Things got heated inside the Lane Theater in downtown Williamsburg Monday evening as, for the first time since March of 2022, members of the Williamsburg Action Team came together for a meeting.
Several issues were addressed during the course of the meeting, which was open to the public and saw about 20 concerned citizens attending. Topics covered included whether a current tenant in the building has the right to continue business operations despite being asked recently to vacate the premises, how the group should function moving forward, and ultimately, what plans should be put into motion in order to best utilize the property in the future.
The meeting began with a roll call and a brief review of past minutes. From there, Treasurer Jacob Ratliff distributed an income and expense statement for quarter one of fiscal year 2023 (July-September). The report showed a current balance of $5,446 as of Oct. 2, and was unanimously approved.
Then things got interesting.
Entering into a discussion on the current structure of the board, Ratliff said, “From my perspective, as a board we are struggling. We have three officers who are out of term as of June 2022, and we’ve not had any new members who would be viable options to replace those officers. Therefore, we have not held our most recent election of officers.”
Ratliff then went on to address a rather large elephant in the room, which was questions regarding whether or not Rocky Moses, Jr. still has the right to operate his barbershop out of a portion of the facility.
“[On] October 21, 2020 I signed a one-year lease to open my barbershop at the Lane Theater,” Moses said in a public Facebook post on September 25. “At the time, there was nine or ten people in this volunteer group, and at that time, I was dealing with some really good people that were involved. After the first year I signed a three-year lease starting November 22, 2020, but I got a phone call Saturday morning from the now-active president of the group saying I had to be out in three days!”
At Monday’s meeting, Ratliff said, “One of the reasons that we’ve got such a large group here tonight is that we’ve acted as a board, but not as a board. There was a decision made to give Rocky three days to remove himself as our tenant, despite the fact that that was never voted on by the board.”
Board President John Stewart disagreed with Moses’ account of what happened, saying he either misinterpreted what he was told, or was simply making things up.
After a brief interaction between Stewart and Moses, who was in attendance at the meeting, Ratliff presented a motion for the total dissolution of the Williamsburg Action Team, citing several different reasons for the recommendation, such as:
• Failure to recruit new membership.
• Failure to meet regularly.
• Failure to elect new officers.
• Lack of group cohesion.
Ratliff’s proposal also included the following action steps for dissolving the group:
• An immediate call to vote for dissolution.
• All land assets designated to return to the City of Williamsburg as the original benefactors.
• Counsel provided by the designee of the City of Williamsburg for the successful transition of land assets as well [as] assistance identifying an appropriate 501c3 benefactor for liquid assets.
• Proper reporting of dissolution to the IRS along with appropriate final financial reporting.
Once Ratliff made the motion for dissolution of the Williamsburg Action Team, he and co-chair Hannah Ratliff voted in favor of the proposal. However, Stewart and board member Orville McNew voted in opposition.
With a split vote, the proposal could not move forward. Ratliff then called for a vote on allowing the city to be directly involved in the decision-making process moving forward. This vote was also split, 2-2.
When the “action items” portion of the meeting agenda was reached, both Jacob Ratliff and Hannah Ratliff submitted letters of resignation from the Williamsburg Action Team board, leaving Stewart and McNew to carry on operations.
It didn’t take long for that to change, though, as before the evening was over McNew would make the announcement that he too had decided to resign.
First, an allowance was made for members of the public to voice their concerns, which they did rather passionately.
Questions regarding plans to eventually re-open the theater and why more isn’t being done to obtain grant funding led to several heated exchanges between upset citizens and Stewart, who was soon to be left as the sole remaining member of the Williamsburg Action Team.
At one point, the subject of Moses’ barbershop was re-entered into the conversation. Stewart attempted to clarify, saying, “his lease is up and we’re not going to renew,” but again, the fact that there was never a vote on this matter was reiterated.
One attendee voiced a concern that, should a vote take place now on the matter of whether to allow Moses to remain at the property, it would likely just end up being another 2-2 split. A point was then made that the board should have an odd number of people in order to avoid split votes. Stewart said that he would love to see more people volunteering to serve on the board, leading to many of those in attendance signing up on the spot and saying that they would be willing to contribute in such a capacity.
All of this will likely not matter, however, as McNew’s eventual resignation, which will be made official once he has submitted a written letter declaring his intentions, should lead to a legal review that will ultimately result in the dissolution of the group.
After the meeting, Ratliff explained that he would be following up with Williamsburg Mayor Roddy Harrison to review what has happened and make a determination on what the next steps in the process should be. “The organization is completely defunct,” he said. “One person does not meet the qualifications of a non-profit board.”
As for the barbershop, Moses said that he has already been in touch with his lawyers, and he will remain open in his current location for now. He is adamant that his lease is good until November 22, at which time he is hopeful that the Lane Theater property will be back in the hands of the City of Williamsburg.
On Tuesday, Mayor Harrison commented on the matter, saying, “We have been trying for several years to get the Lane Theater back into the hands of the city, because I feel that if it is in our hands, we stand a much better chance of raising money, obtaining grant funding, and getting help in renovating the building so that we can open it back up.”
“It could be the center of our entertainment district in downtown Williamsburg,” Harrison said of the Lane. “It would be a real boon for our economic development.”
Harrison said that he will consult with attorneys to see what can be done moving forward, but he did make it clear that his end goal is for the property to end up back in the hands of city.
