"The 22-foot-tall artificial Christmas tree in front of Charlottesville's City Hall that workers will light up as part of Friday's 'grand illumination' is costing the city $20,300, documents show.

City officials have agreed to pay that amount to City Lights, a Calif.-based company to bring the tree to Charlottesville, assemble it and decorate it with lights and ornaments. A city spokesman said it was the best deal city staffers could find in time for the lighting ceremony after another arrangement collapsed.

As workers hired by City Lights spent Wednesday putting the finishing touches on the tree, a former city Republican Party chairman criticized the all-Democrat City Council for the expenditure. Councilors, meanwhile, said they hadn't known anything about it until Wednesday afternoon.

City spokesman Maurice Jones said Wednesday that officials agreed to pay $20,300 from the city's general fund to use the tree this winter after a three-year leasing arrangement with another company fell through.

That agreement, which would have given the city a 30-foot New England pine each year for a total cost of between' $30,000 and $40,000, fell apart after the company said in November that this year's tree wouldn't have been ready in time for Friday's 'grand illumination' downtown, Jones said.

'We would have loved to have spent less for it, but it was the going market rate for it, especially when we were trying to get a tree out for the [Charlottesville] Tradition' Jones said Tuesday.

The Charlottesville Tradition is the city's downtown holiday celebration, which kicks off Friday evening with the lighting of the Christmas tree, followed by the arrival of Santa Claus and other events on Saturday.

'It's not just finding a tree' he added on Wednesday. 'It's finding someone that can do everything for you as well,' like transporting, assembling, lighting and decorating the tree.

Decorations surrounding the tree Wednesday included a white picket fence, a two-foot-high platform covered in artificial grass, about 200 ornaments, a ribbon on top of the tree and two wicker deer beside it. As part of the city's agreement with City Lights, the decorations don't represent any particular religion or religious theme.

City Manager Gary O'Connell could not be reached for comment Wednesday, and assistant city manager Rochelle Small-Toney, who approved the expenditure, referred all inquiries to Jones.

Jones said the decision by a committee that included city staffers to get a tree for the front of City Hall was an attempt to improve on last year's 'grand illumination' ceremony, in which a large evergreen tree planted in front of City Hall was lit up.

'There was a feeling among some folks that we really needed to improve on that, to make not just the tradition but the holiday season better downtown,' he said. 'I would hope that the citizens of Charlottesville would see this as we do: as another part of our effort to improve beautification around the city.'

But former city Republican Party Chairman Dale McGlothlin called the $20,300 expenditure 'unpardonable.'

'I have a farm,' he said. 'I could have cut them a tree and hauled it here from Tazewell County, Virginia. ... I wouldn't have charged them a cent.'

'There are people in this city ... who can't afford to eat,' McGlothlin added. 'I can give you a list of 500 ways to spend that money, but don't include a Christmas tree. It's ridiculous.'

Finally, he criticized city councilors and Mayor Blake Caravati in particular, who said they hadn't known about the expenditure until Wednesday afternoon. 'For the mayor to say that he doesn't know about a $20,000 expenditure is either covering his own behind or is unpardonable by the executive officer of this city,' McGlothlin said.

But Caravati said Wednesday night that there was little reason for the council to have known about the tree expenditure. 'Considering the fact that we have a $100 million budget, our jobs are very well-defined, and they're policy-oriented' he said. 'We don't get into this. That's what city managers are paid for.'

Councilor Meredith Richards said she hadn't known about the expenditure before Wednesday either. 'I think we're all curious as to what's going on,' she said. 'I'm confident there's a good explanation for it, and I want to hear it, too.'

Caravati, who is scheduled to flip the switch to light the tree on Friday at 6:10 p.m., said the burgeoning controversy lent an air of uneasiness to a normally joyous holiday season.

'I think the intentions here were obviously very well-placed,' he said. 'There was obviously some kind of breakdown in spending this money.... It was a mistake, and I'm not trying to defend it and it won't happen again, but the intentions were pure for sure'" (Jake Mooney, The Daily Progress, November 30, 2000).

The actual cost of the contract for the tree, accompanyments and installation was $20,230. The tree itself is a rental.

Blake Caravati later elaborated on the expenditure saying that his criteria for all decisions about the use of taxpayer money is what the normal person on the street would think of the value and efficiency of the expenditure.

While it is not appropriate for councilors to micromanage, it is well within their obligation to assure that the city budget is expended to maximize the taxpayers investment and it is likely that a more deliberate set of criteria and control mechanisms will be established for discretionary expenditures (Blake Caravati, electronic mail, December 3, 2000).

According to Gary O'Connell, "We were trying to meet a community need, and the time frame got to be very short and found the market rate for these kinds of trees more expensive than any of us would have liked. It is all a part of keeping the downtown a place that is attractive year round to encourage the community to visit, and shop" (electronic mail, December 5, 2000).