Despite the return of $280,000 to HUD’s Sumter-Columbia Empowerment Zone coffers approximately a month ago following disallowed costs associated with a loan to Veronica Isaac, mother of Columbia City Councilwoman Tameika Isaac Devine, the City of Columbia’s Office of Business Opportunities — which administers the Columbia portion of the SCEZ — has been inaccurately telling residents there is no more empowerment zone money to lend.

According to a monitoring report of the Sumter-Columbia Empowerment Zone issued by the local Department of Housing and Urban Development office in September, at that time the city had $4.6 million remaining to loan. Those funds amounted to 18 percent of an original $25.6 million federal grant authorized to be disbursed between 1999 and July 2, 2010.

Assistant City Manager Allison Baker says all of those funds have been designated for pending projects.

“There are no available funds for new projects,” Baker writes in response to an emailed question. “All funds have been committed to projects already approved by the Empowerment Zone Board and HUD … What this means is, funds have been committed to projects but not yet disbursed.”

As for the $280,000 specifically, Baker says those funds were paid back “approximately thirty days ago” and “are now available to be reprogrammed and … will ultimately be recommitted.”

However, a caller seeking an empowerment zone loan Nov. 23 from the city’s Office of Business Opportunities told Free Times that he was informed that the loan period was closing and that all the money had been distributed.

“I don’t know why someone would say that,” Baker told Free Times. “It’s a question I can’t answer. They [employees] know now. Sometimes, the short answer isn’t easy, but I can understand why, given the timing, that they might not have accurate information.”

Meanwhile, the SCEZ is under scrutiny from the local HUD office for $179,000 it lent to the now-defunct CamBry Enterprises, which purchased the two Birds on a Wire restaurants, of which City Councilman Daniel Rickenmann was the principal owner. That money was lost when CamBry filed for bankruptcy in January.

In a letter to the city dated Nov. 19, HUD demands to know where the $179,000 went since the city has offered different and conflicting explanations for how the money was to have been used. The city first said the money was to be used to purchase Birds on a Wire; it later said the money was for operating capital.

“Within 30 days of this letter, the SCEZ must provide documentation to clearly demonstrate that proceeds from the SCEZ loan to CamBry were used in the Empowerment Zone to support an EZ business.”

At the very least, according to HUD, the city did not follow internal guidelines or properly account for the funds after disbursement.

Rickenmann says he can’t speak to what happened to the $179,000 disbursed to CamBry in June, because it came approximately three months after his own transaction with CamBry — which used no empowerment zone funds — closed.

“The city has to go back and provide more documentation and get some more things sorted out,” Rickenmann says. “Obviously there are some mistakes in paperwork that need to be clarified and need to be done correctly, but that’s on both sides of the fence.”

Rickenmann remains upset with what he characterizes as a lack of communication from HUD regarding his contention that HUD misstated the timing and nature of his transaction with CamBry in its initial report and has yet to offer a retraction despite offering what he calls convincing proof otherwise.

“I feel like I’m the only one that has their ducks in a row,” Rickenmann says. “But everybody would rather write about me than listen to me.

“In HUD’s [Nov. 19] response [to the city], it seems to me they finally admitted I was correct. When it says the loan did not close until June, that CamBry had already purchased the restaurants based on the documents I provided, that’s my case.

“Why won’t HUD respond to my questions, and why can’t they see that if I can go find a closing statement, so could they? It was all in the file. Why am I the only one doing my homework?”