The Nassau County redistricting commission has wasted up to $500,000 on a redistricting plan that one legislator has called a “bold-face power grab” by the Republican Party.
The 10-member redistricting commission agreed last week not to recommend a plan to the county Legislature. The entire procedure has been a complete failure mocking the democracy it was created to protect.
Each 10 years the lines are redrawn after the census to reflect population shifts. The five Republicans on the commission presented their map at the four-hour-long public hearing that was packed with more than 400 residents. Approximately 50 of those people spoke and all but two were opposed to the Republican-drawn lines. The proposed map would place Kings Point and Saddle Rock and part of the Village of Great Neck in a different district than the rest of Great Neck and shift boundaries in New Hyde Park and the Willistons.
The Democrats on the commission refused to even show their map. Sadly the two sides did not meet even once to discuss the two maps to see if at least some of their differences could be reconciled.
Republican redistricting commission chairman Frank Moroney said Albany-based consultants had been paid $48,000 of a $95,000 contract, to come up with an “incumbent-blind” map. “This map was developed under very fair standards and would be upheld in a court of law,” he said.
It was Moroney who was “blind” to the near unanimous disapproval that was expressed at the hearing.
Howard Weitzman, a Democratic former mayor of Great Neck Estates, countered, “This map breaks my heart – a bald face partisan power grab that has ever been seen in the history of Nassau County.” He predicted the result would be a 12-7 Republican majority in the county Legislature.
“Rip this up start again,” he said to applause, “do it in nonpartisan manner and come out with something everybody could be proud of.”
Village of Great Neck Mayor Ralph Kreitzman urged the commission “to find another solution to the county’s need to redistrict and to leave the Great Neck peninsula intact.” Splitting up his village on the map, he said, “defied logic.”
Nassau County Legislator Richard Nicolello (R-New Hyde) said his New Hyde Park base would be divided into two districts under the Republican plan.
It is not just the gerrymandered lines of the Republican map that deserve public criticism, it is the complete failure of the two sides to work together on a map that would serve the best interests of the residents of Nassau County.
We agree completely with Nassau County Legislator Judi Bosworth (D-Great Neck) who said, “I think the commission failed because they didn’t collaborate to come up with a map. There was no attempt to do that.”
She said the Republican map is Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano’s map and he should drop it as a potential redistricting solution.
The redistricting commission has spent an enormous amount of money to create a map that disenfranchises thousands of voters only to strengthen the Republican power base. This is not why the commission was created. There is no reason why the two sides couldn’t sit in a room together to work out the lines.
We’re not certain that if the Democrats held a majority in the county Legislature that they wouldn’t have done the same thing. We are certain that the Republican map and the entire process was a disgrace and that it’s time to bring an end to politics as usual in Nassau County.
