EDA in Focus
Town files suit against EDA, McDonald to recover $3 million of Town assets
Jennifer McDonald and then-Councilwoman Bébhinn Egger square off in October 2016 over the substance of public representations about EDA projects, most prominently ITFederal and Workforce Housing. Unfortunately none of her colleagues were listening – several, then Mayor Tharpe and Councilmen Meza and Tewalt, have since apologized for that lapse. Royal Examiner File Photos/Roger Bianchini
After months of unsuccessful efforts to be included with the EDA and County in information gathered on Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority financial improprieties as it applies directly to money that it may be owed, the Town of Front Royal has filed suit to recover an estimated $3 million dollars of Town assets from the EDA and its former executive director, Jennifer McDonald.
The civil action for lost Town taxpayer assets was filed at 9:04 a.m. on June 21, just minutes after the opening of the Warren County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office. Served as agents of the EDA were EDA/County Attorney Dan Whitten, at his Warren County Government Center office, and newly-hired EDA Executive Director Doug Parsons, at his EDA Kendrick Lane EDA office. McDonald was served at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center where she is now housed without bond on four related felony criminal charges. Judge Clifford L. Athey Jr. has deemed McDonald a flight risk was she to be released on bond.
The aggressively-worded complaint targets, not only McDonald for believed fraud, but the EDA Board of Directors and legal staff for “inexplicable” lapses of oversight in allowing the possible continuation of fraud against Town interests for at least three months beyond a confrontational August 2018 meeting between Town and EDA officials.
The Town complaint demands a jury trial to recover assets it admits it does not yet have a completely accurate estimate of due to the EDA legal counsel’s rejection of multiple FOIA inquiries about the result of the Cherry Bekaert investigation of indicators of fraud in EDA financial operations.
Town Attorney Doug Napier has been at the center of unsuccessful efforts to have the Town included with the EDA and County in information distribution from the EDA fraud investigation.
Of course the Town now has access to those almost 3,000 pages of documentation and its 100-page working paper summary on file in the EDA civil litigation court file. An initial exploration of those documents by Town staff perhaps led to the upping of its estimated losses from the $291,000 of debt service overpayments discovered by Town Finance Director B.J. Wilson in May 2018, to the $3 million dollars now cited as of June 21, the first day of summer 2019.
In addition to its own independent, contracted auditor’s confirmation of Wilson’s May 2018 discovery of years of debt service overpayments, the Town Complaint cites a subsequent August meeting with McDonald, then EDA Board of Directors Chairman Greg Drescher and EDA/County Attorney Dan Whitten at which, “It was Town employees and agents who, on August 23, 2018, caused McDonald to admit, in person and while in the presence of the EDA/County Attorney and in the presence of the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the EDA, that McDonald had personally submitted false, and thereby knowingly and fraudulently, billing invoices to the Town for payment.”
Citing his public schools administrator’s work schedule, Drescher announced he was stepping down as EDA board chairman the following day. He has since resigned from the EDA board. Drescher and Ron Llewellyn submitted their resignations on March 22, effective the following day as the Cherry Bekaert investigation was winding down.
Who could have known? Then EDA Board Chairman Greg Drescher and McDonald field Workforce Housing questions from Supervisors Sayre and Fox during sometimes contentious June 2017 county board-EDA work session.
Also on the day following the apparently volatile August 23 Town-EDA staff meeting, or very close to it, the Town Complaint notes its contact of the Virginia State Police requesting “a complete law enforcement investigation of the EDA and McDonald” which it adds was begun “immediately” and continues “to this day.”
It was VSP that arrested McDonald on May 24 in the wake of Special Grand Jury indictments handed down from the investigation into potential criminality related to EDA financial activities and the EDA civil litigation filed March 26.
It is here on page seven of its nine-page complaint, where the August 23 meeting is addressed, that the Town zeroes in on what it characterizes as an ongoing pattern of “inexplicable” negligence by the EDA Board of Directors.
“Notwithstanding the events of August 23, 2018, the EDA Board of Directors, inexplicably, allowed McDonald to retain her position as Executive Director of the EDA with all of her rights, privileges and duties as before, with no known restrictions as such,” the Complaint begins in paragraph 18, subsection D, adding the word “inexplicably” three more times to describe the EDA board’s lack of disciplinary action or even the implementation of increased oversight of its executive director in the subsection D paragraph.
“The EDA Board of Directors inexplicably did not immediately fire or otherwise discipline McDonald … inexplicably did not restrict McDonald’s access to the EDA offices or her duties … inexplicably did not immediately call law enforcement to investigate McDonald or her activities … not withstanding that the Town’s auditor on that date rightfully and appropriately personally called out McDonald for committing fraud upon the Town in the presence of McDonald … the EDA’s Chairman of its Board of Directors and in the presence of the EDA’s attorney,” paragraph 18-D reads, adding a fifth and final “inexplicably” to describe the failure to place their executive director on administrative leave pending a resolution of the fraud allegation made by the Town auditor on August 23, 2018.
VSP and the FBI descended on the EDA headquarters to search for potentially criminally-related materials regarding EDA financial operations on April 16, 2019. Five weeks later the EDA’s former executive director was arrested by VSP following four felony criminal indictments being handed down by a Special Grand Jury.
Of that series of “inexplicable” EDA board lapses the longest paragraph in the complaint – at one-and-a-half pages – concludes of the period between August 23 and December 2018, “…McDonald was able to continue to and did in fact misappropriate and embezzle EDA’s moneys and taxpayers’ moneys. In fact, according to widely published accounts, on November 28, 2018, McDonald as Executive Director was able to convince the EDA’s Chairman of the Board of Directors to sign a deed of conveyance to a highly publicized and controversial workforce housing project property worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to a third party for a consideration of only ten dollars, concerning which the Chairman was publicly quoted in the press as saying that he had no reason not to trust McDonald when she handed him the deed to sign without him reading the deed, even though at the time she was under State Police investigation, federal government law enforcement investigation, and the EDA and McDonald were under the aforementioned Financial Study for this very same misappropriation and embezzlement of moneys.”
Former EDA Chairman Drescher, back to camera, and Attorney Whitten oversee a lockdown of the executive director’s office, including remote computer access, on Dec. 20, 2018, the day McDonald resigned.
Paragraph 10 of the complaint states that, “As a result of the incorrect and incomplete documentation the Town has received to date from the EDA and McDonald, it is unknown to the Town when the moneys were misappropriated by the EDA and McDonald; or who are the identities of all the persons or entities who might have been involved … or where the moneys misappropriated are now located or if it is now in the United States of America, or if it is even now recoverable.” The following paragraph cites the potential of a statute of limitations kicking on some of the longer misdirected Town money.
The outset of the civil complaint notes that it is currently the Warren County Board of Supervisors that “solely appoints the Board of Directors of the EDA”; and that with the EDA it is the County that funds the EDA’s operational budget, with the Town playing no current role in either. In the wake of the County’s assumption several years ago of the Town’s portion of the EDA’s operational budget as part of the continuing Route 340/522 Corridor agreement compensation negotiations, the Town does continue to contribute to portions of the EDA debt service payments, as illustrated by the discovered years of debt service overpayments continuing into 2018. The Town also contributes by way of a fair-funding formula split for projects of mutual town-county interest.
In March former County Board Chairman Tony Carter and County Administrator Doug Stanley await an EDA Board Closed Session discussion of the Cherry Bekaert financial fraud investigation of the EDA. Carter and Stanley have both caught public meeting expressions of ire over a perceived lack of County oversight of EDA operations allowing questionable transactions to occur over a period of years.
In what may flirt with an editorial observation, it would appear to this long-time local municipal reporter that the Town voluntarily withdrew from EDA oversight and board appointment authority, rather than being compelled to do so by the County’s assumption of its EDA operational funding. That is because that assumption was done as part of negotiated County compensation to the Town for the extension of Town central water-sewer utility into the county to facilitate corridor commercial-industrial development. So if not in the filed civil complaint or open court, behind closed doors town officials might want to whack themselves on the back of the hand for not maintaining more operational oversight of how the EDA was functioning, particularly as much of that functioning continued and continues to involve in-town projects.
EDA in Focus
Town Mayor Cockrell and County Economic Development Director Petty react to the Shenandoah Rail Trail event and public feedback
Royal Examiner asked several local officials who participated in Thursday evening’s Shenandoah Rail Trail presentation what they thought of the project, the public turnout, and feedback about the project. Front Royal Mayor Lori Cockrell introduced the evening’s event and some Rail Trail Partnership and local officials present for it, including Warren County Director of Economic Development Joe Petty. We queried both the town mayor and county economic development director on their perspectives.
Front Royal Mayor Lori Cockrell and County Director of Economic Development Joe Petty were among local officials mingling before the 7 p.m. start of the program’s agenda.
“I think the partnership prepared an excellent event. It provided information as well as opportunities to ask questions and share concerns and input. There was a large group of engaged people in attendance. I think I counted between 120-130 people,” Mayor Cockrell began, adding, “I was very encouraged by all the positive feedback I received. I even spoke with people who have previously lived in other communities with rail trails who have moved to our area. They were excited about having an opportunity like this locally.
“I also spoke with people who had concerns because they lived on property that borders the rail corridor. I think they had valid concerns. I connected them with members of the partnership who could gather their concerns and hopefully address them moving forward. That’s what last night was all about, getting the community’s input,” Cockrell concluded of the ongoing process of developing a citizen-friendly project.
County Economic Development Director Petty concurred with the mayor’s overall perception: “I thought the meeting went well and there was a good turnout. I was able to have open conversations with members of the community that are in support, have questions, or concerned with the project; and look forward to continuing those discussions with all of them in the future. I believe meetings similar to last night are important in order to engage with the public,” Petty said of the project’s developmental process.
Many citizens and officials arrived early and perused informational table displays manned by Shenandoah Rail Trail Partnership volunteers and staff.
“I also spoke with individuals regarding the economic impacts as defined in the Economic Impact Analysis, and how we can further highlight and explore the local benefits as well as expand on the regional benefits,” Petty concluded.
Mayor Cockrell concurred on the importance of the Economic Development Analysis:
“One area that was not focused on during the event was the specific numbers that came out of the Economic Impact Analysis. Benefits to our community were shared, but I think if citizens had the opportunity to see actual predicted numbers, actual dollars, they might be even more enthusiastic about the project!” she concluded with an exclamation point by email.
It was a full Fire & Rescue Company 1 parking lot – trust me, way beyond the front section pictured here – for the Shenandoah Rail Trail public informational meeting of March 23rd.
EDA in Focus
Shenandoah Rail Trail Partnership makes its case as a beneficial project, not only to Front Royal, but communities throughout the Valley
On Thursday evening, March 23rd, representatives of the Shenandoah Rail Trail Partnership gathered with local municipal officials from the Town of Front Royal and Warren County at the community meeting room of Front Royal Fire & Rescue Company 1 on Commerce Avenue for an informational presentation and community feedback opportunity.
Front Royal Mayor Lori A. Cockrell initiates the meeting agenda with a welcome from the host town government, and introduction of other local and Rail Trail Partnership participants. Below, it was a well attended event. Some present were still at surrounding informational tables as the official presentations began.
The Shenandoah Rail Trail project would convert abandoned railroad lines to community and tourist-friendly “walking, hiking, jogging, cycling (non-motorized it appears) and more” non-intrusive recreational uses. The proposed project would connect, not only communities from Front Royal/Warren County on its northeast to Broadway in Rockingham County at the south end of the trail, but also sections of each community to each other.
“Up and down the route, the trail connects students to school, employees to work, customers to shops, diners to restaurants, and community members to parks, rivers and historic sites,” a pamphlet available to attendees notes in its summary of the project. Of the planned path, it adds: “The rail corridor, once a community and economic hub of towns from Broadway to Front Royal, has not seen trains as far back as 1989. The tracks are now overgrown and, in some areas, completely unusable.”
Abandoned, overgrown railroad tracks or a transformed ‘Rail Trail’ connecting communities for low-impact recreational walks and bike rides. Below, informational tables drew members of the public, here including FR Councilman ‘Skip’ Rogers, left in white shirt, and WC Supervisor Walt Mabe, right blue shirt, prior to official agenda presentations.
The project includes the communities of Front Royal, Strasburg, Woodstock, Tom’s Brook, Edinburg, Mount Jackson, New Market, Timberville, and Broadway. Of the benefit to the
average Shenandoah Valley citizen of these communities, the Shenandoah Rail Trail group observes that many of the existing trails in National Parks and elsewhere “are remote and, by the nature of the terrain, suited for advanced trail users.
“Our rail trail is flat, primarily rural and scenic, and easily accessed from many towns and neighborhoods. It will be a safe and easy way to get outside to walk, run or roll with family members of all ages and abilities.”
Perspectives from the Shenandoah Rail Trail Partnership website
The rail trail group also points to potential economic benefit from realization of the project in improving easily accessible amenities for area citizens – a plus for companies looking to locate in areas that provide “a high quality of life to the folks they employ” — and those folks could include locals recruited by new businesses moving into the valley.
The friendly nature of a flat, scenic walking, hiking and biking trail can also attract regional tourists, expanding the customer base for local shops, restaurants, and other businesses accessible from the rail trail.
Learn more by visiting <shenandoahrailtrail.org>
EDA in Focus
Federal Court ruling on McDonald criminal defense motion for change of trial venue may come this week
Update: As of March 14 our information is no decision has yet been rendered by the federal court judge on the McDonald defense motion for a change of venue for criminal trial slated for this mid-May to June.
On Wednesday, March 8th, the first pre-trial motions hearing in the federal 10th Western District of Virginia criminal cases against Jennifer McDonald related to the Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority (FR-WC EDA) financial scandal will be held. One might anticipate a ruling by U.S. District Judge Elizabeth K. Dalton on McDonald’s defense motion to have the jury trial moved from Harrisonburg to Charlottesville. Other pre-trial motions are scheduled for March 28th and May 4th.
What is anticipated to be a five-week or longer trial on her 34 federal criminal indictments is scheduled to begin May 15, running into June. McDonald faces 16 counts of money laundering, 10 counts of bank fraud, seven counts of wire fraud, and one count of aggravated identity theft, the latter related to the Truc “Curt” Tran/ITFederal case.
Federal court-appointed defense counsel for McDonald, Eric Trodden, filed the change of venue for trial last month. He asserts that his client is not likely to get an unbiased jury in Harrisonburg due to Shenandoah Valley regional media reporting about McDonald and other related civil cases in which she was a witness or topic of legal arguments pointing a finger at her alleged role as the central figure in the estimated $26-million financial embezzlement and misappropriation of FR-WC EDA funds scandal.
Jennifer McDonald mugshot following July 2019 arrest on initial criminal charges filed while prosecution was based in Warren County. Below, the FBI and Va. State Police on site seizing potential evidence at the FR-WC EDA office in April 2019.
There have been numerous delays in criminal prosecutions as the EDA criminal cases were moved due to local conflicts of interest or dropped due to speedy trial concerns surrounding the voluminous amount of evidentiary material, now estimated at over a million pages. For the most part, McDonald has been free on bond or out of jail as initial criminal charges were dropped at the state level due to those speedy trial concerns. Those jurisdiction moves were, first, from Warren County’s Commonwealth’s Attorneys Office to Rockingham County’s prosecutors office in Harrisonburg, then to the above-referenced federal district court also in Harrisonburg.
Last year McDonald was indicted on those 34 federal criminal charges related to the FR-WC EDA financial scandal of 2014-18 during her decade tenure as EDA executive director. As previously reported by Royal Examiner and others, EDA attorneys went on a civil case trial winning streak beginning in July of 2022 and ending in October with the initially delayed civil liability trial of McDonald’s husband, Samuel North. EDA counsel won 5 of 5 verdicts of personal liability, 7 of 7, including two related company liability findings in 2 of those cases. Total liability found by those five civil case juries, including compensatory, punitive, and statutory conspiracy findings, amounted to about $14 million. With out-of-court settlements, including a “no-fault” agreement with McDonald for real estate estimated at about a $9-million value, the EDA has, on paper, recovered about $24 million. (See related stories on the Royal Examiner website).
EDA civil case legal team from Sands-Anderson law firm, led by Cullen Seltzer, left, here with Kimberly Paulsrud, was on a mid-2022 civil liability roll, winning jury judgments totaling about $14 million in five trials against seven defendants, including two companies, ITFederal and Earth Right Energy, tied to involved defendants.
And while the related civil cases were held in Warren County Circuit Court in Front Royal, that local and regional reporting of McDonald’s often given 5th Amendment responses asserting her Constitutional right not to self-incriminate, in addition to EDA attorneys descriptions of her as the orchestrator of an alleged conspiracy to misdirect municipal and EDA assets to her and others personal gain, may have found its way to potential jurors in Harrisonburg is more than likely, her defense counsel asserts. The fact that Charlottesville, while only 11 miles further from Front Royal at 74 miles to Harrisonburg’s 63 miles, is considerably east of Harrisonburg and not part of the Shenandoah Valley-based regional media has largely insulated the Charlottesville community’s potential jury pool from the story, McDonald’s attorney believes. And the slight difference in distance from Front Royal/Warren County will not cause undue hardship on witnesses based in Front Royal and Warren County, McDonald’s attorney argues in his motion for the venue change.
Will the federal judge agree? – Get the popcorn and stay tuned for Wednesday’s pre-trial motions hearing, and we may find out.
EDA in Focus
County’s EDA Board authorizes another confidential settlement agreement at end of monthly meeting review of ongoing projects and opportunities
The Front Royal-Warren County EDA held their monthly meeting on Tuesday, February 28, 2023, at 8 a.m. All five Board members and the County Director of Economic Development were present at the Warren County Government Center Caucus Room. Following a closed session at the meeting’s conclusion, the board approved a resolution accepting another confidential settlement agreement. It is believed the agreement involves multiple civil litigation defendants in the 2014-2018 FR-WC EDA financial scandal cases. The wording of a portion of the motion to accept the confidential agreement states: “WHEREAS, the EDA desires to enter into the confidential settlement agreement with confidential parties providing for a confidential settlement payment to the EDA;”. There was no action on the other closed session topic, “business opportunities”.
As part of the Committee Reports, Board Chair Jeff Browne provided an update on the marketing plan in anticipation of formalizing the path forward at the next meeting. Mr. Browne also gave an overview of the presentation that he and the Director of Economic Development, Joe Petty, provided to the Virginia Economic Development Partnership’s (VEDP’s) Business Investment Team earlier this month.
Treasurer, Jim Wolfe, and Joe Petty provided an update on the proposed FY-2023-24 and FY-2024-25 Budgets, and they will be reviewed by the County Board of Supervisors on Thursday, March 2 at 7:30 PM.
Secretary, Jorie Martin, gave a recap of the recently held Open-Door Business Session hosted at the Virginia Inland Port on February 23, 2023.
Mr. Petty provided an update on the Department’s recent activities that including meeting with prospects, planning for upcoming regional programs, and presentations at meetings both locally and out-of-town.
As a follow up to old business the County and EDA will continue to move forward on IT (Information Technology) and social media programs that include resolving security and administrative rights to access profiles and data to ensure that all information is secure and up-to-date.
Presented as new business, Jorie Martin and Scott Jenkins provided the Board with a draft Request For Information (RFI) for the Avtex Redevelopment Site. The Board agreed to share the working document with the Town, as well as County, in order to provide additional feedback on the final version. There was also a discussion regarding ongoing work on a financial process Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) between the EDA and the County to consolidate multiple agreements and clarify the process moving forward.
The next regular monthly Board meeting will be held on Friday, March 24, 2023, at 8:00 AM at the Warren County Government Center Caucus Room.
(From a release by the FR-WC EDA)
Crime/Court
EDA officials, attorneys mum on circumstance of Rappawan/Vaught Jr. civil case dismissal – But a good guess might be…
The Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority has made another out-of-court resolution of part of the civil litigation surrounding the financial scandal alleged to have been orchestrated by former FR-WC EDA Executive Director Jennifer McDonald between 2014 and 2018. In the wake of a jointly filed motion of December 21, 2022, filed with the court six days later, the EDA’s civil claim against Rappawan Inc. and company official William T. Vaught Jr. was dismissed “with prejudice” – meaning it cannot be refiled.
Vaught Jr. and Rappawan were involved in a 2016 transfer of real estate assets with Jennifer McDonald over a 37 day period in which McDonald, utilizing her DaBoyz real estate company and EDA assets according to the civil action claim, bought a piece of property from Rappawan/Vaught Jr. for $1.9-million dollars, then sold it back to Rappawan/Vaught Jr. 37 days later for $1.3 million, absorbing a $600,000 loss. The EDA alleges McDonald made the transactions with EDA assets and without the knowledge or approval of the EDA Board of Directors.
Royal Examiner contacted what is now the unilaterally Warren County-overseen FR-WC EDA Board of Directors Chairman Jeff Browne about the December resolution of the Rappawan/Vaught Jr. civil action. Browne explained that as part of that resolution he could not comment on the case dismissal. EDA counsel Cullen Seltzer and Executive Director Joe Petty both confirmed the gag order on details of the EDA/Rappawan/Vaught Jr. joint filing for dismissal of the civil case.
But with the EDA and its contracted Sands-Anderson legal counsels’ 5-for-5 track record in five civil jury findings of liability against 7 other civil case defendants last year, one might hazard a guess the EDA did not agree to the binding dismissal without realizing at least a significant compensatory claim in either real estate or cash as part of that dismissal agreement – let’s take a wild guess, somewhere in the $600,000 range.
File photo of EDA’s Sands Anderson legal team leaving the Warren County Courthouse last year during its five civil trial winning streak against a total of seven defendants awarding over $14 million in civil liability claims to the EDA. Seven more defendants – 3 companies, 4 people – have sought and received a continuation on their trials originally slated to begin March 13. Those trials seeking over $4 million in collective liability are likely to be rescheduled for June, following Jennifer McDonald’s criminal trial in the Western District of Virginia federal court in Harrisonburg. That initial criminal prosecution in the EDA financial scandal case is scheduled for as many as 5 weeks in May-June.
In four trials last July and one more in October, five people and two companies were found liable for over $14 million in compensatory, punitive, and statutory conspiracy damages by Warren County civil trial juries. Judge Bruce D. Albertson later dismissed all defendant motions to have the jury verdicts overturned.
As previously reported, the EDA reached an out-of-court, “no-fault” settlement with McDonald for an estimated $9-million in real estate assets held in her or one of her real estate companies names. It would appear that such out-of-court settlements shield defendants against punitive or statutory conspiracy claims that tacked significant additional financial liability to several defendants in civil case verdicts handed down in July and October 2022.
This chart does not include the jury’s October ruling on McDonald’s husband Samuel North’s liability. North was found liable for the base compensatory claim of $110,000, as well as $165,000 on a finding of Statutory Conspiracy, another $350,000 in Punitive Damages on a ruling of Malicious Intent, bringing liability to $625,000. With interest, estimated at $268,000 added, North’s total liability was ruled at approximately $893,000.
Delayed civil cases
In other EDA civil court news, attorneys for seven more defendants – three companies and four people associated with those companies – filed a joint motion on January 3rd to have civil trials slated for March 13 continued to a date following Jennifer McDonald’s trial on criminal charges related to the EDA financial scandal. McDonald’s trial on over 30 criminal indictments is now scheduled for as many as five weeks in May-June in the Western District of Virginia federal court in Harrisonburg. Those defendants filing for a continuation were: TLC Settlements LLC and Tracy L. Bowers; Campbell Realty Inc., Jeanette M. Campbell and Walter L. Campbell; Service Title of Front Royal LLC and Victoria L. Williams.
The plaintiff EDA claims those companies involvement in some of McDonald’s real estate transactions utilizing EDA assets it says never received the necessary EDA board authorization led to the unjust enrichment of defendants as part of the conspiracy it alleges McDonald orchestrated to move EDA assets to her own benefit, as well as the benefit of other involved parties. EDA counsel filed a Memorandum in Opposition to those filings for delay in the civil trials of those defendants.
Several defense counsel pointed to McDonald’s past testimony in other related civil trial where the predominance of her testimony was to plead her 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination with the criminal cases hanging over her. Should she be acquitted, more forthcoming testimony exonerating their clients might be expected, defense counsels reasoned.
In arguing against the continuance, EDA attorneys noted that the case against these defendants collectively seeking over $4.4-million in damages was filed on April 15, 2020, and all the defendants were served two days later, with the court setting the trial to open March 13, 2023, on June 18, 2020. Plaintiff EDA counsel viewed the motion to continue as a reaction to the EDA’s string of successful civil prosecutions referenced above.
As Royal Examiner as previously reported, including the no-fault out of court settlement with McDonald and the five civil trial verdicts against seven other defendants last July and October, on paper the EDA has been awarded approximately $23 million in liability or settlement findings. And as noted above, with the closing of information on the jointly agreed upon Rappawan/Vaught Jr. civil case dismissal, it remains unknown if that settlement may have raised the compensation which the EDA has achieved in or out of the courtroom into or past the $24-million range.
On February 2nd Judge Albertson removed these civil cases from the March Warren County Circuit Court docket and told attorneys to seek mutually available dates in June for those defendants cases to be heard. Of course, that assumes the oft-delayed and batted from one jurisdiction to another criminal cases against McDonald aren’t once again continued on a motion by her federal court-appointed attorney.
EDA in Focus
FR-WC EDA moves to guarantee records protection during transition to County IT oversight, goes to Closed Session on litigation, business matters
The Front Royal-Warren County EDA held a special meeting on Wednesday, February 1, 2023, at 3:00 PM at the EDA Office on Kendrick Lane. All five Board members, legal counsel, and the County Director of Economic Development were present.
The meeting began with the discussion of moving the February Regular Meeting from Friday, February 24, to Tuesday, February 28 at 8:00 AM. The schedule change was unanimously approved.
Following the schedule discussion, the Board requested legal counsel to draft an agreement to protect EDA records in order to move forward with the information technology transition with the County.
The Board concluded the meeting with a closed session to discuss potential disposition of real property to business prospects, the small business loan committee applications, and legal consultation regarding active litigation. There was no new business following the closed session.
As noted above, the next regular monthly Board meeting will be held on Tuesday, February 28, 2023, at 8:00 AM at the Warren County Government Center.
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