VIRGINIA BEACH — City Councilmember Aaron Rouse will hold a community meeting following an appeals court’s reversal of a federal ruling that found the city’s old voting system discriminatory — and what he called concerning conversations by colleagues on the council about placing a referendum about voting on this year’s ballot.
While a referendum was considered, it won’t happen, according to correspondence and interviews.
The idea was scrapped this past week.
Some members of the council had discussed the feasibility of getting a referendum on the ballot this year. But no decision was made and, as of this writing, the City Council has not yet met as a group to discuss the appeal.
Rouse criticized some members of the council, including Mayor Bobby Dyer and Vice Mayor Rosemary Wilson, for discussing the possibility of a referendum with others on the council while excluding Rouse and Councilmembers Guy Tower and Sabrina Wooten.
“I can’t believe they would discuss something so important in the shadows, in the back room,” Rouse said during an interview on Wednesday, Aug. 3.
In an email to colleagues earlier that day, he criticized the lack of communication with a trio that included the only two Black people on the body. Rouse opposed the city’s decision to appeal the decision in a federal lawsuit that led to a new 10-district system. That system remains in effect in this year’s local elections despite the appeals court’s recent reversal of the ruling that led to it.
Rouse said he was also concerned that the referendum question sought opinions on creating an all at-large system, potentially without districts, in which candidates for any seat could live anywhere in the city and be selected by all city voters, rather than district residents. That could impact more than just minority voters the district court ruled had votes diluted under the old system.
“It’s not just minority voters,” he said. “It’s any voters who don’t have the wealth to participate in the system.”
Dyer and Wilson said there were conversations, though the idea did not move forward. Had it, all members of the council would have gotten a draft of possible language and been part of a public discussion, Dyer said.
“I think the issue is there’s not really an issue,” Dyer said. “Be assured, if we did put something out, we were ready to put out a draft for everybody to see.”
He added, “Our thought was, wouldn’t it be good to give the public a binary choice to test the waters? We didn’t think there was enough time to brief the public.”
Language might have addressed voters to weigh in on whether to seek a system such as the entirely at-large system used in neighboring Chesapeake, where all voters in that city select all of their City Council members.
This year, Virginia Beach is using a court-imposed 10-district system in which only people living within residency districts can select the people who represent those districts. The city’s former system was a mix of at-large and seven district seats, though even voters outside a district voted for its representatives.
Due to changes in state law, the city cannot go back to its former system as it was.
Dyer said concerns about seeking a referendum came after consultation with the city attorney’s office.
Issues included the limited time to get it on the ballot and whether it might further confuse voters who are participating in a new system this year.
“We didn’t want to compound it with another question about voting systems,” Dyer said.
Wilson there is not yet a “clear picture of the next step” for the city. The council would have its first opportunity to meet with attorneys as a group on Tuesday, August 9.
“We came to the conclusion that this was not the right time to do something,” Wilson said. “But unless you talk about it, how do you know?”
Any process will involve public participation, she said.
Wooten could not be reached for comment on Thursday, Aug. 4.
Tower on Thursday, Aug. 4, said he had not been contacted about the matter, but he said he would give his colleagues “the benefit of the doubt” about any conversations about a possible referendum.
“Not all discussions have to be in an open session,” Tower said. “Having said that, I understand Aaron’s concerns.”
The meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., Monday, Aug. 8, at New Hope Baptist Church, 395 Old Great Neck Road.
Rouse is hosting it in coordination with the Virginia Beach Interdenominational Ministers Conference and the Virginia Beach branch of the NAACP.
Ed. — Read more of our extensive coverage of voting system changes in Virginia Beach at this link.
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