George:

According to the entries in my law firm data base, Camille Cooper called me on August 27, 2001, at 11:15 AM. I did not know who she was. She is probably right that I did not call her back, about which she and I joked some months later.

Camille makes some reference to an e-mail to your website that caused her to believe that I was backing Blake. I assume that she is referring to an e-mail that I sent on September 2, 2001, directing my comments toward Waldo, Joan and Sean O'Brien, all of whom had already indicated
an interest in running for City Council; I simply noted that we had a November campaign to run, and I encouraged the three of them to direct their energies between that time and November toward the election of Mark Warner, Tim Kaine, Don McEachin and Mitch Van Yahres. I did not
mention Blake Caravati. I have no record of a second call, though we were changing secretaries at that time, and maybe Camille called and the message was not put on the database. She states that she called a number of other times over the past few months, including a specific mention of some time when I was out of town for a week. The only time that occurred was for the Christmas and New Year's holidays -- a time when my staff was taking many messages. I have no explanation as to why there is no message from Camille noted.

As for contacts with Joan Fenton, she called me on August 29, 2001, at 9:20 AM, leaving a message that my secretary wrote down as "Wants to meet for coffee." My notes show that I returned her call within the following day or two, and left a message. I think that she and I were both present at the City Committee meeting on September 12, 2001, but I don't think that she and I spoke. I next heard from Joan by message left at 2:26 PM on October 9, 2001 -- "please call her, would like to get together w/you." I have no notation as to whether I returned that call, so I probably did not. However, we saw each other a number of times during the November campaign (or maybe it was the December campaign -- they have all run together by now), and on at least one occasion, she and I joked about how we still needed to get together for coffee. Admittedly, I assigned a low priority to it, because we had a November election to win, and then a December election to win, before we even got to the nominating process for Council.

Concerning the child care debate, the issue was first raised with me by an e-mail from David RePass on February 9, two weeks before the convention. Rus responded with the word that his daughter and three of her friends would provide child care in an adjoining room, if we could work it out. I responded that I did not think that was a good idea, because I did not see how we could assure that there would be qualified care-givers in a safe environment with age-appropriate activities. In particular, because the Charlottesville Democratic Party is an unincorporated association, with no general liability insurance or assets, if some child had been hurt, the person(s) who would have been sued would have been the party leaders who had set up the plan. I had no interest in making myself liable for a potential risk that I couldn't even identify, much less limit or evaluate.

For what it is worth, the child care experts with whom I spoke (by which I include a number of mothers) agreed with me.

I have said it before, and I'll say it again -- if someone comes up with a plan to do child care in a safe way that limits both risk of injury or illness and liability, I have no objection to it. I have not yet learned of any other Democratic Party in the state that provides it for local mass meetings, so I have no model to go on. I have asked that David Norris share his experience with setting up child care so that we can consider it fully when it is time to start planning for the 2004 Council nominations.

If someone wants to get hold of me, I have a listed telephone number at home, with an answering machine. Folks are welcome to call me until 11:00 PM, and they do. I have a listed telephone number at work, with a secretary, paralegal, and an answering machine to take messages. I have e-mail that I read and reply to until 4:00 AM many mornings. My business address is printed, and folks can and do drop in on me. I have been to every Democratic meeting imaginable in the last 7 months. It doesn't seem to be hard for anyone else to get hold of me, and I can't explain why Camille seems to have had such a hard time of it.

In the meantime, we have a May election to win, and I suggest that all of our efforts be directed toward that goal.

Lloyd Snook (electronic mail, March 22, 2002)