THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 11, 1996 TAG: 9601110332
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VANEE VINES, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
The U.S. Justice Department has signed off on the city's at-large School Board election plan.
The approval - spelled out in a letter sent to the city attorney's office last week - clears the way for Portsmouth's first School Board election in May.
The deadline for prospective candidates to file for office is March 5. Five of nine board seats are up for election.
The department's decision pleased Mayor Gloria O. Webb and others who supported the at-large plan, which allows residents to cast a vote for each of the seats up for election. They argued that the creation of wards or districts would have been divisive.
``I think our proposal told the story of voting patterns in Portsmouth,'' Webb said Wednesday.
Still, some residents who had called for wards or districts said the issue was far from settled.
Communities, they said, are more likely to work toward shared goals when decision-makers reflect a diversity of neighborhoods, races and backgrounds. Wards are a better tool to make that happen in Portsmouth, they said.
``We plan to fight it,'' said Shirley Hines, executive secretary of The Citizens Coalition on Voter Participation/Operation Big Vote. ``We still don't think it's fair or reflective of what the people want.''
Hines said the coalition would complain to the department and also consider challenging the plan in court.
The group, primarily made up of black ministers and civic leaders, had urged the council to create districts for board elections.
Brian ``Keith'' Nance, a leader of Portsmouth Citizens for Better Education, which led the campaign to switch to an elected board, also said that the grass-roots group would urge the department to change its mind.
Opponents of the at-large plan have been vocal, in some cases claiming to speak for large constituencies. The coalition also circulated petitions favoring districts.
Of the 20 residents who appeared before the council in recent months to say what kind of plan they favored, 17 said they wanted wards or a system of ward and at-large seats.
The council voted 4-3 in October to submit an at-large plan.
Because Virginia has a history of voting-rights abuses, the Justice Department must approve city election plans. Had it rejected the at-large plan, it could have called for the overhaul of Portsmouth's electoral system, since the council is also elected at-large.
Department spokespeople - sent home during the recent government shutdown and then kept from work by inclement weather - have been unavailable for comment.
Board members had been appointed at-large. In 1994, residents approved the switch to an elected board by a 4-to-1 ratio.
But the council didn't have to stick with the at-large method for the School Board.
Portsmouth's voting-age population is now about 55 percent white and 44 percent black. In recent years, voters have elected a black mayor and black majorities on the council. The School Board has five white members and four black members.
KEYWORDS: PORTSMOUTH SCHOOL BOARD ELECTIONS by CNB