THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 28, 1995 TAG: 9503280298
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 38 lines
Gov. George F. Allen was expected to sign into law late Monday a bill that changes the structure of the Virginia Beach City Council.
The bill will equalize the size of the seven Virginia Beach council boroughs, which now range in population from 1,000 to 150,000. Under the new plan, each borough will each have about 59,000 residents as of July 1, 1998.
The four at-large council seats will not be affected by the change.
Del. Robert Tata, R-Virginia Beach, who drafted the bill, said the governor's chief legal counsel told him Monday that Allen would sign it. Spokesmen for the governor's office could not confirm the signing, however.
The bill, crafted by a compromise committee after the state Senate rejected a House proposal, also requires a public vote in May 1996 to decide whether the district representatives will be elected solely by residents of their district, a system commonly known as ward elections.
Now, borough council members must live in their home districts but are elected citywide.
Allen had some concerns about whether he should sign the bill, Del. Leo C. Wardrup, R-Virginia Beach, said Monday, because it does not address the future of the School Board. The board, structured the same way as the council, will be realigned by the General Assembly next year, in time for the May elections, Tata promised.
Wardrup supports the reapportionment bill but hopes voters reject wards in next year's referendum. He is concerned that parents of school-age children will live in one ward while the school their children attends is represented by a council member from another ward. by CNB