The council member comments near the end of regular Radford meetings often involve highlighting events, recognizing good deeds and mentioning other more mundane items.
And at the Sept.14 meeting, Councilman Guy Wohlford started his comments by congratulating the city’s high school football team for its first two wins of the season.
Then Wohlford went in a different direction. He urged people to vote against the three state constitutional amendment referendums on the Nov. 4 ballot — the first to guarantee a right to reproductive healthcare, including abortion; the second to remove a ban on same sex marriage; and the third to automatically restore voting rights for felons who serve their time.
“Being a man of faith, a believer in Jesus Christ, but by no means a sinless man, I feel compelled to comment on these amendments,” Wohlford said. He then quoted Bible verses as evidence for his opposition to the first two amendments — and said he believes the third is not needed because felons already have a process to get their voting rights back.
Prefacing his comments by acknowledging he’s not a lawyer, he said he believes the first ballot question could allow an abortion up to birth. And on the second, he said marriage should be between “one biological man and one biological woman.”
To close his remarks, Wohlford encouraged those not registered to vote to do so to “perform your duty.”
Mayor David Horton then recognized Councilwoman Jessie Foster for her comments. She looked down the dais at Wohlford and quipped that she was going to repeat some information from earlier in the meeting but “not so much what you’ve just heard.”
The situation prompted more thoughts from all the council members except one in recent days.
Horton said he has not spoken with Wohlford about his comments,
When asked what he thinks about them, Horton said he does not believe Wohlford’s comments were outside of any council or state law or rule.
But he added that “I don’t think it’s advisable for someone serving in an elected role to tell someone, this is the way I think you should vote. But that’s my opinion, just as Councilman Wohlford was sharing his opinion.”
For Mark Flynn, attorney and former general counsel for the Virginia Municipal League, Wohlford’s comments were not in violation of any city rules he reviewed. “This is the limited public forum, where the city has the authority to restrict what people say to the subjects that are before the council. I looked through the city charter, couldn’t find anything, looked in the city code, couldn’t find anything.” He added that there may be some council procedure documents that have not been made available online.
Said Foster: “I know that Mr. Wohlford’s faith is very important to him, and I know that he feels very strongly with what he said, and I totally can respect that,” she said. “I personally just feel like our role is to be a facilitator of information, and people then make their own decisions, and I try not to impart my own personal decision and influence other people’s voting patterns while I sit up there.”
Vice Mayor Seth Gillespie, who is running unopposed for mayor this year, said he has no issues with Wohlford’s comments.
“I think every member on council is free to express their beliefs and where they stand on certain issues,” Gillespie said. “Trying to silence or restrict any member’s First Amendment rights would be inappropriate. I think council has done a great job of expressing their views and opinions, even when they sometimes differ from one another, in a respectful and proper way.”
Wohlford, in an email to Cardinal News, said, “I stated my deeply held beliefs on the three constitutional amendments. I certainly realize that other citizens may not hold to those same Christian values. Values that I live and order my life by. I respect their personal and legal right to differ in thought and practice to that of my own.”
Continuing, he said: “I find it wholly appropriate to use my individual comment time to let the citizens know of these reservations and exactly why I have them,” adding that any prohibition on such speech would be “absurd, and frankly, un-American.”
The city’s fifth council member, Kellie Atrip, as well as the city attorney, Michael Bedsaul, did not respond to messages left for them.
For more on this year’s elections, see our Voter Guide.
