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VIRGINIA BEACH — For the first time in Virginia Beach history, residents only elected a City Council representative for their district last month, instead of members across the city.
Now Mayor Bobby Dyer wants to reflect on the “merits and pitfalls” of the new voting system by giving the public the opportunity to weigh in, he wrote in a letter to his colleagues last week.
The City Council will vote on Dyer’s request for public feedback Tuesday during the last meeting of 2022.
Councilman Aaron Rouse, who has been outspoken in his support of the 10-district ward system, was caught off-guard by the mayor’s request.
“I’m so upset,” Rouse said by phone Friday. “There has been no discussion about our election system by City Council as a body.”
Rouse wants the new council members who are seated in January to take up the matter. He feels that the mayor is trying to advance an agenda while he still has the votes to support it.
The mayor, however, said it makes sense that the current council members participate in a decision to gather election feedback in order to improve on it.
“The new (election) system was imposed on us, on this current council,” Dyer said Monday. “We’re fresh off the election; all we’re asking for is public input.”
The mayor also said the incoming council will participate in any future discussions.
Virginia Beach’s election system changed after two Virginia Beach residents — Latasha Holloway and Georgia Allen — sued the city in 2020, arguing that the use of at-large voting to elect members of the City Council diluted the votes of minority voters. A U.S. District Court judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs last year.
In 2021, Virginia’s General Assembly passed a law eliminating at-large voting for seats on the City Council with residency requirements, of which Virginia Beach had seven.
Prior to the election system change, the City Council was also comprised of three (non-mayoral) at-large seats, and voters from across the city elected all members.
Virginia Beach’s attorneys appealed the U.S. District Court judge’s opinion in March, arguing in part that judgment was made on an electoral system that no longer governed the city’s elections. The city succeeded, and the appeals court overturned the judge’s opinion in July.
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Meanwhile, Virginia Beach had already implemented 10 single-member districts, including three in which minority voters formed a majority of the voting population.
The ward system remained in place for the November election because it was too late to change it, according to the city.
Virginia Beach could reinstate its three at-large seats for the 2024 election, but it will require redistricting of the seven seats with residency requirements based on 2020 census data, Deputy City Attorney Christopher Boynton said Monday.
And the plaintiffs in the original case could challenge future redistricting, Boynton said.
Still, Dyer wants to give voters a chance to weigh in. He said he’s heard from some people who were dissatisfied with the new election system because they could only vote for one council member or none at all. Several council members’ terms expire in 2024.
“What was grossly missing was the public input on it,” Dyer said. “We have to determine if this was the best system.”
Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com