Monthly Archive for June, 2005

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Louisiana Griffin Lawsuit Settled

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 9, 2005 in Education and Politics. 7 Comments

Outgoing Charlottesville schools superintendent Scottie Griffin, the target of a lawsuit by her former executive secretary in the New Orleans public school system, has found the lawsuit settled between the school system and the complainant. Janice Clay was given $35,000 — the amount that she sued for — because Griffin “disconnected her telephone numbers and refused to get in contact with lawyers,” and wouldn’t appear in court. Without Griffin, the school system was unable to defend themselves, though they maintain that Griffin was not at fault. Even her own attorney, Roy Rodney, said that he had no idea of how to track her down.

Reporters in Charlottesville looking to interview Griffin, during the superintendent kerfuffle, had a similar experience — she simply refused to talk. Bob Gibson has the story in today’s Progress.

Dems. Nomate Slutsky for Rio BoS Seat

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 9, 2005 in Politics. Closed

At last night’s Albemarle County Democratic Party caucus, 49-year-old David Slutsky was nominated to run for the Rio seat on the Board of Supervisors, Annie Johnson writes in today’s Progress. Slutsky is owner of E2, an environmental policy consulting firm, as well as an Adjunct Professor in the McIntire School of Commerce and the Department of Urban and Environmental Planning at UVa. He also served as a Senior Policy Adviser to the Clinton administration on environmental matters, Coordinator of the International Task Force of the President’s Council on Sustainable Development, and Senior Policy Advisor at the EPA.

Slutsky will face independent Thomas Jakubowski and Republican Gary Grant in the general election in November.

Political Roundup

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 8, 2005 in Politics. 1 Comment

There’s lots going on politically.

On Monday night, Republicans selected Gary Grant over Rodney Thomas as their candidate for the Rio District seat on the Board of Supervisors, which is being vacated by outgoing supervisor David Bowerman. They also nominated the unchallenged Christian Schoenwald for the Jack Jouett seat, to run against incumbent Dennis Rooker. Annie Johnson (who must be new — welcome, Annie) had the story in yesterday’s Progress.

At the same event, Tom McCrystal was nominated as the Republican candidate for the 57th District House of Delegates race. McCrystal is promoting himself as a progressive, centrist bipartisan Republican. Rick Sincere has more on his site.

Fundraising reports have come in for the 57th District race. As Bob Gibson reports, Rich Collins has raised $17k, Clement “Kim” Tingley $7k, and David Toscano $76k. Tingley has, however, loaned himself $46k to fund his campaign, having received just two donations from within the district, bringing his budget up to $53k.

Finally, there was a lively debate held last night at City Council chambers, pitting Collins, Tingley, and Toscano against each other for an hour and a half — Bob Gibson covered it. They took questions from the audience and from one another. Growth and local control ended up being the major topics of the night. Collins is an opponent of unrestrained growth and a supporter of home rule, while Toscano and Tingley believe in market-dictated growth and Richmond-centered lawmaking. It was on the topic of the Meadowcreek Parkway where the audience had a good laugh: Collins opposes it, and Toscano favors it, but Tingley? “I can’t figure out what I think about it. It is just so complicated.” Collins, in the words of Gibson, “tweaked Tingley at least half a dozen times about his status as a homebuilder and former president of the Richmond and state homebuilders associations,” which was fun to watch.

Disclosure: I volunteer my time for Rich Collins. I ain’t taking any money from his campaign, but I’m totally biased.

“Wife Swap” in Charlottesville

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 8, 2005 in Entertainment. 1 Comment

Husbands, want a new wife? Wives, looking for a new family? Would $10k sweeten the deal? ABC has a deal for you.

Thomas Declares for Rio BoS Seat

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 5, 2005 in Politics. Closed

Rodney Thomas, owner of Charlottesville Press and member of the Albemarle Planning Commission, has announced that he’s running for the Republican nomination for the Rio District seat of the Board of Supervisors, Braxton Williams reports in today’s Progress. Gary Grant is also seeking the Republican nomination. One will be selected Monday evening, at the Albemarle Republicans’ mass meeting. The winner will go up against whomever is selected at the Albemarle Democrats’ nominating caucus on Wednesday afternoon (David Slutzky is the only candidate for the nomination thus far) and independent candidate Tom Jakubowski.

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