Letter to the editor: Story about KC COVID-19 relief gave the wrong impression

Progress made

Recently, The Star published a story about the Economic Development Corporation’s progress deploying Kansas City’s $500,000 small-business relief loan fund for businesses with COVID-related challenges. (June 17, 9A, “Funds to help KC’s small businesses are trickling out”) As the leader of the agency managing the fund, I believe the story missed the mark.

While its numbers were accurate, the characterization was not, suggesting we were not working diligently to deploy the funds. At that point, 19 loans had been approved and 52 applications were in stage two of the process. Even a small percentage of approvals of those in stage two would exhaust the funds. As of June 30, $460,000 had been deployed, and dozens of businesses working on documentation will be left out.

For context, we received more than 100 applications, and without additional staff, we moved quickly to help businesses get what they needed while adhering to the requirements set by the city. In fact, I’m proud of how hard our team worked to quickly assist stressed-out business owners trying to keep their businesses alive.

This was a great moment for EDCKC, and the news story was disheartening.

The Star is an important asset to Kansas City, but here it created controversy where there was none. Let’s emerge from this crisis stronger, wiser and more compassionate when we take a deeper look. Let’s grow Kansas City.

- T’Risa McCord, Interim president and CEO, Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City, Kansas City

This story was originally published July 4, 2020 at 5:00 AM.