City Government

Charlottesville is an independent city located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is considered a county-equivalent. As of 2017, its population was 48,019, while the Charlottesville Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) contains 228,825. Charlottesville became independent from Albemarle County in 1888.

City government

Since 1928, the city of Charlottesville has utilized a council-manager system. In this form of municipal government, the legislative and policy-determining powers are held by an elected council that employs a city manager who is responsible to the council for city administration.

City Manager

The city manager is the city's chief executive. The responsibilities of the city manager include overseeing the city's day-to-day operations, planning and implementing the city's operating budget, and appointing departmental directors and other senior-level positions. Tarron Richardson is the current City Manager.

Mayor

The Mayor of Charlottesville is selected from among the five members of the Charlottesville City Council. The position is largely ceremonial, though the Mayor does have the power to set the agenda for Council meetings, presides over council meetings and official city ceremonies. The mayor also represents the city on the state, national and international levels. Nikuyah Walker is the current mayor of the City of Charlottesville.

City council

The Charlottesville City Council is the city's primary legislative body. It is responsible for approving and adopting the city budget, levying taxes and making or amending city laws, policies and ordinances.

Membership

See also: Charlottesville City Council, 2020-2021

The city council consists of five members including the mayor. All members are elected at large and serve four-year, staggered terms. As for historically under-represented groups, the city has about the same percentage of blacks in council as in the general populations; in Charlottesville, blacks makeup 18.3 percent of the population and 20 percent of the council.

The council post videos of council meetings online as well as searchable databases of legislation. Council does not post members’ personal financial disclosure statements or lobbying records.

Compensation

Salary

• Councilors make $18,000 a year and the mayor makes $20,000 a year; the maximum range allowed under state guidelines.

Fringe benefits

Although Charlottesville isn’t the only Virginia municipality to issue credit cards to its elected officials, the practice isn’t standard operating procedure across the state. The city’s credit card use policy was created in 2008 and revised in 2015 by then-City Manager Maurice Jones. The mayor’s monthly limit is $2,500, the other four councilor’s have a $20,000 monthly credit limit.

Medical and dental insurance coverage

In 2012, councilors voted to include themselves in the city’s employee medical and dental insurance coverage plans.

A full list of city council members since 1922 can be found here:

Boards and commissions

City Council appoints members to approximately 40 various Boards and Commissions as terms expire or appointees resign. A series of advisory boards and commissions that are made up of non-elected citizens, whom city council members have appointed and approved, advises the Charlottesville City Council. The roles of these boards and commissions are to review, debate, and comment upon city policies and legislation and to make recommendations to the city council.

Compensation

Some of the agencies are strictly volunteer without any compensation. Others, established by State Code, allow "token" compensation and some reimbursement of expenses incurred. For a list of Charlottesville's commissions, boards and committees, see List of Boards and Commissions

Mayoral partisanship

As of 2018 the City of Charlottesville has had the first Independent mayor. Since 1922, 35 out of the 38 appointed mayors have been affiliated with the Democratic Party, two were affiliated with the Republican Party. While council elections in the city are nonpartisan, most officeholders have been affiliated with the Democratic Party since the 1880's.

In 1883 the Conservative Party changed its name to the Democratic Party. Thomas S. Martin, a Local resident, railroad attorney and longtime U.S. senator (serving from 1895 until his death in 1919) was an architect of the state Democratic Party machine, during his time was known as the Martin Organization, (later becoming known as the Byrd Organization).

See Mayor of Charlottesville for a list of the city’s mayors and their partisan affiliation.

Referendums

• Council passed a resolution calling for an April 15, 1954 referendum on creating a housing authority. The vote was close with 1,105 city voters approving the authority, and 1,069 voting no.
• While City Council was unanimous in its decision, the 1970 proposed referendum to merger with Albemarle County failed
• A Revenue Sharing Agreement, dated February 17, 1982, between the County of Albemarle and the City of Charlottesville was approved in a public referendum on May 18, 1982.

1982 Advisory Referendum

The results of the Advisory Referendum on Tuesday, May 4, 1982, in Charlottesville, Virginia, were as follows:

• (YES) 2453
• (NO) 3382

QUESTION: Shall the form of City Council be changed from the present Council of five members elected by the voters of the entire city to a Council composed of seven members, with four members elected from four separate wards within the city and three members elected by the voters of the entire city?

Elections

2019

See also: City elections in Charlottesville (2019)

The city of Charlottesville held general elections for City Council (3 of 5 seats), Charlottesville City School Board (4 of 7 seats), Soil & Water Conservation District Director and the Clerk of Court on November 5, 2019. The Democratic primary was on June 11, 2019. The deadline for candidates to file to run in this election was March 28, 2019. Of the 32,291 total reported number of eligible voters registered in the City of Charlottesville, 3,657 turned out for the top vote getter Michael Payne (for a less than 12% voter turnout). Payne co-founded Indivisible Charlottesville, a progressive political action organization, and is a former co-chair of the Charlottesville Democratic Socialists of America.

Place Issue on Ballot

Initiative Referendum availability

Voter petition for an initiative referendum is permitted only if the county, city or town charter includes provisions allowing voters to circulate petitions for such an issue. The charter also would provide the procedures to be followed, including the number of signatures required, the deadline for filing, restrictions on types of questions permitted, etc. Compliance with the provisions of §§ 24.2-684 and 24.2-684.1 also is required.

The initiative process is only available in the four of the 229 Virginia charter municipalities that have exercised their home rule authority to institute such a process. They are Hampton, Lynchburg, Norfolk, and Portsmouth.

Local recall rules

Recall of local elected officials in Virginia is available in some jurisdictions, including the City of Charlottesville.

Local Issues

Local issues are permitted to be placed on the ballot only if the question is authorized by statute or by charter. In such cases the question is specifically stated in either the city charter or in the section of the Code of Virginia that permits the question. Example: the Direct Election of School Board is found in § 22.1-57.2. The signature requirements also are included in that section.