The Brookhaven Town Board, on Thursday evening, will consider a redistricting plan that will set the boundaries for each town board member for the next ten years.
In a year where we have seen radical changes made to Congressional and State Senate Districts in Suffolk County, this map is refreshing in its straightforward attempt to uniform like-minded communities and resist the temptation of gerrymandering by the majority party.
This editorial board supports this redistricting plan and urges the Town Board to adopt this map in the best interest of Brookhaven residents.
This proposed map is the result of a robust, transparent public process after a dozen publicly advertised meetings resulted in highly attended meetings, hundreds of comments and suggestions, written testimony and suggestions from residents across the town, and numerous suggestions for alterations and changes.
The map under consideration in Town Hall tonight commits to the idea of “maps of least change,” making only minor changes to existing districts, as requested repeatedly by residents at redistricting public hearings. In fact, more than 90 percent of Brookhaven residents will see no change whatsoever.
The new map satisfies the town code requirements to have substantially equal populations; be convenient, contiguous and compact; maintain hamlets within a single council district where possible, and where not possible, have them split into the fewest districts; and have clear and readily identifiable boundaries. It complies with federal, state and local requirements, with less than five percent deviation.
Residents at multiple public meetings and in correspondence to the commission repeatedly stressed their desire to have compact districts and to reduce and eliminate having communities split where possible. Currently, 14 communities are split between town council districts, with Coram being split into four districts and Ridge split among three districts. The newly proposed maps correct this, as requested by the residents of these communities.
It is disappointing that the local Democratic Party has sought to politicize the redistricting process and influence what is supposed to be an independent process by pushing forward maps created by a member of the Suffolk County Democratic Party Executive Committee in an attempt to create more Democratic-leaning seats through gerrymandering. The questionable means by which they have attempted to do this are disgraceful and transparent to anyone paying attention.
The proposed map is fair, contains minimal changes, and corrects significant historical issues where changes are made and should be adopted this evening.
