WEDNESDAY APRIL 8, 2015
VOLUME 104 ISSUE 76 www.UniversityStar.com
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CITY COUNCIL
Pay raise for City Council approved by 5-2 vote MADELYNNE SCALES PHOTO EDITOR
Derrick Lee poses April 7 in the San Marcos River, where he scuba dives to clean waste found on the river bed.
Local diver cleans river one can at a time By Jon Wilcox SENIOR NEWS REPORTER @thrilcox
W
orking as a pedicab dr iver in the Hill Country takes a certain kind of passion. David Harmon works as a barista at Wake the Dead Coffee House. When he is not crafting a cup of jo, he is in Austin driving a pedicab. Harmon is an independent driver for Movemint Bike Cab, an Austin-based pedicab company, and travels across the country for events. “Being a barista helped pay my way through college,” Har-
mon said. “I really just enjoy the coffee culture more than I enjoy sitting on the computer clicking all day.” In February, Jimmy Kimmel contacted Movemint to reserve a pedicab for a skit to be filmed in Austin during the South by Southwest festival. Harmon replied to the email before knowing who the client would be. “(Kimmel) had reached out to our company trying to reserve a pedicab at 9 a.m., and that’s not really on the sleeping schedule with my co-workers,” Harmon said. “I was really just the only one willing to wake up and go ride a bike at nine in the
morning.” During the skit, Harmon brought Kimmel and his sidekick, Guillermo to various piñata businesses in Austin. Each time someone said “piñata,” the duo took a shot of tequila. Harmon said it was a good experience and “rowdy” fun. Taping lasted for about seven hours. He said the tequila shots Kimmel and Guillermo took were real. “Everything about it was real,” Harmon said. “They’re good people.” Kimmel gave Harmon and the company tickets to the live taping of his show at South by
Southwest. “It was a cool experience for him, and I’m very happy he got to do that,” said Christopher Tuan, a fellow barista at Wake the Dead. “He’s a hard worker and knows his stuff about coffee.” Tuan said he was hired with Harmon in 2010 at the coffee shop. Harmon has let Tuan ride in his pedicab. “He’s always meeting different celebrities,” Tuan said. Harmon has met singer-songwriter Cat Power; President Obama’s constitutional law ad-
See DERRICK LEE, Page 2
ENTERTAINMENT
Local barista conducts Jimmy Kimmel for piñata skit
By Jon Wilcox SENIOR NEWS REPORTER @thrilcox San Marcos City Council approved an ordinance to raise the monthly compensation for its members and the mayor by $500 each at Tuesday’s meeting. The council passed the measure by a 5-2 vote. Councilman Jude Prather, Place 2, and Councilman Shane Scott, Place 6, voted against the proposal. Members in support of the increase cited city growth and increasing workloads. The city council established the salary in 2007, said Mayor Daniel Guerrero. The rate has not changed since its creation. Council members will see a monthly compensation increase from $950 to $1,450. Monthly salary for the mayor will rise from $1,200 to $1,700. The discussion of whether to increase the rate and by how much began in 2014, Guerrero said. Councilman John Thomaides, Place 3, said San Marcos is one of the fastest-
“The job has changed. The job and the time (required) has changed substantially.” —COUNCILMAN JOHN THOMAIDES, PLACE 3
By Rebecca Banks NEWS REPORTER @r_banks13 It takes a certain kind of passion to work as a pedicab driver in the Hill Country. David Harmon works as a barista at Wake the Dead Coffee House. When he is not crafting a cup of jo, he is in Austin driving a pedicab. Harmon is an independent driver for Movemint Bike Cab, an Austinbased pedicab company, and travels coast-to-coast working events. “Being a barista helped pay my way through college,” Harmon said. “I really just enjoy the coffee culture more than I enjoy sitting on the computer clicking all day.” In February, Jimmy Kimmel contacted Movemint to reserve a pedicab for a skit to be filmed in Austin during the South by Southwest festival. Harmon replied to the e-mail before knowing who the client would be. “(Kimmel) had reached out to our company trying to reserve a pedicab at 9 a.m., and that’s not really on the sleeping schedule with my co-workers,” Harmon said. “I was really just the only one willing to wake up and go ride a bike at 9
DENSIE CATHEY ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR
David Harmon poses April 6 on a pedicab in Austin. in the morning.” During the skit, Harmon pulled Kimmel and Guillermo in his pedicab to various piñata businesses in
Austin. Each time someone said piñata, the duo would take a shot of tequila. Harmon said it was a good ex-
perience and “rowdy” fun. Taping lasted for about seven hours. He
See DAVID HARMON, Page 2
growing cities in the United States. The council’s responsibilities have increased as a result. “The job has changed,” Thomaides said. “The job and the time (required) has changed substantially.” Guerrero said travel fees, rising costs in healthcare, additional committees and subcommittees and an increased workload are the main reasons to raise the salary. Council members spend “half, if not more, of (their) working hours” on city-related duties, Thomaides said. Most meetings are scheduled during the day and cut into members’ personal work schedules. “I do see the job has changed greatly,” said Councilwoman Jane Hughson, Place 4. Increasing the compensation rate may have a democratizing effect on the council, Thomaides said. He said higher pay for council members would make the positions more viable for politically-minded residents who lack substantial incomes. “We have to make a decision not only for ourselves but for future council members,” Thomaides said. “The council will benefit from members of all walks of life— working people, not just the wealthy.”
UNIVERSITY
Fashion team wins second in national competition
By Kasandra Garza SPECIAL TO THE STAR @kasgarza A Texas State business case study team took home second place out of 11 programs in a national competition. The JEVS Fashion Bobcats team is made up of Jaimee Raver, fashion merchandising senior; Emily Willis, fashion merchandising junior; Victoria Ruiz, fashion merchandising senior, and Sabrina Silva, interior design senior. JEVS is an acronym for the first letter of each team member’s name, Raver said.
The JEVS Fashion Bobcats won second place in the first annual Kohl’s Invitational. The team was flown to the Kohl’s headquarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to participate in the competition. The team was the only group from a Texas university invited to attend the event. The fashion merchandising program had never been involved in a case study competition on a national level, said Bobbie Moore, the team’s faculty adviser. The JEVS Fashion Bobcats had four weeks to develop a 10-page business plan to improve Kohl’s in-store experience. They built their business plan based on three key
concepts: appealing to the millennial generation, practical budgeting and returns on investments, Willis said. The business plan included updates to the Kohl’s app including a registry valet, an in-store navigation map, a “help” button and a “Kohl’s poll.” Another key feature of the business plan was the addition of virtual fitting rooms in existing Kohl’s stores, Willis said. The registry valet would allow shoppers to register for weddings and baby showers directly from their mobile devices without the hassle of having to do it in person. The in-store navigation feature
would work as a map to help customers locate items. The “help” button would automatically connect a shopper to an associate on the sales floor. Willis said the “Kohl’s poll” would allow shoppers to take pictures of clothing that would immediately be uploaded to social media, where friends and family could choose which piece of clothing they like best. Any customer using the poll feature would gain loyalty points with Kohl’s for using the app and purchasing items. The ideas were developed as a way to increase traffic to the stores, Willis said.
The virtual fitting rooms would consist of a large TV screen with a Kinect video camera. All of the store’s inventory would be programmed into the fitting rooms, allowing shoppers to virtually change the color of clothes they are wearing and see the outcome on the TV screen, Willis said. Virtual fitting rooms are already being tested in other stores, including Nordstrom. Kohl’s, however, has yet to include this feature. The JEVS Fashion Bobcats provided the idea and demonstrated how Kohl’s can benefit from virtual fitting
See JEVS FASHION, Page 2