Suffolk lawmakers taking up district map

Suffolk Presiding Officer William Lindsay (D-Holbrook) has proposed the county legislature take over redrawing district lines after a nonpartisan reapportionment commission missed its Feb. 1 deadline for completing a plan.

However, Minority Leader John Kennedy (R-Nesconset) has filed a competing bill giving the current eight-member commission until June 1 to come up with new district lines.

The commission -- hamstrung by controversy over appointments and delays in census data -- has met only twice in the past year and is nowhere near completing a plan to redraw the 18 legislative districts.

With the Feb. 1 deadline missed, the law setting up the commission calls for the county attorney to now go to court to seek a special master to draw new lines.

Lindsay said he is calling for a change because a special master would totally cut lawmakers out of the process. "It is simply unacceptable and undemocratic," said Lindsay, noting that the county legislature has always been involved in the past in drawing new lines. Lindsay's proposal would have the legislature adopt the plan by June 1 or 120 days after the state approves its plan, whichever comes last.

Kennedy countered the nonpartisan commission should be given more time because updated census data has only become available in recent weeks.

He added the county commission cannot move forward until a state plan is complete because it could change election district boundaries which will have to be used in a new county plan.

Both sides also traded charges of partisanship. Democrats maintain that one GOP pick, former Judge Alfred Tisch, later was elected county sheriff, making him ineligible.

John Jay LaValle, Suffolk GOP chairman, said Democrats backed the nonpartisan commission only when they thought that they might lose control of the county legislature last fall. "Now that they have won, they are showing their true colors and are trying to steamroll the whole process," he said.

Kennedy said he believes good-government groups such as the League of Women Voters and Common Cause will bring pressure on Democratic lawmakers to extend the existing commission.

"I fully expect we will get fair consideration at the end of the day," he said.