It’s been over eight months since Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney removed the city’s Confederate monuments to storage. In a Monday City Council meeting, City Council Interim Chief of Staff Joyce Davis announced that the Organizational Development Standing Committee would hear a resolution about the disposition of the statues. A public hearing and city council vote on the resolution is expected May 10.
“In the past, we’ve had public comments on the removal of the monuments, but not for the disposition,” Davis said according to ABC8.
The city has received 22 applications to receive the monuments, including requests for just the cannons, all of the objects, and specific parts of the monument. Applicants include multiple Sons of the Confederate Veterans organizations, several museums, and private individuals.
The city has a scoresheet to help evaluate the monuments. Applicants earn high points for historical contextualization; a permanent location at sites such as battlefields, museums, cemeteries, or military facilities; and for being nonprofits or government agencies that don’t “endorse, represent, encourage, celebrate, promote, defend, support, or advocate political, cultural, ideological, philosophical, sociopolitical, or anti-U.S. government identity, values, actions, or ideology.”
The resolution that the council is expected to consider in May instructs the Council Chief of Staff and the Chief Administrative Officer to evaluate the applications and recommend the most suitable offer, while providing opportunities for public comments and public hearings. The resolution would also require staff to provide a final recommendation to the board.
The public can comment on the resolution two ways — they can be scheduled to speak in the public hearing May 10, and they can submit written comments, by contacting the Richmond City Clerks Office: (804) 646-7955, [email protected]. The deadline to register to speak is 10 a.m. May 10.
The City of Charlottesville is also moving forward with plans for its Confederate statues. Last week, the Virginia Supreme Court issued a mandate re-stating its decision allowing the City to remove the monuments, and the City Council is expected to hear about potential next steps at its May 3 meeting, according to WVIR.
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Eric Burk is a reporter at The Virginia Star and the Star News Digital Network. Email tips to [email protected].
