For the first time in the city’s 174-year history, a mayor has been formally reprimanded and suspended from office, though she avoided an outright ouster that would have prevented her from running for office for the next two years.
On Friday, August 7, a divided Corpus Christi City Council voted to publicly reprimand Mayor Paulette M. Guajardo after finding her guilty of misconduct while in office related to a $2 million economic incentive agreement for a downtown hotel project called the Homewood Suites. However, after hearing four days of testimony spread over two weeks, the council was unable to reach the five-vote supermajority necessary to remove Guajardo entirely — a decision that would also have barred her from seeking office for the next two years.
What were the charges against Mayor Paulette M. Guajardo?
The council majority found Guajardo guilty of the three counts against her — misconduct “by aiding a fraud on the taxpayers,” perjury related to an August 6, 2025 deposition, and “misconduct, malfeasance, incompetence, or inability or willful neglect” for failing to maintain confidentiality regarding a Corpus Christi Regional Economic Development Corporation meeting.
The council-led trial was sparked when six Corpus Christi voters submitted a 2025 petition alleging that Guajardo engaged in misconduct in 2024 related to the hotel incentive agreement. The petitioners — including Ajit David, a rival hotelier who sued the city over the downtown hotel project, alleging fraud — claimed that Guajardo was aware that a slide had been altered during a 2024 presentation that the Homewood Suites developers had used to request federal funding for the hotel, according to Texas Public Radio.
Prior to the vote — and with David sitting at his side — the petitioners’ attorney, Doug Allison, characterized the years-long debacle as a “very serious cancer” and “corruption” that had plagued Corpus Christi.
“No one wants to really have to deal with the underbelly of this city, which has been the breeding ground of the mayor for too long,” Allison said in his closing statements Friday.
But Guajardo’s attorney, John Flood, pleaded with the council to closely examine the facts of the case. If they did that, they would find none of the arguments held water, Flood said.
“When you strip away the rhetoric and look only at the evidence, this accusation has no foundation whatsoever,” Flood said. “The easiest thing in the world is to punish someone that you’ve already judged. The hardest thing to do, and the brave thing to do, is to lay down that judgment long enough to listen.”
Only District 5 Councilman Gil Hernandez and District 2 Councilwoman Sylvia Campos voted to remove Guajardo from office. District 3 Councilman Eric Cantu — often one of Guajardo’s most vocal critics — voted against removing her, telling KRIS 6 reporter Andrew Bishop that that kind of decision-making belongs to voters.
Ousting the mayor would have required a 5-to-1 supermajority, but suspending her did not. That vote passed 4-to-2. Councilman at-large Mark Scott voted not guilty on all three counts, and similarly voted against penalizing the mayor. Now, for the next 30 days, District 4 Councilwoman Kaylynn Paxson will lead the city as mayor pro tem.
After the trial, Mayor Guajardo took to social media to thank her constituents “for the overwhelming support” during what she called a difficult time.
“I remain hopeful that we can move forward with dignity, restore confidence in our city, and bring our community back together around what matters most: the people of Corpus Christi and the future we share,” Guajardo said.