The Blacksburg Town Council is starting the new year with two vacant council seats. The council will have an initial discussion about candidates to fill the two vacancies in a closed meeting at the end of its first work session of the year at 11 a.m. Tuesday.
One of the council vacancies is the seat that Michael Sutphin held before being elected mayor. The other council vacancy is the seat once held by former Councilman Liam Watson. Watson resigned from the council on Jan. 2 after being convicted of three felony charges related to election fraud.
On January 5, Mayor Sutphin issued a statement: “I understand that there is considerable public interest in these appointments, and I welcome comments from the community at large throughout the process.”
The regular council meeting on Tuesday, January 13, will include a public hearing in which Blacksburg residents can voice their opinions on candidates for the two interim appointments. Sutphin anticipates that the council will vote on the appointments at the January 27 regular council meeting.
The procedure for filling vacant council seats is delineated in Virginia Code 24.2-228. Blacksburg Town Attorney Lawrence Spencer clarified the procedure in a memo emailed to council members Dec. 5, including the following details:
- The council must make interim appointments within 45 days of the vacancies.
- At least seven days before making the interim appointments, the council must publicly announce the names of all candidates proposed for interim appointments, as well as publicly release any resumes and other materials required by the council to consider the appointees.
- On Jan. 13 (the first regular council meeting of the year), the council will adopt a resolution calling for an election for the two seats to be conducted at the November 2026 general election.
Interim appointees will fill the seats until the November 2026 election. Winners of the election will fill the two seats for the remaining period of Sutphin’s and Watson’s terms.
Currently, the council is composed of Sutphin, Susan Anderson, Darryl Campbell, Lauren Colliver and Jerry Ford.
The council has two types of meetings: work sessions and regular meetings. Work sessions are held on the first and third Tuesdays of the month at 11 a.m., at the Blacksburg Motor Company Building at 400 S. Main St. The purpose of work sessions is to introduce the council to upcoming agenda items, such as interim appointments for the two vacant seats. The work sessions prepare council members for regular meetings.
Regular meetings are held on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month at 6:30 p.m., at the Blacksburg Municipal Building, 300 S. Main St. The public is invited to attend or livestream on YouTube. The first regular meeting of the year will be held on Jan. 13.
The portion of today’s work session dedicated to considering candidates for the vacancies will be a closed meeting, as permitted by Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711(A)(1). Contact information for council members is available here.