On Lynchburg council, support for city manager runs deep

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Romano v. Lynchburg

- Read previous stories

- Download a copy of Det. John Romano's lawsuit

- Listen to Romano's secret recording of his meeting with City Manager Kimball Payne and Police Chief Parks Snead

- Watch videos of Romano criticzing Payne before City Council and Payne's subsequent statement

Lynchburg City Council members, by and large, are not displaying any desire to take action against City Manager Kimball Payne when he comes up for review tonight.

Most members have spoken in support of Payne in the weeks since a city employee filed a $500,000 lawsuit accusing him of harassment and intimidation. A few members have openly rebuffed suggestions that the city manager should be fired.

“In my view, he’s done a wonderful job and should continue in his position,” said Councilman Michael Gillette, adding he does not expect termination will be considered during the closed-door evaluation.

Council has already completed individual evaluation forms ranking Payne’s performance in multiple areas, including integrity, leadership, staff management and professionalism. Those marks will be tallied and presented for group discussion during the in-person review scheduled for today.

Members would not directly discuss how they ranked Payne, but many continued to express a high opinion of him during interviews late last week.

“I think he’s a good person, and he’s been a great city manager,” said Councilman Ceasor Johnson. “I always try to give people the benefit of the doubt. Particularly when all I’ve seen from them before are good things. I try not to let one incident change how I feel about people.”

In August, Detective John Romano filed suit against the city alleging that Payne threatened him in violation of his First Amendment rights after he publicly criticized the city manager’s budget priorities.

The city manager is on tape confronting Romano about his comments. The recording, submitted into evidence with the U.S. District Court, captures Payne telling him that his behavior is “gonna make a difference in your career, and you’ll never be able to prove it didn’t.”

Later in the conversation, Payne apologizes and says he does not plan to do anything to Romano. The city says no action was ever taken against the detective.

The recording has raised questions about whether Payne himself will face disciplinary action for his behavior. The city manager answers directly to the seven members of City Council. Of those, only Councilman Jeff Helgeson has expressed open disapproval of Payne’s conduct. Helgeson did not return two calls for comment Friday.

Several other council members said they hope council can resolve this issue today and then move on.

“We have a whole year ahead of us and it’s going to be a challenging year,” said Mayor Joan Foster. “I think we need to get on with doing the city’s business. It’s what we were elected to do.”

Councilman Scott Garrett said he feels council needs to come to some decision and let the community know where it stands.

“We’ve got plenty of other work to do in the city,” he said. “We can’t let this sit and fester. I just believe the city needs a degree of closure.”

Garrett has said before that he will withhold judgment on the matter until after today’s talks.

Councilman Turner Perrow said he remains in complete support of the city manager heading into the evaluation. As part of his preparation for the meeting, Perrow said he listened to the recording at the center of the lawsuit.

“My opinion of the city manager is not changed whatsoever,” he said.

Vice Mayor Bert Dodson has also listened to the recording, but declined to discuss his reaction to it or its effect on his view of Payne.

“This is not the ‘Jerry Springer Show,’” he said when asked about today’s meeting. “It’s a confidential evaluation of the city manager. I’m not going to talk about my feelings.”

Dodson described the “Jerry Springer Show” as a program where “people make fools of themselves saying stuff just to get noticed.”

Council will meet in closed session to conduct the city manager’s evaluation and receive a briefing on the lawsuit. The session is tentatively scheduled to take two hours.

Council once also planned to complete its review of the city attorney and clerk of council today, but rescheduled those discussions for Sept. 22 because of concerns about time.