THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 15, 1995 TAG: 9503150463
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
Impassioned City Council members spoke for an hour Tuesday on the relative pitfalls and merits of changing the city's election system.
They had acknowledged they weren't going to change each others' minds - and their vote was largely symbolic - but both sides felt the need to explain their positions.
The group ended up deciding by one vote to embrace a General Assembly compromise that creates seven equal-sized council districts by 1998 and requires another nonbinding vote next year on the concept of wards.
Since the General Assembly devised the proposal a little more than two weeks ago, the council has been considering whether to ask the governor to veto it.
Those who opposed any change in the system cited the need to continue rural and resort-area representation. The six-member majority for change decided it was more important to provide equal representation to residents.
While all council members are elected citywide, the current system guarantees seats for residents of the tiny boroughs of Blackwater, Pungo and the Virginia Beach resort area. Those boroughs have a combined population of under 15,000, while Kempsville, which has one council representative, includes more than 150,000 residents.
That system is unfair to council representatives of the larger boroughs, said council member John D. Moss, who is leaving the council today to relocate out of state.
Moss said another reason he supported the General Assembly's bill was because it rewards the work of civic activists who fought for changes in the electoral system.
``They played the game, they won, they deserve the spoils of their election victory,'' Moss said.
Others who sided with Moss in supporting the change were Louisa M. Strayhorn, Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf, Nancy K. Parker, Robert K. Dean and Louis R. Jones.
The opponents were Barbara M. Henley, John A. Baum, Linwood O. Branch III, W.W. Harrison Jr., and Vice Mayor W.D. Sessoms Jr.
Henley said the General Assembly compromise creates new problems without solving any old ones. Unless a ward system is eventually enacted, all council members would still have to run expensive, city-wide campaigns and residents would still be confused about their electoral system, she said.
Rural residents would be the biggest losers, said Henley, who represents the Pungo borough, which would be folded into another district if the governor signs the bill.
``Minorities are not only racial or ethnic,'' she said. ``To disenfranchise one-third of the city with no (appreciable benefit), seems to be a bad step to take.''
Baum, who represents rural Blackwater, presented a city map with thumb tacks illustrating where City Council members live, to show that suburban areas of the city are not under-represented. Only he and Henley live in the southern half of the city, with the other nine members clustered on either side of Virginia Beach Boulevard.
Branch, whose Beach borough would also be folded into a larger one, said only people who live in the rural half of the city, who understand the unique problems of farming, can adequately represent residents there.
Although the council had little voice in the General Assembly compromise, the legislation requires the council to draw up the new equal-sized districts. Concerns over rural and resort representation are sure to resurface in those deliberations.
Regardless of how the districts are drawn, Oberndorf, who has long supported a change in the electoral system, said she thinks city residents will be wise enough to continue to elect people from the Oceanfront and the southern half of the city.
And even if residents of those areas are not on the council, the importance of tourism and agriculture to the city's economy will guarantee the council's attention to the southern half of the city, Moss added.
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH CITY COUNCIL WARD SYSTEM by CNB