10.15.19 Regular Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Council Meeting Minutes October 15, 2019 Release. She stated that Cite and Release is being discussed along the I-35 corridor. She stated that at least 500 people's lives were positively impacted by the implementation of cite and release in San Antonio according to a recently released report. She provided cite and release would benefit San Marcos residents by solving the over population issue in Hays County jail, more resources would be allocated to our community and this would benefit the young people that are cited and released. Katelyn Horner, spoke on behalf of MOVE Texas, stated that she supports cite and release for non-violent offenders. She stated that the edited ordinance is sending non violent offenders to jail, and there are people in jail that have not yet been found guilty in the court of law. She spoke in favor of Cite and Diversion and LEAD. She stated that implementing these policies would only apply to residents of Hays County. A lot of students live here, but may have their home address listed on their drivers licenses. Automatically arresting someone with a license that lists a different address is unreasonable and shouldn't occur. We need to see every resident of Hays County included, show San Marcos that you care through action and policy. Eric Martinez made the following comments: "I want to thank everybody for making time to be here today. I also want to say while some people in this room may have disagreements with one another, I can easily say that everyone here wants a safer community, so I'm glad we're having these conversations so we can determine through dialogue what looks best to suit our lovely and unique city of San Marcos. Some of you may have noticed my Statue of Liberty tie. Wearing it at this moment in time in American politics can be contentious, but I wear it as a reminder of who we strive to be, and how we are all hypocrites striving for an ever more perfect union. You see, America is a nation that is built on a foundation of principals that have not always applied to everyone equally. By example, when the phrase "all men are created equal" was written, women were excluded. When we first became a nation women and black Americans could not vote. In order to imbue more meaning into this principle of equality, it took many movements and plenty of suffering to secure this fundamental right to vote. But Today, when I say the words "you are innocent until proven guilty" no doubt people are also familiar with this sacred principle in our democracy. Does this really mean anything when somebody can be jailed even before they've been convicted of the crime for which they are accused? How much suffering must take place for this criminal legal reform movement to reach you? To reach all of us? In particular, when we talk about cite & release eligible offenses, the current status quo is that these people are jailed for low-level nonviolent City of San Marcos Page 4