Eggenspillar Summary: Certain things are true- and certain things aren't. We have documents that show the Groundwork's loan was made from the original Huntington grant funds. That means the original loan committee was responsible for reviewing the Groundworks loan application. If Adams had wanted to change that committee or any other aspect of the Huntington scope of work he would have had to submit written changes to the USDA. Adams did not do so. Therefore, Jenny wasn't on the committee, therefore, no violation. The loan committee that Adams submitted for his grant program did include Jenny Eggenspillar but that loan committee was formed after the Groundworks loan was made. Technically, Jenny (Mrs. Eggenspillar) was not on the loan committee that authorized the Groundworks loan. Apparently that loan committee never met to approve the one loan from that program (the Ohio Theater). Again, technically, there was no violation of the federal guideline which says members of the loan committee and their immediate family members are not eligible for loans. Its hard because we also have documents which include emails that Adams sent to a variety of people who included some from the old committee (Linda Wood), Jenny from the new committee and some who weren't listed on either committee (Dave Collier from the chamber). We can debate whether or not city employees and/or spouses should be eligible for loans. We can debate whether or not there was a conflict of interest. But we can't really say that the federal guideline applied to Jenny and her husband Matt's business Groundwork's. Still something doesn't feel right. According to documents, Adams did not communicate well with his committee. There aren't any minutes, agendas, meeting dates, public notices etc. So the question is - was there really a committee if it never met? We can only assume that if Adams didn't attend to committee details he also left out conflict of interest statements, ethics in grant management and loan programs instruction as well. Maybe we can say Groundwork's should have known better, it just looked bad. Or maybe we need to be careful because if Jenny doesn't have much experience with grants and grant writing she may not have realized her obligation. Still it just doesn't look good. What if Jenny just thought (like many) that it's a Jefferson County tradition to give special treatment to family, friends and government employees. (like Huntington appointing his nephew as county animal control officer) In Jenny's case, we find no conflict of interest statements signed by her. No record of Dave even explaining anything to anyone. The only conflict of interest statements that exist are between business partners Adams and Grant. They certify neither is benefiting from the loans Adams authorized Grant. What's the real issue? Is it this mayor and all past mayors (county commissioners too) have given jobs to family and friends and the community is tired of nepotism? Is it some people just want their party's candidate elected so they either defend or attack based on personal preference? Does someone have a grudge against Jenny, Matt, their family or their business? Why now, why her, why this loan, especially since its one of the few that is and always has been current? As a community we let things "slip through" some of the time and then out of the blue decide to hold one person accountable for ethics or conflict of interest violations that really aren't written, taught, enforced anywhere, anytime. The most important questions are: Why we don't take time to clarify our expectations of elected officials and government employees. Why aren't we doing a better job training, reminding and updating everyone including the public? When will we begin to research, develop and write our guidelines? When will it be done? And when will it go into effect?