The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - More Thoughts On Brent Lillard Interview; 82K Students Applied For UVA 2030 Class (27%+ v 2029)

Episode Date: February 4, 2026

The I Love CVille Show headlines: More Thoughts On Brent Lillard Interview From 2/3/26 82K Students Applied For UVA 2030 Class (27%+ v 2029) CVille City Wants To Make Downtown Water St. One-Way HoneyCar Dealership On Pantops Has Closed Washington Post Terminates Sports & Books Sections UVA Hoops Pounds Pitt; Hosts Syracuse 2/7 At 12pm The Most Important 3 Minutes Of News Today (2/4/26) If You Need CVille Office Space, Contact Jerry Miller 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. #charlottesville #cville #news

Welcome to the I Love Seville Show, guys. My name is Jerry Miller, and thank you kindly for joining us on the Wednesday edition of the Water Cooler of Content and Conversation a lot. We're going to cover on the broadcast, including the termination of the Washington Post sports section, the book section, deep cuts in the metro section, and one-third of the Washington Post staff now pink-slipped and laid off. This is the newspaper owned by one of the world's wealth. individuals, Jeff Bezos. This is the third most significant newspaper in the United States of America. I'll put the Wall Street Journal in the one slot, the New York Times and the two slot, the Washington Post, and the three slot. After these layoffs and after these cuts and the termination of sports, books, and deep cuts in the metro section, I'm not sure the Washington

Post is in the third slot anymore. We're going to talk about this storyline as it pertains to the business of journalism, and we will take a macro topic. and localize it to Charlottesville. An interview we did yesterday with Brent Lillard, who's the CEO and co-founder of GovSmart, a government contracting firm locally that employs more than 90 people that has top line revenue north of $500 million,

was in the unfortunate limelight, was in the, garnered the unfortunate and unfair, attention of the CIVO Weekly with comparisons to Nazism because of its ties to immigration, customs and enforcement contracts with its government contracting firm. I'm going to localize the Washington Post storyline, the business of journalism, to Charlottesville as it pertains to the CIVO Weekly, which is a newspaper, and the fact that the paper is polarizing a firm that does a boatload of business locally, a boatload of charitable contributions locally, a firm

successful enough where its co-founder and CEO has the financial resources to invest into other businesses around town that are also advertisers of the newspaper that called into question the character, the integrity of Brent Lillard, that story on today's show. I want to talk on the program, ladies and gentlemen, about Water Street right now with the West Main Street Skate Project, and Judah will offer the who, what, one where, why on the program here. They're talking, making Water Street a two-way gateway, you know, two-direction gateway for downtown Charlottesville and converting it into one direction alone. The activists livable Seaville, who I've questioned their tactics, I've questioned their foresight, their vision,

frankly, their intelligence are leading the charge to make Water Street one direction. The business lobbying group, Friends of Seaville, is pushing back on this and saying this will negatively impact downtown Charlottesville, specifically the ease of ability to get downtown. And livable Seaville also points to other elements like deliveries to businesses downtown. frankly, how can, does downtown need another perceived headwin right now? And construction on the road parallel to the mall would certainly be a perceived headwin. We'll talk about that on the I Love Seville show today. We'll talk the basketball game from last night where the University of Virginia beat up the Pittsburgh Panthers

who were clearly outmanned, outnumbered, and just did not have the firepower to keep up with Virginia. UVA has Syracuse on the docket Saturday at noon at the John Paul Jones Arena. This Ryan Odom-led team has its warts, but for the most part, it is a gorgeous brand of basketball that is primed and ready for a sweet 16, if not deeper run, and March Madness. I mean, you're looking at a team that could be seated as a three or four seed right now, ladies and gentlemen in the University of Virginia. Still a lot of basketball to play, but we are in the back half, the second half of the ACC regular season. A lot we're going to cover on today's broadcast, including the University of Virginia.

Here's a statistic for you for your cocktail and charcutory party this weekend. The 82,000, more than 82,000, more than 82,000 students applied for the University of Virginia's class of 2030. that's a 27% uptick or increase versus last year's record high. Just an astronomical amount of students are trying to get into the University of Virginia. 82,000 students applied to be a part of the class of 2030, a 27% increase versus last year, which was the all-time high for the University of Virginia. This impacts all of us, ladies and gentlemen, as students with their moms and dads black MX

while driving their moms and dads Mercedes AMGs, their mom and dad's hummers, their mom and dad's G-wagons continue to carpet bag and just penetrate the Charlottes because they want to attend this new Ivy League, we call the University of Virginia. A couple of business items out of the notebook, including the closure of honeycar,

the car dealership, the automobile dealership, the vehicle dealership on Pantops, and the late great Mel Walker having a road named after him. Yeah. Talk about that on the program today. I do want to give some attention to a partner of the I Love Seville show, Stanley Martin Holmes. Stanley Martin Holmes, it's a fantastic home builder. Their focus is entirely on their clientele. They want their clients to be happy.

They will give you what you need. They are willing to work financially with you in the home building process. And they want to help you live your life every day as you want to live it within your home. They strive to pursue excellence at Stanley Martin Holmes. And they treat everyone with respect. A home building experience like no other, Stanley Martin Holmes, a partner of the I Love Seville Show. to Wickhauer or studio camera if you could, as we encourage the viewers and listeners to like and share the show. Some have done that already, like Friends of the program, Tina Wyant

Breeden, Logan Wells Claylow, Vanessa Parkhill. They have liked and shared the show. Please hammer the like button as we just try to figure out what's going on around here. Janice Bois Trevillian has liked the show. She's offered a comment on Water Street. Owen Brenner, Barbara Becker-Tilly. Welcome to the broadcast. Am I still on a one-shot? I just put you back in the one-shot. All right. A couple of items. I want to get out of the notebook here.

We're having success with the network, and the success with the network, ladies and gentlemen, has just been creating quality and valuable content for you. I want to continue our deep ties to the Charlottesville-Almore County, UVA and Central Virginia region. That will never go away. I am giving some thought on the I Love Seville Network to launching a new show.

And that new show would be a macro-focused show on events, the news cycle, politics, business, the economy, stuff we're reading, following, we're hearing that's tied to our country. We'd welcome guests of merit and note that were politicians, UVA professors, folks of influence that are in and around our social circles. It would not, by any means, interrupt what we're doing at 1230 every day on the I Love Seville show, but it could be a complimentary or additional show on the I Love Seville network that is focused on content from a more macro lens. I'm curious of your thoughts as a viewer and listener if you think that would be something that may appeal to you, giving significant thought on that. In fact, I've heard quite a bit from viewers and listeners

on that topic. So I want to wet your appetite on that, get some feedback, crowdsource some feedback on that. If you think that would be a good idea in any case, send me a DM, put it in the comment section, and email. I value your opinion. Viewers and listeners, I sincerely mean that.

I want to go to the studio camera and then welcome Judah on a two-shot. Judah Wickower, I value tremendously, as he knows. Did you make the updates after we went live on YouTube? Yep. You did that? Fantastic work, Judah. Where do you want to begin, my friend?

Do you want to begin with the... Maybe we begin with Brent Lillard from yesterday. You, in yesterday's show, you strictly produced and directed the show off-camera. It gives you the vantage point of being on the front row literally and figuratively with Brent and I on the interview. I found Brent Lillard, the CEO of GovSmart, to be provocative, thought-provoking, pensive, willing to challenge the status quo intellectually, courageous, entrepreneurship. opinionated, fearless, he's successful,

he's resourced, he's wealthy, he's a male, he's white. You add all these elements to one human, one individual, and the reaction of some in this community has been one of jealousy, anger, one that is,

willing to flex its anonymous keyboard muscles and hurl insults to injure to Brent. It reeks of, from my standpoint, envy, and it embodies the phrase that's important to me that I reiterate to our children on a regular basis. Comparison is the thief of joy. and when men and women fall victim to comparison, to envy and jealousy, it's them personally, their joy that suffers. It's rarely the object of their envy, jealousy, or comparison that is impacted negatively in any capacity.

The origination, the lightning rod of all these emotions was the CIVO Weekly's coverage of Brent Lillard. The Seville Weekly covered Brent and his firm that he co-founded the firm he's the chief executive officer of GovSmart, more than 500 million in top line revenue, more than 90 employees, locally owned and operated in Charlottesville, purchased a building from Bill Nitchman, my mentor, an individual who's been instrumental in shaping my business life. I will see Bill, in fact, tomorrow. this Seville Weekly coverage found the 18th driver of revenue for GovSmart, just over 3 million. We're talking a 500 million top line revenue firm and took that 3 million revenue stream and it's indirect, extremely indirect ties to ICE and put it front and center in print where it will live in infamy for perpetuity in eternity online on what is. Brent Lillard's digital tombstone, a tombstone that will forever be searched and seen by his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. We attempted yesterday on the show, and I think we were extremely successful with this, to also populate Brett Lillard's tombstone, his digital tombstone,

with 60 minutes of long-form content on the I Love Seville show. In fact, we offered Lillard an opportunity to close the interview yesterday with with commentary or a closing message for his grandkids as they most certainly will see the video of our interview once they're of age and able to search online once they're born and able to search online so i'm going to ask you juda wickower what struck you from the brent lillard interview there's this crossroads this dynamic between the responsibility of journalism the business of journalism how journalists covers business locally, and we can certainly tie it to Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post, the elimination of the book section, the sports section, and today's announcement that

one-third of the Washington Post staff is pink-slipped, as the third most prominent newspaper in the United States of America falls from a perch of credibility and esteem into a downward spiral of despair and unknown. My friend, the show is yours. Well, I think Brenton Liddler made a great case for his business. He showed that it was

a labor of love that he's struggled and he and his partners have built something that, as you mentioned, currently staffs 90-some-odd people. And it's

It's just a business. He's like any other business owner just trying to make ends meet for he and his people. I don't remember the part of the interview where you guys talk about him being wealthy. But the article, I don't know much about Nathan Alderman besides the fact that he like you, he calms the Democratic Party here in the area. I think what happened is he caught wind of the ice connection, decided that he had a lightning rod story to write. I think he got Brent Lillard to agree to talk to him and used quotes to legitimize his article and essentially through integrity on the editing room,

floor and you know as we've mentioned wrote a hit piece it clearly doesn't there's no there's no factual information in regarding regarding the connection to ice except for maybe the dollar amounts and and then what we see what we see on social media are people with no critical thinking skills who pile on angry because this so-called journalist knows how to use the words ice to get people ginned up. Yeah, the crossroads, I think the storyline here is pretty dynamic and fluid. And why I want to cover it today as a follow-up to the interview that we did with Brent Lillard. and we have comments on the interview.

For example, Barbara Becker-Tilly, her photo on screen, she says that Brent Lillard was humble, appreciative, and knowledgeable. Barbara Becker-Tilly says, propaganda is costly. It seems the Washington Post is learning a valuable lesson here. I think the Seville Weekly is going to learn a valuable lesson here. And I want this to be on the record for doing this. My coverage of what the Seville Weekly has done to Brent Lillard and Gov's part, is journalistic malpractice, and frankly, from my standpoint, calls for a lawsuit.

And Brent indicated in the interview yesterday that his attorneys, which he has on staff, are considering a lawsuit against the CIVO Weekly. He also seemed to indicate that he wanted to potentially give them a second chance. He's a bigger man than me. If I was the focus of that article, and I have been the focus of previous CIVO Weekly stories, I, if I was the focus like Brent was, would without question use my resources financial and legal and pursue some kind of lawsuit against the CIVO Weekly. I also want to emphasize this. If the CIVO Weekly, after I've covered this story last week and this week, chooses to pursue any kind of additional coverage against me and my firm on this I Love CIVL network, we will respond at even more efficient, aggressive,

and to the point, strategies and ways than we have ever done in the past. And yes, that is a very straightforward comment to ownership over there. I want to be extremely straightforward. It's a rag on the cusp of closing that is passing a digital hat, asking the marketplace to donate so it can keep the lights on in a newsroom that it no longer uses on the downtown. Mall. Straightforwardly, that's what's happened with the business model.

The crossroads we are at here is one where we can take a macro story and link it to a micro story. Jeff Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post, in an opportunity to caltale, some would call bootlick, Donald Trump, and his second term. changed the editorial coverage of the Washington Post. His journalist at the Post wanted to editorialize an endorsement of Kamala Harris. Jeff Bezos prevented that from happening and skewed the Washington Post news coverage to conservative leaning and Trump supporting away from the Washington Post news coverage and editorial coverage.

That was antagonistic, abrasive, and certainly, against Trump and conservatives. As a result of that journalistic pivot, that editorial pivot, the Washington Post lost hundreds of thousands of subscribers and a fall from grace that's extremely significant. And today, the Washington Post announced the layoff of a third of their staff and the shuddering, the termination of their book section, their sports section, and a dismantling of their Metro section.

Metro will still exist. It'll be a shadow of its former self. And the stories are comparable. Businessman Jeff Bezos pivots coverage to support a president and Donald Trump so Bezos can get favor from the president for his other revenue-generating businesses. Very different storyline here than locally

Civo Weekly, Blair Kelly, Bill Chapman. And to this point, I know Bill Chapman and Blair Kelly. I doubt they have any pulse of what's going on editorial-wise in their newsroom. Because if this story was presented to Chapman and Kelly, Nathan Alderman's story, linking Brent Lillard and GovSmart to Nazis, Chapman and Kelly would have prevented this story from being published. I can say that with fair confidence. I know Chapman and Kelly well.

fairly well well then why is okay but then why has the why has the story remained up on the website that's a fair question Chapman and Kelly

the revenue they earn from the Civo Weekly is peanuts versus the other businesses that are part of Bill Chapman for example the owner of the Oakhurst Inn on the Jefferson Park Avenue

I believe the owner of the little mod hotel on 14th Street as well he has a number of other businesses and ties in this community. He's involved with the code building, Bill Chapman. They are serial entrepreneurs. The revenue they're generating from a newspaper that is on the cusp of folding,

and as deep throat number one in our family called it, its sole purpose in 2026 is to wrap raw fish. As people are putting on the feed right now to line hamster and guinea pig cages for our children, okay that's not any revenue that's being generated for these owners and because of that distance of ownership because they're not generating any revenue from this and because they are serial entrepreneurs i am going to give them the benefit of the doubt that they had no idea that this was going on i did a five-figure deal with bill chapman and blair kelly with charlottesville restaurant week and selling the charlottesville restaurant week brand to chapman and blair kelly in a five-figure deal

some 12 or 13 years ago. Facts, true story, they can confirm as well. Okay? The crossroads of journalism as a business and the navigation of the business of journalism with reporting and what you're covering with your teams is one that everyone should be very mindful of. I'll give you another story.

Another example. Very close of doing a deal. in the fourth quarter of last year. This deal would have been lucrative for my firm and lucrative for my client where the local daily newspaper was going to lease a very prominent space on the downtown mall.

I'm going to speak somewhat ambiguously here, but I think you, the viewer and listener, could connect some of the dots. The local newspaper was going to lease a very prominent space of the downtown mall, and I was helping broker this arrangement. We got through the first round of approvals with the editorial staff locally saying we would love to lease here.

We got through the second round of approval with the regional management, I would probably call this middle management, vetting the space and saying we would love to rent this space. We got through the third round of approvals. Basically, you would call it Mid-Atlantic wide management, giving the green light to lease this space. And then we were heading into the fourth round of approvals.

round of final approval when C-suite decision-making was flying from Ohio, the headquarters of Lee Enterprises, to vet this space, to sign a long-term lease, and the compensation that comes for my firm for brokering this deal, and the forever gratitude and goodwill and equity built with my client, landlord, of securing a prominent business locally, signing a long-term lease in a very vacant space that's noticeable in the downtown mall. The stars were aligned. And then 12 hours before the C-suite was going to arrive in Charlestville to tour the space, the decision was made not to move forward with this lease signing

and the deal that I had been working on for 60, 90 days. Literally, to say this happened in the bottom of the ninth inning is an understatement. Okay? And why this was determined I learned down the road is that Lee Enterprises was in such financial peril, peril, that an infusion of capital after my deal splintered apart by a billionaire who owns the Pittsburgh Penguins and a number of businesses and companies across America of $50 million, saved the newspaper from shuttering, newspapers plural, and was probably an indication that this deal that I was trying to broker was not going to materialize because the money just wasn't there, the uncertainty was just so significant.

So we've seen at the micro level a business owner in Brent Lillard, whose wealthy resources and connected, has multiple businesses locally, questioned whether he'll ever advertise in the C-Vo, weekly again. And he talked about how Gracie, his jiu-jitsu studio, has done just that. And now we're

also seeing macro-wise with Jeff Bezos' paper, the Washington Post, subscribership and advertising so down because of an editorial decision he made to position from a liberal lens to a conservative lens, eroding subscribership.

So silly. So I mean, I get that people on the right want to read articles with a right-leaning slant, and people in the left want to read articles with the left-leaning slant. You would think that there would be a sizable portion of the public that finds themselves somewhere in the middle and doesn't want Nathan Alderman's liberal take on a local. business person. And he's the communications director for the Almore County Democratic Party, the individual who wrote this article. It doesn't matter. My point is that

don't people want a balanced view of things? Like, if you're going to, if you're going to crap on somebody's business, at least have the integrity to like get the other side of the story. If there, I mean, obviously this is, there's only one side of this story because this, Like I said, I don't think this guy needed the interview with Brent Lillard to write this. Oh, he's straight up saying. He cherry-picked the aspects of the interview he provided, which were paper trailed in an email. He already knew what he wanted to write. Yeah.

But with something like The Washington Post, like, it just boggles my mind that people get papers to see, to, that someone would pay for an echo chamber. Yeah. You can get all the echo chamber you want from Facebook or Reddit or Instagram. For free. You just find your niche. Your try. And you block everybody else.

I mean, if that's what you want, fine. I mean, you can get that for free. I want my newspapers and my online newspapers to give me a balanced view. And I don't just mean give me a central view. I mean, give me both sides. That's Ginny Who's comment from yesterday resonated with me, her photo on screen. Ginny Who said, this is what I love about the I Love Seville platform. It is my responsibility to be discerting and not live in an echo chamber.

Can you find false information? Sure. But I would rather that be spoon-fed one point of view over, I would rather that than one spoon-fed point of view over and over again. Yeah. That was her comment from yesterday from Ginny Who. 100%. I totally agree with Ginny Who.

I want both sides of the story so I can make a decision. That's what we try to do here on the I Love Sevo platform. It is up to you to discern what you want from this content, okay? It's up to you. My job is not journalism here. I'm offering my commentary on life and news and trying to figure out what's going on around here. And then it's up to you to determine if you take what I say is accurate or if you want to push back on it. That's completely your call.

Brent Lillard is watching the program. He says he appreciates the support. Elliot Harding communicating with Brent Lillard on the feed. Elliot Harding isn't an attorney, literally a lawyer, a UVA educated lawyer here. He says defamation. Brent Lillard should absolutely pursue that lawsuit. I mentioned this to Brent Lillard yesterday. Brent is resourced. He's financially well off. He's established. He's set. He's got revenue diversity.

Diverse revenue streams. This defamation, if you find someone locally in Charlottesville who can manage and handle this defamation, Brent Lillard's the poster boy of who can handle it. but if this had happened to somebody that was, if this had happened to Brent Lillard, 16 years ago as he was launched, Brent, this is a message to you and I know you're watching and listening to this show, sir. Brent, I want you to imagine this. If what the Seville Weekly did to you in January of 2010 as you were launching GovSmart from your kitchen, when you had to sell 10% equity of your business to your father, for $50,000 for the startup capital for what GovSmart became. If this had happened to you, the CIVO weekly coverage,

in January of 2010, you would not have launched GovSmart because of the fallout and collateral damage with this reporting. You wouldn't have been able to do it. I say this respectfully. I caution your pursuit or lack thereof of defamation. because you now today, yes, you can manage it, and it's not even going to, it's all it's going to do is create a little sweat for you.

But if this was you 15 or 16 years ago, it would have been the end of a dream. And by not pursuing something against the author and the company behind this author, you're just going to allow this to happen again. And the next time it happens to somebody, it's going to happen to the Brent Lillard, circa January 2010

instead of the Brett Lillard circa January 2026. Message for you. Very respectful message. And before we get off this, he even says it in the feed if this had happened to me in January of 2010

it would have been game over for me and my firm. And that's why Brett, you need to pursue defamation and legal action. Because of that, sir. Because it's going to happen to somebody else, and the next person it happens to is not going to be in the position you're in now. Deep throat. He says this.

So if Brett wins, he ends up with what? Owning the Seaville? It seems like for me, that would be a losing endeavor. I push back on deep throat and say this, respectfully to number one in the family. If he wins, this does not happen again to, to another individual. The win is the

move of preservation of journalistic integrity and keeping someone from being sticked in stone to death. That's why he needs to do it. Eye for an eye.

Comments continue to come in. In regards to the Washington Post story, Jeff Bezos clearly has made some mistakes with running that newspaper. But the reality is Bezos does not need the money from the Washington Post. He needs the equity in the goodwill with Donald Trump more than he needs the revenue from the Washington Post. And the equity in goodwill he established with Donald Trump is paying him in significantly more dividends than the financial losses that he's occurring at the Washington Post that are in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The only losers in the Washington Post story are the employees.

The only losers if Brent Lillard does not pursue a lawsuit of defamation against Decebo Weekly is the next person that's impacted by this. You know, what do they say is it's when elephants fight, it's the grass that suffers. When elephants fight, it's the grass that suffers. And if life truly is a fight for a knife in the mud, Brent Lillard in 20, 2026 will always win that fight for a knife in the mud. Dude's an effing badass. Jeff Bezos will always win that fight for a knife in the mud. Dude is a badass.

But you know who's not going to win that fight for the knife in the mud? And you know who's the grass that suffers? The 2010 version of Brent Lillard or the employees at the Washington Post that are now out of work. A couple of items I have to get to before a 130 meeting. And Elliot Harding says, Brent could run Seaville way better than council's running it now. I got a 1.30.

I need a table the Water Street story to tomorrow. It's shocking to me that nobody's talking about the fact that Water Street's about to be closed down briefly, and if this does materialize, water street's going to turn into a one-way road. Yeah. From 2nd Street, southeast. So essentially from the corner of the

the two parking lots all the way to the five way. I want to talk about that tomorrow. I want to talk about that tomorrow. Because that is not what the mall needs right now. Jesus. Another headwind for downtown Charlottesville? Come on. And it's livable Seville bullying this through again.

We'll talk about that on the show. We're also going to talk tomorrow on the program about the University of Virginia students, 82,000 of them applied for the class of 2030, a 27% uptick versus the class of 2029, and the class of 2029 was an all-time high. More people than ever want to go to the UVA, to UVA. And that forever is going to change

and continue changing Charlottesville and Amarro County. It's called gentrification. It's called Mommies and Daddies, Amex, Black Amex, G-Wagons, and AMGs, rolling around town and middle class and lower upper class and certainly lower class Almore County and Charlottesvillians

pinched in pressure now. Those topics and more on the water cooler of content and conversation. Shorter show today because I have a 130 we're going to be sprinting out the door. Thank you for joining us.