City Council Discuss Grants, Sidewalk Improvements & More

Updated: January 24, 2025

Selene Olguin
Special to LFN

The La Feria city meeting was held on Tuesday, January 14, 2025, and was called to order at 6:40 PM by Mayor Olga H. Maldonado along with city manager, Frank Rios, who led the meeting. There were no visitor remarks over the course of this meeting. To start off the meeting, there was a presentation given by Hiram Gutierrez from Perdue Brandon Fielder Collins and Mott LLP giving an update on city taxes for October 1, 2023, through September 30, 2024.
There were six items listed on the Consent Agenda:

Consent Agenda
a. Approval of minutes for City Commission meeting held December 17, 2024.
b. Proclamation to designate April as Fair Housing Month.
Consideration and possible action to engage Caso Law Firm, PLLC for grant services.
Consideration and possible action on Resolution 2025-01 to award selected grand management firm for grant pre-application, application, and implementation services for the city of La Feria’s Disaster Recovery Reallocation Program as administered by the Texas General Land Office.
Consideration and possible action on Resolution 2025-02 to select engineering/architectural service provider(s) to complete application and project-related engineering/architectural services for the Disaster Recovery Reallocation Program funding administered by the Texas General Land Office.
Discuss, consider, and adopt Resolution 2025-03 to designate authorized signatories for the 2024 Texas CDBG program, grant agreement number CDM24-0072
Discuss, consider, and approve Resolution 2025-04 adopting required CDBG Civil Rights policies.

Following this order, the council discussed what was listed.

Consent Agenda
a. Approval of minutes for City Commission meeting held December 17, 2024.
b. Proclamation to designate April as Fair Housing Month.

These motions were passed.

Consideration and possible action to engage Caso Law Firm, PLLC for grant services.
The city manager introduced the Caso Law Firm team consisting of Oliver De La Garza, Moncerrato Fuentez, Lymaira Reyes, and Joel Quintllnia. A presentation was given, led by Oliver De La Garza, explaining their past performances, what grants are, and how to prepare for them. This motion was passed.
Consideration and possible action on Resolution 2025-01 to award selected grand management firm for grant pre-application, application, and implementation services for the city of La Feria’s Disaster Recovery Reallocation Program as administered by the Texas General Land Office.

Frank Rios covered whether or not they should hire a company to assist in applying for and managing a financial recovery program after a disaster. He also explained that the city would need assistance with the application process and carrying out the program if they should be selected. The motion was carried.

Consideration and possible action on Resolution 2025-02 to select engineering/architectural service provider(s) to complete application and project-related engineering/architectural services for the Disaster Recovery Reallocation Program funding administered by the Texas General Land Office.

City Manager, Frank Rios, expands on the second part of the grant which is selecting an engineering firm, according to him three have already submitted bids. The motion was passed.

Discuss, consider, and adopt Resolution 2025-03 to designate authorized signatories for the 2024 Texas CDBG program, grant agreement number CDM24-0072

The City Manager stated that this is the resolution needed to appoint signatories for expanding sidewalks. This motion was carried.

Discuss, consider, and approve Resolution 2025-04 adopting required CDBG Civil Rights policies.

Frank Rios shared that this is something the commission has done in the past. He explains that there are certain policies that come into play when trying to go for these grants. This motion was passed.
The motion to adjourn was passed at 7:32 PM.

Did you like this? Share it: