As one of their first acts of business for 2024, the Albemarle Board of Supervisors adopted rules of procedures for the calendar year. Such changes are routine, according to County Attorney Steven Rosenberg.
“When we make changes to these documents from year to year, we are doing it largely on the basis of our experiences over the preceding year,” Rosenberg said.
Rosenberg has been the county attorney since late June 2022 when he left his previous position as the City Manager of Staunton.
Many of the changes include more clarity about how proclamations are to be handled. Another specifies that public hearings for zoning map amendments can’t be advertised before all documents are finalized. Another suggestion was to change the wording for the section that governs Matters from the Public.
“My understanding is that before I arrived, there was a considerable discussion amongst the Board members about eligible topics for matters from the public,” Rosenberg said.
The suggested change was to remove the phrase allowing anyone to speak at the general public comment persons on any “topic of interest” to any “matter on the agenda.”
Rosenberg said this change more accurately reflected a previous discussion on parameters for public comment.
Supervisor Ann Mallek said the language should be broad enough to allow people to come before the Board without worrying about being told their comment isn’t permitted.
“Comprehensive planning, planning in general, old zoning decisions, all those kinds of things, climate change,” Mallek said. “These are all items where we’ve occasionally had very effective presentation from the public and often they are actually presenting something they really hope we will work on but we haven’t yet.”
Mallek reminded the Board that a group of students from Peabody School appeared before the board frequently to push for action on climate change before the county was actively considering adopting one. She added that matters of global politics or foreign policy would not be germane.
Supervisor Mike Pruitt also had concerns about the language change.
“It seems to me like it puts the Chair in a position of actively vetting while someone is speaking about whether something is falling within the… considerable ambit of things that are before the Board or have previously been before the Board,” Pruitt said.
Supervisor Diantha McKeel said the change had been intended to limit discussions of matters to items the Board could address, including climate change.
“I agree with you that we don’t want to limit ideas and thoughts that people can bring to us,” McKeel said. “At the same time, trying to stay out of the global, political realm that is very partisan and that we have nothing to do with.”
Supervisor Jim Andrews said he was concerned about matters from the public becoming politicized in this presidential election year, but suggested the language could be adjusted.
“And I do agree that there is some way we could finesse language so that it became clear that anything that could possibly come before this board is open for public comment to this Board,” Andrews said.
Supervisor Ned Gallaway said he supported the language change and trusted Andrews’ ability to make calls from the center of the dais as the new chair. Andrews agreed, but also made a motion to move forward without the language changed.
“We have operated on the expectation that we could limit discussion if we felt that the discussion was far from germane to the actions to be taken by the Board, and that’s I think the attempt here by the county attorney to give us clarity on that,” Andrews said.
Supervisors also felt the title of the section was enough to allow the Chair to make a determination.
That title is “From the Public: Matters on the Agenda but Not Listed for Public Hearing or on Matters Previously Considered by the Board or Matters that are Pending Before the Board.”
The first speaker of 2024 was Ryan Estes.
“I’m here today to discuss foreign policy,” Estes said. “Just kidding.”
Estes really wanted to discuss U.S. mail delivery. He said Supervisors have a role to play in helping to improve service, which he said has been declining for years, affecting his relationship to his health care providers.
“The delay in getting bills from UVA, the delay in having my payments received by UVA has been really hard for me,” Estes said.
Supervisors had no response to Estes comment.
After the Board of Supervisors adopted its rules and policies for the year, County Executive Jeffrey Richardson wanted to lay out the protocol for communication with the media.
“Our [Communications and Public Engagement] division asks reporters that when they need an interview from a county employee or Board member to please contact CAPE and they’re going to coordinate that,” Richardson said. “That’s our request of the local media.”
Richardson said the idea is to prevent multiple staff members from doing the same work to coordinate information. This applies to elected Supervisors as well, who are asked to not communicate directly with members of the press.
“If it is a matter of Board business, and so if we receive it for Board items, our practice is to first connect to the Board chair, and if the Board chair isn’t available, we’ll connect to the vice chair, and if the vice chair is not available then we’re going to work down the list specifically looking for the next Supervisor, and it most likely will be based on topic and how it connects to a specific district or a Board or Commission,” Richardson said.
For instance, a topic on tourism would go to the Supervisor who sits on the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau. Richardson wanted to check in with the Board to see if they supported this approach.
Supervisors agreed to continue this approach.
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