Tag: City hall

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On firing

RaShall Brackney helmed the Charlottesville Police Department from 2018 to 2021. PC: Eze Amos

More than a month after the firing of Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney, city leadership continues to argue over the decision-making process that led to her dismissal. 

At Monday’s council meeting, after grilling from city councilors, City Manager Chip Boyles once again offered an explanation for his decision that left some councilors unsatisfied.

Though Boyles emphasized his support for the reforms Brackney enacted during her time in charge—including dismantling the SWAT team for severe misconduct—he claimed that many departmental leaders planned to quit their jobs due to their lack of trust in the chief. He also pointed to the results of two anonymous surveys of police officers, which led him to believe the department would only descend into “further chaos” under Brackney’s leadership.

“With discussions with officers, city leaders, department heads, and other individuals…it became evident to me that some type of a change needed to be made,” said Boyles. He refused to say exactly who he met with, though he did admit to twice meeting with Michael Wells, president of the central Virginia chapter of the Police Benevolent Association.

However, “I wish that some things had been different,” he said. “I should have had a better relationship with Chief Brackney that I could have identified some of these needs earlier, and we could have worked together on those.”

In response to Mayor Nikuyah Walker’s previous questions about turnover in the department, Boyles said that 100 employees have left CPD over the past three years, with 93 being resignations, retirements, or behavior related. Seventy-four new people have been hired within the same time period.

Councilor Michael Payne emphasized the need for a strategy to restore the community’s trust. Many were upset about the firing of Brackney, who was the city’s first Black woman police chief.

“I don’t know if it’s possible…for there to be discipline and reforms going on and not have officers leave the force,” said Payne. “How do we provide guarantees that we don’t return to these older models of policing?”

“We need to accept that when changes and reforms are being made, there’s a real inevitability [the changes] will be targeted by the PBA,” he added.

Councilor Lloyd Snook claimed the city was moving in the right direction. 

“The only issue is whether we fire the city manager for firing the police chief, and I want to say very clearly the answer to that has to be no,” he said. “I’m not terribly anxious to keep reliving the past—we need to be looking forward.”

Walker questioned Boyles about how he knew there was a “mistrust in leadership” after reading the two police surveys—which Boyles called “very unscientific”—since Brackney’s name is only mentioned twice.

“She’s in charge of the command staff,” replied Boyles. “There is no smoking gun in this…there was a combination of multiple things that made me believe we were going in the wrong direction.”

Walker turned the situation around on Boyles. “Since all of these people are secretive, and you think that’s okay, would you want us to make a decision about whether you stayed here based on some random conversations we had without talking to you?” asked the Mayor.

Toward the end of the meeting, Walker played a short audio recording she secretly made of Boyles, in which the city manager describes Wells’ desire to get Brackney fired. Walker claimed that the urgency around the termination was undeniably tied to the PBA’s concerns, despite the insistence by both Councilor Heather Hill and the city manager that PBA boss Wells hadn’t pressured Boyles into firing Brackney.

“[Boyles] can clearly make up anything he wants, and y’all are going to believe him,” said Walker, before quickly adjourning the meeting. 

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On call

Group of protestors in downtown Charlottesville, one person holds a Defund the Police sign
Last summer’s protests prompted Virginia legislators to pass the Marcus-David Peters Act, which limits the role of police during mental health crises. PC: Eze Amos

Last summer, hundreds of people took to the streets of downtown Charlottesville, demanding justice for Black people murdered by police across the country. Many protesters urged the city to drastically reduce the Charlottesville Police Department’s $18 million budget, and reallocate those funds toward community services, including mental health treatment. 

Thanks to new legislation, a mental health crisis unit could soon be coming to Charlottesville. In November, the Virginia General Assembly passed the Marcus-David Peters Act, named in honor of a 24-year-old Black high school biology teacher killed during a severe mental health crisis in 2018 by a Richmond police officer. 

The act directs localities to limit the role of law enforcement in mental health crises, instead establishing a Marcus Alert system to bring non-police responders into the fold. By July 2022, the city must create a 988 phone number for mental health crises, and develop a response protocol defining when law enforcement will—and will not—need to be involved in answering calls.

In January, a work group—including city councilors, community leaders, emergency services professionals, and individuals who have experienced mental health crises—began exploring how to create a new mental health response system in Charlottesville. Last week, the group presented its findings to City Council, alongside the Imagining A Just Cville work group.

Mental health advocate Myra Anderson, co-chair of the Marcus Alert group, explained how police have mistreated her during many of her mental health crises. She also highlighted the cases of Black people who were killed by police while experiencing a crisis, including Corrine Gaines, Deborah Danner, and Anthony Hill.

“There have been times where I’ve found the police to be very helpful, [and] there have been times when things have gone horribly wrong,” said Anderson. “But I feel like when I’m in a crisis, I shouldn’t have to play Russian roulette with how they are going to show up.”

Lieutenant Larry Jones, who works with CPD’s crisis intervention team, expressed his support for the Marcus alert system. Responding to mental health calls is often very time consuming and costly for police, he said. He suggested the department create a specialized mental health unit specifically for high-risk calls requiring police intervention.

In order to establish a robust response system, mental health care professionals and facilities will need a lot more funding and community support, explained Region Ten Executive Director Lisa Beitz. In July, five of Virginia’s eight state-run mental hospitals stopped accepting new admissions due to staffing and capacity issues. Many people experiencing mental health crises have had to spend days with a police officer in their local emergency room, waiting for a bed to be available at a state or private mental hospital.

Representing the Imagining a Just Cville work group, which was organized by Mayor Nikuyah Walker last year, Neal Goodloe of the Jefferson Area Community Criminal Justice Board shared the results of his study on crime in Charlottesville over the past decade. Though reported crime has decreased by similar percentages among Black and white residents, Black people are more likely to be arrested and incarcerated, and white people are more likely to stay in jail for less than a day.

Charlottesville resident Wanda Smith, Walker’s cousin, spoke about how her family has been impacted by mass incarceration. While her brother and sister were incarcerated for over a decade, she had to help raise her nieces and nephews, preventing her from pursuing her own life goals. Raylaja Waller of City of Promise discussed how seeing her father go in and out of jail deeply affected her as a child, and she advocated for more grassroots re-entry programs.

CPD intern Nancy Amin, a University of Texas School of Law student, highlighted the effects of officer discretion during arrests, using recent police department data. She described a traffic stop involving a white woman who admitted to driving drunk, but started crying and claimed that another CPD officer was her best friend. The woman was allowed to park her car and take an Uber home, and was not arrested. During a similar traffic stop involving a Hispanic man, the officer became impatient because the man did not speak English. The man did not understand the officer’s request for a sobriety test, but the officer arrested him for “refusing” the test, and he was found guilty of a DUI. (The charge was later dismissed.)

To take discretion away from officers, former CPD chief RaShall Brackney—who continues to work with the group despite her recent firing—suggested the city create a diversion program that people accused of certain offenses could opt in to before being arrested or charged. 

City Manager Chip Boyles expressed his support for the recommendations and a willingness to get to work on them.

“These are just really starting points,” said Walker. “There’s a lot of work still left undone, and those things are going to require some funding [and] whoever is at the table in the city to see the vision.”

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In brief

PC: Supplied photo

Botanical garden plans move forward  

City Council unanimously approved the lease of city park land to the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont at Monday’s meeting, a significant step forward in the decade-long endeavor to establish a garden in McIntire Park. 

Formerly called the McIntire Botanical Garden, the garden’s name was changed by the board of directors because the parcel of land on which the garden sits was not donated by Paul McIntire, but rather was bought by the city and added to the park in 1972. 

The Botanical Garden of the Piedmont was designed by the international, woman-owned landscape architecture and urban design firm, Mikyoung Kim Design, in partnership with Charlottesville’s Waterstreet Studio. “Much more than just a simple garden,” the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont will feature 13 spaces for recreation and learning, including a Visitors and Education Center with an amphitheater, a redbud grove, and waterfall and stream gardens.

The proposed term of the lease is 40 years, and the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont will be allowed a five-year period to start construction of the garden, with an additional three years to complete it. 

At the meeting, several commenters spoke in favor of approving the lease. Now that the land lease agreement has been secured, the organization in charge of the garden can begin fundraising for the garden’s construction, said Executive Director Jill Trischman-Marks. 

Reconfiguration moves ahead  

Courtesy of City of Charlottesville.

Also at Monday’s meeting, council voted to put $75 million into the city’s capital budget to renovate and reconfigure Buford Middle and Walker Upper Elementary schools. The vote is a major step forward in the years-long process. Last month, VMDO Architects, which has been tasked with leading the schools’ redesign, released three possible conceptual plans for how the rehabbed schools might look (left)..” 

I am the only Black woman in the history of Virginia to ever make it on the ballot. But I can’t have my voice heard?

Liberation Party candidate Princess Blanding, after governor’s race debate organizers didn’t invite her to participate
alongside Youngkin and McAuliffe 

In brief

Mailing it in no longer  

Last weekend, the United States Postal Service issued an employee “surge” to Charlottesville, sending postal workers from around the state to the area to help clear the backlog of mail that’s plagued us in recent months. Senator Mark Warner informed Charlottesville and Albemarle County residents via email that additional mail carriers would be passing through mail routes multiple times over the weekend, including on Sunday, to resolve the issue. Warner says he’ll come back to Charlottesville soon to check on things.  

McAuliffe and Youngkin go at it again  

The second and final gubernatorial debate between Republican Glenn Youngkin and Democrat Terry McAuliffe was held last week. Candidates were pushed by moderator Chuck Todd on vaccines and education, and the two clashed on abortion, with Youngkin confirming that he supports a “pain-threshold bill,” which typically bans abortions after 20 weeks, and calling his opponent “the most extreme abortion candidate in the country,” while McAuliffe asserted himself as a “brick wall to protect women’s rights.” Youngkin maintained his position that vaccines should not be mandated, while McAuliffe called the position “disqualifying.” Early voting is now open. 

You choose: shot or quit

“Several hundred” Virginia health care workers have resigned rather than get vaccinated, The Washington Post reports. That represents a tiny percentage of health care workers in the state: Sentara, which operates 13 facilities around the state including one in Charlottesville, says just 13 of its 28,000 employees have resigned over the coming vaccine requirement. UVA has given its employees until November 1 to get the shot, or they’ll be heading out the door.

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Heating up

Three members of the BUCK squad sit with an event attendee during a community day at Westhave public housing community
Members of the all-volunteer B.U.C.K. Squad are working to stop gun violence in Charlottesville. PC: Supplied photo

Two weeks ago, Pertelle Gilmore received an urgent phone call—there was a conflict going on at the Westhaven public housing community. Joined by a few other members of the B.U.C.K. Squad, he rushed to the scene to urge everyone involved to stand down and put away their guns. But while the violence interrupters talked to one group, the other one started shooting. 

“Two truckloads of guys pulled up [and] let loose,” says Gilmore, executive director of the B.U.C.K.—Brothers United to Cease the Killing—Squad. “Kids were everywhere. There were probably about 30 kids out there.”

“Someone got shot that night,” he says. The victim survived, and is in stable condition.

According to Gilmore, this shooting could have been prevented if the all-volunteer squad had enough violence interrupters on the scene to deescalate both parties at the same time. But a majority of the squad’s members were at work, and couldn’t get there before the bullets started flying.

Multiple shootings have occurred in or near public housing in the last month. The first weekend of May saw four separate shots-fired incidents, according to the Charlottesville Police Department.  

Around the country, gun violence increases during the summer, Gilmore warns. 

“We’ve been inside during the cold months, but once the first semblance of some warmth comes out, people come out,” he says. “You have these various personalities and egos in these neighborhoods. The more egos you got the more clashes you have.”

In response to the gun violence spike in Charlottesville’s predominantly Black communities over the past year, the B.U.C.K. Squad began intervening in conflicts in January, talking down groups before they turned to violence. The following month, City Council donated about $20,000 to the squad for conflict resolution training. Since then, the volunteers have relied on community donations, which currently cover only basic expenses, Gilmore says.

Despite these financial limitations, the group has been largely successful. Out of the 46 conflicts its members have intervened in, only three resulted in shootings.

It’s embarrassing that we live in such an affluent, rich, and wealthy community and have to fight for funding.

Pertelle Gilmore, executive director of the B.U.C.K. Squad

According to operations director Herb Dickerson, the squad needs around 30 additional members to fully handle the anticipated summer rise in gun violence. 

With its limited resources, Guns Down Virginia, an affiliated group, has also kicked off several initiatives to tackle the root causes of violence, including youth mentorship, grief counseling, gun buybacks, and community events.

When asked about Gilmore’s calls for funding, City Councilor Sena Magill said the city is working to address gun violence from “multiple directions.”

“We are looking into a number of things, including how to maximize city dollars with possible other grants and multiple interventions that need to take place,” says Magill, speaking only for herself. 

Councilor Lloyd Snook echoed Magill’s sentiments, explaining that the city will likely use state and federal funds to tackle the problem.

Gilmore has also had success securing funding from angel investors. This month, Guns Down received $10,000 from local entrepreneur David Manka, who Gilmore says has challenged every well-off white Charlottesville resident to match his donation.

“It’s embarrassing that we live in such an affluent, rich, and wealthy community and have to fight for funding to cure something as atrocious as the murder and homicide of Black babies,” says Gilmore. “I find it disgraceful to say I’m a Charlottesvillian, and walk on the Downtown Mall and see people who I know can change the whole trajectory of a generation of Black people with one check.”

“An attitude of indifference [is] a part of the problem,” he says. “Play your part, and let’s change the city.”

To donate to the B.U.C.K. Squad, visit bucksquad911.org. 

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Inching forward

Dozens of local residents protesting and holding signs across the stress from the Charlottesville Police Department
Activists hope to transform the energy from last summer’s protests into real structural reform of local law enforcement. PC: Eze Amos

Charlottesville’s Police Civilian Review Board continues to disagree with city officials over how much power it should wield.

Shortly after August 2017, in response to demands for increased oversight of law enforcement, City Council committed to the creation of a Police Civilian Review Board, a body that would give area residents some checks on the police’s power. In the years since, the board has been caught in bureaucratic limbo, as its members, elected officials, and law enforcement have quarreled over how much power the board should have. The drawn-out process has frustrated those hoping to see local criminal justice reform.

This summer could offer clarity, as a new law—passed by the state legislature in the wake of last summer’s racial justice demonstrations—explicitly grants broad power to police civilian review boards across Virginia. In an April 27 work session, Charlottesville CRB members proposed a new set of rules for the board, and city councilors expressed concerns. 

Under the new law, the CRB is allowed to receive, investigate, and issue findings on complaints of serious misconduct and incidents involving use of force. It also has the power to subpoena documents and witnesses. If the accused party is found guilty of misconduct, the board can issue a binding disciplinary ruling for cases involving “serious breaches of departmental and professional standards” after consulting with the police chief, including demotion, suspension without pay, or termination.

The new law also gives the board power to review less serious internal affairs investigations, as well as evaluate department policies, practices, and procedures.

Since December, a group composed of current and former CRB members, as well as members of the activist group The People’s Coalition, has worked to align the current ordinance with the new state law, researching various police oversight models and consulting with the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement.

“I have real serious problems,” said Councilor Lloyd Snook of the proposed ordinance. “I have no problems with a good strong review board. But I don’t see this draft as creating a review board, [but] a substitute disciplinary board.”

Councilor Heather Hill and Police Chief RaShall Brackney claimed that the board had not collaborated enough with CPD on the ordinance. Brackney worried there would not be due process for officers under both the CRB and CPD’s disciplinary processes.

“We’ve been taking advice from the acting city attorney and our independent counsel. They both reviewed the draft ordinance and neither of them have raised the issues that Chief Brackney did,” responded CRB vice-chair Will Mendez.

Both Councilors Michael Payne and Sena Magill pointed out that the board’s investigations may not be exempt from the Freedom of Information Act, which could discourage community members from coming forward with complaints. 

“Right now we cannot promise that members of the public that their personal information can be protected. That is definitely a detail that needs to be worked out,” said Acting City Attorney Lisa Robertson.

City Council has had plenty of time to have investigated and done the research to find out what models would work for Charlottesville.

Rosia Parker, initial CRB member

Several councilors expressed concern over the operating procedures for the board’s investigations, but CRB chair Bellamy Brown explained they could better address these specific concerns once an executive director is hired. The city is actively searching for a board director, and has received 64 applications for the position. 

Mayor Nikuyah Walker questioned what a proper collaboration between the board and department would look like. “When we’re talking about transforming a system, there’s only so much that the individuals already a part of that system can bring to the table,” she said.

During public comment, initial CRB member Rosia Parker criticized the councilors for their unfamiliarity with the new legislation and focus on the rights of police officers. “City Council has had plenty of time to have investigated and done the research to find out what models would work for Charlottesville,” she said. 

“I’m not sure why there is fear for breaking ground and why you should have any fear of creating oversight of the police,” said lawyer Teresa Hepler. “People of color being followed, harassed, and injured by the police are afraid. So how can you be scared to do something different?”  

Walker responded that she is “not against anything,” but that she wants to know exactly how the revamped board is going to work before she votes on the ordinance. Payne and Magill agreed that the city must get the ordinance right the first time around, or other localities may be deterred from creating their own powerful review boards.

After further discussion, council and the board agreed to have multiple full-day work sessions to go over each specific power in the draft ordinance with the board’s legal council and Robertson.

Moving forward, initial CRB member Sarah Burke hopes that council will get “up to speed” on the new legislation, and will listen to the community as it works with the board to provide meaningful police oversight.

“What I saw the other night was the City Council grilling the CRB on the model without seeming to have a lot of their own background and research on the issue,” says Burke. “I [also] don’t understand this idea that somehow the CRB should be chastised for failing to listen to the police officers who haven’t engaged with the work.” 

Parker also urges council to be open-minded, transparent, and willing to change.

“We as the people, we’re going to keep pushing,” she says. “It’s time for change, and the time is now.”

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In brief

Anthony Gill has basketball in his hand and is about to take a shot
PC: Jack Looney

Gilling it 

Former UVA basketball standout Anthony Gill didn’t make the NBA right off the bat. The forward earned 2015 and 2016 Third-Team all-ACC honors in his junior and senior seasons under Tony Bennett, but went undrafted after graduating. Gill headed abroad, and spent a season playing for Yesilgiresun Belediye in Turkey, and three years with Khimki in Russia. 

Recently, however, Gill has started to find his footing in the big leagues. The 28-year-old signed a two-year contract with the Washington Wizards, and after starter Deni Avdija went down with an injury, Gill found himself with an opportunity. He’s averaged 16 minutes, 9 points, and 4.7 rebounds across the team’s last three games. 

“The guy works harder than anybody on our team,” said Wizards coach Scott Brooks this week. “He comes in every day. He comes in early. He’s always cheering his teammates on.” 

Area leads the way on vaxes

The Charlottesville-Albemarle area is setting the pace for vaccine rollout in Virginia. As of Tuesday morning, Albemarle County had the highest proportion of the population to have received at least one vaccine dose of any locality in the state. 56 percent of the county has gotten one shot, and 37 percent is fully vaccinated. In the city, 52 percent have one shot, and 32 percent are fully vaxed. Statewide, those numbers are 43 and 29, respectively. 

That doesn’t mean we can rest on our laurels: The Blue Ridge Health District, which includes Charlottesville and Albemarle, Greene, Louisa, Nelson, and Fluvanna counties, reported 19 new cases yesterday. Since early March, the health district has consistently registered around 30 new cases per day. 

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Quote of the week

“My great-grandfather had to take a literacy test and find three white people to vouch for him just to be able to register to vote.”

—Virginia gubernatorial candidate Jennifer McClellan, speaking about her voting rights plan on the Downtown Mall this week

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Attention, attorneys

With Chip Boyles serving as city manager for the time being, Charlottesville is now beginning to look for people to fill other high-level vacancies in the municipal bureaucracy. This week, City Council will hold a closed meeting to interview potential candidates to be the next city attorney, the elected government’s legal advisor. Former city attorney John Blair left earlier this year to become Staunton’s city attorney. 

Give me the bat news first

Three of Virginia’s native bat species are 90 percent extinct, reports the Virginia Mercury. A deadly fungus called white-nose syndrome, which arrived in the country about a decade ago, has swept through Appalachian bat species, decimating the population of northern long-eared, little brown, and tricolored bats. Biologists have been working to help the nocturnal critters, but the disease continues to spread. 

Whispering woes

Last week, UVA’s newly constituted Naming and Memorials Committee solicited suggestions from the community on the future of the Frank Hume Memorial Fountain. The fountain, better known as the Whispering Wall, has long been considered a piece of quirky school color, thanks to the way sound carries from one side of the curved bench to the other. But Hume, the monument’s namesake, was a Confederate soldier (and, later, a Virginia state legislator). At a recent listening session, every caller recommended scrapping the wall in its entirety, reports the Cavalier Daily. Last year, two students started a petition, which now has more than 2,100 signatures, to remove the monument. In the last week, the statue has been vandalized twice, and as of Monday, it’s been fenced off. 

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Breaking rank

photo of sally hudson wearing a blue jean shirt
Delegate Sally Hudson recently launched Ranked Choice Virginia, a nonprofit aimed at educating people about ranked-choice voting. PC: Eze Amos

If you’ve voted in more than a few elections, there’s a chance you’ve cast a ballot for a candidate you didn’t particularly like. Maybe you would have voted for someone else, but you knew that candidate didn’t have enough party support to win the race, and you didn’t want to “throw away” your vote. Under our country’s winner-take-all election system, this predicament is all too common.

But in the past two decades, more than 20 cities and several states have turned to a different system that gives voters a wider range of options in elections: ranked-choice voting. 57th District Delegate Sally Hudson is working to bring this system to localities across Virginia.

“Right now we have a problem,” says Hudson. “We have lots of people running for office…but our ballots just aren’t built to let voters choose who they really want when more than two people run.”

Beginning this July, all cities and counties in Virginia will be allowed to use ranked-choice voting for their elections, thanks to Hudson’s bill, which was passed last year by the General Assembly. After the bill’s passage, Hudson set up a nonprofit, Ranked Choice Virginia. The aim of the organization is to do educational and advocacy work across the state, encouraging local legislators to take advantage of the new law. 

Under a ranked-choice voting system, voters can rank candidates in order of preference, without their other rankings hurting the chances of their first choice. They can also vote for as many candidates as they want. If their favorite candidate doesn’t win a majority of the first-choice votes, their vote then counts toward their second choice. 

“This way you ensure that whoever wins has genuine broad-based support from the community,” says Hudson. “You can’t just win by rallying a small, vocal slice.”

Hudson points to Virginia’s crowded gubernatorial race as an example of the merits of ranked-choice voting. Five candidates are competing for the Democratic nomination, with former governor and fundraising powerhouse Terry McAuliffe currently leading in the polls.

“When you have lots of people on the ballot…it’s really hard to tell who the consensus nominee is,” says Hudson. “Voters often have to choose between voting for who they really like and the person they think can win.”

With ranked-choice voting, “even if it turns out your candidate doesn’t win, you can still weigh in on the consensus with your second choice,” she adds.

Our ballots just aren’t built to let voters choose who they really want when more than two people run.

Delegate Sally Hudson

In cities that have implemented this alternative voting system, candidates have significantly changed how they’ve campaigned. Instead of slinging mud at the opposition, they focus on the important issues in their communities, making races more positive, clean, and productive.

“It forces candidates to reach out to voters from a lot of different corners of the community and talk about what really matters to people,” says Hudson. “If all you’re doing is dunking on your opponent, it’s going to be hard to win those second-, third-, and fourth-choice votes.”

In addition to increasing voter turnout and engagement, ranked-choice voting has led to a major uptick in women and people of color running for office—and winning. Over the past decade, women have won nearly half of municipal ranked-choice elections, according to electoral reform nonprofit Fair Vote.

Localities with ranked-choice voting also can skip party primaries or runoff elections, saving them a lot of time and money. While parties can still endorse their preferred candidate, they no longer keep the underdogs off the ballot. 

According to Fair Vote research analyst Deb Otis, some groups have argued against ranked-choice voting, mainly because they strongly benefit from the winner-take-all system. However, both Democrats and Republicans have supported ranked choice, and adopted it for a variety of elections.

“In some cases, cities or states need to upgrade their election equipment before running ranked-choice elections. All modern voting equipment is ranked-choice capable, but cities or states who are using equipment that is more than 15 years old may need to upgrade,” says Otis.  

“There are plenty of other reasons that cities and states update their voting equipment, such as better election security, so time is on our side as election administrators are already in the process of phasing out older equipment,” she adds.

Though most Republicans in the General Assembly opposed Hudson’s bill, the Virginia GOP will use ranked-choice voting this year to nominate their candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general.

On the municipal level, Arlington County is already exploring adopting the new voting system. The locality’s elected officials and registrars office will have to collaborate to make the shift.

“We should expect to see [Arlington] be one of the first movers,” Hudson says. “It would be great to see Charlottesville consider it as well.”

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In brief

Bar graph of the five Democrat candidates' polling results with small pictures of their faces on the bottom
Former governor Terry McAuliffe has opened a sizeable lead in the governor’s race, according to a survey from Public Policy Polling last week. Note, however, that 29 percent of voters remain undecided.

Look out: Terry’s running away with it 

It’s no surprise that Terry McAuliffe is leading the Democratic primary gubernatorial field in fundraising. The former Virginia governor and DNC chair is famous for his shameless shakedowns—in a 2007 book, he wrote about making his teary wife and newborn baby wait in the car on the way home from the hospital while he jumped into a gala to raise “a million bucks for the Democratic Party.” (Yes, really.) Thus far in his campaign, McAuliffe has pulled in $7.2 million, more than the rest of the Democratic field combined, per the Virginia Public Access Project. Former state legislator Jennifer Carroll Foy is second with $3.7 million in her war chest.

That money edge—plus McAuliffe’s name recognition as a former governor—has translated to polling success. A mid-April Public Policy Polling survey shows 42 percent of likely primary voters in McAuliffe’s camp, with no other candidate even cracking double digits. The Democratic primary will be held June 8.

Meanwhile, on the Republican side, businessmen Pete Snyder and Glenn Youngkin lead the way, each having raised similar amounts as McAuliffe. State Senator and self-proclaimed “Trump in heels” Amanda Chase has raised just over $800K. The Republicans will hold a drive-through nominating convention on May 8.

Poem patter 

You might have heard some buzz about a wave of cicadas swarming across the East Coast this May. Billions of winged creatures—the ominously named Brood X—will soon wake up from their 17-year slumber and emerge ready to mate, lay their eggs in trees, and then burrow back underground. If that prospect gives you the heebie-jeebies, don’t leave town this spring. Northern Virginia skies will ring with the high-pitched wail of the insects, but central Virginia’s cicadas, known as Brood II, are set to snooze until 2030. 

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Quote of the week

“This is just outright scary. I’m not sure how the planets aligned for this to happen!”

—Community activist Don Gathers, after this week’s City Council meeting adjourned in a record-fast 90 minutes

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A new kind of fake ID? 

Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring has joined a coalition of state leaders—and the FBI—trying to quash the sale of fake vaccine cards. Apparently, entrepreneurs around the country have been selling fraudulent paper vaccine receipts to the needle-shy, impatient, and anti-vax crowds. If you ask us, it seems like a lot of bother when the local health district is currently doling out shots to all comers.

Taking the Fal

Liberty University has filed a lawsuit against its former president Jerry Falwell, Jr. The evangelical hardliner was expelled from the university in late 2020 after it was revealed that he wasn’t practicing what he’d been preaching—first, Falwell posted a photo on Instagram showing him swilling booze in a state of partial undress, and then it came to light that he and his wife had been engaged in a yearslong sexual relationship with a pool attendant they met in a Miami hotel. Now Liberty wants Falwell to cough up tens of millions for damaging the school’s reputation. 

Jerry Falwell, Jr. PC: Gage Skidmore

Getting loose 

Charlottesville City Council voted Monday night to repeal the city’s COVID-19 ordinance and defer to state guidelines. Over the last year, the city has been one of a handful of localities to enact more stringent gathering restrictions than the state requires. At this time, Virginia allows gatherings of up to 50 people indoors and 100 people outdoors, and limits event spaces to 30 percent capacity. The city’s ordinance repeal comes as Charlottesville and Albemarle residents continue to get vaccinated at high rates, with roughly 50 percent of the local population having received at least one dose.

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Hollowed-out halls

Exterior photo Crescent Halls, an eight-story tall tan apartment building with 105 units
Thanks to activism and leadership from the residents of Crescent Halls, long-overdue renovations will begin this month on the public housing apartments. PC: Skyclad Aerial

For more than 20 years, Crescent Halls residents have been speaking out about the intolerable living conditions in the public housing apartments, including leaky laundry machines, broken air conditioners, sweltering heat, sewage flooding, busted elevators, bed bugs, and cockroaches. Charlottesville leaders vowed in 2010 to redevelop the 45-year-old complex for seniors and disabled residents—along with other public housing communities across the city—but plans repeatedly fell through.

Thanks to persistent activism and leadership from the people who live in those communities, change is on the way. Last Wednesday, Crescent Halls residents broke ground for long-overdue renovations, which are expected to be completed by October 2022.

“Everybody deserves not just housing to go to, but housing that has been created with intention and with love,” said Mayor Nikuyah Walker at the ceremony, where she was joined by several other local and state leaders. “Once we understand that and act on that, then we start the process of showing people that we honor them…[and that] promises that have been broken for decades are finally being fulfilled.”

Over the next 18 months, the 105-unit building will be fully revamped with new heating, cooling, electrical, lighting, plumbing, sprinkler, elevator, and security systems. Appliances, cabinets, bathrooms, windows, common areas, outdoor spaces, and the parking lot will also be upgraded.

Renovations on the eight-story structure will begin April 30, and it will be conducted two floors at a time. While their floor is under construction, residents will be relocated to temporary housing, paid for by the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority. The renovations will cost $18 million.

Crescent Halls isn’t Charlottesville’s only major public housing project currently underway. In March, the city kicked off the redevelopment of the South First Street complex, which will see more than a hundred new units and various amenities added to the neighborhood over the next few years. 

Last week’s ceremony began in front of Crescent Halls with a moment of silence for more than a dozen residents, including Richard Shackelford, Eve Snowden, Edith Durette, and Curtis Gilmore, who fought for the building’s renovations but passed away before they came to fruition.

“The most precious time for me was just being able to sit in the community room here with the gentlemen who really worked hard to get this done,” said resident Audrey Oliver. 

“They knew painting, carpentry, plumbing—they knew all of that,” she added. “They never even got to see this stage of it. That’s heartbreaking for me.” 

Brandon Collins, lead organizer for the Public Housing Association of Residents, reflected on Charlottesville’s painful legacy of urban renewal, which resulted in the destruction of several thriving Black communities, and forced many Black residents to move into public housing in the ’60s and ’70s.

“We hear a lot about Vinegar Hill—but it also happened here on Garrett Street, and that was the birth of this building,” explained Collins. “[Crescent Halls] was sold to the community as this grand, amazing thing that was going to happen for seniors in our community. And I think for a short time it was that. But federal and local divestment, and the challenges of systemic racism and disrespect in this community has led to a really hard slog at Crescent Halls.”

People shouldn’t have to wait for decades for their basic needs to be met

Mayor Nikuyah Walker

In response to the city’s failures to upgrade its public housing communities, PHAR worked with hundreds of residents to create a positive vision statement in 2016, stressing residents’ desire to lead the redevelopment process. In 2019, the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority approved a partnership between PHAR and several developers, getting the ball rolling on the redevelopment of Crescent Halls and South First Street.

At the ceremony, state Delegate Sally Hudson lauded Charlottesville’s leadership in resident-led public housing redevelopment, not just in the state but nationwide.

“Across the country, there are communities that are disinvesting from public housing [and] shifting more and more control out of the hands of the community and into private hands,” she said. “You really are not just leading our community—you are leading Virginia.”

“It was hard [and] painful work because there’re so many decisions that seem like obstacles,” said Collins to the residents who spearheaded the redevelopment process. “But y’all were reasonable about it and had a vision and here we are today—getting ready to break ground on something that many people in this community said would never happen.”

“[The renovations] are going to be noisy. The housing authority’s got earplugs for you,” added Collins. “We’re here to help you through this difficult process.”

Walker criticized the city for not listening to residents’ calls for help sooner.

“People shouldn’t have to wait for decades for their basic needs to be met. That happens when a community doesn’t own its responsibility,” she said. However, “I’m thankful to be a part of a community who, even though we did not get it right for a long time, finally has come together to get it right and make the commitment.”

The mayor also encouraged residents to voice any needs and concerns throughout the renovation period.

“Pick up the phone and call,” she said. “It’s not a pressure. It’s not us doing you a favor. It’s not charity. It is our responsibility.”

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Lawyer up

Exterior of the Charlottesville General District Court
Several advocacy groups are pushing City Council to establish a right-to-counsel program for residents facing eviction. PC: staff photo

As millions of people across the country struggle to get back on their feet, an eviction crisis rages alongside the coronavirus pandemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s nationwide ban on evictions has been extended until June 30, and states continue to offer rent relief options for struggling tenants—yet these protections have not been enough to keep people safely in their homes, including in the Charlottesville area.

From January 1 to April 12, 97 eviction hearings in Charlottesville resulted in 17 evictions, and 67 Albemarle County hearings led to 15 families being removed from their homes. 

One persistent problem with the nation’s eviction system is that tenants facing eviction often go to court without legal counsel. Those with lawyers are far more likely to remain housed, yet few can afford them. Meanwhile, a majority of landlords have attorneys with them in the courtroom.

Since March, several advocacy groups including the Charlottesville Democratic Socialists of America, the Human Rights Commission, and the Public Housing Association of Residents have pushed City Council to commit $460,000 to establish a right-to-counsel program for low-income households facing eviction. The funds would go to hiring three full-time attorneys and an outreach worker to administer the program, which would be overseen by the Legal Aid Justice Center. 

“People who don’t have an attorney, their outcomes are much worse. So this will level that playing field,” says Brian Campbell, co-chair of DSA’s housing justice committee. 

According to the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel, New York City established the first right to counsel program for evictions in the country in 2017. The program has been wildly successful—86 percent of tenants represented by legal counsel have been able to stay in their homes, and eviction filings have dropped by 30 percent.

Seven other cities now have right-to-counsel programs for evictions. If Charlottesville moves forward with a right-to-counsel program, it would be the first city in the South to establish one.

Last month, City Council discussed setting aside $117,000 of the $10.5 million it will receive from the American Rescue Plan next month to create a right-to-counsel program, which housing advocates immediately protested as an insufficient amount. 

During an April 5 council meeting, City Manager Chip Boyles announced that the city will use ARP funds to establish the program for at least two years. Yet it remains unclear if it will receive all of the requested funding.

“Getting them to agree in principle to the $460,000 is important. It means the program will be robust enough to work,” says Campbell. “It’s not window dressing—this is an actual real program that will help people.”

People who don’t have an attorney, their outcomes are much worse. So this will level that playing field.

Brian Campbell, co-chair of DSA’s housing justice committee

Since last summer, DSA volunteers have visited tenants with eviction cases on the docket in Charlottesville and Albemarle County, informing them of their legal rights and connecting them with rent relief programs. 

“A lot of people we canvass don’t know the [moratorium] is in place…[or] that they are being evicted until a DSA volunteer knocks on their door,” says Campbell. 

From July 14 to March 9, DSA observed 142 of the 259 eviction hearings that occurred in Charlottesville. Around half of the tenants did not show up, and half of those hearings resulted in an eviction judgment. Only around 8 percent of tenants who attended their hearings came with an attorney.

These few fared much better in court—their cases were either dismissed or set for trial, instead of resulting in an eviction. Meanwhile, nearly 30 percent of tenants without legal representation were evicted, and almost 50 percent had their cases continued or set for trial.

Charlottesville’s long history of systemic racism and wealth inequality makes the eviction crisis a racial justice issue too. More than half of the tenants facing eviction were Black, reflecting a much higher risk of eviction for Black families than white families.

According to DSA activists, the federal eviction moratorium has been weakened by loopholes. Landlords are still able evict tenants for reasons besides non-payment of rent, such as noise complaints. They can also refuse to renew the leases of tenants they want to evict.

In Charlottesville, LAJC currently takes on a limited number of eviction cases, typically those involving public housing residents. 

“The way that we’ve been doing it is kind of a triage approach, [helping] people who are in the worst-case scenarios,” explains Deputy Director for Advocacy Elaine Poon. Because Charlottesville has 500 to 700 eviction filings a year, “it’s just not enough people to handle them.”

City Councilor Lloyd Snook says he recognizes the dire need for a right-to-counsel program in Charlottesville. While managing his private law firm, he often received calls from residents facing eviction who needed legal representation, but most of them could not afford it.

He agrees the program should be run by LAJC, and hopes the city can collaborate with Albemarle County, which is set to receive $21.2 million in ARP funds. 

“When somebody is getting evicted, they may not even know if they’re living in the city or county,” says Snook. “We ought to approach the problem in a unified kind of way.”

But to keep evictions from happening in the first place, housing activists continue to emphasize the critical need for affordable housing in the Charlottesville area.

“One of the reasons that this is such a crisis is because people are spending so much of their income on rent,” says Campbell. “Affordable housing is the long-term goal.”