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Advocate criticizes council for campaign finance ties, urges ending industrial drought exemptions
Summary
A resident and organizer accused industry-backed political groups of influencing city policy on water and criticized proposed restrictions to public comment the previous week, urging the council to act for residents and the environment.
Isabella Arisa, cofounder of For the Greater Good, used public comment to criticize what she described as large campaign donations from industry interests to local political groups and to ask the council to end drought exemptions for high-volume industrial water users.
Arisa cited a transparency website and said the Coastal Bend Coalition spent $719,083 on the local election cycle and listed corporate donors she said supported that coalition, including Valero, ExxonMobil, Gulf Coast Growth Ventures, Koch Industries, Cheniere and Lyondell. She linked those expenditures to policy outcomes and questioned whether the council would curtail industrial water use as reservoirs fall.
"I am appalled that we had to fight for [First Amendment rights]...greedy, insatiable water-guzzling corporations won in this last local election," Arisa said. She urged the council to act for residents and the environment; staff and council did not take immediate action on her remarks during the meeting.
The city’s public-comment rules and an earlier discussion of possible changes to comment procedures were discussed by speakers and council members during the session; the city attorney clarified that citizens may not pose questions to council or staff from the podium under the rules of decorum and that rhetorical questions were included as inappropriate if presented as a question to staff during the comment period.
