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REDA Meeting Minutes—Monday,May 15,2023 Page 2 Housing and Economic Program Manager Jeanne Kelsey provided a brief summary of this request as detailed in the staff report and attachments dated May 15, 2023. Member Groff asked how many loans have been made and in what period of time. Ms. Kelsey explained the City has not used this program yet. This is just establishing the program and have only budgeted the maximum amount that would be able to be done, which would probably be five loans if each one took out the maximum amount of five thousand dollars. Member Strahan indicated she was curious about the length of time of forgiveness being three months. She wondered if that was enough time to show the business was around long enough afterwards. Ms. Kelsey indicated the length could be longer if that was the preference of the EDA. She thought the biggest thing that staff wanted to do was originally trying to achieve it to make it a forgivable loan right away but due to the fact by the Attorney that it was not a possibility, due to the statutes governing EDA activities it had to be something that relates to the creation of a job or expansion or something. If the EDA would like to have the length longer that would be fine. She thought the biggest thing staff is trying to do is build a relationships with a lot of the businesses and a lot of them do not trust government. She was also trying to find a happy medium that it created a good-will but also let the business know there was not anything hanging over their heads for a lot longer. President Roe stated if the time period looks to be an issue, he thought the EDA could consider something along the lines of a flexible time period such as three to six months or something similar. He noted if this would relate to something such as jobs the hiring cycle could be pretty long and there might want to be some flexibility there, but he did not want to throw a wrench in the program either by not being able to do a range of time. Member Etten asked when the three-month clock would start on the loan forgiveness. Ms. Kelsey explained the clock would start after the improvement is done. The cash will be held until the improvement is done so that the City has CEE pay the funds directly to the contractor and then that will be the three-month period. Member Strahan thought it was really important for the EDA to know how the City reaches other folks. She referenced Attachment B that included several demographic questions about gender, ethnicity, and education level. She wondered if that could be placed on a separate sheet of paper, so it is known to some folks but maybe not to every person along the process of applying. She