The Lynchburg City Council will vote Tuesday night on which items in its legislative agenda, which can serve as a barometer of the city’s goals and priorities, will be passed along to Richmond.
The legislative agenda is a “comprehensive document of what the City Council, as a body, wants to advocate for at the state level,” wrote city spokesperson Anna Bentson in a statement. While local governments have extensive authority to make their own rules, some policy changes can only be accomplished by the General Assembly. Once a year, local governments like the Lynchburg City Council get to run ideas for those policy changes up the chain via their official legislative agendas.
It’s an important avenue that lets Lynchburg’s voice be heard in Richmond, council member Chris Faraldi wrote in a statement earlier this month.
“These proposals reflect what our citizens value most: safe neighborhoods, accountable schools, and a local government that answers to taxpayers, not Richmond,” Faraldi wrote.
There are 22 legislative proposals up for a vote at the 7 p.m. city council meeting, which will be held in the council chambers of city hall and livestreamed. The proposals were previously discussed at the Oct. 14 city council work session and were edited to incorporate feedback from the conversation.
Each item in the legislative agenda will be voted on separately, Bentson said, and those that are approved will be included in a final resolution. From there, the city’s Legislative Liaison Metchi Braun will share the agenda with state legislators, who will take the ideas into the 2026 General Assembly session, which starts in January. There, the legislative items may be incorporated into legislation which would have to be approved by the General Assembly and governor before ever affecting life in Lynchburg.
Despite the long road ahead, the proposals take a pulse on the city council’s current goals, concentrated on the topics of school systems and public safety. The full draft legislative agenda is posted on the city’s website, and Cardinal’s guide to the proposals is available below.
School funding, programs and governance
Seven of the proposed legislative items relate to the school system, making it the largest area of focus for the city council.
Lynchburg is one of twelve Virginia localities with a school board that is appointed by local government officials rather than elected by the public, according to the draft legislative agenda.
Faraldi said at the Oct. 14 work session that it’s time for Lynchburg to switch to the elected model because “it puts parents more directly responsible [for] who’s governing the school system.” He’s proposing that the city ask the state for permission to make that switch.
The legislation, as proposed, would not automatically change the model of Lynchburg’s school board but would make the elected model possible if the city so chooses.
If the city council remains responsible for appointing school board members, it should also have the authority to remove school board members for misconduct or a failure to perform duties, Faraldi said at the work session. He’s proposing that the city ask the legislature to amend state code to authorize such action, according to the draft legislative package.
Council members Jacqueline Timmer and Marty Misjuns each proposed legislative priorities relating to school funding. Respectively, they’re asking that the state’s current school funding formula be modernized to address the needs of schools with high concentrations of at-risk students and that new legislation promotes school choice by allowing funding to follow students to public, private and faith-based schools.
The three other school-related legislative proposals call for new or expanded educational programs:
- Misjuns and Council member Stephanie Reed propose legislation to establish and fund comprehensive pre-K and transitional kindergarten readiness programs;
- Reed proposes legislation to expand the Virginia Literacy Act to middle and high schools, ensuring that students who do not meet literacy benchmarks continue to receive supplemental instruction; and
- Mayor Larry Taylor proposes legislation to incorporate workforce development programs into the state’s Standards of Learning for elementary, middle and high schools.
Public health and safety
The second-largest category of proposals in Lynchburg’s legislative agenda, with five items, addresses public health and safety.
Faraldi is calling for legislation that creates mandatory minimum sentences for violent offenses that currently lack one, including domestic violence cases.
Two items seek to protect children. Misjuns and Vice Mayor Curt Diemer co-support an amendment that would strengthen residency restrictions for convicted sex offenders to keep them farther away from schools and day cares. And, Reed and Taylor co-support legislation that would enhance penalties in cases involving the use of marijuana in cars when minors are present — the goal would be to recognize that exposing children to marijuana inside vehicles constitutes both a criminal and child abuse and neglect issue, as described in the draft agenda.
Two other items, proposed by Timmer and Faraldi, respectively, address the need for mental health support: They call for modernizing the procedures that govern the emergency custody orders involved in mental health crises and strengthening mental health crisis response systems and outpatient treatment.
The treasurer’s office and other topics of the legislative agenda
One significant change, proposed by Faraldi in the draft legislative agenda, would abolish Lynchburg’s elected treasurer role and transfer the responsibilities of the treasurer’s office to the city’s finance department.
The treasurer’s office currently collects and processes state taxes, but does not process any city taxes, such as real estate taxes — that’s managed by the city’s finance department already.
The shift, putting all tax responsibilities under one roof, would improve efficiency and accountability, Faraldi wrote in his statement. At the Oct. 14 work session, Misjuns and Diemer said that the current elected treasurer position allows voters to hold the office accountable, which is a better check-and-balance system than what would exist if all tax responsibilities were concentrated in one city office.
Other proposals in the legislative agenda ask for smaller amendments to existing systems, like Misjuns and Faraldi’s respective proposals to revise state funding formulas for Human Services programs and construction grants to ensure Lynchburg gets the support it needs.
Many proposals touch on the topics that are shaping this fall’s election season, including voting rights as related to voter identification and early voting timelines, right-to-work laws and land use as related to energy policy. To see how the proposed legislative agenda aligns with Lynchburg’s state delegates’ campaigns, visit Cardinal News’ voter guide and election coverage.
