Tuesday, January 3
Preservation and zoning at odds on Rugby
Tonight City Councilors discussed options for a design control district in the Rugby/Venable area. The City wants to give its Board of Architec-tural Review purview over development in the district, and to restrict demolition in the neighborhood. This move toward preservation conflicts, however, with a 2003 up-zoning of that area to encourage high-density student housing—a change intended to concentrate students there and keep them out of adjoining owner-occupied neighborhoods. Councilors Kevin Lynch and Mayor David Brown support the design control district, while Councilors Blake Caravati and Kendra Hamilton favor fewer restrictions. Councilor Rob Schilling, who didn’t weigh in on the discussion, may cast the swing vote when Council decides the issue at its next meeting, on January 17.
Wednesday, January 4
Kaine to party with The Beach Boys
Proving that his musical taste is sufficiently dated for political leadership, Tim Kaine announced that The Beach Boys will play at his inauguration on January 13.
Stoner City employees take note
You know all those jokes about how everything down at City Hall takes place in a haze of pot smoke? Well, O.K.…there are no jokes about that. And there never will be, either, now that the City has announced it will start random drug tests for police and firefighters (public works employees already get tested). Further-more, all new City employees will have to pass a drug screen before starting work. The new rules are apparently a response to the escalating disappearance of paper clips from the City’s supply closet.
Thursday, January 5
Charter school vote delayed
While Acting Superintendent Bobby Thompson recommended against adopting the application for a charter school, tonight the City School Board unanimously voted to table their vote for another two weeks. The charter proposal, first advanced by educators Bobbi Snow and Sandy Richardson last February, would target students who are at least two years off grade level in reading and math. The proposal calls for 60 students to be immersed in an arts-centric curriculum. Thompson’s advisory group found that while the applicants’ passion was a plus, the program’s budget and undefined curriculum were major drawbacks. By putting the vote off until its next meeting, the board gives Snow and Richardson’s group another opportunity to fine-tune their proposal.
Friday, January 6
RICO fugitive ends life on the lam
Today a suspect in the local racketeering case turned himself in to federal authorities in Philadelphia. Richard Knajib Johns faces life in prison if he is convicted for involvement with an alleged Charlottesville drug ring. Eleven men have already pleaded guilty to charges that include the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organiza-tions (RICO) charges, originally designed to catch mobsters. Prosecutors allege Johns arranged a shipment of 20 kilograms of marijuana from Philadelphia to Charlottes-ville in 2004. In November, the federal prosecution of five others alleged to have participated in the drug ring ended in a mistrial.
Saturday, January 7
“Zero tolerance” sends Vick to the NFL one year early
Former Hokie QB Marcus Vick today apologized to Virginia Tech one day after being booted from the team. “I deeply regret that I allowed my competitive emotions to take control,” Vick said, referring to a Gator Bowl incident in which he stomped a Louisville defensive end after a tackle. Vick, whose brother Michael, also a quarterback, is an NFL star, had a troubled career at Tech where he was suspended in 2004 because of legal problems, including serving alcohol to underage girls. When Vick returned, he reportedly accepted the school’s “zero tolerance” policy. Following a traffic-related incident late last month, head coach Frank Beamer permanently relieved the talented troublemaker of his team duties. Vick says he will now go into the NFL draft.
Sunday, January 8
Gibson smacks down state Republicans
In his “Political Notebook” column in The Daily Progress today, reporter Bob Gibson takes a whack at a Republican move to change legislative rules that will allow subcommittees to kill bills without recorded votes. “Principles that the [Republi-cans] stressed while in the minority have gotten in the way of exercising power efficiently,” wrote Gibson in his column entitled “GOP elevates power over openness.” Because subcommittees often meet early in the morning or late at night, this rule change allows a few legislators to kill bills away from public debate, and effectively off the record. Conservative bloggers and other media pounced on the story after Gibson reported it in his Sunday column on December 18.
Monday, January 9
Caravati says au revoir to City Council
Blake Caravati announced today that he would not seek re-election to City Council in May. After eight years of uttering indecipherable folkisms from the Council dais, Caravati, 55, says “it is time to move on.” He says he will take a vacation from politics for a few months, but he expects to be involved behind the scenes for the Democrats during this spring’s Council elections. No one has announced a candidacy so far. Public office “is a big sacrifice for a private citizen,” says Caravati. However, the Francophile relishes political chess games, and says he does not rule out running for elected office again. Caravati, who owns several rental properties and runs a contracting company called Vector Construction Inc., says he would like to keep working on political issues surrounding affordable housing and felons re-entering society.
Written by John Borgmeyer from staff and news reports
Special tax district for Route 29N?
Supes eye new ways to make developers pay for roads, sewers
As Albemarle County continues to wrestle with population growth and real estate development, one of the most persistent problems for the Board of Supervisors is making sure that public infrastructure keeps pace with new construction.
New stores, businesses and homes need more than land; they also require water and sewer service, roads, sidewalks, schools, etc. In the county’s growth areas residents have complained that planners have not provided the necessary infrastructure that new residential and commercial buildings demand.
On Wednesday, January 4, the Board of Supervisors heard a report on how the County might be able to collect a special tax from two major projects (Albemarle Place and Hollymead Town Center) to help pay for improvements to Route 29N.
When the board approved zoning changes for the two projects in 2003, the developers agreed that upon the County’s request, the owners of nonresidential property would consent to the creation of a “community development authority.” The CDA could impose a special tax of not more than 25 cents per $100 of assessed value. (Albemarle Place and Hollymead Town Center, both desined according to the “neighborhood model,” also include residences in their plans.)
A CDA poses several problems, though: It must consist of a single tract of land, and 51 percent of property owners must petition for the creation of the CDA. In a report to the board, County staff instead recommended creating a “service district” that would have essentially the same power as a CDA with fewer complicating factors.
A service district between Albemarle Place and Hollymead Town Center could be a huge windfall for the County’s road improvement fund. It would contain commercial property assessed at about $72 million; that’s about $180,000 in new revenue each year under the proposed tax rate. The money could only be used for road improvements within the tax district.
The board will continue to discuss the issue; most seemed to agree with Supervisor Ken Boyd, who said he wanted to see what a service district might cost the County in terms of legal proceedings or extra staff that might be needed to collect the money. “I don’t want to spend $100,000 to collect $130,000,” said Boyd.—John Borgmeyer
Warner fights for roadless protection
Local attorney disses “Bush-whacking”
On December 22, Governor Mark Warner filed a petition with the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture asking for protection of the Washington and Jefferson National Forests from mining, logging and other forms of destructive development.
The petition is a necessary step
that each state must undertake in order
to protect the national forests from being, in the words of environmentalists,
“Bush-whacked.”
In May 2005, President Bush finally succeeded in overturning the 2001 Road-less Area Conserva-tion Rule signed into law by Bill Clinton in the final days of his presidency. As a result, governors must now petition the Department of Agriculture for protection from logging and other destructive development within “roadless” areas of national forests in their states. Warner was the first gover–nor to do so before the November 13 deadline.
If the petition is ac-cepted—and there is no guarantee that it will be—Virginia’s 380,000 acres of national forests could be protected from unnecessary development. But following the petition’s acceptance, the Commonwealth will still have to enter into specific rule negotiations and those could go either way.
Public hearings around the drafting of the Conser-vation Law showed overwhelming public support in Virginia. The U.S. Forest Service estimates that de-mand for backcountry recreation will grow 170 percent by 2050. Governor-elect Tim Kaine “supports Governor Warner’s petition for roadless designation…and he will pursue the same designation,” according to his spokesperson Delacey Skinner.
According to David Carr, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, “Governor Warner has made a strong case, highlighting the broad public appeal of the conservation efforts and the Secretary
of Agriculture will have to take a long, hard look at
his petition.”
In the meantime, commercial interests are free to bid on areas of the national forest for purposes of logging and other development. No such bids
have been brought forth yet in Virginia.—Dan Pabst
Petitioners protest county development
More rural subdivisions has Albemarle folks fretting
On Wednesday, January 4, Jeff Werner of the Piedmont Environmental Council presented the Albemarle Board of Supervisors with a petition signed by 1,000 county residents who oppose the “current rate and type of growth in Albemarle County.”
The petition reads: “We, the undersigned citizens are concerned that the current rate and type of growth in the Albemarle-Charlottesville region is threatening our quality of life with: Increased traffic; increased taxes; loss of farmland; and the degradation of our water and air quality.”
Werner says he and others collected the 1,000 signatures by setting up tables at six of the County’s 29 voting precincts during the recent November elections. “To eliminate any challenges that we were attempting to influence the local election, we decided to collect signatures only at the three magisterial districts without a County supervisor on the ballot,” Werner told the board.
Werner said he assumed that the signers would be upset about re-cent commercial development on Route 29N. However, he says the people he met were most concerned not just about new big-box stores, but also about the lot-by-lot development of subdivisions in the county’s rural areas.
Supervisors did not comment on the petition at last week’s meeting.—John Borgmeyer
Transportation to drive 2006 General Assembly
Voters cranky about gridlock, potholes
Creigh Deeds says his bid for attorney general, while unsuccessful, was not a total wash. During his campaign, the Democratic Bath County senator, who represents the Charlottesville area, traveled far and wide in Virginia. He says that almost everywhere people have the same complaint—all the damn traffic.
“There are real issues in every single region,” says Deeds. Whether people are trapped in NoVA gridlock or griping about the lack of a Route 29 bypass in Char-lottesville, traffic is on voters’ minds. “It’s a real encroachment on quality of life, but we can’t look for a solution in Northern Virginia alone. It’s going to take a comprehensive solution. I think it’s going to be difficult.”
Three men—Governor-elect Tim Kaine, a Democrat, along with Republican House Speaker William Howell and Senator John Chichester—will try to engineer a transportation solution when the General Assembly session convenes on January 11. None have said much about their ideas, except for Kaine’s campaign promises to reform local land-use policies, which he says will curb sprawl and traffic. Taxes will likely come into play, with conservatives pushing for more funds for transportation without raising new revenues. This has prompted some speculation that traffic issues could cause major gridlock in the 2006 session.
Besides transportation, our local delegates have other things on their plates, too. Here’s what they’re up to. —John Borgmeyer
Here’s what our local legislators will be up to this year in Richmond
Rob Bell
(R-Albemarle):Rising star Bell enters his fourth session in the General Assembly. He is known for a clean-cut image, high intelligence, and for going after public enemies like drunk drivers, bullies and—this year—sex offenders. Bell is widely rumored to be grooming himself for higher office, and he is a bigger Pat Benetar fan than any other straight man in the Commonwealth.
David Toscano
(D-Charlottesville): As the new kid on the block, Toscano will be trying to figure out where the bathroom is. In his first session, Toscano says he wants more regulation of Virginia’s eminent domain powers in the wake of the Supreme Court’s deeply unpopular decision last year in Kelo v. New London. (Hmmm… A rookie delegate building his reputation by slaying unpopular villains? Sounds like Toscano is taking a page from Bell’s playbook.)
Creigh Deeds
(D-Charlottesville): After losing November’s race for attorney general by a scant 360 votes, Deeds will return to the Senate this week. A member of the Transportation Committee, he’ll spend the session up to his eyeballs in roads.
Watkins Abbitt
(I-Appomattox): During last year’s session he introduced several bills regulating landfills, sewage sludge and handguns. We’re not sure what Abbitt will be up to this session—he didn’t return C-VILLE’s calls by press time.
Steve Landes
(R-Waynesboro): Besides transportation, Landes says that health care will be a big issue as more of Virginia’s aging Baby Boomers look for government help. “Hopefully we’ll see some proposed incentives encouraging individuals to purchase their own long-term care,” Landes says. He’ll also take a look at eminent domain laws and the rising cost of the federal No Child Left Behind program.
County social service costs rising
Albemarle short on dough to meet growing needs
Nearly half of all Albemarle residents who are eligible for food stamps do not get them, but County officials say they don’t have the resources to do any better.
“We’re a little nervous about doing outreach, because of the lack of staff,” said Kathy Ralston, director of Albemarle County’s social services department.
According to a report that Ralston delivered to the Albemarle Board of Supervisors on Wednesday, January 4, 1,235 county households get food stamps, but that represents only about 52 percent of all eligible households. County social services, however, do not have enough staff to meet rising needs.
The department’s 2005 annual report indicates that needs for social services are climbing, including caseloads for food stamps, welfare, Medicaid, child-protective services and long-term care for the elderly.
“A lot of that probably has to do with the economy,” says Ralston. She also cites Albemarle’s growing population of elderly and non-English speakers as reasons for rising costs. Furthermore, the increasing complexity of federal programs, especially Medicare, put even greater strain on the department, which has a budget of $11,105,786 in 2006, 6 percent of Albemarle’s total budget.—John Borgmeyer
City Supe search rolls on
Board hopes one of 61 applicants will say “yes” by February
Starting this week, the Charlottesville School Board will shift into high gear as the deadlines near in their search for a new superintendent to lead the division. The school system, with an annual budget of $57.5 million and enrollment of 4,166 students, has been led by Acting Superintendent Bobby Thompson since April when Dr. Scottie Griffin backed out of the job after 10 months. Griffin, who was salaried at $149,000 and left with a $290,000 severance package, was widely criticized for her imperious management style and her efforts to shift resources from classrooms to additional Central Office administrators. Addressing media in advance of last Thursday’s School Board meeting [for more on that meeting, see 7 Days, p. 17], Chair Julie Gronlund said that the Illinois search firm of Hazard, Attea, Young & Associates will pare the field of 61 applicants to five or six for the board’s consideration. When they’ve narrowed it further to the top three, the board plans to invite three community members—culled from staff and/or an advisory board and sworn to confidentiality—to join the interview process. They hope to make an offer by February, Gronlund said. Salary has not yet been set.
Among the qualities that the board will seek, says Gronlund, is someone who will “work more with parents.”
“We feel parental involvement is critical to students’ success,” she said.
Gronlund wouldn’t confirm if Thompson, a veteran of Charlottesville schools and former principal of the high school, is a candidate. “And when I find out, I won’t be telling you,” she said.—Cathy Harding
City police arrest rapist in 21-year-old case
Suspect apparently e-mailed victim to apologize
Last week Las Vegas police arrested a 41-year-old man for a rape that allegedly took place 21 years ago in Charlottesville.
Charlottesville police chief Tim Longo held a press conference on Fri-day, January 6, to discuss details of the arrest of William Beebe.
Longo said that in December, a Con-necticut woman called Charlottesville police and reported that she had been raped in October 1984 at a UVA fraternity party. The alleged victim told police that Beebe had recently contacted her, apparently to make amends. When Beebe told her his whereabouts and invited additional contact, she called police to have him arrested.
According to Longo, the victim reported that she was a 17-year-old UVA freshman attending a party at Phi Kappa Psi on Madison Lane when a 20-year-old student raped her. Police be-lieved him to be a member of the fraternity at the time. The victim says she told a dean at UVA about the incident, but Longo said police were never notified.
UVA spokeswoman Carol Wood offered no comment, citing the on-going investigation, ex-cept to say that the victim has recently contacted UVA. “We are working with City po-lice and cooperating fully with the investigation,” says Wood.
The suspect and the victim were strangers at the time of the alleged attack, and Longo says the attack was “not a date rape.” The victim was not hospitalized after the incident. The two had no further contact until 1986, when Beebe apparently worked delivering pizzas and brought one to the victim’s house, much to her shock.
Then, over the past year, the suspect contacted the victim. Longo said Beebe works in real estate in Las Vegas, while the victim lives with her family and has a successful business career in Connecticut. Longo says the man’s guilty conscience “may have been what prompted” the contact. “He specifically told where he was, how to contact him, and welcomed contact,” says Longo. “This was pretty open dialogue.”
Shortly after she learned his address, she called City police, and eventually came to Charlottes-ville for extensive interviews. Based on that in-formation, City Common-wealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman issued a warrant for Beebe’s arrest, which was carried out by Las Vegas police with help from local officers on January 4. At press time, Charlottesville and Nevada officials were working out details of the suspect’s extradition to Virginia. He has no previous criminal record.
The Commonwealth has no statute of limitations on rape, and Beebe could face up to life in prison.—John Borgmeye
Landfill lawsuit back on
Federal judge reverses previous decision to dismiss case
The Ivy Landfill—also known as the “Materials Utilization Center”—closed in the late 1990s after Ivy residents filed a suit alleging the landfill was polluting the groundwater. While the residents reached a settlement agreement in 1998 with the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority and its overseers, the City and County, issues raised by the case are still being debated in court.
On December 22, federal judge Norman Moon overturned an earlier ruling that would have thrown out a $16 million lawsuit against the RSWA, City, and County, filed by Patricia Stephens. Her husband, Wayne, was killed at the landfill in April 2003 when an oil storage tank he was cutting exploded. In the suit, Stephens—represented by ubiquitous local civil rights attorney Debbie Wyatt—alleges that First Amendment violations on the part of the City, County and RSWA in the 1998 settlement are to blame for her husband’s death.
According to Stephens’ suit, as a condition of the 1998 settlement, plaintiffs agreed to stop “opposing the landfill” and would make no more “private or public adverse comments about the landfill.”
According to Moon, the First Amendment is a two-way street: In having the right to speak freely, people also have the right to receive speech freely. Moreover, precedent states that the government cannot give someone benefits on the condition that that someone relinquishes his constitutional rights (e.g. the free speech rights of the plaintiffs in the 1998 case).
The crux of Stephens’ case is a combination of these two precedents. She argues that her and her husband’s First Amendment right to know the dangers of the oil tanks was violated by the City, County and RSWA not allowing the former plaintiffs to share information they had about the dangers of the landfill. Had the former plaintiffs been at liberty to talk, Stephens alleges that the safety violations at the landfill would have been fixed before they caused her husband’s death.
While referring to the attempt to argue that the 1998 settlement violated the rights of a third party as “truly novel,” Moon allowed that Stephens still had the right to seek damages based on “any violation of her or her husband’s right to receive speech.” No date has been set for further hearings in the suit.—Nell Boeschenstein
What’s coming up from UVA Press
Honest Abe joins the list of writers
Last month, the Uni-versity of Virginia Press added another impressive name to its list of authors that already includes Thomas Jefferson and James Madison: Abra-ham Lincoln. The press will be publishing a four-volume set of the 16th pres-ident’s Legal Documents and Cases, culled from a collection of 96,000 documents, in the fall of 2007.
While the press is also working on a number of books for Jamestown’s upcoming 400th anniversary in 2007, for the more immediate future, forthcoming books for spring “continue pursuing our interests in the founding era, architectural history and the Civil War era,” according to press director Penelope Kaiserlian.
Founded in 1963, UVA’s is the only university press in Virginia and, as Kaiserlian says, “We fill a niche.”
For the bookworms, below is a selected preview of what the University of Virginia Press is publishing this spring.—Nell Boeschenstein
Realistic Visionary: A Por-trait of George Washing-ton, by Peter R. Hen-riques: A biography that “seeks to humanize the first president without diminishing him,” according to the catalogue.
What Time and Sadness Spared: Mother and Son Confront the Holocaust, by Roma Nutkiewicz Ben-Atar with Doron Ben-Atar: A mother who lived through the Holocaust shares her experiences with her son, a professional historian.
The Struggle of Democracy against Terrorism: Lessons from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Israel, by Emanueal Gross: Kaiser-lian said she is particularly excited about this book because of its in depth discussions of the Patriot Act.
Road Cycling in Virginia: A Guide, by Sue George: In step with the press’ penchant for regional titles, George guides bikers through the Blue Ridge.
UVA’s cancer treatment, by the numbers
Medical Center sees increase in seriously ill patients
In December, Governor Mark Warner proposed spending $255 million on university research, including $25 million for a new cancer center at UVA. Meanwhile, UVA tapped former Wahoo and NBC “Today” show co-host Katie Couric to help raise another $100 million for the center.
Cancer is a growing business at UVA Medical Center. These numbers indicate that more Virginians are being treated for cancer at UVA, and that the Medical Center is, increasingly, the state leader in cancer research. The growing number of physician-initiated trials shows that UVA “is the leader, as opposed to the follower,” says Medical Center spokesman Peter Jump.—John Borgmeyer
• Thirty-eight of 550 beds at UVA Medical Center are specifically dedicated to cancer patients (although patients with cancer and other conditions may also be elsewhere in the hospital).
• UVA had 2,534 new cancer cases last year—a 6.1 percent increase over 2004.
• Last year there were 3,133 cancer patients admitted to UVA, a 6.7 percent increase over 2004.
• UVA’s share of Virginia cancer cases grew to 7 percent from 6 percent between 2001 and 2004.
• The most common types of cancer seen at UVA: digestive (mostly colon, but also stomach and liver), lung, breast and brain/nervous system.
• In 2005, UVA enrolled 225 patients for cancer trials to study new treatments. This represents 10 percent of all new cancer patients seen at UVA in the last year, up from 5 percent from 2001.
• Right now UVA has 100 trials open.
• UVA leads the state with 60 percent of cancer trials initiated by UVA physicians. This is up from 23 percent in 2001 and, according to Jump, “probably as high as any center in the U.S.”