Downtown Pasco Development Authority director arrested

Pasco police arrested Michael Goins, executive director of the Downtown Pasco Development Authority, and booked him Tuesday into the Franklin County jail on suspicion of first-degree theft, according to a post on the police department’s Facebook page.

Goins, 36, of Richland, allegedly embezzled money “over a long period of time,” police said.

The investigation is still active, and it is unknown how much money Goins allegedly took.

No other people appear to be involved, police said. The development authority’s board has cooperated fully with the investigation.

The board had a special meeting last week to discuss Goins’ future in closed session, but it is still finding out what happened, board President Mike Miller said.

“We’re still in the process of dealing with the issue,” Miller said Tuesday when asked if Goins is still the executive director. “He won’t be — let’s put it that way.”

The arrest was made after financial irregularities were found, Miller said.

“We’re only just finding out in the last couple weeks,” he said.

Goins came to the downtown development authority in 2013. He helped bring back Pasco’s Fiery Foods Festival and introduced the popular Food Truck Fridays during his time there.

In 2014, Goins successfully asked the city council to increase the amount of money it annually gives the development authority to $90,000 in 2015 and $120,000 next year. That was an increase from $60,000 the previous three years.

The council also approved an ambitious five-year revitalization plan for downtown, where most buildings were built between 1940 and 1960. A study called for mixed-use development, with businesses downstairs and apartments upstairs, to be in place downtown within five years.

A native of the Philadelphia area, Goins used Rocky analogies to show how that city was able to be revitalized after facing problems with crime and business closings. He said in 2014 that Pasco’s problems weren’t as severe, but the downtown needs to be perceived better.

Goins’ group came under criticism from some Latino business owners because it supported plans to build a new Union Gospel Mission shelter downtown, which led to fears of an increased number of homeless people.

Another hit to downtown’s reputation came after a police shooting near the corner of Lewis Street and Tenth Avenue drew national attention in February.

The city council voted in 2010 to create the downtown development authority after determining that the old Downtown Pasco Development Association wasn’t moving quickly enough in its mission to improve downtown.

The city appointed development authority board members in 2011, and the group named its first executive director, Amy Kuchler, in 2012. She served in the position for about a year.

Goins is not the first public official in the area to be accused of embezzlement. Dennis Huston, Franklin County’s former public works accounting and administrative director, is serving a 16-year prison sentence after admitting to stealing $2.8 million over 22 years to feed cocaine and gambling addictions.

This story was originally published December 1, 2015 at 5:39 PM with the headline "Downtown Pasco Development Authority director arrested."