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Santa Fe EDC adopts formal SOP for BEAR incentive applications
Summary
The Santa Fe Economic Development Corporation voted to approve a written standard operating procedure for processing BEAR grant applications after formalizing steps for intake, committee review and board recommendation.
The Santa Fe Economic Development Corporation voted to approve a formal standard operating procedure for handling BEAR (Business Expansion Assistance & Retention) program applications during its May 27 meeting at City Hall.
The policy sets an intake and review workflow: the executive director will check applications for completeness, circulate complete files to all board members, compile board questions, forward materials to the BEAR committee for further review and then schedule a meeting between the committee and the applicant. The committee’s recommendation will appear on the EDC’s open meeting agenda for final board action.
Devin, executive director, presented the draft procedure as written notes and said the document was intended to “put pen to paper” for a process the board discussed in executive session. He outlined the steps: screening for completeness; distribution to board members; committee review; applicant meeting; committee recommendation; and public action at an open meeting.
Board members debated the level of review and the balance between full-board input and the 3-person BEAR committee’s ability to meet and ask follow-up questions outside of public notice. A motion to approve the draft standard operating procedure was made and seconded; the board then voted in favor and the motion passed. The director said approved applications will then proceed to perfomance agreements and the 10-day signature window used for recent BEAR participants.
The new SOP clarifies that incomplete applications will be returned to applicants for additional documentation and that declined applications may be refiled. The board emphasized that the SOP is procedural — it lays out steps for review and recommendation; the final legal agreements and any performance terms will be negotiated later between the city and the prospective developer or business.
Board members said the written procedure should reduce confusion about next steps, speed up applicant feedback and preserve a consistent record of reviews.
The board did not reference any state statute or ordinance in adopting the SOP; the document is an internal policy for the EDC.
The board asked the director to distribute the approved SOP to applicants and to post it with BEAR program materials on the EDC’s website once the city’s web platform migration is complete.
