Reducing Guilford County Commissioners to 9 is Making It's Way Through The NC General Assembly

There has been talk over the years to reduce the size of the Guilford County Commissioners . Now we have Rep. John Blust who has introduced House Bill #467 CLICKHERE  and also a map of new districts CLICKHERE both of these links are from Mark Binker from the Greensboro News and Record.

Just last night the North Carolina House of Representatives passed on the third reading 66-48 Rep. Blust's bill and now it works it's way to the Senate side of the aisle. It will be interesting to see who will read this bill to the North Carolina Senators because the Democratic delegation in Guilford County will probably not offer up this bill in Sen. Robinson or Sen. Vaughan. We will see either Sen. Bingham or possibly majority leader Sen. Berger talk about this bill to the North Carolina Senators.

The adding of the Guilford County Commissioners to being 11 members should have never happened in the first place 20 years ago. But let's take a closer look at the make up of our 100 counties all over this state. First point to make is that Guilford County is the only county and i repeat it is the only county out of 100 who has 11 commissioners.

This bill would reduce the size by 2 members saving the taxpayers of Guilford County $41,400 plus their travel allowance they get. Reducing the Guilford County Commissioners to 9 will make them be in a select group of only 3 other counties out of 100 in the State of North Carolina in Bladen, Pitt and Mecklenburg Counties. So if this bill passes we will be in line with 4% of the counties in North Carolina.

Here is the percentages of the sizes of county boards all over this state.

1% with 11 commissioners which is Guilford County
3% with 9 commissioners with Mecklenburg being a 9 member commission
1% with 8 commissioners
29% with 7 commissioners with Wake and Forsyth County being a 7 member commission
3% with 6 commissioners
61% with 5 commissioners
2% with 3 commissioners

This is a no brainer to pass this bill just looking at the make up of all the counties all over this state. What makes Guilford County so special that they need 11 commissioners? NOTHING.

Just this past month we had the chairman of the Guilford County Commissioners Skip Alston who could care less what the Conservatives 4 Guilford County had to say and Doug Clark from the Greensboro News and Record had this post titled "Alston Shows Why County Redistricting Is Needed" CLICKHERE . 

In yesterday's article CLICKHERE  we have Chairman Skip Alston say this about this bill

“But it won’t pass the Department of Justice. They’re going to recognize this as a retrogressive move that will dilute the voting strength of minorities,” said Melvin “Skip” Alston, the Democratic chairman of the Guilford Board of Commissioners"

The new talking point you will hear plenty in the next few months with redistricting on the state level comes into play is RETROGRESSIVE which is

1.

to go back to an earlier, esp worse, condition; degenerate or deteriorate

2.

to move backwards; recede To hear the chairman state that he knows that what the U.S. Department of Justice is going to do is total hearsay and he has no proof of this. It will be interesting to see if it will pass the DOJ for approval but noting that no other county in the state has 11 board members throws that argument right out the door. Good luck with the retrogressive argument. It is time to reduce the Guilford County Commissioners to 9 and if you would like to e mail your Guilford County Commissioners to let them know how you feel CLICKHERE and you can get all the information you need to reach your commissioner . UPDATE Mark Binker has a late post on what transpired last night CLICKHERE