Lynchburg At-large Councilman Martin Misjuns filed a notice of appeal on Thursday with a federal appeals court in response to a lower court’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit he filed against the city. After Misjuns was no longer employed by the Lynchburg Fire Department, he filed a lawsuit in 2021 for wrongful termination and violation of his First Amendment rights to free speech and free exercise of religion. Last month, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Ballou dismissed the last remaining claim in the case a few days before Misjuns’ lawsuit was scheduled to go to trial.

If you thought that this week’s 4-3 vote by the Lynchburg City Council to censure two members, strip them of seniority and ban them from some proceedings would lead to council members putting their disagreements behind them and joining together to sing “Kumbaya,” you’re wrong. That’s not the song they’re talking about.

One of the candidates for Lynchburg City Council is calling for change, following Tuesday's explosive meeting at City Hall and all of the drama over the last year and a half. Jacqueline Timmer, the Republican candidate in Ward I, said she thinks most of the infighting on the council is centered around who's running for mayor and who's selected. So, she's calling for a change in how that position is chosen.

Following the chaos at Tuesday's special meeting of Lynchburg City Council, some on council are trying to move forward.

On Wednesday, Lynchburg city councilman Jeff Helgeson sat down with ABC13 after an explosive city council meeting. In that meeting, four members voted to censure Helgeson, along with Councilman Martin Misjuns.

An explosive evening at City Hall ended with two council members, Martin Misjuns and Jeff Helgeson, being censured and community members blasting city leaders. Order appeared to be lost during a City Council special meeting as council members verbally sparred and community members yelled on.

The Lynchburg City Council put on a civics lesson Tuesday. It wasn’t necessarily the kind you’d find in a school textbook, but it was educational nonetheless. The immediate business was a special meeting in which, at the end, the council voted 4-3 to censure council members Jeff Helgeson and Marty Misjuns for “disorderly behavior and misconduct” for breaking attorney-client privilege by releasing an email that the city attorney sent to all council members, the argument being that only a majority of council has the right to waive that attorney-client privilege.

The Lynchburg Police Department responded Tuesday after a social media user posted comments that appeared to be threatening in relation to a city council meeting. LPD detectives said they promptly made contact with the person posting the comments, who was determined to be a 24-year-old man with special needs.

During a special meeting Tuesday afternoon, the Lynchburg City Council voted to censure Councilmen Jeff Helgeson and Martin Misjuns formally. Lynchburg City Council voted 4-3 to censure both men.

Lynchburg City Council is holding a special called meeting on Tuesday to take up a resolution censuring two of its members. The two councilmen in the sights are Jeff Helgeson and Martin Misjuns. They're under fire for "intentionally breaking attorney-client privilege and continuing to negatively impact the name, reputation of and trust in the Council for the City of Lynchburg."

The Lynchburg City Council will hold a special meeting Tuesday where it will take up a resolution to censure two of its members — Marty Misjuns and Jeff Hegelson. The resolution posted online as part of the council’s agenda would go beyond a standard censure resolution, though. It would strip both members of their seniority, reassign seating on the council dais, and bar the two council members from participating in the annual review of the city attorney.

Two members of the Lynchburg City Council could soon be in the council's bad graces after a special meeting was called to discuss whether or not they should be censured for their behavior.

Peter Alexander had sued Vice Mayor Chris Faraldi, arguing that 125 absentee ballots were not tallied in the June 8 primary. In a new court filing, Alexander said his investigation of the matter has found that the ballots were in fact counted.

The Lynchburg City School Board’s surprise decision on Tuesday night to rebuild Sandusky Elementary School was part of a larger conversation among members in discussing the future of school facilities. The conversation comes nearly 10 months after the board decided to close Sandusky Elementary and T.C. Miller Elementary School for Innovation, and expand William Marvin Bass Elementary School at an estimated cost of $15 million.

The plan to close two elementary schools in Lynchburg is changing, but it comes at a hefty price. School leaders now want to keep T.C. Miller and Sandusky elementary schools open, and rebuild Sandusky. The decision came Tuesday after hours of back and forth. LCS Board chair, Dr. Atul Gupta, said it was their best option.

A three-judge panel on Monday ordered that the two parties in a lawsuit contesting the results of a recent Lynchburg primary election can have access to a list that the registrar’s office used to keep track of which voters returned absentee ballots in that election.

The 2023 shooting deaths of three minors in three separate crimes propelled the creation of Lynchburg’s city-wide youth curfew. Enacted in May of last year, the curfew states that persons under 18 are restricted from being outdoors between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. Three Republican city councilmen voted against extending the curfew through the end of the year.

At a news conference on Monday, At-large Councilman Martin Misjuns said he and Ward III City Councilman Jeff Helgeson fear they could be censured or expelled from council for releasing a secretly recorded conversation with Lynchburg City Attorney Matthew Freedman and for releasing an email marked “attorney-client privilege.”

The drama within the Lynchburg City Council's Republicans continues to spiral in the shadow of a newly filed lawsuit. Faraldi challenged the three men filing the lawsuit to drop the suit and stop lying about (City Attorney) Freedman. "I urge Peter Alexander, Marty Misjuns, and Jeff Helgeson to stop lying, drop this baseless, frivolous lawsuit, and stop lying about the Lynchburg city attorney so the council can focus on improving the city of Lynchburg," Faraldi said.

On Monday, Lynchburg City Council members Jeff Helgeson and Martin Misjuns called a press conference to release a call from June 29 and some emails that they claim show the city attorney weighed in on the lawsuit, without the council’s proper authorization.