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School board to abandon party ties
Bill on nonpartisan elections gets final OK; two senators say city council will be next
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Published: June 9, 2009
RALEIGH - The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school board will be elected on a nonpartisan basis starting in 2010 -- and local legislators signaled that the Winston-Salem City Council may not be far behind.
The N.C. Senate gave final approval last night to a bill enacting the school-board change, which supporters say will open up school-board elections to more candidates who are not tied into party politics.
In an unexpected move, the two state senators from Forsyth County also indicated that they may soon work to change the Winston-Salem City Council to nonpartisan elections.
Sen. Linda Garrou, D-Forsyth, publicly agreed to support legislation that would make the city council nonpartisan. She did so after Sen. Pete Brunstetter, R-Forsyth, proposed an amendment to the school-board bill that would have applied nonpartisan elections to the city council.
"If Sen. Brunstetter would like to propose that he and I run this bill together for the city council, I'd be happy to do that," Garrou said. "I'd co-sponsor that bill with him."
Once Garrou made that commitment, Brunstetter withdrew his amendment, and the Senate passed the school-board bill without any changes. The N.C. House passed the bill last month.
Any bill to change the city council almost certainly could not be filed until next year's legislative session at the earliest, meaning that the city-council elections scheduled for this fall will proceed on a partisan basis.
The eight-member city council has a reliable Democratic majority. The nine-member school board has a reliable Republican majority.
Both the city council and school board are anomalies in North Carolina because they are elected on a partisan basis. That means that most candidates run as Republicans or Democrats, and unaffiliated candidates face high hurdles to remain competitive.
The vast majority of municipalities and local school boards in North Carolina hold nonpartisan elections, although many of those elections nevertheless take on a highly partisan atmosphere.
As the school-board bill made its way through the General Assembly, it took on an increasingly partisan tone. Republicans questioned the motives of the bill's supporters, saying that it appeared to be a roundabout attempt to change the political makeup of the current school board.
Last night on the Senate floor, Brunstetter said that if that was not the case -- if the bill truly was not motivated by partisanship -- then the argument for nonpartisan elections should apply equally well to the city council.
That's when Garrou agreed to support a change to nonpartisan elections to the city council.
On the school board, all nine members will be up for re-election in 2010, and if they run for another term, they will have to do so without a "D" or "R" beside their names. Most of the current school-board members oppose the change to nonpartisan elections, including Vic Johnson, one of the board's three Democrats.
Johnson said that one of his big objections is how the bill was hustled through the General Assembly by Democratic legislators.
"It really was unethical -- the way it was pushed through the legislature," he said. "It was a sneaky thing."
He said it's possible he would have supported the change if it had gotten more discussion or if voters were given a chance to vote on it in a referendum. But as it is, he is worried that the change will hurt black representation on the school board.
"There is a possibility that blacks will lose positions," he said. "It has not been explained to me how we are going to increase black representation in the community."
In addition to creating nonpartisan school-board elections, the bill also creates staggered terms for the school board. Starting in 2012, five members will be up for election for four-year terms, with the remaining four members up for election for four-year terms in 2014.
The Senate's passage last night was the final act for the bill to become law. Because it is a so-called "local bill" that affects only one county, it does not require the governor's signature.
■ James Romoser can be reached at 919-210-6794 or at jromoser@wsjournal.com.
■ Kim Underwood can be reached at 727-7389 or at kunderwood@wsjournal.com.
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