Council candidate debates continue

Maxfield Baker and Mark Gleason, both San Marcos Planning and Zoning Commissioners, are up for election for San Marcos City Council Place 1. Saul Gonzales, City Council Place 2 incumbent, is facing a challenge from Lisa Marie Coppoletta and Devin Barrett. Barrett did not attend the debate.

Baker, Gleason, Gonzales and Coppoletta responded to questions at the Council of Neighborhood Association debate on Monday. Here’s what they had to say:

Q. If a major employer threatened to move its business, would you support giving them financial incentives to stay?

Gleason said the question should be answered on a case-bycase basis. “The state allows local entities to use a 380 agreement process for bringing jobs to town and maybe sustaining jobs that we have,” Gleason said. “They have to be a case-by-case basis, they have to look at that as an individual situation. I don't know if I can give you a straight up answer of saying yes or no. If it's a very large employer, paying $15 or more an hour, and it's, you know, a good company to the community, I might be open to that. If it's not, I may not be "I think we see that it's basically the same kind of thing as we vote on, zoning changes and other things on P&Z — those are case-by-case situations. So I would be open to the idea as long as they're very good paying jobs, a company that's good to the community and a company that's got a good history.”

Gonzales said he would be open to incentives as well.

“The only thing I would like to see is us to come up with a better deal — end of the deal with maybe they have to increase the wages for our citizens,” he said. “That's very important to me. It bothers me if a company's here and they just want to threaten us and say if you don't give us incentives, we're going to leave, that's concerning to me as well.”

Coppoletta said the citizens of the community can count on her in executive session to make sure the community is getting good-paying jobs and good companies.

“And I think it all starts out when we attract them,” Coppoletta said. We need to attract green industry, green builders and give them those incentives at the onset. I'm a communication professor. And also I work with team building with major corporations where in the oil industry on oil rig communication counts, people die if they don't communicate. So I say that our ... cause Katerra was messy. There was a lot of misunderstanding between the P&Z and the City Council, and eventually they worked it out. As an outsider, that was our perception. So it needs to be much more clean when it comes to the public. I would also like to see those who have innovative green companies or design standards to also streamline the process for those companies. Now, make sure we give someone a $15 an hour job it's really a good job, right. And also, I think if we place these stipulations on certain employers $15 an hour, it makes our small businesses, it puts them at a disadvantage. So we have to be careful when we start to implement those sorts of ideations.”

Baker said he would support financial incentives for companies that have proven to be legacy members of our community.

“I would support financial incentives for companies that have proven to be legacy members of our community, that give back and that have shown that they are dedicated to offering careers to our members of our of our neighbors,” Baker said. “Because I find that when we offer these kinds of incentives to companies like Amazon, or like we did to the SMART Terminal and Katerra, I find that they oftentimes have terrible reputations, they don't really result in careers and they are coming in as multinational corporations to just bank off the backs of our neighbors. And I find that just absolutely untenable for us as a community. So I would support these kinds of incentives for businesses that have again proven that they have careers for the members of our community, and that have shown that they are willing to step up and you know, they might not be at that $15 an hour. But if they move from offering $8 to $10, that's a good move if these are solid, stable jobs that aren't going to run people into the ground.”

Elena Duran, a former chair of the neighborhood commission asked a question directly to Coppoletta.

Q. I've had several of your neighbors contact me thinking I'm still on the commission, which I am not. I’ve spoken to your neighbors, They tell me they're afraid of you because you approach them and some of their kids in the neighborhood in a threatening manner. Why do you feel this is okay to treat your neighbors in this way? And you also are concerned that the city has spent an exorbitant amount of money on sidewalks in front of your house. You've asked for 121 open records requests since Jan. 1, 2019. A lot of those you've changed your mind on. How much do you think that has cost the city but most importantly, the taxpayers, in staff time wasted?

In response to the directed question, Coppoletta said the question is slanderous.

“Your question is slanderous I'm actually very good friends with some of those kids on that block," Coppoletta said. "I'm friends with those kids. In fact if you want to talk we can go to those neighbors... That's a complete falsehood that you have said. Moreover, any neighbors said that's — you have just stated a very slanderous falsehood in front of everybody.  We can bring up the moms who come talk to me, who pray with me in the street whose kids are there and that was a very hurtful, nasty comment that you made it's a complete falsehood. (elaine: it's not a falsehood) As far as I know, you just stated that you stated something very hurtful and I'm a professional educator. It's a falsehood… Jerry and her kids and her kids and I are very charming. Well, I don't know what we're talking about here. Okay. And I'm also friends with the Phipps... as far as the sidewalk, can i respond?  As far as the sidewalk that has gone from a $50,000 project to over $96,000 just in contractors. Okay, now I estimate its up to $260,000. I find your question your your question, slanderous, and my open records have (borne) out many things and if I could say it, but if I say history spawn, but there's some very concerning things that have happened as a result of that. secret meetings on the part of the city manager ripping out a bulb out because of threads of votes. That was a very inappropriate question you've made. As an educator, I take issue to what you've just said.  I did answer your question. Yes, I did. There's no problems with the children. And you just lied in front of the public."

Q. Where do you stand on the 90-day waiting period for a demolition permitting requirement and why?

Baker said he supports the 90-day rule. “I believe that 90 days helps us make sure that we have the appropriate amount of time to vet that project and make sure that it is the best alternative and that there aren't any other ones,” he said. “So if there is an opportunity to save a historic building, we need to step up and do that. But now I also — one of the aspects of the 90 day demolition review that I would really like to see kind of brought forward more is to also make sure that it gives people time to understand how the routes might change in the future. As we see it now, we see sidewalks and stuff shut down for, you know, months on end. And so people need that heads up so they don't end up kind of trapped if they're having accessibility issues. But I do support the 90 day rule. And I think that we need to keep it in place and make sure that we are really supporting that moving forward.”

Gleason said that just recently, he voted for the 90-day delay.

“I like the compromise that P&Z came up with,” Gleason said. “I did have some issues with the one the Historical Commission came up with, I didn't like the 50-year notification. I think that what council came up with was a reaction to what the community wanted. And I love the notification process of that. I think one of the big things about it was the telephone building being torn down and nobody really realizing that was going to happen. I think the notifications to the different agencies, the different committee outreach, to the neighborhood commission, all the different boards to try to do something if there is a chance to save a structure. I don't think it's actually stopping anybody from doing anything. Those properties can still be torn down. We're not saying no, we're just trying to open a dialogue anytime these things come up for the whole community to be involved and maybe a possibility of saving a structure.”

Gonzales agreed with Gleason’s statement.

“But keep in mind, we're not saying that you cannot just demolition your building, we're just saying is going to take a bit longer,” Gonzales said. “A lot of people misunderstood, saying that we're going to prevent you from demolishing the building. That's not true. It's just going to take 90 days to do that ... I'm not in favor of extending the historical district to victory gardens. I wouldn't support something like that at all, but I will support whatever is now deemed historical. I will support it for those areas.”

Coppoletta said she has been begging Council to roll out a historical resources survey over the last year, and then moved to respond to an earlier question regarding her neighbors.

“I've been begging the City Council to roll out the historical resources survey for since January, and I believe this has been a reactive response,” Coppoletta said. “I definitely am in love with those historic buildings and y'all know that. I want to get back to the other question. I felt that question was disruptive and the moderator did not hold her to the time limit. You all know if LMC was harassing kids, that would be on video live on Twitter. If that had happened there would have been a police report and the mayor knows. Okay, see, you're treating me differently here. I should be able to answer any questions that I want to answer. And I've just given, see now you're interrupting me. You didn't hold that citizen to a time period like you did that gentleman and you allowed her to personally attack me. That's a falsehood —I'm friends with all of those families and all those kids and everything that goes on in my block is on wring, that your mayor can testify that the video that I sent about the routes, I did that very respectfully, that was slanderous, that was planned and they know that was a lie. And as a moderator, you should have put that under control. That's all I have to say. Thank you.”