P.R. Laws tit. 21, § 4464a
(a) The municipality may cede or donate public funds to persons who show they have authentic and specific health, education, housing, sports, emergency assistance and natural disaster needs. The ceding of funds or goods shall only be made after it has been verified that the person is indeed indigent and when the functions, activities and operations of the municipality will not be adversely interrupted or affected.
Every cession of funds must be approved by the Municipal Legislature, by means of an ordinance or resolution to such effects, approved by not less than two-thirds (2 / 3) of the members thereof. In said ordinance or resolution, the public interest motives or grounds that justify the granting of said donation shall be set forth, as well as any condition deemed pertinent by the Legislature to grant the donation.
(b) Regardless of what is mentioned above, any mayor interested in offering donations in emergency situations to indigent natural persons shall create a program in the municipality, through regulations, to donate or cede up to five hundred dollars ($500) under such circumstances, without need of a prior ordinance or resolution by the Municipal Legislature. To comply with this purpose, the program created by the mayor shall be supervised by the internal auditing unit of the municipality and advised by the Office of the Commissioner of Municipal Affairs. Furthermore, said program shall have at least one municipal employee, who shall also be a duly bonded disburser in charge of paying the donations. In exceptional cases of loss due to fire, flood, meteorological events or earthquake, the sum to be donated, as provided in this subsection, may amount to a maximum of one thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500).
For the purposes of this exception, any situation or occasional combination of unusual circumstances that provoke an unexpected and unforeseen need that requires the immediate delivery of a donation to achieve a speedy course of action or to obtain the requested remedy, without being understood as a limitation, and according to the aforementioned maximum amount, shall be deemed as an emergency. For example, any medication that is indispensable for the relief of a health condition that places the life of a citizen in imminent danger, or any equipment or material for the rehabilitation of the home that, if not obtained immediately, could endanger the lives of the persons who reside in the structure. The emergency must be of such a nature that the required assistance cannot be handled through ordinary means nor can it wait for the consideration of the next regular session of the Municipal Legislature. In all these cases, the action taken shall be notified. In said notification, the mayor shall state the facts or circumstances that motivated the emergency and that justified that the regular procedure established in this section was not followed. Furthermore, the report shall include the pertinent document that certifies the need for the requested assistance or donation, and attesting evidence of the use given to the donation thus granted. If the abovementioned requirements are complied with, the Municipal Legislature shall ratify and validate said action. However, if the Legislature understands that the requirements described herein were not complied with, it may object, stating the misuse of municipal funds to safeguard its responsibility in the administration of said funds.
(c) Every year, the municipality shall set forth in its General Budget Resolution, the limit or maximum amount of funds available to be appropriated for donations to natural indigent persons, and shall specifically indicate the maximum amount to be granted for assistance in emergency situations. Likewise, each municipality shall establish its internal regulations, a Regulation for Donations and a Register of Petitions and Disbursements.
Within the Regulation for Donations, the municipalities shall include the provisions needed to govern matters pertaining to the determination of indigence of a person. In said regulation, it shall provide for the control and supervision to be exercised by the municipality to ensure that the donated funds are used pursuant to the resolution or ordinance approved by the Municipal Legislature, and shall establish the parameters for donations in emergencies, pursuant to the purposes of this subtitle.
(d) For the effects of the application of this section, the Commissioner of Municipal Affairs shall have the responsibility of the defining what shall be understood as an “indigent person”. The Office of the Commissioner of Municipal Affairs shall prepare a model Regulation for Donations to serve as a guide for the municipalities and shall train the municipal employees to faithfully comply at all times, with the requirement of completing the Register of Petitions and Disbursements.
History —Aug. 30, 1991, No. 81, added as § 10.015 on Dec. 26, 1997, No. 191, § 1; renumbered as § 9.015 on Jan. 10, 1999, No. 30, § 3; Nov. 7, 2001, No. 154, § 1; Aug. 9, 2008, No. 205, § 1.