After more than a year, Charlottesville is one step closer to officially having a new city attorney. The City Council during its June 2 meeting approved the hiring of John Maddux into the role. Maddux previously served as deputy city attorney of Asheville, North Carolina, where he served for more than a decade.
Former City Attorney Jacob Stroman was placed on leave in April 2024 after a complaint and retired that September. The City of Charlottesville did not reveal the nature of the complaint, but multiple news outlets linked it to actions of Chesapeake Mayor Rick West in 2022. Stroman was that city’s attorney at the time.
“He has been exonerated from the claims that prompted his administrative leave,” Mayor Juandiego Wade said in a Sept. 4 press release announcing Stroman’s retirement.
Maddux is slated to be admitted to the Virginia State Bar on June 4 and sworn into office on June 6.
Also on Monday, the Charlottesville City Council heard comments on the renovation and expansion of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Regional Jail. A vote on the plan was removed from the agenda prior to the meeting.
Some speakers said they weren’t against renovations but opposed expansion plans. Instead, they want increased investment in programs that support food security, affordable housing options, mental health resources and other community resources.
“A vote for expansion is a vote against our future. Every dollar we put in the jails is a dollar we don't put in the schools, clinics, transit or youth programs. Let's invest in what keeps our communities whole, not what breaks them,” said Rosia Parker, a member of the People’s Coalition. The group recently held a rally in opposition of the expansion plan.
During public comments, city residents also expressed concern about the council’s recent approval of Flock Safety cameras, an AI-driven license plate reader system that runs images through a national crime database.
“The federal government has shown that it increasingly lacks respect for the rule of law, and so we cannot trust this sensitive community data to be in the hands of law enforcement and possible bad actors and the state,” said Elizabeth Stark.
404 Media recently reported that a Texas sheriff’s office searched nearly 7,000 camera systems nationwide in its search for a woman they say self-administered an abortion. In Norfolk, a federal lawsuit against the city’s usage of Flock cameras is set for October.
Charlottesville’s pilot of the cameras is scheduled to expire in October. City Manager Sam Sanders spoke in favor of the system during his report to the council.
“We have solved multiple crimes in this community as a result of the Flock system. If that system did not exist, some of those crimes could still be unsolved,” he said.
Sanders also said he was deeply disappointed that the federal government pulled the Federal Executive Instituteproperty back from Charlottesville City Schools after approving the property for the division and reallocated it to the University of Virginia.
“We have tried to have conversations with the federal government. As you might expect, they're not taking our calls right now. In all honesty, I have actually been more focused on trying to figure out our plan B action so that we can get this pre-K center established as soon as possible,” he said.
Councillors also discussed a resolution to allocate just over $8 million from the Capital Improvement Program Contingency Fund for community interventions like a street outreach program, emergency management, infrastructure investment and Downtown Mall improvements.
Conversation then turned to new utility rates and service fees for gas, water and sanitary services. Based on average consumption statistics in the city’s FY25 Utility Rate Report, the proposed rate increases would raise the typical Charlottesville household’s monthly bills by $12.01 for gas and $1.10 for sewer. Water rates would increase by between $3.50 and $5 a month depending on the time of year, with a $2.50 bump in the monthly service charge.
Elliott Robinson contributed reporting.
