Front Royal Town Manager: Matthew Tederick’s Peyton Places

I must be honest with you, the television series “Peyton Place” was years before my time. In fact, I did not know the series was based on a movie from the middle 50s until a few days ago.

But it is amazing what one can find these days with a few calls and very basic searches on Google, to include what the actual “Peyton Place” series was about – I don’t think I would have watched.

We get enough of the real “scandalous secrets” here in Front Royal. Look at the past year!

That is the case with this article “Matthew Tederick’s Peyton Places.” I say “Places” due to the multitude of potential connections between the address of 100 Peyton Street and Matthew Tederick, along with other connections between Matthew Tederick and other firms he represents in some form.

It is like a crime scene you see in a bad movie with a wall full of pictures and strings attempting to connect the dots to who done what.

For this case, everything below is double sourced based on calls to officials or from official websites. In some cases, supporting Internet data is included to substantiate official information, i.e., this could include company websites or people’s public websites as examples.

This is all publicly available information which anyone has access to if they wish to search – to include our own Town Council.

Matt Tederick takes over as Front Royal’s Interim Mayor in early June. Royal Examiner File Photos/Roger Bianchini

In late May 2019, Matthew Tederick was selected from a pool (not likely) of candidates by the Town Council to fill the empty Mayoral seat due to unforeseen circumstances which need not be addressed in this article. I am not condemning the Council for attempting to quickly remedy the vacancy; however, due diligence is always best conducted at the time of action and very difficult after the fact.

When anyone is selected to a position of this nature, elected or in this case “placed,” I would assume that individuals would be required to complete a mandatory Conflict of Interest (COI) and Ethics statement – a requirement by the State of Virginia.

First question I have of the Town Council or responsible party, did Matthew Tederick complete a statement for both positions and/or did he make a statement that the first COI document was still accurate when he became Acting Town Manager? You would think/hope so.

A COI declaration is very well covered in Virginia by the following “Virginia Conflict of Interest and Ethics Advisory Council STATE AND LOCAL STATEMENT OF ECONOMIC INTERESTS issued December 2018. There are examples available for anyone to review online as well.

These Conflict of Interest statements help to ensure disclosure of any potential conflict of interest to both parties, as well as documenting other items that may cause potential issues later on. In simple terms, it alerts both parties on where one should step carefully – or not step.

Interim Town Manager Matt Tederick on the job at November work session.

Under “Instructions” it states:  “State and local officers and employees required to file pursuant to 2.2-3114, 2.2-3115 or 2.2-3116, or as designated by their local governing body are REQUIRED to complete and file the Statement of Economic Interests as a condition to assuming office, and then annually while serving as an officer or employee.”

My second question is rather simple, did Matthew Tederick accurately portray his total participation in the various firms he serves as a President, or in other roles, i.e., Registered Agent. Not sure, but I doubt he could recite today all the firms he serves in either of those capacities without a cheat sheet or the disclosure of other matters.

If the examples from the Internet are accurate, Matthew Tederick would be required to provide the following:

On the first page he is required to sign, he is required to identify the address for his business.

Schedule A: Disclose all business which you or a member of your immediate family is an officer or director and receives …

Schedule D: Business Interests and Rental Property. Note that Business Interests and Rental Property are likely separate tables.

Schedule E: Real Estate

Not having a copy of the document that Matthew Tederick should have completed when he became Interim Mayor in front of me – I hope the town had him complete one, as it appears they skipped many other common sense requirements and just ran full-speed over others for both the Interim Mayor and/or Interim Town Manager positions – puts me at a slight disadvantage.

A question I have – who is responsible within town management to ensure the accuracy of the material Matthew Tederick provided. I know it is not the public.

Why have a form submitted if no one bothers to check the accuracy of the information provided?

It would be very compelling for someone to look at what he may have included in that document, if completed, against the information provided below.

As a matter of fact, the LLC that Front Royal may be paying Matthew Tederick by (which he requested when he assumed the position of Acting Town Manager and still refuses to publicly state the name of the LLC) MUST be included as an LLC in that Conflict of Interest/Financial Disclosure statement. The reason it must be stated – LLC’s must pay for services to an LLC member or to a potential service provided activity which means he must have a position within that LLC. To be paid by an LLC, Matthew Tederick must be the owner, a partner or act as the Registered Agent – all positions that could be influenced by activities dealing with the Town of Front Royal. It would be also important to determine if the LLC is a wholly owned LLC or another form of an LLC, and his role in that LLC, something the Town SHOULD HAVE DONE PRIOR to any financial agreement with this LLC and Matthew Tederick.

An LLC is not a person – it is an entity that pays a member or a person for services. Hence, it would be interesting to identify his position/role in that LLC. Is he the sole owner or a partner? – It matters from an IRS perspective. I would say based on what I have collected, that it is a wholly owned LLC. Again, this is not a tax issue but rather a “did we contract out the current Acting Town Manager” position to an LLC? It’s rather simple. If so, then the LLC must be made public and documented on the COI, per the IRS agent I contacted.

Also, why hide the LLC? The LLC is not a bank or a financial institution. For the reason of this arrangement, I would say it is a wholly-owned LLC by Matthew Tederick – if so, again, why hide it?

Now, I will admit that sometimes people forget items, misspell words or just ignore items because it takes time to correct. So, one or two missteps could be accepted, but I would take my time to ensure it was accurate if I was completing this legal form.

However, if that is the case in most, or many, of the below, then I am just as concerned to his lack of attention to detail, as I would be to his honesty. Both are critical in either the Mayor or Town Manager’s position. Remember the below information is from official sites, available company information, etc.

To make it somewhat simple to follow, I have included a table that shows LLCs or Incorporated entities in the left column, the status of the firm today as stated by the official Virginia SSC filing office in the next column to include the Filing Number, the middle column identified the address and status along with the DUNS number if available, and the last two columns provide connections to his home address or to the 100 Peyton Street address to which he sold to Dollar House LLC (remember that name when you see the table) with that entity if it could be located. The last column identifies Matthew Tederick’s position with that firm. As many of the below do not have company websites, positions like President or Owner can be difficult to ascertain.

Note that the definition for a Registered Agent and what a DUNS number is provided immediately after the table due to its length, but one should not understate its importance as to how a State deals with an LLC or firm. All of this information is available for the general public to view.

Key phrases or specific words used for these searches included:
-Matthew Tederick
-Matt Tederick
-Matthew A Tederick
-Tederick Front Royal
-100 Peyton Street
-21 Edgewood St.
-21 Edgewater St. (address used in 100 Peyton St. sale)
-And names of firms identified in my searches
-DUNS and (any firm identified, addresses identified or the name Tederick)
-SCC Filings Virginia

What is a Registered Agent (RA) by legal terms?

“A Registered Agent is a responsible party who is located in the same state in which a business entity was established and who is designated to receive service of process notices, correspondence from that state’s Secretary of State and other official government notifications, usually tax forms and notice of law suits – on behalf of the corporation or LLC. The state where the business is registered needs to know it has a contact person for the business in the state during business hours (thus, PO Boxes are not acceptable for registered agents). If you don’t have a physical location in that state, the requirement is especially urgent that the business have a registered agent to accept document on the firm’s behalf.”

What is a DUNS Number?

“The DUNS Number is linked to your company’s business credit profile with D&B; which is used by lenders, suppliers and potential business partners to help determine if a company is creditworthy and/or financially stable. One important thing to note is your company is not issued a DUNS Number when you apply for an EIN.” An EIN number is what the IRS uses, as well as bank/financial institutions to show a business entity for tracking purposes.

I would say based on the statement of what a Registered Agent is responsible for, one could rationally make a statement that the RA acts as an agent for the LLC or firm and therefore would be considered a member of that entity for a specific reason. Again, I use the term a member of an entity for the following reason: If an individual is a member of LLC (wholly owned or partnership), one would assume that it should be included on any COI paperwork as a potential conflict of interest. That would include the employed Town Manager.

IF, Matthew Tederick now states that he was unaware of the fact he was still acting as a Registered Agent of an active firm as identified by the State, or that he thought the firm was no longer operational for a lack of a better term, then again my earlier comment regarding a total lack of attention to detail should concern all.

Is that the person this town needs in a position responsible for the management of millions of dollars on a weekly basis? I would say, be careful – who needs another missing or misplaced $17 million dollars unaccounted for?

Below is a screen capture of what the State of Virginia provides those doing searches on a firm’s status. It provides the firms name, entity number and if it is still active or not. For this example, I used the term “Tederick Real Estate”, since Tederick Real Estate owns the home adjacent to his home address.

With all the data provided above to include the definitions, let’s now take a look at just three examples, as there are numerous, that hopefully alert you, as it did me, as to why I do not believe Matthew Tederick is the right person leading the day-to-day activities of this fine town.

Those include 1839 Capital LLC, Dollar House LLC, and the address 100 Peyton Street located in Front Royal.

For our first example let’s look at 1839 Capital. After he agreed to become Interim Mayor, the firm 1839 Capital filed the documentation you see below. It shows a start date of July 2019 with Matthew Tederick as the President. The website for 1839 Capital also shows Matthew Tederick as President with a location of Alexandria. What specifically does the form state is the business expertise for this firm? A “Global Investment Firm” with emphasis on “Commercial Real Estate” per the submitted form and the website. As I stated in my first article published November 11th in the Royal Examiner. It was surprising that Matthew Tederick knew so little about how to deal with the Crooked Run West request when he stated in his 1839 Capital bio as President the following:

“Utilizing his governmental, real estate, and investment knowledge, Matthew Tederick developed a thriving business solving complex problems for national residential and commercial construction entitles … In many cases, Matthew Tederick led the entitlement team consisting of attorneys, engineers, and architects in order to accomplish client objectives. Matthew Tederick spearheaded over 35 projects ranging from single parcel to 1,500 acres, mixed use (residential, commercial, industrial, institutional) developments.”

I have heard that Matthew Tederick signed a statement regarding the fact he will devote full time and effort to the performance of the Town Manager’s duties only. Does that mean his other business-related activities are put on hold? I wonder what firms like 1839 Capital will do without their President.

For my second example let’s look at Dollar House LLC. Dollar House, per the VA SSC filing, started in January 2004 with Matthew Tederick as the Registered Agent using the address 100 Peyton St. I am not sure if he holds any additional positions within the LLC. Remember, the owner of an LLC may also serve as the Registered Agent if they are the sole individual associated with the LLC.

Although I could find information on Dollar House from official websites and one additional website named Bizapedia.com which confirmed Matthew Tederick as the Registered Agent, there is NO Dollar House LLC website which will allow the reader to find out any specifics as to its owner, etc.

Dollar House LLC per Warren County, shows that Dollar House owns two properties within the county. The first being 0 Peyton which was purchased from Matthew and Susan Tederick on June 25th with Dollar House using the address of 21 Edgewater St., and the second property, being adjacent to 0 Peyton St, being 100 Peyton St., which was also purchased June 25th from Matthew and Susan Tederick. Again, the address used by Dollar House is 21 Edgewater St.

A strange condescendence possibly, but the address provided for Dollar House in Front Royal is incorrect, as there is no 21 Edgewater St. in Front Royal. Besides numerous out of state addresses of the same, the only one in Virginia with that address is located in Chantilly. I would assume, without any hesitation, that the address should instead be 21 Edgewood St. in Front Royal.

Strange but that is Matthew Tederick’s home address as documented in several websites. So now it appears that 21 Edgewood St. is the home address for the LLC named Dollar House. That is too close to home (ha), and I wonder if Dollar House and his relationship with the LLC is documented in any Conflict of Interest statement to the Town of Front Royal? It would also be very interesting to see Matthew Tedericks’ real position, besides as a Registered Agent, with Dollar House LLC. Remember he was Interim Mayor prior to the sale, so both properties would have to be listed in the COI under his name since it was his name on the agreement and not a real estate firm, etc.

I wonder who Dollar House LLC, with an address of 21 Edgewood St., now works with to fill the apparently large empty lot known as 100 Peyton St. If Dollar House is indeed tied to Matthew Tederick these future earnings must also be reported on the Conflict of Interest document.

Now let’s look at our third and last example. That example is 100 Peyton St. We know that the property is now owned by Dollar House LLC and whatever relationship Matthew Tederick has with that firm, however, the address is used by numerous LLCs, firms, etc. If you look at the table I provided above, there are 13 that use that address that I did additional research on. In addition, I was able to identify several more that use that address just this morning. They included but are not limited to: Williamsheacock LLC and Kie Law PLC which have active DUNS numbers but show cancelled or converted by the Virginia SCC.

Of particular note from the table was Gentle Knight Solutions LLC. This LLC was established in 2014 and uses 100 Peyton Place (sorry) Street, as its business address with Matthew Tederick as its Registered Agent which agrees with the States SCC filing.

However, of interest was that in a local newspaper article dated May 29th of 2019, after Matthew Tederick was selected as the Interim Mayor, it states that Matthew Tederick also serves as the Vice President for Gentle Knight Solutions which was confirmed by a second website. The news article states that Gentle Knight Solutions “dabbles in Health Care” — that’s a strange term for what a firm does. But since Matthew Tederick was now the Interim Mayor, I wonder if he had listed Gentle Knight Solutions, for either his VP position or his RA position on the Conflict of Interest form he would hopefully fill out shortly. Possible he just quit the firm, but their website still shows him as VP. Possible he is working for free.

Remember he made the statement that he would not work outside business related activities while serving for the Town of Front Royal. Did all the firms to which he serves as a Registered Agent or in a senior position such as President or Vice President just go by the wayside – I doubt it. And did the Town of Front Royal document that he could not work on outside activities such as these in their Agreement?

Like in the movie “Peyton Place” or the television show, the ending is not kind. Let’s see what happens to the live “Tederick’s Peyton Places” show in Front Royal to see this as yet unscripted ending.

His record as a businessperson begs questions, as does the address 100 Peyton which he owned, and may still own under Dollar House LLC. But just as important is what did he list on his Conflict of Interest Statement with the Town of Front Royal? Was it filled with the whole truth or just a few examples of what he does? Words matter – as does transparency and the truth.

NOT SURE I WANT TO WATCH this show’s ending.

Simon Mays
Front Royal