The San Marcos City Council voted to postpone an item related to the purchasing of additional license plate recognition cameras for $124,068 for the San Marcos Police Department at the regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday. The first time this item was considered by council, San Marcos City Council Member Amanda Rodriguez voted to postpone the item until the June 3 meeting, in order to allow the council to see and provide input on SMPD’s policy regarding the cameras use. Regardless of the council having seen the policy since that meeting, she wanted to maintain the motion to postpone the item until June 3 to bolster community participation.
San Marcos City Council Member Amanda Rodriguez said she made a motion at the last meeting to postpone until June 3, and she would like to make that same motion.
San Marcos Mayor Jane Hughson asked for clarification on whether the motion was to postpone until June or until they could review the policy.
“Well we had talked about then or anytime before then that the policy had come to us and that we were good with it, which has actually happened,” Hughson said.
San Marcos City Attorney Samuel Aguirre said it was June 3.
“At the very end of the discussion it was like, ‘Are you saying when the policy is ready or [until] June’… and Miss Rodriguez had clarified [that she meant] June,” he said.
San Marcos City Council Member Lorenzo Gonzalez asked if that was necessary since the council had already reviewed the policy.
Rodriguez said that it was reported across several news outlets, so it is only fair to the public that it happens at the June 3 meeting.
“The motion when it was made was actually picked up by the Daily Record, the Community Impact and other forms of news outlets,” Rodriguez said. “When you talk about participation from the public, if I’m reading that this is to come June 1 or June 3, whenever, and I want to participate, get my schedule aligned; that’s what we’re impacting right now.”
Hughson asked if the price would stay the same or increase by June 3; the flock representative said she did not have the answer to that question at that moment but had reached out for the answer.
San Marcos Police Chief Stan Standridge said he couldn’t answer the implications of price, but “that’s that many fewer cameras that are going to be able to assist in reducing crime.”
San Marcos City Council Member Alyssa Garza said she would rather pay an increased price in order to have more public participation.
“I think that community dialogue is worth an increase in price,” Garza said. “If we were really passionate about all the money that is being spent by police, I wouldn’t have waited like four years to get progress on the whole situation regarding the police using their city-issued vehicle, uniform and other equipment on their side gigs, so I feel like that’s an unserious concern.”
Hughson said she agreed that either way it should be postponed until the meeting date that the public was told.
“I’m curious about this, but it's not going to change my decision because we need to do what we told the public we would do,” she said.
The flock representative said there would not be a change in price if the item was postponed until June.
The council voted unanimously to postpone the item until the June 3 meeting.
