Lumbreras retiring from San Marcos

Bert Lumbreras is a familiar name around Austin City Hall. He spent more than a decade with the city, starting as assistant city manager in August 2006. In 2017 he left Austin for a job as city manager of San Marcos. But his career appears to be headed for an ending as Lumbreras announced his intent to retire yesterday, effective Jan. 31, 2022. The surprise announcement may partly be the consequence of the city of San Marcos’ bungled response to a traffic collision back in June 2020, which was caused by an off-duty police officer and resulted in the death of a woman named Jennifer Miller. San Marcos police Sgt. Ryan Hartman had an open can of beer in his vehicle at the time of the fatal crash, in which he was not injured. Miller died at the scene while her partner was airlifted to a hospital. In his announcement, Lumbreras said he’d been planning his retirement for almost two years and the decision was “strictly driven by when I was able to take this important step in my life.”