Killing The Competition
In a tourist town the bars should fight for business, but there are growing complaints public officials are misusing their power to KILL THE COMPETITION. And that would be a crime.
“Before we get started, I’d like to thank Dolcefino Media for coming tonight” said at council meeting.
We don’t often get the welcome mat, but we did in South Padre Island when we first showed up back in May.
“You got a problem,” Wayne Dolcefino said at council meeting.
It didn’t last long.
The empty chair that night belonged to Mayor Pro Tem Joe Ricco… turns out he was hiding in the back until we left City Hall.
Two weeks later… we came back to find him.
“I want to talk to you, Mr. Ricco. Do you retaliate against people who criticize you?” Dolcefino asked Joe Ricco.
“If they supported the businesses coming in, I would say it would be fine, but they are not. They’re only looking out for the best interest, they don’t want competition,” Bill Carroll said.
Competition with the bars owned by the city’s top public officials.
“When Bill Carroll and his wife opened Skully’s Bar here along the main drag in South Padre Island, they thought they would stay here forever,” Dolcefino told the camera.
“They’re cutting your throat, they are taking your money,” Carroll said.
“They’ve now left town… because of the island mafia, they say,” Dolcefino told the camera.
Skully’s opened on the main drag on South Padre back in November of 2022.
“I had live entertainment. I had pool tables, dart machines, a real nice bar,” Carroll said.
The owners were from Wisconsin, but they had fallen in love with South Padre.
It’s hard to blame them. The waves. Mother Nature.
But a year and a half after it opened… Skully’s went out of business.
“I put my heart and soul in it and all that. I stuck, you know, a lot of cash… lost a lot of work into it. It meant everything,” Carroll said.
The bar sign is still up, but the place… it remains empty.
“It’s just sitting there. I believe they’re using it as an example,” Carroll said.
An example of what happens when you try to compete with the bars owned by the city’s top public officials in the island’s entertainment district.
“You’ve never heard anyone complain that you guys are using your office improperly to use city employees to retaliate against people who criticize you?” Dolcefino asked Ricco.
“Never done that,” Ricco answered.
“Why are you hiding behind the post?” Dolcefino asked.
The mayor and the mayor Pro Tem are among the partners in Louie’s Backyard.
And in Tequila Sunset.
The fire chief? He owns Driftwood Landing.
“It started pretty quickly after we opened,” Carroll said.
The biggest crowds hit the island on Spring Break, and Carroll got permits for special events.
“Joe Ricco pulled out in front of my building calling in code violations supposedly because he wasn’t agreeing with it… and I had him come in and tell me I had to shut down all my activities,” Carroll said.
But as the months went on, Carroll would see code violations at Tequila Sunset.
Overflowing garbage bins.
But listen to what happens when he called City Hall.
“They straight up said, ‘Well that’s Joe Ricco’s thing and we won’t do nothing’” Carroll said.
“And then all of a sudden a lot more complaints come my way,” Carroll added.
“They started towing everybody, so a lot of the people got scared to come to my places because they were afraid they would be towed,” Carroll added.
It’s free to park here—in that big parking lot in the center of the entertainment district—but the parking lot is not owned by the city like it should be.
Look at the signs that are up. You can park here, but only if you are going to certain bars.
Virtually all of them are owned by the city’s public officials.
The parking lot is owned by the guy who owns a lot of the land in this part of the island.
Alter Holland.
Him and his family are partners with the mayor, and with Joe Ricco, who defends the lock they have on parking here.
“Private business paid for the lot. You don’t let someone park in your driveway, do you? Your neighbors? Of course not” Ricco said.
“You’ve seen the retaliation against others?” Dolcefino asked.
“Yes I have,” Erica Macauley said.
Attorney Erica Macauley challenged the ethics of the new Arts District in town, half the district is that parking lot.
But her art shop is excluded.
Skully’s remains closed, we saw this small bar next to the fire chief’s place.
It’s called Coconut Jack’s, and it’s not owned by a public official.
“Their customers still park in there… don’t get towed from them,” Carroll said.
“The owners of Coconut Jack’s won’t do an on-camera interview with us, but what we’ve learned, it sure looks like they were shaken down. We’ve seen the checks,” Dolcefino told the camera.
Money Ricco allegedly wanted for the Walk for Women—an island charity for breast cancer survivors. The charity says it’s raised $669,000.
But the owners were told to send $8,000 last year, and they did.
But this year Ricco upped the ante, demanding $12,000.
The owners just sent eight.
And Ricco?
He didn’t give the check to the charity, he sent it back uncashed.
Money that could’ve gone to breast cancer survivors.
Lisa Graves is the Vice President of Walk for Women, we’ve called her because she’s also on City Council.
“Would you be concerned if the owners of Coconut Jack’s were told if they didn’t give the check, they couldn’t park in that parking lot in the entertainment district?” Dolcefino asked.
“I’m not privy. I don’t know any of that, so I don’t know,” Lisa Graves said.
“Would you be concerned… or do you not care?” Dolcefino asked.
“I think I’m going to hang up at this moment” Graves said.
Coconut Jack’s isn’t a threat to the bars owned by the mayor and Joe Ricco—it’s a small place.
But this would be…
Bubba Gump’s, that’s what the owners plan to put in this spot along the bayfront.
They’ve already bought another piece of land, 600 feet from the planned restaurant and bar, so they have the required parking.
The city ordinance requires enough parking within 1,200 feet.
But they’ve faced long delays on approval from the fire chief—the guy who owns the bar next door, and on March 19 of this year, something else happened.
And boy does this smell…
“The shared parking of off-site parking must be within 200 feet from the lot with the principal building instead of 1,200 feet,” Edmund Cyganiewicz said.
“That likely kills any new bars that want to come into the entertainment district… it kills the competition,” Dolcefino told the camera.
“1,200 feet to 200 feet. Was it done to keep the Bubba Gump people out?” Dolcefino asked.
“Again, I wasn’t on the committee,” Ricco said.
Joe Ricco was absent that day.
But the mayor… he voted.
A vote that protects his bar.
“The conflicts of the mayor and Joe Ricco should be obvious to everyone,” Dolcefino told the camera.
Except to the South Padre Ethics Board.
Yes, the city has one.
They need to open their eyes… if they are able to.
“If they supported the business coming in, I would say it would be fine, but they’re not. They’re only looking out for their best interest,” Bill Carroll said.
The hand-picked members of the zoning committee that made the parking recommendations seem to have memory issues when we called them.
“They want their dive of run-down places to be the place to be,” Carroll said.
So we asked the city for old text messages between the mayor and Joe Ricco.
The city doesn’t want us to see them.
We asked to see their emails about this parking lot change, agreed to pay the cost.
Look at how long the city’s lawyers say it will take to produce the records: 41–42 weeks, that’s almost ten months.
You think that’s funny? Early on we asked for a year and a half of phone records detailing just government calls for the mayor, Joe Ricco… and the city manager, Randy Smith.
The city wanted to charge us more than $14,000 to see it, and said it would take 384 weeks to produce them.
That’s seven years… 2032.
Come on.
That’s because the City Secretary, Nikki Soto, has decided she will only spend an hour of the week dealing with public information.
We think that’s illegal… a way to delay the public’s right to know.
“I don’t seem to get a straight answer,” Dolcefino said.
“Well, you seem to not like to answer,” Nikki Soto said.
It’s the folks who vote on South Padre Island who should rise up… demand answers.
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