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City Council Meeting Minutes June 18, 2020 <br />far regarding Capes Dam. He would like Council to provide direction <br />regarding to either repair the dam and work with the County on the proposals <br />for the parks or remove the dam. <br />Council Member Gonzales inquired about studies and wanted to know if these <br />were ever completed. <br />Bert Lumbreras, City Manager, stated there was a lot of discussion around <br />studies by Council, everything from sedimentation, water levels, other <br />amenities, what will happen downstream, and so forth. Staff started working <br />on a request for proposal (RFP) but determined we need to define the scope <br />and we wanted to have a focused discussion with Council in order to get this <br />clear direction. When COVID hit in March, we advised Council to put this <br />hold and not use the funding. We have started on the work, but it has not been <br />completed. Awaiting council decision. <br />Council Member Gonzales would like to rebuild the dam and move forward <br />with it. <br />Council Member Baker, does not understand why this is being presented today <br />because Staff has not gathered the information council requested as a body. He <br />stated that part of the scope was to identify a way to get past the <br />misinformation that we have seen about the science. Many qualified experts <br />showed up and stated that if you want to disprove these studies then you do <br />one of your own to prove it wrong. So many emails have come in on both sides <br />of the issue; he believes the science they have on hand is reliable and sees no <br />reason why this is before us. <br />Mayor Pro Tem Mihalkanin, stated there was only one study completed that <br />Council relied upon to make their decision. There was a Colorado company <br />who used the same study. The dam continues to deteriorate. In order to see the <br />effect of the dam on habitat, studies would have to have been completed prior <br />to construction of the dam in 1870. He spoke of evolutionary biology and the <br />idea of adaptability of species, he also addressed the height of the dam. So for <br />him because the studies are going to have to deal with models they will not be <br />able to tell us flow of the river 150 yeas ago. He stated that modeling is not an <br />exact science and this is a public policy issue. He realizes that the government <br />is always making decision on scientific information, but this doesn't need to <br />become scientism. He doesn't believe there was misinformation, he has read <br />the study. And the study by the Colorado company used the same modeling by <br />the earlier study. He feels there are still too many questions. <br />City of San Marcos Page 17 <br />