Big promises, bigger questions: Harbor Island desal project under scrutiny after new allegations<\/a><\/p>\nBoard members discussed the findings during a public meeting after reviewing a final report tied to concerns raised in a March 28, 2026, letter from Chief Operating Officer Travis Pruski.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverall, this investigation did not reveal facts or evidence to show intentional wrongdoing,\u201d the board stated during the meeting.<\/p>\n
However, board members said the investigation did reveal communication problems within leadership that created operational challenges.<\/p>\n
The board voted to create a new personnel committee to address concerns identified during the investigation process. Board members also appointed Dr. Chasey Sanchez to lead that committee.<\/p>\n
Another vote created a transparency task force aimed at improving public trust, accountability and communication moving forward.<\/p>\n
The investigation stems from allegations tied to the proposed Harbor Island desalination project.<\/p>\n
Pruski previously alleged Byrum misled the City of Corpus Christi about how many communities had committed to buying water from the future desalination plant.<\/p>\n
During a previous weekly water update, Corpus Christi City Manager Peter Zanoni described the reservation process as constantly changing and pushed back on the idea that numbers were intentionally misrepresented.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a moving target,\u201d Zanoni said. \u201cOne day there could\u2019ve been a reservation of a higher number only to find out that somebody had backed out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The controversy also drew attention from state leaders, including Gov. Greg Abbott, who previously called for an investigation into the allegations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Nueces River Authority board approved new transparency and personnel groups after reviewing allegations tied to the Harbor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":["post-303352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}