Governor Glenn Youngkin was handed a defeat by the General Assembly last week. Supplied photo.
During a heated one-day veto session last week, the Virginia General Assembly killed Governor Glenn Youngkin’s amendments that would have created two new misdemeanor crimes for possessing more than two ounces of marijuana, accompanied by potential fines and jail time. The controversial legislation also would have banned the sale of Delta-8—a popular form of THC that gives users a less potent high than regular weed—starting in October.
The Democratic-controlled Senate initially rejected Youngkin’s amendments, which would have allowed the governor to sign or veto the original bill prohibiting marijuana products in the shape of a human, animal, vehicle, or fruit. However, after a lengthy debate, the senators decided to send the bill to the Rehabilitation and Social Services Committee, taking the new crimes off the table—at least until next year.
Since Virginia legalized marijuana last year, the laws surrounding the drug have continued to stir up debate among legislators. While adults 21 and over can legally possess up to one ounce of marijuana and grow up to four plants at home, it will not be legal to sell it until 2024. Individuals found guilty of possessing more than an ounce—but less than a pound—are subject to a $25 civil fine. (Possessing more than a pound remains a felony.)
Multiple racial justice groups rallied against the governor’s amendments, which they said would have had a disproportionate impact on Black people. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, Black people are nearly four times more likely than white people to be arrested for marijuana possession, even though both use the drug at about the same rate.
“This re-criminalization of possession is really just a re-targeting of law enforcement back on Black and brown people in Virginia,” says Chelsea Higgs Wise, executive director of Marijuana Justice. “You’re separating families, you’re putting people in a cage, and you’re now putting up barriers to housing and education.”
Last month, the CannaJustice Coalition—including Marijuana Justice, Rise for Youth, Justice Forward Virginia, and the Virginia Student Power Network—delivered a petition signed by more than 1,300 supporters to the General Assembly, urging it to not create any new marijuana crimes, among other demands. Instead, the coalition says legislators should focus on resentencing the hundreds of people incarcerated for using a now-legal substance.
“We are also disappointed that legislators and even some advocates are publicly discussing which new crimes would be more acceptable than other new possession crimes, when the demand should be no new crimes,” adds Higgs Wise. “If we can’t agree on that, then we definitely can’t agree on who should be making the millions and billions of profit.”
The proposed penalties would have taken the state’s criminal justice reform efforts a step backwards. Last year, Virginia automatically sealed all records of misdemeanor possession with intent to distribute marijuana, including arrests, charges, and convictions. And in 2020, all records of misdemeanor simple possession were sealed.
The death of Youngkin’s amendments comes after the Republican-controlled House killed a bill earlier this year that would have allowed licensed medical dispensaries and 10 industrial hemp processors to begin selling recreational weed in September, but prohibited other retailers from selling the drug until 2024. Some advocacy groups protested against the proposed law, claiming it would give corporations an unfair advantage and increase enforcement in marginalized communities. Legislators are expected to discuss early sales again next year.
However, marijuana advocates like Virginia NORML continue to urge legislators to crack down on unregulated marijuana products, and establish a legal market as soon as possible. Over the past year, products like Delta-8 have increasingly popped up in convenience stores, smoke shops, and other businesses across the state, causing some users to experience adverse effects.
“Unregulated products containing synthetically-derived THC will continue to be sold at retail and wholesale outside of the strict regulatory oversight currently required for legally produced cannabis products,” said JM Pedini, executive director of Virginia NORML, in a press release. “Consumers deserve to know what they’re purchasing, and far too often what’s on the label is not what’s in the package.”
Still, Pedini points to a new law improving the state’s medical cannabis program as a victory for NORML this year. Starting in July, patients who have received written certification from a medical provider will no longer have to go through the lengthy process of registering with the Board of Pharmacy—they will be allowed to shop at a medical dispensary right away. There are currently around 8,000 patients waiting to access the program.
Higgs Wise remains worried about what the next legislative session will bring, and anticipates another tough fight to keep new marijuana crimes off the books.
“I am hoping that by then there will be one or at least a few champions that step up for legalization and will carry a bill that has our true demands in it,” she says. “We do not have to rush to legalize [sales] next session…It’s not just about the criminality but also the commercialization that is going to lead towards exploitation [and] leaving out small entrepreneurs.”
UVA’s George Rogers Clark monument has been relocated to an undisclosed storage facility. Photo: Sanjay Suchak
It’s been more than a year since statues began coming down in Charlottesville—where are they now?
Johnny Reb
In August 2020, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to take down Charlottesville’s first Confederate monument: a bronze statue of a Confederate soldier known as “Johnny Reb,” who stood outside the county courthouse for 111 years. That fall, the board decided to send the mass-produced “At Ready” statue to the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, which planned to erect Johnny Reb, along with his two cannons and pile of cannonballs, on the Third Winchester Battlefield. The New Market-based organization has publicly opposed the removal of Civil War monuments, and installed its own new Confederate memorial in 2019.
Nearly two years later, the cannons now mark a battlefield artillery position—but the statue and cannonballs have yet to be put on public display.
“[The statue] will be re-erected in the coming months at its new permanent location,” SVBF CEO Keven Walker told C-VILLE in an email. “The final location for a monument that will utilize the stacked cannonball casting is being considered.”
According to the group’s proposal, the statue—re-dedicated as The Virginia Monument—will “mark the location where Virginia Troops fought and died for Virginia on that particular field,” while the cannonballs will “be used as a bronze element for a new stone monument [marking] the location where artillery played a decisive role in the outcome of the fighting.” A marker will also be installed near the rebel soldier, “relating the history of the monument itself and recognizing its significance and detailing its journey to the battlefield.”
Robert E. Lee
Five months after moving crews hauled off the infamous Robert E. Lee monument to a city storage facility in July, Charlottesville City Council donated the bronze statue to the Jefferson School African American Center, which plans to melt it down and use the bronze to create a new public artwork—but the project, called Swords Into Plowshares, could be brought to a halt. At a hearing in Charlottesville Circuit Court last week, Judge Paul M. Peatross ruled that a lawsuit filed against the City of Charlottesville and the Jefferson School by two organizations that bid on the statue—the Trevilian Station Battlefield Foundation and the Ratcliffe Foundation—could proceed.
Peatross sustained the plaintiffs’ claim that the city does not have the authority to melt down the Lee statue due to a state code section forbidding localities from destroying war memorials. Last year, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that the law did not apply to statues erected before 1997, but the code has since been amended to apply to all war memorials—regardless of when they were erected. Peatross also sustained two of the plaintiffs’ other claims: that the city violated the Freedom of Information Act during a December meeting regarding the awarding of the statue, and that the bidding process fell under the Virginia Procurement Act, allowing the plaintiffs to seek legal relief.
If they win the case, the plaintiffs—represented by the same attorneys as the Monument Fund, which sued the city for trying to remove the Lee and Jackson statues in 2017—want the Jefferson School to return the statue to the city, and for the bidding process to be redone, with the school barred from participating. A trial date has yet to be announced.
“We’ll continue the process of community engagement,” said Jefferson School Executive Director Andrea Douglas of Swords Into Plowshares in an email to C-VILLE. “We hope that people will participate in this step as it is as important as the outcome of the case to our goals.”
After standing for decades in places of prominence in downtown Charlottesville, the Johnny Reb, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson monuments were all taken down and hauled away. Photos: Eze Amos
Stonewall Jackson
Unlike Lee, Charlottesville’s statue of Stonewall Jackson has been kicked out of the city and shipped to the other side of the country. In December, City Council voted to sell the bronze monument to LAXART, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit arts organization that plans to use it for a new exhibit titled MONUMENTS, featuring decommissioned Confederate statues paired with contemporary art pieces inspired by the historic relics.
According to LAXART’s proposal, the Jackson statue will be “the centerpiece” of the innovative exhibit, which is expected to open at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art next year.
Renowned Black artists including Ja’Tovia Gary, Torkwase Dyson, and Abigail Deville are slated to create contemporary artwork. Additionally, MONUMENTS will include public programming and educational materials, providing broader context.
In December, LAXART director Hamza Walker told the Baltimore Fishbowl that he was currently in discussions with six or seven municipalities, two colleges, a museum, and one family about borrowing Confederate monuments, and that he hoped to obtain around 16 statues in total. However, Walker has since faced some roadblocks—in December, the city of Baltimore declined to lend four monuments to the exhibit, and in January, the City Council of Charleston, South Carolina, held off on voting on Walker’s request due to a lawsuit.
Sacajawea, Lewis, and Clark
After City Council made a last-minute decision to remove the city’s statue of Sacajawea, Meriwether Lewis, and William Clark along with the Lee and Jackson monuments, the statue was immediately sent to the Lewis & Clark Exploratory Center in Darden Towe Park, which committed to working with Indigenous peoples to create a new exhibit properly contextualizing the statue.
Since then, the statue that depicts the Lemhi Shoshone interpreter in what many perceive as an offensive, cowering position has remained in limbo, sitting in storage at the center. In December, council held a meeting to vote on the center’s bid on the statue, but Executive Director Alexandria Searls requested the councilors hold off. Sacajawea’s descendants had made an amendment requesting permanent control over the statue, which Searls was unsure the center could legally grant and needed to be approved by its board of directors. No one had told the descendants they could not make last-minute changes to the legal document, explains Searls.
Later, Searls learned that the process of transferring the statue to the center had been done incorrectly, due to “a complete breakdown in communication.” Searls says she was told last year that the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors had agreed that the center—which is on land owned by the city and county—could take ownership of the statue, but a few weeks after council’s December meeting, the county’s legal counsel told her the board never took a formal vote.
The county now wants the center to set aside money for the potential removal of the statue from the park, in case it shuts down one day. Because she does not feel comfortable raising more money until the exhibit is officially approved—the center already has $70,000 in commitments from donors—Searls is currently looking into bonds and is waiting for the county to tell her its stipulations.
“The situation is now in the Board of Supervisors’ hands,” says Searls. “[It needs] to be solved in 2022 or else the money is not going to be ours.”
“No decisions have been made by, nor any proposals from the Board of Supervisors in relation to the Lewis, Clark, and Sacajawea Statue,” Albemarle Supervisor Donna Price told C-VILLE in an email. “I am also not aware of any particular timeline for this matter.”
The Lewis and Clark and Sacajawea statue was moved to Darden Towe Park’s Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center, where it remains in storage. Photo: Alexandria Searls
George Rogers Clark
Just one day after Charlottesville took down its racist monuments, the University of Virginia removed its George Rogers Clark statue, depicting Clark on horseback attacking unarmed Native Americans, with three white frontiersmen holding guns behind him. Clark, who was born in Albemarle County in 1752, perpetuated genocide against Indigenous peoples and stole their land during and after the Revolutionary War.
Beginning in September, a university committee—co-chaired by a citizen of the Monacan Nation and a UVA faculty member—consulted with representatives from 13 Native American tribes about the future of the statue, which remains in an undisclosed storage facility.
“The University and the tribes discussed options to remake the park space where it once sat,” UVA spokesman Brian Coy told C-VILLE in an email. “UVA plans to engage a landscape architect with Indigenous landscape expertise for a proposal for the park redesign.”
In a report of recommendations for UVA President Jim Ryan, Virginian tribal leaders also urged the university to establish a formal tribal consultation policy; appoint tribal liaisons; dedicate an admissions office position for Native American recruitment and outreach; increase its Native American student and faculty population; give tuition waivers to citizens of Virginia tribes; develop a Native American law program and legal aid clinic; and offer a class on Virginian tribal history to all students and faculty.
The other monuments
The Confederate monuments in downtown Charlottesville and next to the Albemarle County courthouse have been the subject of controversy, litigation, and, of course, removal. In some neighboring counties, Confederate monuments still stand in front of the courthouses.
Source: The Historical Marker Database and the Southern Poverty Law Center
The Confederate monument at the Orange County courthouse sparked protest in March after a judge called for its removal. By PlannerGuy/Wikipedia
Orange County
“They fought for the right. They died for their country. Cherish their memory. Imitate their example,” reads the Confederate monument in front of the Orange County courthouse. Controversy over the monument swelled in late March, according to the Culpeper Star-Exponent, when Orange County Circuit Court Judge David B. Franzén called the statue “an obstruction to the proper administration of justice in Orange County,” in an email to Orange County leaders. That message prompted a fundraising email from Virginia State Senator Bryce Reeves, who joined a protest in support of the monument and called for Franzen to step down.
Nelson County
Erected in 1965 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the memorial stands near the courthouse in downtown Lovingston. Its inscription reads “In memory of the heroic Confederate Soldiers of Nelson County who served in the War Between the States, 1861-1865. Love makes memory eternal.”
Fluvanna County
Dedicated in 1901 “To the memory of the Confederate soldiers of Fluvanna County 1861-1865,” the memorial is on courthouse grounds in Palmyra.
Louisa County
Four years after the Confederate monument was dedicated in Palmyra, Louisa County dedicated its own monument “in memory of the courage, patriotism and devotion of the Confederate soldiers of Louisa County, 1861-1865.”
Dr. Andrea Douglas, executive director of the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, is co-leading this summer’s civil rights tour, which will include stops at former plantations, museums, memorials, and sites of slave revolts in the Deep South. Photo: Eze Amos
In 1808, the trans-Atlantic slave trade was abolished in the United States, but the horrors of slavery raged on for nearly six more decades. Between 1810 and 1860, approximately 1 million enslaved people in the Upper South were forcibly relocated to newly established plantations in the Deep South, fueled by the booming cotton industry.
This summer, the Charlottesville Civil Rights Tour will take participants along the route of this lesser-known domestic slave trade, stopping at an array of former plantations, historic civil rights sites, museums, memorials, and locations of slave revolts in the Deep South. The eight-day trip—hosted by the UVA Democracy Initiative’s Memory Project and the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center—will examine how Southern communities are reshaping the narrative surrounding slavery and white supremacy, and elevating the voices and stories of enslaved people and their descendants.
“There are people from here who were trafficked down there, [and] members of the community who hold the torch of the Lost Cause narrative whose families made money off of [the slave trade],” explains tour co-leader Jalane Schmidt, director of the Memory Project. “We’re connected in every way. We’re not special—we’re part of this narrative.”
On June 19, a 100-person delegation—including high school students, teachers, activists, descendants of enslaved people, and other community members—will fly to Alabama, where Charlottesville’s 2018 civil rights tour culminated. Following the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally, Jefferson School Executive Director Dr. Andrea Douglas and Schmidt led a pilgrimage to Montgomery to commemorate the 1898 lynching of John Henry James in Albemarle County. On the 120th anniversary of James’ murder, the group delivered soil from the site of his lynching, land now owned by Farmington Country Club, to the Equal Justice Initiative’s National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which features jars of dirt from over 4,000 documented lynching locations.
“When [participants] came back, they talked at public forums, like the public library, or their Sunday school group, or at work, and in classrooms. There was a ripple effect from that as people talked to their friends, neighbors, co-workers about what they’ve learned,” says Schmidt of the pilgrimage.
“That is the goal of these tours, and why we want to do it again this summer—to keep that ripple effect going,” she says.
In Alabama, the delegation will visit Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church, where four Black girls were killed when it was bombed by the Ku Klux Klan in 1963. They will also walk across Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge, where over 600 civil rights marchers—led by then 25-year-old activist John Lewis—were brutally attacked by police in 1965.
The trip also includes a stop in Africatown, home to the descendants of the enslaved people smuggled on the Clotilda, the last last-known slave ship to arrive in the United States in 1860.
The ship was immediately burned and sunk on the Mobile River to hide the illegal activity, and its remains were not found until 2019. After the Civil War, the Clotilda’s survivors wanted to return to Africa, but didn’t have enough money to do so. Instead, they pooled their wages to purchase land they called Africatown.
Activist Myra Anderson, whose ancestors were enslaved at the University of Virginia, says she is most looking forward to meeting fellow descendants at Africatown, and visiting the wreckage site of Clotilda this summer. From participating in the 2018 pilgrimage, she learned that engaging with such violent, brutal history first-hand is “not easy”—she was often brought to tears—but incredibly eye-opening and life-changing.
“I saw so many parallels between what happened back then and what happened in Charlottesville [in 2017],” says Anderson, reflecting on the 2018 pilgrimage. “There was nothing more powerful than to just have the opportunity to be able to interpret history in the exact places where it happened.”
“As an activist, it inspired me in so many ways to not take my foot off the gas and stay the course, and understand that all of those who were there before me and the things that they did, they laid the framework,” she says.
Other notable stops on this summer’s trip include the Whitney Plantation in Wallace, Louisiana, one of the few former plantations in the country focused solely on educating visitors about slavery; the Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Sumner, Mississippi, where the 1955 murder trial of 14-year-old Till took place; and the Lorraine Motel National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. The group will also participate in a variety of cultural activities, like a jazz tour of New Orleans, before returning home on June 26.
Thanks to a large number of donors, over two dozen participants have received scholarships that cover the $2,750 price tag. Most of the trip spots have been reserved, but a few remain for people who can pay full price.
As Charlottesville continues to grapple with its own racist history, Schmidt hopes the trip will help the city reimagine public spaces with ties to slavery and white supremacy—most notably the former sites of the Lee and Jackson statues—and make them welcoming and inclusive of the entire community.
“It’s about learning together as a community, [and] how we fit in with this larger narrative,” she says. “And being able to come back to teach others.”
For more information, or to book a ticket for the tour, go to insiderexpeditions.com/charlottesville-civil-rights-tour.
Jalane Schmidt, director of UVA’s Memory Project, hopes a student research team can get through Albemarle County’s records for sales of enslaved people by summer’s end. Photo: Eze Amos
It’s been over two years since a local resident threw the Court Square slave auction marker into the James River, and Charlottesville is slowly—yet surely—moving toward erecting a new memorial. Since 2020, the city’s Historic Resources Committee has met with several dozen descendants, gathering their input on how to properly memorialize the thousands of enslaved people who were bought and sold downtown.
On Tuesday, SUNY Binghamton history professor Anne Bailey, an expert on slavery in the United States, met with local descendants before giving a talk at the Central Library on memorializing the victims of slave auctions and healing from Charlottesville’s painful history. A recording of the event is available to watch on the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society Facebook page.
“[The descendants] are just going to meet with her and talk about commemorative events, and kind of explain what’s been going on here for the past several years in Charlottesville,” explained committee member Jalane Schmidt during an April 8 HRC meeting. “Dr. Bailey works with descendants of the Butler plantation sale [in Savannah, Georgia], and they’ve been gaining some traction with commemorative events in the last several years.”
Schmidt said she would ask participants to share notes from their meeting with Bailey, so the committee can use them to further guide descendant engagement. “It’s a balance between wanting to give them space, and also wanting that to inform the process.”
Last month, a small group of descendants also met with University of Virginia graduate students Jake Calhoun and MaDeja Leverett, who have been searching Albemarle County’s chancery records for sales of enslaved people for several months. So far, they have identified the names of over a dozen enslaved people who were sold on the courthouse steps.
It’s been more than two years since the Court Square slave auction marker was stolen and thrown in the James River. Photo: City of Charlottesville
Schmidt, director of UVA’s Memory Project, said during the HRC meeting that she may add another student to the research team, so they can try to get through all of the sale records by the end of this summer. However, the time-consuming project may not be completed until next year.
In February, the committee sent a progress report to City Council, detailing the descendant engagement process and requesting up to $1 million for the new memorial, which could be erected at a variety of possible locations, including Court Square, Court Square Park, adjacent to Number Nothing, or in front of the Albemarle County Courthouse—either in place of the old Monticello sign, or where the Confederate Johnny Reb statue stood. It remains unclear when council will allocate funding for the long-anticipated project.
“There is an expectation that one of the future projects is a significant physical memorial, likely in Court Square,” reads the report. “The second desire is an educational component that interprets the chattel slavery system throughout antebellum Albemarle County.”
“We do not anticipate that only one action or construction will be created, but rather a collection of projects serving unique but related purposes,” the report continues. “We anticipate that these projects will cost from $500K to $1M, [covering] locations throughout Charlottesville and Albemarle.”
During last week’s meeting, the committee also briefly discussed the draft of the downtown walking tour map, which is still being edited. Since 2020, a city subcommittee, including HRC members, has been working to revamp the antiquated map.
Member Dede Smith explained that the new map will move away from “broad themes” and highlight about 14 sites in Court Square, on Water and Market streets, in Vinegar Hill, and on the Downtown Mall. “We’re still grappling with what content to include and how to be inclusive,” said Smith.
“I know there’s been continual concern over the progress of this, but we really are trying to do something that is very different,” added chair Phil Varner. “Once we get there, it will be something that is hopefully used for a very long time, that is useful for people, and more representative of the area.”
A less-expensive funding option could allow the Buford Middle School reconfiguration project to move forward.
Photo: City of Charlottesville
For more than a decade, Charlottesville’s school reconfiguration has remained in limbo, thanks to a plethora of financial setbacks. As the city works to finalize its budget for fiscal year 2023, leadership has struggled to figure out how to fund the $75 million project, which would move fifth grade from Walker Upper Elementary—currently home to fifth and sixth grades—back down to elementary schools, and sixth grade up to Buford Middle School.
Last month, interim City Manager Michael Rogers recommended a pause in the massive project until more funding is found. He suggested City Council raise the real estate tax by 2 cents, and use that moderate tax hike to generate funds for the reconfiguration over the next five to 10 years. The suggested delay sparked outcry from frustrated community members. But last week, city staff presented alternative funding options during a budget work session that could prevent the project from being delayed.
According to senior budget analyst Krisy Hammill, the city could sell either $50 or $54 million in bonds, and use $7.5 million in American Rescue Plan funds from city schools to pay for a cheaper $68.8 million reconfiguration, which would delay construction on the 54-year-old middle school’s auditorium—and completely put off revamping Walker into a centralized preschool. However, the city would need to find up to around $5 million in additional cash, depending on how much of the project is covered by bonds.
At the budget work session, Mayor Lloyd Snook said he discussed the reconfiguration funding with Charlottesville City Schools Superintendent Royal Gurley and school board chair Lisa Larson-Torres, and got them on board with the $68.8 million option.
“I told the school folks quite frankly that I was not confident there were going to be three votes for the full $75 million worth of bonds,” Snook explained. “But if we get the project down to something in the neighborhood of $50 million…I thought there would be a majority on council willing to support that position.”
“This plan doesn’t exactly deal with how do we get to Walker,” he added. “Hopefully our economy continues to rebound [and] in another year or two we can look at it and say, ‘Okay, now we know how we’re going to do Walker [and] the auditorium.’”
Thanks to rising property value assessments—combined with an increase in sales, meals, and lodging tax revenue—the city is expecting a $12 million budget surplus at the end of fiscal year 2022, which could be used to pay off future debt service on the reconfiguration bonds. State and federal grants could also offset project costs.
The reconfiguration funding scenarios did not include a rise in real estate, meals, or personal property taxes. However, several councilors voiced support for slightly increasing taxes, in case the end-of-year surplus is less than projected.
“I would feel more comfortable if we had a 1 cent [real estate tax increase] at least that we are putting towards the school fund, not because I distrust any of these numbers…but a lot of this surplus is because we’ve been short staffed,” said councilor Sena Magill.
Councilor Brian Pinkston suggested increasing the meals tax from 6 to 6.5 percent and lowering the personal property tax, while councilor Michael Payne recommended raising the real estate tax.
The last budget work session will be held on April 7. Council will approve the final budget on April 12.
Hansel Aguilar, executive director of Charlottesville’s PCOB, is in charge of directly investigating complaints against the Charlottesville Police Department. Supplied photo.
Charlottesville’s Police Civilian Oversight Board met last week to discuss procedures for how the board can investigate complaints against the police—and how board members can investigate complaints against each other, an all-too-relevant process given the fractious history between recent members. At the meeting, board members voted to send a final draft of their operating procedures to City Council for approval.
According to the newly drafted procedures, the board has authority to investigate complaints against CPD employees, including illegal uses of force, discriminatory traffic stops, and injuries or death of a person in custody. The board can also investigate incidents voluntarily, if no complaint is filed.
In an earlier draft of the procedures, the board’s executive director was solely responsible for deciding whether the board would investigate a complaint, explained Chair Bill Mendez. Now, the director is required to consult with the board.
The executive director can also refer complaints to the commonwealth’s attorney for possible criminal prosecution, or to mediation, during which “two individuals get together and discuss their differences in a non-threatening, non-hyper adversarial atmosphere,” explained Mendez.
“That would allow officers and complainants to actually meet each other as human beings…and that might help a lot to establish better relations between the police and the community,” added Mendez.
Cases involving use of force—or officers with multiple complaints against them—are not eligible for mediation, which would be held confidentially.
“The object is good faith participation,” added Mendez. “If a complainant is not satisfied, we’re not shutting them out of the process. If they want to go back and say ‘please pursue this investigation,’ they can ask us to do that.”
The executive director is in charge of directly investigating complaints or engaging independent investigators, and will have access to all of CPD’s records, evidence, and witnesses. During an investigation, the board can subpoena witnesses and evidence, as well as hold public hearings, run by a hearing examiner.
Last year, community members called for the removal of members Bellamy Brown and Jeffrey Fracher, in light of leaked text messages expressing their contempt for former CPD chief RaShall Brackney, then-mayor Nikuyah Walker, local activists, and several other board members. Some also accused Brown of collaborating with the local Police Benevolent Association to get Brackney fired. In regard to complaints filed against board members, Mendez expressed concerns about the “optics” of allowing board members to investigate each other, and asked the board to change that section of the procedures to language suggested by City Attorney Lisa Robertson.
Hansel Aguilar, the board’s executive director, explained the process by which board members can investigate each other: The board can create a committee (which could also include members of the local Human Rights Commission or city staff) to examine complaints against board members, but only City Council has the authority to remove board members.
Per the proposed procedures, a member may be removed from the board for violating confidentiality obligations, secretly communicating with a person with a pending case, neglecting their duties, breaking the board’s Code of Ethics, or failing to comply with laws applicable to PCOB business, like the Freedom of Information Act.
Council is expected to discuss and vote on the operating procedures next month.
The former Red Carpet Inn off Route 29 is one of the city’s newest low-barrier shelters for people experiencing homelessness. Photo: Eze Amos
After years of public debate over Charlottesville’s housing woes, City Council adopted a new Future Land Use Map last fall, which advocates for increasing housing density across the city—and in turn, creating more affordable housing. Last month, city staff began the lengthy process of rewriting an outdated zoning ordinance, something that could take a year or longer.
During a virtual town hall last week, local residents again stressed the desperate need for emergency and affordable housing in Charlottesville. The city’s Human Rights Commission, the forum’s host, plans to use the community input to guide its future advocacy on the subject.
Resident Sage Boyer discussed the struggles she has faced finding affordable housing as a disabled person. “Most of the affordable housing in Charlottesville is unaffordable to people that are on SSI and SSD. We only usually make $841 a month, and most of the low income places are like around $800 a month,” she said.
While some people move to surrounding rural areas to find cheaper housing, relocating to the country can be more difficult for disabled people, said Daniela Pretzer of the BridgeLine nonprofit. “It is important to live in Charlottesville for people like that or close because of the medical community around here,” she said.
And the affordable housing options in nearby counties are often in poor condition, added Boyer, who has lived outside the city.
“They’re privately owned, cash only—they’re basically just homes owned by slumlords. There’s generally mold, things that are broken, things that don’t work right. These places are just absolutely disgusting,” she said.
Anna Mendez of Partner for Mental Health highlighted the additional housing barriers faced by people living with mental illness. More low-barrier shelters like the former Red Carpet Inn off Route 29—now run by Thomas Jefferson Area Coalition for the Homeless and People and Congregations Engaged in Ministry—are especially needed, connecting guests to mental health services, substance abuse treatment, medical care, and other community resources.
“Many of our community members who have been banned from emergency housing options, including the Salvation Army and PACEM, are disproportionately people that live with mental health diagnoses,” explained Mendez.
To properly address homelessness, entrepreneur and activist Gwen Cassady, who has been homeless four times, suggested Charlottesville follow Finland’s housing first approach, which provides people experiencing homelessness with permanent housing—no strings attached—and then helps them address issues, like mental illness and substance abuse. The concept has been wildly successful—less than 1 percent of Finland’s population is currently homeless, according to the Housing Finance and Development Centre of Finland.
A variety of affordable housing projects are currently in the works in and around Charlottesville. Last year, the city kicked off the redevelopment of South First Street public housing, and is expected to complete the first phase of the 175-plus-unit project this spring. This year, the Piedmont Housing Alliance broke ground on 450 new units at Friendship Court, which will take around eight years to complete.
By 2024, Virginia Supportive Housing plans to build 80 permanent housing units at the motel-turned-shelter at Premier Circle, and will make them available to disabled individuals who chronically struggle with homelessness. The Piedmont Housing Alliance will also build 60 affordable housing units—to be rented for no more than 30 percent of the gross income of future residents—on the property.
And over the next decade, the University of Virginia has pledged to support the development of 1,000 to 1,500 units of affordable housing in Charlottesville and Albemarle County. The university has selected three prospective sites—all owned by the university or the UVA Foundation—for the units: UVA’s Piedmont community off Fontaine Avenue, portions of the North Fork UVA Discovery Park on Route 29, and the 1010 Wertland St. building at the corner of Wertland and 10th Street. It plans to issue a Request for Qualifications from developers this spring.
But UVA could do more to address the city’s housing crisis now, claimed Rich Gregory of The Alliance for Interfaith Ministries during the town hall. He suggested the school use empty dorm rooms to provide emergency housing.
“Ideally, UVA would have 100 free rooms available at any time, with wardens and support people so that homeless people could make use of this facility,” said Gregory.
Gregory also emphasized the long wait lists for most of the city’s current affordable housing options, requiring residents to wait months or years for a spot to open up. In Charlottesville, there are 1,000 people on a wait list for an affordable housing voucher, according to Virginia Public Media.
Additionally, rent hikes have made it even harder to find housing that can be fully covered by vouchers, explained Nancy Carpenter, prevention coordinator for The Haven day shelter. She urged the city to increase voucher amounts from 125 to 150 percent of fair market value.
Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority Executive Director John Sales explained that, without additional funding, the agency will not be able to give out as many vouchers if their value is increased. “HUD is not funding it at the level it needs to be funded,” he said.
Activist Ang Conn stressed the need for rent freezes and rent caps. (The city needs permission from the state government to implement such measures.)
“I checked an apartment complex that was just $1,300 about four weeks ago,” she said. “It is now $1,519.”
The James River Water Authority has halted its plan to build a water pump station on Rassawek, the historic capital of the Monacan Indian Nation. Photo: Carrie Pruitt
After years of public outcry, the James River Water Authority has abandoned its plans to build a water intake and pump station at Rassawek, the historic capital of the Monacan Indian Nation.
Last week, the authority—a partnership between Fluvanna and Louisa counties—unanimously voted to apply for permits for an alternative project site, located about two miles upstream from Rassawek. JRWA has also agreed to transfer ownership of its portion of Rassawek to the Nation.
During a virtual press conference last week, Monacan Tribal Chief Kenneth Branham, along with attorneys Greg and Marion Werkheiser of Cultural Heritage Partners, celebrated the long-awaited victory, and reflected on the painful battle to protect the historical and cultural site.
“This has been a long road,” said Branham. “We are glad to be moving forward in a spirit of cooperation, to ensure the citizens get their drinking water, and our ancestral capital of Rassawek and the burials of our ancestors are protected.”
Located in Fluvanna County, Rassawek has been an important site for the Monacan Indian Nation for over 4,000 years. British colonist John Smith included Rassawek in his 1612 map of Virginia, and the Smithsonian Institution documented the archaeological resources and human burials at Rassawek beginning in the 1880s.
File photo.
Before Europeans colonized North America and committed genocide against Indigenous peoples, the Monacans occupied around half of what is now Virginia. Today, the Nation—with around 2,600 citizens—is the largest federally recognized tribe in the state.
In 2014, the JRWA began planning to build a water pump station and pipeline, which would eventually serve the growing Zion Crossroads area, on top of Rassawek. Though the state’s department of historic resources, preservation groups, and archaeologists warned them about Rassawek’s historical and cultural significance, the authority purchased land at the site in 2016.
JRWA did not alert the Monacan Indian Nation of its plans until 2017. The following year, the tribe hired legal counsel, who discovered through public records that the authority had 13 alternative sites for the project from the beginning—but wanted to cut costs by building it on top of Rassawek.
“The tribe had been told that the water authority had looked at a bunch of alternatives and determined that none of them were viable,” explained Greg Werkheiser. “What we discovered when we went in and did a request to the public records…was that, very freely in these documents, the water authority’s advisors were saying ‘yes, there are other viable sites but let’s go with the cheap one.’”
After the water authority applied for a permit in 2020, more than 12,000 individuals and organizations spoke out in support of the Monacans. The National Trust for Historic Preservation put Rassawek on its annual list of America’s most endangered historic places, rallying even more support for the cause.
“We are all caretakers of human stories. If saving Monacan history was the only business of the Monacan people, then Rassawek would have been lost a long time ago. But with citizens and leaders of all walks of life and backgrounds, many non-Monacans saw the fight for our history as their fight,” said Branham. “It’s only by preserving stories…that we can make a strong society.”
The same year, the state disqualified JRWA’s archaeologist, and the tribe filed a lengthy complaint with the Army Corps of Engineers, detailing why the project should not be legally permitted.
In light of this strong public outcry, JRWA brought the project to a halt in August 2020, and agreed to look into alternative options. It hired archaeologists approved by the Nation to ensure there were no human remains at the second site, which already has a road nearby. “If there were archaeological remains there, they were undoubtedly destroyed when that roadway was put in,” said Greg Werkheiser.
The archaeologists confirmed there were no burials at the alternative site last December, and the Nation agreed to officially support building there. JRWA plans to apply for a new permit for the alternative site this spring.
During the press conference, the attorneys reflected on Virginia’s long, painful history of oppressing Indigenous peoples. In the early 20th century, Walter Plecker—a physician, eugenicist, and white supremacist—headed Virginia’s Bureau of Vital Statistics, and helped to pass the Racial Integrity Act of 1924. In addition to criminalizing interracial marriage, the law required every newborn child be classified either as “White” or “Colored,” aiming to erase Indigenous peoples and their identity. State registrars changed birth certificates from “Indian” to “Colored,” and Indigenous peoples were banned from white schools, hospitals, and other public areas.
Branham briefly shared the struggles he faced growing up in Amherst County, thanks to Plecker’s eugenicist efforts. He and his siblings all had different races on their birth certificates, and were not allowed to attend public school until 1962—eight years after Brown v. Board of Education.
“People put us down and didn’t take the time to get to know us. We are proud of who we are,” said Branham.
Decades of erasure made it extremely difficult for Virginia’s tribes to meet the strict criteria for federal recognition. Six Virginia tribes—including the Monacans—did not win federal recognition until 2018.
Last fall, former Virginia governor Ralph Northam issued an executive order requiring the state to consult with tribes on permits that could affect their environmental, historic, and cultural resources. It will remain in effect unless Governor Glenn Youngkin amends or rescinds it. During this year’s General Assembly session, a bill codifying the requirement into state law passed the Democratic-majority state senate, but stalled in the Republican-majority House of Representatives. The House Agriculture Committee agreed to discuss the bill again next year.
“The fight to save Rassawek is one of the first instances in which a Virginia tribe has drawn a hard line in the sand and leveraged its new federal recognition status,” said Greg Werkheiser. “It will not be the last time a tribe draws a line in the sand.”
The attorneys expressed hope that the victory at Rassawek will help other tribes to preserve their land and resources nationwide, and stressed the importance of using multiple strategies at once to win the battle.
“It was not legal arguments, political lobbying, grassroots advocacy, public and media messaging, or coalition building alone that resulted in success—it was an all-of-the-above strategy,” said Greg Werkheiser. “Citizen volunteers proved indispensable.”
“This resolution reveals the false choice between preservation and development,” added Marion Werkheiser. “Early and honest dialogue with tribal nations and other potentially impacted communities can identify concerns, speed development, and avoid unnecessary project costs and delays.”
According to the attorneys, the Rassawek site is owned by multiple people. Cultural Heritage Partners will facilitate conversations between the tribe and other landowners, and develop a long-term plan for “both the tribe’s regular access and eventual stewardship and ownership,” explained Greg Werkheiser.
Branham emphasized that there will be no future economic development at Rassawek.
“We want to possibly clean it up and show the beauty of that particular spot,” added the chief. “We want to make sure we never, never have to do this fight again.”
In Virginia, it’s always election season: 2022 Democratic Congressional hopefuls Josh Throneburg (above) and Andy Parker talked about their priorities at a forum last week. Supplied photo
Since defeating Dr. Cameron Webb in 2020, 5th District Representative Bob Good has stayed true to his Trump-loving, Bible-thumping platform. In addition to introducing bills attacking abortion rights, criminal justice reform, gun control, and refugees, the Republican has rejected the 2020 presidential election results, voted against investigating the Capitol insurrection, and supported fellow far-right conservatives, like QAnon conspiracy theorist Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.
At an in-person forum last week, two Democratic candidates hoping to challenge Good—Andy Parker and Josh Throneburg—introduced themselves and shared their priorities for the district. The third announced Democratic candidate, Warren McLellan, did not attend the event, which was hosted by the Goochland, Louisa, Powhatan, and Albemarle Democratic committees.
Parker is a former member of the Henry County Board of Supervisors, and has been an outspoken advocate for stricter gun control since the 2015 murder of his daughter, 24-year-old journalist Alison Parker. While conducting a live television interview in Moneta, Virginia, Parker and her cameraman, Adam Ward, were shot and killed by a former employee of their news station, Roanoke’s WDBJ.
Andy Parker. Supplied photo
Parker also wants to hold online platforms accountable for showing graphic violence, specifically by repealing section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects websites from being held liable for illegal posts. Since Parker’s death, footage of the shooting—which her murderer uploaded to Twitter and Facebook—has circulated across the internet, despite her father’s efforts to get it removed.
To prevent and reduce gun violence, Throneburg—an ordained minister and small business owner—suggested Democrats “work together” with Republicans “who care about safety.” However, Parker claimed that electing more Democrats was the only way to get critical gun control measures—like universal background checks and assault weapons bans—passed by Congress.
“There is no cooperation,” said Parker. “If you can’t change their minds, you change their seats.”
Throneburg announced his candidacy in the summer of 2021, and had raised $207,000 by the end of the year, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. McLellan has raised $11,000, and fundraising reports are not yet available for Parker, who announced his campaign in February.
Last year, the 5th District, which has voted Republican in four consecutive congressional elections, was redrawn to include Fluvanna, Louisa, Goochland, and part of Henrico, and exclude Fauquier, Rappahannock, and Madison counties. According to election data from FiveThirtyEight and The Washington Post, the new district has a nearly identical partisan composition as the old one.
Raised by a Republican family in a rural community, Throneburg claimed he is well-equipped to reach out to Republican voters and discuss bipartisan issues, like health care and broadband. “If there’s anybody who can actually access space in those communities and have them consider a Democrat as their potential representative, I think it’s me,” he said.
Parker argued he could also find common ground with Republicans with his platform. “[Social media has] created this underbelly where you’ve got all this misinformation, video of my daughter’s murder, illegal drugs…this is what I found resonates across both sides of the aisle.”
Rural communities across the district continue to lack access to high-speed internet. To support broadband expansion, Parker proposed governments work directly with phone carriers, while Throneburg suggested treating broadband like a utility.
Parker promised to prioritize challenging big pharma, and bringing prescription drug prices down. Throneburg stressed the need to fight against climate change, and invest in green energy and jobs.
“We need more solar. We need more wind. Those things have to happen immediately,” said Throneburg. “We also have to do it strategically and with some thought and care.”
Throughout the forum, both candidates expressed support for implementing Medicare for all, overturning Citizens United, protecting abortion rights, stopping voter suppression, and passing the Equal Rights Amendment. They also vowed to support diversity, equity, and inclusion in education, as Republicans like Governor Glenn Youngkin try to ban “critical race theory” and censor books in schools.
“Kids should be taught factual history…the good, the bad, everything that happened,” said Parker.
In their closing statements, the candidates encouraged voters to show up to the polls, and rally together to flip the district to blue in November.
Over on the Republican side, Bob Good is facing a primary fight of his own. Challenger Dan Moy, who spent 27 years in the Air Force, will face off against Good during a Republican congressional convention in May.
“You deserve a congressman that actually knows how the economy should work, how our communities work, and our country,” said Parker at the forum. “Right now you don’t have that—you deserve better.”
Democratic congressional hopefuls have until April 7 to file to run, and the Democratic primary will be held on June 21.
If approved, renovation of the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail is expected
to begin in August 2024. Photo: Skyclad Aerial
Since the beginning of the pandemic, inmates at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail have called attention to a host of health and sanitary issues at the facility, including black mold, faulty wiring, leaky ceilings, poor plumbing, freezing temperatures, bug infestations, standing water, and shoddy COVID containment procedures.
The jail’s leadership has begun taking steps to improve the 46-year-old facility, which serves the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle and Nelson counties. Jail Superintendent Martin Kumer and Moseley Architects are in the process of presenting the renovation plan to member jurisdictions.
In addition to upgrading and replacing the jail’s HVAC units, electric systems, lighting, and air filtration, the renovation will create a dedicated mental health unit, outdoor recreation space, and larger visitation area. The upgrades will add more classrooms, programming space, administrative offices, toilets, and showers. The jail’s housing areas will also be expanded and revamped with stress-reducing colors, more natural sunlight, and sound-deadening materials, explained Tony Bell of Moseley Architects during last week’s Charlottesville City Council meeting.
“The measures that will be taken to induce a more trauma-informed designed facility [include] removal of all of the bar grate,” said Bell. “Right now, the windows that open onto the majority of the day rooms are approximately 10 feet from the actual detainees…By removing the bar grate, it will allow [them] to go up next to and receive some direct sunlight from those windows.”
Currently, the older portions of the jail do not allow staff to directly supervise the population. The renovations will remove walls between inmates and staff, which Bell said can help to improve relationships and decrease conflicts.
The renovations will not increase the jail’s capacity, which is currently 329 people. After conducting a needs assessment—which examined crime trends, criminal justice reforms, and other factors in the three localities—jail leadership determined that the facility’s population would not increase substantially in the future.
In January, the jail’s population was 265 people, the lowest it had been in 20 years, in part because efforts to prevent the spread of COVID increased the prevalence of home electronic incarceration—house arrest via ankle monitor.
“Right now is a great time for this construction and renovations project because your population is so low,” said Bell. “You can vacate day rooms, renovate those day rooms when they’re vacated, and move those detainees back into [them] upon the completion of the renovation.”
The renovation is expected to cost about $49 million. The state will contribute $12.5 million, and the three localities that use the facility will be on the hook for the rest.
Before the renovation can move forward, each member jurisdiction must pass a resolution in favor of the project, and the General Assembly has to sign off on the state funding allocation. Construction is expected to begin in August 2024 and finish in November 2025.
Jail leadership ultimately hopes improving the rundown facility will promote rehabilitation and reduce recidivism.
“One of the things that I try to tell folks who say, ‘gee we should be cutting the police and jail budget,’ is don’t think that doing it right is cheaper than doing it wrong,” said Mayor Lloyd Snook. “This would give us the ability to take things away from the purely punitive model, towards more nearly a rehabilitation model.”
In response to calls from community members to abolish prisons, Kumer claimed that renovating the jail is the only way getting rid of it would be “remotely feasible” in the future.
“Investing in the facility is conducive to just that—reducing crime,” he said.
Council is expected to pass a resolution authorizing the renovations by September.
