Kansas City promised businesses $500,000 for COVID-19 relief. No one has seen a penny
It’s been almost a month since Kansas City council members approved $500,000 in emergency relief for small businesses hit hard by the novel coronavirus. Mayor Quinton Lucas has touted the program numerous times in recent weeks.
But businesses have yet to see any of the money, the City Council learned Thursday.
Lucas proposed the program last month, and the City Council passed it with the annual budget. AltCap, a local lender, was expected to administer the fund. But council members amended the proposal to have the loan branch of the Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City process the applications.
EDC officials told council members Thursday they were still in negotiations with the city over a contract to administer the funds. Terry Riley, a former councilman who chairs the EDC Loan Corporation board, said the organization had received inquiries from dozens of businesses in the last three weeks.
“I get calls from these businesses all the time,” Riley said. “’Man, I am going under. Can you help me? Please, man, when is this process going to move?’ And right now, it’s not moving.”
The news was clearly distressing to City Council members, who expected the funds would be helping businesses by now. A separate civic fund administered by AltCap has halted applications because it received so many.
“I had hoped that the funds would already be on the streets now,” Lucas said.
“I don’t want to lose my temper here,” said Councilwoman Heather Hall, 1st District, “but I’m a little crazy by the fact that here, the local government, has taken three and a half weeks just to talk about this and do this when I have friends who have nonprofit organizations … who applied for the … federal loan program and have already received their checks.”
Hall added: “These local businesses need the money now. We should have already given it to them. We voted on it. We thought, in good conscience, our staff was handling it, and we’re not.”
T’Risa McCord, interim president and CEO of the EDC, said the organization received a draft contract from the city earlier this week that didn’t align with the program proposed in the ordinance. EDC officials said the contract provided the agency with $500,000 to combine with its own funds to provide the loans, which was a surprise.
The city’s finance director, Tammy Queen, said city officials had not heard back from EDC officials about the contract.
“To suggest that we weren’t willing to talk about a change in this document — that’s not correct,” Queen said.
Lucas asked that the city and EDC set up a meeting by Friday afternoon to resolve the issue.
