Busy Being Born Blogger Tony Wilkins is Running for Guilford County Commissioner District #6

Tony Wilkins pictured on right with Pat Mc Crory

Local blogger Tony Wilkins aka " Busy Being Born" has put his name in the hat to run for the new District #6 Guilford County Commissioners seat.

It has been a pleasure to call Tony Wilkins my friend. To see him step up to the plate and run for the Guilford County Commissioners seat will be a tough primary because this district trends heavily Republican and the primary will more than likely win this commissioners seat. Tony Wilkins is going up against Hank Henning of Jamestown and Jeremy Williams of High Point.

Good luck Tony in running for Guilford County Commissioner, it will be great to see a fellow blogger win this seat  and bring transparency back to the Guilford County Commissioners like you do on the War Memorial Commission in Greensboro.

High Point Enterprise on Guilford County Commissioners Redistricting

Guilford County Commissioners 2011 Redistricting Map for 8 District by Keith Brown

High Point Enterprise has a article titled "County Officials Unveil District Maps", CLICKHERE

High Point is part of what Keith Brown, who contributed a map for Triad Watch, calls a fish-hook” strategy making a district that links to Greensboro to form a minority-majority district.

“The Alston plan creates a district that runs from High Point through Jamestown and into Greensboro,” Brown said. “We don’t like that.”

Brown’s plan, and the two other county maps, also take the same district path, but Brown claims his treatment is not as severe.
Read more: High Point Enterprise - County officials unveil district maps


Let me explain a little bit further with this scenario. We have a district that needs to be majority minority because of the voting rights act. In High Point you can only get 44% majority minority and need to be over the 50% plus 1 this means that this district that was in High Point needs to add more people. So the feasible way to go is east to get precincts through Jamestown and into Greensboro.

Doing this from High Point into Greensboro opens the door for the map makers to go under this majority minority district to make a fish hook looking area where some of the southern part of High Point remain in another area for the "High Point Hook" as i call it to happen.

As you see in the map that I turned into the Guilford County Commissioners you do not see me allow this High Point Hook. But if you see plenty of the other maps CLICKHERE it does especially the chairman Skip Alston plan.

Say no to the High Point Hook around the voting rights act majority minority district in High Point

Proposed Final Redistricting Plans for Guilford County Commissioners Sent by the Legal Department

Guilford County Final Proposed Redistricting Plans

the above scribd file is the final proposed redistricting maps sent to the Guilford County Commissioners in regards to the 2011 redistricting process. If you would like to see the link of the Guilford County web site CLICKHERE

Guilford County Chairman Skip Alston's Jig Saw Gerrymandered Redistricting Map That Should Be Dead on Arrival

EXHIBIT A

Chairman Skip Alston Proposed Redistricting Map 2011


EXHIBIT B

Chairman Skip Alston Redistricting Map on Precinct Overlay 2011

Above in Exhibit A is the "mystery map" that was turned in to the Guilford County Legal Department from the Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston.

A 7-9-2011 Greensboro News and Record above the fold headline story titled "Maps Drawn on Party Lines" CLICKHERE . An interesting excerpt:

"Alston said two of the maps he submitted were put together by county staff under his direction. The third, he said, he put together with a group of “political advisers” he declined to name.

“They’re not big players, just some people who know the area and the issues whose opinions I trust,” Alston said. “They’re just an informal advisory committee.”

The Chairman directed the creation of all 3 maps

These mystery people know the area and if you want to see what a GERRYMANDERED JIG SAW REDISTRICTING MAP THAT SHOULD BE DEAD ON ARRIVAL looks like,
take a look at Exhibit A.

Exhibit B is what Alston's map looks like when you add the precincts to the map.

Check out the 6 red circled areas on Exhibit B. This is what a blatantly gerrymandered map looks like where they have to wrap around, barely sliver through to get the desired results.

Looking at the numbered districts in Exhibit A, let's start out by talking about district # 5 where we have the most ridiculous gerrymandered aspect of the whole map.  This district stretches from the most eastern part of Guilford County in the town of Whitsett all the way south and barely underneath High Point precinct 23 to split the City of High Point in half and gerrymander all the way up Eastchester Drive to the intersection of Wendover Avenue. The map in exhibit B shows the 2 red circles where the small sliver of this map draws these citizens into District 5.  They split the Town of Pleasant Garden in half, which if you want to keep communities in a whole district to not disenfranchise, then why split the city in half?

Also in the Skip Alston and his mystery people map is District #2, which stretches all the way up to the Town of Oak Ridge, but as you can see from the map the Town of Oak Ridge is split in half between OR 1 and OR 2 , so now we have 2 smaller municipalities split between commissioners which should be done as little as possible or not done at all. NOTE ( My map that i submitted to the Guilford County Commissioners CLICKHERE is compact and only splits up Jamestown because of the Voting Rights Act to bring the High Point precincts over to have some of the Greensboro majority-minority areas to make them compact and feasible). On my maps Jamestown is split 3 ways which put one Jamestown area with the Adams Farm area while the Jam 5 is put in the southern and southeast district area.

Back to the map  of Chairman Alston's district #2 where we have now a district that should be mainly High Point but goes right to pick up precincts in Greensboro which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.  So now we could have a situation in High Point where feasibly not one representative could be from the city because #5, #1, and #2 all take in other areas of Guilford County. Wouldn't that be nice to have a City in the top ten in population for North Carolina not have any representative from it's city in county government?

Let's take a closer look at Exhibit A to show you the absurdity of this map. District #5 wraps around #1 to sliver up to split with #2. Then #8 darts north through Greensboro to wrap around #7 and then back up off of battleground to #4 . #3 with just a little area that starts in Greensboro off of Jefferson road that then squeezes down on battleground avenue to a very small area, only to jump into the Stokesdale and Summerfield area of the county and splits Oak Ridge N.C. in half.  Then we have #2 which starts on western side of Guilford County up towards Oak Ridge with the split of Oak Ridge with #2, then east into Greensboro, which makes not one bit of sense.
As you can see from the so called "mystery map" from Skip Alston, with the help from political advisers who want to keep the same non-competitive gerrymandered maps for the next 10 years , this map should be dead on arrival. So in Chairman Alston's own words this map should be "DOA to the DOJ."

It is time for all citizens to speak up about this issue. After seeing this map turned in from the chairman, it is time to fight back for having sensible compact districts in Guilford County, not the absurd complete gerrymandered crap that Skip Alston has thrust upon us.
If you want to see all the maps that have been turned into the Guilford County Legal Department, you will not be able to see them on the Guilford County web site. 

They are still not up.

But you can CLICKHERE for the local GOP maps.

GOP MAP 1
GOP MAP 2
GOP MAP 3
Keith Brown Map
Skip Alston Map
Staff Friendly Map
Staff Market Map

The time is now to let your Guilford County Commissioners know how you feel, and it is also time to let your local municipalities know how you feel about this map, or any of these maps, because it will effect us for the next 10 years or more. Get involved.

Here is a link to the Guilford County web site to let them know how you feel, CLICKHERE

Another Episode of Robbie's Recusals from Greensboro City Council Meetings

During the Greensboro City Council meeting on April 20, 2010 Greensboro City Council member Robbie Perkins added another recusal to his resume. Video below.

REGULAR MEETING


TUESDAY

APRIL 20, 2010

5:30 P.M.

COUNCIL CHAMBER
21. Resolution approving the proposed amendments to the Neighborhood Stabilization Program Plan, Target Area and Budget for submittal to the North Carolina Division of Community Assistance. (Council District: all) (roll call vote) (Attachment #21 to Councilmembers)


22. Resolution approving allocation of Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds for support of a Permanent Supportive Housing Project recommended by the Community Resource Board and authorizing the City Manager to execute loan documentation. (Council District: 3) (roll call vote) (Attachment #22 to Councilmembers)


Robbie Perkins says in the video that one of our real estate brokers found this piece of land for Mr. Levy and his group and have a direct financial interest and need to abstain. Just a few questions in just how did your real estate broker find this property? Was there any inside maneuvering for this property?

This concludes another episode of Robbies Recusals

HAT TIP Piedmont Publius CLICKHERE

Here is what Piedmont Publius had to say about this

"The item was to allocate Neighborhood Stabilization funds for a public housing project to be located near the corner of N. Elm and Pisgah Church Road. The city housing planner told the council that the 20-unit project had a total cost of $2 million, $800,000 of which would be provided by the city.



Before the discussion, council member Robbie Perkins said he had to abstain from the discussion and the vote because one of his brokers found the property for the developer an thusd he had a “direct financial interest.”


I’m not sure who’s providing Perkins’ brokering fee, but an average citizen would look at this and say a public official is profiting from a project that is receiving taxpayer funds. That never looks good.


By the way, the item passed with an 8-0 vote with practically no discussion or debate, something I like to call a ‘City Council special.’"

TO BE CONTINUED

Guilford County Commissioner Linda Shaw Speaks: Is It Illegal or Ethical on What She Said? Video Embedded

During the Guilford County Commissioners meeting on April 15, 2010, Commissioner Linda Shaw had something to say about the upcoming primary, click on the embedded video above.

As you can see from this video, it seems that Guilford County Commissioner Linda Shaw thinks it is OK to say during a commissioner's meeting that if you live in Stokesdale, Summerfield, Oak Ridge and northern part of Greensboro, Linda Shaw would appreciate your vote for her in the upcoming republican primary.

This might not be illegal, but it sure is unethical for a commissioner to say this during a meeting.

The Guilford County Commissioners meeting gets televised all over the area from cable channel 8 on time warner. This is why we see some people talk about the equal time that opponents want in elections because the incumbents have a huge advantage if they are going to do unethical acts like Commissioner Linda Shaw did during the meeting, in telling people in the third district that she would appreciate their vote.

You can also hear the laughing in the background at the end and the videographer panning back to Chairman Skip Alston laughing.

This was not funny and needs to be addressed by the county attorney.

This type of unethical behavior needs to stop, and for the record the county attorney Mark Payne should completely strike what Commissioner Linda Shaw said from the record, and take it off the county web site of video.

If they repeat this meeting on cable access channel 8 then take it off as well. During the next Guilford County Commissioners meeting, Linda Shaw should state that she made a mistake and would also like to say that you can also vote for Sam Spagnola as well in the primary if you live in oak ridge, summerfield, stokesdale and northern parts of Greensboro for equal time to all candidates.

We will see what happens next, but this act by Commissioner Linda Shaw might not be illegal but surely it is unethical.

How Special Interest Affect City Business

Mary Newsom from the Charlotte Observer and her blog called NAKED CITY has a post with a title "How Special Interest Affect City Business" CLICKHERE

Nice to see other cities all over this great state with some of the same problems .

GUESS WHO is the New Executive Director of the Guilford County Republican Party?

Tony Wilkins was nominated by chairman Bill Wright and it was seconded by plenty of people in the audience to become the new Executive Director of the Guilford County Republican Party. Good luck on this new endeavor for Tony Wilkins and he will also keep his duties as the media chairman/web site information director for the Guilford County Republican Party.