Council candidates split over local jobs/income report

Candidates running for the City Council offered sharply different reactions to a new report showing that one of every five Charlottesville families cannot afford to pay its bills.

The numbers were included in the recently released “Orange Dot Project” report, a study funded by anonymous donations and conducted under the auspices of the Greater Charlottesville Area Development Corp., the development arm of the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce. The report calls for improving “self-sufficiency” in Charlottesville families and lifting residents out of poverty by harnessing existing economic activity and directing it to those who are struggling.

Incumbent candidate Satyendra Huja, a Democrat, said he likes the report’s recommendation of a “job hub” agency that would help connect large economic engines such as the University of Virginia with local businesses that can offer goods and services. Huja added that he would support devoting around $100,000 to such a project to help get it off the ground.

“We may have to support them in an initial year or two,” Huja said.

Huja said the idea would be for the job hub to eventually be self-supporting by taking a commission for every connection made between large institutions and local businesses.

“A job is the best anti-poverty program there is,” Huja said.

Independent Brandon Collins, a self-described socialist candidate, had a different reaction, saying he was “puzzled” by the study’s release and questioned what the authors were trying to achieve.

“We have to look at things in a much bigger picture,” Collins said. “I think overall they’re using it as an excuse to try to get some business-friendly laws going. And as another attempt to shut down discussion on the water plan and the parkway and the bypass, I guess.”

Collins pointed specifically to calls to modify the city’s zoning and planning rules to allow light manufacturing facilities in poor neighborhoods.

“They’re not actually talking about human beings; what they’re talking about is using it as a reason to expand business,” Collins said. “… The main thing is we shouldn’t let the Chamber of Commerce use poverty as an excuse for rich people to make more money.”

Collins has called for the creation of a downtown jobs center that would offer guaranteed employment to every city resident who wanted a job.

“I would like to see a jobs center where people seeking work can access work,” Collins said. “If that means that there’s room for a contractors’ hub or some way to coordinate small business getting contracts, that’s fine, but we need to do a lot more than just rely on increasing local business.”

The other two candidates on the Democratic ticket, Dede Smith and Kathy Galvin, said they weren’t surprised by the report’s findings.

Galvin said she sees the report as a “paradigm shift” that could lead to a greater focus on raising the incomes of poor people rather than just working to lower their expenses.

“Here’s a blueprint to start helping us increase job opportunities for a population that really has only been viewed as a group of people that we provide services to — lower expenses for — instead of empowering,” Galvin said.

Galvin said the City Council could begin to act on the report’s proposals by officially endorsing the document, then beginning a discussion with the business community and UVa.

“I think as a City Council, we need to be looking at how we could facilitate that partnership without necessarily turning it into another city department,” Galvin said. “Let’s support it. Let’s begin bringing all these different groups together.”

Smith said the job-hub proposal is an interesting idea, but she needs to know more about how the mechanism would work, specifically questioning the legal ramifications of hiring targeted toward certain demographics.

“Even the report seems to not fully know yet really how much they could dictate who gets jobs,” Smith said. “… What are the laws around what you are and are not allowed to selectively do in terms of hiring? I think that’s an interesting question.”

Smith said equal attention should be devoted to education by making sure that children from poor families graduate with skills that make them employable. The report calls for a “two-generation” strategy to boost educational achievement by raising parents’ income levels, but Smith questioned the correlation.

“I question whether just rising income levels would impact rising education levels of children in those families,” Smith said. “I would like to see some evidence that says it’s that simple. Because I doubt that it is.”

In an emailed statement, independent candidate Bob Fenwick called for immediate action to make Charlottesville more business-friendly.

“Roll out the welcome mat for existing businesses like we do for prospective businesses,” Fenwick said. “It’s called the ‘bird in the hand’ theory of business promotion.”

Fenwick suggested a one-year forbearance on property taxes for new businesses and allowing real estate agents to put open-house signs in median strips to attract potential buyers. Fenwick said his proposals represent “bold and meaningful” action rather than slogans and studies.

“The chamber leadership should be a regular speaker at City Council for lower taxes and fees and fewer bureaucratic roadblocks until City Council shows they finally get it about creating a ‘business friendly’ city,” Fenwick said. “Right now, it’s backroom discussions. How’s that working out?”

Independent candidates Andrew D. Williams and Scott Bandy could not be reached for comment. Independent Paul Long withdrew from the race.

The seven candidates — three Democrats and four independents — are competing for three council seats up for grabs in the Nov. 8 election.