From Staff Reports

The newest member of Asheville City Council will be appointed on Sept. 8, replacing former councilman Vijay Kapoor and filling the 14-month vacancy he left, council announced at its Aug. 25 meeting.

Council also announced the names of the six finalists for Kapoor’s vacancy, which runs through 2022. 

The finalists include Sandra Kilgore, Rob Thomas, Rich Lee, ZaKiya Bell-Rogers, Pratik Bhakta and S. Antanette Mosely.

The applicants will be interviewed by council members prior to the September meeting, followed by a final vote at the Sept. 8 meeting, beginning at 5 p.m.

“The vacancy has drawn wide interest with 30 applying for the seat. Thomas, who made the final list, has been a leading activist for reparations for black residents and police defunding,” the Asheville Citizen Times reported in an Aug. 25 story. “Also making the cut are two candidates on the ballot for the regular Nov. 3 council elections, Sandra Kilgore and Rich Lee... Not selected was former North Carolina Democratic Chair Patsy Keever, the applicant with the highest level of political and government experience who served as a Buncombe County commissioner and state legislator.”

The ACT also noted, "A majority of the finalists — Kilgore, Thomas, Bell-Rogers and Mosely — are black, a fact striking for a city with less than a 12 percent African-American population. But the selection comes as Asheville, like the much of the nation, faces a racial reckoning after black Minneapolis resident George Floyd died under the knee of a police officer in May. Of Asheville’s current six members, two are black, Sheneika Smith and Keith Young.”

Kapoor was the top vote-getter in the 2017 election. He also was the first Asian-American elected to Asheville’s council and the first resident of South Asheville to serve on council since 2005.

Meanwhile, Mayor Esther Manheimer has told local news media that council members have agreed on several of the finalists, but neither she nor council members would reveal who they are supporting.

“These are all the people that received even one request to be interviewed. There was some, as you can imagine, some overlap among council,” Manheimer was quoted by the ACT as saying.

As for qualifications, applicants had to be eligible to cast votes in city elections, were required to submit a resumé and to answer six essay questions.

Prior to his Aug. 8 departure, Kapoor had declined to publicly endorse a replacement.

However, as Asheville television station WLOS (News 13) reported on July 28, “Kapoor is asking members to select someone from South Asheville, the part of town where he resides, saying ‘I remain convinced that every part of the city should be represented by a council member.’” His term runs through 2022.

Also, he repeatedly has said that the individual replacing him should have governmental experience and should promise not to run in the next election because incumbency gained through the appointment would provide an unfair advantage.

Council elections are nonpartisan, so the process to fill a vacancy differs from that of bodies such as the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners, for which the party of the former member picks the replacement.

“Some had called for a special election, saying that would be more democratic, but the county’s top elections official said the city’s rules mandated an appointment,” the ACT reported

Kapoor announced in March that he would be resigning his seat on council to spend more time with his family. Kapoor left council on Aug. 8. In the aftermath, reportedly 44 people applied for Kapoor’s seat.

In a statement in March, Kapoor said:

“I’m proud of the contributions that I have helped to make on council, including advocating for long-term financial planning as part of our budget process, and pushing for a focus on our neighborhoods, core city services and appropriate pay for our employees....”