‘Cancer’ gone from EDA, will Town belligerence follow suit in November?

The Warren County Board of Supervisors decision to delay consideration of absorption of the Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority into a County Department was made in large part to see if the Town’s current belligerent and litigious attitude toward the EDA changes after the November town election at which three council seats could experience electoral turnover.

At its virtually conducted work session of May 5th the Warren County Supervisors developed a keen interest in the coming Town of Front Royal election. Royal Examiner Photos/Roger Bianchini

And while one might consider the potential of such change as “ballot box surgery” as previously referenced, further examination of the virtual-world broadcast of the May 5th supervisors’ work session discussion of the future structure of the half-century-old Town-County EDA indicated the context of South River Supervisor Cheryl Cullers’ “cancer removal” observation was directed at the progress of the EDA now, as opposed to that of the town government in six to seven months.

“Yes, the former (EDA) board was there for everything that happened, but for a long period, they did a lot of good things until cancer moved in. And hopefully, the cancer is gone. I would just like to see them have an opportunity for a while longer to be cancer-free at this point,” Cullers said on the heels of Board Chairman Walter Mabe’s observation about the Town’s current hostility toward a re-tooled and forward-looking EDA.

“I’m happy with the way that it’s going,” Mabe had just observed of the new EDA board and staff, “But I think bringing Mr. Parsons and Gretchen (EDA Executive Director Doug Parsons and Administrative Assistant Gretchen Henderson) under the umbrella of the County might be something that the overall public would want; and then they can go sell the product no matter where it’s at, whether it’s in the town or county.

“The only thing we have to work out is how the Town is going to help pay for it. And that’s a hard discussion with the current management that’s there,” Mabe said pointedly of the current town council majority and executive leadership.

What are they thinking, and why, inside the Town Hall walls these days – and might that change with some corrective November ballot box surgery, county officials are wondering?

County Attorney Jason Ham then observed that the Town remains affiliated with the joint EDA dating to the mid-1960s despite the council initiative to have the State General Assembly authorized them to become the first municipality in Virginia to be allowed to create a second, unilateral EDA while still affiliated with its original one.

“And now we’ve got to make them step back up to the plate,” Mabe said of the Town of Front Royal government’s continued existing EDA membership.

“Well, why?” Ham replied, observing, “Of course we have an agreement with them that says otherwise, but the plan they’re talking about making their own … They’re effectively asking permission to make a second (EDA).”

There followed some confusion as to the precise status of that request. The board directed staff to sort out whether after “sailing through” the State House and Senate, apparently without much discussion, authorization for a second Front Royal EDA had yet been signed into law by the governor.

But Cullers wondered whether County absorption of the EDA at this point might not send a wrong message. That message is that the County has counted the Town out of all future EDA plans, accepting that its current path of finger-pointing in civil litigation seeking recovery of approximately the same $21 million as the EDA itself is attempting to recover from 23 individual and business entity civil defendants alleged to have conspired with the former EDA executive director in misdirecting EDA assets invested by both the County and Town, is a permanent stance.

“I don’t know how we’re going to bring the Town (on) board by saying we’re going to take over the EDA … Yes, they’re not willing to play well with the ball, but by doing that, we’re taking the ball away,” Cullers added of any hope of a redirection of the current council-interim town manager path away from cooperation with the County and EDA in righting its operational and financial ship.
“I feel with the new people on the (EDA) board – it seems like they’re headed in the right direction. I’d like them to stay where they are and give them more time to see where they can go before we make this radical change,” Cullers told her colleagues.

Mayor Tewalt, left foreground with EDA Board Chair Ed Daley, leaving an EDA Board meeting earlier this year. Currently, in Town Hall, Tewalt alone seems to comprehend the advisability of cooperation with the EDA and County in moving the community forward past the alleged financial misdeeds and oversight lapses of past EDA leadership.

Also present in the Warren County Government Center Caucus Room with Mabe and Cullers forming a meeting quorum, Archie Fox agreed, suggesting putting off a decision for several months.
County Administrator Doug Stanley observed that the County has already become Fiscal Agent for the EDA had “changed things 75%” as to organizational relationships, “The remaining 25% simply is who do they (EDA staff) report to on a daily basis,” Stanley told the supervisors. The previous discussion has indicated a desire to preserve the volunteer EDA Board of Directors in a direct oversight and advisory capacity to the supervisors were the EDA move to a County Department made.

“This gives the Town a little more time to reconsider their current decisions; maybe get on board where things (are). Otherwise, we’re kind of shutting the door by saying ‘We’re changing this’,” Cullers said, continuing to hold out hope for a major shift in the town government perspective.

The county administrator noted that at the State level the Virginia Economic Development Partnership is encouraging regional EDA’s for a joint approach to economic development, precisely the opposite direction the Town has chosen to move toward.

“They want real cooperation and that will not be the way it plays out if the County and Town end up creating their own, separate (EDA’s) – we’ll be going in the opposite direction, where we should be getting bigger, collaborating with our neighbors,” Stanley said.

Step back up to the plate? – Well, there is that legally undisputed $8.4-million-plus debt on principal payments for construction of the new FRPD headquarters the Town is refusing to compensate the EDA for.

Having retreated to the relative safety of his car after delivery of fresh Apple House donuts to his colleagues, Tony Carter concurred remotely with Cullers and Fox that the board waits till near the end of the year to see if there is any shift in the Town’s “I, Me, Mine” attitude (with a lyrical nod, late Beatles George Harrison’s way) be it by electoral and appointed personnel changes within town government or a shift in perspectives of existing members, or a combination of both.

Carter noted the overlapping economic interests of the town and county governments, often straddling the border between the two municipalities as occurred in the development of the Route 522/340 North Corridor and in the Happy Creek-Shenandoah Shores area.

Choosing optimism for the future over a pessimistic present, the board reached a consensus to allow the Town time to reassess its hostile and reclusive legal stance toward the EDA, be it by personal reflection or citizen “surgery” at the ballot box.

“I look at it as the first week in January we get triggered to start looking at it again,” Chairman Mabe said, adding, “And we will know November 4th who the winners are. And by following the candidates we’ll kind of know which way that they’re thinking.”

Indeed, we will – should be an interesting 2020 electoral season, not only on the national but local front as well.