Speaker 1, a city presenter, told the council the city's EDA-backed revolving loan fund plan needs minor updates to reflect post-pandemic rules and current administration. "Take out all of the cares act related covid pandemic language," the presenter said, and recommended two other edits that would make the fund easier to use.

The most consequential proposed change would reduce a current requirement that applicants provide two letters from different financial institutions proving they could not obtain private financing. "EDA suggested maybe taking that out altogether," Speaker 1 said, and added, "I suggest to do a compromise and just knock it down to 1 letter." The speaker said requiring two separate bank refusals could be "egregious or hard" for small businesses seeking gap financing.

A second proposed edit would remove an administrative paragraph that applied only when the fund was new in 2020. Speaker 1 explained the original administrative rules were written for a newly created fund; because all funds have been loaned and are now in repayment, the city can drop the "new fund" provisions from the plan.

Speaker 1 also described program history and oversight: the Economic Development Administration (part of the U.S. Department of Commerce) still oversees the fund that was created in 2020 with CARES Act–related authority. According to the presenter, EDA approved the original loans and the city remains "in good standing," with borrowers repaying monthly installments and interest.

Looking ahead, Speaker 1 said the city could petition EDA in 2027 to defederalize the program and remove EDA requirements entirely if the city remains in compliance. "In 2027, the city could petition to EDA to allow you to defederalize that," the presenter said, and recommended pursuing defederalization when feasible.

No formal motion or vote on the plan was recorded in the transcript. Speaker 1 offered to answer questions or walk council members through the specific edits; a brief, unrelated interruption by Speaker 2 occurred near the end of the exchange.

Next steps recorded in the transcript: staff presented the proposed edits and asked the council whether it wanted to approve the plan with those changes; no outcome appears in the provided transcript excerpt.