DeKalb County breaks up with small business loan company
DeKalb County officials say a company that gives small business loans spends too much money on overhead costs and hasn’t collected on nearly $1 million worth of loans.
The county recently announced it will no longer do business with the nonprofit company, DeKalb Enterprise Business Corporation (DEBCO).
But DEBCO says that it has done a good job by creating 300 jobs through its loans over the last 15 years, and that the write-offs and operating expenses were part of the cost of doing business.
Among the loans handled by the company was $35,000 given to Interim DeKalb CEO Lee May in 2005, the year before he was elected to the county commission. May used the money to toward opening an eight-screen Cinefe theater, but he later went into bankruptcy. He paid $8,500 of the loan before defaulting.
About the Author
Mark Niesse is an enterprise reporter and covers elections and Georgia government for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and is considered an expert on elections and voting. Before joining the AJC, he worked for The Associated Press in Atlanta, Honolulu and Montgomery, Alabama. He also reported for The Daily Report and The Santiago Times in Chile.
