[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:05] Good morning. If you'll find your seats,
[0:11] I found a new button that really does work. Everyone gets a little quiet there.
[0:17] This is not American Airlines. This is the Port of Corpus Christi. Good morning, everybody. We'll get started this morning. We'll call this meeting to order. First, this morning, we will have a safety briefing. Good morning.
[0:33] Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Solomon Ortiz Center, Port Commission meeting. In case of any evacuation,
[0:41] The primary egress route will be out to double doors toward the RT's parking lot.
[0:46] The assembly point will be across the street in the northeast corner.
[0:50] If a shelter in place is ordered, please remain in the building and wait further instructions from the police department.
[0:56] If there is an active shooter,
[0:59] know your area and be prepared to run, hide or fight.
[1:02] In case of an emergency, I need someone willing to dial 911.
[1:08] The AED and first aid kit are located at the front desk.
[1:10] someone who's willing to go get those, same.
[1:15] Participant, willing and able to do CPR.
[1:20] Fire extinguisher located throughout the building mounted
[1:22] on the wall, and again, if the shelter in places ordered,
[1:26] remain in the building in the police department
[1:27] will tell you what to do.
[1:28] Thank you.
[1:32] Thank you, Officer Bender.
[1:33] This morning, if you'll please stand Commissioner Michael Hunter
[1:36] will leave the pledge of allegiance.
[1:37] And if you'll remain standing for the invocation
[1:41] by Rabbi Gabrielle Cohn, Missioner Hunter,
[2:05] Rabbi Gabrielle Cohn.
[2:09] Good morning.
[2:10] Can you all hear me?
[2:12] Okay, wonderful.
[2:13] Elohana, bellow.
[2:14] Hey, have a tainu, beemotainu, are God and God of our ancestors.
[2:19] Bless this port and all who work here.
[2:22] All who pass through it and all who benefit from its bounty.
[2:26] Source of all life guide our leaders with wisdom and righteousness.
[2:29] As the prophet Isaiah teaches, make justice your measure and righteousness your standard, be a refuge for the vulnerable and a shelter for those in need.
[2:41] Strengthen the hearts of those entrusted with leadership, but keep their hearts from heart and aim so that they may use their influence and authority to speak truth, to act with integrity, and to pursue justice.
[2:55] May all who live and work in this port area share in its bounty, enjoy its freedoms, and be protected by its laws.
[3:05] May the city blessed by the waters that surround it use its power and prosperity to be a voice for justice, peace, and equality for all who dwell upon this earth.
[3:16] Give us the strength and courage to be bold in our actions and deep in our compassion, to know
[3:23] when we must listen and when we must act, to uproot bigotry and tolerance, misogyny,
[3:30] racism, discrimination, and violence in all their forms. Help us to celebrate the many faces
[3:36] of God reflected in the wondrous diversity of humanity. Teach us to welcome the stranger and the
[3:46] opportunity and possibility here as people have done on these shores since long before this nation
[3:53] was born. As the prophet almost proclaimed let justice swell up like waters and righteousness
[3:59] like a mighty stream. Help us to recognize the blessings in our lives and never to take them
[4:11] strength in us when we are afraid. Help us channel our anger so that it becomes a force for
[4:19] righteous action. Help us feel our anxiety so that we do not become numb to the suffering
[4:25] of others. Make us generous with one another so that we may raise each other up. Make us humble in our
[4:33] fear remembering that while we may feel vulnerable, there are always others who are still more vulnerable.
[4:39] and that is our sacred responsibility to stand with them.
[4:45] Help us to taste the sweetness of liberty,
[4:48] without taking it for granted.
[4:50] May we honor the freedoms one through the courage
[4:53] and sacrifice of generations before us,
[4:57] and may we do our part to protect, heal.
[5:00] Local and nourish our democracy for those who will come after us. Bless this port, its workers and leaders, its neighbors and partners, and all who depend upon its success. May the one who causes peace to reign in the heavens, bring peace to corpus Christi, peace to our port, peace to our leaders, and peace to each and every one of us. Can you hear our own, may this be God's will, and together we say,
[5:29] on then. Thank you, Rabbi Cone.
[5:42] Item number five, are there any conflict of interest
[5:45] candidates need to be received? Seeing none, we'll move to minutes. Approval of the
[5:52] minutes from the July 21st, 2026 meeting to have a motion.
[5:57] The second person second I heard. All those opposed? All those opposed?
[6:08] All those
[6:08] apologize. Item number seven is public comment. Again, each speaker is limited to three minutes.
[6:15] First up is Mr. Terry Mills.
[6:25] Good morning. I'll be brief. Can't can you come forward for just a moment please?
[6:35] This past year, the poor sponsored was one of the sponsors for our annual health care that was
[6:40] held at the American Bank Center. Excuse me, the healer said it. Okay, I still don't want to get you
[6:45] Because I said before, a thousand years like the rest of us, and so it's going to take some time.
[6:50] But anyhow, you know, the positive providers, we're able to bring together a lot of their medical providers.
[6:57] There's a lot of individuals who came forward for the help here.
[7:00] Don't have insurance.
[7:01] Don't have this.
[7:02] Don't have that.
[7:03] But the concept.
[7:04] What you did.
[7:05] You're able to.
[7:06] We're able to have it.
[7:08] Awesome.
[7:08] This right here.
[7:10] This is one of all of us signature medallions that we don't give out on special occasions.
[7:16] And because you checked all the boxes and stuff, we wanted to give you what the clients that we give that we serve as a state school.
[7:23] Excuse me. Corporal's pretty state support, live in Serena. I'm using San State School along with the group homes.
[7:29] This is a thank you from them.
[7:33] to you. And so this
[7:38] is a, okay, this is not a commit. It's glass. So you need to be very careful.
[7:45] I'm telling you straight up, because once I hand it to you, drop it.
[7:52] So because sweet thing, the fourth is a diamond in the community, a beacon for everyone to see.
[8:02] I work past it this way, but I'm going to drop it. And so anyway, so I just said,
[8:07] Thank you so much for the generosity of appreciation.
[8:10] So if we're strong, and the volunteers
[8:12] you guys sent up this, this is up bags
[8:14] for the Christmas Christmas, sorry.
[8:17] But the skills of lives was just over the top.
[8:19] And we just want to say thank you.
[8:20] So I'm going to hand this to you.
[8:22] And so thank you again.
[8:24] We appreciate you.
[8:25] And so I'm going to put this back in here.
[8:27] That's a good one.
[8:27] I took it right at you.
[8:32] And what does the key work today?
[8:36] No, come on.
[8:37] Come on.
[8:38] I'm going to help you.
[8:39] Please thank you.
[8:40] No, no.
[8:42] Blas.
[8:42] Oh, Blas.
[8:46] I will take care of you, Cara.
[8:48] It's actually great that you put it back in there
[8:50] as my wife would tell you I would pretend to drop it,
[8:52] which is a bad idea.
[8:53] So you won't put this in?
[8:54] Yeah, that's up to you.
[8:57] Thank you very much, Jen.
[8:59] You're welcome.
[9:04] I don't know what it's like.
[9:04] I don't know if I'll take off my glasses.
[9:07] Can't let's not pass off that time to your wife today.
[9:13] Thank you, Mr. Mills.
[9:14] Next up is just a speaker for public comment.
[9:17] as myra alanese miscellanese.
[9:35] Good morning. My name is Myra alanese,
[9:37] I'm with Concerned Citizens of Robsdown in Kalawan.
[9:41] The poor provides the infrastructure that supports industrial growth
[9:45] in our region, but it also funds CCREDC and RADC.
[9:50] Organizations that were instrumental in bringing no-wases green ammonia
[9:54] a benign clean hydrogen project to a site between two established communities
[9:58] Just breathe from hope.
[10:00] From schools and parks. Families choose communities for safety, quality of life, and the environment in which they wish to raise their children, not next to heavy industrial operations.
[10:12] While the poor may not control every private development, it's funding of the economic development and the infrastructure gives it influence.
[10:20] The poor should use that influence to encourage CCREDC and RADC to promote responsible site selection
[10:28] and direct heavy industry into compatible industrial use areas, not in the established residential communities.
[10:36] There are locations where this development could occur, yet industry continues to choose sites that are most economical and convenient to them,
[10:43] while established residents are left to bear the industrial consequences.
[10:46] I respectfully ask the poor commissioners to support an approach that encourages CCREDC and RADC to promote responsible site selection.
[10:57] One that recognizes the economic development should not come at the expense of established communities.
[11:04] There are other locations where industries can grow with it without placing homes, families, parks and schools in the shadows of heavy industrial facilities.
[11:12] Our community should not have to pay for the price of the port's success.
[11:18] We are paying the price.
[11:19] Thank you.
[11:21] Thank you, missollonies.
[11:25] Next we'll move to item number eight committee reports.
[11:28] First on deck this morning is Commissioner West Hoskins with the audit report.
[11:35] Thank you, Mr Chairman.
[11:37] We met this past week.
[11:39] And so we reviewed the ports self-insured health plan, which I would say is very healthy.
[11:46] We received a presentation on our investment report, which is also healthy.
[11:52] We reviewed the financial report of the port, which is healthy.
[11:55] And we took a look at the P.A. New Orleans.
[12:00] We approved some travel there for the APA convention.
[12:03] and we had a discussion on pre-trival requests for
[12:07] report to mission, which was approved.
[12:09] We reviewed the P&D fund and we also are looking
[12:13] at the budget process starting now.
[12:16] So we have several meetings already scheduled for the budget
[12:18] and we presenting that to the commission.
[12:21] We looked at all person's orders growing 50 and 100,000.
[12:24] And we looked at executive leadership and commission
[12:27] travel and expense reports and looked at a current.
[12:33] Thank you Chairman Hoskins for that report. Next is Chairman Long Range Planning, Tony Lomantia,
[12:40] for Long Range Planning Committee report.
[12:44] Our meeting we started with an energy market update.
[12:47] It was kind of a crazy world there in energy.
[12:51] Got some deep dive into what we think might happen,
[12:54] but it's obviously a little bit of a moving target.
[12:58] We had a wonderful presentation on the Inner Harbor area
[13:00] development plan. We looked at the timing and the needs that will happen over the next
[13:08] call it five years with the best light I've ever seen can't really good slide that somebody
[13:14] put in there and next we discussed New England rail terminal design contract so those are
[13:21] going to be you'll see those in the next couple meetings for that design and that's all we did.
[13:28] Thank you.
[13:29] Thank you, Chairman Lomantia and Chairman of Ag, Chairman Petradia, believe there's, was there
[13:35] meeting the smoke?
[13:36] No, we did not meet.
[13:37] Thank you.
[13:38] And just to confirm as well, Chairman, our security is Chairman Hoskins.
[13:42] We also did not meet.
[13:43] Thank you.
[13:44] Just wanted to confirm.
[13:46] We'll move on to our presentations, first, as item 9A, is a presentation for the Corporate
[13:52] the independent school district and Iran's
[13:54] past high school with the Port of Corpus Christi
[13:57] Education grants. Ms. Bailey.
[14:04] There you go. Good morning.
[14:07] Today we are honored to recognize the recipients of our
[14:10] 2026 Port of Corpus Christi Education grant program.
[14:15] For those of you who are not familiar with this program,
[14:18] each year the Port Awards funding for high impact
[14:22] stem initiatives that expand education opportunities and really strengthen workforce readiness
[14:28] across the Coastal Bend region.
[14:30] This year we had two outstanding projects that really strongly aligned with those goals,
[14:36] so rather than struggle with choosing one, we are proud to award $200,000 grants this morning.
[14:44] First is Corpus Christi ISD, who will use its funding to establish a STEM innovation lab at
[14:54] held in place elementary, Martin Middle School, and Veterans Memorial High School.
[15:00] Creating a pathway for students to explore engineering, robotics, computer-ated design, and emerging
[15:06] technologies.
[15:08] I'd like to give them an applause, and then we're going to ask them to come up here in just a
[15:11] bit.
[15:15] We have several individuals in our audience from the leadership of Fortress Christie Independent
[15:20] School District.
[15:22] And second, is a Ranzis Pass High School, a Ranzis Pass is going to launch a process
[15:28] technology dual enrollment program with Delmar College, allowing students to earn college credit
[15:35] while gaining technological training connected to industry, manufacturing, energy, and maritime
[15:43] careers. And so while these two programs are both different, they share the same goal in creating
[15:49] meaningful opportunities for students and preparing the next generation for the careers at support
[15:55] are moving economy here in the Coastal Ben. We're so proud to invest in these two programs
[16:01] and congratulate both Corpus Christi ISD and Naranzis Pass ISD. So chairman and commissioners
[16:08] I'd like to ask for you to stand and then I'm going to invite each of our respective districts
[16:13] to come up and take a photo. So we've got CC ISD her first. Come on up. Thank you.
[16:41] Kent. And Omar
[16:43] can you jump into this photo also. And Amy and Emily also in the photo please.
[17:06] Thank you also
[17:07] much. Congratulations.
[17:16] Don't go far. Okay.
[17:19] And now our partners at Iran's past high school.
[18:13] Thank you commissioners for allowing us the opportunity to partner with these educational
[18:19] partners that allow us to then create systems that help our customers to ensure that they
[18:26] have the workforce they need as they continue to progress in the Coastal Bend.
[18:31] Thank you.
[18:32] Thank you, Rosara.
[18:33] Next, we have a presentation from Al Ariaola, the President and CEO of the United
[18:38] Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce, good morning, Mr. Ariaola.
[18:52] Got it.
[18:52] There we go.
[18:53] There you go.
[18:53] My first time here in the new days.
[18:56] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, commissioners.
[18:59] I'm here on behalf of a, excuse me, I'm a request of staff.
[19:03] To give you a mid-year report, frankly, they actually asked me to be here last month.
[19:07] We were full of some activities that I'm happy to report on today that I will be sharing.
[19:11] Is this what I usually use or is our?
[19:15] I just want to introduce you to our officers for 26, our chair of the Board is Miss Anna Aldridge.
[19:20] We're lucky that she is also serving as the CCREC chair, and I'm also joined by our CEO of the EDC.
[19:27] Mr. Chairman, you also see our officers as such.
[19:32] They are also our foundation board.
[19:35] Our full board members, I do believe, is a good composition of our businesses, both large
[19:42] and small, and also is a good breakdown of the demographics that represent Corpus Christi
[19:46] quite well.
[19:50] This was actually not by design.
[19:51] This was just the way the nomination processes were.
[19:55] Our mission and vision, just central to that, is if I could just refer to our court.
[20:00] We collaborate and advocate to help our members grow and I'll get into some of the parts of our mission vision.
[20:07] Every year our Board of Directors does evaluate some core impact goals that we intend to make in the community that ties to our mission
[20:13] vision. This year, once again, workforce readiness did rise to the top infrastructure advocacy community retention support and mission security assurance.
[20:23] Workforce readiness, I think we all know what that means, in infrastructure advocacy, bringing our infrastructure concerns to the state, local and federal levels.
[20:33] Community retention, trying to retain the talent that is in corporate secrecy in our own residents in the market.
[20:39] And then certainly the military is a pillar of our economy and something that we are very mindful of every day.
[20:47] So, how do we accomplish our mission and vision?
[20:49] These are the programs of your United Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce that do help us articulate and show what our goals are.
[20:58] They are ran and managed to do our committees, which are very volunteer based, both on our Chamber and Foundation sites.
[21:06] I do want to emphasize that we are a membership based organization currently at the year mark.
[21:11] We are at 92 plus members.
[21:13] We are retaining 85% with respect to industry averages
[21:17] is very good.
[21:18] Our market penetration is at 8%
[21:20] and we're annually having trying to hit a goal of 10%.
[21:25] You do back to our board of directors.
[21:27] Our membership composition, as you can see,
[21:29] is very diverse.
[21:30] There is no one particular subset of businesses
[21:32] that is telling us what to do.
[21:34] We are the sum of all our parts.
[21:37] Events we do have quite a few, as you notice,
[21:40] throughout the community pretty much two months.
[21:44] We do manage over 7,000 unique registrations.
[21:49] We are proud to partner often with the port and industry
[21:53] and procurement workshops.
[21:54] We've done two.
[21:56] We are exploring the opportunities to do more.
[21:58] We have had an estimated economic impact to small businesses in the amount of
[22:02] $4.5 million.
[22:04] This is big business doing business with small business.
[22:07] Recently, and I wanted to also acknowledge your chief of external affairs, Mr. Omar,
[22:13] or see it join us on an exploratory delegation to Veracruz. Recently, the Chamber of Commerce
[22:19] has assumed responsibility of the sister city international program, and our intention
[22:23] when doing so was to have more economic-based conversations. This exploratory delegation trip
[22:29] to Veracruz was in this face of international trade. As y'all well know, or might not know,
[22:34] the port of Veracruz is one of the oldest ports in the Americas and we do see immense opportunities
[22:40] for connections to port to port. Again, Omar is the one that guided those very, what
[22:47] would we say, intentional conversations that we look, that we anticipate some good strong
[22:52] relationships are being built. Some photos here we are hanging out with the mayor of Veracruz
[22:57] and also the Veracruz Economic, the state of Veracruz Economic Development Director did host this
[23:03] large-round table where again we did explore these conversations. We did make also a visit to the
[23:09] port and their customs facilities. Back to the intention of commerce and trade, we did shape
[23:18] our agenda and trip to have more of a culinary lens so that we could articulate again the economic
[23:24] impact of bringing those Dell Mar college culinary students back home with an expanded experience
[23:30] and new relationships as well.
[23:34] And then we also welcome, this is the traditional program that it was done annually.
[23:38] We welcome some international students from asian and from Japan.
[23:42] They did visit your port facilities and some other economic assets in the community.
[23:48] Just to give you an example, the long-lasting impacts of this when we did visit over their
[23:52] Japan, one of their current council members was one of these students once upon a time.
[24:00] CBDDC, as we well know, we annually engaged in these advocacy efforts.
[24:05] This year, we did complete the trip in June.
[24:08] We strictly advocated for water infrastructure and we are proud that some NDA modifications
[24:14] with definitely some good work of the South Texas military task force as well, Mr. West
[24:18] in the audience too. I mean, on the question, getting some, some great
[24:23] headway in those conversations with respect to the military. How many do you
[24:28] have time? Okay. And it goes to that senior leadership, of course,
[24:32] Christie, the third oldest leadership program in the nation, the second oldest
[24:35] in Texas, we are proud that we already have over 1,500 grads that have contributed
[24:39] to the local leadership in our community. This year we are, again, back to
[24:43] just programs that give back to the community. And this is in the wellness
[24:46] space.
[24:48] Our annual conquer the coast race.
[24:49] We are looking forward to it over the new bridge once again.
[24:52] We are shooting for a goal of 1,500 registration, so this is a benefit that continues
[24:56] to grow annually and we expect an economic impact of over a million dollars.
[25:00] On Monday day, this is our youth entrepreneurship program back to community retention. We have, if you'll see, the growth, this is something we're very proud of. In 2023, we had roughly about 100 kids register. Right now we are at 1500 kids that are participating in this program, so that's a growth of over 1,400% and we have over 96 that plan to continue to participate. So we only expect this program to grow. And again, this is in the financial literacy space, Youth Entrepreneurspace.
[25:30] I mentioned the task force, thank you, and thank you to the port for your support with your support.
[25:35] We were able to purchase some Coast Guard teachers to celebrate the second annual designation of being a Coast Guard city.
[25:42] I do have some shirts for the commission as well that will lead me behind.
[25:45] And so thank you for that.
[25:47] It was a nice community celebration that for them, it's also a great morale builder.
[25:52] You should see them west also Mr. Hoskins, thank you for your donation of the canopy for over the play field.
[25:59] It was a nice time, they had a really great time at Waterbird Reveal.
[26:05] As you all well know, to the Chamber of Commerce does purchase the wings of gold for
[26:10] the weaning ceremonies at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi.
[26:13] We are proud that over 400 pilots, we were able to distribute that to over 400 pilots last
[26:17] year and we are on pace to do the same this year.
[26:20] In Doc welcomes as well, we welcome the student pilots every year annually, we welcome over
[26:24] a thousand pilots.
[26:25] want to say welcome, we do indoctrinate them with community assets, we give them, you know,
[26:29] visitors' guides, different little giveaways and takeaways.
[26:35] And just in closing just communications,
[26:37] we do obviously monitor what has been effective,
[26:42] how well are we communicating and where is our
[26:45] communication being consumed. We are on well on track on our website to be our views from last year.
[26:52] Currently, we are at 187,000 last year, the full year, excuse me, we are at 121, last year, the full year alone, we are 187,000.
[27:01] We have over 15,000 unique email subscriptions and that little map right there is just kind of our podcast downloads where they're coming from.
[27:11] And you can see that we are also gathering an international audience at this point as well.
[27:16] I mentioned our podcast, it was once upon a time just me on a microphone and now we have four
[27:21] different segments that are trying to emphasize some of the things for trying to meet
[27:27] the community and focus is a membership based podcast. The dishes focusing on local restaurants
[27:32] the next way is young generation, podcasts, and the briefs are advocacy and policy discussions.
[27:38] A value add that we try to offer to our members with their dues that they pay every year is just
[27:44] small digital business card. It's something innovative that's not in the chamber world. It's a
[27:47] business service that we offer. We would distribute over 1500 to dates and that has a retail
[27:52] value of over 550 bucks. Again, that's just a little value for our members. We have been working
[28:01] on a lot of projects that we're going to be unveiling with the coming months, but this one we will
[28:05] be unveiling here in the coming weeks. And it's our economic pulse. It's going to be living on our
[28:11] website. It's simply a snapshot of some of the higher benchmarks that we're measuring in the community.
[28:16] We do welcome our partners to collaborate on any of the data that they might see,
[28:21] need to be addressed or adjusted.
[28:25] But for the most part, this is a very AI smartly driven technology that sources data
[28:32] from definitive and trusted touch points.
[28:37] And I hope I did that in seven minutes, and so I want to thank you, Commission, for your investment in your Chamber of Commerce, as I always say, United starts with you, and thank you for being part of our Chamber of Commerce.
[28:48] Thank you, Al.
[28:49] Commissioner, would you like to say anything?
[28:51] I know you're on the board representing the board.
[28:54] Yes, the chamber, on the board, I think a couple years now, and it has really done great under Al. Now, I always tell you that you're one of the best we've ever had.
[29:04] Thank you. Thanks for all the hard work, all of the forward thinking moves that you are making
[29:09] to make us better, appreciate you.
[29:12] Thank you. Any questions for Alan from the Commission? Seeing none. Thank you, Mr. Aroyo.
[29:18] Thanks, sir.
[29:18] Next, we'll move on to presentation on marketing, branding, international business developments,
[29:24] or Chief of External Affairs, Omar Garcia.
[29:38] You guys hear me?
[29:40] Good morning, Chairman. Get in commissioners.
[29:42] Lisa and I are here to provide you with an update on our market initiatives.
[29:46] Our current marketing revolves around the energy port of the Americas.
[29:50] I think it's safe to say we've achieved that distinction.
[29:53] Over the last decade, poor commissioners and staff have made the right investments to ensure
[29:58] Pipelines from the Permian Basics.
[30:00] We're appointed in our direction. These pipelines could have been connected to the Houston market, but staff
[30:05] worked very hard to graduate our channel to 54 feet and we took an aggressive marketing campaign to ensure
[30:12] crude volumes flow to the Port of Corpus Christi. Whether it's crude, LNG or refined products, the
[30:19] old and gas industry will remain the backbone of our economy and a source of growth and a source of growth
[30:24] for the port. However, with containers on the horizon and the development of our inland rail
[30:30] port, the time has arrived to embark on a new marketing campaign.
[30:35] So you see here our current marketing energy port of the Americas. This has been something
[30:40] that we've marketed for the last 10 decades and trust me it has been extremely effective.
[30:46] But when we go to markets where oil and gas is not the center point, for example, very
[30:51] Cruz, anywhere in Latin America, South America.
[30:54] This message doesn't resonate.
[30:56] It just doesn't.
[30:58] There's no better example than when Eugene I
[31:00] were in Lima, Peru last year.
[31:02] And I was given a speech to 300 people.
[31:04] That was a difficult 20-minute speech
[31:06] because oil and gas didn't resonate.
[31:08] LNG, crude, refined products.
[31:10] I think I had to make a couple of jokes
[31:11] just to keep it going.
[31:12] However, with what is on the horizon for the port
[31:17] and the opportunity before us on containers,
[31:19] the development of the inland port. We have an opportunity to embark on a new marketing strategy that
[31:26] I think you will like. It was bench marks by several ports. Lee Center staff did an amazing job coming
[31:32] up with this new strategy. So what I have before you is our new marketing descriptor in our brand new tagline.
[31:39] So the descriptor is global gateway for energy and innovation and the tagline is never stop moving.
[31:45] So you see where you're not departing from energy, it is at the forefront, but innovation allows
[31:51] us to talk about different cargos, whether it's containers, more wind terminals, whatever
[31:56] the next derivative of oil and gas is hydrogen ammonia, the AI, it allows us room to
[32:02] grow and continue to put this port at the forefront of international markets.
[32:06] So I hope that you will like that.
[32:08] This is something that we presented to the Long Range Planning Committee.
[32:10] It was well received and as we continue to roll this out, it's going to be coupled with our new website.
[32:20] We have had many, many changes, small changes made to port of CCDOOK.com.
[32:25] But the time has come to do a major role, but also with that, I'm going to turn this over to Lisa and a host
[32:29] our director of communications and marketing.
[32:34] Thank you, Omar.
[32:35] As director of communications, I support Omar in these marketing efforts.
[32:38] And today I'm here to provide a brief but exciting update on the new website.
[32:43] Still to be located at www.portofcc.com.
[32:47] Our current site was developed in 2016 by MDR in a above-class firm.
[32:52] I'd like to take a moment to recognize,
[32:53] Principal, Steven Rybak, and Developer Sarah Anchinets.
[32:56] They're here with us today to answer any questions.
[32:59] A decade after that origin,
[33:01] we identified a need to update and upgrade.
[33:03] The new site will replace that legacy site with the modern business focused experience.
[33:07] When it comes to web presence, our goal always is to provide an exceptional user experience.
[33:13] We want to ensure that our website is ADA compliant and an inclusive environment where all users can easily access forms, services, and contacts.
[33:23] Additionally, we wish to highlight port activity initiatives and community impact to affirm the transparency we've committed to.
[33:31] We also want to engage stakeholders so that potential partners and collaborators can learn
[33:36] about what we do in what we offer, more than that they can find what they need on our
[33:41] site.
[33:42] And of course there's a revenue generating component to anything we do especially web to that
[33:47] end we want to support our executive team and commercial representatives in driving new business.
[33:52] We've curated content that authentically and succinctly shows port facilities and capabilities.
[33:57] The end results will be a valuable public resource with built-in analytics.
[34:05] We have included a sneak preview here of what the aesthetics will look like.
[34:08] As you can see, the new site will be themed to match our descriptor and tagline.
[34:12] Never stop moving will be featured prominently, and the overall feel will be very kinetic,
[34:17] just like the Port of Corpus Christi.
[34:19] Technical features will include direct links to Salesforce,
[34:22] enabling active lead capture via the sales pages.
[34:25] Why? Because we want everything we do to support our internal collaborators in their mission to convert
[34:31] interest into new business.
[34:33] Notably, the new site will also feature a search option, further enhancing user experience.
[34:39] I should note that IT already has worked with our developer to make a few effective and
[34:43] noticeable technical upgrades. As you all know, there's quite a bit that goes on behind
[34:47] the scenes and we want to thank Brooks team for supporting that effort.
[34:50] parallel to what we are doing on the website, our chief Omar has been diligent in his
[34:55] action planning towards international marketing. So this seems like a sensible trend.
[35:00] Time to transition to Omar so he can tell you a little bit more about that.
[35:07] Thank you, Lisa. Thank you for all your hard work. We're really excited about this new website. It's going to be a major, major update.
[35:13] With the recent promotion and obviously, well, deserve the beauty talk is out.
[35:16] Chief commercial officer in speaking with Kent and to his vision of moving his organization as a commercial port to lead with commercial.
[35:25] The time was come was to really to focus on international marketing and international business development.
[35:29] We've done an amazing job of building relationships with the Port of Rotterdam, knowing that 25% of
[35:35] everything that leaves the Port of Corpus Christi is exported, but there's more than just the
[35:40] Port of Rotterdam, and there's no better example than our recent trip to Avaira Cruz.
[35:45] I unveiled our new marketing tagline and it was well received knowing that the Port of Avaira Cruz
[35:50] and not have a lot of oil and gas. It was more of a commodity-driven Port of Roe Roe and containers.
[35:55] One of the first things that they told me at the port of Erich Cruz was, where is your
[35:59] refrigerator in the warehouse?
[36:02] They export millions of tons of citrus fruit, but instead of taking a two-day trip
[36:08] via boat to the port of Corpus, they drive 1200 miles to the Port of Loretto, way two to
[36:13] three days across the border, and then offload the product in the refrigerated warehouse.
[36:18] So this is an classic opportunity of an opportunity was identified, it'll go now to Eugene
[36:24] and his staff to figure out there's a commercial opportunity or not.
[36:27] But there's so many things that we have not been able to do internationally and now is a
[36:31] time, especially where we find ourselves in this city with the unfortunate negative press
[36:37] related to water, we at the port have to change the narrative.
[36:41] So going to the international markets is going to pay dividends down the road for future economic
[36:45] development.
[36:46] We may not see it three months from now, six months from now or a year ago, but it will
[36:50] come because of the reputation of the port of corporate secrecy.
[36:53] So some of the things the targets will focus on being our national customers, investors, strategic
[36:59] stakeholders.
[37:00] There is an untapped resource of leads with government consultants with the consulates,
[37:07] the consulates are a huge source of potential prospects.
[37:12] When we go to Rotterdam, the ambassador to the Netherlands will be on the boat.
[37:16] So we're going to focus on building that relationship with that ambassador.
[37:18] So we're looking forward to great means and then with the London office that the state of Texas
[37:23] Establish and London that is going to be a key relationship moving forward as we do have a lot of business coming out of the UK
[37:28] So as we look towards ramping up international, this is that these next several months will be
[37:35] Myself and one of my staff members ramping it up bringing into marketing plan and hitting the ground on
[37:41] 27 but there are other targets like I said we will continue that relationship with the Netherlands
[37:46] but also Singapore, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and South Korea.
[37:51] Those countries represent our top 10 largest trading partners, both on the crude and the
[37:55] LNG side.
[37:56] And the other thing that is also with international development and will be the policy.
[38:01] There's so much international policy that it could impact the port following that will also
[38:05] be a key initiative of this international department.
[38:07] So with that, I'll entertain any questions that you may have for Lisa and I do have any questions
[38:13] from the Commissioner Commissioner Hucha.
[38:16] Oh my god, Omar, that's just awesome and Lisa.
[38:18] It is really, really good.
[38:19] You guys have been added for a long time.
[38:22] And the website where it looks good.
[38:25] Congratulations, and MDR.
[38:27] Thank you.
[38:27] I love to you.
[38:29] Looks beautiful.
[38:31] I have one little comment.
[38:33] I saw the waterway on the homepage.
[38:38] Do you think we need to add some railways on there?
[38:40] So we could say we've got it in the middle of it always coming to just think about that.
[38:44] Absolutely.
[38:44] I mean, there's going to be a specific section that Eugene, his team are working to market
[38:48] specifically their own importance so we will definitely ensure that that happens.
[38:52] I love the tagline.
[38:53] I mean, never thought moving is beautiful.
[38:55] Thank you.
[38:55] Thank you.
[38:56] Again, that was all Lisa.
[38:57] Thank you.
[38:57] Yeah.
[38:57] Good job.
[39:00] No.
[39:00] Great job.
[39:01] Never stopped moving.
[39:03] Commissioner Lamuthia calls you at 9 o'clock at night.
[39:05] You never.
[39:06] Never stopped.
[39:09] Excellent job.
[39:10] I do love the tagline and in sitting here, I think we can all agree that we're becoming
[39:14] more than just an energy port.
[39:16] Innovation is a great way to put that together.
[39:19] Well done.
[39:19] Thank you.
[39:20] Thank you.
[39:22] Next, item first on the open session agenda items for consideration as item 10A approval of the
[39:30] port of Corpus Christi's Authorities, second quarter financial reports, Cindy Bartolami,
[39:36] our chief financial officer.
[39:37] Good morning, Cindy.
[39:38] Thank you, Chairman Garra. Good morning, commissioners. Staff requests the port commissions approval of the second quarter 2026 financial report.
[39:47] We're going to go to slide three and take a look at some of our year-to-date highlights.
[39:52] So the port and its customers, we've moved through six months, 110.3 million tons, which has marked the strongest first.
[40:00] First half in the Ports history. The second quarter, the Ports customers move 55.8 million tons through the
[40:08] port, and that also marked the highest quarter, the highest quarter in the Ports history. Our
[40:14] crude export exports continue to exceed 2.4 million barrels per day, and that's been since March,
[40:20] and that's the highest monthly levels we've seen in this market. And inbound outbound rail card movements,
[40:27] they continue to exceed 20, 25, about over all 50 percent. Let's go to slide eight, please.
[40:39] Now, before we get on to our here-to-date financials, just want to anchor where we stand for the year,
[40:44] we're tracking ahead of budget on our net income driven by our revenue performance. I did want to
[40:49] walk us through one variance in full transparency. As I was reviewing the second quarter actuals
[40:54] against our budget, I did identify a calculation error in our 2026 benefits calculation, specifically
[41:01] our medical premium. So I did not put enough medical premiums in for the 2026 year. So bringing
[41:09] this to your attention, just so when we're looking at our financials, the employee services line
[41:14] for the year through, you'll see the budget. We look unfavorable to budget and I just didn't want
[41:20] to be misconstrued as, you know, too much headcount or, you know, any issues on salaries or any other employee services.
[41:27] It is the benefits. It is the benefits line specifically that's driving that.
[41:33] Separately from that, we do expect at the end of the year when we are doing our annual adjustments based on Gazby pronouncements and rules that we will offset what the benefits miss on the budget line would be.
[41:46] We don't know the impact of that, and we won't know the impact of what that net will be until the end of the year, but we do expect to
[41:54] pick off set the benefits adjustment at that time.
[41:59] So once we get through our year end adjustments, journal entries, reconciling and our audit,
[42:04] then we would be able to see the full impact of that issue there.
[42:09] So just wanted to bring that before we looked at the P&L.
[42:12] So, as we're looking at our year-to-date financials, as I mentioned, our operating revenues are
[42:18] outperforming.
[42:19] So we are about 8% ahead of budget for the year on the revenue line, building land and
[42:24] rental through six months is above.
[42:26] We do have some MGTs that were built out in the beginning of the first six months.
[42:32] We straight line our budget.
[42:34] So, some of the MGTs are more than we had budgeted, but it's also the budget impact
[42:40] of how we straight line versus when we bill out those NGTs, it's a full bill out at that time.
[42:48] For operating expenses, we are just about at budget on the operating expense line. We're about
[42:54] 1% unfavorable to our budget through six months. That is directly related to that employee
[43:00] services issue that I had mentioned. We're still running favorable on other lines, our professional
[43:05] and contracted services. Through six months we're still a little delayed in the way we're spending
[43:12] those dollars so you'll see favorability there for now. Our net income still strong. We are ahead
[43:19] of budget 18 and a half percent and then when we're looking at our investment income and we'll
[43:25] look at our portfolio next investment income we are we are shy to our budget there but that's the
[43:31] market adjustment that we did at the end of 2025, which was a pickup at the end of the
[43:37] year, where we have the mark our investments to what's happening in the market, but then
[43:42] in January, that reverses out so we actually had a hit of almost $1.8 million to our P&L
[43:48] right from the beginning, just because of that adjustment. And at the end of the year, we'll
[43:54] look at the market value again, and we'll do another mark to market, so we'll see if that's
[43:59] positive or negative depending on, you know, what happens over the next six months.
[44:04] And then really net income were a pretty strong 10.7% ahead of budget, so happy to take
[44:11] any questions.
[44:12] Otherwise, we are asking for approval of the second quarter of financials.
[44:16] Do we have any questions of commission or agenda who should I have a motion for approval?
[44:21] I heard a second.
[44:24] Commissioner Long deal with the second.
[44:27] All those in favour?
[44:28] Please say aye.
[44:29] Any opposed saying aye.
[44:31] Motion passes.
[44:32] Great report.
[44:33] Thank you, Cindy.
[44:33] Thank you.
[44:34] Next item on our open session agenda is item 10B.
[44:38] Approval the quarter quarter corpus christia thaw
[44:40] Second quarter 26 investments.
[44:43] Here up on deck again.
[44:45] All right.
[44:45] Thank you, chairman and good morning commissioners.
[44:47] the Seeking Port Commission approval of the second quarter 2026 investment report.
[44:52] The full report is attached and available for a more detailed review.
[44:56] The investment report was presented to our audit committee back on August.
[45:00] This 10th. And normal cadence, before we head on into how beautiful our portfolio looks, I do always like to mention that the port currently has outstanding debt totaling 252 million dollars as of December 31, 2025. So with that, let's go to slide 7, please.
[45:22] So how we're allocated? If we take a look halfway down the page where we look at our maturity distribution, our short term latter between 1, 0 and 2 years is,
[45:32] airtight. We have sufficient liquidity in that one to two-year bucket. Our
[45:38] rates are unrealized game loss even though it's it looks like a loss it's
[45:42] because our rates are higher than what our investments are and that's one of
[45:47] those things that we we talk about but we are not going to realize any of
[45:50] that because we do hold all of our investments to maturity. Let's go to slide eight
[45:57] So this is our investment portfolio recap.
[46:03] Our portfolio grew $8.6 million from the first quarter to $335 million.
[46:09] That's really driven by our new deposits and our reinvestments.
[46:14] Our investment income for the quarter, about $3.2 million.
[46:18] We did see that on the financials in the previous presentation.
[46:23] Unreal, the unrealized position, it did dip $1.3 million.
[46:26] As I mentioned, it's about a swing of 1.66 million from our 1st quarter gain, normal effective rate changes, it's not a credit loss, our maturity profile length and slightly so are weighted average maturity.
[46:39] It moved from 1.65 to 1.82 years. It's still short, liquidity friendly, and it's also within our two-year policy.
[46:49] Credit quality, we still remain really strong, and our allocations we are staying conservative
[46:55] in that regard. And then the next pages are detailed for our portfolios by investment,
[47:02] so happy to field any questions, otherwise asking for approval of the second quarter investment
[47:07] report.
[47:08] Thank you, Ms. Bernalami. Do we have any questions?
[47:10] for sending hearing none to have a motion for approval.
[47:14] Now, first, to our second.
[47:16] Second, all those in favor, please any discussion.
[47:21] Hearing none, all those in favor, please say aye.
[47:24] Any opposition, same sign?
[47:26] Motion passes.
[47:27] Thank you, Cindy.
[47:30] Next is an approval of a memorandum of cooperation
[47:33] with the U.S. Department of Transportation and Maritime Division.
[47:37] Jeff, thank you.
[47:39] Good morning, commissioners.
[47:40] I'm actually going to speak on the next two items,
[47:44] we'll need separate actions for both of them, please.
[47:48] So, you know, just to set the stage here,
[47:51] and this is a really natural fall on to Omar's comments
[47:54] about the poor remaining at the nexus between the energy space
[47:59] and innovation and our commitment, I think,
[48:04] to infuse innovation in all of our decisions, right?
[48:08] And everything we pursue.
[48:12] There's an interesting moment in sort of the broader energy space right now around advanced
[48:16] nuclear.
[48:17] In particular, there's interest really at the national international level at the potential
[48:25] application of advanced nuclear technology in maritime.
[48:29] Both of the agenda items about which I'd like to speak this morning are unique and timely
[48:35] opportunities for the poor to do what we do in energy, which is tried to lead by example
[48:42] and try to be at the forefront, not just among U.S. ports, but internationally when it comes
[48:47] to energy issues in maritime. So again, two separate memorandah items tend to see in Tendee
[48:54] and I'd like to walk you through them individually and also maybe take a moment and sort of
[48:59] set the stage on this topic of advanced nuclear, which I think is very familiar with some, but
[49:04] very new to others. If we talk about the evolution of nuclear technology over the last 75
[49:11] years or so, and I'll show some images that correspond to these different generations.
[49:18] When we talk about advanced nuclear of the modern era, we're really talking about changes
[49:22] in the way reactors are cooled, and we're talking about changes in pressure. It's almost
[49:32] shame that we're still calling nuclear of the modern era nuclear it is vision, but it is different
[49:38] in almost every way. And so, and I'll show you exactly what I mean by that with some images,
[49:46] but Texas has really emerged as, just as Texas was a leader in the fossil energy space, Texas has
[49:53] really emerged as a leader in this next generation of nuclear technology. There are a lot of start-up
[49:58] I have chosen to...
[50:01] And so we as the energy port of the Americas, but also the preeminent energy port of the Gulf Coast and Texas, find ourselves in sort of a unique opportunity here.
[50:11] So if we think about, I think this is sort of the prevailing conception of nuclear, early generation generation, one or two large cooling towers, cooled by water, very large plants, large campuses.
[50:24] What we've seen over the last 40 years is evolution into newer generations, still cool by water,
[50:32] but with some newer technologies around safety and really what our referters inherently
[50:40] safe, in other words, plants that are no longer actively cooled, but there are passive safety
[50:47] mechanisms, so really different physics. And when we talk about generation four, it's again,
[50:52] It's really wildly different, reactors that are for the most part not cooled by water,
[50:57] they're about six or seven different types of this generation for reactor technology.
[51:03] The one in only large format generation for nuclear plant, not a huge surprise here, is in China.
[51:13] But the real promise of these advances in nuclear technology is not in necessarily the large fixed
[51:21] plants, but rather in this, which is the potential for modularity.
[51:27] So this is one raptor concept by a company called New Scale.
[51:33] It's a, I think it's a 77 megawatt electric.
[51:36] That's a 65-foot-long nine-foot diameter module.
[51:41] And the idea with new nuclear is that it's designed and permitted once, and then can be built 10,000 times and deployed anywhere.
[51:51] And that modularity is what creates the opportunities in maritime.
[51:57] So, I could talk a bit more about some of these
[51:59] Reaction technologies.
[52:00] Why don't we skip through that for the moment and get to the
[52:03] Items at hand.
[52:05] The federal government, and particularly the maritime
[52:07] Division of the Department of Transportation is displaying
[52:09] tremendous leadership around the opportunities for advanced
[52:12] nuclear in maritime.
[52:16] And so we have an opportunity because we have been
[52:20] clear about our ambition to remain at the forefront of the energy space among ports.
[52:26] We have an opportunity to execute a memorandum of cooperation with the DOT, specifically
[52:30] at the maritime division.
[52:32] Bullets here capture the high points, but it's a non-binding M.U., it's a statement of
[52:38] intent, and it basically says that when the maritime division thinks about ports in the
[52:44] us who are eager to be at the forefront of advanced technologies and energy, particularly in nuclear
[52:51] maritime, we want them to think of us, right?
[52:54] The memorandum of cooperation is an intent to do just that, to cooperate around advancing
[52:59] the state of knowledge and practice.
[53:03] We have a unique opportunity because we have trips to the Secretary Delphi, visiting the port
[53:07] tomorrow.
[53:08] And so, we're seeking, by way of this action item, commission approval to execute that agreement
[53:13] with Mayrad and then we'll take advantage of Secretary Duffy's presence tomorrow to have a signing ceremony
[53:19] provided we achieve that permission from you all today. So I'll pause there on that first
[53:24] action item and then and then go a little deeper into the second one. Do we have any questions from
[53:30] Commission regarding the first approval on the memorandum? Commissioner Hunter.
[53:36] Thank you, Jeff, a great presentation.
[53:40] We're exploring micro reactor modular reactors also.
[53:45] Yeah, and sort of an unnatural break in the presentation.
[53:48] A couple more slides related to the second action item, which is a little more granular,
[53:52] in terms of the ways that reactors are applied to maritime.
[53:55] but when we talk about raptors powering vessels or reactors in port on the vessel side in particular,
[54:05] it is in that what you would call a micro-reactor class.
[54:08] So, you know, kind of 10 to 50 megawatts versus hundreds of megawatts in that small module or scale.
[54:15] It's a continuum, of course, but absolutely.
[54:20] Commissioner, there's any other questions?
[54:22] Hearing none to have a motion for approval?
[54:25] And here in the first and our second, all those in favor say I, any opposition, same sign, motion passes, thank you.
[54:33] Just the next item.
[54:34] Thank you.
[54:34] With Jeff as well as the next member.
[54:39] Yeah.
[54:40] Well, thank you very much.
[54:41] So notice the difference between cooperation and collaboration.
[54:45] The subtle difference in the nature of the memorandau with these two entities,
[54:49] It's made rats really a statement of a tent and a tent to cooperate with core power.
[54:54] We actually have an opportunity to collaborate on a desktop analysis, a feasibility study.
[54:58] And I want to...
[55:00] But emphasize those words. This is about using the Port of Corpus Christi as a case study for what
[55:08] deployment of two applications of nuclear and maritime could look like. This is a desktop analysis.
[55:15] This is using port-specific operational information, geographic data. This is a case for us to
[55:23] advance the state of knowledge around this topic. It is not about it. It is not necessarily
[55:31] a populated deployment. I think we just want to emphasize that distinction. This is about
[55:35] us doing what we do in serving as a case study, a representation of American ports in innovative
[55:44] applications of energy and maritime. You can see here that the two parts of the scope, one related
[55:49] to floating nuclear power plants, the idea of essentially taking a modular reactor, micro, or
[55:53] small reactor and putting it on a barge so that it can be deployed in various places in
[55:59] the port.
[56:00] Now, I'll show you some images that mobility does not mean you're moving it on a daily
[56:04] basis, but it does create some optionality in terms of where you cite them.
[56:08] Secondly, the scope includes evaluating port readiness and, again, using us as a case study
[56:14] for nuclear propulsion in the maritime fleet, which is coming sooner than most people
[56:19] think.
[56:20] Right? So a couple images. Core power is among the global companies that are interested in
[56:28] application of nuclear maritime. I think it's we can say definitively that Core power is the
[56:33] leader in that space. There are many fast followers, but Core has been at this longer and more
[56:40] comprehensively than any of them. This is a rendering of what that floating nuclear power plant,
[56:46] You know, barge-based power could look like,
[56:51] interesting business model in that it can provide behind the meter power or it can be grid connected or both, right?
[56:57] So if we're talking about reactors in the 300 megawatt range or so, that's a typical power plant.
[57:02] That's the power plant on the interharber today.
[57:08] firm, dispatchable, clean electrons, if you imagine a day when power is no longer a limiting
[57:13] factor for the US maritime industrial base. I mean, it's a major game changer. Likewise,
[57:21] when we talk about propulsion in the civil maritime fleet, this is a concept from core, but this
[57:28] perhaps is a little more striking. This is a vessel that is, it's being designed by the
[57:37] career, career research institute for ships in the Ocean Engineering, which is a mouthful
[57:40] and I always have to read, in partnership with Samsung Heavy Industries, this vessel actually
[57:46] achieved the approval and principle from the American Bureau of Shipping in July of this year
[57:52] last month. So this is a design concept that was unveiled year and a half ago and is steadily
[57:58] working its way through the vessel, the international approval process. And I'll just plant
[58:05] a couple of seats here. When you start introducing a technology like nuclear aboard vessels,
[58:13] you no longer are facing the trade-off between speed and fuel consumption and emissions, right?
[58:22] need, no consequence in terms of cost for fuel or emissions, which can profoundly change the
[58:30] efficiency with which we move cargos across the oceans, right? I mean, it's spent
[58:34] some time thinking about that. Likewise, if you have a vessel with a micro-ractor aboard
[58:40] it that comes into port, and is partially powered down, all of a sudden vessels become
[58:45] potential contributors of electrons to port activities of the surrounding community, completely
[58:51] different paradigm, fantastically interesting, these are the types of things that core power
[58:56] is leaning in on with this analysis, and we just have the privilege of being the representative
[59:01] port for that analysis in that case study.
[59:04] So, I'll stop there taking any questions, thanks for your attention.
[59:07] Commissioner Lomuthia.
[59:11] So, obviously we talked about this quite a bit, and ships have been powered by nuclear energy
[59:16] for, since the 60s, really, so proven,
[59:20] it's submarines, which are even more interesting, smaller.
[59:27] But how do you make sure, you know,
[59:30] how are you got hurricanes, we've got everything else,
[59:32] how do you make sure that you don't,
[59:34] I know they're not pressurized anymore,
[59:37] so that these new burdens are not pressurized,
[59:39] you don't have the same situation,
[59:41] but how do you make sure it's safe for its support?
[59:44] hurricane comes and yeah I could you talk around that sure I mean I I honestly I think the
[59:50] the planning and response to to weather disruptions is the same approach that we take with
[59:57] vessels today which is you get them offshore.
[1:00:00] Right? We, I mean, typically we have enough notice in panic storms and if Danielle's here, and she can chime in on the case of that, but we clear vessels off dox and get them out of harm's way, if there's a storm head sway, and we know different with a vessel powered by nuclear. In the case of the floating nuclear power plants and the modules that are on those, I mean, they are incredibly robust for all sorts of reasons.
[1:00:29] and the nuclear is the most heavily regulated technology on the planet and they would be
[1:00:34] cited and and and more to such that they you know they would have they would be able
[1:00:40] to withstand events you're just like for example I mean at our at bulk talk three we have
[1:00:46] a barge that's effectively flooded down there permanently I mean so there there are certainly
[1:00:50] ways to do that with infrastructure that's semi-permanent I also just in that on that topic of
[1:00:58] resilience when you compare renewables or the above ground electric
[1:01:05] grids ability to withstand extreme weather versus a
[1:01:10] containerized reactor, you know, it actually offers a
[1:01:15] degree of resilience potentially in electricity generation
[1:01:20] that we don't have today in most forms generation.
[1:01:28] commissioners.
[1:01:30] You said something, and I just didn't know what it meant.
[1:01:33] You said contributors of neurons.
[1:01:35] Elections.
[1:01:36] Yeah.
[1:01:37] Yeah.
[1:01:37] Sorry.
[1:01:38] Yeah.
[1:01:39] Well, I mean, power.
[1:01:41] Right, sir.
[1:01:42] Very sort of very early concept.
[1:01:46] But right, that is, I mean, we talk about today providing sure power for vessels to allow them to get off their diesel engines.
[1:01:53] And in fact, we have grants to reinstall.
[1:01:55] Do a feasibility study and then reinstall some shore power at strategic births here so that vessels that are diesel power can power down, not, you know, we know that vessels are the primary contributor of mobile emissions and when they're in port in particular, they have to keep their engines on unless there's a power alternative.
[1:02:13] Some vessels are capable of receiving shore power.
[1:02:16] In the case of a vessel powered by a micro reactor.
[1:02:19] It's its own power plant and may not require all of that that energy when it's in port, and so right all sorts of
[1:02:28] Engineering logistical challenges there, but all of a sudden it's a scenario where you're bringing power plants
[1:02:34] Intermittently into port instead of the opposite scenario how feasible it is to be able to make that grid and
[1:02:40] Intersection those are are things to be worked out by people a much smarter than me, but it is it is I
[1:02:46] I mentioned it's just to illustrate how much of a disruptor it could be relative to the way we do business today.
[1:02:51] Is there a timeline on how long any of this would take or where we think we would be?
[1:02:57] Yeah, I mean, I think when you talk about advanced inquiry, I think most people talk in terms of the
[1:03:04] the reactors that are for this to long, maybe being commercialized within a decade.
[1:03:10] These are slow and methodical processes because it's such a heavily regular technology and while it's
[1:03:18] iterating very quickly, those generation four reactors are completely different than anything that's
[1:03:22] come before.
[1:03:25] There seems to be bipartisan, domestically, and international support to invest in regulatory
[1:03:32] reform and streamlining, but it's still a very slow process.
[1:03:36] And then one last thing, how would this impact our customers, if at all, current customers?
[1:03:45] Yeah, great question. I mean, I think the impacts are pretty indirect, if at all. Obviously, you know,
[1:03:53] when we first, when we talked about seeing the first wave of nuclear propulsion in the civil maritime fleet,
[1:03:58] those vessels, there's, there's not clarity yet about what kind of safety zones or protection
[1:04:06] or require around those vessels and that depending on what those regulation looks like,
[1:04:12] regulations look like could have impact for their, you know, their, how they're accompanied
[1:04:16] in port and how much of a buffer you build around them. But, you know, if anything, the opportunities
[1:04:24] extend to current customers in propulsion. There are efficiencies for the vessels that, you know,
[1:04:29] they utilize today as well, that will eventually be realized. Thank you.
[1:04:36] Commissioner Housha.
[1:04:38] I do have good presentation as always. I was in India last week at a couple of young men who have
[1:04:45] developed LNGs and sold just two guys and they're very busy guiding all the SMR's small
[1:04:53] much of the reactors just about a year ago and just moving forward.
[1:04:58] And I think the world is...
[1:05:00] Going along with this, a development into answer as one of my questions, our commissioner towards us, how far is this? I think it's going to move faster than 10 years. I think it's we're already short of power and this is pretty neat and clean power.
[1:05:16] I personally hope you're right. I think there are parts of the world that are moving more quickly than the United States is today to be sure.
[1:05:25] But, you know, so instead of, I think, is the hour of the day.
[1:05:28] Okay, good job.
[1:05:29] Thanks.
[1:05:29] Commissioner Hunter.
[1:05:31] Nope.
[1:05:32] Commissioner Padrotti.
[1:05:34] Thank you, Jeff.
[1:05:35] That was really a good presentation.
[1:05:38] We appreciate that.
[1:05:40] So the questions are, so there will be a public education aspect of this to change the public
[1:05:46] idea that nuclear is going to turn everybody green, but so there has to be a plan for
[1:05:52] that.
[1:05:52] And number two, you know, the source of uranium.
[1:05:56] What is the plan for that?
[1:05:58] With all this increase in advanced nuclear technology,
[1:06:03] the source is uranium.
[1:06:06] Is there, have we done research in too?
[1:06:08] Which I'm sure you have?
[1:06:11] Yeah, that's why we're going to get all this uranium.
[1:06:14] Yeah, I mean, here in the process involved in extracting uranium.
[1:06:18] Right, and it's concentrated in a few places
[1:06:21] of the planet, there's not enough of it, it's intensive and they're environmental impacts
[1:06:25] from extracting it, right?
[1:06:26] I mean, they're trade-offs.
[1:06:28] I think, as with any technology in the energy space, you know, one thing we know for
[1:06:33] certain is they all have cost, they all trade-offs.
[1:06:36] I think one of the promises of that fourth generation of reactors is they're not all powered
[1:06:42] by uranium, some of them are powered by thorium or plutonium, and so there is, there is
[1:06:50] them diversity. Now, those things are still difficult to acquire, right? But as opposed
[1:06:58] to the earlier generations of directors for sort of, you know, they were all uranium-based,
[1:07:02] they were all water-cooled. That diversity, I think, is, and I think, frankly, that maybe
[1:07:09] is what ultimately takes a little extra time on the front end, because there are six or seven
[1:07:15] for the different propelling technologies in that generation for space, and it's not yet clear
[1:07:21] which will emerge as the leaders, but there is some diversity in fueling type, and so
[1:07:28] it helps potentially hedge against that, the challenge with your annual availability.
[1:07:33] The cost of energy is in line with the LNG of coal.
[1:07:39] Yeah, I don't know, I honestly don't know, and I don't know if anyone really knows.
[1:07:42] I think one of the arguments against nuclear of any generation is the front and cost for
[1:07:49] construction deployment.
[1:07:52] If you advertise that over the life cycle that you get from, you know, 50, 60, 100-year
[1:07:57] plants, then you know, then it starts to look very favorable, but you front and load those
[1:08:04] costs.
[1:08:04] I mean, generation one or two plants, I mean, some of those cost 12 or 15 billion dollars
[1:08:10] to deploy, which is one of the arguments for moving to this modular form, and I think those
[1:08:16] economics are what will ultimately determine which of those technologies emerges as the
[1:08:21] leader.
[1:08:25] Thank you.
[1:08:25] Thank you, Commissioner Petrotti.
[1:08:27] Commissioner Hoskins.
[1:08:28] Yep.
[1:08:28] You know, thank you for the presentation.
[1:08:30] Any other ports applying for this, that you're aware?
[1:08:33] I'm really glad you asked that.
[1:08:34] I should have mentioned it.
[1:08:35] So we are about three weeks behind the port of Long Beach in a memorandum of Corporate
[1:08:42] with Mayrad. There's an interesting story there in terms of Sangey, who now is leading the American
[1:08:48] Association of Port Authority. When he was at Mayrad, he was the one before he knew we had
[1:08:53] any interest in this space at all who broke or that memorandum of cooperation. So we're a fast
[1:08:58] follower. There are, I think there's at least one other port in the U.S. that is casually interested
[1:09:05] in this topic, and then there are a handful of ports around the country.
[1:09:11] The reason that we raised our hand and asked core power to consider using us as a case
[1:09:16] study for U.S. ports is because core power conducted and equivalent feasibility study
[1:09:22] at the port of Rotterdam two years ago. When I found out about that, core powers, annual event,
[1:09:27] they've been hosting this summit for four or five years about nuclear and maritime, and when
[1:09:30] I was there three years ago, and I found out that they were doing the same Rotterdam as a
[1:09:33] They look, Ronin is our biggest trading partner.
[1:09:36] If you were to replicate that study in Corpus Christi, you would have the first end to end
[1:09:40] look at nuclear readiness on one of the busiest trade routes on the planet.
[1:09:44] And so that's the power of using us as a case study for U.S. port.
[1:09:48] So there are other ports on the planet, we're in very rare if I dare in that respect.
[1:09:52] There are only a couple ports in the U.S., but I expect there will be many fast followers
[1:09:56] here.
[1:09:59] Or...
[1:10:00] Excellent questions. Jeff, very high-level. Obviously, you're involved in a global perspective of discussion
[1:10:05] here. So, talk about our branding of innovation. Obviously, the cost discussion, innovation, discussion.
[1:10:13] In the last thing I just want you to emphasize is certainly this is a memorandum of understanding. There is more dialogue, more communication.
[1:10:21] The closer impact, people are going to ask, how does this impact the community? What does this mean to our industry partners?
[1:10:27] how does it lower the cost? Is there safe? What are the safety concerns? Bottom line is this will be
[1:10:33] very robust in terms of this discussion in which you'll come back to this commission further.
[1:10:39] Yeah, thank you for playing that. Right, this is a study to help answer those questions and not even necessarily
[1:10:46] for corpus Christi, but for the industry overall. I mean any time we have the chance to advance
[1:10:50] the body of knowledge around emerging technology, it's a fortuitous position for us. It's
[1:10:56] waited to garner a great attention for the innovation to which we're committed and that's what
[1:11:01] this is about, it's about answering all of those questions. But when we talk about advancing
[1:11:06] a technology that is firm, dispatchable power in an era where we, you know, the data center
[1:11:13] conversation is a daily conversation in every circle, the world needs more firm, dispatchable
[1:11:21] emissions free sources of electricity and this will no doubt be part of that mix and this
[1:11:26] is just a chance for us to help advance that state
[1:11:29] of knowledge and practice.
[1:11:31] You know what you're saying there is there other value
[1:11:33] chains that we can, we can drive and create more
[1:11:35] opportunity economically speaking for our community as well.
[1:11:39] Absolutely, thank you.
[1:11:40] Seeing no other questions, thank you Jeff,
[1:11:43] must there others do we have to approve these two?
[1:11:45] Would do we take them separately?
[1:11:46] Yeah, we got the first one covered, I think.
[1:11:49] So we need to do that.
[1:11:50] Thank you for that reminder.
[1:11:53] That's not a good one.
[1:11:54] It's been a while.
[1:11:55] second we got a motion about a second and I have a second all those in favor please say I
[1:12:01] Any opposition same sign motion approves. Thank you Jeff. Thank you, Elirma.
[1:12:06] Item 10, E adopted amended resolution increasing the
[1:12:09] 2026 promotion development fund by Senator 725,000 dollars restricted exclusively to eligible expenditures under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency cleanports program
[1:12:21] award number
[1:12:24] 027821. Thank you, Chairman. I will not ask for photos on this item, but staff is requesting
[1:12:31] the approval to amend the 2026 promotion and development fund resolution, increasing the
[1:12:37] authorized amount by 725,000 from 5.2 million to 5,975,000. These are restricted funds that will
[1:12:49] We use solely for the EPA Clean Ports Education and Workforce Development initiatives that have previously been approved by Commission.
[1:12:58] These activities were included in our original 2026 annual budget under the Public Relations Community and Professional Services line items.
[1:13:08] However, after speaking with legal we have determined that we do need these expenditures to fall under promotion and development.
[1:13:16] So, we are asking for this amendment so that we can proceed appropriately.
[1:13:21] I will tell you that 69% of these expenditures are eligible for reimbursement through the EPA
[1:13:30] and that this is going to run through 2028.
[1:13:35] So, when we do our P&D resolution for next year, you'll see items come up again,
[1:13:40] but the 725 is specifically for our expenditures for this particular year.
[1:13:47] I'll pause for questions.
[1:13:50] I just want to point out this tip-go through audit committee for a very comprehensive discussion.
[1:13:55] One of the items noted is obviously the reimbursement.
[1:13:57] So although we've decreased that PMD, we will have a reimbursement coming from here.
[1:14:04] And this is another great example of cooperation
[1:14:08] through grant funding efforts to be able to enhance the impact
[1:14:12] to our community.
[1:14:13] So with that being said, do I have a motion to approve?
[1:14:17] Second, do I hear second?
[1:14:19] Second, I'll add a quick question.
[1:14:20] Yes, questions to Mr. Hujo.
[1:14:23] Who's all right?
[1:14:24] Did I hear you say that this was
[1:14:26] end of budget but under a different category?
[1:14:28] Yes, sir.
[1:14:29] OK.
[1:14:31] Any other questions?
[1:14:32] Hearing none?
[1:14:33] All those in favor, please say aye.
[1:14:34] any opposed same sign motion passage a Rosaril state there will continue to follow up with the same
[1:14:42] item as a piece of that is approved the funding agreement with the English side independent
[1:14:46] school district in the amount of 160,000 to establish and implement a port industry's maritime
[1:14:52] academy as part of the port of corpus christia authorities EPA cleanports program award that I've just mentioned
[1:15:00] Thank you, Chairman. So, staff is requesting the approval to enter into a $460,000 funding agreement with Ingleside ISD to establish a port industry's
[1:15:10] American time academy. This partnership with those apportion of the port's education and workforce development
[1:15:16] commitments under the EPA Clean Ports program, and it's eligible for 69% reimbursement with a 31%
[1:15:25] share on the port side. Funding includes $300,000 in 2026 in an anticipated $160,000 in
[1:15:34] 2027. This Academy will build on English-side ISD's existing career and technology education
[1:15:41] program to connect middle school and high school students with maritime and industrial careers.
[1:15:49] excellent till we have a motion for approval.
[1:15:53] Have a first, a hair second, any discussion?
[1:15:57] Hearing none, all those in favor, please say aye.
[1:15:59] Any opposed, same sign?
[1:16:01] Congratulations.
[1:16:02] Thank you, Rosa.
[1:16:03] Next item is on the open agenda is item 10G, a proven amendment to the interlocal agreement
[1:16:10] with the city of Corpus Christi authorizing PCCA to include requested utility construction on city owned portions of San
[1:16:17] Rankin is part of the Texas Department of Transportation
[1:16:20] Maritime Division's Seaport Connectivity Program,
[1:16:24] Grant Award to PCCA in July of 2024,
[1:16:28] Leslie Ruta, good morning.
[1:16:29] Good morning, Chairman and commissioners.
[1:16:32] You've heard this one a little bit before.
[1:16:34] So the Sam, when we applied for the Seaport Connectivity
[1:16:37] Program in award awarded back in 2024,
[1:16:41] the goal behind this was to reconstruct Sam Rankin,
[1:16:43] which is partially owned by the city of Corpus Christi
[1:16:45] and by the Port of Corpus Christi.
[1:16:47] by the port.
[1:16:52] The first round of that, the city knew they needed to do storm water, and then we took
[1:16:57] this interlocal agreement to the city, and they said, yes, we will pay up to $2.5 million
[1:17:02] per their bond election to cover the cost of the storm water.
[1:17:07] That would be because it would be from the original agreement.
[1:17:11] In the process of designing this project, in collaboration with the city of Corpus Christi,
[1:17:15] They identified additional utilities.
[1:17:17] Those additional utilities are coming in at about that,
[1:17:20] at about that 2.5 million, but the stormwater
[1:17:23] came in a little bit a little bit lower.
[1:17:25] What we are asking for in this amended interlocal,
[1:17:29] I'm sorry, I'm losing the word there,
[1:17:33] interlocal agreement with the city.
[1:17:34] We are asking to take their portion
[1:17:36] that they will repay us from 2.5 for just the stormwater
[1:17:42] to, and my slide is wrong, but that agreement is correct, and the memo is correct.
[1:17:47] We are taking it now up to 4.5 million that the city will pay the port of Corpus Christi
[1:17:52] for storm water, as well as those additional utilities.
[1:17:55] The other thing that happened in that process is the city actually contracted with the designer
[1:18:00] to add those to the documents, so that they could be designed in the same
[1:18:06] breath as the rest of the project and then constructed with the project to ultimately save funds
[1:18:11] for the city and for the taxpayers. But that would like to ask your approval of this amendment
[1:18:17] to the interlocal agreement with the city of Corpus Christi for Sam Reckon.
[1:18:22] To have a motion for approval. First and I have a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor, please say aye.
[1:18:31] Any opposed same sign? Motion passes. Thank you Leslie.
[1:18:36] Next, we have the award of a conference item 10-h, awarding a construction contract to
[1:18:42] Gurky-activating an amount of 8.514 million, 871, on a lump sum basis, or Sam Rankin Street
[1:18:50] Reconstruction funded by Seaport Connectivity Program Grant from the Texas Department of Transportation
[1:18:55] Meritime Division.
[1:18:57] Good morning.
[1:18:57] morning chairman commissioners. As Leslie mentioned before, this is a textile grant funded and also
[1:19:05] some funding from the city of Corpus Christi. So before you were here seeking a ward of the contract,
[1:19:11] the project is just located west from here on Sam Rankin Road. The limits are from Port Avenue down
[1:19:17] to the Interstate Highway 37 which puts it at about three quarter mile roadway.
[1:19:24] History of this project
[1:19:25] As mentioned, the in a local agreement with the city was in in 2025 for the storm water during
[1:19:30] design. It was adequate for us to come in and look at the utilities as well as we're going to
[1:19:36] reconstruct the entire street. The city came in and said they would like for us to include that in there.
[1:19:41] They hired the engineer to do the design and incorporate with our drawings and they would have
[1:19:46] this agreement that came before you just now. So the city's portion right now is up to 4.5
[1:19:52] to cover all the city utilities and stormwater improvements. We have a grant with Texas
[1:19:58] up to 8.5 million dollars.
[1:20:00] Members with a 20% match from the port.
[1:20:06] As you can see on the picture, this section of roadway is in bad bad shape, if you haven't driven any yet, you might need for by force to drive in. There's major, this repair on the roadway. As you can see in the top picture, there's actually a sidewalk there. You can't see. It's not up to par with 88 standards anymore. So this project will do a full reconstruction of the entire roadway. New sidewalks, new curb and gutter on the residential side.
[1:20:29] We want to do sidewalks on the industrial side because there's no need for that in that area.
[1:20:36] And then of course,
[1:20:38] they'll be doing restriping of the entire roadway section.
[1:20:40] Looking at all signage, make sure it meets the current standards and upgrading any signage that needs to be done.
[1:20:46] The city utilities would include the storm, the water, the sanitary sewer, IT, and gas.
[1:20:50] So every utility under the roadways should be completely improved with this project,
[1:20:55] so we don't have any future failures.
[1:20:56] There are some real-world crossing upgrades that are we done by the Alspade Yard.
[1:21:02] Last year we completed our project where we added two new tracks for Alspade for the military
[1:21:05] movements.
[1:21:06] The three existing ones we're going to do some upgrades to the crossing themselves so that they're
[1:21:10] up to par with that area.
[1:21:13] So pavement for this project has been split into two.
[1:21:17] The lavender color, what you see is the residential areas that we're doing asphalt, repair
[1:21:21] on or construction on this one, and then the light blue will be the industrial area which we're
[1:21:26] do with concrete to handle heavier loads for current use and future use.
[1:21:33] Beards will receive on August 6 we did get four bidders on this project.
[1:21:38] We broke down our bid by base bid, additive 1, 2, 3, and then we did an evaluated bid
[1:21:44] calculated by adding the base bid and all three additives.
[1:21:49] The reason for breaking it up, the base bid is the grant funding portion from Tech
[1:21:52] Stock.
[1:21:53] The bid number one is all the storm water that was originally approved with the city for their portion of contribution added to bid item number two is the industrial part, which is the concrete payment portion
[1:22:05] from Aus Bay to Port Avenue.
[1:22:08] And then that's a bit with then separately as number three for all the utility work for the city contingent on getting the interlock agreement with the city approved.
[1:22:15] And Gerky was the lowest bidder on this project.
[1:22:20] We have received concurrence from TechSat to approve and award the project.
[1:22:26] Staff recommends approval.
[1:22:28] There's any questions.
[1:22:30] Gerky, this is their first official project with the port.
[1:22:32] They've done a lot of work in the coastal bin with the city of Ransis Passing, the Cycorpus
[1:22:36] Christie and the noise of the river authority.
[1:22:38] I did follow up with their references and got good recommendations for them.
[1:22:42] Commissioner Hoskins.
[1:22:44] knowing some of the things that's going to be happening with the pork.
[1:22:47] This is going to be a heavily used industrial road.
[1:22:51] So is there a different standard that we can build this road too?
[1:22:54] So we don't go back and do this five years from now, of course, mid-up, you know.
[1:22:58] And that's why the portion that's highlighted in light blue, that's the industrial part.
[1:23:02] And we're going with concrete pavement on that for that reason to handle the loads that
[1:23:06] will be coming there at the port in the residential section will be a thickened hardier section
[1:23:13] of asphalt as well, but being at a more residential at this point, we're doing asphalt there.
[1:23:20] To make sure to notice.
[1:23:21] I just want to be clear that staff is asking us to approve this subject to approval by City Council.
[1:23:28] Correct.
[1:23:29] And that's why we broke up the attitude bit separately, because for some reason the city does not approve their interlocal,
[1:23:35] we can remove the attitude bit three.
[1:23:37] Number three.
[1:23:37] Yes, because the other one, the storm one was already approved.
[1:23:40] It would just be removed entirely or brought back later, possibly.
[1:23:47] That was something we had discussed with City.
[1:23:49] We could potentially bring it back if there's a different action that needs to take place.
[1:23:53] Okay, thank you.
[1:23:54] Commissioner Hunter.
[1:23:56] Is a thorough procurement process done by all parties or?
[1:24:00] Yes, so we did the bidding of this project, including the City portions of it.
[1:24:06] So we had to follow all the text on requirements.
[1:24:08] since it's a grand funnier project.
[1:24:11] TechSite has been in all the meetings a big bid
[1:24:14] and the site visits, all the reviews of the plans
[1:24:17] there has been involved since it's one
[1:24:18] and so has a city that is sitting in
[1:24:20] and in every single meeting during the design process as well.
[1:24:24] Commissioner Petrotti.
[1:24:26] Yes.
[1:24:26] Thank you for the presentation.
[1:24:29] I always look at the memorandums and you have alternatives
[1:24:33] in other words, what happens if we don't approve it?
[1:24:36] So sometimes that's good to kind of highlight some of those things to get people contact
[1:24:41] of, you know, here we are in this process now, we stop now, here's the downside.
[1:24:46] Yeah, well, one of the downsides, if we don't proceed with this, we've wanting to lose the
[1:24:51] grant funding for this, and that my impact is for future grant applications.
[1:24:55] We also lose the funding from the city, which is a great opportunity for us to take
[1:24:58] advantage of, and for the...
[1:25:00] This project roughly ran out of the 8.5 million, only like a 2.2 million of it is city portion of pavement.
[1:25:09] So, there's a big chunk that's being paid by others, and if we forego, not awarding it, we lose that opportunity.
[1:25:16] Thank you.
[1:25:17] And welcome.
[1:25:19] Sir, you know the questions of a motion for approval.
[1:25:23] First, in a second, although it's in favor, please say aye.
[1:25:27] Any opposed?
[1:25:27] Same sign.
[1:25:28] Motion passes.
[1:25:30] Thank you.
[1:25:30] I think, yes, you're going to stay up for the next item.
[1:25:32] Next item on our agenda is approval of amendment number 3, service order number 1.
[1:25:38] Under master services agreement, number 24, dash 03, with AECOM technical services ink in
[1:25:44] the amount not to exceed.
[1:25:45] You're $11,630,344 using standard hourly rates with a ceiling price for additional services
[1:25:53] associated with the new Enland Rail Facility Project.
[1:25:58] Chair and Commissioners, as you well have been aware of, this is our ongoing efforts to
[1:26:03] produce more growth for the poor and the Enland Rail is one of our biggest projects here.
[1:26:10] It is located in the Rothstown area, just east of Interstate Highway 69 and north of
[1:26:16] St. Highway 44, as you can see in the map. This is one of the seven high-level goals for
[1:26:22] the Port of Corpus Christi, and as Omar and his team mentioned, this is part of our rebranding
[1:26:27] and stuff to continue our Port of Growth. This is the next chapter for the Port, and it will
[1:26:32] be one of the biggest projects to help lead our future growth and opportunities in the area.
[1:26:38] So, what I would like to do is put on a quick video to kind of give you an idea, the vision
[1:26:44] for this site.
[1:26:45] Now, keep in mind that some of the stuff you'll see is future development right now, this project
[1:26:50] is just focused on the rail portion connecting U.P and C.P.K.C.
[1:27:02] So, as you can see here, the rail line is the C.P.K.C rail line.
[1:27:05] And the yellow one is on U.P. rail row.
[1:27:08] PSNF has agreements with both to use those tracks and also the Class 3, the 3 Class 1 rails
[1:27:14] that we're dealing with on this project.
[1:27:21] This property is mainly farmland and as you can
[1:27:24] see this is the design portion for this phase is all the rail and this image and then you'll
[1:27:29] see as a future development, this is what we envision for the site. Behind here the site you see
[1:27:34] the interstate highway 69 looking southward this to give you an
[1:27:41] further perspective how big this area is you can fit 2,000
[1:27:44] 500 and 75 football fields on this piece of property. Currently the
[1:27:49] port owns about 76 miles of track with this project we're bringing in almost
[1:27:54] 30 more miles of track just for this section of it. Looking here this is the
[1:27:59] connection to CPC right off of the highway 44 heading north towards the
[1:28:04] connection,
[1:28:09] looking at option for the development of this site. We've been working with our commercial team to look at what potentially can be out there and there's been some concepts and talks with potential clients and tenants to see what we can put out there and pretty much with the location of the site is strategic right off the highway.
[1:28:28] We got three class one rails, there's multiple opportunities that we can do with this site.
[1:28:45] For more information on this as well, the property in the study for this design was 3,400 acres.
[1:28:52] 27 plus 100 acres of that is part of the port-owned property that we will be developing for this project.
[1:29:03] Here you're looking at the connection to UP on the north end.
[1:29:08] And then as we turn around and in the slide you'll be looking towards the port of Christy in the background.
[1:29:16] So I just took you a quick idea of what we could envision out there.
[1:29:22] This is just in the beginning, planning stages. Obviously there's more to be done with it.
[1:29:27] A little bit history on the project.
[1:29:28] Back in 2024 we came to commission and did an agreement with AECOM to do a concept design on what we could potentially put out there and how that will look.
[1:29:38] In 2025, we came back into the 30 percent design contract with AECOM to develop a set of plants based on what we agreed on on the concept.
[1:29:48] During all that time, we've had conversations with all three class-one rails and some stakeholders.
[1:29:55] They've been some back-and-forths with reviews with the CPC and U.P. at 10% in 3rd.
[1:30:00] 30% we have already taken their comments and incorporated them into the final 30% that we received upon receiving the 30%
[1:30:09] AECOM came in the presentation to the executive team in PortSAP and then a smaller presentation to LRP, kind of our findings and what our staff
[1:30:18] Here today before we're looking to continue that design to final design so we can get this project going into construction.
[1:30:28] With this next phase of it, we will be including a lot of stakeholder outreach so that we get the community involved in all the partners with the port and get their input as well as now we're starting to finalize the design.
[1:30:40] The contract schedule, that's the right now,
[1:30:44] pending approval today from Commission.
[1:30:45] We are looking at finalizing and going out for
[1:30:48] bid potentially October of 2027.
[1:30:51] And that will put us in construction late
[1:30:54] to early 2028 at the site.
[1:30:59] The fees broken down on this project.
[1:31:00] As you can see, the majority of it is on the
[1:31:02] design phase with a 30% packet that was 526 pages
[1:31:07] of design just for the 30%.
[1:31:10] And that's not including all of the additional reports of the receipts.
[1:31:13] So it's a big project in magnitude.
[1:31:17] So the support services will have some additional geotech and
[1:31:21] survey out there to identify underground utilities and get
[1:31:24] depth on them to make sure that what impacts our project
[1:31:27] would have on those.
[1:31:28] And if any adjustments need to be made, there will be a lot of
[1:31:30] coordination with all kinds of stakeholders.
[1:31:33] Our environmental team will be handling being the lead on the
[1:31:36] environmental portion of it with technical support and
[1:31:38] exhibits from AECOM, the same with our real estate team.
[1:31:43] We'll be working with them on the pipeline relocations.
[1:31:45] We've already started some communication with some of the owners of the pipelines, and
[1:31:50] we'll continue to start doing medication on that.
[1:31:54] Grant's support, we did receive notice of selection on the build grant for $23.4 million already.
[1:32:02] We did apply for the info grant that Commissioner Proud a couple of months ago, and we're
[1:32:06] on to hear from them on that if other opportunities come up as well we have some money to help support additional
[1:32:14] technical and exhibit in drawings for that as well and of course the communication part is going to be the key to this to
[1:32:21] make sure our partners and the community are aware what we're doing and how we can integrate their concerns.
[1:32:28] So, in summary, the total fee for this is 11,630,344, bringing the total contract for 17,246,455.
[1:32:40] I know it seems like a big number when you look at construction costs.
[1:32:43] This is left in 5% of the proposed or estimated construction costs at 30%.
[1:32:49] So, at this point, staff recommends approval.
[1:32:52] We do have members of the AECOM team and the local sub consultants in the audience.
[1:32:57] there's any technical questions you might have?
[1:33:00] I have a motion to have a second.
[1:33:02] Second, we have a second.
[1:33:03] We'll go for questions.
[1:33:04] Commissioner Hunter.
[1:33:08] So considering the congestion of supply that there is in this industry, especially in our region, the United States, is there an opportunity?
[1:33:18] I'm just, this is hypothetical.
[1:33:20] And I just need some health understanding.
[1:33:22] Is there opportunity to expand this industry at this location?
[1:33:27] we would have, if there were more opportunities in the future, would we have to create a new location?
[1:33:34] How does that sit?
[1:33:41] I guess that summarizes my three questions.
[1:33:44] Okay, well, and I think commercial might be able to help a little bit more on this.
[1:33:47] But the site itself right now, it's over 27 hundred acres that we own,
[1:33:52] which is big enough to do a huge development for the years to come.
[1:33:55] potentially, I don't know how our vision is for future growth beyond the end and real, but that's always a possibility as well.
[1:34:05] Thank you very much.
[1:34:05] You know, for sure, in the fact that we are going to have this radio terminal at Rob Stone, basically what means that the industry will come also.
[1:34:13] So, there's a particularly not only for the disco companies to be positioned there, but also is more common effects on companies that will come together with the container terminal to use that location.
[1:34:22] What also means that we've thrown that location because we have connections to the three
[1:34:26] class ones, we're officially connected from Canada all the way down to Mexico, so it really
[1:34:31] explains the interlion of the port.
[1:34:35] Thank you.
[1:34:36] Commissioner Torres.
[1:34:39] I appreciate the presentation and the video is very exciting to see the possibilities that
[1:34:43] lie ahead in the future.
[1:34:45] I just wanted to understand a little bit about the money part.
[1:34:48] You said there's a $24 million grant and will that grant be something we can get reimbursed
[1:34:53] Is this 11 million from or how is that working?
[1:34:55] Right now the grant is for construction face.
[1:34:57] This is not construction.
[1:34:59] No, this is designs.
[1:35:00] So that's, I don't know if left fee was not infigrant. The design portion can be covered with that as well.
[1:35:07] And I'm happy to hear from her, but just also another question that maybe one or two of y'all can feel.
[1:35:13] So the total cost will include this 11 million plus whatever the 30% that we've already went through and then plus the construction. So what is the total cost for this project?
[1:35:24] Right now, estimates, we are looking at just around 600 million for construction and it's just preliminary estimates at a 30% stage and has including the pipeline relocation portion of it as well.
[1:35:37] And how long will it take? How many years?
[1:35:40] Construction we're looking at part about three years to get the real portion in and of course as we continue with development after that will lead it to further decisions to be made and contracts and negotiate it for that.
[1:35:52] It will say just if I can interject just real quick on on the money piece.
[1:35:57] I think we're a long way from knowing what final cost is going to look like.
[1:36:02] So I think if you look at the at the earthwork and getting the initial tracks laid and those kind
[1:36:06] of things we're talking somewhere in the 400 million range full development of the site 600,
[1:36:11] but we're still very early in the process and we're also very early in the process to
[1:36:16] determine who would pay for what right.
[1:36:19] So depending on how we commercialize that property.
[1:36:22] The other thing we're still the way he's away from is we know how long it would take if we just started
[1:36:26] Let's just go, but that may not be how we sequence this project a lot of it's going to depend on
[1:36:32] Demand from a potential container terminal in the inland port when we for example we we've initially talked to them
[1:36:39] They're like yeah, we want to move everything off-site to this inland rail port when we met with their executives in Charlotte three weeks ago
[1:36:46] They're talking about potentially starting with a significant rail presence near the dock, right?
[1:36:51] that may change the timing of how we sequence the funds. The other thing I will say and I
[1:36:56] mean Cindy can also speak to this if you want to, at that level of funding right, you have
[1:37:02] to be very careful about how we how we laid out those funds to the longer you can sequence that
[1:37:07] out the more you can pay for it with organic earnings. For example, I'm going to be through off about
[1:37:11] $100 million free cash flow a year so that can be a significant contribution to that project.
[1:37:17] We also have significant remaining bonding capacity and so we started kind of those
[1:37:21] conversations with the group that was the lead on our bonds in 2015 and 18 just to kind
[1:37:25] of understand where we are on that. So there's still a lot to be determined on how we
[1:37:31] sequence this and how we roll this out because this is also not only being done in conjunction
[1:37:35] with a potential container terminal opportunity that will figure out over the next 12 months,
[1:37:41] but also how do we rehab and rehabilitate and reconfigure basically an interharpers that was
[1:37:46] designed in 1926 and has dox that were built in 1926 and 1927 and have far out of their
[1:37:55] use of a light that need to be demolished and rebuilt. Our current inner harbor entrance
[1:38:02] right there is constricted and was limited by, you know, not even the harbor bridge, right,
[1:38:08] which is already gone, but the best fuel bridge, which would be before that. So, we have
[1:38:12] a lot of work that has to go on and has to be sequenced out for the next decade.
[1:38:18] And this is just one part of it.
[1:38:20] So I think we're a way from knowing exactly what it's going to cost.
[1:38:23] Leslie, I mean, she can address the grant question if we want.
[1:38:26] I think it's for construction and we've put in for another $80 million grant
[1:38:30] with Department of Transportation for this year as well.
[1:38:32] We were going to seek outside sources of funding
[1:38:36] to the full extent of where we can find those also.
[1:38:40] Yeah.
[1:38:40] So we're pretty intentional and it's a great question.
[1:38:43] Commissioner Torres, we intentionally design out of the grant applications.
[1:38:48] A great example, Fernando mentioned that we were selected for the 24.3.
[1:38:53] Okay, I have a number of wrong sometimes, too.
[1:38:56] 24.3 million dollars.
[1:38:57] If we had tied in this 11 million dollar contract into that, he would be about a year
[1:39:03] from even being able to consider this design contract.
[1:39:06] So the collaboration between planning and engineering,
[1:39:10] we keep those design contracts out,
[1:39:11] so we don't tie their hands.
[1:39:13] And frankly, the construction cost so much,
[1:39:15] it's a better use of those funds.
[1:39:18] OK, thank you.
[1:39:21] Commissioner Hoskins.
[1:39:24] In my industry, we use a lot of professional services,
[1:39:26] and I'm always interested in how many hours we're
[1:39:31] billing here, so I mean, this is a big number.
[1:39:33] And so do we love million dollars, is how many million hours are we looking at?
[1:39:40] We have a semester for you on that.
[1:39:43] So this would be an equivalent of 28 full-time employees for the duration of the design,
[1:39:49] for the remaining design.
[1:39:52] In our follow-up, I know Commissioner Olmitia has a question, because that was a good question
[1:39:56] the bankers in the runer asking about cost.
[1:40:00] The initial was an agreement for $100,000 on the first contract. So we've extended this contract. We didn't go out for a bit.
[1:40:09] Just in fairness for making sure we got good pricing. How do we support the fact that the pricing is fair?
[1:40:16] And I say that because I think that's what Commissioner Hoskins is asking us to do and just want to make sure there was a process in place.
[1:40:22] And we have MSAs with consultants, which are locked in rates, and these prices are based on those locked in rates that we have with their original agreement, and we verify that those hourly rates have not changed.
[1:40:35] If they wish to request the change, it has to be done in January, but they have to go to a process to request that from us. At this point, there has been no changes and the current agreements stay in place with the amount of we have.
[1:40:51] And a point of clarity, sir, we negotiate all of our engineering contracts or our engineers.
[1:40:56] Okay, that's what I wanted to make sure that I heard that there was a clear negotiation of a contract based on obviously the scope of services.
[1:41:04] And that we have certainly, certainly, I know we got the staff on hand to be able to do that.
[1:41:09] I say that because one could say that, you know, how did we go from 100,000 to 11 million in terms of this is a significant project.
[1:41:17] Certainly with a very large scope, so you've done your due diligence here as what you said.
[1:41:22] Yes, sir, and there are, I'll call Gates, so the contract is where it is a maximum ceiling price.
[1:41:28] Okay. That is not guaranteed, that's the full fee that 80,000 will get. There's a, there's, there's a, there's additionally,
[1:41:35] our engineering contracts are, can be terminated for convenience at any time.
[1:41:41] So I'll just say if 80,000 is not performing, we have the ability and we'll work with
[1:41:46] on that to terminate their contract. I will say they have been performing well up to 30%
[1:41:52] which is why we negotiate of this additional design contract. That's great and this is not
[1:41:56] about a term. I know they're professional and certainly capable. I just wanted to make sure
[1:42:00] for transparency purposes that was discussed in the draft. Commissioner Lomuthia.
[1:42:06] So I office a lot. I office pretty close to this area and I use that road a lot to it.
[1:42:12] Are you preparing for any roadway changes?
[1:42:16] It does get a little even now, it can get a little frustrating traffic analysis has been done
[1:42:22] for the area by AECOM. Last year they started before school started and traffic counts
[1:42:28] and ended in the second one when school started. So they got in those numbers and some analysis.
[1:42:33] They looked at all the on and off ramps of the text out highways, roadways, the FM rows.
[1:42:38] So we have all that in a report as well and we're considering all that.
[1:42:42] And I assume we could get someone else to pay for that hopefully.
[1:42:45] So yes, so we will obviously be working closely with TechStyle to figure out how the final
[1:42:52] road configuration looks out there, TechStyle has a long standing Robbs Town bypass plan that's
[1:43:00] been on the books for quite a while, but not progressed very far.
[1:43:04] They'll want to take a look at that and how this ties into that.
[1:43:07] But we had TechStyle leadership in last week to start these conversations and make sure that
[1:43:11] all working collaboratively on that. As you know, building new state roads, though, is usually
[1:43:17] at 10 to 15 year. That's why I asked, so that might be too long from a commercial perspective
[1:43:24] for how we want to do this. But we will be looking. One of the advantages of this location
[1:43:29] is its ability to access multiple modes of transportation, multiple efficient modes of transportation
[1:43:36] quickly. So I-77 is part of the I-69 corridor, obviously leads up to I-37
[1:43:42] corridor, which gets you to San Antonio. There is a design that we're not starting
[1:43:47] by our middle, or a environmental investigation of related to I-69 as it
[1:43:52] costed over to go from that site to the freer, where the two legs of I-69.
[1:43:59] Connect, there's a lot of, there's a lot of moving parts here, but we will absolutely
[1:44:03] be working with the state agencies to make sure that the local engineers from TechStyp
[1:44:08] to make sure that we're all in sync on that.
[1:44:10] I think, I think as well, I mean, this is when you look at the whole scope of the project
[1:44:14] from with the land costs to the container port to the real owner of the doc's to do
[1:44:17] it on all these things, you know, and I know we've talked about this many times, this
[1:44:21] to encourage you to watch the cash flow matches the spend because it is, I mean, this
[1:44:26] conceivably could be this whole few kind of tie the whole thing together, really more
[1:44:30] money than the deepening widening.
[1:44:33] Oh, I, yeah.
[1:44:34] So I mean, it's a huge transformation.
[1:44:36] And I, you know, to the extent you match cash flow
[1:44:39] to very exciting.
[1:44:41] Sure, wonderful.
[1:44:42] No, thank you.
[1:44:43] And everything I've seen you guys are, you know,
[1:44:45] but it's a long-term project.
[1:44:46] The ports portion of the deep name winding is roughly 200
[1:44:49] to 225 million.
[1:44:50] We want to have a final number on that for quite a while.
[1:44:53] Poor was in last week also.
[1:44:56] Amazing how long fiscal clothes out takes
[1:44:58] on some of those projects.
[1:44:59] Thanks for watching, and don't forget to like, share, and subscribe to my channel.
[1:45:00] This will do worth that in reality, but we don't know yet what the interest, some of the complexity of it, though, in addition to all the other stuff we've mentioned is the fact that some of this will be backed up by commercial agreements, right?
[1:45:14] So, for example, as a support to container terminal or if you move agriculture out there,
[1:45:18] if you do trends running out there, there will be commercial contracts that will backstop.
[1:45:23] Some of this and some of these projects might get done with, for example, revenue backponds instead of just
[1:45:28] turn a location bonds of the port.
[1:45:31] But then there are going to be other parts, including the initial stages of this radar that
[1:45:35] have no commercial backing yet, right?
[1:45:36] There's going to be earth moving and track lane that doesn't come with any additional volume
[1:45:41] And initially, but will attract additional business and Commissioner Hunter asked earlier about the other potential development opportunities along that road.
[1:45:51] If you look at the road from, you know, from the airport to Rob's town right now there's there is a lot of available space out there that you could see being developed.
[1:46:02] As, as a big inland rail terminal like this attracts warehousing and lightning infection.
[1:46:07] So, there's, we got a big next six to ten years.
[1:46:14] I understand if you've talked to the rail companies and they're very interested.
[1:46:19] They're very aggressively wanting to.
[1:46:22] Absolutely.
[1:46:23] Thank you.
[1:46:24] Just to follow up to here, what you just said, Kent, because I think that's important.
[1:46:29] This has, the rail lines have seen this.
[1:46:32] You put it in front of DEP from a business commercialization component,
[1:46:36] which is good because we've got a scoping that's the shadow only through the eyes of the port
[1:46:40] but certainly through the eyes of development and those that have experience in that.
[1:46:46] So, is there a part of that development component on the 2,500 or 2,500 football fields that lay in this?
[1:46:53] Is there a misumen? Is there any warehousing there? Is that outside the boundaries?
[1:46:58] Because conceptually I've seen it's a little bit of that.
[1:47:00] What does that look like?
[1:47:01] Again, it depends on what the commercial pull is at the time.
[1:47:05] But our initial designs would say that, yes, this would support
[1:47:09] where housing on the site, as well as, I think, you know, we just casually talked
[1:47:15] to some warehouse developers out of war.
[1:47:17] You know, last year, they see great potential for this.
[1:47:20] So the warehouse development, I think, I think you'll be right.
[1:47:23] I think we'll be a mix of warehouses on the port site, unless we find a higher
[1:47:28] and better use for that site.
[1:47:31] And then there will be private development of warehouses, I would think along
[1:47:34] record as well. Yeah, we have some conversation already with somewhere
[1:47:38] as a company. So for example, FedEx of these words, UPS, right? There's a lot of
[1:47:43] interesting that location, especially because if you consider a container terminal,
[1:47:46] they will bring the full container to be basically offload in that location.
[1:47:51] That can go to our house and then basically local director from there, right? So
[1:47:55] there's a lot of pertunence there. Think what I would like to highlight, also that we're not
[1:47:58] looking to only commercial pertunence, but also potential partners to develop code
[1:48:03] developing the, that location. So we, we can have some partners also helping us to share
[1:48:08] the risk of development. Yeah, when you, when you think about our traditional business
[1:48:11] model, right, and I've been preaching this since I got in the seat three years ago is, we're
[1:48:17] a landlord port. So we own and lease property for development. This, this will likely follow
[1:48:23] the same model. I think there will be a series of tenants out there who lease property from
[1:48:27] us and then develop that property. There may be some base infrastructure, just like we build
[1:48:32] public oil the Ox currently. But for the most part, these will be backstopped by commercial
[1:48:39] development, who people will be releasing land from us and will have some sort of throughput
[1:48:43] component. I don't think our model changes just to be...
[1:48:47] Well, I think what you're saying, it's a well thought out and planned model, whereby a component
[1:48:51] of this can be used for future development expansion, including warehousing, whereby the
[1:48:56] port of corpus Christi continues to benefit through a ground lease or some other agreement.
[1:49:00] So that is great. I think that's well done and certainly well thought out there and I think there's there's more to come obviously
[1:49:07] As you continue to move forward in this development of this concept as well correct
[1:49:13] So if there are no other questions to have a motion for approval or did I take a motion motion
[1:49:21] It's already been done. I thought just needed to clarify all those in favor. Please say aye any opposition same sign
[1:49:29] Thank you
[1:49:34] Good discussion. Big item. Item 10J. Award a construction contract to make
[1:49:39] old contracting LLC in the amount of 1.3 million 86,588 and a lump sum basis for the
[1:49:46] security, command center, site, and improvement project. Good morning, Chairman of
[1:49:53] Commissioners. Tom's on the while with the engineering department. I'm here today
[1:49:57] so you can approve of towards a construction contract to make.
[1:50:00] Local contracting LLC in the amount of 1.368 or 86 million for the security command site improvements.
[1:50:08] Security command site improvement is located on the corner of Power Street and Water Street as illustrated here.
[1:50:17] A little bit of background, the project overview phase 1 and phase 2 of this project have been completed.
[1:50:21] port PD is operating in the building since June of this year.
[1:50:26] This is the final phase of this project where we're going to secure the exterior of facility.
[1:50:31] The scope of this project consists of reconstruction, reconstructing approximately
[1:50:35] 3,200 square yards of pavement, which is a little more than a half an acre.
[1:50:40] We're routing and improving approximately 300 linear feet of underground drainage.
[1:50:45] It's installing a perimeter security fence in system with controlled access,
[1:50:48] and has aerial lighting and camera infrastructure.
[1:50:52] We're going to optimize the egress and ingress by widening the turning radius of the
[1:50:56] parking lot, widening the lots, and increasing the number of parking lots from 50 to
[1:51:01] 61.
[1:51:03] Using an in-house seal design, we do have an additive bid item which will restore and seal the
[1:51:10] exterior of the building envelope to eliminate any kind of moisture infiltration.
[1:51:14] The construction is planned for 120 days from the notice to proceed, it will be phase, starting at the north end and then going down to the south end to try to
[1:51:25] to try to minimize the impact on the poor PD.
[1:51:30] In July of this year, we released a solicitation.
[1:51:33] We had 63 companies download the solicitation and we received five bids.
[1:51:38] When the five-bid received, make those bid, came in at 232,000 lower than the next
[1:51:45] Colors' bidder, and make up brings a proven track record to the port, having successfully
[1:51:51] completed the Joe Fulton International Trade Corridor Intersection and proven project, and
[1:51:56] both docked to you, row ready, expansion.
[1:51:59] With that set, staff recommends the award of a construction contract to make a contract
[1:52:03] in the amount of $1,306,580.
[1:52:07] Okay, we have a motion to have a second.
[1:52:10] Second, any discussion?
[1:52:12] Hearing none, all those in favor please say aye.
[1:52:15] Any opposed?
[1:52:15] Same sign.
[1:52:16] Motion passes.
[1:52:17] Thank you.
[1:52:18] The last and final item of the Open Agenda is item 10K.
[1:52:22] A proven increase in contingency and change order with Alfred Palma.
[1:52:25] LLC in the amount of $1.1 million,
[1:52:28] 24,948 for the bulk materials, terminal ship loader, and conveyance repairs project.
[1:52:34] Per-negotiated lump sum for items, not in the original scope of the construction project.
[1:52:42] So for this particular project, staff is seeking approval of an increase in contingency
[1:52:47] and approval of a change order with Alfred Palmer in the amount of 1.1.1.2 million
[1:52:52] for the B&T ship loader conveyance project.
[1:52:55] The bottom line of front is that the ship loader is fully functional at this time, so it's
[1:53:00] returning it back to service, it has successfully loaded 7 going on 8 vessels and it's
[1:53:05] functioning with high reliability and increased tonnage per hour.
[1:53:09] Going into this project when you, that this was a high risk, we were going to counter a lot
[1:53:14] of overseen issues mainly because of the lack of record drawings, the age of the equipment,
[1:53:19] and we only had 45 days to complete about 90% of the work.
[1:53:25] So 90% of the work was completed as illustrated here
[1:53:28] for the overall project elements.
[1:53:30] So during that time frame, we were to replace all their electrical components
[1:53:34] as well as mechanical components.
[1:53:36] During the peak of the outage, which we coordinated with the customer,
[1:53:39] we had approximately 150 individuals of various trades working on site.
[1:53:44] So we had about 75 electricians taking care of the electrical upgrades
[1:53:49] as you can see in this picture here.
[1:53:50] This is a new electrical room, which consists
[1:53:52] of a new transformer, a new motor control centers,
[1:53:55] a new variable frequency drives.
[1:53:57] We had mechanics on site, replacing all the motors, gears,
[1:54:02] gear boxes, coupling, shafts, and also ensuring
[1:54:06] that they all aligned precisely to eliminate vibration.
[1:54:09] We had painters on site.
[1:54:11] We had came up, we had crane operators and engineers.
[1:54:14] We also had Cate of Mosley's operation team coordinating
[1:54:17] all this effort as well.
[1:54:19] When the unforeseen mechanical and electrical issues were encountered, the teamwork closely
[1:54:23] to identify solutions, and we completed the work within the outage window.
[1:54:29] Since releasing the ship loader back in the service, we've operated a feedback has been
[1:54:34] an exceedingly positive regarding the improvement performance, reliability and the operational
[1:54:39] capabilities, including the implementation of a wireless remote control as you can see
[1:54:43] here of Bennu Pack that provides greater flexibility and visibility during loading operations.
[1:54:50] With that said, we address the offer seen conditions in Conner Green at 45 day
[1:54:53] outage staff recommends you approve of an increase in contingency and change order without
[1:54:57] for POMA in the amount of 1 million, 124.0.
[1:55:02] It's just making sure it was like I apologize. Thank you Thomas. Who I woke you up there. Do I? Do I? All those, do I have a motion for approval?
[1:55:14] The first and the second. Any discussion? Commissioner LaMatea? Can't remind me the revenue of the bulk terminal?
[1:55:23] or Sandy,
[1:55:27] I just presented it today, right?
[1:55:29] So it should be in your financial report, right?
[1:55:32] I guess I could've looked it up for it,
[1:55:33] but I thought you'd have it on top of your head.
[1:55:36] Well, I mean the only thing you know I'm going,
[1:55:38] we'll get it for you.
[1:55:39] We have no choice to do the repair.
[1:55:41] I understand that, I mean it just continues,
[1:55:43] it's just, yeah, I know you're working on a plan,
[1:55:46] but it's frustrating.
[1:55:49] Kind of a call affectionately refers to,
[1:55:52] this is the gift that keeps on giving.
[1:55:53] So, yeah, okay, just expressing our close question.
[1:55:59] If I make Commissioner back in October, the original repair package was submitted.
[1:56:04] At that time, we had a catastrophic failure with the shiploader.
[1:56:07] We could not load or do anything for our customers.
[1:56:10] So the team worked diligently to expedite the repair process.
[1:56:15] So instead of giving it a full examination prior to the repair taking place,
[1:56:19] We expedited the total repair and some of those items that have been identified recently
[1:56:24] We're not caught on the front side because in an effort to get this thing done in that 45 day window to move product for our customers
[1:56:31] We had to
[1:56:33] We had to take the opportunity not to look at everything but to get as much done as fast as possible
[1:56:39] That's where this change orders come out
[1:56:48] Commissioner Petrotti so I think you answer my question. This works already been done
[1:56:53] is it a course.
[1:56:54] It's a course.
[1:56:56] It's a course.
[1:56:56] A portion of the total repair package work was completed.
[1:57:01] Some items were discovered after the fact, when we started tearing this apart, that we're
[1:57:05] not identified on the front side of the scoping.
[1:57:08] You scoped the work.
[1:57:10] We got it on our way.
[1:57:11] The last thing about this is without the additional thermal shooting fabrication like
[1:57:15] the onboard.
[1:57:15] The ship loader would not have been capable.
[1:57:17] That is we are currently at a substantial completion right now. So we are doing our final walk through and generate an our final punch list prior to final acceptance.
[1:57:30] Okay. So this this change order has not.
[1:57:33] That money had been spent or the work had been done yet we're approving to continue.
[1:57:38] to continue. Yes, a lot of the work has already been done because it was done with in the 45 day outage and we if we're in order for us to
[1:57:46] To meet that window we we track the the work and we we gave the approval. However
[1:57:53] Yes, okay the previously scope to the proof work has been completed and this is new scope of
[1:58:01] items they found later on is what there's so none of the news
[1:58:04] that is correct.
[1:58:07] That is correct.
[1:58:07] That is correct.
[1:58:08] Understanding today.
[1:58:11] Commissioner Thomas.
[1:58:13] Well, this be all of the requested work or do you anticipate additional work after that?
[1:58:19] No, ma'am.
[1:58:20] So it's been functional.
[1:58:21] It's continues to be functional.
[1:58:23] We will we will we will do a final walk through to do the acceptance and then we will close
[1:58:28] up this project.
[1:58:29] You do you have comments?
[1:58:31] Yeah, I'm not just just you.
[1:58:32] had, so in terms of revenues, 14.2 million more or less,
[1:58:35] in terms of revenues, 3.8 million in EBITDA.
[1:58:40] Thank you.
[1:58:40] Mr. President, did I give you enough time?
[1:58:42] Did you have any other questions?
[1:58:45] Yes.
[1:58:46] Commissioner Lamantilla, did that answer your question?
[1:58:48] Thank you.
[1:58:49] OK.
[1:58:50] So we have a motion on the floor, right?
[1:58:53] Or we had a motion taken on the second.
[1:58:55] All those in favor, please say aye.
[1:58:58] Any opposed, same sign?
[1:58:59] Motion passes.
[1:59:01] Next, we'll move to consent item and judges for collective action.
[1:59:06] We have items 11A through 11L.
[1:59:10] Is there any requests to remove any of those further discussion?
[1:59:14] Hearing none, do I have a motion for approval?
[1:59:17] I have a first.
[1:59:18] I hear a second.
[1:59:19] Second, all those in favor, please say aye.
[1:59:22] Any opposed, same sign?
[1:59:24] Item passes.
[1:59:26] Next is chief executive officer's comments, Mr. Kent Britain.
[1:59:29] Thank you, Chairman, commissioners. Good morning, worn out from taking, taking notes. I did
[1:59:36] want to just reflect a little bit on what's going on so far in this meeting. It sometimes,
[1:59:42] it just seems normal to us and, like, of course, a business. But a little, when you look
[1:59:48] back at the list, it's kind of stunning to see the breadth of what we just did in the last,
[1:59:54] But in the last two hours, fiscal oversight and transparency.
[2:00:00] Approved 22 million dollars of large infrastructure, execution and engineering, active collaboration and engagement with the city of Corpus Christi on large infrastructure projects, community engagement, particularly in our local school systems, investigation and deployment of innovative and leading edge technology, and the marketing and vision for the future of this port.
[2:00:24] That's a pretty, that's a pretty productive meeting, if you ask me, so well done, appreciate all of your attention to detail and I know there's a lot of prep work that goes into getting through this binder in the five or six days that you have all that information beforehand, so appreciate all that you do for us and for this community.
[2:00:44] Few items I did want to mention and Monique will get a notice out. Tomorrow there is a state of legislature.
[2:00:52] Being held by the Iranians past Chamber of Commerce.
[2:00:55] Believe it's at the Portland Community Center.
[2:00:57] We do have a table there if anybody wants to join us.
[2:01:01] State of Energy is on the 20th.
[2:01:03] So that's Thursday. We do have quite a few seats for that.
[2:01:07] mean way would like to come see that I believe Mike Howard is the keynote speaker for that should
[2:01:13] be should be really good. Portland Chamber of Commerce on the 27th next week and a several
[2:01:18] loaves will be gone but they are doing state of industry and we have a table there and then
[2:01:26] on the 9th of September A&M Corpus Christi Foundation will be doing the A&M Corpus Christi State
[2:01:32] of the University and we have a couple of tables out there if anybody wants to join for that.
[2:01:38] On the government fair side, we are hosting Secretary of Transportation Duffy tomorrow, which
[2:01:44] is a pretty big deal, that's going to be too sitting cabinet level members and the President
[2:01:50] of the United States that's been here this year.
[2:01:52] I call that a pretty productive year for our pork.
[2:01:56] We are getting started now.
[2:01:57] It is time to start thinking about 2027 legislative session for the state, so we have been
[2:02:04] I mean, some meetings around that and talking about what legislative agenda not just for us,
[2:02:11] but ports in general in Texas might look like.
[2:02:15] The Chamber, Al mentioned that they hold business events with small businesses on how to
[2:02:20] do business with various organizations.
[2:02:24] We are having one in October, so it's Tuesday, October 27th, that 10 o'clock, how to do business
[2:02:30] with the port that's being done in conjunction with Delmore College Apex Accelerator.
[2:02:35] I'll mention that each month as we lead up to that, but that's an important time for
[2:02:39] small businesses to come in and understand all the processes that go into being able to
[2:02:44] bid and do business here.
[2:02:47] There were a few new employees that joined the port since the last port commission meeting
[2:02:53] Carina Tordova joined the port on July 27th as a community relation specialist
[2:02:58] Eric of all this joined the port as a safety training specialist on also in July 27
[2:03:05] On August 10th Raven Hernandez joined the port as a facility services worker
[2:03:10] And on August 10th Richard Gutierrez joined the port as a maintenance worker
[2:03:15] We welcome all of those folks to the port and then
[2:03:19] And one of my favorite things to do every quarter, and it feels like I just maybe did it
[2:03:24] last month.
[2:03:25] But it wasn't.
[2:03:26] It was three months ago, is the announcement of our seaport star, so in this case, it's
[2:03:30] for the second quarter.
[2:03:32] And please join me in congratulating Crystal Remaris, and I'll tell you a little bit about
[2:03:36] Crystal on the second.
[2:03:43] So crystals are lead payroll specialist, consistently models are seaport values and exhibits
[2:03:50] leadership and commitment.
[2:03:51] She understands the utmost importance of safety, she knows people depend on her both professionally and personally.
[2:03:58] Crystal was invited to serve as a culture champion within our organization and of course accepted that challenge.
[2:04:05] Even while she was deeply involved in the lengthy and time-consuming time and attendance and payroll upgrades that we did recently to NeoGo.
[2:04:13] In addition, she continued her normal payroll duties by helping to ensure that all employees are paid properly and all time.
[2:04:19] So, where we have Crystal come up and get a picture with you guys, Crystal, who would stand up and let's thank her once more, and that's it for my comment.
[2:04:33] Thank you, Crystal.
[2:04:35] Seeing that that's it for comments, we will, we'll, we'll, we'll, I'll ask the commissioners to stay for, for photos, but we'll go into closed meeting notice,
[2:04:44] into executive session.
[2:04:46] Port Commission will now go into closed meeting.
[2:04:48] pursuant to sections 551.071 and 551.072.
[2:04:53] Of the Texas government code to deliberate agenda items 13A through 13D.
[2:04:58] Thank you.
[2:06:49] All right, we are back in session. Make sure everyone's seated. Thank you.
[2:06:56] Let me one second.
[2:07:09] Item is approval for a approve of resolution. Six-wordless state contracts between the
[2:07:15] Port of Corpus Christi and Oasis County Texas, as part sure with various owners and sellers
[2:07:19] authorizing executional contracts related to closing documents, related to land under contract noise,
[2:07:25] County and a pretty matters related there too. Do I have a motion?
[2:07:30] I have. Here in a first and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposition?
[2:07:36] Motion passes. Last item 14v is approval of an engagement letter with blank
[2:07:41] room regarding federal maritime commission regulatory matters. Do I have a motion?
[2:07:46] Motion. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor please say aye.
[2:07:53] Aye. All those opposed same sign?
[2:07:54] Motion passes. Do I have a motion to adjourn?
[2:07:57] First, second, we're ready to go. Thank you.