Author Archive for Waldo Jaquith

Page 173 of 549

Police Try Again for Security Cameras

Published by Waldo Jaquith on December 1, 2007 in Crime and Politics. 64 Comments

The Charlottesville PD’s request for security cameras fizzled out after a majority of council was opposed to them. Now Chief Longo is taking another bite at the apple, having appealed to downtown business owners to turn out at Monday’s city council meeting and support his request for the $300k camera setup. Council started to move on this in July, but it didn’t go anywhere.

As Kate Harmon explains in her Progress article, there are now specifics: the plan is five cameras on the east end of the Downtown Mall; ten on Water 3rd and 4th; and fifteen along the rest of the mall and its side streets. Longo says that even if this request doesn’t pan out, he’s not done trying.

$24M in Capital Projects Proposed

Published by Waldo Jaquith on November 30, 2007 in General News and Taxes. 15 Comments

The city staff’s budget includes $24M for capital projects, Seth Rosen writes in the Progress, including the cost of the new pools, a Fontaine fire station, and the Downtown Mall structural overhaul, among other things. That’s a 12.6% increase over last year’s spending on capital improvements, part of an overall proposed 5% increase in the budget.

Police Brutality Accusers Acquitted

Published by Waldo Jaquith on November 30, 2007 in Law and Justice. 28 Comments

The couple roughed up by a police officer on Water St. have been acquitted, Lindsay Barnes reports for The Hook. One was charged with public drunkenness, the other obstruction of justice. The allegation of police brutality surfaced six weeks ago. Judge Robert Downer ruled in favor of both of them, but also held that the officer was “entirely justified in reacting immediately to prevent any interference.”

BoS Wants Impact Fees

Published by Waldo Jaquith on November 28, 2007 in Development, Politics and Taxes. 9 Comments

Albemarle supervisors have asked our legislators to let them assess developers with proper impact fees, Bob Gibson and Jeremy Borden write in today’s Daily Progress. Right now the county has a tough time getting developers to pay for the enormous cost of upgrading public infrastructure to support new developments, which is why we lose money on every new resident. Though similar legislation passed the General Assembly last year, but it’s not all it was promoted as, and so no localities in the state have bothered with it. The next General Assembly session starts in January.

Council Nixes Tax Rebate Idea

Published by Waldo Jaquith on November 20, 2007 in Taxes. 45 Comments

Seth Rosen writes in the Progress that two councilors’ plans for a tax rebate were shot down by Council last night. Dave Norris and Julian Taliaferro proposes giving back the $1M excess in property taxes to all 14k property owners, or ~$75/person. City staff explained what would go into the process, including getting the social security number for every property owner and finding what’s become of those who sold their homes during the year and giving them pro-rated checks. Norris agreed that it seemed like more trouble than it’s worth, and figures it’s best to put the money into the city’s tax relief program for low-income residents.

Council also turned down a school request for $1.58M for new technology and instructed staff to make next year’s budget no more than 5% larger than the current budget.

Sideblog