Welcome to V.I.D.A. - - A Laredo Watchdog Organization.
ABOUT US
VIDA is a non-profit membership organization composed of residents of the City of Laredo with officers elected by its membership. It is dedicated to protecting the rights of Laredoans to open and transparent local government, free of corruption and improper influence, and to safeguarding the proper and appropriate use of local taxpayer funds, without waste and with accountability.
VIDA has a long standing history of being the community's watchdog in the exercise of governance by local elected and other public officials, especially in the expenditures of tax funds. As a local government watchdog, VIDA does not accept public funds. Rather, it is funded by membership dues and by private contributions.
VIDA was founded in 1967 as a labor support group which petitioned and caused the then Laredo city council to pass Texas' first municipal minimum wage law. VIDA has existed for the past 45 years as a coalition of local workers, students, taxpayers, veterans, and activists.
VIDA has long been involved with numerous issues in its history supporting the public's right to efficient, fair, and responsive local governance, such as petitioning local governments to block construction of a nuclear waste dump in rural Webb County, build a new county jail and establish a City of Laredo Ethics Commission. VIDA has promoted the consolidation of school districts and of local tax offices, has advocated against the privatization of city water distribution services, for equalizing property tax values, establishing a county veteran's museum, and against the use of tax funds to construct city and county sports venues. Notably, VIDA has been instrumental in exposing the waste of local tax funds in the hiring and pay practices of city and county officials, the letting of city and county contracts to favored businesses on terms against the public interest, in challenging the privatizing of city functions at public expense and private gain, and in exposing the role and influence of money in local governance. VIDA's purpose as a public interest association of local residents is exposing public fraud, corruption, waste, and mismanagement, thus guaranteeing that citizens of Laredo may hold their elected officials accountable at the ballot box. Throughout the years, VIDA has had thousands of members, and tens of thousands of supporters in Laredo.
VIDA is a non-profit membership organization composed of residents of the City of Laredo with officers elected by its membership. It is dedicated to protecting the rights of Laredoans to open and transparent local government, free of corruption and improper influence, and to safeguarding the proper and appropriate use of local taxpayer funds, without waste and with accountability.
VIDA has a long standing history of being the community's watchdog in the exercise of governance by local elected and other public officials, especially in the expenditures of tax funds. As a local government watchdog, VIDA does not accept public funds. Rather, it is funded by membership dues and by private contributions.
VIDA was founded in 1967 as a labor support group which petitioned and caused the then Laredo city council to pass Texas' first municipal minimum wage law. VIDA has existed for the past 45 years as a coalition of local workers, students, taxpayers, veterans, and activists.
VIDA has long been involved with numerous issues in its history supporting the public's right to efficient, fair, and responsive local governance, such as petitioning local governments to block construction of a nuclear waste dump in rural Webb County, build a new county jail and establish a City of Laredo Ethics Commission. VIDA has promoted the consolidation of school districts and of local tax offices, has advocated against the privatization of city water distribution services, for equalizing property tax values, establishing a county veteran's museum, and against the use of tax funds to construct city and county sports venues. Notably, VIDA has been instrumental in exposing the waste of local tax funds in the hiring and pay practices of city and county officials, the letting of city and county contracts to favored businesses on terms against the public interest, in challenging the privatizing of city functions at public expense and private gain, and in exposing the role and influence of money in local governance. VIDA's purpose as a public interest association of local residents is exposing public fraud, corruption, waste, and mismanagement, thus guaranteeing that citizens of Laredo may hold their elected officials accountable at the ballot box. Throughout the years, VIDA has had thousands of members, and tens of thousands of supporters in Laredo.