Interviews for vacant Staunton City Council seat to kick off Thursday afternoon

Akhil Ganesh, Staunton News Leader
·2 min read

STAUNTON — A little less than a month after former mayor Andrea Oakes resigned from city council, the remaining six members of Staunton City Council will hold interviews for the five candidates they are considering to fill the vacant seat on city council.

The meeting will be open to the public and will start at 4:15 p.m., with the first interview set for 4:30 p.m. Each interview will last approximately 20 minutes, and each successive interview will take place every half an hour. We have listed the schedule for interviews down below. You can also view the meeting online at the city's website via Zoom or via television on Comcast Channel 7.

Following the interviews, city council will open a public comment period to take feedback on the qualities that residents are looking for amongst councillors. It's important to note that the public comment period is not for speaking on specific candidates, but rather generally about the type of person that residents would like to see in that role. Residents who want to speak will each be given two minutes.

City council will then go into closed session to deliberate on the candidates before adjourning for the evening. The goal of city council is to have the new council member in place before their Feb. 9 meeting next week.

Whoever is chosen will serve until a special election is held in November, at which time residents will vote on who will finish out Oakes' term.

More on the candidates:Staunton City Council narrows list of candidates to five for vacant seat

More on the process:Who wants to be on Staunton city council?

More on the applicant pool:Why they want to be Staunton City Council's 7th member, and how they'll be graded

Interview Schedule

4:30 p.m. - Kenneth Venable

5:00 p.m. - Terry Holmes

5:30 p.m. - Graham Butler

6:00 p.m. - Wilson Fauber

6:30 p.m. - Adam Campbell

—Akhil Ganesh is the Government Reporter at The News Leader. You can contact him at aganesh@newsleader.com and follow him on Twitter @akhildoesthings.

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Interviews for vacant Staunton City Council seat to kick off Thursday afternoon