Martindale passes ‘can ban’

The Martindale City Council passed a long-awaited “can ban” Tuesday night, but the details of the ordinance banning all disposable containers on the San Marcos River are not what they once were.

The ordinance as passed will not affect customers at the tubing companies upstream from the Martindale city limits or Float Fest, the annual concert and tubing event held along the river each summer.

Council was set to vote on an ordinance described in the agenda as “protecting the San Marcos River by prohibiting all disposable containers on the San Marcos River, declaring a public nuisance, within the city limits and extraterritorial jurisdiction, providing for penalties and containing a savings clause and declaring an effective date.”

Several members of the public spoke in favor of the can ban ordinance Tuesday night. River advocate Tom Goynes urged council to pass the ordinance.

“This is the night to pass the can ban and save the river,” he said.

John Hohn also spoke in favor of the can ban, telling council, “I ask, if not beg, you to do the right thing.”

Council member Mary Alice Paul made a motion to accept the ordinance, and council member Mike McClabb provided a second. However, Martindale’s attorney, Kent Wymore, presented a second draft of the ordinance that did not include the extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) as an option for the council to consider.

“The reason that the ETJ language was removed was because while we invest authority in the officers to write and issue citations in the ETJ, the municipal court will not have the authority to hear a citation that was issued in the ETJ,” Wymore said.

The municipal court only hears citations issued within the city limits. Wymore said the city could attempt to have tickets prosecuted in another court.

“It may work, it may not,” he said. “But looking at this, I think the council wants to determine which seems more prudent.”

Paul amended her motion to adopt the version of the ordinance that did not include the ETJ, and McClabb seconded it.

There was some discussion about the can ban ordinance among council members before the vote. Council member Lisa Shell Allan said that she had been given information about how the ordinance would be enforced within the city limits.

“Equal enforcement will be done, so in other words, no matter if you are a resident, no matter if you are a visitor, no matter if you’ve been around and known for years and years, if you have cans in your cooler in your canoe or in your kayak, you will be cited.”

Allan also said she had been told the ordinance will affect participants in the Texas Water Safari, the annual canoe race that starts in San Marcos, heads downstream through Martindale and ultimately takes canoers to the coastal town of Seadrift.

Wymore clarified that it is not council’s job to direct law enforcement on how to enforce laws.

“Ultimately, this is the policy making body of the city, and there is a separate law enforcement body … that in their infinite wisdom will decide what enforcement will look like,” he said.

Allan responded that she was not attempting to tell the city’s law enforcement officers how to do their job.

“I wasn’t in any way, shape or form asking or even bringing that to the table,” she said. “I was bringing to the table what has been told to me by law enforcement as to how they will enforce.”

Council member Sonja Villalobos voiced her misgivings about the elements of the can ban that have not yet been specified.

“I’m still unsure,” she said. “Where is the money going to come from for the signage? How is it going to be enforced? … I think there’s a whole bunch that goes along with it that I don’t have information about.”

Ultimately the “can ban” ordinance passed with Allan and Villalobos voting against it.