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ST. LOUIS — When the city’s economic development arm was hiring a consultant to revamp its incentive policies early last year, board members questioned why Comer Capital, a Mississippi-based financial firm with a pending Securities and Exchange Commission complaint, was listed as a subcontractor.

The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Development Corp. board ended up stripping Comer Capital out of the contract with consultancy Baker Tilly after those questions during a January 2022 meeting.

But SLDC already had a contract with Comer Capital, and it had paid the firm $10,000 on another project just a few days earlier.

Comer Capital, led by Brandon Comer, had ‘s office, when Mayor Tishaura O. Jones held that position. Brandon Comer was a member of the mayor’s stimulus advisory board and , where Jones is chair and Comer Capital is a partner.

The SEC in 2019 accused Comer Capital of giving bad advice to a Chicago-area library district that cost the library $500,000 in extra interest on a bond issue, a complaint Jones’ opponent used as ammunition in the 2021 mayoral race. An SEC civil suit against Comer and his firm is still pending. A judge in December denied the defendants’ request for summary judgment, meaning the SEC’s case can proceed.

At the time the Baker Tilly project came up, the fact that the agency already had a contract with Comer Capital was not discussed. The Comer Capital contract was only disclosed in response to a public records request this year by the Post-Dispatch.

In September 2021, SLDC solicited financial firms for a “short list� of companies prequalified to do business with the agency. Comer Capital responded to a request for qualifications and was one of 10 firms approved for the list.

In November 2021, SLDC updated its procurement policy, which allowed for a “small purchase procedure� so contracts of $20,000 or less could be approved without a vote of its board.

The only contracts with firms on the short list released in response to the newspaper’s records request were with Comer Capital and Baker Tilly. Baker Tilly’s contract was worth over $20,000 and thus required board approval.

Comer Capital’s $20,000 contract was approved Jan. 12, 2022, for work related to an “economic justice fund,� according to an invoice from the firm. Half the fee was due upfront, and SLDC paid Comer Capital $10,000 a week later.

But the other half of the fee, due upon completion of the project, was never paid after SLDC opted to go a different direction, Executive Director Neal Richardson said.

SLDC explored with Comer Capital the idea of setting up an investment fund in-house to support its “economic justice action plan,� Richardson said. But SLDC ultimately on an economic justice fund. It announced that partnership last week after months of work, Richardson said.

Rather than controlling the fund itself, Richardson said working with the on the fund will help keep philanthropic institutions and businesses “engagedâ€� in the mission of investing in areas of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½, primarily on the north side, that have struggled to attract private capital.

“After talking to other donors and also thinking about how SLDC is structured, we’re not really in a position to receive those type of donations and we don’t even want to get into that space,� Richardson said in an interview. “The initial kind of discovery work that Comer was doing to help us establish a fund and thinking through restructuring within SLDC itself, we decided that it wasn’t the right route to go.�

SLDC hasn’t made any other payments to Comer Capital and the firm isn’t a subcontractor on any of its other contracts, Richardson said.

“We’ve had conversations with them about how they can support some of our financing efforts moving forward, but again we have those conversations with all of the financial advisory firms that are on our short list,� Richardson said.

Comer Capital’s proposed involvement with the Baker Tilly review of the city’s development incentives initially drew criticism from former Alderman and former SLDC board member Jeffrey Boyd. A longtime Jones adversary who sat on SLDC’s board, Boyd resigned last year before being sentenced to prison for bribery. But when the Baker Tilly contract came up in January 2022, his concerns prompted fellow SLDC board members to pass a resolution removing Comer Capital from the contract and requiring Baker Tilly’s subcontractors to win board approval.

“They have some baggage behind them,� Boyd said at the time, referring to the SEC complaint against Comer Capital.

Richardson said at the time that it was Baker Tilly’s idea to include Comer Capital, which would bring a “social equity lens� to the incentive review project. Baker Tilly recently completed the project.

The board’s concerns in January 2022, Richardson said Thursday, didn’t influence SLDC’s decision to not proceed with Comer Capital’s “economic justice fund� contract. He said SLDC still considers Comer Capital “a good partner and a good organization to keep on that short list.�

Comer did not return a request for comment Thursday. Jones has defended her work with Comer Capital when she served as treasurer, saying in 2020 that “if SEC complaints were a litmus test of whether or not a firm should be used, a lot of firms, even some of the larger ones here locally, wouldn’t pass that test.�

A spokesman for the mayor said Thursday she did not recommend SLDC hire Comer Capital.

Richardson, whom Jones nominated as SLDC chief in 2021, echoed that. Comer Capital “never came up in conversation,� he said, nor does the mayor’s office meddle in SLDC’s procurement.

“She’s never pushed in any way that this person should be on a short list or be considered for anything,� Richardson said.

Post-Dispatch reporter Steph Kukuljan contributed to this report.