City appointee with TowneBank ties says he shouldn't have voted on a project financed by the bank | Local Government
VIRGINIA BEACH
A Development Authority member who owns stock in TowneBank and serves on its regional advisory board said he should not have voted on a project that is seeking a city incentive to build a parking garage.
Michael Levinson voted July 18 to approve CityView Two, a $60.5 million development that includes apartments, offices, a hotel and parking garage off Constitution Drive and Bonney Road near Town Center. TowneBank would finance the project.
In a 7-0 vote, the Development Authority supported returning $10.2 million in real estate taxes to its developer, Ripley Heatwole Co. Inc., for a privately operated parking garage that would provide public spaces.
Councilman John Moss raised concerns about Levinson’s vote and his connections to TowneBank. When asked about his potential conflict, Levinson said in a statement that he didn’t realize he had a conflict of interest at the time of the vote.
“I regret that my vote, on a matter that passed without opposition, has raised any issues of concern,” he wrote in the statement. “And I will address them at the next Economic Development Authority meeting on August 15.”
Levinson, an attorney, is one of 11 members on the Development Authority, which makes decisions on economic incentives, revenue bonds and buying and transferring of city property. Levinson, who serves as secretary, was appointed by the City Council in September 2014 to a four-year term.
Two members, Bryan Cuffee and Stephen McNulty, abstained on the CityView Two vote. Cuffee is a member of the TowneBank Leadership Alliance and vice president of development of Gold Key|PHR Hotels & Resorts. McNulty is the executive vice president at TowneBank.
Cuffee and McNulty also abstained on another resolution during the same meeting citing their business relationship with TowneBank. The item involved a grant to Anderson’s, a home and garden business.
The CityView Two project still needs approval from the council, which is scheduled to consider it Tuesday.
Attorneys for TowneBank reviewed Levinson’s vote this week and told him his stock dividend income from the company exceeded $5,000, which is the most he could earn and still vote without having a potential conflict, according to Joel Rubin, a spokesman for TowneBank.
TowneBank’s attorneys said Levinson could have voted if he had declared his personal interest in the institution and only if his decision could have been made “fairly, objectively, and in the public interest,” Rubin said.
Levinson said the City Attorney’s Office in the past has advised him that his membership on the TowneBank board doesn’t disqualify him from voting on projects the bank finances.
“I do receive dividend income from my TowneBank stock, but I was not aware that this income counted against the permissible level of $5,000,” Levinson said in a written statement.
In January , Levinson reported earning an average annual income of $13,076 from his stock in TowneBank, according to his statement of economic interest filed with the city.
Levinson also earns $3,600 a year, or $300 per meeting, for serving on the Virginia Beach Regional Board for TowneBank, Rubin said.
“He would not have voted if he had been totally aware of this,” Rubin said.
A spokeswoman for Commonwealth’s Attorney Colin Stolle said he does not comment on pending investigations. Stolle stepped aside during an investigation into Mayor Will Sessoms because his wife works for TowneBank.
Nearly two years ago, Sessoms pleaded no contest to one misdemeanor charge of violating the state’s Conflict of Interest Act for a vote on a project that was financed by TowneBank, where he worked at the time. Four other charges were dropped.
Moss said he plans to ask Stolle’s office to launch an investigation into Levinson’s vote. He said the Development Authority should cast another vote on the issue.
“People do make mistakes. I am not saying he did it consciously,” Moss said of Levinson. “But errors in judgement still have consequences.”
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