First-time candidates Michael Greene and Charles Niederstadt won the two Martinsville City Council seats up for election Tuesday night — with embattled Mayor L.C. Jones finishing third in the five-way race, according to unofficial results.
Greene got about 26% of the vote and Niederstadt about 25%. Voters chose them to move the city forward as a two-year municipal saga continues. City staff, elected officials and attorneys have been involved in a Virginia State Police investigation, several lawsuits, an attempt to remove the mayor and the firing of a city manager.
Greene and Niederstadt were backed by the residents who filed the petition to remove Jones from office. The two focused on the need for a functional city government and pointed out the city’s unfulfilled potential and a lack of trust with citizens.
“We’re going to run a tight ship,” Niederstadt said Tuesday night. “We are not going to waste taxpayer dollars.”
Provisional and mail-in ballots are still being counted. Jones was 317 votes behind Niederstadt late Tuesday. Tina Jenkins finished fourth and Chad Hall fifth.
The two winners raised the most money during their campaign, with Niederstadt raising more than $17,000 and Greene raising nearly $12,000, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. All three other candidates raised less than $2,000 each.
Greene and Niederstadt weren’t originally running together, Niederstadt said, but started working together and with residents after noticing their campaign signs in the same yards. Niederstadt said he wasn’t shocked by the outcome; he believed that he and Greene would win the two seats.
“We think this is the right combination to get things done on city council,” Niederstadt said. “The first thing we can do on city council is just bring back civility.”
Greene and Jones could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Greene and Niederstadt will join Kathy Lawson, Julian Mei and Rayshaun Gravely on council. Gravely and Lawson endorsed Jones and campaigned for him.
The city council will elect a mayor and vice-mayor in January after members are sworn in, according to the city council rules of procedure.
Jones won four of the six precincts in Martinsville — all with a large margin. But only 8% of voters in the southernmost precinct near Mulberry Road chose Jones.
More than 75% of the signatures on the petition filed to remove Jones were in that precinct. The mayor referred to a small group there as a “Jim Crow posse” trying to control the diverse city in a Sept. 28 Facebook post. Patti Covington, the citizen who led the petition, said she voted for Jones in 2022, among other petitioners.
Jones was elected to city council in 2022 alongside Aaron Rawls, who did not run for reelection this year.
Jones was suspended and reinstated earlier this year after Martinsville residents petitioned to remove him as mayor. A circuit judge dismissed the case in May, ruling that the petition did not include the legally required percentage of signatures.
The case to remove the mayor is tied to an ongoing Virginia State Police investigation that encompasses the entire city government, said Commonwealth Attorney Patrick Flinn. The mayor said he has not been interviewed by the state police as part of the investigation.
Jones is currently suing Rawls and the firm Sands Anderson, which was previously acting as city attorney. Jones has previously shared legal counsel with the fired city manager — who is suing the city of Martinsville, Sands Anderson and Rawls.
Candidates run as ballot independents in Martinsville council elections.
