Council confronted over past protectionism of EDA and its chief executive

In the wake of recent revelations about ITFederal principal Truc “Curt” Tran’s decision not to relocate his IT solutions company to the remediated former Avtex Superfund site in Front Royal and pending litigation by the EDA against yet-to-be-named individuals regarding an investigation into its finances over the past decade, the former councilwoman formerly known as Bébhinn Egger returned to her old municipal stomping grounds on Monday evening.

Prior to her June 2017 resignation from council to marry and leave the area, Egger had been a lone council voice sounding alarm bells about, not only about ITFederal’s ability to achieve what had been promised of it, but about other EDA projects as well. In fact, Egger’s late 2016 questions about EDA projects coincided with the creation of, and consequent reporting by, The Royal Examiner on ITFederal and the EDA as illustrated by the following linked stories:

Feds OK ‘Dollar Special’ on first Avtex property sale

A ‘Perfect Storm’ of silence raises questions about 1st Avtex client

The Perfect Storm of Silence, Part 2: a cattle ranch, $10-mil & …

“It seems to me that a moment like this would be the perfect time to say, ‘I told you so’ – but I didn’t come here to gloat,” Egger, now Bébhinn Rowland of Maryland, told council during the correspondences from the public portion of Monday’s meeting, adding pointedly, “I came here in outrage, for the people of Front Royal, over the blindness, the ineptitude, and most especially the arrogance of their elected officials.

“Sadly, I am not at all surprised by recent revelations about the EDA board and former director, nor by the public admission of Curt Tran that ITFederal doesn’t have – and never had – millions of dollars in federal contracts. After all, if you’ll remember, I was sounding alarm bells over two years ago. I wish you had listened to me. Former Councilmen Hrbek and Connolly – I hope you’re hearing this: I wish you had listened to me.

What had been promised of ITFederal’s arrival in this community? /Video by Mark Williams

In late 2015, Sixth District Congressman Robert Goodlatte ballyhooed a promised $40-million investment bringing 600 high-paying tech jobs to this community in a two-phased, three-building construction project. Three-plus years later it appears ITFederal may invest about $2 million of a $10-million loan from the EDA to construct a one-story, 10,000 square-foot building Tran plans to sublet to the tune of perhaps 10 jobs of an unknown pay scale.

“Over two years ago, I sent an email to all my fellow councilmen and the mayor, expressing my confusion about ITFederal,” Mrs. Rowland continued, “I included evidence from usapending.gov, showing that no company named ITFederal held any government contracts, much less millions of dollars of federal contracts. I expressed my concern about the fact that Jennifer McDonald, at a public meeting, gave us the false information that an EB-5 visa is merely an educational visa. (As anyone can find out in 5 seconds with a simple google search, an EB-5 visa is a permanent residency green card.)

“I even asked you to consider how odd it was that a million-dollar IT company in the 21st century, allegedly didn’t have a website! I begged you to at least take a step back and make sure everything was on the up-and-up with ITFederal. I believe I only got one response, which was from Councilman John Connolly. It read: ‘Don’t email me about this again.’

“Since the Council was unwilling to acknowledge any of the suspicious circumstances I brought up, I suggested we send a letter to Congressman Goodlatte, who was credited as having brought ITFederal to our community, so that he could reassure us that ITFederal was indeed a reputable company with millions of dollars in federal contracts and the ability to provide Front Royal with hundreds of good-paying tech jobs.

“Not a single member of Council was willing to sign the letter. Instead, you passed a resolution in support of the EDA and ITFederal, which stated that since Jennifer McDonald assured us that she had seen $140 million dollars worth of contracts, we believed her and we were sure that ITFederal would make good on all its promises.

“I ask former Councilman Hrbek to now publicly explain that to the people of Front Royal,” Mrs. Rowland said.

As for the EDA, as previously reported by Royal Examiner on Friday, March 22 (2019) the EDA Board of Directors authorized a Richmond law firm hired at a cost of $100,000 thus far to file litigation on its behalf stemming from information uncovered about EDA finances over the past decade by a thus-far anonymous accounting firm paid $150,000 thus far to analyze audit information on EDA business practices and finances.

And Greg Drescher and Ron Llewellyn were added to a growing list of EDA staff and board resignations or retirements, including Executive Director Jennifer McDonald, bookkeeper Josie Rickard, long-time board Treasurer William Biggs and Administrative Assistant Missy Henry.

Of council’s past shielding of the EDA and its former executive director from criticism, or even scrutiny, Egger said, “I won’t even bring up the debacle that is the supposed ‘workforce housing’ project. I wish you had listened to me about that, as well. But let’s talk for a second about the police department. I said it until I was blue in the face: we are spending too much money on a police department for a town our size.

“Again, the facts were ‘misrepresented’ to us by Jennifer McDonald. Unless you have amnesia, you’ve got to remember how she assured us that she had closed on the New Market Tax Credit loan.

Are you noticing a pattern yet? How many times did you all tell me, ‘We trust Jennifer’? – Hint: lots of times.

“The Town has been duped – in major, damaging ways – and you let it happen.”

Then without naming names, Egger told council, “The main reason I am here tonight is to implore you to recognize your grave errors, publicly admit them, and work to bring about solutions to the problems that have been created by those errors. For some of you, the best possible thing you could do now to help our community is to leave public office and let those who are more capable try to lift our town out of the hole that you’ve played a major part in creating.”

Perhaps trying to stay off that short list of “best course of action is an exit, stage right”, two councilmen and the mayor heeded Bébhinn Egger Rowland’s father’s advice, and issued verbal apologies to Mrs. Rowland later in the meeting.

Royal Examiner videographer Mark Williams was there:

Mayor admits: we ‘drank the Kool Aide’ in apology to former councilwoman