Board of Supervisors Adjourned Meeting   8/6/2020

for our August 6, 2020 6 p.m.

meeting.

This meeting is being held pursuant to and in compliance with ordinance number 20-A8, an ordinance to ensure the continuity of government during the COVID-19 disaster.

The supervisors who are electronically present at this meeting are supervisor Diantha McKeel of the Jack Jouett district, supervisor Ann Mallek of the White Hall district is logging in due to the storm.

She's been having some issues getting in, but she is joining the meeting.

Supervisor Donna Price of the Scottsville District, Supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley of the Rivanna District, Supervisor Liz Palmer of the Samuel Miller District, and myself, Supervisor Ned Gallaway of the Rio District.

The persons responsible for receiving public comment are the Board of Supervisors of Albemarle County.

The opportunities for the public to access and participate in the electronic meeting are posted on the Albemarle County website, on the Board of Supervisors homepage, and on the Albemarle County calendar.

Also with us this evening, our County Executive, Mr. Jeff Richardson, our County Attorney, Mr. Greg Campner, and our Board Clerk, Claudette Borgeson.

Other staff, as they participate in the meeting, will introduce themselves as appropriate.

We do apologize for the late start.

Like I said, we had some connectivity issues for those joining, so we were taking some time to get them online.

At this time, so I appreciate everyone's patience, I do note that since there is some still we're all in places where the storm still could impact our ability that if for some reason a supervisor loses power or connectivity we will immediately dial back in to participate so that we'll continue the meeting will be able to continue.

And at this time, the way this evening will go, we'll have a short presentation this evening.

And then upon the if there's any questions or items that the supervisors wish to ask, we'll do so after the presentation.

And then we will move to our speakers to hear from the public.

And then we'll follow up after the speaking with possible action.

Mr. Chair, thank you for the opportunity to be here this evening.

And I do have staff who I believe are lined up and on tonight's call.

I'm sorry I'm not able to see everyone.

I believe Siri Russell, our Director of Equity and Inclusion.

She is starting a presentation.

And with that, may I please turn everything over to Siri Russell.

Thank you.

Good evening, thank you.

Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board, Greg Kantner, county attorney, as the board is aware, tonight is the public hearing on the board's decision on whether to remove, relocate, contextualize, or cover the monuments in the county portion of Port Square Park.

Thank you, Greg.

So I am Siri Russell, Director of the County's Office of Equity and Inclusion.

Thank you for allowing me to be here today.

Going to give a really quick overview of the engagement process that brought us here tonight.

We're gonna talk about how following board direction on January 8th of this year, we launched Let's Talk Albemarle Court Square, an engagement initiative to create a community conversation on the Court Square Properties public space, where we engaged residents of the dialogue around shared history and public values.

We began in February of this year, and after four live engagement opportunities, paused for COVID before continuing on this summer.

This slide provides an overview of the many efforts that went on to engage the community in this conversation, including listening sessions, Court Square tours, both in person and virtual, panel discussions, an engagement hub, and considerable outreach efforts.

I also want to take a moment to note the many, many participants in making all of this happen.

including leadership from our Communications and Public Engagement Office and the support of many community partners.

We want to say thank you for that.

We asked our community to reflect on its values and the meaning and function of public space at Court Square.

We heard a lot back from a lot of people and a group comprised of county staff, members of the Historic Preservation Committee, and

County residents who had previously engaged with the Office of Equity and Inclusion on initiatives met to synthesize and absorb all of the feedback that we heard.

Thanks, Siri, and thank you to the Board of Supervisors.

As Sirius mentioned, as a result of these events and engagement opportunities, almost 26,000 words were submitted by community members to convey their thoughts and feelings on the Court Square property.

The small group reviewed these and we developed five common themes as seen on this slide.

I'll go into more detail around these themes on the next slides.

These slides also contain correct examples of quotes from community members.

Next slide.

My first commonly heard theme was that of history and heritage.

This was one of the most notable themes and the importance of Court Square as a historical site was frequently expressed.

Court Square was described as a space for education and preservation of history.

While there were some diverging opinions, overwhelmingly the public stressed the importance that Court Square tells an accurate and inclusive historical narrative.

It was noted that the stories told through existing markers and memorials, deliberate or cohesive story of history, that it was disjointed and needed a more balanced historical narrative.

Next slide.

Next slide.

The idea of community and community values was also very prevalent in the engagement around Court Square.

There was a strong sense that Court Square should be designed for the community, a reflection of its values, a place to gather, and a site with a responsibility of justice for all.

Specific suggestions to make the space more community-oriented included use of green space, installing more seating area, and to provide more of a direct connection to justice in our community.

Justice and inclusion was another commonly heard theme.

Many comments asserted that Court Square must reflect the community's values, specifically around inclusion and justice.

Community members suggested that the current state was not inclusive and did not reflect ideas of justice, bringing that to the presence of the at-ready monument.

Several noted that the presence of At Ready does not represent the community's values of equity and justice and placement at the entryway to the courthouse as inappropriate.

Next.

Safety and a sense of welcome were themes frequently mentioned and commonly tied together.

We heard that Court Square space should be safe and welcoming for all members of the community.

Next.

The final theme is one of cohesion and connection.

A point clear in every discussion and engagement opportunity was the sense of a collective history and experience in our community as it relates to Court Square.

Though this engagement process was aimed towards Albemarle County, there was much mention of the broader community's understanding of Court Square as a shared space regardless of jurisdictional boundaries.

Federal community members expressed a strong interest in seeing the city and the county consider the entire downtown courts district as one cohesive space.

This concludes the summary of the main community themes around Court Square.

Thank you.

Ford, any questions here?

I can go through quickly in regard to the presentation.

I don't have any questions.

I would like to just thank Siri and the team for the packet that we received that contained all the comments.

That was really very helpful.

We've got a staff member that's working with her right now to get her in the right place.

I apologize.

We have her on soon.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you Chair Galloway, Ms.

Russell, thank you very much for your presentation.

It really was informative for me as I watched the recorded community interaction.

and I appreciate the information that you have provided to us.

I think it really helps put the totality of what we are dealing with in context, which is that this is much more than just the statue, two cannons and two cannonballs.

It's the entire area that we need to look at.

Yes, I want to thank Ms.

Russell and Ms.

Russell.

Doing all of this work and getting the input from the community, that's very important.

Thank you very much for having these and doing the work that you did.

No other questions.

I have no questions and I agree with what's been said so far, so I'm fine for now.

Very good.

I too am appreciative of all those who participated from the community to voice their, to participate and so that we know where they stood on this and all the input that they provided.

And let me just do one more check-in.

Is Supervisor Mallek available for speaking yet?

All right.

Jeff, is it reasonable for us to go to Mr. Campner for consideration of the resolution or what the resolution states or talk about that?

Yes sir, I believe it is.

There may be some questions around the resolution itself.

I don't know if that's something Mr. Campner you're able to put on screen or not.

Otherwise, we all have it, so we can put it up and have it in front of us if we need to ask questions.

So I know that while they're bringing the actual resolution up for view, I know that each of the supervisors has had a chance to read the resolution.

I'll just go through real fast the speaking order to see if there are any questions about the resolution.

I am fine right now as well.

Okay, could you scroll down just a little bit?

I have one question that's I think a small question, but

in the portion that says after that we're, okay, so be it for the result that any statement of interest in the memorial from a museum, historical society, government, or military battlefield must be received by the county no later than September 5th, 2020, if sent by email, postmarked, da da da da da.

After that one month period, it says that it will be the, let me get the wording here because I'm not seeing it right there.

that it will continue for some period to be considered applications.

Oh, I'm sorry.

That we will have the sole control over what happens to it after that one month period.

And what I was wanted to ask Mr. Campner is, and the rest of the board, would it be appropriate to have something in there as an indication to the public that we would still take

requests if nothing has been done in that one month that we would still take requests for a specific period of time just to let the public know that we're not closing the door to it going to a historical society, government, or militia after that one month period.

I know it would have to be a finite

period, but I thought that that, I think that if there is somebody trying to organize a place for the statute to go, that might not be able to be done in short order.

So just as a signal to the community that we're not closing the door at that point in time.

And that was my question to

Mr. Campner.

And there may be a good reason why we wouldn't even want to do that.

There's nothing in the resolution right now that limits the board in any way.

So it's really the message that comes out after, really after that 30-day period.

So the two paragraphs that are shown on the screen right now, one is

the top one that deals with requiring those particular organizations to show interest.

That's to meet the minimum requirements of the statute.

And the last paragraph is the portion that pertains to the board exercising its sole discretion.

That was also pulled out from the statute.

But there's nothing

What you're suggesting is fine.

I was just thinking about interpretation by the public and just signaling that we're open more broadly to discussion.

for some period of time after that one month.

And the way I read it was that, you know, after that one month, it, you know, then we would, of course, we're deciding even prior to that, but it was, it's a communication issue that I'm having.

I believe the resolution is adequate as it is written in the timing.

It doesn't preclude the board rendering a different decision after September 6th if the decision is to remove it and none of the qualifying organizations have met the requirement.

Yeah, I agree with Supervisor Price.

I'm of the mind that if we don't hear anything in the first 30 days, because the idea is that you hear that you chart and log the interest.

It doesn't have to be locked and loaded by the time it's there.

I mean, you can work out logistics after the 30 days.

It's the 30 days.

But if you've got 30 days and we haven't heard interest, then I'd be shocked if it came in 60 days or 90 days later.

I am satisfied as well.

Supervisor Malek, I'll do a check in with you.

Yes, I can hear.

Thank you, Chair Galloway.

During public hearings, the public will acknowledge, the board will acknowledge speakers addressing the item listed for public hearing.

Speakers are limited to one appearance of three minutes per public hearing item.

And as Chair Galloway just indicated, the clerk's office will identify each speaker.

Timekeeping is conducted through a timer.

The timer will commence when you begin speaking, and this begins your allotted time.

You will be notified when the three minutes are up and you are requested to bring your comments to a close as your microphone will be muted after about five more seconds.

In order to give all speakers equal treatment and courtesy, the board requests that speakers adhere to the following guidelines.

When called to address the board, please state your name and if you live in Albemarle County, your magisterial district.

Address your comments directly to the board as a whole.

If you have written statements or others supporting material, you may email them to the clerk to be included in the record.

If you represent a group or organization, you may identify the group to be recognized.

If you exceed your allotted time, as indicated, you will be asked to end your comments and the microphone will then be muted.

If a speaker does not use all allocated time, the unused time may not be shared with another speaker.

Speakers are permitted one opportunity to comment during each of the public comment periods per meeting.

Back and forth debate is prohibited.

You are reminded that all comments are live streamed, recorded, and published on the Albemarle County website.

If you are participating via Zoom, we ask that you mute your microphone until called.

And if you are participating by telephone, please dial star nine to be included.

Thank you, Chair Galloway.

Hey, good evening.

Yes, sir.

Great.

Thanks for having me on.

I'm Alex Torrell.

I'm the Conservation Program Director at the League of Conservation Voters.

We're a national environmental nonprofit organization.

My family and I live in Charlottesville, and I'm speaking on behalf of the League of Conservation Voters members in Albemarle County and the city of Charlottesville.

So why is somebody from an environmental organization speaking to you today?

The League of Conservation Voters works to protect public lands and parks and make nature more accessible for all people in this country.

But recent events have highlighted that while parks and public spaces may be accessible for many folks, it doesn't mean those spaces are safe and inclusive for all.

from a white woman calling the police on a black bird watcher named Christian Cooper in New York's Central Park to peaceful demonstrators, many of whom were people of color, exercising their First Amendment rights, being tear-gassed in Lafayette Park outside the White House, we continue to see videos of black people and other people of color being made to feel unsafe and unwelcome in the outdoors and public spaces.

That feeling of safety and inclusion is something that I as a white person take for granted in our public spaces, but all people have a right to it.

Which brings me to the subject of today's meeting.

The Johnny Reb statue, the cannons and the cannonballs collectively celebrate people who fought to keep black people enslaved.

They are monuments to racism and white supremacy and their function is to intimidate black people.

There's simply no way that courtsware can be an inclusive and welcoming park and public space for all people in this community, not to mention the site of a courthouse where justice is supposed to be delivered equally, so long as those offensive statues are present.

So on behalf of the League of Conservation Voters and our members in the county and the city, we strongly urge the Board of Supervisors to remove them immediately.

Thanks very much.

Good evening.

Wonderful.

Good evening, Chair Galloway, Board of Supervisors.

My name is Leslie Middleton.

I live at 374 Shepherdsford Circle, which is in the Rio district.

I want to thank the board for supporting a community engagement process that has been open, transparent, and inclusive, and educational.

I also want to thank the board for returning to the issue of the Court Square statue, etc., in such a timely manner, and for scheduling this hearing as soon as practical after July 1st.

It is well documented that this statue was erected with the intention of intimidation of African Americans during the Jim Crow era, a time rampant with promotion of the false narrative of the lost cause.

Its placement at the entrance of the halls of justice is beyond mere pouring of salt on wounds.

It is unconscionable.

It is difficult, if not impossible, for our community to envision what the county-owned public space around the statue should be while the Johnny Rebb statue remains in place.

With the design of renovations of the courthouse about to commence, this is a perfect time to start over, to start with a blank slate, not with a 29-foot marker that was designed and installed to intimidate, watching over everything.

I urge the board to make the decision tonight to remove the at-ready Johnny Rebb statue now, as per the resolution before you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I am, thank you.

I'm Frank Dukes.

I am in the Rio district and thank you Chair Galloway and board members and neighbors.

I thank you for taking on the issue that would have been very easy to avoid.

There could be a lot of reasons not to be able to address this right now.

We know that removing the statue is not going to end the lingering effects of white supremacy and racism, but we know that it is a step that you can actually take.

My concern has to do, one, I support your resolution strongly, and I please ask you not to let it go to a location

where it can regenerate the same intimidation.

As we know, this is happening in other places around the country with people putting them on private property, Confederate flags and so forth.

As you know, I'm just reminding that you get to decide where it goes.

Please consider the impact on other people as you remove it.

Thank you, sir.

Good evening.

Yes, my name is Kristin Sakas.

I live in Charlottesville, and I served for eight years on the Charlottesville City Council through 2017.

On February 6, 2017, after a year and a half of deliberation and public engagement, the Charlottesville Council voted to remove the statue of Robert E. Lee and renamed Lee Park

That summer we voted to remove the statue of Stonewall Jackson as well.

These two statues, along with the Confederate soldier who guards the entrance of the Albemarle County Courthouse and whose fate you are considering tonight, are part of a false narrative of history that has no place in our community today.

It was put forth as the South was tearing down the civil rights provisions of Reconstruction and reestablishing white supremacy in all its institutions.

That false narrative reinforced the message that black residents in the former Confederacy should not expect equality at the polling place or the workplace or the marketplace and certainly not in the courthouse.

You have, I'm sure, been told that these statues represent our community's history and that without them we could forget that history.

But these are not historical memory aids.

They were erected as propaganda to a lost cause.

And they are still propaganda, sending the clear message that the Confederacy and the cause it fought for are revered here.

We know that is not true today.

It never was.

The Confederate soldier in front of the courthouse was not intended to speak for the black residents of Charlottesville, who were a majority of the county's population when it was installed, nor did it represent the thousands of Albemarle County residents who supported the Union cause.

Today, Americans of all races are coming to understand the real history of these Confederate statues and the message they continue to convey today.

That message is nowhere more clear

than for these statues in front of county courthouses, clear to every black defendant who must pass them on the way into court.

This space is preserved for the Confederate cause.

You will find no justice here.

I want to thank the members of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors for their commitment to telling the true story of this community through the removal of the Confederate soldier.

It shouldn't take extraordinary courage to tell the truth, but I know that it does, and I'm grateful that you have it.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm here.

Chairman Galloway and members of the board, thank you so much for being courageous enough to bring forward this issue at this time.

My name is Linda Dukes and I live in the Rio district.

I've lived in Albemarle County for 37 years.

I support removing both the Johnny Webb statue and the cannon flanking it.

At the time of the Civil War, over half the residents in Albemarle County were African Americans who were oppressed by the military forces represented by this statue.

For over 100 years it has stood in front of the courthouse signaling that black residents are not valued as highly as white residents in our justice system.

That is not the message that I as a white person want expressed, especially in the 21st century.

Removing the statue is one small step we can take towards justice.

We have a lot more work to do, but this is a start.

Thank you.

Hi, this is Tracy Hopper.

First, thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening and thank you for your hard work during this process.

I've lived in Charlottesville since 1984.

over 15 years in Albemarle and then over 15 years in the city.

And now I live in the city of Charlottesville, but I've practiced law in both Albemarle and Charlottesville since 1996.

And I wanted to share with you that when I walked to the Albemarle Circuit Court with a client, especially a client who is a person of color for a court proceeding,

It is remarkably uncomfortable and embarrassing when we're immediately confronted with a looming Confederate soldier with artillery at his feet and whose pedestal has a Confederate flag front and center.

As has been stated by prior speakers, the clear message this gives explicitly as well as implicitly is that the Confederate South, with its veneration of chattel slavery,

with its values of bigotry and racism are still in control and alive and well in Albemarle County.

I know that's not the message that we want to communicate to people looking for justice and our citizens.

It interferes with the notion of a fair and neutral judge.

and it interferes with the values espoused by our U.S.

and our Virginia constitutions that all persons are entitled to equal justice and equal treatment under the law.

These symbols of racism and bigotry are an assault and an embarrassment.

They're unfair to my clients, to other parties before the court, to lawyers, to judges, to you and to our community at large.

and I ask that you please make this right and clean up the mess made by your Jim Crow era predecessors and remove the Johnny Rebs statue, its pedestal, the Confederate cannons and cannonballs from in front of the circuit court and relocate them to a Confederate cemetery, museum or smelting furnace.

Thank you.

Hi my name is Brian Slaughter.

I am the current president of the Charlottesville Albemarle Bar Association.

Today the association held a vote regarding a resolution supporting removal of the memorial which passed overwhelmingly and I would like to read that resolution into the record.

the Charlottesville Albemarle Bar Association resolution regarding the Confederate Memorial on the grounds of the Albemarle County Circuit Court, August 6, 2020.

Whereas the Charlottesville Albemarle Bar Association and its more than 400 members are keenly interested in the administration of justice in our community.

And whereas a Confederate Memorial sometimes referred to as the Johnny Reb statue,

sits on the grounds of the Albemarle County Courthouse facing southward towards the street and whereas the memorial consists of a bronze statue of a Confederate soldier upon a pedestal with a carving of the Confederate flag on the south face of the pedestal and is flanked by two cannons with a pyramid of cannon balls in between and whereas the memorial sits between the primary entrance of the courthouse and the street

immediately adjacent to the primary sidewalk leading to the courthouse entrance, and whereas it is a core concept of our justice system that each person is equal before the law, and whereas it is critical to the administration of justice that persons coming before our courts believe that they are equally welcome and will be treated equally.

and whereas the association understands that the memorial presents an imposing and deeply troubling symbol to many who work in and access our courts and whereas the association therefore believes that the memorial's presence on the courthouse grounds conflicts with the promise of equality under the law.

Therefore, be it resolved that the Charlottesville Albemarle Bar Association supports the removal of the Confederate Memorial, also known as the Johnny Reb statue, from the grounds of the Albemarle County Courthouse.

Thank you.

Thank you.

One second.

We'll come back to David White in just a moment.

Moving on.

We have Bruce Williamson.

Thank you.

Thank you very much members of the board.

This is Bruce Williamson.

I'm a resident of the city of Charlottesville, a former president of the Charlottesville Albemarle Bar Association.

and I appreciate the opportunity to address the board tonight very much and I commend the board, as others have, for its very speedy action on this issue once permissible by law.

The Johnny Repp statue sends the message that others have described, but it sent a second message, not to the black community, but to the white community.

And the message was, we are in charge.

This is our place.

and don't worry about it, you know, if you're white, you're doing okay here.

Both of those messages, of course, are destructive, the message that's sent to the black community even more so.

But sowing the seeds of confidence in your superiority is something that takes a lot of overcoming, as we've seen in recent days and we'll see into the future.

The bar, the political statement and that pernicious political statement and message from the statute has never had a place at the entrance to the courts of justice.

It did when the courts of justice, I suppose, it actually reflected the situation when the courts were unequal, but we're past that.

And so the time has long since come for Johnny Reb to be retired

someplace else other than there, someplace where hopefully, as I think Mr. Dukes mentioned, where the general public can't see him by driving by a street.

So I urge the board to proceed and to adopt this motion.

Thank you.

Awesome.

My name is Ramona Martinez.

I live in the Jack Jouett district in Albemarle County.

I want to thank the Board of Supervisors for taking up this issue so quickly after the law was passed.

I believe Albemarle is one of the first counties in Virginia to do so and for that I'd like to express my appreciation.

My father is a proud Texan, and he comes from a long line of Texans.

He's Tejano, which means a Mexican-American Texan, and our family has lived in that part of the South since before Texas was Texas.

And I mention this because even though Texas was a part of the Confederacy, to argue that Confederate statues represent the South or Southern culture is a lie.

And even though the South was briefly controlled by this government founded on white supremacy, that is only four years of a much longer history and a much larger culture.

Because Southern culture to me is Mexican.

It is black, it is indigenous, it is Blair Mountain, and it is Selma.

And it is all the people in Charlottesville and Albemarle who have been told that they are violating the norms of civility by refusing to let southern culture mean white culture.

Albemarle County has an opportunity to set the record straight on this account because removing these statues is not removing history or Southern culture.

It is an acknowledgement that one group of people does not have claim on the land that was never theirs to begin with.

The South belongs to all of us and removing this statue is one small step towards the acknowledgement of that truth.

Hi, Callie Gaston here.

So first, my thanks to the Board of Supervisors for the opportunity to speak and for the alacrity with which you've taken this on.

I'm deeply grateful.

I'm afraid I'm just going to be redundant, but I'm going to say what I need to say because really we all just need to keep hearing it until things change.

So Jennifer McClellan, who is a lawyer and for 14 years has served in the State Senate and is now running for governor, describes the message of the Confederate statues in the Seville as life, liberty, and justice for all doesn't mean you.

The committee to erect Johnny Reb was formed in 1899, one year after the lynching of John Henry James, and the chair of the committee was the prosecutor who chose not to prosecute any member of the lynching mob.

There is a message in this.

Black people aren't safe in Albemarle County.

The statue was installed in 1909 on the anniversary of the founding of the Monticello Guard, which was a slave patrol, another echo of the racist message of that statue.

The message loud and clear from the beginning is that black people who want justice in Albemarle County won't be getting it.

This is immoral, illegal, and wrong.

Please remove the at-ready statue as soon as possible.

Thank you.

Thank you.

My name is Seth Ragosta.

I'm a resident of the Samuel Miller district, and I'm a shareholder at Flora Pettit, a law firm in the city.

I practice family law and civil litigation.

I've been a resident of our community off and on in various ways since 1999.

I graduated from UVA undergrad.

I graduated from UVA law.

and I would like to thank the Board of Supervisors, all of you for, as others have said, for picking this up, picking this up quickly and leading our Commonwealth in addressing these issues under the new law that was secured by the new legislature.

Others have made the points about the history and the social connections to white supremacy and a false historical narrative that this statue represents.

What I'd like to share with you is my experience as a litigator and as a family law attorney and a civil litigator.

Other than my colleagues who appear on criminal matters, I'm in court as much as most anyone, and particularly in the circuit courtroom.

When we go in, we're not paying attention to the symbols.

We're focused on the table.

We're focused on the arguments, the binders we have.

And my clients are focused on their testimony, maybe the money that they've had to pay me.

And then we go into a hearing, and a hearing on something that is often very, very precious to my clients.

It could just be money, but it may be custody of their children.

And sometimes, despite my very best efforts, I lose, and my clients lose.

And when my clients lose,

they question.

They question justice and they question our community and they question the systems that have been put in place.

And in Albemarle, there is no space to debrief and process those results in the courthouse.

What happens is you step outside and you step outside to the steps of the courthouse and to the courtyard of the courthouse, which is a beautiful space aesthetically.

And then you look up and you see Johnny Reb,

A statue representing men who fought to break this country to keep black people enslaved.

When a judge is asked to recuse themselves, meaning to step down and not hear a case, the standard of whether that should happen is whether the judge's impartiality might be reasonably questioned and whether the public would be left with a perception of fairness that results in confidence in the integrity of the judiciary.

When my clients stand looking up at that statue, having lost, having dealt with the consequences of justice, and wonder about that question, this statue does not tell them that there was integrity in our process, that there was justice in our process, or that there was impartiality, particularly my black clients.

Thank you for your comments.

Hello, can you hear me now?

Sorry about that.

Good evening, thank you.

My name is Ken Horn and I live in the Jack Jouett District.

I will be reading a statement from Indivisible Charlottesville, a progressive advocacy organization whose participants include more than 1,200 residents of Albemarle County.

The issues of racial justice and Confederate monuments still standing in the year 2020 are ones that we take seriously.

Indivisible urges the Board of Supervisors to remove the Johnny Reb statue from Court Square.

The time has come to speak the truth about the towering, at-ready statue and name it for what it actually is, a white supremacist hate symbol that has no business in public space.

It was placed in its prominent location in 1909 during Jim Crow to intimidate African Americans and assert white dominance forever.

The county has allowed it to remain standing for over 100 years, and this shame must come to an end.

The danger of a statue like this is that

Its presence becomes normal.

Every day, adults and children pass by the court square and see a statue upholding white supremacy and celebrating the enslavement of black people.

This is not an innocuous backdrop to daily life, let alone a monument to heroism.

Albemarle should be better than this.

We cannot allow another generation of young people to grow up amid such symbols of inequality and racial terror elevated in the public square.

One reason why we are seeing such increases in racial violence is that too few of us, especially too few comfortable white people, have stood up to demand justice.

White supremacy is not for black people to undo.

White supremacy is the work of white people and white people must do their part to dismantle it.

These Confederate statues are symbols of Jim Crow violence and oppression and taking them down will symbolize that we are beginning the process of dismantling that oppression.

These statues must come down so that we can move on to the deeper work of addressing structural racism, criminal justice reform, voting rights, and affordable housing.

Removing Johnny Reb is not just the morally right thing to do, but it should actually stir something deep within you, the members of the Board of Supervisors.

It should make you proud to have the privilege to use your power to right the wrongs of the past and send a clear message honoring the dignity and worth of African Americans in our community and re-envision a court square that's more welcoming and inclusive.

Please vote to take down the Confederate statues at Court Square and help move our county and our country forward.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Matthew Christensen and I'm in the Rio district.

In May 1909, a statue of a Confederate soldier was installed in front of the Albemarle County Courthouse.

UVA and Charlottesville businesses closed for this large event in which UVA students joined a parade of 1,000 school children singing Dixie and carrying Confederate flags.

The white supremacist values guarded by Johnny Reb were expressed during the statue's unveiling when a speech by a Confederate veteran praised the Confederacy as a righteous cause and bemoaned Reconstruction as an expansion of a worse slavery.

that of whites under black rule.

Echoes of the specious claim of white victimization reverberated again three years ago next week in the alt-right slogan, you will not replace us.

The 1909 speaker's proposed solution to the alleged tyranny of a black majority was the imposition of an iron-fisted law and restraint, which became codified in Jim Crow segregation laws.

Confederate symbols are not neutral historical objects.

They represent a heritage of hate.

Here in our community, violent mobs of white supremacists rallied on the state's purpose of defending these Confederate statues.

Long before and after the Unite the Right rally of 2017, the alt-right's ideal white ethnostate, the Confederate States of America,

has been defended by Johnny Rebbe from the lawn of the courthouse where equal justice under the rule of law is supposed to operate according to the U.S.

Constitution, which the Confederacy sought to destroy.

In 2015, Judge Martin Clark Jr.

of Martinsville removed a portrait of General Jeb Stuart from the courthouse because, quote, the courtroom should be a place every litigant and spectator finds fair and utterly neutral.

It is past time to remove this 109-year-old hateful relic from our public space.

I want to add I have a master's in social work with a clinical track and I wanted to say a quick moment on trauma.

I was reminded today of the trauma that I experienced on August 12th under the shadow of that statue.

I was reminded of the people that I sat with and the hands that I held

during the trial of James Fields.

And I'm reminded of how I feel every single time I walk past the county courthouse and I see these statues shadowing over what should be a place of justice.

I cannot imagine what it must feel like

for someone who is not as white as I am.

Please remove them.

Thank you.

Great, thank you.

My name is Mary Bauer.

I used to serve as the executive director of the Legal Aid Justice Center, but I am here tonight in my current personal capacity as a civil rights lawyer residing in the city of Charlottesville.

So many people this evening have spoken about the message that is sent to people of color who come to the courthouse seeking or hoping for justice.

The Johnny Rebs statue is a symbol of the great cause of the Confederacy, and that was slavery.

As such, it sends a powerful message that justice exists in this courthouse and in its community only for some people.

That message is a more than sufficient reason to get rid of this statute, which does not belong a government property that particularly does not belong anywhere near our courthouses.

A monument to white supremacy has no place in our public square.

In addition to the offensive and unwelcoming message that the monument sends to litigants coming before it, I would also suggest that its presence demeans all of us who participate in the system of justice in this community.

It demeans us and it offends us all and it negates the work that so many of us do serving as part of a system of justice.

and working for a better and a more just world.

All of us in this community deserve better than this.

Please take a sledgehammer to this statue.

Take it down.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Mark Beliles.

Thank you for Chairman Galloway and the board for this meeting.

I live in the Rio district and I believe that I have a viewpoint different from most of the others so far on this meeting.

I oppose removing the statute, but I do support modifications and additions.

I've been a resident since 1981.

and have been constantly volunteering in preservation and education of local history, all parts of our history, but is also the co-chair of the Charlottesville's 250th anniversary in 2012 and for 12 years before that of the city's Historic Resources Committee and also initiated a committee member of the Course Square Renovations that took place in 2004-2006.

I really believe that

As much as the pain that's been expressed here and it's all the other meetings that I was sending in on during the meeting up to this one, as real as they are, and they need to be very important considered going forward, I believe that this courthouse being so historically important is because of the being used by three of our earliest presidents.

And then of course, the later period of time with the Civil War history,

impacting this area more than really any other event in this county's history of loss of life and impact economically.

All these things, there's reasons why these statutes are there for beyond the motives that clearly are true on the part of some that are racist or white supremacists.

Lies were lost and someone wanted just to remember that tragedy and not see it not happen again.

I really believe that in some ways if

if we go with only because of maybe bad motives and racist motives and other things in the past to affect the decision today then we will also have to confront the role really there's no logical reason not to remove any references to Jefferson or Monroe or Madison there's no reason to and really we have to come to grips with other things I mean the role of who was in power all of these years of Jim Crow of slavery and of

and of segregation, and even those who were in power when they put up those statutes.

And there's motives that we could assign to even the whole Democratic Party that's been in power the whole time.

I don't think that's the way to go.

I believe that our city can find a way to, especially our area, if the Jackson Monument is removed, which was completely out of scale and not for a resident, and we add more history, modern history of blacks and civil rights

then I believe in some ways there's more balance and we can create something that really celebrates and or at least educates on the good and bad and ugly of our history.

I really believe that we can create a more balanced perspective, a sense of representation for everyone.

It would give more complete diverse history of the county.

But I think if we're removing some parts of that history

We can perhaps even even replace it with a one-sided history of a different viewpoint.

A majority today... So I have support keeping it but changing it in many ways.

Thank you for your time tonight.

If there is anyone who gets cut off before finishing their statement, they are welcome to send the written statement to BOS at Albemarle.org and the full statement will be made part of the public record.

Hello.

Yes, good evening.

Thank you for holding this meeting this evening.

Very good conversation and I've enjoyed listening to everyone.

A little bit about me.

I'm in District 5 off the Rio area living in a free state community.

I spent 21 years in the Navy and have lived in this area for about the last 20 years and have seen

throughout my travels have seen an awful lot of racial injustice and people getting along in all capacities in different countries.

And so being from the union, when I hear white supremacy, I kind of look at that and I go, wow, because my ancestor Joshua Chamberlain was the one who accepted the orders from the retreat or the, I quit from Lee and handed it to Grant and he had fought in Gettysburg.

And when he led, Joshua Chamberlain led up there in Gettysburg, he also,

fought alongside both black men and white men.

So the supremacy thing I look at and go, I question because also being in the Navy, I experienced in Pascua, Mississippi in the early 80s signs all over the yard that say, dogs and sailors keep off the grass.

So I do understand different ideologies, especially in the South.

And I think this is a little bit more of what comes back to me.

When I hear white supremacy, it almost sounds like Democrat supremacy.

These it's covering up some of the icons of their era.

and what I just heard from the last speaker was well went along the same lines as mine is you know being a union coming from the north I should say yeah take down all those statues but it is part of history that's a side of me that goes it is part of history so is there a way of taking the plaques and actually just renaming and actually telling a story on those plaques so when people look at it because I've heard everybody say this is what I think this is what I think it's what everybody thinks

But who knows what that person you're bringing up there is really thinking.

I think if we put something on a plaque that really, you know, bring people in the community, update those plaques to what they really symbolize, and identify what was going on in the air and the ideologies of the Democrat Party then, I think that might be an amicable and a cost-effective way of looking at it.

It's just one of the things out with history.

As I said, I could see the statues being taken down and nothing there, but you know, once we start taking statues down, where does it end?

And then my next thought was, well, this came from McIntyre, you know, the Jackson, the Lee Parks, and the statues.

And Paul McIntyre, I mean, his family owned slaves.

We haven't renamed that park yet.

I was wondering if the board, if there was intentions in the future to rename the McIntyre Park, McIntyre Road.

I mean, their family history of slaves being in that, will that be the next step?

And to me, these are all things that are very important to us.

I'm a big proponent of not division, but of unity.

And that's why for me, it's always all lives matter.

Black lives matter too, but all lives matter.

And that's just the way God, country, and my parents raised me.

Thank you.

Good evening, can you hear me?

Yes sir, how are you?

Thank you.

I'm an Albemarle County resident in the Scottsville district and others will say, as the previous speaker just mentioned, that the statue is history and therefore we should be cautious about removing it.

I disagree with the characterization that the statue is historical memorial.

It's only partly a memorial.

Mostly, it's a pernicious symbol of the restoration of white supremacy after the end of the Reconstruction.

Here's why I see it that way.

The statue went up in 1909, as others have said, and that was seven years after Virginia's Jim Crow Constitution in 1902 was adopted.

That was a Constitution that took away voting rights of African Americans with poll taxes, property requirements, and literacy tests, while at the same time exempting Confederate veterans like Johnny Reb from loss of their voting rights.

The Constitution worked African American voters on the rolls dropped from 147,000 in 1901 to 10,000 in 1905.

The 1902 Constitution also enshrined segregated education in Virginia.

Let's be clear then, the statute was put there for a reason and it wasn't about past history.

The statute stood literally at the courthouse door to signal to African Americans that they would not be entitled to equal justice when they crossed the threshold of the courthouse.

Fair play was not part of the regime of Johnny Rab and Jim Crow.

As has been mentioned, leading the effort to put Johnny Rapp at the courthouse door was Mike Kaja Woods, who was then the Albemarle Commonwealth's attorney.

He was the one that did not prosecute anyone for the 1898 lynching of John Henry James.

Also, he was a Confederate veteran.

It's not hard to imagine what quality of justice African Americans could expect at the hands of that prosecutor

So yes, let's remove the statue that, by the way, Albemarle County tax payers paid to put up, not Paul McIntyre.

And yes, let's agree this symbol of white supremacy and oppression of African Americans should no longer stand guard over our courthouse.

Let's stop venerating a Confederate soldier who took up arms against the United States.

We have a word for that, treason.

Let's remove the statue that by its very placement at the courthouse door calls into question our dedication to equal justice for all.

I agree with those who say that removal of the statue won't solve all the problems of systemic racism we have in our justice system.

Symbols have meaning, though, and this is an important step in the right direction.

Let's take that step and rededicate ourselves to the cause of equal justice.

Thank you.

It looks like you were just unmuted momentarily.

All right, it looks like we'll have to come back after the next speaker and try and get Ms.

This is Rebecca.

Please go ahead.

Thank you so much.

My name is Rebecca Gervin Argonne.

I live in the Rivanna district of Albemarle County.

I'm speaking today to add my voice to those of others calling for the removal of the Confederate statue at our courthouse, which is known colloquially at least as Johnny Reb.

It's time for Americans to acknowledge that racism is endemic in our society and really time for people of conscience to speak up loudly against this injustice.

It's also time for government officials, including our board of supervisors, to take the legal actions that they can to rid our civic spaces of racist symbols like this statue.

It's clear from history that when the statue was erected in 1909, it was meant to perpetuate the idea of white supremacy.

Its celebration was a celebration of the Confederacy and of the control of local government by white people.

As a county, we should be a leader in fighting racism.

and in some ways we have tried to be, but we can do much better.

We should set an example for Virginia and the nation that people can come together to fight injustice and to make change when change is the right thing to do.

I urge the board to remove the statue.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Kent Schlossl Good evening

Mr. Schlossel, it sounds like we're having some audio issues.

We're unable, if you are attempting to speak, we're hearing a lot of interference.

Yeah, if we're noting some that we're having trouble with, if we can try to get them connected in or through an upper means.

Thank you.

Hi, this is Irene Weir.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, good evening.

Members of the board, thank you for hearing the public on this issue.

I'm a member of the White Hall District and a lifelong Virginia resident.

I ask supervisors to relocate the statute to museum with the proper context.

This statute was built by a constituency that no longer truly mirrors our constituency today.

I can feel this in the opinions shared by my neighbors on this call.

Charlottesville's Johnny Reb statue was one of hundreds of cheap mass-produced cast bronze Civil War statues made in the late 19th and early 20th century.

The Johnny Reb statue was itself meant to erase the history of Reconstruction, selectively forgetting that we are moving on from slavery.

This is not specific to our area or history except for a reminder of an exclusively white group of local and state government officials and a private organization, United Daughters of the Confederacy, vowing to gain the upper hand.

Furthermore, Johnny Reb's placement on the courthouse lawn announced that the rule of law was a white preserve, effectively warning black Virginians entering the courthouse to expect injustice therein.

Johnny Reb to me and many others is an intimidating piece of propaganda.

Board, I humbly request that we please relocate this statue and contextualize it with the appropriate history.

To me, the statue does not advocate nor symbolize the unification of the United States after the Civil War, nor does it promote inclusiveness or justice for all.

Thank you.

Hello, thank you.

My name is Lydia Brunk.

I use she, her pronouns.

I live in the Samuel Miller district.

I want to simply echo, I want to simply thank those who have shared important historical information and echo those who support removal of the statue as soon as logistically possible and careful consideration of where the statue ends up with a preference for its destruction rather than its relocation in a place where it would cause continued harm.

There are many ways to recognize and understand history.

If, after the statue is removed, we would like to consider putting up a plaque to recognize the fact that we had such a racist statue in our midst, that is something that we could do.

I've also heard those who are saying, what next?

Do we have to consider the racist history of our founding fathers and founding community members such as Jefferson?

I say yes.

I welcome and support a reckoning with the history of our, with the racist history of our society and the racist history of this specific community.

And I hope that the removal of this statue is just a first step on the path to greater

to greater reflection and introspection.

If we cannot take so simple and so obvious a step as removal of an unequivocal monument to white supremacy, how can we expect to face deeper and more pernicious issues in our community with courage and with care for our community?

Thank you.

Hello, I would just like to say I was not going to speak tonight until I, oh I'm sorry, I'm Lara Brunk, I am also from the Samuel Miller district.

I was not going to speak tonight until I heard a single voice opposing the removal and since we've heard that and because we understand that there is power in numbers, I would like to say that in standing with the vast majority of the eloquent and powerful speakers in this forum, I support the removal of this statue.

There is no way to adequately add edits to a symbol and celebration of white supremacy The two men who spoke against the removal of this statue suggested that it may lead to further action into investigating and opposing white supremacy in this county I question why this would ever be presented as an issue

As many have suggested, the removal of the statue is essential, and it is right and just that it should lead to a continuing process of removing white supremacy from our county, state, and country.

Thank you.

It looks like we have Mr. Schlissel back in the meeting.

Very good.

Can you hear me now?

Yes, sir.

Good.

My name is Kent Slushall.

I have lived in Albemarle County since 1977.

I just want to preference some of my comments.

I went to school in the South at a small school in Lexington, Virginia.

I went to grad school at UVA.

I also went to grad school in University of Dayton.

I've lived in the South most of my life, except for a few years in the service.

First of all, I'd like to comment on one thing.

If you look at the statue itself, now the pedestal is just a generic soldier, and you can see the same soldier and statues in the North recognizing Union soldiers, too, as almost exactly the same thing.

Well, I'd like to see if the statue is part of the history.

I agree with that, but I also agree with that it has no place in front of the courthouse.

And so the question arises, if you remove the statue, what then?

I participated in one of the workshops of what to do about Court Square.

And one of the suggestions I've had is that Albemarle County has absolutely hardly any place to go where somebody can get a quick overview of historical events that happened in Albemarle County.

On the side of the courthouse, it'd be nice to create a garden

with stones.

I would never put a statue up again because everybody has problems with statues.

Pull up stones about significant events.

When was the county founded?

What was the first courthouse built?

You know, what wars did we fight in?

And perhaps we can move that statue to their senses during their, as a war memorial, put in a different context.

And I just want to,

capture the historical perspective that was mentioned I'll begin about the staff.

And I think that we need to capture the history, but not have the statue there.

and that way when people come to the courthouse, they will not see this.

They can walk in, there'd be no war memorial there or no statue of the Civil War or anything else.

But on the side would be a nice garden where people could sit with a bunch of flat stones around, recognizing different events in Albemarle County.

So the question I have is, if you remove the statue, what then?

I think the statue does need to go.

Thank you very much.

It looks like we may have one last speaker.

Good evening.

Good evening.

I'm Brenda Brown-Grooms.

I'm a pastor at New Beginnings Christian Community in Charlottesville.

I am a native of Charlottesville, Virginia.

I refer you to a brilliant article from the New York Times two weeks ago, a woman who is African American as I am.

If we want monuments to the history of race in this country, my body is one.

You don't need any statues.

I don't understand why we insist on preserving the history, which is so fraught with cruelty.

and injustice.

It is against everything that we claim as American.

Now I'm African-American and so I'm quite acquainted without not living up to our creeds.

But one thing that COVID-19 has taught me and I think is teaching the world is that it is time.

It is time to stop our foolishness.

It is time to be about all people.

This world doesn't belong to me anymore than it belongs to you exclusively.

We've got to figure out how to live together.

It is more than offensive to me to have those statues on the ground that my ancestors bled for.

I've already paid for this country if I did another thing.

My people and I have paid for this country.

and it is time for our history to reflect my story, native stories and everybody else who's been othered enough already.

Thank you.

We do.

Hey, good evening.

Good evening.

Thank you.

My name is Lisa Brook and I have lived in Albemarle County since 1999.

And before that attended the University of Virginia and feel that this county is a wonderful place to live.

We have raised our family here and I'm very grateful for the work that the Board of Supervisors is doing on this matter.

One thing I have not heard in this debate and in some time,

is the comments of General Robert E. Lee, who whatever else you may say about him was respected and revered by the people who followed him, including the people of Virginia.

And Robert E. Lee wrote a letter in August of 1869 in response to a invitation to join officers at Gettysburg

to mark true positions in granite for posterity.

He wrote, I think it wiser, moreover, not to keep open the shores of war, but to follow the examples of those nations who endeavor to obliterate the marks of civil strife, to commit to oblivion the feelings engendered.

If there is any doubt that this statue had any purpose

other than to assert white supremacy and the values around the Jim Crow laws that were passed after reconstruction.

Let these words of generally guide us and guide the supervisors in deciding that we must take down this statue and we must

Thank you.

All right.

With no other speakers, I will close the public hearing and the matter is back before the board.

and Board what we'll do is I'll go around through the order that we have and ask for reactions, comments at this time.

Thank you, Ned.

I'd like to first thank our community for their respectful and helpful participation in conversations, tours, virtual discussions, emails, and personal outreaches.

I'm also grateful, extremely grateful to Siri, Emily, Liz, the Albemarle County employees and the community partners who supported this endeavor.

And I really thank the speakers we had tonight.

I appreciate you braving the storm and the lack of connectivity to reach us tonight.

And I really appreciate your comments.

The At Ready Confederate statue,

symbolizing the effort to maintain a plantation society, slavery, and white supremacy, and the tools of a war fought against the United States should not be co-located with our port facilities.

I absolutely support removal of the Confederate statue, the cannons, and the cannonballs.

However,

Once these artifacts are gone, it's really important that we continue our own personal journeys and the critical work to remedy the systemic and cultural racism in our community, moving us closer to that more perfect union and the pledge we often make ending with liberty and justice for all.

In our role as supervisors, we deal with land use, determining if a property can support the use being considered.

Can the location support the use?

What are the parking and traffic challenges, etc.?

Therefore, I've taken some time to view Court Square through the perspective of land use.

Court Square consists of 1.3 acres, which much of the land consumed by court buildings and support offices within a budding property, Court Square Park, which is owned by the city.

Court Square is actually smaller than many of our lots in Albemarle County, where houses sit.

How would I react if a developer came to me with a proposal to develop 1.3 acres to co-locate a historic court and office complex with a focus on tourism, a community park, and a public gathering space, and now with COVID, space that's actually become an extension of our courthouse

a location for First Amendment activities and political speech, a location for statues and memorials telling the really complex history of Albemarle County and the city of Charlottesville, and the developer would say though that the primary use

of this land was going to be a court complex where people must go to resolve civil matters and seek criminal justice.

My first reaction to this land use proposal would be to deny the proposal, citing too many competing uses for one small parcel of land.

Additionally, I'd have to ask, are these four uses really compatible with a functioning and increasingly busy court complex?

But tonight I must admit that timing is everything.

and today the city and county announced the architectural firm hired to design and facilitate construction of the $45 million shared court complex addition and renovation project beginning spring of 2022 with completion by 2025.

That progress release went out today.

The second phase includes renovation of a small addition to the circuit court at the current historic courthouse.

I would encourage our community to consider the Newport complex design through the lens of a shared and complex local history and the need to have a functioning and safe, respectful

Court Complex, and grounds for our community.

Thank you, Supervisor McKeel.

I'll start again.

Thank you, everyone.

Thank you, Chair Galloway.

This has been a fascinating time.

I'm so sorry to be far away from you stuck here behind fallen trees, but

So many eloquent words have described the feelings and the breadth of opinion of county residents about this issue.

I too grew up in this area and have learned so much more in the last 10 years than I knew in the previous 60 about our history.

And I know that our justice system will be better served for everyone if

The statue is removed and I support its removal according to the state process.

But I do want to reiterate some absolutely touching comments that I wrote down as I was listening to so many people speaking.

That the message sent by the statue is contrary to the view of equality before the law.

That it is a pernicious political statement that has no place in the courts of justice.

Where we are truly seeking equality before the law.

The lovely young woman from Texas, not a fair representation of Southern culture.

You can't claim Southern culture when it's not yours to begin with.

So poignant.

That for black people who seek justice in Albemarle, that statue says you will not be getting it here.

The impartiality of judges and juries and the perception of fairness is so important in our court.

that after 111 years of people considering the statue normal, we must change that narrative as fast as possible to remove the memories of pain and despair that so many have suffered and that justice should only be for some in this community.

We want all of our citizens to know they are destined for equal justice, which is challenging enough on its face.

without any symbols of oppression or unfairness.

So I look forward to a decision to remove.

I look forward to hearing the invitation, the wishes to accept the statue in another more appropriate place.

But I will end with what some of my constituents in the White Hall District have told me.

is that they consider this statue to be a grave marker for their family members who fought on both sides in the Civil War and are buried in unmarked graves.

So I hope that this statue will end up somewhere where people can recognize it as a grave marker, as more suitable.

Supervisor Mallek.

Thank you, Chair Galloway.

I am a child of the South.

I was born in Louisiana, grew up in Georgia, and have lived almost half my life in Virginia.

The only places I have lived that were not in the South were when I was on active duty in the Navy.

I first want to thank our public, the residents of Albemarle County, for the civility and decorum.

I believe that you have set an example for the nation to follow

and how to address difficult issues peacefully, respectfully, and properly.

I second want to thank our county staff who has worked diligently to ensure that our residents have an opportunity to fully participate in a thoughtful process.

And I want to thank all of those participants who were engaged in community outreach, the communications to the Board of Supervisors, and especially those who spoke this evening, who articulated with impassion their comments that were both profound and moving,

and I will not attempt to repeat them because frankly I think they did a better job than I could.

On the first of July, we, the Board of Supervisors, took the first step to address this issue.

Our community outreach was the second step and tonight's hearing is the third step.

After this evening,

I urge the Board of Supervisors to consider the establishment of a joint commission with the city to review the totality of the history of our area and the appropriate ways to represent our history.

We are not here tonight to address, nor are we able to resolve, the stain on the soul of America from slavery, racism, segregation, and discrimination, and inequality.

We can take a step

towards bending the arc of the universe a little closer towards justice.

The process that was provided for us permitted us to request a referendum, and several of my constituents reached out to me and encouraged us to do that.

I do not support that.

I believe that we on the Board of Supervisors have the responsibility to take action on this issue today and that by having a referendum it would do little more than to stoke up additional division within our community.

Some have said that they are sorry that those of us on the board feel bullied to have to take action on this.

I am a student of history.

I have actually spent years studying and considering this issue.

I am currently listening

to a team of rivals about the cabinet during the Lincoln administration and the history that led up to the Civil War.

I do not feel bullied in the least in taking action and being responsible for the action that I take.

We have four options that are before us.

One would be that we could order the covering of the statue, the cannonballs and the cannons, which candidly I think would just be foolishness and would not in any respect resolve the issue.

One would be that we could contextualize the statues, the cannons, and the cannonballs.

And I will acknowledge that there was a time where I once considered that.

However, under the reality of the circumstances, I say that is inadequate.

And to coin a phrase from real estate, location, location, location, we are talking about courthouse property.

We could relocate these items, which I presume means on other county property.

To the best of my knowledge, the only actual battle around our area was the skirmish at Rio Hill.

I don't believe that there is any county property set up for that.

So I'm going to vote for removal.

I believe that there are appropriate places where these memorabilia can be placed.

The battlefield at Chancellorsville, Appomattox, a cemetery.

Any of those may be appropriate, but I do not believe that their placement in a courthouse is appropriate.

Many say that we should retain these out of respect for those who fought and served for their beliefs.

I can trace my family lineage back to a great-great-great grandfather who fought for the Union in the 122nd Illinois Infantry Regiment and a great-great-grandfather who fought for the Confederacy with Waller's 13th Texas Cavalry Regiment.

My grandfather

My grandfather fought in World War I, my father in World War II.

I have an uncle who fought in Korea, brother-in-law in Vietnam.

I have family members who have served through the endless wars.

My son has just returned from his third combat mission, and I am a veteran of the foreign wars.

I've been an attorney for over 45 years, for over 40 years, and 25 years of that was spent on active duty in the Judge Advocate Generals for the Navy.

I retired as a captain.

I believe that I have the right to speak, as any American does, about whether or not removal of this statute would be disrespectful, and I don't believe that.

To me, the issue comes down to a single issue.

That is, this is the grounds of a courthouse.

Our hallowed halls of justice.

Every citizen should demand and expect that they will receive equal justice, equal protection under the law.

And I believe that only symbols of law, justice, and equality are appropriate at a courthouse.

There are other places, there are parks where other things can be discussed.

In terms of is this removing history, I submit that we are really facing a question of what legacy do we want to leave

and I believe it is appropriate to remove these statues.

Thank you, Chair Galloway and I am in agreement with what my fellow supervisors have said.

I was raised in the military.

I honor the military.

It was also integrated.

and when I grew up, the schools were integrated.

So later on, when I found out that there were segregated schools, it was actually very shocking for me.

I couldn't believe it.

It's like, why?

Why would there be segregated anything?

We're all alike.

The symbols we have here, the at-ready and the cannonballs and the cannon,

I believe need to be relocated to a more appropriate venue such as Wilderness, Chancellorsville, Gordonsville.

There's a military hospital in Gordonsville for the Confederacy.

I think that's a better location.

I absolutely do not believe that these statues should be in front of a courthouse.

These were made to intimidate.

As Americans, we don't intimidate.

You can't intimidate us.

And yet someone put these up to intimidate some of our citizens.

That cannot stand.

And that's why I'm supporting removal of these statues to a more appropriate location.

And let's remember this war, the Civil War,

killed more soldiers than World War I and World War II combined.

So we have to remember why the war was fought, and it was because the South didn't want to, they wanted their economic engine, which was slavery.

We cannot have that.

We cannot have people feeling intimidated when they go in a courthouse.

It has to be justice for all, or it's justice for none.

Thank you, Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.

First of all, I agree with what everybody else has said, so I'm not going to repeat.

trying to sort of think about what I could add to this conversation at this point.

And one of the things that I do want to say that I've heard from several of my African American constituents is would you please just get on with the business of government, help improve our schools, look at our society and see where you can put your efforts into improving

improving our lives.

And that's one of the reasons why I very much supported moving quickly with this subject.

I certainly support removing them.

They are, quite frankly, sucking up too much of our energy to do the things that we're supposed to be doing as supervisors and as local government.

I do want to say, and Ann has already said this, but for those who have told me that this represents is a grave marker.

Grave markers aren't in front of courthouses.

They just don't need to be there.

Everybody is saying something about their history and I'll just very quickly say as somebody who grew up in many, many different places, I can't say where I grew up because I was

in my, I think, 13th house on my 16th birthday.

And I can't trace my family back past my own grandparents.

So I can't say I've got any history in the South to think about or to know.

I just don't know.

But I've learned a lot over these last several years.

and where I was four years ago on, I think it was four years ago now when we first started talking, when the city first started talking about contextualizing the statues, I think we've moved on past that.

And I hope that we can find a place that is suited for that statue.

I have no idea if anybody's gonna want it or not.

but I do think that I just want to say that I appreciate all the people who have written me and called and we've all gotten these messages and they're passionate and I appreciate just the really thoughtful discussion that we've all had and I'll stop there.

Thank you, Supervisor Palmer.

I guess I'll just try to be brief.

I did not prepare any written remarks, but I know that in emails that we received that some folks kind of tried to pass off this decision as if we were being politically correct.

And as a white male politician, I guess that's a fair assessment, but I feel like it's other whites that are giving me a pass by saying you're doing this just because you're being politically correct.

And the only way I know to try to speak and be honest about

the import of this decision and how I feel about it is just to talk a little bit about how I arrived at the decision and how I think of the vote that I'll be taking today.

And I hope that that speaks to the fact that this is not a politically correct decision.

You know, I've been involved in local government for several years.

I know that over the last five, four or five years, this board of supervisors and the previous members of the board have had lobbying to the General Assembly

to have control over our property, to be able to get to where we are today, to be able to make this decision for ourselves.

It was at a point where even in the legislative packet, myself included at points where it seemed futile to even include it in there because we were worried that maybe it's just wasting the paper space for other matters that were more pressing.

But to the credit of past boards, they have kept this item there and persisted with it.

I know that when I went down in 2019 to the General Assembly, I almost was not allowed to speak at the committee meeting that squashed it from going anywhere to ask for the local control for us to be able to make this decision.

And I remember in Delegate Toscano's office after that, all the local folks that went down, he had a meeting and had us in there asking, what now?

What next?

And the answer the data gave was vote.

And you know what?

Later in 2019, we voted.

and we've had some changes and I think people had a lot of changes in mind that they wanted to take place and those changes are coming forward and as of July 1 we have the ability to do this.

I'm happy about that.

That is something that I see as not politically correct, but as democracy in action in the way it's supposed to work.

When you want change, you go to the ballot box, you vote, and you put the folks in that are going to make the changes, and the majority speaks in that situation.

So I'm happy that we've arrived at this today.

In terms of changing history, some folks have been talking about rewriting or changing history.

Well, I mean, isn't that what we do every day?

We're writing the history now for the future and how they're going to look back on this.

I'm sure that in 1909, the Albemarle Board of Supervisors had immense pride that day and were very purposeful with the actions and what they wanted to take.

And you know what?

What they put up, what they erected on our county property, had its stand in history and it's time to change that history.

and leave this statue and his accessories to the history books.

It is with pride that I'm taking today the action that I'll be able to take to support removal of the statue and the accessories.

And I suspect no less pride than what they felt in 1909 when they put this on.

Obviously, my pride is for different reasons.

I am very appreciative of Frank Dukes and his recommendation about be careful where it goes.

And to be perfectly frank, I did not consider that.

So I really appreciate those remarks.

I do not feel responsible for where this statue ends up.

I feel responsible for the logistics of helping make it happen, and I will have an open mind about where it goes.

But I do not feel the responsibility of finding the place

and for those who have the interest in doing so, we ask that you come forward.

We'll help you get it there, but we do have ultimate control and say over where it goes because it cannot continue to have negative impacts as Frank spoke to.

I think the fact that it's at a courthouse just amplifies or has multiplied the impact, but any county property would have the same impact if this was erected anywhere else in county property.

Now, and I'll wrap up here to be clear, and I think all supervisors would agree here that we know that taking this action tonight is not some endpoint for us.

Others have alluded to it.

Supervisor Palmer, Supervisor McKeel, I know we have a lot of work to do, and that work is in our policy work, and that work is in our school system.

In affordable housing, I heard mentioned there are a lot of things that we have work to do, and we know we have a long way to go.

and I have a lot of work to do and a long way to go myself and I'm looking forward to getting to that work.

The motion has been made and properly seconded.

Is there any further discussion?

The only thing I will remark is that I do appreciate all the comments tonight from the public hearing.

I know the board appreciates all the feedback that we've received via emails, phone conversations, and more than just the speakers tonight.

So thank you for that.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley.

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek.

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel.

Yes.

Ms.

Palmer.

Yes.

Ms.

Price.

Aye.

Yes.

All right, very good board.

The motion carries and

Well done.

With that, the next item on our agenda night from the board matter is not listed on the agenda.

I'll go through our order to see if there's any items here.

I don't have anything.

Supervisor Price?

I wanted to say also thank you to the community of Albemarle because they have been very good in letting us know both sides of the issue, very respectful, and I appreciate that.

And let me tell you, I've never been so proud of such a board

I have nothing to add and I agree with everybody.

Mr. Richardson from the County Executive.

Mr. Chair, nothing specific to report.

I would like to take a point of privilege to especially thank the leadership work at the staff level of Secretary Russell, the director of equity and inclusion.

I would also like to thank Emily Kilroy, the director of community and public engagement.

and they were not alone.

They had tremendous staff working with them to move this community remembrance work with the listening tours and everything that they've been working on and then the special challenges that came with the pandemic and moving to mostly virtual over the last five months and so thank you to those folks for their leadership and their work with this board.

Thank you Mr. Richardson.

Okay board with that and if there's no objection we will adjourn to August 19 to 2020 for our 1 p.m electronic meeting pursuant to ordinance number 20-A8.

I hope everybody has a good evening.