Corpus Christi street fee plans draw scrutiny at town hall meeting

Michael Zamora/Caller-Times
City crews work on potholes in March. City officials and business leaders are debating how to create a fair fee for long-term street maintenance.$RETURN$$RETURN$

Corpus Christi Caller-Times

CORPUS CHRISTI - Questions at a town hall meeting Thursday were signs that confusion and a measure of consternation remain over Corpus Christi's plans to add street maintenance fees to utility bills.

As city officials responded to criticism of earlier proposals, they moved toward a more complex fee designed to more carefully consider how each business generates wear and tear on streets. It's unclear whether business owners will see the added complexity as added fairness.

The fee also faces skepticism from some Westside residents and advocates who have said the residential fee of $7 per month is too burdensome for the poorest homeowners and the business fee could stunt Westside redevelopment, even if poor residents had a chance to appeal their bills.

"Basically what you're doing is redlining this area so no one is going to want to come and put a business in that area," said Roland Gaona, a realty associate with the Clower Co. and member of the League of United Latin American Citizens local Council No. 1.

Still others feel exasperated that the fee, which addresses only $15 million per year of a $1 billion streets problem, has been under debate for more than a year without a final decision. One resident told the City Council on Tuesday he thought $7 was a pretty good deal and he would even be willing to pay more.

The council on March 19 tentatively approved a fee structure with the flat $7 per month residential charge and a commercial property fee based on square footage and traffic. It has a sunset provision that would require it to be put to a vote at least every 10 years.

But how to weigh surface area and how to estimate traffic generated by each business remains a stumbling block.

The council approved a $200,000 survey of 8,000 businesses to measure them and determine how they fit into the Institute of Transportation Engineers' 172 categories. The categories each have a trip factor — a number that is supposed to represent traffic flow. Homes have a factor of 1; businesses have higher factors depending on the category.

What to do with the data will be sorted out by a panel of four council members appointed by Mayor Nelda Martinez. They will hash it out over the next eight weeks in a series of public meetings, she said.

Most of the talk at the latest town hall related to two central questions: Do we even need a fee and, if so, how much am I going to pay?

Under the plan the council considered, business fees would have ranged from $4 to more than $2,000 per month, depending on the trip factor and surface area.

"Nobody wants to pay this," Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce President Foster Edwards said. " ... But we all realize we have to do this because we all want to fix the streets ... and we all realize this is the only way we can get it done."

Former Republican state Rep. Raul Torres balked, saying the city should find its street maintenance money by eliminating waste in government and modeling city business after towns such as Irving, which he said found $20 million in savings in two years while improving productivity.

Efficiency has been a top priority of City Manager Ron Olson, who on Tuesday announced the latest savings his administration has realized: more than $14 million related to city health benefits.

The city is finding other ways to save: overhauling municipal court practices, updating parking collection methods, selling off seldom used and expensive-to-maintain parks and buildings.

But Councilman David Loeb said it's not as simple as taking newfound savings and throwing the money into streets. Some of the money is dedicated to specific departments. And the city has to consider expenses it is legally obligated to pay, such as $150 million in pension liabilities. And he said the city can't find enough savings quickly enough to tackle the pressing roads need.

Lingering too is the sentiment that a street fee, however narrowly defined, is nothing more than a tax. As such, it could be assailable in court.

A group called Street Fairness has submitted a proposal it says would avoid lawsuits and limit appeals and administrative costs by using readily available public data on properties. It would raise $5 million per year less than the city proposals and limit small businesses to paying $4 and large businesses $500 a year.

Business owners and residents also have worried that fee money could be redirected to other departments. City officials say they're required by law to use the money only for streets. And Councilman Rudy Garza Jr. said if the fee generates more than $15 million, he wants to return the surplus.

"We're going to have to rebuild the city some way," he said.

The maintenance fee is a fraction of the city's overall street management plan of nearly $1 billion. The fee is designed to correct decades of neglecting regular upkeep, and it will pay to maintain only streets in fair condition or better. More than $900 million in additional funds — paid with bond issues and possibly giving neighborhoods the option to pay fees for their own street repairs — are required to reconstruct or rehabilitate the worst streets, city officials estimate.