Gleason, Prather unofficially elected to San Marcos City Council

Mark Gleason and Jude Prather each claimed victory in their respective San Marcos City Council races. 

Gleason, city council place 5 incumbent, fended off challenger Zach Sambrano. Prather, who previously served on the council between 2010-2016, narrowly defeated Mark Rockeymoore by just 33 votes. 

Gleason reelected to Place 5

The waiting game is never fun to play, however, the anxiety and uncertainty that comes with that process paid off for San Marcos City Council member Mark Gleason on Tuesday evening. 

The city council place 5 incumbent received a total of 2,075 votes (54.15%) securing his win over contender Zach Sambrano who garnered 1,757 votes (45.85%).

“I’m humbled, I’m honored,” Gleason said. “I’m looking forward to continuing to serve and thank you all for trusting me, I truly love San Marcos.”

The night was filled with chatter and anticipation as Gleason hosted a watch party at local bar and restaurant, Industry.

“It’s a long process, especially since my wife and I just had a brand new baby on top of it, so I’m excited and I’m looking forward to continuing my service to the city,” Gleason said. 

Going forward, Gleason has goals of bringing in good jobs for the people of San Marcos as well and keeping the community safe. 

“By bringing good jobs, we improve people’s income levels, it helps the vibrant economy, that money trickles down into the small business area. If we bring in big businesses, good businesses to town, that’s more tax revenue to the city that we can give some property tax relief to the citizens,” Gleason said. “We’ve had a major increase in violent crime in this community and we need to do what we can to look at where, what are the reasonings for that and try to help put a stop to that.” 

Reflecting on this year’s election, Gleason said it’s challenging campaigning in a town the size of San Marcos. 

“To my supporters, thank you all. I'm completely honored and I can’t tell you how much appreciation and how much it means to you to have support during this process,” Gleason said. 

Prather narrowly wins place 6 election

In Place 6, Prather proclaimed his victory to a crowd of supporters at Zelicks late Tuesday evening following an anxious night of waiting on voting returns. 

Prather narrowly won the election, according to unofficial results from the Hays County Elections Office. Prather tallied 1,927 votes (50.43%) in the place 6 contest, while Rockeymoore received 1,894 votes (49.57%). 

After he told his supporters about Tuesday’s result, Prather said campaigning is one thing but governing is another. 

“The hard work starts tomorrow,” Prather told the Daily Record. “San Marcos, we’ve got a lot of things that we need to address. I’m looking forward to the challenge.” 

Prather said filling the city manager’s position is a top priority facing the city as current City Manager Bert Lumbreras is set to retire in January. 

“That’s gonna be my initial focus is making sure we have a good, stable city manager that’s running the day-to-day operations of the city,” Prather said. 

He added that the city is still dealing with the pandemic and effects from it. 

“We’re starting to have issues with inflation, labor shortages, shortages of materials and I’m just hoping that we don’t have any future disasters that we’re unaware of,” Prather said. “The most important thing right now is to try to bring civility back to the dais, and to find a good city manager to help run the city.” 

As he looks ahead to stepping onto the city council, Prather said he plans to be a councilmember for all.

“Whether you voted for me or not, I’m here to serve our community,” he said. 

Following Tuesday’s election, results for the two city council places will be canvased on Monday, Nov. 15. Gleason and Prather will be sworn into the city council on the same day at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 630 E. Hopkins St.