“They are working against us,” supervisor says.
The King George Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday night to remove all sitting members of the county’s Economic Development Authority.
Chair T.C. Collins made the motion during his member comments, citing the fact that EDA members met with Birchwood Power Partners and the Fredericksburg Regional Alliance earlier this year.
“The EDA is working against us,” supervisor Ken Stroud said.
Supervisors want to renegotiate the performance agreement signed late last year with Amazon Web Services to develop data center campuses at the former power plant at Birchwood. The agreement was signed in December of 2023 by Richard Granger, former Chair of the Board of Supervisors, and Beckey Gallamore, now-former Chair of the EDA.
In January, the new Board, under Collins, voted to “reconsider” approval of the agreement.
On Tuesday, Collins also said that the EDA made a $27,000 payment to the Fredericksburg Regional Alliance, which he contended the EDA did not have the authority to make. Supervisors voted in May to reduce county funding of the Alliance.
Collins pointed out that the EDA by-laws state that, “The Secretary-Treasurer shall have the custody of all funds and securities of the Authority; deposit the same in the name of the Authority in such bank or banks as the Directors may from time to time determine; sign all checks, drafts, notes and orders for the payment of monies; and shall payout and dispose of the same under the direction of the Chairman.”
He asked County Administrator Matthew Smolnik, who was appointed EDA Secretary-Treasurer at the Authority’s July 11 meeting, whether he’d written the check to the Fredericksburg Regional Alliance.
“No sir, I did not,” Smolnik answered. “I believe, based on the last meeting, that it was [Gallamore].”
According to the minutes of the July 11 meeting, the $27,000 was for dues and membership in the Alliance. It was approved along with other line items for the EDA’s fiscal year 2025 budget, which is separate from the county’s budget.
Meeting “an attempt to gather facts”
According to the minutes of the EDA’s June 13 meeting, Gallamore described a recent meeting with Birchwood Power Partners as an attempt to “gather facts to put out on Facebook and send to our Board of Supervisors, to negate some of the stuff we see on Facebook, like [that] our Performance Agreement is different from everybody else’s.”
Now-former EDA member June Drake said that Stafford’s Commissioner of the Revenue was present and “spent time explaining what actual revenues are being created just because [Amazon is] there. They have recouped $1.2 million, and they haven’t broken ground yet.”
Drake and Gallamore reported that they had compared the performance agreement between AWS and King George with those between AWS and Stafford, Spotsylvania, and Caroline. They said all four are identical—the only difference being that in the agreement with King George, AWS commits to provide at least 600,000 gallons of untreated water per day to the county for public usage and “remains willing” to negotiate to provide more.
They also said that they were gathering the information as “individuals … and not as EDA members or with any negotiation,” according to the minutes.
Curry Roberts, president of the Fredericksburg Regional Alliance, told the Advance on Wednesday afternoon that supervisors David Sullins and Cathy Binder also attended one of two meetings he had with Gallamore.
Sullins, Binder, and Gallamore toured the Birchwood site with Roberts on June 5. Stroud went on the same tour of the site on May 29, Roberts said, and he met with Gallamore and Drake on May 3.
Roberts said he also met with Stroud and Sullins on February 15, when he first offered to organize a tour of the Birchwood site.
July joint meeting between EDA and Supervisors
There was a joint meeting of the EDA and the Board of Supervisors on July 2, at which the issues that led to this week’s removal were discussed.
According to the minutes, Collins informed Gallamore that the EDA “really shouldn’t reengage, especially when the Board of Supervisors is in negotiations, they can mess up our posture in those negotiations if members are out doing things.”
Gallamore said there has been no interference or negotiation with Amazon, just the receipt of information.
“We do get asked questions by citizens of the county,” she said, according to the minutes. “I personally prefer to give fact-based discussions. So, since we had questions, we were asking the questions, and we went to the people that had the documentation that then allowed us to get the facts required to answer the questions we were getting. It was nothing to do with the negotiations, and it was not part of EDA.”
Roberts also told the Advance that there was no negotiating during the meetings with Birchwood, because “nobody in the room was empowered to negotiate anything.”
“The thing to negotiate would be the utility agreement, which was envisioned in the performance agreement,” Roberts said. “The other jurisdictions have moved forward with the utility agreement,” but King George has not, since it rescinded the performance agreement.
Twice during the July 2 joint meeting, according to the minutes, Collins said Gallamore had signed the performance agreement without having time to fully understand it.
“Last year, you all were asked to sign a document that you did not have enough time to review,” Collins said.
Gallamore responded, “Well, I will tell you, I did read all 31 pages, and I did understand.”
Collins said again, “But you didn’t have time to [understand]” and Gallamore replied, “No, I had it a week ahead of time.”
Guy Booth reappointed to EDA
Immediately after voting Tuesday to remove all sitting EDA members, supervisors approved Collins’s reappointment of Guy Booth to the Authority.
The Board also approved Cathy Binder’s appointment of Brien Gregan and Stroud’s appointment of Larry Emory.
It’s not clear when the Board will appoint the rest of the vacant seats.
County Attorney Richard Stuart said he would need to look into the matter, but that he believes the Board “ought to be able to get [the $27,000 payment to FRA] back.”
Roberts said that if the county wants the money back, “Mr. Smolnik can just ask me.”
“I’ll give it to him,” he said.
