Nassau County Republicans moved ahead with a controversial redistricting plan that would split Great Neck and pit incumbent Democrats against one another, in a 4-3 rules committee vote Monday on a bill that Republicans said would allow the Board of Elections to implement new electoral lines.
The vote highlighted the partisan divisions between Democrats and Republicans in both the county Legislature and the Board of Elections on the redistricting plan.
In a letter dated June 13, Democratic Board of Elections Commissioner William Biamonte outlined errors in the metes and bounds – the terms used to describe election districts – in 12 of 19 districts, and said those errors prevented their implementation.
Of the new District 10, which includes most of Great Neck but leaves out the Village of Lake Success and splits the hamlet of University Gardens, Biamonte said, “This description is hopelessly muddled and clearly erroneous.”
Also corrected was Nassau County Legislator Wayne Wink’s (D-Roslyn) District 11, which includes the Great Neck Village of Lake Success, part of the hamlet of University Gardens, along with North New Hyde Park, Manhasset Hills, North Hills, and most of Roslyn.
Nassau County Attorney John Ciampoli downplayed the errors and said the rules committee vote was necessitated by Biamonte.
“I have told you, I think we have a recalcitrant commissioner and this is an attempt to move the plan forward,” Ciampoli said.
Ciampoli said most of the errors cited by Biamonte did not exist. He said they were the fault of outdated software used by the Board of Elections. Ciampoli said the software was out of date because Biamonte had ignored repeated requests by the Republican commissioner to update it.
“Beyond absurd is my response,” Biamonte said. “The map that they drew up puts the districts into Suffolk County. The maps that they drew have streets that do not exist.”
He said the errors were discovered by a bipartisan team that conducted physical inspections.
The metes and bounds may require another correction, according to Biamonte. He said the Board of Elections received the amendments last week and found errors.
The redistricting map is currently being litigated in federal court in a civil rights lawsuit filed by Hempstead lawyer Frederick Brewington, and in the Nassau County Supreme Court in a challenge by Nassau County Democrats.
The original redistricting proposal was presented to the public April 26, after Nassau County Presiding Officer Peter Schmitt (R-Massapequa) asked Ciampoli in mid-April to render an opinion on redistricting requirements in the county charter. He received it the same day.
Republican leaders have maintained 2010 census data requires an immediate response due to population growth that left minority voters underrepresented. To create a new minority district, the new map would split existing minority communities.
At a public hearing on May 9, hundreds of people spoke out against the proposed map, some of them self-professed Republicans. It was vigorously opposed by black residents and a majority of Great Neck village mayors.
Members of the rules committee bickered their way through the nearly two hour meeting, with Schmitt kicking off the question and answer session with strict instructions for Democrats to limit their questions to the ordinance.
“I’m not going to sit here and have another public hearing,” he said. “If you want to put in a show you do it outside for the media.”
Nassau County Legislator Judy Jacobs (D-Woodbury) questioned the decision to proceed without a public hearing.
“We’ve corrected two or three errors,” Schmitt said. “That’s not so many in my book.”
Schmitt was unable to tell the Legislature how many people were impacted by the amended meets and bounds, but said the number was negligible.
“Negligible to him might not be negligible to me,” said Nassau County Legislator Kevan Abrahams (D-Hempstead).
Democrats have called the redistricting plan a power grab by Republicans, who control the Legislature by a two-person margin.
The new electoral map reduces the number of incumbent Democratic districts from eight to six by merging districts represented by Nassau County legislators Dave Denenberg (D-Merrick) and Joseph Scannell (D-Baldwin), that of Minority Leader Diane Yatauro (D-Glen Cove), who has said she is not seeking re-election, and Nassau County Legislator Judy Jacobs (D-Woodbury).
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 in March 2012, as mandated by the county charter.
Democrats have said the county charter required districts be described based on census data and later drawn by a bipartisan commission, after extensive public input.
