Author Archive for Waldo

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Profile of Rick Turner

Published by Waldo on March 30, 2005 in UVa. Closed

In today’s Cavalier Daily, Chris Wilson has a profile of UVa Dean of African Affairs (or, as some call him, “Dean of All Things Black”) M. Rick Turner.

“When I came here … one of the things I didn’t want to do was have an adversarial relationship with my colleagues or those I report to,” he said. “But then I found out that, by the nature of what I do, the nature of the things I have to say, the nature of the issues that are brought forth to the University that I have to deal with, people are going to look at that as adversarial.”

And Turner certainly isn’t shy about the consequences of saying what he feels is necessary for him to say.

[…]

Myra Franklin-Jones, a College graduate student and two-time president of the Black Student Alliance, said she worries not about what Turner chooses to say but how he is understood in the community.

“I know that Dean Turner has the historical memory and the intellectual capacity to approach issues with all seriousness,” Franklin-Jones said. “I worry about how he is perceived, not how he is.”

Deeds Announces AG Candidacy

Published by Waldo on March 29, 2005 in Politics. 7 Comments

Democratic Senator Creigh Deeds, who represents Virginia’s 25th District (which includes Charlottesville), formally announced his campaign for Attorney General today. Creigh DeedsThe usual crowd of Charlottesville’s Democratic muckety-mucks (including me) turned out for the event, held on the east end of the Downtown Mall, at Bashir’s. Deeds’ speech made it clear that he’s as centrist as ever, but that didn’t seem to dampen the enthusiasm of the audience of liberal Democrats.

Deeds’ opposition will come in the form of either Steve Baril or his opponent for the Republican nomination, Del. Bob McDonnell. That will be decided in the June Republican primary.

03/30 Update: Bob Gibson’s got the skinny in the Progress.

Four Charged with Embezzling from Albemarle

Published by Waldo on March 29, 2005 in Crime. 2 Comments

Amazingly, four separate people have been arrested, each separately charged with embezzling from Albemarle County. Two former employees of the school system, one school custodian, and one former finance employee have been charged with a total of $25,000 in theft between them, Reed Williams writes in today’s Progress.

One, a former Murray Elementary cafeteria manager, stole over $5,000 in parentally-established lunch money accounts. Another, who worked in the media center offices, falsified mileage reports and stole a fax machine for a total of $12,000. Another — the custodian — took three 27″ TVs, two Macs, two drills and two power saws, which he pawned, adding up to $5,319. The fourth, the finance employee, embezzled $2,500 between September ’04 and January by taking cash payments filed for building permits.

The four cases are described as county officials as both unrelated to each other and very unusual. The fact that they were all caught seems to indicate that somebody in the county accounting department is doing their job.

Griffin Attempts to Fire Purnell

Published by Waldo on March 29, 2005 in Education and Politics. 1 Comment

The ongoing saga of Superintendent Scottie Griffin just got uglier. You’ll recall Assistant Superintended Laura Purnell blew the whistle on Griffin in a lengthy letter to the school board last month. Now Griffin is attempting to give Purnell the boot by eliminating her position in June, and has asked the school board to do so during their Thursday meeting, the Progress reports. In Purnell’s letter, she acknowledged that in becoming a whistleblower, she knew that she was risking her job, but felt that it was more important that she say something than that she keep her job safe. Nearly all of the officials that the Progress interviewed said that Purnell should be protected from being fired. The decision rests with the school board, not Griffin.

The letter in question, by the way, seems to have been validated: the Progress, for the first time, quotes from the letter, and attributes it to being authored by Purnell, rather than allegedly by Purnell. It’s also noteworthy that James Fernald is not the only reporter that received credit for this: veteran political analyst Bob Gibson has been brought in, a sign that this story is getting bigger and more politically sensitive.

I expect that things are only going to get worse from here. Should the overall issue of Griffin vs. some parents be reframed as Griffin vs. Purnell, the assistant superintendent may find herself painted as a liar or a racist. Some teachers, many of whom are preparing to sign their contracts for next year, may see the result of Thursday’s meeting as a sign of whether or not they should continue to teach in the Charlottesville school system. If the board doesn’t fire Purnell, Griffin may break her public silence and stop speaking through surrogates, which would certainly take things up a notch.

Council May Put Art in Place Back in Budget

Published by Waldo on March 28, 2005 in Art, Politics and Taxes. 3 Comments

City Manager Gary O’Connell’s budget recommended ending the Percent for Art fund, but that’s not keeping Council from continuing to fund the Art in Place program. Several members of Council want to provide the $5,000 annual allocation by way of their $85,000 reserve fund, rather than going through the traditional funding process, John Yellig reports in the Progress. There are no shortage of folks in this town who are seriously opposed to Art in Place getting either public funding or public space, though there are also many people (myself included) who believe that public art is important in a “world class” city. (We’ve had debates about Art in Place before.)

Rob Schilling is, of course, opposed to this allocation, but he’s refusing to say whether or not he supports Art in Place. In fact, he’s generally opposed to the use of the reserve fund, telling the Progress: “It became very clear to me that this is something the city manager sets aside so the council can pay off their friends. It was like handing out candy on Halloween.”

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