{"id":10724,"date":"2020-10-22T09:48:13","date_gmt":"2020-10-22T16:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/?p=10724"},"modified":"2025-01-29T07:47:45","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T07:47:45","slug":"community-foundation-will-disclose-ventura-county-businesses-that-receive-grants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/de\/community-foundation-will-disclose-ventura-county-businesses-that-receive-grants\/","title":{"rendered":"Community Foundation wird Unternehmen aus Ventura County, die Zusch\u00fcsse erhalten, offenlegen"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Ventura County Community Foundation has agreed to disclose the names of businesses that have received tax-funded grants to help them weather the pandemic, freeing up close to $20 million in aid for thousands of additional businesses.<\/p>\n

The Camarillo-based foundation will share the names after the\u00a0initial group of 777 recipients are given the chance\u00a0to drop out of the assistance program to avoid having their names disclosed to the county government and the public.<\/p>\n

That privacy\u00a0comes with a price. Businesses leave the program by returning\u00a0their tax-funded, $5,000 grants, according to a contract amendment authorized Tuesday by the Ventura County Board of Supervisors.<\/p>\n

That provision was added to give individuals\u00a0who may not have known\u00a0their information would be publicly shared the opportunity to return the money and withdraw from the program, county Assistant Executive Officer Mike Pettit said.<\/p>\n

Nearly 3,800 more businesses that have applied and are waiting for their awards will be given the option of withdrawing their applications if they don’t want to comply with the disclosure requirements.<\/p>\n

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Die\u00a0foundation has resisted disclosure in a dispute with the Ventura County government<\/a>, which contracted with the foundation to run the program. The foundation argued the names of the initial 777 recipients were confidential while the county said they could not be because the grants are funded by federal taxpayers through the relief legislation known as the CARE Act.<\/p>\n

It’s a dispute that has slowed the process of giving grants to the additional businesses, but appeared Tuesday to have been resolved with the board’s vote to OK the contract amendment.<\/p>\n

Checks due next month<\/h2>\n

Checks are now due to\u00a0be issued to substantially all of the remaining eligible applicants from the pool of 3,800 by\u00a0Nov. 20. Checks for all eligible applicants will be issued by Dec. 15, according to a timetable in the amendment.\u00a0Under normal conditions, the grants do not have to be repaid.<\/p>\n

Along with the names of the businesses, the foundation will provide the identities of the owners and the addresses of the establishments to the county, the amendment says. The businesses’ names and addresses, excluding the identities of those that withdraw, will be provided to the media, according to language in the amendment.<\/p>\n

Speaking at Tuesday’s board meeting, county Supervisor Linda Parks welcomed the news that the foundation had agreed to turn over the information following weeks of talks between\u00a0the parties.<\/p>\n

“We need to have transparency,” she said. “These are tax dollars. I’m glad to see in the last week that we did get that agreement.”<\/p>\n

The board has OK’d spending more than $23.9 million on the assistance program for small businesses.<\/p>\n

About $4 million has been awarded to the first wave of recipients in the program\u00a0for businesses with annual gross revenues of $25,000 to $2 million. But the much larger share of close to $20 million remains.<\/p>\n

Tuesday’s unanimous vote came two weeks after supervisors balked at a previous version of the contract amendment\u00a0that did not contain a promise to reveal the names of the first round of recipients. It came a month after Parks and Supervisor Steve Bennett objected to sending the final $8 million approved by the board until the issue was resolved.<\/p>\n

Notices going out<\/h2>\n

In a notice that was due to go out Wednesday, the foundation will inform the first group of 777 businesses\u00a0they have\u00a0four weeks to opt out of\u00a0the program by returning the grant funds.<\/p>\n

The board’s vote Tuesday authorized County Executive Officer Mike Powers to sign the amendment, which also required the signature of the foundation’s CEO, Vanessa Bechtel.<\/p>\n

Bechtel said she expected to receive the county-approved amendment within a few days, which will allow the foundation to begin processing the additional grants. She confirmed\u00a0that the county and the foundation have agreed on the terms.<\/p>\n

Bechtel declined comment on whether the foundation had capitulated, but said she was glad the money could start going out to businesses during such a challenging time.<\/p>\n

Powers expressed the same sentiment in remarks to the board on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

“We are grateful we will be able to move forward today,” he said.<\/p>\n