The San Marcos City Council voted to revise the purpose statement for the Criminal Justice Reform Committee during Tuesday’s regular meeting.
The committee was originally created by city council in 2019 to work with the county to implement policies related to Cite and Release. Since Cite and Release has been implemented as an ordinance, it was suggested that the councilmembers revise the committee’s scope to address specific new issues, rather than continue working on the broad topic of criminal justice in the meetings. The move updated the scope and purpose to work with Hays County on criminal justice reform issues as well as the developing Cite and Divert policies and bring transparency to policing processes as allowed by law.
The vote of the revised scope captured the support of all but Councilmember Shane Scott, after a heated conversation late into the evening. Once the conversation of a new scope was opened, councilmemebers Maxfield Baker and Alyssa Garza wanted to broaden the scope of the committee, while Scott was concerned about taking too much time from staff and Chief of Police Stan Standridge who has his own criminal justice issues he has been charged with addressing.
