Written by John Face
August 20, 2023
On Thursday, August 10, the Economic Development Corporation Board (EDC) met in the City of Albion Council chambers for their meeting. The main focus of their meeting was the status of their President and CEO, Virgie Ammerman. After a three-hour meeting, the EDC Board voted for removal based on the opinion expressed in a letter by Marc Newman, acting chair of the EDC in a letter to Albion Mayor Victoria Snyder, who herself is an EDC Board member, that individuals from government, civic organizations, and community had negative interactions with Ammerman. Common issues were a lack of communication skills, organizational overreach, inadequate supervisory skills, and a general inability to work respectfully with others. According to Newman, all of these were observed by Board members as well.
I met with Virgie on Thursday, August 17. We sat for over an hour discussing many things that happened in the previous week and months. Ammerman told me they hadn’t told her why she was fired other than what was stated in the meeting. But she failed to say to me and others in the public that she did know, for a very long time, that there were serious concerns about her ability to do this job. She went so far as to claim they offered no help.
EDC Board Members Knew Ammerman Was Having Problems Early On
Her Board approached her about problems shortly after she started to work at the EDC in September of 2022. All the board members know this, even though some appear to lie to the public and claim the opposite. The Board offered help; the proof is setting up professional coaching, from which Ammerman told me she benefited. This coaching has been monthly, sometimes twice a month, since at least October 2022.
So far, the Board has spent close to $2000 for coaching, hoping that she could improve on all the issues brought to them and her. Yet, the complaints about her kept coming in. This is not a “Board that doesn’t want to help,” in this writer’s opinion. It appears the Board knew she might be over her head from the start and tried to help her.
When we spoke, she reminded me of the show of support during the EDC meeting when she was fired. A large turn-out of people came; some yelled, some were making good points of support, while others made accusations that the “fix is in” about her being fired. The sad thing is EDC Board members who attended that supported her didn’t tell the public the whole truth about issues with Virgie. Virgie was being championed for her causes and what she spent money on in the community. No doubt causes that required money, but the EDC money is not to be spent this way despite what she and others are now claiming. I have always told people to form non-profits and get money from donations and from the Albion Community Foundation. But that is another story.
Concerns Over Spending Money Without Board Approval
As a public entity, you can’t spend EDC money on personal food even when working. There are complex laws that, unfortunately, Ammerman and her advisors, who obviously are not lawyers, don’t understand. I read the law, and simply put, Ammerman needed policies in place by the EDC for her to spend hundreds of dollars on meals for herself and others. Since there are no policies in place, the EDC falls under the City of Albion rules which, simply put, want to eat at Schuler’s? Spend your own money.
The week before being fired, Ammerman had to repay over $600 that she was improperly reimbursed for. She had submitted requests, in this writer’s opinion, that had very poor record keeping in so much you had no way of knowing what the meal was for and why. She claimed that her online calendar could verify these meetings. Unfortunately, that is poor record keeping and can be altered after the fact. Who’s to say in the days up to August 10, she or someone else didn’t fix her calendar?
I also pointed out that what she did may have been illegal, and she is lucky the police didn’t get involved. She told me it wasn’t, and besides, she paid it all back, so it was fine. I gave her the example that if I came into her house and stole her money and a month later paid it back, I still committed a crime. She again told me she didn’t do anything wrong.
She is a Certified Public Accountant, and she knows that receipts are required for everything you are trying to get paid for with proper documentation. Two days before her firing, she emailed Albion City Manager Haley Snyder asking, “If there are any other dollars you believe I owe to the City, please let me know as I’d like to wrap this up in the next 24 hours”. That was sent on August 8 at 2:48 P.M.
Ammerman had protested in one email, stating she would not repay the City. I asked if she felt that was true, then why repay? Her reply was she just wanted to get it out of the way. I have spoken with four current and past EDC directors, some of whose organizations are bigger than Albion. All state her expenditures appear to be inappropriate and excessive. One went so far as to ask, “Doesn’t she have an office?” They all say that you “pick up a tab on a rare occasion.”
Making Contracts without Board Approval
Ammerman was allowed to sign contracts that involved normal operations of the EDC, such as with a company to clean the building, computer tech support, window washing, etc. Giving Dick Lindsey, an attorney who lives in Marshall, MI, and practices out of an office in Jackson, paying out and hiring him as a consultant on real estate issues for $7500 is not a normal operating contract. She claimed the EDC Lawyer agreed that it would be easier if she went in that direction and hired other legal for real estate. That being said does not allow her to spend thousands on an attorney whose questioned ethics of real estate dealings in Calhoun County, especially in Albion and Marshall, was legal for her to sign. That size of contract needs to be reviewed and approved. It certainly, at minimum, required prior board approval. There are other contracts she has signed, and the one thing that keeps coming up is she is being advised that it is ok. I point blank asked who was giving her legal advice. I couldn’t get an answer.
She Claimed She Will Have Her Job Back
Tomorrow morning August 21, 2023, the EDC Board, minus four of the members who fired Ammerman, will meet, and they will reinstate her even though all the above information is in their hands. Albion’s City Council removed those EDC Board members at a meeting last week, so now almost all those left are “Virgie cheerleaders.” As you can see, the actions of our Council are once again being questioned.
Four of those on the Council are voting against sound legal advice because they have a personal agenda of spending money on projects that EDC money shouldn’t be spent on. The EDC Board needs to step back and not move forward without more legal advice. Their attorney told the City Council what they were doing was wrong; here is that letter:
re: Albion Economic Development Corporation August 15, 2023
Council Members:
This Firm represents the Albion Economic Development Corporation (EDC). Our client has asked that I send this letter to the Council concerning the topic of a special meeting the Council is having this evening. Apparently, a reason for the meeting is to consider adopting a resolution removing from the EDC Board four of the five members of that Board that voted in favor of terminating the employment of Virgie Ammerman as President/CEO of the EDC. That action was taken at a duly called and held EDC Board meeting on Thursday, August 10, 2023.
On behalf of the EDC, I urge the City Council to not take the above action. I believe it is beyond the Council authority, and, regardless, leaving the EDC without a 9 (or more) member Board may mean it cannot take action to initiate and implement the projects it has underway, cannot seek to have its bills paid including to its current landlord and other service providers and vendors in Albion, and cannot continue to provide services to the community.
The City Council has the authority under the Economic Development Corporation Act (MCL 125.1601), including at MCL 125.1604 (6), to remove a board member for cause. That authority is affirmed in section 4(a)(4) of the EDC Articles of Incorporation the City Council authorized. However, the Home Rule City Act prohibits the City from removing a board member without cause. The EDC Bylaws, ratified by the City Council, only allow such removal to be for cause, as defined n those Bylaws. The list of for cause reasons in the Bylaws does not begin to include removing an EDC board member (much less four of them) because of a vote by the Board to terminate an employee. The EDC Board terminating an employee is not on the list of “for cause” reasons in the Bylaws, and does not compare to the items that are on the list. There is nothing in “the law” that allows or justifies the Council removing an EDC Board member because of the Board terminating an employee. As an employer, the EDC has the right and authority to have, and to terminate, employees as a pa1t of the usual course of business. The Council does not have the authority to interfere with that usual course of business.
The City Council created the EDC nearly 50 years ago, and if it carries out the above actions, it will likely end the entity as an effective organization, and at least delay it taking actions of the type referred to above. The reputational damage to the City and to the EDC will be devastating.
From
Vandervoort, Christ & Fisher, P.C.
Nelson Karre
More to Come
The EDC Board did far more than most employers would and tried to help her. During this critical time in Albion’s history, we need an EDC President working nonstop on bringing in new business, watching how our money is spent, and being nice to people. That President also needs to know their job. The EDC Board did nothing wrong other than fire an employee who appeared to be unable to do her job. They can and did legally fire her. That decision does not set well with many who will decry, “Oh, here we go again, Albion,” as they criticize this decision. Ammerman will be back on the job for a short time, I believe, but more damage can be done as now she and her supporters can work unchecked by anyone.
I will have a follow-up story later this week.
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