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City Council Meeting Minutes March 17, 2020 <br />trained to make appropriate judgment calls. She mentioned that we rely on <br />them in so many ways in our community and we do not want to tie their hands <br />enforcing the law. She mentioned that as a business owner, she wants to feel <br />confident if she has been a victim of a crime that San Marcos Police <br />Department will come to investigate the crime and take appropriate actions. <br />She gave an example of someone drew graffiti or broke a window to my <br />family's building it is not a victimless crime. She asked if you knew if a person <br />gets a cite and release, the numbers are 40% of the time, they do not show up <br />to respond to the crime they have committed. This percentage in some <br />communities, is much higher. She mentioned that she has been a licensed <br />surety in Hays County for 15 years and she knows the side effects that cite and <br />release can have in a community. She mentioned that her family has 40% less <br />chance in getting restitution from the correctly identified person for the <br />damages done to the building downtown on the Square. She asked if the City <br />of San Marcos is doing everything in their power to protect business owners <br />and property owners. She stated to also trust the Police Department, to let <br />them do their job that they were trained to do. <br />David Mendez, stated he is a proud Rattler and a concern citizen. He provided <br />a list of failures to appear in court to Council. He is a bondsman for over 40 <br />years kept on the services in Hays County. He stated the cite and release <br />ordinance to have in place will show data but also show individuals are not <br />going to court. He mentioned that these individuals are PR in the Sheriff's <br />Office but when they get a PR bond they are not monitored by any individual <br />which is a lawyer or a bailbond agent. He stated that the issue is if they are <br />getting the slap in the hand and not paying for consequences, the jail is going <br />to be filled of individuals of bond forfeitures and failure to appears. He stated <br />that for a bonding company when one is incarcerated that is titled a forfeiture, <br />we are going to ask for more collateral so they can show up for court. He <br />stated that some are not able to afford getting out because the judge is going <br />to increase their bond and now the jail system is going to be crowded with <br />failure to appears and this is happening and not being monitored and going to <br />fail to go to court. He mentioned that the judge will see if the individual is on <br />the run from the court and judge will increase bail and how many times is the <br />judge going to increase the bail and will stay in jail. He stated that he <br />understands that the City wants to help the system, but creating this and the <br />data shown are going to continue fail to appear in court. <br />Roland Saucedo, He stated that he has been contacted by numerous citizens, <br />life long residents of San Marcos and people that are multigenerational. He <br />mentioned that most of the disturbing thing is how full support that four <br />City of San Marcos Page 2 <br />