, I get emotional about it.
[00:19:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:48] Speaker B: I'm like, because I grew up poor, unlike you. We didn't go to Australia for a, you know, trip or Martha's vineyard. Like, our trip was going to the beach with all the family sandwiches, staying out there all day. Like, you know, we were poor.
[00:20:04] Speaker A: Damn.
[00:20:05] Speaker B: I said, and you guys want to. We are, you know, are. I think that they take advantage of us, too, because they know we have a, you know, like, what one? We're 67% hispanic here in Oasis county.
They know we don't vote. They know we haven't been taught about politics.
[00:20:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:24] Speaker B: And they know we don't care. So they've been taking advantage of that.
[00:20:28] Speaker A: Oh, see?
[00:20:29] Speaker B: So Ben's question was. Sorry.
[00:20:31] Speaker A: Yeah, no, sorry. He sent it to me on. Yeah, yeah. He says, what's the. If there's a path to change, where's started? The starting line? And what do you see the city becoming?
[00:20:40] Speaker B: Okay, so the starting line, I feel like, is to replace all these politicians that are not acting and making. Voting, or making decisions and voting in our favor. Right. That's the first step.
[00:20:51] Speaker A: Change those, get some, change all those.
[00:20:53] Speaker B: People out, and you're like, ah, but that one's okay. Just change them all out. It's time. It's time. Most of them have been there for at least four years. Two of them, I think, have only been there two, but.
[00:21:03] Speaker A: Right.
[00:21:04] Speaker B: Just. Let's start new.
[00:21:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:06] Speaker B: Right. The second thing is, we have an opportunity here because we're such a unique town. Like, look. Look at Dusty, right? He's. He's created this horrible street.
[00:21:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:17] Speaker B: And he's turned it into this beautiful. Like, you know, we have the little grocery store we have here, the studio. You know, there's a little other places that he's created on this one little strip.
[00:21:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:29] Speaker B: You know what I mean? And. Because he figured out how to work with the system. Right.
And I think that we. I would love to see our community be that, because we're only 360,000 people, despite what all these politicians are saying, our population is not growing.
[00:21:49] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:21:49] Speaker B: And if you think about it, it's because, like, all the entrance points into town, what do you have to drive by?
[00:21:55] Speaker A: The refinery?
[00:21:56] Speaker B: All the refineries.
[00:21:57] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:21:58] Speaker B: So all these people, like, the refinery workers, they'll come make their money, live here for a couple of years, and then they bounce.
[00:22:06] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:22:07] Speaker B: So our population isn't growing. I think it's less than 1% in the last five years.
[00:22:10] Speaker A: Oh, my God. Like a refinery town.
[00:22:12] Speaker B: Yep. So I think based off of my research and going to meetings in Ingleside, Portland, Port Aransas, Rockport, and now we're. I don't know if you've heard of the ammonia plant in Kel Allen.
[00:22:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:28] Speaker B: They're trying to turn this entire coastal bend area into an industrial wasteland. And that's what I'm fighting against.
[00:22:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:35] Speaker B: And they don't like me for it. Oh, and they're, they're, they're brutal.
[00:22:39] Speaker A: Yeah. Whatso what? So do they tell you stuff or.
[00:22:43] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I've been called behind the dais, they've called me stupid. They say that my public comments. Cuz I'm passionate.
[00:22:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:52] Speaker B: That my public comments are entertaining.
I mean, in their rude. They're rude. They're rude.
[00:23:00] Speaker A: Wow, man. And so you don't. Are you the only one doing this? Like, how do you.
[00:23:06] Speaker B: There's actually a lot, a lot more people now than there was when I first started.
[00:23:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:11] Speaker B: That are just, just there. They're tired of the bad decision making. Like, even right now, they want to close all those parks and the senior centers. But Zanoni gets that stupid raise, and then he gives a raise to his assistants.
[00:23:26] Speaker A: Oh, no. And you're like, dude, what's going on?
[00:23:29] Speaker B: Yeah, it just, for me, it's not making sense. And then they're having conversations behind closed doors that we're not involved in.
[00:23:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:36] Speaker B: And I do remember learning in school that the government works for us.
[00:23:41] Speaker A: Right.
[00:23:42] Speaker B: And they're not, so we got to change it.
[00:23:44] Speaker A: Yeah. It's like, it's like, it's national and we see it on social media and we know that it's happening up there. It's like, what? And you were mentioning earlier, how come you think it's not happening here at the low, at the local level?
[00:23:57] Speaker B: Well, and then they get the industry, they bring jobs and economic development. Why are all these buildings empty?
[00:24:05] Speaker A: Oh, shoot.
Yeah.
[00:24:08] Speaker B: Why are our streets so bad?
[00:24:09] Speaker A: Oh, man.
[00:24:10] Speaker B: You know, we have the port here. The port is. They keep saying it's our largest port and they. Blah, blah, blah. Well, where are y'all helping us? Yeah, y'all are using our water. You're polluting our air.
[00:24:21] Speaker A: You want to take our beaches.
[00:24:22] Speaker B: Yeah. And then we ain't. We're not reaping any of these benefits. Our taxes are at an all time high. Our water rates are at an all time high. Our electricity rates are at an all time high. And it's like, where are y'all at?
[00:24:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:24:36] Speaker B: You know?
[00:24:37] Speaker A: Yeah. And then real quick, Miranda. Miranda for says so proud of you, Rachel.
[00:24:42] Speaker B: Oh, thanks. Thanks.
[00:24:44] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, that was my daughter from the last show.
[00:24:48] Speaker B: Oh, that's sweet.
[00:24:49] Speaker A: Yeah, man, so this is so crazy, like, just to know that and, like, we're mentioned, like people, like, we're like, well, why do we vote? They're just gonna be the way they are anyway. You know what I mean? It seems like that's the mentality that we have. It seems like people are hopeless or think hopeless whenever they say that.
[00:25:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:10] Speaker A: You know what I mean?
[00:25:10] Speaker B: And it's. It's, it's a lot of information. Right. And it's scary.
[00:25:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:14] Speaker B: But the thing is, is it. We are at a position right now where we can stop it.
[00:25:19] Speaker A: Yeah. You think so?
[00:25:20] Speaker B: I think so. I think that this election is going to, the outcome of the November election is going to determine what happens with our town.
[00:25:32] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:25:33] Speaker B: So there's a few people that are. It's gonna be dangerous if we elect them because they already have their. How do you say that? They already have their mindset on, you know, turning us into an industry town.
[00:25:47] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:25:48] Speaker B: And you know, one of the guys on that, on city council, he's like, we're a petrochemical town. I'm like, no, we're not. We're not a petrochemical town. We never signed up to be a petrochemical town. We never wanted to be a petrochemical town, you know? And my thing is like, even with my friends. Cause everybody's like, has kids in school and stuff. And I'm like, we have a different life, you know, we want to raise our kids, you know, we want to give them what we didn't have growing up.
[00:26:15] Speaker A: Right.
[00:26:16] Speaker B: So we haven't been paying attention to politics. No, we've been, you know, getting our kids to, you know, softball practice, baseball practice or soccer, whatever, you know, our kids want to do.
[00:26:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:26] Speaker B: And they bank on that. They count on that.
[00:26:29] Speaker A: Yeah. It isn't until. Cuz I got married with kids and then you, you see taxes going up and you see all this stuff isn't. It isn't until then you're like, damn, what's the city doing with our money?
[00:26:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:39] Speaker A: You know what I mean is until then that you realize, like, oh, shoot, we're in a city and these people that are managing the city are managing our money. Right. You know what I mean? We're paying taxes to these people.
[00:26:51] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:26:52] Speaker A: There's got to be a. Something's got to give. Like, how do we change this? You know? And. And I feel like a lot of us are just like, I don't know how. We don't know what to do. Like, we're mentioning about the school system, like, we didn't learn none of this. So, like you were saying, or one of the billboards about Paulette Guhardo is like, she's a full time mayor.
[00:27:09] Speaker B: Mm hmm.
[00:27:10] Speaker A: Right. And, like, I think some kind of. What is it? Like, the Corpse Christie? What were you saying? What were you saying that, uh, like, part of the corpse Christie thing is, like, there is no full time.
[00:27:20] Speaker B: Right. The city charter, basically, we're a, um. We're a city manager run city. Okay, so the city manager, he's, like, the operations manager. Right? He runs everything. He runs all the departments, tells the city council, hey, this is what we're doing. This is how we're doing it. Blah, blah, blah. So when, you know, the mayor, you know, says, hey, I'm your full time mayor. Well, that's against the city charter, because we're not supposed to have a full time mayor.
[00:27:47] Speaker A: Wow. So it's not ran by the mayor. It's ran by the city manager. City manager. Who is Zanoni?
[00:27:54] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:27:54] Speaker A: Yo.
[00:27:55] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:27:56] Speaker A: I'm over here thinking the mayor's running the city.
[00:27:58] Speaker B: Nope. And she only has one vote. But the thing is, is it? And I told I, you know, because my public comments are pretty. I'm pretty vocal.
[00:28:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:06] Speaker B: And I, you know, I pretty much told them this last week. I'm like, all y'all industry people that are up there, y'all are costing us a lot of money. No, y'all are costing us a lot of money. And so instead of her, you know, being a community member, doing, working and, you know, only going to do this, you know, city business during the city council meetings, she's in the thick of it all day. They're wheeling and dealing and negotiating and selling us off.
[00:28:33] Speaker A: She's. Yeah, she's. Wow. So she's part of all the stuff that they're talking about.
[00:28:36] Speaker B: And I. She. You know, the thing is that she's beautiful. She's personable, you know? Oh, you know, but that's what they all do. Well, that's what they all do.
[00:28:44] Speaker A: It seems like you have to put up a front.
[00:28:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:47] Speaker A: To do that. That type of stuff.
[00:28:49] Speaker B: Well, they don't like me because I don't.
[00:28:51] Speaker A: Oh.
[00:28:53] Speaker B: Because it's really. I don't. The way I was raised, it's really hard for me to be fake. I will always be cordial. I'm cordial to them. I'm respectful because we're all adults. Right. But at the end of the day, we've. We've elected you to do a job. We've elected you to do a job, and we've elected you to represent us.
[00:29:09] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:29:10] Speaker B: And you aren't doing either of those things.
[00:29:12] Speaker A: You're not doing your job.
[00:29:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:13] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:29:14] Speaker B: So, I mean, I don't want to be too, like, dark and, you know.
[00:29:19] Speaker A: Yeah, no, it's all good about it.
[00:29:20] Speaker B: But, you know, we're in a little bit of trouble. You know, if that decal plant, it's the size of a small city and they want to put it right there by Hillcrest.
[00:29:29] Speaker A: Oh, man.
[00:29:30] Speaker B: It's going to take the power of a small city. We don't have that. So guess what happens when they bring in that new.
I forget what it's called. A hub or I can't remember. Now our electric rates are going to go up because that desalination plant, it first started off at 250 million. Now they're at 757 million.
[00:29:51] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:29:52] Speaker B: And they're basing all their info right out of some place in California. And I talked to some people out of California at Carlsbad, California, and they're like. It ended up being like, $1.5 billion here.
And they want us to pay for it.
[00:30:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:30:08] Speaker B: Industry is not going to pay for it. We are.
[00:30:10] Speaker A: Damn.
[00:30:11] Speaker B: Isn't it crazy?
[00:30:12] Speaker A: So this one guy, postly or whatever, was. So they wanted us to pay for.
[00:30:17] Speaker B: His legal fees for the ethics. Yeah, dude, it's great. So basically, there's rules, right? As councilmen, like you, it's called. They can't have a vote unless there's a quorum.
[00:30:29] Speaker A: Right.
[00:30:29] Speaker B: And that means four. Like, if, say, like, for us, it's nine city council members. You got to have at least five, right, to have a quorum. Well, four makes a walking for. I don't even know all the rules. Like, I'm sorry, but. Yeah, but you. Whenever you're conspiring with your other council members, like, it's called a walking quorum and it's illegal.
[00:30:49] Speaker A: Oh.
[00:30:50] Speaker B: Because that means you're trying to manipulate.
Oh, right. And so he got caught doing that because there's a community. There's a badass community member who does all these public information requests. He gets copies of, like, text messages, emails, all this stuff. So he busted that Mike pussley dude with a walking quorum.
[00:31:15] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:31:16] Speaker B: So he filed an ethics complaint. So they file an ethics complaint, and the ethics board said, yeah, this is pretty serious. And so they took it to a hearing, a. Well, this dude brings some, you know, showboaty attorney.
[00:31:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:32] Speaker B: And now all of a sudden, he puts on the agenda after they're cutting all of our amenities, right? Swimming pools, parks, senior centers. We want to add to where we can budget $30,000 for attorney's fees. When people get ethics complaints filed against them, I'm like, wow. Are you kidding me?
Y'all are cutting our services, and this dude is adding, damn. More debt or more like. And then they're going back and forth. Well, who gets to pick the lawyer and who gets to do that? I mean, and it's a mess. It's like, the answer should be no, because as community members, what leg do we have to stand on when they break the law? Yeah, it's like, God dang.
[00:32:17] Speaker A: Wow, man. It can't believe it's happening at the local level, man.
[00:32:21] Speaker B: I know. And I. That's the thing that breaks my heart, too, is it's like, you. You see that shit. Stuff happening at the federal level, right?
[00:32:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:28] Speaker B: Even at the state level, you're like, all right, you know, these are all corrupt politicians. Whatever.
[00:32:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:33] Speaker B: And now I'm like, oh, my God, it's happening right here. Yeah, it's happening right here.
[00:32:38] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:32:39] Speaker B: And, like, I went to a budget meeting today, and they did it. Usually they do it at libraries where it's quiet and you can ask questions. Right. And they have to answer you.
Well, zenup. It's at a restaurant. You can't hear anything.
[00:32:52] Speaker A: Oh, my God.
[00:32:53] Speaker B: You know, it's super loud. The sound system sucked.
[00:32:56] Speaker A: Oh, my God.
[00:32:57] Speaker B: You know, and it's like they. They spent the majority of the time because they. We only have 1 hour. Yeah, but then you ask a question, and then they spend ten minutes walking in a circle.
[00:33:08] Speaker A: Oh, my God.
[00:33:10] Speaker B: And then they're just killing time. Killing time. Okay, well, that's over.
[00:33:12] Speaker A: It's over.
[00:33:13] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:33:13] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:33:14] Speaker B: Good luck, guys.
[00:33:14] Speaker A: Over. Oh, my God.
[00:33:15] Speaker B: I. Yeah. So, I mean, are there good things that the city's doing? I know that the city manager is, like, a workout buff guy, whatever. So he has that. He did add that workout on Saturdays. Something in the park. Yeah, but everything else, I mean, I don't see a whole lot of good.
[00:33:35] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:33:35] Speaker B: Honestly.
[00:33:37] Speaker A: Yeah. I was gonna mention. So. So another things they're bringing up is the american bank center, because that was already like.
[00:33:44] Speaker B: Do you remember that proposition eight?
[00:33:46] Speaker A: Yeah. So they wanted to take. Be owners of the bank center, right?
[00:33:51] Speaker B: We own it.
[00:33:52] Speaker A: We own it.
[00:33:52] Speaker B: The community owns the bank center. The city of Corpus. Yep.
[00:33:55] Speaker A: So they're wanting to take it over. Right. And to put a hotel or something like that.
[00:34:00] Speaker B: They don't want to take it over because we already own it. What they want to do is use sales tax, because our, you know, everything has a time limit. So two of the sales tax are expiring. One is expiring this year, one is expiring next year. And this is how they fool us, right? Cause they're like, it's one 8th of a cent, but you add up all those different. You know, and then you have, like, five different taxing entities in Oasis county. And, you know, they. The one eight cent. We're gonna renew it indefinitely. And usually they have a cap like 10, 15, 20 years, and we're gonna make it forever.
[00:34:36] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:34:37] Speaker B: And we don't know how we're gonna spin it, but we have an idea. And part of it was to do a convention center at american bank.
At the american bank center. And we're like, nope. And that's when the community came back and they said, hail, no, and they voted it down 70 30.
[00:34:51] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:34:52] Speaker B: So we know we're smart. We just have to vote.
And so now they're like, they sent out this questionnaire, right, on social media and email and phone calls. They sent out this huge questionnaire. The city paid for it. We paid for it.
And they got the responses like, we care about our streets. We care about infrastructure. We care about our parks. And what do they do?
They repackage it. And they're like, yeah, and we're going to use some of the money for american banks. We're like, we told y'all no, man.
Like, why aren't y'all getting this?
[00:35:26] Speaker A: Oh, shoot, man.
[00:35:28] Speaker B: So that was, you know, my public comment on Tuesday. I'm like, man, y'all don't listen. No, y'all are not listening to us, bro.
Where's the disconnect? You're killing me. Like, you're killing me small.
[00:35:41] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:35:43] Speaker B: So it's. I mean, it's nuts. It's nuts. And, you know, at the end of it, it's a little tiring, right? Cause I'm like, y'all need to listen.
[00:35:51] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. We're in trouble. Oh, damn.
[00:35:54] Speaker B: So I'm hoping to get the word out, you know.
[00:35:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:35:57] Speaker B: But I picture, you know, think about it this way, okay? Like, look at all these cool ass, like, like dusty with people street, right? And then you have like, full sin barbecue. You have like, um, goldfish, the bus, you know, the exchange. And, you know, logan and that city, like, we, we have some talented people here, right? Like, why aren't they just letting the local community build corpus the way we want to do it? Yeah, but they like, you know, luckily they're, they've been kind of dusty, but, like, a lot of people that want to start new businesses here, they kibosh that at the permit level.
[00:36:35] Speaker A: Oh, no.
[00:36:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:38] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:36:39] Speaker B: So, like, people trying to come here and do business, they're like, okay, well, that, that permits gonna be like $30,000.
[00:36:45] Speaker A: Damn.
[00:36:46] Speaker B: And so these developers that are, you know, have good intentions are like, yeah, we're not paying that. See ya.
[00:36:51] Speaker A: Whoa.
[00:36:52] Speaker B: But guess who they are letting in town?
[00:36:54] Speaker A: Who's that?
[00:36:55] Speaker B: Ammonia plants industry.
[00:36:58] Speaker A: They're giving them the permit. Yeah, that they want.
[00:37:00] Speaker B: They're giving them the, like, oh, here's the land here. This is what you can do. And we'll give you a disc. We're going to give you an abatement. An abatement is a discount that the government gives to businesses to come and do business in your town. And it can either go through the city or it can go through school districts. And so in Robstown, they gave Elon MusK an abatement, and that's why TesLa's in Rops town. So we keep giving discounts to multi. Multi multi billionaires.
[00:37:30] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:37:31] Speaker B: And in the meantime, they just hired, like, they doubled their code enforcement officers so they can drive around to our houses and fine us whenever we have an extra car parked on the parking, you know, in our, on our yard.
[00:37:46] Speaker A: Or value our house, like, way more than what it was the last year.
[00:37:50] Speaker B: Yep. So, I mean, government can get super complicated and, you know, I, like I said, I don't want to scare people. Yeah, no, and, you know, and the thing is, it's like, don't do the research, but, like, follow the pages on social media. It's so hard. It's so easy now.
[00:38:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:38:05] Speaker B: You know, and figure out, like, listen, I post my public comments so people know I'm not just talking shit.
[00:38:11] Speaker A: I have a feeling that we know what that is there and that we know that it's going on, but it's just like, what can we do to fix it? You know, and I don't, I don't want us to be hopeless. You know, I want us to figure out how to how to change it. Because I hear what you're saying, man. Like, what dusty senior doing here? There's a lot of artists.
[00:38:27] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:38:28] Speaker A: And, like. And that just what you were saying about let us do what the city was we want to do with it. You know what I mean? That opened my eyes. Like, oh, shoot. There is businesses that are trying to do stuff, and they have to have these permits, which you don't think about. Like, if you don't have that permit, you can't operate.
[00:38:45] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:38:46] Speaker A: And it seems like they're giving them to the businesses that they want. That they want. That's gonna bring in more money. For who? Yeah.
[00:38:53] Speaker B: You know, well, a lot of these industries, they say, oh, they're bringing jobs. They're bringing jobs.
[00:38:57] Speaker A: Right.
[00:38:57] Speaker B: Initially they do, and then they go. The construction goes away, and then they only keep about a hundred jobs here. And then with those hundred jobs, our people does the. Our people do the lazy, the hard work. Right. The labor work. And then they fly in their vps and all the higher pay jobs from other states. Other countries, man.
[00:39:19] Speaker A: That's not cool at all.
[00:39:20] Speaker B: Yeah, well, and then you would think that the city would get into some type of program with Del Mar College and say, okay, we have these types of refineries. So this is the classes we need to teach at Del Mar so our own people can get those jobs. They don't do that either. Oh, no, they don't do that either.
So, you know, and then these guys kind of just transfer to, like, they. Some of them were on city council, then they moved to CC ISD school board, then they moved to Del Mar Regent, you know, and they're just like musical chairs and different political positions.
[00:39:53] Speaker A: Oh, my God.
[00:39:54] Speaker B: And where Rasa. Where we get it wrong.
[00:39:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:56] Speaker B: Oh, I know their name. Yeah, I know their name. So I'm gonna vote for them.
[00:40:00] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:40:00] Speaker B: Or they base their decisions on signs.
[00:40:03] Speaker A: Mm hmm.
[00:40:03] Speaker B: And I'm like, the grassroots people like me, we can't afford signs. Those things are freaking expensive. So you'll see a few and key parts. Right. But you're not gonna see a lot for me compared to, like, that Mike pulsely guy, you know, that has. I think he's lend him lent himself, which I don't even know how that makes sense. Like, $350,000.
And it's like my campaign, I did it for like, 19,000.
[00:40:29] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:40:29] Speaker B: You know what I mean? So we don't. We can't compete. And that's why I can't win.
[00:40:33] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:40:34] Speaker B: So that's why I'm like, I've been for four years now trying to wake up the community to say, hey, guys, we need somebody who's gonna represent us.
[00:40:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:40:40] Speaker B: Like, I can only do so much. I will be one vote like everybody else, but I'm gonna tell that my. In my head, I. My boss is the community.
And for those guys, it's not that way. Their bosses are industry and, you know, or big developers, you know, residential home developers or whatever the case might be.
[00:41:02] Speaker A: Yeah. Damn.
[00:41:05] Speaker B: It gets sticky, you know? And luckily, I've had the, you know, wherewithal, I guess, to kind of figure it out and roll with it. I reach out to people, ask questions, because sometimes I don't, you know, I just don't know. Again, they don't teach us this crap.
[00:41:20] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. We got another question from Tina la Cochina. It's actually.
Yeah. She says, you're very passionate about the. About the city.
She says, well, why are you running?
Why do you care? What are the top three topics you'd focus on if you. If you want?
[00:41:39] Speaker B: I'm running because we need community representation. We don't. We don't have that 100%. They'll sit there behind a microphone and the news camera and tell you that, but we don't. We don't. Why am I. Why do I care so much? I had a great childhood here in corpus.
[00:41:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:41:57] Speaker B: You know, it's just big enough, but small enough where you can't get into that much trouble. You know? We have good people here. You can tell that, like, when something happens and people are like, oh, we're gonna do a GoFundme or we're gonna do a barbecue, benefit you, the communities. Bam, they're right there, you know? And we're good people. We're hardworking people, and we're getting taken advantage of. And that's what. Why I'm passionate about it.
[00:42:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:42:21] Speaker B: Is because they're taking advantage of the fact that nobody knows what's going on.
[00:42:26] Speaker A: Oh, man.
[00:42:27] Speaker B: And that's what makes me mad. The three issues for sure, 100%, is one, community representation. Being a community advocate, like a voice for us. Two, is that desalination? We don't want it here. We're trying to tell them to take it out into the bay. Don't put it right there at Hillcrest. Do you take it far? Far? Because what's that going to do to our tourism?
You know, I'm on a fishing team. I like to go do the tournaments and stuff.
[00:42:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:42:55] Speaker B: What's it gonna do to that?
[00:42:56] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:42:56] Speaker B: You know, they won't do the studies. There's. It's called an environmental impact study. They're refusing to do it.
[00:43:02] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:43:03] Speaker B: You know, there's a thing. It's called far field modeling.
[00:43:09] Speaker A: If they do the environmental study, it's gonna, like. They're gonna. People would see.
[00:43:13] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:43:14] Speaker A: What it's gonna do to the sea life and stuff like that out there.
[00:43:17] Speaker B: That's why they don't want to do it.
[00:43:18] Speaker A: Damn.
[00:43:19] Speaker B: And I say that, and then they have to. Okay, fine. You don't want to get the studies. Let us vote on the desal plant. Oh, let us vote on it.
[00:43:28] Speaker A: We. They can make. They can have that option if they want to.
[00:43:31] Speaker B: Yeah, but they don't want to do it because they know we're gonna vote against it.
[00:43:34] Speaker A: Oh, no.
[00:43:36] Speaker B: So they don't want to do that, either.
[00:43:38] Speaker A: Wow. So you've been at. You'll be. You'll be a advocate for people, and then desal. Did you say the third thing?
[00:43:45] Speaker B: The third. Well, I want to protect beach access. I know that that's nothing. Well, I mean, that's important. But also, like, I'm. I do books for a living. Right. So we need to cut back spending.
[00:43:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:43:56] Speaker B: Like, this is insanity. You know, Peter Zanoni has something like four or five assistant city managers. Each of them make 250,000 a year.
[00:44:03] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:44:04] Speaker B: And it's like, dude, who. You're not the president, man.
[00:44:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:44:07] Speaker B: He makes more than the president.
[00:44:08] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:44:09] Speaker B: It's like, it's time. You know, they're like, oh, well, he's like, the CEO of Corpus Christi. Well, he sucks at it. You know, we keep getting suede. You know, we got sued by the EPA because they're not. They're not keeping the wastewater.
[00:44:23] Speaker A: Oh.
[00:44:24] Speaker B: They're not disposing of that properly. And it's all messed up. So there's an EPA lawsuit. There's a civil rights lawsuit with that title six.
There are multiple other small things. Like, he's been firing people, like our local community members.
[00:44:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:44:40] Speaker B: And replacing them with people out of San Antonio, where he's from.
[00:44:43] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:44:45] Speaker B: So it's just. It's a lot. It's a lot. And so I just want to be. Damn, you know, if I buy some miracle, you know, I get elected, I just want to be able to be like, no, I work for the community. That's who I represent. So I'm saying no on this.
[00:45:00] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:45:00] Speaker B: I'm saying no on this. I mean, I might be the only no person all the time, but if it takes that if I got to take the heat for the first, you know, couple years, I'll do. I have no problems doing that. But something's got to give. Something's got to give. I mean, I do well for myself, and I can't afford to buy a house here, you know? And people are about to be taxed out of their homes.
[00:45:22] Speaker A: Wow. For real?
[00:45:23] Speaker B: Because it's. It's getting too high. It's all. Everything's getting too high. And nobody, like all the Nueces county, they're all buddies with the city people and their buddies with Del Mar. Like, they're all, like, working together behind the scenes against us.
[00:45:38] Speaker A: No, Mandez.
[00:45:40] Speaker B: And it's just. It gets. It gets. It gets to be a lot.
[00:45:43] Speaker A: Wow.
Wow. This is an amazing conversation. Thanks for coming on the show.
[00:45:47] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. For sure. Thanks. Dusty, too, for letting us.
[00:45:50] Speaker A: Yeah. Shout out, dusty producers. Dusty. Awesome. Yeah.
So last thing from Tina la Cocina. So being a woman and a Mexican, is that a hurdle for you?
[00:46:03] Speaker B: A little bit, yeah. Because, one, I'm not playing their game, and two, it's. It's a huge, good old boys organization.
So it's a good old boys club. And most of them are white, older, old gentlemen.
[00:46:21] Speaker A: Mm hmm.
[00:46:22] Speaker B: And they don't like for us to have a voice. They don't like that. Like, the audacity that I have no going. And talking to them like that. Like, who do I think I am?
[00:46:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:46:33] Speaker B: And even on Tuesday, they did it. Like, hey, she's not allowed to talk to us like that. I said, first of all, there's this little thing called the Constitution of the United States. And there's this one little amendment. It's the first amendment.
[00:46:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:46:46] Speaker B: And it's called freedom of speech. I have an obligation to come here and ask you guys and share my grievances with you that I have a right to do. And that's what I'm doing right now.
[00:46:58] Speaker A: Wow. So do they get to the point where they stop you from talking?
[00:47:01] Speaker B: Yeah, they tried.
[00:47:02] Speaker A: Oh, no, they try. And that's not good at all.
[00:47:05] Speaker B: No.
[00:47:06] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:47:07] Speaker B: And it's mostly that postly guy.
[00:47:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:47:10] Speaker B: His real name is Mike Pussley, but I don't care that you're getting the name wrong.
[00:47:13] Speaker A: Pussy.
[00:47:13] Speaker B: Yeah, he's. He's angry, too. Like, there's one lady who's. She's like, yeah, senora. Her name is Sylvia Campos.
[00:47:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:47:20] Speaker B: And he's always riding her, dude.
[00:47:22] Speaker A: Really?
[00:47:22] Speaker B: Like, he's like, I'm not talking to you, Sylvia. Like, bad. It's embarrassing for me.
[00:47:28] Speaker A: That is.
[00:47:28] Speaker B: Like, they called me stupid behind the dyess. Like, for somebody to think that I perjured myself in the ethics hearing, it's just stupid. I'm like, dude, the video proves that you lied.
[00:47:41] Speaker A: Oh.
[00:47:42] Speaker B: You perjured yourself for your buddy Mike Pusley.
[00:47:45] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:47:46] Speaker B: And then, of course, the ethics commission was like, okay, he's innocent.
[00:47:49] Speaker A: Oh, no.
[00:47:50] Speaker B: Yeah, but these are the same people. I mean, he appointed them on that board.
[00:47:54] Speaker A: Oh, come on.
[00:47:58] Speaker B: Me?
[00:47:59] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:47:59] Speaker B: You tell me. They were gonna really, like, say that this dude was guilty?
[00:48:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:48:04] Speaker B: So it's crazy. Yeah, it is crazy. That's why they.
When I ran in 2020, somebody pulled my background illegally. So this is 2020. Apparently, I had a warrant in Denver from 2004.
[00:48:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:48:18] Speaker B: And I'm like, damn, I didn't even know. When you're running for politics, you're like, shoot, is that gonna come out? You know what I mean? You're, like, shooting straight, right? For a long time now. Yeah. Because when you get older, you get wiser.
[00:48:30] Speaker A: Right?
[00:48:30] Speaker B: I'm like, I ain't even gonna check my background. Oh, and then I win like crazy.
[00:48:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:48:35] Speaker B: For a first time, no name person, I won. And so then it went into a runoff, and then some. One of the crooked people that's on the Republican Party pulled my background illegally.
[00:48:46] Speaker A: Oh.
[00:48:46] Speaker B: And they're like, look, she's got warrants, mita.
[00:48:48] Speaker A: Oh, damn.
[00:48:49] Speaker B: And then the address. Never lived there. Didn't. It was like a business, like an office.
They. I called Denver. I'm like, hey, what's going on? Like, you guys are, like, really killing me right now.
[00:49:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:49:01] Speaker B: There was no police report. There was no eyewitness statement. So they're like, oh, sorry, we don't have anything. We're just gonna dismiss it. I'm like, oh, thanks. A little late for that.
[00:49:11] Speaker A: So who's the candidates? Who are the candidates running?
[00:49:13] Speaker B: So there's 31 total, I think. So there's, like, six for mayor, ten for at large, five for district one.
District two is two. District three is two. District four is four, and district five is two. So there's different people in the different. And on my social media page, if anybody wants to follow me and is just curious as to who they should maybe vote for, who's corrupt or whatever, it's Rachel cab candidate. Or just on my regular page. Rachel Caballero.
[00:49:49] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:49:50] Speaker B: And then I don't have a website. I'm not gonna put the money in that. It's just a waste of time. And I don't have people to track the traffic.
[00:49:58] Speaker A: What would you put on your website?
[00:49:59] Speaker B: Huh?
[00:50:00] Speaker A: What would you put on your.
[00:50:00] Speaker B: Just like, yeah, just my platform. Hey, if you want to donate here, which no did because they're, you know, and they're bad mouthing me all around town. Like, that's why I go to public comment. And I said, this is from the city of Corpus Christi documents.
[00:50:14] Speaker A: Whoa.
[00:50:15] Speaker B: This is from your documents?
[00:50:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:50:17] Speaker B: I'm not pulling this out of the air. These are your documents.
[00:50:20] Speaker A: Like, what you said, what you're saying.
[00:50:22] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:50:22] Speaker A: And they're saying about publicly on documents, saying bad stuff about you. Yep.
[00:50:27] Speaker B: They're not on the documents itself, but they're just like the rumor mill because they're all little, they're all little, like cheese mas. Like the yehita is like, hey, did you know that?
And so they do that because they, none of these mouth foes have jobs.
That's all they do is you got a full time marriage all day. Yeah, exactly. That's all they do is they're like this cheese month throughout the entire town all day long. And they're like, hey, did you hear? I'm like, no, I'm working. I got, I got clients. Like, I gotta, I do numbers, too.
[00:50:58] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:50:58] Speaker B: Like, I can't be, you know, I gotta focus for the most part. And so, you know, where were you? You didn't go to this event? I'm like, I'm tired. Like, I worked 45 hours a week, not including political stuff.
[00:51:11] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:51:12] Speaker B: So, you know, and they're, they're coming after me. You know, they're, I carry a gun now just to be safe.
[00:51:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:51:18] Speaker B: So, you know, it's not here, by the way. It's, yeah, but, you know, they're, they're just, they're, they're, it. There's billions of dollars at stake and I'm a thorn in their side.
[00:51:29] Speaker A: No. Wow. So they don't want it. They don't want it not to happen. What they're trying to do.
[00:51:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:51:34] Speaker A: Wow. Well, thanks for coming on the show, for sure.
[00:51:37] Speaker B: Hey, I mean, minimally, if you don't want to vote, I get it. And I'm not one of those people is like, well, don't complain if you don't vote. Not complain. We have all our right. We have a right to complain and not vote if we want to, but we can't change anything without voting.
[00:51:54] Speaker A: Right.
[00:51:54] Speaker B: That's the hard part.
[00:51:55] Speaker A: So this voting is in November?
[00:51:57] Speaker B: Yeah, November 5. Early voting starts two weeks before I have to figure out when the last day is to register to vote. And it's super easy to register to vote.
[00:52:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:52:06] Speaker B: Now, okay. It's just I vote something. I don't know, I better not say. But super easy to see if you already registered and you just, like, need to renew it or whatever.
[00:52:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:52:17] Speaker B: But just register to vote, you know, it takes five minutes if you go during early voting.
[00:52:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:52:21] Speaker B: You walk in and walk out. So, you know, we gotta fight for our community.
[00:52:25] Speaker A: That's figure out which district you're in, if you're gonna vote individually for those.
[00:52:30] Speaker B: And it'll automatically tell you, like, when you go to vote, it'll be like, okay, these are the things you gotta. This is your district and stuff like that. So you, I mean, you could figure it out so you can do research on the candidates. But, um, voting for just hispanic last names ain't working no more because now it's a bunch of meheclas running. So we got to do research. There's got to be some type of research. But again, just jump on my pages and I'll try. I'm going to do the best I can.
[00:52:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:52:56] Speaker B: I, um, you know, and the thing that's my thing is, is that I'm. We're fighting to keep our community what it is and not turn into an industrial dumping ground.
[00:53:06] Speaker A: Yeah. For real.
[00:53:06] Speaker B: Yeah. But thank you. Thank you, Jesse, so much. I appreciate the opportunity. For sure. And if you need a space filler before November, just reach out.
[00:53:15] Speaker A: Yeah, no, yeah, sounds good. Sounds good. We'll definitely help out. Thanks a lot, you guys. For joy, for listening to the show, for watching the podcast. Everybody in the chat, if you're still in there, thanks for listening and I participating in the chat. Stay tuned for the next episodes we got coming. Thanks for Dusty and produce sound studios. Maya, the producer back there making this set look nice for us. Thanks a lot, you guys. Have a good one. Bye.
