a day ago
Newport News considers major changes to city charter
Newport News' Charter Review Committee is considering several changes to City Council, which could drastically change how city elections are conducted.
The main item being considered during the committee's June 12 meeting was the idea of making City Council races partisan, which would create a partisan primary for City Council candidates.
State law prohibits party designations in local elections from appearing on ballots. However, it does not prevent the city from creating a partisan primary to ensure the two final candidates that appear on the ballot are implied to be from different parties.
'We have, as it is in Newport News and other cities without partisan elections, large numbers of candidates from one ideological or partisan faction who run for office and split the vote amongst themselves,' committee member Ben Lambert said during the meeting. 'This spoiler effect has been a problem for Newport News elections for a long time.'
The committee delayed the vote on whether to recommend the change to City Council to June 26, according to co-chairs Cathy Williams and Lee Vreeland. They also shot down a proposed recommendation that would shift the power to remove department heads from the city manager to the mayor.
'I feel it's overreach for City Council to be involved in that,' Williams said during the June 12 meeting.
At its May 22 meeting, the committee approved a recommendation that City Council appoint school board members appointed rather than elected, and a recommendation to make the mayor a full-time position, limited to two terms.
Additionally, the questions of considering ranked choice voting came up during last month's meeting. However, the committee opted not to recommend ranked choice voting.
Williams declined to comment on the group's discussions surrounding potential charter changes.
The committee has been working through these revisions since September, according to Williams, and has received community feedback on several of the proposed changes.
The idea of appointed school board members received letters of support, along with while a full-time mayor received pushback. Feedback on ranked choice voting has also been divided.
The committee will submit its final report to the city clerk on June 30, who will then provide it to City Council for review.
Devlin Epding, 757-510-4037,
