Hendrix study looks at LR board's at-large seats

Hendrix College came out with a report Thursday that said there is evidence that indicates doing away with at-large seats on the Little Rock Board of Directors would advance the city and give minority-group populations a better representation in local government.

Little Rock has an unusual form of government in which its board is made up of seven seats elected by geographical wards, three seats elected citywide and the mayor, who votes only in the event of a tie.

Three faculty members and a student at Hendrix College studied that format with a focus on race and the cost to run a citywide campaign.

Evidence "suggests that completely abolishing at-large elections would bring further benefits to the city's ability to give formerly under-represented constituencies policy-making influence," the report said.

Ward 1 City Director Erma Hendrix, who is black, has long advocated for a seven-seat board with only ward representatives. Most recently, she called for a city discussion on the matter, suggesting doing away with the at-large seats. That would take a vote by the public.

Hendrix has repeatedly said that the three white city directors at large cancel out the vote of the three black ward city directors. The other four ward city directors and the mayor are white.

State Rep. John Walker, D-Little Rock, has also expressed this view. Walker, who is black, has twice attempted to change the board makeup of Arkansas' capital city through legislation, but each time did not get his bill out of a House committee. He also filed a federal lawsuit in 2007 alleging the board setup violates the U.S. Civil Rights Act. The suit was dismissed at his request.

Supporters of seats at large often argue that those directors look at issues from a citywide perspective, effectively avoiding what is often referred to as "ward politics." The Hendrix College analysis doesn't address this argument.

Thursday's report -- "Governance in Little Rock, Arkansas: At-large and District Elections and the Impact on Representation" -- was researched and written by professors Jay Barth and Ima Graves Peace, assistant professor Kiril Kolev and student Lora Adams.

One of Kolev's regular areas of interest is voting systems and how they affect representation, Barth said in a phone interview Thursday. While Kolev has researched systems in Africa, Eastern Europe and other parts of the world, the goal of this study was to bring that conversation to a local level to help students better understand the subject, Barth said.

The group has worked on the report for about a year. It analyzed data on a number of variables such as race, gender, campaign spending, margin of victory, income, education and age as it relates to both candidates running for ward and at-large positions.

City Director at large Joan Adcock, who is the longest-serving member of the Little Rock board and is white, said the report missed a crucial aspect of the conversation.

"Yes, they studied numbers and yes, they studied dollars, but what I find that they did not study, which is to me one of the most important things, is the outcomes of having ward and at-large directors. What have [directors at large] produced? Have they done a good job for the city? What is the value of them?" Adcock said. "I think this is just a study of numbers and dollars. It probably has some relevance, but ... releasing a study with a limited portion of what would make a complete study is really unfair to the citizens of Little Rock."

Barth said much more data would have to be reviewed to answer questions raised by Adcock. It's possible that the group might do a follow-up in the future.

Thursday's report was the first to come out of a new program started at Hendrix College called the Arkansas Policy Program -- labeled by the college as an undergraduate think tank where students and faculty "will provide nonpartisan, original analysis on key public policy issues in Arkansas."

The report states that it is more costly to run a citywide campaign and therefore at-large candidates need more money and political backing to win. That makes it so that candidates from lower-income sections of the city have less chance of winning, the report said, adding that the parts of the city mostly made up of black residents generally report lower incomes.

The city's population is 48 percent white, 42 percent black and 6 percent Hispanic. There are no Hispanic members on the board.

"If one of the great virtues of democracies is giving competing constituencies a seat at the decision-making table, institutions that prevent this from happening might also hinder the ability of otherwise procedurally sound elections to deliver representation and deliberation," the report stated.

The group studied the variables of 128 board races between 1957 and 2012.

It found that historically over that time period, 87.6 percent of the elections for at-large seats resulted in a white candidate winning, compared with 59 percent of the ward elections. The report did not say how many candidates from minority groups actually participated in the races.

Similarly, the report states that 80.9 percent of at-large races resulted in a man winning, compared with 46.2 percent of ward races ending with a male winner. Again, it did not say how many women ran.

By eliminating at-large seats and introducing ward-only elections, the reports' authors determined the likelihood of electing a white director would be 73.6 percent and a 51.9 percent likelihood of a man winning. That conclusion is based on a statistical analysis that assumes the electorate has a median racial composition, income, education and age.

Little Rock's Ward 2 representative, Ken Richardson, who is black, said Hendrix College's report brings up points that a lot of people have been making all along about how at-large positions shift the balance of power.

"There's not a lot of equity in respect to having at-large positions in terms of representation on the city board," Richardson said.

Hendrix, the Ward 1 representative who has recently advocated for doing away with at-large positions, didn't return a voice message left for her Thursday. The third black director is Doris Wright, who represents Ward 6. She also did not return a voice message.

Besides Adcock, the other two city directors at large are Dean Kumpuris and Gene Fortson. Kumpuris did not return a voice message left for him Thursday.

Fortson reiterated Adcock's concerns. He said he can cite examples over the years where large projects in specific wards -- such as the recently constructed 12th Street Police Station in Richardson's Ward 2 or the future West Central Community Center in Wright's Ward 6 -- wouldn't have passed if not for the support of directors at large.

"Director Hendrix and some of her comments give the impression that at-large directors never support anything supported by minority directors, which is not true, and that at-large directors vote as a block, which is certainly not true," Fortson said.

Metro on 05/29/2015

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