The budget for Charlottesville’s Human Rights Commission has increased from an actual amount of $197,436 in FY2022 to $559,185 in the fiscal year that begins on July 1.
The director of the Office of Human Rights gave a briefing to City Council on June 16 about what he and his three fellow full-time employees do to implement the direction of the Human Rights Commission.
“It is a nine member body that’s appointed by Council to address systemic issues, conduct community outreach and ultimately advise Council on issues related to human and civil rights,” said Todd Neimeier.
Resources:
- Staff report
- 2024 Charlottesville Human Rights Commission Annual Report
- Presentation for June 16, 2025 City Council meeting
Neimeier said City Code lays out six tasks for the Human Rights Commission and his office, including assisting individuals with complaints of discrimination. In 2024, the Office served 288 individuals and opened 13 complaints. He said the workload is growing.
“The work in terms of jurisdictional complaints nearly doubled, which means more investigative work, also more alternative dispute resolution work,” Neimeier said. “What I’m examining now with that is how do we structure our office going forward in the anticipation of increased workloads and personnel requirements?”
Neimeier said some of the calls they get are from Albemarle County residents, which he said could mean a need to talk to that local government to see what support they might lend.
Much of the work has to do with housing complaints. In recent years, the office has been working to become compliant with rules of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that would allow the city to do investigations on behalf of the federal government.
- Charlottesville authorizes enhanced role of Office of Human Rights in housing investigations, August 8, 2024
- Council waives rules to expedite vote on Human Rights Ordinance, January 24, 2025
Then the administration changed and no contract has been signed.
“I’ll also say that I have not heard much in response to that in the last few months,” Neimeier said. “And I know that there’s been a lot of changes at the federal level in terms of how they’re enforcing civil and human rights.”
Neiemeier said the Human Rights Commission will complete their legislative recommendations to City Council by the end of August.
According to the minutes of the May meeting of the Human Rights Commission, topics of concern included:
- How Parks and Recreation decides who gets to use what play surfaces
- The pause of a newsletter created by the Office of Human Rights
- 59 inquiries had been received through mid-May in 2025
- Delegate Katrina Callsen and Senator Creigh Deeds appeared to answer questions
The next Human Rights Commission is on July 17.
Before you go: This article from a Charlottesville City Council meeting was originally published in the June 18, 2025 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement. The usual idea is for stories to go there first before coming over to be archived. It’s very difficult to find stories online. One possibility for the future is to just publish in one place, but I’ve not figured out how to make that work yet. So, there is duplication in the work flow, but this also serves a purpose. I think. I’m procrastinating from doing the voice work for the radio and podcast versions.
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