Council moves toward 2nd EDA – not forever, just during lawsuit gamble

The masked and unmasked, council was back, though without Mayor Tewalt who was absent, for its second live, pandemic era public meeting on June 22. Where’s Chris? – Oh, there you are lurking in the far corner. Royal Examiner Photos/Roger Bianchini – Royal Examiner Video/Mark Williams

Like a riverboat gambler on the prowl, on Monday night, June 22, the Front Royal Town Council ignored repeated public pleas not to burden town taxpayers with the cost of forming a new unilateral Economic Development Authority (EDA) with no existing assets, but with a hefty director’s salary and operational budget that the Town will be liable to fund.

By a 5-1 vote, Letasha Thompson dissenting, council passed the first of two required readings of an ordinance amendment enabling the creation of that second Town EDA. The second, binding vote enabling the creation of the new Town EDA is scheduled for the July 13th meeting at 7 p.m. at the Warren County Government Center.

Operational funding of the existing half-century-old Town-County EDA is not the Town’s responsibility since the County took on full operational funding in the last decade as part of the ongoing double-taxation of town citizens discussion and accommodation the two municipalities have been engaged in since at least the 1990s and the Route 522 Corridor Agreement.

However, the Town has continued to fund debt service on its in-town EDA economic development projects – until its recent decision not to make good on its nearly $9-million debt on principal to the EDA on the FRPD headquarters construction project.

And if the faces looked familiar on the critical side – council candidate Bruce Rappaport and community activist Linda Allen spoke against the second EDA as they have in the past – Councilwoman Letasha Thompson told her colleagues she has found no town citizen, “even on social media”, openly in favor of the second unilateral EDA idea.

As has been the case in the several months leading up to this public hearing and first vote, no one not on the council dais spoke in favor of the council and administrative staff second EDA initiative. In fact, Allen and Rappaport were the only public hearing speakers, expanding on points they had made during earlier Public Comments on the current council’s belligerence toward the re-tooled and recovering from financial scandal EDA staff and board of directors.

During her opening public comment remarks, Allen called recent assertions from the council that the EDA essentially hadn’t worked on the town’s behalf in 15 years simply “not true” and “false”.

While not mentioning anyone by name, Linda Allen was harsh in her assessment – ‘false’, ‘not true’ – of a recent council claim the EDA hasn’t done much for the Town of Front Royal in the past 15 years.

As to Councilman Gary Gillespie’s recent assertion that the existing EDA will have a difficult time reestablishing its reputation and ability to function successfully, Allen has countered that the Town’s economic development reputation is likely to be worse in the wake of its failure to make good on its financial and moral obligation principle debt of $8.7 million on its most recent EDA-enabled capital improvement project, the new Front Royal Police Headquarters. Allen also said that the Town’s refusal to negotiate its dispute on the interest rate on the FRPD project had swollen the interest debt the Town is accumulating from $500 to $692 per day.

Allen made her point by, not only pointing to the new police station project but also the continued work on the redevelopment of the Afton Inn across the street from Town Hall and at the head of Front Royal’s Historic Downtown Business District. Expanding on a point made previously by Rappaport that two-thirds of the property assets the EDA owns are in town, Allen observed that of four properties sold this year by the re-staffed EDA, three have been in town.

However, Councilman Jacob Meza countered that a history of lost trust from the previous EDA leadership, and council’s consequent choice of a $20-million-plus civil litigation against the EDA made working together impossible – for now, at least.

Meza seemed to indicate that the second, unilateral EDA was a temporary solution to a problem council appears to have created by refusing the current EDA’s repeated offers to sit down for “good faith negotiations” to establish exactly what the Town-EDA financial situation on misdirected assets under previous EDA staff and board leadership is.

Councilman Meza agreed with Bruce Rappaport that current EDA Executive Director Doug Parsons in highly qualified, and even said he would even look forward to working with him on town economic development – just NOT while the Town claims ‘no responsibility’ for any lapses of oversight of the previous EDA executive leadership or complicity in enabling alleged abuses of that leadership through Town projects.

Meza even concurred with Rappaport’s positive appraisal of current EDA Executive Director Doug Parsons background, experience, and abilities, saying he would look forward to working with him, just not in the current hostile civil litigation circumstance.

Prefacing her vote with the majority, the council’s newest appointed member Lorie Athey Cockrell said she would prefer a positive relationship with the County and the existing EDA, but lamented, “This is where we are.”

But Rappaport and Allen’s counterpoint appeared to be, this is where the council majority has CHOSEN to be.

And with its concurrent continuing co-founding membership in the existing EDA, upon final approval of the ordinance amendment facilitating the creation of a new EDA it appears the Town of Front Royal is poised to go where no Virginia municipality has gone before – parallel EDA “universes” (sorry for the “Star Trek” reference, it just popped out).

And speaking of “Star Trek” and parallel universes, on Monday council unanimously approved a Resolution of Appreciation for C&C Frozen Treats proprietor William Huck for his efforts on behalf of the Town’s “Downtown Rebound” COVID-19 pandemic business reopening and walking mall initiative.

Then there were the good times – C&C Frozen Treats’ William Huck is recognized for his work in Front Royal’s ‘Downtown Rebound’ pandemic business reopening permitting and logistical support up and down East Main St.

Also on the positive side: police, staff, community
And continuing a feel-good theme, besides Huck’s acknowledgment it wasn’t all citizen-council headbutting over a perceived self-destructive economic development policy in the making. During the opening public comments, four speakers rose to commend town staff, including the police chief and officers, interim town manager and public works department staff for outstanding performances in community relations and services.

Two of those speakers were Front Royal Unites representatives Samuel Porter and Stevi Hubbard who lauded Chief Magalis and his department for its proactive stance in working with, rather than against the group’s marches in support of civil rights and improved race relation in this community and nation.

“We come to the table very peacefully … to build bridges, not burn them,” Porter told the council, calling Chief Magalis, who was definitely on a citizen-driven high Monday night, “an awesome person”.

A good day, a good era for local law enforcement: Above, FR Unites’ Samuel Porter and Stevi Hubbard lauded FRPD Chief Magalis for his proactive work with the group’s marches against racism and for equal treatment under the law for all races and ethnic groups. Below, Magalis is presented with Paul Aldridge’s citizen-initiated award for the quality of town law enforcement under his leadership.

Paul Aldridge presented Chief Magalis with a plaque acknowledging the chief and his department’s positive contributions to the community; while Edward Irre commended the “courteous” behavior of a patrol officer while giving him a ticket for admittedly “breaking a traffic law”. – “That is why he got that award tonight,” Irre observed of the department’s professionalism from top to bottom. Irre also noted repeated excellence in public works and utility service responses over recent years.

Other business
Also on council’ table, Monday evening was a first vote – unanimous to approve – following the County’s vote last week to jointly move forward on tourism marketing. The plan as previously reported is, to begin with fully outsourced to the private sector tourism marketing for the Town and County, with a hope to eventually transition to outsourced marketing overseen by a Town-County overseen advisory board such as the existing Joint Tourism Advisory Committee.

It was that advisory committee’s vice chair, Kerry Barnhart, who developed the options moving forward presentations to the Town and County from which the decision toward the outsourcing option, first brought forward by the interim town manager at the time of his late January firing of the Town’s top tourism official Felicia Hart.

However, earlier Rappaport questioned analogies made during Barnhart’s presentation regarding the Town’s potential marketing similarities to tourist destinations like Sedona, Arizona and Asheville, North Carolina. Rappaport noted he has been to Sedona five times, pointing to significant differences in tourism funding and community wealth.

Council candidate Bruce Rappaport raised questions about the council’s path on both its relationship with the current EDA and it and the County’s outsourced marketing strategy for tourism promotion.

He also questioned Barnhart’s metrics as to accommodation capacities and revenue-generating potentials, pointing to what he said were Sedona’s 103 hotels and Asheville’s 138, compared to Front Royal’s “about 15”. Rappaport also noted a median property value in Sedona of $446,000 and a “bed tax” on tourist accommodations, the latter which he said paid for a bulk of Sedona’s tourism marketing costs.

And on the COVID-19 pandemic consequences front, during the interim town manager’s report, Tederick explained the evolution and harsh economic reality of the Town delinquent utility accounts situation related to the pandemic economic hardships – a $175,000 upswing in unpaid accounts compared to last year – and some peripheral taking advantage of that situation to just forego paying bills as long as possible without penalty or interest.

Interim Town Manager Tederick, right, was flanked by Town Attorney Napier as he addressed the Town’s plan moving forward to working to resolve delinquent utility accounts to the mutual benefit of the Town and its customers.

See that presentation, as well as the pivotal conversation on the future of economic development and municipal cooperation in this community, and council’s other business in this exclusive Royal Examiner video recording. You might even get as big a chuckle as the interim town manager did when Allen wondered whether the new EDA and its triple-figure executive director’s position council was poised to move toward, might be a more permanent soft landing for council’s former interim mayor and current interim town manager appointee.