Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 11, 1994 TAG: 9403110122
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The three Republicans say no.
But the four Democrats say they'd be willing to put the question to a referendum.
The Raleigh Court residents who showed up Thursday night at the first forum in the council campaign heard the candidates draw a sharp distinction between themselves on the ward system issue.
In the process, voters also saw the first sparks fly in the clearest, and most contentious match-up - the race between Republican John Voit and Democrat Linda Wyatt for the lone two-year seat on council.
Two years ago, a disparate coalition of interest groups - most notably, the NAACP - urged the city to adopt a "modified ward system," under which at least some of council's seven members would be elected from specific parts of the city.
The proponents claimed that would ensure more diverse representation on council.
But City Council voted 5-2 to keep the city's current electoral method, by which all council members are elected citywide.
The subject came up again Thursday as the candidates were questioned at a meeting of the Greater Raleigh Court Civic League.
Incumbent William White noted that he'd voted for the ward plan in 1992; John Edwards and Nelson Harris said only that there were "advantages and disadvantages" that the voters should decide.
Wyatt was the most outspoken proponent. "My parents live in Southeast Roanoke and there's never been a representative from that quadrant of the city on council in the time they've lived here," she said.
And there are many other sections of the city that haven't elected members to council, she said. "That is scary, very scary."
Although the city's Republican Committee backed the ward plan two years ago - partly because that would give the GOP a better chance of electing candidates in a Democratic-dominated city - the party's three candidates in this election favored keeping the current system.
John Parrott said council has always had "broad representation."
Barbara Duerk said the at-large system guaranteed that council members looked out for the interests of the entire city, not just one neighborhood.
But Voit, as was his opponent Wyatt on the Democratic side, was the most outspoken. "If you divide the city [into wards], you will Balkanize the electorate and you'll have another Yugoslavia here in Roanoke," he said.
He warned that council members elected from specific wards would be more likely to engage in "the log-rolling like we have in Congress," in which members swap votes to gain support for projects in their districts.
Voit and Wyatt also clashed on whether the city should elect its School Board.
Wyatt, a teacher, has made elected school boards the centerpiece of her campaign, saying they'd be more responsive to citizens.
Voit, a businessman, warned that elected school boards would "eliminate a lot of candidates" from consideration because they wouldn't want to run.
"Mr. Voit," Wyatt responded, "if it's too tough for you to stand up for the citizens of Roanoke [in a School Board election], God knows, you don't need to be on the School Board, because it gets rougher" once someone is elected.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB