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City Council Meeting Minutes April 20, 2021 <br />businesses are being treated differently and costs will increase for the city for <br />enforcement. Ms. Coppoletta mentioned Council is only focusing on a portion <br />of Center for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines and not the most effective <br />ones. <br />Jordan Buckley, spoke on Officer Hartman's incident and expressed concern <br />with how it was handled. Mr. Buckley expressed his belief that the Police <br />Department is untrustworthy. If accountability for misconduct by local law <br />enforcement is to be taken seriously in the slightest, there needs to be <br />restoration of community participation and open governance on the San <br />Marcos Criminal Justice Reform committee (CJR). Mr. Buckley wants the <br />City to stop resisting transparency and public involvement on the CJR <br />committee. <br />Samantha Benavides expressed concern regarding item 926. Ms. Benavides <br />stated this is an undemocratic effort to minimize public input. Ms. Benavides <br />would like for the Criminal Justice Reform Committee to allow public input. <br />Closing meetings and allowing little input is shameful. This is a step backward <br />and allows little transparency. She asked that Council consider giving the <br />people a chance stand in decisions that could impact them. <br />Erick Martinez, spoke against item #26 and expressed concern with not <br />allowing citizen input during committee meetings. Mr. Martinez would like to <br />see more transparency and public participation. He would like to allow each <br />committee to set up their own rules for community engagement. <br />Natalie Abbey, expressed concern that the City is minimizing community <br />input in committee meetings by not allowing public access. The decisions of the <br />meetings affect lives and is undemocratic. Ms. Abbey would like to increase <br />public input but also have a seat at the table and citizens should have access to <br />meetings. <br />Randy Polk, advocate for the Arts and Arts organization in San Marcos spoke <br />on The Cinema Club and annual River Festival. The Cinema Club hosted an <br />in-person event just outside of the City limits and the Arts Commission asked <br />the City for a refund of half from the hotel occupancy tax for the River <br />Festival. Mr. Polk stated arts organization can't sustain a $5,000 hit and <br />continue to survive. Within the last rive years the Lost River has become a <br />respected organization and future growth will be a great asset to the <br />Community. <br />PRESENTATIONS <br />City of San Marcos Page 2 <br />