CCISD 2018 bond: Corpus Christ residents, union leaders publicly oppose package

Beatriz Alvarado | Corpus Christi

Show Caption Hide Caption Here's what we know about Corpus Christi ISD's $210 million bond This is CCISD's fifth bond proposal in 10 years. The four previous voter-approved bonds totaled $611 million and built 13 new campuses.

Four Corpus Christi residents and leaders of the Corpus Christi and Texas chapters of the American Federation of Teachers spoke out against CCISD’s 2018 bond proposal on Monday.

Residents who opposed the $210 million package during public comment at Corpus Christi ISD's board meeting included local mortgage lender John Wilson and Bryan Gulley, the former president of the city board that oversees the Type A fund.

They questioned the following:

The need for a 6.6 cents per $100 valuation tax increase

The rate increase's impact on housing affordability

The difference — $32 million — in construction costs between the new Carroll High School and the 7-year-old Veterans Memorial High School

The amount of debt the district is willing to impose on taxpayers

The district’s bidding process

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More: CCISD will ask taxpayers to fund fifth bond in 10 years, totaling $210 million

Gulley urged the board to revisit the proposal with an intent to trim it down by $50 million to $80 million.

"I’m worried about our debt that we’re going to pass on to our kids," Gulley said. "It’s unfathomable to me that you can spend this much money."

The district’s construction manager John Dibala publicly addressed Carroll’s and Veterans Memorial’s cost disparity, as well as accusations the district has not been transparent in presenting the bond package.

He disputed a lack of transparency, citing district officials who have led more than 29 presentations to the public since the proposal was approved by the board.

TRUMP TARIFFS & HARVEY

Dibala attributed the construction cost differences between the two high schools to two things:

A rise in costs due to post-Hurricane Harvey projects in the area

President Donald Trump tariffs on construction goods

He said the cost to build Veterans Memorial was at $212 per square foot seven years ago. Now, the cost per square foot is calculated at $308 per square foot.

“So, you have seven years of escalation from the time the (Veterans Memorial) project was started to the time this project is going to get bid on,” Dibala said. “(The) escalation, what we’re seeing here in South Texas, is anywhere between 6 to 8 percent.”

As for the tariffs, Dibala could not say if construction costs have been directly impacted, but instead said the industry is acting on fear.

“We were seeing the price of some materials go up by as much as 25 percent due to the tariff scares," Dibala said.

More: Trump's tariffs: A closer look at what they are and how they will work

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President Donald Trump has imposed tariffs on goods such as:

Steel and aluminum

Lumber

Chinese-made furniture

Dibala said the cost breakdown of the difference between Carroll and Veterans Memorial will be published on the district website Tuesday.

CCISD'S BIDDING PROCESS

The Texas Education Code authorizes institutions to select from several contracting methods for procuring construction services.

These include the Design-Build method and the Competitive Sealed Proposal method, among others.

Corpus Christi ISD has used the Construction Manager at Risk delivery method for large bond projects and Dibala defended the process as the most effective one, citing it allows the architect and contractor to work alongside school officials during the design phase.

Through the CMAR method, a construction manager assumes the risks of the project and provides consultation to the owner, in this case, the district, regarding construction during and after the design phase.

UNION LEADERS SINGLE-OUT BOARD MEMBER

Nancy Vera, president of the Corpus Christi chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, led a news conference before Monday's meeting alongside Ray McMurrey, Texas AFT's secretary-treasurer.

For the past month, Vera has taken to social media to blast District 1 trustee John Longoria for never filing campaign finance reports as a CCISD trustee.

Longoria, who is up for re-election, disputes the accusations.

Longoria provided the Caller-Times a copy of a campaign finance report filed Thursday.

As for past years, Longoria said he sought the District 1 seat in 2006, 2010, 2016, and this cycle and filed campaign finance reports for 2006 and 2010, but the district shreds the documents unless there is a requirement to retain them. He ran unopposed in 2016 and did not campaign, he said. From 2010 to August he had nothing to report and nothing was required to file."