04.02.19 Regular Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Council Meeting Minutes April 2, 2019 Lance Winter in last Sundays Daily Record. He thought this article was out of line in several respects, including a reference to votes cast by some council members, and that it should have been on the Opinion Page, not the front page. He wrote a letter to the Daily Record in response because he felt there should be a public response. Mr. Agnew read the following letter that he submitted to the Daily Record in response to this article: "I am neither an advocate for nor an opponent of the proposed SMART project, but I take exception to the article by publisher Lance Winter on the front page of the March 17, 2019 Daily Record. First this is an opinion piece and should have appeared on the Opinion page like all other opinion pieces. Just because the publisher wrote it should not entitle it to the prominence of a front-page location. Second, both the headline and the first three paragraphs are deceptive. They led me to believe that I was going to read about upcoming changes to the Daily Record. Instead I found myself sucked into a piece shilling for a private industrial project. Lastly, calling out without naming "some members of the city council that have voted against the development is not appropriate for the local newspaper. City council members are elected to vote in accordance with their own judgment and conscience, not the preferences of the publisher of the local newspaper. I have been a subscriber to the Daily Record for 26 years and have always trusted it to be impartial, both as a source of information and as a forum for opinion on local matters. Mr. Winters' stealth propaganda piece has caused me to wonder if this is still true. Has Mr. Winter suppressed letters sent to the Daily Record opposing the project while giving the developer prominent space for a self-serving column in Wednesdays edition and then running a letter in Sunday's edition advocating for SMART and signed by six former mayors. I am hopeful that Mr. Winter's boosterism doesn't run to that extreme, but I shouldn't even have to consider that possibility." He is not opposed to the Daily Record stating their opinion or giving a recommendation on a local issue, but in doing so, they should avoid over partisanship and they should acknowledge and respect differing viewpoints. Roland Saucedo, thanked the City Manager and Assistant City Manager Steve Parker and Laurie Moyer for their response to Sunset Acres drainage project. In light that the Historical Survey has not been completed yet, the Affordable Workforce committee and Innovation District have not met he feels any re -zonings need to be postponed until plans come before them. It will be hard to undue things if we allow re -zoning in neighborhoods and increasing density. City of San Marcos page 2