Electing Cape Girardeau City Council members by ward was supposed to improve minority representation in city government and make for more competitive council races.

Four years after the first ward election, critics say the system isn't working as promised, while supporters say it is too soon to call it a failure.

Cape Girardeau voters overwhelmingly supported establishing wards, rather than electing council members at large, in November 1992. The proposal was approved 8,601 to 4,475.

Supporters of the ward system said it would ensure more direct representation for the city's minority neighborhoods, particularly South Cape.

In 1994, Cape Girardeau elected its first ward representatives: J.J. Williamson in Ward 1, Tom Neumeyer in Ward 2, and Richard Eggimann in Ward 6.

All three ran in contested races. Williamson defeated Frank Stoffregen, Neumeyer beat Brenda Dohogne and Eggimann defeated Jay Knudtson.

And the promise of minority representation was fulfilled: Williamson was the first black elected to the City Council.

In 1996, voters saw more contested races for the wards.

In Ward 3, a primary was necessary when incumbent Jack Rickard faced opposition from Mike Ballou and Jay Purcell.

Rickard and Purcell faced off in the general election in April, which Rickard won.

In Ward 5, incumbent Melvin Gateley defeated Lawrence Godfrey.

In Ward 4, incumbent Melvin Kasten was unopposed.

But in April, two of the incumbents ran for re-election without opposition: Neumeyer and Eggimann won their second terms on the council.

In Ward 1, Stoffregen defeated Williamson. Only 398 of the ward's 3,253 registered voters went to the polls, or 12.2 percent.

In Ward 3, Purcell defeated Gerald Stevenson for a one-year unexpired term left open when Rickard resigned from the council.

Overall, voter turnout was 12.8 percent for the three wards in this year's election. In 1994, voter turnout in Wards 1, 2 and 6 was 28.7 percent.

In the 1996 council election, voter turnout was 11.59 percent.

In 1992, the last City Council election under the at-large system, turnout was 23.9 percent, with five candidates vying for three council seats.

Mayor Al Spradling III was opposed to the ward system in 1992, and seeing it in action hasn't changed is opinion.

"Since '94, we've had very light turnouts. It may be a combination of a lot of things, one being a lack of controversy within the city itself," Spradling said. "The second is there haven't been many contested races, which bothers me because we always had contested races when we had at-large elections. We always had at least five candidates, and sometimes more than that, which required primaries."

He said he is especially concerned because there are so few contested races under the ward system.

"I don't think we have had the enthusiasm of people filing for council seats, and that may be because you're in a ward where you've got a strong incumbent, and people don't want to get involved against a strong incumbent," Spradling said.

The lack of voters and contested races are "not good for city government," he said.

Spradling also dislikes the term limits clause in the city charter, which limits council members, including the mayor, to two consecutive terms in office.

Miki Gudermuth, who worked with the original "Elect a Neighbor" campaign to establish the voting wards, says she thinks the ward system is working just fine.

"I haven't heard the uproar like I used to hear with the at-large system. I think people feel like they're being better represented," Gudermuth said.

She also thinks the ward system means the entire city is getting infrastructure improvements and other benefits through improved representation.

"No matter which area of the city you go into, it looks like something's happening," she said.

Under the at-large elections, Gudermuth said, more affluent candidates ran, which drew more affluent voters.

"And I hate to say it, but upper middle class people vote more than lower middle class people," she said.

As for the lack of contested races, Gudermuth said, it may just mean residents like things the way they are.

"I don't care what office it is; they'll run if there's a big issue and they want to make a change," she said. "They're happy with the status quo."

She pointed to the city's low unemployment and continued growth.

"People think, why change things?" she said.

And the City Council races aren't the only uncontested elections, Gudermuth said. "Who runs against the state representatives?"

Michael Sterling, president of the NAACP in Cape Girardeau, said the ward system is the best way to ensure minorities are included in city government.

But Williamson was defeated in his bid for a second term, and no other minorities ran for council in April.

"They didn't run and that's what hurt us," Sterling said. "But next time they will."

Sterling said he's sure a black candidate will run in Ward 2 -- which includes South Cape -- in 2000.

"That's where the voting strength is for the black community," he said.

The at-large system was "very unfair" for minorities, Sterling said.

The NAACP will push to have Cape Girardeau public school board members elected by wards, as well, Sterling said.

Spradling and Gudermuth are both happy with what they see as a lack of partisanship on the City Council. Both said council members work hard on issues affecting the entire city, not just their own wards.

Drawing up the wards wasn't any easy task, said Howard Tooke, former Cape Girardeau mayor and chairman of the committee that undertook the task of setting up the wards.

The committee had to work to preserve neighborhoods and still divide the wards up evenly by population.

"It took a good bit of mechanical work to draw the lines where they would come out approximately equal," Tooke said.

The ward system can be done away with, said city attorney Eric Cunningham, but it would take a vote of the people.

Under the city charter, the City Council can introduce an ordinance to put a measure repealing the wards on the ballot for voter approval.

Another option would be a petition initiative -- similar to the one which introduced the ward system -- to put a proposal on the ballot.

The ward system was originally introduced by a petition drive.