SAN MARCOS CITY COUNCIL
The November election will have two San Marcos City Council seats and a mayoral seat on the ballot. Atom Von Arndt is running for council member Place 5 against Griffin Spell, Roland Saucedo and Lorenzo Gonzalez.
“I just feel like running for city council is a good way to actually have a seat at the table to make decisions… that are going to benefit our community and not just the [businesses with] money that want to come into this town, not just the university, but the actual people,” Von Arndt said. “I would love to see more representatives of the people that keep this town going, the people that help keep the lights on, the people that work at the stores, the people that are supporting their families.”
Von Arndt grew up in New Braunfels but has been in San Marcos for six years, which is the first place he’s considered home in his adult life. He considers San Marcos a “magical place” with the springs and the historical significance of the area. He’s in a political punk band called Trump Card and said he has always had a bit of “skin in the game” when it comes to politics. But most importantly, Von Arndt feels he represents the typical San Marcan.
“I’m a single dad. I’m a renter. I’m an employee, so I’m like the majority of the people that live here. I don’t own my home. I work for somebody else. I’m just working to support my family,” Von Arndt said. “This will be my third year in a row to run for city council. I see that the decisions that are being made and the people that we have representing us, unfortunately, don’t really seem to represent who we are, who the people that live here are. I’m just a regular guy and want to do what I can to help decisions be made that benefit the regular people that live here.”
Von Arndt believes his 25 years as a salesman makes him a good candidate for council.
“Sales is having conversations, talking. It is meeting in the middle… I think that I can be a good representative of the people, and my secret power is listening. I’m good at listening to what people say and making sense of it. So if I could use those powers to help the people of this city, that’d be great,” Von Arndt said. “I’m glad that there’s more people stepping up to run and being on the ballot this year, but we also have to think when these changes [to council] are made, who’s getting elected and who are they going to benefit? Who are they concerned about?”
Von Arndt wants to be a champion for renters rights, which he feels could use bolstering in this city. He gave an example of an apartment complex with a $5,000 unit, which he said impacts the price of apartments across the city. He talked about the fact that A.C. is not a requirement in the state of Texas, which he knows is an overarching issue with larger-than-local implications, but just because the state allows it, doesn’t mean San Marcos should.
“Seventy percent of our city is renters, and that’s not just the university, it’s the locals too. …There’s a college run or a university base of students that put together a tenant advocacy group because the leases that are coming through with these big student housing projects are ridiculous. They’re predatory. They prey on students, and there’s no repercussions for the business. They can lease out something to a child or a teenager or whatever, and then the person gets here and the building is not done well. They’re still stuck in that lease, even though the developer didn’t carry out their end of the bargain. And I think there’s a lot of leases in the town that do not benefit the renter at all,” Von Arndt said. “We shouldn’t turn every building in the downtown and the surrounding area into dorms. Every time the city sells property to the university, it comes off the tax roll. It doesn’t help anybody, especially when those that are being built as these huge predatory things.”
A full list of candidates can be found at this link sanmarcostx.gov/4117/ Current-Candidates.
