City Council - Regular Meeting

I call this regular meeting of the San Marcos City Council to order. Today is Tuesday, August 18th of 2026. Time is 6.24. Apologies for the late start. Our three o'clock meeting ran all the way to 5.58. So, Ms. Trevino, would you call the roll, please?

OK. And I don't see the person doing our invocation this evening. Is Reverend Sheila Sidbury-Thomas in the lobby? If not, we will move on to our pledges of allegiance to the United States and Texas.

honor the Texas flag, and pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state, under God, one and indivisible. Thank you. We will now start with our citizen comment time frame. The city council will hear citizens' comments at regular meetings, work sessions, and workshops. There is a process to sign up. if you're online when it's almost your turn, there's going to be a pop-up question appear on your screen and and make sure that you respond to it so that you can get in when it's your turn. Speakers may speak once during the citizen comment time period and may not yield time to others. You speak now ab

Our next speaker is Max Phil Baker, and I believe he's joining us online.

Our next speaker, Lonnie Stern, who I think is just here for answering questions. So next will be John Artunio.

Okay, Mr. Gonzales and Mr. Pantaleon, will y'all look into that and get back with these two people?

Okay, so that concludes our citizen comment time period. Council, next is our consent agenda, and I'm looking to see who has anything to pull. I have number nine and number 14. Mm-hmm. Anybody have anything else? Okay. 9 and 14. So I am seeking a motion to approve 1 through 8, 10 through 13, and 15 through 18. And I'll give that to Ms. Rodriguez and seconded by Mr. Mendoza. Did you say? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Ms. Trevino, are we push button voting tonight?

All right. So that takes us to our public hearings. We will return to items 9 and 14 after the public hearing. Ms. Trevino, item 19.

Okay. I will open the public hearing. We have no one signed up. But if there's anyone here who wishes to speak far against or about this item, now would be the time if you'll come on in and step up to the podium. And going once, twice, three times. Seeing no one, I'll close the public hearing. And I will... Motion to approve.

We have a motion from Ms. Rodriguez. Seconded by Mr. Peselk. And... Now we will discuss, I want to make it clear on that project. We're not spending $8 million this year. That's in the plan. It's always a cumulative. Yes, ma'am. Uh, the 2000 was spent several years ago. So I just say, you know, it's at the nine 37 nine. Um, and these are, this is money spent for what's hers was created for, which is to put some of the money that comes from downtown. directly back into downtown. Council, I have one amendment and one conversation to have. Does anybody have anything that they'd like to go first?

All right. Thank you. The next item is an item that was on there, and it has to do with a tree and a sidewalk, in a sidewalk, not and a sidewalk, but in a sidewalk. If someone would like to explain to us, to the public, exactly what we're talking about there. Thank you, Mr. Condor.

And the estimated diameter of that tree is?

I don't think I could get my arms around it. So this is a significant issue that has grown with time.

That's where I went, 300,000. I want people to be able to get around there. I want the tree to stay. It's the 300,000. Ms. Rodriguez is also on that board with me.

Large tree. As big as, wide as the sidewalk pretty much now. So, my concern is the $300,000, that's a lot of money to spend on a relatively small square footage. And... You have what you want to add, or shall I go ahead and say it?

Yeah, I would hope that perhaps the university might help us kick in, because this is right kind of in the middle of their campus. Now, what the tree is in front of is, I believe it's private property, the McCarty Student Center. But still, I'm hoping that since they have quite an interest or should have an interest in this, that they could provide something. And I'm hoping this is one of those that we're thinking this is worst case scenario and ends up costing less.

That's for the tree removal and the sidewalk repair together? No, we would not remove the tree. I think it's very important.

Yes, I definitely want to save a tree. I'm so happy to hear that. What kind of tree is it, by the way? I can't tell. Anybody know? Aren't you a tree guy? I'm just asking you guys.

So I think my question, my request is, is that I'm not gonna suggest that we make a change in this, because when we make a change in the plan, then it's gotta come back, that's a whole new person and all that. I'm okay with leaving this 300,000 allocated, But before anything is done, I would like for this to come back to the tourist board. I think that was your plan anyway. So I just want to make that formal. And we see what we can do. Keep the tree. Keep it so that folks can go safely around the tree. And maybe not lose too many parking spaces. Yes.

Thank you. So I believe that was their plan already. We're just formalizing that. Anything else from the council on this item? Okay, so you didn't have an amendment, you just had? I just want to make sure that we get to look at it again before that money is spent.

I will say that we've made improvements this year and that we've got our Main Street Board, which is comprised of downtown folks and interest in downtown. The TURS Board is two council members, two commissioners, county commissioners, and a downtown business owner. And so we have the TERS. I've said the Main Street Board's got a lot of ideas. We hold the purse strings. So we have met with the two groups have met twice. Twice?

Twice this year. And we will continue to do that as the Main Street Board identifies and has their plan for the next year. But I'll tell you, one of the things I'm really excited about on here is the gum removal. I think we'll all be excited. My mayor gum removal.

I will quickly mention how this is funded because I got an email from someone recently that thought there was an extra tax on downtown businesses and no. In 2011, the City Council decided to create this TERS. A snapshot was taken of the tax base. Ms. Folletti, you stop me at any time if I say something incorrect. That a snapshot was taken of the tax base and the taxes paid, and of the increase since 2011, 70% goes into the tourist fund, 30% goes into the general fund. That's for city and same for county. We did adjust that a little bit during COVID when we couldn't do projects anyway. So there

Thank you. Then we will go back to items nine and 14.

I have a motion by Mr. Scott, seconded by Ms. Rodriguez. The reason I pulled this was to call attention to this. On the consent agenda, it just kind of, flows through, and I just want the public to know, dockless scooters are back, or will be back. So anything else y'all would like to tell us? And then Ms. Rodriguez, would you like to cover what you asked and was answered on the message board?

Basically, it's the same geographic area. And we did include new area or additional area on the east side of the interstate a year or two ago with the previous scooter folks. And so I understand that that's still going to be available because of improvements and sidewalks and being able to get from one side of the interstate to the other in that particular area.

And to let the students on campus know. And Ms. Grisel, Paris Carey would be able to help you with the list of people to contact.

I do want to thank Lime for making that accommodation for those who need some help.

So we have a representative from Lyme, right? So I had a question specifically for them.

OK, sir, if you can make your way to the podium with microphone. Thank you. Go ahead, Mr. Gonzalez.

So I know for the Lime Access program, one of the qualifications is participation in the free or reduced lunch program. Our local ISD has 100% participation. So I know in a different market, because every student had free lunch, their school district didn't provide individualized paperwork that shows that the student qualifies. So would a family just being able to prove that their child is going to a SMCISD school be enough to qualify them? Or how difficult would it be for them to prove that they participate in the free lunch program given that everyone in our ISD participates?

They participate, but they don't all qualify. There's a difference.

Being a Title I school, the entire school qualifies.

But for individual families, it's what, 75%? Yeah. No, I know they get it, but the qualification that we're talking about here may be different, but I'll let him answer the question.

So I guess that changes the root of my question. Because my understanding was as long as the household had a qualifying child. So I guess let me give you the actual real world example. So in San Antonio, several years ago, there was a family who lived relatively close to their school. So the father would walk the kids to school, but then use a scooter to get to work. But because the school district was a Title I school, the district was not providing them any sort of paperwork that they qualified. So they were having difficulty providing that to y'all. So the solution in that particular case i

Yeah, and for clarification, it didn't take two months for Lime to approve them. It took two months for the state of Texas to approve them to get SNAP to then qualify for Lime.

Okay. I do have one question, one more question, and that is please tell me that y'all pick up the scooters very regularly because we've had a problem previously where they didn't pick them up very quickly. They were falling over. They were blocking sidewalks. It was a mess, and certainly in some areas it was a bigger mess than others. Like folks who live near the river, they'd use the scooter to get to the river, jump in, and just leave them.

Well, I mean, it's not making you any money if it's laying there for three days. Exactly. It's causing problems.

Who draws your map on where you go and why? Say that again? Who draws the map on where you service?

You're asking about the pink spots like I did?

Well, I see one spot, and then maybe we could extend it just a little bit.

Yeah, I asked that on the message board.

And it's like between 123 and Wonder World, you know, you get the school district over there, you get some houses. It's like right on this side of 35, we've got some houses that go from one world all the way down to 80. It might be a good idea to...

Yeah, it's probably a sidewalk issue now that I think about it. Between Wonderworld and 123, the school over there and everything might be a really good spot to have them, but it's hard to...

Yeah. Yeah, it's not any different than the other side of 35. So I'm just saying there's right there between Wonder World and 123. Maybe we'll take a look at that. We'll talk about it, whatever it is around there.

Yeah, Wonder World's really starting to push that way. There's going to be a lot of feel going that way. There's a lot of housing out that way.

Yeah. Thank you. We're glad that y'all are going to be in San Marcos.

Okay. Counsel, anything else? Well, by golly, let's vote on this one.

Motion to approve. Well, I was going to make the motion to approve, but I'll give it to Ms. Rodriguez, and I'll take the second on that. On item 14, the reason I pulled it was simply for the amendment to the document, but if you would like to just in general explain what this means and why we're doing it, that would probably be helpful for us and to our viewers at home.

And again, September 30th, October 1, seamless.

All right. Okay, then I do have a motion on that one, and it's simply because the map that was in there was just not making sense to me. is to replace the map that was in here with a much better map that is entitled Exhibit A, San Marcos EMS Service Area that Mr. Zalas provided for us today. That one is very clear what the intent is. Thank you. So that is my motion. And I hear a second from, for the amendment, a second from Mr. Scott. So thank you for that. And that map was available on the message board. Are there any questions about the map? All right, we'll vote on that. Motion passes seven

All right, and thank you very much. That concludes our consent agenda. And we are on to item 20, Ms. Trevino. Mayor. Yes, ma'am.

Yeah, that's good. All right. Thank you. And you're saying welcome, but Jonathan has actually, she's been with us for a long time. Welcome to his new role. All right. Ms. Trevino, now we'll fire up with item 20.

Motion to approve. Motion by Ms. Rodriguez, seconded by Mr. Scott. Any questions on this item? All righty, then we'll vote. Motion passes seven to zero. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Avila, for being here for questions or whatnot. Item 21, please.

I have a motion for Mr. Paselk, seconded by Ms. Rodriguez. Is this the one that the page was the old one or is that the next one?

Any questions on this one? None. We'll set the dates of those public hearings.

So moved. I heard a motion over here from Mr. Scott first. I'll give Ms. Rodriguez the second. uh, conversations on this one. Um, Mr Vino, I'm, I'm looking for an, Mr Locke, do you have the explanation? Because we've got a packet out there that, um, needs a little help.

Yeah, basically it's the executive summary was from last year. Okay. So, but Mr. Vino, that's been fixed in the packet. So if somebody downloaded packets since what, yesterday afternoon or something to council, it would be. Yeah. But we know I'm looking for the public to make sure they've got what they need. Are there any questions about this one? I don't think I had anything. No, I did not. Okay. Questions. Nope. Nope.

Motion by Ms. Rodriguez, seconded by Mr. Purcell. You all have any questions? I see. No, thank you, Mr. Binion. Mr. Binion is here and ready to answer whatever we might ask. I tell you what, could you just make the statement about what I asked on the message board for those watching at home regarding the...

It's been that way for a while. But just making sure everyone still knows. So if the bus doesn't get you where you need to go, then maybe the Bobcat shuttle will, or maybe take a combination of the two, but they do have different hours. But still, I don't know that everybody in town knows that.

Thank you very much. Yes, ma'am. Any other questions? Let's vote.

I'll give Mr. Purcell that motion, seconded by Ms. Rodriguez. I do have a couple of amendments. There are a couple of, it was old information, was in the Contract, but this is the one they sent us, correct? Correct, both of them. So anyway, you can see them on the screen. It's basically correcting the address of the elections office from co.hays.tx.us to hayscountytx.gov. And then for the elections website is not co.hays.tx.us slash elections. It's hayscountytx.gov slash 172 slash elections.

Thank you very much. Are there any questions about these? If not, we'll vote on the amendment.

We can do it again. We're getting good at this. All right. And any questions on the main motion as amended? We'll vote again.

I'll give that to the Rodriguez-Baselk team again. I do have a motion to amend. It will look quite familiar to you. Second. Thank you very much. And unless there's any questions, we'll vote on the amendment. Motion passes seven to zero. And then we'll roll back up to the agreement as amended. Motion passes 7-0. All right. We are to the executive session part of our program. Am I correct, Mr. Vigna? Yes.

I think that motion was made by Mr. Pesel, seconded by Ms. Rodriguez, and Ms. Trevino has already queued us up to vote.

And we're going into executive. We have returned from our executive session, which we concluded at 10.07. And our next item is 28.

And we had that discussion. Next item is question and answer session with the press and public. No one signed up. No one is here. In that case, the next thing on our agenda is adjournment, and I will adjourn us at 10.09.