Shane Scott and Atom Von Arndt are facing off for Place 4.
(Never forget: San Marcos Elections are Problematic.)
Executive summary: Shane isn’t the absolute worst, but he’s not great either. I think I’m Atom-curious.
Shane Scott, the known quantity
He is a very serious grown up. Let’s all remember the time he brought 3 oz of weed to council, in order to make a some convoluted point about decriminalization being on the ballot:
Someone go make an animated GIF of that for me! It’s still so funny. And look at everyone else’s expression:
Eight different ways to say, “What the fuck, Shane?!” with just your eyes. I love it.
More seriously: should you vote for Shane?
He was on council around 2010 for a while, and then was voted off, and then was voted back on three years ago. I’m going to focus on the past couple years, since that’s what I’ve paid closest attention to.
The good: We sometimes share a common enemy:
- He has an anti-authoritarian streak, so he votes against the curfew and often looks askance at the police
- He loves businesses and hates regulations, which often pits him against NIMBY types. I am interested in affordable housing and helping vulnerable populations, which often pits me against NIMBY types, as well. So, the enemy of my enemy is my friend?
For example, he voted against curfews, and voted to repeal Meet-and-Confer. (On the other hand, he voted to approve the new contract when it came back.) He voted against VisionSMTX++ this evening.
The bad: Often I disagree with him:
- He’ll choose businesses over the environment
- He’ll choose businesses over vulnerable people
Whereas I like the environment and vulnerable people.
Looking over my yearly summaries, these are things that jump out at me: Voting against the transportation master plan because of the bike lanes. Being rude to SMRF on multiple occasions. Voting against the lobbying ordinance. Voting against the eviction delay a full year earlier than its repeal, while the rest of council was still in favor of it. Voting for every single development that has come around, even the ones that end up being denied. He’s generally the most guaranteed vote for business interests, at the expense of anything else.
The ugly: Shane never seems to do anything. I can recall just a few things he’s ever initiated:
- Spear fishing in the river
- Horribly ill-conceived plan to ban being homeless
- Debt forgiveness for utilities. (This one was to his credit.)
- Leveraging decorum and politeness against Max Baker
The first three are all from 2021. That’s over two years old! And scolding Max Baker was in March of 22. He hasn’t initiated anything else I can remember, for most of his term.
He doesn’t make amendments or improve policies or try to incorporate multiple points of view into a compromise. He just shows up, votes, gets annoyed when things drag out, and goes home. That’s a real waste of a position of power.
Atom Von Arndt, the unknown quantity
What is Atom like? He seems more prepared than last year. Last year, he had shallow answers like “How dare we spend so much on street lights down Hopkins!” This year, he seems to be thinking more strategically about the connection between vulnerable populations and policy. He sounded basically progressive!
He also said that he’s just going to keep on running until he’s elected. I actually admire that a lot.
My opinion: I’m leaning towards Atom for Place 4.
Also: Alyssa is unopposed for Place 3. Fortunately, she’s great. Vote for her!
The Debate
The League of Women Voters held their debate over zoom, on October 12th. The whole thing is very short – only 26 minutes. Opening statements, eight questions, closing statements, done!
The questions:
- What motivates you to seek this position?
- What would you strive to accomplish during your term?
- How can council create opportunities for citizen input at the earliest stages of the review process for new commercial and industrial developments?
- What steps should San Marcos take to prepare for extreme weather events?
- How should San Marcos work with agencies to ensure the environmental health of the river?
- What will you do to support a vibrant economy in San Marcos while also controlling rampant growth?
- Explain the status of the San Marcos water supply, and what should be done to ensure future supply is adequate.
- Fire danger in Texas is increasing due to hotter summers, drought, and development. Please discuss your position on the city’s present fire fighting resources, and any changes you’d suggest.
I don’t love this set of questions? Questions 4,7, and 8 are all technical issues. The only respectable answer is, “Well, I’d listen to the experts since they know way more than me.”
So we wasted three questions on important-but-wonky issues. But there was nothing asked about:
- Sprawl
- Affordable housing
- SMART Terminal
- SMPD
- Cape’s Dam
In short, I want questions that could potentially distinguish how candidates will vote on issues.
However! The LWV are a bunch of hard-working volunteers, who are running debates and volunteering because they believe in democracy. I’m not really going to crab at anyone who is donating so much time and energy towards democracy.
The rules: Each candidate gets one minute for anything, no rebuttals.
Debate Summary: I think they tied, debate-wise. Neither one sounded much stronger than the other. I basically transcribed their answers below, but it’s kind of jumbled, since they only had a minute to make their case.
Opening statements:
Shane Scott:
– Council for 3 years,
– 5 year term about 5 years earlier.
– Glad to be here!
Atom Von Arndt:
– Regular guy: renter, dad,
– Got the same problems that everyone is having.
- What motivates you to seek this position?
Shane: The community, the issues that are coming. The growth we’re going to see. The jobs we need to create. Transportation issues. Wanting to serve in general.
Atom: Housing issues, affordability issues, lack of transparency with the roads. I face all these same problems and I want to help. I’m concerned with the people on the bottom of the food chain. Getting resources for the homeless and people in need. Service.
- What would you strive to accomplish during your term?
AVA: Get better resources for mental health issues. If you’re on disability, there aren’t resources and you get forced out of town. How do you move to a bigger place if this isn’t affordable? Increase resources. Second, housing. Rent-by-the-room is hurting our economy.
SS: Same things! Affordability, housing, homeless. List goes on. Transportation is coming in the future. I see the traffic. We work for homeless and people with mental health issues. We do a lot. We lower rates. I did the debt forgiveness for utilities. We do a lot.
- How can council create opportunities for citizen input at the earliest stages of the review process for new commercial and industrial developments?
SS: All plans for any kind of development should be out and open for the community to observe and have input! Too many times it’s done before it even gets to council. Committees can help decipher! But the community needs a birds-eye view of any development that’s going to come to San Marcos.
AVA: Community outreach. I hear that this is difficult. People need to know. How do we get their attention? More town halls. More block parties. Use businesses to bring people in to announce decisions and upcoming things, especially P&Z. Make town halls exciting! Give them some pizzazz to get people to show up and make people feel like council is operating on their behalf.
- What steps should San Marcos take to prepare for extreme weather events?
[Kinda unfair as a question!]
AVA: It’s been a drought, and then we’re worried about floods. Need emergency plans in place. Need to worry about all this new development and how it will affect the flood plains. Preparedness and emergency plans – focus on that. “I’m no weatherologist, but eventually we’re going to to have the rain again, we’re going to have the water, and it’s going to need to be an issue we get out in front of.”
SS: Is this the winter storm you’re asking about? We’ve done a lot! Hardening our water and utility lines to protect during freeze. Federal funding for flood mitigation, we went to Washington. Bypasses are getting built, underground drainage is getting built, GPMRS system just got up, will let people get on the channel if you have no cell ability.
- How should SM work with agencies to ensure the environmental health of the river?
SS: That’s one of our key issues! We’re talking about a can ban. Removed styrofoam from parks, moved BBQ pits away, we do river clean up 2-3x a year. Educate people about the river and let them know about the endangered species and why we love it.
AVA: Love the can ban. Boils down to enforcement. Gotta make sure people do that. But development is happening by the river. Gotta enforce rules on development as well, though. Enforce the rules and regulations around the river and pass more things like can ban to keep people from flooding the river with garbage.
- What will you do to support a vibrant economy in San Marcos while also controlling rampant growth?
[What does “controlling rampant growth” exactly mean? It sounds like “try to prevent” which is nonsense.]
AVA: This is tricky! Businesses open and close downtown a lot. Seasonality of economy, poor college students. Grants to support small local businesses. Work with small local businesses. Make downtown beautiful, open up boarded up shops. Encourage growth with larger businesses, grocery store chains.
[May I humbly suggest that we strongly look at a vacancy tax?]
SS: With covid, small businesses were hit. We did a lot as a city, but many did close. I’m focused on bringing the jobs – Amazons #1 and 2. A place to live, work, and play, with a job that pays enough to live here. Looking for ways to help people.
[HRM. Have we been concerned with minimum wage jobs, SHANE?]
- Explain the status of the SM water supply, and what should be done to ensure future supply is adequate.
SS: I know this one pretty well! I voted for the water rights from Gonzales. GMRA and us bought 50% of it and literally purchased our water security for the next 50 years. So we’re not going to run out like Kyle does. In fact, Kyle didn’t want to join originally, and so I was like ‘we’ll purchase your portion and sell it back to you later on, to make money and lower utilities for our citizens.’ So I’m always trying to get someone else to pay for our lifestyle, because we were here first. [off-putting chuckle.]
AVA: The majority of our water we don’t pull from the Edwards aquifer. Most of us are coming from another source. The college is using a lot more aquifer water than the city does. Selling off water to Kyle is great! It’s income. Obviously let’s educate them to keep them from blowing through their limits though. I want to look into more of this college vs city stuff another time.
- Fire danger in Texas is increasing due to hotter summers, drought, and development. Please discuss your position on the city’s present fire fighting resources, and any changes you’d suggest.
AVA: Having a well-funded, well-equipped fire department is essential for any city in Texas. We can and should spend more money on it, especially with the record heat. More firefighters over police officers, not to start any fights. Houses catch on fire all the time, we don’t have any crime waves going on in SM right now. [Note: I can’t tell if this is straight or kidding.] We need to be prepared and equipped.
SS: We keep increasing the Fire Department needs as the chief presents them. Also education what the fired department can and can’t do. We have to call air supply to the hill country. We’re always paying attention to that. Community engagement and people paying attention so that fires don’t happen.
[A good answer here would be to connect it to sprawl. The more sprawl, the more expensive your fire department becomes.]
Closing Statements
SS: Thanks you! It’s been a pleasure. I hope I’ve answered questions that help you understand. I’m a small business owner, been here 30 years. My kids go through the school system. We’re part of everything. I love serving, problem-solving, forethought for planning, 50 year water supplies, 3% that we bought into the electric utility that earned us 25 million during the Uri Snowstorm*. Those are things I enjoy putting together as a councilmember, and I enjoy the business side of that. Lower the rates, lower the taxes!
[Wait. The city earned $25 million from electricity during Snowvid?! That’s super gross!]
AVA: Thank you! It would be an honor. I’m in sales. I’ve always worked for other people, rented from other people, so I feel the effects of when this all happens for the working class. My superpower is communicating and talking to people, it’s what I’ve always been good at. Finding common ground. So many different people with different people, and I think I can be the voice for them. It’s a great city, there’s a lot we can do. I’m not going anywhere! I’ll run again next year! I think I have a good head on my shoulders, and I’ll talk to anyone who wants to talk to me.
And…SCENE! My guess is that Shane is so well-connected that he breezes to re-election. But it wouldn’t hurt to at least make him sweat a little.