At Tuesday night’s meeting, Buda City Council chose to not take action against the continued fluoridation of the city’s water supply. Buda has received fluoridated water since 2002, when the city became a Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority customer, Buda Water Specialist Brian Lillibridge said. In 2015, City Council passed a resolution to continue fluoridation of the city’s water supply. When GBRA discontinued fluoridation at the San Marcos Water Treatment Plant, Buda staff teamed up with the Texas Fluoridation Program to design and install a fluoridation system at Bonita Vista Pump Station, Lillibridge said. In November, customers were notified that fluoridation would resume. Sam Brannon, organizer of Fluoride Free San Marcos Coalition, spoke during the open forum held at the council meeting. Brannon was involved in the campaign that led to San Marcos ceasing the fluoridation of its water supply. In November 2015, 61 percent of voters in San Marcos voted against fluoridation. “Four years ago, I was probably in the same position as some of you,” he said. “I was raised to think fluoride was good.” Since then, he said he found out fluoride is a neurotoxin, and that the kind used in public water supplies has never been tested for efficacy or safety, Brannon said. He urged City Council to rethink fluoride. During open forum, Mayor Todd Ruge read a letter on behalf of Beth Stewart, executive director of the Texas Oral Health Coalition. “We fully endorse and support community fluoridation in all public water systems in the state of Texas,” Stewart said in the letter. “Fluoridation has proven to be safe, cost-effective and beneficial in every stage of life regardless of age, race or socioeconomic status.” Fluoridation is to thank for the dramatic decline of tooth decay in the past 60 years, she said. Graham Moore, general manager of the Hays Caldwell Public Utility Agency, also spoke in favor of continuing fluoridation. The HCPUA is public entity created to develop long-term water supplies for the area and has not taken a stance on fluoride in city water systems, but Moore supports it as a private citizen, he said. “There’s overwhelming credible scientific evidence that fluoride, in appropriate dosages and levels, is totally safe,” Moore said. “Seventy years of use in the United States has demonstrated it’s safe. I don’t know why we would want to go backwards on something that been so good for so many communities for so many years. It’s just beyond my comprehension.” City Council ultimately voted to table the issue indefinitely. Council Member David Nuckels voted against the motion.