Pt. 2 City Budgets w/Autumn: The 2024-25 Budget & Input Sessions

By Autumn Hensiek-Fain

Story highlights:

• City changes budget input sessions to “casual” format 
• City confirms CARES act money was rescinded 
• Budget cuts proposed after council autorizes 10% raise for city manager

The proposed 2025 budget for the City of Corpus Christi features major cuts to essential public services and city officials have received massive backlash from the community. Released just a few short weeks after City Manager Peter Zanoni’s 10% salary raise, this year’s proposed budget cuts costs by about 2.6%, or around $9.1 million.

Typically, residents are given the opportunity to voice their concerns and comments surrounding the budget at live-streamed, town hall style input sessions, where city staff take questions on the record. Instead, this year, local bars and restaurants have hosted informal “career fair” style sessions, leaving residents with more questions than answers.

The city’s capital budget comes in at about $867 million, and the operating budget is $991 million. As some folks know, police and fire account for about half of our general fund: 48.8%.

Budget cuts

Major cuts included: the potential closure of the Oso Bay Wetlands Preserve Learning Center; Homeless Services Department (three positions: 75% of staff which demonstrates the department was already understaffed); reducing code enforcement positions (five), increasing police vehicles by 75 (35 “annual replacements,” 40 new units), and privatization of Greenwood and Zavala senior centers.

These cuts were blamed largely on a decrease in property tax revenue, and the end of the street user fee December 2023. The homestead exemption increased from 10% to 20% being one of the reasons for that lower revenue as well, the City said. However, as the budget presentation notes, the exemption only yields about $120 in savings per consumer. (Slide 15) When this was brought up to Zanoni at an August District 2 budget session, he affirmed that this amount was a mere drop in the bucket.

These cuts originally threatened to close the Dr. Clotilde P. Garcia Public Library library – until community uproar caused the city to “develop alternative options.” (Peter Zanoni to KIII-TV) Looking back on budget input sessions from last year, I remember a mother who spoke up about how often the Garcia library was used, how full the classes and kids’ activities were, and that it needed more chairs. I found it odd that the Garcia library would be considered for such a drastic change – a closure – when those were the comments heard just last year.

Poor choices were made

Budget input sessions this year have so far not been live-streamed or recorded, and answers were not provided on any official or government record. At more than one session, city staff from the

City Planning and Community Development Department staff were missing from more than one session. Questions about the drastic budget cuts that were proposed could only be answered by Zanoni and Mayor Paulette Guajardo, who ultimately confirmed the CARES Act money the City received following the onset of COVID-19 was gone. The 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and the 2021 Coronavirus Response and Consolidated Appropriations Act were intended to provide fast and direct economic assistance for American workers, families, small businesses and industries, according to the U.S. Treasury. Local groups and individuals have been advocating for this money to go toward a low-barrier shelter for some time.

To me, it seems fairly simple: A conservative majority on council wants to cut costs and taxes, and we have a city manager who signs off on it with no regard for the loss of public services in their wake. It's probably a lot easier to do when you make almost seven times as much as the average resident of Corpus Christi.

Yes, that’s right. The median yearly income in Corpus Christi is $60,958 a year, and Zanoni’s recent raise bumped him to $409,000 a year. Part of the new salary and benefits package includes 500 vacation hours annually! Isn’t that fun? The logical conclusion to draw from this is that Zanoni’s complicity with the wishes of the council has been bought.

All of this paints a picture of a city that is being drastically mismanaged: a city manager who claims his hands are tied and is beholden to a conservative-majority council; a conservative-majority council that says how taxpayers’ money is spent is in the hands of the city manager.

Departments are in desperate need of MORE staff and funding to address daily issues and various crises. The reality is that the most vulnerable members of our community receive the shortest end of the stick. The perpetual growth of the Corpus Christi Police Department, despite seeing no decrease in crime.

It might be more apt to call Zanoni the Corpus Christi City Mismanager.