The Tuesday night Greenbrier County Commission meeting agenda was deceptively brief, lasting about 10 minutes, in which the only news-worthy item was the Mar. 22 deadline for GCC’s Arts and Rec grant applicants to deliver their funding requests to the County Commissioners’ office at the courthouse no later than 4:30 p.m.
But to the attending audience of about 35 people, the meeting had just begun.
This was the fourth commission meeting in a row in which the topic of White Sulphur’s TIF District #1 has dominated the commission, beginning with the Jan. 8 meeting when the commissioners agreed that the use of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) funds for projects proposed on the Greenbrier/Sporting Club grounds were not an appropriate use of public funds. In the words of Commissioner Mike McClung, stated at one of the earlier meetings, “It seems like a blatant conflict of interest.” At that meeting, the commission opted to not vote or authorize to send a letter to the Ethics Commission for a ruling on The Greenbrier and Sporting Club’s request for a contract exemption.
Several Sporting Club residents and service contractors in the audience spoke to the investments and developments made by the Sporting Club since the 2016 flooding of White Sulphur Springs. They asked that the commission keep its promise to meet with officials from both the Spa City and The Greenbrier in order to come to a workable solution to the impasse.
“I want to be frank about a topic not addressed tonight,” Commissioner Tammy Tincher stated, expounding the commission’s stance in the dispute. “I have no issue with the projects at the Sporting Club,” she said. “I don’t discount any of them. The issue is, the governor is the owner of [The Greenbrier and the Sporting Club] and he will directly benefit with the improvements proposed.” Tincher said she was not sure that sending the letter to the West Virginia Ethics Commission, a body of nine members appointed by the governor with approval of the Senate, “is the ethical thing to do.”
“I appreciate the conversations I’ve had with some of you here and for the time you’ve put in to provide us with information,” but, she stated, finally, “My decision is to not send the letter to the Commission.”
Commissioner Lowell Rose concurred, saying it would be the “easy-out” to send the letter and have “the responsibility [for what the resultant decision would be] off our backs. But we have to go by what we think is right.”
Rose reiterated his stance that the county will do all it can for the city of WSS. “If we do the TIF and include only two projects for WSS, then the Sporting Club’s projects will tie up the remaining funds” for the 15-year extension of the TIF, which is expected to yield a total of $15 million. “We will then have no funding for other projects.” Other than the TIF, he said, “We don’t have any major funding mechanism. It’s just that we have a difference of ideas for priorities [than those espoused by Greenbrier representatives] to hone in on and help.”
Rose said the possible removal of the ski resort project from the White Sulphur TIF District #1 could be an opportunity to make a separate TIF District, which could generate revenue to be used to develop the ski resort. “There’s a lot that can be done [for the Sporting Club] that won’t take away from WSS,” but until a vote is taken to send the TIF in, “nothing is written in stone,” he said.
Rose said he will continue to go through the project selection process to renew the TIF over its 15 year life and will formally write to officials at The Greenbrier and the Spa City, but essentially, the commission will lockout anything beyond the items for the improvement of White Sulphur infrastructure.