San Antonio Mayor Jones and city councilmembers spent much of a discussion session on Oct. 15 reviewing a proposed redesign of the city’s consolidated funding process and preparing for a tabletop exercise to model the local impact of potential federal grant reductions.

The presentation, led by Melanie of the city’s human-services team and Jessica from the same office, laid out proposed priorities for the fiscal 2026 consolidated fund, a timeline for a competitive request for proposals (RFP) and a set of policy changes intended to simplify grant administration and increase alignment with city priorities. Justin Azei, the city budget director, told the council the city currently receives about $153,000,000 in federal grants that support roughly 663 city-funded positions, and cautioned that reductions at the federal level could have cascading effects in San Antonio.

The proposal on the table would keep the existing priority percentages (for example, about 31% for children and youth, roughly 10% for senior independence and about 10% for homelessness prevention), create clearer categories for “designated” versus competitive funds, and set aside an approximately $4.26 million competitive pool for a new contracting cycle beginning June 1, 2026. Melanie told the council the consolidated pool for FY2026 is about $24.5 million in total, of which roughly $20 million has been delivered through delegated contracts to about 80 agencies, and the city is proposing to extend certain short-term subcontract extensions so service providers do not have service gaps while the new process is implemented.

“We are recommending increasing transparency, reducing complexity and aligning investments with city priorities,” Melanie said. She described four pillars of the redesign—alignment with city programs, clearer funding categories, stronger community engagement in the process and standardized performance metrics—and recommended extending the solicitation cycle from two to four years while allowing annual renewals based on performance.

Councilmembers and nonprofit leaders focused their questions on several recurring concerns: whether longer contract terms would reduce the city’s flexibility to respond to emerging needs; whether raising the minimum competitive-award amount from $50,000 to $100,000 would exclude small but essential local providers; and how the city would measure and monitor performance across a large set of grantees.

“We need to be strategic in how we spend scarce dollars,” Councilmember Alderete Gabito said, noting the city cannot fund every nonprofit and urging clearer performance metrics. Councilmember Spears stressed caution about a 4‑year cycle and said smaller providers need a lower barrier to entry. Councilmember Meza González asked for exemptions or simplified monitoring for very small, long-standing providers.

A representative from the philanthropic community — who spoke broadly about private giving and capacity gaps — urged the council to prioritize investments that build nonprofit operational capacity and to coordinate private and public funding. “When you make an investment, there must be capacity to operate like a strong business,” the speaker said, arguing funders should help nonprofits demonstrate impact rather than only counting outputs.

Councilmembers and staff also discussed public-safety and crime-prevention priorities that intersect with the consolidated-funds conversation. Councilmembers pressed staff to ensure that phase-two and phase-three crime-prevention efforts—measures that emphasize services and diversion in addition to policing—have access to nonprofit partners and funding if federal dollars shrink.

On timing, staff recommended this schedule for the competitive process: publish the RFP on Dec. 1; accept applications through Jan. 26; staff recommendations to the mayor and council by May 8, 2026; and contracts to begin June 1, 2026. Staff also proposed temporarily extending current eight-month subcontract extensions to 12 months so providers would not experience a funding gap while the new RFP cycle is completed. Melanie and Erick (city staff) said any extension beyond the budget-authorized eight months would require a formal council action to amend the budget/contracts.

Budget Director Justin Azei framed the larger fiscal risk: “The total, including this, is $153,000,000,” he said, and added that federal aid reductions would affect multiple departments and programs that the community relies on. Azei and police-coordination staff described a two-phase tabletop exercise planned for early December: phase one will inventory how each department depends on federal funds and model impacts if those funds are lost; phase two will convene partners in an emergency operations–style workshop to surface cross-departmental solutions and communications strategies.

Councilmembers pressed for district-level data and requested staff return with scenario analyses showing local impacts by council district and by population group such as seniors, children and people experiencing homelessness. The mayor asked councilmembers to submit their feedback to the city manager by Oct. 20 to inform the tabletop planning and the consolidated-funding schedule.

No formal votes were taken. Staff said they would return with a memorandum summarizing the revised timeline and proposed contract extensions and would reflect the council’s feedback in the final RFP and policy documents.

What’s next: staff will proceed with outreach to nonprofit partners, publish the RFP materials on Dec. 1 if the timeline holds, and run a two-part tabletop exercise in December to model federal-grant reductions. Any amendment that extends current eight-month subcontract extensions to 12 months will require a formal council action in a future meeting.