Official raises CARES Act cap concerns

CLOVIS — To cap or not to cap. The Clovis city commission pondered such amid a discussion-only update on its first round of CARES Act small business continuity grants Thursday night.

The city received $4.26 million from the state to reimburse local businesses for COVID-19 related expenses like employee payroll, rent and renovations to operate commerce under COVID-safe practices. The Clovis-Curry County Chamber of Commerce, operating under a $60,000 contract with the city, is handling the application and review process before final presentation to the commission.

So far, Chamber Executive Director Ernie Kos said, 81 of 87 applicants were deemed eligible and the chamber was prepared to provide the city with the first 29 completed applications totaling $1 million.

Nearly every applicant had some expenses that didn’t fit the criteria, Kos said, and an undetermined amount of funding remains for a second application round Monday through Dec. 4.

Requests must be completed by the end of the calendar year, but the chamber and the Small Business Development Center aim to conclude in mid-December.

Kos considered the effort well-promoted, with various press releases and city press conferences, radio interviews and a postcard sent to every registered business in the city.

The discussion came when Kos, in response to a question from Commissioner Leo Lovett, said first-round requests varied between $500 and $490,000.

Lovett, the commissioner’s representative on the chamber board of directors. feared the optics of one business — its name was not made public — taking more than 10% of the pie. He noted plenty of business owners who were too busy to apply for the first round have newfound free time due to new public health orders that closed non-essential businesses.

“I can only speak for myself,” Lovett said, “but when we set this up I had no idea there'd be asks for that kind of funding.”

Kos understood the concerns, but said the task force acted on parameters given by the city and stands by its recommendations.

“It would be really hard to go back and say there is a limit,” Kos said. “(Many applicants) were asking what the cap was. We told them there is no cap. From our standpoint, we don't want to change the rules at the end of the game.”

Lovett understood Kos’ position, but stood by his own. He said if you told any business from the first day they could get up to $100,000, they would be ecstatic, and he doesn’t want money to dry up for other businesses because of one large award.

“I'm only one commissioner, but I say we should cap this at $100,000,” Lovett said, later noting the majority of applicants requested less than $50,000. “If businesses do not apply, we can always go back to these (larger) applications and fund them at a greater level.”

Lovett’s sentiments were echoed by Mayor Mike Morris and City Manager Justin Howalt, who both noted the intent was to help as many businesses as possible and no business received a guarantee of full funding. Commissioners Gary Elliott and Fidel Madrid, in brief remarks, agreed with Lovett.

Commissioner Helen Casaus questioned the idea of changing horses midstream.

“I feel like if we were going to cap,” Casaus said, “we should have capped at the beginning. I feel like if they have the required paperwork, receipts, we should give them what they were qualified for. If some business didn't apply for it, I'm sorry, but they had ample time to put in their request.”

Lovett didn’t dispute the eligibility, but said awards will be public knowledge and he couldn’t defend a single award of that size.

Morris said he has many friends in the business community who would consider a few thousand dollars to be a tipping point between staying open and closing, and he wouldn’t be able to look them in the eye if the city didn’t give them every chance at the pool of money.

“We miss the spirit of this if we don't try to get more businesses funded,” Morris said. “While it's in our power to do so, let's do that.”

Commissioner Rube Render said he wants to be sure no money is left on the table and every eligible applicant gets some level of funding. But he could see the other perspective, and wasn’t sure where or if a cap should be set.

“I have a problem,” Render said, “coming into something after everybody's done all of the work … and saying, 'You screwed all of this up and I'm coming in to save you.'”

Sandra Taylor-Sawyer, executive director of the Small Business Development Center at Clovis Community College, said a handful of businesses approached decided not to apply because they felt they had survived the initial shutdown orders just fine. Taylor-Sawyer said her response was that you don’t know what the future will bring.

With that in mind, Lovett made a public plea to any business owners watching the meeting to apply.