License to ill
City demands fees from failing business
When Jeffery Spinello opened a letter from the City and read that he needed a permit to go out of business, he thought someone was pulling his leg. “In the past 15 years, I’ve opened and closed or sold 12 businesses,” says Spinello, who runs Main Street Gallery, perhaps better known as the Thomas Kinkade store, on the Downtown Mall. “I’ve never heard of anything like this. I came from San Francisco, and I thought California had the craziest laws.”
In early June, Spinello posted signs advertising a going-out-of-business sale at his store, which sells paintings by Kinkade as well as works by other artists. On Tuesday, June 17, Spinello received a letter from Levingston Plumb, a business property inspector for the City.
The letter, which was obtained by C-VILLE, said: “We noted that you have advertised ‘Going out of business’…and at this time we are unable to locate a valid permit for this activity. Please stop by our office ASAP to obtain the permit, and we will need a list of your inventory.”
The letter also demanded a $15 fee for the permit, and threatened Spinello with a Class 1 misdemeanor if he didn’t comply. (Other Class 1 misdemeanors include maliciously maiming someone’s pet, keeping standing water on private property, or hunting on private land without permission.)
Spinello called the City’s department of revenue and discovered the letter was no joke. He paid his $15 fee. In return he obtained a paper saying he had 30 days to close his store. Irate, Spinello, who had planned to take more than a month to close operations, enlarged Plumb’s letter and stuck it in his store’s window, beside a “For Lease” poster.
“It’s ridiculous,” Spinello says. “I find it appalling that the hardworking people who make that tough decision to go out of business have to get one more nail in their coffin.”
Lee Richards, the City’s commissioner of revenue, says his department isn’t trying to kick entrepreneurs when they’re down. The point of the permit, he says, is to prevent businesses from luring customers with phony “going out of business” sales while continuing to stock merchandise on the sly.
“The City has had this ordinance for years,” says Richards. He admits, however, that Charlottesville generally hasn’t had a problem with businesses pretending to fold. “But there was a shoe store on the Mall once that was going out of business for years,” says Richards.
Bob Stroh, co-chair of the Downtown Business Association, says he hadn’t heard of the permit until Spinello told him about it. “It makes sense that the City would want to protect the public,” says Stroh. “But the fee seems like adding insult to injury.”
Albemarle County requires a similar permit, but charges no fee.
Spinello contends the “selective enforcement” of the permit policy is unfair. “When I called the City,” he says, “they told me I wasn’t being singled out, I just happened to get caught.”
Richards says the City “isn’t in the business of catching anyone.
“If they advertise in the newspaper or they have a sign up, we do the best we can with the resources we have to get in touch with them and explain the issue,” he says, adding that the City issues an average of two permits a year.
“They’re not looking at the paper very hard,” Spinello retorts.
After a business closes, the City refunds it the unused portion of its yearlong business license, the cost of which is based on an enterprise’s profits. If owners can’t vacate their buildings within the 30 days required by the permit, they can pay another $15 for another 30 days.
All this is cold comfort to Spinello, who plans to go into real estate and is leaving the gallery business before he incurs debt. “At least I know the City must be even more broke than I am, if they really need to take 15 bucks from a guy who’s going out of business.”––John Borgmeyer
The road less traveled
Hillsdale extension could ease K-Mart’s cut-through burden
Monica Vierna and Kevin Kotlarski deserve some kind of trophy. The pair has not only attended nearly every City Council meeting in recent weeks, but they’ve often stayed to the bitter end, absorbing more public policy discussion than any civilian should.
Vierna and Kotlarski have been fighting VDOT’s plan to widen Fontaine Avenue to three lanes from two, in the process taking a chunk out of their front lawn, including a towering pine tree. In the past, Council hasn’t been able to give the Fontaine activists much good news, given VDOT’s powers to build where and when it wants, regardless of local opinion.
At Council’s regular meeting on Monday, June 16, the Fontaine duo were there again, but this time they got some good news for their trouble. Late in the meeting, Council approved a letter to VDOT Commissioner Philip Schucet––who has promised to make the multi-billion-dollar agency more responsive to local transportation agendas––asking VDOT to shift $1.5 million from the Fontaine project to a different road project on Hillsdale Drive.
Hillsdale Drive runs from Greenbrier Drive north to Rio Road (in keeping with Charlottesville’s annoying double-identification trend, Hillsdale is known as Northfield Road north of Rio). The City wants to extend Hillsdale south from Greenbrier to Hydraulic Road, just east of K-Mart, in an effort to relieve congestion at the Hydraulic/29 intersection.
VDOT has already committed $5 million to the Hillsdale project. If the agency agrees to transfer funds away from Fontaine, Council likely will spend the additional $1.5 million to acquire rights-of-way from property owners—but that figure could fall short. Although no definite route for Hillsdale has been chosen, probably it will cut through the Seminole Square shopping center, which is owned and managed by Great Eastern Management Company.
Because the new Hillsdale will improve access to Seminole Trail, eliminating the “K-Mart cut-through” drivers often use to get to Seminole Square Theater, Councilor Kevin Lynch is hoping landowners will be willing to donate the rights-of-way through their property. “We almost need to do that to make this project feasible,” he says.
Great Eastern CEO Charles Rotgin, Jr., has made no commitments, but he sounded an optimistic note.
“We’re very supportive of the City’s efforts to extend Hillsdale,” he says. “It’s a road that’s been needed for many years. We’ve indicated our willingness to be quite accommodating with respect to right of way.”
K-Mart leases its lot from Brandywine Realty in Jacksonville, Florida. Brett Moore, a property manager there, declined to comment, saying negotiations were still preliminary.
Indeed, very little about the road has been decided. Lynch denies the rumor that the City would build the road on top of Meadow Creek. He also says the road probably would not interfere with the nearby Rivanna Trails. Residents, he says, don’t want Hillsdale to be “a speedway,” and the City favors a two-lane road with bike lanes and sidewalks.
Naturally, no road project can begin without months of preliminary study, making even a summer 2004 start date overly optimistic. This fall, the Maryland engineering firm Johnson, Mirmiran and Thompson will present the City with a study of various alignment schemes.––John Borgmeyer
PATRIOT shames
Local lawmakers shun politics to criticize controversial Act
In a blip of bipartisan synergy, local Democratic and Republican parties have both issued resolutions critical of the USA PATRIOT (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) Act.
The 342-page Federal Act, enacted after September 11, modifies 15 existing laws. It expands Federal agents’ ability to obtain warrants, set wiretaps, conduct secret searches on civilians, eavesdrop on lawyer/client conversations, monitor the Internet, and gain access to private educational, financial and medical records.
The Republicans’ resolution passed the 57th Virginia House of Delegates District GOP on June 2 by a 2/3 vote. It warns, “Actions recently taken by the Federal government, including the adoption of certain sections of the USA PATRIOT Act and several Executive Orders, now threaten (our) fundamental rights and liberties.”
The resolution requests that local law enforcement preserve residents’ freedoms “even if requested or authorized to infringe upon these rights by Federal law enforcement.”
Republican Rick Sincere, who drafted the resolution, says, “I don’t think we should be giving the Justice Department more powers than they already have.” The GOP version calls for local oversight on Federal investigations. “This is still a democratic republic,” says Sincere. “We’re in charge, not them.”
District GOP chair Bob Hodus insists that the resolution “is not a condemnation of the Act or the Bush Administration,” but rather an “urging of caution” against Federal zeal. “You always have a chance that law enforcement officers will violate constitutional rights,” says Hodus.
The Democrats’ resolution is equally critical, stating that the USA PATRIOT Act “undermines the checks and balances that are at the foundation of protecting and preserving our democracy.” It passed unanimously at the June 17 meeting of the Charlottesville Democratic Committee, although more signatures must be solicited to compose a 2/3 majority (only 42 of 115 CDC members were in attendance).
The CDC resolution categorically singles out provisions of the Act, “that may violate the Constitution and the rights and civil liberties of the residents of Charlottesville.” It supports the independence of local public agencies from Federal control. And, it, too, proposes the establishment of “an independent oversight system to prevent the abuse of the information collected about us by the government and its agents.”
Vice-Mayor Meredith Richards, who penned the resolution, says, “Anyone who has fulfilled a prescription lately will know that their information is being forwarded.… We are about to enter a downward spiral of government secrecy and aggressive spying.”
Last week, the U.S. Justice Department permitted racial profiling for terrorism investigations, while a Federal appeals court upheld the secret detentions of up to 1,200 individuals since September 11. Federal lawmakers are now considering Patriot Act II, which could broaden the definition of terrorism and make it easier to sentence “terrorists” to death.
Both resolutions will be vetted at City Council’s July 7 meeting. Passing a version would add Charlottesville to the 115 other cities and states, including Philadelphia, Denver, Hawaii and Alaska, that have enacted legislation contrary to the USA PATRIOT Act.
“I applaud the local Republicans for having a resolution,” says City Councilman and Democrat Kevin Lynch. “I’m glad that we can do this in a bi-partisan way.” Of course, that will depend on the wording. Lynch adds, “I’d like to word it as strongly as possible.”
But regardless of the wording, Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo says a resolution would be moot. “I don’t think it’s any local government’s responsibility to decide on the constitutionality of a law,” says Longo. “If Congress passes a law, it becomes a duty of the Supreme Court to decide its constitutionality…I yield to their wisdom.”—Brian Wimer