Take-Aways: the Week in Review

Police chief firing whydunit continues, FLUM in a nutshell, scraping streetscaping, a local legacy of weed, and more...

Contradictions continue to abound surrounding the firing of Charlottesville Police Chief ReShall Brackney. During a City Council meeting earlier this week Mayor Nikuyah Walker revealed she had secretly recorded conversations with City Manager Chip Boyles in August concerning a survey conducted by the local Police Benevolent Association that was critical of police department leadership, during which he said:

“This Wells guy [PBA president Michael Wells, an Albemarle County detective], all he has in his sights is the chief’s badge,” [City Manager Chip ] Boyles said in a recorded conversation with Mayor Walker in August. “He is living 24 hours a day seven days a week to try and get her fired. He can say all he wants to, I think he could care less about the officers. For him, it’s a mission.”

Ironically, Boyles would help Wells complete his mission by firing Brackney on September 1, following the release of an additional internal police department survey also critical of leadership, saying…