WTC Records Folder 0139 label, 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document NOL 32 2201 5:56 PM FR EDC/ECO&ENGr ANALYS 618 8838 TO 7593251518877037 P. 10

proceed with the redevelopment corporation upon reconurmation of the partnership by Mayor-elect 1 Bloomberg.

From the first week of the attack and ensuing business crisis, ESD has committed its staff resources at the highest possible level. We immediately established—and continue to staff--a walk-in assistance center that brought together representatives from all relevant state agencies along with FEMA and SBA counselors. We also established--and continue to staff— a business assistance hotline, which has logged over 10,000 calls in the past two months. Upon announcement of our Retail Recovery Grant Program, we established a temporary walk-in assists ce center in lower Manhattan to make the grant application process as accessible as possible to small business owners, providing counselors who could help complete applications on-site and in several languages.

All of the businesses that have contacted us through the walk-in or hotline services, have been assigned to case management staff, who maintain on-going contact with each business client until they have received all the assistance possible to resume successful operation. To assist our case managers we continue to compile and update a directory of all available business assistance from every federal, state, city, cotnnrunity, and private organization involved in World Trade Center disaster recovery.

This enormous workload has been handled to date by our existing staff, and we are working beyond capacity. The proposed funding structure, above add substantial new administrative burdens, for which we must contract for administrative services and support that we will coordinate with the City.

An adduional layer of administrative coordination extends beyond the funds under our purview. Our catalog of business assistance currently lists 16 different loan and grant programs available from nearly as many different organizations. More will continue to develop as organizations still raising funds begin to make them available. Each program has different eligibility requirements, different jurisdictions, and different application procedures. The process of Ending and securing assistance among so many uncoordinated programs and agencies has become an overwhelming experience for the injured businesses.

As Governor Pataki's designated lead agency for business recovery and economic revitalization, ESD is uniquely positioned to coordinate the multitude of business assistance programs and provide more centralized access to assistance information and coordinated delivery. The benefit to the business community is obvious. Coordination will benefit the assisting agencies as well, greatly reducing the likelihood that one business receives multiple forms of uncoordinated assistance, beyond any demonstrated need, while others go under•served for lack of funds. Coordination will also provide the opportunity to link resources to further ma in'i' a their benefits.

ESD will contract for administratn-e services to develop an integrated data base tnanagcment system to exchange information among assistance providers about program offerings and award recipients, and offer businesses a more centralized and coordinated approach to seeking assistance. • WTC Coordination and Administration - ESD will allocate 2 percent of appropriated funds to administration of the total award, and to offering coordinated management services to all organization also serving World Trade Center business recovery efforts.

NYC-WTC 000136555