THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 21, 1995 TAG: 9502210010
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
If the General Assembly decides on the merits whether last May's referendum mandates a ward system in Virginia Beach, the city won't have a ward system. But if the Assembly's decision gibes with the merits of the issue, it'll be a pure accident of politics.
Under the current system, candidates for the four at-large seats (including the mayor) may reside anywhere in the city. Candidates for each of the seven borough seats must live in that borough. But voters citywide may vote in both the at-large and all borough races. So a candidate running for council from the Lynnhaven Borough, for example, could win most of the votes in his borough but lose the seat because an opponent appealed to more voters citywide.
That has happened, in Lynnhaven and elsewhere; but a group in Lynnhaven was so angered at being twice deprived of their choice that they spearheaded a petition drive for electoral reform that will deprive voters citywide of their voice in all 11 council races. The ``balanced district'' reform the petitioners got on the ballot last May would equalize the population within boroughs and limit citizens to five votes for council: one for their borough member, three for at-large members and one for the mayor.
Twenty-eight percent of the Beach's registered voters went to the polls, some 25 percent of them marked the ballot question, and 53 percent of them voted aye. Seventy-five percent of the registered voters were silent on the subject, as were 95 percent of Beach residents. And enough who did vote aye came forward afterward to say they thought ``balanced-district'' meant only equalizing the boroughs, a misconception that proponents' arguments, advertisements and punctuation did little to clarify. If that's a mandate, the moon is Limburger.
May's was only an advisory referendum, and City Council should have rejected its bad advice outright. But council fobbed any rejection off on the General Assembly. The House of Delegates voted aye. The Senate voted to resubmit borough equalization and a ward system to Beach voters as the two separate issues they are. That's a straightforward, bipartisan proposal which with House approval could settle the matter simply, openly, equitably . . . if ``straightforward,'' ``bipartisan,'' etc., were in this legislature's lexicon. by CNB