Pat Napoleon already thought Councilor Wes Bellamy was disrespectful to those with whom he disagreed before she had her own exchange with him June 18.
staff photo
Kerfuffles certainly aren’t new at City Council meetings anymore, but the one June 18 between Pat Napoleon and Wes Bellamy jolted awake anyone who may have been dozing during public comments.
Napoleon is the founder of Rise Charlottesville, and has been collecting signatures to remove those on council last year who voted to remove Confederate statues, including current councilors Mike Signer, Kathy Galvin and Bellamy.
She needs 1,580 signatures—10 percent of votes cast in the 2015 election—to file her petition, and she told council she has more than 1,500 signatures. Napoleon blamed council for what happened August 12, and said it was the worst thing that ever occurred in Charlottesville.
That’s a remark Bellamy took issue with. He called her back to the dais and said he found that comment “absolutely repulsive” when people were “literally sold here,” enslaved and lynched.
“Wes Bellamy pulled an ambush on me,” says Napoleon. “That was quite a shock. I didn’t expect that.”
It was another David Rhodes moment. Rhodes, who came before council September 5 to suggest a compromise on the statue situation, had walked away from the podium when Bellamy said, “You left your hat, and when you get your hat, take that compromise with you.”
Napoleon previously has called that interchange “disgusting.” Bellamy’s response to those who objected was, “My question is why the oppressed always have to compromise.”
Wes Bellamy at the September 5, 2017, meeting when he told public commenter David Rhodes to take his compromise with him. Eze Amos
After the June 18 meeting, Napoleon said public comment before council was “intimidating” and “a guy was flipping the bird at me.”
Says the former teacher, “I’m not used to being in situations where people are so disrespectful. I’m a senior citizen.” She also says she was disappointed that none of the other councilors said anything in her defense.
Bellamy is unapologetic. “Whenever black folks decide to speak up, it’s disrespectful.” He says he didn’t use foul language, and that Napoleon blaming City Council for killing someone without mentioning the people who came here and actually did kill people was “absolutely abhorrent.”
Pat Napoleon, founder of Rise Chalottesville, announced in November the group was circulating petitions to oust all five city councilors in office at the time.
Natalie Jacobsen
It’s extraordinarily hard to remove an elected official from office in Virginia, especially if she hasn’t been convicted of smoking pot, sexual battery or a hate crime, the offenses spelled out in state code. Nonetheless, for the second time in a year, petitioners are trying to remove a city councilor—or in this case, three city councilors.
Rise Charlottesville launched its recall last fall of all five councilors then in office. And although Kristin Szakos did not seek re-election and Bob Fenwick lost his seat in the primary, those former councilors are still on the ouster roster along with Mike Signer, Kathy Galvin and Wes Bellamy, the latter of whom whites-righter Jason Kessler unsuccessfully targeted for removal last year because of offensive tweets Bellamy made before he was in office.
Newly elected Mayor Nikuyah Walker and Vice-Mayor Heather Hill are not included in the petitions.
At a November 17 City Council meeting, Rise founder Pat Napoleon, a former teacher, cited “failed leadership, misguided action along with no action that brought this city to its knees, along with a resulting death” for wanting those on the dais gone.
Among council’s misguided actions, she lists hiring commissions and ignoring their findings, changing the name of the former Lee and Jackson parks, and Bellamy’s “hurling insults from the dais” at David Rhodes, whom Bellamy famously admonished to get his hat “and take that compromise with you.”
Says Napoleon, “This was disgusting.”
Napoleon says she’s gotten “hundreds and hundreds” of signatures, and that was before a daylong event to gather more January 19 at Riverside Lunch, where she also raised money for the families of the Virginia State troopers who died in a helicopter crash here August 12.
Pat Napoleon collected recall signatures at Riverside Lunch January 19. Staff photo
County resident Richard Lloyd is helping Napoleon. “When we started, we found a large component of people unhappy with Charlottesville City Council,” he says. When a group got serious about the recall, “all of a sudden people started throwing money at us.”
Lloyd declines to say how much money—other than sums ranging from $5 to $500—nor will he say exactly how many signatures.
State code calls for signatures of 10 percent of the total number of votes cast in the last election for the officeholder a petitioner wants removed. That was the stumbling block for Kessler, who fell short of the 1,580 signatures—10 percent of the 15,798 votes cast in the 2015 election— special prosecutor Mike Doucette said were required.
“We want to blow past all that,” says Lloyd.
Before he was elected Greene County commonwealth’s attorney in November, Matthew Hardin represented Rise and drew up the group’s complaints against the councilors. He urged the petitioners to get more signatures than needed to “show how many people are concerned.”
Hardin thinks Rise has a “very good chance” to prevail by “making the case about malfeasance.” He says, “It is quite clear they were violating state law by voting to remove” the Confederate monuments. “I felt this was government run amok.”
While in private practice, Hardin says he was always a “government accountability lawyer.” And it’s not the first time he’s gone after a local official. In 2015 he sued then-Albemarle commonwealth’s attorney Denise Lunsford because she said it would take $3,200 to respond to a Freedom of Information case.
Jessica Phillips, who represented former Albemarle supervisor Chris Dumler when a Scottsville District constituent petitioned to have him removed from office after he pleaded guilty to sexual battery in 2013, says, “My understanding is mine is the only one that ever went to trial.”
Says Phillips, “It’s not easy” to get rid of an elected official. Petitioners “have to show the person falls into an enumerated category and was convicted of a crime.”
For the broader category called out in the statute of “neglect of duty, misuse of office or incompetence in the performance of duties” that have a “material adverse effect upon the conduct of the office,” Phillips says, “That’s very nebulous. The person determining that is a judge. What qualifies as misuse of office?”
In the Dumler case, witnesses testified about his job performance, but the majority of the evidence, says Phillips, showed “he did his job. There was no evidence he misused his office.”
She says she doesn’t know the substance of the claims Rise Charlottesville is making about City Council, but “I know it’s going to be very difficult.”
Napoleon says she has no time limit for turning in the signatures to petition the court to remove Signer, Galvin and Bellamy. Galvin declined to comment and Bellamy did not return a phone call from C-VILLE.
“This just smells like more politics to me, from some organizers who aren’t even city residents,” says Signer. “Our job is to stay focused on our public’s business, like when we recently created over 200 new units of affordable housing, and when we sued the paramilitary groups who invaded our town to prevent them from ever coming here again.”
“I want things to get better,” says Napoleon. “There’s a whole lot to mend here. I’d like to see them listen better.”
The alleged cases against Signer, Bellamy and Galvin
Rise Charlottesville’s petitions cite alleged misuse of office for each of the councilors. Here’s what the petitioners consider misuse of office.
Mike Signer
• Repeated disrespect for his role and its limited collaborative powers
• Public inability to work with City Manager Maurice Jones and former police chief Al Thomas
• Unilaterally making statements and public declarations without authority from City Council
• Entered into an agreement with council and can’t meet with senior city staff without another councilor present because of unilateral actions
• The agreement diminishes his ability to function effectively and diminishes the office and city
Wes Bellamy
• Repeatedly has shown disrespect to citizens attempting to exercise their First Amendment rights
• Spoke disparagingly to David Rhodes and told him to take his hat “and that compromise with you”
• “Flagrantly” violated rules of order at council meetings and interrupted a meeting with “racially charged salutes”
• Violated the state’s closed meeting law August 2
• Repeatedly voiced support for the destruction and covering of Confederate memorials in violation of state code
Kathy Galvin
• Failed to uphold the City Charter by allowing Signer to overstep his role as mayor
• Because of her inaction, the city was governed by “an elected official who needed to be accompanied by minders” to prevent unlawful activity
• Disregarded state code in supporting removal of Confederate memorials and covering them in tarps
• Formulated her position on the war memorials based on the Beatitudes, not state law
Special prosecutor Mike Doucette and attorney Pam Starsia leave court as a judge mulls Wes Bellamy's legal fees.
Staff photo
One thing Judge Richard Moore and Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy’s attorney agreed upon: “If it was possible under the law and there was one person who should pay on this meritless claim, it would be Jason Kessler,” said Pam Starsia, who represented Bellamy when Kessler petitioned to remove him from office for offensive tweets Bellamy made before taking office.
Kessler’s petition was thrown out March 8 after Lynchburg Commonwealth’s Attorney Mike Doucette determined it had an insufficient number of valid signatures.
Starsia is seeking $7,588 in legal fees for nearly 30 hours of work at $250 an hour for representing Bellamy, and she had a court hearing today about her bill.
She cited state code that allows public officials to seek attorney’s fees in cases that are “dismissed in favor of the respondent,” and she said the statute was important public policy because it allows elected officials to fulfill their duties without intimidation and the distraction of unsubstantiated removal proceedings.
Doucette didn’t disagree with Starsia on the public policy aspect, but he did on whether Bellamy was the prevailing party in a nonsuit. “We would submit that since there was no judgment in favor of the respondent—” and because Kessler could refile his petition—there is no provision to provide attorney fees in nonsuits, he said.
Starsia argued that the nonsuit was indeed in Bellamy’s favor, and to not award his legal fees “undermines the purpose of the statute.”
Judge Moore said at least three times in Charlottesville Circuit Court that if he could assess Kessler for attorney fees, he would. “Mr. Kessler gets a free ride and the city is held responsible,” Moore said. That protection for petition filers “encourages reckless behavior if he doesn’t have to pay,” he added.
Moore said he would read other court rulings before making a ruling.
Jay Taylor, the man Jason Kessler punched, says video footage of the encounter supports his account.
Staff photo
Jason Kessler, the right-wing blogger who unsuccessfully petitioned to remove Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy from office, pleaded guilty today to punching a man while gathering petition signatures, but challenged the victim’s statements outside the Charlottesville General District Court.
In the same court March 3, the prosecution asked the judge to dismiss with prejudice an assault complaint Kessler filed against Jay Taylor, the man he socked, because video footage from a nearby surveillance camera did not support Kessler’s account.
At today’s hearing, Kessler entered a guilty plea and will be sentenced April 27. Outside the courthouse, he initially responded to a request for comment by giving this reporter the finger, but then came back twice to make statements as the media interviewed Taylor.
Jason Kessler with his attorney, Buddy Weber, after he pleaded guilty to assault and before he flipped off a C-VILLE reporter. Staff photo
The two were acquainted from working on an indie film project a few years ago, says Taylor, and when he ran into Kessler on the Downtown Mall January 22, “I took the opportunity to engage him.” Taylor says he read the petition to remove Bellamy from office, and took issue with the aggressive way Kessler was going after Bellamy.
“I said, ‘You’re being kind of an asshole,'” says Taylor. “He just kind of hauled off and hit me.”
Kessler claimed in his tossed-out complaint that Taylor assaulted him, and he had punched him in self-defense.
“I was literally holding a cup of coffee,” says Taylor, killing time with his dog on the mall. “He handed me the clipboard to read.” And Taylor says before he could ask Kessler why he was targeting Bellamy and trying to ruin him, Kessler clocked him, busting his lip on the inside.
“I do care about how people comport themselves,” says Taylor. “It’s important to do so in a civil manner.”
He says he objects to Kessler’s tactics that use “fear and hate.” And he describes Kessler as “interested in tearing things down and making havoc.”
Says Taylor, “We need to be able to calmly and civilly—and I stress civilly—talk together. If I don’t like what you say, you just can’t hit me.”
About that time, Kessler returned to the front of the courthouse. He repeated his claims that he had been angry and afraid during the confrontation. He accused Taylor’s friend of tearing up his petition the day of the punching. He also said he apologized to Taylor, whom he called “a coward.”
Jason Kessler has a change of heart about talking to the media. Staff photo
“After having witnessed that,” says Taylor after Kessler left, “I think he is seeking attention. The facts he just stated didn’t happen.” Kessler did apologize to him after the assault and said he’d make it right, Taylor confirms.
Taylor says he didn’t know the other man who was present and wrote “void” on Kessler’s petition, and that the video footage would vindicate his account.
And when the police arrived, Kessler “practically knocked me aside to get to the police first,” says Taylor.
He says he’s going to start a GoFundMe account to help with the legal fees he incurred from the debunked assault charge Kessler filed against him. And he says he wants to start a civility campaign.
About that time, Kessler returned again and denounced reporters interviewing Taylor. “When you talk to Jay Taylor for 20 minutes and are laughing, I’m sure it’s going to be reported fairly,” he says.
The Newsplex’s Talya Cunningham, whom Kessler has berated online for not using interview footage that “didn’t fit their agenda” and for seeking comment from Showing Up for Racial Justice, a group that opposes Kessler and has called him a “white nationalist,” pulled out her camera and asked him what he wanted to say, and WINA’s Dori Zook put a microphone before Kessler.
“You can’t believe anything the liberal media says,” he declares. “You can’t believe anything Jay Taylor says.”
Kessler maintains he felt threatened by Taylor and the other man, and was angry and afraid when he struck Taylor. “It was a gang thing,” he says.
He alleges Taylor came up and “was screaming in my face.” And he recounted the travails he’s encountered with people swearing at him, harassing him and stealing his phone.
Says Kessler, “I was just having a bad day.”
As Kessler continued to reiterate that he was threatened and angry, Cunningham packed up her camera.
And when asked about the bogus assault charge he filed against Taylor, Kessler glared, said nothing and walked away.
Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy outside the court after the petition to remove him from office is dismissed.
Staff photo
Jason Kessler chastised reporters on his way into court today and spoke disrespectfully to the special prosecutor who requested that Kessler’s petition to remove Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy from office be dismissed because it lacked enough signatures.
Kessler, who burst into the local spotlight after he discovered unsavory tweets Bellamy made before taking office in 2016, collected 597 signatures on a petition and cited misuse of office in calling for Bellamy’s removal.
According to the special prosecutor, Lynchburg Commonwealth’s Attorney Mike Doucette, Kessler needed 1,580 signatures. The Code of Virginia says a petitioner must obtain signatures from registered voters equal to 10 percent of the “total number of votes cast” in the election of the official—15,798 in the 2015 City Council election.
In that contest, voters could cast three votes for the three open seats on council, and while that is an unusual situation, said Doucette, the code clearly states “total number of votes cast.” At a February 16 press conference, Kessler said he had been told by his legal team, which he refused to identify, that he only needed 527 signers.
“The number is insufficient,” said Doucette in court. “We move to nonsuit.” The court dismissed the petition without prejudice, which means Kessler can refile—but he must start over again with the signatures, explained Doucette.
“The fact that you disagree with a particular vote is not grounds for dismissal,” said Doucette outside the Charlottesville Circuit Court. Bellamy had called for the removal of the statue of General Robert E. Lee last March, and was one of three councilors who voted to get rid of the statue February 6. Kessler had alleged that was evidence of Bellamy’s “black supremacy.”
Lynchburg Commonwealth’s Attorney Mike Doucette also handled a petition to remove former Albemarle supervisor Chris Dumler from office after he was convicted of sexual battery. Staff photo
“You’ve got to show a link between the misconduct and the misuse of office,” said Doucette.
The prosecutor said Kessler “was upset” when he came into courtroom and called him “‘Doucette’ in a rude fashion,” said the attorney. “I said, ‘It’s Mr. Doucette.” Doucette said Kessler calmed down, but added, “I’m not going to put up with disrespect.”
Earlier on his way into the courthouse, Kessler denounced NBC29 reporter Henry Graff for calling him a “white nationalist” on the air, and added that Graff was a “piece of shit pretty boy.”
Jason Kessler, left, after he took issue with NBC29’s Henry Graff, far right, had a few things to say to C-VILLE Weekly as well. Staff photo
Kessler also expressed his displeasure with this reporter, whom he called a “lazy journalist” for naming Pepe the frog as the mascot for his newly formed, Western civilization-protecting Unity and Security for America. The organization has a lion in its logo, Kessler pointed out, but its website includes a frog with the message, “Kek is with us,” and Kessler has publicly proclaimed his fondness for Pepe, which has been appropriated as a symbol of hate by alt-right groups.
Kessler was in court last week for an assault complaint he made against Crozet resident James Justin Taylor. The prosecutor dismissed that charge with prejudice, which means it cannot be refiled, because video evidence did not support Kessler’s allegation that Taylor assaulted him. Kessler goes to court April 6 to face his own assault charge for allegedly punching Taylor in the face while he was collecting signatures for the petition.
After the hearing, Bellamy said, “I’m glad the court decided the way it did,” and that he was eager to get back to the city’s business.
“I have no ill will toward Mr. Kessler,” he said. “This is a democracy and you’re allowed to do that.”
Some have alleged Kessler’s petition was racially motivated. Bellamy, who is City Council’s only black member, said, “I’m not going to go into why someone did that.”
His attorney was less circumspect.
“I do believe the petition was racially motivated,” said Pam Starsia. “Jason Kessler is a virulent racist and misogynist” who advocates for policies that harm people of color and those in the LGBT community, she said.
Bellamy’s attorney Pam Starsia says the petition to remove her client from City Council was “racially motivated.” Staff photo
“I would describe this as a modern day lynching,” she continued, pointing out that Kessler had no problem with the two white councilors who voted to remove the statue.
Kessler said he disagreed with Doucette’s decision, but would not try to refile the petition. “I’m ready to move on.” He said he plans to investigate other city councilors.
City Council regular John Heyden, who attended Kessler’s press conference last month, filed a Freedom of Information Act request for “any complaints about Wes Bellamy’s conduct made by any city employees or citizens up to the present time.”
The city estimated it would cost at least $1,200 to search the records of its 900 employees, which Kessler blasted as the city trying to “obstruct” his investigation of other councilors. “That is a ridiculous charge,” he said.
Starsia said the FOIA was a “fishing expedition” and Kessler’s USA organization had already e-mailed every city employee soliciting complaints against Bellamy. “They do not have anything,” she said.
The attorney said she would be seeking legal fees from the city because state statute prevents Bellamy from collecting fees from petitioner Kessler in a nonsuit. Bellamy resigned from his job as an Albemarle High teacher after the tweets were revealed.
“The petition,” said Starsia, “was a frivolous complaint against Mr. Bellamy.”
Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy promised to keep a smile on his face despite the attempt to oust him from office.
Staff photo
It was no secret that today’s hearing on a petition to remove Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy from office was going to be continued, but that didn’t prevent more than four dozen people from showing up in Charlottesville Circuit Court, most of them Bellamy supporters.
The petition with 527 signatures gathered by right-wing activist Jason Kessler was filed February 16, and Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Rick Moore said state statute required a hearing within five days.
Lynchburg Commonwealth’s Attorney Mike Doucette, who was appointed special prosecutor in the case February 18, filed a motion to continue, and Bellamy’s attorney, Pam Starsia, filed a demurrer to toss the case February 21.
Removing elected officials from office in Virginia is difficult—and rare. “Quite frankly, it’s a legal matter that doesn’t come up often,” said Moore.
The judge also warned those in the courtroom that the case was one where “emotions run high,” and he was going to demand respectful and calm conduct.
Doucette said in his 33 years of practicing law, this is the third recall he’s handled, and that’s probably two more than any other attorney in the state. Most notably, he was appointed special prosecutor in the 2013 unsuccessful effort to remove former Albemarle supervisor Chris Dumler after he was convicted of sexual battery.
“I’m not representing a party,” said Doucette. “I’m representing the law.” He said he was happy to talk to anyone who had facts about the case, and he intended to interview petitioner Kessler after the hearing.
Kessler, who unearthed controversial and offensive tweets Bellamy made before he took office on City Council in 2016, contends Bellamy misused his office when he changed his Twitter account to ViceMayorWesB and the old tweets showed up under that name.
He also takes issue with Bellamy’s call to remove the statue of Robert E. Lee, which Kessler said “is of ethnic significance to Southern white people” at a press conference last week. And he cited Bellamy taking part in a boycott of UVA lecturer Doug Muir’s Bella restaurant after Muir compared Black Lives Matter to the KKK as another misuse of office.
Starsia argues in the demurrer that Kessler’s petition does not cite facts supporting his allegation of misuse of office under the law, and that it has not been signed by the required number of registered voters who cast ballots in the 2015 election in which Bellamy was elected.
Virginia Code says the petition must be signed by 10 percent of those who voted in that election, which, according to the city registrar, were 15,798. Starsia maintains he needs 10 percent of the total votes cast. Kessler says he’s been advised he needs 527 signatures.
Doucette arrived in town early to speak with the registrar, he said. “This is going to be a priority item.”
The parties will provide a status to the judge as early as tomorrow or by next week.
Outside the courthouse, Bellamy said, “I want to make sure they handle this properly.” He acknowledged that Kessler had a right to seek his removal because that’s “the democratic process,” and stressed he bore no ill will toward Kessler.
Kessler has complained that some of the opposition, including Showing Up for Racial Justice, a group to which Starsia belongs, have labeled him a “white nationalist.”
When asked about that characterization, Bellamy said, “That’s up to them. I don’t get into the name calling.”
He added, “I can promise I’m going to continue to have a smile on my face.”
Pam Starsia questions the number of signatures on the petition to remove her client. Staff photo
Starsia was less sanguine, and said, “I am not as amicable as Mr. Bellamy.” She noted that conduct before taking office cannot be used as a reason to remove an elected official, and called Kessler’s claim “specious.”
Said Starsia, “We believe the law is on Mr. Bellamy’s side.”
A truck festooned with Trump banners drove by the courthouse after the Bellamy hearing. Staff photo
Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy says he’s being targeted because he’s causing too much trouble by trying to remove the statue of General Robert E. Lee.
Photo Ézé Amos
In the latest twist of the saga of Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy’s controversial and racially charged statements on Twitter unearthed by Jason Kessler, a right-wing activist, Bellamy’s attorney has filed a response to the petition calling for his removal from office.
In a press conference February 16, Kessler and his supporters presented their petition with 527 signatures calling for Bellamy’s removal from City Council. The petition cited Bellamy’s old tweets as evidence of abuse of office. Bellamy’s controversial tweets were published before his election to City Council, but after assuming office Bellamy changed his Twitter handle to reflect his status as vice mayor.
If the signatures are verified by Charlottesville’s registrar of voters and the number of signatures are approved by a judge, then a special prosecutor could make a case before a judge for Bellamy’s removal from office. According to Pam Starsia, Wes Bellamy’s attorney, Michael Doucette, Lynchburg commonwealth’s attorney, was appointed on Saturday as special prosecutor, a position Doucette also served in a 2013 unsuccessful attempt to remove former Albemarle supe Chris Dumler from office after he was convicted of sexual battery.
Starsia filed a motion February 21 stating Kessler’s petition did not allege grounds for removing Bellamy from office under Virginia Code, nor did it cite facts in support of allegations of misuse of office.
The motion also says that as a matter of law the petition has not been signed by the required number of voters.
Kessler’s petition was signed by 527 people. Virginia law says,“The petition must be signed by a number of registered voters who reside within the jurisdiction of the officer equal to 10 percent of the total number of votes cast at the last election for the office that the officer holds.”
According to an abstract of votes from the city registrar’s office, a total of 15,798 votes were cast for city council candidates in the 2015 election in which Bellamy was elected. Because Charlottesville’s seats on council are at-large, voters could cast up to three votes for each of the three seats that were up for election.
Rick Sincere, an economist, former chair of the Virginia Libertarian Party and former member of the Charlottesville Electoral Board from 2004 to 2016, believes Bellamy’s demurrer is likely to succeed.
“The law says the signatures on the petition should equal or exceed 10 percent of the votes cast for that office in the previous election,” Sincere says. “If there were three candidates for three seats, and each candidate received 1,000 votes, that means 1,000 people voted but they cast 3,000 votes. The percentage should be based on 3,000 votes cast ‘for the office,’ not on the number of votes received per candidate.”
Sincere’s interpretation of the law suggests that Kessler may need 1,579 signatures rather than the 527 that he has collected.
Bellamy has also requested that in addition to dismissing petition, the court should award him “reasonable attorney fees and costs expended.”
A hearing has been scheduled for Thursday, February 23, at 11am.
Jason Kessler, left, goes to file a petition to remove Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy from office. Staff photo
In a press conference today at City Space on the Downtown Mall, conservative activist Jason Kessler presented his case for the removal of Charlottesville Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy from office, along with a petition intended to begin the legal process, which is unprecedented in the city.
Bellamy, 30, recently came under fire for old tweets Kessler unearthed in November that expressed racist, homophobic and misogynistic attitudes. Bellamy has since apologized for the tweets, and resigned from his job as a teacher at Albemarle High School and from his position on the Virginia Board of Education, but he has remained as the only black member of Charlottesville’s elected City Council.
Kessler was accompanied by Corey Stewart, who was Donald Trump’s former campaign manager in Virginia and is seeking the Republican nomination for governor, as well as Elkton resident Teresa Lam, who read aloud a series of Bellamy’s tweets about white women, and Isaac Smith, the secretary of a new local political group co-founded by Kessler called Unity and Security for America.
Among Kessler’s complaints against Bellamy for “misuse of office” is his vote to remove the statue of Robert E. Lee from Lee Park.
“He made clear that he did it to attack ‘white supremacy,’ a partisan left-wing term that most on the right construe as a pretense to attack white people and their history,” Kessler said.
“Bellamy linked his own hate speech against white people, woman and other groups from just a few short years ago to the vice mayor’s official social media page,” Kessler said (Bellamy changed his Twitter handle when he was elected as vice mayor in 2016.). “He then proceeded to attack the Robert E. Lee monument, which is of ethnic significance to Southern white people.” The removal of the statue is in violation of Virginia code, he added.
Earl Smith, a former candidate for the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, knows something about attempting to remove an elected official from office in Virginia. In 2013, he led an effort to remove then-supervisor Chris Dumler from office following Dumler’s criminal conviction for sexual battery. That effort failed in court, but Dumler resigned voluntarily soon after.
“I think I’d let the courts decide,” Smith says. “Wes does generate a lot of new blood and he does do a lot of things for the community. I think his heart is there. When those tweets came out he was just expressing what kind of person he was at that time.”
Kessler spent weeks gathering signatures for a petition to remove Bellamy from City Council, incurring an assault charge on the mall in the process.
According to state law, an elected officer can be removed from office for certain misdeeds, selling marijuana most prominent among them. Sex crimes were added after the Dumler situation. A petition can be submitted to the court, which may then appoint a special prosecutor to present the legal case made in the petition to a judge.
The law states that “the petition must be signed by a number of registered voters who reside within the jurisdiction of the officer equal to 10 percent of the total number of votes cast at the last election for the office that the officer holds.”
Dumler garnered 2,007 votes in 2011 in the Scottsville District, and Smith says he collected more than 10 percent of that number.
Kessler has gathered 527 signatures. However, it is not clear that this number will satisfy the 10 percent requirement established by law.
Charlottesville’s city councilors are all elected at-large, which means that each member of council is elected by the entire city rather than by geographical districts or wards. Bellamy won the highest number of votes in the 2015 general election that included five candidates for three seats.
The votes are counted “for the election for the office being held. The office being held is Bellamy’s city councilor position,” Kessler says. “He got 5,270 votes. So if you’re trying to say that it’s more than that then it definitely isn’t because people were able to vote for several city councilors.”
According to an abstract of votes provided by Charlottesville Registrar Rosanna Bencoach, a total of 15,798 votes were cast in the November 2015 election, with Bellamy taking 4,688 votes.
Kessler does not believe that any votes not for Bellamy should be tallied when counting the total number of votes cast. “You count the people who voted for him,” he said.
When reminded that the statute doesn’t say “voted for him,” Kessler responded that “the number of signatures, I’m told by our legal team, is 527.”
“Who is your legal team?” one reporter asked. “Who has advised you on this case?”
“No comment,” replied Kessler.
Asked about the exact number of signatures, verified to be real people who are registered to vote in Charlottesville, that she will need to count, Bencoach demurred.
“That is for the court to decide,” she said by e-mail. A hearing has been scheduled for February 23.
Some see the move to remove Bellamy as racially motivated. According to Pam Starsia, an organizer with Showing Up for Racial Justice Charlottesville, the allegations of racist language are not one-sided.
Kessler has an “agenda of trying to push white supremacy or white nationalism into Charlottesville’s local politics,” says Starsia, who is also Bellamy’s attorney.
“Wes has apologized for the content of his old tweets, accepted responsibility for them and, more importantly, his work and deeds in the years since show that he has worked to understand, overcome and rebuild the parts of himself that wrote those words so long ago.”
