Republican Nassau County legislators introduced amendments to their controversial redistricting plan Monday that would return the Great Neck villages of Russell Gardens, Great Neck Estates and Thomaston to District 10, split the hamlet of University Gardens and leave Lake Success in District 11, along with North New Hyde Park, Manhasset Hills, North Hills and most of Roslyn.
The surprise move by Republicans legislators followed the issuance of a temporary restraining order on May 12 by state Supreme Court Justice Steven Jaeger that blocked the Nassau County Legislature from implementing new electoral lines.
Democratic county legislators had filed a suit, calling the plan arbitrary, capricious and unconstitutional.
Republicans filed an appeal Tuesday, and both sides will return to court May 26.
Democrats were pleased by the temporary restraining order, which they said makes new districts unlikely for the November election since the Nassau County Board of Elections needs to implement revised election districts before the June 7 petitioning kickoff for electoral candidates.
“I am very encouraged by the judge’s determination that this needs to be looked at further before they can go ahead,” said Nassau County Legislator Judi Bosworth (D-Great Neck). “In my mind it confirms what we’ve been saying, that this has been done in a capricious and arbitrary way without the opportunity for people to comment.”
The final vote on the redistricting map, which would move 44 percent of the county’s residents into new districts, had been scheduled for May 16.
The original GOP proposal split the nine village of Great Neck and, three instances, split villages within Great Neck. The proposal was angrily opposed by Great Neck officials as well as Bosworth and fellow Democratic Legislator Wayne Wink, who would have swapped approximately half their districts.
In both cases New Hyde Park would remain among the towns in District 9, along with Williston Park and East Williston.
The amended GOP plan would add the villages of Russell Gardens, Great Neck Estates, Great Neck Plaza, and Thomaston to District 10, but split Manhasset with the northern part remaining in District 10 and the southern to District 11 along with Lake Success.
“I think it’s outrageous that the Republicans have neglected the Village of Lake Success,” said Village of Lake Success Mayor Ron Cooper. “Lake Success has traditionally always been part of the peninsula. To remove one village from that peninsula is not in keeping with the solidarity of the Great Neck community.”
Cooper previously called the plan a travesty and an “unbelievable transparent political grab of power.”
Republican leaders have maintained that their efforts were intended to protect the rights of minority voters after 2010 census data showed population growth that left people in some legislative districts underrepresented.
After Majority Leader Peter Schmitt (R-Massapequa) unveiled the redistricting amendments before a packed audience at the Legislature on Monday, Nassau County Legislator Kevan Abrahams (D-Uniondale) made it clear that Democrats were unaware of the contents.
“What map?” he asked. “I want to make sure the public is clear, we have not seen these amendments. I can speak for the eight members on my side of the aisle, we have not seen any amendments.”
Copies of the amendments were handed out to Democrats after Nassau County Legislator Vincent Muscarella (R-Garden City) made a motion to table the redistricting plan. The eight Democrats walked out on the vote to discuss as a group the amendments they had just been handed.
As Democrats re-entered the chamber, chants from the crowd of “No Justice, No Peace,” turned into a rendition of “We Shall Overcome.”
Nassau County Legislature Minority Leader Diane Yatauro said Democrats believed that any vote on the amendments would be a violation of the judge’s decision and they refused to participate. The item was tabled without a vote.
May 17 found Dems scrambling to formulate a clear picture of the amended map.
Told that the amendments would move the Village of Russell Gardens back into District 10, Bosworth said, “Wow,” multiple times.
“This proposal still divides the Great Neck peninsula for no reason,” she said. “That’s great for Russell Gardens, but I can understand why Lake Success would feel totally isolated from the Great Neck peninsula, and that’s a problem. We are one community. This is a community that is proud of its working together. To isolate out one of the nine villages is something that I am really quite appalled at.”
Schmitt previously said he asked Nassau County Attorney John Ciampoli in mid-April what the county charter required following the release of 2010 census data.
The original redistricting proposal was presented to the public on April 26.
At a public hearing on May 9, hundreds of people spoke out against the redistricting map, some of them self-professed Republicans.
Black residents vociferously criticized the GOP proposal, despite Schmitt’s insistence it would protect their voting rights. He said census data showed population growth that demanded an immediate response or the county would be left vulnerable to voting rights lawsuits.
At the May 16 meeting, he called the 10 hours of comments a “show,” the result of e-mails from Democrats asking people to come angry.
To create a new minority district, the original proposal would split minority communities such as Five Towns in two and further divide the Village of Hempstead from two to three. The amended proposal would largely maintain those changes.
Amendments would move South Floral Park from District 3 to District 19; restore Old Westbury to District 11; transfer the Terrace Avenue neighborhood from District 8 to District 2; reunite all of East Meadow in District 13; maintain Cathedral Gardens in District 8; add population from District 1 to District 2; add South Floral Park, Valley Stream, South Valley Stream and Elmont to the proposed District 19; and restore areas of the Five Towns to District 7.
“On the basis of one public hearing they could come up with all these changes,” Bosworth said. “Imagine that it would be like if they had a series of public meetings.”
According to Republicans, the county charter sets up a three-step redistricting process, with immediate redistricting after each census in time for the next election. A bipartisan commission would then amend district boundaries after the election in March 2012, as mandated by the county charter.
Democrats have said the county charter necessitates boundaries merely be described based on census data and later drawn by a bipartisan commission, after extensive public input.
In agreement was attorney Frederick Brewington, who proposed an alternative redistricting plan during the public comment section that opened the meeting.
“What was proposed was not redistricting,” he said. “It was radical redistricting. What was proposed made a mockery of the Voting Rights Act.”
His plan would move about 124,000 people, or 9 percent of the county, rather than nearly 589,000 in the original Republican plan.
It would keep the Five Towns and Great Neck intact, in a plan based on a CVAP data – citizen voting age population, rather than voting age population, as every resident is not a citizen.
Towards the end of a lengthy discussion, Schmitt told Brewington to take the GOP to court if he has to.
“I am telling you, it does not have to be that way,” Brewington said. “We keep talking about history, and history is important. My suggestion is that every legislator not end up on the wrong end of it.”
Among the many things about which Schmitt and Democrats disagreed was the last redistricting effort.
Schmitt said Democrats substituted a gerrymandered map for the preferred bipartisan map, while Nassau County Legislator Judy Jacobs (D-Woodbury) said the bipartisan commission could not come to an agreement about which of multiple maps to choose but the Democratic choice was upheld in court.
“You continue to live in your fantasy of the past and we will continue to move forward,” Schmitt said.
