The Virginian-Pilot
                             THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Friday, December 1, 1995               TAG: 9511300156
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON    PAGE: 04   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER 
                                             LENGTH: Medium:   67 lines

COUNCIL WRESTLES WITH BALLOT LANGUAGE CLEARER WORDING THIS TIME WILL ASK BEACH VOTERS HOW THEY WANT TO BE REPRESENTED.

The City Council made no secret Tuesday of its dislike for the ward system.

The council picked ballot language for next year's redistricting election that calls for residents to vote ``yes'' if they want to keep the at-large election system and ``no'' for wards.

Although there was little discussion Tuesday, several council members have said they thought the language was unclear the last time voters considered changing the way they elect City Council members. Two council members, Nancy K. Parker and Robert K. Dean, disagreed, and wanted the same wording put on the ballot again.

Under the current system, all 11 council members are elected by voters citywide, although seven members are considered ``borough representatives'' and must live within the districts they represent.

In May 1994, voters supported a proposal to equalize the populations of the seven boroughs and elect only the four at-large members and the representative of their borough. The City Council, in a hotly contested 6-5 vote, supported that change, but the General Assembly wasn't happy with the proposal.

The legislature decided earlier this year that the seven districts should have equal populations - instead of ranging from 1,000 to 150,000 people as they do now - but that voters should be given another chance to consider wards.

The council members want the ballot wording to be clearer this time. They considered seven different questions, and ended up combining the two that Beacon readers who telephoned Infoline liked the best.

Eight of the council members supported the following ballot language:

``Should the city councilmember elected to represent a particular borough be elected by all qualified voters throughout the city (an at-large system) rather than only by the qualified voters residing in that particular borough (a ward system)?

``If you wish to vote for all 11 council seats, vote YES! If you prefer to vote for only 5 of the 11 council seats, vote NO!''

Parker and Dean favored language supported by the Council of Civic Organizations, which asked voters to pick ``yes'' if they wanted a change:

``Should City Council request the General Assembly to amend the city's existing councilmanic electoral plan to provide for division of the city into seven districts of approximately equal population, with seven members to be elected only by the voters of their respective districts, and three members and the mayor to be elected by and from the city at large?''

According to state law, all ballot requests must be phrased in the form of a ``yes'' or ``no'' question. Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf did not vote because she was out of town Tuesday at a National League of Cities meeting.

The council is expected to pick a plan for dividing the city into seven equally populated districts some time early next year. ILLUSTRATION: BALLOT QUESTION

``Should the city councilmember elected to represent a particular

borough be elected by all qualified voters throughout the city (an

at-large system) rather than only by the qualified voters residing

in that particular borough (a ward system)? If you wish to vote for

all 11 council seats, vote YES! If you prefer to vote for only 5 of

the 11 council seats, vote NO!''

by CNB