Brian Patton

Brian December 11th, 2005

Why would any community be upset about its congressman working with a large company to bring new jobs? Maybe if the agreement between the community and large company, brokered by the congressman, was made “outside the normal procedures.”

According to documents, interviews, and emails (with the subject line “Project Goode”) the agreement between MZM and Martinsville was “outside the normal procedures.”

The difference was:

The company acquired [a] shell building [in Martinsville’s Clearview Business Park] at less than half its value. To make up the difference, Martinsville obtained $500,000 in state grants and agreed to pay back the money if the company did not deliver on its promises of jobs and site improvements.

Sound like risky business to you? The logical step would have been to keep MZM on the hook for the $500,000 instead of the town.

For the last few weeks, Goode has just been shrugging off criticism about his dealings with MZM - the largest donor to his campaign war chest - by just saying he did what was best for his district.

This latest development - that the deal was actually a bad one for the district - could make denying a quid pro quo arrangement with MZM much more difficult.

Laurence Hammack, from the Roanoke Times, had a great in-depth article on this subject in today’s paper.

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• Politics , Virginia , National