HARLINGEN — The city’s not planning to contract with an outside firm to help land grant money, City Manager Gabriel Gonzalez stated Tuesday.
Instead, at City Hall officials are working with the city’s two grant writers to apply for money to help fund city projects.
At the tail end of a one-year contract, the city’s cutting ties with Hollis Rutledge & Associates, a Mission-based grant writing firm whose contract’s paying $3,000 a month.
Through the last year, the firm worked to land a $24,000 grant, with a $1 million grant that’s under review, while the city has paid the company $36,000, Gonzalez told city commissioners.
Firm paid $36,000 lands $24,000 grant
During a meeting, Commissioner Michael Mezmar questioned the firm’s production.
“So we paid $36,000, and if I heard you correctly, we got one grant for $24,000,” Mezmar told Gonzalez during the March 1 meeting.
In response, Gonzalez said officials helped the firm with that grant application to the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation.
“We did the majority of the work,” he told Mezmar. “We sent it to them to submit on our behalf, but we normally do those ourselves. We had received those before from the Firehouse Subs Foundation.”
Gonzalez told Commissioner Daniel Lopez the firm’s $1 million grant application to the Texas Division on Emergency Management is under review.
“It’s still being considered. That has not been approved yet,” Gonzalez said, adding the firm’s contract expires at the end of the month.
“We haven’t gotten our money’s worth, I don’t think yet,” he said.
For me, the reason why I would urge this commission to not renew and allow this contract to expire is because when I did review the one grant that they did apply (for), it had so many errors
Contract’s not ‘performance-based’
Amid discussion, Mayor Norma Sepulveda told commissioners the firm’s contract wasn’t “performance-based.”
“We just send them a check, and if they get the check, no matter what — whether there’s work performed or not,” she said, referring to the city’s payment of the firm’s monthly fee.
Meanwhile, Sepulveda expressed concern over the firm’s grant writing work.
“For me, the reason why I would urge this commission to not renew and allow this contract to expire is because when I did review the one grant that they did apply (for), it had so many errors,” she told commissioners. “I was very upset with the product that was before me, and I would expect a grant writer to provide this information to us timely so we’re able to review it instead of just submitting things at the last minute, especially if it’s going to be your only work product to be before this commission to consider.”
City didn’t give ‘fair shot’
During discussion, Commissioner Frank Morales argued city officials didn’t provide the firm with information regarding ongoing projects.
“One of the things that they asked for was designs for projects and shovel-ready projects,” he told commissioners. “We, at that time, did not have any shovel-ready projects nor designs. If they’re grant writers, how do we expect them to be successful when we don’t have that? If he’s going to succeed or be able to award us with some funds, we need shovel-ready projects. We need designs. We hired them on without giving them a fair shot because we did not have anything worthwhile for them to go after.”
City doesn’t apply for $1 million grant
Meanwhile, Morales has also questioned whether the city applied for a $1 million grant from the state’s General Land Office, which has awarded the grant to some area cities.
In response, Cristina Garcia, the city’s spokeswoman, stated Hollis Rutledge’s firm did not apply for the grant.
From what I can tell, we have good talent and skills that are very capable of seeking out applicable grants to meet the city’s needs.
In-house grant writing team
At City Hall, Ana Hernandez, the city’s special projects director, is working with Jennifer Carr on the city’s grant writing work.
“We do that pretty well, too, with our department that does grant writing and special projects so I’m looking forward to getting more grants in the future with them,” Gonzalez told commissioners.
Last year, Hernandez’s work raised about $6 million in grant money, he said.
Last June, officials hired Carr amid a push to apply for grant money.
“From what I can tell, we have good talent and skills that are very capable of seeking out applicable grants to meet the city’s needs,” Commissioner Ford Kinsley stated Tuesday.
On Tuesday, Rutledge did not respond to messages requesting comment.
