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City Council Meeting Minutes April 21, 2020 <br />out against some of you serving our community as council members. We elect <br />you to make reasoned decisions whether they are ones we would make or not. <br />I want you to know your community stands behind you as you grapple with <br />the issues surrounding this Ordinance. Also, as originally written, the <br />Ordinance, in Section 2, provides clear and precise and well -crafted guidelines. <br />The sentence, "The City Council further recognizes that the use of the cite and <br />release process may not be appropriate in all instances, and that SMPD officers <br />may find it necessary to arrest a person suspected of having any of the above <br />-listed offenses ONLY if any of the following circumstances are present...." <br />should be returned to its original form with the word ONLY reinserted. I think <br />this is essential. Also, please consider the overcrowding caused, in part, by <br />large numbers of persons in jail for misdemeanors listed in this Ordinance. It <br />is particularly important for our entire community that our jail population is <br />reduced, in a responsible manner, during the corona virus pandemic. Again, <br />this is for the entire community not only persons incarcerated for <br />misdemeanors when they could be with their families. And last, I think it is <br />extremely important that the citizen groups this Ordinance creates allow full <br />participation by citizens not just short comments at the beginning of each <br />meeting. Thank you for considering my request to support the Ordinance for <br />the good of marginalized citizens, our police officers, and the entire <br />community. <br />Isabella Briseno: <br />Hello Council Members, as a campus organizer with Texas Rising, a <br />nonpartisan nonprofit devoted to encour4aging civic engagement among <br />young Texans. I write to encourage you to vote YES! On the Cite & Release <br />Ordinance. While all of you claim to support increased use of citations over <br />arrests for various non-violent misdemeanors identified by state law as eligible, <br />it is crucial that Council provide prudent guidance for officer discretion so that <br />San Marcos Police Department ensures prompt and thorough compliance. Not <br />only do I believe this ordinance is crucial to ensuring the more equitable <br />treatment of all San Martians, I also believe that there are 6 further moves to <br />foster council success in this matter: 4 key amendments and 2 key preventions. <br />Other groups, like Mano Amiga, and concerned citizens have already outlines <br />these 6 key moves, and while I cannot fit and explicate on each in so small a <br />box or time window, I trust you know -as people who have taken on the job of <br />fostering the safety and well being of this community — that each is more <br />important than the last. This is an issue that impacts the livelihood, health, and <br />safety of your neighbors, so please hear your constituents' calls to action and <br />justice. <br />City of San Marcos Page 5 <br />