04.07.20 Regular Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Council Meeting Minutes April 7, 2020 time, defined by City Council. Thank you." Salana Henderson: "I am writing to speak against the proposed cite and release ordinance. As a citizen of San Marcos and a mother of three teen -aged children, my concerns are genuine, and I hope that my expressing them does not adversely impact their validity. While no other city in Texas has passed cite and release as an ordinance, other cities in other states have, and we should take heed of the unintended consequences. In Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and other cities with cite and release ordinances, the leniency on low level crimes has crippled the ability of law enforcement to do anything about those crimes. Businesses struggle, crime increases, and the most vulnerable individuals are preyed upon. SMPD will tell you that we already have a problem with organized crime from other cities taking advantage of our location on the IH 35 corridor and our large population of inexperienced students. In Los Angeles, out of state organized crime rings are paying people, LA residents, to shoplift up to the cite and release eligible amount. They then take the goods out of state and sell them. How much of the city's income comes from sales taxes collected by the outlet malls located on IH 35? When it's cheaper for them to close than to continue to get ripped off, how will the city recoup the loss of that revenue? The passing of this ordinance will negatively affect every business owner in the city, not just retail establishments. It is a class C misdemeanor for an underage person to be in a bar. However, the ordinance states that a rent or utility bill may be used for personal identification (Section 2.2). Who will TABC hold responsible when SMPD can't remove the under -aged person from the bar? Moreover, is this time of economic uncertainty the time to pass an ordinance certain to burden the business community? If this ordinance passes, individual citizens will be just as effected as businesses, and it is the most vulnerable in the community who will suffer most. Desperate people will be most enticed to participate in cite and release eligible offenses for a quick pay day from organized crime. Proponents of the ordinance contend that those cited and released will still be held accountable for their crimes in court, so what will happen to those with numerous citations who can't afford to pay restitution? What could have been a night in jail and a hard lesson learned will lead instead to more injurious long-term consequences. I am not a callous person. I understand the havoc one night in jail can wreak on a person's life and am not trying to discredit or make light of anyone's experiences. My brother has been in jail for the past several weeks for offenses that would be eligible for cite and release under the ordinance. Although his crimes were "victimless," had he been released, he would still be exploiting my mother, a retired school teacher and widow on a very fixed City of San Marcos Page 11