Q&A: City Council Place 6 candidates

The San Marcos City Council Place 6 seat is one of the positions on the city’s legislative body, representing residents in decisions on local ordinances, budgets and city policies, alongside five other councilmembers and the mayor. Jude Prather is the current councilmember in Place 6 but he is not running for reelection.

Amanda Rodriguez

What made you decide to run for City Council Place 6?

“I think now more than ever, I’ve put my career aspirations aside because I genuinely want to figure out. ‘What can we do locally to better take care of our people?’ ‘What infrastructure can we build that will last not five or 10 years, but will last long into the future?’ and you don’t see a lot of that focus exist in the legislative bodies and I want to make that change.”

As San Marcos continues to grow, what plans do you have to accommodate that
growth?

“We see this university expanding. It’s encroaching onto [San Marcos’] plots of land and that relationship is so strained right now, so I want to come up with ways to adequately address housing for students that don’t look like rent-by-the-bedrooms — those very exploitative rent agreements.”

What are your top priorities?

“We know that crime is low when people have access to their basic needs, when they’re not struggling to figure out where they’re going to stay, when they’re not struggling to figure out how they’re going to pay their bills. That’s what they need, but we don’t prioritize people. We prioritize this one line of absolute funding, and it’s never going to work, so that’s what I’m interested in.”

What do you believe to be the biggest issues San Marcos is facing?

“Housing and really the biggest issue is lack of access to income, lack of access to wealth, which we see trickle down into various things. It’s hard to look at the way we create our budgets, and how public safety, police and fire make up almost half and you have people who are trying to get unhoused people access to resources at the end of the day.”

With San Marcos’ large student population, what would you do to balance the needs with that population and the locals in the city alike?

“We need to do more as a city whether it’s through hosting town halls, whether it’s going quarterly to Texas State and partnering with Texas State and giving people an opportunity to know like ‘Hey on this date through this year, this is when the city officials will come, so [San Marcos citizens] come share your thoughts, come share your opinions, come share’.”

Maraya Dunn

What made you decide to run for City Council Place 6?

“I have been able to learn about San Marcos’ rich and unique history and what gravitates us; it’s not just the university, it’s not just the river and we all come from different walks of life in different areas, and we’re that melting pot that everybody wants to be a part of. Learning so much about that is what really propelled me into running for city council.”

As San Marcos continues to grow, what plans do you have to accommodate that growth?

“Economic prosperity is my number one [plan] and bringing in those well-paying jobs to keep students here, to keep families, to attract families here, not just for the river or for the charm of our downtown, but ‘Hey, I can go work this job and it be one job not three jobs, to make ends meet, one good paying job,’ so that’s where I want to start fostering economic well-paying jobs.”

What are your top priorities?

“I want to start fostering well-paying jobs. Second, addressing our housing issue, we don’t have enough diverse housing options, so bringing in housing developments that cater to different income levels so we’re not pushing people out of the city that they love.”

What do you believe to be the biggest issues San Marcos is facing?

“Not having well-paying jobs and the vigorous red tape in place to attract new and keep existing businesses here. I think those two are the biggest issues, because when students graduate, I don’t know what your plan looks like, but I mean, you came there for a reason.”

With San Marcos’ large student population, what would you do to balance the needs with that population and the locals in the city alike?

“We’re one, we’re all here, so finding that happy medium, there’s a happy middle, and you can achieve whatever it is that one side wants and what one other side doesn’t want without compromising.”