City to launch utility assistance program

The San Marcos City Council directed staff to move forward with the creation of a utility assistance program, with a maximum of $1,500 per account, to help those economically affected by the pandemic and the recent winter storm.

The city has not been conducting utility disconnections and late fees for nonpayment due to COVID-19 for nearly a year now. With $1.26 million outstanding in bills on 1,359 residential accounts and $1.16 million outstanding in 125 commercial accounts, staff recommended resuming disconnections on Aug. 1 and implementing an assistance program in the interim to whittle down the delinquencies. 

After discussion, the councilmembers voted to resume disconnections on Aug. 1, 2021, and create an assistance fund of $1 million from the expected Coronavirus Relief Funds.

Councilmembers considered covering $1.26 million to cover the full amount of residential delinquencies, but ultimately wanted to save the additional funding for future recovery needs. 

There will be a one page application that can be mailed or dropped off in person, and funds will be available on a first come first serve basis to anyone with an outstanding balance, including those on payment plans.

A narrow vote of 4-3 ruled out using funds to cover assistance for businesses as well. 

Community Action Inc. has been operating a utility assistance fund on behalf of the city, however due to the creation of a new assistance fund, they will no longer be resposible for spending the remaining funds beyond pledges already made. Community Action Inc. does have ongoing sate and federal CEAP utility assistance funds for residents of Hays, Blance and Caldwell Counties and is able to help residents who are 150% of the federal poverty level or below establish payment plans for utility payments. 

Residents in need of utility billing assistance can call the city at 512-392-8383.

During the COVID-19 update, councilmembers Maxifeld Baker and Alyssa Garza asked City Manager Bert Lumbreras to place a public hearing on a future agenda about adding a stipulation that business applicants for the Revive SMTX must require wearing masks for customers and employees in order to receive funding.

“I just feel like it's something we don't want to look back in retrospect and say we could have done more to push science based safety precautions,” Garza said. 

Revive SMTX was launched by the San Marcos Area Chamber of Commerce with the City of San Marcos to provide local businesses with federal funds to help them get through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Seven businesses have already received a total of $26K that can be used for operation safety, sanitation training, PPE and digital redesign for social distancing; there are more than 22 applicants in the process of completing supplemental forms before receiving funds. 

In other business, during discussion of an item to approve the Budget Policy Statement in preparation of the 2021-2022 Fiscal Year budget, there was a suggested amendment to remove the consideration of a market competitive component for staff salaries and wages. 

The presentation revealed that the Fiscal Year 2022 budget will start out with a $7.5 million deficit, and that the city will be out of compliance with their budget policy of keeping a 25% fund balance. By Fiscal Year 2025, the fund balance would be depleted. 

As staff begin to put together the next budget, they will work to either increase revenues or decrease expenditures to remedy the deficit and keep the city in compliance with their policy. 

Baker made the motion to strike the market competitive component from the policy in the hopes of achieving a more equitable pay structure. 

“If we are trying to compete with cities that are bigger than us, where we know some of our people are going to move up to, we’re going to continue to dig ourselves into a salary budget deficit that is just untenable for a community of our size,” Baker said.

Councilmember Saul Gonzalez who also voted in favor of the motion that ultimately failed said, “The concern that I have is we just don't have the funds at this time. We’d love to give everybody a raise. When you don't have it, we just don’t have it.”

Staff has prioritized giving raises to lower wage employees, but there are also significant requests for new roles that have yet to be created. 

City Manager Bert Lumbreras explained the market competitive rates were not for the purpose of keeping employees at the top of a salary range but to avoid having vacancies. 

“We try to do a market analysis simply to find out how we can be competitive, just to be somewhere in a level where we aren’t way below the market of comparable communities,” Lumbreras said. “We don’t always get to be able to do market competitiveness for every single position. But it puts us in a situation where we are not at the bottom of the pay scale.” 

Councilmember Melissa Derrick proposed a work session to further discuss the issue, but the motion to remove the language was voted down. 

“We have got to stay competitive,” Mayor Jane Hughson said. “When positions go vacant, It’s a huge cost to the city.”

This article has been updated since its publication on March 19, 2021.