The Guilford County Board of Commissioners has scheduled a work session for Thursday, Oct. 7 at 4:30 p.m. to tackle what promises to be a very interesting question.
What should the commissioners’ districts in Guilford County look like for the next 10 years?
The commissioners opened the process up to suggestions from the public in early September and now they’ll get down to business. The official purpose of the meeting will be “to review proposed Guilford County redistricting maps, and to conduct any other necessary business.”
In early September, the county set up a website that was essentially a map creation tool, so that anyone who wanted to could design and submit proposed new district maps for the eight commissioner districts in the county. By law, the commissioners must revisit the map each decade after the new census numbers come in to make sure that each district has roughly the same number of citizens. That’s meant to help assure fairness in representation.
After this meeting on Oct. 7, the Board of Commissioners will hold a public hearing on redistricting map proposals on Thursday, Oct. 21. On Thursday, Nov. 4, the board hopes to approve a final map. The deadline for the board to adopt and submit the final redistricting map is Thursday, Nov. 18.
Normally, a redistricting work session would draw a good crowd, but these aren’t normal times. These are pandemic times and the meeting room – the Blue Room on the first floor of the Old County Court House in downtown Greensboro – isn’t open to the public.
Citizens can, however, watch the meeting through Zoom using a computer, tablet or smartphone by visiting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84563504163. (If required, entering meeting ID number 845 6350 4163 at the prompt.)
Also, the meeting will be livestreamed on Guilford County’s Facebook page.
Anyone with questions about the meeting or how to watch it can contact Guilford County Deputy Clerk Ariane Webb at awebb@guilfordcountync.gov with any questions.
