SLDC opens transparency portal with Small Business Grant documents

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) – The St. Louis Development Corporation has launched a website outlining criteria and documentation for its North St. Louis Small Business and Non-Profit Grant Program following calls for transparency and frustrations over its rollout.

The website includes information for the program’s approximately 700 applicants, of which, 437 have pending approval for awards totaling more than $30 million. It links to files containing applications, the criteria SLDC used to choose recipients, scores for applications and conflict of interest waivers.

SLDC staff members, including President and CEO Neal Richardson, met with members of the press to walk through the portal and discuss some of the criteria used to disburse the funds.

“We’re being 100 percent transparent with the public,” Richardson said. “Our goal was always to do that. We have the ability now that we’ve scored the projects, we’ve been able to share that information and go through the competitive process. People can go see how the decisions were made. It is important for us to do that given the heightened importance of this program and given that it’s unprecedented.”

Some applicants have criticized that process. In September, FirstAlert4 reported that the program had been paused because of concerns about conflicts of interest and accusations of corruption.

Richardson said recipients will undergo a thorough review process as the funds are distributed to ensure that requirements are met.

He said SLDC chose nonprofits and businesses based on individual merit, but also based on the potential impact to surrounding neighborhoods.

“Our goal was twofold,” Richardson said. “One was to stabilize the businesses, but the other was to make sure those places in north St. Louis City were able to provide amenities and provide transformational growth.”

But businesses frustrated with the process told FirstAlert4 they were still concerned about the criteria involved in selecting recipients.

Karen Greer, the owner of a home healthcare business in the O’Fallon neighborhood, said she had been unaware of the benchmarks she and other businesses would be expected to meet.

Greer had applied for a grant to help open up a restaurant and event space in her neighborhood.

“They created four separate rubrics that none of us knew from the beginning. Not to mention that we were up against larger nonprofits. We shouldn’t have been,” she said.

Bob Griesedieck, the operations manager of Griesedieck Brothers Brewery, said he had spotted errors in some of SLDC’s files.

The documents seemed to indicate that his business had not undergone a site check during the process. Griesedieck insists that SLDC staff had visited his business during the application process.

“It’s frustrating that the system doesn’t work like people expect it to be,” he said.

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