CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Corpus Christi City Manager Peter Zanoni admits the $42,000 on meals that he bought through his yearly city allowance doesn’t look good on paper as citywide budget cuts are being made.
”Over the weekend, I told City Council that my 7,200 dollar annual allowance to represent the city is something I will no longer use,” he said.
However, he also said all expenses "were all within prescribed policies set either by the city or the city council.”
The issue was raised after a city auditor's investigation of 14 employees from October 2021-July 2024 found that $148,000 had been spent on meals.
In response, Zanoni said the use of city purchase cards has been tightened, and that he’s foregoing entertaining developers and other business leaders outside city hall.
"Allowances to meet with leaders of all types here in our community," he said. "Government, business healthcare and educational entities there won’t be any need for reimbursements because all that work will be conducted here at city hall.”
Most of Zanoni’s expenses were from hosting business meetings at the Corpus Christi Yacht Club.
Councilman Roland Barrera didn’t find fault with that, but said he does think the city manager might still have to entertain investors looking to spend millions of dollars here.
"The thing is that we have to work toward a solution," he said. "Just eliminating yourself from the process because you got some bad press is a bad idea.”
The audit committee is set to meet about these issues Tuesday morning before the council meeting.
The city auditor is recommending that this issue be included in the 2025 audit plan due to the size and scope of its investigation.