George,

I write to respond to my good friend Rob Schilling's latest diatribe about the Water Supply plan. Unfortunately, Mr. Schilling still seems to be stuck repeating the same off-key tune about "not having enough information." The water plan discussion during Mr. Schilling's abbreviated tenure occurred in 11 public meetings, which unfortunately Mr. Schilling and Ms. Hamilton deemed it unnecessary to attend any of the community discussions. Additionally, the information given to Council by the RSWA, City staff, and the County measures approximately 7" in height and is exhaustively detailed and clearly illustrates the complex issues of the efficient provision of water for the future. But height is not the determinant of knowledge. One must read and understand the documents in order to make an appropriate wise decision on behalf of the community.

The majority of Councilors (2002 until today) including Schilling, Lynch, and Hamilton, apparently either did not read and understand the information or were satisfied with the information enough to vote on behalf of the public, aye. Something is missing here, now these august former electeds, and [The Hook] are crying fowl and saying they were duped. The great majority of the public and Councilors during this period do not feel that way at all, to say nothing about DEQ, the US Army Corps of engineers, the Va. Forest Service, the US Department of Interior, and many other professional experts both public and private. They all also supported the plan and voted aye.

I have recently reviewed the information that Council and the citizens viewed and compared it to what the current dissenters of the plan have said and printed (no FOIA necessary, all of it is readily available). The clear and unequivocal conclusion is no one was duped in the past, the duping is going on now by Lynch, Hamilton, and Schilling. In plain words, the current campaign against the plan, under the false guise of protecting the rate payer and the environment is disingenuous. The very sad polemic employed by these dissenters of attacking professional staff, and by inference the public and other Councilors, with personal invective is beyond the pale. It is easy to do sure, make a villain out of someone that cannot respond (staff) by calling them dishonest, manipulative or heaven forbid "a golfer." What it really shows is that the these dissenters have very little that is genuine to add to the discussion of a really important public policy.

The greatest thing about our community, the best City in the USA, is that we have serious, intelligent, and participating citizens that are very dedicated to a proper process in discussing and formulating public policy and providing for the future. This has been the tradition in Charlottesville for 232 years. Now is not the time , never is the time, to change this tradition. Just the facts Ma'am - not manipulation of the facts, not falsehoods, not personal agendas, not personal attacks, not a complete disregard for the future. Fortunately, the great majority of our citizens have not bought into the crying balderdash. The plan is not only good but addresses and allows continued refinement to make it better. Let us hope the hidden personal agendas of the dissenters can be tamed and brought back to a serious discussion of a public policy that will effect the next two generations. But alas, I am afraid the cat is out of the bag and will refuse to help our community move forward with the decorum that we all deserve and make a better future for all of us.

Blake Caravati (Electronic mail, June 6, 2008)

Note: Caravati is responding to ongoing coverage of this issue in The HooK, this most recently.