Las Cruces City Council to vote on new project recommendations for federal COVID funds

Michael McDevitt, Las Cruces Sun-News
·3 min read
Las Cruces City Manager Ifo Pili, right, attends a city council meeting to discuss the ARPA bid process at Las Cruces City Hall on Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022.
Las Cruces City Manager Ifo Pili, right, attends a city council meeting to discuss the ARPA bid process at Las Cruces City Hall on Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022.

LAS CRUCES — The city council may finally approve the allocation of millions of dollars in federal pandemic aid toward a slew of economic assistance and social service projects led by local organizations, after an initial attempt was scrapped and reset following troubling audit findings.

At a Sept. 6 meeting, the Las Cruces City Council will consider approving $9.59 million in American Rescue Plan Act money to fund 10 projects that address lingering economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The city has set aside more than $10 million in ARPA funds to distribute to organizations for community and economic assistance programs which address the impact of the pandemic. The money is available through the American Rescue Plan Act, the coronavirus relief package passed in Congress last year.

The city previously conducted a competitive selection process last fall to choose potential aid recipients, but the process was canceled in February after an internal audit turned up multiple defects in how the eligibility of proposed projects was determined. Out of 21 applications, nine projects had been recommended to receive $9.5 million before the selection process was canceled.

In May, the council voted to approve a new selection process to determine the projects recommended to receive the federal funds. The new process included clearly outlined eligibility parameters and an appeals process for projects deemed ineligible which would allow them to amend their proposals to meet necessary requirements. All 21 original applicants were reevaluated using the new criteria and process.

At that same May meeting, the council chose to prioritize a speedier potential approval of funds when it voted to delay one of two planned internal audits of the new process, which were intended to ensure its integrity.

The second audit will now take place after selected organizations receive their first disbursements of federal money, which comes in the form of reimbursement, instead of before funding is approved.

Though the new process reconsidered all the same original applicants, the new process elicited 10 recommended projects for $9,594,653 in funding — one more project than the original slate of recommendations but a similar recommended funding total as before.

Most of the final recommended projects also remain the same as before, though some of the recommended funding amounts differ. Two new projects were added. For instance, local makerspace Cruces Creatives — one of the organizations whose proposal was initially deemed ineligible and whose leaders had been outspoken about their concerns with the original process — is now recommended to receive $1 million in funding for its planned program.

Here are the recommended projects and their recommended funding amounts.

  • Mesilla Valley Community of Hope; Housing Risk Mitigation Funds; $300,000

  • Community Foundation of Southern NM/Bitwise; Equip Las Cruces; $1,000,000

  • Community Action Agency of SNM; Guaranteed Basic Income Project; $1,700,000

  • Jardin de los Niños; Flourishing Families Infant Mental Health Program; $350,000

  • Catholic Charities of Southern New Mexico; COVID-19 Recovery Fund; $550,000

  • New Mexico Housing & Community Development Corp; Peachtree Affordable Housing Project; $2,000,000

  • Boys & Girls Club of Las Cruces; New Facility; $1,388,800

  • Cruces Creatives; Economic and Educational Recovery; $1,000,000

  • Mesilla Valley Public Housing Authority; Oak Street Veterans Affordable Housing Project; $305,853

  • Liftfund; Revitalize Las Cruces Small Businesses; $1,000,000

The council meeting will be held in council chambers starting at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 6 at City Hall, 700 N. Main St. It will also be broadcast live on Comcast cable channel 20 and in high definition on channel 298. It will be livestreamed on YouTube at YouTube.com/clctv20 and will be available at clctv.com.

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Michael McDevitt is a city and county government reporter for the Sun-News. He can be reached at 575-202-3205, mmcdevitt@lcsun-news.com or @MikeMcDTweets on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Las Cruces could approve new project recommendations for COVID funds