Corpus Christi is battling a serious water crisis, with the potential to run dry by 2027. Now the city may also be drying up support for its mayor.
Yesterday, the city council voted to review the preliminary procedures for potentially removing Mayor Paulette Guajardo, as first reported by KIII. The vote took place as part of a nine hour city council meeting.
Council members Carolyn Vaughn, Eric Cantu, Gil Hernandez, Kaylynn Paxson and Sylvia Campos voted in favor of the agenda item, prompted by an August 2025 petition submitted by six Corpus Christi residents. Council members Mark Scott, Everett Roy and Roland Barrera voted against it.
Several council members who agreed to move forward in the removal process said the procedure for initiating a removal hearing should be fixed.
“I don’t like this part of the charter,” Cantu said. “It only takes five people to put a petition together to remove a council member.”
Five city council members in Corpus Christi voted to move forward with a removal hearing for the mayor on March 24, 2026. (Corpus Christi City Council)
Hernandez also voiced concern about the small number of residents needed to initiate the process.
“Only five or more registered voters can do this. I have a huge problem with that,” Hernandez said. “This is probably something we need to address as a council to make the bar a little higher.”
However, with the 5-3 vote, the process advanced and the removal hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, April 14.
“Just because there’s a hearing…doesn’t automatically mean that the mayor or any accused councilmember is going to be removed,” Hernandez said. “Just because this is a process doesn’t mean that this is an automatic. It’s just not.”
Discussions prior to the vote mainly centered around the Homewood Suites investigation-a controversial $2-million tax incentive proposal for the downtown Homewood Suites by Hilton. A developer claimed that Guajardo was aware of an altered FEMA flood map used to present that project to council. A KIII investigation found that the map itself and important dates weren’t altered.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Texas Rangers and Corpus Christi Police Department have all closed investigations into the incident and no criminal charges have been filed.
But while much of the conversation focused on that incident, a larger controversy continues to loom in Corpus Christi: the uncertainty of the city’s water crisis and the back-and-forth on a $1.2 billion desalination plant meant to address it.
The mayor has pushed to revive plans for the Inner Harbor Desalination Plant after public backlash from Gov. Greg Abbott. She recently referred to council’s approval of the project as a “must.”
That stance has deepened tensions on the council. About two weeks ago, Cantu released a statement accusing the mayor of creating division. He argued the city was not in danger of running out of water and stood in support of council members who opposed the desalination project six months ago.
“Our mayor has completely divided this council. She cannot keep this council together and it’s become a one way street with her leadership,” Cantu wrote.
Those same members later voted to initiate the removal process against Guajardo. More recently, the council voted 7-1 to instead begin negotiations to buy water from a desalination plant owned by Corpus Christi Polymers, as reported by the Texas Tribune.
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This article originally published at Texas mayor on the chopping block as city water runs dry.