Brown, Harold appointed to fill EDA Board of Director vacancies

FRONT ROYAL – After nearly three months and 19 interviews, six conducted in closed session prior to Tuesday night’s meeting, the Warren County Board of Supervisors filled the EDA Board of Directors vacancies left by the resignations of former Chairman Greg Drescher and Ron Llewellyn, effective March 23.

Those unpaid volunteer seats were filled by Jeffrey Brown and Greg Harold by a unanimous vote on a motion by Tony Carter, seconded by Linda Glavis near the end of the June 18 meeting.

Harold was present and rose during the second public comments portion of the agenda at the meeting’s end.

“I want to thank the board and chairman for the nomination to the EDA Board of Directors. I look forward to the opportunity; I’m very excited about the opportunity but I’m not saying it’s going to be an easy road. I believe it will be a long road, I believe it will be tough,” Harold said of restoring the kind of operational order and public faith the community has had in the EDA in the past.

During a brief conversation with Royal Examiner during the closed session discussion of the EDA and other board or commission appointments, Harold said if appointed he would not be afraid to ask the hard questions he felt needed asking, of either his new EDA colleagues or the county board that appointed him.

According to his business card, Harold is a Class A contractor and OSHA 30 Project Manager. He said that his business is conducted out of the Warren County area, so he perceives no potential conflicts of interest between his professional and new local economic development role.

Following his appointment, Harold said he would be willing to sit down for a Royal Examiner video interview on his perceptions of the current EDA situation and his hopes for the EDA’s future as a part of its board of directors.

Brown did not appear to be present for the announcement of his appointment. Royal Examiner will seek out contact with Brown in order to allow him to share his professional background; perceptions on the state of the Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority and his hopes for its future, as well.

Despite the unanimity of the vote appointing Brown and Harold, it did not come without some preliminary drama. Prior to the vote appointing Brown and Harold, Board Vice-Chairman Tom Sayre made a motion to appoint Mark Egger to the EDA board. That nomination of the long-time EDA and County Board critic brought a murmur among spectators and one quick, somewhat suppressed clap of approval. Egger has picked up the baton of his daughter, former Front Royal Town Councilwoman Bébhinn Egger’s prescient 2016-17 criticism of EDA programs at the base of the current $21.1 million civil suit filed March 26 on the EDA’s behalf by the Richmond law firm of Sands-Anderson.

However, Sayre’s motion died without a second, as did Board Chairman Dan Murray’s subsequent nomination of attorney David Silek.

The Warren County Board of Supervisors, minus one – we know you’re over there on the far right somewhere, Tony – directionally that is …

Earlier in the day Board Clerk Emily Mounce explained that the County views resumes included in board appointment applications as personnel files not open to public disclosure. She is correct in that being a long-held County policy, though one that likely will stoke public criticism of a lack of transparency in County operational oversight of the EDA in the wake of the current financial scandal.