Fredericksburg officials say they're going to improve communication among city departments after an oversight led them to call for an illegal closed session at Tuesday's City Council meeting.
Shortly before midnight, at the end of Tuesday's meeting, council members approved a closed session "to discuss two prospective businesses where no previous announcement has been made" about those businesses' plans to expand or locate in the city.
They were citing an exception to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act that allows boards to close meetings to talk about prospective businesses, but only if those businesses' plans have not been made public.
The Free Lance-Star learned Wednesday that Blue and Gray was one of the businesses discussed in the closed session. The company had already applied for a special-use permit for its plan to move from Spotsylvania County into the city's industrial park. Its plans had been publicly heard before the Planning Commission and The Free Lance-Star had published an article about them.
After the newspaper pointed out the previous article and Planning Commission action, City Manager Phillip Rodenberg said those details were overlooked when city staff recommended the council close the meeting.
"We erred," Rodenberg said. "We have no excuse. We should have known the Planning Commission had acted."
Rodenberg said council members are "innocent parties" in the matter. He said they voted to go into closed session without knowing the identity of the two businesses to be discussed.
During the session, code names were used to disguise the identity of those businesses.
Rodenberg said Blue and Gray's plans were discussed for only about five minutes before the council rejected the idea of giving the business incentives. During that discussion, he said, council members became aware that "Project Brew," as city officials referred to it, was Blue and Gray.
"The council and staff pay close attention to [the Freedom of Information Act]," Rodenberg said. "Economic development will see every meeting announcement and every agenda from now on from the Planning Department."
The identity of the second business discussed Tuesday has not been made public.
The Planning Commission has recommended approval of a special-use permit that would allow Blue and Gray to open a 30-seat brew pub and outdoor beer garden at 1351 Belman Road in the Fredericksburg Battlefield Industrial Park. The council has yet to take up the permit.
Blue and Gray had planned to lease space in that building from Creative Dimension Group.
The council recently approved a 10-year, $200,000 incentive grant to help that millworking firm move to the Belman Road building.
Mayor Tom Tomzak said council members all agreed Tuesday night with the city staff's recommendation against offering incentives to Blue and Gray because the business did not meet the eligibility criteria in the city's incentives policy.
One of the biggest reasons Blue and Gray was rejected was because it was seeking incentives offered under the tourism zone ordinance the council approved last year, but it wasn't proposing to move to a location within that zone. The tourism zone covers downtown and Celebrate Virginia.
Blue and Gray owner Jeffrey Fitzpatrick said he hasn't dropped the possibility of moving into Fredericksburg, but that he is also looking at other locations.
Emily Battle: 540/374-5413
Email: ebattle@freelancestar.com