Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 5, 1994 TAG: 9408050089
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
And a change from the present at-large system would not necessarily require a voter referendum, City Attorney Wilburn Dibling said in a report that will be presented to council on Monday.
The 19-page document, which council requested last month, cautioned against a change and threatens to reignite a political firestorm that has flared on and off for at least 20 years.
A majority of the current council has gone on record in support of a referendum on whether the city should have a ward system.
Some black citizens, joined by residents of Southeast Roanoke, appeared before council July 11 and demanded district elections. They complained that the at-large system provides them little or no representation on council. Switching to wards would better ensure that their voices would be heard, they said.
They asked for a modified ward system, under which five council members would be elected by district and the mayor and vice mayor would be elected at large.
A ward system long has been debated in the city. The most recent attempt to establish one was defeated in a 5-2 council vote two years ago that affirmed the present at-large system.
More and more cities and counties across the country are being forced from at-large systems into ward systems by the federal Voting Rights Act. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that at-large systems are illegal when they act to dilute minority voting strength and prevent minorities from being elected.
But Roanoke's system doesn't violate the federal law because blacks have been proportionally represented on council since at least 1970, Dibling wrote in the report.
Two black council members - Mac McCadden and William White - make up 28.96 percent of the seven-member council, while 21.8 percent of the city's voting-age population is black, Dibling noted.
"It is questionable whether there is any alternative electoral system that would provide fairer proportional representation for minority voters than the current system," Dibling wrote. "In fact, under the five election districts/two at-large plan proposed ... minority voting strength could be diluted."
If council decides to change to wards, it first would have to decide how many districts should be created, if any council members should be elected at large and where the district lines should be drawn.
Dibling recommended a six-month deliberation process that would include citizen participation. Council then could adopt the plan next year.
But it could take until 1998 to implement a new system, because the plan would need approval from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Virginia General Assembly.
The delay could be shortened if no voter referendum was held, Dibling added.
Reaction to the report was mixed. Councilman Jack Parrott said the report supports his belief that switching from the current system would be a bad move.
Parrott said he still supports letting voters decide but that he would work against any referendum for a ward system.
"I think we've got such great representation now. Why complicate it?" he said.
A ward system could lead to factionalism on City Council and be "very divisive," he argued. It also tends to produce politicians who are interested only in their piece of turf, rather than in the city as a whole, Parrott said.
Drawing lines could create a "massive problem" as council members attempted to carve districts around their homes, he said. Potentially, council members would be pitted against each other in competition for voting bases.
"Everybody wants his slice of the pie, and everybody wants a slice for his place," Parrott said.
Councilwoman Linda Wyatt, however, sided with a modified ward system.
"My feeling is it makes public officials more directly responsible to the people they represent. People need to have a specific person who they can go to and say: 'You represent this district. Here are the problems we see, and it's your job to go to the council and see that these problems are addressed,'" she said.
The Rev. Charles Green, president of the Roanoke chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said Dibling's argument that a ward system may dilute minority representation is a smokescreen.
"We don't care about that. We're not concerned about that at all. I'm looking at this as a citizen who wants first-class citizenry. We want representation. We don't have it now," Green said.
by CNB