Suffolk scraps nonpartisan district panel

Suffolk lawmakers have scrapped a nonpartisan commission to draw new district lines, returning the task to themselves.

By a 12-to-6 party-line vote, the legislature Tuesday night approved a resolution with 120 days to come up with the new lines. Democrats and their allies who pushed for the change said the commission, after 14 months of work, failed to meet its deadline -- risking putting the process in the hands of a court-appointed special master.

"Unfortunately this is a failed experiment," said Majority Leader DuWayne Gregory (D-Amityville).

Republicans supported giving the commission another 120 days to finish the job. They said members were hurt by late-arriving U.S. census data, on which the 18 district lines must be based, and said enough time remained before the 2013 election.

Boundaries for federal, state and local legislative lines are redrawn once a decade after the census.

Democrats accused Republicans of failing to name members who met qualifications of the 2007 county law creating the commission. Republicans said Democrats supported the eight-member body only until November, when they again secured a legislative majority.

"This is all about power and control, and who draws the lines," said Legis. Thomas Barraga (R-West Islip), "and that is the majority."

Nancy Marr, the League of Women Voters of Brookhaven president who co-chaired the commission, lamented that her work would be for naught.

"Citizens have become aware that their local government need not rely on political incumbents to configure voting district lines," she said, "and we too challenge Suffolk County to go back to the drawing board to write a charter law that will create a transparent and fair process for drawing lines for the legislative districts after the next census."

Also on Tuesday night:

Lawmakers stalled, 13-4, a controversial bill that would defer, for three months, all new "planning steps" (assessments, surveys, purchase offers) to add to the county's open-space program. During the pause, officials would re-rank about 3,800 parcels by priority of the most environmentally sensitive for dwindling program funds.

"Tell me again, how can you possibly do that?" Legis. John Kennedy (R-Nesconset), who supported tabling, asked planning officials.

Legis. Lou D'Amaro (D-North Babylon) said that the review will ultimately protect taxpayer funds.

By a 14-4 vote, the legislature authorized the long-delayed $8.9 million acquisition of 150 acres of open space in Calverton.

Also approved was a bill banning acceptance of hydraulic fracturing waste at Suffolk sewage treatment plants. A recent state Department of Environmental Conservation draft report identified the county's Bergen Point plant in West Babylon as capable of accepting chemical-laden wastewater produced by the controversial gas drilling method.