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

DATE: MONDAY, April 4, 1994                   TAG: 9404040060
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Dwayne Yancey Staff Writer
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SO FAR, COUNCIL CANDIDATES DON'T DISAGREE ON A WHOLE LOT

George Bush was never known as much of a wordsmith, but on his election night in 1988, he offered a memorable description of what the political process is about: "A campaign is a disagreement," he said. "An election is a decision."

If that's so, then the race for Roanoke City Council isn't much of a campaign, and voters may be left with little to decide.

So far, the seven candidates for four council seats have appeared at three candidates' forums - and have found little about which to disagree.

To be sure, the two candidates for the lone two-year council seat are distinguishing themselves.

Democrat Linda Wyatt says her campaign is about making council more "responsive" and proposes a series of informal forums around the city. She's also made elected school boards the centerpiece of her campaign.

By contrast, Republican John Voit says he "entered this race to sound an alarm" about the city's demographic future. With Roanoke's population becoming older and poorer, the city has no choice, he says, but to turn some government functions over to private contractors and to cooperate with neighboring governments, especially on economic development.

"We have the needs in the city and other localities have the money," he says. If the city doesn't cooperate, he warns, "it'll be the poor people, the old people and the black people who get the shaft."

Wyatt's and Voit's positions are not necessarily contradictory, of course, but they do suggest the candidates have different priorities about what they'd emphasize on City Council. And they disagree outright on how aggressive the city should be in making sure minorities are hired as contractors and subcontractors on the Hotel Roanoke project. Wyatt says she'd "count noses"; Voit says he'd leave it up to the city administration to see that minority businesses are informed about how to bid.

But the five candidates for the three four-year terms haven't shed much light yet on where they differ.

Nelson Harris, a Democratic candidate, predicts that a flurry of question-and-answer sessions before neighborhood groups in April will be more informative than the ones in March have been. So far, he says, the candidates have been asked the same questions, mostly about whether they favor putting a ward system to a referendum (they all say yes) and whether they favor increasing minority hiring for city jobs (yes, again).

Come April, Harris says, "I think we'll start getting different questions and then some differences can emerge."\ \ Meet the candidates

There'll be five candidate forums this week. They are:

\ Tuesday:

Omega Psi Phi fraternity, 6:30 p.m. at Lowell's Restaurant on Melrose Avenue.

Southeast Action Forum, 8 p.m. at Old No. 6 firehouse on Jamison Avenue.

\ Wednesday:

Kiwanis Club, noon at Radisson-Patrick Henry Hotel on Jefferson Street.

\ Thursday:

Wildwood Road Civic League, 7 p.m. at Thrasher Park Center on Gus Nicks Boulevard.

Williamson Road Action Forum, 8:15 p.m. at Preston Park Recreation Center.

by CNB