Tuesday, December 27
Monticello receives TJ’s old chairs
Today Monticello announced that curators of Thomas Jefferson’s house recently received a pair of centuries-old armchairs that once belonged to Charlottesville’s favorite son. TJ bought the neoclassical curved-back chairs to furnish the townhouse he rented while living in Paris as an ambassador in the 1780s. According to the Associated Press, the chairs, along with many of Jefferson’s possessions, were auctioned off in 1827. The chairs were discovered in a Charlottesville stable in 1907; they were bought by a Baltimore family, then by Jacqueline Kennedy in 1962. She kept them in the White House and in her New York apartment until Patricia Kluge bought them at auction for $134,500 in 1996, with an agreement to keep them for 10 years before returning them to Monticello. The chairs were restored in the late ’90s, and, according to news reports, nobody has sat in them since.
Wednesday, December 28
Community Foundation drops a load on ’em
Today the Charlottesville Area Communi-ty Foundation announced that it will give more than $1 million to 80 local nonprofit organizations. Of the $1 million, nearly $300,000 came from the Bama Works Fund, the charitable arm of the Dave Matthews Band. The boys typically donate that amount twice each year. The band’s success has been good for the foundation—according to CACF Donations Director Kevin O’Halloran, the foundation has made 2,500 grants worth $14 million since 1967. In 2005, the foundation made 500 donations worth $3 million. “We were all surprised by that level of activity,” O’Halloran says.
Thursday, December 29
Parkway concept dissed
Proponents of a new bypass around Route 29N fielded questions and criticisms about the road tonight at the Westminster Presbyterian Church. Outgoing Char-lottesville Delegate Mitch Van Yahres, along with would-be congressman Bern Ewert and urban planner Gary Okerlund, argue that turning a portion of Route 743 into what they call the “Ruckersville Parkway” would be a fairly cheap way to ease traffic on 29N. At the meeting, however, some people who live along 743 said they don’t want any more traffic. Three years ago, Albemarle citizens successfully resisted the State’s plans for the five-mile, $180 million Western Bypass; this latest bypass has also provoked resistance from locals. A bypass is favored south of Charlottesville, where Ewert hopes to run for Congress against Virgil Goode in November.
UVA prof’s NYT column is a big hit
UVA psychology prof Timothy Wilson’s New York Times op-ed about introspection became today’s most frequently e-mailed article from the newspaper. Wilson argues that self-reflection doesn’t do much good, and in fact can make us depressed. It’s much better, Wilson says, “to act more like the person we want to be, rather than sitting around analyzing ourselves.” Not bad advice for 2006.
Friday, December 30
Lawsuit against Ivy Landfill will go forward
Today The Daily Progress reported that a First Amendment lawsuit against the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority will go forward. Federal Judge Norman K. Moon will allow the $16 million suit brought by Patricia Stephens, whose husband died in 2003 when an oil tank he was cutting at the landfill exploded. Stephens’ attorney, Deborah Wyatt, argues that the settlement of a previous lawsuit involving the RSWA restricted the free speech of citizens who could have spoken out about landfill safety issues. That free speech could have saved the man’s life, Wyatt argues. In moving the suit forward, Moon reversed his previous decision to stop the case.
UVA faces Gophers in obscure bowl game
Today Wahoos geared up as UVA’s football team faced Minnesota in the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl in Nashville. To get their third bowl win in four years, the Cavaliers had to stop the Golden Gophers’ running game, which is ranked second in the nation with 5.5 yards per carry.
Written by John Borgmeyer from staff and news reports.
More twists on Little High
Last-minute confusion may nix a compromise between Region Ten and residents
After months of heated negotiation, it seemed that Little High Street residents had finally resolved differences with Region Ten over an apartment complex the agency is building in that neighborhood. No sooner did the promise of compromise appear, however, than it disappeared amid confusion over funding for the project.
Late this summer, a nonprofit group called Community Services Housing started building an apartment complex at 1111-1113 Little High St. intended to house 40 low-income, disabled clients of Region Ten, a local social service provider. When construction began, Little High Street residents balked—they pressured Region Ten to improve the structure’s design, and asked for assurances that Region Ten staff would be on site to help clients with problems. [For more, see “High Tension on Little High Street,” November 8].
On Tuesday, December 20, Little High Street residents met with Region Ten, CSH and City officials.
“We had come up with a major compromise position,” says Little High resident Mark Haskins. “We would accept the 40 units if certain conditions were met. [Region Ten] had made a previous offer to re-design the project, and we wanted some verification that that would, in fact, be possible.”
At the meeting, however, CSH officials had a shocking announcement—the project was cancelled.
CSH director Bob Smith did not return calls by presstime. Others at the meeting, though, told C-VILLE what happened.
At the meeting, Smith announced that due to a miscommunication between State agencies, CSH would not be able to get State tax credits for the apartments. Thus, the project was dead—eliminating any need to discuss possible compromises between Region Ten and Little High Street.
“The next thing we knew, the meeting was over,” says Little High resident Haskins.
Then, last week, Region Ten announced that the problem had been cleared up. CSH would get the tax credits, and the project was alive once again. However, CSH’s application to get the tax credits must be submitted before the end of 2005; once the tax credits have been awarded, it is unclear how much CSH will be able to change the project to meet the Little High neighbors’ requests.
“I think it is very unfortunate that we don’t have the time to continue the discussion [with Little High] prior to finalizing that application,” says Region Ten Director Phil Campbell. He initially resisted residents’ complaints but softened his position as pressure from the neighborhood increased.
Although leaders from Region Ten, CSH and the Little High Area Neighbor-hood Association all say they want negotiation to continue, it is now unclear whether the back and forth will accomplish anything. For now, it seems that CSH could be able to build the complex as planned without doing anything to appease nearby residents.
“After all that talk and tense and difficult meetings, I’m not sure anything will change,” says Haskins. “I think the neighborhood has done all that it can.”—John Borgmeyer
Love me, build me, Chapter 4
Another empty building that longs for fulfillment
Jefferson School
Address: 201 Fourth St. NW
Area: 70,000 square feet
Empty since: Preschool programs vacated in January 2002
Price: Assessed at $4.5 million
Status: Having escaped the fate of getting converted into upscale condos, the building that housed the city’s all-black high school from 1926 to 1951 is set to be turned into an African-American cultural center, complete with adult-education classrooms and a community space attached to Carver Recreation Center. Estimates for the renovation are running in the $30 million range. The building has also been added to the Virginia Landmark Register, which means private investors can get tax credits if they contribute to the site’s renovation.
Keswick seeks permit to dump more wastewater
Citizens can comment on the fate of upscale dookie
Keswick has its own pool, golf course and tennis court. Did you know it also has its own sewage treatment plant? A company called Keswick Utilities treats the wastewater from Keswick estates, a 600-acre gated community where residents live on two- to five-acre parcels near the exclusive resort. Keswick is seeking to renew a State permit to dump wastewater in a nearby creek, but before that happens citizens have a chance to comment before the permit is granted.
According to the Virginia De-partment of Environmental Quality, Keswick Utilities is renewing a permit that will allow it to discharge about 99,000 gallons of wastewater per day into an un-named tributary of Carroll Creek and Broadmoor Lake. Currently, Keswick pumps about 66,000 gallons of wastewater into the Caroll Creek tributary. Keswick solid waste, called “sludge,” is buried in Richmond or Orange landfills.
The permit will help Keswick Utilities handle the extra dookie that will come when the resort adds new lots to its gated community in 2006.
To get more information about Keswick’s permit, or to comment, contact the DEQ’s Brandon Kiracofe at 540-574-7892 or bdkiracofe@ deq.virginia.gov. The State will take comments until mid-January.—John Borgmeyer
The year in crime
2005 was big for legal drama
“Law & Order” ain’t got nothin’ on us. In a mere 365 days, little old Charlottesville saw the courtroom dramas of everything from a pediatrician convicted of abusing his own child to land-use issues so complicated even the Supreme Court hasn’t quite figured them out. Of all the crimes and punishments that were, C-VILLE has nominated our “Big Three.” If you know nothing about local crime, here’s a cheat sheet of the most important cases that filed through City, County and federal courtrooms last year.—Nell Boeschenstein
Charlottesville: Anthony Dale Crawford case
Although he doesn’t go to trial for another few months, Anthony Dale Crawford, the Manassas man charged with murdering his estranged wife, Sarah, and dumping her body at the Quality Inn on Emmet Street, was in court this year for preliminary hearings. According to pretrial hearing testimony, Sarah was found on the bed in “a frog-like position,” and the prosecuting attorney made insinuations of necrophilia. Moreover, according to an affidavit for a preliminary protective order filed by Sarah before her death, Crawford had a history of spousal abuse and she alleged he had told her he “understands why husbands kill their wives.”
Albemarle: Rich Collins v. Lebo Commercial Properties, Inc.
Last spring, while campaigning for a seat representing the 57th District in the House of Delegates (Democrat David Toscano won the seat in November), slow-growth advocate Rich Collins thought the parking lot of Whole Foods on Route 29N would be a good place to reach the Democratic base. However, property manager Charles Lebo objected to the would-be legislator’s campaign tactics. According to Lebo, no soliciting is allowed on his properties, and he took Collins to court on trespassing charges. In October, the court cited a personal belief that free expression takes precedence over private property rights, but Judge Stephen Helvin re-luctantly ruled in Lebo’s favor. The case, however, has raised the issue locally of whether shopping centers are the modern-day equivalent of town squares—and thus the domain of constitutional rights. When the Supreme Court took on the issue in 1980, it ruled to leave the decision up to states. This is the first time the issue has arisen in Virginia.
Federal: The RICO trial
Alleged members of the local gang “West-side Crew” (a.k.a. “Project Crud”) Louis Antonio Bryant, Terrence Suggs, John Darrelle Bryant and Claiborne Maupin stood trial in late November on federal charges of racketeering, narcotics trafficking, narcotics conspiracy and multiple violent crimes. However, after 10 days of testimony, and after both prosecuting and defense attorneys had presented their closing arguments, Judge Norman Moon declared a mistrial on November 30. Apparently, at the 11th hour, a juror told the judge he had overheard another juror discussing a newspaper article about the case with two other jurors. Now that’s courtroom drama.
Dragnet on trial
City, cops and citizens sued for attempts to track down serial rapist
The negative fallout from the DNA dragnet City police conducted in the spring of 2004 to find the serial rapist—during which cops approached black men to request saliva sam-ples for DNA profiles—didn’t end with the neg-ative publicity on national television. Three lawsuits—two against the City and one against a private citizen, and all of which are being represented by local civil rights attorney Debbie Wyatt—have resulted from the police depart-ment’s zealous investigation even as pressure continues to mount on the department to make an arrest. Below is a break-down of the ever-expanding community impact of the serial rapist, who has been linked to seven rapes in the area since 1997.—Nell Boeschenstein
Case: Larry Monroe sought $15,000 from the City, Police Chief Tim Longo and City police officer James Mooney.
Court: Charlottesville General District
Issues at hand: Unlawful search and seizure, and assault and battery
Relation to dragnet: Monroe, who did not resemble descriptions of the serial rapist, was asked by Mooney to submit a DNA sample. Monroe refused. His complaints focused on there being no rhyme or reason to the sample requests, save racial profiling.
Status: The City won the case in General District Court but it was appealed to Circuit Court, at which point Monroe and Wyatt opted to revise and re-file the case in Federal Court.
Case: Larry Monroe, “on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated,” is seeking $15,000 for himself and other complainants in the class-action suit against the City, Longo and Mooney.
Court: Federal
Issues at hand: Equal protection and Fourth Amendment rights
Relation to dragnet: See above case
Status: The class-action suit was filed in Federal Court in mid-December and will go to trial some time next year.
Case: Chris Matthew is seeking $850,000 from the woman who mistakenly identified him as her rapist.
Court: Charlottesville Circuit
Issue at hand: Defamation
Relation to dragnet: In its eagerness
to catch the serial rapist, the City
kept Matthew in jail without bond for
five days—leading local media to speculate and float the possibility that Matthew was a suspect—until a DNA test exonerated him.
Status: The case has been filed in Charlottesville Circuit Court. However, Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman has expressed skepticism as to whether it will go anywhere, since in order for a defamation claim to hold up there must be evidence of malice or ill will.
Checking in on charter
Guv gives O.K. for autonomy, but UVA’s human resource policy remains a mystery
When the General Assembly convenes on January 11, legislators will deliver a yea or nay on the details of UVA’s “higher education restructuring,” better known around here as “charter.”
Last year, the General Assem-bly gave Virginia colleges more autonomy in their relationship with the State. School officials had been complaining for years about red tape and paltry funding from the Commonwealth. Last year, legislators approved a bill creating three levels of autonomy. Big schools with well-heeled donors (namely UVA, The College of William and Mary and Virginia Polytechnic Institute) will get much less State money and a lot more freedom from State oversight; smaller schools can choose charter plans that give them less freedom while re-taining more public funding.
UVA, Tech, and William and Mary spent the past year collaborating on their “management agreement,” which sets forth the details of the relationship those three schools will have with the State. In November, Governor Mark Warner signed off on the management agreement and included it in his 2006-08 budget. In January, legislators can vote to either accept or reject the management agreement.
UVA has posted its management agreement on its website (www.virginia.edu; click on the “Higher Education Restructuring” link), and there’s an overview if you don’t have time to wade through the 200-plus pages.
The management agreement covers real estate development, purchasing, human resources and accounting. But when legislators vote on the management agreements, they will do so without important details on one of the most significant aspects of charter—human resource policy.
According to UVA’s documents, anyone hired after July 1, 2006, will be employed under a new system. Current employees can keep their current terms of employment, or switch to the new system. Every two years, current employees will have a chance to change to the new system.
The details of that new system, however, are still in the works. UVA officials will be holding meetings with employees to hammer out the new human resource policy, according to UVA spokeswoman Carol Wood.
The Staff Union at UVA (SUUVA) has vowed to fight the idea of a two-tiered workforce, putting their hopes in Governor-elect Tim Kaine. “State workers are State workers,” says Jan Cornell, president of SUUVA. “We are hopeful that
the new Kaine administration will discuss this part of the agreement with us.”—John Borgmeyer
Syllabi We Love:
Accidental humor from the UVA course catalogue
Syllabus: n. (influenced by Gk syllambanein). Fancy word in the academic world for “to-do list,” in which a professor tells students what they’ll have to do that semester.
Using a definition to introduce a piece of writing is, in C-VILLE’s opinion, the lazy way out. So, it’s a good thing the syllabus for “Inscribing Culture”—the entry level writing course taught by Omaar Hena for UVA students who didn’t test into first-year English—provides a model example of literary shortcuts by defining both “inscribe” and “culture” at the top of the syllabus.
Welcome to UVA, where “basic writing” becomes “inscribing culture.” There’s nothing basic about this course, though—on the reading list, for example, instead of Jane Austen’s classic prose, there’s Theodor Adorno, the philosopher who said poetry cannot exist after the Holocaust (that makes the teacher’s job easier, huh?). The kicker, however, is the final paragraph labeled, “Caveat Novicius,” which states, “I reserve the right to update, alter or orphan this syllabus. Of course, I will give due notice to you, my dear students.”
If these students need the syllabus to define “inscribe” and “culture,” how will they know what the hell a “Caveat Novicius” is?—Nell Boeschenstein
Van Yahres under investigation
Local Dems say GOP is trying to “make political hay out of nothing”
A special prosecutor will investigate allegations that retiring State Delegate Mitch Van Yahres violated Virginia’s political fundraising law.
The accusations stem from a fundraiser for
a local political ac-tion committee called “Democratic Road Back.” According to the Virginia Public Access Project, Van Yahres founded the PAC in 2003; since then the committee has raised more than $50,000 and spent a total of $39,227, mostly on local Democrats such as Steve Koleszar (beaten in November by incumbent Rob Bell in a race for Albemarle’s 58th District delegate seat) and Creigh Deeds (who lost a tight race for attorney general).
In February 2005, Road Back held a fundraiser at Starr Hill. City Common-wealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman says that he got a letter from City Republican Party Chairman Bob Hodous in April complaining that the fundraiser violated a State law prohibiting delegates from fundraising while the General Assembly is in session. Hodous did not return calls from C-VILLE by presstime.
Indeed, Virginia Code prohibits members of the General Assembly from soliciting funds for a “campaign committee” or “political committee” while the legislature is in session. A violation can be punished by a fine of up to $500.
Lloyd Snook, who sits on the Road Back’s board of directors, says the charge against Van Yahres is nothing but legal wordplay. He says that the phrases “campaign committee” and “political committee” have very specific meanings under State code, and he says the law does not pertain to political action committees. The law is designed to prevent delegates from raising money for themselves during the session, and while Snook acknowledges that Van Yahres was the driving force behind the PAC, he says the delegate
never took any money from it and, in
fact, planned to retire at the time of
the fundraiser.
Furthermore, Snook says that Van Yahres was not at the fundraiser, and that he never solicited money for the PAC while the Assembly was in session. Snook claims that the State Board of Election approved the fundraiser.
Spotsylvania County Commonwealth’s Attorney William F. Neely will investigate the charges. No special taxpayer money will fund the investigation. “Common-wealth’s attorneys do this as part of their job,” says Chapman. He says he could not prosecute this case himself because he is an active Democrat and “a partisan ally” of Van Yahres. Chapman would not
say why it took him this long to find a special prosecutor.
Van Yahres, who officially passes the 57th District seat to David Toscano when Toscano is sworn in on January 11, says he thinks it took so long because nobody wanted to waste their time on this case. “I suspect Chapman had a hell of a time getting someone to take the case,” Van Yahres says. “They’re trying to make political hay out of nothing.”—John Borgmeyer
Al Weed’s fundraising pitch for 2006
Democratic congressional hopeful says incumbent Goode is vulnerable
It’s never too early in a political campaign to start passing the hat. Al Weed, who is angling for the Democratic nomination to run against Republican Virgil Goode in the 2006 Fifth District congressional race, is doing just that. By his rough estimate, he’s already sent out more than 2,400 donor letters. The basic pitch is twofold: Tim Kaine’s win—both across the state and in the Fifth District—bodes well for Dems, and Virgil is vulnerable.
Weed doesn’t name the MZM scandal—in which Goode was linked to a defense contractor that was bribing a crooked congressman—in his letters, because, as he says, “I don’t think I need to stir that pot.” But it’s clear the scandal is an unwritten bullet point. A second point is that after 10 years in office Goode’s only gotten one bill through, and that voters will finally call “time” on their man from Rocky Mount.
Weed wouldn’t disclose the amount of money he’s raised so far, but he did allow that he would be reporting his contributions at the end of 2005, which means he’s raised at least $5,000, the threshold for required reporting.
Printed below are a few select quotes from Weed’s fundraising letters.—Nell Boeschenstein