Guilford County government is about to join a host of other governments across the country discussing redistricting right now. 

The Board of Commissioners has called a special work session for Thursday, August 5, which will be the first time the board discusses the impending redistricting for county commissioner districts. 

At the work session, the discussion will start with an update from county staff on where things stand in regard to the redistricting, which happens every decade after the Census.  This year like nearly everything else the figures from the US Census Bureau were delayed and aren’t expected to be released in final form until September. 

The Guilford County Board of Commissioners has scheduled the work session for 4 p.m. Thursday in the Blue Room on the first floor of the Old Guilford County Court House.  That location won’t do any good for people wanting to attend because, due to renewed COVID-19 concerns, the work session is closed to the public.  People will be able to view the proceedings on the internet.

The commissioners have yet to discuss redistricting at all this year, however, last month Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners did tell the Rhino Times that the board was going to do all it could to make sure the reshaping of districts was “fair” and not politically driven. 

Some of Alston’s detractors question whether he’ll live up to that promise. However, Alston has stated that any unfair redistricting proposals would be rejected by the state legislature. 

Another purpose of this week’s Thursday work session is to conduct annual training regarding the Board of Commissioners’ duties as the county’s Board of Public Health. Since Guilford County has no health board, the Board of Commissioners fills that role, and the commissioners, therefore, must receive regular training pertaining to that duty.

Those interested can watch the work session with a computer, tablet or smartphone using Zoom.  Viewers should visit https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82011943158.  (If required, they should enter meeting ID 820 1194 3158 at the prompt.)

The meeting will also be shown live on Guilford County’s Facebook page.

Copies of the work session agenda will be available before the meeting starts at https://guilford.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx.