Redistricting Board Meets for First Time

The newly formed Suffolk County Reapportionment Commission convened for the first time Wednesday in Hauppauge as part of a new redistricting process set forth by the Legislature.

Established to submit redistricting recommendations to the Legislature for approval by February 1 of next year, the board is to take into account changes to the population according to the 2010 Census.

Irving Tolliver, a member of the Huntington branch of the NAACP and a former town director of human services, was appointed to the eight-member body by , D-Huntington, who helped lead the fight for changes to county redistricting as a minority member in 2007.

Suffolk is the first county in New York to attempt to redraw voting lines using the new process which Cooper says has the potential to  reform the redistricting process statewide substantially.

"The whole idea was to make it as non-partisan as we can," said Cooper, who attended the meeting Wednesday.

Commission membership comprises four retired judges, two representatives of voters’ rights organizations and two representatives of minority organizations.

Those on the commission may not serve if they've held elected office for less than 10 years prior to starting the commission. Also not allowed to serve is anyone who’s held a political party office higher than a committee member for the past five years, or anyone who's  served as a partisan political consultant in the past decade.

John Kennedy, R-Smithtown, appointed judges Alfred Tisch and James Gowan, Sylvia Diaz and Irene D’Abramo, to the commission. All Kennedy appointees are Republican.

Cooper appointees include Tolliver, Nancy Marr and Judges Harry Seidella and Leon Lazer — all Democrats.

Meetings are closed to the public, but four community-input public hearings will be scheduled at dates to be anounced.

With his term limits set to expire in about five months after 12 years in office, Cooper is serving his last year in the Legislature.