City council appoints new board, committee members

San Marcos City Councilmembers had the opportunity to volunteer and fill positions for various committees during Tuesday's meeting. The vacant spots come after the departure of Councilmember Melissa Derrick. 

For the Capital Area Council of Governments (CAPCOG) General Assembly, the council voted for Councilmember Mark Gleason to replace Derrick. Gleason would also go on to be voted into the Core 4 Policy Group. 

Councilmember Alyssa Garza was elected to the Community Action Group by the council as well as the Legislative Committee and Finance and Audit Committee along with fellow Councilmember Shane Scott. 

Scott also went on to be voted onto the Sustainability Committee and Workforce Housing  Committee. The newly-elected Jude Prather was voted into the Homelessness Committee. 

In regard to the Paso Robles Development Reinvestment Zone, known as Kissing Tree, Councilmember Gleason re-volunteered to hold position 2 and councilmember Scott was voted into position 3. 

During the meeting council also approved the motion to appoint position 4 to city Director of Engineering Laurie Moyer and position 6 to city Director of Finance Marie Kalka. Council also confirmed position 7 to Precinct 3 Commissioner Lon Shell, position 8 to State Rep. Erin Zwiener or her Designee, and position 9 to State Senator Donna Campbell or her Designee. 

For the Comprehensive Plan Rewrite Steering Committee, the council filled 3 vacant positions. Council approved to keep a position on the committee for Amy Meeks. Councilmember Scott was voted to serve on the committee and Jessica Cruz was appointed to serve as a community member. 

Council went on to have a discussion surrounding the 2022 city council meeting schedule. Councilmember Maxfield Baker had concerns about agendas during the election season. According to Baker, the agendas and meetings get lighter and shorter during that time.

“I think it's really unfortunate and a disservice to our community how light our agendas seem to get right around election season,” Baker said. 

Baker went on to further address Mayor Jane Hughson and City Manager Bert Lumbreras in regards to the agendas 

“Do a better job of packing our agendas every single time that we can and not trying to squeeze by with a lighter agenda just because it might help an incoming candidate,” Baker said. 

Hughson went on to address the claims from Baker. 

“To accuse the city manager and I of rigging the agenda because there’s an election coming up is baloney,” Hughson said. 

Lumbreras also spoke to Baker regarding his statement concerning the meeting agendas. 

“That’s just a flat-out lie because quite frankly, I take major offense to it and I find myself saying repeatedly this to councilmember Baker when he comes up with these pretty ludicrous remarks,” Lumbreras said. “He said it with pretty definitive authority from his perspective and quite honestly it always comes out to be nothing more than his perspective and very conveniently throws it in whenever he wants to.” 

Lumbreras went on to say that the process is driven by the business of the city and encouraged Baker to file an allegation if he has one. 

Ultimately, council agreed to move the March 15 meeting date to March 21 to not conflict with the San Marcos CISD spring break and postponing appointee evaluations to later dates. 

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