FAIRMONT – As choices for the facade loan program were approved and repayments of the revolving loan fund were announced at Monday’s Fairmont Economic Development Authority (FEDA) meeting, the gates of spirited discussion were opened regarding how the loan programs are analyzed.

City Council Representative Britney Kawecki started by voicing her concerns about the necessity of a separate loan committee, especially for loans with no financials to review.

“To take away from staff’s time, take away from a committee to have to get together, not even to review financial information, citizens’ time and also for staff resources for me and reviewing the decision,” she said. “It just doesn’t make sense to have a separate loan committee to review this kind of stuff.”

Economic Development Coordinator Ned Koppen said if FEDA wants to be the loan committee for the facade program they can be, but the loan committee is willing to review facade applications.

Kawecki asked why there is a loan committee when there’s a FEDA board that makes the ultimate decision. Koppen said FEDA cannot be the loan committee for loans that require financial information, like the revolving loan fund.

“You can’t discuss financials,” he said. “You can’t discuss business plans in an open meeting. You just can’t do it. We have to have a group that is able to have that discussion and talk about numbers, talk about income tax returns, financials, all of that stuff.”

Board Member Jon Omvig asked if they could discuss these financials in a closed session, as he feels he cannot approve loans without FEDA reviewing the financials.

Koppen said this is the way they had always done it, and it is common practice in all the communities he knows of.

“It might have to do some research, but there’s never been a problem with the people that were on the loan committee before,” he said. “In a future meeting, I can bring the roster of the people that I call on for the loan committee for you guys to approve. Does that give you some confidence?”

Moving forward, Omvig said he wants things to be less informal and more proceduralized.

“If this board is going to rely on another entity to review the financials, you’d have to have a procedure,” he said. “You’d have to identify how you identify those people, how they get appointed, what the procedure is.”

After the five facade loans, for B&B Gas Piping, David Greer, Alano Society, Evermore Bookstore and The Hive were approved, Omvig gave his quick review of the situation at hand.

“We already made the decision that the local housing trust fund, we are the review,” he said. “If there’s no real financials, I don’t know if there’s really a need for a review committee. They’re fairly simple. They just come to us. The remaining question is the revolving loan fund, unless there are additional loan programs. And I think for that, we put it as an agenda item.”

As this discussion will continue at the next FEDA meeting, Kawecki listed a few things she wants to know about the loan committee, FEDA and what can be done moving forward.

“I would like to know that that [financial] information is private for sure,” she said. “I’d like to know if this board can go into a closed meeting, who is on that [loan committee] roster, how they were selected. I would like to have a detailed, approved agenda for the Revolving Loan, as to what is being reviewed, how it is being approved or denied, and that the same process is being followed for every loan.”

In other news:

— Koppen said planning has started on the housing study with Bowen National Research that was approved by City Council. Only a few weeks have passed so far, but Koppen said the project has gotten off to a good start.

— Smith’s Greenhouse has talked to FEDA about assistance with demolition of a wooden structure. An application has been filled out and looked over by FEDA. Koppen said this will be sent to City Council for discussion and a decision.