The Board of Directors held their regular monthly board meeting today. Two motions were passed:

-Finance Committee Chair Jorie Martin made a motion, seconded by Tom Patteson, to award a $2,500 bonus to Administrative Assistant Gretchen Henderson for exemplary performance. The Board also will also pursue a reclassification of her job position based on new duties and responsibilities. The board voted unanimously in favor.

-Ms. Martin also made a motion, seconded again by Dr. Patteson, to approve United Sprinkler to provide the annual inspection for 426 Baugh Dr. for a fee not to exceed $600. This inspection is required for the insurance policy. The board voted unanimously in favor.

Finance

Finance Chair Jorie Martin reported that the EDA will be modifying its budget. The EDA had issued bonds for Christendom College and Royal Arms housing complex renovations. Once per year, they owe the EDA administrative fees. Those fees were not previously invoiced. Current EDA staff has resumed that task so the budget will be updated to reflect these two new sources of revenue.

Sunlight Properties, LLC has paid in full and removed the solar panels from the roof of the EDA office building at 400 Kendrick Lane. Executive Director Doug Parsons proposed that the Board of Directors work on a plan for repairing the roof. He noted that he’s been in contact with individuals looking to lease commercial office space and that the revenue it would generate would support making the commitment to the repair project.

Finally, Doug Parsons reported that the FY 2018 and 2019 audits by Brown Edwards continues to move forward. Auditors completed their preliminary fieldwork in early July. He projects completion by August/September.

Asset Management Committee

Royal Lane “Workforce Housing” property-Committee Chair Harold and EDA Chair Ed Daley met with Front Royal Mayor Tewalt and Vice-Mayor Sealock on the EDA’s plans for the property. He reported a positive and constructive meeting and appreciated their input. Multi-family housing will be a welcomed addition to the Front Royal area.

Afton Inn-Mr. Harold was pleased to report that the sale of Afton Inn continues to move forward and projects closing this Fall. The EDA will be glad to see this property in the hands of private developers. The goal of the buyers/developers, 2 East Main, LLC will be to bring this downtown Front Royal landmark back to life. The EDA is looking forward to finalizing this sale.

Finally, the EDA will undertake signage projects for the Kelly Drive Industrial Park and the LFCC Tractor Trailer Training facility in the Avtex parking lot.

Other News
EDA staff and the Board of Directors welcomed Doug Stanley as he gave his final report as County Administrator. He has been an invaluable asset to the EDA and the Front Royal Warren County community. He will surely be missed. The Board recognized that EDA Chair Ed Daley will be stepping down to become Interim County Administrator. Vice-Chair Jeff Browne will assume the duties of Chair.

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On Tuesday, July 21, Happy Creek Supervisor Tony Carter’s call to add board discussion and a vote of “formal approval” of an informally negotiated “Reservation of Rights Agreement” with the Front Royal Town Council led to the evening’s most surprising and most contentious discussion.

During that discussion, Carter asked if informal County “Reservation of Rights” negotiators Delores Oates and Cheryl Cullers should be made an official board committee. When County Administrator Doug Stanley noted that once formed as a formal municipal committee, further meetings would require public notice of, and minutes to be taken at future meetings.

‘I would like to disagree with that,’ Cullers said of Carter’s formalized committee idea, adding, ‘simply because I feel like we’re making some headway – not that I’m trying not to be transparent.’ Royal Examiner Photos/Roger Bianchini – Royal Examiner Video/Mark Williams

“I know, that was my intent,” Carter replied, indicating he thought a formal committee a better path than the undocumented, unsupervised way those unofficial meetings between Cullers and Oates and Lori Cockrell and Chis Holloway on the Town side were being conducted. Carter called the meetings similar to the Town-County Liaison Committee meetings, which are formal and documented. Perhaps oddly or not, the Reservation of Rights Agreement discussion was NOT part of last week’s Liaison Committee meeting agenda.

“I think everybody wants to be transparent. And it seems like that would be the best way to be transparent – notify the media, notify the public about having these discussions,” Carter said of formalizing such an important matter involving the County, Town, and EDA.

However, Cullers and Oates countered that their un-monitored meetings with the Town representatives were being made in good faith to move a stagnated process forward.

“I would like to disagree with that,” Culler said of Carter’s formalized committee idea, adding, “simply because I feel like we’re making some headway – not that I’m trying not to be transparent. But at some point, you have to sit down with people in a room, shut the door and get down to business without too many people in the room. I think the Reservation of Rights that we came to here is a step in that direction. I don’t know if we would have got there if we had more people in the room.”

“I understand what you’re saying, that you prefer to conduct public business without the public,” Carter retorted of Cullers’ rationale for continuing her and Oates meetings as they have thus far been conducted without public and media scrutiny.

As previously reported, the original “Reservation of Rights Agreement” was a late June, Town-drafted quasi-legal document agreeing to a one-time, recoverable $10,528.95 payment covering half the $21,102 interest-only July payment on the new Front Royal Police Headquarters debt service. The agreement was first revealed during a June 30 Town Special Meeting called to approve the initial draft. However, due to excessive conditional language included in that document, first EDA officials who were being asked to sign off on the agreement they had no previous knowledge of, and then apparently County officials as well, rejected moving forward with it.

Last week a revised and severely paired back, one paragraph “Reservation of Rights Agreement” was brought forward by North River District Supervisor Oates and Board Vice-Chair Cullers for reconsideration by the supervisors. While the intent remained the same, a one-month, recoverable half-interest Town payment on the July FRPD debt service that the Town was admitting no obligation to make, virtually all the excessive verbiage that would have had the EDA and County signing a document stating the Town has “no legal or moral obligation” to pay for its EDA-financed police station and preventing any future EDA or County use of the payment and its documentation in court or “any forum” was gone.

It was replaced with the Town’s acknowledgment that the payment was being made “with no admission of obligation and reserving all rights to continue to contest this and other matters in pending litigation between the Town and EDA. The EDA accepts this payment acknowledging this reservation of rights.” See Royal Examiner’s coverage of evolution of the draft proposals in previous stories “Legal questions surround Town offer of one-time, recoverable FRPD payment” and “Pared back FRPD payment ‘Reservation of Rights Agreement’ revealed by County”.

As for the asserted “good faith” aspect of the secretive Reservation of Rights Agreement discussion, Carter said, as EDA Board Chairman Daley would soon agree to during his comments on the matter, “Wouldn’t it be good faith if the Town paid their obligations? Wouldn’t it be good faith if the Town, County, and EDA worked together, instead of against each other in legal procedures?”

Both Cullers and Oates responded that was their ultimate goal, adding that the non-publicly acknowledged meetings allowed the conversation to be undertaken “without the undermining going on”. Contacted later, Cullers said that was not a reference to any media coverage of Town-County issues.

Carter continued his “show of good faith” questions, asking, “Is it a show of good faith that the Town is starting its own EDA, thus duplicating costs to the town taxpayers, instead of working together? After all, most of the EDA projects are located in the town.”

Carter also questioned the advisability of the supervisors as the county’s governing body, signing off on a document that Oates admitted had not been what she and Cullers had hoped to achieve on behalf of the County and EDA, which was the full July payment acknowledging the bank-financed 3% interest rate on the FRPD debt service.

Part of the Town of Front Royal’s $20-million-plus civil litigation against the EDA is the claim it was promised a 1.5%, 30-year debt service interest rate on the FRPD project by former EDA Executive Director Jennifer McDonald.

EDA Board Chairman Daley provides details to the Board of Supervisors regarding the FRPD project.

Called to the podium to comment for the EDA Tuesday night, still EDA Board Chairman Daley told the supervisors the EDA has documentation dating to 2017 and 2018 indicating the Town knew the FRPD project interest rate would be no lower than 3%.

Daley also was fairly pointed in indicating to the supervisors that he believed the Town was not dealing in good faith with the EDA regarding any financial issues. He observed that Town legal attacks or refusals to meet financial obligations with the EDA were also attacks on the County since the County has taken on sole financial responsibility in support of the EDA.

Following the 35-minute far-ranging, sometimes pointed conversation, on a motion by Carter, seconded by Fox, the board voted 4-1 to table action on the Reservation of Rights Agreement. Oates cast the lone negative vote. After a long pause when her name was called for the roll call vote, Cullers voted with the majority to table.

See all the drama of your local government in action, including discussion with County Attorney Jason Ham on the advisability of formal versus informal meetings of this magnitude, Chairman Mabe’s observations in the middle of the debate, and Daley’s full observation from the EDA perspective in this Royal Examiner video segment:

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In an unexpected and somewhat stunning development in an added agenda item to conclude Tuesday’s Warren County Board of Supervisors Work Session, it was revealed that a revised “Reservation of Rights Agreement” has been negotiated between members of the county board and the Front Royal Town Council. Following the discussion about the new agreement on making the July FRPD construction debt service payment, a board consensus was reached to place a vote on approval of the revised agreement on the board’s July 21st meeting agenda.

The new agreement is a radically pared-back version of the one the town council unanimously approved at a June 30 Special Meeting to cover half the July FRPD headquarters debt service payment, as will be explored in detail below.

FRPD building at Ground Zero of a legal, financial, and ethical dispute between two municipalities and their joint Economic Development Authority. What’s confusing is this is one project that was not implicated in the alleged misdirection of EDA, Town, or County assets – better not be, the occupants are packing heat. Royal Examiner Photos/Roger Bianchini, Video by Mark Williams.

Board Vice-Chairman Cheryl Cullers made the motion to add the item to Tuesday’s work session. Delores Oates then noted she and Cullers “met, I think you guys know, with Ms. Cockrell and Chris (Holloway)” on the matter, observing that the supervisors had not appropriated funding to continue covering the EDA FRPD debt service payments into the new fiscal year.

It seems the County and Town are on the verge of taking a high-stakes gamble on whose credit rating will suffer the worst if the EDA’s FRPD debt service payments are not covered this fiscal year.

The pared-back Reservation of Rights Agreement appears to be a compromise to avoid that gamble being played into the commercial banking community as of July 16.

It was revealed during the subsequent discussion that today, Wednesday, July 15, is the last day before the $21,102 interest-only payment to United Bank goes overdue. If the agreement to keep the loan current is realized before either elected body votes to sign off on the method by which it will be done, at least for July, the Town will still only pay half of the monthly amount due, or $10,529.

That half interest-only payment is based on council’s contention that verbal assurances by former EDA Executive Director Jennifer McDonald of a New Market Tax Credit-based 30-year, 1.5% interest rate on the FRPD construction project that it did not even qualify for, is somehow legally binding. The EDA is paying United Bank 3% interest on the debt service.

The new EDA Board of Directors and staff left to clean up the financial mess inherited from predecessors finds itself under fire from one of its supporting municipalities, well previously ‘supporting’.

And while it is the EDA’s loan, supported by the County’s operational funding, both municipalities have traditionally and continue to be responsible for covering the debt service on their capital improvement projects funded through the EDA. It seems clear outside of Town Hall that precedent indicates the intent was for the town government to assume the Town Police Station construction debt service upon completion of the project, dating to October 2018.

But that was before the previous EDA administration financial scandal began unraveling in 2018. That unraveling led to the EDA’s initial March 2019 $21.3 million civil litigation against former EDA Executive Director Jennifer McDonald and 14 co-defendants alleged to have conspired with her to misdirect or embezzle EDA assets to their own benefit. It was followed by the Town’s filing of escalating litigation against the EDA, now seeking recovery of “at least $20 million” of allegedly misdirected or promised Town assets.

Delores Oates explains her perception of the evolution of negotiations to head off a potential financial disaster for both the county and town governments’ financial ratings and ability to acquire preferred financing terms on future capital improvement projects.

But on Tuesday, Oates asserted that the new agreement, which removes the conditional legal language that would have had the County and EDA signing a document that stated the Town had “no moral or legal obligation” to pay for its police station, indicates ongoing “good faith” negotiations between the two municipalities to resolve the FRPD debt service impasse; and perhaps other issues related to the Town’s $20-million-plus civil litigation against the half-century-old joint County-Town EDA. That litigation relates to the previous EDA administration’s financial scandal, details of which were revealed by a 2018 forensic audit commissioned by the EDA and County.

That audit was commissioned in the wake of Town Finance Director B. J. Wilson and Town auditors discovery of financial irregularities in some of the Town’s debt service arrangements with the EDA, though the police station project was not one of those.

It is against this legal backdrop our community financial drama is unfolding.

Pared-back legal verbiage

As opposed to the convoluted legalese we described in our story “Legal questions surround Town offer of one-time, recoverable FRPD payment”, the new, one-paragraph draft “Reservation of Rights Agreement” is brief and to the point, at least comparatively.

It reads: “The Town of Front Royal (‘Town’) tenders $10,528.95 to the Industrial Development Authority of the Town of Front Royal and County of Warren, Virginia a/k/a Economic Development Authority of the County of Warren (‘EDA’) for the July 2020 payment on the loan by United Bank for the Town Police Department with no admission of obligation and reserving all rights to continue to contest this and other matters in pending litigation between the Town and EDA. The EDA accepts this payment acknowledging this reservation of rights.”

A view of FRPD headquarters from the EDA Kendrick Lane office complex at left – so close and yet so far away, at least to a resolution of a nebulous legal dispute on financing its construction.

Gone are the “Conditions” that led EDA attorney Sharon Pandak to tell Royal Examiner upon our reading them to her over the phone, that she would be reluctant to advise the EDA to sign off on the initial agreement. Those deleted passages include:

“The Town denies that it owes any moral or legal obligation to repay the Loan”;

“The County and the EDA acknowledge that this payment shall not be construed as, considered to be, or argued to be, in any forum, an admission for any purpose, including but not limited to of liability of the Town for the Loan or the Costs”; and,

“All parties agree that payment hereunder shall be inadmissible for any purpose except by the Town to recover this payment as damages in the Litigation,” among other legally qualifying passages.

So, good-faith negotiations perhaps – just in small steps, VERY small steps with a very large credit rating gamble looming in the balance that could impact this community’s financial future on both sides of the Town-County boundary.

Thus far the EDA, with County support has been making what have been interest-only payments on the $9-million FRPD project. That will change on November 1, when the United Bank loan moves to principal and interest payments. EDA Executive Director Doug Parsons estimated that would take the monthly payments to about $50,000 from the $21,000 interest-only range.
According to Parsons the balance on the United Bank FRPD headquarters loan as of June 1, when the EDA submitted an invoice to the Town for slightly over $441,300 paid thus far by the EDA, is $8.44 million.

How not only this month’s payment but also coming ones will be handled by both municipalities appears to be hinted at by the new one-paragraph Reservation of Rights Agreement spitting the FRPD debt service down the middle with minimal additional legal verbiage. Letting the EDA’s FRPD debt service go delinquent may not be a gamble in either involved municipality’s best interest.

Delinquent debt service payment – what do we have to lose, it’s not our responsibility, or is it? The county board, above, and town council, below, appear to be trying to fold on that gamble – for now.

At issue now appears to be will July’s $21,102 payment be made by somebody, somehow before the end of the July 15th banking day; and will majorities of both the Town and County’s elected bodies to agree to this arrangement on an ongoing basis to prevent that rather large credit-rating gamble being played on the municipal-banking poker table??

Stay tuned for the next thrilling episode of “As the FRPD Debt Service – and EDA, Town and County Credit Ratings – Turn”. But while you wait for that next episode, see Tuesday night’s episode unfold over the last 10 minutes or so of Tuesday’s meeting in this Royal Examiner video:

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On Monday, July 13, the Front Royal Town Council took several actions, for better or worse, that will shape several key future functions in coming months and years. At the top of the list was second and final reading approval – 4-1, Thompson dissenting as she did at the June 22 first reading – of creation of a new Economic Development Authority solely overseen and funded by the town government and its taxpayers.

The Town will become the first municipality in Virginia to concurrently be a part of two EDA’s. In an unprecedented example of attempting to “have your cake and sue it too”, the Town has maintained its half-century-plus, co-founding membership in the half-century-old joint County-Town EDA while civil litigating for virtually all the money the EDA is trying to recover in its initial $21.3 million civil action against its former executive director and 14 co-defendants accused of conspiring to misdirect or embezzle EDA assets.

The Town’s legal and administrative department heads may now be pondering what’s next after final approval of a new unilateral EDA to counterbalance the one the Town is suing. We know, appointment of a board of directors – they’re volunteers, so that won’t cost anything. Royal Examiner Photos/Roger Bianchini – Royal Examiner Video/Mark Williams

But at least the Town does not have to fund operational costs of the old EDA, as in EDA legal fees to fight the Town litigation, while figuring out where its operational costs for it new unilateral EDA will come from, if not a successful civil litigation against its old EDA. For as previously reported, the County took over the Town’s share of joint EDA operational funding several years ago as part of ongoing negotiations about the double taxation of town citizens. So, while the town government doesn’t have to fund the EDA’s legal defense against it, its citizens do as county taxpayers.

Alright, enough of that dizzying legal scenario.

Also approved Monday were a Fiscal Year-2021 budget amendment authorizing receipt of $1,276,558 of the County’s $3.5 million in CARES (Coronavirus Assistance, Relief Equities and Securities) Act federal funding for COVID-19 relief for private-sector economic losses incurred due to the Coronavirus pandemic emergency management response restrictions; as well as an agreement with the Front Royal-Warren County Chamber of Commerce to manage distribution of the Town’s CARES Act funds.

The amount of money authorized to be put under the Chamber’s control was $1,176,558, $100,000 less than the total amount being transferred to Town control. According to the staff summary, that $100,000 is being put into the General Fund Contingency account to cover “COVID-19 expenses”.

‘How much is that going to cost?’ Lori Cockrell asked of administering $1.2 million of CARES Act federal COVID-19 relief funding received through the County. The interim town manager said costs should be ‘minimal’.

Questioned about those expenses by Councilwoman Lori Athey Cockrell, Interim Town Manager Matt Tederick said those costs were an “unknown” at this time, so no amount was being cited at this point in the process.

However, Tederick said he was “confident” those costs would be “minimal”.

Also approved in a series of 5-0 votes, Holloway absent, as were the CARES Act related items, were three appropriations totaling $256,981.72 for equipment upgrade purchases for the Front Royal Police Department. FRPD Chief Kahle Magalis made a detailed presentation on the need for the equipment upgrades at council’s previous work session.

Those equipment purchase authorizations were:

• $82,159.72 for a VESTA 911 phone system;
• $162,000 for replacement of 10 WatchGuard 4Re In-car WIFI camera systems, and 24 VISTA body cameras, and;
• $12,822 for Avtec-Motorola radio console equipment to replace existing equipment termed at its “end of life” stage of service.

As Chief Magalis told council at his work session presentation, these equipment upgrades are the cost of doing law enforcement work at an optimum of communications efficiency; and self-monitoring standards that protect both the public and the department’s personnel legally.

It’s always good to be packing a little heat when you’re asking this group for a quarter million dollars in operational funding, FRPD Chief Magalis may have been thinking as he dressed for Monday’s meeting.

The agenda summary noted that the Town will pay for the car and body cameras at $32,440 annually over a five-year period. Funding for all three purchases were cited as available through existing FY-2021 FRPD budget line items.

A scheduled Closed Session to discuss unspecified “Personnel” matters was deleted from the agenda at Councilman Meza’s suggestion, due to the absence of one member, Chris Holloway.

Lori Cockrell’s request to then add a Closed Session to discuss the Town’s litigation against the County-Town Economic Development Authority was rejected for not receiving the required unanimous vote to alter the advertised agenda. Councilwoman Letasha Thompson explained she would oppose the addition on the same grounds council had agreed to remove the scheduled Closed Session, Holloway’s absence preventing consideration by the full council.

E.J. Swindell and Jorge Guerrero are recognized by the Town Manager as Town ‘Stars of the Month’ for work ‘above and beyond’ in gathering up wind-blown recycling in the Ay-View Estates subdivision.

The final agenda item was unanimous approval of a Resolution of support for a Town “Employee Appreciation Day” to be this Wednesday, July 15. The resolution cited the ongoing contributions of the Town’s remaining 168 part and full-time employees, particularly during upheavals in normal service resulting from the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic emergency management response. Staff will be honored with a Town-hosted luncheon tomorrow to mark Employee Appreciation Day.

As his children and new chief watch, Scott Baker is introduced and pinned – carefully – by his wife as FRPD’s newest officer. Baker came over from the WC Sheriff’s Office investigations division.

See the staff summaries, discussion and votes on these matters, as well as Stars of the Month Employee recognitions to the Solid Waste Department’s EJ Swindell and Jorge Guerrero for work “above and beyond”; and the departmental “pinning” by his wife, of FRPD’s newest Officer Scott Baker; and public presentations on town road infrastructure/pothole issues (Mike McCool), trash accumulation and overflow at the County Dog Park in town (Betty Showers), and another 2^nd Amendment Sanctuary initiative seeking to shield citizens from State-enacted gun laws presented to council (Paul Aldridge) in this Royal Examiner video:

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Without accepting any responsibility for the nearly $9-million cost of its new police headquarters building, at a hastily called Tuesday evening Special Meeting to accommodate the turn of the fiscal year today, Wednesday, July 1st, the Front Royal Town Council unanimously approved a “Reservation of Rights Agreement” allowing the Town to pay a portion of the first debt service payment of Fiscal Year 2021 on that Town/EDA capital improvement project. The project was completed in October 2018 and the Town has yet to compensate the EDA for any of its costs in financing the project as will be elaborated on below.

Also approved during the eight-minute meeting prior to an adjournment to closed session for personnel matters believed to be the first of two town managers interviews scheduled this week, was an extension past June 30, and alteration to the contract payment terms of Interim Town Manager Matt Tederick. That will be covered in a separate Royal Examiner story.

Councilman Jake Meza says the Town saved about $50,000 by hiring Matt Tederick as a contractor, but as of July 1 that arrangement no longer exists. Royal Examiner photos and video by Mark Williams.

As to the Reservation of Rights Agreement with Warren County, the authorized one-time payment of $10,528.95 covers half of the Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority’s interest-only payment of approximately $21,102 due at the July 1st start of FY-2021.

Contacted Wednesday morning, EDA Executive Director Doug Parson explained the EDA’s loan to facilitate construction of the Town Police headquarters have thus far been interest-only payments based on a 30-day month. That will change on November 1, when the United Bank loan moves to principal and interest payments. Parsons estimated that would take the monthly payments to about $50,000 from the $21,000 interest-only range.

The United Bank’s interest rate on the loan is 3%. However, the town council has taken the legal stance that it should only have to pay a 30-year, 1.5% interest rate it asserts was verbally promised to it by former EDA Executive Director Jennifer McDonald. As previously reported by Royal Examiner, that 1.5% rate was tied to the construction project qualifying for a 30-year New Market Tax Credit Program (NMTC) loan with a nine-year waiver of interest payments. However, the NMTC program loans are for municipal capital improvement projects that create new jobs, which the FRPD project did not.

Councilwoman Lori Athey Cockrell took the opportunity of council’s passage of the agreement facilitating a one-time, half monthly payment on the FRPD debt service as an indicator that the council and its staff are working proactively with the Warren County government to resolve outstanding legal and financial issues surrounding the EDA.

Prominent among those Town-County/EDA issues is what EDA officials have called “an undisputed” $8.4 million Town “moral obligation” debt on principal to the EDA on the police headquarters construction project. With interest, the balance on that debt is $8.8 million, EDA Director Parsons told Royal Examiner Wednesday.

EDA Board of Directors Chairman Ed Daley was present to watch Tuesday’s council action unfold. Asked for a reaction prior to having a chance to read the Reservation of Rights Agreement, Daley said, “Anything that moves it forward is positive.”

However, after a closer read, exactly how far forward Tuesday’s council action takes the Town-County-EDA discussion, remains a question.

$440,000 invoice – $10,500 (recoverable) payment

The opening paragraph of the Reservation of Rights Agreement notes that the Town had received a June 2 invoice “ostensibly setting out all costs incurred by the EDA in constructing and financing the construction of the Town of Front Royal Police Department (‘Costs’), including the costs and expenses associated with the loan from United Bank obtained to finance construction (‘Loan’)” and continues to note those costs and loan “are currently the subject of dispute” in the Town’s civil action against the EDA.

It is a civil action in which the Town’s contracted Damiani & Damiani law firm appears to have mirrored much of the language in the EDA’s initial civil litigation against Jennifer McDonald and 14 civil co-defendants and which seeks essentially all ($20 million-plus) of the $21.3 million the EDA alleges was misdirected by its former executive director and her first group of co-defendants. In April the EDA filed a second civil action, adding nine defendants and “not less than” $4.45 million in recoverable assets to its litigation.

But as to that June 2 invoice from the EDA, an invoice implying a request for payment on a debt, according to numbers in that invoice what the EDA presented to the Town was a bill for slightly over $441,300 spent thus far on the $8.8 million FRPD headquarters construction loan balance.

What the County and EDA got in response was the above-cited agreement facilitating a recoverable $10,529 payment that on a closer examination appears to try and legally tie the County and EDA’s hands in future court proceedings.

Legal ties that bind?

That agreement references ongoing “discussions” between the Town and County “which may result in amending the Town’s claims in the Litigation (against the EDA)”.

Contacted Wednesday, County Administrator Doug Stanley said county staff had not been involved in those discussions. Attempts to reach Board of Supervisors Chairman Walt Mabe, Vice-Chair Cheryl Cullers, and County Attorney Jason Ham for information on the referenced discussions and council proposal were unsuccessful prior to publication.

Reservation of Rights Agreement, Condition 1 states – “The Town denies that it owes any moral or legal obligation to repay the Loan”

So, referencing the “Reservation of Rights Agreement” passed 6-0 by council Monday, it states:

“WHEREAS, to facilitate the discussions, the County has asked the Town to make the disputed July 1, 2020, payment on the Loan and the Town has agreed, subject to the terms and conditions stated herein.” – As noted above, what was agreed to was a payment of $10,528.95, or half of the interest-only payment due for July, under the following conditions:

Condition 1 – “The Town denies that it owes any moral or legal obligation to repay the Loan” followed by Condition 2, noting that its payment is calculated on the unrealized New Market Tax Credit interest rate of 1.5%, rather than the actual 3% bank loan interest rate.

Condition 3 – “The County and the EDA acknowledge that this payment shall not be construed as, considered to be, or argued to be, in any forum, admission for any purpose, including but not limited to of liability of the Town for the Loan or the Costs.

Condition 4 – “The County and the EDA acknowledge that the Town’s payment is for a disputed debt, under a reservation of rights, and the Town reserves the right to continue to deny liability for the Loan or Costs and to recoup this payment should the discussions prove ultimately unsuccessful.

And drum roll, please, Condition 5 – “All parties agree that payment hereunder shall be inadmissible for any purpose except by the Town to recover this payment as damages in the Litigation.”

So, while Councilwoman Cockrell called the agreement a sign of good faith negotiations in the public interest by the Town, adding that news reports the Town is acting other than in good faith concerning the EDA as creating “a false narrative”, is she right?

Perhaps the EDA’s and County’s attorneys would be the best judge of that – hopefully prior to the signing of the “Reservation of Rights Agreement” by County and EDA officials. For at issue appears to be whose rights are being reserved, and in exactly what legal context regarding the Town’s civil litigation against the EDA and any related litigation over the Town’s responsibility to pay for its $9-million police station.

Because according to the document approved unanimously Tuesday night by the Front Royal Town Council, the Town has no “moral or legal” obligation to pay the EDA-undertaken $8.8-million loan that financed the construction of the Front Royal Police headquarters.

Is that something EDA and Warren County officials really want to sign off on in exchange for a one-time, recoverable, half monthly debt service payment?

Let’s see, a total of $20 million or more at stake versus a “recoverable” $10,500 payment – what do you think?

Ed Daley – File Photo.

We asked EDA Board Chairman Daley his opinion on Wednesday after he had a chance to review the Reservation of Rights documents more closely.

“The first the EDA heard of this was last night, which seems odd in that we are asked to sign off on it. But we’ll need to consult with our attorney first,” Daley reasoned.

Of the contention on a lack of Town liability to pay for its police station included in the document, Daley observed, “The EDA was happy to facilitate a project like that. But it was their (the Town’s) contract, their design, we just helped finance it. I think they need to get their financing together and pay for their police station.”

After we read the conditions in the agreement to her over the phone, EDA Attorney Sharon Pandak lauded the opportunity for further communications on Town-EDA/County issues but was skeptical as to a recommendation on the EDA signing off on the Reservation of Rights Agreement as worded.

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The Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority had an end of the fiscal year report from its committees at the regular monthly meeting on Friday morning, June 26. In addition to the status of its finances, assets, communications with related agencies, and executive committee business, the board elected officers for FY-2021. See the EDA office’s press release describing details of various actions taken regarding those reports in the related story below.

As for its officers, the EDA Board of Directors decided to stay the course for another year. On a motion by Tom Pattison, seconded by Jeff Brown after a check with EDA attorney Sharon Pandak that he could vote as one of the nominees, by a 5-0 vote, Gordon absent and Gray Blanton’s seat vacant, the board re-elected its sitting officers: Ed Daley chairman, Browne vice-chair, Jorie Martin treasurer, and Greg Harold secretary.

It was still a virtually conducted meeting for the EDA, which is fine with the media at 8 a.m. Royal Examiner Photos/Roger Bianchini

But before those reports, officer elections and new business are taken care of, five minutes after convening the 8 a.m. meeting the EDA board moved into closed session to discuss “the disposition of publicly held real property” including the Royal Lane so-called “Workforce Housing” parcel recently reacquired without the necessity of additional litigation, as well as discussion of the EDA’s resurrected small business loan program, and its two-pronged civil litigation.

As you “indoor sports fans” know, the first prong of that litigation is against its former Executive Director Jennifer McDonald and 24 co-defendants alleged to have conspired with her to misdirect, fraudulently obtain and/or embezzle $21.3 million of EDA assets. The second prong is the Town of Front Royal’s suit against the EDA. That suit alleges lost assets of over $20 million as a consequence of the EDA financial scandal. After three-hours-and-20 minutes behind closed doors, the board emerged without action or announcement and moved to the open meeting agenda.

The virtual presence of Sands Anderson civil case lead attorney Cullen Seltzer and his colleague Dan Siegel may have offered a clue as to which topic may have accounted for the largest time slot behind closed doors.

The re-tooled EDA board and staff at work in December 2019. From left at table are Tom Pattison, Chair Ed Daley, Greg Harold, Executive Director Doug Parsons, Vice-Chair Jeff Browne, Gray Blanton, and Jorie Martin, the latter two around the table from Browne. The board continues to morph with the addition of Melissa Gordon replacing Mark Baker and Gray Blanton’s recent departure.

“Without the necessity of additional litigation” – what a novel concept. Wonder if anyone in Town Hall has considered such an idea in lieu of an “all in” rather expensive legal gamble that every asset the EDA recovers is somehow owed to you – despite their lack of work on your behalf for over a decade publicly verbalized as justification to pull away from them toward the creation of a second EDA the Town would have full operational funding responsibility for, as opposed to none with the existing EDA?

The irony of still working for a town government that is claiming that essentially every penny the EDA is out to recover in its civil litigation should come to it directly or indirectly despite the above-referenced public claim by Councilman Gary Gillespie, undisputed by his colleagues, that the EDA hasn’t really worked on the Town’s behalf in 15 years, was apparent as the board discussed a fiscal year-end presentation to its sponsoring municipalities.

Should they present to the Town, as well as the County, Chairman Daley, and his board wonder? There appeared little enthusiasm for a presentation to town officials who have repeatedly rejected EDA offers of “good faith negotiations” to determine exactly what the EDA may owe the Town in misdirected assets. Once again the scheduled interim town manager’s monthly update to the EDA board on Town business was neither presented nor even submitted in writing despite the Town’s maintaining its co-founding EDA connection on a legally advised chance for asset distribution was the EDA to somehow fail, despite state codes that prevent EDA’s from declaring bankruptcy.

The Warren County Courthouse is casting a long shadow over relations between, not only the Town and EDA, but potentially between the Town and County, the latter of which has full operational funding responsibility for the existing EDA due to negotiations on double taxation responsibilities of town citizen. However, many including several council candidates are wondering if it is a necessary legal shadow.

And what might such a presentation to a municipal body that is claiming no oversight responsibility of the EDA despite enabling the largest single item in the EDA’s civil suit, the $10-million ITFederal loan, by issuing a three-month $10-million “bridge loan” at McDonald’s request to convince a bank to make that loan despite serious asset questions about the eventual recipient, sound like?

“Mr. Mayor and Council, the EDA ends the fiscal year with $85,089 in its operational checking account and another $62,936 in its rental income account ($148,025 combined) – BUT we’d have a lot more if the Town would make good on its undisputed $8.4 million principal debt to us on the construction of the new town police headquarters, not to mention the $701 of daily interest on that FRPD project debt, though a disputed portion based on verbal promises of the former EDA executive director, that is accumulating as the civil litigation creeps forward.

Also noted during the financial report of board Treasurer Jorie Martin, was a $64,439 balance in the EDA’s Rural Business Enterprise Loan (RBEL) account and a $307,043 balance in its Intermediary Relending Program (IRP) account.

Chances are some of those loan balances will find their way into the hands of businesses located inside the Front Royal town limits.

EDA’s June 26 meeting action agenda

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