Bipartisan group gets chance to craft Suffolk redistricting
The Suffolk County Legislature on Tuesday unanimously approved a proposal giving a bipartisan commission until Aug. 1 to redraw 18 legislative district maps. Credit: Barry Sloan
A bipartisan commission will get the chance to craft Suffolk County legislative lines for the next decade after the legislature agreed Tuesday to redo the redistricting process.
The eight-member commission will have until Aug. 1 to redraw 18 district maps, and it must hold 12 public hearings.
Its maps must include at least four “majority-minority” districts, a key feature of a Democratic redistricting plan vetoed in January by County Executive Steve Bellone.
The legislation cemented a deal between Bellone and Presiding Officer Kevin McCaffrey (R-Lindenhurst) to undo that Democratic plan and allow both parties to help shape the redistricting process.
Without Tuesday’s unanimous vote, the Republican-led legislature could have approved its own redistricting map minus any Democratic input.
McCaffrey and Bellone both said the legislation will create an “open and transparent” process that gives residents more “input.”
“It is an excellent opportunity for us all to work together in a bipartisan fashion to create fair and equitable maps for all of Suffolk County,” said Minority Leader Jason Richberg (D-West Babylon).
Still, the fate of the plan depends on whether the Republican majority will approve it.
The commission will include four Republicans and four Democrats. Half are former judges, as required by county charter. All appointees are over age 55, according to their voter registrations.
Republican picks: Belinda Groneman, a congressional aide to gubernatorial candidate and Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley); attorney Grant Lally, founding chairman of the Long Island chapter of The Federalist Society for Law & Public Policy; former Suffolk County District Court Judge Howard Bergson; and former Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Emily Pines.
Democratic picks: Nancy Marr, president of the League of Women Voters of Brookhaven, who served on the previous Suffolk reapportionment commission; Jamir Couch, of the Islip NAACP; former Suffolk District Court Judge Adam Halpern; and former Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice John Bivona.
The commission will redo reapportionment after Democrats passed their own plan in December, saying then that legislative leaders failed to appoint commission members in time.
The Democratic plan would have created four districts in which Asian, Black, Latino and Indigenous residents were the majority. Nine districts would have leaned Republican and nine would have skewed Democratic.
But the plan also would have squeezed four Republican legislators into two districts, creating the possibility that they would run against each other, without forcing any Democratic incumbents to face the same scenario.
Democrats passed their plan Dec. 31, hours before Republicans took control of the legislature, and after just one public hearing.
Republicans sued, arguing the plan violated the county charter because Democrats bypassed the commission before Feb. 1, its deadline to propose maps.
Bellone vetoed his party's plan days before it was supposed to go into effect, saying he didn’t believe it would survive legal challenges.
Tuesday's legislation extended the commission's deadline for this cycle only. After the Aug. 1 deadline, Republicans would be able to propose their own map.
McCaffrey said he will allow the commission to complete its work, even if it’s after the deadline, and will provide support staff to help.
Voting rights advocates, who had hailed the Democratic plan, criticized the “backroom deal” between Bellone and McCaffrey over concerns it would undo fair maps and lead to gerrymandering.
“The NAACP and other voting rights advocates will be monitoring the County Executive and the Republican majority’s redistricting deal and process very closely,” Long Island NAACP regional director Tracey Edwards said in a statement.
Rachelle Blidner covers Suffolk County government, politics and breaking news.
