City awards $500K to social services

The San Marcos City Council awarded  $500,000 to various social service agencies in its meeting Wednesday night.

As recommended by the Human Services Advisory Board, the following agencies were recommended and approved to receive funding in various amounts: Any Baby Can, Cenikor Foundation, Central Texas Dispute Resolution Center, Combined Community Action, Community Action, Family Justice Center, Girls Empowerment Network, Greater San Marcos Youth Council, Hands of Hope, Hays County Food Bank, Hays Caldwell Women’s Center, Hays County Child Protective Board, Nosotros La Gente, Pet Prevent A Litter, The Salvation Army, School Fuel, San Marcos Housing Authority, SMCISD Age Parenting Program, San Marcos Youth Service Bureau, Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Scheib Opportunity Center and Southside Community Center.

While not all agencies are located within San Marcos, they all serve residents in the area. 

Related to the COVID-19 pandemic, Public Safety Director Chase Stapp reported that Hays County has 15 providers currently enrolled in programs that can administer a COVID-19 vaccine, one of which is Hays County EMS. 

He expects that, according to Gov. Greg Abbott's distribution plan, healthcare workers, frontline workers and vulnerable populations will receive the vaccine first. 

Councilmembers voted to adopt the Community Development Block Grant Action Plan with the revised allocation of $722K of CDBG entitlement funds for the 2020-2021 program year. This is $110 less than originally calculated. 

The revised plan is reducing the funding to program administration. The remainder of the funding is still allocated to Habitat for Humanity housing counseling, CASA’s advocacy services for abused and neglected children, home rehabilitation through the Southside Community Center, repairs and homebuyer assistance through the city’s community initiatives, and a project to make Centro Cultural Hispano de San Marcos more accessible and energy efficient through renovations.

In other business, city council amended the San Marcos City Code related to flood damage prevention by creating enhanced floor damage prevention and mitigation standards. The adoption keeps the city in compliance with the National Flood Insurance Program. 

Councilmembers approved a contract Goodwill Temporary Services, Inc. through for janitorial services for the City of San Marcos in the estimated amount of $634K, after it was confirmed that Goodwill has been paying their employees an extra $2 per hour due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

They also appointed Shanna O’Brien, head of Code Compliance to represent the City of San Marcos as a voting member of the Hays County Local Homeless Coalition.

The Head of Code Compliance was selected as the department has been supplementing the library’s services by acting as “boots on the ground” support for people experiencing homelessness, meeting them where they are at to connect them to services. 

The amendments to the San Marcos Code of Ethics were generally supported by the councilmembers, however the resolution will have to come back again at a later date for final approval. 

The amendments do not require employees to report ethics violations, however they do require ethics complaints to be reported within one year of its occurrence. It also requires the complainant to submit the complaint under oath. There are also whistleblower protections for employees who file complaints of who participate by providing testimony.