Alicia Gracia Cardenas Addresses the City Commission~7/3/12

As reported in the story below, the City Commission decided to not fund CASA, a child advocacy group that represents some of the most vulnerable Brownsville residents, children who have been removed from their homes do to abuse, neglect, abandonment or all of the above.  A random inspection of non-profits found that CASA had not spent every penny of their funding in lockstep with the calendar.  No matter that all of the supplemental funds and much, much more were needed and utilized to keep the agency afloat annually.  Somehow, H.U.D. regulations were interpreted and enforced requiring 1/12 of the funding to be spent every 30 days.  "Use it or lose it" was the operative phrase.  


Some non-profits go so far as to anticipate expenditures years down the road, committing a percentage of the funding each month for use years down the line.  Sometimes, it's simply a matter of playing the bureaucratic game more than prudent use of assets.  So, with CASA, the Moody Clinic and a segment of United Way facing the elimination of their supplemental funds, ever-the-diplomat Mayor Tony Martinez made it clear that the decision to not fund was not based on merit, but simply bureaucratese.  While Tony sat without an idea or actual concern, perhaps the youngest of the commissioners, Jessica Tetreau saw a way to figuratively rob Peter to pay Paul and made a motion to transfer funds committed to dome construction to the three agencies.  Still CASA, one of the more efficient and critical non-profits was underfunded by $20,000.