The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Highlights & Lowlights From City Council Meeting; Chief Kochis Explains Camping Ordinance To Council

Episode Date: September 3, 2025

The I Love CVille Show headlines: Rock Revolution Is Now Open On Old Ivy Road Highlights & Lowlights From City Council Meeting Chief Kochis Explains Camping Ordinance To Council Council Explains Current De Facto Homeless Strategy Zy Bryant, Jeff Fogel, Greer Achenbach Comments Why Did City Council Meeting Turn Into Clown Show? City Attorney Explains Gentry Locke Compensation City Has Gentry Locke Leverage; Path To Push NZO Exec Offices For Rent ($350 – $2600), Contact Jerry Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air The I Love CVille Show airs live Monday – Friday from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The I Love CVille Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible, Rumble and iLoveCVille.com.

Welcome to the I Love Seville Show, guys. My name is Jerry Miller. Thank you kindly for joining us. The Wednesday edition of the I Love Seville Show, the day after a city council meeting that was an absolute clown show last night. I watched it from start to finish. The meeting lasted more than four hours. And over that four-hour period of time,

It was chaos, debauchery, clown-like behavior, profanities, heckling, far from law and order, the opposite of law and order, chaos. You'll see it. We're going to provide clips for you from city council's meeting last night as activists in this community have yet again organized and strategized to bully local government into policy or policy lack thereof that would have improved quality of life in Charlottesville, Virginia. If you're now watching the program for the first time, the topic de jour last night was this homeless ordinance that would have set a benchmark or established some protocols for managing the houseless population in the city that is clearly impacting quality of life, in particular

in downtown Charlottesville, in particular along the Rivana River, and in particular in many of the parks in the city of Charlottesville. Chief Kachis presented this ordinance to counsel. Michael Payne explained what the de facto protocols are now for managing the homeless. if there's a phone call from a citizen or a taxpayer or a homeowner or a tenant that is voicing concerns. This is what the city does now. Michael Payne explained it. Greer Ackinbach spoke in the public portion, you know, aspect of the meeting, the public portion, you know, time of comment in the meeting. And she was, goodness gracious, just arrows were shot at her, verbal arrows were shot at her from those in council chambers.

Ziana Bryant, who's running for city council, or excuse me, school board, Ziana Bryant. The activist, Ziana Bryant, who first gained notoriety for the Robert Lee statue press conference that she did in Market Street Park, along with West Bellamy, the same Ziana Bryant who went to UVA and trying to ruin the life of Morgan Benninger, another UVA student,

and what was proven to be completely false claims of racism and racist rhetoric that Morgan Beditary allegedly muttered but never did, that led to her expulsion. Now Zayana Bryant's running for school board, probably a favorite to win a spot on Charlottesville School Board. Zayana Bryant. She spoke last night. Jeff Fogel, the activist attorney, spoke last night. This is the same Jeff Fogel had filed a lawsuit against City. the city of Charlottesville in 2013, a lawsuit in 2013 attorney Jeff Fogel filed on behalf of five panhandlers.

And Jeff Fogel, the attorney, said these five panhandlers, that their constitutional rights were being violated, violated by Charlottesville City when it came to panhandling. And somehow a U.S. district judge by the name of Norman Moon, basically aligned with Fogel's argument and supported these five panhandlers and said not only is panhandling allowed on the downtown mall, but the city of Charlottesville is going to have to pay the lawyer fees, the expenses, and the unspecified damages of these five panhandlers. So Charlottesville, according to Jeff Fogel, forked over a six-figure check to these five panhandlers, covered in part his legal expenses.

Fogel, emotional, angry, verbose last night. We'll talk, we'll show clips of his public portion, his public comments in last night's meeting.

We're going to talk on today's show. It was lost in the shuffle. Any other city council meeting, this would have been the lead on today's program. the newly minted city attorney, and get his name for me. I believe the newly minted city attorneys. He's been on the job like a cup of coffee, a New York minute. Find his name for me.

I believe his last name is Maddox. The newly minted city attorney offered commentary while sitting on the dais on what the law firm Gentry Locke. This is the law firm that missed the filing deadline with the new zoning ordinance made the city look like they don't have their you-know-what together. He said, you know-what? But we kept Gentry Locke around and we did it under certain protocols that we are enforcing. The city's got big time leverage against Gentry Lock.

Gentry Lock has done a lot of the work since missing that filing deadline for free. The city got one of the Gentry Lock attorneys who missed the filing deadline, booted from the case and replaced with senior partners who are working at a vastly discounted rate and had things not gone the right way for the city. Gentry Locke was going to fork over $150,000, $150,000 and damages to the city. No wonder Gentry Locke rolled out their senior partnership and their most talented attorneys for this case. With $150,000 of Gentry Lock's own money on the line. Goodness gracious, this show has got so much content, so much conversation when it regards to Charlottesville and Central Virginia, for you, the viewer and listener. One of the headlines that I don't even have time for is something that I need to lead with, although it's not on the rundown. I want to highlight some positivity that's happening in Almore County, guys, some positivity that's happening in Charlottesville City, some positivity that's happening in Central Virginia.

Goodness gracious, is that the police driving by the studio right now to try to get law and order in and counseled chambers? A little too late after what happened last night, and we'll show it to you. Get ready and giddy up. First, the positivity. I touched on this briefly yesterday. Rock Revolution, a new climbing gym and bouldering gym on Old Ivy Road is now open. It is the hard work of Jessica and Mike Kinnick. And ladies and gentlemen, this gym is a fantastic business for this community.

The Kinnock took an office building that was empty. the former home to pure bar on the first floor and on the second and third floors just basically empty office space that have been vacated from because of COVID in the pandemic. And the Kinnick's revitalized,

innovated, and created a family-friendly climbing gym that caters to children, avid and experienced climbers, novices, folks that are looking to do yoga, strength training,

climbing, and indoor activity not tied to screens for kids. The old Ivy Road location is perfect with its proximity to the interstate, the bypass, the urban ring, schools and neighborhoods everywhere. It's Rock Revolution, online at Clim, rockrevolution.com. I'm so impressed with the Kinnock's hard work. And the grand opening was this past week, and viewers and listeners, if you're looking for something to do,

rock revolution on Old Ivy Road, locally owned and operated, is just an impressive, positive contribution to our business community. Rock Revolution, ladies and gentlemen. All right, I think we need to get into council meeting, the council meeting last night. I want to highlight Charlottesville Sanitary Supply. 61 years in business, Charlottesville Sanitary Supply. John Vermillion and Andrew Vermillion,

the owners, their family, the Vermilions, are five generations strong in Amar County. Their business is three generations of family strong. East High Street and online at Charlestville Sanitary, Supply.com, the Vermilions, ladies and gentlemen, honest, communicative, hardworking, good people, salt to the earth people, Charlottesville Sanitary Supply. Judah Wickhauer, studio camera, two-shot. We'll start with Chief Cottges here in a matter of moments. Before we get to Chief Cottes, I genuinely am going to ask you a voice of reason in this community how last night's city council meeting, do you interpret it any other way?

then clown show humiliation, out of control, missing law and order, a mayor, a vice mayor and council that enforce no order of any capacity, allowed folks in the crowd to speak nilly-willy whenever they wanted, pretty much allowed them to attack people in the public comment portion which we will show I mean what did you see last night I mean I saw

from what I saw and I didn't watch the whole thing like Jerry did but it seems as though city council kind of left conscious under the bus I don't know that they threw them under the bus but there was

no response about that I saw when accusations were made that I believe Fogel who was especially egregious because as a lawyer he should know better he should know what this is about and he his his words painted a picture that that this was this was a surprise attack this was foisted on the people of the city of Charlottesville and that they were given no time I believe Gilliken made accusations in in a similar vein that

that this should have been this should have been not foreshadowed but they should have given more notice of this. The fact of the matter is this was a first view of the ordinance and it wasn't

meant to be a this wasn't meant to be hey here's this ordinance we're going to vote on it today. They even said as you and I saw. Juan Diego Wait to start the meeting last night said, we are not going to take a vote on this homeless ordinance. Yeah.

Exact words. There's a lot of people in here. We are not going to take a vote on this homeless ordinance. And still the clown show showed its face in ways that we have not seen since the Nekiah Walker era. There was a lot of rhetoric. There was a lot of fever-pitched emotion from the anti-side of this equation. There was a lot of level-headedness from both police chief conscious who presented on the ordinance and Greer Ackinback, who represented, and you've got to give her credit for her bravery, because she said herself that she was standing in for a lot of the downtown shop owners who wanted to be there, who wanted someone to represent them, but were afraid.

and rightfully so because of the pushback, the clapback from the anti-side. The only people, there's, ladies and gentlemen, in downtown Charlottesville and in the business community in the city of Charlottesville, there are literally two people that are speaking up in favor of the city finding a solution for this homeless management conundrum we're in. One of them is Greer Ackinback, the executive director of Friends of Seville. The other person is me. that's it no one else has the balls the courage or the gumption on record to talk like we talk about the solutions needed for this city and last night you saw five counselors one Diego Wade Brian Pinkston Natalie Oshran Michael Payne and Lloyd Snook who's right down the

hall from us with his law firm right down the hall from our studio you saw five counselors get bullied and intimidated and ramrodded like they were the small kid on the playground with a bag of skittles in their hand and the big boy comes over shoves them against the brick wall and takes the skittles out of his hands

and throws the empty wrapper at the runt kids loafers. That's what happened last night. We're going to give you video clips, viewers and listeners, tag a friend. No one's given you the content like this first police chief conscious and I feel I

empathize for Mike Cotches here I gain even more respect for Mike Cotches here there's no question that city council put Mike Cotches on an island yesterday and they did not protect their police chief they did they Mike conscious was on a

a little raft in the middle of the ocean he had no life fest no preserver and no way to get the dry land Council left him out at sea to die last night. Here's the police chief speaking in front of a packed council chambers on a homeless ordinance that was on the agenda last night. No vote was going to happen.

But 200 activists in this community intimidated the city to not only put this ordinance on the back shelf, but table it. Indefinitely. Indefinitely. Which means that if anyone decides to bring another ordinance, this ordinance or another ordinance before the city council, it'll be the first instance again. Yeah. Which I believe normally there's a first and then there's a second unless the council decides to vote on the first. 200 people dictating the pace and tempo of what the city of Charlottesville is going to do. First, Mike Kachis on the ordinance last night.

Three, two, one. Commitment this council has shown in working towards that goal. And at the same time, I've spent many hours over the years meeting with listening to members of our unhoused community. These are overwhelmingly great people who want the same basic dignity and stability we all do. Many have shared with me that they understand and even welcome reasonable rules. What we often see, however, is that a smaller number of people, of unsafe and hazardous encampments create the greatest challenges and cause harm to others. Tonight, what I am presenting is a legal framework designed to help us respond to those unsafe

and hazardous situations with clarity and consistency. We owe it to our unhoused neighbors to ensure their safety just as much we do for our house neighbors. We owe it to our business community. We are directly affected by unsafe encampments. And we, owe it to our entire city to approach this issue with compassion, fairness, and responsibility. And so with that we'll start, there we go, the timeline. So this process, like I said, began on April 3rd, 2025 during my 2-2-1s with each of you, where concerns about these encampments and their impact on quality of life were raised. Since then, or at that time, I was instructed to begin the process of drafting an ordinance.

And just to be clear, there is a lot of conversation around the executive order that came out in July and I will agree that's not helpful as our most executive orders we're seeing these days but I'll digress when talked about these executive orders once once we were instructed to begin that process of it drafting that ordinance we developed an internal working group that working group consisted of the city members of the city this is actual footage from last night's council meeting chief Koch is presenting before the counselors throughout this presentation, Chief Conscious's presentation, which was somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes,

the members in the audience were screaming at him, were heckling him, were demanding who originated this ordinance. Which he explained, which is... There's not a single person on the dais that raised their hand and said, we originated this ordinance. Maybe Michael Payne kind of did it. Yeah. Not a single member on council was willing to say this into a microphone. We instructed Sam Sanders or Mike Cotches to pursue this ordinance. No one did that.

And you just heard Chief Conscious essentially say, I've spoken with everyone on council. Right. Starting April 3rd. He said in his two-two-ones, meaning Chief Cautious and two counselors, because if three counselors get together in one meeting, it's an official meeting. But two can get together and be an unofficial meeting. So Chief Consciousness literally read it between the lines saying, you told me to do this.

We've spoken. And none of the people on council said, we are the ones that did it. Because they feared the fallout of the 200 in the audience. There were multiple moments during Chief Consciousness 10 to 15 minute presentation where the man showed composure that very few of us would have had. There were multiple times where he stopped speaking and he literally had to take a who saw moment where he was like, deep breath in out, don't let these people rattle you because that's what they want.

And the dude did it with class. Like class in composure. I hope Chief Kachis hears me say that. class and composure. The next clip I want to highlight is Councillor Michael Payne. He is talking in this clip, which we're about to play from last night's meeting,

with Chief Kachis. He's asking questions of the police chief. Michael Payne is. This is a two-term counselor, Michael Payne. And in this clip, we're going to play you. He explains, on the record, what the de facto protocol is, if a Charlottesvillian, a taxpayer, a small business owner, a homeowner, a renter,

just an average Joe or an average Sally calls about a homeless issue, like someone yelling at you. How many have you been yelled by the homeless somewhere in Charlottesville? I think his explanation essentially says that if one person calls, nothing is going to happen. Here, Michael Payne, he says, and that's, I don't think that's the take I got. He says if there are enough emails, if there are enough complaints, then we'll send the police. The police have to go out to manage this.

Do you understand the unenviable position that Mike Kachis' police department is in right now? If I were him, I would say we're not going to do it. Chief Kachis and his police department are in a terrible position where they are the band-aid. The boogeyman. The boogeyman to manage the houseless problem that's Charlottesville. Because council has put the police department in this position. It's poor leadership that's put the police department in this position. Let's play this clip.

I'm setting the stage for you. This is Michael Payne talking about what the de facto protocols are for city of Charlottesville with issues with the houseless right now. Three, two, one. Your questions and comments here? I mean, the other issue, which is obvious, and this is beyond your purview, so I don't know if it's more of a comment or really a question, but is, I mean, the obvious issue is, I mean, the de facto strategy of the city at this point is when there is an encampment and we start to get emails of a complaint about it, you all, and you are called. You are called. And we respond with no legal. And that's not your choice. You are not jumping up and down to say, I want to do that.

We are not. But you have to be a tough. So the de facto strategy in the city at this point is encampments are there. When we get, once there's enough emails that there's a vague sense that it's an issue, you all end up getting called out there, you ask people to leave, they go to a different location. The process repeats again. And I just don't, how does this change that situation? I mean, it adds a layer of criminalization, potential criminalization on top of it, but I just,

but I know that's beyond your, because I mean, the fundamental issues, we can go out there with social services providers, but there's no permanent support of housing or overnight shelter to direct them to. And you've acknowledged that, you know that, but I'm just struggling to see how this plays out beyond just people end up dispersing into woods in the urban ring. Or people will still make the decision. You ask me to move, and there's a threat of criminalization.

Sure, I'm doing it. But they're going to end up somewhere else until they get home. I mean, what's the practical effect of this in terms of changing where our status quo is right now? I know that's far beyond just. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, sir, like, and we've spoken about this, all of us.

I'm not sure there's a good answer, sir. It really isn't. And look, this doesn't solve the issue. Our, I will tell you that there's not a meeting or conversation I have with my boss, the city manager, that this isn't something we talk about, whether it be trying to find a low barrier shelter, or, you know, trying to find places for people to go that are safe, safer than under a bridge where the water rises quickly. I mean, this is a complex issue.

This is one piece of it. But again, that's why that last slide is pros and cons of it. And at the end of the day, it's this body's decision. Mr. Smith, you're not telling him a lie. John. Painting Cautius' interaction right there, where Chief Conscious is about as genuine as a person as you're going to find when he's like, I'm not sure I have the answer.

You know why the police chief doesn't have the answer here? Because it's not the police chief or the police department's responsibility to manage this. And that's why an ordinance is needed. He laid it out. He said, Chief Conscious said there's when pain said you get called out because, you know, there are enough complaints. And Chief Conscious said, yes, with no legal. framework with how to respond. His boss is the city manager. The city manager can send,

can tell Chief Kajas to send police to an encampment, but without a legal framework. He can do nothing. He's got, all he can do is talk to the people because he's not a, he's not a, social worker, a drug counselor. He's not the Gestapo. He's not a liaison. He's not the Gestapo. He's not the police that we saw during the time of World War II in Germany. This guy told Chief Kachis, and we are not playing this clip because the show is an hour, and we're going to play four other clips for you, including Ziana Bryant, who's probably going to win a spot on Charlottesville School Board, Jeff Fogle, who was one of the driving forces with legalizing panhandling in Charlottesville, Greer Ackenbach, who

got verbally targeted like you haven't seen in a long time in council chambers, and city attorney Maddox is his last, what's his first name? John Maddox. John Maddox talking about the gentry lock compensation relationship and how the city has held this third party law firm accountable for missing a filing deadline. A lot still to come on the program, ladiesy gentlemen. But Chief Kachis in last night's meeting literally said the encampment under Freebridge on Pantops. He highlighted that with that encampment, the homeless that are in that encampment or were in that encampment before it was moved by the police department, asked the police department prior to see if an alarm could be installed at the dam when the water was released.

The homeless said that the water under Freebridge at that dam, at that point, comes in so quickly whenever the gate is open, the dam is open, the water comes in so quickly that they are unprepared for the release of that water, their possessions get swept away, and some of the houseless in that encampment have been caught in this surge of water, and it's extremely unsafe. And Chief Conscious is like, this is a perfect example, guys, of an encampment being unsafe and why we need an ordinance to manage this encampment. It's not necessarily violence that's happening here. It's risk of someone's life from the release of water from this dam, and they're telling us they

need an alarm to live and survive. Chief Conscious literally goes before counsel hat in hand. Speaking before five counselors who are his superiors, he's literally calling Michael Payne and Natalie Orchran, which basically are his, is slightly older than his children. Yes, ma'am, yes, sir. Like, clearly showing them respect. and they don't return the professional spec back, respect back, and protecting him from the hecklers in the audience. I was particularly disappointed in Counselor Payne.

You think his commentary was disingenuous? During the clip that we just showed, he makes no mention of the fact that he's been meeting with Chief Cottius. Chief Conscience even mentions we've spoken about this. His questions sound like this is the first he's hearing about this, as if he doesn't understand why we would need a ordinance. Ordinance. He talks about the fact that, well, when we send you to go talk to somebody and move them, they move somewhere else, and the cycle starts over again,

Okay, that's understandable, but that's no reason to not create laws that give the police a framework with which to respond to the struggles that we're dealing with. And we need to highlight the ordinance, ladies and gentlemen, if the houseless population is camping in an area they should not, the police under this ordinance, if it was approved, it was not approved, it was tabled indefinitely. But if it was approved, the police would give the houseless individual who's camping in a spot illegally 10 days notice to move. After the 10 days notice if the individual is still there, they say, respectfully, you have to move. They don't find them. They don't arrest them at that point. Respectfully, we've given you 10 days notice you have to move. We'll even help you by storing your belongings for 60 days.

If at that point the houseless individual still does not listen, he gets a small fine. it's a misdemeanor four, that is no jail time, no jail time, ladies and gentlemen, no arrest. It's like a ticket. And I believe Chief Conscious also explained later on that there's also no framework for chasing down people for small fines, which means that all of the rhetoric claiming that this is somehow criminalizing the house list. Is disingenuous at best? At best. At best.

Because this is not a punitive measure. It's a law measure so that you can... It's just a framework. If you do have to take... If you do have to... If this does end up in a courtroom, you can point to the fine that was levied and say it's paperwork. It's basically a paper trail saying, look, we've done our due diligence.

We've asked people to move. We gave a fine. and they haven't done so. Now we have to escalate if it comes to that. But without that, there is no paper trail. What do you have? Lawlessness. We went and talked to the people.

That's it. Which is not going to stand up in any court. And we don't want to see this in court, and nobody does. Payne was absolutely disingenuous with his commentary and interaction with the police chief. I was very disappointed. Having it come across as if this was the first time. to save face with the 200 in attendance. Throughout that entire meeting, council members made the reference of,

we got a couple hundred emails from activists about this. A couple hundred. I continue to say on the record, on this platform that has, across all platforms, we have the biggest following in this region except for UVA. And I continue to say on our platform that it's 200 people, activists in this community that are dictating policy and tempo for Charlottesville City and impacting quality of life. We saw it again last night. I want to play more clips from last night. I'm going to play Diana Bryant here. This is the activist that got the Robert Lee statue removed

when she was in, you know, what, middle school, high school. She went to UVA, got into some serious dog do-do at UVA when she claimed a former class, she claimed a classmate and Morgan Benninger on Water Street during a black women's matter protest on Water Street. She claimed that Diana Bryant claimed that Morgan Beniger said that if this Charlottesville City work truck wasn't here to keep traffic from flowing on Water Street, it was basically a barricade, all these people would be speed bumps. Zayana Bryant then used her Twitter following, which is massive, huge, ginormous, to attack Morgan Benninger online, had Beninger drummed up on honor charges where she was expelled

from the school in abeyance. In abeyance. And then Benninger, with the benefit of hindsight, and a little bit of, research and investigation, they find out that Beniger did not even say it to Zayna Bryant. She heard it third hand, third party, from someone else, like the game telephone. And that Beniger didn't even meet it about the protesters. She was just having a conversation with the city employee whose vehicle was the protection, the blockade, saying it's a good thing you're here. These people, goodness gracious, they would be

unsafe. They could be potentially speed bumps. Somebody might have not seen them in, and, yeah. Jim Ryan didn't even stand up for Morgan Beniger in retrospect, and nothing happened to Ziana Bryant, and now she's running for school board. Listen to Ziana Bryant last night, making a reference to the I Love Seville brand, Judah Wickhauer in three, two, one.

Yeah, we closed. Good evening, Ziona Bryant, child's full resident. I first just want to say, like before I go into my official comments, Jen, thank you for running because, yeah, anyway, hopefully it's tabled until Jen gets on. But anyway, I think that today really showed me that the blue heart thing, the I Love Seabill, whatever that was, that the downtown business association did after August 12, 2017 meant nothing. How do we know that?

Because the Charlottesville that they love so much doesn't include unhoused people. I mean, I think that's pretty clear. And so, I mean, I could do the whole, like, profound comments about how we should be caring for each other, which there's a place for that, and I feel like everyone has already said that. I'm really saddened by the fact that Mr. Pinkston said,

but he said community members, voices matter, but the business owners matter, blah, blah, blah. And it's just very clear that there's no room for nuance here. People are picking sides, and unfortunately, there are some counselors who are prioritizing profit over people, and that's very clear. I think it goes without saying that the downtown mall is often dead because we don't need that many trinkets in pottery shops. We need things to do. And I mean that, not a disrespectful manner, but I'm saying, that when people go downtown for the TomTom Fest, it's because there's actually some entertainment. It's because there's actually something for multicultural, folks who are

looking for multicultural fun to be able to enjoy something. There are go-go bands. When that happens at Fridays after 5, you see black people. When they're not there, you don't see them. I don't think it's rocket science. So when we talk about the businesses that we're protecting, let's really think about how black-owned businesses are not able to do well on the downtown wall. And that's not new. And people have said that for decades. In fact, it's been said since before I was even born. And so it's just like, I feel like we continue to talk in circles.

But the reality is that you guys or someone, whether it was the city manager, no one's going to say that they came up with the idea. So, I mean, there's no point in us playing the guessing game. We can kind of assume who had the idea for the whole ordinance to come up. And we can base that off of past things that they've said. but ultimately the ordinance is a terrible idea we know that and it's just very sickening to see how we got back to business as usual we had so many people in the community begging for civility in these meetings people not to come and shout or bring signs and protest during the meetings and as soon as we got back to that business as usual quiet quick meetings things like this

happened luckily we had some people who paid attention to make sure that the community came out to speak up tonight. But if we did it, that ordinance will probably have been approved. So again, thank you, Jen, for running. And I hope to quickly, everyone who supports the unhoused community and supports striking this ordinance, do you mind standing if you're able? It's always good to see the support in the room. And now we know who's on what side. Thank you. So that, ladies, the gentleman is Zai Bryant, who's probably going to be a Charlottesville school board member when she's elected in November. And one of a couple of people that's going to be trusted with managing a nearly $100 million yearly public school budget in Charlottesville.

I want everybody to consider that. Do what you want with that. favored to win, one of a few people that will be trusted to manage the public school system of Charlottesville, Virginia. Now, I want to play more public comment highlights. Maybe you call them low lights from last night. How about Jeff Fogel's comments? Jeff Fogel is an attorney. He ran for the Democratic nomination for the Charlottesville's Commonwealth's attorney. in 2017. He lost to Joe Platania. Jim Hingley corrected me on the pronunciation of Plantania. He says I throw an extra N in there with Plantania.

I'm taking that N out. And Jim Hingley, I love and respect you tremendously. Plantania. You just use it again. He lost Joe. You mean Joe lost him? Jeff lost to Joe. Jeff, wait, I thought, oh, yeah.

Jeff lost. to Joe. Jeff's and Joe's. Jeff is the attorney who wrangled up five panhandlers in 2013 filed a lawsuit against the city saying these five panhandlers, their

liberties, their constitutional rights include panhandling. Somehow a judge by the name of Norman Moon voted in favor of these panhandlers and sided with Jeff Fogel's legal argument. The city

had to pay a, according to Jeff, significant six-figure payout to the panhandlers. As part of the payout, it was legal expenses for Jeff, damages, lawyer fees, etc. Now Jeff Fogel is getting back into the homeless news cycle with Comets in last night's city council meeting. Get ready and giddy up for this. Jeff Fogle in three, two, one. Thank you. Good evening. When I first heard about the ordinance to criminalize the homeless, I was shocked, followed by absolute fury that continues to this day, that you would even discuss, even discuss an issue of making people who were suffering from a lack of shelter into criminals. It's disgusting. Your city attorney has relied on a decision by the Supreme Court of the right wing of the Supreme Court.

Is that where we stand? Donald Trump has asked all the cities, to prohibit sleeping and camping. Are we with Donald Trump? We don't even know who this came from. It was just dropped on the agenda. There was no community engagement, as has usually been required, because there was absolutely none. Nobody was talked to, not the service providers,

not the people who have cared about this issue. It is absolutely and completely infuriating, outrageous, unconscionable, and inhuman for you to even consider in ordinance like this as any kind of solution to the problem we face here in Charlottesville. You have gotten the solutions. You know the

solutions. They range from what the service providers are urging you to do, set aside an area of the city where people can camp out. And they range to what we should be doing, which is building housing. Building housing because the solution to homelessness is housing,

not the criminal law. And for characterize everybody in this community who's unshilted as a criminal, is disgusting and I'm hoping that any one of you who has, we don't know who proposed this is any one of you willing have the courage to stand up

and say, I propose this let's see if you have that courage because if you do vote for this we're going to be laser focused on your inhumanity. Thank you. That's Attorney Jeff Fogel who,

in very large part should be credited with panhandling in downtown Charlottesville. And should be teaching rhetoric at UVA. You know, the crazy thing is I was watching this at home. And I was like, it was like enthralling.

I couldn't keep my eyes off it, like a train wreck. But the terribly sad thing is, so it's where I live in the city where my businesses are based out of. The jurisdiction right next to the county where we're raising our kids. So it was

like enthralling and engaging, entertaining and educating, enlightening, but also at the very same time, demoralizing, depressing. Now we're going to play Greer Ackinbach in the

courage to be Greer Ack and Pack, the executive director of Friends of Seville here. She goes before counsel yesterday. Last night, as a representative of the business community in downtown Charlottesville, to highlight the impact the homeless population is having on the local economy in Charlottesville. And listen to what Greer does with her presentation and how she backs her presentation up with anecdotes and facts. One of the anecdotes she utilizes is the closure of Al-A-Kazam toy store in the downtown mall, where the owner of Al-A-Kazam has said that foot traffic and sales are down 30-plus percent and can be attributable to families,

parents not feeling as willing or as safe to bring their kids on the mall to shop at a toy store. Greer Ackinbach takes verbal arrows. Check that. Verbal bazookas from the 200 activists that are in City Hall. Listen to this. Greer Ackinback, Executive Director of Friends of Seville, the Lobbien Group that represents the business community in downtown Charlottesville.

Three, two, one. Hi, my name is Greer Ackinbach. I am executive director of Friends of Charlottesville downtown. I am here to speak in favor of the ordinance on camping and storage on city property. Please, please. Friends of Charlottesville downtown is by nature not a serious moral issue. You don't think they get it. Not a political organization.

Our mission is to stimulate social and economic vitality, which puts me in the very unend, enviable position tonight to speak on behalf please please let let us speak look at this brave woman here I represent many visitors and business owners who are afraid to speak in favor of this ordinance for fear they will be misrepresented in a way that affects their businesses and their families we have a serious problem on the downtown mall and the lack of ordinances is leading to a decrease in visitors and business activity. We agree with Mr. Vogel that there should be a designated camping area in the city until we can

provide enough shelter beds, but it should not be in our business district. The city has invested millions of dollars into the downtown mall and seen a return on that investment tenfold in the form of tax revenue. You have a fiduciary responsibility. to protect the tax base that funds vital social programs. The downtown mall is one of our community's most valued public spaces. It serves as a destination for residents, families, and tourists alike, as well as a vital lifeline for the small businesses that line it. Unfortunately, unfortunately, when visitors encounter encampments and cluttered belongings,

aggressive hand handling the atmosphere of the mall is diminished please please please this perception not only discourages tourism and local engagement but threatens the long-term vitality of the businesses that rely on that foot traffic case in point al-qazam toy store an iconic business on the mall that has been here for 19 years is now closing its doors the owners cited a 35% decline in sales attributing much of it to families no longer feeling comfortable bringing their children and children off. Thank you. San Francisco is a cautionary example of what happens when cities delay action.

Despite years of efforts and hundreds of millions of dollars spent towards programs and homeless shelters, their crisis only worsened until ordinance were put in place. Charlottesville is now at a similar crossroads. We understand that there are people that. that there is a small contingent, a tall contingent of vocal people who feel that these ordinances are considered lacking conscious. But this is a dangerous position to make a thriving city and a downtown mall benefits the entire city, culturally, socially, and economically. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

John, John, have a seat. Off the long, please, sir. John, please sit down. Should I talk? Now we're back. Guys, that's Greer Ackinbach of Friends of Seaville, heckled throughout her public comments, throughout her public comments by those in attendance.

I am thoroughly disappointed with Mayor Juan Diego Wade and how he managed this meeting. I hope Juan Diego Wade hears this. Thoroughly disappointed with him. Juan Diego Wade, ladies and gentlemen, did not protect Mike Kachis or Greer Ackinback from those in attendance who chose to heckle both members of our community.

And if you remember, when Kevin Cox spoke before counsel about the crosswalk that he sprang Spray painted on, was it Cherry Avenue? Elliot Avenue. Kevin Cox was calling out, and Deep Throat puts this on my radar, calling out Brennan Duncan, the traffic engineer, and Brian Pinkston immediately shut Kevin Cox down for poor behavior and council meeting for going after Brennan Duncan. Why did Brian Pinkston and Juan Diego Wade, and why did Michael Pinkston, and why did Michael and Natalie Oshran and Lloyd Snick, Lloyd Snook, not utilize the same strategy that they did

with Kevin Cox, a man who's a traffic and pedestrian and Walker, activist, and advocate with a spray-painted crosswalk where he's speaking before counsel calling out Brennan Duncan, the traffic engineer, they shut Kevin Cox down, yet they don't protect their police chief, and they don't protect the executive director of the lobbying group, Friends of SIVO, because those five counselors would have looked bad in front of 200 people and would have lost a popularity contest amongst 200 activists in council chambers. Yeah, I would call that a cancel culture mob. Bingo. I think, I mean, I don't know that any of them would pose a danger, but it certainly I think having

Chief Conscious there certainly kept things to just cat calls and booze. If the police chief is going to get heckled, cat called, and booed, imagine what an average citizen is going to face. She, I mean, she could have cut her talking time in half

if she wasn't being interrupted every three seconds. Exactly. Now, one other element came up. I thought of something while I was listening to her, and it's interesting. I was just thinking that if there was a solution to the problem of the houseless on the downtown mall,

the reason why she was standing up, and braving the slings and arrows of an unruly crowd. Boosting the bottom line, giving a boost to the downtown mall. If the downtown mall was as populated as it was pre-pandemic, pre-people sleeping in doorways, on the downtown mall. The tax money brought in on the downtown mall

could be used to spend on social services and shelter for those same homeless that this is all about. Here's what Judah is saying very succinctly. Economic development and the tax revenue that's generated from economic development and a strong small business ecosystem can be allocated to fund resources for the homeless. But by shitting on economic development and by reining on small business, you're impacting your tax base, which limits the opportunity to fund resources for the houseless.

That's extremely obvious. We have other things we've got to go ahead. And could eventually lead to raising taxes on rooftops because not enough taxes that are coming in from business. Which would cause more houselessness. Yeah. And it's so obvious. And all because of a lack of willingness to... A lack of leadership to act.

A lack of leadership is what this is about. We have one other clip we need to play. My 130 is literally waiting outside our office. right now. This last clip, if you want to put the lower thirds on screen, is his name John Maddox? Yeah. The newly minted city attorney's name is John Maddox. John Maddox explains in this clip the relationship that Charlottesville now has with its outside counsel Gentry Locke who missed a filing deadline with the new zoning ordinance. This miss filing deadline caused a default judgment.

with a lawsuit where nine homeowners in Charlottesville are suing the city over a new zoning ordinance that didn't do the proper study, traffic study before it was implemented. This missed filing deadline caused humiliation with Charlottesville. John Maddox used last night's meeting as an opportunity to explain what he has done since getting into office as the city attorney, including having some leverage now over Gentry Locke, specifically free. free work, and then reduced rates, and a replacement of middle, average attorneys in this law firm with senior partners in this law firm. Here's John Maddox. Any other show, this is the lead of the show, the city attorney making dad jokes in this commentary.

Cheesy jokes about a movie, eventually this will turn into a movie with the script written by John Grisham, and he hopes Dan DeVito, Danny DeVito, plays his role in the movie. I'm literally listening to a city attorney cracking dad jokes in front of 200 activists, not reading the room or understanding the temperature of what's before him. Here's John Maddox on the relationship with Gentry Locke, ladies and gentlemen. In regards to the zoning case as well. Certainly. Thank you, Mr. Sanders.

I want to speak y'all a little bit tonight about the provider status report in the city's claim with respect to Gentry Locke, who has been representing us in handling the White v. Charlottesville zoning matter. I'm providing this in this setting. I think a lot of this information will not be new to you. I've provided to you in a more confidential setting. However, I feel like the case has progressed to the point where I can be a little bit more open and it will not affect our litigation posture at all.

So as a refresher, back in May, an attorney who was representing the city from Gentry Lock failed to meet a filing deadline, failed to file an answer in time, which resulted in early June, the plaintiff's moving for default judgment against the city. And on June 30th, the court denied our motion for relief from that default judgment and to file a late answer, which of course, as you know, set us into a tailspin. I'm sure someday John Grish will write a legal thriller about all the things that happened after that. I hope Danny DeVito plays me in the movie. But without getting in too far into that, I wanted to talk to a little bit about, obviously at that point, we had a claim against Gentry Locke for possible malpractice. And evaluating how to respond to that, we had to consider a couple of factors. First, we had to consider how we're going to protect our financial interests.

And to that extent, that's why I approached Gentry Lock. We worked out a deal, which I can now tell you the full, and give the full story on. First of all, the court, the firm agreed that they were going to continue to represent us in the case. I'm sorry. It's hard to, it's a lot of noise. We're trying to. Hardly hear myself think. Okay, I'll proceed.

So first of all, we wanted to protect our financial interests. That meant ensuring that the firm would cover our expenses. We would not be paying any fees while they tried to correct this mistake. And they agreed to that. Second of all, we had to ensure that we had competent representation going forward. Now, it wouldn't have benefited us to change horses midstream, find new counsel. It was an option, but we would have had to pay to get new counsel up to speed, which would be an expensive proposition.

And so in lieu of that, the deal we struck with Gentry Lock, we gave them a chance to correct the mistake. If they were successful in that, then we would move forward with them, and we would pay them reduced fees moving forward. If they were not successful, they agreed that they would repay the city, all of the money that we had paid for the lawsuit,

and liquidated damages of $150,000. That was if they were unable to get the court, court to overturn its ruling. Now, fortunately, as you all know, a week or two ago, the court decided on our motion reconsider. They reconsidered their decision and decided to overturn the default judgment. We're now back to where we're able to litigate the case

on the merits. One reason I wanted to talk to you all about this in this setting is Gentry Locke screwed up. They didn't do a good job in that. But since then, they have acted admirably. They have acted just how I would hope they did. Do they own the mistake? And they provided very competent representation ever since.

At my request, they removed the attorney who was representing the city and who missed the deadline and replaced them with some of their senior counsel. Michael Finney, who's the head of their litigation section, has been representing us very competently ever since. And also Monica Monday, who is one of the very best appellate lawyers in the state. It was through their efforts working very closely with I got a shout out our NDS staff and some of our public work staff and even some members and some citizens in the community who worked very close with us to help put together the defense of the judge that ultimately got him to change his mind on the default judgment ruling so I want to let you all know that we're back on track we I'm going to be entering in this agreement

gentry lock we're paying reduced fees moving forward which should save us some money as we continue to litigate the case and we're very hopeful that when we get the case for the judge on the merits that we will prevail and the city will have the zoning that you all voted for. So I'm happy to answer any questions, but I wanted to provide you. Thank you all for joining us today. We appreciate your viewership. Jerry had to help someone with a real estate deal,

and we will talk about all of these topics tomorrow. Thank you again, and we look forward to having you join us the rest of the week. Actually, I believe that Chief Conscious will be with us tomorrow. And I'm very interested in hearing what he has to say and his, I know, very measured response to what happened last night. Thank you.