Petersburg Clerks office at it again.

We shall see what she decides to do. PVC is working on some things, I'll defer to him as to what we will reveal here. I replied to her email, shown below.

Clerk:

Mr. Mcneill,

First, thank you for your concerns. However, I am not sure you read all of the code section 18.2-308 (D) in which you have referred to in your e-mail. I am not sure you if you read the the entirety of the code section. Also, the Clerk only has a $15.00 fee not $50.00. The police department requires a $35.00 fee for a background check per Sec. 74-205 of the Code of the City of Petersburg, Virginia. Page four (4) of the application which states (Criminal Background Investigation) will have to be filled out and signed by an officer or agency designee before application is complete. If you would like to mail or bring your application back into the Clerk's office, for my review, please feel free to do so.
Sincerely,

Shalva J. Braxton, Clerk
Petersburg Circuit Court
7 Courthouse Avenue
Petersburg, VA 23803-4589
Office: (804) 733-2367 Fax: (804) 732-5548

ME:

Ms Braxton,

I highly suggest that you familiarize yourself with VA 15.2-915 before you rely on Petersburg 74-205 as a defense for your unlawful requirements. Please consult with the City Attorney.

Regards,

Michael McNeill

The ball is in her court. All she has to do is voluntarily bring her process in line with VA law and this all goes away, I'll re-submit my app and not even care that it's now outside of the 90-180 day window to make the new permit start when the old one expires.

Who is Shalva J. Braxton? I thought the Petersburg Circuit Court Clerk was Benjamin O. Scott.

She is the current Clerk. Benjamin O. Scott was the previous clerk. When He was Clerk, she was Deputy Clerk. It appears though that he thoroughly trained her in his ways.

edit: I see in the link that you posted, Petersburg clearly doesn't properly maintain their website. If you search through the state site it shows Shalva Braxton as the current Clerk.

Tosta Dojen said:

Who is Shalva J. Braxton? I thought the Petersburg Circuit Court Clerk was Benjamin O. Scott.

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It appears that she is the Clerk:

http://www.courts.state.va.us/courts/circuit/petersburg/home.html

Petersburg Circuit Court
11th Judicial Circuit of Virginia

Clerk
Hon. Shalva J. Braxton
email: sbraxton@courts.state.va.us

Edit.. again. removing incorrect information.

interestingly, it seems that after all of the accounting troubles in the clerks office, Mr Scott went on to start a tax service. That is assuming it's the same Benjamin O Scott.

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and she replies.

Sir,
*
No one has denied your right to carry a concealed handgun. All we have asked you for is a completed application so that it can be processed.*
*
Sincerely,

Shalva J. Braxton, Clerk
Petersburg Circuit Court
7 Courthouse Avenue
Petersburg, VA 23803-4589
Office: (804) 733-2367 ext. 2798
Fax: (804) 732-5548

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Not sure how she intends to prove that my application was incomplete since she doesn't have it.

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builtjeep said:

Not sure how she intends to prove that my application was incomplete since she doesn't have it.

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I would guess that she made a copy of it. Good. Then you might be able to show the courts that she did/does have a copy of the 'completed' application.

18.2-308 (D) said:

The clerk shall enter on the application the date on which the application and all other information required to be submitted by the applicant is received. The court shall consult with either the sheriff or police department of the county or city and receive a report from the Central Criminal Records Exchange.

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The code says in plain language that the burden is on the Clerk's office to get the background check report after the application is submitted. Hopefully PVC or a writ of mandamus will straighten them out.

OP, make sure you make noise.
Go to every BOS meeting and complain, alert your local paper just get the word out, as the clerk is an elected offical.

My resolution . . . .

If and when this goes to court, I would suggest to the judge, that on behalf of all the potential Petersburg city citizens who have recently given-up on ever obtaining their permits as a result of this rogue office wearing down and abusing its citizens against exercising their civil rights to carry concealed, with undue complication and resistance to the letter of the law, he should order that the city clerk's office publish a notice in the local daily paper, in which they acknowledge their fault in this matter, apologise to the Petersburg public, and welcome them to reapply and receive proper processing of their applications from this date forward, with a smile.

Is that too much to ask, to encourage compliance with state law, going forward, in this, and any other matter at the local courthouse?

I'm thinking the best thing to do is to treat the date on which the documents were mailed as the filing date, wait the forty-five days, and then file a declaratory judgment action in the circuit court that the applicant is entitled from that day forward, coupled with a writ of mandamus to make the clerk do her job. I'd throw in a count for violation of Va. Code sxn 15.2-915 just to get the award of atty's fees.

Hopefully we will be proceeding with something soon. I know PVC has been quite busy lately, as have I. I can say that we have both gotten replies from the clerk saying essentially that we simply don't understand the law.

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Well obviously you don't know the law, the Clerk said so!

/sarc

I love that she is so unaware of who PVC is (she refers to him as Mr. Cleave) that she believes he's not fully familiar with the laws that VCDL lobbied for.

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Defrock said:

Well obviously you don't know the law, the Clerk said so!

/sarc

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Well....somebody sure doesn't!:lol:

peter nap said:

Well....somebody sure doesn't!:lol:

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Ignorance is fine, there was a time when I didn't know any of the things that I know now, and there are a lot more things that I still don't know. It's when ignorance is coupled with arrogance that it gets really infuriating. In our email exchange I repeatedly asked her to consult the city attorney for interpretation of the law, no go, she believes she knows what the law says and that it's on her side, despite being unable to point to anything supporting this view.

In the end, I guess some people are like mules, gotta hit them across the head with a 2X4 (in the form of a court order in this case) to get their attention. So be it.

builtjeep said:

Ignorance is fine, there was a time when I didn't know any of the things that I know now, and there are a lot more things that I still don't know. It's when ignorance is coupled with arrogance that it gets really infuriating. In our email exchange I repeatedly asked her to consult the city attorney for interpretation of the law, no go, she believes she knows what the law says and that it's on her side, despite being unable to point to anything supporting this view.

In the end, I guess some people are like mules, gotta hit them across the head with a 2X4 (in the form of a court order in this case) to get their attention. So be it.

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Exactly.

These are the kind of folks who have forgotten who it is that they work for.

I hope these efforts are a successful reminder.

TFred

builtjeep said:

Ignorance is fine, there was a time when I didn't know any of the things that I know now, and there are a lot more things that I still don't know. It's when ignorance is coupled with arrogance that it gets really infuriating. In our email exchange I repeatedly asked her to consult the city attorney for interpretation of the law, no go, she believes she knows what the law says and that it's on her side, despite being unable to point to anything supporting this view.

In the end, I guess some people are like mules, gotta hit them across the head with a 2X4 (in the form of a court order in this case) to get their attention. So be it.

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Yup... I'd be willing to tell you to just wait out the 45 day period at this point. You've done everything required on your end, you even informed them of their mistake, now let it take it's course and don't hound their office with letters until they actually do fail to follow the law.

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They've already broken the law by not accepting the application by mail, requiring multiple payments, having a fingerprinting ordinance on the books, etc, etc, etc. Not getting the application processed in the allotted time is, at this point, fairly low on the totem pole.

I'm still waiting to hear back from Philip before proceeding, but at this point time is on our side, she has been notified of the violations, asked to correct them, even asked to consult an attorney. Continuing on the current path just further demonstrates bad faith on her part.

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