NEW ORLEANS -- A New Orleans' City Council committee plans to hold a hearing Wednesday on the original intent of legislation enacting an economic development fund.

The City Council only recently received Mayor Ray Nagin's recommendations for doling out $5 million in grants to businesses, would-be entrepreneurs and nonprofits; those recommendations had been due last December.

Nagin's recovery director has blamed the delay on the time it took to get a consultant to help analyze the applicants and to assembling an advisory panel to review them.

Council members have blasted the administration for putting them in a position they deem unfair. The council has appeared torn between granting money to people who applied in good faith or reforming a process they consider flawed.

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