Discussion and possible action on any and all matters regarding a proposed contract with the Arizona Interagency Farmworkers Coalition, Inc. with the dollar amount to be determined by City Council for scholarships for students who are residents of San Luis for secondary education.  (Jenny Torres, Acting City Manager) 

Service: Arizona Interagency Farmworkers Coalition, Inc. ("AIFC") is a non-profit organization whose primary focus is to coordinate efforts for migrant and seasonal agricultural workers in Arizona. Each year, AIFC awards scholarships to students from migrant families. In past years, the city's agreements with AIFC always required funds to go to San Luis residents seeking post-secondary education, and numerous San Luis students have benefited from a Scholarship to help with their secondary education.

Compliance: On May 18, 2023, at the San Luis High School Senior Award Night, AIFC used the city's funding from the 2022-2023 fiscal year to award deserving San Luis students scholarships. Staff verified compliance, but the names are not made public here to protect against undue publicity concerns and because some recipients are still minors. However, three recipients were from San Luis High School in the scholarship amounts of $2,000, $2,000, and $500. AIFC used other funding (not from the city) to award a fourth San Luis High School student with a $500.00 scholarship. AIFC awarded a Portable Practical Educational Preparation (PPEP) High School student $1,000 and an Arizona Western College student $500 from San Luis. AIFC used all $6,000 of the contracted amount on the scholarships without using any of it to promote the scholarships.



Proposed Contract: If the decision is to continue to fund the AIFC, staff has prepared a contract but has left the amount blank. In prior years, $150 was allowed to promote the scholarships. However, AIFC has always used 100% of the dollars budgeted for scholarships, so that provision was eliminated. This year, the proposed contract is limited to San Luis High School students to ease city residency verification in the City of San Luis. The AIFC request $6,000.00

Amount: The city has entered into contracts with AIFC for the past three (3) years. For the fiscal year ending in 2021 and 2022, the amount contracted was $5,000 in both years. For the fiscal year ending in 2023, the amount contracted was $6,000.00. 

Motion: The staff prepared a motion of approval leaving the amount blank, but the staff is neutral on whether to approve or deny funding because the item is part of the City Council's budget and not part of any operational departments' budget.