Nick Jimenez

Packery foes dredge up enough names

It's looks like we're going to have a doozy of an election on April 7. That much was promised this week when the Let Us Vote supporters managed to get the required number of signatures of registered voters to force an election on Packery Channel.
   The addition of the Packery Channel issue to the April ballot turned what might have been a so-so City Council election into a battle for the future of Padre Island and to a large extent a decision point on how the city is to be run.
   The Let Us Vote organization basically built its case to get signatures on two arguments: we didn't get to vote, and we already voted on that one.
   Two young men who came to my door, on two different occasions, soliciting signatures said the Let Us Vote group wasn't for the Packery project or against it. We just think that people ought to vote on it, they said. What they sought, and got, was a vote on the council's decision to fund the local portion of the $30 million cost of dredging Packery Channel with tax-increment financing.
   The companion argument was that the voters had already voted down Packery Channel in 1999 when Nueces County voters turned down bonds that would have paid for the dredging costs.
   If the council had had its druthers, early April would have been one of the least likely dates on which to hold an election on Packery Channel. The council learned a lesson in November when it passed the first bond election in 14 years after several defeats: hold elections when the largest turnout is expected. By holding the election in November that resulted in the passage of sales tax measures to fund a new arena, repair the seawall and millions in dollars in bonds, the council avoided relying on the 20 percent or less turnout that had decided previous city issues.
   A general election turnout assured that younger and Hispanic voters got to the polls, voters who could see the benefits of building an arena and who actually buy tickets to concerts and go to IceRay games.
   So far, the Let Us Vote organizers have another advantage on their side: passion. Even with the hiring of petition-gatherers, it is no easy thing to get out and gather thousands of signatures. The front-page photo of Betty and Chuck Spencer, leaders of Let Us Vote, embracing in victory after they successfully forced the vote perfectly captured the enthusiasm and commitment that the Packery Channel opponents have devoted to their goal. Now they will put that passion to work to defeat the measure.
   The supporters of Packery Channel would do well not to dismiss the Let Us Vote organization. It is easy to dismiss opponents of things like Packery Channel as "aginners" and perennial opponents. There is always a small group of Corpus Christians who oppose everything and anything. But if they were alone, they wouldn't have been able to pass the tax rate cap, or defeat the economic development sales tax (several times), or force the Packery Channel election.
   But these opposition groups have been able to find support among voters who do have questions to be answered and doubts allayed. In that sense, the winning combination for Packery Channel supporters is the other part of the strategy followed last November: answer the charges with facts. The voters who will decide this election are not the hard core on either side, but the big middle who want the facts aired out.
   Of course, the facts for Packery Channel really revolve around what kind of city we want Corpus Christi to be. A $677 million development with hotels, marina, restaurants and a convention center hangs on opening the channel on Padre Island. If you think that's not important, just read the disappointing city sales tax figures for the last quarter of the year. The drop of more than 6 percent means less money to pay for police, for park maintenance and for all city services. Those who think that developing Packery Channel affects only those who own boats need to rethink that narrow assumption.
   (Nick Jimenez can be reached by phone at 886-3787 or by e-mail at jimenez n@caller.com.)
  
  

 
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