(This story was updated to add new information.)
City Councilwoman and Mayor Pro Tem Kaylynn Paxson will lead Corpus Christi through Sept. 6 after a majority vote by the City Council to suspend Mayor Paulette Guajardo for 30 days.
A culmination of four days of evidence presentations, witness testimony and tense debate, the decision to suspend Guajardo was made after a nearly 2½-hour closed-door meeting Aug. 7. The suspension went into effect Aug. 8, according to city officials.
The suspension and separate reprimand are based on findings by the majority of the council that Guajardo had committed “misconduct, malfeasance, incompetence, or inability or willful neglect of performance” related to a controversy involving a $2 million tax incentive agreement for development of a new downtown Homewood Suites hotel.
The removal hearing represents the third of its kind in Corpus Christi.
Previous removal hearings of council members were held in 1981 and 1987 — the first leading to no action, and the second to a removal.
Guajardo and the hotel developers, Elevate QOF LLC, have denied wrongdoing in the matter.
Corpus Christi Mayor Paulette Guajardo and her attorney, John Flood, prepare for the start of the fourth day of her removal proceedings at City Hall in Corpus Christi, Texas, on Aug. 7, 2026.
The petition
The removal hearing proceedings launched after six registered voters submitted a petition requesting Guajardo’s ousting, accusing her of helping to advance the tax incentive agreement for approval despite being aware of allegations that had been made against Elevate QOF LLC.
In part, petitioners had cited in their allegations a screenshot that had been used in several presentations by the Homewood Suites developers.
The screenshot had been of a U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency news release posted on its website. The image included in the presentations did not show the date of its release or the release number.
It misrepresented the project and the initially stated need for funding to meet FEMA requirements, according to some of the petitioners’ witnesses.
Developers have said the issue with the dates was the result of an inadvertent formatting issue without intent to deceive.
Those who have defended the tax incentives award have said the agreement ultimately approved by a city board was intended to target economic growth elements of the project, such as accommodating publicly accessible retail and restaurants, not FEMA.
Ajit David, who was among those who had signed articles of impeachment against Guajardo, provided comment through attorney Douglas Allison.
Allison represented petitioners in the removal hearing and also represents David in a lawsuit against the city and Guajardo that seeks to undo the tax incentives agreement.
In an Aug. 8 message to the Caller-Times, David noted the charges approved by the council against Guajardo and thanked five council members for their decisions in the case.
“This City [desperately] needs a new mayor,” he wrote.
Guajardo, in an Aug. 8 message to the Caller-Times, thanked Corpus Christi residents for what she described as “overwhelming support.”
“Corpus Christi must now move forward, united in purpose and strong in direction,” she wrote. “We must secure our long-term water supply, strengthen our economy, and restore the relationships in Austin and Washington, D.C. that are vital to our future.”
See day four of Corpus Christi Mayor Guajardo’s removal hearing
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Corpus Christi Mayor Paulette Guajardo speaks with residents before the start of the fourth day of her removal proceedings at City Hall in Corpus Christi, Texas, on Aug. 7, 2026. (Felicity Guajardo/Caller-Times)
The findings
The majority of the City Council tribunal — composed of Paxson, Carolyn Vaughn, Gil Hernandez, Eric Cantu, Sylvia Campos and Mark Scott — found the mayor guilty on three charges.
Scott voted in dissent against each.
It was a 5-1 vote on the first two charges and a 4-2 vote on the third, with Cantu joining Scott in dissent.
Ultimately, the majority of the panel supported suspension of Guajardo for 30 days on the first charge and a reprimand of “conduct beneath the office of mayor” on the second charge.
Removal based on any of the three charges would have specifically required a 5-1 vote in support, which was not achieved. Suspension and reprimand only required four votes in favor.
No penalty was ultimately determined on the third charge, due to a tied vote.
A summary of the votes was provided by the city secretary’s office.
The majority concluded the mayor had committed “misconduct, malfeasance, incompetence, or inability or willful neglect of performance of her official duties,” by:
Charge 1: “aiding a fraud upon the taxpayers of the city of Corpus Christi related to the alleged need for complying with newly defined FEMA flood maps and/or altered FEMA screenshot.”
Voting in favor of her removal were Campos and Hernandez, with Cantu, Vaughn, Paxson and Scott voting in dissent. (Removal vote failed.)
A 30-day suspension was approved in a 5-1 vote, with Scott voting against. (Suspension approved.)
Charge 2: “while testifying in her official capacity as Mayor, [perjuring] herself on August 6, 2025.”
Campos and Hernandez voted for removal, with Cantu, Vaughn, Paxson and Scott voting against. (Removal vote failed.)
The majority declined to levy a penalty of 30-day suspension, with Campos and Hernandez voting in the affirmative and Cantu, Vaughn, Paxson and Scott voting against. (Suspension vote failed.)
The majority of the council approved a formal reprimand in a 5-1 vote, with Scott voting in dissent. (Reprimand approved.)
Charge 3: “Failing to hold all information received from [Corpus Christi Regional Economic Development Corp.] activities strictly confidential.”
Voting in favor of removal was Campos, with the remainder of the tribunal voting against. (Removal failed.)
Voting in favor of suspension were Campos and Hernandez; voting against were Cantu, Vaughn, Paxson and Scott. (Suspension failed.)
Voting in favor of a reprimand were Campos, Vaughn and Hernandez; Cantu, Scott and Paxson voted against. (Reprimand failed.)
Allison in an Aug. 8 message to the Caller-Times noted the council’s actions on the charges against Guajardo, describing those as “aiding fraud by award of $2,000,000 of taxpayer money to her friends, perjury, and violation on her confidentiality agreement with the CCREDC.”
“I thank the City’s new leadership for taking a stand against this Mayor’s corruption,” he wrote.
Closing arguments
The tribunal was representing “the voices of voters,” Allison said in his closing statements Aug. 7, citing the City Charter.
Allison has disagreed with developer Philip Ramirez’s explanation of the screenshot, accusing the company of deliberately altering the image in a way that was used to “trick” the council.
Allison also alleged Guajardo had helped to promote a narrative that funding for the company was needed to cover the costs for FEMA regulations, based on what had been described as new flood maps.
Guajardo had known that the idea that the FEMA flood maps had recently changed was incorrect, as far back as when the tax incentive application originally came to the Corpus Christi Regional Economic Development Corp. in 2023, according to Allison.
That would have been before the consideration of the agreement by the city’s Type B board, which had approved the contract, as well as a vote by the City Council affirming the contract approval.
She had also known about allegations related to the screenshot, Allison asserted.
Petitioners’ witnesses testified that she was told of the allegations several times, at least between the City Council’s Feb. 20, 2024, vote on the agreement and a second vote finalizing the agreement April 23, 2024.
Allison also pointed to records showing a text sent to Elevate QOF LLC developer Deven Bhakta during a CCREDC meeting.
In the image, Guajardo had requested the economic impact of the hotel.
Bhakta didn’t respond with a number but thanked Guajardo “for looking out for us.”
Altogether, “there was this wrongful, inappropriate conduct,” Allison told the tribunal.
Guajardo in her testimony disputed many of Allison’s conclusions, as well as some of the testimony that had been used in his case — at that point, comprising clips of depositions taken in David’s lawsuit.
She had been aware of an investigation, Guajardo asserted, but had not been told “a federal law had been broken.”
Flood, in his closing arguments, had asserted that petitioners — who had burden of proof — had not made their case.
“The mayor did not create that slide, she didn’t create the narrative around it, she didn’t prepare the presentation, she didn’t write the agenda memorandum,” Flood said. “Most importantly, where is the evidence that on Feb. 20, she knew the false narrative that is key to case?”
Petitioners were asking council members to rely on assumptions, speculation and suspicion instead of actual evidence in making their conclusions, Flood said.
“The easiest thing in the world is to punish someone that you’ve already judged,” he said. “The hardest thing to do, and a brave thing to do, is to lay down that judgment long enough to listen — and really listen — and that is what due process requires you to do. It is humility made into law and it asks only one thing: do not decide first and then listen later.”
There was an altered slide, false narrative and confusion, and there were things that could have been handled differently, Flood asserted.
But there’s a “profound difference between saying ‘something went wrong’ and saying ‘she did wrong,'” he said.
“That distance can only be crossed by evidence,” Flood said.
After the hearing
Elevate QOF LLC attorney Jeff Lehrman told the Caller-Times on Aug. 8 that he was glad the mayor hadn’t been removed but that he disagreed with the council’s findings.
Allison, as part of his case, had shown clips of Ramirez’s deposition; however, Ramirez was not called to testify.
His clients had not been a party in the proceeding, but the company “strongly disputes, as it always has, the allegations of any misconduct,” Lehrman said.
A law enforcement investigation and an outside legal review have already been performed, he said.
Neither reached conclusions of criminal wrongdoing.
“When you don’t have a seat at the table, then it’s very easy to just hear one side of the story,” he said. “But the presentation by the petitioners was filled with absolutely erroneous, meritless and unsupported claims.”
Guajardo wrote in Aug. 8 message to the Caller-Times that she still plans to run for reelection.
“This moment calls for experienced, steady leadership,” she wrote. “It is time to turn the page and begin a new chapter for Corpus Christi, one built on strength, stability, collaboration, and a shared commitment to our future. I am standing strong for Corpus Christi.”
Kirsten Crow covers city government and water news. Have a story idea? Contact her at kirsten.crow@caller.com.
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This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Corpus Christi Mayor Paulette Guajardo suspended but will keep office