A quick look at the history of the county Legislature

The Nassau County Legislature was formed on May 24, 1994, after U.S. District Court Judge Arthur Spatt had ruled in 1993 that the county’s longstanding Board of Supervisors was unconstitutional because it violated the Constitution’s one-person, one vote rule. A 19-district Legislature was created to replace the Board of Supervisors. The Legislature’s first election took place in November 1995, and legislators took office for the first time on Jan. 1, 1996.

The county charter mandates that the Legislature’s lines be redrawn every 10 years to ensure that the population of legislative districts remains roughly equal, at 70,000, and that minority residents are fairly represented. Legislative lines were last redrawn in 2003 by a Democratically controlled Legislature.

At the time, the Legislature’s Republican minority challenged the redrawn lines in court, saying the new districts were oddly shaped and divided communities in order to provide Democrats with a political advantage in future elections.

Republicans took control of the Legislature in 2009 and are now in charge of redrawing the Legislature’s lines. Presiding Officer Peter Schmitt of Massapequa has said that the lines must be redrawn within six months of the release of the U.S. Census, according to the county charter. Schmitt said he expects the county’s redrawn legislative map to be adopted within weeks after a public hearing.

Democrats, however, are crying foul, saying that redistricting must only be undertaken by a bipartisan commission and fully vetted through a series of public hearings, a process they say they followed in 2003. Democrats, who say the Republicans’ redistricting plan is politically motivated, are promising a court fight if the GOP majority moves ahead with redistricting on its own.

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