
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 2, 1990                   TAG: 9006020257
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Joel Turner Municipal Writer
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

U.S. DEPARTMENT TO LOOK OVER MERGER PROPOSAL

The plan for the creation of election districts to choose the governing body for a consolidated Roanoke and Roanoke County has been submitted to the U.S. Justice Department.

City Attorney Wilburn Dibling Jr. said Friday that consolidation negotiators decided to submit the plan without waiting to see if there will be a financial settlement that would permit most of the Catawba Magisterial District to become part of Salem.

Councilman Howard Musser said this week that the plan needed to be sent to the Justice Department as soon as possible to assure that a referendum can be held in November.

The financial settlement would not be part of the consolidation agreement and there is no need to wait for it, he said.

The Justice Department will have 60 days to review the proposed election districts and determine whether they protect black voting rights.

Because Virginia is under the jurisdiction of the federal Voting Rights Act, the merger plan must ensure that blacks have an opportunity for representation on the governing body that is at least equal to or greater than their percentage of the population.

The plan would create nine election districts. The governing body would have 11 members, but the mayor and vice mayor would be elected at large.

Two districts in Northwest Roanoke would have a majority black population.

The negotiators used the 1980 census figures to draw the district boundaries because that was the latest information that is valid for the legal requirements for such a plan.

In 1980, the combined population of the city and county was 173,165 with 23,699 blacks, or 13.7 percent.

The two districts containing more than a 50 percent black population would comprise 22 percent of the nine districts and 18 percent of the 11-member governing body.

Because the negotiators used 1980 census figures, the boundaries will have to be redrawn after the 1990 census is completed.

Consolidation negotiators believe the plan will satisfy federal voting rights requirements.

They consulted with leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People as the boundaries were being drawn.

Evangeline Jeffrey, president of the NAACP chapter, has said that the district plan seems to be workable.

by CNB