VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Following a public hearing, Virginia Beach City Council’s 10-1 election system did not get enough support from members to put it into the city’s charter.
The vote to enshrine the 10-1 voting system into the city’s charter was 7-4 in favor. However, because changes to the city charter needs at least a three-fourths majority, the measure failed, as it needed nine votes, and it will not be included in the city’s legislative agenda.
The seven voting in favor included councilmembers David Hutcheson, Jennifer Rouse, Worth Remick, Joashua Schulman, Sabrina Wooten, Amelia Ross-Hammond and Chris Taylor, while the four voting against enshrining the 10-1 system included Mayor Bobby Dyer, Vice Mayor Rosemary Wilson and councilmembers Michael Berlucchi and Barbara Henley.
If the measure had passed, the city would have sent a resolution to request that the General Assembly amend the city charter to implement a 10-single member district election system.
Virginia Beach’s Democratic delegation in the General Assembly said they would still put forward a bill to change the city’s charter to a 10-1 system.
State Sen. Aaron Rouse, Del. Kelly Convirs-Fowler, Del. Alex Askey and Del. Michael Feggans signed onto a letter addressed to city council and city residents saying they were disappointed with the vote not to include the putting the 10-1 system in the city’s charter in its legislative agenda. They called the 10-1 system “a step forward in protecting the voting strength of underrepresented communities.”
“Although this measure did not pass the required three-fourths majority in the recent council vote, we remain committed to advancing it,” they said in the letter. “We plan to reintroduce the 10-1 system in the General Assembly’s 2025 session to continue advocating for our residents’ clear preferences and to fulfill our shared vision of an equitable electoral system in Virginia Beach.”
Del. Michael Feggans, who represents Dist. 97 in the House of Delegates, said in a statement that he is still “committed to this critical reform.”
The Virginia Beach Democratic Committee has called for city council to include the charter change amendment in its legislative agenda. In a statement, committee chairman Sean Monteiro said that “what the mayor is doing isn’t just a partisan attempt to overturn the will of the people, federal courts, state law and the city council’s own resolution; it will cost our city millions of dollars in unnecessary litigation just to appease ocean front developers.”
Mayor Bobby Dyer said that, since he was elected in 2004, he had always been in favor of a seven district system with three at-large members and one mayor.
“I was in favor of a district system, and this is a possibility going forward,” Dyer said. “I don’t see us going back to the old system, to be honest with you. And I don’t think that’s really the intent.”
Dyer said he had two other concerns — one, “when you have a major change like this, a referendum should have been done with something of this magnitude, but once again, there were certain circumstances that precluded us from doing that, mostly COVID. And we found out that we had the 10-1 system, we were not consulted by the General Assembly. We found out about it pretty much at the time of the vote. We had no input in it at all. I really think it would benefit the public to hear both sides of the equation.
“But the other thing of concern is a legal action that is out there that might be scheduled, probably around April or May … that challenges the system, and it’s going to court. And it’s my understanding, as the governor did veto it last time, and he would probably do it again this time, so there’s just a bunch of ambiguity out there right now. This is a confounding — it’s really an emotional thing to a lot of people. But once again, I think the ultimate goal is to get it right, and if we can, maybe, construct some type of win-win, I don’t know. But right now, there [are] just a number of factors out there.”
He said others he’s spoken to say they wish they had a say in it and that they were educated on the positives and negatives of it. He called it a tough, emotional thing for a lot of people.
Councilmember Jennifer Rouse said she supported the 10-1 system being enshrined into the city’s charter, saying that people in her district (District 10) were surprised to see a candidate knock on their door because “no one from City Council has ever campaigned here before, frankly, because no one has had to prior to the 10-1 system, because people were able to garner votes just from certain pockets of the city, which then meant many neighborhoods and communities were underrepresented because candidates didn’t go and speak to those residents to learn about their issues and then to represent them.”
Rouse believes the public has been adequately educated on the issue and has given its feedback on the issue, and said that a referendum is not necessary.
Councilmember Chris Taylor said the public “is not confused” about the 10-1 system. He said the first action that he and Rouse took in this new council was to call a special session to have the then-director of legislative affairs to go to Richmond. He said that person misrepresented the new council’s position and “inserted confusion into the process.”
“Any confusion starting from January 2023 through today, the root … was a disingenuous, unaccountable, incompetent staff member that was terminated for their behavior,” Taylor said.