The Warren Sentinel

April 22, 2010

Solar project causes flare up on council

By Brooke Frick

Leaked documents regarding the question of bribes from the leading solar energy bid have caused a stir among council members.

“There’s been a lot of accusations and things going on that really aren’t legitimate,” Councilman Thomas E. Conkey said of the uproar.  “I don’t know if it’s political posturing … or what.”

On April 8, Town Attorney Thomas Robinett wrote a memo to council members sharing with them concerns from other council members over whether or not incentives offered in an RFP [request for proposal] bid by Standard Energy for a proposed solar farm constituted a bribe offer:  Attached to the memo was a statement from Carter Glass, an attorney with Troutman Sanders law firm in Richmond, and an analysis by Megan Rahman, another attorney specializing in white collar crime.

Robinett wrote in the memo that after council’s March 29 closed session, in which members discussed rejecting all recently received requests for proposals for a solar farm, Town Manager Mike Graham asked for council’s guidance about what to do about the incentives, which Robinett said included a creation of 200 jobs and $1.2 million.

Robinett said he later received phone calls from two unnamed council members who inquired as to whether or not these incentives could be considered bribes on behalf of Graham.  Concerned over the legal implications of a possible bribe, Robinett wrote Glass for another opinion.

A story in the Northern Virginia Daily’s April 17 issue identified Councilmen Chris Holloway and Tom Sayre as calling for a criminal investigation into the matter. 

In his response to Robinett, Glass said, “it is our understanding that there has been no agreement by the town manager to accept the benefits here (jobs and dollars); hence there should be no violation at this point.  But proceeding with that proposal will create problems.”

But Conkey said that the mention of jobs and other potential benefits to the town were discussed way before the request for proposal process began, during a time when the town was brainstorming possibilities.

“The premise that they [the attorneys at Troutman Sanders] based their opinion on were not correct.  The discussions that took place, took place prior to the procurement process being started,   and that‘s a big premise.  And there were no discussions after the procurement process was started.  And the RFP did include things about jobs…,” said Conkey.

“There were presentations made to all the council members very early on, way before RFP was even conceived of.  Maybe some of the guys forgot about them, I’m not sure what,” said Conkey.

As for the mention of $1.2 million dollars in incentives, Conkey said, “the $1.2 million was a number that somebody latched onto… because it was dramatic,” said Conkey.  “It was never a ‘if you give us a contract we’ll give you $1.2 million dollars type thing.”

Regarding a possible investigation into the incentives to determine if they were bribes, Robinett said, “I really don’t have anything to say about it at all.  I did my job.  All I know is that I was asked that question, I looked it up, I was worried,  I asked Carter for help, you’re looking at the response,  I don’t know who said what to whom or anyone else.  All I know is what’s contained in those documents.”

“I’ve already spoken that nothing was done wrong or illegal,” said Graham.  The RFP did include the mention of jobs and a manufacturing facility.

“I said in the paper, it’s a joke,” said Mayor Eugene Tewalt.  “there no bribes, there’s no incentives that we’ve received as of this date and we don’t know of any for sure.  That’s just all word of mouth.”