The North Carolina House has refused for now to accept a Senate plan to rework Greensboro's city council districts. Members voted 73-35 to reject House Bill 263, a move that sends it back to committee for more work.
The saga of an attempt to redo the makeup of Greensboro's city council continued on Monday night. That's when the House rejected the Senate version of a bill that originally only addressed changes to the council and mayor in the town of Trinity.
The News and Record reports Senate Republicans inserted the Greensboro legislation when an earlier bill they had passed sat in committee.
Representative John Blust of Greensboro argued against the bill, and urged solidarity with House members who live in Greensboro.
"The people who live there, work there, drive around, know the community the best, are asking you not to concur, and this unfortunately is far more of a Greensboro bill than a Trinity bill," said Blust.
He added there was little support for the bill among Greensboro residents.
But he is the the only one of five House committee members studying the bill who opposes it.
SB36 was originally introduced by Senator Trudy Wade, and was quickly approved in that chamber. Wade says many residents and members of the business community feel they are not fairly represented on the Council. Her bill would shrink the Greensboro City Council from nine members to seven, lengthen their terms from two years to four and strip the mayor of most voting powers.
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