Tag: maurice jones

Categories
News

Call for help: Human Rights Commission asks for more city support

HRC Chair Shantell Bingham says the commission and office need more staffing and resources from the city. PC: Eze Amos

Charlottesville’s Office of Human Rights and Human Rights Commission have an intimidatingly broad mission: to reduce discrimination in the city.  

So perhaps it’s not surprising that the office and its volunteer commission, which are tasked with both investigating individual complaints of discrimination and reviewing city polices for systemic discrimination, have received their fair share of criticism since their creation in 2013. During a 2017 Dialogue on Race meeting, former mayor Dave Norris accused them of not doing enough to uphold the city’s Human Rights Ordinance. At the same meeting, UVA professor Walt Heinecke said the organizations had been largely ineffective, a claim he reiterated in a 2018 Daily Progress op-ed. 

Today, similar feelings persist not just among community members—but among commissioners themselves. At last week’s City Council meeting, HRC Chair Shantell Bingham said that although there was “an uptick” in the commission’s ability to fulfill its role in 2019, “we really want to do more.”

Earlier this month, Charlene Green, who has led the OHR for five years, stepped down to join the Piedmont Housing Alliance. Bingham, who became commission chair last year, says both the commission and the office have faced numerous obstacles over the years. 

“The Office of Human Rights hasn’t been properly staffed for a very long time,” she says. Though the office hired Todd Niemeier as an outreach specialist in 2018, “before it was just [Green] in the office with interns. And now that she’s leaving, it’s going back to there being one staff person…which is just ridiculous.” The city is currently looking for Green’s replacement.

Since Tarron Richardson became city manager, the office and commission hasn’t had a direct line of contact in the city either, says commissioner Ann Smith.

Smith notes that former city manager Maurice Jones was “very involved” with the HRC, but says, “We haven’t had a chance to meet the new city manager.”

To improve the commission and office’s communication with the city, Bingham says there needs to be a city official who the HRC can directly report to. She also recommends that City Council receive and review reports from OHR on a monthly basis, rather than annually. 

Commissioner Sue Lewis suggests council also reexamine the city’s human rights ordinance, particularly the limited authority it gives to the OHR and HRC. They are currently only able to investigate complaints of discrimination in companies with five to 14 employees. Complaints from larger companies are referred to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission office in Richmond. 

If the city gives the OHR more money for staffing, it could turn it into a Fair Employment Practice Agency, which would give the office greater authority and better equip it to handle the thousands of discrimination complaints it receives each year, according to Smith.

City Councilor Sena Magill says the council takes the challenges OHR and HRC have faced seriously, and that equity will be a “huge part” of the city’s strategic plan, with the HRC being “a part of that equity work.”

And, according to Richardson, the city’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year “will include continued support for the Office of Human Rights, the new Office of Equity and Inclusion, and the new Police Civilian Review Board.” 

Categories
News

Meet the (possible) city manager

Mike Mallinoff points to similarities between Charlottesville and Annapolis, where he was city manager. Photo by Eze Amos

By Shrey Dua

Three finalists, out of a field of 37, are vying for the job of Charlottesville city manager, and roughly 100 people showed up to see them at an open-to-the-public interview.

City councilors questioned the candidates at a Jefferson School African American Heritage Center event on March 6, which was followed by a meet-and-greet so citizens could ask their own questions.

The candidates, all men, have city or county management experience, although two were fired from previous jobs, according to the Daily Progress. Apparently that’s not a disqualifier for city managers, as former Charlottesville city manager Maurice Jones was hired for the same job in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, after City Council declined to renew his contract post-August 12.

The position has been open since July 31, with Mike Murphy serving as interim city manager.

Michael Mallinoff had previously been county administrator in Charles County, Maryland, and city manager in Annapolis. Tarron Richardson is city manager in DeSoto, Texas, a Dallas suburb of about 54,000, and Theodore Voorhees is Powhatan county administrator.

Each candidate was met with a similar battery of questions from the five city councilors: They asked about public safety, race relations following the events of August 11 and 12, 2017, and the growing concern over gentrification within the Charlottesville community.

Mallinoff focused on maintaining a transparent governing body, and stressed the similarities between Charlottesville and Annapolis, where he was city manager for four years. He was let go when Annapolis elected a new mayor in 2014.

Richardson emphasized his commitment to working with any and all members of the community to further the city’s goals. “We want to create an environment for those who graduate from high school and college, where they want to come back to the community so you’re bringing folks who have lived here, and gotten their education here, and they can be the ones to work in our businesses and expand our economic development.”

Voorhees almost exclusively answered the questions with stories related to his long local government background, often getting bogged down by overly complex anecdotes. He stumbled a bit on his closing statement, as well as on some of the race questions, earning a few bewildered laughs from the audience during his remarks.

“Around the country people know what you’ve been through,” he said. “I hear it, people are sending me emails, messages, making little jokes about what happened and it’s unfortunate that the name Charlottesville is synonymous with tragedy.” His encouragement that the city would get through this drew hoots from the audience.

Voorhees served as city manager in Fayetteville, North Carolina, from 2012 to 2016, when he was asked to resign because of what the Fayetteville Observer called “perceived missteps and occasional political gaffes.”

Councilors met behind closed doors March 7, and the candidates continue to meet with community members. Timeline for a decision? Councilors say by April.

Categories
News

In brief: Professor sentenced, county crowdsourcing, Anthem’s return and more

Walter Korte leaves court August 8, 2017, after a judge holds off accepting a plea agreement. Staff photo

Korte sentenced to 12 months

With a handful of UVA colleagues sitting in the courtroom, film studies professor Walter Korte, 74, was sentenced to five years in prison with all but 12 months suspended after pleading guilty to two counts of possession of child pornography.

Korte was busted in August 2016 when he was spotted dumping thousands of porn images in a UVA dumpster. His lawyer, Bonnie Lepold, argued that despite his predilection for pornography, the images were all “lawful pornography and erotica.” He did not engage in any inappropriate behavior with children and had no criminal record, she said, and in the two years since his arrest, no one came forward to allege such behavior.

“He was not a child pornographer and had no interest in that,” she said. Lepold asked that he be sentenced to the five weeks he’s already served in jail or home incarceration with electronic monitoring.

Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Amanda Galloway said Korte was not a threat, and she acknowledged his lack of criminal history. But she wanted a year to send a message that child porn possession will be punished regardless of one’s age or position in the community.

Judge Humes Franklin added 10 year’s good behavior to Korte’s sentence, and when asked about the home incarceration, he said, “I want to sleep on it.”

“We’re looking for a middle ground of security in the future.”—Interim City Manager Mike Murphy at the August 20 City Council meeting, on the topic of security for August 12, 2019.

Anthem returns

After dumping the Charlottesville area individual marketplace last year and leaving Optima as the area’s sole insurance provider, Anthem says it’s re-entering the market here and in 41 other Virginia localities in 2019. And in related news, Charlottesville couple Steve Vondra and Bonnie Morgan joined a federal lawsuit filed by Chicago and other cities suing President Donald Trump and his administration for intentionally and unlawfully sabotaging the Affordable Care Act.

Foxfield feud

Plaintiffs challenging the Foxfield Racing Association’s plan to sell the 179-acre Marianna de Tejeda property, bequeathed to perpetuate horse racing in Albemarle, were in court August 17. They were represented by William Hurd, the same attorney who thwarted plans to close Sweet Briar College. The judge will issue her ruling August 28.

MoJo’s first day

There’s no getting away from the Confederate statue issue, as former city manager Maurice Jones discovered August 20 on his first day on the job as town manager in Chapel Hill, where protesters at the University of North Carolina toppled Silent Sam.

Charlottesville has its own Silent Sam. file photo

GoFundAlbemarle

The county has approved plans for a boat landing and trailhead on the Rivanna River at Rio Mills Road, as well as plans to crowdsource the $700,000 needed to open the 20-acre park, according to Charlottesville Tomorrow.

Pipeline halt

A federal appeals court nullified two permits for Dominion Energy’s $6 billion, 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which has temporarily ceased construction. One of the authorizations that judges with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out was a right-of-way permit for the pipeline to run underneath the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Back to legislate

Governor Ralph Northam has called for a special session of the General Assembly to convene August 30 to redraw districts of the House of Delegates. A panel of federal judges ruled June 26 that 11 districts were racially gerrymandered and must be redone by the end of October.

New Hoos

file photo

Though the majority of the University of Virginia’s Class of 2022 will consist of white girls from right here in the Old Dominion, it’ll be the most diverse class in UVA’s history.

Along with “record high” racial diversity at 34 percent—or 1,294 minority students compared to 1,247 last year—the university is also “particularly pleased” that 11 percent of the incoming class are first-generation college students, said UVA spokesperson Wes Hester.

Here’s what the newest crop of Wahoos looks like:

Total number of
first-years: 3,798

Female: 56%

Male: 44%

In-state: 65%

Out-of-state: 35%

African American: 9.1%

Minority total: 34%

First generation: 11.1%

Categories
News

Out and in: A turnover of top local leaders

Former Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas and current Chief RaShall Brackney. Former Virginia State Police Superintendent Steve Flaherty and current Superintendent Gary Settle. Former UVA President Teresa Sullivan and current President Jim Ryan. Former UVA Police Department Chief Michael Gibson and new Chief Tommye Sutton. Former Mayor Mike Signer and current Mayor Nikuyah Walker. Former City Manager Maurice Jones and current Interim City Manager Mike Murphy.

It was an unprecedented year for the city, but also one in which we saw a major shift among people in positions of power. Some heads rolled, some quietly retired, and the list of local leaders is almost unrecognizable from this time last summer.

Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas abruptly resigned in December, making way for Chief RaShall Brackney, who took her oath in June. Thomas wasn’t the most popular guy in town after Tim Heaphy released his independent review of the summer of hate, which alleged that Thomas deleted texts, used a personal email to skirt FOIA, and told law enforcement when white supremacists and counterprotesters went to war in the streets to “let them fight a little,” because it would make it easier to declare an unlawful assembly.

That wasn’t the only law enforcement shake-up. After nearly 15 years as Virginia State Police superintendent, Colonel Steve Flaherty retired in December, and was succeeded by Lieutenant Colonel Gary Settle. At the University of Virginia, Police Chief Michael Gibson also retired this summer, and new Chief Tommye Sutton was sworn in August 1, the same day as new UVA President Jim Ryan.

Ryan took the reins from Teresa Sullivan, who was highly criticized for having prior knowledge that white supremacists planned to march across Grounds last August 11, not warning students, and initially denying that she was privy to any of it. She had plans to leave before last summer, and on her way out, Ryan said he admires that she stayed focused on what really mattered to the university. “These were turbulent times and I think she demonstrated remarkable courage,” he said. Nevertheless, the Beta Bridge was decorated with the words, “Nazis love T. Sully” as she left.

The university also appointed Gloria Graham as its first-ever vice president of safety and security after emboldened neo-Nazis in white polos and khakis encircled and beat several students with their torches.

Poor planning for the weekend of the Unite the Right rally also fell on the head of City Manager Maurice Jones, and City Council decided not to renew his contract on May 25. Jones took a job as town manager for Chapel Hill, and in came former assistant city manager Mike Murphy, who will serve in the interim—but not without a fight from Mayor Nikuyah Walker, who challenged the first person offered the job.

Walker wasn’t mayor, or even on City Council, last summer. She replaced then-mayor Mike Signer, whose leadership came under fire when it emerged that he threatened to fire Jones and Thomas during the height of the August 12 violence. He was also suspected of leaking emails and was publicly reprimanded by his fellow councilors. Vice-Mayor Heather Hill also joined the ranks in the November council election—Kristin Szakos did not run for re-election and Bob Fenwick got the boot in the June primary.

City Attorney Craig Brown said goodbye, and was replaced by John Blair, who most recently served as deputy county attorney in Albemarle.

And last but not least, city spokesperson Miriam Dickler stepped down as Charlottesville’s director of communications in January, and former Charlottesville Tomorrow executive director Brian Wheeler filled her shoes.

Categories
News

Mike Murphy named interim city manager

City Council chose Assistant City Manager Mike Murphy to sit in the interim manager hot seat by a 3-0 vote. photo eze amos

After more than a week of heated exchanges between city councilors and Mayor Nikuyah Walker over the hiring of an interim city manager,  there was 10 minutes of public notice before a 3-0 vote in closed session at 1:15pm resulted in Assistant City Manager Mike Murphy taking the job effective 5pm today, just hours before City Manager Maurice Jones cleaned out his desk.

Councilors Wes Bellamy, Kathy Galvin and Mike Signer formed the quorum to give Murphy the thumbs up. Mayor Nikuyah Walker and Vice-Mayor Heather Hill were out of town, according to city spokesman Brian Wheeler.

Council had been threatening to name the interim city manager since last week, after the candidate who had been offered the job, Sidney Zemp, withdrew from consideration, listing Walker’s “contrived” controversy over how his name entered the process, “questionable motivations” and flaunting of  state statutes on hiring practices. Both Murphy and the other assistant city manager, Leslie Beauregard, were interviewed for the position.

It’s unclear whether all five councilors would have voted to appoint Murphy had they all been there. “Who knows?” asks Galvin. “We needed three bodies to vote and we got a quorum.”

Says Galvin, “It was really important to have someone here before Maurice left today.” With the upcoming August 12 anniversary, “now we have all the bases covered.” The police and fire chiefs report to the city manager. “It’s a relief,” she says. “We’re very thrilled he took the job.”

Walker, reached out of town, says she still has concerns. “The hiccup was in the contract negotiations,” she says. “When Maurice was interim city manager he didn’t have a contract.” And a one-year contract Zemp requested was a concern to her, Walker revealed in a Facebook Live.

Murphy, she says, “should be able to keep things afloat until we get a permanent city manager.”

Hill says that had she been in town, she would have supported Murphy’s appointment.

Before taking the assistant city manager job in 2015, Murphy was director of human development.

When asked if he was surprised to be named to the job after so much public council bickering, Murphy said, “I’ve been here 24 years. Nothing surprises me.”

Council announced May 25 it would not renew Jones’ contract. He has taken a job as town manager in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

 

 

Categories
News

In brief: Interim imbroglio, Miller Center imbroglio, gunman imbroglio and more

Mayor Nikuyah Walker takes it to social media.

Infighting implodes council

The hiring of an interim city manager, an event that usually takes place behind closed doors, has become heated and public, with reports of shouting at a July 20 closed City Council session. Mayor Nikuyah Walker has gone on Facebook Live twice to express her concerns that the process is part of the old boys’ network because someone suggested a candidate for the position to Vice Mayor Heather Hill, which she calls a “white supremist practice.”

On July 23, councilors Hill, Mike Signer and Kathy Galvin issued a five-page response to Walker’s Facebook Live video. “We regret that our rules requiring confidentiality about closed session discussions for personnel choices—which are in place under Virginia law, to protect local elected officials’ ability to discuss and negotiate employment agreements—were broken by the mayor.”

The search for an interim city manager became more urgent when Maurice Jones took a town manager job in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, leaving the city without a chief executive as the anniversary of August 12 looms.

Chris Suarez at the Daily Progress reports that three sources have confirmed U.S. Army Human Resources Command Chief of Staff Sidney C. Zemp has been offered the job.

In the councilors’ response, all three say they’ve never met the candidate, and that review panels are not used when filling interim positions.

In her July 20 video, Walker walked back a comment she made on Facebook and Twitter July 19: “We might have to protest a City Council decision. Are y’all with me?” She said she didn’t want supporters to shut down a council meeting, but did want them to pay attention to the process.

Walker was back on Facebook Live July 23, blasting her fellow councilors for their “very privileged” backgrounds and questioning their integrity.

She says she favors an internal candidate—the two assistant city managers and a department head have been floated—which councilors Wes Bellamy and Signer initially favored.

Bellamy issued his own statement: “Elected bodies agree and disagree all of the time” and that can lead to “healthy debate.”

Will council actually vote for an interim city manager at its August 6 meeting? Stay tuned.

Mayor Nikuyah Walker expressed concern in a July 20 Facebook Live video about the hiring process for an interim city manager.

In brief

Too much heritage

The Louisa County Board of Zoning Appeals said the giant Confederate battle flag on I-64 must come down because its 120-foot pole is double the county’s maximum allowable height. Virginia Flaggers erected the “Charlottesville I-64 Spirit of Defiance Battle Flag” in March and argued that after putting up 27 flags across the state, they wouldn’t have spent $14,000 on this one without confirming county code.

Controversial hire

A petition with more than 2,000 signatures of UVA faculty and students objects to the Miller Center’s hiring of Trump legislative affairs director Marc Short as a senior fellow. The petitioners are opposed to Trump administrators using “our university to clean up their tarnished reputations.”

Presidential paychecks

New UVA president Jim Ryan commands a higher salary than his predecessor, but can’t touch Brono Mendenhall’s paycheck. Photo UVA

Outgoing UVA prez Teresa Sullivan’s base pay of $580,000 and total compensation of $607,502 last year makes her one of the higher paid university chiefs, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. Her successor, Jim Ryan, starts with a $750,000 base pay, but to put those numbers in perspective, remember that UVA football coach Bronco Mendenhall makes $3.4 million—with a possible $2 million-plus bonus. At this week’s ACC Kickoff event, media members predicted—for the fifth straight year—that UVA will finish last in the conference’s Coastal Division.

New tourism director

Adam Healy, the former CEO of online wedding marketplace Borrowed and Blue, which closed abruptly last October, will now serve as the interim executive director of the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Standoff on Lankford

A state police vehicle on the outskirts of the standoff.

About 50 city, county and state police and SWAT team members were on the scene of a four-hour standoff with 29-year-old Alexander Rodgers, who had barricaded himself inside a Lankford Avenue home on July 19. Someone called police around 8am and reported shots fired. Rodgers, who has a history of domestic violence and was wanted on six outstanding warrants, eventually surrendered and was charged with three felonies and a misdemeanor.

Quote of the week:

“The fish rots from the head.”—Senator Tim Kaine, after U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security and UVA alum Kirstjen Nielsen said about last summer’s violence in Charlottesville at a July 19 press briefing, “It’s not that one side was right and one side was wrong.”

County crime report

The Albemarle County Police Department released its annual crime report for 2017 last month. Here are a few things that caught our eye.

-Police misconduct has been reframed in a new “cheers and jeers” section, where police complaints are compared side-by-side with commendations.

  • Complaints: 57
  • Commendations: 69

-The award section may come as a surprise, because Detective Andrew Holmes, who faces five lawsuits for racial profiling, was granted a community service award.

-Albemarle County had the second-lowest crime rate in the state while Charlottesville had the highest. Crime rate is measured by tallying the number of crimes committed per 100,000 people.

  •   Fairfax: 1,273
  •   Albemarle: 1,286
  •   Prince George: 1,334
  •   Arlington: 1,355
  •   Prince William: 1,370
  •   Chesterfield: 1,450
  •   James City: 1,611
  •   Roanoke: 1,638
  •   Henrico: 2,548
  •   Charlottesville: 2,631

-County police officers made 2,296 arrests and used force “to overcome resistance or threat” on 14 occasions.

-Assaults on police officers have gone up and down.

  • 2015: 3
  • 2016: 10
  • 2017: 7
Categories
News

Maurice Jones takes job as Chapel Hill town manager

City Manager Maurice Jones presented his proposed budget for fiscal year 2018 to City Council on March 6.
City Manager Maurice Jones has a new job in Chapel Hill. Photo by Eze Amos

City Council announced today that City Manager Maurice Jones has taken a job as town manager for Chapel Hill, North Carolina, ahead of that city making the announcement. Jones will end his tenure here July 31, before his December 7 contract expires.

Council decided not to renew Jones’ contract May 25, and wished him well in his future endeavors.

In a statement, council assures that it will continue to work with the community, employees and stakeholders in the search for a new city manager.

“As we hire a new city manager, we recognize that this is a transformative time for our community,” say councilors.

City Council has hired Springsted-Waters to handle the search, which will take four to six months. That’s the same firm that handled the search for police Chief RaShall Brackney. Council will name an interim city manager July 20.

Press release from City Council

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA – A statement from Charlottesville City Council on the appointment of Maurice Jones to be the next Town Manager of Chapel Hill, N.C.

On May 25th, the Charlottesville City Council made a decision not to renew City Manager Maurice Jones’ contract past its expiration date of December 7, 2018 and issued a commitment to work with the community, our employees, and all of our stakeholders to select a new City Manager for the City of Charlottesville.  As of today, an earlier separation date has been agreed to, and we can share that Mr. Jones has accepted the position of Town Manager at Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Mr. Jones will conclude his work as our City Manager on Tuesday, July 31, 2018.

Council thanks Mr. Jones for his service to the City of Charlottesville, and we wish him the best in his future endeavors.

As we hire a new City Manager, we recognize that this is a transformative time for our community. We will ensure that the community is updated on a regular basis on the City Manager search, and we will be soliciting your feedback and participation throughout the process. At this time, Council has retained Springsted-Waters to assist us with recruitment. This is the same firm that the City has worked with for several key staff searches, most recently our Chief of Police RaShall Brackney. We expect the search process to last about four to six months.  In the meantime, Council is making plans to name an interim City Manager and will make an announcement on Friday, July 20.

We are committed to creating a healthy and responsive organization that will continue the challenging and rewarding work of fostering a safe and equitable environment for all who live here.

Charlottesville City Council

Correction: Headline originally misstated Jones’ new position.

 

Categories
News

Mayor Walker announces city manager out by December

Maurice Jones. Photo by Amy Jackson

Mayor Nikuyah Walker announced this afternoon that the city will not renew City Manager Maurice Jones’ contract, which ends December 7. She said an earlier separation date could be mutually agreed on.

“In the life of any healthy organization, it is important to be able to recognize when change is needed,” Walker said. “Over the past few years, City Council and the city manager have worked earnestly to try to reach an agreement on a mutual vision for the city and the best ways to implement that vision. However, it has become clear to us that what our city needs at this critical juncture is a fresh perspective and a new direction.”

Walker and other city councilors did not take questions at the press conference at which she made the announcement.

“Charlottesville is a special place,” Jones said in a statement. “We have our challenges, like all communities, but we also have the resources, talent and compassion to provide solutions to those complex problems. It is my sincere hope that our city will come together as one to address them. I certainly look forward to continuing our important work together during the remainder of my time with the city.”

Jones began his career with the city as its director of communications in 1999. He took over as city manager in 2010 after serving as assistant city manager for two years, according to the city’s website. Council extended his contract for three years in 2015.

Charlottesville’s city manager serves as its chief administrative officer.

This is a developing story.

Categories
News

Budget boon: Part-time councilors want full-time staffers

The proposed FY 2019 budget provides $225,000 for City Council's own staff, including a researcher and spokesperson. Photo Eze Amos

One sign of a healthy economy is when local government adds new positions, and Charlottesville City Manager Maurice Jones has several in his proposed $179 million budget for fiscal year 2019, including 2.5 full-time positions to help city councilors with policy and communications.

That $225,000 allocation adds a new research and policy employee and gives City Council its own flack, as well as makes Clerk of Council Paige Rice’s part-time assistant a full-timer.

“They’re concerned,” says Jones. “They felt they needed more support on the research side and on issues coming from constituents.”

The communications person would work closely with new city spokesman Brian Wheeler, says Jones. At their January retreat, councilors discussed whether the spokesperson would speak for council as a whole or for individual councilors, which could certainly get dicey on issues upon which councilors don’t agree. Jones says they decided a spokesperson could speak for them after votes had been made.

The city had a media flap last summer when then-mayor Mike Signer in a leaked memo called out former spokesperson Miriam Dickler for not working with the crisis communications firm  Powell/Tate that council hired to help with the August 12 Unite the Right rally—although the flap was more about the leaked memo than Dickler’s crisis communications skills.

Councilor Kathy Galvin did not respond to a request from C-VILLE Weekly, but she told the Daily Progress that she had some concerns about hiring a communications staffer and whether individual councilors might monopolize that person’s time and further divide City Council at a time it really needs a cohesive message.

She also said some councilors work up to 40 hours a week doing their own research on top of their regular jobs.

Other new hires in Jones’ budget include $72,000 for a minority business developer coordinator. That position would be housed in the economic development department, and would increase city procurement from small, women- and minority-owned businesses. The coordinator would “go out and help actively grow” and identify such vendors, says Jones.

UVA professor Walt Heinecke has called for the city to allocate $100,000 to hire an attorney in the Office of Human Rights to replace the one he says the city “pushed out” in 2015. Jones’ proposal is more modest: It budgets $38,000 to convert an existing position from part-time to full-time.

With the city’s $2 million skate park getting under way, the budget includes $116,000 for two full-time employees to support the park.

Not all city departments are hiring. Public works will save $282,000 by not filling five vacant positions—four maintenance and one auto mechanic. That comes at a time when the Downtown Business Association of Charlottesville has called for more maintenance on the Downtown Mall. In a January letter to Jones and City Council, DBAC chair Joan Fenton pointed out that while the city budget had increased 17 percent over the past four years, spending on the mall’s maintenance had declined 20 percent.

Jones says those positions are currently vacant. “We think we can get by for a year and see how that’s going. If we need them, then we’ll come back to them.”

City staff will get a 3 percent cost of living increase, compared to their peers in the county, who are getting 2 percent.

And councilors themselves will get a $4,000 raise July 1, upping their salaries to $18,000 and the mayor’s to $20,000.

Categories
News

Upstaged: Hillsdale Drive Extension project dedication overshadowed by Garrett protesters

Congressman Tom Garrett is in this photo, but you might not be able to see him because of the crowd of angry constituents that's engulfing him. Staff photo

The official ribbon-cutting ceremony for the nearly 30-year-old Hillsdale Drive Extension project was overshadowed by protesters who came to confront a congressman who was scheduled to speak.

Fifth District representative Tom Garrett was swarmed by a crowd of about 25 angry constituents as he arrived at the January 26 ceremony where at least 11 state and local police officers were present.

As City Councilor Kathy Galvin gave her opening remarks about the new roadway, the crowd lambasted Garrett about a bevy of topics, mostly including health care and his alleged refusal to meet with his constituents.

Law enforcement stood between the congressman and the crowd as he took the podium, and warned away protesters who attempted to hold their anti-Garrett signs behind him as he spoke.

Among those signs were “One Term Wonder,” “283 Days Until Midterms” and a blown up photo of the Republican House of Representatives member posing with Jason Kessler, the homegrown white nationalist who organized the summer’s Unite the Right rally that left three dead and dozens injured.

Todd Cone says he’s gone to Congressman Tom Garrett’s office, but he’s never successfully met with him. Staff photo

“You met with him. Why not the rest of us?” said the sign.

At times, Garrett was difficult to hear over the shouts from of protesters, but he commended the cooperative effort of the city and county on the road extension that’s been on the books since the 1990s.

Construction on the two-lane, multi-modal roadway began in June 2016. It runs parallel to Route 29, with dedicated turn lanes from the county’s Rio Road to the city’s Hydraulic Road. It includes 3,600 linear feet of a shared-use path on its east side and 5,800 linear feet of sidewalk on its west side, which is south of Greenbrier Drive. New additions also include the  roundabout at Zan Road and Hillsdale Drive and a new traffic signal at Seminole Court and Hillsdale Drive.

Garrett—along with Galvin, city manager Maurice Jones, Albemarle County Board of Supervisors representatives Ann Mallek and Ned Gallaway and VDOT engineer John Lynch—used a giant pair of shears to snip the ribbon near the roundabout. But the congressman didn’t stick around for much longer after that.

The angry mob followed him to his black SUV and circled it as he tried to leave, and most were responsive when the driver laid on the horn.

But detractors weren’t the only attendees—at least five people brought pro-Garrett signs, and even more showed up in support of him.

John Miska, a local veteran who’s often spotted at political events, said Garrett was able to solve a years-long problem for him in a matter of days.

Veteran John Miska stands next to his camo truck while collecting signatures to get Culpeper resident Nick Freitas, who’s running for Senate, on the ballot. Staff photo

The veteran says he’s taken opiates to manage chronic pain for years, which have caused his teeth to rot. He’s hounded the Department of Veterans Affairs for dental care for two years.

About three weeks ago, Miska filled out some paperwork at Garrett’s office at the congressman’s request, and Miska says he was headed to a dentist to have two necrotic teeth pulled on January 30.

“Something that would have cost a couple hundred dollars to fix if they would have done it in a timely manner is now going to cost the taxpayers thousands of dollars, and Tom is a little ticked off about that,” he says.

Adds Miska, “Tom got involved and I got seen. And so these people complaining about their health care and all, they fail to realize that the whole cascade of problems with health care is because they tried to eat an elephant with one bite.”