September 21, 2024: Albemarle takes a SPEAR to performance metrics; Charlottesville seeks federal review of community policing efforts
A rare Saturday edition that captures a few stories that otherwise would not have been written
There have been only a handful of Saturday editions of Charlottesville Community Engagement, a newsletter and occasional podcast that seems to write as much as possible. Sometimes it takes longer than usual to get to stories. I’m Sean Tubbs and this particular edition for September 21 is the result of a dive into my inbox for stories I did not get to until now.
In today’s installment:
The Charlottesville Police Department is getting a review of its community policing efforts from an office in the Justice Department
Albemarle Supervisors learn about the 220 metrics used to evaluate the county’s Strategic Plan
The Albemarle Commonwealth’s Attorney has cleared a Waynesboro police officer in an April shooting that killed a suspect on I-64
Charlottesville is seeking proposals on software to monitor all 75 signalized intersections within the city
The Building Goodness Foundation turns 25
First shout-out: Camp Albemarle
Today’s first subscriber-supported public service announcement goes out to Camp Albemarle, which has for over sixty years been a “wholesome rural, rustic and restful site for youth activities, church groups, civic events and occasional private programs.”
Located on 14 acres on the banks of the Moorman’s River near Free Union, Camp Albemarle continues as a legacy of being a Civilian Conservation Corps project that sought to promote the importance of rural activities. Are you looking to escape and reconnect with nature? Consider holding an event where the natural beauty of the grounds will provide a venue to suit your needs. Visit their website to view the gallery and learn more!
Note: This edition is unique in that there are several stories I’ve been wanting to get to, and these are the ones that came out while trying to clean out my email inbox. I know there are stories that are more recent, and I draw your attention to “Reading Material” at the end for a link to the story about the use of Flock cameras by the Charlottesville Police Department. Some of these stories may also end up as ones I write in Monday’s newsletter.
Charlottesville seeking federal audit of community policing efforts
In late August, the Charlottesville Police Department asked a division of the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct a review of its operations.
The Office of the Community Oriented Policing Services is an entity that advises law enforcement agencies across the nation on how to work with communities.
“When police and communities collaborate, they more effectively address underlying issues, change negative behavioral patterns, and allocate resources,” reads a portion of their website.
The Charlottesville Police Department has requested that the federal office take a look at its organizational structure to review its strategic priorities. That includes a look at staffing levels and what policies are in place to ensure transparency.
“The assessment evaluates the efficiencies and processes of law enforcement agencies to ensure they are effectively meeting the needs of their communities,” reads an August 21 press release.
The specific request is for the office’s Collaborative Reform Initiative Program which has conducted work in Galax, Virginia. The COPS program reviewed how the “police response to specific populations” and this result in the hiring of at least one officer who could speak Spanish.
“The COPS Office funded the hiring of one bilingual police office,” reads a three-page action report. “The GPD recruited from among the Hispanic community in the City of Galax and made a conditional offer of employment to a Galax native of Mexican heritage who lived within one of the predominantly Hispanic communities.”
COPS also helped the Galax Police Department become more efficient in FY2012. (read that report)
The Charlottesville Police Department is seeking assistance in order to get an external review on the community policing principles put into place by Chief Michael Kochis.
“Over the last year, CPD has made significant strides in reducing vacancies, building trust, and reducing gun violence,” the release quotes Chief Kochis. “This assessment will tell us what we don’t know and where our blind spots are.”
When asked this week when the review would be complete, CPD public information officer Kyle Ervin said there is no timetable but the whole process should take between 12 and 18 months.
Albemarle County keeping track of strategic plan with SPEAR
One way that localities organize what their municipal government will do is through the adoption of a strategic plan. This is different from a Comprehensive Plan which lays out the broad direction elected officials want their jurisdiction to head toward.
The Albemarle Board of Supervisors last adopted a strategic plan in October 2022 and got an update at their meeting on August 21.
“What I really hope to get out of this afternoon is hearing from our board about, are we on the right track?” asked Kristy Shifflett, who now has the title of chief operating officer for Albemarle County.
For the first time, Albemarle has developed a series of metrics to evaluate how progress toward each objective in the plan. This goes by the acronym SPEAR which stands for Strategic Plan Execution Analysis and Reporting (SPEAR). (final report)
“Several of our departments and our functions have been at performance measurement for a very long time,” Shifflett said. “They have state reporting, they have mandates, they have calls for service. And so it is something that they've been measuring for a very long time.”
All departments across Albemarle County government participated in coming up with metrics. Staff has been looking at the data and evaluating what the various targets would be.
“We spent some time with each department talking about the kind of rules of the road about metrics, and we wanted to ask them, where are we succeeding?” Shifflett asked. “We want to make sure that we look at this work, and from this work, we say, where are we stopped, paused? Where are we not making headway? And are we in trouble somewhere?”
Shifflett said paying attention to the direction of a policy can help staff change direction. She said the data itself is not the answer and often leads to more questions. And by putting it out for the public to review, the county increases its transparency.
“Trust in government often comes into play by setting the right and fair expectations,” Shifflett said.
For now, they’ve settled on 220 metrics which are designed to check in on the strategic plan. Gabriel Giacalone, a Senior Performance Management Analyst at Albemarle County, said there are metrics for each goal.
“Our goals are broad areas of focus. In the strategic plan, we have six of them, and underneath each of these we have objectives and these objectives,” Giacalone said.
For instance, Goal 1 is Safety & Well-Being which Giacalone said represents public safety agencies.
A target was set for Fire/Rescue to conduct 1,800 code inspections of businesses within the county, and they attained 1,685, or 94 percent
Another target determined that 90 percent of Fire Rescue calls for service in the rural area arrive with 21 minutes, and the actual number was 95 percent
Police sought to reduce their response time to priority 1 calls by three percent, and they achieved 4.5 percent
Goal 2 is Resilient, Equitable, and Engaged Community.
There was a FY24 target to clean and assess 40 percent of the county’s urban drainage infrastructure, and the actual number was 29 percent
The county also surpassed a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from municipal buildings by five percent and the actual number was 6.4 percent
Take a look at the rest of the report to see the other four goals but note that the report for Goal 5 does not have any metrics but is just a timeline of events.
“You'll see here that we've identified the funding that we provide to the public school system and the capital plan, such as the design of High School Center II, the Southern Feeder and Pattern elementary school,” Shifflett said.
For more information on those projects, I’ve got a recent story from the Places29-North Community Advisory Committee.
After the presentation, Supervisor Ned Gallaway said the county should make sure that taxpayers are aware of the metrics.
“This is about why what we've done connects to the tax bill you received and the people you elected to make it, you know, to get up there and try to drive policy,” Gallaway said. “So drawing those threads from strategic plan to the budget, that is critical. And you can't do it without having a good analytic or a good report.”
Supervisor Michael Pruitt said he hoped the SPEAR report and other uses of the 220 metrics could help engage the community.
“I remember we had a citizen who came to a public comment earlier in the year who came up and asked myself and chair Andrews very simply, hey, what are you all doing?,” Pruitt said. “What are the things you're doing? I would like to know what you're doing. Can you tell me? This is going to be a really great way to do that.”
County Executive Jeffrey Richardson asked Supervisors to provide feedback on the metrics and reminded them this is just the first year of reporting. He said the overall goal is to tell the story of how the county is functioning.
“We don't produce a product in this organization,” Richardson said. “We don't build widgets. We are a people heavy organization that provides services to the community and our community looks at us in many ways to determine how we're doing.”
Richardson also said the report is a good item for Supervisors to consider as they think about their performance review of his tenure as well as the people in his administration.
“We really do want to meet the expectations of this board and, more importantly, of the community,” Richardson said.
For more information, take a look at the SPEAR page on the county’s website. And what do you think? What do you want to know about Albemarle County?
Second-shout out: Piedmont Master Gardeners marks Hunger Action Month
A successful season in the garden often produces more food than a family can consume or preserve. As the nation observes Hunger Action Month, the Piedmont Master Gardeners are encouraging food growers to share that extra bounty with food distribution hubs that help people in the community meet their nutritional needs.
PMG’s Share Your Harvest program offers an online listing of local food banks and food pantries that accept donations of homegrown fruits and vegetables. The program also provides an interactive map to help locate donation sites, as well as details about when and where fresh produce can be delivered.
Among the organizations is the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank. It distributes food to hundreds of pantries and other partner agencies in a 25-county region that includes Charlottesville and Albemarle County.
Use of Force report released in April 10 police shooting on I-64 in Albemarle County
One of the duties of the Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney is to investigate when there is a shooting involving a law enforcement officer.
On August 23, 2024, the office issued a report concluding that a Waynesboro police officer was justified in the shooting death of Kevin David Taylor II on I-64 on April 10 of this year.
“Taylor was a suspect in a shots fire / malicious wounding call in Waynesboro, and he eventually came to a stop on the shoulder of I-64 in Albemarle County when his vehicle wrecked,” reads a summary of the incident. “The Waynesboro police got out of their vehicles with Taylor’s vehicle was stopped.”
According to the summary, Taylor asked several times to be shot. Virginia State Police and Albemarle County Police soon arrived and efforts were made to connect Taylor with his mother on the phone to ease the situation.
Taylor said he had a gun and an hour into the incident, police fired a “less than lethal” foam baton. (see an example)
“Taylor dove into his car, and a Waynesboro law enforcement officer fired seven rounds into Taylor’s car, killing him,” the summary concludes.
The full report includes more details of the incident including the presence of a K-9 officer that made Taylor uncomfortable. The two paragraph conclusion finds no criminal liability against the officer who is identified by the initials R.B.
“While Taylor’s death under these circumstances is tragic and regrettable, it must be noted that law enforcement spent nearly an hour attempting to de-escalate the situation and safely apprehend Taylor, while Taylor tried again and again to create a situation in which the officer had no choice but to shoot him to protect themselves and others,” reads the final line of the three page public report.
Virginia law requires records to be kept of officer-involved shootings and for that record to be published in the annual Crime in Virginia report. These are released by calendar year. In 2023 22 people were killed and 18 people were injured. All of the incidents that had been resolved by publication of the report were determined to be justified.
Procurement update: Charlottesville seeks an Advanced Traffic Management System
A municipal budget lays out what a local government is going to spend money on a full review of the process includes taking a look at what localities are seeking to buy. Virginia law requires transparency when it comes to procurement and many jurisdictions have elaborate websites that can provide lots of details.
For instance, Charlottesville is seeking proposals from a firm to provide software to help manage traffic on city streets.
“The City of Charlottesville has a total area of 10.4 square miles and currently has 75 signalized intersections,” reads the background for a request for an Advanced Traffic Management System. “Currently not all of the City’s intersections are connected and communicating, however, the City continues to expand the communications system with the goal of eventually being connected to all of the traffic control devices.”
Charlottesville wants one device to be able to control all of those devices in order to manage congestion.
There are six functional requirements for the software including direct monitoring of all connected intersections and allow parameters to be adjusted from a central location. The system must also allow for transit vehicles to be able to get to a priority green light.
“ATMS video management system must allow full Pan, Tilt, Zoom control for each CCTV camera and allow the configuration of various camera preset views and a home setting,” reads the request for proposals.
Proposals are due on October 8 but firms have until October 2 to ask questions.
Some other procurement information:
Fortiline has been awarded a contact to replace several pieces of infrastructure that carry drinking water throughout the city. Their bid was $38,258 compared to $40,655.11 from Ferguson Enterprises.
DIGS Inc has won the award to construct a section of sidewalk on Azalea Drive. Their bid of $31,845 was the lowest of three bids. (learn more)
Albemarle County is seeking a firm to remove litter and debris from roadways. The cost of this is covered by proceeds from the plastic bag tax. Bids are due on October 16. (learn more)
Albemarle County has awarded that n2y is the firm that will be hired on a sole source basis to provide News2You Subscriptions. This is software for people with special needs if you want to take a look at their website. (learn more)
Building Goodness Foundation launches fund to honor 25th anniversary
In the fall of 1999, a group of people in the development industry got together to formalize an effort to perform construction work for projects in need across the world and in Central Virginia. This October, the Building Goodness Foundation turns 25 and is launching a new campaign.
“With our 25th anniversary, we are celebrating reaching one million people across the globe, and we have the potential to do even more good in the coming years,” said BGF Executive Director Courtney Polk in an information release from September 6. “Through the Keystone Fund, we are honoring the work that has been done in the last 25 years, and we are investing in another 25 good years.”
The work includes collaborations with over 200 Charlottesville area businesses and nonprofits, as well the construction of 30 community buildings in Central America and the Caribbean.
In that first year, the group founded by Michael Cernik, Howard Pape, and Jack Stoner took three international trips with over two dozen volunteers. For a full history, take a look at the organization’s webpage on the 25th anniversary.
Reading material for #733
Owner of farm raided by Louisa deputies connected to 450-acre wildfire, Allison Williams, WRIC-8, September 18, 2024
Could a new homeless shelter be coming to Charlottesville?, Emily Hemphill, Charlottesville Daily Progress (paywall), September 19, 2024
Proposal aims to slash in half Student Council’s annual budget, Vyshnavi Tatta, Cavalier Daily, September 20, 2024
Albemarle names second economic director in less than a year, Charlottesville Daily Progress (paywall), September 20, 2024
Charlottesville activates license plate reader pilot program, CBS19 News, September 20, 2024
The end of #733
The stories in this edition are not the most pressing as I still have a lot of items from the past week I want to get to. I also have one item from the August 6, 2024 City Council meeting I almost put in this one but it’s Saturday afternoon and time to move on to weekend work.
Continuing the series where I explain shout-outs, Camp Albemarle is the result of someone paying $200 a year through Substack. That’s an extra $150 a year for two shout-outs a month, a very low price indeed.
Piedmont Master Gardens is a little more loose. No one is specifically paying me for that, and no one is paying me for the Charlottesville Area Tree Stewards, either. The latter did have a Patreon funder, but they moved out of the community. So I kept going with CATS, and somehow added Piedmont Master Gardeners because the theme fit a lot of the other shout-outs. So it’s just somehow stayed in the rotation.
As you can see, I have work to do and hope those who read to this point are getting some insight to the experimental nature of this experience. It is definitely time for me to shore up some of this, because I truly believe there’s a role me to play in the information landscape here in Charlottesville.
And over 680 people are paying through Substack of Patreon, a number I believe can grow over time. Since April 2021, anyone paying through Substack has their initial payment matched by the internet company Ting.
This is an incredibly generous sponsorship, and if you sign up for service and you are within Ting’s service area, enter the promo code COMMUNITY you’re going to get:
Free installation
A second month for free
A $75 gift card to the Downtown Mall
