June 21, 2024: Charlottesville Deputy City Manager Marshall explains social equity approach to providing local government services
Plus: A look at the ranked-choice vote in Arlington County this past Tuesday
The summer solstice has passed and now we’ll begin to see the days grow shorter. Today’s sunrise at the headquarters of Town Crier Productions was 14 seconds later than the one on Thursday. That process will continue for quite a while until we find ourselves in December and this dance is performed at the other end of the stage.
Charlottesville Community Engagement is not a newsletter about astronomy. I’m Sean Tubbs, and I do feel it is important to know what the sun is up to in as much detail as possible.
In today’s installment:
Charlottesville Police continue their search for a man charged with a shooting on Carlton Avenue early Thursday morning
Charlottesville City Council affirms technical changes to the city’s water protection program after two public hearings in which no one spoke
Voters in Arlington this week took part in a ranked-choice primary for a member of the County Board
Deputy City Manager for Social Equity Ashley Marshall explains how she’s approaching her work to improve the social determinants of health in the community
First shout-out: Friends of JMRL
In the first subscriber supported shout-out since the summer solstice: Let’s learn a little about a nonprofit group that plays a major role to keep the Jefferson Madison Regional Library going strong.
Friends of JMRL plays an important role in the slightly Byzantine structure of library budgets. Proceeds from the popular book sale go to pay for children’s, teen and adult programs. The five jurisdictions that make up JMRL pay for facilities, salaries, and operational costs. State aid funds the collection acquisitions for all materials, physical, and digital. The federal e-rate program pays for equipment purchases. And Friends of JMRL raise funds for all sorts of activities.
That includes the Library endowment in conjunction with the Charlottesville Albemarle Community Foundation awards money to special efforts such as the NAACP scholarship as well grants to out-of-area patrons to cover the $30 fee for residents of non-member localities. Friends of JMRL also manages the Books Behind Bars program. Volunteers find and ship books to Virginia inmates at no cost to the inmates. Expenses are paid through private benefactors and Red Light Management.
Visit jmrlfriends.org to learn more and find out how you can get involved.
Charlottesville Police seek suspect in connection with early Thursday morning shooting
The Charlottesville Police Department is looking for a suspect charged with shooting a woman sometime around midnight on June 20. Twenty-five year old Travis William Herndon is wanted on four counts including aggravated malicious wounding in an incident that happened on Carlton Avenue.
Police went to the scene after responding to the latest “shots fired” call.
“On scene, Officers found an 18 year old female victim with gunshot wounds to her upper body in a vehicle that had crashed into a trailer home,” reads the release.
A medical crew took the victim to the University of Virginia Medical Center and the release from early morning yesterday indicated she was in stable condition with serious injuries.
Herndon is believed to be armed and is at-large as of Friday morning. Police believe this was a “targeted incident” and that’s the second time this month that phrase has appeared in a press release. The first was related to a June 12 incident in which a specific house on Harmon Street was hit several times by gunfire.
In the June 20 case, Herndon is charged with aggravated malicious wounding, malicious wounding, attempted malicious wounding, malicious shooting at an occupied vehicle, and possession of a firearm by a violent felon.
Anyone with information is asked to phone CrimeStoppers at 434-977-4000.
Council reaffirms water protection ordinance / stormwater utility fee
Charlottesville City Council has adopted two resolutions related to the conveyance of rainfall across the landscape after holding two public hearings that were not advertised as such in the agenda.
“We have two items before you this evening,” said James Freas, the Deputy City Manager for Operations. “I can do them both together or one at a time.”
“But both require public hearings?” asked Vice Mayor Brian Pinkston who ran the meeting in Mayor Juandiego Wade’s absence.
“Yes sir,” Freas responded.
While the online agenda did not indicate the public had an opportunity to speak at either, these were legally advertised in the classifieds section of the June 15 edition of the Daily Progress, a newspaper owned by an out-of-state corporation. Non-subscribers can still look through these legally-mandated advertisements at Public Notice Virginia.
Freas explained what was at issue.
“About a year ago, the State Water Control Board adopted new regulations that combined the Virginia Erosion and Sediment Control program and the Virginia Stormwater Management Program,” Freas said.
Charlottesville is one of several localities with a Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System permit, or MS4 permit. The new rules gave the city and other places a year to update their ordinances to reflect the new combined regulatory authority.
“We used the model ordinance that they published for us for all communities as our baseline and then we rolled into that the more stringent requirements that we have here in Charlottesville,” Freas said. “For example, when the thresholds for when erosion and sediment control requirements are triggered or stormwater management requirements are triggered.”
The second item also cleans up the city’s ordinance to make sure one of the city’s revenue-generating fees complies with the regulations.
“Since 2014, the city has had a stormwater utility fee which we use those funds for our water resource protection program, basically to repair and replace public stormwater infrastructure, to implement capital programs and improvements, and things like that,” Freas said.
Property owners pay the fee twice a year based on a calculation of how much impervious surface is on the land. That includes rooftops, driveways, and other items with materials that cause water to move faster, increasing the possibility of erosion.
Freas said another item in the clean-up is to reflect that management of the stormwater fee has been moved out of Public Works and into the Utilities Department.
Council waived the necessary second reading in order to meet the June 30 deadline. There was also an error in the packet.
“The ordinance that was in the packet did have a date in it of June 18 for the public hearing, but the public hearing was advertised for the 17th which is tonight so we are in compliance,” said Kyna Thomas, the City Council Clerk.
No one spoke at either public hearing.
The staff report for the first ordinance change does not include the phrase “public hearing” (see for yourself)
The staff report for the second ordinance change also did not include the phrase “public hearing” (take a look)
A second reading of an ordinance can be waived with a supermajority vote of four out of five votes and that happened for this meeting.
According to the adopted FY2024 budget, the city has collected just under $2 million a year in fees dating back to fiscal year 2020. According to the city’s budget explorer, there are 11 employees classified as being in stormwater operations. That same page states that over 50,544 linear feet of stormwater pipes were rehabilitated in 2023 and 6,175 were replaced.
Arlington County again uses ranked choice voting for Board seat
Across all of Virginia, only Arlington County has opted to use ranked-choice voting in order to choose local candidates for office.
“Ranked choice voting lets you rank candidates instead of voting for just one,” reads a primer on the method on the Virginia Department of Elections website. “You’ll have a voice in deciding who represents you, even if your first-choice candidate doesn’t win.”
Voters in Arlington went to the polls Tuesday to choose a Democratic nominee for an open seat on the five-member County Board. None of the six candidates obtained an outright majority in the first round and the next round won’t be tabulated until later on today.
In the first round, Julius “JD” Spain Sr. obtained 6,337 votes to come first, with 32 percent of the first vote. Julie E. Farnam placed sixth with 1,238 votes or six percent.
“If nobody wins a majority, the candidate with the fewest first choice votes is eliminated,” the primer continues. “Second choice votes from voters whose preferred candidate was eliminated are transferred to those corresponding candidates.”
If that doesn’t produce a clear winner, the process will continue until someone does clear 50 percent.
The second round can’t take place until all of the votes are in and Arlington has scheduled this to begin at 5 p.m. on Friday with a second count scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m. if necessary.
Second-shout out: Cvillepedia
Last year, the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library assumed operational control of cvillepedia, a community wiki created in the late 2000’s to help me and my colleagues keep track of what we were covering. The site is now programmed by the Albemarle-Charlottesville Historical Society.
Cvillepedia is a wiki dedicated to sharing and building community knowledge and history about the people, places, and events in Charlottesville and Albemarle County. This site is built with the same software as Wikipedia and is a free, public, collaborative encyclopedia that anyone can edit and improve. Cvillepedia is a volunteer run project and I continue to be one of the volunteers and this summer I’m even managing a couple of interns.
We could also use more people to help keep it up to date. Click HERE to become a volunteer and add to the stories told about the past!
Deputy City Manager Marshall briefs Council on approach to social equity goals
Sam Sanders has been Charlottesville’s City Manager for nearly a year and unveiled a work plan for his duties soon after taking the position. This work plan corresponds to the City Council’s strategic plan which was adopted last September and Sanders has provided periodic updates at regular meetings. (Council adopts framework for strategic plan, September 9, 2024)
“There were some topics that we have yet to engage in, bigger discussions,” Sanders said.
Sanders invited Deputy City Manager Ashley Marshall to present materials on social equity priorities based on the strategic plan commitment to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI).
“As your Deputy City Manager it’s both a privilege and a responsibility to address how we can foster a city where every individual, regardless of background or circumstances has fair and just opportunities to thrive,” Marshall said. (view the presentation)
Marshall said social equity can be used as a guiding principle for how to organize policies and how to define the city’s identity. She said the city will look at equity through the framework called the Social Determinants of Health. (learn more on the Centers for Disease Control website)
“The Social Determinants of Health are the underlying community-wide social and economic and physical conditions in which people are born, live, work, and age,” Marshall said.
Marshall said local government has the power to affect people’s lives through the policies it sets. She said equity is required to as a lens to ensure decisions don’t have negative consequences.
Marshall quoted materials put out by the group Race Forward.
“Equality is sameness and it ignores the realities of the historical exclusion and power differentials among whites and other racialized groups and marginalized persons,” Marshall said.
As a comparison, Marshall read from materials put out by the group Government Alliance on Racial Equity.
“Equity however is a measure of justice,” Marshall said. “It ensures that outcomes are uniquely created for what people need and that is absolutely where we should be focused in on.”
Marshall’s position used to be Deputy City Manager for Racial Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion but Sanders changed it to Deputy City Manager for Social Equity. Here’s another definition, this time from the American Society for Public Administration.
“It is the fair, just, and equitable management of all institutions serving the public directly or by contract, the fair and equitable distribution of public services, and implementation of public policy, and the commitment to promote fairness, justice, and equity in the formation of public policy,” Marshall read from another slide.
Going back to social determinants of health, Marshall said localities have a duty to ensure they are providing services to maximize outcomes for as many people as possible.
“We are the entity that works on key infrastructure for our community and we also provide programs that can either support health and wellness, or hinder it,” Marshall said.
Marshall then explained how current city programs are working to accomplish both strategic plan goals and social health determinant goals. For instance, under economic stability there are several examples of city programs.
The Department of Human Services runs the CAYIP Teen Internship Program
The Office of Economic Development has several GO programs to train people to have various skill-sets
The Office of Social Equity runs the Downtown Job Center and the Home to Hope Program
Charlottesville Area Transit currently has a fare free program that runs through June 30, 2026
The city is participating in the 2024 Economic Mobility and Opportunity Cohort run by the International City/County Management Association (see recent story)
Charlottesville is also part of the National League of Cities Economic Mobility Peer Network (see that story, too)
The city has also invested $590,000 or so in the BEACON Kitchen under construction from the New Hill Development Corporation. (here’s one story) (here’s another)
Charlottesville also invests in workforce development programs at Piedmont Virginia Community College
Marshall went on through Neighborhood and Physical Environment, Education, Food, Community and Social Context, and the Health Care System.
But before we go to those, Marshall explained more about that ICMA program.
“This program will allow us to start exploring how we can better work on economic stability and economic prosperity,” Marshall said.
There’s more in the report and the video is available on the city’s streaming website. (the raw link to the video)
At the end, Marshall asked Councilors to weigh in.
“I really appreciate this summary of basically this is what our government does,” said City Councilor Natalie Oschrin. “I think it’s very clear and it’s very helpful and trying into the theme of social determinants of health makes it easy to approach. You can think, how does it affect me, and how does it affect my community because ultimately we are a community.”
Oschrin called for the report to be put in an accessible place. (view the presentation)
“I think it would be useful to somehow get this presentation with all of these things linked somewhere on the website in an easily findable place so people can find out about what is it the city government can do,” Oschrin said.
For another look at how these issues are tracked in city government, take a look at the most recent update from Sanders on how work plan. (February 15, 2024 update)
In the meantime, there’s Charlottesville Community Engagement and stories like this. I can’t cover it all, but I try to provide as broad an overview as I can.
Reading material:
Groups urge FEMA to recognize extreme heat, wildfire smoke as a ‘major disaster’, Miranda Nazzaro, The Hill, June 17, 2024
Virginia Senate returns to Richmond but fails to pass any bills, Graham Moomaw, June 18, 2024
U.Va. Architecture students to participate in Envision Resilience Challenge, Brandon Kile, Cavalier Daily, June 18, 2024
Two Albemarle police officers allegedly assaulted by DUI suspect at the jail, Jay Hart, Cville Right Now, June 19, 2024
Improvement projects, school lunches dominate school board meeting, Heather Michon, Fluvanna Review, June 20, 2024
Virginia sees increase in forested buffers, but watershed struggling to meet goals, Charlie Paullin, Virginia Mercury, June 20, 2024
How did we get to the end of #693?
Process matters and I have staked my career as a journalist on the notion that process is worth writing about for an audience. For my entire career, colleagues of mine have laughed at me when I said I liked covering meetings. I’ve felt like an outsider all of my career because I don’t look down on municipal government.
Sporting events are covered in-depth and there’s an audience for that sort of thing. I’m part of that audience now as I watch the Euro 2024 Championships for men’s soccer and now the Copa America.
My entire business model depends on the notion that there are people who will pay for information about what’s happening at government meetings. Thanks to Substack (and other methods of payment) I’m able to make a living by constantly improving my own process for how I keep an eye on as much as I can. I am not perfect, but that’s why I have a corrections policy. I know there are many typos and punctuation errors, but I’m trying to figure that part out.
In any case, thanks to the paid subscribers and I swear this weekend I’m going to get caught up on personalized thank you notes. It’s been a busy week, it will be a busy weekend, and I’m glad to keep getting to do this.
Ting will match your initial subscription, whether it be at $5 a month, $50 a year, or $200 a year. It is quite generous of them to do so, and I appreciate their investment in this style of community journalism.
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Can you post a photo of the wanted man, Mr. Herndon? We can't be on the lookout for someone we don't recognize. Thank you.