Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 7, 1991 TAG: 9103070326
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK LAYMAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Now, all five members are elected by district. Each January, the board holds an organizational meeting at which a chairman is chosen. As a result, Eddy said, the chairman has little status outside board meetings.
An at-large chairman elected for a four-year term, the same as the mayors of Roanoke and Salem are, would give the county "a little more clout in dealing with other local governments," he said.
That also would give county residents an elected representative from which to seek help other than the supervisor who represents their district, Eddy said.
Of course there is the risk that a chairman elected at-large would try to "throw his weight around" on the board, he said. "If you got the wrong person in that position, it could be a disadvantage for the county."
Eddy is the first supervisor to publicly call for an at-large election for chairman.
The opportunity to make a change will come this spring when, as a result of the 1990 census, Roanoke County redraws its voting district lines.
There was a mixed reaction Wednesday from others on the Board of Supervisors.
Supervisor Harry Nickens didn't like Eddy's suggestion. "I don't think you gain status by being elected at-large, nor by serving as chairman more than a year," he said. "You gain status by representing the citizens of Roanoke County and putting forth positions that merit respect."
Supervisor Bob Johnson said he was "kind of in-between." There's no doubt, he said, that a chairman elected at-large would have more prestige.
But only a couple of people showed up in January when the supervisors had a public hearing on redistricting, and that suggested that most are satisfied with the status quo, he said. "It's served us well for quite a long time. We need some impetus before we change it."
A committee - made up of Registrar Elizabeth Leah, County Attorney Paul Mahoney and Planning Director Terry Harrington - is studying redistricting plans and will make recommendations to the supervisors in a month or so.
The county is bound by certain legal requirements when it redistricts: Voting districts must be roughly equal in population, be compact and contiguous and have clearly observable boundaries. Minority voting strength must not be diluted.
And the supervisors have said that neighborhoods such as North Lakes, which now is split between the Catawba and Hollins magisterial districts, should not be divided.
Other than that, though, the supervisors are free to consider a variety of alternatives.
The size of the board could be increased to seven members, for example, to allow for the at-large election of a chairman and possibly a vice chairman.
Eddy said he likes the idea of a seven-member board, "but I want to keep my options open. We don't want a lot of screwy-looking lines."
Forty-three Virginia counties have five-member boards and 20 have seven-member boards, Eddy said, citing information obtained by Mahoney from the state Board of Elections. Three counties have nine-member boards - Fairfax, Mecklenburg and Accomack. Others have three-member boards.
At least two counties - Fairfax and Prince William - have at-large elections for chairman. A few other counties have at-large elections for board members, but it wasn't clear from the information Mahoney obtained how those boards choose their chairmen.
by CNB