Nine candidates — five incumbents and four challengers — are competing for five city council seats in Danville.

Seven of these candidates participated in a forum hosted by Cardinal News on Oct. 3, discussing housing, casino spending, the local animal shelter and collective bargaining — some of the big topics in Danville this election season. 

The candidates shared their ideas for addressing these issues at the forum and in prior interviews. 

[Want to know even more about the candidates? Check out our Voter Guide.]

Challengers and incumbents

Maureen Belko, Petrina Carter, Shakeva Frazier and Felice McWilliams are each seeking their first term on the city council. 

Belko and Carter also ran in 2022, against four incumbent candidates who were all reelected.

This year, the four challengers are running against five incumbents: Lawrence Campbell, Barry Mayo, Sherman Saunders, Lee Vogler and Madison Whittle.

Campbell was first elected to the council 16 years ago in 2008. Much has changed since that time, when the tobacco industry was still a large part of Danville’s economy, Campbell said. 

“The reason why I am running again is because I feel that my journey, in reference to the city, is not over yet,” he said in an interview. 

Mayo was elected in 2020 and is nearing the end of his first four-year term on the council. He said he is running again because he is passionate about improving the lives of Danville residents and because working on the council is very rewarding. 

Saunders was first elected to council 23 years ago, serving his first term from 1996 to 2000. He was appointed to council again in 2001 to fill the unexpired term of former council member Rep. Danny Marshall, R-Danville, who was elected to the General Assembly. 

He has won reelection in every subsequent race, and he served as mayor from 2008 to 2016. 

“I’ve been here in the Danville area literally all my life,” he said. “I have seen the changes, I have seen the growth, and I’m very proud of our city. … I’m very pleased to see that, and I would like to help that continue.”

Vogler was the youngest council member in Danville’s history in 2012 when he was elected for the first time at age 24. He has served on the council since then and is now hitting what he called the “sweet spot of having experience, but still being relatively young.”

“I have the experience to get results, but at the same time, I’m still the youngest person in that room,” he said. “I still have this drive and energy to push for new ideas and try different things and to be tapped in with a part of the community that maybe some others might not be.”

Whittle has been a council member since 2016. He did not respond to requests for an interview. 

The challengers are looking to bring a fresh perspective and different set of skills to the council, some of them said. 

“The strongest skill I believe I bring is connection and relatability,” said Frazier, who said she has been involved in nonprofits and grassroots organizations in Danville for 15 years.

McWilliams said that she was inspired to run for the city council after working as a community liaison for PLAN Danville, a group that gathered and analyzed community feedback to inform the city’s updated comprehensive plan. 

She spoke with many residents who did not feel their perspective or opinion mattered to city government. 

“I heard that comment so many times,” she said. “I’m blessed to be somebody bold, I’m not afraid to speak up.”

McWilliams wants to be a voice on the council for underrepresented parts of the city, she said. 

As in 2022, all of the challengers on the ballot this year are women. Belko’s and Carter’s loss that year kept Danville’s city council all-male, as it has been since 2010. 

This makes Danville the largest city in Virginia without a woman on the city council. Covington is the only other city in Virginia with an all-male city council. The other 36 independent cities in the state have at least one councilwoman. 

The last woman on Danville’s city council was Ruby Archie, who served from 1994 until her death in 2010. She was Danville’s first and only female mayor from 1998 to 2000. The Danville public library was renamed after her in 2018. 

How they’re involved in the community, and issues they’re passionate about

Each candidate is passionate about community work in the Southside region. Candidates’ involvement spans a variety of boards, committees, nonprofits and other organizations and initiatives. 

Belko has served on the Danville Pittsylvania Community Services Board and the West Side Community Council. She founded the Collidescope VA board, which promotes acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community in Danville, and is also a member of the Police Chief Advisory Committee and a local Rotary club.

She said she’d like to see Danville reprioritize its spending toward improving “its foundation” through infrastructure projects. 

Carter is president and CEO of the Tri-County Community Action Agency, a nonprofit that works to reduce the effects of poverty in Halifax, Mecklenburg and Charlotte counties. 

She previously was senior manager at the Virginia Employment Commission’s Danville office. These roles, as well as her time on the board of Danville’s Institute for Advanced Research and Learning and other local organizations, make her a well-rounded candidate, she said. 

Campbell is co-assistant pastor at Bible Way Cathedral Church and is involved in the Danville chapter of the NAACP. He is also a board member for Goodwill, Big Brothers and Big Sisters, the Boys and Girls Club and other local organizations.

He said he cares about climate action and wants to see a sports complex come to the city.

Frazier is the executive director of Third Chance Housing, a local organization that focuses on homelessness prevention and housing affordability, and serves on the West Piedmont Better Housing Coalition. She previously worked with the Danville Redevelopment and Housing Authority.

She has also worked with youth in the city, including with Project Imagine, a program that is targeted toward at-risk and gang-affiliated youth. She also believes that continued workforce development is valuable for the region, she said. 

Mayo works at Danville Community College with programs that train residents for employment and job preparation. He has also worked as a youth mentor and with Pittsylvania Community Action, assisting ex-offenders reentering the community. 

McWilliams is an ambassador for PLAN Danville, a member of the North Danville revitalization effort and the exhibition director for the Danville Arts League. She said she wants to work toward expanded medical resources in the area and “restored faith” in those institutions. 

Saunders serves on several local boards, including on the regional industrial facilities authorities for both Danville-Pittsylvania County and Staunton River. He is a former president of the Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce and a former board member of the county economic development organization. He has also served with groups that focus on business and reducing poverty in the area. 

Vogler is chairman for the Danville-Pittsylvania County RIFA and a member of the Staunton River RIFA. He received the Virginia Local Legislator of the Year award from the Virginia Chapter of the American Planning Association in 2017, and in 2022, Gov. Glenn Youngkin appointed him to the Virginia Small Business Commission.

Whittle is a small-business owner in Danville, specializing in property management as owner-developer of residential and commercial properties in the region. He is involved with a local Rotary club and the chamber of commerce. 

How they think casino money should be spent

Some of the candidates are more fond of the casino’s presence in Danville than others, and they have a variety of ideas about how best to spend the gaming tax revenue that the casino will continue to generate. 

The Danville Casino, a temporary facility that opened in May 2023, has already brought in millions of dollars in gaming tax revenue for the city. This revenue is expected to increase when the permanent casino resort opens, which is slated to happen by the end of the year. 

“The casino and other industries that have come in are already bringing significant revenue and visitors to our city, and how we utilize that revenue is incredibly important,” Vogler said. 

Before the temporary casino opened, the city established the Investing In Danville Committee to guide the city on how to spend gaming revenue. It is composed of residents, stakeholders and community leaders.

Belko said her biggest goal if elected is to reprioritize spending.

She criticized current councilmembers’ decision to more than triple their own salaries earlier this year  — a decision that only Vogler and Whittle voted against — while it took months to raise city firefighter pay. A study last year found that firefighter compensation in Danville was 18% below other nearby localities.

The Danville Firefighters Union endorsed Belko in September. 

“For the past several years, it seems like spending has been going toward things that are more glitzy and make a good headline. Things like a good picture for a ribbon cutting or three multi-million dollar splash pads,” Belko said. “Then we’re still facing the same infrastructure issues that we’ve been having for over a decade.”

She specifically mentioned road quality and power outages among infrastructure concerns. 

She said the city should be investing in its public services and infrastructure in preparation for the continued growth. “The responsible thing would be to put the money in the boring places that are going to make a difference on a day to day basis.”

McWilliams also said that the city should focus on infrastructure in preparation for the casino. She said she wants to call for a traffic light reassessment to make sure the number and duration of lights matches the traffic in the city. 

Vogler and Campbell both said that, in addition to addressing infrastructure needs, the city should continue its work to create quality-of-life amenities and recreation in preparation for the opening of the casino. 

“We certainly need infrastructure improvements, with the streets, with utility infrastructure, and we also need to continue to have open conversations with the private sector about having more businesses and more restaurants and more entertainment options for folks,” Vogler said. 

Campbell said during the candidate forum that he feels “deceived” and “highly disappointed” by Caesars. He said he had hoped that Caesars would bring prosperity to all areas of the city, particularly minority communities. 

“That has not happened,” Campbell said, also mentioning that it is difficult for him to support the casino as a minister. 

What they think about the animal shelter

Most of the candidates at the recent forum called for a more productive conversation between the Danville Area Humane Society animal shelter and a group that has been calling for shelter reforms. 

The only animal shelter in the city had an 83% euthanasia rate in 2023, according to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which oversees animal shelters in the state.

Best Friends, a national animal welfare nonprofit, is funding a local campaign called Danville Deserves Better to call for changes at the shelter. Tensions have been running high for months between the shelter and the campaign. 

Carter said at the candidate forum that the animal shelter is in “crisis.” An expansion at the shelter would help, she said.

She also referenced the 22.4% poverty rate in Danville, which includes 38% of children, and said it  means some families have to choose between themselves and their pets. 

“Oftentimes, when you have to make that choice, you’re going to put the animals out into the street,” Carter said. 

Campbell, Mayo and Vogler said at the forum that a conversation should be held with all parties involved to come up with solutions on how to improve the animal shelter.

“What we have to do is form a committee to come together and work those solutions out,” Mayo said. “Instead of being apart and working against one another, come together.”

But Belko said that the conversation is too heated to bring all parties together for a discussion. 

Instead, the executive director of the shelter needs a long-term plan, a full-time fundraiser and a full-time marketing staff member, she said. 

Gathering and analyzing data, as well as digitizing records for the shelter, would be helpful, Belko said, adding that her background is in data and analytics and that she is used to using numbers to solve problems. 

“Both sides want things to be better, but there’s just too much butting heads right now,” she said.

McWilliams said that she’s spoken to a lot of residents about this issue, and many of them say that they would adopt a pet if the upfront costs weren’t so high. 

She suggested that some of the casino funds be used to create a first-time pet owners program to alleviate the cost of adoption, spay and neuter surgery, and vaccines, she said. 

“I think that would save a lot of animals, if people didn’t have to have that initial cost,” she said in an interview. 

Election Day is Nov. 5, and early voting has begun.

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