Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 12, 1994 TAG: 9407140066
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In an action one critic said skirted the issue, council delayed a vote on the matter for at least 30 days. Instead, it directed the city attorney to prepare a report outlining possible ways to go about it.
Proponents said the at-large vs. ward-system debate is hardly new, and council should have acted rather than putting it off.
"We expected a vote today. ... They skirted it again by saying, 'Let's go for a report and get ourselves educated,'" said Evangeline Jeffrey, past president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
The decision to defer the matter followed pleas for change by 10 citizens from three of the city's four quadrants.
In the present at-large election system, there are no defined election districts and voters can cast ballots for all council members, who represent the entire city.
In a ward system, voters cast ballots only for candidates running from their defined districts, or wards. Whoever is elected represents his or her district in matters coming before the council.
Before the elections in May, a majority of the current council supported putting the issue before the voters in November. But advocates Monday urged council members to do it themselves by resolution. That would have to be approved by the General Assembly.
Opponents of at-large elections said the system encourages the city's elected representatives to pass the buck while ignoring individual problems in neighborhoods.
The Rev. Charles T. Green, president of the local NAACP, cited one glaring example. His house on Hanover Avenue Northwest is next to an abandoned, condemned property that has been boarded up for 15 years.
The city mows the property's grass only once a year, and his efforts to get the dwelling torn down have been fruitless. The only responses he can get from city officials are suggestions that he call other council members or bureaucrats, Green said.
"If I had an individual representative in my district, I would not have to go through this bureaucracy," he said.
A. Byron Smith, another Northwest resident, said city politicians are "sickening" because they show up in neighborhoods only when they're seeking votes. After elections, "you don't appear to be a friend to [anybody]," he said.
And at-large council members don't fight for residents of particular neighborhoods with problems because they're afraid of alienating voters in other areas, Jeffrey said.
"We don't have a representative [in Southeast]," said Elmer C. Fitzgerald. "Since we were annexed in 1949, it's become a dumping ground for everything the city of Roanoke doesn't want."
Proponents on Monday pushed a modified ward system that would leave election of the mayor and vice mayor at large, while dividing the city into five wards where council members would be elected by district.
After the meeting, Mayor David Bowers said council could not have voted immediately for a number of reasons. First, it had no resolution before it. Second, there are three new councilmen who aren't fully familiar with the issue. Finally, there is new case law that has to be examined before any action.
Bowers said he supports a referendum.
"If it's going to deal with a fundamental change for the system of government in this city, then I don't think I'd be comfortable making that decision. I'm not opposed to the people of the city of Roanoke expressing their wishes in a referendum."
A ward system has long been debated in Roanoke. 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.
At-large election systems in many cases have disenfranchised black voters and led to lawsuits by the federal government to overturn them. But Roanoke has historically had proportional representation of blacks on council, and speakers Monday took pains to note it is not a racial issue here.
by CNB