ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, April 22, 1996 TAG: 9604230083
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
Only a few weeks ago, the Rev. Charles Green threatened to boycott a public hearing in front of Roanoke City Council on whether the city should hold a referendum on changing its at-large election system.
But instead, the Roanoke NAACP president spent last week with his telephone receiver glued to his ear.
Tonight, for the fourth time in the past two years, City Council will entertain residents' thoughts on holding a referendum. And Green is hoping for the biggest turnout City Council has ever seen on the issue.
"We want to show the community what kind of leadership we've got. We're trying to fill up the whole City Council chamber," Green said Thursday. "That's what we're working on. It doesn't matter what their party affiliation is."
Under the current at-large system, all council members represent the entire city and voters cast ballots in every council race. Under a modified ward system, the city would be divided into districts, with at least some council members representing defined parts of Roanoke.
Critics of the at-large system argue it's a question of accountability and representation: Residents experiencing problems in one part of the city lack an advocate on council who cares about their concerns.
They also claim it shuts out candidates who can't raise enough funds for a citywide race. Running in a district would be much cheaper.
But backers of an at-large system fear wards would divide the city - much as Roanoke County found itself divided over a recent school bond referendum. And they argue it would lead to vote trading, injecting political wheeling and dealing into the largely apolitical city government.
However, the question tonight is simpler and more powerful. It's not wards vs. at-large. Instead, it's this: Should Roanoke residents be allowed to choose between the systems in a citywide referendum?
In its last two votes on the issue, City Council has said no. In 1993, it voted 5-2 to uphold a citizens' committee recommendation against switching to a ward system. Last year, council again voted 5-2 against putting the question on the ballot in November.
Why it's back again may have more to do with politics than the merits of the issue.
Since the 1995 council vote, some blacks and other members of the community have heaped criticism on Mayor David Bowers and Councilman William White, who had promised to support a referendum but voted against one last year.
White, who is not up for re-election until 1998, says he hears criticism about the 1995 vote every time he goes out into the community.
Bowers is up for election May 7 - and his Republican opponent, Pat Green, has won support among traditionally Democratic blacks by promising to vote for a referendum. Bowers recently said he has changed his mind again and now favors a referendum.
"My take on it is David Bowers is running for re-election and that he has obviously angered certain large elements of the African-American community to say the least, with going back and forth on the modified ward system referendum," said Gary Waldo, chairman of the Progressive Democratic Coalition, a group of liberal activists that include teachers, blacks, gays and union members.
"I think Bill White and David Bowers and some others are aware that it is a very important issue and priority for a significant segment of the population," Waldo added. "Not just in the black communities ... in Southeast, too."
Beth Brooks, a ward system opponent and a fixture in the city Republican Party for years, said one question council needs to ask itself is why the issue is still alive. She thinks she knows the answer.
In many other cities, it's purely a racial issue. But not in Roanoke, where three of seven council members are black despite the fact that blacks make up only about one-fifth of registered voters.
"You have to look at why people think they need a ward system," Brooks said. "They think council's been doing a bad job."
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