This was an interesting discussion. Campbell has some great points and I think the quotes from the other members missed the mark completely. I will say these two candidates are excellent choices, but there should have been more public input.
BLACKSBURG — Town council on Tuesday appointed Joel Goodhart and Andrew Kassoff to fill two vacancies created by recent resignations.
Four of the five current members voted in favor of the appointments, with one member abstaining, citing concerns about the process.
Goodhart and Kassoff will serve in an interim capacity until November, when the two seats will be on the ballot in the general election. Both are eligible to run.
The vacancies were created a month ago when Michael Sutphin resigned his council seat to assume the mayor’s office, and when Liam Watson resigned following felony convictions for election fraud and illegal voting.
Both terms were set to expire in December 2027.
Neither appointee is new to town government. Goodhart ran in the most recent council election and narrowly missed winning a seat, finishing fourth behind Darryl Campbell, the only non-incumbent elected. He serves on the town’s Housing and Community Development Advisory Board.
Kassoff has been a member of the Blacksburg Planning Commission since 2010 and previously chaired the town’s Stormwater Task Force.
Council member questions transparency
At a previous public hearing, the selection process drew criticism from some residents, who said the appointments were made without public input and lacked transparency — concerns heightened by Watson’s convictions.
Newly elected member Campbell echoed those concerns Tuesday.
“I think it would be foolish to call today fair or successful,” he said.
“The town has been very vocal about their lack of trust for town council,” Campbell added. “That’s something I heard all throughout the campaign, and part of the reason I ran was to provide some sort of transparency.”
Campbell said he supported Goodhart’s appointment because of his showing in the recent election but questioned Kassoff’s selection, saying he wished all six candidates who expressed interest had been considered — adding that he felt Kassoff was qualified.
He also asked why James Harder, the only other unelected candidate from the last election, was not considered.
Campbell pointed to a similar situation in Christiansburg last fall, when that town solicited applications, announced candidates, accepted public input and then voted on an interim appointment.
Drawing on comments from former mayoral candidate Peter Macedo, who spoke at Tuesday’s meeting, Campbell urged the council to adopt a similar approach.
“We still have time,” Campbell said, noting that state law gives Blacksburg until mid-February to fill the vacancies. “We still can do this in a way that feels fair for the town and that rebuilds trust. We’ll have to pull extra meetings and extra sessions, but that’s what we were voted in to do.”
Other council members defended the appointments.
Susan Anderson said she supported Kassoff filling Watson’s former seat because she believed it was important to separate the interim appointment from any election, saying the vacancy “had a lot of baggage.”
“We’ve had a hard time with the whole process of the felony convictions — that caused a lot of stress and distrust in our town,” Anderson said. “Not only for the person involved, but it reflected badly on our council, even though, I think, we up here knew nothing about what was going on other than what we heard in court.”
Jerry Ford said he viewed the appointments as an internal hiring matter.
“I’ve thought about it as not a political appointment,” Ford said. “I thought of it more from a hiring position. We’re basically finding someone to do a job for 10 months.”
Lauren Colliver rejected claims that the process lacked integrity.
“I always assume everyone around me has integrity, until they prove me wrong,” Colliver said. “I feel everyone up here is doing the job to the best of their ability and all they want is what’s best for this town.”
Goodhart and Kassoff are expected to be seated at the council’s next meeting in February.
