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CSAC recommends $955,500 in nonprofit grants for 2025; councilors question allocations and process
Summary
The Community Services Advisory Commission proposed $955,500 in grants across 30 applicants; councilors asked for more detail on funding origins, prioritization and specific awards, especially a CSAC recommendation for Mariposa and the city's separate decision to recommend $0 in non‑departmental funding.
The Community Services Advisory Commission (CSAC) presented its 2025 funding recommendations to the Pueblo City Council on Jan. 13, proposing $955,500 in grants split across multiple service areas after reviewing roughly $1.5 million in requests.
Melissa Cook, interim housing director, and Gina Lopez Ferguson, CSAC chair, told councilors CSAC received 30 grant requests and recommended awards after site visits, interviews and two decision meetings. "The request of the organizations... totaled about $1,500,000, and so we had to scale down and prioritize funding," Lopez Ferguson said.
CSAC members said their recommendations try to limit harm to organizations by considering historic funding levels. Lopez Ferguson described the commission’s approach as participatory grant making and said members worked from an application rubric and from what they found during interviews and site visits.
Councilors questioned the process and the source of funds. Councilor Dennis Flores asked whether funding came from the city budget; Cook said $490,000 for CSAC was included in the city’s nondepartmental budget approved Nov. 15. Lopez Ferguson said CSAC’s portfolio to allocate was $955,500 and that the applicants’ combined asks exceeded available funding.
The allocation for one long-discussed agency, Mariposa, drew particular scrutiny. Councilors noted a discrepancy between the city’s nondepartmental recommendation (city office recommended $0) and CSAC’s recommendation of $145,000. Mayor Graham provided historical context, saying Mariposa received about $113,000 in 2023 and $108,000 in 2024 (city plus CSAC), plus a separate $70,000 council-provided emergency grant earlier in the year. Mayor Graham said her office was not consulted on CSAC’s recommendations.
Councilors raised audit and oversight concerns. A city official said Mariposa had a negative audit finding and the city had previously withheld funding pending corrective action; that was cited as the reason the city recommended $0 for nondepartmental funding this year, while CSAC recommended a larger award.
Councilors also debated process issues including the 1992 intergovernmental agreement (IGA) that governs CSAC funding with Pueblo County, possible constraints tied to federal funding sources such as CDBG, and whether council should see CSAC recommendations earlier in the budget process. Lopez Ferguson said CSAC members are volunteers and that more data, a needs assessment, and clearer guidance from council and the county would help the commission make more informed decisions.
No formal vote on CSAC’s recommendations occurred at the Jan. 13 work session; councilors requested corrected award tables and indicated they would continue discussions with the county and the city legal team to resolve procedural questions.
