SAN MARCOS CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATES
As the Place 2 incumbent for the San Marcos City Council, Saul Gonzales said the experience from his three terms is his strongest qualification. Since he was first elected in 2009, he has served on the Planning and Zoning Commission, the Zoning Board of Adjustments and the Council of Neighborhood Associations. And most important to Gonzales, he said he has kept pledges he made to voters in previous elections.
“Everything that I promised that I would do last time around, I kept my promise. I said I would not vote for high density apartments adjacent to well-established neighborhoods. I don’t take money from developers or special interest groups. I never have and I never will. The only people who are going to own me are the people of San Marcos.”
Gonzales has deep roots in the San Marcos community. Both of his parents were born here, as were his nine siblings. His mother, who worked on the custodial staff at Texas State University, raised the family as a single mom. Gonzales grew up a block away from Southside Elementary, the building that is now Centro Cultural Hispano de San Marcos.
Preserving the history of San Marcos is a key part of this campaign. This focus includes Centro and the land behind it which is currently for sale.
“It’s a landmark. My dream is to keep it as is, not apartments or anything like that. Something that is going to be an asset to that neighborhood.”
He also envisions a downtown area closer to what he remembers from his youth, with more small businesses and fewer bars.
“How do we do that? Is probably giving incentives to encourage San Marcos shops.”
The pilot program for resident parking at Rio Vista park is one of the ways the current city council has fought to prioritize the people who live in San Marcos over the ever-increasing number of out-of-town visitors, Gonzales said.
“That’s our river, our citizens’ river. They should get in free. Now, people coming in from out of town, they don’t contribute very much by buying things here, so I said we’ve got to make up some revenue to pay those park rangers.”
The city’s relationship with Texas State University has both advantages and disadvantages, he said. On the plus side, Texas State provides jobs, as well as free bus service to all San Marcos residents, not just TXST students. One of his goals if elected to another city council term would be to promote this perk to non-student residents and to work with the university to increase TXST bus access throughout the city. However, Gonzales said the city is required to provide an extra firetruck to cover the campus area as well as extra police in areas frequented by students, costs that could be offset by taxes on the University.
His training as an electrician and his real-world job experience have been key to negotiating with developers and contractors and helping the rest of the council to understand technical language and issues. He worked for nearly four decades at the Central Texas Medical Center, now Christus Santa Rosa, where he retired as Director of Facilities.
Gonzales was the council member who asked the most technical questions about the proposed Highlander SM One data center.
“I voted against that, and the reason being, there were too many unanswered questions. … To give you an example, what kind of chemicals do you put on your loop system for the AC, and they wouldn’t tell me.”
During a city council meeting last month, Gonzales voted against the highest rate option for the FY 2026 budget, the rate recommended by city staff. The lower rate approved by Gonzales includes “enough ongoing revenues to be structurally balanced” and provide “some funding for current and future needs,” according to City Director of Finance Jon Locke. However, a number of improvement projects included in the higher rate proposed by the city are not included at the approved budget level.
“We’re just going to have to learn to live within our means and make sure that corporations and developments pay their fair share.” he said.
