corpus christi caller times 20130811 a001 a010

7/27/2019 Corpus Christi Caller Times 20130811 A001 A010

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By Jessica [email protected]

361-886-4316

What do some CorpusChristi residents in thecitys most af uent neigh-borhoods have in commonwith some who live in thepoorest areas?

They cant pay their util-ity bills on time.

Nearly 1 in every 4 city

utility customers is latepaying the monthly watersewer and trash bill. Theyrepresent a cross-section othe community, includinga downtown restaurant, a200-room bayront hotel,residents on Ocean Driveand renters in low-incomeapartments.

More than 1,400 custom-ers o the 95,000 are on apayment plan to catch up on

past-due bills. Collectivelythey owe about $611,000with the average bill about

$538. The largest bill is morethan $18,000, according to aCaller-Times analysis o cityutility records or past-dueaccounts as o July 8.

To lower the number olate payers, the city will rollout a more aggressive collec-tion plan, beginning Sept. 1.It will reduce the amounto time someone has to pay

$2.00 CITY EDITIONSUNDAY, AUGUST 11, 2013

Another man imprisoned for the 1985 murder of a DEA agent could go free after errors found in prosecution. NATION, 6A

GRAD PAYSIT FORWARDLOCAL, 1B

BLUFF STARON THE MENDSPORTS, 1C

CEO HAS EYEON COMMUNITYBUSINESS, 18A

HOUSE DIVIDED

City to turn tap on past due tabs Tough water

enforcementto start Sept. 1

Exclusive coverage of Corpus Christis Universal Little League team that willrepresent the city at the Little League World Series. SPORTS

See DELINQUENT, 11A

Brian Hitchcockwith the city ofCorpus Christis

water departmentshuts the wateroff at a home onLight Wind Driveon Thursday forfailure to pay autility bill.TODD YATES/CALLER-TIMES

By Rhiannon [email protected]

361-886-3694

and Michelle [email protected]

361-886-3716

Fity years ago, theLeague o United LatinAmerican Citizens startedbuilding aordable apart-ments or low-income resi-dents in the Coastal Bend.

That charitable venture hasturned into an enterpriseplagued by infighting andallegations that have led tolawsuits, police reports anda state investigation.

The boards governingLULAC apartments inCorpus Christi and Sintonhave aced allegations oraud, thet and misman-agement, oten lodged byother LULAC housingboard members.

One boards claims omissing money promptedthe Texas Attorney Gen-erals O ce to launch aninvestigation. An investiga-tor has interviewed boardmembers and subpoenaedbank records in the pasttwo years, according to in-terviews and records, butits not clear where the in-vestigation stands.

Investigator Brian Guen-thner did not return theCaller-Times calls. TheAttorney Generals O cedoes not confirm or denyinvestigations, spokes-man Tom Kelley said. Rep.Todd Hunter on Thursdayrequested a status updaterom the Attorney Gener-als O ce and is awaiting

a response.In June, local problemswere thrust into the spot-light when one nationalLULAC board member

sued the organizationspresident, claiming shesold a Corpus Christi apart-ment complex without ap-proval and or less than itwas worth.

The suit exposed thestrie surrounding LULAChousing or years.

Retired attorney Wil-liam Bonilla, a longtimeLULAC member whopushed or public housingwhen he served as national

president in the mid-1960s,said he does not believethat the allegations andinvestigations will stopLULAC rom oering low-income housing.

We will have to explainthe tainted image thatsome unscrupulous peoplemay have placed on the

TODD YATES/CALLER-TIMES

Eva Ford, manager of the LULAC West Park Apartment s, gives a tour of a typical apartmentat the complex, which was renovated in 2008. While resident s have given good reviews of therenovation, apartment complex board members have filed complaints with the police and thedistrict attorney claiming misappropriation of funds during the r emodeling.

See LULAC, 10A

Read thelawsuits,

police reports and districtattorney memos regardingallegations surroundingLULAC housing.

See morephotos of

local LULAC housing.

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RACHEL DENNY CLOW/CALLER-TIMES

Tony Jimenez, board president of LULAC Village Park Apar tments, checks out a pool built a s part of a multimillion-dollar reno-vation in 2008. Vandals damaged it, and it needs to be resur faced, said Christina Felan, manager of the apar tment complex.

LULAC apartments

face fraud allegations,netting investigations

7/27/2019 Corpus Christi Caller Times 20130811 A001 A010

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10A Sunday, August 11, 2013 C A L L E R - T I M E S

FROM THE COVER

honor o (LULAC), saidBonilla, who got undingto build the organizationsfirst housing developmentin Corpus Christi. Somepeople have deviated romthe purpose LULAC wasounded. To those people, Isay shame. To those people,I say get out o LULAC.

The uture o LULACapartments is significantin a town desperate or a-ordable housing.

Demand here dwarssupply and Corpus Christirenters seeking low-in-come housing oten waitor years or a unit to be-come available. In June,799 amilies remained ona waiting list or a type oederally subsidized hous-ing called Section 8. Thatwaiting list last opened orapplicants in November2010. Beore that, it wasclosed or five years.

CLAIMS OFMISMANAGEMENT

The civil rights organi-zation ounded in Corpus

Christi in 1929 first startedbuilding apartments inthe 1960s because o a direhousing shortage or the el-derly and poor. Some mem-bers called it a nationalcrisis, saying poor peoplewere being orced to livewithout running water orindoor plumbing.

I knew we needed hous-ing, Bonilla said. Toomany poor people werepaying money to live inhouses without plumbing.The landlord could throwyou out just like that. Youwere insecure. That wasthe case or a lot o parts oSouth Texas.

The civil rights organi-zation borrowed ederalmoney to build apartmentcomplexes and set up non-profit boards to overseethe developments once theederal loans were repaid.The organization openedits irst Corpus Christicomplex, LULAC VillagePark Apartments on HorneRoad, in 1969, one o thenations first LULAC hous-ing developments.

The governing boards,comprised o members ap-pointed by LULAC, were

charged with managing,operating and control-ling the property, includ-ing maintenance andupkeep o the units. Theboards since have hiredmanagement companiesto oversee day-to-day op-erations at the apartments,standard practice or suchproperties.

Over time, five develop-ments were built in CorpusChristi, Kingsville andSinton, housing a totalo 472 amilies. In recentyears, questions have beenraised about the oversightand management o someo those complexes.

The most recent law-suit, filed June 13, claimsLULACs national Presi-dent Margaret Moran lastyear sold LULAC Hacien-da, an apartment complexor seniors, or $1.7 million.Thats less than what theproperty was worth, ac-cording to the lawsuit.

Im upset because noneo this was brought to theboard with enough time toreview it, Hacienda boardmember Rick Dovalinasaid. We wanted a littlemore disclosure to the

board. I want to see whatthe deal was and i it wasa legit deal.

A response to the law-suit hadnt been filed as o

Friday.That suit ollows years

o complaints iled byboard members o otherlocal LULAC apartmentsabout millions o dollars inmissing money and misap-propriated unds duringmultimillion dollar reno-vation projects.

Within the past twoyears, board members gov-erning LULAC West Parkon Interstate 37 have filedcomplaints with the policeand with District AttorneyMark Skurka claimingmisappropriation o undsduring 2008 remodeling.

That project was over-seen by board membersrom another low-incomecomplex, LULAC Village,who they say took overtheir board and mishan-dled their money.

They specifically blameormer board memberHenry Gorham and devel-oper David Marquez andhis wie and business part-ner, Cindy, o San Antonio.

West Park board mem-bers say they do not knowthe exact amount o moneymissing.

They told police they

were missing up to $1.4million and told Skurka upto $2.5 million was misap-propriated, according torecords.

And although the proj-ect was finished in Novem-ber 2009, board membersstill dont know the finalprice tag. Estimated ini-tially to cost $10 millionto $12 million, they be-lieve the renovation hascost them more than $20million because o costoverruns, mismanage-ment and attorneys eeswhen they were orced todeend themselves againstlawsuits filed by contrac-tors or nonpayment.

The attorney generalbecame involved aterSkurka, citing limited re-sources to investigate theallegations, asked the at-torney general in February2011 to investigate possiblecriminal wrongdoing. At-torney general investigatorGuenthner began lookinginto the matter, including

subpoenaing bank recordsand combing through box-es o records. But he hasnot provided an updateon the investigation in at

least two years, accordingto Skurka, police reportsand board members.

Despite the investiga-tion and lawsuits, resi-dents at those apartmentcomplexes have not no-ticed any changes.

Meagan Adame, whohas lived at West Parkwith her 3-year-old son ornearly a year, said the staf,strict rules and amenitiessuch as a pool and basket-ball court make the newlyrenovated complex nicerthan other low-incomeapartments in CorpusChristi.

Its a good place to liveor my son, she said.

VILLAGE QUESTIONSThe large-scale reno-

vation work done at WestPark was modeled ater asimilar project completedat Village in 2008. Thefirst LULAC developmentin Corpus Christi to un-dergo renovation in recentyears, Village served as an

example or subsequentmultimillion renovationprojects at West Park andLULAC Amistad in Sinton.

Village resident Jeremi-

ah Flores, 19, said he appre-ciates the living conditions.His working air-condition-er and the ability to openand close windows makethe place better than otherlow-income developmentsin Corpus Christi, he said.

Flores, who moved intothe apartment with hisgirlriend and two chil-dren, said maintenance is-sues usually take about twoweeks, but it is somethingthey can live with.

Its Section 8, but theres

worse, he said.The Village renovationproject cost about $14 mil-lion, but like West Park,board members could notsay precisely how much.All 152 units at Village weregutted to the studs andrenovated, including newflooring, countertops andappliances, Village boardmembers said. The reno-vation also included theconstruction o a large newoce with meeting spacewhere LULAC sometimeshosts events.

Similar to West Park,Village board membersalso noticed missing unds.They claim Marquez waspaid $112,000 or work thatwas never completed andthat ormer board memberGorham approved the pay-ment, according to a June2011 police report. TheCaller-Times requesteddocuments to support theirclaims, but Village boardmembers would not pro-vide them.

Gorham, who was re-moved rom the Villageboard, said he has neverdone anything wrong atWest Park or Village, nor

has he been interviewed byinvestigators.There was no wrong-

doing done by me or byanyone, he said. Most o

these allegations are envyand egos.

Marquez has since re-paid about hal o theamount, Village boardmember Raul Vasquez said.

Marquez, contactedtwice by phone, did notreturn calls seeking orcomment.

Vasquez also met withGuenthner about a yearand a hal ago to discussthe disputed unds and hasnot heard rom him since,he said.

Some have expressedrustration with the lacko investigation into theirclaims.

Nobody took any ac-tion. None, West Parkboard member Butch Esc-obedo said.

LULAC Council No. 1President Nick Adame saidthis was the first time hewas hearing about the alle-gations o missing money.He said he had heard o aninvestigation but didntknow what it was or. Hesaid the council separatesitsel rom the housingboard so it can ocus on thecommunitys civil rightsissues.

Even though he didntknow the details o themissing money claims,Adame said he doesntthink the issues will afectLULACs ability to providehousing in the uture.

These issues Im surewill work themselves out,but Im sure (LULAC) willalways have the ability toprovide housing, Adamesaid. I just know that LU-LAC, being a strong orga-nization, will still main-tain its integrity ater a lot

o these issues have beenaddressed. I think it willafect it but not enoughthat it will damage ourmission.

LULACfrom 1A


Tony Jimenez, board president of LUL AC Village Park Apartments, shows off a meeting room in the welcome cen ter, which waspart of a large-s cale renovation project in 2008. B oard members filed a police report two year s ago claiming the developer gotpaid for work he didnt do.


Residents at LULAC West Park Apartments on Interstate 37 Access Road just past McKinzie Road take advantage of the pool. The large-scale renovation work

done at West Park was modeled af ter a similar project completed at Village Park Apar tments in 2008.

Landscapingaround the LU-LAC West ParkApartmentscommunity cen-ter and officeare maintainedby a mainte-nance man,and managerEva Ford saidresidents keepan eye out onthe property tohelp keep thecomplex look-

ing nice.TODD YATES/CALLER-TIMES

Developments inCorpus Christi,Kingsville andSinton.

1LULAC Village Park Apartments1417 Horne Road, Corpus Christi

2LULAC West Park Apartments10702 I-37 Access Road, Corpus Christi

3LULAC Hacienda Apartments2625 Greenwood Drive, Corpus Christi

4Kingsville LULAC Manor Apartments1220 N. 17th St., Kingsville

5LULAC Amistad Apartments920 Flores St., Sinton

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5 miles

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Kingsville

CorpusChristi SPID

Sinton

LULAC HOUSING

SCRIPPS NEWSPAPERS

Corpus

ChristiBay

Im upsetbecausenone of this wasbrought to theboard withenough time toreview it. Wewanted a littlemore disclosureto the board. Iwant to seewhat the deal

was and if it wasa legit deal.

Rick Dovalina,Hacienda board member


The LULAC Village Park Apartments are located on HorneRoad. In recent years, questions have been raised about theoversight and management of some of those complexes.


LULAC West Park Apartments on Interstate 37 Access Roadjust past McKinzie Road serves low-income re sident s.

corpus christi caller times 20130811 a001 a010

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