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ST. LOUIS — Comptroller Darlene Green is asking the St. Louis Development Corp. to explain how it chose the 22 largest winners under a north St. Louis grant initiative, as she and others continue to question the city’s vetting process for the $37 million program.

In a letter sent to Mayor Tishaura O. Jones on Thursday, Green said she had already asked SLDC chief Neal Richardson to “reveal the details of how final grant awards were selected.”

“I believe your personal intercession may be needed to move SLDC leadership to release details on how the substantial awards were selected and get the program back on track to meet looming deadlines,” Green wrote the mayor.

The comptroller’s letter is her latest move questioning a program that was hailed as a way to inject much-needed capital into north St. Louis but over the past month has become a political punching bag. Jones’ political opponents have seized on questions surrounding the program, and rejected applicants protested Friday outside SLDC’s annual business lunch.

Green, who has been seen as an ally of the mayor, showed up to the St. Louis Board of Aldermen meeting on Sept. 27 to speak about her concerns with SLDC’s handling of the program, prompting an unprecedented request from Jones to respond to the comptroller at the same meeting.

Green’s questions zero in on SLDC’s selection process for the largest grant awards, some of whom have political ties, and how the agency’s executives chose what became the final list of large grantees.

SLDC has said multiple reviewers scored applications and averaged those scores. But Lance Knuckles, an SLDC senior vice president who has been a key staffer over the program, told the agency’s board on June 20 that SLDC executives would make the final recommendations for large grant awards at a meeting that afternoon. Earlier in the SLDC meeting, staff said some 236 businesses were eligible for the large “community enhancement” grants.

An SLDC spokeswoman said Monday that 78 applicants met the scoring threshold for review by SLDC executives. They approved 45 of those, 22 of which were sent to the selection committee for large awards.

A selection committee made up of representatives from SLDC, the mayor’s office, comptroller and president of the Board of Aldermen signed off on the list of 22 large winners at a meeting three days later.

In response to Green’s letter, SLDC spokeswoman Sara Freetly pointed out that the comptroller’s office had a representative, Jamalia Lott, on SLDC’s selection committee.

But, Green wrote in her letter, “the committee did not participate in choosing final grant awards, they only reviewed the final list.”

“Internal details of the selection process has never been revealed,” Green wrote. “Serious, unanswered questions still remain. SLDC has an obligation to fix this flawed process and restore public trust.”

Some SLDC board members in June questioned what winners planned to do with the large grant awards, and the agency has declined to release their applications after the newspaper filed an open records request more than three months ago.

Two awards worth over $1.2 million are earmarked for groups tied to the Hubbard family, including $739,000 award for a homeless services nonprofit that was only incorporated last year. Alderwoman Shameem Clark Hubbard sits on SLDC’s board and also sponsored the legislation expanding the program’s eligibility. She recused herself from the final SLDC vote on the grants though she advocated for its passage, and she and SLDC leadership have said she played no role in the grant selection process.

Richardson and Jones have since said SLDC will release more information about applicants this month. They have emphasized that SLDC is still vetting applicants and only a small fraction of the money has actually been paid out.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Missouri Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick said Monday the auditor’s office had received a whistleblower complaint about the program that it is vetting to decide whether an investigation is warranted.