The Lynchburg City Council is again preparing to decide which of its seven members will serve as mayor and vice mayor. The every-two-years decision has split the council’s Republican majority with a convoluted set of antagonisms.
Council meets at 11 a.m. Friday in City Hall to pick its leaders for the next two years.
Present Mayor Stephanie Reed, a Republican, wants to keep the job — but drew the ire of some of the council’s other GOP members in 2023 when she beat fellow Republican and longtime councilman Jeff Helgeson in the contest for the council’s top spot. Reed won by gaining the votes of two council members who ran as a Democrat and an independent.
The victory stung some of the council’s Republicans, especially since it resulted from support from outside the party. Two years of bickering followed. Last fall a petition circulated, but was not approved, calling on the city’s Republican committee to oust Reed and Vice Mayor Chris Faraldi from the party.
Faraldi gained his vice mayoral position with the same mix of party votes as the mayor.
Last year’s council election increased the Republican majority on the council to 6-1, with Democrat Sterling Wilder, who represents Ward II, left as its sole non-GOP member.
Friday’s contest is shaping up to be between Reed and GOP Councilman Larry Taylor, an at-large member of the council.
“I keep hearing my name,” Taylor said last week — then declined to say if he wanted the mayor’s job or how he would vote.
“My answer is — Jan. 3!” Taylor said.
It will take at least four votes to become mayor or vice mayor. If Reed, an at-large council member, and Faraldi, who represents Ward IV, do as they did in 2023 and support one another, as well as vote for their own candidacies, and if they again have backing from Wilder, they would need one more vote.
In early December, Marty Misjuns, an at-large council member; Councilman-elect Curt Diemer, who represents Ward III; and Councilwoman-elect Jacqueline Timmer, who represents Ward I, signed a “Pledge for Republican Leadership” that said they would only support a mayor who had four Republican votes.
Diemer, Timmer and Misjuns did not immediately reply to messages seeking comment.
Reached by phone, Wilder and Faraldi expressed support for Reed.
Wilder said, “Regardless of how her own party treats her, she continues to be the voice of reason” and called Reed “a model for our community.”
Faraldi wrote in a text that Reed had earned another two years as mayor and listed council accomplishments under her leadership that he said included improving the economy, cutting tax rates and crime, supporting education and first responders, and protecting the Second Amendment.
“As long as she wants to be mayor, she has my support,” Faraldi wrote. “Any vote against re-electing Mayor Reed is a vote against our joint Republican successes and accomplishments in city hall.”
On Saturday, Reed said that she hoped council members would base their choice on a larger goal of improving the city for all its residents.
“I would hope that at this point people would look at the work I have done in my two years in this position and how I have represented all our citizens,” Reed said.
Reed said that whatever the outcome of Friday’s decision, it would be “unfortunate” to continue the name-calling, insults and personal attacks of the last two years.
“I plan on being professional … because the citizens deserve that,” Reed said. “I know the citizens will see through any plots and schemes that anyone has in play.”
