THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 27, 1994 TAG: 9410270438
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
The City Council announced an agreement Wednesday that creates a system of ward elections to settle a voting-rights lawsuit.
But the agreement came on a narrow 4-3 margin, and even supporters of the change weren't saying that the old at-large voting system was discriminatory.
``I'm satisfied that they did something,'' said Simon Richardson, a black resident who was a plaintiff in an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit brought against the city in July. ``The problem that I'm having is, why did it take them so long to do this?''
Councilman Joe Frank, who was among the four council members who went along with the settlement, said the agreement avoids a costly court fight that was likely to divide residents along racial lines.
``Despite the strong belief of some members that the current election plan did not discriminate against minorities, a majority believed that the long-term interests of the city would be best served by avoiding long, expensive and potentially divisive litigation,'' Frank said.
The Newport News settlement could have implications for a couple other Virginia cities, Hampton and Chesapeake, whose voting plans have come under recent scrutiny.
No suits have been brought in those cases, but Kent Willis, director of the Virginia ACLU, identified Hampton as a ``primary target'' for a voting-rights court case.
The new Newport News voting plan for City Council matches the city's ward boundaries for School Board elections. It establishes three wards, each with two council members. One of the wards has a black majority, reflecting the approximately one-third black population in the city.
The seventh member of council, the mayor, will be elected at-large.
The first elections under the plan will take place in May 1996, and the plan will be fully implemented with the May 1998 elections.
The Justice Department, which had threatened since June to take the city to court but postponed any action because of the pending negotiations, had wanted to scrap the most recent council elections and hold new ones this November, Frank said.
But the city preserved those results in the settlement.
``The key factor for Justice was whether the minority community was in support of a particular plan,'' said James W. Dyke Jr., an attorney hired by the city to help negotiate the agreement.
The School Board's ward system had won praise from the city's minority community when it was adopted.
But Mayor Barry DuVal, who opposed the settlement, said an elected School Board was demanded by Newport News residents in a referendum, and the council chose the ward system in that instance as necessary to win Justice Department approval to hold those elections.
``That has not been the case with the election of City Council,'' he said. ``There has been no referendum to indicate the citizens' desire for a ward system.''
DuVal said he was afraid that ward elections for council would further polarize people racially ``and further divide the city among geographic lines.''
Frank, however, said the cost of defending the council's at-large voting could reach $1 million or more. He cited the long, losing fight that Norfolk put up for nearly a decade before going to wards.
Michael A. Rogers, a black accountant who was an unsuccessful candidate for the Newport News council in May, said he was pleased with the settlement, although he had hoped the city would adopt a seven-ward system.
Richardson said the at-large system should have changed years ago. He said the division among council members on the agreement is cause for concern.
``It shows they still have some belief we should not have equal representation,'' he said. by CNB