Nassau legislature OKs redistricting plan

The GOP-controlled Nassau Legislature voted 10-8 Tuesday for a legislative redistricting plan that Republicans say is required by the county charter but that Democrats decry as a power grab.

The vote split generally along party lines. Denise Ford, a registered Democrat from Long Beach who runs on the GOP ticket, voted "no," and Robert Troiano (D-Westbury) arrived after the vote.

"Right from the beginning I did not support this redistricting plan," Ford said later. "I believed that we should have had more hearings and more input from residents."

The vote followed nearly three hours of comment from presiding officer Peter Schmitt of Massapequa; Joseph Nocella, who replaced hospitalized County Attorney John Ciampoli; seven Democratic legislators, and a half-dozen opponents from the public.

Schmitt has cited a legal opinion by Ciampoli that said the county charter requires the Legislature to approve a new reapportionment plan within eight months of the release of the new U.S. Census. Those numbers were made public April 1.

A state appellate court's action last week made Tuesday's vote possible by vacating a ruling by State Supreme Court Justice Steven Jaeger, who had granted Democrats' request for a temporary restraining order.

But Democrats vowed Tuesday that the legal fight will continue.

"We're going to revise our petition and plan to ask the judge to enjoin the Nassau County Executive [Edward Mangano] from approving and signing the law," said Hale Yazicioglu, a lawyer working with Steven Schlesinger, the lawyer for the eight Democratic legislators who sought to stop the redistricting plan.

Frederick Brewington of Hempstead, a lawyer who also opposes the plan, said it violates the civil rights of all residents, and especially those of minorities.

"I will not let that happen unchallenged," he said.

Both Democrats and Republicans held nominating conventions Tuesday night for the November elections. State and county Democratic chairman Jay Jacobs said the party will rely on current district lines to choose candidates -- and that those boundaries "are the ones that will prevail."

The GOP is also using those boundaries, said Anthony Santino, spokesman for Republican County chairman Joseph Mondello. "But we will be ready to adjust the nominations when the courts uphold the new lines," he added.