City Councilors Rob Schilling and Blake Caravati are waving their penises about again, John Yellig writes in today’s Daily Progress. (To be fair, that’s my metaphor — no need to blame Yellig for that.)
At a March 9 work session, Councilor Kevin Lynch told Schilling that it was tough to cut the real estate tax by 4% last year, and that Schilling would know that if he’d bothered to participate in the budget process. Schilling, on the paranoid side, responded: “Oh, so we have a secret little cabal going on behind the scenes. We’re dealing with the city manager outside of the public eye composing a budget. I’m glad that you admitted it because I knew that was what was going on.”
At a work session yesterday, Caravati went after Schilling for the comment, saying: “It’s an extremely serious charge, and it has political penalties to it, for sure, and actual criminal penalties. To be accused of criminal behavior and dishonesty is beyond the pale of anything that I’ve ever been accused of in my now eight years of service. Unless this type of thing can be proved and substantiated, I think that a retraction is definitely in order.”
Schilling’s not returning the Progress‘ phone calls, so it’s not altogether clear what he’s talking about. But I’m calling up now that if there’s a vast left-wing conspiracy, I want in.
03/25 Update: Oh, nevermind. Schilling claims that he never said it, audio recording and a half dozen witnesses notwithstanding. Besides, he thinks that this secret cabal only has two people in it — Lynch and City Manager Gary O’Connell. It’s very exclusive.
Can we all agree that Schilling is a dinkwad AND the Cville democrats are a cabal?
Just askin . . .
hopefully this little spat will be over quickly so they can get back to the task of wasting money by the truckload.
That is potentially libel, isn’t it?
It isn’t libel if it’s true, no matter how shocking. Criminal and Cville are synonymous. How many felonies must be documented? Not being charged or convicted doesn’t necessarily mean no crime was committed. I do agree Schilling needs to propose his own budget, perhaps using city manager’s budget as a baseline.
Yes, well, we’ll all be waiting for your evidence of a secret cabal, cvillenative.
We can have a competition for who will prove its existence first — you or Councilor Schilling. The winner gets a cheesesteak.
OK…go!
No local public budget has ever been formulated in public. It is prepared by staff with input from councilors but driven by the city/county manger. That is the job of city manger.
If Lynch says he and the city manger discussed and agreed on a number then that can appear troubling. I’m sure, as with most councils, a lot of subjects are talked about before meetings. When meetings are actually held it can look like a cabal has met before hand.
Having said that, I don’t think it’s illegal or surprising. Discussing a possible tax cut makes sense. Many discussions happen before meetings and that is good. I guessing these meetings happen without Schilling. Caravati is a lame duck with a history of saying silly things. Political speech is very protected. Go ahead and sue him, Caravati, you will lose and look like an idiot. (While you at it sue me for calling you an idiot)
Council fought Schilling about elected school boards and lost badly. The tension between Schilling and several of the councilors is very high. He has been bad mouthed by everyone on council with the exception of David Brown. Schillings has been combative but without it would we have school board elections or any real discussion of the budget? Loyal opposition anyone?
The democratic City Council is a hot house flower that survives because it has no competition. It has given us the Omni, the transportation center, $25k xmas trees, and a litany of other mistakes. They are blessed with lots of tax revenue and the revenue engine of UVA. Albemarle with growth issues and a much larger population and yet it seems to run smoother. I believe it’s because the Supervisor are more varied and face more competitive elections.
My apologies to all of those who took my first post seriously. I forgot to include the <sarcasm></sarcasm> tags.
Anyway no, the City Council Dems are not a cabal. A cabal is a secret political clique. There is nothing secret about our Dems’ political clique: they are all relatively like-minded democrats and the fact that they get along and vote similarly is not some nefarious plot. In fact I gots no problem with them. I honestly like our fair City’s Council. A lot.
As for Schilling being a “dinkwad,” well as far as I know it is a term I made up so it could mean a “shrewd political genius” or it could mean a “tilting at windmills but kinda shrill outsider who I am actually glad is around so that there is a true albeit kinda lame voice of dissent in our otherwise homogeneous political landscape”. Take your pick.
Why does a conversation between Rob and Kevin have Blake doing all the talking??? Is it because Blake is a lame duck and can be put out there by the not-so-secret cabal? Or is it Blake just likes the sound of his own voice and his photo in the Progress?
Check out how much Blake’s construction company has earned from PHA clients!!! The man needs to hush!
perlogik…. I agree COMPLETELY on the competiton thing. I have said it over and over again that the city needs to start considering other parties in LOCAL elections. Whenever one group controls something all of the time without competition arrogance and corruption ensues.
To be fair, the problem isn’t the political process as administered by the city, it’s a Republican Party in Charlottesville that is completely neutered. It’s such an embarrassment that the only people who will run on their ticket are totally discredited. Smart Republicans would never dare run for Council in C’ville, because they know they’d be associated with ex-felons and crazies.
A Republican Party that consisted of more than a dozen people could really give the Dems a run for their (our) money.
Does anyone else think that newspaper coverage of two grown men having a spat like 9 year olds is about as interesting as a story about my dogs playing their eternal dominance game? In fact, I’m thinking I should submit a story on my dogs’ game to the Progress, I bet it would be less boring than this coverage. Sarcasm emoticon on.
Waldo you really want to blame the people out of power as the problem? That is really funny, is it April 1st already.
If you want competition then structural change is needed.
Be in favor of a ward system: don’t blame people for deciding that running as a republican is the same as tilting at windmills. Your democratic party is the problem. As you well know, it is the CABAL of the party elders. Waldo, you were screwed out of a nomination because the party elders didn’t want you.
Smart republicans don’t run because their too busy making money to endure an election they can’t win.
Uh. Yes. I also blame Democrats for not holding the majority in the General Assembly or Congress. I guess I could concoct some scheme by which I could blame Republicans but, really, it’s because we’re doing a crappy job of selling ourselves to the majority of Americans.
A ward system will do nothing for Republicans. There isn’t a single precinct in Charlottesville that has a Republican majority. None of them even come close.
The only structural change that will make any difference to Republicans is instant runoff voting, as I’ve written here. But even that won’t make a single difference until the Republican Party stops being run by people who get in fistfights, throw each other through windows, attack their bosses or repeatedly stab people for no apparent reason. And that’s just the party leaders of the past few years. Ain’t no structural change to the electoral process that will get Kenneth “Stabby” Jackson into office.
No I wasn’t. I lost fair and square because I couldn’t persuade three more people to vote for me. Saying I was “screwed out of a nomination” is as unreasonable as saying that Democrats are out of power because of a vast right-wing conspiracy to rig elections and fake voting machine results. It’s much better to just own up to having been bested.
Waldo they came up with a way of voting in your mass meeting that was never used before and hasn’t been used since. Unless I been misinformed that was arrived at to hurt your chances. This is what I heard about before the mass meeting. Caravati never wanted you as a running mate and they settle on the one person who moderate democrats would not vote for.
There are some wards that would be competitive, look at the totals Schilling got by ward. Don’t you think a republican might be more competitive in some wards than others? With a smaller ward to run in an independent might even run, No one reading this blog was alive the last time an independent won in Charlottesville.
Waldo, why don’t you and 15 friends go to a republican meeting take over the party and run your own candidate? I really think you could do it with 10 but why take the chance.
Lastly Democrats are not doing a crappy job of selling themselves. They are simply don’t share the belief system of a majority of Americans. So Democrats can wait for the country to come to them or they can change to match the country,
Well, if the Republicans in Washington are models of fiscal responsibility and honest government, wouldn’t a change of majority party in Charlottesville make things a whole lot worse?
I’m afraid that’s not so. The process was vastly simplified in 2002 over the 2000 process, in that candidates didn’t have to bring their own delegates. The process we used then was used in 2004 and would have been this year, had we had more candidates than there are open seats.
Not so much. There was one precinct (Walker) in which Schilling beat Caravati, by just two votes. Compare those results to Richards v. Goode in the same year — Walker, again, was the most conservative, and that went 60/40 Richards. Look at Kerry v. Bush — Walker went 63.6% Kerry and, again, it was the most conservative district.
Walker is the most conservative precinct, and it’s 60% Democrats. There ain’t no precinct that a Republican would win if it were divided up. I’m not opposed to voting by ward; I just don’t care. It’s not going to make any difference to anybody.
Because I’m a Democrat. :)
For this site to bear the name same cvillenews is a disgrace. The site’s moderator can’t even keep an objective opinion. Why not change your site to “cvilledemocrats?”
Objective? Who in the world ever said I was objective? It’s a blog. I know you’re a transplant, so I guess you don’t know this, but I ran for office while running this site. Ain’t no way to be objective while doing that. You seem to be unclear on the concept of a blog. :)
We’ll, then we won’t confuse you with a journalist. And thanks for the quick lesson on blogging. Thank God for people like you. One quick question Waldo, has your concept made any money? There would be a true testament of success.
Please don’t. :)
Hell no. I didn’t sell ads until a few months ago, and only then because I got sick of people asking me to. Since then I guess it’s been profit-bearing, what with it having no associated costs, but it’s not a business—it’s a blog. Would anybody have a goal of shutting down a profitable business?
Waldo, I never said there was a secret cabal. I’ve always maintained that the crimes occurred in public, in plain view, and documented in newspapers.
Now let me try to prove, once and for all, that saying “Cville=criminal” is not libel.
IF A=B AND B=C THEN A=C. If the first two propositions are true, then the conclusion must also be true. (syllogism)
Let’s say, A=”Felony” and B=”seizing property for private use without due process” and C=”Charlottesville.”
Do you see the light? But wait, you might say that’s not a felony as the Supreme Court ruled last summer in Kelo v. City of New London. Fortunately, nobody takes an oath to uphold the Supreme Court. The same court upheld segregation and slavery, known civil rights violations at the time. If the court rules 1+1=3, that’s it? Burn all the math books–court says so.
Under the Constitution, property can be seized for private use through due process. Often confused is eminent domain, where property can be seized for public use without due process. These are the only two ways gov’t can seize property. Our founding fathers wanted to keep it simple so even the uneducated could know and understand their rights. Any violation of the Bill of Rights is a felony without a statute of limitation.
Now if I could show that Cville has seized a parcel for private use without charging the owner with a crime or breach of contract, that would be grand larceny. What if there were hundreds of properties seized for private use? Would that add up to multiple felony counts?
What about Vinegar Hill? Estimated 150 properties. Except for McIntire Road and Federal Courthouse, everything else is a felony. Does it matter that a referendum okayed the action? Does it matter the mayor was quoted in the newspaper saying the intent was to sell the parcels? Does it matter nobody bought any of the stolen land for 20 years? Does anyone think Vinegar Hill clearance was a good idea and should be repeated?
What if other cities are committing the same crimes? I guess that makes it alright. But it’s still a felony that you got away with.
What agency is committing these crimes? Redevelopment and Housing Authority. First they seize your house and sell the land for somebody else’s private use. Or they seize your house and rent out the new development for private residential use. Yes, public housing is a felony even though the govt still owns the land.
Do you think people don’t know these facts? If public housing itself is a felony, wouldn’t you expect it to be a magnet for criminal activity? So it does trouble me that Dave Norris supports the Housing Authority, whose mission is to commit felonies against minority and disadvantaged citizens in order to help other citizens. Norris hasn’t mentioned a single reform for the agency.
The evidence consists of deeds sitting right in the courthouse for easy reference. To say the Great Society was flawed to begin with is an understatement.
Somebody will always be talking about the crimes of urban renewal. They’re on the same scale as segregation and slavery, and somewhere between the two on the scales of justice. The reason it’s against the law in the first place is because of all the trouble it caused last time.
Waldo, not knowing about these “alleged” felonies perpetrated over 4 decades means either (a) you’re out of touch or (b) you’ve never read that Bill of Rights you supposedly carry around in your pocket.
I’m sorry too. It’s not my opinion that Vinegar Hill and Westhaven (etc.) are felonies. That is a fact that proves Cville=criminal. It helps to explain a lot of our problems.
http://super-blair.blogspot.com
I’m just going to back…away…slowly and not make any sudden movements.
See. And your response is to trivialize. I take it my proof is sufficient. Thanks Waldo.
Monkeys=funny
funny=Charlottesville
Monkeys=Charlottesville
I wish our councillors would learn to rise above partisanship and personal antagonism and put the interests of the city above other concerns. They succeed merely in making themselves look foolish with this sniping and bickering. I am not impressed.