As it has for several years, the city again will advocate for a change to the state code section prohibiting the removal of Confederate monuments.

Virginia code section 15.2-1812 says localities cannot remove monuments to certain wars. The list of applicable wars covers most that have involved the United States and includes the phrase “Confederate or Union monuments or memorials of the War Between the States (1861-1865).”

The city recently lost a lawsuit over two 2017 council votes to remove the downtown statues of Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. A judge is now considering awarding the plaintiffs more than $600,000 in attorney fees.

The city, however, has indicated that it intends to appeal the ruling.

The votes spurred the deadly white supremacist rally that tried to unite various far-right factions on Aug. 12, 2017.

“These monuments are symbols of social and political divisions that run deep within individual communities, and each locality should have the authority to determine, through its own local political process, whether such monuments or memorials should be removed from local-government-owned property,” the priorities say.