The Northern Virginia Daily

April 14, 2010

Town Attorney: Incentives taint solar project

Front Royal council members at odds over leaked documents about possible 'bribes'

By Ben Orcutt

FRONT ROYAL -- Members of the Town Council are at odds following the leak of documents regarding possible secret incentives related to the selection of a firm to build a proposed solar electricity farm.

On Thursday, Town Attorney Thomas R. Robinett sent a memorandum to Mayor Eugene R. Tewalt and all six council members regarding conversations Robinett had with two unnamed members of the panel on March 30.

Robinett wrote that during the council's March 29 closed session, following a consensus of the panel to reject all bids for the town's involvement in the proposed solar farm, Town Manager J. Michael Graham said, "Gentlemen, I need your guidance as to what to do about the incentives."

Robinett wrote that the two councilmen who called him on March 30 inquired if the incentives Graham mentioned could be construed as "'bribes' within the meaning of the law." Robinett wrote that he decided to ask Carter Glass, an attorney with the Richmond law firm of Troutman Sanders, for an answer.

Robinett included Glass' e-mail response, as well as a legal analysis from a member of Glass' law firm, Megan Rahman.

Robinett closes his memo by saying, "While 'secret incentives' may be a normal part of private business, they are clearly not acceptable in a public business setting."

On Monday, the council voted unanimously to reject all bids that it received from solar companies, including Standard Energy, regarding the town's participation in a solar farm. The bidding process cost the town about $100,000.

Glass says in his e-mail that based on what appear to have been incentives that were "made secretly," rejecting all of the bids is probably the best course of action.

Rahman says in her analysis that based on information that Robinett provided about the incentives, "the actual offer itself does constitute the type of benefit that would be considered a bribe under" state law.

Under "background," she notes that after the 30-35 responses from interested firms were narrowed, it came "to the Town Attorney's attention that ... one of the top three companies secretly offered incentives to the Town Manager that were not contained in its written response to the RFP."

According to Rahman's memo, the firm "offered to open a manufacturing facility in the Town to make solar panels that would result in 200 local jobs, in addition to offering a payment to the Town of $1.2 million."

The Northern Virginia Daily did not receive the documents from Robinett, but from one of the recipients. Graham said he has never had a secret meeting with any of the principals of SolAVerde or Standard Energy, and that he does not have a copy of Robinett's memo, nor has he read it.

"From the very beginning of the project, they were talking about either gifting, proffers and scholarships, and from the very beginning that's all they've talked about," Graham said. "I don't where this bribing is coming from. Giving back to the town in the form of either a proffer, granting of money or scholarships from the very get-go on this. That was the only thing that's ever been brought up to me about anything like that, and they've thrown out numbers all over the place based on how big the farm was. ... So I have no idea what Mr. Robinett is doing or up to."

Greg Horton, one of the original principals of SolAVerde and still part of the project with Standard Energy, said anywhere from $500,000 to $1.5 million had been discussed from the beginning.

"It was revenues that were built into the project for scholarships, for education," Horton said. "We never had any secret meeting with Mike Graham. This is a witch hunt to get Mike Graham fired, and there's no other purpose in this whatsoever."

Tewalt said he was somewhat aware of some incentives being offered to the town.

"I had heard through the grapevine there was possibly some incentives," Tewalt said. "I don't know where it came from. I don't know who offered them."

Vice Mayor Bret W. Hrbek said he has not met in secret with officials from SolAVerde or Standard Energy.

Calling it "outrageous" that the documents had been leaked to the Daily, Hrbek took Councilmen Chris W. Holloway, Carson C. Lauder Jr. and Thomas H. Sayre to task for working in conjunction with Robinett to derail the solar project.

"It's an obvious attempt by one of our senior staff in conjunction with three council members to once again try to discredit this project and our manager," Hrbek said.

All three councilmen singled out by Hrbek said they were not trying to derail the project.

"We should have had it, but the process wasn't clear enough in the right way," Lauder said.

"I fully support the solar project," Sayre added. "I want to see it happen. I want it done the right way."

Holloway spoke in a similar vein, adding that while he thinks the documents should not have been released, Robinett was doing his job in contacting Troutman Sanders.

"Our town attorney thought something very wrong was going on here, and his job is to look after the town and council, and apparently from the letter [Rahman's response], it is," Holloway said.