Kushner outlined Town downsizing plan’s critique, if not tone as questions mount for elected officials

As previously reported 20 of 24 public speakers addressing the Front Royal Town Council, Mayor Eugene Tewalt and Interim Town Manager Matt Tederick on February 10, regarding recent staff terminations and planned governmental downsizing in the Fiscal Year 2021 Budget proposal were highly critical of the plan, the process or both. Two speakers took a more middle ground approach and two tied to the Warren County Republican Committee of which Tederick and at least four council people are members, defended the plan.

In our initial report on that meeting we summarized salient points made by the 20 critics with more detail on the two municipal downsizing defenders and council and the town manager’s responses to the criticism. We promised more detail on the numerous criticisms and this is that additional detail.

Due Process?

First public concerns speaker Gary Kushner established an initial outline, if not the occasionally accusatory tone, of what was to come for the most part of the first 90 minutes of Monday’s council meeting. Kushner opened with a criticism of the process and inconsistencies with that process compared to Tederick’s own previous statements on his perception as his role as interim town manager.

Beginning public comments on Feb. 10, Gary Kushner laid out the case for the prosecution, or rather citizen critics of the Front Royal Town Council and its appointed interim town manager’s town government downsizing plan and process tied to the FY 2021 Budget proposal. Royal Examiner Photos by Roger Bianchini. Video by Mark Williams, Royal Examiner.

“I thought that the Interim Mgr. was appointed to:

1 – supervise ongoing government operations and projects;

2 – shepherd the process to get candidates for a permanent manager; and

3 – prepare a (Fiscal Year) 2020/21 budget – NOT change personnel in the (current) 2019/2020 budget … The interim manager said that he intended to prepare options for a permanent (town) manager to consider but then actually implemented his ideas instead. Those actions are not consistent with the citizens’ desire for more transparency and a greater opportunity to participate in their government,” Kushner said of the public mood in the wake of the Town-County Economic Development Authority financial scandal.

He then added observations about one of the FY 2021 budget plan’s most controversial re-organizational aspects, Tourism marketing.

“The interim manager has criticized staff and said they are not ‘AGILE or NIMBLE’ enough to manage tourism, but offered no definitive evidence to support such a conclusion. I believe many with government experience would attest that Tourism is exactly what should not be conducted by an outside, disconnected entity,” Kushner said reflecting early feedback from a number of town business owners involved in catering at least in part, to a tourist clientele.

Immediate Terminations

Of the five staff terminations, including three department heads, two of whom are directly or indirectly involved in tourism and downtown redevelopment, that were implemented on January 29, five days before the budget plan was presented to the mayor and council, Kushner noted Tederick’s public comments indicating those terminations were NOT performance-related, but rather an immediate effort to cut the Town’s operational budget.

“Such actions without a well thought out plan to address the immediate responsibilities they worked on raises questions and demonstrates a clear management failure. This is especially true for tourism whose most significant period begins in only a few months,” Kushner observed.

This point seemed borne out by the confusion expressed two days later by members of the Town-County Joint Tourism Advisory Board concerning what the Town’s intentions are toward tourism promotion and a financial commitment to it at their Wednesday, February 12 meeting at Town Hall.

On Feb. 12, the Town-County Joint Tourism Advisory Board, comprised largely of community business owners and managers, was operating in a vacuum of information from the town government on a radical overhaul related to tourism marketing, current and future funding commitments, and outsourcing plans.

It was a meeting as previously reported by Royal Examiner, that the interim town manager was aware of but chose not to attend despite its close proximity to his office. Of course, with his council-endorsed terminations of the Town’s Community Development-Tourism Director, Planning Director and Town Engineer, not to mention Council Clerk and Planning Department Technician, Tederick has been a busy man lately. So busy, in fact, that he has written a request for an assistant town manager into his budget proposal.

Previous discussion has indicated that in the past the Town Engineer has generally filled the role of an operational assistant to the town manager; and that when discussion of the position last arose during Joe Waltz’s tenure as town manager, Waltz opted to go with a Town Engineer, a position filled until January 29 by Robert Brown.

Waltz informed the council of his resignation as town manager, effective November 8, on October 9, about five months after the council appointed Tederick interim mayor. While we have not been able to contact Waltz since his departure, at least three people close to Town Hall have speculated that Waltz’s resignation may have reflected disagreement with the termination and downsizing plan now being implemented by his successor, with the town council’s blessing.

At the time Waltz simply said he wished to return to the energy sector where he started out, taking a job with an energy cooperative in Ohio to do so.

Former Town Manager Joe Waltz on the job in June 2017 while still sporting the title ‘Interim’, as his successor will for his entire term.

Conflicts of Interest?

Before concluding, Kushner did flirt with topics that would lead to some of the more pointedly personal critiques to come concerning potential conflicts of interest between the departmental downsizing plan, perhaps reflected in previous initiatives brought forward and seemingly supported by Tederick during his interim tenures at Town Hall.

Kushner pointed to Tederick’s efforts:

1 – on behalf of what he called “a radical change” in the Town’s water policy that would have added private-sector residential development as a mandated reason for the Town to expand its water-sewer utility beyond the town limits onto County land;

2 – an alleged failure to disclose what Kushner termed Tederick’s “personal relationship with the Crooked Run West property owner” who was seeking that central Town water-sewer for north corridor residential development; and

3 – what Kushner called a related failure of the interim town manager to disclose his presidency of “an LLC involving real estate development”; among a few others.

As noted in our first story on the February 10 meeting, Tederick and council defender Amber Poe Morris described the interim town manager and fellow Warren County Republican Committee officer as becoming “the Trump of Front Royal” due to the number of conspiracy theories and allegations of such potential conflicts of interest made during his interim tenures with the town government beginning in late May.

Current Interim Town Manager Matt Tederick fields questions from citizen prior to convening of the February 10 Town Council meeting at which 24 members of the public addressed the Town downsizing plan: 20 against, 2 for, and 2 in the middle.

Ultimate Responsibility, Promises & Gambles

However, Kushner concluded by laying responsibility, not at Tederick’s doorstep, but rather that of his bosses on the Town Council.

“I can’t imagine that the interim manager’s efforts are without Council approval or guidance, so this rests solely on your plate. While the interim manager’s actions may have been well-intended, the public is neither satisfied with his results nor his style,” Kushner said.

Included in that style, drawing additional criticism from the evening’s first public speaker, was what appears to be another joint interim town manager-council initiative – “promotion of an adversarial relationship on EDA issues, rather than pursuing a cooperative approach”.

Several council comments on this front referenced “promises” made by former EDA Executive Director Jennifer McDonald concerning 1.5% interest rates tied to a New Market Tax Credit (NMTC) program that the Town’s Police Department construction project did not qualify for, and which nothing in writing has ever been produced by the Town in support of its rising damage claims against the EDA. In fact, in early 2018 the NMTC Program’s administrator, People Inc.’s Brain Phipps, advised the council to take a guaranteed 30-year, bank-offered 2.65% interest rate on the FRPD construction project because the Town would be competing for limited funds with multiple municipalities.

It was advice mirroring that of the Town’s own staff, Town Manager Waltz and Finance Director B. J. Wilson. But perhaps mirroring McDonald’s admitted propensity for the Charles Town slot machines, council decided to GAMBLE on “McDonald promises” and a nine-year interest-free payback period that the new FRPD headquarters did not even qualify for as a non-job creating municipal project.

Above, former EDA Executive Director Jennifer McDonald celebrating what she told Royal Examiner in early 2018 were a majority of winning days at Charles Town’s casino slots; below, Jacob Meza was a prime advocate of not taking staff and NMTC administrator advice on private-sector financing and a fixed 30-year 2.65% interest rate for the FRPD construction project – ‘Jennifer promised us an NMTC 1.5% interest rate’ appears to be the rationale for that decision; as well as a basis for the Town’s refusal to pay an $8.3 million debt to the EDA on principal payments on the police station FRPD is currently housed in.

Kushner concluded his remarks pointedly at the council, “Many think this is all a done deal, but I sincerely hope that’s not the case. Council’s responsibility is to REPRESENT the people, rather than just GOVERN them. It is imperative that their opinions be solicited, heard and addressed.”

Not only Kushner’s but following public comments indicated a growing belief that the plan emanating from the interim town manager’s office has been vetted and fully supported by the town council.

In fact, the council’s collective response, including an impassioned one from Gary Gillespie, did nothing to dispel that perception. See Royal Examiner’s linked videos for those defenses of the town downsizing plan, as well as other public comments to the council. Additional exploration of that heavy majority critical comment will be forthcoming in a related story.

Tederick, council defend budget plan, staff terminations in face of pointed public criticism

Town-County Tourism Advisory Board moves forward in a vacuum of information on Town plans