Tag: mike signer

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Activist calls for boycott of City Council

JoAnn Robertson makes an impassioned appeal to boycott City Council. Staff photo

JoAnn Robertson has had enough. She was appalled at conditions facing elderly and disabled residents at Crescent Halls who spent the summer without air conditioning. Now she’s calling for a boycott of City Council in protest of its new public comment rules that went into effect in February—and that already have drawn a lawsuit.

At a press conference in front of City Hall October 14, Robertson called Mayor Mike Signer “a privileged white man,” who put a “higher value on efficiency and decorum” than on First Amendment rights. She blasted council for ignoring its own human rights commission and the citizens who objected to the implementation of a lottery for people signing up to speak at meetings.

“We the people demand that no [city] cameras be shut off,” she said, about an option now allowed. Nor does she like the mayor determining what is appropriate content, councilors no longer responding to citizens who speak, time limits on discussion of issues and the at-times increased police presence in council chambers.

Robertson has started an online petition to go back to public comment procedures before the new ones were implemented this year, and so far it has 79 signatures. She wants those who object to the new rules to join her at the Free Speech Monument in a boycott of the October 17 City Council meeting.

And she turned again to Signer and his concern about the dilapidated Landmark Hotel on the Downtown Mall. “I want to know how many times he’s been to Crescent Halls,” she said.

“Kristin Szakos and I were there the next morning after this came up at City Council for an hour and a half,” says Signer, “talking to property managers, looking at apartments and meeting with residents.”

Updated 5:30pm with comment from Mike Signer.

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Market Plaza gets new name

Mayor Mike Signer and Keith Woodard anoint West2nd, future $50 million home of City Market. Staff photo

To forestall the inevitable confusion of people looking for Market Plaza on Market Street, the future Water Street home of City Market has been renamed West2nd.

Under a broiling sun September 8, developer Keith Woodard announced the $50 million mixed-use project’s new moniker. “We’ll still have a market, we’ll still have a plaza at West2nd,” he says.

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City Market will have deluxe new digs by 2019. Courtesy Market Plaza LLC

The site that’s now a parking lot will be the permanent home of City Market, and include 262 parking spaces, of which 102 will be public, retail on Water Street, 55,000 square feet of office space, an event space and 68 “very deluxe” condos ranging from $400,000 to $1 million plus, according to Woodard.

“I took a drone and flew it up there and the views are spectacular,” he says. “Every condo will have a view.” And terraces, he says. A sales office will open on the Downtown Mall in October.

As for the city’s goal of providing affordable housing with every development, says Woodard, “We’ll be contributing to the affordable housing fund as part of the project.”

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Life looks sweet from the rooftop of West2nd. Courtesy Market Plaza LLC

Mayor Mike Signer says West2nd will “add vibrancy” to the Downtown Mall. And he cites it as an example of “how the city can best leverage the assets it owns,” while facing the Water Street Garage, a partially owned city asset now in litigation.

The project, which has clogged surrounding streets as utility work is done, will have buried lines. Actual construction is expected to begin in about eight months and be completed by 2019.

 

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Parking garage ‘soap opera’ leads city to reject Brown’s offer

Former mayor Dave Norris urges the city to stop kicking the can forward and resolve the Water Street Parking Garage morass once and for all. Staff photo

Mayor Mike Signer and City Councilor Kathy Galvin insist there is nothing personal in the city’s dispute with Mark Brown over control of the Water Street Parking Garage. In meetings with reporters July 6 after the city rejected Charlottesville Parking Center’s June 24 proposed settlement of the escalating controversy over the fate of the garage the city co-owns with Brown, the two said they decided to answer questions about the issue to demonstrate the unanimity of council.

“It’s a very unusual set of circumstances,” says Signer, because the other side at every turn has tried to “create a sense of panic.”

The city’s June 6 resolution to make an offer to buy out Brown’s share of spaces at Charlottesville Parking Center was not a change in course after months of discussions with Brown, says Galvin. His lawsuit against the city over parking rates and his threats to close the garage “make us think that single ownership of the garage should be with the city.”

The parking center’s proposed settlement, says Signer, was not a response to the city’s offer to buy out Brown.

In the CPC settlement proposal that came one day after the Downtown Business Association of Charlottesville sent the city and Brown a letter urging both sides to tone down the “extreme threats” and four days before a judge denied CPC’s petition to appoint a receiver for the garage, general manager Dave Norris basically ceded control of the garage to the city as far as rates, as long as the city paid the difference in fair market rate to CPC.

It was Brown’s insistence on being able to profit from the public/private partnership that was the breaking point. The councilors reiterated that the Water Street Parking Garage Condominium Association agreement “does not contemplate pecuniary gain or profit to the members thereof…”

Throughout the discussions, says Signer, Brown accused the city of “stealing my money.”

That CPC wanted the city to subsidize his share “suggests a sense of entitlement,” says Galvin. “It reinforced the sense we should go our own way.” CPC can still manage the garage for one year, rather than the five years it wanted in its proposal, the city said in its response. “His behavior has destabilized the community,” she says.

“The soap opera has all been on one side,” adds Signer.

And that soap opera includes Brown’s March 14 lawsuit against the city, the city’s April 29 countersuit that claims it didn’t get the right of first refusal on spaces CPC bought from Wells Fargo and the DBAC splintering over the garage, with one faction saying it wasn’t taking sides, while Violet Crown hired Susan Payne, who did PR for Signer’s council campaign, to sway downtown businesses to urge the city not to sell out to Brown.

“We’ve tried to be stabilizing,” says Signer. “The more deliberate we’ve been, the more erratic he’s been.”

And the city is still not ruling out eminent domain as a remedy, “one that we would consider only reluctantly,” says Signer.

The attorney Brown hired to handle any eminent domain moves by the city, John Walk, in a July 11 letter, rebuffed the city’s $2.8 million offer to buy Brown’s shares of the garage, and said it would cost the city at least $9 million, based on the tax assessed value, to buy him out. Not that he’s selling, says Walk, who reminds the city Virginia’s constitution prohibits the use of eminent domain for economic development.

The CPC camp has maintained that it thought an agreement was almost a done deal during negotiations June 2, the same night DBAC held a meeting at Violet Crown. Norris says Signer specifically asked Brown not to send Norris to that meeting, something Norris now says was a mistake.

“We said we weren’t planning on attending,” says Signer. “Ms. Galvin said she wasn’t going to be there. With the ongoing litigation, we said it wasn’t a good idea for us to be there. I think they’re reading way too much into that,” he says, calling the CPC depiction “false theatrics.”

Norris did not immediately return a phone call.

Sitting outside the conference room in City Hall where Signer and Galvin were meeting with reporters, Payne handed out a statement expressing the support of Violet Crown and many downtown businesses for the city holding firm in its decision to pursue affordable parking in the Water Street Garage.

city_letter_CPC_7-6-16

CPC letter to T. Wolf re_ eminent domain 7.11.16 (1)

Updated July 11 with Brown’s eminent domain attorney’s letter to the city.

 

 

 

 

 

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City Council adopts gun control resolution

Kristin Szakos, above, and Wes Bellamy wrote the resolution on gun control City Council passed June 20. File photo

Gun control debate dominated the June 20 Charlottesville City Council meeting as members of opposing sides of the issue cited the Second Amendment—“the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed”—and the Declaration of Independence’s inalienable rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” that victims of gun violence had been denied.

In the wake of the Orlando massacre, the largest slaughter of Americans by a lone gunman, City Council passed 4-0 a resolution demanding state and federal legislators enact legislation to require comprehensive background checks and ban assault weapons. The resolution also asked the General Assembly to allow Charlottesville to pass its own weapons controls, requests previously made in 2013 and 2015.

Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy and City Councilor Kristin Szakos wrote the resolution, and after reading it, Szakos said there was strength in such measures across the country. She also said she was “appalled at the nerve of these people, the gun rights advocates, in the wake of these horrific events to claim they’re the ones feeling victimized.”

City Councilor Kathy Galvin, who was not present, sent a statement urging council to delay a vote on the resolution and expressing concern that protocol was not followed and that the resolution could be perceived as “frivolous.”

Szakos said she’d feel differently if Galvin had been sick, but because she chose to go to a conference in Italy, Szakos didn’t believe the business of the city should be delayed.

City Councilor Bob Fenwick said he had read well over 100 e-mails against the resolution, and noted that not one had an alternative to solving this problem, which he called “very disappointing.”

Mayor Mike Signer, who has joined the national coalition of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, said he was a supporter of the Second Amendment, but every amendment in the Constitution requires sensible and constitutional limits. For example, the First Amendment does not allow one to yell “fire” in a crowded theater, and the 1934 National Firearms Act regulated machine guns. And Bellamy said, “We have a moral responsibility to stand up.”

A number of citizens at the meeting did not agree. One noted he had a concealed carry permit and was carrying a weapon. Others challenged the councilors to do their homework and get the gun lingo down.

And Joe Draego, who had earlier objected to Muslim refugees, said none of the councilors had the courage to mention the Orlando shooter was Muslim, a religion whose adherents he called “monstrous maniacs.” When Signer told him defamatory speech was not permitted, Draego lay down in front of the dais and had to be carried out.

Joe Draego is carried out of the June 20 council meeting.
Joe Draego is carried out of the June 20 council meeting.
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Blue Ribbon commissioners identified

The Blue Ribbon Commission on Race, Memorials and Public Spaces will meet for their first session June 16. Rammelkamp Foto

Nine members appointed to serve on Mayor Mike Signer’s Blue Ribbon Commission—created to make a recommendation to City Council on how to treat race, memorials and public spaces after a major controversy regarding the General Robert E. Lee statue in Lee Park—now have about half a year and $10,000 to make it happen.

“I think the biggest problem will be that a lot of people think there are people who have already made up their minds,” says commission member Frank Dukes, a long-time mediator and UVA faculty member trained in facilitation who founded the University & Community Action for Racial Equity almost a decade ago. “This is going to be a learning process. I think people will join us in that willingness to learn and keep their minds open.”

Three members, Gordon Fields, Rachel Lloyd and Margaret O’Bryant, were appointed to represent the Human Rights Commission, PLACE Design Task Force and Historic Resources Committee, respectively.

Lloyd, a professional preservation planner and historical landscape architect, says different generations may reinterpret their community’s history over time. In fact, the opinion overload regarding Lee’s legacy in town began when a local high school student petitioned to have the Confederate soldier’s memorial removed and his park renamed.

“I doubt any of us are naive enough to think that the process will be easy or that our recommendations, whatever they are, will be universally popular,” Lloyd says.

O’Bryant has been the librarian at the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society for over 28 years. She says the group’s final recommendation should be reflective of all aspects of the local community. “I hope we can work effectively and constructively without unnecessary disagreement,” she says.

Jane Smith, who says she was “amazed” to learn she was selected out of the 74 people who applied to be on the commission, is eager to work with the group of “dignified, respectful people” who were also chosen, though she says she doesn’t expect them to agree on everything. Going in with a “clean slate,” Smith, who is a retired graphic designer, says, “I love doing history research and so I’m hoping that I can be of use that way.”

Don Gathers works as the front desk supervisor at the Graduate Hotel, is a member of UVA’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes executive committee and is on the deacon board at the First Baptist Church on West Main Street. Gathers says he applied to be on the commission to serve and hopefully unite the community.

“I think everyone wants basically the same things,” he says. “They want better lives for our children, freedom to come and go as they choose and to not have their rights infringed upon due to someone else’s rights.”

Gathers, a Richmond native, grew up around similar controversies surrounding the city’s historic Monument Avenue, where many Confederate leaders are honored.

“I’ve heard the outcries, I’ve heard the problems, the issues, the complaints, the explanations,” he says. “I think the best thing that we individually and collectively as a commission can do [in Charlottesville] is to listen before we formulate any opinion or take any stance one way or the other.”

But commissioner John Mason, a historian and UVA history professor who is descended on both sides of his family from Virginia slaves, has an idea of where he stands.

“I think my starting point is that the memorials are less about the men who are depicted and more about what they symbolize,” he says. “What they symbolize to me is not what they symbolized to the people who put them up.”

Erected as memorials to the “lost cause,” which Mason describes as the story white southerners told themselves to cope with defeat 30 years after the Civil War, he says, “Psychologically, they wanted to tell themselves about the glory of this lost cause. I think it’s a story of sacrifice, valor and dignity.”

He also notes that the Confederate memorials were built at the height of Jim Crow laws, when “things had never been worse for African-Americans.” Before City Council April 18, Mason said the memorials hide history instead of making it more visible.

Not reached were commission members Fields, Andrea Douglas and Melvin Burruss. All nine will meet for their first session June 16.

Correction: The original article incorrectly stated when the commission would first meet.

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Council split on Lee Park commission

City Council heard from around three dozen people at its marathon five-hour April 18 hearing on the statue of General Robert E. Lee and the forming of a blue ribbon commission on race, memorials and public spaces. Much like the citizens that spoke before them, the councilors found themselves split on how to move forward.

Kristin Szakos and Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy, who held a press conference March 22 to call for removal of the statue and the renaming of the park, favored assembling the commission and getting an opinion within 60 days. Kathy Galvin and Mayor Mike Signer wanted a slower, broader examination of race in public spaces. And Bob Fenwick, who is often on the losing end of 4-1 votes, was ill and could be the decisive vote on the issue.

Signer called for the blue ribbon commission in March, and said his thinking had evolved after holding two town halls and hearing a majority of African-Americans say they don’t want the Lee statue removed. He proposed a new resolution for the commission to provide council with options for telling the full story of Charlottesville’s history of race relations and for changing the city’s narrative through its public spaces, including augmenting the slave auction block at Court Square, completing the Daughters of Zion cemetery and renaming options for existing structures. “I feel very strongly it needs to be holistic,” he said.

Both Szakos and Bellamy objected to dragging out the process and wanted to tackle the Lee statue quickly without getting bogged down in broader issues. “When do we stop talking and get to work?” asked Bellamy.

City Council will have a work session April 28 on the commission itself, and vote on whether to create it May 2. The first meeting in November was proposed for having the commission present its findings.

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Management issue(s): Mark Brown says city in default on Water Street Garage

Mark Brown says he’s not angry the city rebuffed scenarios to settle the Water Street Garage litigation, but he is selling the Main Street Arena and looking for more hospitable municipalities. Photo Jackson Smith

 

The battle between Charlottesville Parking Center owner Mark Brown and the city got more heated with an April 6 letter from Brown that said the entity that runs the Water Street Garage is in default and one of his remedies is to terminate the complicated agreement between the parking center and the city and to stop running the garage.

Relations between Brown and the city were already tense, thanks to Brown’s March 14 lawsuit that alleges the city is forcing him to run the garage below market rate.

It probably didn’t help that Mayor Mike Signer publicly reprimanded former CPC general manager/Downtown Business Association of Charlottesville co-chair Bob Stroh for his grammar, according to a Newsplex report. Within weeks, 40-year parking veteran and respected downtown booster Stroh decided to retire.

Brown announced March 28 he was hiring former mayor Dave Norris to succeed Stroh. Besides serving eight years on City Council, Norris has been the executive director of a couple of local nonprofits, including Big Brothers/Big Sisters of the Central Blue Ridge, and most recently worked as the director of community impact for the United Way of Greater Richmond & Petersburg.

In the next volley, Chris Engel, Charlottesville director of economic development, sent a letter April 4 to Brown questioning the qualifications of Norris to run the CPC, a move pretty much unprecedented in recent city history, at least officially.

Engel’s letter noted that the contract between the city and CPC requires that the general manager must have a minimum of six months successful parking management experience and three years service management experience. He requested Brown send a statement of Norris’ qualifications.

Brown declined to comment on the letter, and Norris says he hopes the differences between the city and CPC can be resolved before he starts the job.

“I am not going to get in the mud with Mike Signer and [City Manager] Maurice Jones,” says Norris. ”I am looking forward to starting this new job in June and working with all the key stakeholders to make the downtown a good place to live, work, play and run a business.”

Ironically, Jones faced some skepticism about his own qualifications when he applied for the city manager’s job in 2010. A former sports reporter for NBC29 who started work with the city as director of communications, Jones did not have the master’s degree the city job posting said it preferred, nor did he live in the city. Norris, who was mayor at that time, was an advocate for Jones getting the job.

City Council regular Louis Schultz says he finds the issue “hysterical,” and that Engel would not have sent the letter without Jones’ approval. “If the city manager doesn’t understand that being mayor is working in the ‘service industry,’ it’s no wonder we have such an unresponsive city government,” he says.

Brown replied to the city April 7 with a letter detailing Norris’ experience with parking issues, including serving on the Metropolitan Planning Organization, which deals with long-term transportation and parking issues for the region. He also notes that Stroh assembled a strong team to run the parking garages and will continue to serve as a consultant.

Should that not suffice for the city, says Brown, Norris will be named president of the Charlottesville Parking Center and Brown will assume the job of general manager at the higher salary commanded by the more experienced Stroh, resulting in higher operating costs for the management of the city’s Market Street Garage.

In a related move, Brown’s April 6 letter serves notice to the Water Street Parking Garage Condominium Association, which owns the structure, that it is in default of its agreement with the parking center by not having a 2016 annual budget.

To further complicate matters, the eight-member condo association is made up of four city employees and four CPC seats, including Brown, which means he also is a member of the association he says is in default. Six association members have to agree to pass the budget, and that didn’t happen because the city refused to approve the rates Brown wants.

Miriam Dickler, city spokesperson, declined to comment on the letter announcing the condo association is in default and to respond to the allegation Signer and Jones were “in the mud.”

The agreement between the condo association and CPC gives the city 30 days to come up with a budget. If that doesn’t happen, CPC can terminate the relationship and doesn’t have to assure an orderly transition, according to the agreement.

“The gist here is that clearly Mark Brown is in the midst of a chess game with the City where he has a legal strategy mapped out moves ahead,” writes former Charlottesville Parking Center shareholder Richard  Spurzem from a beach in Antigua. “The City, as usual, thinks they are in a checkers game.”

Spurzem has criticized the city in past for not buying the parking garage in 2008 when the CPC was for sale. Brown bought the parking center, which owns the land and some spaces in the Water Street Garage and the surface lot across the street, for $13.8 million in 2014. CPC also runs the city-owned Market Street Garage,.

The city, according to Spurzem, also should have corrected the “horrible” land lease and management agreement with the more city-friendly former CPC management.

A subset of the condo association is the Pooled Parking Unit Owners—the city and CPC—which are the only ones who can set parking rates for the Water Street Garage. The city owns approximately 629 parking spaces—65 percent—and CPC owns 344, according to Brown’s lawsuit.

The rates must be approved by two-thirds of the pooled parking owners, which put Brown at a disadvantage when he wanted to increase the Water Street rates to what he says in his suit are market value.

Last October, Brown proposed upping the rates to $145 a month, $180 for reserved spaces and $2.50 an hour. The city countered with monthly rates of $125 and $140 for reserved spaces and an hourly rate of $2, “significantly below the market rate,” and less than what the city-owned Market Street Garage charges, alleges the lawsuit. Market Street charges $135 a month and $2.50 an hour.

As a result of the city and Brown being unable to agree on what the suit calls the city’s “unlawful and oppressive demands for below-market rates,” the condo association was unable to get its city/CPC factions to approve a budget, and that now puts the association in default, claims Brown.

He has offered to sell the city CPC’s parking spaces or to buy the city’s spaces, both of which have been rejected by the city.

Spurzem predicts the city will either buy Brown’s ground lease and management agreement for “many times” what it could have bought CPC for earlier, or it will hand over its interests in the Water Street Garage “for next to nothing just to get out of the legal noose that Mark Brown will have them in.”

 

 

 

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Can the statue be moved? Not just a local issue

Defenders of the statue of General Robert E. Lee include a great-nephew of sculptor Henry Shrady. Rammelkamp Foto

The Charlottesville park bounded by Jefferson, North First, Market and North Second streets isn’t the only Lee Park under heavy scrutiny.

Last July, a group of folks in Dallas led a demonstration at Oak Lawn’s Lee Park to demand that a General Robert E. Lee statue be removed and the park renamed. Activists felt called to “un-dedicate” the statue and rededicate it to “the spirit of the abolitionist movement, raising the spirits of six genuine heroes of the Civil War era”—Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Denmark Vesey, Maria Stewart, Harriet Tubman and Senator Hiram Revels, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Though the acts of un-dedication and rededication had no legal recognition, another issue concerning Confederate war memorials could—and this one hits a bit closer to home.

A Virginia state law says localities can’t “disturb or interfere” with Confederate monuments, but a judge in Danville ruled that legal protection does not apply to structures erected before 1998. A Confederate flag flown since 1996 above the last capitol of the Confederacy at the city-owned Sutherlin Mansion was removed in August.

This decision has been appealed to the Virginia Supreme Court.

On March 10, Governor Terry McAuliffe vetoed HB587—Republican Delegate Charles D. Poindexter’s bill—which would clarify conditions of the previous ruling in Danville and prohibit localities from removing any war memorials, including Civil War monuments, regardless of the date they were erected.

Though the Republican-controlled legislature passed the bill by a margin of 82 to 16 votes in the House, with local delegates Rob Bell, Matt Fariss and Steve Landes voting yay, and 21 to 17 in the Senate, Democratic Senator Creigh Deeds says he voted against it.

“Ultimately, localities are going to have to decide how they’re gong to commemorate the past,” Deeds says, adding that the discussion ought to be broader than just between 140 legislators at the General Assembly. “You can’t whitewash or change history,” he says. “You just have to learn from it.”

In Virginia, Deeds says the Civil War is commemorated in many different ways, with Confederate statues in every county, and high schools and roads named after Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis.

While he says he would be cautious about moving Charlottesville’s General Lee statue, he commends Mayor Mike Signer’s proposal of a Blue Ribbon Commission on Confederate Memorials to evaluate the community’s stance on the statue removal and renaming of Lee Park, explain the policy behind the effort, assess costs, explore options and develop a fundraising strategy.

In a statement proposing the task force, Signer alludes to dark chapters in Charlottesville’s past, including slavery, lynchings, Jim Crow, segregation and Vinegar Hill.

“We see one of those chapters every time we’re in Lee Park or Court Square, where, in the 1920s, city leaders elected to celebrate the Confederacy and, by extension, slavery, by placing large monuments to Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson,” Signer says.

Deeds hopes the commission will consist of a broad cross-section of community members.

“If [a commission] is appointed, it shouldn’t just be made up of people with a predetermined view of what should happen,” Deeds says. “To be a genuine commission, it needs to be made up of people who are willing to consider all sides to come up with the right approach.”

Signer says planning for the task force is still in the early stages and he is discussing options while researching examples of similar groups in places such as St. Louis and Baltimore. “My hope is that this will be a deliberative and hopeful process that truly engages the community in exploring how we can best change the narrative in Charlottesville,” he writes in an e-mail.

Julie Langan, director of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, says her department is working to help UVA grad Molly Ward, Virginia secretary of natural resources, develop a list of best practices for how communities should approach historic monuments. Governor McAuliffe requested a report from the group by December, Langan says, and they are in the early stages of electing people to serve on the commission.

“We’ll want geographic representation,” Langan says. “We’ll want people who have diverging points of view.”

Langan, like McAuliffe, believes conclusions should be reached by the community and not regulated by state law.

“My inclination is to view something like the [General Lee] sculpture in Charlottesville more as a work of art than a Confederate memorial,” she says.

In the National Register of Historic Places, Langan points out that documentation for the monument at Lee Park has little to say about the Civil War. It emphasizes the high artistic value of the sculpture, the history of its design and its production.

Paul Goodloe McIntire, who gifted Lee Park to the city in 1918, signed a deed June 14 of that year that said he desired “to erect thereon a statue of General Robert E. Lee and to present said property to the City of Charlottesville, Va. as a memorial to his parents, the late George M. McIntire and Catherine A. McIntire.”

Although some may question whether the city is able to remove the statue or rename the park that McIntire gifted, the deed says, “This conveyance is made upon condition that the said property be held and used in perpetuity by said city as a public park, and that no buildings be erected thereon, but the authorities of said city shall at all times have the right and power to control, regulate and restrict the use of said property.”

So can the statue be moved? Maybe.

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Rally to remove Robert E. Lee statue brings flagwavers

Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy addresses a crowd of those who support removing the Robert E. Lee statue at Lee Park and those who called him racist believe it should stay. Staff photo

Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy’s March 22 press conference at Lee Park to advocate removing the General Robert E. Lee statue and changing the name of the park drew Confederate supporters such as Virginia Flaggers, who at times shouted down speakers.

“When people come to this park, they should never feel uncomfortable,” said Charlottesville High School ninth-grader Zyahna Bryant after Bellamy introduced her as a “15-year-old warrior.” She has helped spearhead the movement to rid the park of its ties to slavery and the commander of the Confederate army. “We are in 2016,” she said. “Things have changed, and they are going to change.”

Protesters overpowered the voice of Amy Sarah Marshall, who said, “I’m speaking as a gay activist. Throw that in your truck and drive it.” Several members of the crowd joined Marshall behind the podium when she became emotional.

When City Councillor Kristin Szakos took the microphone, a group of supporters lined up in the front of the crowd to block out the cries from protesters.

While a mass of men and women waved Confederate flags and held signs supporting the historic statue, some cupped hands over their mouths and yelled into the crowd statements such as, “What about the white slaves?” and “Heritage not hate!” Several protesters called Bellamy racist. At least four uniformed Charlottesville police officers guarded the park.

Mayor Mike Signer has called for the creation of a “blue ribbon commission on Confederate memorials” to evaluate the presence of Confederate statues in the city.

Click to enlarge additional photos below.

 

A diverse group attended the conference.
A diverse group attended the conference.
One supporter of tearing the statue down brought her own sign.
One supporter of tearing the statue down waves a “Black Lives Matter” sign.
Many people came out to Wes Bellamy’s March 22 press conference in which he advocated removing the General Robert E. Lee statue from Lee Park. He also wants to change the park’s name.
Zyahna Bryant, a 15-year-old ninth grader at Charlottesville High School, says people walking by the park shouldn't have to feel uncomfortable.
Zyahna Bryant, a 15-year-old ninth grader at Charlottesville High School, says people walking by the park shouldn’t have to feel uncomfortable.
lee-amy-sarah-marshall
When Amy Sarah Marshall became emotional while speaking, a group of people from the crowd came forward to stand by her side.
Some Confederate supporters belong to the local group called Virginia Flaggers.
Some Confederate supporters belong to the group called Virginia Flaggers.
Wes Bellamy and local radio personality Rob Schilling take a quick selfie in front of the Robert E. Lee statue before the press conference.
Wes Bellamy and local radio personality Rob Schilling take a quick selfie in front of the Robert E. Lee statue before the press conference.

 

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Winning the lottery: City Council’s new commenting policy draws controversy

Mayor Mike Signer. Staff photo

A new policy proposed by City Council for those who wish to comment at regular meetings aims to make the process more inviting, but it has some doubting the new rule’s integrity.

Currently, a sign-up sheet is made available an hour before the start of each meeting and those hoping to speak must wait in line to snag one of 12 open slots on a first-come, first-served basis.

The new procedure would require prospective commenters to call, e-mail or meet in-person with Clerk of Council Paige Rice to request a spot on the list, and a digital selector would randomly choose 12 winners, whose names would be posted by noon Monday.

But some locals who routinely sign up to speak at City Council meetings believe the new lottery process is council’s way of pushing them out.

“It’s really hard to quantify the many ways that I think it’s a bad idea,” says frequent speaker Brandon Collins, who calls the new lottery process a “deliberate attempt to limit public comment.”

He says this City Council, under the new leadership of Mayor Mike Signer, already seems “sort of perturbed by things they’ve heard during public comment.” Council isn’t favorable to anyone who criticizes them, according to Collins.

One problem with the lottery process, he says, is that some people who sign up to speak have time-sensitive concerns that need to be addressed immediately.

The clerk already receives several inquiries a month from people who want to reserve a spot to speak, says Signer. Both Rice and City Manager Maurice Jones think at least twice as many people would be interested in speaking if they could put their names on the list ahead of time, he says.

Signer says the new commenting policy will increase access at council meetings and make it easier for the disabled, elderly and people with uncertain schedules to sign up. He also says it’s important to put this policy in context with the other proposed changes council members came up with at a recent work session to make meetings more orderly and efficient.

According to Signer, the public currently expects councilors to respond to each commenter. The new procedure would defer these general responses to the city manager, who would address remarks at the next meeting, while still allowing councilors to address individual comments. For their own comments, councilors will also have the same time limit for speaking that the public has, which is three minutes, and they’ll have five minutes to speak when introducing a motion or ordinance.

Another change will limit most items on the agenda to only 20 minutes of discussion.

“Last week, we spent over an hour talking about whether two trees could be moved,” says Signer. As for public comment, he says anyone can still speak at the end of the meetings, and with the newly imposed time constraints, it won’t take nearly as long to reach that portion of a meeting.

But Louis Schultz, another frequent speaker, believes the policy change aims to “dilute the voices of people who [sign up to speak] regularly.”

He thinks those who want to speak at meetings should make a commitment to arrive early enough to sign up. “I leave work earlier than I usually would,” Schultz says. “I lose money when I go to City Council meetings.”

The rule changes City Council is proposing are about “controlling what you can say as a citizen,” Schultz says. He particularly dislikes that responses to public comments will be deferred to the city manager because he wants to hear from City Council.

Local attorney Jeff Fogel says that while he’s suspicious of the new commenting policy, it “might not be a terrible idea.” His deepest concern is with the proposed increase in the mayor’s powers.

“He wants to muzzle his own councilors to no more than three minutes,” Fogel says. Questioning Signer’s motives for wanting the authority to turn off the cameras and audio during the taping of the meetings, which are always broadcast on local television, in the case of a disturbance or disorderly conduct, or his desire for the power to evict people from meetings and bar them from coming back, Fogel says Signer is “reminiscent of an authoritarian figure.”

The mayor is already authorized to oust trouble makers from meetings and bar them from coming back for a reasonable period of time.

A Charlottesville Tomorrow poll shows that 69 percent of those responding are against the new commenting policy.

However, Vice Mayor Wes Bellamy stands behind council’s attempts to increase community engagement.

“Change is hard. Some will like it, some won’t,” he writes in a Facebook post. “But what I fear most is that if we don’t try something new, we will continue to have the same broken system.” Bellamy ends his post by saying, “I heard over and over how we wanted things to be different, progressive, fresh and new…well now is our chance.”

The new policies were proposed at the February 16 City Council meeting, after C-VILLE went to press, and if approved, go into effect March 7 for a trial period of six months.

“I want to be crystal clear the point of this is to open this up to more people, make the process more accessible and to connect us with the broader section of Charlottesville’s populace,” Signer says.

Updated February 16 at 2:15pm to clarify that the mayor already has the power to evict and bar people from meetings.