Liberty secretly videotaped meeting with mayor

A discussion about Liberty University’s zoning status heated up during a City Council meeting Tuesday when LU officials revealed they had secretly videotaped a recent meeting with the mayor and city manager.

“This is pretty shocking,” Vice Mayor Bert Dodson said.

“I have a knot in my stomach that wasn’t there 10 minutes ago,” Councilman Michael Gillette said, adding he was dismayed by the lack of trust this demonstrated.

Dodson and Gillette both criticized LU for recording Mayor Joan Foster and City Manager Kimball Payne without their knowledge. LU officials, in turn, said they made the recording in order to ensure there was an accurate transcript of the conversation and to guard against future misrepresentations.

They revealed the tape’s existence during Tuesday’s meeting in response to a disagreement over whether or not they’d been told their request for a zoning amendment would likely be met with unanimous approval by council. The tape was not played at the meeting.

Councilman Jeff Helgeson, who opened the door to the issue during council’s deliberations over the zoning request, defended LU.

“I think Liberty’s been somewhat vilified for trying to rush this through when they were led to believe that there would be a 7-0 vote,” he said.

The recording in question took place during a March 23 meeting organized as part of an ongoing effort to strengthen relations and improve communication between LU and the city.

That meeting, which included the mayor, city manager and about five LU officials, dealt in part with LU’s grievances with the conditional-use permit system. In interviews, several participants have agreed that it was the city manager who first raised the idea of LU petitioning council directly for a zoning amendment that would free it from the CUP requirements.

LU officials said they subsequently made such a request solely because they were encouraged to and because Mayor Foster told them she thought it would be met by a 7-0 vote from council.

The mayor and city manager have both since denied that any statements were made about how council would vote. Councilman Helgeson, noting there’d been some confusion, pressed them on that point Tuesday and asked several times whether certain expectations had been raised.

“No, I think I said I hoped it would be a win-win situation,” Foster said.

“Absolutely not, no,” Payne answered.

Helgeson later invited Bill McRorie, LU’s general counsel, to come forward and McRorie revealed the existence of a video recording.

“The mayor suggested that, in her opinion, it would get a 7-0 vote,” he said.

McRorie then faced intense questioning from Dodson and Gillette about how this had transpired. McRorie was present during the March 23 meeting, but said he was not aware a recording was being made and did not know how it was done.

In Virginia, it is legal to record a conversation as long as one party involved consents to it.

Foster said she was disappointed with LU’s actions, but was not angry.

“It bothers me they taped us without telling us,” she said after the meeting. “I went over there with a huge trust factor and a sincere heart. I’m trying to build our relationship. But I don’t think this means you give up on the process or you stop trying to build relationships.”

Foster said she never intended to convey during the meeting with LU that she knew how council would vote on the matter.

Council’s discussion on LU’s request for a zoning ordinance amendment began relatively sedately with members in agreement that they would not attempt to settle the issue by the May 4 elections as originally requested by LU.

Council instead voted 6-0 with one absence to hand the matter over to the planning commission so it may begin the regular review process.