Las Cruces City Council decided on Monday to postpone the adoption of funding priorities for non-profit organizations.
The city of Las Cruces has allocated $ 10.4 million from the American Rescue Plan Act to community and economic development initiatives. For nonprofits, this means additional resources to help people in the community recover from the pandemic.
Funding for these local organizations is still up in the air, however, as Las Cruces City Council decided to postpone a vote on adopting charitable funding priorities. This will allow time to submit a review of the application process to the council, as Councilor Gabe Vasquez has described.
“I think it is in the public’s best interest to be able to go through this process and better understand how this tender went and what the communication with potential applicants was like,” said Vasquez.
Of the 21 applications received, the city’s selection committee recommends funding to nine organizations. Natalie Green, director of urban housing and neighborhood services, says the applications were first screened for eligibility before being submitted to the selection committee for evaluation.
“The evaluation matrix covered a number of points,” said Green. “The first was the project justification, how will the response to the COVID pandemic or the negative effects as a result of the pandemic be dealt with? Did it hit the city goals? What was the impact on the community? “
Recommendations include $ 600,000 for risk mitigation funds for the Mesilla Valley Community of Hope, $ 2 million for the Community Foundation of Southern New Mexico, and $ 1.7 million for a Community Action Agency of Southern New project Mexico with a guaranteed basic income.
Councilor Johana Bencomo is delighted that these projects will provide additional resources to improve the quality of life for city dwellers.
“These are projects that have a direct impact on the well-being of our community and people’s quality of life,” said Bencomo. “Because of the pandemic, every single one of these projects feels right to me what ARPA was.”
Lori Martinez, the managing director of Ngage New Mexico, spoke out against parts of the application process and called for more transparency.
“The problem is, none of us knew beforehand that there would be a pre-screening committee for these three members,” Martinez said. “It’s not uncommon for a pre-screening committee to be set up just to make sure nonprofits are eligible. However, there was no evaluation matrix with which we could know which criteria these three people used to decide whether the applications were successful or not. ”
It’s a message that Bencomo City Councilor has taken to heart – he is calling for additional scrutiny before a vote.
“I hear Ms. Martinez say that there is this crux of the matter, right. I think it’s important that we look into it, ”said Bencomo. “I’m not giving this up front, but I just want to consider what our very trustworthy community partners are saying.”
The Council will examine this resolution further on December 20.
Comments are closed.