Whisper Ridge Now Jefferson Trail

Published by Waldo Jaquith on March 18, 2009 in Business and Law and Justice. 38 Comments

A public service announcement: Whisper Ridge, née Brown Schools, née Millmont Center, has changed their name again, presumably to escape their reputation, which is why they’ve done it every time before. They’re now The Jefferson Trail Treatment Center for Children. Every couple of years they’re caught for some sort of reprehensible abuse of the children in their care. (For examples, see any of these: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.) For the record, I called this 21 months ago.

And as long as I’m reminding people about disreputable companies with new names, remember that Lethal Wrecker is now Cavalier Towing, a name that I only now realize is as intentionally ironic as their old name.

Democrat Challenging Del. Rob Bell

Published by Waldo Jaquith on March 18, 2009 in Politics. 18 Comments

A local Democrat intends to challenge Del. Rob Bell in this fall’s election, Brian McNeill writes for the Progress. Cynthia Neff retired to Charlottesville from IBM a few years ago, and says that she’s running against the Republican incumbent because she’s frustrated with his attention to brochure bills while ignoring weightier matters. Bell has almost half a million dollars in his campaign coffers, far and away the largest war chest of any member of the Virginia legislature. Neff serves on the board of the Albemarle County Democratic Committee, and managed Marcia Joseph’s challenge to BoS member Ken Boyd a couple of years ago.

Supervisors Unanimous on 74.2¢ Tax Rate

Published by Waldo Jaquith on March 12, 2009 in Politics and Taxes. 24 Comments

The whole of the Board of Supervisors has come together to support a 74.2¢ real estate tax rate, Brandon Shulleeta writes in the Daily Progress today. The original debate was between starting with a 74.5¢ rate or a 90¢ rate, and whittling down from there, with Ken Boyd wanting the former and David Slutzky wanting the latter. (The existing rate is 71¢ per $100 of assessed value.) Slutzky had wanted at least 80¢ in the final rate, but told reporters after last night’s meeting that his constituents had told him, overwhelmingly, that taxes shouldn’t be raised now. Setting the rate at 74.2¢ keeps the dollar value of county revenues the same, as well as the dollar cost of taxes to property owners. Note that this wasn’t a vote to set the rate, just to determine the rate that they’ll advertise for a public hearing, after which they’ll set the rate.

Planning Commission Approves Hiking Developer Fees

Published by Waldo Jaquith on March 12, 2009 in Development and Taxes. 3 Comments

Albemarle County is considering a significant increase on the cost of development, Brian McNeill wrote in the Progress yesterday. For example, right now they charge $720 to review a preliminary plat submitted by a developer. But a study of their own staff time has found that the real cost of that time is much higher, and so now they intend to charge $4,100 for the same procedure. The county went to the Planning Commission to get approval to raise those rates, hoping to cover 50% the costs incurred by developers, but the Planning Commission ended up approving covering 75% of those costs via fees, with the rest being made up by you and me in the form of taxes. Jay Willer, of the Blue Ridge Home Builders, complains to the Progress that developers shouldn’t have to pay for those costs, but that the rest of us should bear that cost on their behalf, which is rather the opposite of the libertarian stance generally taken by developers.

The Planning Commission only approved these increases by a one-vote margin. Now the matter goes before the Board of Supervisors.

Downtown Ponzi Scheme Busted

Published by Waldo Jaquith on March 11, 2009 in Business and Crime. 8 Comments

Federal agents raided the Water Street offices of John M. Donnelly today, Lindsay Barnes writes in The Hook, seeking evidence to support the indictment brought against him for stealing $11M from 31 investors in a Ponzi scheme. Tower Analysis Inc., located in the old train station next to the amphitheater, had agents descend on it and haul off evidence this morning. Donnelly approached some friends a decade ago, had them make small investments, and then used that money to raise more money. Each round brought more money, which he used to pay faux investment income to lower-level investors. (And if you can figure out how that practice can possibly end in anything other than ruin, you might have a future in running financial scams.) Along the way he made a million bucks in the past three years, claiming, awesomely that “using his background in astrophysics, Donnelly developed a proprietary model of financial markets using algorithms derived from the quantification of a fractal wave frequency model which he named Blue Logic.” See the SEC complaint for the nitty-gritty.

Incidentally, Donnelly’s wife is Deborah Donnelly, the fundraiser for UVa’s Curry School of Education. She’s not been accused of any wrongdoing, but given the nature of her job, that’s got to be awkward.

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