Laredo council approves committee’s reduced third‑party funding recommendations after finding many incomplete applications

Esther Fedoba, chair of the city’s third‑party funding committee, presented the panel’s recommendations and the scoring process at a special Laredo City Council budget workshop on May 21.

The committee reported that applicants for this year’s hotel/motel fund requested a total of about $251,500; the committee recommended awarding $116,750, citing repeated incomplete applications and requests that did not meet the program’s qualifying purposes. For the general fund category the committee identified 23 applicants requesting about $540,500 and recommended a combined award of about $237,933.33. “Many of the applications were incomplete and did not fill out the necessary forms in many areas that would qualify them with the funding,” Fedoba told council during the presentation.

Council members pressed staff and the committee on whether organizations had been allowed to cure missing documents. Tina Rodriguez, director of Community and Economic Development, said the competitive grant rules prohibit agencies and committee members from “going back” to correct applications once the review period is open, but that the city can provide technical assistance after awards are finalized to improve next year’s submissions. “When the applications are open, they shouldn't be [able to correct them] because at this point we're already reviewing them,” Rodriguez said.

Several council members expressed sympathy for small nonprofits while also noting the city’s tight budget. One member urged staff to earmark a small pocket of money for project‑specific requests or to hold additional outreach so smaller organizations understand the requirements. The committee itself recommended adding real‑time application tools and clearer instructions; councilmember Vanessa Perez noted committee proposals to add software that would show applicants which documents were missing in real time.

The council moved to approve the committee’s recommended allocations as presented, and approved a companion motion asking staff to hold at least two public workshops before next year’s budget cycle to educate nonprofits about the application process and to consider the committee’s procedural recommendations. The motion passed on voice vote; individual roll‑call votes were not specified in the meeting transcript.

What’s next: Staff will schedule the workshops and report back to council as part of the regular budget process. The approved recommended award totals will be included in the draft FY27 budget materials.