Human Services Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

All right, welcome to the June 10th, 2026 regular meeting of the Human Services Advisory Board. I'm calling the meeting to order at 6.03 p.m. Thank you all for attending. The roll call. Sadly, Linda Harper-Williams has had a death in her family and has resigned effective immediately due to family responsibilities. And Carol, will you please call the roll for the record of board member attendance?

Okay. For attendance, John Ciaragola.

Present. I should have called Noah Herring first. He's not present.

Okay. Raymond Best. Here. Linda Andrews-Zyne. Okay. Ethan Braves.

Here.

Sharif Fessis. Here.

And Madeline Smith. Here. And Alisa Ramirez. Here. So with six out of seven voting members in attendance, we have a quorum. It is now time for the citizen comment period. Anyone is allowed to speak on any topic for up to three minutes. If you would like to speak during the citizen comment period, will you please raise your hand?

OK, we don't have any. These are staffed, so we don't have any civilians. And Madeline, I just made you a presenter. You may have seen the change, OK?

All right, now we will consider approval of the minutes for the meeting held June 3rd, 2026. Do I hear a motion to approve minutes for this meeting as written? Motion. Second. Motion was made by Yancey and seconded by Ethan. Thank you, guys. Does the board have any discussion or corrections regarding the minutes?

No?

Awesome. Carol, will you please call the roll for the votes? Okay, Yancey Arvalo. Yes. Raymond Best.

Yes. Ethan Gavis, yes. Sherif Bessies, yes. Madeline Smith, yes.

Annalisa Ramirez, yes.

All right, presentations. We will receive a presentation from staff on the compiled preliminary scores and proposed allocations created by board members for the applications for Human Services grant funding.

OK, let's see. Now share my screen. The beaches need to go away.

Maybe, because then we could all see Madeline really well.

Sorry. Struggling OK, here we go.

Share my screen. OK, let me move it over and then we'll see if I can then just overplay. Oh yeah, beach on both sides. Let me try something else real quick. I'm sorry y'all that way we could see Madeline easily. One second. Stop sharing.

Now share on a different screen. So lost Madeline. Oh well, I'm sorry y'all OK.

I'm gonna bring it over here so you can see it. OK, what we're looking at is an Excel spreadsheet so. It is OK. Um? Let's see, just for the record, I'm Carol Griffith. I'm Housing and Community Development Manager, and I'm the staff liaison for this board. I compiled the scores provided by the board members into a tally sheet, and now I'll go over how this is arranged in just a few minutes. Before I do that, I just want to remind the board of some decisions, considerations that the board has seen in previous materials, like your orientation packet. So just to kind of briefly briefly go over it. The goal is to select the programs that will have the most impact on the highest priority needs of the community. It's not whether the nonprofit is local, it's what the nonprofit is doing for local people. That's what we're focusing on. Reminders from past years, don't place more weight on your personal passions. Look at what's needed by the community. Don't sign percentages across the board as a means of distributing funding. The Council wants to see some, you know, real discussion and walking through it now, which I think y'all know. Also remember not to include perceived additional resources. So some agencies have, you know, a bigger scope than others and so forth, but we don't have the financial materials to let us know like how much they really need the funding. We assume they all do and they all have to scrap for funding every year. Uhm, highest priority needs for San Marcus could be impact on breath like hitting a whole lot of people with something really good that's beneficial or depth like working with a few people on some deep life change. There's there's ways to make impact that are different. Uhm? And then we use the score. I say we go use the scoring to inform the decision. It's not, if it was just based on scoring, right? You would just turn in your scores and I'd rank it and we'd go. But it really is y'all's consideration of what you see as this complex web of issues to help decide in the end what's best for this year for this funding. And so are there any questions on that topic? Okay, so now I'll go over just briefly Now I have organized the information. This is for your use, so if you prefer it to see it a different way or whatever, I can mix and match in Excel. So I'll just show you what I did and then you can see what you think. So first of all, I brought in.

Oh my gosh.

That is so funny. OK, I think it's over here. And. I'm so sorry I have to try again.

I'm sharing my screen, but I don't see where it's coming up. Yeah. I'm so sorry y'all OK. OK, I'm gonna stop sharing.

And then. And then where's Madeline?

I don't know if she got disconnected or no.

Okay, in the meanwhile, I'll get my stuff going again. This Excel spreadsheet. Oh, it looks like she's in there. I don't see her face. Okay, she'll come back.

Nope.

Back on me. What's up?

Leave me OK. Well, let's sort that out. I guess one thing I'm maybe messing around. This window looks like OK. Share. There's the tally. Be great if it was over there big. It's now it's not back right, OK?

It's her fault. We're just waiting on her.

OK, I'm sorry I don't see how to make it share over there so. It's not great, but hopefully it's big enough y'all can see it and I can expand it if we need to. Let's all be on the beach for a minute. OK, so let's see.

OK, nonetheless.

I guess I don't want to keep going without her, but.

OK. We'll start and then if she needs, you know, just a quick review, we can always do that. So if you look at this spreadsheet.

OK. What I did.

was I brought in each of y'all's scoring sheets into this sheet. So if y'all want to refer to details and so forth, you can see everybody's exact scores. But then after that, I started concentrating on just the total scores. And then I brought over into other spreadsheets that total and then the recommended funding. So first of all, I brought that over And I sorted and so forth to check on the ranges of scoring. So, for example, you know, did Yancey score 0 to 100 and Ray scored, we've had some in the past score like 90 to 100, you know. And then so everybody has high, middle, and low, but one range may be 97 to 100 and the other one's like, oh, well, if you made over 70, you're in the high. So, That's what I looked at first. And also we have 40 applicants. So if you divide that by three sections, high, middle and low, it's about 13 ish for each one. So I kind of looked to see the trend. So what I came up with is this is how it played out. And I don't think that's big enough for y'all to see.

Yeah, that's better. Okay. So, um, Now you can see everybody.

You can also minimize the bar. In the right corner. Like, uh, let's see the toolbar on Excel.

On Excel. Oh, on Excel. I'm gonna need it. OK, nevermind. Sorry, I'm attached to my toolbar. I wonder if we can do that. OK, that's better, but I still worry about modeling. OK, OK.

She texted me that her computer crashed, but she was us.

Poor thing. Okay, we'll try to catch her up when she gets here. So what I see is that this year, kind of in general, the ranges are a little bit similar. So in general, there's three of y'all who gave 100 if they were like in your high range. And then others, oh no, I guess four. And then others, you know, a little bit differently. But I see the low range. So, for example, Ethan, you can see 80 to 96 is kind of his top 12. Low range is still in the 60s. So I felt like, to me, I didn't see a need to, like, do weird, you know, like, estimations on percentages of score or whatever. I just went ahead and when I created a difference spreadsheet that tallied, I went ahead and averaged the scores is what I'm trying to get to. So this is what that looks like. So here's, for example, Yancey said Hays County Food Bank was in her high group. This is her total score that she gave them. So green means it was in their high group. Just to note, like Ray has 29 in his high group. They all had a hundreds, so they're all green. You don't. I can't, you know, discriminate again between them, but he still has high, medium and low sort of now. You're not the only one to ever have done that either, so I don't mean to call you out. I'm just trying to say like just expect that he's got some green, but everybody has green, yellow and pink. And I have this sorted in a certain way that I want to tell you. How I created an preliminary ranking basically. But I do want to emphasize this is me just trying to organize a bunch of information so you can sort of process it quickly. You can scrap this and go a different way or just use part of it or whatever. So what I did was to sort of even out the high, medium and low. I gave high a score of three. Medium two and then low is one because that way I can count like how many highs there are. So on this top one and the next one there are six high scores. No medium, no level. Then I went ahead and summed it so highest. Ranking programs both had a score of 18. Now then you get right away into one has a median score. And so they only have 17 sort of points or whatever, you know, in this ranking. For me, it's also helpful to show the pattern. So like this is six, zero, zero, five, one, zero. So it's like declining and you start with six and then it kind of goes all the way down to like zero. So I summed the ranks. I also have the average score here. So for example, these top two have same pattern 600. Same total here. Average score. This one was higher, therefore I made them one and the next one too. Let me tell you, like just give you another example. Here's 10, so I don't mean to make this overly complicated also. Gold OK. You can see there's five. Where if I sum this up, it's 10, but there's all sort of different patterns in there, like some of them have three low to medium, one high, some too high or low. The way I figured out how to rank them in my mind is in these bottom two categories. This one had four, this one had five in the bottom categories. So I ranked this higher and then I ranked this lower. And then I went by average score. So I've gone ahead and ranked them, but I'm kind of using these colors to cue you like, hey, there wasn't much difference between this except for their average score. There's another one I was going to show you. Oh, same with the eights. Here you have six. Oh shoot, you have six. And these bottom two categories you have five here, so therefore these two rank higher. And then here's this 78, so it goes higher than the 74. So you can see like average score. This one was a 79. Which is higher than either one of these. They all add up to eight, but I was trying to wait it on. Somebody thought this was in their highest category. And so. So therefore, perhaps they could be ranked more highly. But five people thought they were low. So it's kind of hard to, you know, we're just trying to see how to organize the information so y'all can discuss it, basically. So that was what I did. There's two cases where they're exactly the same average score, same pattern of preference, and so forth. So this one in the up here. I don't know that that, you know, matters so much. It's just that it shows you like here's an initial ranking. Here's what we came up with. On the same spreadsheet, we have the recommended amounts, which I feel like is pretty helpful as a starting place for y'all to talk. And then you can kind of talk, well, you know, OK, on the second line, you know, Madeline, why did you decide not to fund them, even though they are, you know, a high scorer and so forth? What else I can tell you that we I see in this, we have a couple of different preferences. So Madeline, for example, is funding kind of larger amounts for fewer people. And then we have different philosophies like I would say Ethan funding, you know, you can see he's even funding people in his low category some amount of money. So y'all are going to need to kind of talk through like which, what philosophy to go with and so forth. And that's kind of where the discussion comes in, you know. What else? So in the end, Here is the ranking like the preliminary ranking came up with. I have a copy of this sheet so you know just to leave this for posterity. I have a copy of it. That same thing that we can use. For discussion if you want. What I would say is like typically in the past seems like what has worked some. is if there's consensus on the high end or the low end, maybe y'all tackle those first, kind of figure them out. And then what boards generally end up doing is kind of walking through each program in some sort of order. You may want to talk about one agency and all their programs, or you may want to talk about them just in like one, two, three. Kind of depends on how you want to approach it. Let's see if we have anything else.

So my role is just to.

Track or do Excel magic if y'all want to rearrange the information. Or bring up information that y'all sent to me. I tried to kind of keep it all in this. This one more note. OK, Sharif, you had two. That you had assigned 18 points, but they were in a 15 point Max category, so I just made him 15. So I just want to. I don't want to change anything without telling y'all. So yeah, OK so. Any questions about this? Oh also just FYI. OK, so this is the presentation part of the agenda. I'll hand it back to Elisa and then she has to introduce the discussion part and then we can discuss. But for clarification or any questions about how I've set it up, then this would be a good time.

One question I know last time we had like a column. It's like the averages of our funding kind of like suggestions. Do we have that on this one?

We can do that.

So, yeah. And I think it looks good. Thank you, Carol, for your Excel magic.

Yeah. And maybe I'll keep the colors, but y'all can tell me if you don't want them. Oh, no, that's just at least the scores. Let's take the colors off.

She doesn't get more sway.

OK. And then you'll notice that's why I put zeros. And all the little blank ones, because then it knows it's averaging six six scores. So yeah. So then. OK, so there's. Double click. Yeah, I did also try to do extra checking like making sure I sorted in the correct order and all this. I did all this. Yeah, stuff, but it was just important.

And then didn't have a column that said like the actual proposed funding next to the average. We did, yep. Like what we actually came up as a consensus.

Yeah. Let's see, and then. You know, y'all should know that. My algorithm. This is fluid, so you can change what you're thinking. You know you don't have to stick by what you had thought before, because the discussion will influence what you're thinking so. Yeah.

So any other questions?

no okay okay then i'm gonna hand it back to elisa okay so uh our first action item is to hold a staff facilitated discussion among board members on the fy 26 27 human services grant applications for the purpose of comparison evaluation and selection to create a recommendation to city council on which applicant agencies should receive funding and how much funding should be granted to each selected agency and consider approval of the resulting recommendation. Carol, will you please begin the process?

OK, and I'm also bringing up just for reference if we needed funding history so we can have that in the background and then. A blank application, because it has kind of the criteria so. Let's see, so first question is. I know I kind of have a lot of stuff up here. Kind of depends on what part of the screen y'all want to look at. For now I could hide the amounts or something, but first question is kind of how y'all want to approach the discussion.

I would kind of want to see.

All those. Agency or programs that were supported by across the board. I filtered those out and we could start there.

I know last year we had like five or six hundreds and then this year we had none. Yeah, last year we did like everybody got 100.

Yeah, it's like, yeah, super easy. Yeah, but y'all are diverse opinions here. So we do have two that are high across the board. OK, and it is Hays County Food Bank food assistance program and then school fuel. here's their requested amounts. And so what we have done in the past is y'all, you know, you can talk through these two. We'll put in an estimated amount you're thinking, and then we'll just kind of move it around as we go.

Can we go to the proposed and average?

Yeah, and I think, let's see.

out so on this one um the reason i went 82 was because that was a little bit higher than last year but not fully funding the 88. let me get it to where i can kind of see like okay so then you're out your amounts for the colors for that yeah

So I guess maybe Madeline, we could ask you, you know, would you talk a little bit about your, the amount you assigned to this one and what you were thinking? I'm picking on you just because you're the kind of the lowest amount. So maybe we could start there as a talking point.

Yes, let me pull up. I have a Word doc that I kind of went over my reasoning. The transitional housing program.

No, this is the Hays County Food Bank. Okay.

I don't know how to collapse my ribbons. Yeah, my ribbons.

I'm trying to figure out, I'm so sorry, I'm not seeing where I put that one. I think I maybe had scored that one lower because there were other agencies that also addressed that issue. And so I was trying to balance out the funding for, like, I was looking at ones that address similar issues and trying to make it a bit more even. Sorry, I had it, like, everything typed out somewhere in here. I'm trying to see exactly.

Was it in that file you sent me that was Excel?

No, ma'am, it wasn't.

We could, what's that? I had so many files I was creating.

I know, I have it all saved under similar names. I should have organized this a bit better.

No worries. So then you'll pick on it also.

She eventually sent those notes also.

Yeah, and I have been super lazy about asking for notes. Hypothetically, really, it's all public record. And so I should be asking for y'all annually to turn in all your notes. So I could do that.

It's really a good point.

Just an FYI for Madeline.

Yeah, for Madeline.

Now that you've talked about it. And anyway, I guess, too, if you have notes, you have to submit.

Yeah, after the decision's made, it's best if y'all turn it off.

What I did is on the on the Excel.

Yeah.

Yeah, so for that for me, I don't have any problem funding the Hayes County Food Bank anymore. I was just kind of trying to make sure I had 750 on the page and I was trying to be pretty. I guess I would. I was being pretty generous whenever I was looking at the funding amounts and stuff like that. So I came into this meeting expecting amounts to get cut a little bit. So I think, yeah, I'm open to a higher amount on that.

Just to kind of move things along and we can always come back. I mean, I'm good at like 80. You know, just leaving it at like an even number for now that seems to be around the average. I think we can all agree that food is super important. You know, it looks like we're all in agreement that, you know, the food programs need to be pretty, you know, fully funded. So if that's all right with y'all, just put it down and keep moving.

Yeah, absolutely. I was definitely taking more of like an all or nothing approach whenever I was filling this out. So I'll definitely be. willing to add more and take more from certain programs.

And just for reference, the last three years we did 80, 85 and 80. So that's where I kind of split the 80 to move up. So I mean, I'm fine with 80 because it's well below what their minimum was.

Yeah. 70. So what would be your reasoning for not giving them the full 88?

For me, it would just be, you know, to be amicable to the rest of the board. You know what I mean? If they want, if like we decide collectively to put that other 8,000 somewhere else. I'm at like 88 all the way. You know what I mean? Like full throttle. Also because, I mean, we'll get there, but I said nothing for Central Texas Food Bank. Right. So, like, my reason was, like, if we're not putting any, if I'm not going to put any funding in the Central Texas Food Bank, then I want to fund Hayes County Food Bank 100%. That's actually my thinking. So that's why I said 88 because central fixes the same thing. Second to last.

Yeah, lots of people in agreement. Madeline was thinking fully funding and all everyone else is zero.

So I guess for that one for me, I think we sort of had a similar conversation last year with a really high amounts is that if we're not able to, like, it's just such a big part of our budget to be fully funding over $100,000 for any organization and to fund them any less than what they are asking for, it doesn't really do it justice, I think. And for me, that was just across the board for me for all the organizations who are asking for like 125, 150. It's just not... I think it's just not feasible for our budget to be funding those really high amounts. So I don't know how y'all feel about that.

So I gave them zero because one, to your point, they didn't give us the minimum that we could work with. And two, their presentation, like I said before, it didn't click with me. It seemed like Like you were saying, if we're going to pay money for the food, might as well keep it low with Hays County. Because that was huge, $125,000.

Yeah, my kind of thought process with this was I honestly, you know, I was less kind of uneasy about their situation after we'd heard from Hays County about like the arrangement that they had and everything like that. But in general, I just saw the amount that they were saying, and I saw that we were kind of already giving a simple like it's a similar amount of money that I've distributed between the Hayes County Food Bank and like Meals on Wheels on my end. So it just seemed kind of like a doubling of something that could have taken away from the budget for like one part of like the social services that we're trying to like meet and stuff.

Sorry, I'm comfortable with zero for Central Texas. It seems like the municipalities.

Yeah, I'm okay with that. I feel like I was kind of thinking, like, you know, I'd given less funding to the, but given more, sorry, my internet keeps, are y'all able to hear me fully? Because y'all are glitching out for me a bit.

Okay.

Okay.

He's kind of keeping it here.

I'm okay with 88, especially since we're doing zero for Central Texas. Yeah. And to save a little time, I'll let you know that my thinking on all of mine was I didn't change dollars. I felt like we needed to fit in the $750,000 range. And so I said, if I was going to give something, I was going to give the full amount of the ask because I think everybody that presented really, to me, give a valid reason to ask for what they were asking for. And the ones that I did not go over, they weren't exact, you know, they weren't absorbing anything, they really needed what they needed. And so the only one that I actually trimmed was the San Marcos reentry program from 125, kind of that same philosophy of 125,000 is a lot for what we have to give, given the number of agencies. We need to give, and somebody is going to get zero. We could not fund everyone, unfortunately. And I do mean that, unfortunately. So I said, I'm not going to cut anybody, knowing, too, that you guys would reel me in if we needed to reduce anybody. And I'm probably not going to get too much of a heart attack over it because I'm still trying to understand this process. And so I thought, safe bet is to don't cut anybody's dollars, and let's do it as a group.

Mm-hmm.

Are we going into Mel? Do we want to?

Oh, either way, I kind of went down there just because, you know, that's another one where we have a majority of zeros.

And I'm the only one who came.

Yeah, only one even suggested funding. So if that's an easy zero, I could go ahead and put it in.

Can I at least tell you why I put money for that one? Sure. I noticed they didn't do money. Is that one that did not get funded? No, it did not. And the reentry program, it kind of struck a chord with me because not me personally, I've never been in jail, but it seems like there's been a difficulty in trying to reintegrate people who have been in jail into society. And they touched me with their mission of trying to do that, to reintegrate people that have been out of circulation for a long time in some cases. And so I felt comfortable giving them something to help with that, especially since they are helping people who lived in San Marcos before they went in jail come back home and try to reintegrate here in San Marcos, saying all that. I'm okay if it's zero if I'm the only one that put money there.

I almost would want to kind of like wait on it just because it is something that I would be interested in seeing if we could fund it to some amount because it is a program that did strike a chord with me. With my kind of thought process with funding them was I just kind of got to a point with my other funding of the organizations where I just felt like I couldn't give them an amount that I thought was going to be like satisfactory for their program or something like that. But if we do have that money, I think it's a great program. It's something that I think San Marcos could really benefit from.

So see, I don't think so, because I really didn't see that much of a need for the reentry program in San Marcos, especially not for what they're asking 60 to 125,000. I don't think San Marcos has that much of a reentry from jail to back into the community to tell the truth. That's one and two. I've been on the board three years now, Carol, and that's the first time I've ever heard this story, ever. So when they presented their presentation, I was like, of all things that I've looked at, I've never seen this before. I've never even seen it as a need in some markets. So that's why I went zero. If, like, honestly, if they were asking, you know, $15,000 to $25,000, I'd be like, okay, there might be enough of a, Reentry into some markets that would fund it, but 60,000. I don't see it. I also. Not 60,000.

I mean, I don't know for sure if San Marcos does or does or does not need a reentry program. But I do know I do know that it's hard for people who have been in jail to come back to society because of. all the stigma that comes around with being in jail. But I guess kind of to your point, like the 125,000, when I was looking at it, it was really going only to help like 60, between 60 and 70 people. And at the 60,000 mark, it was going to help 40 people. And so I just, I think that's a lot of money or it's just not enough impact for me. Go ahead.

Well, I think it takes a lot to reintegrate people into society, especially, I mean, think about how technology has changed, how things have changed. If they've been in five years, that's a lot of change right there, and a lot of them are going to be in for a lot longer. It's not cheap to reeducate people. It's not cheap to get them reintegrated. It's not cheap to get them housed, finding jobs, things like that. It's not easy. I'm not arguing against you. I just want you to give me something to think about. It is, you know, I don't know if that's a good number, 60 or the number that they have. I don't know how that's good or bad, but I do know it's not easy. It's not cheap to bring people back into society.

I mean, I would be willing to set some money aside for them because to your point, It definitely is not cheap.

For me, I definitely, you know, know that there's a need. I understand it's difficult to get back. For me, the amount was kind of large, but also when looking overall big picture, I feel like people are struggling so much with basic needs, basic social services, food, mental health, right? And looking at things that fit into the city's strategic planning and what are the high needs of our community. And I just think For me, just given the huge need of other things, that just kind of ranks a little lower on the priority list of social services for me. I'm not opposed to looking. That's kind of, for me, it's like if there's some at the end, you know, I would definitely, but I don't know if we're going to have $60,000, you know, to meet their minimum.

They got 60 of Back in 2022, but that's when we had $1,000,000. Right after Maxwell mouse, do you know? I think back then they also asked for 125 or 60 at the minimum.

I had really not.

Yeah, I mean I that's a little bit surprised. I guess I missed out on like the funding history thing because what I remember from their application was I think it was mainly based on their like Austin area work and stuff like that. I was aware that they had already had like a presence at some point in San Marcos or what to whatever extent.

Back to the point like the numbers they was maybe or was the answer that the amount for 125 and stuff like how did you get those numbers?

They must have right now.

then explain how that benefits specifically San Jorge citizens.

Joe, I'm going to table this one for now and come back maybe later.

Well, I mean, I'm actually okay with it being zero since I'm the only one. Okay.

Because Redwood's the only one that gave them funds, so please go with that.

That means somebody else is going to get some money that Because again, all these programs are so good.

I'm going to get too heartbroken over that. Carol, remember how last year we put a different color to come back to it if we had money?

Oh, yeah, we can do that. Yeah, let's do that.

Or are you thinking magenta? What have we not used?

Okay, I think we'll do it and then show up. That's for money, the coloring money. So I kind of want back up to the top to kind of talk through this second one. Like opposite situation, we've got a majority saying let's fully fund it. So is that kind of easy? Madeline was trying to starve the kids.

I don't mean to stir the pot, guys, I swear, but I.

Funny, OK, so then continue his cutthroat.

Guys, I'm sorry.

Yeah, you know, so it'll be interesting to hear.

So then kids on Twitter.

Okay, so then we kind of go into this next section of like four that are very similar, but ranked because they have a little bit higher average score. So that's how they're listed. And are y'all thinking we'll just talk through each one as you go?

I'm sorry, really quick. I was going to say, can we go back to the bottom one and give it a couple more zeros? Sure. Let's get this out of here. For example, Goodwill, I'm the only one to give you $5,000. I'm fine with zero for this time around. Since they're at Goodwill, I was like, well, might as well give them $5,000. But nobody liked their presentation, I guess. So I'm good with zero if that's what y'all want. Thanks.

I don't. I don't know if there's other easy ones, because there's kind of a lot of discrepancy on access and then going up here. So it's not as easy as it was last year, right?

Yeah, there was. Yeah. Can we do the proposed funding after funding the totals in the bottom?

Oh yes. Oh yeah, that's right. Oh, that's quick.

Then notice how the average amounts a little higher.

That's because Ray went a little bit over budget. Also, I think we have another little rebel over here. And then Yasi is like, I'll just leave $40,000. Which is good because that way you have a little bit of money. That's for our new conference room.

Send me out real millions.

But it took $1,000, man.

Which one was the axis? Oh, the summer camps? Yeah, technology and alternatives.

So I would like to start with that one, I guess. The reason why I gave him full funding is because as I was, well, I guess I am an advocate for free programs for children, especially here in San Marcos. And then when you put in STEM programming, it, I think, really opens doors for children at a young age for them to pursue careers in STEM. And even as I was. Thinking this as I was reading application there came apart. I mean in the application that said the same thing I was thinking that you know it gives them access to those five main jobs later on in life and essentially. Lifts them out of poverty. You know long term and I know that last year I. I had also given them some money and Council decided not to give them any money at all, I think, or they cut their money by $10,000. Was that Council or us? No, that was Council. I remember.

Oh, yes.

Council does go back and look over.

Yes, they do go. They do. They do go as now.

It's always a fun meeting to watch. Oh my goodness.

Anyway, so I wanted to pull them up on the full amount because when we talk about like these. Uh, like people being not being able to meet their social needs. I think a lot of it too is, you know, we don't have access to high paying jobs here in town, right? And I think for them to try to start at the bottom, Meaning like we start with it with our children. And given these tools and resources to be able to then. Themselves, you know, but college and. Great generational poverty. I think for me that's a really important program, but I don't know how you feel about that because I know there's some fears there and some. Minimums, but I just wanted to start the conversation with that.

I have a quick question too, For example, we just gave zero to Central Texas Food Bank, but Madeline had 125,000 there. Do you want me? So we have the tally over here that showed the original. That's why I made a copy. Do you want me to once y'all decide on at least, you know, sort of tentatively a number? Do you want me to, for example, zero Madeline's 125 and then show down here how much she has available to spend? No, no, no, no.

Yeah, with the proposed funding. Okay. Okay, good. So, here we go.

Well, I guess Madeline does have $125,000 now.

Yeah. That's one reason I kind of wanted to bring it up before we keep going, but no, that's fine. If this is working for y'all, that's great.

Well, yes, I'm on the other end of the spectrum. Yeah, I said zero, and As I started looking at ones that I knew I was going to have to zero, this one actually was easy for me to zero because from a helping kids standpoint, yes, it does help kids. The camps do help kids, but they're not helping as many as some of the other programs that are helping kids. And in some of the other ways, I will say that I did lean towards ones that like for food and for mental health and things like that that would help more kids. And I mean, we couldn't fund them enough to help as many kids as I would love for them to do, because I'm with you, I'm all for STEM programs. But I'm going to, I took zero as a way of saying I sure hope they're getting some of that assistance in school. And the dollars I want to allocate will go to places where it's harder for them to get access like food and like mental health and things like that. So that's why I said zero.

I kind of had both philosophies going through this. The reason I wanted to fund them was because the other perspective I had on like just a child summer camp program is that it's something to keep kids busy in the summer too, low key, you know, when they're not in school, there's a lot that kids can get into and get up to, or just situations that they can be in that aren't necessarily good for their development or good for their future. So having a free option as many free options as possible, because the other thing is that not every kid is going to want to go to STEAM camp, not every kid's going to want to go to band camp or math camp, if they have that, I guess, and stuff like that. So I just, you know, I wanted to fund them to some extent, just so they could maybe ensure their program was not going to be fee-based this year, because I know they said they had considered doing that in the past.

You know, it's just an extra cost that I think parents wouldn't want to absorb. but I also see where you're coming from with the zero funding.

I think I put them at a zero too, right? Yeah, this is really difficult for me. I was a STEM educator. I taught STEM summer camps. I believe in the importance, but again, it was, to me, it's like a nice to have And nice to have for 38 kids, you know. And I just couldn't justify it with the other things.

But it's a hard one.

I wish I knew my council cut to zero last year. I think it was even before that in 2025, they only got 10 and 2024 they got to 18. So that's why I went five because I figure with they got nothing last year, five times we should keep them going. Especially because again, the ask amounts for a summer, that's a little too high. I was thinking more of 15, 10. And that's actually the average. Because if we go 15, that splits The difference between 25 and 24. And maybe it gets them back home. I'm with the list on this one that. We have a lot more pressing issues that we're discussing and I think too.

I think this is the other thing now that I'm looking at it. If this is right like. That's right, it's saying like their supplies and materials are $3200. And their staffing is 19 grand a little over. I don't know if this is just for this program. And so I think to me too, like the cost of materials, like direct. So I understand it's camp, you know, you have to pay for people to teach the camp.

Yeah. Okay.

Okay.

Yeah, it's a hard one. I'm okay with it maybe not getting funding if that's what the board wants to do. I would maybe want it to be like meld, like restart it for later to see if it could possibly get funded.

To orange?

Orange, gold, orange, orange. Is that orange or gold?

Well, it's gold, but it might look different, yeah.

So we're putting zero for now or? Zero for now, but come back to it. Shall turn that OK?

OK, did you want to keep going up from the bottom?

Yes, those are part of that one to knock out from equation. OK, so we go back to the top so we can go back to the top so we can feel it once.

Yes, okay. For like the ones that have multiple applications, I was wanting us to see if we could consider those one after the other, just so we are keeping track of how much one organization is getting total. Yeah, or like the feel good ones and personal sexual assault.

Yeah. Here's PACE, Commonwealth Women's Center, the three. They're kind of all in the same realm of scoring like five greens, one yellow.

So and so yeah, like at the minimum, that's $100,000. You know, if we do the minimum at all three, so I mean, that was kind of a conversation in my head, you know, like, are we as a board? Gonna be OK with funding one organization. Technically, you know 100,000. I think there are a couple like that.

I think with mine mine I kept pretty close to their historical library. Which is? So 880,000 and several yeah between 60 and 80,000.

And it's always been a class three programs.

Yeah.

And what else we got to keep in account that last year was the person that said if he said that's fine.

I think I funded them 75 total with the 25 across each organization, just because that was the family violence is the only one where it was that I was willing to make that cut.

Yeah, I wasn't here for that presentation, so I did give majority of the funding to the family violence and transitional program because I felt like that kind of encompassed in a way the other two programs, but I did really want to get y'all's opinion on that because I felt like y'all would have more insight on that than I would, especially the people who've been here previous years.

So with Roxanne's house, I mean, that one I definitely want to go with. Yeah, that one I want to go with fully funded because that's an actual house that they have off of Davis Lane, I think. And that's a really, really good program for the housing transition from family bonds. So I don't know if the housing in Roxanne's house kind of worked late.

I can tell you a little about the difference. So the transitional housing program is 18 units of apartments. So they've actually built them on site. So those are whole families. The Roxanne's house are the children who have been taken from their parents and need a place that can be placed. That's the difference.

Then I mean, I'm willing to go up to 50 with the housing also, but the other two I want to keep it. They're asking 25.

It's like there's a lot of consensus around that. Oh, I see 25 a year. It's just hard for me because they didn't give a minimum. I mean, it's the same, you know, and so, like, I would be, I'm fine with, like, taking our averages for now, but in a couple of the instances, it's not, all of them, that's not, I mean, you know, let's It does.

There's no minimum. You know what I mean? I don't. Look at or point out, you know, this one, for example, four had 25,000 and two had zero. So, you know, I've done the average, but, you know, these four may strongly feel that it should be at 25. So we want to discount that. It's just a discussion point. Kind of same here. Like you've got four at 50 and a couple lower. And then here you've got 25 and then a couple lower. So I guess it's the same in each one. You know, there's always a couple that are just like, no, this should be lower. Sorry.

No, I was just going to say, I think for me that I was on the fence and I came kind of came back at the end and it looked like once I kind of ranked everything, there was enough money to fund them fully what they were asking for. And so that's why I, you know, did that.

Would y'all be comfortable with putting maybe the first two at their averages and then Roxanne's house at their full amount at $25,000 for right now and maybe coming back to it, seeing if we do need to reduce or if we want to raise those two numbers to their full values?

Really quick with the housing one. The reason I'm $35,000 is because when you look at their historical image from the board, it's about from 28, 27, 5 to 35. One year they got 50,000, but that's because we have a ton of money. We have a lot of money to build with.

So you do like 20, 40, 25? Or 20, 35, 25? 25, 35, 25? 20, 40, 20. 20, 40, 20. 20, 40, 20.

And you want me to sort of mark them, or is it more like, well, once we get finished, we'll go through all of them again anyway, or is this a go ahead and mark them for further discussion?

Is this the gold one?

I feel like if we could do that for a lot of Then if we if it's that much of a passion when we get to the end, and we'll go back to it. Yeah, I think these these tools are good.

Okay, next up is a combined community action years on wheels. And it looks like we have all 15s except for our mental different one, different philosophy. I respect that. But it is kind of a majority 15.

I think meals and meals, they've always I shouldn't say they, like, even when the country's comfortable for them. So they're going to do something with 15. We can make it work.

Yeah, somebody who's a few months away from official senior citizen, but definitely I definitely like the idea of them. I'd love to give them more, but you know, it is hard for us old people to, you know, get out.

And I have seen him at the library with the little truck. They get a ton of people to go there. So 15. Yeah, that is a scary song.

How do you feel about bullying? That's OK with me.

OK.

OK, OK, then we have Southside and they have several. Several applications.

This one here. Yeah. Oh.

Here's our three.

So this one, it looks like historically we've always included them in all of them.

Hmm.

Yeah, they've always gotten just one or one lump sum.

Yeah.

And most of them have been 48 to 58.

Like that's what we've totaled from the South Side of the Pass.

Yeah. But last year we did 54,500 for homeless convention only.

So we funded just one of their programs. Yes. I kind of noticed that, too.

But I think it's because before all three of them were kind of sort of the same budget.

I don't think they asked for this large amount. Last year, did they ask for $150,000? Because I thought $150,000 was the ARPA staff.

No, last year, and part of the reason why we made $54,500 is because at the same time, they were getting like $800,000 from ARPA. Yeah. But yeah, no, the rest of our time. And we're like, well, if you're asking for 800, then we got 201.

I do think I remember that. It was close to 200.

For the housing stability program?

I don't think it was.

I think they called it the rapid rehousing.

Right? Yes. We couldn't say that. They're no longer doing that as a model. Right. Because they found that there weren't enough units to rehouse people. Right. So it's more like the housing stability program with these just a slightly different focus. That's all I kind of know.

So for me, I would just say daily services, I'm totally down. Sunrise Village, I think, you know, at their minimum at 20, you know, I think what they express the need for their like their emergency like system for, you know, folks if they fall down or whatever. I mean, I think that's all really important. Again, I mean, we're just going to have to, I don't know, I think 11 of us are in consensus about the 150. It's just like not feasible, I don't think, with the budget.

No, no, with the money that we have to give them, I know they're good programs, but to give them 25 to 26% of our total funding, I couldn't do that in good conscience.

Exactly, yeah.

And for me, something that was in the back of my mind was how much, how many, how much for each dollar amount is going to like specific social services, stuff like that, whether it be food or housing. And, you know, Sam, this list didn't necessarily have a shortage of housing programs for me or like housing support programs. So I thought that, you know, and Southside also, you know, works with that network within San Marcos and everything like that. So I felt like it could be better supported outside of that.

Yeah, that's a good point.

With Sunrise, the reason I went lower than their request minimum is because that one, they're actually, even though it's for seniors, they keep charging a little bit. So I see just a supplemental for that. And then the daily services, what was that?

Oh, sorry, go ahead. They take showers and they have lockers. Their daily meals. Daily meals. When it's extra hot, they open the showers. No. No.

Yeah, outside on.

Did their daily services location not also have a caseworker on site to help with like?

Yeah, that's their main location. Yeah. I guess I'm not doing daily services though. Like you can come in for a meal and you're not even you're not necessarily working with a caseworker. You're just there for the meal.

Yeah. It's funny how Madeline is always like 150,000.

I know.

There's no in between with me, I guess.

The biggest one we have to discuss in the housing Lucas. You know the only Madeline I gave me money so nobody wants to get the house. Let me look. So carry to this. Housing rehabilitation was only way back when we had the million dollar for this board. So most of it has been actually going to the daily services. Which is why I put my money there because it seemed like that's where that's what was good place to give.

Carol, can I ask you if you know, is there other mechanisms that nonprofit organizations get funding from the city that's not this? Like, are some of these organizations maybe contracted with the city or, yeah, are there other buckets that these organizations?

Well, the CDBG, we're not supposed to- CDBG is one, and then what has- changed dramatically now is ARPA is no longer there. When ARPA came in, the city council designated some organizations like Nosotros La Gente. Oh, you can have $10,000 out of ARPA right up front. And money went to Southside and different things. That's all ended. So ARPA ends officially in August. And so everything has to be spent now. And then we also had a lot of COVID money and stuff like that. But none of that's around. anymore. What else? The other one is PALS. So PALS for a little while had funding through the city separate by contract using ARPA dollars. But now that's ended. So we're kind of back to this where there's it's really HSAB and CDBG. And CDBG has about 110,000 a year to give out. That's the limit that we can do the federal grants.

Okay.

Yeah.

Thank you.

I do have a separate little sheet that I created for Council but distributed to y'all that shows like what they requested for CDPG and so forth if we need to bring that up.

Okay.

Can you move the cursor a little bit? Oh, sorry. So it's 18.

I was thinking daily services 25 and then sunrise maybe 20. That's 45, and that's almost what we have. And then housing, like, passing some money.

That's tough, because that's going to be too much.

I'm trying to just, in my brain, keep every organization to, like, less than 100,000 is kind of where I start to get a little bit uneasy with just the amount of, like, funding that we're limited to and stuff like that. So I'm definitely okay with maybe staying lower on the daily services and the Sunrise Village, if that's what we're choosing to do, if we're going to try to fund housing stability. It's just with that program, again, they didn't provide us a minimum either, so it's a little hard for housing stability.

See, I'm at the opposite end. I'm like, fund top two, and then whatever's left over. Because if we go 25 and 20, that's 45. And then last year, they got 54.5. So that means that we probably went back and gave a mixture. Because any time there's a 500, we went back and gave a mixture of those prices. So I'm with you with keeping it way below $100,000. So we find and then decide how much money it gives in housing. Because housing, like I said, they only asked way back in 2022, and that was as far as I can go.

I'm comfortable doing daily services in Sunrise Village at the minimum and revisiting housing stability if we've got some funding at the end. I didn't even realize that.

I'm good with that. Also, because I'm just of the mind and I don't know if this is right, but again, like if we can't meet the method minimum, if that's what they need to run the program. You know what I mean? Like, I just don't know if that will be of value. That's kind of wild.

Put the gold on it and take it down. Yes.

It's 25 and 20 and then coming back. Zero. Yeah. If y'all are good with that.

Yeah.

And that's historic and close to what they usually got. I see it. Stick the color off and we'll come back and give him something plus 500.

Yeah, we'll start filling in.

I'm sure we're burning through our money right now.

We're doing the big ones. I think with our scoring, all the big ones were the higher rated ones.

So next up is CASA, trusting 56 and it's like we got four at 40 and then I'm the zero this time. You're the zero.

You're what?

He said zero. So we've got a fully funded and a zero and then a 440.

Zero because that was CASA of Central Texas. And yes, they're helping San Marcos, but they're also helping quite a few other counties within Central Texas. And so again, my philosophy being somebody that's going to have to be cut at zero The ones like that were easy for me to cut to zero because they were, yeah, helping San Marcos, but they were also helping people throughout Central Texas. That was my philosophy. That said, we want to give them money. I have no problem with that.

But I like that you gave them a zero because I brought down the average, 36. 36 is the number we can work with. Maybe 35.

Because before they got $40, $42, $35, $50.

I'm fine with either $35 or $40, honestly. I don't necessarily have an opinion on either.

I would say let's go $35 so that we can have some money for later. Because we are burning too.

Well, I didn't know about $30 then.

Well, yeah, 56.

You should be fine with 56. Yeah.

I think my reasoning, like, the ones that I put at the maximum amount was, like, food, children, elders. Yeah. And that's why I gave him the full amount, but I think Ray makes a good point that they were not the only company that they helped, and also... I'm looking at their numbers right now. They are anticipating serving 19% of their well, they're anticipating serving 375 clients. And only 19% of those are expected to be some of those residents. And so kind of looking back at that now.

I'm fine with giving them less.

Yeah, me too.

Yeah, we keep talking Madeline for all her years and looking at these words. Yeah, yeah. So my hearing 30 30 30 year later.

For now, you know.

OK. And then we have a greater San Marcos Youth Council.

Fine, so I guess.

Yeah, that's the amendment.

My reason for that one is because when I was when I went back to look at the report that they included in their application, the number of San Marcos residents was zero.

Oh wow, which one is that one?

GSNYC the San Marcos. Because they come from. Yes, yeah.

I mean, I know that she explained in her presentation that the number of children who come from San Marcos fluctuates. And in the application, the justification was even though they're coming from different places, they're still technically San Marcos residents because they're living at the shelter. But for me, that was still not enough, I guess. But I'm open to giving them money. It's just for me, like, the zero. It was zero some of those residents for that reporting period that they gave. And, you know, when we talk about... Was it mostly Ace County then? I have no idea. I don't think it's that. But when we talk about, you know, distributing money of, like, where the most impact is going to be, it just... For me, it's just not just about that. Oh, maybe we'll get children from San Marcos.

That surprised me that there was no San Marcos because. This is definitely something that doesn't need more.

So I don't know how you feel about that, but that was my reasoning and then oh, I put zero from phase two.

Let me go look.

The rampage. I think maybe by that point I had also run out.

Funding this year just with all the requests and the amount just, you know, everyone's feeling the pain.

Looks like you're on the high end. Do you want to talk about what you're thinking?

Well, going back to this GSM or GSM.

GSMYC. What?

Um, so it says that the, uh. Part of their key partnerships are the San Marcos Police Department, then child protection investigations, and then also the San Marcos Consolidated Independence School District. So. So there may not be a lot of San Marcos kids they have this time around, but definitely the.

The partnerships they had are definitely San Marcos groups.

The funding that I gave was the historical data, like 90% of the time that what I put on there was historical.

And yeah, this is a program that we funded every single time.

I kind of see some trends, like, you know, we've got four 15s, and then we've got four that are, you know, between 25 and 45.

Yeah, I just left it at what they're requesting, because again, looking at what we, We've done in the past, which last year we did 35. And I did say that I did not reduce anybody because I knew you guys would bring me in and I'd be okay with that. I mean, I'm okay if we go down to the 35, but what's the average? Let me look at that. The average is 22.5. Yeah, I mean, any number that we come up with with this one, I'm okay with. I just used the number that was already there for their request. knowing that if we needed to cut somewhere, we would discuss that. So as long as we give them something, I am fine.

I'm also good with the average.

The average is okay.

And then 22.5.

I'm down with nothing. Okay. Madeline, are you good?

Yes, I'm good with that.

That's why we managed as much as we did in Yatsky and Mellon. They're actually helping us with the applicants. Yeah. Yeah.

Well done. Yeah. Okay.

Okay.

So then we are at the R3T Housing Stability Services. It's like pretty much everyone wants to fund something under this one.

The reason I went really, really low is because I actually tried to go through their website and see what they do. And it doesn't seem like they're doing much work. Their website is basically like, it told you to go download a form. When I got a form, you couldn't download the form. And I'm like, you're asking for $15,000, I think it was, $15,000, and I can't even reach you. So how is the person that's in distress supposed to reach them? So to me it seemed like it was a huge ask or not a very easy to work with organization. I did like the fact that they had a lot of good partnerships, they said. But again. How are you supposed to reach people if they can't reach you?

I think on this one I have a similar thought, like the reason I was a little below their request is because I believe they are also multi organization. I'm not mistaken, like I understand that they like work really well with their like other San Marcos like network. But as far as I was like getting from their presentation, it seemed like they only have like one case worker that was like dedicated to San Marcos full time, which I mean, I think. There is that they would get some funding personally, but I'm also OK if we wanna. Go lower and higher.

They got probably 7 last year. I didn't realize that.

Well, and and try not to be too much on inside. I do know this organization very well. The one caseworker they have is their only employee, even their executive director is not getting a salary. I'm going to keep my mouth shut further because that one. Employee happens to be my stepdaughter, so I do know this organization a little bit, and so it they. This is one of those organizations because of the size that they're doing a lot of work and they're not having problems with people getting to them. They're having problems with being able to serve the people that come to them.

And.

I yeah, I think I find what did I the minimum to do the minimum. Uhm? I don't know, but I I'm good either way. I felt like. The both of what they're asking for is for salaries, which I don't know that I understand the landscape, but then it was just there was like a huge jump in. I think operational costs from their proposed budget for 26 to 27. that they couldn't like really give me an answer on. It's also, I don't know, like when an executive director isn't taking any sort of pay, that just gives me a little bit of pause. I know they've been around for a while, but then it's like, I don't know, looking at the longevity of the organization, if we're not able to, you know, if they're having issues, paying staff. The other thing that was a little, um, curious to me is I think like during the presentation, someone asked about the caseload and it was like, I think they said like hundreds of applications and things and like the one caseworker. And so I just don't know how, you know, that all happens. Um,

So I can give you insight if you want, like just from seeing how they process their payment request. They have people who have been trained who can come in part time or temporary because their funding fluctuates a lot. And so that's how they staff up. So they so they may have one person who's kind of like there's enough work for that one person all the time. And then they bring on the part timers as they need to. And then Elizabeth, the executive director, of course, also knows how to do the case management support. So I've seen that in how they manage the funding.

I think I do like the orientation. And again, like, I think we all kind of agree that they should get some funding. I don't know if you guys wanted to go with the average or maybe 35,000 around the area or 35, 35 with 35. Yeah.

housing is like one of the top needs in yeah the areas regional recovery team br3t yeah that's three hours okay um again the website is basically disaster related this one disaster related

So didn't they found on disaster recovery like they built some houses when the city flooded in 2015 or rehab, but and they are members of Coad, that kind of thing. That's where they started, but. The community organizations active in disasters. Yeah. So that specific to, you know, flooding, but. They have considered, so the pandemic brought to light, you know, housing issues. So they have shifted their focus to that right now is kind of a disaster, I guess. So there's a board behind, of course, the organization and they sort of govern what they focus on. So I've seen that shift when the COVID funding came in. They were the ones who were equipped with the ability to process the applications for housing. And so like when I was managing COVID funding, they were behind it processing the application.

I think I can remember that. That's kind of something that gave me confidence in them last year whenever they applied and giving them funding. You know, the fact that they were stewards of that money like as an organization was something that gave me confidence that they would be good stewards of the money that we give them as well.

Which one are we talking about? VR3T. So everybody good with 35?

Yes.

Yeah. Since I'm the lowest one, I'm good with that. 5,000.

All right. We ready to go on? We have Salvation Army next. MRTC Assistant. And it looks like, you know, four and two here. Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Fortune favors the realistic. I feel, you know, like rain Madeline.

So last year we gave them 0 and then can counsel allocated something.

So the way it happened is that we gave them $0. And they were upset.

And they went and advocated for themselves, which is fine. I think what it comes down to is that not everyone who didn't get any funding was able to go advocate for themselves at that moment.

Because they didn't know they weren't going to get their funding.

Exactly. And so they did end up getting, was it $10,000? And I think actually it was a $10,000 that went from access to salvation.

Because they try to take it from home. Yeah. I don't think they have.

This was the last, not the last. It was the spring, but it was two cycles ago.

And so I think.

Yeah. But I went back. I went back and I actually did. Okay. So the way I want to be clear on the way I support things, I did have a lot of hundreds. And then I had a lot of like really not high 90s. And then I had a lot of 90s across the board. And I funded all the hundreds. I funded at least the minimum for the high 90s. And all the ones that I have scored 90, I gave him zero. But then I went back after I had money left over and I distributed some of that left over money. And I actually did end up giving them $10,000.

Oh, and Yancey's the one that it showed up on her sheet as lower than $750. I could plug it in if you want me to, Yancey, or just leave it, but.

Yeah. But I just happen to bring the I'm happy to bring the average.

And so I think for me, the reason the last time I gave him zero is because when they gave their presentation at that time, they had said, you know, well, we get this money and then we close our doors when the money's out. So for me, that's like, how are you helping people if as soon as you run out of money, that's it. You know, it's not, it's not like sustainable long-term and I get it that people need money for emergency assistance, like money for rent, but I think there also needs to, something else needs to exist outside of HSAB funding for those types of emergency assistance programs.

That's kind of crazy that there are but they don't get help when that happens.

Yeah, because other organizations saying if we don't get the funding from us, then we'll figure something else out and make a way versus just closing their doors.

And I think with a lot of these like big, like you said, like national nonprofits, a lot of them each of their different ones are their own 501c3. So they could have, like, a national affiliation, but they're not getting any funding, like, pulling down. You know what I mean? They are all responsible for their own fundraising and things like that.

So, I mean, I guess I'm amenable to giving them some money because I did end up getting money. Can you go down to St. Vincent de Paul?

It's like very similar, right? Did I give him money?

No, I didn't. Sorry, that's also one of the ones I have to go back to. I also gave statements to Paul.

I gave him 20. And that's because just historically, that's what we've been given them.

You want me to put this?

Yeah. Can I just tell you the ones that I? Sure. Okay. Uh, for GSMIC2, did we already do that on the Children's Shelter?

Yeah, we did. And there was zero.

Yeah, so I actually gave them 10. And then HCWC1, I gave them 10. Probation Army, I gave them 10. Stop laughing! Sci Center 1, I gave them 10.

I'm laughing because man is like they got what they got.

I didn't have any extra at the end like Yancey did.

And then St. Vincent de Paul, I gave him 20 and that actually came out to $749,920. So I moved St. Vincent de Paul up just so you know, but they are similar. Yeah, and so when I gave money since I've been to DePaul at the end, I did want to give Salvation Army some money because I didn't want to be like choosing sides, but that's what I did.

Yeah. Is everybody good with 15 or?

I still rather do.

Okay. Ray, you still want to go zero?

No, I mean, no, again, no passion. And if we want to give them something, that's cool with me.

Ethan, you were big on this.

Yeah, I guess kind of, so for me, and you know, if someone, Scott, me, if this is horribly wrong, but like when I see kind of like emergency assistance from two different organizations, my main kind of priority is making sure that there's like an amount of money available for emergency assistance, whether it's Salvation Army or Vincent DePaul, it's going to be like administering that. So if we are going to go for $10,000 for Salvation Army, I would probably like to stay maybe at like $20,000 or something like that for St. Vincent de Paul. And are there any other ones that are kind of like specifically like generic emergency assistance?

Yeah. Community Assistance, Bobcat Pride.

See, they're asking for $10,000. Yeah, Bobcat Pride is another one.

Bobcat is limited though. So like they have a specific, Specific clientele they're seeing that right? So general community assistance is a Salvation Army is helping hands and yeah, that was it. And so it's these three.

So I think like between these three goes.

But it is, you know, similar fun, you know, use of money, but it's just I just thought I'd throw that in. Because anybody can walk up and that's for money.

So yeah, for that, I would kind of my thought process would be 10,000, 20,000, and then 10,000 for Hayes Helping Hands, just so we can ensure that there's that much funding. But if anyone has any thoughts on Helping Hands or St. Vincent de Paul, please.

I do have an opinion on the Hayes Helping Hands. Sorry, I just. For me, and I know I brought it up at this one and maybe the previous cycle. For one.

Let me go to my note.

So for their community assistance program, 50% of the cost of the program is through us. Right and. I think that's a. Big chunk. for us to be part of their budget. And the same goes for the shoot and coach program. And also I think for me is the fundraising comes into play for them because I feel like they've been talking about doing like these fundraising things, but they haven't actually happened. And for me, that's just like, I mean, I don't know what is like personally going on for them, for them to not be able to do that, It's just like lack of initiative to you all to, you know, kind of maybe counterbalance some of that. You know, this is the money in their budget and.

So he's helping against the super second.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And. Isn't there a second one? Yeah, she's in. So that's why I. I think I gave up with him.

I gave them zero on this one for several reasons. Also because I gave them money for the Shoes and Coats program. I feel the same as Yancey. Also in the Community Assistance Program, they mention referring to other organizations such as St. Vincent de Paul and Salvation Army and Southside, which all also used funds to help people with utility and emergency assistance. So, you know, I just, yeah, I just couldn't give them money for this program. Yeah. And I don't see like their day to day. You know, they seem like a one event a year type of organization. That event seems to be the shoes and coat drive, and so I felt like if that is their value add to the community, then I will find, you know, I was OK with funding that, but not so much this assistance program.

So we're thinking zero for the assistance and then full fund for shoes. So, you know, it's right there. And then I guess gold. Are we coming back to them or not?

Oh, I hadn't included that we were at 10.

I mean, I think we had come at them around 10, 2010. But then I rejected Hays Hill Commencement because the 10 is fully funding time.

Yeah, like my kind of with what Yancey said about the situation last year where organizations didn't have the opportunity to advocate for themselves. I would kind of rather be realistic about council's expectations on this moment than have those organizations perhaps have that same situation occur.

And just so you know, I publish it all at the same time. So nobody knows early. Uhm, so it is published when the City Council package published. Maybe some organizations are more used to, you know, advocating themselves or going to Council or whatever, but they all have the information at the same time. So I'm saying.

Well, last year on the helping hands. We gave him 8 and 5. So it's 8,000 for coats and shoes and then 5,000 for community assistance. And that's where I based my numbers off. The shoes and coats I definitely want to fully fund, because that's been a proven program that we've done for a long time. With community assistance, with Yancey and the Viking, yes, the organization had their little president or something pass away, so they haven't been able to do fundraising.

But I can't recall how big of an impact that was to the community.

And then St. Vincent's Falls, elected with historic, I believe it was. 20. No, theirs was 30 something last year.

Was it?

Yeah. 35,000 last year. So it was 20, 20, 20, and 35, because we had more of UI. So I'm good with 35.

So you have two, two, and two.

You got two 20s and two 40s, 35, and a zero, and two 40s.

Out of curiosity, Alyssa, is there any particular reason you chose not to fund St. Vincent de Paul?

In all honesty, and this might be a hot take, but what I've heard from the, I've heard multiple times that people trying to go there for help and them not being open.

Yeah, they're only open one to five. I'm sure that's the only time they had volunteers from the church that could learn.

Um, so for me, I mean, that's a pretty good chunk of funding. I mean, lot more than say like Meals on Wheels is asking for. And so to me, like if, if your program is assisting community in times of need, we don't just have emergencies one to five Monday through Thursday or whatever, you know what I mean? So that's a huge, that's a huge deal to me if it's, um, not accessible to community. So I would rather, like, in my mind, I would rather fully fund other organizations that do the same work.

That's kind of like where I'm struggling with one. funding these organizations enough because I am I'm thinking about like the fullest and I'm like you know there's not anyone who's saying oh I help specifically with utility payments or have specifically with like food and gas and things like that you know these are kind of those programs that are like in my mind the one time like you need help and like assistance and things like that that aren't accounted for in the other organizations but I do agree with what you're saying if it's going to be the organization it should be accessible for more than four hours

But you gotta understand that that organization, most of their volunteers, like, I think everybody's 100% volunteers. They don't take paid, or they don't pay anything. And also, they're a huge, San Marcos is what, 48% Hispanic? And that's the vast majority of Catholics. And the first place they go to is the Catholic Church. And the Catholic Church is like, well, this is the program you can go to. And then that's when they get the hours. So this organization is not. It's not open 95 every day, but it's because. Most if you if you look at their because I've been by the parking lot and think they look at their employees, they're all senior citizens volunteering their time for the community.

Yeah, they don't, but staff. Yeah, it is a small percentage of the total budget is what they're asking for.

And then to the 1 to 5 point, They're constantly busy from 1 to 5. It's like.

So. I'm not with you though. I wish they were more accessible, but yeah, if they're doing it, if the staff met up with volunteers, it's probably hard for them to get people.

And not just volunteers, but like senior citizens. They should do a partnership honestly with like Texas State and get some students out there, but. So I'm good with the 20,000 historical. Last year we gave 35 and that's why I put 35 on.

Yeah, I'm not married to the 40,000. If we want to do less, I'm good with what we've come up with.

I'm agreeable like 20 or 30,000 for them somewhere in that range. 25.

25, yeah.

Okay, are there any?

And then, sorry, go ahead.

No, I was just looking at pace and helping hands and stuff.

The shoes and clothes, I'd be fine with the tat. I mean, it's shoes and clothes for kids. Yeah.

Yeah.

I like how they do the partnership with the Walmart, because they've had a good partnership with them. It's kind of sad that they can't do it. Which other organization has like 19 or something? You know what I'm talking about? They call it head to toe. I think so. But yeah, it seems like they do really good stretching that 10,000 for kids.

I'm down with 0, 5, or 10.

Like whatever. We seem to have a lot of zeros. So just to sort of move it along, is that the consensus, I guess? I'm trying to be at the low filter.

Okay, so Nancy and Natalie, you don't have to learn anything.

I will say Hays Helping Hands was also an organization that didn't get the money that they were expecting in this first initial round and also went to basically ask council to give them more money. They didn't. And for me, it just does not, again, fit right with me. when there are organizations who, it's just not a level playing field, I think. And I think another thing for me, even though I'm amenable to giving the $10,000 to the Shoes and Coats program, Pace Open Hands is still just, I just really wish that they, you know, had diverse funding, you know,

And I know that. I know the money is going to shoot and close what we talk about risk.

You know, that's a if they get no money from us and what happens? Right. And so. I don't know how I want to give him money for the community assistance program. I'm going to look to whatever y'all decide, but. That's just how I feel, honestly, about them. Brent, were you going to say something?

Just I have no passion one way or the other, but if we decide as a group, I'm good with it.

I just think historically it's been one of those organizations that like they were in the know and they had the connections and it was like, yes, the city is just going to continue to fund this. And over all of these years, it doesn't seem to have grown or diversified their funding sources. And it's just like, we'll just keep doing this and the city will just keep funding it. And I just don't think that's really fair given like the dire situation of like basic needs, which shoes and coats again for the kids, totally about it. But I would much rather fund other organizations that are doing emergency assistance that seem to be day-to-day out in the community more. That's my take.

That's where I was.

It seems like we're there. Okay. Do we want a school started or not?

No.

The council holds us well.

So next we're down to Community Action of Central Texas. They have

Really quickly, can we look at what the proposed funding total is? Yes. Also, I want to do a time check. It's 7.52.

We're at 7.52. Also, I'm sorry I'm interrupting, but I did want to repeat to you all that if we're going to try to present this July 7th to council, there's really not a way to have a meeting on the 24th. So you're a little bit limited to two decision meetings. So I know that's rough.

I have 22 organizations left. I'm keeping up with this. Yes, we're about half of the one. Like we put a number down for about half of them. That's right now. If we wanted to maybe take more, like try to carve out maybe a couple more just so tomorrow the next meeting will be like a little bit of a shorter one.

Yeah, I'm good going through a couple more than just Pulling in a 90.

Are there any specific things that you want?

We could go through the ones that are a bit closely tied.

I'm sorry, Madeline, I couldn't hear you.

I was saying, yeah, if we wanted to do a few more, especially the ones that were super close to in the numbers, if those would be easier.

Do you want to continue? Yeah, I was saying like community action next.

I'm going to still keep sort of. Bring them together. This is an organization.

Yeah, sure.

So.

A little bit diverse. Activities, but.

Well, I'm happy to see we have a consensus on the senior center.

And then, of course, on the next one, we're back to kind of a diversity of

I can kind of speak to my thoughts on this one. This was a program where yes, housing, I think is a very critical need in this community. I do think it is a need that's very well represented on this list overall. And this program specifically just didn't seem like it had the scale that the other ones did to me. I understand that it's supposed to be a very like high intensity, not high intensity, but I guess very like in like Whatever the word, it's very involved program and stuff like that. And that's kind of like the model for it. And they're not that effective. That's great. But I think when it comes to housing, the ability to affect more people is going to be the thing that I'm going to prioritize. And then also in their presentation, I was overwhelmed last year and I'm overwhelmed again this year just at the amount of stuff it's like you have to go through in the application process and the amount of conditions that they even have to meet in order to be able to like get funding from their other sources like tdhca for their program which isn't a fault of their own necessarily or anything like that it is just something that i i consider when considering how easy it's going to be for these funds to get to people who need them stuff like that

So Ray, do you want to talk through your the?

Yeah, it was I think with this one. I mean, I like the program and I saw what they were funded in it historically, and so I felt comfortable funding them again since I didn't cut anybody. I knew I was funding them at the 15. So I went with. The historical the fact that we've done it before. That's the really the only. And when we did this one once in one year, and it was last year, that was the first year. Well, last year's I have the most of money go further than last year. If they were funded last year, if they were funded further, it was great, but they were funded last year. And I thought, well, we liked it last year. Maybe we like it this year. Again, if somebody, if we came up with zero, I wouldn't, wouldn't hurt me at all.

Based on what Ethan said, I'm down with zero to two. Yes, well. OK, so that kind of brings us to. Sorry at least. OK, then.

So we got two and five minutes.

Yeah, we'll do two more.

We'll do two at a time. We could do the other ones that are grouped up. Is there anything else that's grouped up? Can we do cows? I do want to do cows.

Okay, yes, I was looking at this. I don't know how I put zero because I remember really loving their application. I'd seen that earlier and I was like, I must have messed up on that one because I really did love their organization.

At the end?

Yes.

So Madeline B's

Yes, I don't know how that one happened. I'm looking at my notes for it and I'm like, I wrote how much I really love them.

It's definitely a case that, you know. And

I don't know. Is there any other animal?

Not that I know of. Yeah, I didn't think there was another. I've taken my cat to their organization. I love them. I was like, oh.

I had my only 30 just because I was running out of money at this point. But based on, I think, on my notes, I put the baby Brady stuff. And we have a huge problem with that right now. So I'm fine with

That kind of brings us to a majority of 45. Fair?

Does that seem? I think we've trimmed in the other places so far. Yeah.

Any baby can. Baby can. So just the board.

Let me see.

They don't serve Travis and Hayes, right?

Or do they just serve Hayes County? Any baby can.

I think they serve a wide range of counties. Of course, this funding only goes to San Francisco.

I didn't realize how intense their intervention, actually, like how much time in the household and things that they are with the families.

That one, I have a feeling, just got caught up in my, I ran out of money. Because, I mean, I'm a big baby person. So I drew in 40 just based on what I'm seeing and just trying to, you know, sort of, I just don't want y'all to feel a lot of pressure for next meeting, you know?

Historically, I mean, that's where training, it was 6,000, 20,000, 30,000, 35,000. What I like about the NBA team is that every time we've given them an increase,

They've done a really good job of telling us the exact word and how they use it and stuff like that.

Okay, next up is, oh, I'm sorry.

No, I was going to say, so I gave them 38, but I'm playing with 40.

Okay. Next up, home center, pathways to home. It's like 230s, 320s, and a zero. I mean, yeah.

Yeah, that's another one that I think I'd messed up because on my sheet, I have 15 for them.

Oh, okay. Interesting. Okay. Bobcat Pride.

Wait, did we decide? Oh, is that okay? Yeah, I'm fine with 20,000. Yancey, are you ready?

Yeah, I'm good. I mean, 525? I'm fine with 20,000. Yeah, I don't have any problem with 20,000. Okay, 25.

They help a lot with women and move outs. And they are quite literally like on the boots. I mean, boots on the ground. Involved in the community when it comes to helping people who are Experiencing homelessness. Yeah, and so I. They definitely need a lot of help and I'm fine giving them the 30,000 fully or the 25 but.

And I forget to say that this one's one that works with the San Marcos Police Department. San Marcos Police Department has a homeless outreach program too and they have two, I think they have two officers and both of them work with Golden Center quite a bit. Yeah, so. So yeah, the home center has to be shut to the organization. I'm good with 25. What are we at?

Money?

What?

I feel like $500,000. We got about $200,000 left. We're getting close.

Bobcat Pride? Fully bought.

I'm comfortable with that.

That one. We have a little bit difference here, right, in modeling things?

That one was a run out of money and they tend to, I guess if I read it right and listen to them right, they help the students at Texas State. And I would like to think that Texas State has other things that could help students with. That is true. In a situation where I'm running out of money, I'm saying go to Texas State and let us use that $10,000 for somewhere else.

I will say this organization is specifically for individuals who identify as LGBTQIA+.

And I have no problem with that. So the reason the organization was established, because this one was my first year on the board. They asked for 5, 5, 10. The reason I wouldn't say 500 is because 5, 5, 5 I was fine with, and then 10 we funded it. But I'm like, that's a huge chunk. But the reason This one versus Texas State is like Texas State funding and stuff. I remember the first two years they were saying, oh, it's very hard for that specific demographic to access funds. And that's why they came to the city. And that's what we started funding.

And the money that we give them, like all of it goes towards emergency assistance. Yeah. You know, so that's why I feel comfortable giving them the maximum amount every time that they ask for it because of all of the other because of all those reasons.

And like the like the presentation said. Based, you know, it is a bit of a marginalized community in Texas State and a lot of times their support system is not there because sometimes their own family and friends kind of don't support them. Yeah, they shut them down. I'm good with saying 500. I'm good with 10.

I'm gonna be there as well. I did. I did put 10 just because the the 2500 discrepancy didn't seem like a huge difference to me at the end of the day. But yeah, and then just in addition to like this is a another group as well that like with not to get too into the weeds, but like with rollbacks that have happened and stuff like that, there are other funding opportunities that are probably not going to be as well funded as this one is going to continue to be.

That's fair.

Anything really good with them anything more than that? Yeah, they don't have like an office space. I know that or anything. Most of their stuff is just like online and like direct communication with the person who's getting money. And I think that if I'm not mistaken, the board is entire volunteers. You know, I think all the money would go directly to CO2. So.

So 10 again.

I'm okay with that. 10. I think this is one of the ones that was up under last year, like Across the board, perfect score 100.

Oh really? OK, yeah, I don't remember, but yeah, so. OK, so then we are down to head to toe. How many total?

Yeah, how many we have left? 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

We could do more up and find out.

So bunch of units real quick. We have 14. That's 27.

Yeah, so about 13 or 14 are left. So I want to go to 30 tonight.

Sounds good to 30 and then tomorrow we'll just have to do the last couple and then check our work tomorrow. Tomorrow.

Yeah, that one I'd run out of money for. And since we ended up giving some organizations less funding, I'm totally open to however much y'all would recommend.

Not here to tell.

Yes.

They are the ones who do like the back to school. They're the ones that go up and down 35 looking for the best deals. I think for me, what justified giving them the $15,000 is the argument that they were making about the back tax. And just like the supply, wanting to give high quality materials and supplies to kids so that the parents then don't have to go back and rebuy these things because they were cheaply made or they were just, you know, just not good quality. And I think that definitely takes away a barrier for a lot of families to just access basic school supplies, right? And For me, just eliminating as many barriers as we can to education, to shoes, to haircuts is really important to me.

They do also seem pretty ambitious to start doing more. I think they were talking in their interview about having city services and other things at their distribution days. I'm sure and like the ministry stuff as well and stuff like that that they do. So I think that's a really good use of the funds for them to be able to evolve that as well in there.

But I want to hear from Madeline. Did you say you had 15 on this one?

No, I'd said for that one, I just run out of funding. So I was I just put a zero there, but I was open to giving them money since we gave other organizations less.

Because I was going to say put like a $15,000.

Yeah, I didn't have a particular reason for giving them zero. I just run out of money.

I put $7,500 because I love running out of money. Yeah. So if we're good on money, I'd be good with $15,000.

If that's now $15,000. Okay. Mr. Nabel? There are lots of discrepancy here, so... Nancy, do you want to talk?

Sure. So for that one, I think they're the only organization in town that does this type of support for the community. And I think I say the county. Yeah. So I just like being aware of just like the income level of San Marcos is There's just a lot of people, especially elderly people who live in these homes that just do not have the funds to repair their homes. And for them to like intervene and essentially keep them out of poverty. It's it basically is like a prevention, you know, homeless is prevention to me. And that's why I'm comfortable giving the $50,000 so that they are able to do the maximum amount of help with the maximum amount of money.

Yeah, I have close contact with them. They're just a partner through work. And they do some phenomenal, phenomenal work in the community. They have over the past, like a couple of years, even since, you know, our program has, you know, helped them with some things they've like doubled their impact, their volunteer hours. Um, yeah, I, I put them at 30 just because it was a money thing. I'm good going up to the max or, you know, whatever y'all are comfortable, but I will say to Yonce's point, they are, yeah, they're, they're like the only organization that does this kind of work. Um, and not, so to keep people in their homes and even clearing debris and things like that. I know, I think even helping other nonprofits trimming their trees and different things like that too, so.

I will say another thing that I like about them is that they really leverage their volunteers. Just like looking at the amount of volunteers that they have and that what that then translates Money-wise, that's a lot of money that they're leveraging, just based on volunteers alone. So I think they would really just be good stewards for the money, you know, to really help our community and help people who lose homes or are just in big need, you know.

Yeah, I will say I volunteered one Saturday with them and We picked up two tons of debris from a woman's home. Yeah. So it's, yeah, pretty, pretty wild.

It also is kind of, you know, high cost work, like getting the like loaders to like drag all that stuff off of the property and things of that nature. And then they do, they set themselves, they have to go and hire contractors if the work is too sophisticated and stuff like that as well. So yeah, I'm fine funding them higher. I know I said 20,000, but I think I was running low on money whenever I was doing that. So I'm fine funding them closer to their request as well. The request is 50,000. I know we're operating on like, That's a fourth of what we have left right now, I think, around, so I don't know where.

So I'll be the grinch on this one. So I gave them $9,900 because basically I was running out of money and had just a little bit left over. But $50,000 for 20 households that they help. And also, if you get all these volunteers, where's the $50,000 involved? And basically we're paying for all the construction materials they use. That's Number one point number two is. As I looked in there and I just looked again also on the presentation and they don't leverage Bobcat build at all. Bobcat build this is everything that they do is they go out in community and help out repair homes and stuff like that one day. Yeah, so that's the biggest thing you have 3000 people you can leverage.

I don't know if this is. Correct or incorrect, but Bobcat build doesn't seem to Like, what with those? Like, I run a rehab program, too, and we've never connected. And so, it's just very odd, a little bit. So, I didn't want to, I think, cause it to look bad on Mission Able, if it might be, it's kind of, it's a vodka build. Yeah. So, anyway, I'm trying to throw in too much, but that's, it's been hard to coordinate.

So, those are my two biggest things, is you're not leveraging I don't put the volunteer work that you put in that one day. They do a ton of. Good for this and 250,000 for 20 houses. We can spend on some greens. I'm down for like maybe 25, maybe 30, but not 50. No way out. I think the consensus average is 18 so.

You know what? I ran out of money, and if there's two organizations where I ran out of money that I could give to, it would be Mission Able and Any Baby Can. And I would do the full amount if I had the money, but I ran out of money. I think that Mission Able and their mission of helping people, home repair especially, haven't gone through This year has been our year of home repair. I don't even want to throw the number at you of what we've done with window siding and fence. So I could see them using $50,000 for 20 and probably could use more.

So my program with work, the first couple of things that we provided them was a dump trailer and a tool trailer. The tool trailer, McCoy's completely outfitted with tools. The dump trailer saves them a phenomenal amount of time and money, but every time you go dump at the landfill, they have to pay for that. So they do, and they also have a, like, so they have their rates set up with the, you know, the landfills and the recycling. So they take things to also get recycled to bring back some costs But they've actually, because of the dump trailer and the tool trailer, have been able, I think their impact report, more than double their volunteer hours. They are now getting volunteers. They have currently weekly from across the nation through their church program. And so those kids, they're going out all day, every day, all summer, helping people's homes. So they absolutely leverage, like, all volunteers in their work, but they've been able to double, even triple what they've done in the past because of these things like the trailers.

So I want to point out too, 50,000 for like 20-something homes. I know it might seem like a lot. I know that, but... Can I finish?

Yeah, go.

It might seem like a lot, but when you, I think for me looking at it, just wider lens, that's 20 people who don't get repairs. Those are 20 people who then might experience homelessness and then require the services to help them with that, which might come out to much more than $50,000, to be honest. And so that's why for me, I said prevention, right? Because Even though 50,000 might seem a lot, I think long-term it's actually kind of cheap to be honest.

But it's only 2,500 at home. And you've earned through 2,500.

So Congress there, you know, made it. 50,000, if we give them 50,000, that's 50% of the budget. The city should not be funding any organization at 50% of the budget. That's one. Two, 20, 20,000.