Council, Mayoral Candidates Debate Monday Night

By: Houston York, News Writer

Candidates for City Council Place 3 and 4 and those running for mayor discussed the future of San Marcos Monday night at a debate hosted by the University Star and KTSW 89.9.

Jane Hughson, City Council Place 4 candidate, spoke without an opponent. Her rival, Councilman Wayne Becak, Place 4, was unable to attend the debate.

Hughson said one of the main reasons she is running for city council is the City of San Marcos’ Comprehensive Master Plan.

“I was on the committee for the plan, and I decided I wanted to be on city council to see the implementation of the plan,” Hughson said. “Budget and transportation plans need to conform, and I want to make sure they do. If there is a change I want to make sure that it is justified.”

Mike Davis, candidate for Place 3, and incumbent Councilman John Thomaides were up next.

The contenders first discussed the implementation of the city’s comprehensive master plan and Vision San Marcos.

Davis deferred the implementation of the plan to code enforcers and other city officials and said he is more concerned with other issues.

“I am more concerned about the children in this city that are starving than if there is a noise concern about someone having a party,” Davis said. “We have a tremendous amount of poverty in this city that we need to do something about. We need to create some jobs.”

Thomaides said six months after the master plan was adopted, officials had an opportunity to see if procedures decided upon by citizens over the course of a year were being implemented.

“My commitment is that I was there to help produce the master plan, and right now we are re-writing the San Marcos plan development code to make sure the master plan gets implemented correctly,” Thomaides said.

Candidates touched on the kinds of expansion they would like to see for San Marcos, the fastest-growing city in the nation.

Thomaides said he would like to see “managed growth” relating to the quality of life.

“Lowering standards and begging people to come to San Marcos is not the way to go,” Thomaides said. “We need to look at the entire community holistically.”

Council members need to help growth and not deter it, Davis said.

“I want to see the development of good paying jobs that are above minimum wage and single family homes,” Davis said. “City council can do a lot to hinder businesses from coming to San Marcos.”

The second half of the debate was between mayoral candidates Patrick Montgomery, Jonathan Sorenson and incumbent Daniel Guerrero.

The mayoral candidates began their portion of the evening by discussing hopes for the city in the next ten years.

Sorenson said implementing the master plan would lead the city into an ideal future.

“What we have to make sure we do is implement what has actually been written in our plan, “ Sorenson said. “I don’t have a voting record, but we can look at the voting record of current council members. Actions they took like Cape’s Camp and La Cima do not represent what our citizens actually put in the plan.”

Montgomery said the idea San Marcos is the fastest-growing city in the nation is a false statistic.

“That is purely false and is being piggybacked on the fact that Texas State is the fastest-growing university in the country,” Montgomery said. “The university has demolished student housing in an effort to privatize student housing. Spot zoning is being done on top of the master plan to accomplish this.”

The city’s future “boils down” to the implementation of the comprehensive master plan, Guerrero said.

“In these next ten years, our goal is to ensure the good quality of water, work together with other communities to bring jobs to San Marcos, improve our infrastructure and enhance our schools,” Guerrero said.

Houston York is a news writer for the University Star where this story was originally published. It is reprinted here through a news partnership between the University Star and the San Marcos Corridor News.