A 4th sister city for Charlottesville?

Charlottesville maintains very different relationships — not unlike an actual family — with each of its sister cities.

Poggio a Caiano, Italy, became Charlottesville’s first sister city in 1976, and shares a historical connection with Thomas Jefferson and Monticello. City Manager Gary O’Connell said Pleven, Bulgaria, was added in 2004 so Charlottesville could provide governmental support to a formerly communist city. And Besancon, France, was added in 2006 to expand economic and educational ties.

But with at least one proposal for a new city to join Charlottesville’s family, the city’s recently formed Sister Cities Commission is beginning to explore ways to better support current sister cities and to develop guidelines for considering future ones.

“You could easily be tempted to have sister cities with lots of people,” said former Mayor Nancy O’Brien, who is a member of the commission. “But it might be tenuous.”

Officials say Charlottesville’s sister cities don’t all serve in the traditional capacity of being exclusively for cultural exchanges, and the city must decide what type of relationship would best benefit each locality. Blake Caravati, a former city councilor who championed Besancon’s pairing, said that in a globalized world Charlottesville needs to be involved internationally.

“If we don’t do it, it’s our loss,” Caravati said.

Nana Akyeampong-Ghartey hopes to expand that involvement to Africa. Since 2005, Akyeampong-Ghartey has been urging public officials here and in his birthplace — Winneba, Ghana — to make the West African city Charlottesville’s fourth sister. Winneba, he said, is similar to Charlottesville in that they’re both university towns with bustling tourism industries.

“Winneba is almost like Charlottesville,” said Akyeampong-Ghartey, who moved to Charlottesville in 1998. “It is a university town and everything in Winneba revolves around the university.”

Winneba would be Charlottesville’s first African sister city. Connections have already fomented between the two places: Since the mid-1990s, the University of Virginia School of Medicine and the University of Ghana have had a thriving exchange program of students and faculty, and several local churches have sponsored trips to Ghana in recent years.

“I know so many people here who go to Ghana almost every year,” Akyeampong-Ghartey said.

Additionally, Timothy Hulbert, president of the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce, said many Virginians have origins in West Africa.

“As far as I’m concerned, that moves it to the top of the list,” Hulbert said.

Commission Chairman James Potter said discussions about sister city guidelines are in their infancy. An issue the body is trying to iron out, he said, is making sure Charlottesville’s current and future sister cities have groups outside of government backing the relationships so they do not falter in providing future opportunities.

In the past, communication has slowed between cities if the original instigators moved away or changed jobs.

“With the Italians, that has occurred from time to time on either end,” Potter said. He added, “I’ve heard a lot of wonderful ideas that I’d love to tap into, but one of the things is, two years, three years, four years from now, is it sustainable?”

Strong community support would also be a key component in raising funds for trips, something officials say is needed to participate in exchanges.

Last year, city government and schools officials incited controversy when several of them — including then-Mayor David Brown and schools Superintendent Rosa S. Atkins — used public funds to finance a trip to Poggio a Caiano. This year, $5,000 has been allocated for the commission in the city’s budget.

Mayor Dave Norris said a more structured process and increased involvement should allow the city to nurture its sister city relationships for several years.

“We want these partnerships to be owned by the community,” Norris said. “It shouldn’t be city government sister cities; it should be the community of Charlottesville sister cities.”