“As shared with you in our meeting, my decision to terminate you effective immediately is based on your insubordination, unsatisfactory job performance and unprofessional behaviors in your role as a City of Staunton employee,” the city’s director of community and economic development, Billy Vaughn, wrote to Vincent Mani, who was hired in August to serve as the city’s housing planner and grants coordinator, in a letter dated Jan. 3.
Mani brought a strong resume to the position – an MBA from Old Dominion University, a Ph.D. in urban and public affairs from the University of Louisville, a work record including time with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development offices in Richmond and Washington, and more than 20 years of experience in housing and community development issues.
A few weeks into his tenure, Mani, in a Sept. 23 memo addressed to Vaughn, City Manager Leslie Beauregard, Cindy Fitzgerald, the assistant director of finance, and Rodney Rhodes, whose job title is senior planner, identified what should have been concerning issues with the administration of CDBG funds meant to assist low-income city residents.
According to Mani’s memo, the city, to that point, had only spent 30 percent of its CDBG fund for fiscal years 2019, 2020 and 2021, and per Mani, the main impediment is M&L Associates, a Pennsylvania-based consulting firm that works with states and municipal clients in the community development and revitalization and affordable housing spheres.
Specific to Staunton, M&L Associates administers the city’s CDBG program and HUD funds.
“For the City to start using CDBG funds and help low-income people, it should first end its relationship with M&L,” Mani wrote in the Sept. 23 memo, suggesting that the city look for “a consultant from Virginia that knows environmental review, historic preservation, and lead-based paint rules since these rules are not HUD-specific regulations and require different specialties.”
Mani, in the memo, detailed resistance he was getting from M&L to his efforts to assist local organizations that had been running into roadblocks due to administrative errors that he attributed to the consultant.
“M&L realizes it is losing the City as a cash cow with my presence and wants to stop my efforts and push me out,” Mani wrote in September. “Unfortunately, (the) Community Development (Department) is acting like a hostage. The (Department) considers relationships with M&L and others are more critical than the CDBG program’s result. The purpose of CDBG funds is to help low-income people in the City; as long as we assist low-income people, we can remove any other barrier in our way.”
We have reached out on Wednesday to M&L Associates for comment on the issues raised by Mani in the Sept. 23 email, and have not yet gotten a response.
The response to this memo from city government, according to Mani, is that he was removed shortly thereafter from having any role in the oversight of the city CDBG program, and spent the bulk of his city time working on a research project “related to homelessness, people at risk of homelessness, household income, and housing cost burden in Staunton and Waynesboro.”
Fast forward to Dec. 29, last week, and the next step was Vaughn calling Mani into a meeting to fire him, which Vaughn confirmed in the Jan. 3 letter in which Vaughn cited the previously mentioned “insubordination, unsatisfactory job performance and unprofessional behaviors,” then wrote that “despite all attempts by me to help you develop the necessary skills associated with your position, you have failed to perform.”
“As a City employee serving in an important role, you are expected to meet the performance standards established for your job and abide by all standards established by the City’s Personnel Policy, including directives set by me as your supervisor. Your actions, coupled with your inability to perform your duties, have caused disruption and impacted delivery of services for the City,” Vaughn wrote.
Mani, in a Jan. 3 letter addressed to then-Mayor Andrea Oakes, members of Staunton City Council, the city manager, City Attorney John Blair, and Jonathan Venn, the city’s director of human resources, asserted that the issues that he has raised about the administration of the CDBG funds should be protected under state and federal whisteblower protection laws.
“Considering the substantial control M&L has over the Community and Economic Development Department, the City Council may want to end the City’s relationship with M&L and quickly hire a consultant from Virginia,” Mani said. “The City would also save money since I would do 70 percent of the work currently done by M&L. Since the close relationship between M&L and (D)irector Vaughn is not conventional, I respectfully request that Mayor, City Council, and City officials prohibit any further retaliatory measures against me by Director Vaughn or any other senior staff now or in the future.”
We also reached out to the City of Staunton for comment on the issues raised by Mani. A spokesperson declined comment, citing a policy against commenting on personnel matters.
Share
Chris Graham
