Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 27, 1992 TAG: 9202270295
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER MUNICIPAL WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
RICHMOND WARD PLAN CRITICIZED
Richmond's ward system for choosing City Council members has increased racial polarization and hampered economic development, a political science professor said Wednesday.The racial makeup of the city's nine-member council has remained what it was when the ward plan was implemented in the 1970s - five blacks and four whites, said Thomas Morris, a professor at the University of Richmond.
The five wards with a black-majority population regularly have elected black candidates, and the white-majority wards have elected white candidates.
Morris said Richmond's ward system has discouraged the development of new political leadership because incumbents routinely are re-elected. Only a handful of incumbents has been beaten since the ward system was enacted, he said.
Speaking to a task force that is studying possible changes in Roanoke's at-large system, he said Richmond's ward system has created a division in economic and political power that has hurt the climate for economic development.
The white business establishment has economic power, but the black majority on council has the political power, he said.
"This has produced tension. There has been so much suspicion and mistrust that it has not been good for economic development," he said.
Richmond's ward system was instituted because the federal courts ruled that annexation had diluted black voting strength.
Because Virginia is under the jurisdiction of the federal Voting Rights Act, Richmond was required to adopt a system that protected black voting rights. Richmond's population is 55 percent black and 45 percent white.
Responding to questions from the panel, Morris said he believes that a mixed election system - with members chosen by wards and others elected at large - would help to offset polarization and foster a citywide perspective on some issues.
Kent Willis, executive director of the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said Roanoke has a history of electing black council members. Roanoke is not on any list of cities targeted for ACLU lawsuits, he said.
Roanoke elected its first black councilman in 1970 and its first black mayor in 1975.
Willis said the ACLU has been involved in more than 20 cases in Virginia involving black voting rights and the Voting Rights Act.
If the task force is worried about the possible ill effects of a ward system, he suggested that it might want to consider a system known as cumulative voting. Voters can cast all of their votes for one candidate rather than splitting them among several candidates.
If there were seven council seats up for election, for example, voters could cast all seven votes for one candidate or split them among the other candidates as they desired. No localities in Virginia use such a system, Willis said, but state law doesn't prohibit it.
Willis said cumulative voting could enable blacks or other groups to help elect their candidates by casting multiple votes for them.
Keywords:
POLITICS