The City Council Place 5 candidates met to debate their platforms covering topics from housing to department funding.
The Primrose Advocacy Council hosted the debate in the LBJ Student Center, Saturday, Nov. 23.
The Hays County runoff election for City Council Place 5 will be on Dec. 14 between Lorenzo Gonzalez and Roland Saucedo.
Saucedo said he wants to create an open dialogue between the city of San Marcos and Texas State University to open doors for a solid partnership and address issues, including the university’s development.
“While I think it’s great the university is expanding to be able to offer more educational opportunities, it feels like our downtown is disappearing with the university purchasing their buildings,” Saucedo said.
Gonzalez said Texas State buying properties in San Marcos could cause financial issues for the city.
The more property that the university absorbs and takes off the tax rate, the less there is for the city to be able to tax,” Gonzalez said.
One of the platforms Gonzalez ran on during his campaign was transparency and availability of government officials. Gonzalez said that it should be city council’s job to inform the community.
“I don’t think that the city makes it easy enough for the community to express their opinions or publicize what the council is doing, and one of the biggest things that I want to make a priority as council, is how we communicate with the citizens about what’s happening before council,” Gonzalez said.
Saucedo said impervious cover runoff is the primary threat to the San Marcos River. This type of runoff occurs when rainwater flows over man-made surfaces like concrete, which do not absorb water, carrying pollutants into the river. For him, tighter regulations on what visitors are allowed to bring into the river could also help protect its ecosystem.
Saucedo’s campaign emphasized housing issues as a central platform, focusing on increasing affordable housing options and criticizing rent-by-the-bed pricing models.
“I look forward to being able to see multi-family developments, where both students and families can both live together in the same development. I think it would be very advantageous to our community,” Saucedo said.
Gonzalez said he doesn’t think rent-by-the-bed housing developments are an issue, but it’s the predatory property managers.
“I think one thing we can do is actually broadcasting and communicating with the city the resources we do have, and then secondly, working to expand those resources to be able to protect our residents,” Gonzalez said.
Saucedo and Gonzalez agree that the San Marcos Police Department’s training could be improved and mental health emergency handling might need reform.
As a law enforcement officer for Del Valle ISD, Gonzalez said the continuing education or extra training requirements for police officers are online and easy to complete.
“We don’t need to fix the quantity of training, but the quality,” Gonzalez said. “We need to invest in in-person, training with qualified subject matter experts to train our officers in cultural diversity, sensitivity, mental health, and things like that,”
Saucedo believes the residents need to be able to communicate with the police chief and department for solutions.
“I intend to bring back the initiative to create a citizens advisory board that will work with the current board and police department to address these concerns,” Saucedo said.
Newly elected councilmember Amanda Rodriguez asked about police funding during the citizen Q&A at the end of the debate. Rodriguez said more police training is not the solution to issues, and that the city is defunding the people to “hyperfund” the police.
Saucedo said he believes the city’s entire budget is important for the council to address deficiencies and improvements, including the police department’s funding.
“I’m open to visiting and having staff help dissect into ways that we could start reallocating some of that [police department] funding to other social service programs, other infrastructure or transportation issues,” Saucedo said.
Gonzalez said he believes the funding can be reallocated within the police department to better resources and training, and that policies should be changed regarding non-violent offenses.
For The Star’s full Q&A profile on City Council Place 5 candidates, visit its website.
