Category: Meetings

Last meeting of the year! New flood plain maps, giving out HSAB money, the old Dixie Cream Donuts building, and we unpack that mess in September with the housing vouchers waitlist. And Lorenzo wins the run-off election! Congrats to him.

The Council Run-off Election

Well, well, well! Lorenzo Gonzalez squeaked through!  

As of Saturday, he was ahead by TWELVE VOTES.  Then 40 more votes arrived in the mail this week. (They just have to be postmarked by the 14th.  And you know how local San Marcos mail gets re-routed up to Austin and takes twice as long as it should. Why is that?!) 

Those last 40 votes were counted on Friday. Roland would have needed to win them 26-14 in order to pull ahead. But in the end, Lorenzo prevailed, winning the election by 9 votes. Wowza. Congrats to Lorenzo!

Now it comes time to closely watch and see how he actually does up there on the dais!

Onto the meeting!

Hours 0:00 – 1:56: New flood plain maps, and a deep dive into the old Dixie Cream Donuts building, next to the railroad tracks.

Hours 1:56 – 3:47: Human Services recommends how we give out $550K in grant money, and council starts chopping.  Also, what do we want the Texas Legislature to do this session?

Bonus! 3 pm workshops:  What exactly happened in September, when so many people waited for hours, hoping to get housing vouchers from the Housing Authority, and no one did?

Note: when this meeting occurred, those last 40 votes were still arriving in the mail. There was a real possibility that the council seat was still open. This matters because Roland Saucedo was actually at the meeting in person, advocating for one of the HSAB applications. Hijinks ensued.

And that’s a wrap for 2024! See you all next year!

Hoo-boy. We’ve had a big election and a little council meeting.  Let’s dig in.

The Little Meeting: It was only 50 minutes long.

Hours 0:00 – 0:50: Parking bans by the river, the new HEB, and more.

Bonus! 3 pm workshops: We’ve got $250K of Covid money left, and time is running out.

The Big Election:

Nationally: I’ve got the same grim despair as you do.  There are a lot of people whose lives will be harder, sicker, poorer, and more abused because of this shit-for-brains president-elect. 

I feel hopeless, but not helpless.  American voters have revealed what they are, but there’s still work to be done. So as shitty as it is out there, we can compartmentalize and work on San Marcos. 

Onto the local scene: 

• Mayor: As you’ve probably heard, Jane Hughson won re-election.  This will be her 4th term – she’s won in 2018, 2020, 2022, and now in 2024.  This means she’s term-limited, and the mayor will be an open seat in 2026.
  
• Place 6: Amanda Rodriguez won Place 6!  I’m so glad.  We’re starting to get a progressive bloc up there that can actually win votes.

• Place 5: Lorenzo Gonzalez and Roland Saucedo are headed to a run-off. Here’s how it shook out: 

That is extremely close. All you can conclude is:
– Lorenzo did a little better than the rest, and Atom did a little worse.
– Roland got a little lucky. and Griffin got a little unlucky.

The run-off: Saturday, December 14th.

I’m backing Lorenzo Gonzalez in the run-off election! His main message has been to be available and responsive to people, redirect more money towards mental health, and focus on housing.

Listen: After I posted my candidate write-up, people came out of the woodwork to warn me that Roland Saucedo is super problematic.  The formal documentation is limited – mostly this and this – but sufficiently many people are telling me a consistent story about his disregard for others. It’s troubling.

If you ever wanted your vote to count extra, a local runoff election is your sweet spot. Barely anyone will show up, and it can easily be decided by 50 votes. Or 15 votes. Or even 5!

I’ve got your Council election candidate recs, fresh off the presses! Plus: VisionSMTX, the exciting new 3rd HEB, TDS, ARWA and some old timey photos of San Marcos. So many acronyms. What a week.

TSM Official Take on City Council Candidates, Fall ’24: Let’s dish about your favorite candidates, and I’ll spill who I’m voting for.

Hours 0:00 – 1:24:  VisionSMTX is done, and we discuss contracts with the Chamber of Commerce and Texas Disposal Systems.

Hours 1:24 – 2:07:  All the exciting details on the new HEB!  Plus ARWA water and naming the downtown alleys.

Bonus! 3 pm workshops: The Mitchell Center gets a new family. 

This is the last post before the election! (A wave of anxiety crashes over me.)

For the love of god, please go vote. And tell your friends and family: you can vote with an expired license. You know how backed up the DMV is right now.

Extremely short meeting this week! VisionSMTX, some art talk, and Quail Creek park. You’ll zip through the blog post in no time flat.

City Council Elections: Here’s what I’ve heard about:
– Realtors debate (on September 19th)
– SMRF Questionnaire (in their newsletter and online this week)
– League of Women Voters debate (not until Thursday, October 19th)

I’ll write up my thoughts and endorsements after the LWV debate. It’ll come out Sunday, October 20th. Stay tuned!

Onto this tiny little meeting:

Hours 0:00-1:00:  We discuss VisionSMTX, the new downtown mural, and Quail Creek park.  

That was it. There wasn’t even a workshop!

You all: we are breaking our river. The most important thing at Council this week was the workshop on the river and river parks. We might have to fence the park in and charge admission. (Also we approved the new budget, zoned some stuff, etc. The usual.)

Here we go:

Hours 0:00 – 2:10:  More on the City Hall steering committee, some parking, some zoning, and the budget for next year is approved.

Bonus! 3 pm workshops: All about the river parks. We might have to fence them in and charge admission. 

Election season!

There was a debate hosted by the real estate agents this past Thursday. The League of Women Voters council and mayoral debates will be on October 17th. If you know of any other debates, let me know!

I will try to write everything up before early voting starts on October 21st. (That’s a tight turnaround, though.)

Don’t forget to make sure you’re registered to vote! Check here to see if you’re registered, or find out how to register, or update your registration. Last day to register is October 7th.

This week’s meeting was just zip, zip, zip.  All these topics that sometimes get tons of deep, gritty discussion – the budget, the tax rate, Axis/SMART Terminal – just sailed through.  (The workshops are great, though! Lots of good pictures.)

Here we go:

Hours 0:00 – 3:38:  The new budget, tax rate, and utilities.  Also the end of the (Axis) road, the end of a useless MUD,  more on School Resource Officers, and a little about the new city hall.

Bonus! 3 pm workshops:  These were great!  The Purgatory Creek project, a $2 million bridge, and the state of utility assistance in San Marcos.

Candidate election news

No debates yet, but I’ll keep an eye out.

Aaaaaannd we’re back! Kicking the new season off hard with some SMART/Axis gobbledy-gook. Plus CBDG money, Hays County Health Department, and the last of the Covid money.

Elections:

Things have actually gotten less exciting – Jane Hughson’s one competitor has withdrawn from the race. So we have three races, each with one candidate running unopposed.

Mayor: Jane Hughson
Place 5: Griffen Spell
Place 6: Maraya Dunn

The last day to register to run is Monday, August 19th! This is where you can check if anyone has signed up.

Onto the meeting!

Hours 0:00 – 2:19:  Distributing CDBG money, and the SMART/Axis monster is back in full force.

Bonus! 3 pm workshops:  We hear from the Hays County Health Department, and the last bit of Covid money is getting doled out.

That’s all I got. Smell ya later, kids.

Hello from the dregs of summer! Council meets once in July, and you lucky duck: it was this week. Lots of talk about low-income housing, we hear from the city on Malachi Williams, Dunbar is getting some new pipes, and Mano Amiga is taking on Civil Service. Plus some new City Hall details are materializing.

Let’s do this:

Hours 0:00 – 1:32:  Malachi Williams, a new LIHTC project, and some smaller items

Hours 1:32 – 2:23:  Mano Amiga submits an unsuccessful petition to repeal Civil Service, and we talk about LIHTC projects a lot.

Bonus! 3 pm workshops:  Where are we going to build the new city hall? And fixing the sidewalks.

That’s it for July! Regular meetings resume in August. Enjoy your summer.