Complete count committee delivers presentation, council discusses funding

The San Marcos City Council received a presentation on the San Marcos Census 2020 Complete Count Committee during Tuesday’s regular meeting.

Texas State sociology professor Dr. Gloria Martinez, who serves as the committee's co-chair, led the discussion. The presentation served as an update to the council on the committee’s outreach strategies for this year’s census.

The complete count committee has outlined two goals: 1. The accurate identification of hard-tocount and underrepresented populations in the City of San Marcos. 2. The effective promotion of the Census and increase in self-response amount residents. The committee has identified these populations as its target: renters, Hispanic/Latino, young and mobile households, the most vulnerable and traditionally hard-tocount, children under 5, immigrants, elderly, those of disability and those experiencing homelessness or housing instability

“Why should the city be invested (in the census)? So it fuels a thriving economy,” Martinez said. “Yes, businesses use and rely on census data. The economic development does not work without accurate census data and an inaccurate count puts billions of dollars in economic activity at stake. So, it behooves us as a community to really take this census seriously.”

City Manager Bert Lumbreras said the city has placed a funding request through the county for $10,000.

“I’ve already advised all of the departments that this is such an important issue for us that this is an all hands on deck initiative that we need to take on,” Lumbreras said. “So, we are going to focus our departments to identify staff that could participate in some way or another … We are going to identify some funding sources that we can contribute more beyond the request of the $10,000 that we have to the county.”

Mayor Pro Tem Ed Mihalkanin said he would be willing to contribute his council place’s travel allowance and city stipend.

“I’d be willing to give part of my travel and then also the stipend that usually goes (with the city council seat),” Mihalkanin said.

As a Texas State University professor, Mihalkanin cannot accept a paycheck from two government entities by Texas law. Mihalkanin told the Daily Record that he hopes to be able to give his travel allowance to help with the complete county. He also hopes he’s able to give the complete count committee the city stipend that goes with his city council seat. The mayor pro tem, however, said he and city staff are unsure of how much money he can give. Mihalkanin said he’s hoping he can give at least $5,000 but he is unsure of an exact amount he'll be able to give to the complete count committee.