October 2010 Minutes

Virginia Racing Commission

MINUTES OF THE COMMISSION MEETING

October 26, 2010

HORSEMEN’S BUILDING
COLONIAL DOWNS
10700 HORSEMEN’S ROAD
NEW KENT, VA

In Attendance
Commission Members:
Peter C. Burnett, Chairman
Clinton Miller, Vice Chairman
Mark Brown
David Reynolds
Stuart Siegel

Commission Staff:

David S. Lermond, Jr., Deputy Executive Secretary
Kimberly M. Carter, Office Administrator
C. Richard Harden, DVM, Equine Medical Director
Joseph M. Roney, Director of Operations & Enforcement
Dennis E. West, Director of Operations
George Hickman, Standardbred Steward
Jean Chalk, Standardbred Steward

Attorney General’s Office:
Amy K. Dilworth
__________________________

At 9:44 a.m., the regular monthly meeting of the Commission was called to order by Chairman Burnett.

Minutes of the September 28, 2010 VRC meeting were approved unanimously as corrected.

During Commissioners Comments, Chairman Burnett announced that the Commission has accepted the resignation of its Executive Secretary, Victor Harrison. Mr. Harrison has accepted a position with Penn Gaming in Florida. David Lermond will serve as acting Executive Secretary.

Deputy Executive Secretary Lermond commended Mr. Woolnough on the VHHA fishing trip for backside workers that took place a couple of weeks ago.

Mr. Lermond suggested December 15th as the deadline for submission of the requests for 2011 Live Racing Dates. It was decided by the Commission that the parties are to submit a status report to the Commission on how many days they will be requesting for 2011 on November 30th. The formal race day requests will be due on December 15th and the Commission will not meet at all in November. It was also decided that because the December meeting will be held earlier than normal, that the ADW licenses would be extended until the January meeting when their renewal applications for 2011 will be heard by the Commission.

A discussion ensued regarding the legal opinion from the Attorney General’s office in response to Senator Houck question concerning the legality of “internet cafes”. The Commission agreed that it should do everything possible to help with this problem, but that it might not be so easy to correct.

Mr. Lermond gave an overview of the live Harness racing after 22 performances as compared to last year’s meet and reviewed various handle reports updated through the end of September with comparative numbers from prior years.

Chairman Burnett then read the following motion, “Pursuant to Virginia Code section 2.2-3711(A) (1), I move that the Commission convene a closed meeting for the purpose of the discussion and consideration of the performance of specific employees of the Commission.” This was seconded by Commissioner Brown. All were in favor, saying, “Aye.”

Returning from closed meeting, Chairman Burnett resumed as follows, “I hereby certify, pursuant to Virginia Code section 2.2-3712, that to the best of each member's knowledge, (i) only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements under this chapter, and (ii) only such public business matters as were identified in the motion by which the closed meeting was convened, were heard, discussed or considered in the meeting by the Commission. All were in favor, saying, “Aye.”

There being no further business, Wednesday, December 15, 2010 was set as the date of the next meeting to be held at the Horsemen’s Building, Colonial Downs, 10700 Horsemen’s Road, New Kent, VA. and the meeting was adjourned at 12:15 PM.