Lynchburg City Council candidates spar over schools, economy during town hall | Govt. and Politics | #citycouncil

Six candidates vying for three at-large Lynchburg City Council seats answered questions on topics including schools, the local economy and community engagement at a town hall forum Thursday night.

New candidates Patrick Earl, Martin Misjuns, Larry Taylor and Walter Virgil Jr., along with incumbents Treney Tweedy and Vice Mayor Beau Wright, participated in the event hosted by the Lynchburg Voters League at Diamond Hill Baptist Church.

A seventh candidate for city council, Stephanie Reed, was invited but was unable to attend, according to James Coleman of the Lynchburg Voters League.

City council is made up of seven members, four of whom represent the city’s four wards and three of whom are chosen at large. This year, all three at-large seats will be on the ballot, with the three highest vote-getters earning the three seats on council. Election Day is Nov. 8.

The topics of education and budgeting dominated the dialogue at the town hall, sparking debate on how current and past councils have funded Lynchburg City Schools.

Misjuns, a former fire captain who has been endorsed by the city’s Republican committee, has made education one of the pillars of his campaign, highlighting that his wife is a public school teacher, and he argued funding for LCS has been going into the wrong pockets in recent years.

“At the local level, we haven’t been investing in our classrooms, but we’ve been bloating administration. Our teachers deserve more because they impact lives for the kids. We need to put the money where the kids are, not in the office building,” Misjuns said.

“When the administration salary has increased at 10 times the rate of inflation over the last 10 years, but instruction hasn’t kept up … there’s something going on there that doesn’t make sense.”

Tweedy pushed back against Misjuns’ “bloating administration” comment, saying “everyone needs to be paid their value,” even administrators in the LCS system.

“When people say there’s a bloated budget, that means you’re going to cut some of those services they just put in place for the kids who are traumatized and need additional support one-on-one to learn.”

Misjuns argued LCS is cutting those program anyways, pointing to the school system’s decision to cut the special education budget by nearly 25% in the 2022-23 school year budget. 

Patrick Earl, a Randolph College theater professor, also said teachers should be paid more, and he advocated for more help for students outside of the classroom in order to ensure the mental health of the students.

“Mental health is a huge thing and we forget that even kids need just as much, if not more support than adults,” Earl said. 

Earl argued for the importance of the recent LCS facilities assessment — which showed the system has too many school buildings — saying the children need to be thought of when it comes to the decision to close down or build new schools in the city.

Virgil, a community activist who works at Liberty University, has approached education with the idea of showing teachers they are valued because they are the ones who have the closest experience with the students.

“We are definitely looking at making sure the teachers know they are valued,” Virgil said, “and that we believe in the work they are doing. We’ve been hearing from teachers all over the city … about concerns that they have and they are looking to be supported, as well as effective compensation.”

He argued fostering strong relationships between teachers and students will help create trust and create a better learning environment for both parties.

Wright, who was first elected to council in 2018 and now serves as vice mayor, argued against calls to cut back on funding for the school system, questioning how that can lead to positive results for LCS, while also pushing back against the argument that administration salaries are bloated.

“I don’t happen to believe that decreased funding equals better outcomes,” Wright said. “That has been a red herring of our Republican friends on council for years. They’ve wanted to cut funding for public education, they’ve said it on the dais. I happen to believe that you get better outcomes when you invest more. You get what you pay for.”

Taylor’s arguments for LCS were based around the creation of more skills-based learning, saying the school system should create times in the afternoons to teach student trade skills to create a “productive society.”

“We need a skills-based education, and we also need to stop allowing the students to intimidate the teachers,” Taylor, a carpenter by trade who has been endorsed by the city’s Republican committee, said during his time to speak on the school system.

Taylor also went on the offensive in regards to the city’s budget, saying council was investing $370,000 into smart, solar-powered trash cans instead of helping get homeless people into shelters.

“We got a problem, we got a budget problem right here if we can put that much money in trash cans and people are sleeping in public areas up on the street across from the United States Post Office,” Taylor said.

As a rebuttal, Tweedy argued investing in such trash cans saved the city money because waste workers do not have to constantly drive around to see if trash cans are full in the city.

Candidates addressed several other issues throughout the night, including small businesses, neighborhood centers, real estate development and crime.

Taylor said leading by example as a Black business owner is one way to make sure minority-owned businesses are supported.

“Minority businesses need to help each other,” Taylor said. He added minority business owners cannot rely on local government to give them a hand, saying, “We build ourselves up.”

Tweedy, who has prioritized local business during her campaign, said there are many ways for minority businesses to get help through the Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance.

“We need to do a better job marketing for minority businesses. We need to do a better job across the community of knowing where the minority businesses are,” Tweedy said. “And through the economic development incentives we put in place, teach these businesses how to expand their presence throughout the community.”

Virgil argued organizations and businesses that “put skin in the game” by helping out members of the community should be the ones to receive more attention.

“It’s important for us to understand that there’s organizations that are stepping out there,” Virgil said, “and those are the organizations that we need to get behind to push them over the hump so they can serve the community in that regard.”

Wright touted council’s recent accomplishment of improving every neighborhood center in Lynchburg.

“This council actually increased funding for neighborhood centers,” Wright said. “It was previously several hundred dollars for programming per year per neighborhood center … not only did we make sure that every neighborhood center was renovated and beautiful … we’ve increased the annual budget.”

Wright said during the town hall that he would consider looking at increasing the budget for neighborhood centers further than what council has already done, primarily to allow for extended hours at these centers.

Earl laid out a plan to create more affordable housing in Lynchburg, an issue he thinks can be addressed by collaborating with incoming developers.

“You say, ‘OK, if we need to increase our population density, we need to build buildings with more people in them.’ Give [developers] incentives to provide units as affordable housing,” he said, “because we don’t want to concentrate poverty. We don’t want to put them in a single place. We’ve tried that in America.”

“Just because you don’t make enough money doesn’t mean you have to live in a certain ZIP code,” Earl would go onto say.

Misjuns spoke about budget surpluses, saying residents of Lynchburg haven’t had enough relief in recent years.

“You’re hurting right now. I’m hurting right now. We’re all hurting right now,” Misjuns said about taxes and inflation. “Today, is your life better off than it was two years ago? Four years ago? Are your finances better off than they were two years ago or four years ago?”

The Democratic candidate for Virginia’s 5th congressional district, Charlottesville resident Josh Throneburg, was at the town hall. The voters league invited incumbent Republican Congressman Bob Good, but he was unable to attend.

Throneburg, who did not weigh in on any topics specific to Lynchburg, made his pitch to be considered over Good, calling his opponent a “threat” to same-sex married couples, pregnant women, and teachers due to several votes Good has made in Congress.

“We just need better leaders,” Throneburg said of his rival.

After the town hall finished, the Lynchburg Voters League told The News & Advance it endorses Tweedy, Wright and Earl for the three at-large seats on city council.