THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 19, 1994 TAG: 9409190056
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANCIE LATOUR, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Long : 107 lines
In seeking to reverse a Justice Department ruling against at-large elections, the City Council may unwittingly invite a change not only for its School Board, but for the council itself.
The city has asked the agency's Civil Rights Division to reverse its June decision, which found that Chesapeake's at-large City Council elections showed a pattern of racial polarization, and therefore at-large elections would not be permitted to choose School Board members.
Chesapeake residents last November voted by a 5-1 margin for an elected School Board. Before an election can be held, the Justice Department must approve the method.
But asking federal officials to re-examine their decision may backfire, according to some attorneys and voting rights experts.
Not only is the city unlikely to get the Justice Department to go back on its decision, it will be forcing the agency to look at the inconsistency of having one election method for its School Board and another for City Council, said
Frank E. Barham, executive director of the Virginia School Board Association.
``When you have jurisdictions that persist in these situations,'' Barham said, ``it can make the civil rights office go back and look at their approval for City Council elections in the first place.''
``In other words, if it's discriminatory for one, it's discriminatory for the other.''
James W. Dyke, an attorney who represents jurisdictions against the Justice Department, said the Justice Department cannot technically attack the School Board and the City Council at the same time because they fall under different laws.
The at-large plan for the School Board was rejected under a voting rights law that requires Virginia and 10 other states to get federal approval when holding a new election.
While the Justice Department can reject the plan, it can't force wards or any other plan on the city.
But it could try to force the city to adopt wards for council elections by filing a lawsuit under a separate law.
The jump from one law to the other is not far, Dyke said. ``If they're a basing their rejection of one system on evidence from one already there,'' Dyke said, ``it doesn't take very much.''
Dyke, former state Secretary of Education, is now representing Newport News in response to a similar chain of events.
Last year, Newport News capitulated to a federal rejection of at-large School Board elections based in part on past council elections by that method.
Then this June the Justice Department threatened a lawsuit unless the city abandoned at-large council elections.
The federal agency has occasionally reversed itself in the past. A reversal in Chesapeake, one official said, will likely depend on the strength of additional information submitted the second time around.
``They're entitled to say that we're wrong, and we will try to make another fair decision with the evidence they give us,'' said a Justice Department attorney who asked not to be identified.
That will be an uphill task for the city, say civil rights experts.
``It's very tough because Chesapeake has the burden of proof,'' said Clemson University political science professor Timothy G. O'Rourke, who testified for the city of Norfolk during its eight-year, unsuccessful court battle to keep at-large council elections.
``It would be different if Justice had to prove that Chesapeake had engaged in discrimination. But Chesapeake has to prove that it hasn't, and every city has a spotted history.''
Some city officials argue that the Justice Department has exaggerated that history.
``We have a rich history of minority leaders here,'' said Councilman Robert T. Nance. On the council, the city's 30-year history includes Willa S. Bazemore, William P. Clarke, Hugo Owens, Del. Lionell Spruill and Mayor William E. Ward.
None of those black representatives was voted out of office, Nance said.
``I believe it would be a slap in the face of the public to say that you're racist and you don't have the wisdom to vote for a black candidate.''
Nance also pointed out that a white council member, Councilman John W. Butt, was the highest vote-getter among black voters in the May elections.
That kind of evidence, O'Rourke said, will matter in Justice Department considerations.
``If a candidate gets a majority of the black vote,'' O'Rourke said, ``he is obviously the choice of black voters no matter what color he is.''
In spite of this history, the bottom line for Councilman Alan Krasnoff is the council's racial mix today.
Of the nine members, only Ward is African-American.
``On one hand, the outcome of the May elections was not based on racial motivation,'' said Krasnoff, who voted with Ward against seeking a reconsideration.
``But on the other hand,'' Krasnoff said, ``one black representative with a 27 percent black population is just not acceptable.'' ILLUSTRATION: CHRONOLOGY
November 1993: Chesapeake residents approve an elected School
Board. City Council later approves at-large election process.
June: Justice Department says at-large City Council elections
show racial polarization against black candidates, so at-large
voting can't be used to elect the School Board.
Sept. 11: City Council votes to appeal Justice's ruling.
KEYWORDS: CHESAPEAKE SCHOOL BOARD JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ELECTION
CHESAPEAKE CITY COUNCIL by CNB