Tag: board of supervisors

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Bea LaPisto Kirtley joins Board of Supervisors race

Bea LaPisto Kirtley is running for the Rivanna District seat on the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors. Photo by Norm Carter

Standing on a stepstool behind a podium marked by her campaign sign, a former Bradbury, California, city councilor of 20 years was the second person to announce her run for the Rivanna District seat on the Board of Supervisors.

Bea LaPisto Kirtley said addressing the “critical lack of broadband coverage” in Albemarle will be a priority if she’s elected. That echoes the top concern of Jerrod Smith, her only known opponent, who announced last week.

At her announcement that drew a crowd of about 30 people, the Keswick resident of 12 years also emphasized protecting natural resources, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and supporting and preserving the county’s many family farms.

Two growth areas, Pantops and U.S. 29 north, are in the Rivanna District. LaPisto Kirtley said they should be “developed thoughtfully” with attention paid to regional transportation issues, because growth can overburden critical infrastructure like roads and highways. She also advocated for better public transportation, which would reduce traffic and carbon emissions.

“How do you make things happen?” she said. “By listening to what the community needs and serving the residents as a strong voice for action, being innovative, and working with others. If you can’t work together, nothing gets accomplished.”

In her career, LaPisto Kirtley served as a teacher, principal, and then a director for the Los Angeles Unified School District, where she was responsible for 24 elementary schools. Locally, she has volunteered with CASA, which provides advocates for children in foster care, for four years and fundraised for nonprofits such as Hospice of the Piedmont.

“I will be both accessible and attentive,” she said, adding that her strengths are listening, being a hard-worker, being “adept at identifying workable solutions, and getting things done.”

Supervisor Liz Palmer attended LaPisto Kirtley’s campaign announcement, but said she hasn’t endorsed any candidates yet.

Said supporter Mary Miller, “I know her to be a powerhouse, and better than that, she listens to people. I have never seen her fail to get the job done.”

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Jerrod Smith announces Board of Supervisors run

Jerrod Smith announced his run for the Rivanna District seat on the Board of Supervisors with a campaign theme called the "dream infrastructure."

“We all begin with a dream,” said Albemarle native Jerrod Smith at the start of his January 18 campaign announcement. He’s hoping to snag the Rivanna District seat on the Board of Supervisors with a campaign called the “dream infrastructure.”

And it starts with finding new solutions to an age-old issue in Albemarle: lack of high-speed internet access across its rural areas, he said.

“If we’re not connected to the world, we won’t be able to succeed,” Smith told a crowd of about 30 people who came out to support him.

The PRA Health Services employee and former Albemarle Democratic Committee co-chair, who also serves on the Places29 Advisory Committee, said he also wants to make Albemarle more friendly to businesses.

And when it comes to education, this candidate, who grew up in the Albemarle public school system, said he wants to increase focus on technology in the classroom, and destigmatize trade schools such as CATEC, which often aren’t thought of as an economic pathway to success, he said.

“I know this because it is my personal experience,” said Smith. “These people are the backbone of our society.”

Upon graduating from Albemarle High, Smith attended Bucknell University, and then received a master’s degree in public policy at UVA’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy in 2013. He became a mayoral fellow the following year in Chicago, where he said the major issues regarding inequality, public housing, and infrastructure are very similar to those in Albemarle.

Among those who attended Smith’s announcement was Supervisor Norman Dill, who currently holds the Rivanna chair and is not seeking re-election. Several family members also filled the room.

“We’ve been supportive of Jerrod since he was yay high,” said his aunt, Tawuan Smith, while extending one hand below her knee. She said her nephew has always been very knowledgeable about the issues in the community.

Added his aunt, “He knows how to make things happen.”

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Can county officials remain unbiased for referendum vote?

The biggest chunk of the bond referendum—$15.2 million—will pay for a second-story addition and modernization of Woodbrook Elementary School. Staff photo

The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors voted 4-2 July 6 to hold a $35 million bond referendum for school improvements in November, and some locals think county officials will not be able to educate the public about the new ballot item without advocating for it.

Virginia Code allows local governments to clarify a referendum, but insists they must remain neutral in their explanation. Former school board member Gary Grant says county officials may have already slipped up.

“A couple supervisors, in my opinion, have been advocating,” Grant says. “When, in my opinion, they shouldn’t be.”

He notes that Diantha McKeel, the supe who doubles as vice-chair of the board, said at the June 1 BOS meeting that it’s going to fall onto “the school system and the school board to get out to the community and really fight for [the referendum] and explain these projects.” She added, “What I’m hearing is the details can still be explained very clearly at the polling sites.”

Details McKeel referred to would denote specifically what the $35 million bond referendum will go toward—if it passes.

The biggest chunk—$15.2 million—will pay for a two-story addition and modernization of Woodbrook Elementary School, with $10.9 million proposed for learning space modernization across all schools, $6 million slated for a Western Albemarle High School addition and $2.9 million for school security improvements.

At the June 1 meeting, BOS chair Liz Palmer wanted to hang “great big things that you can read from a distance”—posters—inside the polling places to break down the $35 million for voters.

According to Grant, a former reporter at WINA and The Observer who talked with local Virginia Electoral Board member Clara Belle Wheeler, the Electoral Board will publish the wording of the referendum exactly as it appears on the ballot on posters and explanatory materials distributed inside the voting precinct. In her e-mail to Grant, Wheeler says, “No further explanation of any referendum is permitted.” Wheeler did not respond to an interview request.

Jake Washburne, with the county’s registrar of voters, says the code does allow additional explanatory information, however.

“They can’t say, ‘Rah rah rah, vote for this,’” Washburne says, but the governing body may provide
a neutral explanation of each referendum question in 500 words or less.

In his blog, Whatever Albemarle, Grant questions if, to be fair, supervisors will instruct staff to also hang “equally large ‘educational’ charts showing what the tax increase will be if a $35 million referendum passes” inside polling places. Not that he’s against the capital improvement projects, he says, as long as Virginia law is adhered to.

County attorney Greg Kamptner, who will write the question that appears on the ballot, did not respond to an interview request. He has, however, provided to county officials written legal guidance, which says the BOS may pass a resolution in support of or opposition to the referendum. Advocacy prohibitions also do not apply to county officials acting in their individual capacities, he says, or when they’re “off the clock,” Lee Catlin, assistant county executive for community relations, told Charlottesville Tomorrow.

Says Grant, “It’s going to be hard to police that.”

Corrected July 14 at 10:23 to reflect that the proposed addition onto Woodbrook Elementary School will be two stories.