THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 3, 1995 TAG: 9501030094
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANCIE LATOUR, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Long : 120 lines
Following a political tradition in Chesapeake, the new, six-member Republican majority on City Council made itself felt in a round of board appointments in December, voting to replace Democrat appointees with candidates of their choice on three city commissions.
The city's mayor is warning that the new faces on the city's Hospital Authority, Planning Commission and School Board may represent more than a partisan change: With one less African American and one less woman now on the three, some black leaders see an unfolding pattern of disregard for diversity in the city's decision-making bodies.
``The board appointments have always been partisan, and I'm not denying that,'' said Mayor William E. Ward, the city's only black representative on the City Council.
``But you have to look at the big picture and how it's designed. And in that big picture, I see that the increase in Republican power over the past three or four years has meant a diminution of black political power.''
The 11-member Hospital Authority, which had two black and two female members before the new appointments, now has 10 white men and one black woman. Each of the two black candidates nominated by Ward received two votes or less from City Council members; five votes are needed to appoint a commission member.
No blacks were displaced by appointments on either the Planning Commission or the School Board. The nine-member Planning Commission now has two African American and four female members.
The City Council also preserved the racial and gender balance on the School Board by appointing an African American and a woman, leaving the board with three blacks and three women among the nine members.
Those numbers, Republicans say, hardly constitute a pattern of excluding blacks, who make up about 28 percent of the city's voting-age population.
``I think we appointed a very qualified black man and a qualified white woman to the School Board,'' Councilman Joe T. Newman said. ``We preserved the racial balance there, and I think that shows that we're being as sensitive to black organizations and to their positions as we possibly can be.''
Newman said that race and gender were non-issues in an appointment process that has traditionally been driven by partisan politics.
``Black leaders are upset,'' Newman said, ``because they have played the political party game on the side of Democrats, and now they are out of the loop.''
While racial, ethnic and gender diversity is important, council Republicans say, other kinds of diversity need to be considered with each appointment.
For Councilman John M. de Triquet, the balance of lay people and physicians on the Hospital Authority was as important as the need to fill the panel with blacks or with women.
``Certainly, we can't ignore any segment of the population,'' de Triquet said. ``We should never be able to look at the history of a board and see a pattern of denial of any one group. But that doesn't mean that with every selection there has to be one black, one Jew, one woman or one anything.''
With geographical and professional factors to consider, in addition to race and gender, de Triquet said, the constitution of any board is bound to be imperfect.
``As long as we have diversity as a general theme,'' he said, ``a vision for the city, then we will have a constantly fluctuating board that will serve us all well.''
With the city's local government under scrutiny by the Justice Department for racially polarized voting, a general theme of diversity may no longer be enough.
The city is preparing to challenge the federal agency's charges of decreased black political representation and ask it to repeal a threat to impose a ward system on School Board elections.
In that context, the appointments could have more significance than other party-based decisions that have come before.
``Even one less black can have a significant impact on the Justice Department decision,'' said Frank R. Parker, a law professor who filed suit in 1982 on behalf of concerned residents and the NAACP to bring a ward system to Norfolk's City Council elections.
If a jurisdiction decreases the number of blacks on a commission, Parker said, it could add to the notion that government leaders are not responsive to black interests.
``Look at the history of Norfolk,'' Parker said. ``In the span of time of that suit, the (council) even added a second black member to the council, and I still won the case.''
That history could be tempered by the fact that black leaders within Chesapeake disagree on the significance of the recent board appointments.
``I don't want to go quite as far as the mayor and say that there's a pattern,'' said state Del. Lionel Spruill. ``But I'm frightened now, because we're losing, one at a time, black minorities on the board and commissions.''
Spruill said he was disturbed by the loss of the Rev. Don Taylor, an African American, on the Hospital Authority.
``The Rev. Taylor was a hard-working man on that board. He wasn't even a Republican or a Democrat. He was just a well-qualified person on the board doing his job. So there was not even any partisan reason to replace him.''
Lamont Simmons, an African-American civic leader, said that while the Justice Department seemed to have made up its mind about race in Chesapeake, the Republican majority was still too new to be judged on its record of racial diversity.
``We haven't observed a pattern yet,'' said Simmons, who is also on the Planning Commission. ``It's only been two or three major boards. But I would hope that the government would be inclusive and sensitive to people's needs throughout the city.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos
Mayor William E. Ward
Councilman Joe T. Newman
KEYWORDS: CHESAPEAKE BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS APPOINTMENT by CNB