News-Record.com

We'll publish complete candidate questionnaire responses on our Web site ere long, but here's a preview from Paul Gibson. The at-large Guilford County commissioner and former chairman is always candid:

"Where we fail citizens, in my opinion, is our elected board. We have not yet learned how to work together for the betterment of our entire county and most importantly, how to disagree in a respectful manner. I believe that has to do with the personalities on the board and also on the fact that only the two at-large seats are competitive."

The first part of Gibson's statement is self-explanatory. The second, on which he elaborated during an interview today, has to do with accountability.

Two of the 11 commissioners are elected at-large and answer to all county voters. Their races tend to be closely contested. (Remember the John Parks-Trudy Wade deadlock of four years ago?)

The other nine are elected from districts, which Gibson calls "protected." Very rarely does an incumbent face a strong challenge. Sometimes they're not opposed at all.

Gibson's point is that these commissioners can get away with irresponsible behavior; they'll almost certainly be re-elected no matter what.

I think there's a lot of truth to that. But what to do? The nine-district system also has given the board enough diversity to reasonably reflect the county's population, which is positive. There will never be at-large voting for all 11 seats.

That said, returning the board to its former size of seven members, reducing the number of districts to five, would help. That should still allow diverse representation, but the districts would be large enough to entice more candidates into each election. At the very least, each commissioner would be directly accountable to more voters. That could do much to encourage better behavior.