The Town of North Hempstead took its first steps toward redrawing its council election districts with the nonpartisan redistricting commission holding the first of three public hearings Monday evening.
Every 10 years, the town is directed to participate in the redistricting process by town code in order to revise districts to ensure none contain a substantially disproportionate difference in the voter population compared to other districts.
As it stands, North Hempstead currently has six councilmanic districts, which are each represented by one member of the Town Board. In addition to the six elected officials, the town supervisor also sits on the seven-member board.
According to the 2020 federal census, which was released on August 12, 2021, the Town of North Hempstead’s population grew by 11,317 people to 237,639. This is a 5 percent increase from the 2010 Census, which listed the Town’s population as 226,322.
Members of North Hempstead’s Nonpartisan Temporary Redistricting committee were given again the guidelines on redistricting Monday evening at town hall to gauge public comments.
The seven-member board consists of Chairperson Dana Boylan, Vice Chair Harrison Feuer, Secretary Jill Wasser, Mary Kay Barket, Sumeet Datt, James McHugh and Patricia Schneider.
“Tonight’s meeting is really intended to be singularly focused on giving the public an opportunity to be heard,” Boylan said at the start of the meeting.
A brief presentation was given by Fred Hejazi, CEO of CityGate, a service that is providing consultation on both data analysis and mapping for the committee. Hejazi detailed where the original numbers from the 2020 Census are transferred and how it relates to the town in terms of population differences.
North Hempstead participates in redistricting every 10 years and has until Aug. 12 to make appropriate changes, if necessary. The nonpartisan committee needs to give their final report to the Town Board no later than May 30 following their three public hearings.
Jeff Wice, legal consultant to the committee, gave the committee and public in attendance an overview of the seven redistricting guidelines, which are required by state law.
The first guideline is that population deviations between the largest and smallest districts cannot exceed 5 percent. Districts also cannot be drawn with the intent or result of denying or abridging the equal opportunity of racial or minority groups to vote. The committee needs to additionally consider contiguous territories that connect, are compact and avoid political gerrymandering.
Lastly, guidelines state that districts should consider “communities of interest,” which are not defined by law but describe communities that share self-described similarities and villages that comprise less than 40 percent of a single district’s population should not be divided.
Wice said state law is essentially one of four statutes that have jurisdiction over the redistricting process, including the U.S. Constitution, the Voting Rights Act and the town charter.
The next public hearing for the committee will be held Thursday, May 12, at Clinton G. Martin Park at New Hyde Park and Tuesday, May 17,at the ‘Yes We Can’ Community Center in Westbury.
More information on the town’s redistricting process can be found at https://www.northhempsteadny.gov/redistricting.
