Author: samanthabaars

At a September 24 forum on environmental issues organized by the Sierra Club, the six Albemarle Board of Supervisors candidates weighed in on a few of the most notable issues in the county.

Democrat Norman Dill, independent Lawrence Gaughan and Republican Richard Lloyd, who are running for the Rivanna seat, White Hall incumbent Supervisor Ann Mallek, who is unchallenged, and Scottsville District candidates Rick Randolph, a Democrat, and Republican Earl Smith were in attendance.

Moderator Jessica Gephart asked what local government could do to assure that all residents have convenient and affordable access to a system that processes their solid waste materials in a safe and sustainable way.

“The burden should not be on the county,” Gaughan said. “Private business is the answer, not more government.” Though Dill asserted in his response that single stream recycling doesn’t work, Gaughan said it works in Los Angeles County and it can work in Albemarle, too.

Randolph, who has been on the county solid waste committee since it was created in April 2014, sparred with Mallek over the logistics of the Ivy transfer station while Gaughan made boxing motions a few chairs over.

Smith answered that transfer stations will work, but should be manned by volunteers to help people sort their trash because, he said, “You’ve got to make it bulletproof for people to go take their [trash].”

When the moderator mentioned rainwater runoff, one candidate seized the opportunity.

Lloyd stood and, handing one side of a large poster to Gaughan, unraveled it to reveal several photos and a bold caption that read “Who Killed the Moormans?” He said no one seems to care for the rivers and someone must be held accountable for their bad health.

For Dill, who shares Lloyd’s passion for keeping the county’s waters healthy, “The Rivanna watershed is the No. 1 treasure that we have here and it needs to be protected,” he said.

When it came to promoting the health of young people, the candidates seemed to agree it was a good idea. Dill said children can grow immensely by immersing themselves in nature, even if just lying in the grass and watching ants. Randolph spoke highly of bike riding and reading classics such as Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. Mallek spoke of supporting the Leave No Child Inside initiative in county schools, which she says is more important than SOL testing, and Lloyd said people should be forbidden from spraying chemicals like certain mosquito sprays, which children could get on their bodies. Smith said he wants to promote an outdoor program for kids to spend more time on the James River because “they’ll learn more on a four- to five-hour trip down the James than a trip to D.C.,” and Gaughan, who supports the farm to table movement, expressed concern about students on free and reduced lunches still being subjected to “processed crap.”

To end the forum, audience members submitted five rounds of questions about issues such as fluoridated water and cell phone towers popping up next to schools. Although candidates differed on several issues, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline was something everyone could agree on.

With a no from Mallek, “ditto” from both Randolph and Smith, “no no no no no no” from Lloyd, “I completely agree” from Dill and a one-minute response with the same outcome from Gaughan, the candidate forum came to a decisive conclusion.

The police K-9 involved in the June attack of a 13-year-old girl on Prospect Avenue returned to duty two weeks ago, along with his handler, according to the Charlottesville Police Department.

In August, police identified the K-9 as a Dutch shepherd named Ringo, and said while his handler was on administrative leave and doing unrelated training, the dog was being evaluated in the areas of aggression control and obedience by its original trainer, who found no issues.

At the time of the attack, Ringo did not respond to his handler’s commands when he was accidentally released from the back of the patrol car.

Police did not release the name of Ringo’s handler and, even now that this officer has returned to duty, police continue to withhold his name. Charlottesville Police spokesman Steve Upman did not respond to an inquiry about why the officer’s name is not being released.

“The police don’t mind giving out the names and other identifying information about people who have been arrested—people who are presumed innocent,” Jeff Fogel, a Charlottesville attorney who recently sued the city for not releasing police records under the Freedom of Information Act, says. He lost the suit.

“With our recent FOIA request, it looks like the police are not willing to be scrutinized, and no one from the city is going to challenge that,” Fogel says. “Transparency and accountability are just words to them, to be pulled out when useful.”

After the handler accidentally released the K-9 from his patrol vehicle in June, police say he has relocated the door release remote to somewhere on his body, minimizing the chance of another accidental activation.

Ringo was purchased in fall 2013 for $12,000, according to a Charlottesville Police Foundation newsletter.

Related links:

Dog attack witness: Police K-9 was “vicious”

Police K-9 that bit girl recovers from surgery

A list of rules and regulations are finally in place for Charlottesville homeowners who rent their houses to visitors through Airbnb and other homestay networks. At a September 8 City Council meeting, during which the ordinance was enacted by a 4-1 vote, non-owner-occupied rentals, like Stay Charlottesville, were not addressed, with the city’s promise to rule on them next year.

City Council member Kristin Szakos says when the staff decided homeowner rentals would fall under the home occupation ordinance, which says that any resident offering a business out of his home must acquire a home occupation provisional use permit, it made separating the two types of rentals simple. Ruling on owner-occupied rentals was the council’s priority because, well, it was easier.

“It would have taken a lot more doing to get [the non-owner-occupied ordinance] ready for a vote,” Szakos says. According to her, there was a “fair amount of hashing out” between the city and the people who will be affected by an ordinance on non-owner-occupied rentals.

Though city attorney Craig Brown has declared the issue of non-owner-occupied rentals unresolved, Szakos says they’re still regulated and most of them have been paying taxes.

“Stay has always stood on a strong legal ground that all its rentals are very legal,” says Stay Charlottesville’s co-founder and managing partner Travis Wilburn in an e-mail. (C-VILLE’s owner Bill Chapman is a co-founder of Stay Charlottesville, as well.) “With that being said, we look forward to working with the city to help create smart regulations that help protect neighborhoods and promote compliance amongst the users.”

Szakos says she hopes to start looking at the process of enacting an ordinance on these types of rentals in January, while council member Kathy Galvin, the only person to vote against the ordinance, says passing even the first transient lodging ordinance is troubling.

She would have preferred following short-term rental ordinance models like those in Nashville, Tennessee, Austin, Texas, and Savannah, Georgia, which routinely monitor the impacts on the neighborhoods where short-term rentals are present.

The City Planning Commission and City Council could not reach consensus on the basic principles of the homestay ordinance or the process, according to Galvin.

“We already know our current zoning ordinances need lots of review and revision,” she writes in an e-mail. “That’s why the West Main rezoning is underway, for instance.”

Two years ago, Galvin encouraged her colleagues on council to authorize staff to conduct a citywide code audit, which she says has not been finished. Some areas are 18 months behind.

“In light of all of these incomplete and ill-fitting zoning ordinances,” she wrote, “it makes little sense to me to add another incomplete ordinance to the list.”

To that, Wilburn adds, “It’s an ordinance that starts in the right direction, however, it doesn’t accomplish what we originally set out to do, which is to help protect neighborhoods and encourage compliance with people paying lodging and sales tax.”