Beginning Jan. 19, officials from the City of San Marcos will be taking to the streets to find out what residents think of their city services and where improvements could be made.

As part of the Dream San Marcos initiative, officials and staff members are offering the public eight opportunities to provide input on the fire, police and parks and recreation departments, as well as on the library, streets and future water use.

"The goal behind it is to have informed consent and informed input from the citizens. Lots of times we get input form the citizens, but we don't always get informed input," City Manager Jim Nuse said. "They are asked to respond to something without the opportunity to educate themselves."

Representatives from each of the departments will be on hand to answer questions as seven locations and at Mayor Daniel Guerrero's State of the City Address on Jan. 26.

Nuse said the open houses will allow residents to provide input on the level of service they expect from the major city service.

"The goal is that if they know what it costs and they know what's being provided, then they know what other features they can add or delete," he said. "They can let us better gauge what's important to them so that we're not expending resources on things that may not be important to them. With scarce resources, we can allocate them the way they think is best."

Melissa Millecam, communications director for the city, said the input will be used primarily for budgeting purposes.

The Level of Service Advice Program uses the Toyota family of cars as its basis.

Residents will be asked whether they would like a Corolla, Camry or Lexus level of service from each of the departments.

Nuse used the library as an example.

"A Corolla level is open 59 hours a week. As you open more, it requires more people and more air conditioning and everything else. A Camry is open 64 hours and it has a little more staffing level. Then you go up to Lexus, [there are] 71 hours in a Lexus," he said. "Corolla doesn't have any Sunday hours, a Camry has a few Sunday hours and a Lexus has a lot more Sunday hours."

Residents can also see how each department's budget is divided, and San Marcos has chosen eight other cities to use for comparison—Denton, Austin, Georgetown, Round Rock, Temple and Cedar Park

"These are good comparisons to see where we stand," Millecam said.

At the end of each session, residents enter their ZIP code and whether they are a homeowner or renter into a computer survey. Corresponding property tax increases or decreases will be shown based on the level of service they have chosen for each department.

"We can use that as guidance as we develop the budget over time," Nuse said. "We can go to the decision-makers and say, 'Our customers are saying this. We've looked at it, and this is what we're thinking about these scarce resources.'"

Nuse said turnout was in the hundreds when he implemented the Level of Service program in Round Rock.

"You go in to the neighborhoods and you have discussions with people who've never had this before," he said. "Some people will spend hours and talk to everybody. It's a really nice thing."

For more information, visit the city's website.

Schedule of meetings

Jan. 19

5:30–7:30 p.m. at Cuauhtmoc Hall,1100 Patton St. This meeting will serve Sector 4: East Guadalupe Street, Rio Vista and Victory Gardens.

Jan. 24

5:30–7:30 p.m. at the Goodnight Middle School Cafeteria, 1301 N. Hwy. 123. This meeting will serve sectors 5 and 6: Sunset Acres, El Camino Real, Hills of Hays, Wallace Addition, Blanco Gardens, Blanco River Village and East Aquarena Springs Drive.

Jan. 26

Mayor Daniel Guerrero's State of the City Address will be from 5:30–7 p.m. at the Embassy Suites/City Conference Center, 1001 E. McCarty Lane. This will provide an opportunity for the entire community to participate.

Jan. 30

5:30–7:30 p.m. at the Dunbar Center, 801 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. This meeting will serve sectors 1 and 8: Dunbar, Heritage, Westover, downtown and Texas State University.

Feb. 2

5:30–7:30 p.m. at the San Marcos Activity Center, 501 E. Hopkins Road. This meeting will serve Sector 9: Willow Creek.

Feb. 6

6:30–8:30 p.m. at First Lutheran Church, 130 W. Holland St. This meeting will serve Sector 2: Castle Forest, Franklin Square, Oak Heights and Southwest Hills.

Feb. 9

5:30–7:30 p.m. at the Travis Elementary School Cafeteria, 1437 Post Road. This meeting will serve Sector 7: Blanco Vista, Millview, Uhland Road, Post Road and Thorpe Lane.

Feb. 13

6:30–8:30 p.m. at First Lutheran Church. This meeting will serve Sector 3: Alamo, Highland, Holland Hills, Hughson Heights, Sierra Circle, Tanglewood, North LBJ Drive and North Craddock Avenue.