THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 21, 1994 TAG: 9408190208
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 07 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
As an active civic-league representative to the Council of Civic Organizations for more than 20 years and a former director of that organization, I have for many years supported the CCO's efforts to effect reapportionment to equal-population districts. However, when the so-called ``CCO Plan'' was developed by the CCO's Reapportionment Committee, primarily Mr. Maury Jackson, I and others were surprised to learn that it included the recommendation for a ward system. Mr. Jackson confused some of us, and assuaged others perhaps, by stating that we should vote for the petition even if we didn't agree with the wording because the petition was not an endorsement of the CCO plan but an endorsement of the right of voters to choose.
Yet the CCO's later advertisements prior to the election implied that all who signed the petition supported it. Thus to state that the CCO membership voted for the plan is somewhat questionable, particularly so when less than a legal quorum of eligible voters participated in that vote.
The full-page ``paid political advertisement'' sponsored by the CCO et al. which appeared several times in our local newspapers prior to the election was headlined in one-inch bold letters, ``VOTE YES for REAPPORTIONMENT'' (with no mention of the ward system). Among the smaller-print statements listed in that ad as rationalizations to vote for the referendum, was the specific claim that it ``will increase the opportunity for candidates representing minority views and constituencies to be elected.''
Our city attorney has correctly advised that the demographics of Virginia Beach simply preclude the improvement of minority electability in Virginia Beach by adopting a ward system.
The city's current at-large system is the ``purest form'' of the one-man, one-vote principle because every voter's vote currently carries exactly the same weight. Actually we would deviate from one-man, one-vote if we adopted a ward system unless all districts were exactly equal in population and continuously remained so - a virtual im-pos-si-bil-i-ty.
The CCO's statement that the ward system ``will make the City Council elections less vulnerable to special interests'' has been proved by history to be generally false. Money, power and influence simply poured into the wards from outside sources, finding it even easier to control (and corrupt) smaller election districts.
The CCO's advertised statement that this issue ``opens the election process to qualified persons with modest means'' is debatable at best. Obviously money is unfortunately an important factor in election campaigns; but it is not overriding by any means. Many candidates of modest means have run, and many have been elected. The principal means of political advertising in Virginia Beach are newspapers and television, and these media costs are the same whether one runs citywide or within a district. And who's to say that a poor working candidate will have more or less time to canvas door-to-door than a rich candidate?
The CCO also contends that the proposed ward system ``takes the confusion out of City Council and School Board elections. Very few voters understand the present system, so very few vote.'' No system could be more simple than our current system in which every voter simply can vote for every candidate and issue on the ballot. That some voters feel ``confused'' when they go to the polls is true. We should better address this ``confusion'' problem by addressing voter apathy and by facilitating more procedural information prior to and during each election.
Having myself observed three different petitioners in action, and having talked with others who were petitioned, and having read letters to the Beacon, etc., I know that many voters were ``sold'' entirely on the considerable merits of reapportionment without even knowing about the ward system aspects, much less the ramifications and disadvantages thereof.
Considering the closeness of the referendum vote, the relatively small voter turnout, and the fact that many voters did not fully comprehend the total issue, council should certainly question whether the residents of Virginia Beach have actually mandated a ward system.
I regret that the current CCO leadership has chosen to remain uninformed and misguided by not allowing a full debate on the issue. The CCO leadership has flagrantly and willfully violated the CCO's own Constitution, ``to provide a city-wide forum for full and free discussion of any civic, governmental, commercial, social or moral question and to avoid at all times any partisan, political or religious position.''
James F. Willenbrink
Hudgins Court
This letter is excerpted from a letter to City Council. by CNB