b'E d i t o rCorpus Christi City Council members (L to R): Carolyn Vaughn (At Large), Sylvia Campos (Dist. 2), Eric Cantu (Dist. 3), Kaylynn Paxson (Dist. 4), and Gil Hernandez (Dist. 5), who banded together to restrict the City Managers spending authority on the Citys Inner Harbor water desalination project to $50,000.Corpus Christi City Councils Unlikely Mutiny of FiveA political revolution was sparked at City Hall on June 24th, when a majority of council members united to halt out of control spending on the Citys Inner Harbor desalination project.Enough is enough! was the collective message sent by five members of Corpus Chris- It took only a few months in office for the new mayors desal project to be put on ti City Council on June 24, 2025, when they banded together to vote to restrict thethe table at a cost of $750 millionin the two years since, the estimated cost is now spending authority of the City Manager to $50,000 on the controversial Inner Harborover $1.2 billion, all as water authorities and municipalities across South Texas have water desalination plant. When we all first heard of a proposed saltwater desal projectpursued their own public water solutions for a fraction of the cost. As council mem-almost ten years ago, the projected cost was $275 million, under the regime of oustedbers grudgingly accepted one upward cost revision after another, the last straw was former Mayor Joe McComb. Mayor Paulette Guajardo defeated McComb in their heat- the projects working prototype, which was first estimated at $6 million, then came ed 2020 runoff election on the accusation that his political action committee acceptedin at $18 million a month later, and was finally delivered for $25 million. No business, a $65,000 donation from Fulton Construction, whose offices were raided by the Feder- household, or fiscally responsible entity of any kind would allow that kind of financial al Bureau of Investigation one week after the general election. bleeding to persist, even if its just house money, aka taxpayer funds.22THECOASTALBENDMAGAZINE TheCoastalBend.com'