ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 29, 1997 TAG: 9701290062
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
THE MODIFIED WARD TASK FORCE is trying to come up with an alternative to the at-large election of City Council members.
When some black and some white Roanokers got together Tuesday night to decide if the city should bend over backward to assure minority representation on City Council, an interesting discussion ensued.
White members of the appointed panel argued that election district boundaries should be drawn to ensure that blacks constitute a majority in two districts of the five or six under consideration - almost guaranteeing the seat would go to blacks.
"It's real important for us not to do anything that would give anybody even the suggestion that we're trying to dilute the number of minorities on City Council," said William Bestpitch, who was representing Old Southwest. "We need to set aside a couple of districts with majority minority populations."
Black members of the task force, meanwhile, said that race shouldn't be the dominant factor, and they questioned whether it should be a factor at all.
"I want to get a greater mix of black and white voters in the individual districts," said Clarice Walker, representing the Melrose Rugby Neighborhood Forum. Agreeing was the Rev. Charles Green, past president of Roanoke's NAACP, and Dr. Walter Claytor, a retired dentist with deep family roots in Gainsboro.
"You're too concerned with race," Claytor said. "I'm more concerned with sections of the city. In Gainsboro, we're not getting what South Roanoke is getting, or what downtown is getting. Southeast is not getting it either.... The point is more representation for my part of town."
And so went another meeting of Roanoke's Modified Ward Task Force, trying to come up with an alternative to the at-large election of City Council members.
Black members of the panel didn't prevail at the meeting.
The committee, whose members represent a wide variety of neighborhood councils throughout the city, decided to rework two potential election district maps prepared by staff members of the Fifth Planning District Commission.
One has five single-member election districts, while the other one has six. The committee decided that each plan should have two districts with black populations of at least 55 percent. The result is that the other three or four districts will have enormous white majorities.
The chief reason for carving out minority districts is the U.S. Justice Department. Time and time again over many years, the federal government has refused to approve redistricting plans that dilute minority voting strength.
Roanoke is about 24 percent black and it has two black members on the seven-member City Council. Some recent federal court decisions have sided against racial gerrymandering in congressional districts.
But given a long history of Justice Department rulings against plans that reduce minority representation, City Attorney Wilburn Dibling said he's leery of any plan that would leave Roanoke with fewer black council members.
"If the minority community of Roanoke wanted to go to Washington and advocate for a totally integrated voting system, I'd go with you and be your advocate," Dibling said.
Task Force Chairman Michael Urbanski, also a lawyer, called it "the only way that would really work."
The committee was created by council last April to come up with a modified ward election system - a mix of district and at-large members - that could be put to a referendum.
Many questions remain to be sorted out in the coming weeks before the plans are taken public in March.
Those include exactly where the lines should be drawn and how large council should be overall.
The group's next meeting, which is open to the public, is 7 p.m. on Feb. 25 at Williams Memorial Baptist Church on Carroll Avenue Northwest.
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