VIRGINIA BEACH — A disappointment. A “pretty bad breach.” Poor execution.
That’s how several City Council members on Tuesday described an audit’s findings that the city has spent more than $600,000 since 2002 trying to realize an oyster restoration plan that never existed. City staff had over the years prepared several ordinances approving expenditures by the Council that mentioned the nonexistent plan, according to the city audit.
“I don’t ever want to be disappointed with the staff,” Mayor Will Sessoms said. “But in this case it appears I’m going to be very disappointed.”
City Auditor Lyndon Remias wrote in his report that the city pays the nonprofit Lynnhaven River NOW to collect oyster shells so they can be used to grow habitat in the Lynnhaven River for new generations of oysters. Because the city did not have a plan to use those collections, the shells have been accumulating at the city’s landfill for more than six years, Remias said.
That shell recycling program, called “Save Oyster Shells,” has cost about $253,ooo so far, according to emails from city officials.
Councilman John Uhrin said the city needs to develop a plan for the shells and for oyster restoration that it can follow when using money from the city’s Oyster Heritage Fund, which has been the source of expenditures for the shell recycling program. The fund gets its money from contributions made by businesses and residents, often to satisfy water quality mitigation requirements.
“It was certainly never my intent, when voting, that we were just going to hoard a bunch of shells at the city dump,” Uhrin said.
Councilman Jim Wood, who represents the Lynnhaven district, said the audit revealed “a pretty bad breach by a couple city staff, and I’m extremely glad Lyndon discovered it.”
He’s less concerned by the shell mounds though.
The shells need to bake in the sun to kill pathogens for months before they can be used, and Lynnhaven River NOW has been putting them to good use or has plans to, Wood said.
Karen Forget, the nonprofit’s executive director, said Monday the group used all available shells in 2008 to build the Athey Reef near Long Creek. Last spring the group also used some of the shells to build a shoreline reef in Owl Creek near the Virginia Aquarium, she said. The group now plans to build a 1½-acre oyster reef in Lynnhaven River’s eastern branch next spring, Forget said.
“One acre of sanctuary reef requires approximately 40,000 bushels of oyster shell,” Forget wrote in an email to the City Council following media reports on the audit. “It has taken six years to accumulate the necessary shell to move forward with this significant sanctuary reef project.”
Most of the $60,000 to $70,000 needed for the eastern branch reef is coming from a federal grant that the group obtained recently, according to Forget. The group also plans to build a second large reef in the river’s western branch in 2018, she said Monday.
Remias said the stored shells are city-owned and can’t be used without the city’s permission or direction. No records of them being used in the past six years exist, and the city has no current plans for them, he said.
“If they have been (using the shells during the past six years) they’ve been doing it off the books,” Remias said, adding the shells shouldn’t be taken without the necessary paperwork, of which there is none.
On her email to the City Council, Forget attached a May 2014 letter from then-Deputy City Manager Dave Hansen to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation in support of Lynnhaven River NOW’s application for the reef in the river’s eastern branch. Hansen is now city manager.
“The City was a part of the planning of this reef,” Forget wrote.
Councilman John Moss said he wanted an explanation from Hansen for how the city’s internal controls failed, allowing an oyster plan to be discussed for years as if it existed when it did not. He said he wanted to know who is going to be held accountable.
“This isn’t anything minor,” Moss said.
Councilman Ben Davenport said city staff members’ “hearts were in the right place, but their execution was off.”
“We need to fix the execution and get those oyster shells back in the water,” he said.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the cost of Lynnhaven River NOW’s sanctuary reef project. Building the oyster habitat in the river’s eastern branch will cost between $60,000 and $70,000 when the value of shells are factored in.
Have a story idea or news tip? Contact City Hall reporter Judah Taylor at [email protected] or 757-490-2750.
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