CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Charlottesville’s City Council meets Monday for its annual organizational meeting to start the year, a session where the body will choose its leadership.

Will current Mayor Juandiego Wade serve another two-year term in that post?

“I certainly have the capacity to do it and so, if my fellow counselors feel that they want to do that, then I’m ready to serve,” Wade told Cville Right Now.

The council will definitely be naming a new vice mayor. Outgoing vice mayor Brian Pinkston lost his re-election bid, finishing third in a ranked-choice vote for two positions to newcomer Jen Fleisher and Wade.

The council also includes Natalie Oschrin, Michael Payne and Lloyd Snook, all of whom are up for re-election in 2027.

Wade listed the implementation of the city’s new zoning ordinance, designed to promote more housing inventory in an attempt to drive down housing costs, as one of the biggest accomplishments of the past year. He also pointed to the opening of the new Charlottesville Middle School as a major development for the city, as well as the purchase of property intended for a low-barrier homeless shelter.

“To be able to make these type of accomplishments in a political environment that sometimes can be really dynamic is really difficult,” Wade said.  “We had a lot of things that we wanted to accomplish and we have a great staff and we were able to do it.”

That will be the case again in 2026, Wade said, whether he serves as mayor or just as a member of council.

“What we would like to do is to address gun violence,” Wade said. “There are many individuals in this community that settle their disputes with guns. I would like to continue to find solutions towards that.”

Wade also said that work must continue on the affordable-housing front, something he believes the zoning ordinance will help with. It faced legal challenges from a group of citizens who questioned the city’s procedure in passing the ordinance without, among other things, a Virginia Department of Transportation traffic impact study.

“I would like to see more housing being built,” Wade said. “We believe that the new zoning ordinance, and now that the lawsuits are getting kind of cleared up, that that should clear the runway for more housing to be built, which would then go towards reducing the overall cost of housing in our community.”

As for his future wielding the mayor’s gavel, Wade downplayed the significance of the role he’s played since 2022.

“It’s not like cities like New York and Richmond where the mayor creates his own budget, has his own staff and things,” Wade said.  “It’s not that it’s not anything, but, (it’s) running a meeting and being the cheerleader, giving speeches and things. But, I have the capacity to do it and we’re discussing now among the five of us.”