Charlottesville leadership is under heavy scrutiny.

After Heather Heyer was murdered, after two state troopers died in a helicopter crash and after the world has seen images of the violence that occurred on the town's streets, people want answers.

There has been widespread criticism of the Charlottesville police force's response to the rally.

Some on the ground, including philosopher Cornel West, have said that the police didn't do enough to ensure that there was no violence, and that it is only thanks to antifa that more people weren't injured or killed.

"You had a number of the courageous students, of all colors, at the University of Virginia who were protesting against the neofascists themselves. The neofascists had their own ammunition. And this is very important to keep in mind, because the police, for the most part, pulled back," West told Democracy Now!. "For example, those 20 of us who were standing, many of them clergy, we would have been crushed like cockroaches if it were not for the anarchists and the anti-fascists who approached, over 300, 350 anti-fascists."

Charlottesville citizens weren't having it earlier this week when their elected officials attempted to have a city council meeting that ignored the events of the Unite the Right rally. Protesters at the meeting unfurled a sign reading, "Blood on your hands," and there were calls for officials' resignations.

In light of these demands, Charlottesville's leaders met late this week in a closed-door session to talk over "personnel matters," according to the Associated Press.

Before the meeting began, Charlottesville's mayor, Mike Signer, released a long statement on Facebook washing his hands of any blame over what occurred during the rally and explaining away his absence during a part of the contentious city council meeting.

"When I temporarily left the city council meeting on August 21, I needed to talk and meet with and reassure my very worried wife, which I felt I had no option but to do," Signer wrote.

Of criticism over poor security during the rally, Signer blamed Charlottesville's system of government.

Signer said that while he knows his constituents want answers, "in our city manager form of government — a system that goes back to the Progressive Era, and which every city and county in Virginia other than Richmond has — the mayor and council unfortunately cannot provide many of those answers."

The reason, the mayor wrote is that "the police chief reports to the city manager, who has total operational authority over operations like the ones on August 12. The mayor and council have no operational role."

The mayor did say that the city "council is responsible for hiring and firing the city manager," but did not explain why the city manager will not be fired over how rally security was handled.

Signer wrote that he did all he could to be helpful to the chief of police, Al Thomas, before the rally. According to the mayor, Thomas told him to "stay out of my way."

The mayor acquiesced, and carnage and death resulted.

During the rally, Signer claims that he was barred from the city's command center for the event, and that he was forced to watch things unfold from the sidelines.

Now that tragedy has struck, the mayor admits that there are now "serious questions about the city's handling of security, communications, and governance."

To answer these questions, the mayor wrote that he has ordered "an independent review of all decisions related not only to August 12, but the July 8 KKK rally and the prior torch-lit rally at Emancipation Park."

It is unclear what was accomplished during the closed-door meeting. Vice Mayor Wes Bellamy told the AP that council members discussed "an array of different things that transpired and how we can improve" during the meeting, but refused to elaborate.

Signer told gathered reporters that gathered after the meeting that Chief Thomas and the city manager, Maurice Jones, had not lost their jobs.

Mike Signer

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