Deadline blues
Hawkins fails to file, Mitch marches on
Blair Hawkins made a last minute decision not to deliver his Republican nomination speech at the local party’s mass meeting on June 2. For one thing, he missed the filing deadline of May 27 at 7pm and couldn’t be nominated, period. For another thing, other than the railing against the evils of urban renewal, ever-dramatic, never-delivered speeches are Hawkins’ only platform.
In an e-mail to Mitch Van Yahres dated March 15, Hawkins announced his intentions to seek the Republican nomination for the 57th District in the Virginia House of Delegates. But somewhere in his preparations to unseat the longtime Democratic incumbent, Hawkins forgot to turn in his paperwork with a $500 check.
“Frankly, I think [area Republicans] are happy I’m not running,” said Hawkins while passing out a copy of his silent nomination speech at the meeting.
“I don’t own property or a business,” he wrote. “I have no money, power, or influence.
“I don’t have a network of cronies to whom I owe political favors.”
According to Hawkins, what he did have to offer was ideas—eliminating funding for the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority was one and a bill stating “annexation requires voter approval of those to be annexed” was another. Of course, in order to introduce a bill, one does have to meet a deadline or two.
“Frankly, when no one filed, it was certainly a bit of a shock,” says Keith Drake, chairman of the Albemarle GOP. “But pure and simple, Hawkins missed his filing deadlines.
“You start fudging the rules, and everything breaks loose.”
As far as Hawkins’ political career is concerned, he claims his main priority now is to breathe new life into political theater. The next stop on his one-man show is scheduled to be the Independence Day Parade in Scottsville.
If he can make it on time, that is.—Kathryn E. Goodson
Striving to be average
Supes give themselves a raise to be on par
June 4 was a red-letter day for the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors. First, members of the County School Board deemed the day “Board of County Supervisors Day,” thereby awarding each member one 100 Grand candy bar for each year of completed service. (Supervisor Walter Perkins, for example, got 1,600 Grand.)
Then, to really get the party started, they gave themselves a raise.
Effective July 1, annual salaries for the Board will increase 2 percent to $11,890 from $11,657. Come January 1, their compensation will leap again to $12,104.
Supervisor Sally Thomas was quick to point out that in comparison to other counties in the State, compensation for Albemarle supervisors is below average.
“We’re at 76 percent of what we cost the citizens of Albemarle County,” said Thomas, comparing Albemarle to other counties in 100-percent terms.
“In fact, we’re below average in almost everything.”
A sole citizen stood to oppose the Supes’ salary increase, describing himself as an average senior citizen of the County living on a fixed income.
“I oppose this because I don’t think any of you said, ‘Gee, this is a really swell-paying job,’” he said. “Are they any of you who ran, who didn’t know what the job paid?”
The Board took turns defending their yearly salary increase, beginning with Supervisor Charles Martin who voted against a raise years ago.
“It just occurs to me that over the years what we give to ourselves,” he said, “we give to the County.”
Chairman Lindsay Dorrier agreed. “This Board is very well balanced,” he said. “This increase encourages the average citizen to run for the Board.”
Still, that outspoken average citizen continued to question the Board’s rationale, “especially if some of you are going to be running for re-election,” he said. Throughout his comments, Thomas observed with a silent smirk.
“And why are you smiling, Sally?” he demanded.
To which Thomas gave no reply. —Kathryn E. Goodson
Home movies
Young refugees commit their experiences to film
A young woman lingers in a rug shop because it reminds her of her native Afghan-istan. A West African teenager looks with affection and wonderment at his two younger brothers, who already seem to have forgotten Togo, the country of their birth. An Ethiopian girl watches her mother dance in the kitchen while making dinner. A Bosnian girl deals with new surroundings and the death of her father, while another wistfully watches home-movie footage of her going-away party.
These are moments from five carefully crafted documentaries about the refugee experience, made by immigrant teenagers living in Charlottesville. All good documentaries give the viewer a glimpse of something new, and these more than answer that call by showing us our own City from probably unfamiliar perspectives.
Placing cameras in the hands of these young refugees was the result of collaboration between Light House, a local film mentoring program, and the International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian agency dedicated to assisting refugees.
“The IRC had teamed up in other cities with youth media centers and done other sorts of similar projects,” says Shannon Worrell, a mentor in the project and Light House’s founder. “This just seemed like a complementary collaboration, because it seemed to be happening in more than one place, this idea of refugees making films.”
IRC Regional Director Susan Donovan adds, “It was just one of those Char-lottesville things where the synergy just kind of happens all at once.”
The five students—Tadlch Wubet, from Ethiopia; Sahar Adish, Afghanistan; Tea Andric, Bosnia; Joe Gbeblewou, Togo; and Sanja Jovanovich, Bosnia—are all between the ages of 15 and 17. Donovan chose them from among Charlottesville’s many refugee families “basically based on who could get there,” meaning who could spend virtually every Saturday for the first three months of the year working with mentors on their documentary assignments.
In addition to Worrell, Charlottesville-based filmmakers Paul Wagner and Temple Fennell, and counselor Nora Brookfield acted as mentors, offering the students technical guidance and advice. The program roughly followed the structure of most Lighthouse initiatives: The students were given access to digital cameras and editing equipment (mostly iMac software), and, with the mentors’ assistance, navigated a series of filmmaking projects.
The course culminated with each student creating a short documentary (about five minutes long) about his experience as a refugee since coming to Charlottesville.
“By and large, they had not had any experience or practice in making films, so it was a new thing for them,” Wagner says. “It’s one of those things where in some ways they’re very much like the kids we normally work with—they’re young, they’re bright, they’re excited about it. But what’s amazing is their stories are so different and so dramatic compared to the more typical high school kid.”
Andric, a dark-haired, well-spoken Charlottesville High School graduate who will attend UVA next year, says the “students were free to be pretty artistic.
“You choose everything,” she says. “You make your own decisions.”
Andric worked with Wagner on her film, Regret. “I was lucky to have him as a mentor,” she says. “You can feel, and see, and sense that he knows what he’s doing.”
The films will be shown at a premiere event at Vinegar Hill Theatre on June 16, with the filmmakers and their families attending. For most students, it will be the first time they have shown the film to those closest to them.
Andric, for one, is nervous, “because all the movies that we made are a little bit personal.
“It was hard, but I knew it was going to be hard,” she says in the voice-over on her film. “It’s definitely not easy to change everything in one day. But I don’t regret. Not at all.”—Paul Henderson
Skirting the issue
Reigning drag queens come out for AIDS benefit
It was Sunday, and Miss Jennifer D’ville was in the spirit. Dressed in a flowy white pantsuit and an eye-catching brooch, she writhed, throwing her body and soul into her performance, pointing to the ceiling, to the floor, mouthing the words “This battle is not yours! It belongs to the Lord!” as choirs and organs pulsated in the background. Her finely styled curls unfurled, bouncing about her head in a tangled mess. The crowd didn’t care. They were transfixed, swaying, some dancing in the aisles, more approaching the stage where she stood front and center, and dropping tithings at her feet. Hallelujah.
D’ville was working it for a higher purpose, in this case AIDS/HIV Services Group. The reigning Miss Charlottesville was one of 13 drag performers who lent her considerable talents to “A Wonderous World,” ASG’s fund-raising show Sunday, June 1 at Club 216 that netted more than $5,000 from the 120 attendees to support the community organization.
To be sure, D’ville’s performance fell to the subtle side of drag numbers. Most of the other gals on stage went the more traditional route, pulling out booty-shaking numbers or tear-jerking ballads by modern divas like Kylie Minogue, Faith Hill and, alas, Celine Dion.
But it wasn’t your typical drag show, either. Some surprised, like Lucky Supremo’s sensual yet demure mariachi number. And some entertained unintentionally, like poor Miss Harrisonburg-at-Large whose ultra-short skirt kept riding up throughout her performance of “All Fired Up,” as helpful audience members tried to keep her candy all covered up.
Indeed, being helpful was the point of the evening. The funds raised through ticket sales and tips for the performers (who combed the audience in attempts to “match” pledges by various donors) went to ASG, now in its 16th year of offering services to sufferers of AIDS and, more importantly, educating to prevent the spread of the disease.
During the show executive director Kathy Baker took the mike, thanking everyone for their generosity but adding that, “16 years ago I hoped organizations like ASG wouldn’t be around anymore. But now we know that’s not true.”
That’s especially the case since, Baker says, HIV and AIDS infection rates are rising again worldwide, including in Virginia. The State reported that in 2001, the most recent year for which figures are available, 981 new cases of HIV infection were reported.
The reasons for increasing infections, Baker said after the show, are many. Some people see the long lives AIDS patients are currently able to achieve through various drug regimens and misconstrue it as a cure. Not so, Baker says. “Living on those treatments effectively is like living on chemotherapy for the rest of your life,” she says. “You might not lose your life as early [as AIDS victims did in the past], but you will lose life you would have had.”
She also says that a loss of “institutional memory” about the disease is partly to blame, as 50 percent of new victims are under age 25, and didn’t have to bury their friends when AIDS first erupted.
It all makes ASG’s existence more crucial, and the funds netted from “A Wondrous World” better spent. While last year ASG ran into scandal over alleged mishandling of its former shelter for AIDS patients, Baker says ASG and its client services continue to expand. It has to. For one thing, no other organization has stepped in to do a better job.
“The demand has been growing and we’ve worked very hard to grow in a way that’s appropriate in the demand,” she says. “We’re working to bring the com-munity up to speed regarding prevention, creating targeted programs for high-risk populations including youth, street outreach, African-American men and women, the Latino population and men who have sex with men,” she says.
“As long as AIDS is here, so will we be.”—Eric Rezsnyak
Tropea in hot water
Water crisis come to a boil
Things got snippy the last time Council talked water. On May 19, Council bickered over raising water rates to pay for costly expansions to the local water supply. At that meeting, Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority Director Larry Tropea listened, clearly exasperated, as Council questioned how the RWSA collects and spends money. Finally, Council refused to support the higher rates.
When the proposed rate hike came before Council again on Monday, June 2, everything seemed peachy. City staff promised to investigate Council’s questions, including adjustments to the water rate system that would promote conservation by charging less as people use less. Currently, the RWSA relies on customer fees for all its revenue, so it must raise rates when usage declines. During the drought, many complained that the present system penalizes conservation.
Council unanimously supported the higher rates with no squabble. Behind the scenes, however, tensions in the RWSA hit a rolling boil.
Tropea was conspicuously absent from the June 2 meeting. Sources close to the Authority said Tropea had been clashing with the RWSA board of directors, and it was likely that Tropea may resign or be fired. Then, on Wednesday, June 4, the Daily Progress reported Tropea had taken a “paid administrative leave” while the board considers his employment situation.
Former RWSA board chairman Richard Collins helped hire Tropea two years ago; they worked together through last summer’s drought before Collins was replaced this winter by homebuilder Michael Gaffney. Collins says Tropea and the RWSA board––made up of public officials from Charlottesville and Albemarle––were often at odds over control of the RWSA.
In the past, Collins says the RWSA and its sister corporation, the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority, had been mostly controlled by Bill Brent, director of the Albemarle County Service Authority, and Judith Mueller, director of the City’s department of public works. The board hired Tropea––who managed Pennsylvania’s water resources for that state’s former governor, Tom Ridge––to lead the RWSA and the RSWA through a natural resource crisis.
When Tropea arrived, the region’s growth was threatening to outpace its water supply, a condition critically exacerbated by recent drought. Furthermore, the RSWA faced huge deficits after the Environmental Protection Agency forced it to close the Ivy Landfill, which brought in revenue through tipping fees, last year.
In Pennsylvania, Tropea had presided over a traditional bureaucratic chain of command. But here he answered to City and County political leaders. Collins believes Tropea’s desire for decisive action was often hampered by City-County disputes over how to divide the cost of expansion projects.
“Tropea was always wondering ‘Do I have the money? Do I have the support?’ He felt those answers were never clear,” Collins says.
Tropea and RWSA board members declined to comment.
Other sources say that Tropea didn’t give enough deference to his political bosses in the City and County, especially now that, for the first time, vast public expenditures will be required to keep the RWSA and the RSWA running.
“His sense of how to do his job went crossways with how the board had always worked in the past,” says Collins. “I don’t think he recognized how difficult it all could be.” —John Borgmeyer