By Staff Reports
City records from 2025 outline a series of actions to address the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding issue that differs from City Manager Rob Fincher’s recent recollection of events.
The issue stemmed from missed federal reporting deadlines tied to ARPA funding. Records generated at the time show Martinsville risked having to repay $4.4 million until the U.S. Treasury briefly reopened its reporting portal, allowing the city to submit overdue reports.
Fincher was named city manager on Tuesday. Before that, he served as the interim city manager, and was acting city manager for a week while the then-City Manager Aretha Ferrell-Benavides was on medical leave.
“That’s when it (ARPA funds) was brought to my attention about some issues with that because it happened the exact same time” as when “Homeland Security wrongly reported Martinsville as a sanctuary city,” he said.
Martinsville was erroneously included on a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) list on May 29, 2025. The ARPA funding issue, however, was resolved in April, 2025.
When he learned about the DHS designation, Fincher said he contacted the U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith’s office as well as a senator’s office.
“I was talking with them about that, about Homeland Security wrongfully reporting Martinsville as a sanctuary city. While I had them on the phone, I was kind of like, ‘Oh, by the way, while I got you on the phone, we’ve got this situation with the ARPA reporting,’” he said.
Fincher said Del. Eric Phillips, R-Martinsville, and Martinsville’s Chief Financial Officer Richard Stanfield had already been working to address the ARPA issue.
Fincher said he asked both federal representatives for advice about handling the situation. “They agreed with what I guess Mr. Phillips had found out, and Mr. Stanfield had figured out. … Then that’s when we moved forward with that, so that way, we wouldn’t have any loss in the ARPA funding,” he said.
Vice Mayor Kathy Lawson also recalled that Fincher was acting in the role of city manager while the ARPA situation unfolded.
“Because Aretha was on medical leave. Seems to me it was maybe last March-April. It was in the spring, but I don’t remember specific dates,” Lawson said, and noted that Fincher and Stanfield had already addressed the issue.
Councilman Aaron Rawls disputed Fincher’s characterization of the timeline — and his involvement.
“I have the emails” from that time period “and they’re public,” Rawls said. “This was resolved with the U.S. Treasury on April 8, 2025.”
Rawls said employees hearing what Fincher said about the ARPA situation, particularly those in the Finance Department, are upset.
“That was a very lonely battle for the finance folks to try and get this resolved. They actually got it resolved directly themselves” with help from Phillips, Griffith, and the U.S. Treasury, he said.
Phillips agreed with Rawls about Fincher’s statements.
“That’s not my recollection of the facts,” said Phillips, who worked with Griffith’s office to help address the issue.
The issue first got on Stanfield’s radar in February 2025, according to an official document from the city titled “ARPA Timeline.” The document that was created by Stanfield at the time indicates that Stanfield started to become aware of the situation when he noticed emails from the Treasury Department stating that required reports for State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) had not been submitted on time. When he became aware of the third notification, Stanfield emailed the Treasury asking for help to access the system, the document shows.
“However, it was not as easy as it appeared because while I could login I couldn’t do anything. It took daily/weekly emails to Treasury trying to see previously filed reports Finally got access 3/31/25, but couldn’t file past due reports,” the document states.
He then emailed a consultant for help, and five days later, learned that a city employee was issuing Purchase Orders after the Dec. 31, 2024 deadline, “which was a no no (sic). Told him ARPA obligations ended 12/31/24 and we could not obligate anything after that,” the document states.
Another now former staff member allegedly suggested “that we backdate MOU’s (Memorandum of Understanding) to create an obligation and I said I wasn’t backdating anything,” the document stated.
On March 13, the document states that Stanfield met with Ferrell-Benavides and provided a memo of suggestions. “Told not to worry about it because she had friend whose husband was over ARPA in Baltimore and we were ok.”
On March 17, 2025, Stanfield learned via email that the portal at Treasury would close in two weeks, “and everything needed to be filed before the portal closed. Once it closed could no longer access past due reports and that would trigger repayment email/letter from Treasury,” according to the document.
He then emailed other city staff to include Ferrell-Benavides, Edena Reese-Atmore and Eric Payne “about ARPA portal closing and needed to work together; 2:54 pm – rec’d email from Aretha requesting I come upstairs while Travis Hodge (then Human Resources director) present and told I wasn’t a good fit and wasn’t a team player for simply trying to do my job. Told to never copy Eric Payne on any emails to Aretha again. I had spoken to Eric Payne back in February about financial concerns I was having is the only reason I can think of to justify the reaction I received.”
On March 31, Stanfield contacted Phillips “and explained the situation and” Phillips “reached out to Congressman Morgan Griffith; Joshua Hess of Mr. Griffith’s office called me and I explained everything. He reached out to his liason (sic) at Treasury on City of Martinsville’s behalf,” the document stated.
Eventually, Stanfield learned that “they would re-open our 12/31/24 report only and allow us 24 hours to file it.” No exceptions, the document stated. “I asked if the only reason they re-opened was because of Mr. Griffith and she said yes.”
On April 8, the ARPA filing for the Dec. 31, 2024 period was completed, and on April 28, the ARPA filing for March 31, 2025, was completed, the document stated.
On May 14, 2025, Rawls emailed Stanfield to inquire about the federal reporting and ARPA funds.
“We would have had to repay $4.4 mil to Treasury had Congressman Morgan Griffith’s office not reached out to Treasury. We are now compliant, and the next filing is 6/30/25 due 7/31/25,” Stanfield responded in part.
Also in that May 2025 email, Rawls explicitly asked Stanfield about his involvement in the resolution.
“I alone pushed the issue once I became aware of the delinquency on 2/10/25,” Stanfield replied.
While officials may recall different timelines for the filings, Fincher and others agree the city did not lose any ARPA funds.
“I don’t know how many times we have to tell the public and the media that we have not lost our ARPA funding,” Lawson said. “We were behind on some filing deadlines, which Mr. Stanfield took care of and made the appropriate filings. We did not lose any ARPA money, not a penny… People just love to spread trash.”
Now, the city is working on its spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year, and Fincher said it is dealing with “funding issues every day.
“We’re doing budget meetings right now. We’re still getting things straight, and that’s what’s made this budget kind of difficult in that we’re trying to correct some of the changes that were made,” he said.
While the changes weren’t improper, Fincher said it was a different way of doing things compared to what the city’s done in the past.
“When you start doing year-to-year comparisons, it looks really weird. Why would they move the money here versus there … that type of thing,” he said.
