Velda Jones-Potter Raises The Bar?

 (News Journal image)

Update III: Straub covered last night's 6 hour marathon but it seems as if there are still unanswered questions. For one, how much did Foxtail Fest pay to their security company? ~ Foxtail cost city more than $18,000

Update II: Comment rescue ~

I can't believe I voted for you one time! Ms. Jones-Potter, your son did all this and you didn't know about it until the end?? Wrong. Lady,; you are beginning to sound like you are stumbling over lies and you need to stop talking because the "more" you talk the more integrity you lose. I would venture to say that Dennis Williams was right and you do not want to admit that YOU and your family are wrong. This is the "second job" where your integrity is in question. I am probably not the only person in the state that thinks you need to go fade away in the sunset.

Update I: Potter's one-on-one with the News Journal (see below)

After appearing on her husband's Channel 28 leased-access television show, "Straight Talk", for the second week in a row yesterday and clamoring for the restoration of her character, integrity and reputation, Velda Potter released this presser ~

Velda Jones-Potter responds to members of Wilmington City Council regarding FoxTail Fest Inquiry’

Wilmington, Delaware- September 28, 2013 - Velda Jones-Potter responds to members of Wilmington City Council regarding Council’s Sept. 30 Inquiry of Facts Related to the FoxTail Festival. Today she issued the following. 

To: President Theopalis K. Gregory and Members of Council
Fr: Velda Jones-Potter
Re: Council’s Sept. 30 Inquiry of Facts Related to the FoxTail Festival

I am writing this in response to your release of information concerning individuals requested to appear at the inquiry and ‘What Council wants to learn from the session’.
In order to conduct the fact finding necessary it is important that the full spectrum of individuals with information pertinent to the issues at hand be among those requested to appear before the committee. Your list fails to include the following individuals who were present at meetings and otherwise involved in a way that may cause them to have information pertinent to this issue. I respectfully ask that they be included among those requested to appear.

- Tiffany Christopher, Special Events Coordinator – Mayor’s Office
- Tonya Phillips, Manager of Cultural Affairs - Mayor’s Office
- Kenny Briscoe, Director of Communications – Mayor’s Office
- Yvette Rouse, Promotion & Event Manager - Riverfront Development Corp.
- Sherman Lewis, Security – RDC
- Dan Zier, RDC
- Bud Freel, Councilman – City of Wilmington
- Sgt. Transue – Wilmington Police Dept.
- William McKim, Wilmington Fire Department
- Samuel Baise, Public Works Department
- Cory Ferrell, State 1 Security
- Ryan Robinson, Owner ‘Lavish’
- Dennis P. Williams, Mayor – City of Wilmington

Further, I suggest that it would be appropriate to invite representatives from FoxTail Fest and afford them an opportunity to speak in as much as they are accused of receiving services inappropriately.
I question why opportunity for public comment is not provided. This matter has been aired publicly from its very inception. It is the use of public funds that is at question. I suggest that the public should have opportunity to comment on this issue.
While I understand there will be additional questions asked during the inquiry, I am disturbed by what are presented as the “four major questions that must be addressed at Monday’s session”. The questions seeking information related to who made decisions to provide services seems entirely appropriate. However, I take exception to the questions inquiring “When will the City be repaid by FoxTail …” and “Are there sufficient safeguards in place to ensure….process will not be tampered with or circumvented in the future?” If this is to be a fair and transparent inquiry for the purpose of fact finding these questions are inappropriate. Implicit in the questions are assumptions that 1) monies are in fact owed the City by FoxTail and 2) that the event permitting and review process was tampered with or circumvented. I believe such conclusions should await the facts that are brought to light at Monday’s inquiry.
The comments in your release indicate that this matter is ‘hampering the operations of the government’ and that it is a ‘distraction from daily operations’. I have served in government twice and therefore I know firsthand the challenges and urgencies it faces. Further, no one wants to have this matter concluded in a timely manner more than me and my family. That notwithstanding, of greater importance than a ‘concise inquiry’ with swift closure, is a fair, thorough and transparent process that reveals the facts and gets to the truth.

 While Potter conveyed the content above to the television audience, she also spent a lot of time praising her son and the Foxtail event and drilled home the message superimposed across the screen: "The only question is who ordered the police?"

Potter tried to establish Foxtail's financials by presenting a copy of Brandon Potter's  $1,750.00 check to the Riverfront Development Corporation marked Maintenance Fee, a money order to the City of Wilmington for $350.00 ostensibly for permitting fees and an invoice to Service 1 Security, the private security firm whose owner, Cory Ferrell, supposedly attended each of the RDC meetings with Velda Potter. The invoice, while noting PAID IN FULL, included no proof of payment or dollar amount paid.There has been no payment to the city for security and no invoice received.

And finally, Potter ran with a story about Councilman Bud Freel's having personally approached the after party venue owner and vendor with questions about adequate security, actions she characterized as tampering, interfering and downright possibly sabotaging the event. She wondered aloud if Freel's "unsettling" activities influenced the lack of Wilmington Police volunteers signing up to work the overtime security detail for Foxtail Fest.

For me, Velda Jone-Potter's integrity and character were put into question during her primary campaign against Chip Flowers for State Treasurer when she ran one of the filthiest campaigns in recent memory. 

And it was laughable to hear Charles Potter's sidekick, Calvin Brown, tell Norman Oliver last night that he expected nothing less than for Mayor Dennis Williams to restore Velda to her former job with full compensation for the damages done to her reputation. Not gonna happen. [I'll put up a link to the Community Crossfire YouTube ASAP. - Herman Holloway seemed to be implying that Velda Potter really sucked at her job and would have better served the city as Finance Director, something she knows something about.]

And by all means don't miss Rhonda Graham's grovel-fest ~ Jones-Potter seeking answers of her own tonight

Velda Jones-Potter will be fighting for her profes­sional life this evening when Wilmington City Council convenes a hearing into her role in the planning of her son’s recent Foxtail Fest event two weeks ago. The fallout led to her losing her job. “My rep­utation, my in­tegrity, that’s of the upmost im­portance to me,” she said Sun­day sitting at a dining room table in her Brandywine Hills home. As Mayor Dennis Williams’s former chief policy strategist, she wants to vindicate her role in seeing that Brandon Potter’s first try as an event-planning entrepreneur went off smoothly. And she remains unrelenting in her belief that her role on behalf of her son was no ethical vio­lation. She said got involved at the last minute after learning he had been quietly developing the project among some friends from his high school days. That frightened her, and she feared he would not total­ly grasp his obligation to the city. It was Brandon’s maiden voyage as an entrepreneur, which meant he was following in his parents footsteps, which made them proud. Both she and State Rep. Charles Potter have long histories in the in­surance business and with a variety of consulting services related to housing and per­sonal finances. Gov. Jack Mar­kell supported Jones-Potter to replace him as Delaware’s treasurer when he ran and won his gubernatorial race.

But Jones-Potter saw her involvement with the city as double duty — to see that the city requirements were known and met. In effect she considered herself as repre­senting the city’s interest in planning meetings with the Riverfront Development Cor­poration, city policy and other parties. She conceded it was a mistake to think that fellow workers could accept that, for this event, she was wearing the hat of a concerned citizen­mother.........But this whole crisis has prompted Jones-Potter to ask questions of her own. As has been her style, she wants to focus on worker competence – in this case how the Wilming­ton Police Department plans for and coordinates public safety for large public events.
........This is an ugly and costly event in municipal life that will eventually slide away into history as a minor civic epi­sode. But for now it requires the kind of torturous public in­vestigation and airing with tough questions of all partici­pants this evening. Only then can the public invest its trust that Wilming­ton is capable of becoming a well-managed and large pub­lic safety asset in Delaware.

There's a news story as well: Kelly Bothum and Andrew Staub report ~ Jones-Potter challenges council

 The jabs at council continued, with Jones-Potter taking specific aim at Councilman Bud Freel.Jones-Potter questioned the need for Freel to speak with representatives of Club Lavish, which hosted an after party for Foxtail Fest attendees who paid an additional admission charge. “It’s a bit unnerving, the thought that someone in his capacity would be interfering,” Jones-Potter said.
.......Freel said he didn’t hear Jones-Potter’s comments, but said he looked into the after-party in advance when a resident brought it up to him. The club is in his district, and previous owners of the property had run afoul of the city’s nuisance ordinance, Freel said. With the possibility that Foxtail Fest could draw thousands of people – many of whom might also attend the after-party – Freel said he met with the owner of the venue and the property owner the week of the concert to talk about possible security issues and the club’s responsibilities. “As far as I’m concerned, I was doing my job as a district council member,” Freel said, adding he heard of no issues at the party.
John Rago, director of communications and policy development for council, said Jones-Potter’s comments won’t change the body’s plans for today’s inquiry.

 

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