Small business owners frustrated over St. Louis’ use of COVID relief funds

ST. LOUIS (First Alert 4) — Some small business owners in St. Louis are now calling for a federal investigation into how the city awarded millions of dollars in COVID relief funds for businesses and nonprofits on the city’s north side.

“Fairness, that’s it,” said Leslie Christian-Wilson, who owns Diversity Gallery in St. Louis.

She stood with other small business owners outside St. Louis City offices Tuesday, frustrated by how city leaders decided to hand out more than $30 million in COVID relief funds.

“I have taken two and a half years to jump through hoops and have the ceiling raised. I am exhausted,” she said.

“I can’t sleep at night knowing that somebody has done an injustice to myself, as well as other business owners,” said Tameka Stigers, another small business owner.

First Alert 4 Investigates talked to Stigers in May when she called on the St. Louis Development Corporation (SLDC) to finally distribute COVID relief funds set aside for small businesses and nonprofits in north St. Louis.

But when SLDC recently announced the awardees, her business, Loks of Glory, wasn’t on the list. Instead, she and others were shocked to see 22 entities receive $21 million of the available funds. They say the familiar names have strong connections to city leaders.

“When those large entities receive such large amounts of money, I don’t know any other word other than cronyism. They’re in there. If you’re connected to the mayor, those people are on the list,” she said.

Neal Richardson, who heads the SLDC, said the grant process was fair.

“It’s not cronyism. It’s been very ethical. We’ve been very straightforward with businesses,” said Richardson.

With more money requested than available, he said they created a scoring system to allocate the most dollars to drive the most impact.

“The mayor said it great. She said, you know, if she had another $400 million to invest in these businesses, she would, but that’s not the reality of the situation we’re in right now,” he said.

He added that the process is ongoing, as are the conversations.

“I understand the frustration, but I think we did the best that we can do with these businesses to address their concerns and meet the goals of the program,” he said.

However, some small business owners say the program should pause, and the federal government should investigate. They have submitted a complaint to the FBI.

“Take another look at this and have some backbone and equity behind this to make St. Louis great again,” said Christian-Wilson.

Other businesses who have spoken to First Alert 4, though, are glad they’ve been awarded the funding and hope it will help them in their missions to the city.

Despite the calls for a pause on the program, Richardson said they will be disbursing the funds to the entities that received the grants as they continue the process of verifying and overseeing the program.

You can find more information about the grants here.

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