The chairman of the Nassau County Temporary Redistricting Committee kicked off the group’s first meeting last Thursday with a call for the 10-member, bipartisan panel to start with a “clean slate” in creating its new legislative districts.
“Today’s meeting is about ministerial matters, but this will allow you to go about the work of revising the district lines in conformity with the existing law, both federal and state, in a fair, open and transparent manner,” said Francis X. Moroney, Nassau’s deputy comptroller, who was appointed chairman of the panel by Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano.
“In order to do so,” Moroney added,” the public must be included in every way.”
Moroney said the redistricting committee should “disregard the map” that was proposed by the Nassau County Legislature’s Presiding Officer Peter Schmitt (R-Massapequa) last year.
That GOP plan to redistrict the county’s 19 legislative districts, which the State Court of Appeals ruled could not be implemented until 2013, drew heated opposition by Democratic legislators and village officials for its handling of Democratic controlled districts.
Under the redistricting proposed by the GOP, the Village of Lake Success and part of the hamlet of University Gardens would have shifted from Nassau County Legislator Judi Bosworth’s District 10 to Nassau County Legislator Wayne Wink’s District 11, in exchange for his Port Washington constituents and additional areas in Manhasset. The portion of North New Hyde Park currently in Nassau County Legislator Richard Nicolello’s (R-New Hyde Park) District 9 would have also shifted to District 11.
The temporary redistricting committee is comprised of five Republican and five Democratic members, who must present recommendations for approval by the Legislature by Jan 5.
County lawmakers will then have until March 5 to approve a redistricting plan.
If the redistricting plan submitted by the bipartisan panel is not approved, Mangano’s 2011 proposal will go into effect.
“In 1994 this process broke down and it broke down along party lines, as this process here, may break down along party lines,” Moroney said. “It broke down in 2002. It is a difficult task to extract partisanship from this process.”
But based upon the first of the committee’s several scheduled business meetings, Democratic redistricting panel member Steven Markowitz said he is encouraged that a bipartisan solution to redistricting can be made.
Markowitz, who is on the Village of Great Neck Board of Zoning Appeals, is chairman and principal of MultiState Associates Incorporated, a New York-based government relations solutions firm he co-founded in 1984. He is also president of the Great Neck Democratic Club and a vice chairman of the Nassau County Democratic Committee.
“I think everybody showed a lot of good will and a willingness to work together,” Markowitz said. “I’m really very optimistic that this process will go very smoothly.”
The first temporary redistricting committee was commissioned in 2002, but was unable to come to an agreement, as each party submitted its own proposals.
With a Legislature then controlled by Democrats, county lawmakers approved the proposal submitted by the majority party, which was then challenged by Republicans in an unsuccessful court case.
Although the historic precedent does not bode well for the committee, Markowitz said under Moroney’s leadership this temporary redistricting committee has a real chance to create a new legislative map that is agreed upon by both parties.
“I think Mr. Moroney ran the meeting very fairly and I think he made some very positive statements about how he saw the process should go,” Markowitz said. “He even began talking about some of the criteria we should use.”
During last week’s meeting the panel discussed issues ranging from its budget and office space to the procedures for hiring staff members.
Moroney said each party will have a budget of $225,000 for its portion of the five-member panel and offices for the redistricting committee could be housed at 100 County Seat Drive in Mineola.
An additional $50,000 will be split between both parties for other “mutual expenses,” which could include the services of a stenographer, Moroney said.
“It’s for each side to determine what they’re going to spend that money on,” he said.
The committee also reviewed its Web site, which can be accessed on the county Legislature’s home page.
In addition, Democrats also proposed a set of guidelines to ensure as “fair and transparent” a redistricting process as possible, the resolution said.
The guidelines are scheduled to be voted on during the temporary redistricting committee’s next meeting on Thursday, June 28 at 4 p.m. at the Theodore Roosevelt Executive and Legislative Building in Mineola.
“The resolution that we intend to push will state our criteria for how we think the redistricting process should go,” Markowitz said.
Other local members of the redistricting committee include Stewart Manor-New Hyde Park Republican Club leader Angela Powers and Mineola lawyer Bob McDonald, who is a Democratic appointee.
Attempts to reach McDonald and Powers for comment on this story were unavailing.
