Councilor Payne addresses his fellow councilors via videoconference.
The City of Charlottesville was almost all the way through the always-laborious yearly budget process when the coronavirus crisis derailed its plans. City Council held an online meeting Monday night—its first meeting in a month—to discuss the city’s deeply uncertain finances.
The most recent projections, delivered by City Manager Tarron Richardson, suggest $8.5 million of lost revenue as a result of the crisis. That means that many of the new, exciting programs the council had planned are now in jeopardy. The creation of a Director of Equity and Inclusion position and the Unity Days programming, two appropriations that community activists had fought for in the wake of Unite the Right, will be deferred. The pre-coronavirus proposed 2021 budget had given $2.1 million more than last year to the schools, but that increase won’t happen. The $7 million Capital Improvement Plan, which includes a variety of projects, from affordable housing initiatives to a controversial downtown parking lot, will be delayed; those funds will be put in an emergency reserve to combat the short-term effects of the virus.
“Something that gives us housing five years from now or three years from now is less important to me than something that might keep people in their homes now,” said councilor Lloyd Snook. The city has already suspended utility shut-offs and public housing evictions.
UVA’s plans remain a looming unknown. Mayor Nikuyah Walker was pessimistic about the prospect of students returning: “We have an economy that’s built off of the university and tourism, and we’re going to have neither of those things,” she said at the meeting.
Things could get worse, too. “We could see the revenue gap grow substantially larger,” said councilor Michael Payne. “There’s going to be very difficult decisions to make.”
The council extended the deadline to pass a budget from April 15 to June 30. “I think we’ll be able to maintain our public services,” said Richardson. “But there will be some struggles.”
An onlooker at the City Council meeting shows their support for Walker. Photo: Eze Amos
Loud and Clear
Nikuyah Walker begins a second two-year term as mayor of Charlottesville, after being re-elected at the January 6 City Council meeting. Councilors Michael Payne and Sena Magill voted for Walker, while Lloyd Snook and Heather Hill (who made her own bid for mayor) abstained.
Hill opened the meeting with an impassioned speech offering her services as mayor. “I really have gained a deep affection for the city, this region, and the people we share it with,” Hill said. During her time on council, she says she’s “developed a new lens from which I now view our community, its diversity, and its disparities in its harmony.”
Lloyd Snook did not mention any candidates specifically, but returned to the theme of civility that he’d emphasized during his campaign, saying “the selection of a mayor should be about how things will be done, not what will be done.”
“Council can start by not displaying open contempt for people coming to speak to us,” Snook said. “We can start by not displaying open contempt for the people on the dais.”
Michael Payne endorsed Walker by name, citing feminist academic theory and Walker’s record of “historic and unprecedented investment in housing.”
“I’ve walked in rooms the past three years where no one really took me seriously,” Walker said. “They didn’t think they had to. They discounted the abilities of black women. It wasn’t until the election that people understood the value I bring to rooms.”
“The individuals who have the least are heard the most when I am in the room,” Walker said.
Sena Magill, who received a $225 donation from Hill during her campaign, did not tip her hand during the initial comment period. “Whatever decision I make on this dais today will disappoint people who voted for me,” Magill said. “That’s inevitable. I have to vote with my heart. Where deep deep down I know I’m fighting for what’s right.”
Magill was elected vice mayor by a 4-1 vote, with Snook casting his vote for Hill.
Mayor Walker. Photo: Eze Amos
_________________
Quote of theWeek
“We got a new council here. We put y’all in those seats. Y’all got something to say? Respond to us.”
—Local resident and activist Mary Carey, speaking at the first meeting of the new City Council.
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In Brief
Cut loose
Supervisors at Charlottesville’s Trump Winery fired at least seven employees for their lack of legal immigration status–but only after the workers completed the annual grape harvest. The firings come nearly a year after The Trump Organization vowed to remove undocumented workers from its properties, which have long relied on low-wage, illegal labor, and after a harvest that included 60-hour weeks and overnight shifts, according to The Washington Post.
More chicken
Soon, you’ll be able to fil’ up without getting out of your car. This week City Council granted a special use permit for Chick-fil-A to open a two-lane drive-through location where the Burger King in Barracks Road currently sits. “It’ll be a great meeting place and community center,” one speaker said during the public comment period. Councilor Michael Payne voted against the permit, citing a hesitancy to approve “car-centric development” given the city’s emissions reduction targets.
Helping hand
Beginning on January 27, Cville Tax Aid—a partnership led by the United Way of Greater Charlottesville—will be offering free tax preparation services for most taxpayers with household incomes of $55,000 or less. The program will be offered at sites in the City of Charlottesville, Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, and Nelson counties until April 15. To schedule an appointment, call the United Way or visit CvilleTaxAid.org.
Scooters be gone
After spending only a year in Charlottesville, Lime will remove all its e-scooters due to new city regulations, including a requirement to provide at least 50 e-bikes. The company says the bikes, which are often vandalized, are not cost-effective. Bird also called it quits in Charlottesville last summer, but newcomer VeoRide is here to stay (for now, at least).
“The Dell” public basketball courts will be demolished and replaced with the Contemplative Commons by fall 2023.
Photo: Skyclad Aerial
Priorities
Weeks after self-appointed Confederate monument defenders began monitoring downtown parks, city police arrested two Charlottesville residents for allegedly vandalizing the Stonewall Jackson statue in Court Square in the wee hours of the morning of December 19. Nic McCarthy-Rivera and former C-VILLE writer Jesse Tobias Beard have been charged with misdemeanor trespassing and felony vandalism.
Murky waters
Don’t let go of that balloon! After four years of research and analysis, the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center has found that balloons—along with plastic bottle caps—are the most frequently found litter items on four of Virginia’s remote beaches. Cigarettes, food wrappers, bottles, bags, and plastic rope also made the list. All pose an extreme danger to marine life.
Out with the old
The current City Council held its final meeting December 16, with Wes Bellamy, Kathy Galvin, and Mike Signer bowing out. “I just want to tell you, in front of everybody else, that you’re amazing. I am stronger in these rooms because of you. And I’m going to miss you,” Mayor Nikuyah Walker told Bellamy. Not everyone earned such a warm send-off: “Mr. Signer, I’m sorry, you failed us horribly as mayor,” said one local citizen during public comment.
Key market economy
Fans of tacos, donuts, and handmade jewelry rejoice—Charlottesville’s popular City Market will be open for a winter session this year. Organizers say that around 40 vendors will be setting up in the Key Recreation Center downtown each Saturday morning from January 11 to March 21.
“We may not be able to recognize it because we’re living in it, but five, ten, fifteen, twenty years from now, the nation—and the world for that matter—will remember this council, these people, and all of us for the change that we brought forth.”
Wes Bellamy, speaking before his final meeting as a member of City Council
Farewell, Dell
“The Dell” public basketball courts will be demolished and replaced with the Contemplative Commons by fall 2023. Photo: Skyclad Aerial
The popular public basketball courts on Emmet Street—known as “the Dell,” for their proximity to the pond—are set for demolition.
Earlier this month, UVA announced plans to build a sleek new academic building called the Contemplative Commons, a multi-use space that will house the Contemplative Sciences Center. The new building will occupy the space where the university-owned courts currently sit.
Jack Morris, a computer science master’s student who attended UVA as an undergraduate, says he’s played at all the basketball courts available to students and that the most skilled people play at the Dell.
The courts also serve as a rare intersection between Charlottesville and UVA. “That’s really the only time in my whole four or five years of living in Charlottesville that I’ve gotten to meet a whole bunch of people that are outside the sphere of UVA,” Morris says.
Charlottesville native Jack Ronayne has been playing at the dell his whole life. Ronayne,who did not attend UVA, says the public courts serve an important function for a school that hasn’t always had a smooth relationship with the city. “It’s a nice common space that people of all different walks of life can use,” Ronayne says. “Sports are a great unifier.”
“I just remember going out on hot, humid summer nights and playing some good basketball games with friends,” Ronayne says. “It’s just a cool facility.”
According to the UVA Office of the Architect, the university will build a new bank of three public, outdoor courts adjacent to Memorial Gymnasium, just across Emmet from the current site.
The Contemplative Commons is supposed to be completed by the beginning of the 2023 fall semester. Construction on the new courts is set to begin in late summer 2020.
“The Dell” public basketball courts will be demolished and replaced with the Contemplative Commons by fall 2023.
On Monday night, City Council took another step in its plan to tear down Guadalajara and Lucky 7 and build an $8.5 million, 300-car parking garage on Market Street, just a few blocks from an existing parking garage .
The move is part of a larger project to keep the county courts downtown, in which the city agreed to add 90 parking spaces for courthouse use. How the other 210 parking spaces got into the mix (or around 150 if you subtract existing spaces) is less clear—a study by “nationally recognized transportation consulting firm Kimley Horn” suggested the 300-car design “based on the dimensions of the site, traffic volumes in the area, and existing zoning.”
In other words, the thinking seems to have been, if you’re going to build a parking lot, why not make it as big as it can be?
The city’s proposed capital budget for 2021 includes almost $5 million for the garage, while cutting the amount for new sidewalks from $400,000 to $100,000 and eliminating funding for bicycle infrastructure entirely.
That this might be in opposition to the climate goal this same City Council passed only months earlier (to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent by 2030, and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050), seems not to have been considered.
But projects like these don’t operate in a vacuum. Transportation accounts for roughly 27 percent of our local greenhouse gas emissions, according to a 2016 report. Investing in car infrastructure while cutting funding for bike and pedestrian infrastructure is moving in exactly the wrong direction.
Last week, the U.N. released its annual Emissions Gap report, which “measures the gap between what we need to do and what we are actually doing to tackle climate change.” Greenhouse gas emissions are still rising worldwide, despite pledges to curb them. Clearly, Charlottesville City Council is not alone in being unwilling to connect the consequences of its daily decisions to the climate promises it has made. But that isn’t an excuse.
As Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists put it, “We are sleepwalking toward a climate catastrophe.”
It is well past time to act, and every decision matters.
After much debate, the City Planning Commission has decided to table its plans to introduce an alternative kind of zoning, called form-based code, to the city’s Strategic Investment Area south of downtown.
Unlike conventional zoning, form-based code focuses on the physical form and scale of buildings in relationship to one another, rather than on building use. It can be used to encourage mixed-use and pedestrian-friendly development as well as streamline the development approval process.
The commissioners present at last Tuesday’s meeting were all in favor of implementing a form-based code but did not think the proposal was ready for approval.
“We want to have a code we’re comfortable with,” said Commissioner Lisa Green.
Dozens of Charlottesville residents came to the meeting, and 16 spoke out against the proposal. Many were concerned that the code did not place enough priority on affordable housing and could allow developers to use loopholes.
Under the proposed code, for example, developers would be allowed to build one to four additional stories if they provide a certain number of affordable housing units. However, affordable units would only be required to be a percentage of the units in the additional stories, not of the entire building.
Several residents recognized that outgoing Councilor Kathy Galvin, who has pushed for the code, wanted the proposal to go before City Council before its final meeting, but urged the commission to delay the proposal until it adequately addresses the city’s affordable housing needs.
“Kathy, I’m sorry that you’re leaving in December, but this plan can wait,” said Joy Johnson, chair of the Public Housing Association of Residents.
The commissioners will vote again on the form-based code sometime early next year.
The proposed code would allow for buildings up to nine stories within the IX Art Park property, but would specify that they surround an area of open space.
Such great heights
A plan by Jeff Levien, owner of Heirloom Development (and the man behind 600 West Main), to erect a 101-foot building just off the Downtown Mall came another step closer to reality last week, when the Planning Commission voted to recommend approval of a special-use permit for 218 W. Market St.
Levien is seeking to construct a mixed-use building with commercial space and rental apartments on the site that’s currently home to the Artful Lodger, The Livery Stable, and other small businesses. The permit would increase the allowable height and density for the project from 70 feet and 24 units to 101 feet and 134 units.
If approved by City Council, the new building will become one of the tallest in Charlottesville.
Quote of the week
“Take it down and put it in a hall of shame.’” —Rose Ann Abrahamson, descendant of Sacagawea, on the proper course of action for the West Main Street statue of Lewis, Clark, and Sacagawea
In brief
Unappealing
Virginia’s Court of Appeals denied the appeals of two men convicted in the violent beating of Deandre Harris inside the Market Street Parking Garage during the 2017 Unite the Right rally. Jacob Goodwin and Alex Ramos were caught on video beating Harris, and the judge cited that footage in upholding Goodwin’s conviction for malicious wounding. Goodwin will continue his sentence of eight years behind bars, while Ramos is serving six.
November madness
UVA soccer teams continue their electrifying seasons. The men’s team raised the program’s 16th ACC tournament trophy last week and earned the top seed in the NCAA tournament. The top-seeded women’s team thumped Radford 3-0 in its opening tournament match.
Jumped the gun
UVA President Jim Ryan removed the 21-gun salute from the university’s Veterans Day program this year, but he’s rethought that decision, and says that next year’s ceremony will include the salute. “Sometimes you make mistakes,” Ryan said in a Facebook post. He had hoped to avoid class disruption and minimize the amount of guns being fired on college campuses, but others disagreed with his course of action. “My sincere apologies to any who may have doubted our commitment to honoring our veterans,” Ryan wrote.
Updated 11/21: An earlier version of this story contained an item that mistakenly attributed to city manager Tarron Richardson a claim that the camera found in Court Square Park last week belonged to the city. In fact, Dr. Richardson was talking about a camera on 8th Street and Hardy Drive.
Restrooms outside the Downtown Transit Center are only open during events, and those inside the station are closed at night.
By Spencer Philps
Spend enough time on the Downtown Mall late at night and you’re bound to see it happen: someone hunched over against a wall “relieving” himself.
Downtown business operators are acutely aware of this issue: One says he’s seen people urinating late at night, by the bus station and beside the unfinished Landmark hotel.
Such incidents appear to be connected to a larger issue: a shortage of public bathrooms on the Downtown Mall.
This isn’t for lack of trying. Another Downtown Mall proprietor, who also wishes to remain anonymous, says the businesses and shops downtown have been advocating for a public restroom facility for over 10 years.
“Many municipalities have devised safe, clean, public restrooms; surely Charlottesville can figure this out, too,” she says.
Yet a solution to the problem has long eluded the city’s planners and developers. Given the lack of utility availability and space, and the fact that the city owns very little land on the mall, it’s unclear where public restrooms could even be built.
Currently, there are public bathrooms outside the Downtown Transit Station, facing the Sprint Pavilion, but they are only open during events. There are also bathrooms inside the station, but the building closes at 8pm Monday to Saturday, and at 5pm on Sundays.
Paul Oberdorfer, the interim deputy city manager of operations, said in an email that city staff recommended the installation of port-a-johns at the City Market site to City Council in August. However, downtown businesses have been hesitant about port-a-johns, and City Council was similarly unreceptive. As of now, there aren’t any other plans for public restroom facilities.
Downtown Business Association Vice President Blair Williamson acknowledges the obstacles: “It’s hard to find a place to put them that satisfies folks, and what they might look like, and how they might be cleaned, if they’re safe, and to put them in a place that would serve people.” she says.
And not everyone sees a public bathroom as a cure-all for downtown’s public urination woes.
“I don’t know an easy answer as it were, because I kind of wonder if the people who are prone to do that would even bother to walk to where the bathroom is, or if they’re in the right frame of mind to do that,” says one downtown shopkeeper.
Williamson sees bringing more public restrooms to the Downtown Mall as one key element of a broader improvement project.
“A public restroom is definitely a high priority, but I think that it is in conjunction with all of the lighting and security issues that we have downtown. Lighting and security is at the top of our list,” she says.
Last year, the DBA wrote a letter to the city manager and City Council asking for budget appropriations for public restrooms, among other improvements. The letter noted that over the previous four years, city expenditures increased by 17 percent, while expenditures on the mall dropped almost 20 percent. In the fiscal year 2018-19 budget, $94,000 was ultimately appropriated for downtown pedestrian lighting improvements.
“We want people to want to come downtown because it’s a wonderful place to be,” says Williamson. “And we want them to just have the basic services they need.”
Restrooms outside the Downtown Transit Center are only open during events, and those inside the station are closed at night.
Former Charlottesville police chief Al Thomas is named in several lawsuits stemming from the events of August 12, 2017.
Eze Amos
Who’s suing whom
In advance of the two-year statute of limitations, a flurry of lawsuits have been filed stemming from the events of August 12, 2017, adding to several that are ongoing. Having a hard time keeping up with who’s a defendant and who’s a plaintiff?Here’s a primer:
Sines v. Kessler
Ten victims of the Unite the Right rally, including Seth Wispelwey, Tyler Magill and Marcus Martin, filed suit against 24 UTR organizers, including Jason Kessler, Richard Spencer, James Fields, Elliott Kline, Chris Cantwell, Matthew Heimbach, David Parrott, and Andrew Anglin. It’s the oldest lawsuit filed, filed October 11, 2017.
In addition to filing another federal lawsuit against the city, Jason Kessler is also a defendant in other suits filed by Unite the Right victims. Eze Amos
Kessler v. City of Charlottesville
Kessler and David Parrott are suing City Manager Tarron Richardson, former police chief Al Thomas, Virginia State Police Lieutenant Becky Crannis-Curl, and former city manager Maurice Jones, claiming their First Amendment rights were violated. kessler v. charlottesville
Tanesha Hudson v. City of Charlottesville
The community activist claims Maurice Jones, Al Thomas, Detective James Mooney, Sergeant Ronnie Stayments, and Sergeant Lee Gibson violated her First, Fifth, and 14th amendment rights and seeks $400,000. Filed pro se, which means she’s representing herself, in Charlottesville Circuit Court.
DeAndre Harris v. Jason Kessler et. al.
The 35 defendants include Richard Spencer, six attackers, Elliott Kline, David Parrott, and John Doe 1 and 2 (aka Sunglasses and Redbeard). Harris, who was severely beaten in the Market Street Parking Garage, is allegingconspiracy to discriminate and attack on the basis of race. DeAndre Harris v. Kessler, Spencer et.al
Greg Conte v. Commonwealth of Virginia
Richard Spencer pal Conte and UTR attendee Warren Balogh named the VSP, former governor Terry McAuliffe, VSP Lieutenant Becky Crannis-Curl, Al Thomas, Mike Signer, Wes Bellamy, Emily Gorcenski, Seth Wispelwey, and Dwayne Dixon among the 16 defendants, and alleged First and 14th amendment violations. Also filed pro se. conte, balogh v. VA
Bill Burke v. James Fields et. al.
Bill Burke waits for the jury’s verdict at the James Fields trial. staff photo
The 19 named defendants include Jason Kessler, Richard Spencer, Matthew Heimbach, David Duke, Daily Stormer founder Andrew Anglin, plus John Doe and Jane Doe 1-1,000. Burke traveled from Ohio to protest the white supremacists who came to Charlottesville. He was injured when Fields drove into a crowd, and Heather Heyer died beside him. Claims RICO violations and conspiracy, and seeks $3 million on each count. burke v. fields
Karen Cullen and Amanda Bates v. Commonwealth of Virginia
The widows of Virginia State Police’s Berke Bates and Jay Cullen, who died in a helicopter crash August 12, both filed wrongful death lawsuits seeking $50 million each.
Quote of the week
“The temperature at the floor when they entered was 500 degrees.”—Charlottesville Fire Chief Andrew Baxter describes the August 18 Pet Paradise fire
In brief
$4-million sale
Hawes Spencer, former editor of C-VILLE and the Hook, sold the Downtown Mall building that houses Bizou for $4 million to Bizou owner Vincent Derquenne and developer Oliver Kuttner, who purchased the property as Walters Building LLC. Spencer bought the building, which housed the Hook offices, for $2.5 million in 2006.
Elliott Harding. publicity photo
Slimed by Kessler
Independent 25th District candidate Elliott Harding’s brief association with Jason Kessler came to light last week when Kessler posted messages from Harding, who reviewed Kessler’s petition to recall Wes Bellamy in 2017. Harding, a former chair of the Albemarle County Republican Committee, says he quickly saw what Kessler was about and has worked to prevent him from gaining a platform. “We’ve been at it ever since.”
Another statue suit
Norfolk, fighting to remove its own Confederate statue, filed a federal lawsuit arguing that Virginia’s law preventing a locality from removing a war memorial is unconstitutional and forces the city to perpetuate a message it no longer stands behind, violating its First and 14th amendment rights, the Virginian-Pilot reports. City councilors are also plaintiffs in the suit.
‘Hitler’s best friends’
Two weeks after city councilors were accused of aligning themselves with the Nazi dictator for rejecting a proposal to bring D.C. rapper Wale to Charlottesville, Kathy Galvin, Mike Signer, Heather Hill, and Wes Bellamy issued a joint statement condemning the “abusive environment” created by some attendees of council meetings. Bellamy also apologized for not initially defending his colleagues, saying “I genuinely don’t believe any of you are racist.”
Fatal infection
German shepherd Gunner died after a day of swimming in the Rivanna River, NBC29 reports. He contracted a bacterial disease called leptospirosis, which is transmitted in wet places where animals have urinated and can be deadly to humans as well.
More bad pet news
A fire broke out in Pet Paradise around 6:30pm August 18. Seventy-five animals were rescued from the Concord Avenue facility, but Pet Paradise is asking for help in locating two cats and a dog that were missing after the fire.
Beauregard splits
Interim Deputy City Manager Leslie Beauregard is leaving after 16 years working in city government and will take a position as assistant city manager in Staunton October 7, the DP reports. Beauregard was best known for her budget work. She was put in an interim position under new City Manager Tarron Richardson’s reorganization of city hall.
Map of the downtown Confederate monument tour. Courtesy WTJU
Tour de force
For the past couple of years, Jalane Schmidt, UVA professor and activist, and Andrea Douglas, Jefferson School African American Heritage Center director, have been conducting tours of our downtown monuments, providing new context for the Confederate statues that have long dominated Court Square and Market Street parks.
Now, those who haven’t seen the tour in person can experience it online, thanks to WTJU. The local radio station recorded the tour and will be airing short excerpts over the next two weeks, along with putting a web version on its site.
The tour offers history from a perspective that challenges the Lost Cause narrative most Southerners were taught.
“Virginia has the largest number of Confederate monuments in the country,” says Douglas. “Seventy-five exist in front of courthouses.”
Noting that founding fathers Thomas Jefferson and James Madison frequented Court Square, Schmidt says “It does beg the question why the people who tried to overthrow the U.S. Constitution are here on this ground.” Schmidt notes that the Johnny Reb statue in front of the Albemarle Circuit Court was installed after Reconstruction in 1909, when the Confederates who had been barred from office slipped back into government “to re-establish white supremacy—and they use those words,” she says. “They were not embarrassed by it.”
Jalane Schmidt and Andrea Douglas lead a tour that challenges the Lost Cause narrative of Confederate monuments. Photos Eze Amos
Quote of the week
“Like everyone else—sick to the stomach, very angry about our elected officials doing nothing to change anything. We are so long past ‘thoughts and prayers’ and we are so overdue gun reform.” Priya Mahadevan, leader of Moms Demand Action in Charlottesville, responding to the latest mass shootings.
In brief
Riggleman rebuked
Denver Wriggleman. file photo
On July 27, the 5th District Congressional Committee tried, and failed, to muster a censure of U.S. Representative Denver Riggleman for marrying two men who had volunteered for his campaign. The determined anti-gay marriage chair of the Cumberland County Republican Committee, Diana Shores, then tried another tack: On July 29, she pushed through a unanimous vote of no confidence for Riggleman for failing to represent her values, the Washington Post reports.
Filmmaker dies
Courtesy Paladin Media Group
Paladin Media Group founder Kent Williamson, 52, was on the way to the movies when an alleged drunk driver crashed into the car in which he was a passenger August 2 in Berrien County, Michigan, the Progress reports. The father of six was with three extended family members, who also died in the crash.
Fiancée killer
Cardian Omar Eubanks was sentenced August 5 to life plus eight years for the murder of his estranged fiancée, Amanda Bates, 34, whom he shot while she was seated in her car in her driveway March 24, 2018. At the time, her two sons were inside the house on Richmond Road. Bates’ family has spoken out about the tragedy to raise awareness of domestic violence.
Crozet commuter
JAUNT launched its Crozet Connect August 5, with two routes from east and west Crozet, each with three morning departures to UVA and downtown Charlottesville. The rides are free for UVA faculty, staff, and students, and free for other riders until October 1, after which the commute will cost $2 each way.
Nydia Lee. Photo Charlottesville police
Mother indicted
Nydia Lee, 26, was arrested August 5 for second-degree murder in the January 10 death of her 20-month-old child, according to Charlottesville police. A multi-jurisdictional grand jury returned the indictment and Lee is being held without bond.
Garden director
The McIntire Botanical Garden, in the works since 2013, announced the hiring of its first executive director. Landscape architect Jill Trischman-Marks, who has served on the botanical garden’s board of directors and multiple committees, was selected through a competitive process, according to a release, and starts September 1.
Topping the agenda
It was a packed house Monday night at City Hall, where Char- lottesville City Council returned from its summer hiatus to vote on several issues that had been at the forefront of discussion over the past few months.
The rezoning proposal for the Hinton Avenue United Methodist Church was passed unanimously, paving the way for the church to construct 15 apartments with at least four affordable housing units for the intellectually disabled. The type of rezoning received pushback from Belmont neighbors worried about increased traffic on the road and fewer parking spots.
Charlottesville City Schools Superintendent Rosa Atkins laid out a new model for Quest, the city’s gifted program that’s seeing
changes in how students are selected and will no longer be separating kids from the rest of their classmates. The plan, which was approved in a 5-0 vote, includes $468,000 in funding for city elementary schools to hire eight new instructors to help implement the revamped program for the 2019-20 school year.
After a year of research, the Police Civilian Review Board outlined proposed bylaws for a permanent CRB (to include two full-time employees). Council will hold private discussions with staff, including Police Chief RaShall Brackney, before drafting a final proposal in October.
And Unity Days organizer Tanesha Hudson asked for an additional $35,000 to bring D.C. rapper Wale to the Made in Charlottesville Concert at Tonsler Park on August 18, but the motion, supported only by Councilor Wes Bellamy, never made it to a vote.
Paige Rice at a City Council meeting following the KKK rally in July 2017.
eze amos
Paige Rice, the former Charlottesville chief of staff and clerk of council who was indicted on felony embezzlement charges June 7, decided to resign from her post in September because her salary was reduced just two months after she received a raise and expanded role, according to documents obtained by C-VILLE Weekly under the Freedom on Information Act.
In her resignation letter to City Council dated September 6, 2018, Rice wrote that she was “not able to continue providing the high level of service and hard work required of this position at a reduced salary.” In July, she had received a raise of over $25,000 for taking on an expanded role that included overseeing two new positions. C-VILLE Weekly was unable to determine how much of her salary was cut or the reason why.
Shortly after Rice resigned, City Council discussed at a public meeting whether or not the increased funds and job title change were needed. The larger council staff had been part of the budget approved earlier in 2018. Mayor Nikuyah Walker requested a guest audit of the chief of staff position to get an outside opinion about whether the salary was justified given the job’s responsibilities.
In January, Charlottesville hired former Lynchburg deputy council clerk Kyna Thomas to fill the position. Thomas’ current job title is chief of staff and clerk of council, which is the same title Rice held before she resigned. However, Thomas’ salary sits at $105,000, which is about $7,000 more than Rice received after her July 2018 raise.
Rice was indicted under unusual circumstances June 7 by a grand jury on one felony count of embezzlement after she allegedly failed to return both an Apple Watch and iPhone X that were given to her for work purposes while she was employed. The devices are valued at over $500 and the circumstances surrounding her charges are unclear.
According to Nolan Stout’s Daily Progress story published Thursday, Rice was the only city employee with an Apple Watch, which she purchased in December 2017, and she didn’t need to seek approval to purchase either the watch or the iPhone.
A former city employee, who spoke to C-VILLE Weekly last week on the condition of anonymity, said “it seems kind of odd to me someone didn’t call her and say, you need to return the phone, rather than sneak around and charge her with a felony.”
Because the criminal case is an ongoing investigation, members of City Council aren’t permitted to speak publicly on the case. Rice hasn’t responded to multiple requests from C-VILLE Weekly for comment.
Her appearance in court, previously scheduled for August 19, has been moved up to July 24.
Millennials Sally Hudson and Michael Payne were the big winners in the June 11 primary. photos Amy and Jackson Smith, Eze Amos
In the end, the 57th District race pitting a millennial and a baby boomer for the open House of Delegates seat wasn’t even close. Thirty-year-old Sally Hudson crushed two-term City Councilor Kathy Galvin with 66 percent of the vote in the June 11 primary.
The same dynamic played out in the Democratic primary for City Council, where there are three open seats. Michael Payne, 26, led the pack of five candidates. In November, he’ll supplant outgoing councilor Wes Bellamy, 28 when elected, for the title of youngest person to sit on council.
“I think it’s a big turning point for our small community,” says former councilor Dede Smith, who is a Hudson and Payne supporter. “We’re coming into a new era with our leadership.”
For former mayor Dave Norris, Hudson’s margin of victory “indicates local voters are ready for a new direction.”
Hudson says, “It was striking we won every precinct in the district.” She’s unopposed in the November general election, and she says she’ll spend time helping other Dems get elected because “the Republicans in Richmond are so unsupportive of what we want to get done.” The GOP holds the House by a slim, two-seat majority.
In the City Council race, many had predicted well-known lawyer and top fundraiser Lloyd Snook, 66, would bring in the most votes. He came in second behind Payne.
“The order surprised me,” says Smith. And Sena Magill’s taking third place was also a surprise for Smith. “I thought Brian Pinkston was emerging.”
Former city councilor Bob Fenwick, 73, trailed in last place.
“I think it’s a generational shift,” says Smith. “Being a candidate in the fairly recent past, most voters were baby boomers or older. It was shocking. I think we’re beginning to see a wake up to this maturing [millennial] generation that voting matters.”
For Payne, co-founder of Indivisible Charlottesville, leading the pack is a sign “the community wants to see bold, progressive change on affordable housing, racial equity, and climate change.”
“One of the qualities Michael and I share is a sense of the fierce urgency of now,” says Hudson.
Primary winners Payne, Snook, and Magill will face independents Bellamy Brown and Paul Long on the November 5 ballot, and while the odds are in their favor in Dem-heavy Charlottesville, in 2017 Mayor Nikuyah Walker became the first independent to get on council since 1948.
Statewide, UVA Center for Politics’ Kyle Kondik saw “some progressive energy,” but that didn’t always prevail, notably in the 35th District race in which incumbent Senate Minority Leader Dick Saslaw eked by his challenger.
“If Democrats win the House and Senate, it will be the most liberal state government in Virginia ever,” says Kondik. Hudson, he says, is to the left of outgoing House Minority Leader David Toscano. If Dems take the General Assembly and get a chance to govern, he says that could result in policy change—the same message Hudson was hammering.
The other trend in local Democratic primary races is that women prevailed. Chief Deputy Chan Bryant defeated RMC regional director Patrick Estes with 63 percent of the vote to secure the party’s nomination for Albemarle sheriff. She’ll face independent Ronnie Roberts, Lousia police chief, in November.
And in the Rivanna District, Bea LaPisto Kirtley edged out Jerrod Smith with 54 percent of the vote. She does not have a challenger for the Albemarle Board of Supervisors in the general election in November.
The other General Assembly primary that includes part of Albemarle is the 17th District, where former Charlottesville School Board member Amy Laufer’s 79 percent of the vote obliterated Ben Hixon. Laufer will face incumbent state Senator Bryce Reeve, who easily fended off challenger Rich Breeden with 82 percent of the vote in that district’s Republican primary.
Correction June 17: Jerrod Smith was misidentified in the original story.
