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Improve the Culture

The Planning & Zoning Commission has no women. It has 10 men. This total imbalance has affected our decisions and our dynamic for over four years. It must end.

Two members’ terms have expired: Tom Cost’s and Ray Bower’s terms ended back on Feb. 28; the Board of Selectmen (BOS) has two opportunities to start to correct this 10-0 gender imbalance when it meets on Monday, May 1. The BOS has had many months to plan for replacements, and plenty of women in town are willing to serve on town boards. On May 1, the selectmen can break out from their streak of appointing all men to one of the most consequential boards in Guilford.

Zoning’s gender problem has persisted for decades, and it has gotten even worse in the past four years, without a good reason: zoning is a “lay” board that does not require specific qualifications. Custom and habit have made it mostly, now all, men. The selectmen haven’t settled on new nominees for these vacancies yet, to my knowledge, nor have they considered any women.

We can improve the culture of zoning by requesting and demanding a gender balance. Women on this commission will provide perspectives that we simply do not have right now.

I encourage your readers to support women with energy and intelligence to step forward and serve on one of the most far-reaching commissions in our town, and to remind our selectmen to appoint a much more balanced commission on May 1, and from now on.

Walter Corbiere

Guilford

Walter Corbiere serves on the Planning & Zoning Commission.