Crowded field of City Council candidates
With the list of area residents vying to replace former Charlottesville City councilor Sena Magill, who resigned last month, getting larger by the day, we’ve put together the following look at who they are. Council will hold a public meeting about the candidates on February 6, and make a final decision on Magill’s replacement by February 21.
John Hall ran for City Council twice, and has previously been banned from City Hall, the University of Virginia, and Albemarle County Public Schools.
First Chesapeake programs director Alex Bryant was the executive director of IX Art Park Foundation in 2022, which gave him “first-hand experience of the power equitable public spaces have.” The 30-year-old UVA alum, who has also worked as the Tom Tom Foundation’s managing director, currently serves on boards for Big Brother Big Sisters of the Central Blue Ridge, African American Teaching Fellows, and Friends of Charlottesville Downtown.
Donald Dunham III is the President and CEO of Cavalier Professional Services, a financial energy and consulting company. He wrote to council that he has “a lot of experience with affordable housing,” and argued that his “broad technical, business, and leadership skills” will be an asset.
James Guidry had only resided in Charlottesville for 60 days when he submitted his application. The UVA clinical manager wrote that he “wants to make Charlottesville a place that anyone looking to move here, or already live [sic] here, can call home.”
Former Charlottesville School Board member Leah Puryear is the director of Uplift @ UVA, where she has assisted first-generation, college-bound high school students for 42 years. Puryear, who received the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Award in 2021, is “committed to the continued growth and advancement for all of Charlottesville’s residents.”
John Santoski previously served on the Charlottesville Planning Commission and Charlottesville School Board, where he cast the deciding vote to “adopt an anti-discrimination policy for gay and lesbian students and faculty.” Now the executive director of the Arc of the Piedmont, he sees Charlottesville as a city “on the cusp of significant change.”
Kristin Szakos was a two-term city councilor and former Vice Mayor. Szakos will be on vacation in June and July but says she can attend meetings on Zoom and do her work remotely.
Christopher Valtin, a retiree who moved to Charlottesville two years ago, listed “a desire to get more involved in local politics” as his motivation for wanting to serve on City Council. The UVA alum and former member of the Virginia Government Finance Officers’ Association wrote that his experience financing capital projects would prove useful.
Michael Cusano has lived in Charlottesville for just over three years and has no intention of running for council next year. Cusano believes his position as president of the Johnson Village Neighborhood Association would “aid in [his] effectiveness as an interim City Council member.”
Kathy Galvin has recent experience with council, having served from 2012 to 2019. The UVA School of Architecture alum wrote that her priorities include “affordable housing, environmental sustainability, healthy communities,” and that she would not seek re-election.
Carla Manno has lived in Charlottesville for 40 years and holds four different degrees from UVA. The former Buford Middle School teacher wrote that she wants to serve with “full regard for the complexity of our community.”
Civil rights activist Rosia Parker, who has formerly served on Charlotteville’s Redevelopment Housing Authority Board and Police Civilian Review Board, identifies as low-income, and wants to further champion the needs of her community. “I have stood up for the [disadvantaged] and low-income [neighborhoods] dealing with policing, housing, homelessness, and various other things but mostly being a victim of the Summer of Hate, and trying to help the city be transparent and understanding.”
Army veteran Sam Gulland touts his years in the renewable energy industry, during which he has worked with local governments to “obtain permits, propose revisions to comprehensive plans and zoning ordinances, and negotiate ‘Payment in Lieu of Tax’ agreements.” Gulland, who moved to the city three years ago, does not intend to run for council in the fall.
Additional applicants include clinical social worker Kate Bennis, Pilot Mortgage CEO and Charlottesville Planning Commission member Philip B. d’Oronzio, UVA lecturer Margaret Gardiner, The Haven HR manager Sarah Moniz, wedding sales manager Natalie Oschrin, attorney Maynard Lloyd Sipe, and Charlottesville School Board member Lisa Larson-Torres.
In brief
Shootings continue
On January 23, the Charlottesville Police Department responded to a shots fired report in the area of Sixth and Garrett streets at around 10pm. Officers discovered a juvenile male, who was shot, and has since been treated and released from the hospital. The following day, police responded to a shooting report in the 400 block of Oakmont Street at around 12:44am, and found a 30-year-old female who had been injured. She was taken to the hospital, and is in stable condition. Anyone with information about either case is asked to contact Detective Ronald Stayments at 970-3939. On January 28, police responded to another shots fired report in the 1100 block of Grove Street at around 9:41pm, and located an adult male, later identified as 36-year-old Eldridge Vandrew Smith of Charlottesville, who had been shot multiple times inside a parked SUV. Smith, known as “Skeete” to friends and family, was pronounced dead at the scene. Anyone with information related to the homicide should call the Crime Stoppers tip line at 977-4000.
Brown joins race
Bellamy Brown has resigned from Charlottesville’s Police Civilian Oversight Board, and joined the crowded Virginia House District 54 race. Brown, a Marine Corps veteran and freelance financial consultant for Albemarle County, unsuccessfully ran for City Council as an independent in 2019. County school board chair Katrina Callsen, city social services assistant Dashad Cooper, and former Charlottesville mayors Dave Norris and David Brown are also running for the Democratic nomination.
