Petersburg vote could send $900,000 to a project co-owned by council member
PETERSBURG — A City Council vote scheduled for Tuesday morning could directly benefit a member of the governing body. If it is ultimately successful, the vote would help obtain $900,000 in state grant funding for a project co-owned by Ward 5 Councilor W. Howard Myers. Petersburg says that the resolution does not represent an ethical breach, as long as Myers abstains from voting on that specific resolution.
If passed, the resolution would submit an application to the Department of Housing and Community Development for $900,000 in Industrial Revitalization Funds. Those grant funds would flow through the city and directly to the project should DHCD sign off.
This is one of five IRF grants on Petersburg's agenda for submission. Two of those were approved at a special meeting last week, pertaining to the Ramada Inn site. IRF targets vacant commercial and industrial sites whose poor condition creates blight to the area around it.
The specific project in question is a redevelopment of the old Lavenstein’s Department Store at 112 N. Sycamore Street. That property is owned by Jefferson Street Holdings LLC – of which Myers is the registered agent – and an individual, Marques Jackson.
According to the meeting's agenda documents, the bottom floor is planned for renovation into a multi-use space that “will support, housing, and promote small minority, and women-owned businesses.” A retail space would have service counters for entrepreneurs of different businesses. It would also feature a small café. The first floor is about 9,700 square feet per those documents.
The upper three floors are planned to be turned into “elevated residential living.” According to city property records, those upper floors equal about 15,600 square feet.
Virginia’s State and Local Government conflicts of Interest Act governs the conduct of elected officials when it comes to separating their public duties from their personal interests.
Code section 2.2-3107 says that no person elected to a governing body should have a personal interest in “any contract with [their] governing body.” A contract is defined as any agreement involving a government agency, or any agreement on behalf of a government agency that pays out money appropriated by the state or any political subdivision.
One piece of that section offers an exemption for elected officials who were awarded a contract as a result of “competitive sealed bidding” where the need was established prior to that official’s election or appointment.
In a statement to the Progress-Index, Myers said that he will abstain from voting on the resolution involving 112 N. Sycamore Street.
“The grant application to DHCD is required to be submitted by the locality, but the locality is not responsible for any monies associated with the DHCD grant if awarded,” Myers wrote.
He compared the grant application to another grant application that was made in 2021 for the Hotel Petersburg Project. Hotel Petersburg was one of 33 projects to receive funds from DHCD’s Industrial Revitalization Fund. The hotel project received $600,000 of the program’s total $4.4 million available statewide.
Ward 4 City Councilor Charlie Cuthbert abstained from voting on that resolution, as his brother Nat Cuthbert is a developer for the project. Myers was one of five councilors to vote in favor of the resolution.
A spokesperson for the city said that DHCD toured the Hotel Petersburg project prior to awarding the grant and that its representatives would have known the developer. It is unclear if DHCD knew that the developer was related to a sitting council member. An email sent to DHCD seeking comment was not returned.
The resolution itself was submitted to the council agenda by Economic Development Director Brian Moore. He did not make himself available for comment on the inclusion of the resolution.
Voting on the resolution is scheduled for a special council meeting at 10 a.m. on August 2, 2022.
This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Petersburg vote could send $900,000 to project co-owned by councilor
