ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 14, 1996 TAG: 9601150047
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
FIVE OF SEVEN SEATS on Roanoke City Council are up for election in May. Does anybody care?
The scene was a Nov. 3 Roanoke City Council ``visioning'' workshop in a small conference room at Roanoke Regional Airport.
The topic of the moment was citizen involvement. Or, perhaps, noninvolvement. A couple of council members wondered out loud why hardly anybody shows up at council meetings on a regular basis.
Beyond city administrators and other staff members, ``regulars'' at council meetings number only three. Two of them - Gainsboro activists Evelyn Bethel and Helen Davis - are sisters who live together.
The low turnouts are evidence, City Manager Bob Herbert said at the workshop, that city residents are satisfied with their government and the services it provides.
Herbert said the credit goes to the city administration's Neighborhood Partnership. It serves as a network for city and community leaders, keeping residents informed of government actions that affect them.
And council doesn't know how lucky it is, Herbert added. Administrators from other localities are astonished when he tells them that Roanoke residents turn out in large numbers at only about four council meetings annually, he said.
``In other cities, people are lined up at council meetings every week,'' Herbert said. He cited media reports from outside Western Virginia that have called Roanoke a ``national model'' for government-resident involvement.
The notion of council getting in touch with residents probably was timely.
This May, five out of seven seats on Roanoke City Council will be up for election, including the mayor's post. To stay in office, council members need the votes of the people who aren't showing up at meetings.
Herbert, of course, may be right. Roanoke residents may be so happy with schools, police, their roads, water, sewer service and taxes that they feel no compulsion to be council watchdogs.
On the other hand, the opposite may be true. Could people believe that council doesn't care what they think?
Interviews with some residents who have turned out at council meetings in recent months suggest that apathy, rather than satisfaction, may be at least part of the cause of empty council chambers.
Last March, council took up an issue that has dogged Roanoke's political agenda for decades: changing the current at-large elections to a modified ward system, where at least four council members would represent defined sections of the city.
More than 50 residents turned out at the meeting, probably more than at any other meeting last year.
The question was if the city should have a referendum and let voters decide whether or not to go with a ward system. Every council member had in the past supported leaving the choice to them.
But council voted 5-2 against a referendum, with Councilwoman Linda Wyatt and Councilman John Edwards (who has since moved on to the state legislature) on the losing end. The vote prompted one local activist to call those in the majority ``liars and deceivers.''
Last May, Tina Puryear and about 40 other residents of Springtree in Northeast Roanoke turned out to protest a rezoning that would allow an asphalt plant near their homes. Council voted 7-0 in favor of the rezoning for Branch Highways.
``What could you do about it? We caused a ruckus. We raised our voices,'' Puryear said recently. ``They saw our petitions. The response was, `We're going to kick you in the teeth.' I really got disheartened over the whole thing.''
``It's like, as far as council goes, there's no democracy, as far as an individual voice,'' another Springtree resident, Jim Phillips, said months after the decision.
Bethel, the Gainsboro activist who shows up at nearly every council meeting and often speaks her mind, says she urges others to come. Their responses are remarkably similar to sentiments voiced by the Springtree residents, she said.
``Basically, the comment that I have heard is that `It doesn't do any good to go to City Council,''' Bethel said. She added that she doesn't share that view.
``Most people who I have talked to believe that City Council has made up its mind on issues and it doesn't do any good ... to express their views,'' she said. ``I say, `Don't you vote?' They say, `Yeah, I vote, but they don't come around, they don't do any good for you.'''
Bethel also believes that inconvenient scheduling of council meetings suppresses turnout. Two-thirds of council meetings are during workdays, with only one night meeting per month. And council has changed the dates and times of its meetings three times in 11/2 years, she noted.
For their part, at least some council members recognize that there may be a problem. City Councilman William White believes the Neighborhood Partnership networking is valuable, but fears it overlooks many residents who aren't part of the network.
``We do a lot of things, but we're not getting to the ones who are most affected, most vocal,'' White said. ``The ones we do deal with are the ones that seem to be the most satisfied. Those folks get trapped in it - they become a part of the system.''
Councilman Mac McCadden believes there's responsibility on both ends, although he thinks the administration is fulfilling its role by giving residents an opportunity to be heard. The rest is up to them.
``A lot of it is apathy,'' McCadden said. ``They give up easily when they don't get what they want.''
Wyatt said she believes the lack of turnout is partly a nationwide symptom of feeling isolated from government. She's hoping council's visioning process, which has gone on for a year now but so far hasn't included residents, will change that.
Council is expected to begin soliciting the public's views on a vision for Roanoke this spring.
``I wish these chambers were packed every week with people saying, `This is my government and I want to stay in touch with it,''' Wyatt said. ``I believe when people feel they have ownership in this government, that's when you'll see things happen.''
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Who's in charge at City Hall? Come May, you will be. That's when five of the seven seats on Roanoke City Council will be on the ballot, the most since 1976. What should this election be about?
We'd like to hear your ideas about what's at stake in this election - and what issues the candidates for mayor and council should address.
Let us know so we can follow up:
PHONE: In Roanoke, 981-0100. Press category 7821.
FAX: 981-3346.
E-MAIL: roatimesinfi.net
WRITE: Dan Casey, The Roanoke Times, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke 24010
Please include your name, address and phone number.
LENGTH: Long : 125 lines KEYWORDS: POLITICSby CNB