Thirsty For Answers
Corpus Christi taxpayers are THIRSTY FOR ANSWERS, and not just because of the crisis with the city’s drinking water. The plan to impeach the mayor is another part of the shit show along the coast, but the real microscope needs to be on the public official paid to protect tax money, not waste it. And cover your kids’ ears because the fight down there is ugly.
Thirsty For Answers
“Don’t you just love when public officials hide. The city auditor lives here,” Wayne Dolcefino told the camera.
His car is in the driveway.
“Mr. Holland, are you home?” Dolcefino said.
We are in Corpus Christi, Texas, where taxpayers are thirsty for answers.
“A lot of accusations going around, and the public is getting the short end of the stick again,” Susie Saldana said.
The once bustling bayfront in this energy town is now instead a portrait of economic neglect.
Negligence. Some of the biggest buildings downtown stand empty.
Replaced by graffiti on dusty windows.
And there is a water crisis. Years of drought has drained 92 percent of the city’s reservoirs.
It’s national news, not a Chamber of Commerce moment.
“I’ve heard stories of people who are calling our Convention and Visitors Bureau and saying if we rent a house down there, an Airbnb, can we even turn on the shower,” Phillip Ramirez said.
Folks are scared.
“They want to turn on their faucets and have the water come out,” Roland Barrera said.
“How much of a crisis is it now?” Dolcefino said.
“I think it’s terrifying. Either at the end of this year or early next we won’t be able to meet demand,” Barrera said.
The town’s credit rating is at stake.
“It would be devastating, catastrophic for our area,” Eric Tunchez said.
City council fights over who gets to fix it, instead of just fixing it.
The fight will eventually decide who gets the lucrative government contracts if desalination plants are the answer.
“It’s been a political shit show ever since then,” Tunchez said.
But in the words of Naked Gun detective Frank Drebin, nothing to see here.
Oh, did I mention city council wants to impeach the mayor even while a federal judge warned them not to.
“You’re a fucking cunt, bitch.”
We are finding plenty to see since we’ve come to Corpus.
“So you’re going to hide in your house?” Dolcefino said.
“I think the video was really good what you did for the public,” Eric Tunchez said.
“I’m glad you’re here, somebody coming from the outside that doesn’t live here, that hasn’t been looking at all this bullshit going on,” Devon Bakhats said.
“Corruption stories, accountability stories,” Tunchez said.
Eric Tunchez runs the Corpus Christi Chronica, quickly becoming the city’s leading media watchdog.
“A lot of residents are frustrated with the debacle at City Hall,” Tunchez said.
And that’s why we went looking for George Holland.
Paid 168,000 dollars a year to make sure tax money is spent right.
“We could have joined forces, he is supposed to be a taxpayer watchdog, and I’m one too,” Dolcefino told the camera.
“It just stinks to high heaven,” Barrera said.
In August of last year, Holland sent this important memo to City Council.
Accusing the developers of this new Homewood Suites in downtown Corpus of fraud.
“My attorney gets really ticked off after I hire him to speak to anybody,” Ajit David said.
You know who else didn’t want to talk to us when we came to town to watch the shit show, Ajit David.
He owns a bunch of hotels in town that will have to compete with Homewood Suites.
He owns hotels that will have to compete with Homewood Suites.
He’s the one that complained to Holland.
August 21, 2025, memo date. Last August Holland set off a criminal investigation into the developers of the Homewood Suites.
Claiming they covered the date of a FEMA press release when they got tax incentives to build their hotel.
Holland set off a criminal investigation that has cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“Just how much we still don’t know. The city wants four thousand dollars to turn over the legal bill, emails with city officials, and records detailing the investigation into the auditor. We’re investigating phone records too,” Dolcefino told the camera.
“How do we get our name back, because it’s lasting damage,” Phil Ramirez said.
“Holland called in the cavalry, the FBI, the Texas Rangers, Corpus PD. They all said the same thing after investigating, there was really nothing to see here,” Dolcefino told the camera.
“There is no fraud, no wrongdoing,” Barrera said.
“The whole thing has a really bad smell, doesn’t it?” Dolcefino said.
“Oh absolutely, absolutely,” Barrera said.
Let’s follow the bouncing beach ball down a trail of unacceptable conflicts of interest.
An outside law firm hired by the city found Holland had created a toxic work environment in his department, but they confirmed something a lot worse.
That during a trip to San Antonio, Holland had unwelcome physical contact with a woman who worked for him.
He tried to get her to sign a non-disclosure agreement and allegedly threatened to fire a witness.
Making the complainant’s work life miserable.
They said he should be fired. He clearly wasn’t.
In fact, months later, City Council gave him a 38,000 pay raise.
And they made it retroactive going back four months.
“Where else does something that ridiculous happen, except for government,” Dolcefino told the camera.
And guess who was Holland’s lawyer during that investigation, this guy Doug Allison.
“Where have I heard that name before, oh I know, he’s also the lawyer for Ajit David, the developer who got the auditor to investigate his competitors,” Dolcefino told the camera.
And guess who say they didn’t even know that, Ajit David.
“Mr. Allison was the auditor’s lawyer and then the auditor called for this investigation, you did not know that?” Dolcefino said.
“No, I did not know that,” David said.
“So you were the auditor’s attorney in his personal issues and then all of a sudden he calls for that investigation, you got to admit it looks kind of funny,” Dolcefino said.
“I have got to find my car key,” Doug Allison said.
“It seems like something that should have been disclosed from day one, right away,” Ramirez said.
“I think the auditor made a huge mistake,” Tunchez said.
Something else you should know about Doug Allison, his wife is Barbara Canales, the former Nueces County Judge.
And the arch political enemy of Corpus Mayor Guajardo. He’s clearly a fan too.
“She should resign, the mayor should resign,” Allison said.
“But we really wanted to talk about the auditor, his clear conflicts of interest,” Dolcefino told the camera.
“But I’m asking you about the auditor, it’s beginning to look like this was a big setup deal,” Dolcefino said.
A subject Mr. Allison didn’t want to talk about, even though he found his car key.
“He told me to talk to you, and so I’m talking to you, otherwise I got a bunch of people telling me to talk with someone else,” David said.
“You’ve been talking to people all day,” Dolcefino said.
“Not the press, everything I say in the public forum,” David said.
I watched Ajit before City Council. He made councilmembers laugh a lot. They don’t seem mad he sent them on an expensive wild goose chase.
“You’re the man that’s giving everybody campaign money,” Dolcefino said.
“No sir, I’m not,” David said.
Ajit is a manager of Bayfront Marina LLC, along with his partner Raju Bhagat.
Hotels owned by Bhagat’s companies have been sued in Nueces and Harris County for alleged involvement in Backpage human trafficking.
Alleged price gouging after Hurricane Harvey.
“While investigating all the companies, we saw something on council campaign reports worth noting,” Dolcefino told the camera.
The day after Holland requested the investigation of Homewood Suites,
Ajit’s company gave a 1,500 campaign contribution to this guy, Councilman Gil Hernandez, at the time the chairman of the council audit committee.
Councilmembers voted to spend four hundred thousand dollars to hire an outside law firm to investigate.
“Again, the answer was the same, really nothing to see here,” Dolcefino told the camera.
“But I think Ajit David is the number one culprit, the person responsible for the loss of tax money in this debacle,” Tunchez said.
“Just basically thought it was a crock of shit, honestly,” Bhakta said.
“But hiring lawyers to defend yourself isn’t cheap. The reputational damage, permanent,” Dolcefino told the camera.
“It’s probably the hardest couple of years of my life actually just having to go through this,” Ramirez said.
And while the investigations of Homewood Suites unfolded, the Chronica reported Ajit’s companies were also given tax incentives for their Residence Inn on Shoreline Boulevard.
Nearly a million dollars.
Including 92,825 for a rooftop bar. One problem, look, there is no rooftop bar.
Ajit claims an official with the Downtown Management District told them it was OK to use the money instead on the pool.
But there is no amendment to the contract that we can find.
That official Elyssa Mason is no longer in Corpus, and she ignored our phone call.
“Nothing was taken into a vote, there’s no documentation for it, but it’s OK because their friends did it,” Suzie Saldana said.
Community activist Suzie Saldana has been railing against this alleged fraud.
“Because we have one set of rules for friends and one set of rules for citizens,” Susie Saldana said.
When the Residence Inn sought tax incentives, they claimed they were building a 15.3 million dollar hotel, but when to pay for their building permits they said it was only worth 5.6, a third of the value.
They saved a bunch of money, maybe illegally.
They also got incentives, a 34 million dollar hotel.
“If you’re gonna throw a stone in a glass house, make sure you don’t live in a glass house,” Tunchez said.
“I’ve been told by a lot of people don’t talk about Suzie, it’s gonna hurt you, people have a lot of money, guess what, it doesn’t bother me,” Saldana said.
Ajit is still suing Corpus Christi to block the Homewood Suites. That fight isn’t over.
“There’s nothing there, no fraud, this hotel deserves that incentive, move on,” Ramirez said.
“I think we’re at the point where we spent half a million defending the lawsuit,” Barrera said.
The ongoing attempt to impeach the mayor is based on the allegation she knew about the fraud and covered it up, but that we know there is no fraud.
What exactly did the mayor do, I wish I knew.
“You guys have essentially become pawns in a much bigger play,” Dolcefino said.
“You can say that,” Ramirez said.
“We fought the war, we won the war,” Jose Mendez said.
Outside City Hall, we met 101-year-old World War II veteran Jose Mendez.
And he wasn’t happy with politicians trying to defy the will of the voters.
“I fought for democracy, that’s not democracy,” Mendez said.
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