Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone has vetoed the redistricting plan adopted by Democratic legislators on Dec. 31, just before they lost majority control of the county legislature.
“The process of revising the boundaries of legislative districts must comply with the Suffolk County Charter, be fully transparent and include public input through a public hearing process before a redistricting plan is proposed,” Bellone wrote in a veto message filed with the clerk of the legislature last night.
The legislation passed by Democrats on their last day of majority control adopted a reapportionment map created through a process that did not include a redistricting commission or the series of public hearings called for in the county charter. It was introduced by then-Presiding Officer Rob Calarco after both party caucuses failed to nominate redistricting commission members by a deadline set forth in the charter.
Republicans sued to block adoption of the redistricting plan and a State Supreme Court judge ruled the action illegal and prohibited the legislature from adopting the plan. But Democrats appealed and an Appellate Division judge issued a stay of the lower court’s order. That allowed Democrats to adopt the plan on at a special meeting on Dec. 31.
Bellone’s veto last night came after fellow Democrats in the county legislature declined to support compromise legislation the county executive proposed in agreement with Presiding Officer Kevin McCaffrey (R-Lindenhurst.) Newsday reported on the agreement Monday, when the presiding officer called a special meeting for Wednesday afternoon to vote on the legislation.
The special meeting was canceled at the last minute because the measure lacked the 12 votes necessary for passage, said Nick LaLota, McCaffrey’s chief of staff. Republicans have an 11-7 majority in the legislature, so they needed at least one Democrat to support it.
“When it became evident that not one of the seven legislative Democrats would budge, the meeting was deemed moot,” LaLota said.
Democrats wouldn’t support the bill because there was still a chance the legislation they passed on New Year’s Eve could become law, Minority Leader Jason Richberg (D-West Babylon) said in an interview this afternoon.
“There was still an outstanding resolution, IR-1964, that had three or four days left,” Richberg said, referring to the 30-day period from the date of passage that the county executive has to veto a bill. If there is no veto within that time, the measure is deemed approved by the county executive, even if he doesn’t sign it.
“It’s outrageous that our caucus wasn’t brought to the table,” Richberg said of the bill agreed to by Bellone and McCaffrey.
Richberg said the map adopted by Democrats at the end of the year was a fair map and complied with state and federal law. “It had four majority-minority districts and another district, number 7, had 40% communities of color,” Richberg said. “It brought all of Gordon Heights and Coram into one district,” he said. It had widespread support of voting rights advocates, he said.
Bellone said in his veto message his legislation would “establish an extensive bipartisan redistricting process that is fair, transparent, and includes substantial opportunity for public input.”
Richberg did not say the Democratic caucus would continue to block the measure.
“Let’s see what happens. We have to evaluate it,” he said. “Our caucus is undeterred in seeking a fair reapportionment that’s truly representative.”
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