Coming Spending, Delayed Auditing of Past Spending, and Future EDA Spending Initiatives Occupy County Supervisors

Money — how, when, and why to spend it was a primary topic of conversation at the Wednesday, November 5th, Warren County Board of Supervisors meeting.

Oh, and then there was a portion of the General Public Comments on non-agenda items review of the previous day’s local election results and how those results reflect on the actions of the former 4-1 board majority, excluding Cheryl Cullers, regarding this community’s historic and award winning Samuels Public Library.

With the elections of Hugh Henry (Fork District) and Tony Carter (Happy Creek District) come January that former anti-Samuels Library majority appears poised to become a 3-2 minority.

Change is on the horizon as to some majority votes when two new members are seated in January. Those are Tony Carter and Hugh Henry, the latter who will actually be reseated after his appointment to fill out Vicky Cook’s term last month. Royal Examiner Photos Roger Bianchini

But back to County finances, the topic first arose during the “Unfinished Business” category on Item G — “Approval for the Finance Department to proceed with the procurement process to solicit Economic Development Consulting Services. The Agenda Packet cited North River District Supervisor Richard Jamieson as bringing the matter forward.

At issue was forward movement on a previously authorized expenditure of up to $100,000 to acquire outside EDA consulting services to recommend a path forward for the County in the wake of the financial aftermath of the circa-2014 to 2018 EDA “financial scandal”. Chairman “Jay” Butler introduced the topic (27:15 mark of the linked County video). South River District Supervisor Cheryl Cullers began the discussion with a request to continue the tabling of the matter, offering a motion in that regard.

“It’s been brought to my attention that there should be some information from a previous citizens Economic Development Advisory Committee And that it might be a good idea for us to view that to get a better foundation of what has been done in the past before spending that amount of money on a consultant,” Cullers told her colleagues.

County Attorney Jason Ham, right, kept the board within procedural guidelines on motions and prior to vote discussions of motions. At left new County Administrator Bradley Gottshall becomes increasingly familiar at the administrative staff table.

As Chairman Butler asked if there was board discussion of Cullers motion to table, County Attorney Jason Ham informed the board that a second would be required before that discussion took place. Recently appointed Fork District Supervisor Hugh Henry, who will take the Fork District elected seat he won on election day November 4th, at the turn of the year, supported Cullers, offering that second. Perhaps ironically, resigned Fork District Supervisor Vicky Cook whom Henry was appointed to fill out the final 2-plus months of her term, was present and spoke later on another financial matter before the board.

Henry suggested that prior to any decision on an EDA consultant expenditure, that a currently involved County EDA official, EDA Board Chairman Rob MacDougall be consulted at no cost to the County.

“I’m not necessarily opposed,” Henry commented of the consultant hiring. However, he added, “I would really like to have a minute to sit down with Mr. MacDougall to kind of get some more background education. And I tried to do some research, and kind of found out that he may have the best knowledge from start to finish of how this all works …”

At that point Supervisor Jamieson deferred to Shenandoah District Supervisor John Stanmeyer. Stanmeyer wondered if the referenced citizen EDA Advisory Committee might date back to the time after Avtex closed, perhaps the 1990s, and that with all the changes experienced since then, whether the referenced citizen report would be relevant today.

North River District Supervisor Jamieson pointed to the uniqueness of the County’s EDA situation in support of the consultant hiring. However, he seemed to agree that additional information prior to a finalized vote was advisable.

In the end Cullers motion to table was approved by a unanimous 5-0 margin.

On at least one financial item the entire board was on the same page. That item was Cheryl Cullers’ motion to table action for more information before proceeding with a $100,000 expenditure to solicit procurement of EDA consulting services.

Related Business

Another primary financial matter revolved around Cullers related pulling of Consent Agenda item H-8, “Modification to Economic Development Resolution – Amending Fiscal Year 2025-2026 Budget and Appropriating funds for Warren County, Virginia.” The impetus was authorization of an alteration to the approved $100,000 funding of the EDA consultant process. Originally the total $100,000 amount approved was divided $65,000 to staff and $35,000 to consultant. The proposed adjustment was to divide the total to $50,000 for both staff and consulting fees.

Cullers initial motion, seconded by Henry, to deny the change was defeated 3-2 with Chairman Butler joining Jamieson and Stanmeyer in voting no. Then Jamieson’s motion, seconded by Stanmeyer, to approve the change passed by the same 3-2 margin.

Audit questions

During the General Public Comments on non-Agenda items near the meeting’s end, recently resigned Fork District Supervisor Vicky Cook was first up (at 50:00 minute video mark). Noting she was appearing as a citizen taxpayer rather than a former supervisor, Cook told her former colleagues and replacement, “I’m concerned that Warren County’s annual audits aren’t being completed as required by Virginia Code 15.2-2511, which requires fiscal year audits to be presented at a public meeting by December 31st. While the law does allow extensions I see warning signs in the reasons for these delays.

“The fiscal year 2023/24 financial audit was supposed to be given to the board by December 31st of last year. It’s now been extended three times and the new deadline is December 15th of this year,” former Board Finance Committee member Cook noted. She continued to cite “limited staff in the Treasurer’s Office, Finance and Purchasing who were involved in the software conversion” as the stated cause of the ongoing extensions. She additionally noted that to her knowledge “there have been no changes from the Bright System, which is the County’s official record system.”

Cook worried that ongoing delays in the 2023/24 audit will bode ill for the audit for 2024/25 due by the end of this year. She continued to observe that ongoing delays have been going on for three fiscal years, with a fourth on the horizon if the pattern continues. She wondered at the delay’s impacts on consideration of the need for tax increases. “And how confident are you that the estimates are accurate enough to support a tax increase? If the estimates are wrong how will the board adjust the budget and explain it to the public,” Cook inquired.

Noting her time was short on the clock, Cook said, “I will get to the point, I’m asking the board to initiate a forensic audit. This is not about suggesting wrongdoing or  mismanagement of public funds. The goal is to prove the accuracy of the County’s financial records and strengthen internal controls for future audits.”

At podium recently resigned Fork District Supervisor Vicky Cook urged the board to initiate a Forensic Audit to correct delayed fiscal year finalization of annual county budget numbers. However, Tim Francis, seated to right in third row rose to suggest an alternative, less expensive, and more timely auditing system be implemented. Below, Save Samuels President Samantha Good rose to address how county election results reflected on the soon-to-be former board majority’s actions against the library over the recent year-plus.

Cook concluded that she would like her questions to be answered, and to that end she would continue to raise them at future meetings until answers were achieved.

While next speaker, Save Samuels President Samantha Good (53:17 linked video) turned the comments toward a critical assessment of the board majority’s actions toward the Public/Private public library partnership refuted by the local election results of the previous day, third speaker Tim Francis returned to Cook’s call for a forensic audit (56:32 video mark). “I just want to come up and say regarding the missing audits of the past two years that I don’t recommend a forensic audit because as  you probably know they are expensive and they take an extra long time because you’re drilling down into everything,” Francis began, adding, “There are lots of in-between versions of audits you can do, and not just a base one where you can focus on specific problem areas.

“So, I recommend not doing the forensic audit if you actually want the audits to be finished in time, or any time soon. And focus on getting your finance people the help that they need to get it done,” Francis told the board as he wrapped up his counterpoint to Cook’s earlier suggestion.

Bethany O’Neill followed Francis to the speaker’s podium (57:50 video mark) returning to the topic of the soon-to-be former board majority’s actions regarding Samuels Library. John Jenkins then rose, drawing a humorous assessment from Chairman Butler (58:35 video mark), to address both the audit issue and the limitations rules on Public Comment speakers that he perceived to be an infringement of freedom of speech guidelines.

Early in the meeting Warren County Sheriff’s Office officials presented both new and promoted departmental personnel to the supervisors.

Near the meeting’s outset, new personnel and recent officer promotions within the Warren County Sheriff’s Office were presented to the supervisors (at 4:30 mark of linked video). Major Jason Winner handled most the presentations, with Sheriff Crystal Cline commenting gratefully on personnel contributions to the department in recent months.

Click here to watch the Warren County Board of Supervisors Meeting of November 5, 2025.