Board of Supervisors Chair Dennis Rooker, elected in the Jack Jouett district, has announced that he will run for re-election in this November’s election, hoping for a second four-year term. Rooker cites his desire to complete the work that he’s started, including the rural areas portion of the Comprehensive Plan, solving the water shortage, and instituting a mountaintop protection ordinance. Julie Stavitski has the story in today’s Progress.
Archive for March, 2005
Delegate Mitch Van Yahres (D-Charlottesville) announced this evening that he will not be running for reelection. After 24 years in office, Mitch has cited both age and the need for a new generation of leadership as reasons ending his lengthy service in the House of Delegates. Cue a half dozen Democrats and one foolish brave Republican declaring their candidacy. Press release follows, and the Progress already has a story by Bob Gibson on their website, which is impressive.
Continue reading ‘Van Yahres to Retire’
Homelessness is on the rise in the area, according to a census released by the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission. The number of homeless in C’ville, Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa and Nelson has climbed from 156 to 175, though the number that are without any type of shelter has declined, thanks to People And Congregations Engaged in Ministry. 45% of the homeless people surveyed hold down full- or part-time jobs (but can’t save enough money for first and last month’s rent on an apartment), 5% have panhandled, 6% have received Social Security, and just 3% have received unemployment. Since last fall, PACEM has been taking in homeless men who would otherwise by denied entry to other facilities, a result of the gap between the Salvation Army (sobriety required) and the Mohr Center (serious intoxication required). John Yellig had the story in yesterday’s Progress.
In December, City Council asked City Manager Gary O’Connell to prepare two budgets, one maintaining the $1.09 real estate tax and one cutting it to $1.07. O’Connell will end up proposing a cut to $1.05, the biggest drop in a quarter-century, at Monday night’s City Council meeting. The $106M budget is up 5.5% from last year’s $100.4M budget. One notable cut includes the Percent for Art fund, which sends 1% of capital improvement project funding to public art. John Yellig had the story in Friday’s Progress.
Kevin Lynch is circulating a document about the city budget, providing his take on the financial problems faced by the city, how money should be allocated within the budget, and offering short- and long-term solutions to budget problems. It’s a great read and, frankly, I’m really impressed that he put together this 14-page, single-spaced document. It was a little over a year ago that Kevin provided detailed answers to the questions provided by folks on cvillenews.com on the matter of the Meadowcreek Parkway; the point being that this isn’t new territory for him. Download it here as a PDF (116k), and check out tonight’s City Council meeting to see the submission of the draft budget proposal. 03/08 Update: John Yellig has a story about the white paper in today’s Progress.
silkyzephyr writes: The Daily Progress reports that at Monday night’s meeting City Council approved the Hillsdale Drive connector. Buried at the end of that story is the news that City Council also agreed to build the Meadowcreek Parkway.
From watching the meeting, it is clear councilors now differ only on whether the city should mandate, or merely suggest, building a grade-separated interchange at the same time.
The problem is money: there isn’t any. Councilors Schilling and Caravatti do not want the bulldozers kept waiting while the City saves up for an interchange. The majority, Councilors Hamilton, Lynch and Mayor Brown, insist that without one the Parkway would dump ruinous traffic at a stoplight, paralyzing Route 250. Delaying the Parkway is better than building it wrong, they say.
The two factions have agreed to work out compromise language by the next meeting.
Both road approvals are only at the first step, the design. But City Council has essentially started a process which once begun, grinds on to its inevitable conclusion. In sum, nearly forty years after it was first proposed, City Council is now united on putting a road through Mcintire Park.
I will note kudos to Councilor Lynch, who held out for a Christmas list of goodies like replacement parkland. He has been promised virtually everything he wanted. If we must pave a park, adding fifty acres of green space does soften the blow.
Via a story in today’s Progress, former Charlottesville mayor David Toscano has announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for House of Delegates, now that Del. Mitch Van Yahres has announced his plan to retire. Toscano served on City Council for 12 years, up until 2002, and his basing his run on a desire to “create economic opportunity for the broadest cross-section of the public.” Bob Gibson has the story.
Anybody that’s driven at night on Stony Point Road, just outside of town, knows that Pen Park has been lit up like a 60,000 watt Christmas tree since a few months ago. That’s because city officials installed forty 1,500 watt floodlights atop fifty-foot poles to light up the tennis courts at night back in August. The lights have no shielding, nor are they directed only at the tennis courts, making it possible to read a newspaper on a moonless night a half mile away, out in Albemarle County. The director of Parks and Recreation, in response to complaints, intends to install shielding on the lights, but it’s in no way clear that it’s going to make much of a difference. Courteney Stuart has the story in this week’s Hook.
Remember November’s news that a Fox affiliate would be coming to town? It’s happening. Gray Television — who opened the ABC and CBS affiliates here last year — has bought local PAX affiliate WADA (ending a five-year marathon of Touched By an Angel and Diagnosis: Murder), and will turn it into Fox affiliate WAHU. Gray is shooting to be on air in April or May, but it could be later. Lisa Provence has the story in this week’s Hook.
City Council is looking at implementing some of the ideas for electoral change presented in January’s election task force report, and the discussion is getting a little heated. The four Democrats oppose a ward system — which many believe would benefit Republicans — while lone Republican Rob Schilling favors it. The discussion has gotten a bit heated, and it doesn’t look like it will get any better. Here’s some free advice for Charlottesville Republicans: push for an instant runoff voting system, as recommended in the task force report. It’ll get you 1-2 seats on Council, if you run candidates that aren’t in the habit of stabbing people. John Yellig has the story in today’s Progress.
Downtown philosopher savant Phil Gair — reverently known as “Buddha Phil” to his many admirers — died of a heart attack a week ago Friday, the Daily Progress reports. Phil spent many years sitting on the Downtown Mall, dispensing equal parts inanity and wisdom; the line between the two was often unclear. What few knew about Phil was that he was a world-class blues guitarist and singer — modesty kept him from performing, though I got to witness his playing several times. Though mental illness is a great burden in life, Phil turned it into something more like an art. A memorial service is being planned.
dsewell writes: I gather that the person in charge of all of the sports at the University of Virginia announced tonight that the University will be searching for a new director for the team of one of the sports that is played with a large round ball, after the old director said he was “stepping down” (although, oddly, he had both feet on the floor at the time). This apparently has something to do with a $100 million building going up off Emmet Street. Quite possibly there are folks out there who would like to discuss this, if they understand what it’s all about.
Smart ass. ;)
Orange County’s David Nicholson has sold an American flag — said to have been flying at the Pentagon when it was struck on September 11, 2001 — via eBay for $371,000. The trouble is that Facchina Construction, the company whose crane Nicholson says was bearing the flag that morning, says that they didn’t have a crane there that morning. The top bidders consequently withdrew their bids, and the auction has started anew — bidding is currently up to $25,000, with two days to go. Nicholson’s year-long stint in prison after stealing $50,000 in cashmere sweaters in 1988 does little to bolster confidence in his story; the Orange County Sheriff reports that his office has dealt with the fellow regularly over the years. Nicholson and family have fled their home, living in a motel to escape the flood of publicity and controversy, which may or may not end with this auction. Thing start to get really weird with his claim that, when he headed home to pick up a few things last Friday, he was attacked, only to later find the flag’s letter of authenticity in his back yard. Kate Andrews had the story in yesterday’s Progress.
Ryo_Road writes: NBC 29 is reporting that School Board member Stephen Koleszar, a Democrat from the Scottsville area, will be running against Robert Bell in the 58th district. Koleszar told NBC 29 that he mainly concerned about traffic funding, or the lack there of, for the Charlottesville area. He specifically mentions two of the area’s busiest roads, Route 29 and Route 53 (Charlottesville-Lake Monticello). He stated the following: “The state has been providing a decreasing share of revenue which has made more burdens on the localities. I’m also very concerned about the transportation issues there are a lot of people commuting down 29 and 53 and those roads are terrible.” NBC 29 has the full story.
Today is cvillenews.com’s fourth birthday. After 1,066 news stories and 12,839 comments, I’ve decided that some upgrades and improvements are in order. The site is now powered by new software, has a strange (hopefully temporary) new design, and has new features galore. It’s a real step forward. You’ll need to log in anew in order to post. Details after the fold.
The Charlottesville Police Department wants a pay increase, and they’ve got the math to back it up. 37 people showed up at last night’s Council meeting with t-shirts declaring that the police need to be paid more, and Charlottesville Police Officers Association president Dwayne Jones pointed out that there are nine open positions in the department, evidence that the pay (which is average for the state) is insufficient to draw officers here. The high cost of living in Charlottesville presumably makes average pay less-than-tempting. Councilor Kevin Lynch pointed out that, while officers asked for a 20% increase in pay, they are getting a 12.3% increase, which isn’t bad. John Yellig has the story in today’s Progress.
With county assessments up 27%, a rate cut is inevitable — the only question is by how much. The Board of Supervisors is weighing that question, considering how far below the current 76-cent rate the new rate should be. School superintendent Kevin Castner has asked that the board not drop below $0.74, because that would only exacerbate the existing $1.2M funding shortfall for the schools. Since the school budget is often the controlling factor in tax rates, the question seems to be, simply, whether the rate should drop one cent, or two. The always-stylish Julie Stavitski has the story in today’s Progress.
Three of the people considering a run for the Democratic nomination for Mitch Van Yahres’ seat have announced that they won’t be doing so, after all. Former Vice Mayor Meredith Richards, former Albemarle Democratic Chairman Will Harvey, and former nothing-in-particular Me have all said that we ain’t running. That leaves UVa professors Jeff Rossman and Peter Sheras, plus a new fella, Clement “Kim” Tingley — he’s a developer who just moved to town. David Toscano is the only candidate thus far. On the Republican side, tech firm owner Tom McCrystal and day care center owner Sharon Jones are considering runs. Bob Gibson has the story in today’s Progress.
In the summer and fall of 2002, the water supply was about all that anybody could talk about. Usage restrictions were put into place in September, it was forecast that we’d be all out by December, and the Rivanna Sewer and Water Association started making doomsday plans. Thankfully, by November 13, the reservoir was up to 87% of capacity, and the bullet was dodged. Since then, Charlottesville and Albemarle have been trying to figure out what to do — the population keeps growing, but we have the same amount of water capacity that we’ve always had. The RWSA is considering four options, three of which include modifying the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir and the Ragged Mountain Reservoir.
The fourth option — piping in water up Route 20 from the James at Scottsville — was dealt a small blow on Monday night. Town Council unianimously passed a resolution opposing that pipeline, citing the need to preserve the James’ water level and the great potential for development throughout southern Albemarle if a water pipeline eliminated the need for wells. Though it’s just a resolution — it doesn’t have any legal weight — it’s not the sort of publicity that the RWSA wants for their efforts.
Julie Stavitski has the story in today’s Progress.
There’s a whole website dedicated to fighting the proposal to pipe in water to Charlottesville from the James. It’s got a bunch of data about the potential effects of drawing water from such a large watershed.
Anybody who has tried to make an account or retrieve their forgotten password since the switch to the new system on the 20th will have been met by stony silence. Sorry about that. There were a couple of bugs (one in Postfix, one in WordPress) that conspired against you. It should work now. Thanks to Jim Duncan for his help with this.
There’s been a lot of talk in the past few years about the achievement gap in Charlottesville — that is, that black students tend to score lower on standardized tests than do white students. With the racial concerns stirred up around Superintedent Scottie Griffin, the issue has gotten quite a bit more attention recently. What’s not clear, though, is whether the problem is an economic one that tends to manifest itself along racial lines, or whether it’s a problem with race at its roots. In the African-American Reflector, Corey Carter has an article addressing that question:
It is true that poor children be they black or white have achievement problems, generally speaking, because of their home environment. However, it is reckless to assign poverty as the primary cause for the achievement gap in a feeble attempt to deracialize institutional racism. Whether a black child lives on Hardy Drive, or in Greenbrier, or in Farmington, they will be subjected to institutional racism and have less opportunities to be successful in school.
I don’t know if the root cause is racism or class-based disadvantage, but I’m glad we’re talking about it.
In the next week, the Charlottesville School Board plans to hold a pair of closed sessions to discuss personnel matters. That’s not terribly exciting in itself, but given the recent turmoil surrounding Superintendent Scottie Griffin, there’s the possibility that this may involve either Griffin or Assistant Superintendent Laura Purnell, who called out Griffin in a letter last month. Or, of course, it could be something routine and uninteresting. The Hook’s got the story.
Dope that I am, I read WINA’s weekly notices of speed trap locations around town, and figure I know where the police will be and where they won’t. In this week’s Hook, Lisa Provence explains how the system works, with a little help from Sgt. Mike Farruggio.
My favorite bit in the piece is an offhand mention by Albemarle Lieutenant John Teixeira, who describes Albemarle as nearly as big as Rhode Island. Wha? So I checked the Census. Lo and behold, Rhode Island is 1,045 sq. mi. (counting only dry land), and Albemarle is 723 sq. mi. I don’t know if “nearly as big” is the phrase, but it’s not bad. Augusta County, however, is 970 sq. mi., and Rockingham is 851 sq. mi. I’d say if anybody around these parts of Virginia gets to claim that they’re nearly as big as Rhode Island, it’s the folks to the west of us.
In yesterday’s closed session of the Charlottesville School Board, it was decided to survey the staff to determine what they think of the administration, James Fernald reports in today’s Progress. It looks like the survey is intended to assess the staff’s take on beleaguered Superintendent Scottie Griffin, despite the official stance that it’s about the administration on the whole.
Two board members — Dede Smith and Muriel Wiggins — were opposed to the idea, saying that the questions used on the survey don’t actually help to figure out what staff thinks about the administration. There are a few more closed school board meetings coming up in the next week, but it’s not publicly known if they have anything to do with Griffin.
Democrat Peter Sheras has announced that he will not be running for the 57th House of Delegates seat, WINA reports. Since Del. Mitch Van Yahres’ announcement of his retirement back on the 5th, a wave of potential candidates appeared, but three of us removed our names last week. With UVa psychologist Peter Sheras out, that leaves UVa professor Jeffrey Rossman and developer Kim Tingley as the only Democrats who have made it publicly known that they’re interested, other than declared candidate David Toscano.
David Toscano may be the only Democratic candidate. However, in addition to Rossman and Tingley, there are also interested folks who haven’t said anything publicly — perhaps others will step forward.
City Manager Gary O’Connell’s budget recommended ending the Percent for Art fund, but that’s not keeping Council from continuing to fund the Art in Place program. Several members of Council want to provide the $5,000 annual allocation by way of their $85,000 reserve fund, rather than going through the traditional funding process, John Yellig reports in the Progress. There are no shortage of folks in this town who are seriously opposed to Art in Place getting either public funding or public space, though there are also many people (myself included) who believe that public art is important in a “world class” city. (We’ve had debates about Art in Place before.)
Rob Schilling is, of course, opposed to this allocation, but he’s refusing to say whether or not he supports Art in Place. In fact, he’s generally opposed to the use of the reserve fund, telling the Progress: “It became very clear to me that this is something the city manager sets aside so the council can pay off their friends. It was like handing out candy on Halloween.”
The ongoing saga of Superintendent Scottie Griffin just got uglier. You’ll recall Assistant Superintended Laura Purnell blew the whistle on Griffin in a lengthy letter to the school board last month. Now Griffin is attempting to give Purnell the boot by eliminating her position in June, and has asked the school board to do so during their Thursday meeting, the Progress reports. In Purnell’s letter, she acknowledged that in becoming a whistleblower, she knew that she was risking her job, but felt that it was more important that she say something than that she keep her job safe. Nearly all of the officials that the Progress interviewed said that Purnell should be protected from being fired. The decision rests with the school board, not Griffin.
The letter in question, by the way, seems to have been validated: the Progress, for the first time, quotes from the letter, and attributes it to being authored by Purnell, rather than allegedly by Purnell. It’s also noteworthy that James Fernald is not the only reporter that received credit for this: veteran political analyst Bob Gibson has been brought in, a sign that this story is getting bigger and more politically sensitive.
I expect that things are only going to get worse from here. Should the overall issue of Griffin vs. some parents be reframed as Griffin vs. Purnell, the assistant superintendent may find herself painted as a liar or a racist. Some teachers, many of whom are preparing to sign their contracts for next year, may see the result of Thursday’s meeting as a sign of whether or not they should continue to teach in the Charlottesville school system. If the board doesn’t fire Purnell, Griffin may break her public silence and stop speaking through surrogates, which would certainly take things up a notch.
Amazingly, four separate people have been arrested, each separately charged with embezzling from Albemarle County. Two former employees of the school system, one school custodian, and one former finance employee have been charged with a total of $25,000 in theft between them, Reed Williams writes in today’s Progress.
One, a former Murray Elementary cafeteria manager, stole over $5,000 in parentally-established lunch money accounts. Another, who worked in the media center offices, falsified mileage reports and stole a fax machine for a total of $12,000. Another — the custodian — took three 27″ TVs, two Macs, two drills and two power saws, which he pawned, adding up to $5,319. The fourth, the finance employee, embezzled $2,500 between September ‘04 and January by taking cash payments filed for building permits.
The four cases are described as county officials as both unrelated to each other and very unusual. The fact that they were all caught seems to indicate that somebody in the county accounting department is doing their job.
Democratic Senator Creigh Deeds, who represents Virginia’s 25th District (which includes Charlottesville), formally announced his campaign for Attorney General today. 
The usual crowd of Charlottesville’s Democratic muckety-mucks (including me) turned out for the event, held on the east end of the Downtown Mall, at Bashir’s. Deeds’ speech made it clear that he’s as centrist as ever, but that didn’t seem to dampen the enthusiasm of the audience of liberal Democrats.
Deeds’ opposition will come in the form of either Steve Baril or his opponent for the Republican nomination, Del. Bob McDonnell. That will be decided in the June Republican primary.
03/30 Update: Bob Gibson’s got the skinny in the Progress.
In today’s Cavalier Daily, Chris Wilson has a profile of UVa Dean of African Affairs (or, as some call him, “Dean of All Things Black”) M. Rick Turner.
“When I came here … one of the things I didn’t want to do was have an adversarial relationship with my colleagues or those I report to,” he said. “But then I found out that, by the nature of what I do, the nature of the things I have to say, the nature of the issues that are brought forth to the University that I have to deal with, people are going to look at that as adversarial.”
And Turner certainly isn’t shy about the consequences of saying what he feels is necessary for him to say.
[…]
Myra Franklin-Jones, a College graduate student and two-time president of the Black Student Alliance, said she worries not about what Turner chooses to say but how he is understood in the community.
“I know that Dean Turner has the historical memory and the intellectual capacity to approach issues with all seriousness,” Franklin-Jones said. “I worry about how he is perceived, not how he is.”
The good news is that UVa has bought several private apartment buildings to use as student housing. The bad news is that UVa has bought several private apartment buildings to use as student housing. They’ve had a housing shortage that has been problematic, which led to a promise to provide more housing year ago. In an effort to alleviate this, they’ve bought a five-building apartment complex from Wade Apartments, just off JPA, as well as the University Forum complex, for a total of $11.05M. Between the two of them, the apartments can house 265 students.
In providing housing for students, it may help to limit the increase in rent prices created by students crowding into privately-owned houses. On the other hand, UVa just took eleven million dollars worth of property off of Charlottesville’s tax rolls which is, what, $120,000 in property taxes each year?
Damned if they’re do, and damned if they don’t. David Hendrick has the skinny in today’s Progress.
In yesterday’s monthly joint meeting of the school board and City Council, City Councilor Blake Caravati seemed to be chalking up the recent school troubles to poor leadership on the part of board chair Dede Smith. In today’s Progress, James Fernald writes:
City councilors and the School Board focused on low morale in Charlottesville’s schools at a joint meeting Wednesday, with one councilor laying the blame on poor leadership of the board.
Blake Caravati said part of the problem is comparatively low proposed teacher raises in next year’s school budget.
Several times during the meeting, Caravati questioned whether “Madam Chair” - Dede Smith - could “lead the board to make this budget work.”
Smith responded: “If you want to make me the scapegoat, fine.”
The board is meeting tonight. Presumably, the drama will continue.
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