Warren County Board of Supervisors conducts 9 Public Hearings and gets FY-2021/22 Audit Report at meeting of Feb. 28

The results of the 6 p.m. February 28th Warren County Board of Supervisors Public Hearings meeting are listed below in order they appeared on the agenda. Seven of the nine matters were Conditional Use Permit applications for Short-term Tourist Rentals. The first two public hearings involved approval for the lease of space at the County overseen Front Royal Airport (FRR):

Public Hearings:

1. Lease of County-Owned Property at the Front Royal-Warren County Airport to Tom Schwietz – staff summary Alisa Scott, Finance Director – On a motion by Jay Butler, second Walt Mabe – unanimous approval.
2. Lease of County-Owned Property at the Front Royal-Warren County Airport to Shane Neitzey – staff summary Alisa Scott, Finance Director – On a motion by Butler, second Mabe – unanimous approval.
3. Conditional Use Permit 2022-12-01, Remo Kommnick for a Short-Term Tourist Rental Located at 226 Judy Lane and Identified on Tax Map 15E, Section 5, Block 5, as Lot 576A – staff summary Chase Lenz, Zoning Administrator – On a motion by Mabe, second Delores Oates – unanimous approval.
4. Conditional Use Permit 2022-12-02, Robert Chevez for a Short-Term Tourist Rental Located at 604 Windy Knoll Drive and Identified on Tax Map 20, as Lot 29F – staff summary Matt Wendling, Planning Director – On a motion by Oates, second Butler – unanimous approval.
5. Conditional Use Permit 2022-12-03, Gabriel Gaillard and Natasha Nyirongo-Gaillard for a Short-Term Tourist Rental Located at 95 Pickford Court and Identified on Tax Map 15E, Section 5, Block 5, as Lot 471 – staff summary Chase Lenz, Zoning Administrator – On a motion by Oates, second Mabe – unanimous approval.
6. Conditional Use Permit 2022-12-04, Nicholas E. and Cara S. Achterberg for a Short-Term Tourist Rental Located at 671 Thompson Hollow Road and Identified on Tax Map 42B, Section 2, as Lot 12A – staff summary Chase Lenz, Zoning Administrator – On a motion by Butler, second Mabe – unanimous approval.
7. Conditional Use Permit 2022-12-05, Shenandoah Shores Management Group, LLC for a Short-Term Tourist Rental Located at 301 Rollason Drive and Identified on Tax Map 13C, Section 5, Block 5, as Lot 944A – staff summary Chase Lenz, Zoning Administrator – On a motion by Mabe, second Oates – approval 3-2, Butler and Cheryl Cullers dissenting due to the waiver request for the 100-foot setback requirement.
8. Conditional Use Permit 2022-12-06, Jose L. Canales for a Short-Term Tourist Rental Located at 68 Skunk Hollow Lane and Identified on Tax Map 28, as Lot 68A – staff summary Matt Wendling, Planning Director – On a motion by Butler, second Oates – unanimous approval.
9. Conditional Use Permit 2022-12-07, Natalya Scimeca for a Short-Term Tourist Rental Located at 1086 Lower Valley Road and Identified on Tax Map 17C, Block H, as Lot 33 – staff summary Chase Lenz, Zoning Administrator – On a motion by Oates, second Mabe – approval 3-2, Butler and Cullers against due to waiver request for the 100-foot setback requirement.

Fiscal Year-2021/22 Audit Report

In addition to its public hearings meeting of 6 p.m., at 5 p.m. the supervisors received a summary of the Fiscal Year-2021/22 Audit Report from Michael Lupton of the County’s  contracted auditing firm of Robinson, Farmer, Cox Associates. Included in that report were Governmental Funds Financial Highlights which included the following, noted as “Prepared on the modified accrual basis (same basis as County budget)”:

Exhibit 3:

Combined ending fund balances for governmental funds of $41.25 million

General Fund – Fund balance total was $24.02 million

Unassigned fund balance was $21.36 million

Unassigned and committed accounted for $37.86 million – both categories available for appropriation at the discretion of the Board of Supervisors.

Exhibit 5:

Combined fund balances increased by $1.21 million in FY 2022

General Fund – Fund balance increased by $5.52 million

General Fund balance increase was mostly due to transfer from Special Projects Fund.

It was noted that a “Brief analysis of the change in fund balance can be found in the Management’s Discussion and Analysis” which did not appear to be included in the public Power Point presentation.

Treading ‘discretely’ on EDA budget impacts

Responding to a question at the 6:43 video mark, Lupton noted that the County’s EDA budget was treated as a “separate entity” per earlier remarks by County Administrator Ed Daley. At the 6:55 video mark, responding to a question from Supervisor Delores Oates, Daley noted that legally the jointly created FR-WC EDA should remain a part of both municipalities books, though he did not claim knowledge as to whether it remained so on the Town’s books.

Lupton revisited the EDA equation as to the audit report at the 12:58 video mark. That financial implications of the County’s bringing the still legally named Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority (FR-WC EDA) in as essentially a county departmental operation** was treated delicately, was indicated by the Power Point reference under the header Disclaimer of Opinion – EDA/IDA: Basis for Disclaimer of Opinion on the Discretely Presented Component Unit – EDA

Michael Lupton of the County’s contracted auditing firm of Robinson, Farmer, Cox Associates presents FY-2021/22 Audit Report to the supervisors. Below, is the page noting the reasons for the ‘Disclaimer of Opinion’ on an EDA portion of the County budget. Royal Examiner Photos Roger Bianchini

That two-paragraph statement reads: “The financial statements of the Industrial Development Authority of the Town of Front Royal and the County of Warren, Virginia (EDA) have been omitted. The amounts by which this omission would affect the assets, deferred outflow of resources, liabilities, deferred inflows of resources, net position, revenues and expenses of this discretely presented component unit have not been determined.

“Because of the significance of the matter described in the ‘Basis for Disclaimer of Opinion on the Discretely Presented Component Unit – EDA’ paragraph, we have not been able to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to provide a basis for an audit opinion on the financial statements of the discretely presented component unit EDA of the Town of Front Royal and the County of Warren, Virginia. Accordingly, we do not express an opinion on these financial statements.”

See both meeting aspects in the County video, opening with the audit presentation. The Public Hearings begin at the 43:50 mark of the video.

** FOOTNOTE: The County’s decision to internalize the FR-WC EDA was made in the wake of the Front Royal Town Council’s decision over the objection of then-Mayor Eugene Tewalt, circa 2019/20, to drop out of involvement with the half-century old joint EDA in favor of hostile civil litigation over municipal liabilities and misdirected asset recovery in the wake of the circa 2014-2018 FR-WC EDA “financial scandal”. As has been reported, the unilaterally established Front Royal Economic Development Authority (FREDA) has not met since July 2022 due to the town government’s failure to acquire the necessary federal or state designations to allow FREDA to legally acquire assets with which to conduct business.