CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Editor's Note - This story has been updated to reflect that the next City Council meeting is Oct. 15.
Corpus Christi City Manager Peter Zanoni admits the $42,000 on meals that his office and employees 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 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.”
A city auditor's investigation of 14 employees from October 2021-July 2024 found that $148,000 had been spent on meals. Only ten of those employees had city purchasing cards. The city says Zanoni himself does not have a "P-Card."
The city also said "this figure includes various other expenses such as professional development, team-building events across different departments, and travel."
In response, Zanoni said the use of city purchasing cards has been tightened and he will no longer entertain developers or other business leaders outside City Hall.
"Allowances to meet with leaders of all types here in our community -- government, business, health care and educational entities -- there won’t be any need for reimbursements because all that work will be conducted here at City Hall.”
Most of the 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. The next City Council meeting is Oct. 15.
The city auditor is recommending that this issue be included in the 2025 audit plan due to the size and scope of its investigation.