San Marcos City Council said it wants to look at how economic development in the city is handled, and its members hope a three-person subcommittee can do just that.

"Economic development is extremely important to San Marcos, and I don't think that's something that we're going to cut," Councilman Shane Scott said.

He said council evaluates the performance of the Greater San Marcos Partnership that is responsible for economic development in Hays and Caldwell counties.

The Dec. 2 discussion created a council subcommittee—including Mayor Daniel Guerrero, Councilwoman Lisa Prewitt and Councilman John Thomaides—to assist in that evaluation.

Thomaides said he was interested in closely inspecting the city's financial commitment to the GSMP.

"One of the reasons we're even talking about this tonight is because the amount of general fund dollars that we commit to this effort and to economic development is significant, and we have a limited budget," he said. "We have a newly seated council, and this vendor's contract is up for renewal."

Prewitt said she was concerned that a Market Street study indicated new residents in the San Marcos area have a lower average annual income than residents in surrounding areas, as well as relatively low educational attainment. The Market Street firm is helping the GSMP formulate its strategic plan.

The study showed the local economy depends too heavily on retail and service industry jobs, and the city's housing stock is considered unattractive by some higher end employers, she said.

"[The Market Street study results were] very alarming to me," Prewitt said. "It's not that I'm not supportive of the partnership. I'm not getting enough information."

She said she hoped the city might add an in-house economic development professional to its staff and find better ways to team up with the GSMP to bring economic development to San Marcos.

"A lot of those issues [included in the Market Street study] are systemic and are long-lasting," Councilman Jude Prather said. "The GSMP has been light-years ahead of economic development that we've seen in the last 10 years. We've finally got top-tier talent trying to bring jobs to San Marcos. We've got a good thing going."

The new subcommittee will bring its recommendations back to council on Feb. 3.