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EDA votes to resume BlueDot rewards funding, approves multiple local sponsorships
Summary
The EDA voted to continue the BlueDot Open Rewards program with a $5,000 allocation pending staff recommendations on guardrails, and approved additional event sponsorships including $2,500 for Goochland Cares' golf tournament and $1,000 for the business appreciation event.
At its March 18 meeting the Goochland County Economic Development Authority voted to continue support for the BlueDot Open Rewards program at a $5,000 funding level and approved several community sponsorships funded from the EDA budget.
Staff presented three years of BlueDot program data showing steady user growth, a spike after Richmond launched a similar program, and a small number of high-earning outliers that raised questions about fraud or anomalies. Members asked staff to drill down on user and merchant locations, consider per-user caps or per-purchase limits, and return with suggested guardrails. "It's one of those things where we should put guardrails in place," one member said; staff agreed to obtain more detailed data and report back. The EDA then voted to continue the program with $5,000 in funding and asked staff to bring recommended limits and monitoring options.
Separately, the EDA considered sponsorship requests: the board approved a $2,500 sponsorship for the Goochland Cares fifth annual golf tournament (motion passed 4'to—2) and approved up to $1,000 to support the county's business appreciation event (voice vote passed). Earlier in the meeting the EDA also approved a routine payment to a vendor (Christian Martin) for $2,112.88.
Members directed staff to pursue additional data checks for BlueDot, to consider caps or user-limits, and to monitor program performance if funding is resumed.
