Transparency News, 7/16/21
Friday
July 16, 2021
July 16, 2021
state & local news stories
Virginia Beach City Council is asking Kempsville residents to apply for a seat on the dais after Councilwoman Jessica Abbott resigned earlier this month. Whoever the council selects will fill the vacancy until the city holds a special election. Council will review the applications in closed session Aug. 3 before conducting public interviews during a special session Aug. 10. Council will vote to select one candidate after the interviews.
The Virginian-Pilot
Virginia’s new redistricting commission will receive census data next month. But before the panel redraws the state’s legislative districts, it is hearing from the public. On Thursday, citizens from central and western Virginia weighed in. Most of the speakers were from the New River Valley and from the Lynchburg area. And the two groups had a common theme - preserve their communities of interest, and avoid splintering their communities among multiple districts. More public hearings are scheduled before the commission receives census data next month, and again in September after the first maps are drawn.
WVIR
City of Charlottesville staff will continue to accept statements of interest from entities interested in acquiring the statues of Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, according to a city press release. While the two statues were removed and placed in storage Saturday, the City Council still has not decided whether ownership of the statues should be transferred to a museum or other entity or if the statues should be demolished. During the past month, the city has solicited for expressions of interest from any museum, historical society, government or military battlefield interested in acquiring the statues, or either of them, for relocation and placement. City Manager Chip Boyles says he has received 10 responses thus far — six from out of state and four in-state — and they are all being reviewed.
The Daily Progress
Albemarle County was named the top county of its size in the nationwide 2021 Digital Counties Survey. Also given honors: Fairfax (5th) in populations of 1 million or more; Chesterfield (2nd) and Prince William (3rd) in the 250,000-499,999 category; Arlington (2nd) in the 150,000-249,999 category); Roanoke (3rd), Montgomery (4th), York (7th), Bedford (9th) and Franklin (10th) in the under 150,000 category.
Government Technology
After spending the past nearly nine months collecting signatures, a petition for referendum to give Lynchburg voters the chance to weigh in on whether the Lynchburg City School Board members should be elected rather than appointed fell short of the signature requirement. In order to have the question appear on the 2021 general election ballot for a citywide vote, the petition needed to collect more than 5,200 signatures. According to Andrew Glover, founder of the Conservative Parents of Lynchburg, the final signature count was 4,372.
The News & Advance
A vote on a cell tower in Gainesville devolved yet again into partisan and personal attacks among Prince William County supervisors this week. The vote was preceded by a lengthy public hearing during which more than a dozen nearby residents spoke against the proposal. Afterward, board discussion eventually devolved into heated attacks. Supervisor Margaret Franklin, D-Woodbridge, chastised supervisors for personal attacks on what she called policy disagreements.
InsideNoVa
The Virginian-Pilot
Virginia’s new redistricting commission will receive census data next month. But before the panel redraws the state’s legislative districts, it is hearing from the public. On Thursday, citizens from central and western Virginia weighed in. Most of the speakers were from the New River Valley and from the Lynchburg area. And the two groups had a common theme - preserve their communities of interest, and avoid splintering their communities among multiple districts. More public hearings are scheduled before the commission receives census data next month, and again in September after the first maps are drawn.
WVIR
City of Charlottesville staff will continue to accept statements of interest from entities interested in acquiring the statues of Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, according to a city press release. While the two statues were removed and placed in storage Saturday, the City Council still has not decided whether ownership of the statues should be transferred to a museum or other entity or if the statues should be demolished. During the past month, the city has solicited for expressions of interest from any museum, historical society, government or military battlefield interested in acquiring the statues, or either of them, for relocation and placement. City Manager Chip Boyles says he has received 10 responses thus far — six from out of state and four in-state — and they are all being reviewed.
The Daily Progress
Albemarle County was named the top county of its size in the nationwide 2021 Digital Counties Survey. Also given honors: Fairfax (5th) in populations of 1 million or more; Chesterfield (2nd) and Prince William (3rd) in the 250,000-499,999 category; Arlington (2nd) in the 150,000-249,999 category); Roanoke (3rd), Montgomery (4th), York (7th), Bedford (9th) and Franklin (10th) in the under 150,000 category.
Government Technology
After spending the past nearly nine months collecting signatures, a petition for referendum to give Lynchburg voters the chance to weigh in on whether the Lynchburg City School Board members should be elected rather than appointed fell short of the signature requirement. In order to have the question appear on the 2021 general election ballot for a citywide vote, the petition needed to collect more than 5,200 signatures. According to Andrew Glover, founder of the Conservative Parents of Lynchburg, the final signature count was 4,372.
The News & Advance
A vote on a cell tower in Gainesville devolved yet again into partisan and personal attacks among Prince William County supervisors this week. The vote was preceded by a lengthy public hearing during which more than a dozen nearby residents spoke against the proposal. Afterward, board discussion eventually devolved into heated attacks. Supervisor Margaret Franklin, D-Woodbridge, chastised supervisors for personal attacks on what she called policy disagreements.
InsideNoVa
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