Charlottesville Tomorrow has interviewed all of the Board of Supervisors candidates, with a focus on the topics of interest to the organization: growth and related issues. The interviews are 20-50 minutes each, and may be listened to right on Charlottesville Tomorrow’s website. Those interviews can be listened to individually (listed in order of publication): Marcia Joseph, David Wyant, Denny King, Ken Boyd, Ann Mallek, Kevin Fletcher, and Lindsay Dorrier.
Archive for September, 2007
On the heels their interviews with BoS candidates, Charlottesville Tomorrow has interviews with all five candidates for City Council, focusing on the topic of growth. A timestamped list of topics addressed is provided for every interview, making it easy to find candidates’ responses on matters of your interest. Those interviews can be listened to individually (listed in order of publication): Satyendra Huja (D), Barbara Haskins (I), Holly Edwards (D), David Brown (D), and Peter Kleeman (I).
As all developments inevitably are, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved both the Biscuit Run and Hollymead developments during last night’s meeting.
Biscuit Run’s 3,100 housing units will go in just south of town, courtesy of developer Hunter Craig, bringing many thousands of new residents to the area. Accompanying the development is $41.1M in proffers, as per the county’s policies, which will not even begin to cover what we’ll all pay in taxes to cover Biscuit Run, which the county estimates will run us $222M. Had the county not rezoned the land, its developers would have been limited to less than 1,400 houses. It will be the largest housing development in county history.
And then there’s Hollymead, the expansion of the existing “Hollymead Town Center.” That’s 1,200 housing units and 278,000 square feet of commercial space. The developer wouldn’t provide a proffer for improvements to damage they’ve done to a nearby lake, but based only on the guy’s attorney saying they’d figure something out, Supervisor Dennis Rooker voted for it anyway, saying that he “take[s] him to be a man of his word.” Supervisor Lindsay Dorrier voted for it, too, despite telling Charlottesville Tomorrow earlier this week that it lacked the infrastructure necessary to make it good for the county.
Our taxes going up to pay for rich folks to move here from New Jersey in 3…2…1…
After seeing yet another story about how Crozet residents don’t want to be the county’s growth dumping ground, I have to ask: Why doesn’t Crozet take their destiny into their own hands and incorporate as a town? It would require an act of the General Assembly, but I suspect that Sen. Emmett Hanger or Del. Steve Landes would be willing to introduce that bill. It would be interesting to hear what the two candidates for the White Hall district — incumbent Republican David Wyant and Democratic challenger Ann Huckle Mallek — each think about Crozet taking their destiny into their own hands.
In this week’s Hook, Lisa Provence has a lengthy profile of Jim Camblos and the criticism that has been heaped upon him in the past few years. Provence talked to me for the piece, since I’ve never been shy about criticizing the Albemarle County commonwealth’s attorney, and some of my quotes are sprinkled throughout the article to create a sort of back and forth between me and Camblos.
When asked about his most serious screwup — Cambos’ refusal to so much as issue a traffic ticket to woman who killed a woman and her grandchildren while driving on on 29 — he doesn’t even attempt to defend himself, simply refusing to discuss it. On other matters, Camblos complains that his critics are “people who don’t know all the facts,” which either means a) that all local media outlets have conspired against Camblos to refuse to provide the public with “all the facts” or b) that Camblos is refusing to provide the facts. What with his refusal to, y’know, provide the facts when asked for them by Provence, this isn’t a real tough nut to crack.
Bizarrely, Camblos claims that anybody who criticizes him either doesn’t live in Albemarle or is part of “certain segment of the media.” I can’t claim to be particularly surprised: this is the same man who once brought charges against a child in part because he was born on Hitler’s birthday. Reality’s not his strong suit.
Defending him, his coworkers point out that Camblos loves puppies, rainbows, and long walks on the beach. Camblos insists that he’s all about “respect, compassion, and dignity,” which contrasts sharply with the mug he’s photographed drinking out of, emblazoned with these words: “Reduce defense spending–plead guilty.”
There were a lot of similarities between Albemarle County’s citizen survey last year and Charlottesville Tomorrow’s survey last month, but there were some differences, too. There was a lot of overlap in the questions about growth and rural protection, and that’s where some results deviated. In response to that, UVa’s Center for Survey Research, who ran the county’s survey, put together an explanation of why the results differed (PDF), which the county made public in an e-mail announcement today. It’s actually a pretty interesting read, with the differences in the questions and the survey methodologies appearing to explain the contrasts.
Corey Harris has won a MacArthur Foundation fellowship — a “genius grant”! The 38-year-old blues musician is a genuine success story in the realm of Charlottesville music, and he’s been making waves in the world of blues for well over a decade now. He’ll receive $100,000 annually for the next five years, with which he can do absolutely anything he wants. I’m thrilled for him.
8:30am Update: Jane Dunlap Norris has the story for the Progress.
The county has a $3.3M budget shortfall, Jeremy Borden reported for the Progress yesterday, leaving the county trying to figure out what to cut. What with the soaring property tax rates, I’m not sure many people will be able to muster much sympathy. Staff had counted on a cooling housing market, but it happened faster and cooled more than they’d planned on. The county figures they can make up their $1.4M by not filling positions as they become open, but the school has to figure out how they’ll make up their $1.9M.
From the “What The?!” files comes the story of Jennifer Dowell White, who was held in the jail for a month for no apparent reason, Lisa Provence reports for The Hook. She appeared before a city grand jury on August 20, who was considering indicting her for obtaining money under false pretenses, but they decided not to. Nonetheless, she was held in jail until just yesterday, the apparent fault of Charlottesville Clerk Paul Garrett. Her attorney had repeatedly requested a copy of the indictment that would presumably be required to keep White in jail, but Garrett wouldn’t send it — the paperwork had apparently been lost in his office. Garrett declined comment.
Garrett was last in the news back in April, when he was caught obtaining $52,000 from the state by lying about getting his office’s records online. Garrett, a Democrat, was most recently reelected in 2003.
9:30pm Update: I see that Henry Graff reported on this for NBC 29 and did get a comment out of Paul Garrett. He said that he wasn’t necessarily the obstacle, that “there are various ways that could have been addressed,” though not knowing anything about the legal system, it’s all greek to me.
It was one year ago that City Councilor Kevin Lynch exposed UVa’s Patrick J. Michaels as fraudulently claiming to be Virginia State Climatologist. Now comes word that Michaels quietly resigned his position at the university this summer, Bob Gibson reports in today’s Daily Progress. Lynch’s reporting led to national coverage of Michaels’ conflict of interest (he received extensive funding from the energy industry while denying global climate change) and resulted in Governor Kaine’s request that he stop calling himself the state’s climatologist, since he held no such position. The 57-year-old Michaels has negotiated a retirement package with UVa, and will continue to hold a position as a part-time research professor…on leave.
The Virginia Public Access Project has BoS candidates’ latest campaign finance data up on their site now. In Rivanna, Democrat Marcia Joseph is out-raising incumbent Republican Ken Boyd, $24k to $18k. In White Hall, incumbent Republican David Wyant is out-raising Democratic challenger Ann Huckle Mallek $29k to $20k (thanks to a $10k contribution from one of his appointees). And in Scottsville, incumbent Democrat Lindsay Dorrier is significantly out-raising his two independent challengers with $14k — Kevin Fletcher has raised $575 and Denny King has raised $5k. Lists of individuals contributions greater than $100 are available for all of the candidates, and there are some interesting numbers in there.
There are reports for the City Council races, too, but the lack of Republican candidates and the minor role that money will play in that contest makes the money a lot less interesting.
The couple who run Double H Farm, in Nelson, have been arrested for using non-approved labels as price tags, Dave McNair writes for The Hook. The couple, in their 60s, had their farm swarmed by ten Virginia Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services agents, a state trooper, and the Nelson County Sheriff before they were handcuffed and hauled away in separate cruisers. Their Double H pork products were seized from restaurants across the area, destroyed by soaking them with bleach. Double H’s owners are well-known advocates for the rights of family farmers, which has surely earned them no love from state regulators.
I know a fair number of people in the farming and livestock business. They are all terrified of harassment by the state, which appears to both loathe family farms, actively seeking out piddily reasons to bust them. Locally-produced food is a strong interest of mine, and I’ve encouraged some of these food producers to speak out, but they’re all terrified that if they do, VDA&CS will invent a reason to shut them down. Now I see why.
This is going to get ugly — the Virginia Independent Consumers and Farmers Association will make sure of that. I wonder if any members of the General Assembly will have the good sense to introduce legislation to support family farms and stop this harassment on the part of state regulators.
One year after he was first accused and three months after he pleaded guilty, former CHS choir director Jonathan Spivey has been sentenced to 21 months in prison, Rob Seal reports for the Progress. (He was actually sentenced to twenty years, but the remainder was suspended.) When released he’ll be on probation for five years and have to register as a sex offender.
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