Official Correspondence. Monday May 1, 2017.

Thank you for applying to the Council Elections Task Force created April 5, 2004 after midnight in a 3-1-1 City Council vote. The formal report is presented and ridiculed January 3, 2005. City Council took no action and shelved the report. After 4 attempts to modernize the precincts in the same decade, a single precinct was added after the 2010 census as if no history went before.

Following a Dec. 7, 1920 referendum/ ballot initiative, the current system was adopted in 1924, same year the Robert E. Lee statue was erected. The segregationist At-Large system consists of only one representative body, 5 mayors (called councilors) elected by the whole City, and actual mayor called City Manager appointed by the 5-mayors. The Commission form of government was adopted explicitly to shut out minorites. Another black Councilor would not be elected until 1970 to represent the white majority.

(a) "City to revisit election precincts" Sep. 23, 2008 has a timeline and links to related articles.
(b) Includes my letter "Interest in mayor system ignored," printed. August 30 2004.
(c) Final Report by Sean O'brien Jan.3, 2005.

Councilor Kendra HAMILTON: Mumbles "Let's get it out of the way" as task force chairman readies to deliver the report. [...]

HAMILTON: "One final thing is that the voice of the people has been ringing my line. And the people that I have been hearing from, 90% of whom are African-American, have been urging us to keep things as they are. So you're evidently talking to different people, Mr. Schilling."

SCHILLING: "Yes, I evidently am."

I applied for the last appointed school board in Charlottesville in 2005. At the final public interview June 23, same day of the Supreme Court opinion on Kelo that expanded circumstances where stealing is legal. There was a backlash nationwide, which led to 2007 statute and 2012 Property Amendment to Virginia's Constitution. Officers of the court are required to take an oath pledging to disobey the judge if the officer personally thinks that the Constitution was not followed. Public Use is the only Constitutional exception for Due Process. So there's been widespread stealing of real estate by government officials at least since 1954 when the Supreme Court made the same ruling, that neither public use nor due process is required to take property.

Letter to League of Women Voters. (a) Universal Free Lunch. (b) More Writing. (c) Every class is a vocational class.

Application

On Nov. 21, 2005 City Council voted 4 to 1 to expand its urban renewal powers. Of course I wrote a letter and launched Blair's Blog. Virginia Senate stripped out the eminent domain language, leaving the "Homeowner Tax Relief Grant Program" on tonight's Council agenda. The House of Delegates did not make the changes, despite David Toscano's claim. Cville Weekly reported that a state senator [Emmett W. Hanger Jr., R–Mount Solon] called Charlottesville a "hotbed of liberalism." But the weekly omitted the reason... Council's bill to expand urban renewal. The amendment calls it "community development."

Senator Creigh Deeds wrote me a thank you letter but Toscano did not. Deeds claims, "Condemnation language was specifically excluded from the amendment." Not True! Condemnation = Eminent Domain = Public Use. These 3 words have the same legal definition. Section 12 of the actual amendment states Public Use applies to the entire amendment.

Letter Opposing Charlottesville's Affordable Housing Amendment Jan. 5, 2006.

Sec. 50.7 City Charter Amendment of 11 New Urban Renewal Powers.

A Daily Progress story appeared the morning before the vote Nov. 21. Readers did not learn anything else about the Amendment until almost 2 months later when it was blocked in the Virginia Senate. Both Deeds and Toscano, and Councilor Blake Caravati, claim the bill never intended eminent domain though clearly stated. I was at City Council that night for the vote that converted the Appointed (4 wards, 3 at-large) to Elected (7 at-large) School Board after Councilor Rob Schilling's ballot intitiave forced Council to make the change. (Update May 13, 2017.)

Later in 2006 Councilor (one of the 5 mayors) Kevin Lynch and Blogger Waldo Jaquith led a McCarthy campaign to have Patrick Michaels dismissed as Virginia Climatologist. The reason for dismissal kept changing. Being paid for research calls your integrity into question. Oh, unless it's taxpayer funded research. Besides, the At-Large principle should apply in science as well. So experts must always agree with the population majority.

Michaels agreed on every point of man-made global warming EXCEPT hysteria. A year after the shameful drama, Michaels did retire. The Daily Progress reported Michaels' role "came to a quiet end this summer" with no mention of what had been noisy. (Va. Climatologist Michaels resigns year after ouster attempt, Sep. 26, 2007.)

Waldo Jaquith– Jack, the person who posted that is Blair. He’s the sketchy, unshaven, wild-eyed guy who used to stand outside of Council chambers after meetings and push copies of his mimeographed conspiracy theory sheet, “The Witness Report,” accusing Councilors of working with the Illuminati to take away private property rights to give them to the space aliens.

Application for seat on CRHA commission due October 15, 2013.

As of last night’s City Council meeting Oct. 21, the appointment has not been made. But the Human Rights Commission’s 11 members were appointed. WCHV’s Joe Thomas said on his radio show he applied for this commission and was told the appointments would be made in November. [...]

• Qualifications. Honest and knowledgeable of Housing Authority and its history. 13 years writing, researching, reporting and publishing stories about the Housing Authority and City Council. Effective communicator with many letters to the editor and appearances on local talk radio. I’m the person who recorded the 2000 to 2013 history of urban renewal in Charlottesville as it unfolded.
• Experience. Former resident of three local public housing complexes. My family integrated Westhaven when I was in 5th grade. Moved away 6 months later because it was too dangerous. Kids were being attacked while playing in the front yard. While in high school, we moved to Garrett Square and South First Street apartments.
• Primary Goal. I will advocate the publication of the full housing archives consisting of 6,845 documents, 1,189 photographs, and 189 maps and blueprints. Account for what’s missing from the archives by cross-referencing courthouse deeds.

  The City has been stonewalling since my first request to view the archives on March 25, 2004. City Council refused to release the archives officially on November 20, 2006. In February 2007 the assistant city manager Rochelle Small-Toney allowed me to view a notebook of 152 pages containing 287 images after claiming I already had access to the full archives in two previous meetings where a handful of photos were presented in isolation. That same month UVA historian Scot French and the Carter G. Woodson Institute promised to publish the full archives but only created a website about Vinegar Hill. [...]

In E-mail response to a Dec. 13 phone call for the status of my application hand-delivered Oct. 14 with an Oct. 15 deadline, Clerk of Council Paige Rice finally informed applicants if they were appointed or not. [...]

Dear Mr. Hawkins,

It was good speaking with you this afternoon. Thank you very much for your interest in serving on the CRHA Board. The opening on the CRHA Board was for a resident position, and you must be a resident in public housing in order to hold that particular seat. As such, I regret to inform you that Council was not able to appoint you at this time.

I encourage you to reapply for future openings; I will keep your application on file for a period of one year. If you are interested in applying for another board during that time period, please contact me at 970-3113 or clerk@charlottesville.org, and I will resubmit your application. Again, thank you for your interest and your willingness to serve. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Blair Hawkins | Charlottesville, Virginia | healingcharlottesville@yahoo.com | Résumé | Top