Pueblo contributes millions to non-departmental organizations

Despite being strapped for cash, Pueblo City Council contributes millions of dollars every year to organizations that it’s not obligated to fund under the city charter.

City Council needs to cut $3.5 million from the 2014-15 budget. Pueblo City Manager Sam Azad said nearly $5 million of the city’s budget goes toward non-departmental organizations that Pueblo City Council oversees.

“The non-departmental side has a lot of political associations with it because we are funding a lot of nonprofits who are active in the community,” Azad said.

Councilman Steve Nawrocki said council has been giving money to non-departmental organizations for decades. Nawrocki is executive director of the Senior Resource Development Agency, a nonprofit organization, which receives money from the city. Last year, SRDA received about $47,000 from the city.

Nawrocki told KRDO NewsChannel 13 he hopes there doesn’t come a time when the city eliminates funding altogether for non-departmental organizations, including nonprofits.

“I think it’ll be a sad time when that comes,” Nawrocki said. “It won’t be a city that a lot of people want to live in.” He added that he believes those agencies contribute to the quality of life in Pueblo.

The Greater Pueblo Chamber of Commerce is one of several organizations that receives money from the city. The chamber received $350,000 from the city last year. This year President and CEO Rod Slyhoff has requested $385,000 from the city to promote Pueblo around Colorado and neighboring states.

Slyhoff is worried that the city’s contribution to the chamber has been cut in recent years. “Our budget has been cut over the last two years,” he said. “So we’ve had to cut significantly out of our promotional dollars.”

But Azad believes that something will have to give. “No other city in the state of Colorado [is] providing as much funding, dependent on the general fund, to all of these other organizations as our city,” he said.

Council will meet on Oct. 6 to talk about the budget. Azad said it appears nearly all non-departmental organizations will receive the same level of funding they received last year, with the exception of Pueblo Animal Services. Azad said it’s likely the animal agency will receive more funding than last year.

To view last’s year budget, visit: http://www.pueblo.us/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/1019