GLADSTONE – A Gladstone City Commissioner who received multiple facade grants while serving on the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) may have to return thousands of dollars unless he can prove he did not improperly use the money.

During the regular DDA meeting Tuesday, the board reviewed the last five years of the DDA facade improvement grant program, which provides funding to businesses for cosmetic changes to buildings located within the DDA district. Businesses that participate in the program must provide a written plan for their building with supporting documentation, hire a licensed contractor of the business owner’s choosing, and contribute matching funds to the project. The program is paid for by the DDA’s tax capture.

Nineteen grants were released between 2011 and March of this year, but the board was particularly concerned with grants received by current Gladstone City Commissioner Steve Viau. Viau, who was seated on the DDA for nearly a decade, has received a total of seven facade grants, with three since 2011, for his building located at 11 S. 9th St. The last grant Viau received for the building was in 2014, when he was still seated on the DDA and the authority awarded him $22,500 for facade improvements.

“That project has closed, and I received a complaint regarding that property – that it wasn’t completed properly. We investigated it and met with the owner, had several meetings with several different people about the building, and it was found to not be in compliance with the facade guidelines,” said Renee Barron, community development director and zoning administrator for the city.

DDA members and city staff are concerned projects requiring a contractor were personally done by Viau and that not all aspects of the project were completed as outlined in the grant. The city has calculated the monetary value of the work not properly completed on the project to be roughly $3,000 based on what the city said could be proven following the investigation into the complaint.

“We just investigated the portion that the complaint was received on,” said Barron.

Before the end of the month, Viau must either pay back the $3,000 or prove without a shadow of a doubt that all work was completed in compliance with the facade grant.

Viau was not present at Tuesday’s meeting. The Daily Press contacted Viau Tuesday for a comment on the complaint. He said he had met with Barron and there were concerns over the amount of insulation installed on the building, but that the building was in compliance with the grant.

“I’m going to look at what she wrote because I have been out-of-town, and I will reply to it accordingly in terms of what they’re saying, because I don’t really know what they’re trying to get here, because the facade is done. It’s done according to what they want, and I don’t know what else to do about it,” said Viau.

While the complaint about Viau’s building was a major concern for the DDA, questions about Viau’s compliance went beyond the scope of the last grant project. According to the guidelines for the DDA facade improvement grant program, which are available on the city’s website, the grants will be forgiven and the associated lien removed from the property at the end of five years “if the property maintains the business status for the five-year period.” DDA members claim that multiple businesses have been housed in Viau’s building and many have closed before the five-year period of a grant was up.

“It was just my understanding that each facade he got, that business would be open for five years, because that’s why we were giving him the money for each business for that building,” said DDA member Marcey Skwor.

Whether the grants were awarded based on the number of open businesses is important not only because it means that closing the businesses would mean the grants would need to be repaid, but also because the program guidelines prohibit business owners who have received DDA facade funding from re-applying for additional funds without waiting a minimum of five years.

The DDA was presented with only the last five years of DDA grant awards during its meeting Tuesday. In that time, Viau received three grants: $7,500 in 2011, $15,000 in 2012, and $22,500 in 2014. With Viau’s matching funds, these grants would have supported one $9,375 project, one $27,192 project, and one $41,100 project on the building.

Some board members felt that prior grants received by Viau, including those not included in the five-year review, should be investigated for compliance. However, even if the authority discovered that past projects on the building were not in compliance, the DDA was concerned about how damages would be recouped by the city and the authority.

“Where does this go from here? Does the commission oversee damages or punitive damages? Because obviously, I would hope that at this point they would figure it was a conflict of interest since it’s one of their own commissioners,” said DDA board member and former mayor Darin Hunter.

Barron plans to update the DDA on the situation at the next DDA board meeting at 8 a.m. Tuesday, May 10. It is expected that by that time Viau will either have paid back the portion of the grant, proven that the project was in compliance, or the DDA and city will have to take some form of action.