Town skirts EDA request for FRPD construction back payments

The Front Royal Town Council passed a series of four motions Monday, November 25, authorizing expenditures totaling $1.02 million dollars related to its civil litigation against the Economic Development Authority, as well as payments to contractors regarding construction of the new Front Royal Police headquarters across Kendrick Lane from the EDA office complex.

Of that million dollars plus total, $527,800 approved in a series of three motions is for legal and auditing fees related to the Town’s civil suit against the EDA. The $492,284.34 approved in the last of the four motions is for vendor (contractor) payments recently come due on the FRPD construction project.

The motions were all approved by 5-0 votes, with Mayor-Elect Gene Tewalt not voting as Mayor Pro Tempore as he was declared at the meeting’s outset. As noted above, over half of the authorized payments are for attorney and auditing fees for services related to the Town’s attempt to recover “as much as $15 million” from the EDA. The $492,284 was approved to cover direct payments to contractors on the Front Royal Police Headquarters construction project.

The motions were all approved by 5-0 votes, with Mayor-Elect Gene Tewalt not voting as Mayor Pro Tempore as he was declared at the meeting’s outset. Photos and video by Mark Williams, Royal Examiner.

However with its litigation still pending as the EDA struggles to right its financial situation, the Town did not make good on an EDA request for back payments totaling over $8 million dollars for vendor/contractor payments it has made on the FRPD headquarters project on behalf of the Town.

In a letter from EDA Board of Directors Chairman Ed Daley to Town Finance Director B. J. Wilson dated November 15, 2019, included in the agenda packet on the final of the four EDA-related payment authorization requests, the EDA appears to attempt to force the Town’s hand on making up those back payments to the EDA.

After informing Wilson of the EDA’s receipt of FRPD project Requisition (invoice) “# 45” dated October 22, 2019, Daley wrote, “After speaking with our Board of Directors, I write to advise the Town that we will hold this pay requisition without paying until the Town of Front Royal pays the principal and interest due on this project.

“The principal, legal fees and draw fees paid by the EDA for the Town to date is $8,440,797.17,” Daley continues, adding, “The interest amount is $291,856.21 which covers interest on the previous 44 pay requisitions, up to October 31, 2019.” The recently-installed EDA Board Chairman closes by informing the Town, “Once we receive the past amount due on this project, we will process pay requisition # 45 accordingly.”

The Daley letter seeking reimbursement on the $8.44 million in police headquarter construction payments indicates an FRPD project payment and interest accrued history attached. But in the council motion on authorization of vendor payments there is no amount attached to Requisition # 45. However, in the “Revised Item # 15 motion made by Jacob Meza, seconded by Chris Holloway, an amount of $492,284.34 is cited to cover payments directly “to vendors Dustin Construction, Mosley Architects and JTS LLC for construction of the Police Department Project.”

The motion continues to cite the use of money “previously budgeted for the Police Department Project” and notes the Dustin Construction payment will be released “after signed waiver of lien is obtained.”

Contacted by phone on Tuesday, EDA Administrative Assistant Gretchen Henderson said that Dustin Construction ($243,843.48) and JTS LLC ($893.84) were included in payment Requisition # 45, but not the Mosley payment which may be from a separate invoice.

So it appears that the Front Royal Town Council has decided to respond to the EDA’s most recent request it make good on its $8.4-million FRPD project payment debt to the EDA by bypassing the EDA on that debt as the Town’s civil suit against the EDA moves forward; while simply making future invoice Requisition payments directly to the vendors.

The first EDA-related Council payment authorization of Monday’s meeting was $282,800 for “attorney fees and auditing services related to the Town’s civil suit against the Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority (EDA)”.

The funds for that payment were requested to be transferred from scheduled FY 2019 and FY 2020 Town debt service payments to the EDA on a number of projects. Those projects and transferred amounts were cited as Success Farm ($10,370), Baugh Drive Extension ($6,535), Happy Creek ($6,845), Stephens Industrial Park ($11,725), Leach Run Parkway ($105,925), and “Appropriated Funds Forward ($141,400), totaling the $282,800 authorized for attorney and audit fees related to the Town lawsuit against the EDA.

The now $21.3-million EDA financial scandal revolving around former EDA Executive Director Jennifer McDonald began unraveling in late spring to early summer of 2018 when Town Finance Director Wilson discovered about eight years of Town debt service overpayments to the EDA. EDA officials told Royal Examiner they have not yet seen a number on those believed Town overpayments.

Might one take a guess based on that $282,800 transfer of future scheduled debt service payments to the EDA; or might one look at the fact that transfer comes within $9,056 of the disputed FRPD interest payments of $291,856.21?

Hey, guessing is always a gamble, isn’t it?

As those keeping a scorecard on the now multi-faceted EDA financial scandal and related civil and criminal litigation know, the Town Council authorized its legal department to file the aforementioned civil action against the EDA seeking recovery of “as much as $15 million dollars” of allegedly misdirected Town assets as a precaution against unknown variables, including possible statute of limitation issues. Included in the Town’s suit for recovered assets is exactly what interest rate the Town should be paying on the FRPD construction project.

The EDA is paying 3% interest on the FRPD construction project. However, the Town is holding out for a 1% rate that would coincide with what it contends was promised to it by the EDA, or at least by its then Executive Director McDonald, as part of the New Market Tax Credit Program for which the project did not qualify because it was not a job-creating economic development project.
In fact as Royal Examiner has previously reported, then Town Manager Joe Waltz and Finance Director Wilson, as well as People Inc. regional administrator of the NMTC Program Brian Phipps all advised Council against “gambling” on competing for the NMTC funding versus accepting a guaranteed, 30-year fixed 2.65% interest rate offered to the Town in late 2017 through a private sector bank.

Town Attorney Doug Napier and Interim Town Manager Matt Tederick.

Contacted Tuesday, Town Attorney Doug Napier said that after Phipps’ early January 2018 work session appearance before council, Town officials contacted McDonald, who assured them Phipps “didn’t know what he was talking about” and that the NMTC bond issue had been achieved to include the FRPD project.

Consequently a council majority decided to take that gamble on the best case scenario of nine years of interest-free payments significantly reducing the total interest due on a project bond issue.
The other two EDA-related payment authorizations unanimously approved by council Monday evening were “up to $45,000 to Mitchell & Company PC for auditing services to support litigation in the Town’s civil suit against … (the EDA)” and “payment not to exceed $200,000 to Damiani & Damiani for legal services related to the Town’s civil suit against the …(EDA).”

Contacted Tuesday for a reaction to the Town Council’s response to the EDA board’s request the Town make good on its FRPD payment debt, current EDA Executive Director Doug Parsons said,
“What the Town does is their business, what they chose to pay, what they chose not to pay it’s entirely up to them. We feel confident in the figures we provided on the invoice for the Front Royal Police Department. We would love to work out this difference of opinion with them; and we’re always ready to work with them on other projects while we work out our differences.”

Watch the entire Front Royal Town Council meeting of November 25th here: