Albemarle Supervisors to hold closed meeting to discuss security in Lane Auditorium 

The Code of Virginia allows for public bodies to exclude the public from meetings for a variety of reasons. In fact, Section § 2.2-3711 has 54 distinct reasons to allow for a closed session, but many of them pertain to a specific body such as 53 and 54 which pertain to the Virginia Lottery Board. 

The Albemarle Board of Supervisors will convene at 10 a.m. on Friday in Lane Auditorium at the county’s downtown office building. They’ll immediately go into closed session. Here’s how the agenda describes the meeting: 

“Closed meeting pursuant to section 2.2-3711(A) of the Code of Virginia under subsection (19), to discuss plans related to the security of Lane Auditorium in the County Office Building located at 401 McIntire Road, Charlottesville, Virginia, and the safety of persons using Lane Auditorium.” 

The Albemarle Communications and Public Engagement Office sent out a release on Wednesday to alert the media

As a matter of practice, I frequently respond with a question for clarity. In this case, I wanted to know if this was for a specific threat or if it was just a drill. My memory recalled that such a meeting like this was conducted in the past. 

“All the available information is in the media advisory,” wrote Abbey Stumpf, the county’s communications and public engagement director. “I don’t anticipate any action from the closed session.”

That prompted me to take a deeper look at subsection 19. Here it is in its entirety:

“19. Discussion of plans to protect public safety as it relates to terrorist activity or specific cybersecurity threats or vulnerabilities and briefings by staff members, legal counsel, or law-enforcement or emergency service officials concerning actions taken to respond to such matters or a related threat to public safety; discussion of information subject to the exclusion in subdivision 2 or 14 of § 2.2-3705.2, where discussion in an open meeting would jeopardize the safety of any person or the security of any facility, building, structure, information technology system, or software program; or discussion of reports or plans related to the security of any governmental facility, building or structure, or the safety of persons using such facility, building or structure.”

Other information outlets also picked up the story. WINA News asked an attorney they refer to as their legal analyst for his thoughts. Here’s some speculation from Scott Goodman. (read the story)

“My guess is that they have received some information about some type of threat that has been made sometime in the recent past,” Goodman said. “Or something was reported to the board about someone perhaps having a weapon inside the auditorium. So, my guess is that this is about discussion of perhaps setting up metal detectors or some other type of apparatus to ensure that no one has any weapons as they come into the auditorium, that would be my guess.”

Take a look at the notice. 

My look through agendas for the last several years show that the last time Subsection 19 was invoked was for a meeting on July 18, 2018. At that closed meeting, Supervisors also discussed the possibility of relocating the county’s courts out of downtown Charlottesville. 

Flash forward to now when the city and Albemarle have both ended up working together to build a joint General District Courthouse. Ground was broken on June 7, 2023 as I reported at the time. 

Before you go: Every now and then, an article will be posted here on Information Charlottesville first before it gets sent out in the Charlottesville Community Engagement newsletter. This one will go out in the February16, 2024 but I felt it was important to get the story out more quickly. Please consider a paid subscription to the newsletter to ensure this coverage continues into the future.