THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINE • Late Spring 2019 49 TheCoastalBend.com Airline to Everhart, and all of Corona Drive, is not due to bad roads—although our roads are gener- ally lousy—but instead is being done to install larger water lines required to supply two, new water towers that have been so delayed in their operation that TCEQ has threatened fines and le- gal action against the City. We all know about the huge, costly mess with the electronic water meters. According to our source, Van Vleck led the effort to purchase a new software system for measuring usage and billing but implemented the new system on a broad scale without testing it first. This resulted in thousands of residential customers being overbilled millions of dollars, all while Kane Meats was allowed to run up a $2.5 million water bill over years without paying. Customers like the aforementioned Kiko’s were billed hundreds, or thousands of dollars for new water meters they knew nothing about. And what was the personnel response? To hire the un- certified Dan Grimsbo to run the water system af- ter the City’s first water director quit nine months into the job. Ultimately, it all comes down to accountabil- ity. Mayor Nelda Martinez was defeated by Dan McQueen, who himself quit 37 days-in, all on the water issue. The City of Corpus Christi is orga- nized in a way that gives near-complete power to the City Manager, while the council and mayor serve only two-year terms, meaning they never stop running for office and decisions are made with the foresight of one year. Ron Olson quit on the water debacle, then was hired as City Man- ager in Killeen. Margie Rose lasted for a while then abruptly quit, leaving Keith Selman as Act- ing City Manager, where he has been in place for nine months. Assistant City Manager Sylvia Car- rillo-Trevino, who was in the running for the City Manager position, was suddenly fired in February by Selman, who is also a candidate for the job, in what is rumored to have been a trap that she fell into. So, when the only person who can relieve Mark Van Vleck of his duties, or anyone failing and unqualified in their job, is himself jockeying to keep his position on a permanent basis, then this is the result—failure is tolerated and even re- warded. Apparently reading the writing on the walls, Van Vleck applied and became a finalist for an As- sistant City Manager position in Killeen, hoping to once again work under Ron Olson. In a Decem- ber 2018 article in the Killeen Daily Herald, brief biographies were offered up for four of the five finalists for the position, but the fifth finalist, in the mind of the writer, deserved much more at- tention, writing, “One outside candidate with ex- perience working with Ron Olson is Van Vleck, whose time with Corpus Christi overlapped with Ron Olson’s tenure as city manager from 2011 to 2016…Van Vleck oversaw the city’s water depart- ment and served as assistant manager during a period of boil-water orders that eventually led to Ron Olson’s departure from the city, according to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times…Corpus Christi’s water system experienced three boil-water orders between July 2015 and May 2016 that initially left the city on the hook for more than $500,000 in corrective requirements and an additional $6,000 in penalties.” The paper proceeded to elaborate on Corpus Christi’s water problems at the hands of Olson and Van Vleck, about whom they were sending a clear and loud warning against hiring him at the City of Killeen. We would refer to this effort by the Killeen Daily Herald as responsible civic journal- ism—a rare beast in our little slice of paradise that has more than twice the population of Killeen. The water problems at the City of Corpus Christi have cost us millions upon millions of dol- lars in direct, taxpayer expense, and even more in direct costs to businesses, their employees and all residents who had to purchase expensive bottled water instead of cheap, safe tap water that we all pay for. Our water debacles have hurt our reputa- tion, they have cost us development opportunities and the new jobs that come with them, and they have inconvenienced us and cost us thousands of hours in wasted time for residents lugging water jugs, bathing our kids and dogs one gallon at a time, and on the phone fighting with the City over inflated bills. And why? We don’t care? It hasn’t hurt enough? We forget about the last comedy of errors until the next one reminds us. Or…maybe…we just don’t know what the hell is going on at City Hall. We did this story not because we hate Mark Van Vleck—he didn’t run over our dog and he didn’t violate anyone’s wife. We did this story only due to the outrage at the fact the one man who has never earned the certifications that his subordi- nates possess, has been in charge, at subsequently ascending levels, of a water department that is an ongoing disaster—one that has garnered national attention, the bad kind, and one that has hurt our city and us as citizens in an unacceptable way. Or is our pain at the hands of an unqualified City operator acceptable? Are we happy with the lowest standard, with the poorest performance and greatest negative consequences, as being our standard for Corpus Christi? Can we do better, or is it acceptable for us to be drowned in incompetence? Coastal Bend Community (Above) Nitrification Action Plan supplied by TCEQ is standard know- ledge for Certified Water System Operators. (Below) The TCEQ Licensing search system shows no results for Mark Van Vleck or Dan Grimsbo.