Committee OKs Suffolk redistricting measure

A resolution by Suffolk Democrats to junk a nonpartisan redistricting commission and have Suffolk lawmakers take over the redrawing of legislative lines took its first step toward passage Wednesday after a heated hourlong debate.

The Ways and Means Committee voted 3-2 for Presiding Officer William Lindsay's resolution to give lawmakers 120 days to come up with a plan. The resolution could go before the full legislature on Tuesday.

The committee tabled a GOP proposal that would have given to the nonpartisan commission the same period of time to finish the job. Boundaries for federal, state and local legislative lines are redrawn once a decade based on the new U.S. census.

In pressing for his bill, Lindsay maintained he is not looking to make the redrawing of districts a "highly partisan issue," but to assure that county lawmakers would not be shut out of the process. The commission missed a Feb. 1 deadline to redraw the 18 legislative districts, and the county is facing having to turn the process over to the courts.

"I want it to be fair," said Lindsay. But he said the commission "went out of business" when it did not meet its deadline after 14 months of work.

Lindsay also said Republicans politicized the process by failing to name commission members who met the law's qualifications.

"I couldn't disagree more," said Legis. John M. Kennedy Jr. (R-Nesconset). Kennedy said he made changes in GOP members and that the commission has been hamstrung because final census data did not become available until recently. He added election district boundaries will not be set until state legislative lines are approved.

"There will be no doubt about the legitimacy of the commission if it is allowed to continue its work," said Kennedy.

Suffolk GOP chairman John Jay LaValle said Democrats only backed the nonpartisan approach until they won a legislative majority in the last election and now want to control the new lines.

Legis. Ricardo Montano (D-Central Islip), the commission's chairman, sided with Kennedy after seeking to have both resolutions tabled, noting courts rarely name a special master to draw lines unless government "total abdicates" responsibility.

"We are disappointed," Mary McLaughlin of the League of Women Voters said before the committee vote. "Citizens will apparently not see the promised nonpartisan effort."