LYNCHBURG, Va. – Many people left a special meeting for Lynchburg City Council on Wednesday with more questions than answers.
The special meeting was called by councilmen Marty Misjuns and Jeff Helgeson after an email was sent over the weekend from the city’s attorney. The paperwork the pair filed for the meeting refers to “an uncommon and unexpected condition presented in a proposal by City Attorney Matthew Freedman.”
The email was in reference to recently filed litigation involving Vice Mayor Chris Faraldi and his opponent, Peter Alexander, for the Ward IV Republican nomination.
The specific allegation Alexander is making is that there were 125 absentee ballots that were received, but the records in the registrar’s office don’t show that they were actually counted. The electoral board has since put out a statement saying it’s confident all lawful votes were counted, inferring that the failure to mark these ballots as counted is simply a paperwork error.
The email, however, along with a phone call are raising some eyebrows from the two councilmen who called the meeting.
“The state says it’s Alexander v. Faraldi, those are two people. For some reason the city attorney called me on Saturday saying maybe the city should get involved, I said absolutely not. It’s a private matter between two candidates, two opposing candidates,” Helgeson said.
Councilman Helgeson and Misjuns had a press conference planned for after the special meeting. The meeting really never happened though.
The two councilmen and Mayor Stephanie Reed were the only members of council present on Wednesday. Three members didn’t meet the standards for a quorum needed to have a meeting, therefore the meeting was adjourned before any discussion took place.
Misjuns and Helgson proceeded to start talking with members in the audience and the press about their concerns, while Mayor Reed began asking everyone to leave.
Mayor Reed spoke with the press following the meeting as well to talk about the need for the city attorney to be present.
“When you have things that regard legal matters you want to have your city attorney present. Certainly, if he’s going to be accused of things, I think he needed to be here to be able to represent himself and answer the questions and explain things. You need to have a full council present for that,” Reed said.
Now the special meeting is being pushed to next Tuesday ahead of city council’s regular meeting.