The Greensboro City Council wants voters to decide on extending the term of council members and the mayor from two years to four. The unanimous vote was in response to state legislation that would dramatically change the structure of the city's government.
The referendum would address what many consider the least controversial part of Senate Bill 36.
The News and Record of Greensboro reports the bill, which the N.C. Senate passed last week, would reduce the City Council from nine members to seven, with a mayor who would vote only in the case of a tie. The seven council members would all be elected from newly drawn districts.
State Sen. Trudy Wade, who introduced the bill, said it would create better representation for all city residents and is nonpartisan.
A number of the bill's critics — both Republicans and Democrats — have called it the latest in a series of overreaches by a Republican-dominated General Assembly looking to help Republican candidates in traditionally Democratic areas of the state.
Wade's bill was introduced in the N.C. House on Tuesday.
House members hope to give residents another chance to discuss the bill, but a public meeting has not yet been scheduled.
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