City council appoints members to boards, commissions

The San Marcos City Council voted to appoint individuals to various city boards and commissions during its meeting Tuesday evening. 

The council appointed Elizabeth Trevino to the Citizen Utility Advisory Board (CUAB), Richard Morace to the Convention and Visitors Bureau Board, Michael Adams to the Neighborhood Commission and William McCann to the Zoning Board of Adjustment. 

Darby Burleson, Griffin Spell and John Slack were also appointed by council to the San Marcos Industrial Development Corporation. 

Vacancies remain for positions on the Economic Development San Marcos Board, the Human Services Advisory Board, the Neighborhood Commission and for an alternate position on the  Zoning Board of Adjustment. 

Councilmembers went on to vote in favor of adopting Youth Programs Standards of Care for 2022. 

While councilmember Maxfield Baker brought up his concerns regarding the nutritional values and minimums within the programs. 

“I’ve asked my colleagues in the past to consider higher standards of nutritional value and to work better with a nutritionist instead of defaulting to standards that typically you might see through the school district,” Baker said. 

Councilmember Alyssa Garza added that from what she’s seen, many kids in the school district seem to enjoy the food that is provided. 

“This is basically, obviously my opinion, right, so it’s not empirical but I think the kiddos really like the lunch at the schools. I do a lot of volunteer work there, kids get real excited about steak finger day and all that,” Garza said. “To y’all’s point, it looks a lot more nutritious than I had growing up.” 

With the implementation of a few amendments to change and add wordage within the ordinance, the council went on to pass the motion 7-0. 

The council also went on to approve the updated San Marcos Arts Master Plan. Mayor Jane Hughston asked that there be a list of what can be done and checked off regarding the plan be made and have reports sent to the Arts Commission to see the progress over time. 

In regards to the agreement between the San Marcos Professional Firefighters Association Local #3963 and the City of San Marcos, the council voted unanimously in favor of it. 

“What we’re voting on here today, I really appreciate the Firefighters Association stepping up and working with staff to accept this 2% and then you know, recognize that you know, as we rebound from COVID our budget will hopefully allow us to take better care of our civil service employees,” Baker said. 

Council also approved the amendments to the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (“LIHTC”) Policy section of the Affordable/Workforce Housing Policy. 

This motion includes the clarification of the process for consideration, adjustment of the unit mix for tax-exempt projects and provision of additional considerations for review of LIHTC projects. 

Councilmember Jude Prather placed three items on the agenda related to meeting rules and efficiency. 

“The last agenda item that we just discussed for 45 minutes to an hour is the reason why I have these next three agenda items but after 10 o’clock it starts to become like our witching hour, we still have other business to take care of, we have staff staying here almost until midnight,” Prather said. 

The three agenda items included holding discussions on; the use of Robert’s Rules of Order during council meetings, current city council rules of decorum and all councilmembers being at the dais during meetings were postponed for the next meeting. 

To view the full meeting and agenda, visit http://san-marcos-tx.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=9.