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Council directs new COVID-19 funding programs

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

The San Marcos City Council recommended in their meeting Tuesday night that Community Development Block Grant - Coronavirus (CDBG-CV) Funding be used for eviction prevention to cover renters, homeowners and small businesses. 

The city has been awarded $3.6 million in CARES funding and $576,825 for round 3 of CDBG-CV funding.

Sticking to categorical spending requirements, staff recommended spending $289,000 on computer technology for schools, $200,000 on utility billing assistance for businesses and nonprofits and $540,000 on a phone system for the city and a learning management system. They also recommended spending $400,000 on PPE, sanitation and fencing, $200,000 on costs they have already spent on public health, $200,000 for an HVAC system for public buildings and $2.4 million for payroll expenses related for COVID-19.

They also considered using funds to distribute PPE to the community and to conduct a community survey related to COVID-19.

The city has already spent $425,261 CARES funding in round one on its small business recovery program, advocacy for abused and neglected children and enhanced COVID-19 testing for Hays County. 

For the third round of $576K, funding is intended to be allocated to reduce virus spread due to overcrowding or unemployment and businesses not reopening or failing. City council supported staff's recommendation of an eviction prevention program to cover renters, homeowners’ mortgage payments and small businesses. 

The council suggested lowering the qualifying income threshold to 60% of Area Median Income or $58,560 for a family of four to account for San Marcos’ AMI including the Austin Metro Area. 

Councilmembers recommended with hesitancy that utility disconnections begin again on March 31, 2021, with the understanding that the program's availability will be reevaluated as the COVID-19 situation evolves. 

In the meantime, the city staff will revamp outreach initiatives to focus on various forms of outreach to let residents know they can work with the city and Community Action to pay late without fees if they are struggling with COVID-19 related financial crises.

The purchase of two downtown properties for $1.6 million and $824,000 were approved unanimously after City Manager Bert Lumbreras explained that the owners approached the city to sell and negotiated a fair price. 

The owners of the 128 and 140 South Guadalupe Street lots will pay for expenses to participate in the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality volunteer cleanup program after some drycleaning chemicals were found during groundwater and soil analysis. No additional contamination was found. 

“With the city owning the land, we can control the best use and ensure its conducive to the needs of downtown,” said Lumbreras. He also clarified that there is no designation that the parcels will be used for parking. 

The funding for the purchase came from the Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone as well as from the Capital Improvements Program as identified in 2017. 

In other business, city council appointed members to the ad hoc committee to study use of force policies within SMPD and make recommendations for policy changes to the Chief of Police and City Council. The committee will begin work as soon as possible.

Councilmembers also appointed members to the Comprehensive Plan Rewrite Steering Committee including Mayor Jane Hughson and Councilmember Melissa Derrick representing the council. Councilmembers decided that if the makeup of the council changes due to the election leaving the committee without the correct number of appointees, a new member would be appointed in their place, rather than the newly elected member filling their place. 

Due to environmental and transportation concerns, after a chorus of resident dissent and a denial from the Planning and Zoning Commission, the case was not approved to rezone 14.71 acres out of the J.W. Berry Survey near the 1500 block of N. LBJ Drive to Single Family District.

The councilmembers did not make a vote to deny the case. “If the developers’ intention is to work with the neighbors, they made their case about trying to do that,” said Councilmember Maxfield Baker. “Hopefully they will try harder, and as long as we have good people sitting here on council, we will try to keep that neighborhood protected until they come up with something better.”

At the recommendation of the Historic Preservation Commission, City council also voted to write a resolution to support the repatriation efforts of the Miakan-Garza Band of the Coahuiltecan people, attesting to the valuable contributions the tribe has made to the diversity of San Marcos’ communities and multi-cultural program offerings. 

Council voted to move their Dec. 1 regular meeting to Dec. 2 due to the Election Runoff.

Related to COVID-19, Public Safety Director Chase Stapp shared that Curative has been providing free testing in the Ramon Lucio Park daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. They have tested 741 people in total with 59 positives. 

The service will continue to be provided through December in partnership with Hays County. 

San Marcos Record

(512) 392-2458
P.O. Box 1109, San Marcos, TX 78666