What's going to happen to the quarter-million-dollars worth of solar panels on the slated-for-demolition Main Street Arena? TBD.
Photo by Skyclad Aerial
Hot topic
In 2012, the Local Energy Alliance Program floated a low-interest loan of $280,000 for Mark Brown to install solar panels on top of the Main Street Arena using a $500,000 grant from the city. Now that he’s sold the building and it’s slated for demolition, some are wondering what will happen to the panels on the roof.
The loan was paid in full when Brown listed the property, confirms LEAP spokesperson Kara West.
“The only reason we put those panels in was because the city wanted us to,” says Brown, who says he broke even on the panels. “Most of the savings came from them shading the building from sun on that side of the building.”
Solar expert Roger Voisinet says some parts of the system, such as the inverters, can be recycled more easily than others. As for the panels, “It depends,” he says.
There’s plenty that can be recycled from the building, he observes, such as the copper roof and the equipment that makes it an ice rink, which current owner Jaffray Woodriff pledged to donate to a business venture that would create a new ice rink in a different location.
Woodriff’s Taliaferro Junction LLC bought the property in early 2017 for $5.7 million, and the arena, as well as the building that houses Escafé, are all coming down to make way for a tech center. That won’t happen until the Board of Architectural Review approves the site plan, probably not before this summer, according to city planner Brian Haluska.
Details are not final on what will happen with the solar panels, according to a Woodriff spokesperson.
The solar panel loan was controversial at the time, says Brown. “I don’t think there were any real losers. It wasn’t an Omni bailout deal.” That’s a reference to the city pumping $11 million in taxpayer funds to the hotel in the ’80s and secretly forgiving the loans in closed executive sessions a decade later.
Says Brown, “I’d assume [the panels] will be thrown in the garbage.”
“There are people in Virginia history that I think it’s appropriate to memorialize and remember that way, and others that I would have a difference of opinion on.”—Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfaxspeaking to reporters after he declined to adjourn the Senate January 22 to honor General Stonewall Jackson
New city flack
Brian Wheeler, executive director of Charlottesville Tomorrow, will take over as spokesperson for the City of Charlottesville, a position Miriam Dickler most recently held. Wheeler starts the $98,000-a-year-plus-benefits job (more than $5,000 above Dickler’s salary) February 20. He co-founded the online news nonprofit in 2005 and implemented a groundbreaking partnership with the Daily Progress. He will devote the remainder of his time with Charlottesville Tomorrow to finding a fundraising successor.
Paw patrol
The Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA is housing a group of canines that Humane Society International rescued from a dog meat farm in Namyangju, South Korea. Many of the animals suffered eye infections, skin disease and have leg and paw sores from standing and sitting on thin wire mesh. HSI rescued 170 pups in total, but it’s unclear how many are up for adoption locally.
Police Academy director dies
File photo Jen Fariello
Albemarle resident Hugh Wilson, creator of “WKRP in Cincinnati,” died January 14 at age 74. He was a writer for “The Bob Newhart Show,” and he broke into directing with Police Academy in 1984. He also directed Guarding Tess and The First Wives Club, and in 2001 made Mickey with fellow Albemarlean John Grisham.
#metoo for UVA board member
First lady of New Jersey Tammy Murphy says she was sexually assaulted while a second-year student at UVA. Murphy, who graduated in 1987 and sits on the Board of Visitors, revealed the attack at a January 20 Women’s March event in Morristown, New Jersey. She says she was pulled into the bushes walking home alone and managed to escape. Her attacker was later jailed for a different crime.
Another counterprotester arrested
Six months after the Unite the Right rally, police arrested Donald Blakney, 51, for malicious wounding near the Market Street Garage melee. He was released on $2,000 bond.
Worst headline about a UVA alum
“Another sycophant trashes her reputation” was Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank’s January 16 piece about UVA law’s Kirstjen Nielsen, now secretary of Homeland Security, who denied hearing President Donald Trump use the term “shithole” to describe the countries he doesn’t want immigrants from in the infamous meeting at which she was present.
Killed bills
Here’s what legislation has died in the General Assembly so far.
SB360 would allow localities to ban firearms at permitted events.
SB385 limits handgun purchases to one a month.
SB444 allows localities to remove war memorials, and it died in Senate committee on party line vote 7-6 January 16. House Minority Leader David Toscano has a similar bill in the House of Delegates.
SB245 prohibits conversion therapy for LGBTQ youths.
SB665, carried by state Senator Creigh Deeds, adds Charlottesville and Albemarle to the list to localities where it’s unlawful to carry certain firearms in public places.
SB744 makes not wearing a seatbelt a primary offense and requires backseat passengers to be belted. Currently police can’t pull over a driver for being seatbelt-less and can only ticket if they observe another primary violation.
Virginia State Capitol building. Photo by Skip Plitt/Wikimedia
If you thought 2017 was a year like no other, well, 2018 will likely continue to ride the tide of the unprecedented, at least according to what we’ve seen in the new year’s first week.
The General Assembly begins its session January 10 with a tsunami shift from last year’s seemingly unbreachable 66-34 GOP majority. The makeover from the November 2017 election unseated 15 white male Republicans. Among the 15 Democrats taking office are 11 women, including the state’s first transgender legislator, first openly lesbian delegate, first Asian American and first Latinas.
For a few months, it looked like the legislature would be evenly split 50-50, until a random drawing January 4 kept the balance of power with the Republicans 51-49 when the 94th District’s David Yancey’s name was pulled out of a bowl to break the tie with Dem Shelly Simonds.
Even if Simonds asks for another recount, which means Yancey won’t be seated until the recount is certified, the GOP will hold a 50-49 majority, enough for it to elect Kirk Cox to succeed longtime speaker Bill Howell.
“We’ve never had a tied race for equitable distribution of the House of Delegates,” says State Board of Elections Vice Chair Clara Belle Wheeler. “We’ve never had a 50-50 split. There’s no protocol on how to pick a speaker.”
That crisis was averted, but questions remain about how the shift in power will affect legislation and committee assignments, where previously, Democratic bills went to die in subcommittee.
“The speaker has immense power,” says former Daily Progress political reporter Bob Gibson. “He has the ability to assign all members to all committees—at any time. The speaker assigns all bills to committees. It’s unlike anyone in the Senate.”
House Minority Leader David Toscano is optimistic that Cox won’t stack committees with Republicans because for the past two decades, the House leadership has agreed to proportional representation on committees.
Of course, those proportions look a lot different with a 66-34 majority than a slimmed down 51-49 majority.
“There is no doubt November 7 was an earthquake in Virginia,” says Toscano.
UVA Center for Politics’ Geoffrey Skelley says, “On the face of it, it’s a closer divided chamber. Previously, when Republicans were working with a very large majority, they could ignore anything Democrats had to say.”
Going in to the session even with a slim majority, “the GOP doesn’t have to worry about power sharing,” says Skelley.
The nearly even body has led Toscano to warn his members to not call in sick and not go to the bathroom during the floor session, in case a close vote is called while the member is away, the Washington Post reports.
And it’s not like shenanigans haven’t taken place in both chambers in the past.
The last time the House was this closely split was in 1998, when Dems held 50 seats and the GOP had 49, plus an independent who tended to vote with Republicans. “When the session opened, the Democrats had a slight majority and reelected Thomas Moss as speaker before other Republicans could be seated,” recounts Skelley. “There was a lot of outrage.”
And in 2013, with a 20-20 Senate split, Republicans took advantage of Democratic Senator Henry Marsh’s absence to attend President Barack Obama’s inauguration to vote to redraw the lines and take a chunk out of Marsh’s district.
Skelley doesn’t think the GOP can write off Dem political pressure after the 2017 election, especially with midterm congressional elections looming. “At the same time, in this partisan era, I’m going to vote on them battening down the hatches, especially if they’re stacking committees.”
Skelley points out that the House makeup could still shift if Simonds calls for a recount. And that’s not the only district where election results are being challenged. In the 28th District around Fredericksburg, where Republican Bob Thomas won by 73 votes after a recount, voters have filed suit in federal court asking for a special election because 147 voters were given the wrong ballots for their district. “That’s another potential sleeping dog,” he says.
And while all attention has been focused on the uncertainty in the House of Delegates, Republicans hold a slim 21-19 lead in the Senate, with a Democratic lieutenant governor as tiebreaker, offering an opportunity for bipartisanship in the usually more moderate body.
Albemarle Delegate Rob Bell, a Republican who’s heading to Richmond for his 17th session, is not perturbed by the influx of Dems. He says he’s served in close sessions before, as well as under both Republican and Democratic governors. “For a bill to become law, Governor Northam has to sign it, and we have to work together for that to happen,” he says.
Speaker Cox hasn’t made committee assignments yet, but with Bell the vice chair and senior member of the Courts of Justice committee, it’s possible he could end up chair. [Update January 11: Bell was named chair.]
State Senator Creigh Deeds was in the House of Delegates the last time it was this closely split in 1998, and he says most Republicans there now have no experience not being in the super majority. Photo by Jackson Smith
Twelve-term Republican Delegate Steve Landes, who represents western Albemarle, also has accrued seniority, and last year was chair of the education committee and vice chair of appropriations.
“One of my concerns is from listening to a lot of new members, who seem to be anti-business,” says Landes. “When the governor-elect is trying to improve the economy, saying business is the enemy” is not helpful, he says.
Landes offers a different perspective from pundits on how the House will operate with the influx of Dems. “The majority of what we do is not partisan.”
As for the still possibly up-in-the-air election results, says Landes, “We’ll play the cards we’re dealt.”
The General Assembly is a part-time gig, with the budget session lasting 60 days if all goes well. To Republican Delegate Matt Fariss, who represents southern Albemarle, some of the newly elected delegates seemed unaware that they need to be in Richmond for eight or nine weeks.
“My freshman year there were 13 of us,” he says. Adjusting to the House was like “drinking water from a firehose,” he says. “We knew to be quiet and learn.”
When it comes to his new colleagues, he says, “It’ll be interesting to see what they can get done.”
State Senator Creigh Deeds, who first came to the General Assembly in 1992, says the biggest difference will be “most Republicans in the House of Delegates have never been there when they didn’t have a supermajority.”
Says Deeds, “I think having to work with the other side is not a bad thing in a democracy.”
Big issues
Biennium budget
Every other year, the General Assembly makes a budget, and this is the year.
“The budget will be and always is the biggest issue,” says Landes. “The unknown is whether we’ll have additional dollars. That could help us or hurt us.”
“The hardy perennials are still there—education, Medicaid and Medicaid expansion,” says Bell.
“The good news is our economy is picking up,” says Toscano. The biennium budget outgoing Governor Terry McAuliffe submitted has $500 million earmarked for new Standards of Quality for education, including teacher salaries, he says.
“Teachers and rural sheriffs’ departments need to get paid more,” says Fariss. “They’re having a hard time keeping deputies.” And he wants to avoid the situation of a couple of years ago when state employees were promised 2 percent raises, only to have state revenues fall short.
Medicaid expansion
McAuliffe pressed to expand Medicaid for 400,000 uninsured Virginians and take federal Affordable Care Act dollars every year he was in office—to no avail in the GOP-dominated General Assembly.
Bell, who is not a supporter of expanded Medicaid, refuses to speculate on how it will fare this year. “I always hesitate to predict,” he says.
“We have a real shot at doing that,” offers Toscano.
“I honestly think Medicaid expansion has a real chance this year,” says Deeds, because the need for coverage continues to grow, especially in mental health.
Former reporter Gibson also says Medicaid expansion has a better chance, especially with a couple of moderate Republicans in the Senate open to the idea. And he points out that Democratic Governor-elect Ralph Northam, who campaigned on expanded health care, strikes a “cooperative, bipartisan tenor.”
Northam is also the first governor elected who’s a Sorensen Institute alum, notes Gibson, who used to head the political leadership institute. “He’s a true moderate.”
However, Skelley says the Republicans who lost their seats in the House were the moderates. “If the House is even more conservative, that would auger poorly for Medicaid expansion. That’s such a polarizing issue.”
Nonpartisan redistricting
As more citizens understand the impact of gerrymandering, which gave Republicans their 66-34 House of Delegates majority despite Democrats winning all statewide races since 2012, the call for reform continues.
Previously, “anti-gerrymandering bills, despite Republican support, get killed in subcommittee,” says Gibson, who also co-chairs with former lieutenant governor Bill Bolling, a Republican, an advisory panel with One Virginia 2021, a bipartisan group advocating—and litigating—for compact, contiguous line-drawing when redistricting occurs in 2021 after the 2020 census.
Toscano says redistricting reform “may have a shot and Republicans could say, ‘We’d be better off with nonpartisan redistricting, especially if the Democrats are drawing the lines.’” But such reform requires a constitutional amendment, not an easy process that must go before voters twice before it becomes law.
“I could imagine some consensus on that,” says Skelley. “However, it would have to get out of committee.” The reform requires General Assembly members giving up their right to draw the lines and a constitutional amendment.
“It could be an opportunity for progress,” says Skelley, adding, “I’m skeptical.”
Local legislator bills
Following the summer of hate in Charlottesville, Toscano and Deeds will be carrying bills designed to lessen the area’s attractiveness as a place for violent clashes.
One bill adds Charlottesville and Albemarle to the 10 or so localities in the state that can prohibit people from carrying guns in public places, Toscano says.
Another would allow localities to determine what to do with monuments in public spaces, an issue that’s currently being litigated in Charlottesville after City Council’s vote to remove two Confederate monuments. “Mine would clear that up,” says Toscano.
A third bill was proposed by McAuliffe, who wanted Toscano to carry it, says the delegate. “It gives more flexibility for localities to regulate weapons around demonstrations like August 12.”
Toscano predicts there will be a lot more gun-safety legislation, much of it coming from Northern Virginia delegates who ran on issues such as restricting bump stocks, like those used in the Las Vegas massacre, or reinstating Virginia’s purchasing-one-gun-a-month prohibition.
Going into this legislative session, House Minority Leader David Toscano has warned Democrats not to call in sick or even go to the bathroom during the floor session, in case a close vote is called while the member is away. Photo by Elli Williams
The long-term viability of solar energy depends on the ability to store energy when the sun is not shining, says Toscano, and he’s carrying two bills to encourage increased battery capacity, including tax credits.
And he’s got money in the budget to go to the Daughters of Zion to help figure out who is buried in the downtown cemetery.
Bell is carrying one of his perennials, the Tebow bill, which would allow homeschooled students to participate in public school sports. “McAuliffe vetoed it three times,” he counts.
Bell’s bills typically deal with criminal justice, and this session he’s trying again with restitution reform. Its numbers “shock the conscience,” he says—$230 million overdue to victims.
Service dogs in court became an issue here recently, says Bell, so he wants to define what exactly a service animal is and what sort of notice must be given to have them show up in courtrooms.
He’s also got a bill that re-examines the statute of limitations for animal cruelty.
Landes usually carries legislation dealing with education, and this year he has a bill that establishes academic standards for dual-enrolling high school students who take community college courses. He also wants to make it easier to move from other professions into teaching to alleviate the teacher shortage, and proposes shortening a collegiate teacher-certification program from five to three years.
Last year Landes caused a stir when he tried to modify the ironclad revenue-sharing with Charlottesville that’s widely loathed by Albemarle residents. “I’m looking at that and hoping to reopen talks between the city and county,” he says.
Redistricting reform is not typically an issue for Republicans, but it is for many of Landes’ gerrymandered constituents, so he’s taking another crack at it, this time focusing on the process around line drawing so that localities don’t make precincts that the legislature will split.
Rustburg resident Fariss says his bills are aimed at reducing regulations to make it easier for people to do business. For example, a single proprietor locksmith has to jump through the same hoops as a business with 10 people, he says.
And Fariss has had it with hunters who dump animal remains all over the place. “It makes me so mad when these deer hunters throw deer carcasses out along public roads,” he says. He wants stiffer penalties and to draw attention to the unsightly littering.
The bills
Legislators file thousands of bills—literally—during their 60-day session, most of which die quietly in subcommittee. Because the elected ones have until the morning of January 10 to get those bills filed, we’ve only seen a smattering of legislation.
Here’s some of what the General Assembly will be considering.
• Menstrual supplies exempt from sales tax, aka the Dignity Act. If you’re betting this bill didn’t come from a man, you’d be right. Another bill provides female inmates menstrual supplies at no extra cost.
• Swearing or cursing in public no longer a crime.
• Elimination of the Kings Dominion law. A couple of bills would allow localities to set their own school calendars, rather than have to request permission from the General Assembly to start school before Labor Day.
• Absentee voting for any reason, unlike current law that only allows specific excuses for not showing up at the polls on election day to vote.
• Female genital mutilation would become a Class 6 felony rather than the misdemeanor it currently is.
• Grand larceny threshold. Currently stealing something that costs $200 is a felony. Various bills up that limit to $500, $750, $1,000 and $1,500.
• Fornication between unmarried people would no longer be a crime.
• No talking while driving. Virginia could join the many other states that prohibit use of a handheld cellphone while driving.
Former registrar:Newport News panel botched recount
Former Albemarle County registrar Jim Heilman, who has traveled all over the world monitoring elections in developing democracies, has been through at least eight recounts. “I believe I’m fairly knowledgeable about recounts,” he says.
And that’s why he feels qualified to declare that the three-judge panel handling the recount in the 94th District, upon which control of the House of Delegates hinged, made “two major mistakes.”
Democratic challenger Shelly Simonds trailed Republican incumbent David Yancey by 10 votes in the November 7 election for the 94th District seat representing the Newport News area.
A December 19 recount put Simonds ahead by one vote. The Republican leadership sent its congratulations and the recount results went to a three-judge panel the next day for certification.
That’s where things went screwy, say Heilman, who also is a member of Albemarle’s electoral board, but stresses he’s speaking personally, not as a board member.
Overnight, an unnamed Republican contacted one of the judges and said an invalid ballot should be counted, says Heilman. And the three-judge panel reopened the recount.
“Mistake No. 1,” he says.
Former Albemarle County registrar Jim Heilman says a three-judge panel made two big mistakes in the Newport News district recount. Photo by Eze Amos
He explains that recount officials are appointed by each party, and with Democratic and Republican observers on hand, they feed all of the paper ballots through the optical scanners, which kick out undervotes or overvotes. Those are the ones recount officials scrutinize, he says.
And if there are questions about the ballot’s validity, it goes to the three-judge panel, says Heilman.
The ballot in question, which had bubbles filled out for both Simonds and Yancey and a line through Simonds’ name, was declared invalid by the recount officials, who signed off on the recount, as did the registrar, says Heilman.
“The three-judge panel has no reason to open the recount,” says Heilman. “The election is over. Under the Code of Virginia, they had no legal right to reopen the recount.”
The second mistake, he says, was to count the vote for Yancey.
“The universal principle is that the intent of the voter is clear,” says Heilman. State election guidelines have “pages and pages” on what constitutes clear intent and whether a ballot is valid or invalid, he says.
The judges looked at other races marked on the ballot and reasoned that because the voter went Republican, using an X to indicate Ed Gillespie for governor, the intent was to vote for Yancey.
“No, no, no,” says Heilman.”It could be a split ticket. They shouldn’t be looking at other races.”
State elections guidelines are clear, he says. “Two shaded bubbles is an invalid ballot.”
Albemarle resident and State Board of Elections Vice Chair Clara Belle Wheeler disagrees, and says a 2015 revision in the rules for recounts allows the ballot to be counted if the intention is understandable. “The three-judge panel deliberated for over two hours,” she says, and until the panel certifies the recount, “It’s not a done deal.”
Heilman and Wheeler agree about one thing: If a voter marks the wrong candidate, he should get a new ballot.
Heilman says the optical reader likely would have had a pop-up screen indicating a problem with the ballot when the vote was cast. “I guess the voter didn’t want a new ballot,” he surmises.
The three-judge panel declared the race a tie at 11,608 votes each. The panel refused to reconsider Simonds’ challenge to the recount, and less than a week before the General Assembly was gaveled into session, Yancey won a drawing out of a bowl January 4, giving Republicans a 51-49 majority in the House and the opportunity to elect a GOP speaker.
Many protesters at the July KKK rally covered their faces after police used tear gas.
photo Eze Amos
How did Richard Stuart, trustee of the Westmoreland County Volunteer Fire Department since 1999, father of three, and 2014 Virginia chapter winner of the American Academy of Pediatrics Child Advocate Award earn the attention of two United Nations Special Rapporteurs concerned with the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly? As Virginia state senator for the 28th District, the Republican introduced a bill during the 2017 legislative session that was “incompatible with human rights laws and would unduly restrict the possibility for individuals to freely exercise their rights to freedom of opinion and expression, and peaceful assembly.”
Yes, Virginia, the august body of the UN itself is worried about your right to assemble —and the rights of citizens in 17 additional states where restrictions on free speech or assembly were either proposed or passed. Stuart’s bill, which was defeated 14-26 with not a single Democrat supporting it, in the words of last spring’s UN report would have “dramatically increased penalties for protesters engaged in assemblies considered ‘unlawful.’”
Specifically, failure to disperse after an assembly is declared unlawful would have moved up to a Class 1 misdemeanor from Class 3 under Stuart’s bill. About SB1055 the UN rapporteurs concluded, “any law that would chill protesting also threatens the right to freedom of expression.”
That means the two protesters arrested after Charlottesville’s July 8 KKK rally and the August 12 Unite the Right convergence would be facing up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $2,500 rather than the current maximum $500 fine with no jail time.
Addressed to the United States’ permanent mission to the UN, the report asks what measures the federal government intends to ensure state legislation accords with international standards of free expression and assembly. If that wasn’t a rhetorical question six months ago when the report was filed, it surely is now.
Ask Jemele Hill or Colin Kaepernick about the Trump administration’s position on free expression. Or, closer to home, recall the lies uttered by the president himself to discredit the August 12 counterprotesters. What’s the Department of Justice going to do to uphold freedom of expression and assembly at the state level, UN? I’ll bet very little.
Which means you’ve got to fend for yourself, Old Dominion. Don’t wait for Jeff Sessions to stand up for your rights and don’t expect a UN intervention. Richmond’s new legislative session begins on January 10, 2018, with committee meetings scheduled between now and then. Pay attention to what’s being drafted and passed through those committees using the General Assembly website. Respond, resist, and get a permit before you protest.
**
Speaking of the mirthless U.S. attorney general, the Code Pink activist whose conviction for laughing during Sessions’ confirmation hearing in January was overturned, will be back in court next month.
Desiree Fairooz, of Loudoun County, refused a plea deal and is scheduled for retrial on November 13, according to her Twitter feed. (“I still cannot believe the government refuses to drop this,” she tweeted. “Vindictive!”)
It’s quaint, if nothing else, to think of the UN raising the question of how free speech and free assembly will be protected on the federal level, while the government goes out of its way to punish a 61-year-old activist for chortling. Quaint, maybe even ironic, but it’s definitely not a laughing matter.
In his last year in office, Governor Terry McAuliffe was unable to deliver on a campaign promise to expand Medicaid to 400,000 uninsured citizens, which is supported by 69 percent of Virginians, according to a recent University of Maryland poll. The General Assembly’s Republican majority prevented that, but it was not able to thwart another McAuliffe vow: that he would veto any “socially divisive” legislation.
McAuliffe signed 40 of his record 111 vetoes this session, and maintained a perfect tally of having zero overridden by the General Assembly, which needs two-thirds votes in each house to do so. Republicans have a sizable 66-34 majority in the House of Delegates, and 21-19 in the Senate.
Vetoed were:
Rob Bell’s Tebow bill to allow homeschoolers to play public school sports
Steve Landes’ Beloved bill requiring schools to notify parents of sexually explicit instructional material
Creation of charter schools without local school board approvals
Religious freedom bill, which LGBT advocates say legalizes discrimination
Legislation prohibiting sanctuary cities
Switchblade concealed carry and possession by minors
Criminal and Virginia Lottery background checks for applicants of public assistance
DMV photos added to electronic poll books
Concealed carry without permits for protective order seekers and military personnel under 21 years old
Planned Parenthood defunding
Coal tax credit
See you in court
Albemarle County declines Charlottesville’s offer of arbitration after City Council votes 3-2 to defy county law and allow bike trails at Ragged Mountain Natural Area.
Sheriff Chip Harding File photo
Crime studies
The Virginia State Crime Commission will study the impact of collecting DNA for additional Class 1 misdemeanors, a move long advocated by Albemarle Sheriff Chip Harding, as well as the decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana, which was favored by nearly eight out of 10 Virginia respondents in a 2016 VCU poll.
Mandatory tax disclosure
Although Representative Tom Garrett said at his March 31 town hall he didn’t care that President Donald Trump did not release his income tax returns, last week Garrett filed a bill that would require future presidents-elect to do so.
‘Patricia Kluge’s Third Act is Sparkly’
The New York Times reports the former winemaker, who sold her business to buddy Donald Trump in 2011, has rebounded from bankruptcy and is now designing jewelry pieces that sell for between $30,000 and $45,000.
“Everybody who knows Donald knows his shenanigans.”
—Patricia Kluge to the Times on Albemarle House litigation with President Trump
Courtesy Jen Sorensen
No funny business
Freelance cartoonist Jen Sorensen, whose work has appeared in C-VILLE each week since 2002, is a 2017 Pulitzer Prize finalist “for a thoughtful and powerful selection of work appearing in a variety of U.S. publications and often challenging the viewer to look beyond the obvious.”
Inappropriate hugger in court
Brien Gray-Anderson, 21, who was charged with assaulting women on the Rivanna Trail last spring, pleaded guilty April 10 to one felony count of abduction and two misdemeanor sexual battery charges. Two women were the victims of unsolicited hugs and bottom touching, and a third was pulled to the ground but fought Gray-Anderson off. He’ll be sentenced August 1.
$9 million facelift
A $9 million project that had UVA’s Northridge Internal Medicine building on Ivy Road blanketed in scaffolding for nearly two years is winding down. Its updated look includes a new entrance and lobby, larger elevators, a new staircase and a more traditional architectural look similar to the Transitional Care Hospital next door.
Beth Collins and her daughter, Jennifer, moved to Colorado to be able to legally obtain the cannabis oil that helped control Jennifer’s seizures.
Contributed photo
Within the next few years, three Charlottesville families will be able to legally obtain the cannabis oil extract that eases the seizures of their children with debilitating intractable epilepsy, thanks to unanimous approval in the General Assembly in February, passing even the usually marijuana-averse House of Delegates 99-0.
Good news, right? Yet none of those families will speak on the record with C-VILLE Weekly. The reason? Marijuana is still illegal, and they fear that could bring repercussions for those who have a federal security clearance or ties to law enforcement or professional licensing, according to one of the parents.
“Nothing we do changes federal law,” says Delegate Rob Bell, who chairs the criminal law subcommittee.
Some, like Fairfax resident Beth Collins, moved to Colorado in 2013 to be able to legally obtain cannabidiol oil, aka CBD, when doctor-prescribed pharmaceuticals couldn’t control the seizures her daughter, Jennifer, was experiencing, and their side effects were making her suicidal, in a rage and violent, says Collins.
THC-A, another non-psychoactive cannabis extract, lessened Jennifer’s seizures and “stopped her grand mal seizures entirely,” says Collins. But they missed the family they left behind, and after a year returned to Virginia.
Jennifer wrote a letter to members of the General Assembly. “Within 10 minutes we heard from Senator [Dave] Marsden,” says Collins. “He said, ‘This is ridiculous.’”
In 2015, the General Assembly passed an affirmative defense law, which offered a small protection for those who had a certificate issued by a practitioner stating that the oil was to treat intractable epilepsy.
So while parents were less likely to be busted by the state, they still had no legal way to obtain the oil. “The parents said that doesn’t help us get it,” says Bell.
The latest bill allows the Board of Pharmacy to issue permits to processors to manufacture and provide the oil in approved facilities, but that doesn’t mean families will be able to get it from their nearest CVS anytime soon.
It’s still illegal for a doctor to write a prescription, and the narrow law only applies to intractable epilepsy, not Crohn’s disease or cancer or any of the other health conditions advocates claim medical marijuana aids.
A bill that included those conditions moved from Bell’s criminal law subcommittee to the Joint Commission on Health Care because members felt it required medical expertise, he says. “We felt this wasn’t our strong point.”
“That’s phenomenal,” says Jes Vegas, chapter leader of Jefferson Area NORML. “I am very overjoyed. It was a watershed this year.”
That the General Assembly made a baby step toward medical marijuana, Collins believes, was the result of parent-led lobbying to educate legislators one at a time. “They were so against it at first,” she says. “The fact we had a unanimous vote speaks to how far we’ve come.”
Bell agrees. “For complicated issues, it helps to have more than 15 minutes before the bill is heard. We wanted medical evidence and stories.”
Legislators like Bell learned how profoundly the kids with intractable epilepsy were affected—and how the cannabis oil helped. Jennifer Collins, now 17, testified before the committee. “She was visibly different,” says Bell. “She testified how debilitating it was when she was 15, 16.”
Some of intractable patients’ parents are also lobbying Congress, and met with Representative Tom Garrett last week. Garrett introduced a bill February 27 to federally decriminalize marijuana and remove it from the list of controlled substances, where it’s been categorized a Schedule I drug along with heroin and LSD—drugs deemed to have no medicinal value.
Nicole Miller says the effect cannabis oil has had on Sophia has been “life changing.” Contributed photo
Richmond resident Nicole Miller’s daughter’s rare epilepsy is called Dravet syndrome. “[Sophia] has been having uncontrollable seizures since she was 8 months old,” says Miller. Despite being on four medications, Sophia had life-threatening seizures every 10 to 14 days, says Miller.
When Sophia, now 6, began taking CBD oil in July 2015, she went three months without a seizure, says her mother. “It was life-changing,” says Miller.
Severe seizures can affect a child’s cognitive abilities. Sophia “can say the alphabet, she can add,” says Miller. “The quality of life she has is phenomenal.”
The parents C-VILLE spoke with were circumspect about how they obtain CBD oil, and are concerned about its quality. And there’s the cost. “It’s just so expensive,” says Miller—$275 a month for that one medication.
One of the Charlottesville parents spoke to C-VILLE only on the condition no identifying information was used. Collins finds that fear of publicity understandable. “I think it’s the fact we’re all committing crimes to give our children medicine,” she says.
Before using cannabidiol oil, the local mother described her child as “doped up on a lot of medications that weren’t controlling the seizures,” and that have side effects.
“It’s definitely been better,” she says. And while her child has not been seizure-free, she has seen a significant improvement in them. “Every seizure has different aspects and carries risk of injury and death,” she says.
Collins hopes she and other parents have educated legislators enough to be open to how marijuana can help other conditions. “This is not a legislative decision,” she says. “It should be one made by doctors.”
Angela Lynn runs again in the 25th, most of which is over the mountains.
Staff photo
White Hall resident Angela Lynn is tossing her hat into the 25th District ring, most of which lies in Augusta County, so it’s no surprise that gerrymandering was the first issue she talked about during her announcement in front of the Albemarle County Office Building March 7.
Democrat Lynn, who challenged incumbent Steve Landes, R-Weyers Cave, in 2015, says she noticed before her first run that when she went to vote, “There was no one on the ballot except for the incumbent.” She immediately went to work for One Virginia 2021, the group that got shut down on redistricting reform last month in the General Assembly.
Calling gerrymandering a “corrosive issue,” Lynn points out that Landes serves on the privileges and elections committee, which killed this session’s redistricting reform bills.
Landes carried his own resolution that would have forbidden political consideration in drawing district lines. His bill also died in subcommittee along with a handful of others. Senate bills that crossed over to the House of Delegates got a vote from the committee—with Landes voting no—but still met their demise.
Lynn lost to Landes’ overwhelming 66 percent in 2015, and she acknowledges taking the 25th would be tough. While Lynn won in the western sliver of Albemarle that’s part of the district, Landes took 78 percent of the vote in Augusta, and 74 percent in Rockingham County, which is also part of the district.
“The only way for me to be an incumbent in a gerrymandered district is I need new voters,” she says. “I need them to come out. I need the energy we’re seeing now to come out. It’s a call to action.”
“In politics, you don’t ever take anything for granted,” says Landes, who chairs the education committee and is vice chair of appropriations. He says he’ll seek a 12th term to finish work on high school SOL requirements and Medicaid reform.
Military wife Lynn taught public school in Virginia and is the mother of five public school graduates. She says she wants to fully fund education, protect health care and halt the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.
“I need people in September and October who are really fed up,” she says, hoping for an army of volunteers to knock on doors. “This is a really different time.”
Cavaliers Kyle Guy and London Perrantes are Hoos with the 'dos.
Photos Matt Riley
What about London Perrantes?
The New York Post said first-year Hoo Kyle Guy has the best hairdo in college basketball for his man bun/top knot hybrid, but Perrantes’ high-top fade is pretty impressive, too.
ACC bummer
The Cavs exited the tournament in the quarterfinals March 9 after losing 58-71 to Notre Dame. But UVA got a nod and a No. 5 seed from the NCAA, and will play No. 12 seed UNC-Wilmington March 16.
“A five-seed is nothing to scoff at.”
—UVA basketball coach Tony Bennett
Kill bills
The General Assembly laid to rest 1,355 of the 2,335 bills introduced in the 2017 session. Of those killed, more than half—777—died with no recorded votes, according to Virginia Public Access Project. That’s better than last year, when 73 percent disappeared without a trace of how legislators voted.
Bell’s run
Rob Bell. Photo Amy Jackson
Republican Delegate Rob Bell said he’ll seek a ninth term in the General Assembly. First-timer Kellen Squire, an ER nurse who lives in Barboursville, quietly announced a run as a Dem and is the first since 2009 to challenge Bell in the 58th District.
Parking war casualties
Charlottesville Parking Center laid off seven employees following the announcement that Atlanta-based Lanier Parking will manage the Market Street Garage. CPC was disqualified from bidding on the contract, says GM Dave Norris. “The city was playing politics with Mark Brown trying to get one up on him.” The laid-off employees could be hired by Lanier, he adds.
Office space
The Downtown Mall is probably the first place you’d take an out-of-town friend, shop for a quirky gift and snag a bite to eat because it’s a good mix of stores, restaurants and entertainment venues. But, believe it or not, the majority of space on the mall is uncharted territory for the public—offices. C-VILLE’s office is there. Author John Grisham looks out from a second-floor space and, among others, Borrowed & Blue, Silverchair Information Systems, WillowTree and Merkle (formerly RKG) are all on the mall.
Here’s how the business mix breaks down:
31% office
22% retail
18% condo/apartment
7% restaurant
22% other
Happening places
Of the 190 storefronts on the Downtown Mall, only 1.05 percent are vacant, which is lower than the peak vacancy rate of 9 percent in both July 2009 and January 2010 during the recession, and the current national average of 9.6 percent. As you can see from the list on the right, other shopping centers in town are on par.
Preston Plaza: 0% vacant
Seminole Square: 0% vacant
Downtown Mall: 1.05% vacant
The Corner: 1.61% vacant
McIntire Plaza: 2.17% vacant
Barracks Road Shopping Center: 4.71% vacant
All together, Charlottesville’s January vacancy rate was 1.78 percent, the lowest since the city began its biannual vacancy study almost a decade ago.
—All figures provided by the City of Charlottesville’s Office of Economic Development
Albemarle’s Chip Harding says he’ll write a check for $5,000 and has raised another $28K to donate to the Virginia Crime Commission, chaired by Delegate Rob Bell, to help study the effects of collecting DNA for misdemeanor convictions. Harding and Hannah Graham’s parents say it would have saved her life if Jesse Matthew’s DNA had been collected following a trespassing conviction.
Revenue sharing stays
Delegate Steve Landes withdrew a budget amendment that would have axed the agreement in which Albemarle pays Charlottesville for not annexing. Virginia outlawed annexation in 1987, and the county has paid the city more than $280 million since the deal went into effect in 1982.
Meredith Woo. Photo Cade Martin
Woo goes to Sweet Briar
UVA’s former dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Meredith Woo, has taken a job as president of Sweet Briar, the Amherst women’s college that was saved from closure by its alumnae in 2015.
Baldwin beef
The historic women’s college in Staunton (that just started accepting applications from men for its residential programs) isn’t too happy about alumnae group Boldly Baldwin, which “publicly professes the desire to divert fundraising away from Mary Baldwin University,” for admitting men and carries a name already used—and trademarked—by the school. The alums are now calling themselves Boldly Lead.
First lady of Charlottesville
Mayor Mike Signer’s wife, Emily Blout, declares herself FLOC on Twitter.
Bigger tax bill
Every year the city and county dispatch appraisers to determine fair market value for every taxable parcel, and the results are in. Both Charlottesville and Albemarle reassessments went out February 1, and property owners saw increases all around, most astoundingly a whopping 29 percent for commercial property in the city. In the county, Scottsville had the biggest bump in assessments. No word yet whether Albemarle will up its 83.9 cents per $100 of value tax rate or the city its 95 cents per $100, but, in any case, your tax bill most likely is going up.
Albemarle increases
Scottsville:3.65%
Samuel Miller:3.20%
Rio:2.96%
Jack Jouett:2.93%
White Hall:2.88%
Rivanna:1.86%
Richmond rundown
Give ICE your immigrants A bill that would require public institutions of higher ed to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement died in subcommittee January 31.
Can’t afford birth control? Too bad Amherst Delegate Ben Cline’s bill to defund Planned Parenthood passed subcommittee February 1. Last year the House was one vote short of overturning Governor Terry McAuliffe’s veto.
Police shooting gag order A bill that makes it illegal for public officials to reveal the identity of an officer involved in a shooting until an investigation is complete advanced to the House of Delegates floor.
Annoying drivers The House passed with bipartisan support February 2 a $250 mandatory fine for driving too slowly in the left lane on highways.
Quote of the week
“Do the right thing!”—Onlookers shouted February 3 after the General Assembly’s House Privileges and Elections Committee adjourned without taking up redistricting reform bills.
So far, Delegate Steve Landes, R-Weyers Cave, has not explained his interest in voluntary settlements such as Albemarle and Charlottesville’s revenue-sharing agreement.
File photo
Since 1982, Albemarle County has paid the city of Charlottesville $280,092,577 in revenue sharing dollars. Here’s a look at contributions for the most recent fiscal years.
Albemarle County
Albemarle hates it and Charlottesville loves it. But neither jurisdiction saw Delegate Steve Landes’ budget amendment coming that could scrub a 1982 agreement in which Albemarle pays millions every year to Charlottesville for the privilege of not being annexed—even though the General Assembly put a moratorium on annexation in 1987.
“The county was only recently made aware of this budget amendment proposed by Delegate Landes and is currently assessing exactly how it might impact the revenue-sharing agreement, including budgetary implications,” says county spokesperson Jody Saunders about the measure first reported by NBC29.
Albemarle has paid Charlottesville more than $280 million in the 35 years the agreement has been in effect, most recently writing a check for nearly $16 million for fiscal year 2016-17. The revenue-sharing agreement was signed after it was approved in a referendum, with the county agreeing to share 10 cents of its real estate tax rate each year with the city.
Weyers Cave resident Landes represents western Albemarle, and while he’s heard from irate constituents about the revenue-sharing agreement, particularly at budget time when the perpetually cash-strapped county debates real estate tax increases, the move came as a “total surprise” to the Board of Supervisors, says chair Diantha McKeel.
“Right now we’re gathering information,” she says. “We don’t know what the ramifications are.”
She suggested C-VILLE contact Landes for more information about the amendment, but so far, the delegate has not returned multiple requests for comment.
“We just sort of spotted it,” says House Minority Leader David Toscano. “[Landes] is on the appropriations committee. It would be easy for him to get it in a budget amendment.”
Toscano has several concerns. The revenue- sharing agreement is a policy issue that typically would be handled with a patron who would introduce a bill, he says. Using a budget amendment is “very unusual,” he says.
“There are terrible unintended consequences,” he says. Around 50 other jurisdictions, including Lexington and Rockbridge County and Lynchburg and Campbell County, have voluntary agreements on annexation issues. “There are tremendous implications for other jurisdictions,” says Toscano.
Indeed, C-VILLE had to seek a translation from UVA law professor Rich Schragger.
“Hmmm, this is hard, but I think that it means that agreements between localities that involve a waiver of a right to annex are invalid if the Assembly has placed a moratorium on annexations,” Schragger writes in an e-mail. “In other words, an agreement to forgo exercising a right that is now unavailable to the city (because there is now an annexation moratorium) is invalid.”
What is unclear, says Schragger, is whether the legislature could void an existing contract between Charlottesville and Albemarle that’s supposed to be perpetual.
“It’s a very interesting legal question,” says Toscano. “Typically I don’t believe the legislature can impinge on the right of contracts, but it could be possible. I don’t know.”
Toscano, a former Charlottesville mayor, says he would not support the amendment. The revenue agreement has “benefited both localities,” he says, and suggests the city reserve a portion of the payment for capital improvements that have regional uses. “A classic example would be the courts, which would benefit both jurisdictions.”
Supervisor Rick Randolph made a similar suggestion last year as Albemarle considered moving its courthouses from downtown. “I proposed a reduction of 50 percent of what we’re actually paying,” he says, because of the economic benefit the city gains from having county courts within its limits. “All I was saying was, ‘Let’s talk about it,’” he says.
Not surprisingly, city officials are skeptical about the amendment. “It sounds to me like a political trick,” says City Councilor Bob Fenwick. “It’s a contract. I don’t see how [Landes] can break it. That would wreak havoc on contract law in Virginia.”
Former mayor Dave Norris points out that both jurisdictions agreed to the measure, and says it has served them well. “The city could have collected millions” in tax revenue if it had annexed more of the county’s urban ring, he says, and the revenue sharing has “kept the urban center healthy.”
Toscano suspects the amendment won’t make it into the budget. “I think when Steve realizes he’s opened a can of worms that will affect other jurisdictions, I think he’ll kill it,” he says. “I don’t think he wants to upset the commonwealth’s apple cart.”
Protesters at Mayor Mike Signer's "capital of the resistance" rally express displeasure with President Trump's executive orders.
Staff photo
Protests erupt
President Trump’s January 27 executive order banning refugees from seven Muslim countries caused chaos in airports and demonstrations all over the country. Hundreds packed The Haven January 28 for the first meeting of Indivisible Charlottesville, which is dedicated to opposing Trump’s agenda, and hundreds more demonstrated at UVA the next day. Mayor Mike Signer declared Charlottesville the “capital of the resistance” January 31.
Not everyone is upset with Trump
Congressman Tom Garrett. File photo
New 5th District Congressman Tom Garrett praised the new prez’s flurry of executive orders, and called Signer’s response “reactionary fear mongering” on WINA January 31. Local gubernatorial candidate and Silverback Distillery owner Denver Riggleman says, as a former counter-terrorism intelligence officer, the 90-day vetting period isn’t a Muslim ban.
Kessler in court
The blogger who is collecting a petition to remove Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy from City Council was scheduled to be in Charlottesville General District Court January 31 facing an assault charge, as was James Justin Taylor, whom Jason Kessler says assaulted him. Kessler’s hearing was continued to March 3, according to court records. “You guys are all over this,” he said on the phone, likening his case to “red meat” for reporters.
Shot in the arm
UVA School of Medicine got a $25 million bump from the National Institutes of Health for biomedical research, bringing its 2016 federal funding to $126 million, according to a release.
Richmond rundown
The General Assembly is fast approaching crossover in this year’s session when each house exchanges bills it’s approved.
Gang of four kills redistricting reform Early January 30 in a House subcommittee, multiple bills to address gerrymandering all died at the hands of delegates Randy Minchew, Mark Cole, Tim Hugo and Jackson Miller.
Busted for pot, lose your license A bill to nix the automatic six-month driver’s license suspension on marijuana convictions—unless you’re a juvenile—passed a House of Delegates committee January 27.
More medicinal pot Virginia has had medical marijuana on the books for decades, but no one has ever actually been able to get a prescription for it until last year’s legislature opened up THC-A oil for intractable epilepsy. The Senate okayed January 26 the addition of cancer, HIV, MS and other diseases as eligible for the non-high-producing oil.
Butts out A bill that says cigarette and cigar butts are indeed litter advanced in the General Assembly with bipartisan support.
Tim Kaine scenario A Republican bill in the House removed the governor’s ability to fill temporarily a U.S. Senate seat until the next election, and instead allows the governor to call a special election—but doesn’t specify a time frame. Odds of Terry McAuliffe signing this into law: zilch.
Religious freedom The bill that allows churches to discriminate against LGBTs passed a House committee again, as it did last year. Odds of McAuliffe signing: zip.
The new model is a 2015 Cessna Citation, according to the FAA website. Wikipedia Commons user Markus Eigenheer
But perhaps we were on the right track, amid claims from UVA that there was no new aircraft in the picture. The Federal Aviation Administration’s website documents that tail number N560VA was reserved by the University of Virginia Foundation on December 30—just two days after our report was published. And on January 24, the foundation requested a new number for a 2015 Cessna Citation 560XL.
And what’s this? The university’s original Cessna, marked with tail number N800VA, is listed on Aircraft Shopper Online, a real-time aircraft market, for $1,095,000.
UVA has declined to comment.
Quote of the week
“Our refugee vetting system is the most sophisticated in the world. It is not insecure, it is not unsafe.”—Former U.S. State Department official Robert Kubinec at Sunday’s UVA rally and march, according to the Daily Progress.
Brian Wheeler, executive director of Charlottesville Tomorrow, will take over as spokesperson for the City of Charlottesville, a position Miriam Dickler most recently held. Wheeler starts the $98,000-a-year-plus-benefits job (more than $5,000 above Dickler’s salary) February 20. He co-founded the online news nonprofit in 2005 and implemented a groundbreaking partnership with the Daily Progress. He will devote the remainder of his time with Charlottesville Tomorrow to finding a fundraising successor.
Six months after the Unite the Right rally, police arrested Donald Blakney, 51, for malicious wounding near the Market Street Garage melee. He was released on $2,000 bond.
“Another sycophant trashes her reputation” was Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank’s January 16 piece about UVA law’s Kirstjen Nielsen, now secretary of Homeland Security, who denied hearing President Donald Trump use the term “shithole” to describe the countries he doesn’t want immigrants from in the infamous meeting at which she was present.
