Tag: election 2019

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In brief: Rice reactions, RBG ruling, TJ’s party over, and more

Paige Rice at a City Council meeting following the KKK rally in July 2017. eze amos

‘Odd’ indictment

The felony embezzlement charge against former City Council clerk Paige Rice, 37, for an iPhone and Apple Watch valued at more than $500 has many scratching their heads.

“It seems very unusual it got to this point without a resolution,” says attorney Scott Goodman. “It seems like something that could have easily been resolved without a felony indictment.”

A former city employee who spoke only on the condition of anonymity says, “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. Particularly with her husband working there. It’s very odd.”

Rice is married to Joe Rice, deputy director of communications for the city. Neither responded to C-VILLE’s phone calls.

Rice was a fixture at council meetings for eight years. Last July she was named chief of staff to manage two new employees at the disposal of councilors. The job came with a salary bump from almost $73,000 to $98,000. The larger council staff had been touted by then-mayor Mike Signer, but was criticized by Mayor Nikuyah Walker, who call for a guest audit of the position and its pay.

Rice’s resignation letter came barely two months later on September 12. She took a job at the Focused Ultrasound Foundation as chief of staff.

Attorney Dave Heilberg says embezzlement is a crime of taking property with which one has been entrusted, but Rice’s case “is not as clear cut” as that of an accountant who writes herself a check. What Rice was told about the equipment could be a factor in her defense, and he points out that “technology goes out of date really fast” when assessing its value.

A grand jury from both Albemarle County and Charlottesville—which is also unusual, says Heilberg—indicted Rice June 7. And court records show the date of the offense as October 5, Rice’s official last day.

Goodman says the indictment could have consequences that “could be ugly,” particularly if Rice has information about other people in the city in similar circumstances who didn’t get indicted.

A city release announcing Rice’s resignation said, “The City Council appreciates the service of Ms. Rice over the last eight years and wishes her the best as she moves on to the next exciting phase in her professional life.”

Her next court appearance is August 19.

Quote of the week

“The House [of Delegates] has no prerogative to select its own members.”—Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a U.S. Supreme Court decision that upholds a lower court ruling that Virginia’s legislative districts were racially gerrymandered

In brief

B’day non grata

At its June 17 meeting, City Council took steps to remove the birthday of local icon Thomas Jefferson, April 13, as a paid city holiday and to replace it with Liberation and Freedom Day, March 3, which commemorates the arrival of Union forces and the emancipation of the area’s 14,0000 enslaved people. Albemarle will discuss ditching Jefferson’s birthday at its June 19 meeting.

Are luxury condos in the Dewberry’s future? Skyclad Aerial

Dewberry condos?

Not much activity has been seen on the ground at the site of the alleged Dewberry Hotel, now celebrating its 10th anniversary as a wraith towering over the Downtown Mall. But the Progress reports some movement on the Dewberry Group website, and renderings of the hotel have migrated from its hospitality to its living section, with a new name: the Laramore.

Deadbeat guv pays up

West Virginia Governor Jim Justice finally paid the  $311,000 in back taxes his company owed to Albemarle County, plus the current tax bill, reports the DP’s Allison Wrabel. The county had started the process to sell 52 of Justice’s 55 parcels because of the large arrearage.

AG okays THC

Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring spoke out in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana in an op-ed published in both the Daily Press and The Virginian-Pilot on Sunday. The General Assembly has yet to pass any measures on the issue, but decriminalization has been an issue generally shot down by Republicans in past sessions.

Rural broadband access

Central Virginia Electric Cooperative’s subsidiary, doing business as Firefly Fiber Broadband, will receive $28.6 million of FCC funds to provide 1 gigabit internet speeds for over 11,000 homes and businesses in central Virginia over the next 10 years.

Election turnout: Not great

Off-year elections traditionally have lower turnout, and this year’s June 11 primary was no exception. With no presidential or gubernatorial candidates at the top of the ballot, many voters chose to sit out the primary, despite several local General Assembly races.

  • The 57th District, which includes Charlottesville and the Albemarle urban ring, had the highest turnout—15.7 percent—in state General Assembly elections, according to Virginia Public Access Project.
  • The 17th Senate District, which had both a Democratic and Republican primary, brought in a much lower 5 percent of the electorate in each race.
  • Total Charlottesville turnout (including City Council primaries) was 19 percent, compared to 27 percent in 2017.
  • Total Albemarle County turnout (including races for sheriff and Rivanna supervisor) was 10 percent.
  • In 2017, county turnout was 19 percent for the Democratic primary for governor and .05 percent for the Republican primary.
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‘Progressive energy:’ Hudson, Payne wins signal generational shift

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.

 

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In brief: City digs in, winemaker dies, rioters plead, and more

CRB member Rosia Parker wondered why police Chief RaShall Brackney couldn’t find time on her reportedly empty calendar to meet.

Truth in scheduling: Progress joins City v. Civilian Review Board fray

A Daily Progress reporter was a topic of discussion during public comment at the May 6 City Council meeting, following Nolan Stout’s story earlier that day that police Chief RaShall Brackney’s calendar seemed to contradict claims that she was unavailable to meet with the Police Civilian Review Board.

CRB member Rosia Parker thanked Stout for his reporting, while Mayor Nikuyah Walker blamed Stout for the escalating tension between the chief and the review board. Councilor Wes Bellamy said he had “personal issues” with the article, and defended Brackney and her calendar. Police gadfly Jeff Fogel yelled at Bellamy to “not punk out,” and Bellamy replied, “You’re the last one to tell me to punk out.”

The latest outburst follows a bizarre April 26 city press release that accused a CRB member of lying about Brackney refusing to meet with the board. That was followed by an even weirder April 30 retraction of the falsehood allegation, which instead pointed the finger at the Progress’ reporting. The paper stands by its story.

And in the latest deepening of trenches in the war of words, city spokesman Brian Wheeler told Stout his Freedom of Information Act request for emails between Brackney or her secretary and City Council or CRB members, and emails between councilors and CRB members, would cost $3,000 and require a $700 deposit. Wheeler refused to break down the costs, which are unprecedented in C-VILLE Weekly’s experience with FOIA.

Megan Rhyne with Virginia Coalition for Open Government says this is only the second time she’s seen a local government refuse to detail its alleged costs, and tells the DP, “I don’t think it’s very transparent.”

Quote of the week

“I believe we have more than enough mandatory minimum sentences—more than 200—in Virginia state code.” Governor Ralph Northam on why he won’t sign any more such bills, which he calls punitive, discriminatory, and expensive

In brief

Carbon friendlier

Charlottesville’s carbon emissions per household—11.2 tons annually—are a ton above the national average. City Council voted unanimously at its May 6 meeting to approve a climate action plan that includes a goal of 45 percent carbon emissions reduction by 2030, and total carbon neutrality by 2050.

Wine pioneer dies

David King. file photo

 

David King, patriarch of King Family Vineyards, died May 2 after what the family calls a “hard-fought” battle with cancer. The 64-year-old was a past chair of the Virginia Wine Board, a polo player, pilot, and reserve deputy with the Albemarle County Sheriff’s Office search and rescue division. The family will host a celebration of life on June 14 at their Crozet family farm from 7:30-9:30pm.

Rioters plead

The last two members of the now-defunct California white supremacist group Rise Above Movement, who traveled to Charlottesville for the August 2017 Unite the Right rally to brawl with counterprotesters, pleaded guilty May 3 in U.S. District Court. RAM founder Benjamin Drake Daley, 26, from Redondo Beach, and Michael Paul Miselis, 30, from Lawndale, each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to riot. Fellow RAMmers Cole White and Thomas Gillen previously pleaded guilty.

The Guys

Unrelated Bridget Guy and Kyle Guy got top UVA athletics honors at the Hoos Choice Awards May 1. Bridget, from Greensburg, Pennsylvania, is an all-American pole vaulter who was undefeated this season. Indianapolis-native Kyle was named Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Final Four, in part for his sangfroid in firing off three free throws in a row to beat Auburn 63-62.

Flaggers appeal

Confederate battle flag-loving Virginia Flaggers were in circuit court May 2 to appeal a Louisa Board of Zoning Appeals decision that the 120-foot pole they raised on I-64 in March 2018 to fly the “Charlottesville I-64 Spirit of Defiance Battle Flag” exceeded the county’s maximum of 60 feet. The judge has not yet issued a ruling.

Cruel and unusual

The U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Virginia’s death row inmates, who spend years alone in a small cell for 23 to 24 hours a day. The justices said the inmates face a “substantial risk” of serious psychological and emotional harm in violation of the Eighth Amendment in the case filed by local attorney Steve Rosenfield.

UVA student sentenced

When former UVA student Cayden Jacob Dalton drunkenly abducted and strangled his ex-girlfriend in August 2018, she told the judge “there was no doubt in my mind that I was going to die.” Now, he’ll serve one and a half years for the crime, with the rest of his 15-year sentence suspended.

Show us the money

With the first campaign finance reports filed March 31, we learned who’s pulling in the bucks ahead of the June 11 City Council Democratic primary,  as well as the funds raised by independents Paul Long and Bellamy Brown.

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Ronnie Roberts runs for Albemarle sheriff

In elections, it often comes down to name recognition, and former Charlottesville police lieutenant Ronnie Roberts has it. The Albemarle native spent most of his 44-year career in law enforcement working for the city police department, where he rose through the ranks and served as a well-known spokesman.

Roberts announced his candidacy for Albemarle sheriff April 4 in front of the Albemarle courthouse with several dozen supporters present. His old boss, former Charlottesville police chief Tim Longo, introduced Roberts as a man of “honor, dignity, and commitment” with an “unwavering moral compass.”

Also present were several retired top cops, including former city chief Buddy Rittenhouse and former Albemarle sheriff Ed Robb. Not present was Roberts’ former CPD colleague and current Albemarle sheriff, Chip Harding, who has endorsed Chief Deputy Chan Bryant to succeed him.

Roberts, 64, retired from the Charlottesville Police Department in 2014, and took on the job of Louisa chief of police.

He recalled his walks as a lad in Charlottesville past parked Virginia State Police cars. The troopers showed him the inside of their patrol cars. “That walk stayed in my mind,” he said, and influenced his decision to go into law enforcement.

It also brought an awareness of the importance of community policing. “I came to realize I could relate to people,” he said.

“Putting community first” is the theme of his campaign. “I want to take the Albemarle Sheriff’s Office to the next level as a nationally accredited sheriff’s office,” of which there are only four in Virginia, he said.

He also wants to focus on domestic violence, mental health reform, gang activity, and elder abuse. The sheriff’s office is primarily responsible for court security and prisoner transport.

Roberts said he’d been asked by business leaders and county residents to join the race, which has three other candidates: Dems Bryant and Patrick Estes, a UVA football and NFL alum, who will face off in the June 11 primary, and possibly Republican Mike Wagner, a lieutenant with Albemarle police who has filed but has not formally announced a campaign.

Roberts is running as an independent.

 

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Council candidate Pinkston says he works well with others

Brian Pinkston, a project manager at UVA, is running for City Council.  COURTESY SUBJECT

A UVA facilities project manager jumped into the race for City Council February 6. Brian Pinkston said to dozens at The Haven, “I’m running for City Council because I want our city to recapture this vision of the common good.”

He was introduced by former vice-mayor Meredith Richards, who noted Pinkston’s ability as a project manager to handle a lot of moving parts and to work collaboratively and effectively with others.

“I believe in this City Council election, people are looking for solid, trustworthy, unifying, and principled leadership,” said Richards.

A Georgia native, Pinkston, 47, said his work as an engineer taught him “how to dive into complex problems.” And in his late 20s, as a parent of small children, he started work on a Ph.D. in philosophy at UVA. “I can’t recommend philosophy highly enough,” he said.

He noted that he grew up in the deep South, and, pointing toward the statue of General Robert E. Lee across the street, said, “I recognize the past is still with us.”

More so than the other three Democratic candidates in the race, Pinkston also stressed his faith, and the wisdom found in religion.

He noted that 25 percent of families here don’t earn enough to cover basic needs for survival. It’s “morally unacceptable to tolerate these high levels of poverty,” he said.

Pinkston joins activist Michael Payne, RegionTen board member Sena Magill, and attorney Lloyd Snook in seeking the Democratic nomination for three open seats on City Council. Incumbents Wes Bellamy, Kathy Galvin, and Mike Signer have not said whether they’ll seek reelection.

Among those at The Haven were Magill, former councilor Bob Fenwick, and UVA associate professor Jalane Schmidt, who formed a new political action committee, Progressives for Cville, that has backed Payne and was going to endorse Don Gathers, who had to withdraw from the race because of health concerns.

The deadline to file for the June 11 primary is March 28.

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Republican sheriff backs Dem deputy

Chan Bryant has been tapped by Albemarle Sheriff Chip Harding to succeed him as sheriff. Staff photo

Albemarle Chief Deputy Chan Bryant got an unusual endorsement when she announced her run for sheriff as a Democrat January 30. Her boss, Republican Sheriff Chip Harding, introduced her and said that in his nearly 50 years of service in the justice system, she was in the top 5 percent of law enforcement supervisors with whom he’s worked.

And while Bryant’s candidacy is historic—she’s the first female to run for sheriff since the office was founded in 1745—Harding, who is not seeking reelection, says that’s not why he’s supporting her.

“I am endorsing Chan because she has done an outstanding job in every position she has been in,” he says.

Bryant, 49, wanted to be in law enforcement since she was a teen in Greene County. After stints as a county reserve officer, an EMT, a Madison deputy and a Scottsville patrol officer, she started full-time in the Albemarle sheriff’s office in 2006. “I have worked my way up the chain of command,” and worked closely with the sheriff in every department, she says.

She’d like to bring back the DARE program in schools. While some question the effectiveness of the once-pervasive Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, Bryant says it could be about more than drugs, and address peer pressure, bullying, and good decision-making.

She also envisions a safety program for seniors, because the department gets phone calls from people from out of state asking that deputies check up on elderly relatives.

Bryant leads the office’s 100-member search and rescue team, and she is commander of the reserves.

Around 10 deputies were present for her announcement, and Harding said the office’s full-time staff voted her “deputy of the year” for her efforts in improving the agency. The Elks Club also named her central Virginia law enforcement officer of the year.

Sheriff Chip Harding says Chan Bryant is one of the top cops he’s ever worked with. staff photo

Bryant says nothing makes her happier than hearing her colleagues say, “I love my job.”

She praises Harding’s mentoring, and says he encouraged her to run.

“I don’t look at it as being the first female,” she says. “It’s about being the most capable.”

Lieutenant Mike Wagner with the Albemarle County Police Department says he’s also a candidate in the November 5 election, but is not certain whether he will run as a Republican.

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Unauthorized commission: Council candidate says city will pay for portrait

John Hall. Photo by Eze Amos

John Hall has run for City Council before. He’s also been banned from City Hall back in the early aughts because of behavior that caused then-city manager Gary O’Connell concern, such as showing up at City Council wrapped in foil, according to former councilor Rob Schilling.

Hall plans to launch another run for council February 1, but he’s run into a problem with the city again after asking an artist to paint a portrait of Heather Heyer and Susan Bro to hang in council chambers—and telling her the city would pay for the painting, he said in an email he shared with C-VILLE Weekly.

Interim City Manager Mike Murphy said it was “highly inappropriate” for Hall to imply to artist Kelly Oakes that he had the authority to commission a painting and Murphy asked him to cease doing so in an email to Hall. “If you continue to portray yourself in person or in writing as an agent of the City Council authorized to expend city funds, I will refer your actions to the commonwealth’s attorney for possible prosecution pursuant to the Virginia Governmental Frauds Act,” says Murphy.

Oakes, who now lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, says that when Hall sent her the request, “I kind of knew it wasn’t true.” She says she painted Hall for a show she did about a year ago when she was doing portraits of people who were clients of the Haven. “A lot of people are ignored because they’re mentally ill,” she says. “I knew he had no right to do that, but I knew his heart was in the right place.”

C-VILLE was not able to immediately reach Hall. In 2017, he told this reporter he’d been diagnosed as bipolar.

And in another development, Hall planned to announce his run for council February 1 with a rally and ringing of a Liberty Bell replica at the Ridge Street fire station, followed by a post-rally reception at the Omni, according to an email he sent to local media.

Scott Morgan, associate director of sales at the Omni, replies that “under no circumstances” did he agree to host a reception at the Omni, and writes in bold, “Again, the Omni is not a location for any rally or post reception on February 1st.”

At Hall’s rally at the fire station, he addressed the situation, and said he would not be having his follow-up event at the Omni. “Some things are said verbally, and then when the pressure’s put on, they back down,” he said.

He also addressed the portrait of Heyer and Bro that he wants to commission, and said if he is elected, and he is able to commission it, taxpayers will pay for it.

And he shared some other plans for if he’s elected. He wants to encourage local students to study trades at CATEC, improve infrastructure, and replace a “dangerous gas line” near The Corner. In an earlier interview with C-VILLE, he said he’d like to replace the trees on the Downtown Mall with dogwoods, which wouldn’t hold as much ice and snow, because if someone were to walk under the existing trees as ice was falling, they “could be killed,” Hall said.

At his rally, which he said promoted “peace, togetherness, and union,” he rang the Liberty Bell replica once in honor of the First Amendment. And he ended his speech with a quote he attributed to Jimi Hendrix: “When the power of love overcomes the power of hate, the world will know peace.”

The Charlottesville Fire Department referred a call asking if its station was hosting Hall’s rally to city spokesman Brian Wheeler, who provides a January 25 letter from Murphy to Hall, in which Murphy denied Hall’s request to hold a rally there because the fire station property is not available for use by the general public. Wheeler notes that there is a public sidewalk in the area.

Updated 10:43am with the Omni response.

Updated 11:40am with the city’s response about using the fire station for campaign rallies.

Updated 1:30pm February 1 with information from Hall’s campaign announcement.

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Mallek seeks fourth term

Supervisor Ann Mallek wants more economic development and less stream degradation. She's running for a fourth term representing the White Hall District. staff photo

Albemarle native Ann Mallek likes serving on the Board of Supervisors so much that she’s running for a fourth term.

“I enjoy all the work,” she says. “And meeting people. Especially meeting people.”

The 68-year-old farmer and educator, who represents the White Hall District, says, “My skill over the past 11 years is to listen carefully to these diverse opinions and to learn my constituents’ needs and concerns.”

At a January 16 announcement in the Albemarle County Office Building, she listed her accomplishments, including an agreement with the city to improve court infrastructure and parking that will keep county courts downtown, and an ordinance in the works that will have the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau focus on more programming and destination activities. Mallek had previously expressed concern that the county was not getting its money’s worth from the bureau and its wishes were ignored.

She cited a need for economic development after learning that 465 families in her district had both parents working and were still earning below the poverty line. She noted that for a long time, the board saw economic development as anti-environmental.

If businesses grow and provide better jobs, that also shifts the tax burden from residential property owners, who now pay over 80 percent of the tax revenue pie, she said.

When Mallek was first elected, growth was seen as the biggest threat in the county. That slowed with the recession, but as population has risen—along with the demand for services—she’s hearing some of the same concerns from 2007: “Where are all these people coming from?”

Growth means the county has to provide the capital expenditures that were postponed during the recession, such as school additions, parks, and improved fire stations, as well the services citizens demand, like sidewalks and recycling. “We can and must find these solutions together,” she said.

Mallek also revealed her own growth while on the board, and acknowledged the history she didn’t learn while a student at Albemarle High in the 1960s. She didn’t know that families were forced off their land to build the Shenandoah National Park, and she has worked on a chimney memorial to recognize those families.

“I also never learned about the lynching of John Henry James in Ivy in 1898,” she said. “We must find ways to share the history that has divided us.”

Mallek ran unopposed in 2015. And so far, no one else has indicated plans to challenge her.

 

 

 

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Hingeley runs: Veteran defender wants prosecutor job

Jim Hingeley promises a more “progressive, humane approach” to criminal justice in his campaign for Albemarle commonwealth's attorney. Staff photo

Dozens of people, many from the legal community, braved the chill January 23 to stand in front of Albemarle Circuit Court, where Jim Hingeley, founder of the Charlottesville Albemarle Public Defender Office, announced his campaign for Albemarle commonwealth’s attorney.

“It’s time for criminal justice reform in Albemarle County,” said Hingeley, 71. He said he wants to take a more “progressive, humane approach” to prosecution, because lengthy prison sentences come at a cost to society.

Hingeley will seek the Democratic nomination, and he took aim at the Republican incumbent. Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert Tracci, said Hingeley, was putting nonviolent offenders in jail and had increased by 29 percent the number of cases tried last year in circuit court, where felonies are heard.

“Many times Mr. Tracci has asked for jail time for driving with suspended licenses,” says Hingeley. “I won’t do that.”

The state’s policy of automatically suspending driver’s licenses for unpaid court costs and fines is murky since a judge ruled December 21 the practice is likely unconstitutional.

Tracci, who plans to run for reelection, says he has stopped prosecuting those cases since the injunction. He also says the county has seen an increase in felony offenses in recent years.

Hingeley stressed his 43 years of experience as an attorney handling thousands of cases. “We’ve seen examples of how inexperience can affect justice,” he said. And he drew applause when he said he would not pursue the death penalty.

So far, Hingeley has raised over $10,000, most of that from a committee for Andrew Sneathern, who ran for the 5th District congressional seat last year and who was encouraged by some to run for commonwealth’s attorney. Sneathern introduced Hingeley

He lauded Hingeley’s “recognition of the dignity of every member of the community,” while excoriating the war on drugs and Virginia’s punitive misdemeanor marijuana possession laws, which “take driver’s licenses away for something that has nothing to do with driving.”

Hingeley, currently a city resident, says the law allows him to run in the county, and notes that former commonwealth’s attorneys Denise Lunsford and Jim Camblos lived in the city when they were elected and subsequently moved to the county. He says he’s planning to move to the county before the election “because I’m very committed to this.”

Among those gathered at Hingeley’s announcement were Albemarle Clerk of Court John Zug, Charlottesville Clerk Llezelle Dugger, who used to work for Hingeley in the public defender’s office, Albemarle sheriff candidate Chan Bryant, and City Councilor Wes Bellamy.

“I’m entering this race because we need to turn Albemarle County’s criminal justice system in a different direction,” he said. “I’m entering this race because our community can and should end the politics of mass incarceration.”

 

 

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Snook announces run for council

Attorney Lloyd Snook wants to help Charlottesville get its "ship righted." staff photo

Around 100 of Charlottesville’s Democratic establishment packed Bashir’s January 15 for defense attorney Lloyd Snook’s launch into the race for City Council.

Snook cited “dysfunction at the top” of city government as the impetus for joining the race. “There are things that are going on in the city that I want to be a part of helping to fix,” he said.

He listed a morale problem in city hall, and said, “The police department got me really concerned. Snook, a criminal defense lawyer for 39 years, said police are not getting support.

Snook served on the Planning Commission in the 1980s, and said, “For many years, we thought we were a 20th-century town, when we’re a 21st-century city with 21st-century problems,” such as affordable housing, gentrification and transportation planning. “I want to prepare the city for the 21st century.”

The third plank of his platform is the “prison pipeline,” which is often called the school-to-prison pipeline, but Snook said he thinks that’s unfair to schools when they only have children six hours a day. He wants to looks at other factors, like housing and food, that affect children and families.

After the August 12 white supremacist invasion, he said the city’s response has not been very constructive. Snook seemed unfazed by unruly City Council meetings and quoted Martin Luther King Jr.: “Riot is the language of the unheard.”

Snook’s mother, Helen Snook, worked toward integration in the 1960s, and her son said part of the city’s dysfunction is in how it’s dealt with racial issues. “That needs to change, frankly more from the white side than the black side,” he said. “There’s a level of well-placed deserved anger that we as white folks tend not to acknowledge.”

Attending the launch were councilors Heather Hill and Kathy Galvin. Galvin, whose term will end this year, has not announced whether she will seek a third go on council. Nor have fellow councilors Wes Bellamy and Mike Signer announced whether they’re going to run again for the three open seats.

Delegate David Toscano drove over from the General Assembly in Richmond to be at Bashir’s. He said he ran for City Council in 1990 with Kay Slaughter and Snook, who came up short in votes. “[Snook] came up and said, ‘David, I’m writing you your first check,’” and handed Toscano a check. “I’m returning it,” said the delegate.

Delegate David Toscano had a favor to repay to council candidate Lloyd Snook. staff photo

Snook joins Dem candidates Michael Payne and Sena Magill in the likely June 11 Democratic primary. Independents Paul Long and John Hall have also announced runs.