When Joe Amato applied for the top U.S. Small Business Administration post in Nevada four years ago, he didn’t think that death threats would be part of the job.
But that was before the coronavirus changed everything in bringing a global economic crisis that was felt the hardest in Las Vegas with historic employment.
According to the Nevada Restaurant Association, 32% of restaurants that were in business before the pandemic in the state have since closed.
Amato said at least 20% of small businesses in Nevada closed or had to substantially change their operations, which put the administration on the front lines in helping small-business owners secure much-needed help.
Amato’s last day with the agency was Wednesday.
With a return to the private sector in his future, the New York native sat down with the Sun this week — just before he was scheduled to take a call from White House officials — to talk about his tenure.
Here are highlights from our talk, edited for clarity.
You received death threats — as recently as earlier this month — as SBA’s Nevada district director. What has that been like?
There have been some crazies. They would say that they didn’t get their funding and that I was a government employee, and I was getting paid, that it wasn’t fair. I got at least half a dozen death threats. Some were in emails, saying I destroyed their life and ruined their kids’ lives. The first couple, I tried to reason with them because these were people who were hurting. There was not one day that I didn’t try to do something over and above to try to help people who were devastated. That’s why I stayed on two years longer than I planned — I wanted to help make sure we did everything we could.
There were well-publicized cases of paycheck protection program fraud — and other types of fraud — related to the SBA relief offerings. Do you think enough was done not only to help people, but also to guard against those types of nefarious actors?
PPP was like putting a plane together and flying it at the same time. There was a lot of fraud. There were a lot of issues because nothing on that grand of a scale had ever been done. None of it was intentional, but it was all a challenge. When we started, we were under one administration, though we’ve been under a different administration for the past year. The lending industry was in charge of reviewing and dispersing the funds, so you had banks involved. It was a cluster. Some of the bigger banks weren’t processing loans as fast as I thought they should have, so I got into some trouble with those banks. I called some of those banks out. In turn, though, they finally started dispersing some of that money.
You’ve mentioned how you were impressed with some of the banks in Nevada for their efforts. Can you talk about that?
A lot of the community banks did a great job. Lexicon Bank was a brand-new bank that ended up doing more PPP loans, per bank size, than some of the large banks did. Credit unions got into it, too, like Greater Nevada Credit Union. It was beyond beneficial to business owners. In our region, in Nevada, I think everyone did the best they could. By far, most of the devastation here was in the hospitality industry — conventions, resorts, hotels and restaurants, and all the supply chain companies that support them.
During the height of the pandemic, what was a normal day like for you?
Every day was crazy. During the first year, I was answering about 500 calls and emails per day. I was working 20-hour days. I used to collapse at about 1 a.m. and I’d be up at 4 or 5 a.m. I did 169 webinars during that first year. During the first year, it was all just pushing money out, then it became more about helping people who were approved but didn’t get their money or people who want to know how to get their loan forgiven.
I wasn’t the only person doing this. My staff was putting in long hours, too. My deputy district director, Saul Ramos, has been great throughout everything. We were all busy saving businesses and, in my view, saving lives. I used to go up and down Spring Mountain Road, sometimes with an interpreter, to talk to business owners. There were always different situations to deal with; there were always people asking me what they should do.
Overall, did the SBA do enough to help people in Nevada during the pandemic?
I think the SBA did an amazing job. I’m extremely proud of this agency and of the work we’ve done. The SBA was always thought of as the smallest agency in the president’s cabinet. Well, for two years, we weren’t the smallest, I can tell you that. I was in business consulting for 25 years before I joined the SBA and I’ve been involved in close to 2,500 transactions. There are two things that can be very detrimental to businesses that we’re facing right now — uncertainty and the lack of good information.
You say that Americans today face a barrage of misinformation, which can often be quite convincing. How, specifically, can misinformation affect the small-business owner?
I give speeches all over the country and I always ask people what the most important thing is for businesses to survive. Everybody says capital and employees, things like that. Those are good answers, but I think the answer to that question is information. Having reliable, consistent information is vital to a business. When this started, we all thought it would be three months or six months, but this pandemic is ongoing. It’s more important than ever for businesses to have the information they need so they can pivot if need be. We’re still facing mask mandates, variants and shutdowns. Look, certainty might not come for another several years when it comes to all of this. There’s nothing scarier to a business owner than not knowing what decision to make.
You’re getting married the same day that you leave the SBA, so you have new beginnings on multiple fronts. What are your other plans for the future?
When I took this job, they had never had someone with my background — business consulting and finance — in this role. I came into it with an entrepreneurial background, which I think was very beneficial to me. I joined the public sector hoping to make a difference. I wanted to see if I could do that, even though I would be making about one-fourth of what I was making previously. Look, I’ll never run for office of any kind, but I think everyone should try public service. If for nothing else, to see how things work. I understand so much more now about how government works, which will help me help my future private-sector clients. I’m only leaving because I accomplished what I wanted to accomplish. I think in Nevada, the SBA is in a good place now.
Will you stay in Las Vegas?
My soon-to-be wife is a nurse here and we’re building a house in Las Vegas. I’ve been entertaining some different offers from different companies. I’ve done a lot of work in the past with kind of reestablishing companies, and there are a lot of companies pivoting these days. There’s a whole generation of companies here in Southern Nevada that are 40 or 50 years old and looking to transition.