The City of Newport News, VA - Government approved $3.03 million for NOODLE. The convention happened. Public money reached the producer. But the records reviewed by Audit Newport News leave an unresolved question: where is the supporting documentation that allows taxpayers to verify the producer’s reported spending?
On December 9, 2025, City Council approved both the grant authorization and the $3.03 million appropriation by votes of 5–0.
Voting YES on both measures:
Tina L. Vick and John R. Eley III were absent and excused. Neither cast a vote. No council member voted against either measure.
Bethany made both motions. Long seconded both.
The appropriation included a $3 million event grant and a $30,000 donation supporting the Port Warwick Foundation’s mission and event administration.
City Manager Alan K. Archer signed the agreement for Newport News. Foundation Chairman Tu Ritter signed for the foundation. City Attorney Robert E. Pealo approved it as to form.
Foundation records show cashier’s checks to Global Music Touring, the event producer, for $2 million on January 2, 2026, and $1 million on March 19.
Those records document the foundation’s payments. They do not establish how every dollar was ultimately spent.
The city’s agreement required the foundation to maintain contracts, invoices, purchase orders and receipts. It also included reporting requirements, audit rights and reimbursement provisions.
But the foundation’s agreement with the producer required less, according to Pealo’s own correspondence.
On June 3, Pealo explained that GMT’s agreement called for a spending summary and allowed certain confidential or commercially sensitive information to be redacted or summarized. He asked the foundation to obtain as much validating documentation as possible.
Foundation Executive Director Laura Fisher and board member Marlin McDaniel worked to obtain the accounting. McDaniel requested contracts, invoices, receipts and payment records. Matthew Russotti supplied GMT’s expenditure summary on June 23.
On June 26, McDaniel told Pealo that GMT would provide no further contracts, invoices or supporting documentation beyond that summary.
McDaniel wrote that the foundation had:
“no recourse to compel GMT to provide those underlying documents.”
That statement came from McDaniel’s email to Pealo. McDaniel also said this level of documentation was below the foundation’s usual expectations for spending public or private funds.
The city’s agreement still contained audit and reimbursement provisions. The unresolved issue is how those protections would be enforced when the foundation said it could not obtain the producer’s underlying records.
The financial results also need to be stated plainly.
GMT reported total expenses of $3,191,726. Archer said the production company bore costs above the $3 million grant.
An independent economic-impact study estimated approximately $1.08 million in local economic output and $62,000 in local tax revenue.
Economic output measures activity in the local economy. It is not money repaid to the city.
Archer acknowledged the difference between the public investment and the first-year economic results, writing:
“This gap is real, and it should be stated plainly rather than minimized.”
The report also found favorable reactions from many surveyed attendees, substantial participation by visitors from outside Newport News and interest in returning. Those benefits belong in the story alongside the cost and documentation questions.
The employee disclosures deserve equal precision.
McDaniel was both the city’s innovation program manager and an unpaid Port Warwick Foundation board member. His city responsibilities included work on the event’s economic-impact assessment, while his foundation role included seeking the producer’s financial documentation.
McDaniel’s disclosure bears his signature, but the date line is blank. The copy reviewed therefore does not establish when he signed it.
Brint M. Martin, the city’s deputy director of communications, disclosed unpaid foundation board membership. Her disclosure is signed and dated May 12, 2026.
Joanne L. Palmeira, superintendent of cultural arts, stated that she had been an active foundation board member from 2020 through 2023 without compensation and had not participated in the transaction. Her disclosure is also signed and dated May 12, 2026.
Those two dated forms were signed months after the December funding votes.
The city auditor’s response must also be included.
On June 29, Deputy City Auditor Yolanda R. Jefferson wrote:
“Based on our review there was sufficient independence with proper disclosures, and no conflict-of-interest present.”
That was the auditor’s stated finding. Her email did not attach a review report, supporting workpapers or an examination verifying GMT’s individual expenses.
Audit Newport News also requested comment from City Attorney Robert E. Pealo and the city’s Communications Department through Director Jody L. Saunders. Neither Pealo nor the Communications Department responded to those requests for comment.
Those unanswered requests are separate from Jefferson’s written response, which we have included here.
Our review of the available records through September 22, 2026, did not locate a final expenditure audit or an invoice-level accounting resolving the producer-documentation gap.
The council members who approved the funding—Jones, Bethany, Long, Coleman and Harris—should now require a public explanation of what spending was verified, what supporting records remain unavailable and whether the foundation satisfied its agreement.
Before another investment of this scale, Newport News should ensure its documentation requirements extend to the companies actually spending the money.
Taxpayers deserve to follow their dollars through the final accounting.
— Audit Newport News
