Martinsville Bulletin, Inc.
P. O. Box 3711
204 Broad Street
Martinsville, Virginia 24115
276-638-8801
Toll Free: 800-234-6575
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Sunday, February 4, 2007
Fifth District U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Rocky Mount, was not involved in drafting a performance agreement between Martinsville and the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) to bring MZM Inc. to the city, according to Goode and city Finance Director Wade Bartlett.
The VEDP decided last week that the city must repay part of $500,000 in economic incentive grants it received from the state to attract MZM to the Clearview Business Park in 2004. How much the city must repay has not yet been negotiated.
Goode worked with former MZM president Mitchell Wade to bring the firm to Martinsville to help revitalize the area’s economy, he has said. Wade later pleaded guilty to making illegal campaign contributions to Goode, who maintained he did not know any of the contributions were unlawful. Goode donated almost $80,000 of contributions related to MZM to charity.
Bartlett said that Goode “didn’t have anything to do with” the performance agreement. “That was a decision of the city council,” he said.
“I never talked to the state” when the agreement was being drafted, Goode said Friday. He said the negotiations were entirely between the city and the state.
In a prepared statement, Goode wrote, “I do not know the details of the agreement between the state of Virginia and the city of Martinsville.”
According to Bartlett, Wade said he would not be willing to pay back any incentive money if MZM did not meet its obligations.
So the council basically told the state, “OK, we’ll give you the money” if the obligations are not met, Bartlett said.
VEDP Communications Manager Christie Miller said that in most performance agreements, the company involved — not the locality — has to pay back incentive money if it does not meet terms of the agreement.
The city had not previously taken part in a performance agreement requiring it to repay incentive funds if needed, Bartlett said. He would not speculate on whether the city would do it again.
Due to the risk involved, he said, “We wouldn’t say we wouldn’t, but we wouldn’t say we would.”
Athena Innovative Solutions bought MZM and closed the Foreign Supplier Assessment Center at Clearview last summer after it lost a government contract. The building, which the city had constructed as a shell building, now is for sale.
“I still believe that the Foreign Supplier Assessment Center had a number of positives that brought millions of dollars to the Martinsville area,” Goode said in his statement.
He estimated that the center brought a payroll of between $3.6 million and $4.5 million to the community while it was open. He also estimated that the federal government invested between $3 million and $4 million in the center.
Goode did not explain how he arrived at those specific figures.
However, “this includes the millions spent with firms and businesses in Martinsville, Henry County and surrounding communities,” as well as city property taxes, he wrote. |
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