Commissioners get $100K apiece to dole out
Vote doubles amount Bernalillo County lawmakers can give to projects of their choice
Bernalillo County commissioners have agreed to double the amount of money each of them gets to dole out — largely at their own discretion — to community groups and events.
The commission last week unanimously approved an increase in the amount of “district-directed funding” available in next year’s budget. That means each commissioner will get $100,000 to spend, rather than $50,000.
The pot of money allows commissioners to spend money on relatively small projects without having to get approval from their colleagues.
Over the years, commissioners have used the money to buy books for children, inject funding into nonprofit groups and hold a summit on heroin abuse, for example.
Commissioner Art De La Cruz said the discretionary fund is helpful because commissioners can respond quickly when a group needs assistance or an event needs support. It’s “absolutely not” a slush fund, he said.
“It’s been for worthy efforts,” he said in an interview. “I think we’ve done a competent job of trying to use those funds wisely.”
The money is in addition to the county’s standard social-service spending, which goes through a competitive process in which staffers evaluate the qualifications of groups that apply. Next year’s budget doubles the funding for that process from $250,000 to $500,000, the county said.
The “district-directed” money was approved as part of a budget package that went before county commissioners last week.
The change didn’t generate any public debate, though county staffers did point out the proposed increase while presenting the
budget to commissioners.
Lisa Sedillo-White, the county’s purchasing director, said the county administration supported doubling the fund because so many socialservice programs are facing cuts from other funding sources.
Essentially, the county takes left-over, unspent money from prior-year budgets and makes it available for the discretionary fund.
She said any spending from the district fund must comply with local and state procurement rules.
Generally speaking, spending over $20,000 must go through a formal request-for proposals process, Sedillo-White said. There are exceptions for “sole source” procurements, in which only one company is capable of providing the service.
Purchasing rules also require that vendors disclose campaign contributions, which, depending on when they were made, could prohibit them from receiving contracts, she said.
District-directed funding must be used for a community benefit, not for a personal purchase, she said.
And money for the fund isn’t guaranteed to be available every year, she said. It depends on the county’s financial position when the budget is developed.
De La Cruz has been an outspoken supporter of the fund; Chairwoman Maggie Hart Stebbins and vice chair Debbie O’Malley could not be reached for comment.
De La Cruz has typically spent the bulk of his money on providing books for children during school breaks. In March, for example, the county gave nearly 1,100 books to more than 500 children for reading over spring break.
The discretionary money, even at $100,000, isn’t as much as it might sound like, De La Cruz said.
“We get a tremendous amount of requests for a variety of things in the community,” he said. “... We never have enough for the different things we want to do.”
Every city councilor, he said, gets $1 million every two years through Albuquerque’s bond program.
“We don’t have the same luxury,” De La Cruz said, because the county’s bond package is smaller.
The City Council’s $1 million “district set aside” is subject to voter approval as part of the general-obligation bond program and it’s used for small construction projects, not social services.
Councilors who want to provide money to a nonprofit group must get permission from a council committee, whose actions are subject to approval by the full council, according to the city.