I am proud to announce that the city of San Marcos was named in BusinessWeek as one of the best places to raise your kids. BusinessWeek noted, “San Marcos, located in Central Texas between San Antonio and Austin, is home to Texas State University-San Marcos. For residents, the university provides plenty of cultural opportunities and the San Marcos River and parkland allow for a variety of outdoor recreation.”

I am also proud to announce one of our favorite shopping destinations, Prime Outlets, in partnership with the City of San Marcos, was honored with an award recently. The Silver 2010 U.S. Shopping Center MAXI Award for Marketing Achievement was given for its innovative Prime Outlets – San Marcos CVB Partnership program in the national competition’s Alternative Revenue category. The award ceremony, hosted by the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), was held in Chicago March 3. The U.S. Shopping Center MAXI Awards is considered the professional retail industry’s most prestigious honor for marketing excellence. The group recognized the outlet center and the city for its matching funds initiative, designed to help increase regional tourism to the area along with city revenue. I am also pleased to report that as a result of this joint effort, shopping traffic to the center increased nearly nine percent which also benefited San Marcos with a more favorable sales tax contribution despite the economic downturn.

The Texas Municipal League has awarded the City of San Marcos the “Municipal Excellence Award in Management Innovations” for cities of more than 25,000 in population in honor of our “Achieving Community Together” campaign. ACT focuses on common values, missions and goals and has developed a problem-solving model to identify issues and seek solutions. This historic effort marks the first time major parties have come together on a large scale to promote positive relations between student and non-student residents through education, community connectedness and resources. Since its formation, ACT has rapidly evolved to a large scale ongoing program with a long term impact.

With all of the wonderful things happening in San Marcos, you’ll be pleased to know we have room for you. The City of San Marcos is currently accepting applications for the Texas Neighborhood Stabilization Homebuyer Program. The City received funding to purchase three foreclosed homes, make repairs, and sell the homes to three income-eligible households. If you are eligible, the city will be able to offer you a 30-year, no-interest loan and closing cost assistance! The loans will be made by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs and require only a $500 down-payment by the homebuyer. This program has maximum income limits based on an estimate of the household’s total income for the next twelve months. Income from all sources for all adults who will live in the home is counted to determine the household income. The income maximum is based on the number of people who will live in the house, as follows:

People In Household Maximum Income
1 $25,650
2 $29,300
3 $33,000
4 $36,650
5 $39,600
6 $42,500
7 $45,450
8 or more $48,400

A credit score of 620 or higher is preferred. If you would like more information about this program contact City Hall or visit the City of San Marcos website.

The City of San Marcos Public Services Department has implemented two new programs to encourage energy efficiency. Through the Energy Efficient Heating/AC Rebate Program, City of San Marcos residential electric utility customers may receive rebates for making upgrades to their heating/ac systems. Rebates are offered for the following: Replacing central heat/AC systems with efficient models, adding attic/wall insulation, sealing duct systems, installing radiant barrier and installing programmable thermostats. City of San Marcos residents may also receive rebates for upgrading their home appliances to efficient models. Rebates are available for upgrading refrigerators, dishwashers, clothes washers, hot water heaters, and window AC units.

Both programs require the homeowner to have a free City Energy Audit prior to making any improvements.

In closing, I want to thank all Bobcats, citizens and the businesses listed at the end of this column for their support of our Haiti relief fundraiser entitled “Dine Out San Marcos.” Through this fundraiser San Marcos raised around $5,000 for the Clinton/Bush Haiti Fund. Once again, we thank you.

Remember, the eyes of Texas are not upon you, they look up to you because Bobcats are the stars of Texas!
www.dineoutsanmarcos.com

Participating Businesses:
Tres Hermanas Restaurant & Cantina, Texas Roadhouse, Woody’s Barbeque, Fuschak’s Pit Barbeque, Chili’s Grill & Bar, Grin’s, Cafe on The Square, San Marcos, River Pub & Grill, Root Cellar Cafe and Subway San Marcos Texas

Thank you for reading.

Chris Jones
City Council Place 4

Chris Jones - San Marcos City Council Place 4

Bobcats of the world unite! I am proud and happy to be a Bobcat. I want to welcome back those Bobcats who visited their home away from home this summer. While you were away a few things have changed, most notably the San Marcos bar hours. 190 new jobs in San Marcos also opened up due to a new manufacturer coming to our city.

I am sure you heard before you left that the San Marcos City Council passed an ordinance creating extended hours for the sale of alcohol between the hours of 12:00 AM to 2:00 AM.  Months before this passage the council put together a 2:00 AM implementation task force, which was charged with addressing problems that could impact the successful transition from 12:00 AM to 2:00 AM. The task force discussed several issues and presented a formal report to the city council, which encouraged the council to address issues related to transportation, police coverage, education and infrastructure.

The Task Force recommended closing high traffic streets around the Central Business District. They also requested permission from Hays County to use their parallel parking spots on the Hopkins side of the County Court House for bus, taxi and SWAT service for those needing a ride home.  The task force encourages all San Marcos Citizens and downtown patrons not to drink and drive. Instead, call a cab, call SWAT or get on a bus; save your life and someone else’s.

In addition the Task Force also recommended additional police coverage for downtown between the hours of Midnight and 2:00 AM.  The task force has also asked the city manager to launch a “Don’t Drink and Drive” education campaign.  The task force was also concerned with lighting in certain areas and has recommended that city staff look into and address these issues. Finally, the taskforce recommended that behavioral statistics be gathered and analyzed in January and again one year after implementation.  If you would like to see the final report from the Task Force, you can find it on the City of San Marcos website.

San Marcos is also proud and happy to welcome Grifols to the city. Grifols is a company that  provides research, development, manufacturing and marketing of plasma derivates, IV therapy, enteral nutrition (feeding tubes), diagnostic systems and medical materials for the bioscience, diagnostic and hospital sectors. The company will create 190 new jobs and generate more than $76 million in capital investment.

Gov. Rick Perry committed $500,000 to Grifols Inc., through the Texas Enterprise Fund, a business incentive fund that was created by legislation in 2003. The fund, which had an initial $295 million investment, is used for ensuring the growth of business in Texas. According to Grifols President and CEO Gregory Rich, “The Texas Enterprise Fund, as well as the skilled workforce and favorable business environment of San Marcos, were key factors in our decision to make Texas a strategic part of our long term growth plan.”

Operations in San Marcos will be developed in two phases, beginning with a new plasma testing laboratory. The company will continue to expand the company’s operations with a fractionation plant that will manufacture life saving medicines derived from human plasma to supplement its current facility in California. Upon completion of the second phase, Grifols will be the first company in the industry to have two fractionation plants in the nation. I believe this is a step in the right direction for San Marcos. It is my hope that this opportunity will allow more Bobcats to stay in San Marcos upon graduation.

In closing, remember: “The eyes of Texas are not upon you but they are looking up to you because Bobcats are the Stars of Texas!”

Thank you, Texas State Students, for putting the wheels on the bus for a move to FBS Football. Our university, as well as our city, is going to be better because of it. There have been several things going on in the City of San Marcos and I am happy to report to you that Council talked trash for two hours at the last city council meeting. We made several decisions at the last meeting that could have an impact on your quality of life.

I have never enjoyed talking trash and this past city council meeting reiterated why. At this past meeting we as a council made the decision to renew the residential trash contract with our current provider. One issue I was a proponent of, but did not spark any interest in my other colleagues, was including multifamily apartment complexes and other multifamily dwellings into the same residential contract. I believed this was the right thing to do for three reasons. I believe strongly that all citizens who reside in San Marcos deserve good quality trash service and the city, via contracts, I believe is in the best position to negotiate this.

We as a council send the wrong message when we will work hard to negotiate the best trash contracts for homeowners, but not for the poor in our community who do not own a home, but live in other multifamily dwellings. When I ran for council, I said I was going to work for all of San Marcos, that being homeowners and those who live in apartment complexes. That is one of the reasons I believe that multifamily dwellings should be considered as residential.

The second reason I believe this should be the case is because it gives the city the ability to extend recycling to apartment complexes at an affordable rate. I asked staff to bring this information to council and they did not. In our discussions the council decided not to negotiate a contract for recycling because of possible financial impacts this might have on apartment complex owners. Recycling should be a priority of this council and we should find a way to get it done.

However, we as a council have made money the issue as to why recycling is unattainable. Please be ready because I, as one councilmember, am interested in taking this issue to the ballot in November.

The final reason I believe multifamily dwellings should be a part of the residential contract is accountability. When there is a mattress that has been sitting out by the dumpster for 30 days, you should be able to call one person to get it taken care of and there should not be a pre-negotiated contract that prohibits it from being picked up. If there is graffiti on your dumpster you should have the ability to call someone to take care of that. Folks who live in apartment complexes should not have to live as if they are in the inner city of New York. While this might seem to be just a complicated trash issue, I believe it speaks to an issue at the heart of good policy decisions, and that is equality. You might be poor but you deserve to be treated equally. I believe we are going to have a workshop on this issue and I will keep you posted.

Council also decided to take a more active role in the rental permit issue. Council formed a citizen committee to explore rental permitting and any other practices that could be used to solve the Sagewood problem. However, this group ended up with a drawn up rental permitting ordinance which hit a nerve with the business community. I was against forming this task force from the start because I believe the outcome of this task force was determined before their first meeting.

I believe the Marshall’s office had plans to introduce an ordinance such as the one that was produced before Sagewood hit the council radar almost a year ago. Their plan just called for it to happen in 2011-2012. As the Mayor pointed out this process was set in motion by our former City Manager Dan O’Leary. To date council is going to hold a workshop and reevaluate our goals and determine our direction from there. At this last meeting we also discussed wireless internet for the entire city and decided to table the issue for the next meeting.