Mayor, Falwell come to terms after poll flap

Mayor Joan Foster and Liberty University Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. expressed a new sense of understanding and cooperation Friday following a more-than-two-hour meeting.

“It was a very good conversation,” Falwell said. “I think, if we’re not in complete agreement on the issues, then we’re close.”

He added that he and Foster have been friends in the past and described their meeting as a “nice reunion.”

Foster, who initiated the sit-down in the midst of escalating tensions over the recent polling place controversy, said she felt both sides had gained a better understanding of the other’s perspective and added they were committed to keeping the lines of communication open in the future.

“We are going to continue to talk,” she said. “We need to have more conversations.”

The mayor and the chancellor met privately Friday afternoon to discuss the recent conflict and air out some of LU’s concerns about the city government.

Speaking afterward in a joint interview, they said they now realize they’ve had different understandings of how some initiatives — such as a zoning proposal that could alter the city’s approach to college construction — might end up affecting LU.

They said those and other matters still required further research and discussion, but appeared more hopeful that they could work together moving forward.

Falwell, who recently criticized what he felt was an anti-LU agenda harbored by Foster and four other council members, said he recalled during the meeting that Foster has supported nearly every LU issue that’s come before council during her eight years in office.

“There were a few things that were controversial that she went with us on,” he said. “All of that kind of gets forgotten when people are upset over a polling place. She kind of got painted with a broad brush.”

“I don’t know if I should say this,” he added, “but I’m convinced that Joan is different than the other four.”

Falwell and many other members of the LU community were incensed recently over City Council’s rejection of two university-adjacent polling place sites, which they suspect was a political tactic aimed at stifling the influential new bloc of LU student voters.

Council has denied any political motives in this matter. Specifically criticized by LU for their role in the polling place decision were Foster, Vice Mayor Bert Dodson, Councilman Michael Gillette, Councilman Ceasor Johnson and Councilman Randy Nelson.

Foster, who announced her bid for re-election earlier this week, said she and Falwell still disagree over that issue. “I do feel the polling place needs to be centrally located,” she said, noting that neither LU-backed site fit that bill.

Foster is one of five candidates so far to file for a spot on the ballot in this year’s at-large City Council elections. She said she was “honored and humbled” by Falwell’s reappraisal of her work in office following Friday’s mini-summit.

Petska is a staff writer for The News & Advance in Lynchburg.