Oran Safety Glass

Documents

Oran Safety Glass (OSG) is an Israeli military contractor that the Virginia Israel Advisory Board helped bring intoVirginia's market on a wave of economic development claims about promised employment, capital expenditures and tax base improvement. OSG opened a manufacturing plant in Greensville County in 2007. Oran has received approximately $3 million in state economic development subsidies. In return, Oran was required to provide full-time jobs with solid pay and a boost to tax revenues. There is little evidence that Oran is meeting any of its performance benchmarks or that state development agencies are properly overseeing the use of public funds invested in OSG.

An examination of records released by Greensville County under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act reveals the county is not seeking relevant, easily available data about employment at the plant. Workers say OSG is heavily reliant on temporary labor, rather than full-time workers. The county tried to claw back funds for non-performance only once, but has remarkably little incentive to probe too deeply. However, with Oran’s military contracts now in steep decline due to contracting fraud against the U.S. Army,  the long term the investment and use of loans could jeopardize Greensville County's and state public finances.

The files below were released under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, 2.2-3704. They are presented as received. OCR signifies "optical character recognition." OCR has been applied to to the files in order to better index the PDF documents in search engines such as Google.

Date  or Range	Subject
2006 (OCR)	Incentive & Performance Agreement signed between Greensville County and Oran Safety Glass.  Inducements for Oran to locate in an 82,800 square foot building owned and built by Greensville County under a 10-year lease. County financial commitments to improve the site. Grants from the Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia's "Opportunity fund." Small business finance loans. "Claw back" provisions if Oran fails to create 50 new jobs within 30 months. Tobacco Region Opportunity Fund grant. County tax refunds to OSG. Waiver of building permit fees. Commitment by Mecklenburg Electric Cooperative to assume loans to build out electrical transmission to OSG. Training and Recruitment grants. Rent credits. Default provisions.
2008 (OCR) Non-OCR	Performance agreement between Greensville County and Oran Safety Glass. OSG capital investment of $2,650,000 to create at least 25 new jobs. $50,000 Governor's Opportunity Funds to improve manufacturing site. New jobs must pay an average annual wage of $33,648, 35 hours per week of work, over 48 weeks per year. Tempo and contractor jobs do not qualify. Jobs must be in addition to 80 alleged jobs at the facility on December 31, 2007. $432,500 in additional grans, waivers and subsidies.
2015	U.S. Court of Federal Claims lawsuit revealing OSG contract fraud with the U.S. Army, resulting in $4.7 million in repayments to cure harm and added government expense caused by Oran's deliver of out-of-spec glass. Details on OSG's receipt of SECRET classified U.S. government "recipe" to manufacture safety glass.
2017 (OCR) Non-OCR	Performance agreement between Greensville County and Oran Safety Glass. Expansion of existing facility by 77,280 square feet with $4,450,000 in capital investment. Employment of baseline 110 full-time jobs over 12 months. Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission (TROF) grant of $235,000. TROF loan of $235,000. New jobs equivalent to 55 full time with an annual wage of $43,000. County seeks loan of $3,700,000 to cover costs of building $3,900,000 in new construction.
2017	Lease acquisition agreement and financing for County of Greensville for $3,795,000 for the Oran Safety Glass plant expansion. Constitutional review by Christian & Barton, Attorneys at Law. Performance Agreement, Band Leumi standby letter of credit for $502,500.  Attempt by the Commonwealth Opportunity Fund (formerly the Governor's Opportunity Fund) in 2016 to claw back $50,000 from Oran Safety Glass for failing to meet the terms of the 2008 performance agreement. Transfer of a building valued at $1,140,000 to Oran in exchange for a payment of $436,644 ($703,356 subsidy).
2017	Tobacco Region Opportunity Fund grant in the amount of $235,000 for Oran Safety Glass to employ at least 55 persons with a quarterly aggregate payroll of $591,250 by March 31, 2020. "The ompany shall locate or construct taxable assets in the Locality having an assessed value of at least $4,450,000, as determined by the Locality's Commissioner of Revenue ("COR").
2017	Virginia Economic Development Partnership grant in the amount of $150,000 for Oran Safety Glass to employ at least 55 persons with an average annual wage of $43,000 by December 31, 2021 and a capital expenditure by or on behalf of the Company of approximately $4,450,000.
2019	Official Greensville County declarations that they do not have information about Oran Safety Glass performance achievement to evaluate compliance with performance agreements. Attachments refer to 2017 documents in the row above.

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