Adequate representation in local government was at the forefront of Charlottesville residents' concerns during a public hearing at Venable School yesterday evening.
"I don't feel like I'm represented on a national level," City resident Marty Bass said. "It is also important on a local level to make sure everyone is represented."
The hearing was the third of eight held by the Charlottesville Elections Study Task Force during this month to give citizens the opportunity to voice their opinions about potential changes to the structure of City Council and local elections.
Council called for a task force in April and charged it with exploring the possibilities of dividing the City into wards for elections, increasing the number of Council members, reevaluating term limitations and switching to direct election of the mayor, who currently is voted on by the five Council members
"The hearings are a chance for citizens to express themselves," Election Task Force Chair Sean O'Brien said. "Our goal is to get as many people from Charlottesville to tell us what they think the problems are in the City."
Many residents who spoke said they felt wards could help make Council more representative.
"People are going to be much more likely to know someone on Council," City resident Michael Craifak said.
Shifting to a ward system for City elections would allow citizens to vote for candidates specifically from their neighborhood. The task force also is considering the combination of at-large and ward voting as a compromise -- four Council members would be elected from wards and three would be elected at-large.
"Everybody in the City would have access to four councilors," O'Brien said. "The three councilors elected at-large and the one elected from their specific ward would potentially have a resident's interest at heart."
However, this model would necessitate the enlargement of Council from five to seven members. In addition, the City is not currently divided into wards with evenly distributed population.
Any changes made would require a series of considerations and approvals, O'Brien said.
"The City would have to start from scratch deciding what those wards would be," he said. "The City would have to get the General Assembly's approval and then submit the changes to the Department of Justice to make sure they do not harm minority populations."
Some residents feel efforts to reform Council and elections are unnecessary.
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it," City resident and former Mayor Francis Fife said. "I haven't heard any groundswell for change. I haven't heard people say they feel underrepresented."
Despite the range of opinions held by residents, the task force is trying to maintain an unbiased approach to their evaluation of City elections, O'Brien said.
"The task force has no position at this time," he said. "Very early on we decided we were going to be completely non-bias going into these hearings. We wanted to get a sense of the public rather than present them with our findings so far and have them respond to them."
Resident response to the task force's effort has been positive.
"It has gone really well," O'Brien said. "The discussion is very open and friendly, and people have had the opportunity to speak their mind."
The task force will return to Council in November to present their research findings -- including the assessment of election procedure changes in other Virginia localities, such as Richmond -- and report on the public hearings.
"We may decide to make specific recommendations if something becomes very obvious," O'Brien said. "But our charge is to explore. I anticipate we will give them the pros and cons of the different options."
The task force is composed of nine members -- including a representative from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Quality Community Council, the Chamber of Commerce and the Charlottesville Democratic and Republican parties.
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