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ST. LOUIS — The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Development Corp. says the city counselor’s office has issued an opinion clearing its decision to earmark grant funds for nonprofits run by family members of one of its board members, though it is opting to keep that opinion secret.

SLDC Director Neal Richardson last month said his office would seek an opinion from ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ City Counselor Sheena Hamilton’s office on whether there were conflicts of interest in its awards under a north ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ grant program.

The request followed a Post-Dispatch report that SLDC approved some $1.3 million in grants for entities tied to the family of Alderwoman Shameem Clark Hubbard, who sits on SLDC’s board and sponsored the legislation expanding the program’s eligibility. The three entities would not have qualified under program’s initial guidelines.

SLDC spokeswoman Sara Freetly of Kansas City marketing agency Candid said Wednesday that the city counselor’s memo was “confidential and privileged communication� and was therefore a closed record.

Richardson said SLDC has a conflict-of-interest policy and all board members and employees sign a conflict-of-interest disclosure form. And though his office won’t make it public, Richardson said he was reassured by the city counselor’s opinion on its process.

“Based on that opinion, I am confident that SLDC has the appropriate safeguards in place to prohibit conflicts and request conflict disclosures from applicants and Board members,� he said in a statement last week.

It’s another example of SLDC and Hamilton’s office keeping records about the grant program secret.

For months, SLDC has declined to release applications for the grant money that would give basic details about what entities in line to receive six- and seven-figure sums planned to do with their awards. Some awardees also declined to talk to the newspaper.

SLDC’s board approved the awards in late June, before the list of winners and their awards were released publicly. Even as SLDC staff urged them to pass the awards, some board members complained they had little information on what projects the large awards would fund.

SLDC and city attorneys rebuffed the newspaper’s formal requests for the applications approved by the agency’s board, arguing SLDC had not finalized the documents disbursing the money and thus the applications fell under an exemption for “negotiated contracts� in the Missouri Sunshine Law.

After public backlash, Richardson told aldermen during a hearing last week that SLDC would release redacted applications before its next board meeting Oct. 17.

But it’s not entirely unsurprising that SLDC would refuse to release the legal memo it publicly pledged to seek.

Under Hamilton, Mayor Tishaura O. Jones’ appointee to the city’s top legal job, the city has stopped releasing legal opinions. Before Jones appointed Hamilton, past city counselors did make public their legal opinions regarding ongoing policy debates. Under her top lawyer, the Jones administration has also faced years of criticism for slow response times releasing documents under the state’s open records law.

SLDC’s request to Hamilton’s office was meant to allay concerns about the north ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ grant program and awards to three entities: $500,000 awarded to Carr Square Tenant Corporation, run by Rodney Hubbard Sr.; $764,000 to the People Project Corporation, a nonprofit established last year by Ebony Washington, Hubbard’s granddaughter; and $25,000 to The Boomerang Store, a purported convenience store run by Hubbard associate Todd Irons-El.

SLDC has said it is still finishing vetting the grant awardees and will also conduct an internal investigation on the awards before the money is actually disbursed. Richardson has also promised to bring the awards back to SLDC’s board for reapproval before actually writing the checks.

Clark Hubbard recused herself from the June vote on the grants, though she urged her colleagues on the board to approve them. She has since said that she played no role in SLDC’s award scoring process.

Richardson last week echoed that after a hearing in front of Clark Hubbard’s committee.

“She recused herself from voting. She had no action or role in the selection or the creation of the criteria,� he told reporters after the hearing. “I just want to make sure that’s clear for the public.�