
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 14, 1991                   TAG: 9103140477
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-7   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: By Associated Press
DATELINE: NORFOLK                                LENGTH: Short

TWO-TIERED WARD PLAN SOUGHT FOR NORFOLK/

A two-tiered plan for electing City Council members was unveiled Wednesday as officials sought to settle a longstanding voting-rights lawsuit by scrapping Norfolk's at-large balloting.

The new system, which must be submitted to the Justice Department by April 5, creates two types of districts for choosing the seven council members, one that divides the city into five wards and another that establishes two "superwards."

"Each voter will be represented by two council members," Mayor Joseph Leafe said in explaining the details of the arrangement. Each voter would choose one council member from a regular ward and one from a larger ward.

Leafe said the plan has the unanimous backing of City Council, which is expected to approve it March 26.

Norfolk's at-large voting system, established in 1918, was struck down in a federal lawsuit brought in 1982 by seven black residents and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

In August 1989, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the city to conduct elections by districts instead of at large. Last October, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Norfolk's appeal.

The system that was developed to replace at-large voting will create three districts that have 60 percent or more black majorities. Two of the five regular wards and one of the two superwards will be controlled by blacks, Leafe said.

Critics of the plan said they may seek a council composed of seven equal wards.

by CNB