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RICHMOND -- Gov. Tim Kaine spent 2¹₂ hours with families of the Virginia Tech shooting victims Saturday, hearing their concerns about his panel's investigation of the campus killings and their struggles to cope with the tragedy.

Kaine and senior aides met privately with 40 relatives of 17 families at the state Capitol, while relatives of five other victims listened by telephone. Kaine arranged the meeting after some relatives of the shooting victims complained that they had been excluded from the work of the panel. During the meeting, he also heard other concerns in the aftermath of the shootings.

"I thought the governor was straightforward and candid with us," said Holly Adams-Sherman, mother of victim Leslie Sherman. "His wife was with him and she was very sensitive. We talked around the room and there were some questions that were not confrontational, but were pointed, edgy."

Kaine has defended the work of the panel chaired by retired Virginia State Police Superintendent Gerald Massengill. The governor said he picked the members for their "expertise and impartiality" and will not change the makeup of the group. But Kaine said he will "create a structure" to give families greater access to the panel and will announce a plan within a few days.

Thomas Fadoul, a lawyer who said he is working with 20 of the families, said he, too, was optimistic.

"There are many ways to skin this cat," he said. "We are completely willing to work through the logistics of how it gets done."

Yet prior to the families' meeting with the governor, Adams-Sherman said she was bracing for conflict.

The Springfield resident, who is an inspector general with the Office of Naval Research, said unlike some of the relatives she was meeting, most of her concerns had been addressed with the governor's executive order.

"Really, my issues are in a holding pattern because now the only thing I have to wait for, if I'm going to have issues, is the panel's investigative report," she said.

Adams-Sherman said she left the meeting feeling good about what had happened.

"I thought he [Kaine] was genuine," she said. "I thought he had genuine concern for the families."

Adams-Sherman, her husband, Tony Sherman, and their daughter Lisa, 19, were some of the first family members to leave the meeting with the governor, just as consultant Vincent Bove criticized the Tech administration's response.

Bove, a security educator from New Jersey who has done work related to Sept. 11 and the Columbine High School shootings in 1999, railed against university leadership and called for more transparency and fewer "cover-ups" in the investigation.

Bove said the university showed negligence in its handling of shooter Seung-Hui Cho and in its reaction to the first two shootings at West Ambler Johnston dormitory.

"The incident at Virginia Tech was preventable," he said. "There were so many balls that were dropped."

A Kaine spokesman said some family members raised concerns about a lack of communication with the university. Some family members will also meet with Tech President Charles Steger next week.

Celeste Peterson of Centreville, the mother of slain student Erin Peterson, said the panel "is trying the very best they can" but that the needs of the victims' families should not be forgotten.

"My future is gone," she said. "If you focus on anything, focus on that."