The Sullivan County Legislature on July 17 considered new election districts during two lengthy meetings and a public hearing. With little time to make a decision, Legislator Cindy Gieger asked, “With one public hearing and then a vote, at what time do we consider constituents' concerns?”

The concerns about timing were laid out by Rodney Gaebel, one of two commissioners of the Board of Elections (BOE). He said from the day the board adopts a redistricting plan, the public has 45 days to come up with enough signatures on a petition, about 2,500, to force a permissive referendum on the matter.

He said, “Forty-five days from today is September 2. The BOE must have the proposition properly worded submitted to the State of New York to have it approved by the 29th of September. Gaebel said if the legislature postponed the vote for more than about a week, it’s likely that the deadline would be missed, which would force the county to hold a special election on the matter at considerable expense to the taxpayers.

At one point in the afternoon meeting Legislator Cora Edwards asked what could be done in a week’s time to address the concerns with the plan.

Gaebel said a week is not enough time to change the plan because the process would need to go back to square one.

There had been criticism from the supervisors of the towns of Highland and Lumberland that those towns should be in a district with the Town of Tusten, which is also a river town, and not grouped with the Town of Mamakating, which is not a river town.

Legislator Jonathan Rouis touched on that point when he defended the process of creating the new map and also countered Geiger’s remark that the process happened too much behind closed doors.

Rouis said, “When we started the process this board charged the (redistricting committee) with a couple of things. We had the choice of saying we want to blow the maps up and start over; we said, we all said, we didn’t want to do that. There was a charge from day one to draw lines that had the least impact on the general public, so this idea of a river district, we decided not to go down that route on day one, everybody…”

Gieger interjected, “in the closed door meetings.”

Rouis said, “No, that was done in public, Cindy. Just because you say it’s so, doesn’t make it so. This board said explicitly to this group, bring us a plan that has a minimal impact of changes, which they did.”

During the public hearing David Schaefer of Skyline Consulting explained that between 2000 and 2010 the population of the county rose about 4.5% to about 77,000 people, with the southern and central part of the county growing much faster than rest of the county, thus necessitating the need for the redistricting.

After he spoke, Geiger asked him a question, but county chair Scott Samuelson cut her off, saying the consultant was not going to answer questions.

Several people then spoke regarding the new map. Nadia Rajsz, the supervisor of the Town of Lumberland, said that there was not enough communication with the public and the towns about the process. She said, “The supervisors especially should have been informed and invited to the sessions with the consultant.” She said she phoned the consultant, who took her call, but who said he was not at liberty to discuss some of the details of the process with her.

John Conway, the county historian who lives in Barryville, said, “Whatever the motivation was, whether it was intended or not, the map gives the impression that there was a clumsy attempt to gerrymander these districts.”

Andy Boyar, supervisor of the Town of Highland, specifically criticized election district two, which cuts the Town of Highland in half, making it part of two different districts. Boyar said, “The district is so misshapen on its face that it begs the question, who played with the map?”

Legislator Gene Benson noted that the Town of Fallsburg is divided into three election districts. That is also the case for the Town of Liberty. The towns of Delaware and Neversink, on the other hand, are currently divided into two districts, but when the new map becomes formally adopted, they will each be located in a single election district.

The legislature voted six to three to adopt the new map, with Geiger, Edwards and Benson voting "no."