Reforms for Manassas City EDA call for more clarity, financial accountability

Members of the Manassas City Economic Development Authority said their funds were left unprotected when the Board’s treasurer resigned two weeks ago, and he retained the ability to withdraw authority funds.

Alvin White’s resigned from his post term on the EDA expired after being elected to serve in January as its treasurer. He was appointed by the Manassas City Council to serve a four-year term that began in 2011.

When the city’s EDA met on Tuesday, August 16, White’s name was still listed on a signature card giving him the ability to walk into any of three banks used by the city’s EDA and withdraw funds, according to sitting Board members. There is no evidence White made such a withdraw following his resignation from the EDA.

EDA members called for an immediate fix to what they called a potential risk.

“Mr. Chariman, I think you should have called a special meeting to rectify this situation. I think our funds are left unprotected because he can still walk in there and write a check,” said EDA Board member Mark Olsen.

“I just can’t walk in there and tell the bank to take his name off. They don’t know me,” replied Manassas City EDA Chairman Holmes Smith.

The EDA keeps funds in Carter Bank and Trust, Fulton Bank, and BB&T.

Gary L. Jones, vice president of business banking at M&T Bank, replaced White on the EDA and said the matter could be cleared up by just writing a letter.

“You can go into with a letter and as the head of the authority and ask for his name to be removed,” Jones told Smith.

The lapse in security comes at the same time the EDA was presented with a set of new rules that would bring the autonomous grant-making authority more in line with other Boards and Commissions that operate in the city.

City Economic Development Director Patrick Small, who reports to the EDA but does not oversee the Board, spent an hour outlining a five-page memo detailing 82 recommended administrative guidelines outlining how the EDA should function, as well as provide more transparency for its annual budget, and record-keeping policies.

If the Board decides to approve them the recommendations, they must adhere to them all.

“This is not an a la carte menu,” explained Small. “Our expectation… our hope is that you adopt this document, and the city staff will begin to provide these services to you.”

The EDA is tasked by the state government to awards grant to city businesses to spur economic development in Manassas. The EDA operates outside the authority of the City Council, whose members only have the ability to appoint constituents to the EDA.

In his memo, Small asserted that EDA funds are public dollars and that they should be “handled and accounted for with the same care that the City of Manassas takes with its own public funds.”

Right now, the EDA’s treasurer is responsible for issuing and accounting for the Authority’s funds. While the accounts containing the funds would remain the property of the EDA, and monies would not be mixed with the city’s general fund, allowing the City Treasurer to issue checks on behalf of the EDA, and perform basic accounting services would provide a better level of security and transparency, said Small.

The memo also called for the EDA to develop and adopt an annual budget on the same schedule as the city’s budget, provide an agenda for upcoming meetings, and make public the minutes of those meetings.

EDA members also got a lesson on email communications and, specifically, what emails the public can request through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and read by members of the public and press.

“If you don’t want to see it in the [news]paper, don’t write it,” the memo states. 

Small suggested EDA members only use email for informational purposes, and to copy his office on each piece of email correspondence. This way said Small, if someone requests, through FIOA, to read an EDA members email, software on his computer can quickly search those emails and provide them to the person making the FOIA request.

“We don’t have conversations electronically,” said Manassas City Councilwoman Sheryl Bass, who also serves on the EDA. ” It’s for informational purposes only. That is what you should be doing as well. If there is something that is going on that you are alerted to, you pick up the old-fashioned phone and have a conversation, or go for coffee.

Homes ordered EDA members to review the newly proposed policies and to be prepared to take a vote on them at the next meeting. A meeting date and time has not yet been established.