San Marcos City Council to discuss updating lobbying ordinance

Staff Reports

SAN MARCOS — During their July 6 meeting, the San Marcos City Council will consider approving updates to the city’s lobbying ordinance. The city council has already had four workshops discussing the legislation, and the ordinance will become law in San Marcos unless the city council decides to deny it on the second reading. 

The Ethics Review Commission helped write the proposed amendments to the ordinance, “requiring registration of lobbyists and periodic reporting of contacts made by lobbyists with elected City officials, City Board and Commission members, and City Employees; establishing penalties for violations of this ordinance; providing certain exemptions from lobbying registration and reporting requirements; providing a savings clause; providing for the repeal of any conflicting provisions; and providing an effective date.”

According to City Council documents, the purpose of the lobbying ordinance updates is, “designed to improve transparency regarding city business and services to the public. To maintain public confidence and public trust in our city officials and employees when public resources are used and municipal decisions are made, this lobbying ordinance requires certain individuals to register and report exchanges with city officials and city employees. 

The San Marcos City Council meeting will be held virtually on Tuesday, July 6 at 6 p.m. Archived meeting videos and a live stream of the meeting can be found here. 

Citizen comment:
Persons wishing to “speak” during the citizen comment period of a public meeting may do so as follows:

• Send written comments which will be read aloud; or
• Request a link to join in the citizen comment portion of the virtual meeting.

Citizens wishing to speak during citizen comment must email citizencomment@sanmarcostx.gov no later than 12 p.m. (Noon) on the day of the meeting. All persons that register will receive a confirmation email with a link and call in number to participate remotely. YOU MAY PARTICIPATE BY PHONE, by calling in to the number provided. A computer is not required. All comments shall have a time limit of three minutes. Citizen Comment is limited to the first 10 sign-ups