News in review

Tuesday, March 1
CVS manager checks out

After a half-century of serving Downtown customers, CVS manager Middie Hall today officially begins her retirement, hanging up her red smock and nametag. Hall, a recent Manager of the Year, started at the store, then Standard Drug, in 1955. And no, she doesn’t need a CVS ExtraCare card. “I get a discount,” she explains. “I have my own special card.”

ABC News vet visits UVA

White House reporter Ann Compton has endured everything from dodgy press secretaries to imposter journalists in her 31-year career for ABC News. Today she visited UVA and talked about being the lone TV reporter on Air Force One on September 11, 2001. Cupping her hand to her ear to take questions, she said, “I’m sorry. I’m going deaf from sitting next to Sam Donaldson for so many years.”

Wednesday, March 2
Albemarle budget tops $255M

County Executive Robert Tucker today released his spending plan for $255.2 million in projected County revenue over the next fiscal year. Up by nearly $12 million from 2004-2005 and assuming a 8.5 percent annual increase in property value, the budget includes a new $2.9 reserve. County schools can expect $81 million, up by $6 million from last year. The budget also projects two new police officers and a 4.4 percent raise for County staff. A public hearing on it is scheduled for March 9.

Rosenfield honored for anti-death penalty work

The Junior League of Charlottesville today gave local lawyer Steven Rosenfield the $2,000 Emily Couric Community Advocacy Award for his work representing death row prisoners and addicts. The 56-year-old attorney leads Virginians Against the Death Penalty. The award follows by two days the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling against sentencing juveniles to death. The high court, Rosenfield tells C-VILLE, “recognized that because of the underdevelopment of the minds and personalities of young people, they do not fit the same kind of analysis that we make for adults.”

Thursday, March 3
Yankee developers buy the farm

Landowner Fred Scott announced today that he has sold his family’s 2,200-acre Bundoran Farm to New England-based developers Qroe Farm whose founder told the press that in keeping with the company’s eco-friendly mission, the company will develop only 20 percent of the land into residences. The southwestern Albemarle property has been a working farm since 1940. Explaining why he took this offer over others, Scott said, “Clearly [Qroe] have done their homework, know who we are, and they respected what we’ve done with our land.”

ASAP favors growth!

In a shocking turnabout, no-growth group Advocates for a Sustainable Albemarle Population adopted a pro-growth stance tonight during its annual meeting. “We want to double our membership this year,” said ASAP Prez Jack Marshall. Current paid membership is at 261.

Friday, March 4
City schools miss budget deadline

City School Board members and Superintendent Scottie Griffin were back at it this noon, merely 12 hours after last night’s inconclusive marathon budget session, joining City Councilors for their monthly lunch meeting. Last night, Griffin had steadfastly refused to consider transferring money from her one-time discretionary fund to help close the budget’s $147,000 shortfall. Asked today by Mayor David Brown what she planned to do with the $160,000 that remains in her fund, Griffin shared some ideas: 1) a Superintendent-Board development retreat; 2) a consultant to jump start the division’s strategic planning process; and 3) forums to discuss the achievement gap. Said Griffin: “I have no idea how much those things would cost.” Meanwhile, Board member Muriel Wiggins suggested cutting “supplemental activities,” such as after-school clubs, which she said amounted to “$200,000 in sacred cows.” After an hour, Councilor Blake Caravati warned the Board and Griffin to “make the case” for any new budget initiatives. “The emperor has no clothes,” Caravati said three times.

Saturday, March 5
No 13th term for Van Yahres

Del. Mitch Van Yahres, Charlottesville’s General Assembly delegate since 1981, tonight told 200 Democrats who assembled for the local party’s annual pasta dinner fundraiser that he is ready to embark on a new career. “I’m not going out for re-election,” he said. “I’m ending my career as a politician, but I’m not ending my career as a Democrat.” The 78-year-old onetime arborist joked, “Maybe I could be a greeter at Wal-Mart.”

Sunday, March 6
Ryan’s Hoos fall at the last minute

Debbie Ryan’s women’s basketball squad, who yesterday willed themselves into the semi-final round of the ACC tourney with a 71-67 overtime win over Florida State, this afternoon fell to top-seeded North Carolina, 78-72. The lady Cavs led throughout the entire game, minus the crucial final minute of play. Nonetheless, Virginia stands 20-10 in the season.

Monday, March 7
Will he or won’t he?

Former Democratic City Councilor David Toscano confirms that he will announce later this week whether he intends to run for the 57th District Assembly seat now open after Mitch Van Yahres’ retirement announcement over the weekend. “I think it’s fair to say I’m very interested,” Toscano told C-VILLE.

 Written by Cathy Harding from news sources and staff reports.

Cops and robbers
How Virginia steals from its cities

WarOnCities, Part I

If you’ve been paying any attention to local government lately, perhaps you noticed the tension in the air. If you’ve got a good nose, maybe you caught a whiff of outrage, or the scent of fear.

   That smell means it’s budget season. From the White House to the School Board, right now our leaders are crafting the documents that will dictate our public life for the next year and beyond. In case you haven’t noticed, it’s making people a bit testy.

   As the City prepares its budget for fiscal year 2005 (which begins July 1) the usual debate is under way: What’s the best way to balance rising property taxes with the rising demand for government services?

   The debate is worthwhile, but in some ways moot. City Council sits at the bottom of a bureaucratic food chain, and since the 1980s the federal and State government have been foisting responsibilities down the line with unfunded mandates—that is, laws that require cities to provide certain services but which don’t include money to pay for them.

   Urban communities like Charlottesville get hit especially hard. That’s because Virginia’s cities deal with aging infrastructure, high concentrations of poverty and, given their geographic limitations, fewer options for collecting new revenue. As leaders in the General Assembly concern themselves with no-tax pledges and target the evils of baggy pants, the costs of urban problems fall heavier and heavier on the shoulders of Charlottesville homeowners.

The passions that erupt during budget season should come as no surprise. Budgets, after all, are moral documents—that is to say, they speak to our public values. Taken together, a budget’s line items, revenue forecasts and expenditure forecasts express the value we place on our communal life. How do we make excellent schools? How do we make safe, beautiful neighborhoods? We invest our tax money in the public realm, and in return we expect “quality of life.” Do we get what we pay for?

   Charlottesville’s quality of life has been well documented by magazine writers who stroll the UVA lawn, lunch on the Mall, and maybe catch a glimpse of the mountains on their way out of town. Those of us who live here, however, know that we pay for our success with ever-climbing property taxes. It’s starting to cause real problems for some people.

   “I wanted to stop by and tell you folks that we have got to stop relying on property taxes,” said Virginia Amos at a recent City Council meeting. As Council prepares their 2006 budget, Amos comes to every meeting to remind them that she lives on a fixed income and property taxes are getting harder for her to bear. “I don’t plan on selling my home, so the fair market value doesn’t mean anything to me,” she says.

   Conservatives hope to capitalize on the growing disgruntlement over climbing property taxes. The Free Enterprise Forum (a local megaphone for the Chamber of Commerce) released a study in January that compared Charlottesville’s budget with those of surrounding counties. “Choices and Decisions,” as it was called, showed that despite a decline in population and school enrollment over the past 10 years, Charlottesville’s budget has gone up by 3.2 percent annually during the past decade.

   It’s fair to question whether the City is spending its money wisely, but the Forum study doesn’t tell the whole story. Charlottesville’s problem is much bigger than presumed spendthrifts in City Hall. It is interesting to note, for example, that the City’s budget started its steep climb around 1998. That’s when former Governor Jim Glimore cut the car tax, an important source of revenue for Virginia cities and counties.

From the perspective of Charlottesville police officer Dwayne Jones, the problem is all too clear. “We’re understaffed by 13 positions,” says Jones. “We’re not competitive in the marketplace as far as wages and salaries.”

   Jones estimates the city has lost as many as 50 police officers in the past four years because they could find better salaries and benefits elsewhere. For example, city police officers do not receive permanent disability if they are seriously injured in the line of duty. This is in contrast to Albemarle County, which pays an injured officer two-thirds of his salary if he is injured on the job and unable to work.

   “In Charlottesville all you get is workman’s compensation, and when that runs out they can reappoint you to a desk job, or say if you don’t like it you can leave,” says Jones. “It’s a disincentive.”

   Charlottesville’s police officer shortage is basically a budget problem: In 1995, the City budget was nearly $59 million, while the police department’s budget was slightly more than $6 million. Last year, the City’s budget just topped $100 million, while the department’s budget was only $9.5 million. So the City’s budget has gone up about 70 percent in the past 10 years, while the police budget has increased by only 58 percent.

   One reason that the City’s police budget has been unable to keep pace with other jurisdictions is that the Commonwealth has been cutting back its support for local public safety budgets.

   In 1979 the General Assembly passed House Bill 599, a law intended to remedy local budget shortfalls that resulted when another law passed that prohibited cities from commandeering developed land from the surrounding county. This practice, called annexation, was a way for cities to collect new property taxes and increase revenue.

   H.B. 599 money was earmarked for public safety, and annual 599 appropriations increased annually for the first 11 years of the program. Between 1991 and 2000, however, the General Assembly froze 599 funding, shortchanging localities by $610 million. The program saw further cuts in excess of $21.5 million over the past five years.

   “I think there’s only been about two years since H.B. 599 passed that it’s been fully funded,” says City Councilor Blake Caravati. “The State doesn’t live up to its own law.”

   Although the General Assembly has restored some 599 money in recent sessions, the program is still not doing what it was supposed to do. “One of the ironies of 599 funding,” says John Moeser, a professor of urban studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, “is that the program was supposed to shoot more money into cities. But Fairfax County gets more 599 funding than Richmond. It’s just crazy.”

   As a result, police must go begging to City Council. “The State has not kept their promises, and as a consequence localities are taking up the slack,” says officer Jones. “I don’t know if that’s a trend that’s going to change.”

   Charlottesville, along with Albemarle County, has also had to bail out the local jail following State cuts. In classic example of poor timing, the Charlottesville-Albemarle Regional Jail completed a $16 million renovation in 2002, just as the State confronted a shortfall and started making drastic budget cuts. The jail lost some State money it receives for housing inmates. Moreover, the State does not pay enough to cover salaries for guards. Tom Robinson, the jail’s business manager, says the jail is currently about 35 officers short.

   “When all this was happening, State cuts were also hitting the schools like crazy. The City and County were getting nailed in every direction,” Robinson says. He says the City and County do “an awesome job” making up for State shortfalls. But he realizes that in times of fiscal strain, prisoners are not the most politically popular group: “How many people out there do you see lobbying for the jail?” Robinson says.

Former Mayor David Toscano sat on City Council when the local budget climbed during the 1990s. Questioned about the Free Enterprise Forum’s study of City budget growth, Toscano says that in the 1990s Charlottesville employed fewer people than it did in the 1980s, when budget problems were much less severe.

   Toscano cites unfunded mandates in areas like social services, jails, trash, schools and retirement, combined with rising demand for those services in Charlottesville, as a major factor in the City’s growing budgets and rising property taxes. In the coming weeks, C-VILLE will look more closely at the unique problems facing Charlottesville and other urban communities in Virginia. We’ll also look at how cities are trying to solve their problems in spite of the antiquated restrictions imposed by the Commonwealth.

   “Politicians seem to forget where they came from when they get to Richmond,” says Toscano. “They would rail about the State when they were sitting on city councils. When they get to Richmond they think they can pass laws that look good, but they forget the real impact on the locality.”—John Borgmeyer

Salaries leave cops blue

Charlottesville’s police salaries are on par with other Virginia cities, but the numbers show the Commonwealth lags behind other states when it comes to paying its men and women in blue.—J.B.Virginia police starting salaries

Double vision
Leadership changes, but Media General’s strategy remains fixed

The announcement by Daily Progress parent company Media General Inc. on January 27 that J. Stewart Bryan III would accede his position as the company’s chief executive to his longtime colleague, Charlottesville native and UVA graduate Marshall N. Morton, brought a long era for the Richmond-based media institution closer to an end. On January 1, Bryan had stepped down as publisher of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, one of the three largest dailies in the conglomerate’s stable, and the newspaper had reported that it would be the first time since 1887 that a member of the Bryan family had not served as publisher of one of Richmond’s major dailies.

   But the new nameplates in the executive office may mean less to the corporate vision adopted by Media General than another event on January 27: the Bush Administration’s decision not to take a package of stymied media deregulation measures to the Supreme Court. The checked rule changes would have allowed companies to simultaneously own newspapers and television stations in all but the smallest markets, a lynchpin of Media General’s strategy.

   Media General underwent a major transformation under Bryan, also a UVA graduate, who started in the mailroom of the Richmond News Leader (since merged with the Times-Dispatch) in 1954 and became the company’s president and chairman in 1990. As a part of a rapid expansion effort that included the acquisition of The Daily Progress, a series of deals in the late 1990s raised the company’s television holdings to 26 stations across the South from three. In 2000, the company opened a joint operational center for its Tampa NBC affiliate, its Tampa Tribune newspaper and a web portal, and adopted “convergence”—coordinating print and broadcast reporting teams to enlarge content and improve coverage—as a corporate pillar.

   The company has since applied the model to five other markets, although not Charlottesville, where Gray Television recently launched CBS and ABC affiliates to challenge the area’s dominant NBC affiliate, WVIR. “Any of the places where we have a newspaper, we’d like to have a TV station,” Bryan told The New York Times in May 2003. “Any of the places we have a TV station, we’d like to have a newspaper.”

   In its enthusiasm for the strategy, Media General is ahead of most competitors—many of whom remain unimpressed with the potential synergies—as well as the FCC. Aside from its Tampa holdings, which predate the 1975 ownership restriction the FCC tried to lift, Media General has gambled that the rules will be changed to accommodate its business plan. So, in the meantime, it’s seeking waivers as it applies for license renewals for several stations.

   Morton, 59, who is both a UVA and a Darden business school graduate, has served as Media General’s chief financial officer since 1989. He will continue to pursue the convergence strategy, according to the news release describing the succession plan, which goes into effect in July, and Media General representative Ray Kozakewicz. The 66-year old Bryan will remain in the company’s top tier, continuing as its chairman and controlling 83 percent of its Class B shares, which gives him the power to select six of its nine directors.

   But the future of the effort to lift the cross-ownership restriction is uncertain. The FCC, under outgoing chairman Michael Powell, adopted the deregulation measures in mid-2003, but last year a federal appellate court ruled them “arbitrary and capricious,” and sent them back to the FCC for further consideration.

   Bryan has told investors that the company is optimistic about securing the waivers, faces strong opposition from groups decrying the loss of independent voices in local media.

   Craig Aaron, the communications director for one such group, Free Press, expects the FCC to assay the highly controversial rule changes again. The commission will probably take them up one at a time after having encountered so much political headwind trying to push them through in a block. And, he said, “Probably the first one that’s going to come up is cross-ownership.”—Harry Terris

The hundred-grand
snow job
One day of clean-up adds up to a lot

The white stuff was lovely, but it didn’t come cheap. The snow storm that left a four-inch accumulation Monday morning set into operation a well-oiled juggernaut to clear the roads and get the city running again. Anyone counting could say such a storm costs the taxpayers somewhere in the vicinity of $100,000.

   Twenty-four snowplows cruised the city streets Monday morning, according to Charlottesville Public Works Director Judith Mueller. The total cost to clear the roads was $30,051 for labor, equipment and materials, by her tally. Mueller notes that Monday is a particularly expensive day to have a storm because city crews normally work four 10-hour shifts Tuesday through Friday. Monday’s labor was all overtime.

   Forty trucks and plows were dispatched to clear approximately 1,000 miles of Albemarle and Greene county roads, according to Teresa Butler, assistant residency engineer for the Virginia Department of Transportation. It costs about $12,000 per day per VDOT area to clear the local roads, for a grand total of $65,000 a day for both counties. Both the City and County transportation budgets include line items for snow, and the County has already blown through one-third of its $1.4 million for this year. Butler emphasizes that VDOT incurs many costs before it ever snows, getting ready for the big event. “We go through a pre-action review, a dress rehearsal, if you will, to ensure operation readiness for snow,” she says.

   Hard and fast numbers were more difficult to come by from other City and County departments (were some offices taking a few extra snow days?). There are no additional costs when county schools call a snow day, according to communications coordinator Cathy Eberly. The schools add a day onto the end of the school year when one is missed, so the costs are just delayed.

   City schools racked up some overtime costs in order to get their grounds clear. School custodians shovel the sidewalks, and 17 of them worked two extra hours each on Tuesday before the schools opened, for a total of approximately $400. Maintenance crews clear the school roads and parking lots. Facilities Maintenance Manager Lance Stewart counted two-and-a-half hours of overtime for eight folks. At an average of $25.34 an hour per employee, it cost a measly $684 to get the nine city schools ready to open again on Tuesday morning. There are one-time costs too, including two new plows this year for $5,000 and a new salt thrower for $6,000.

   There were 30 wrecks reported to the Albemarle County police on Monday, but neither county nor city police will know their overtime expenses until the end of the month. Whatever the cost, the two vehicular deaths associated with the storm suggest no cost is really too high to keep the citizenry safe once the white stuff starts falling.—Lacey Phillabaum