By Jerry Burke
The issue on the minds of many voters from Elmont, West Hempstead and Valley Stream who drove for over an hour to speak their minds was simple: under no condition would they support the proposed dissection of current Assembly District 22 into proposed District 21, which would cover Valley Stream and the southwest portion of Elmont and proposed District 14, which would cover Franklin Square, most of West Hempstead and the northeast portion of Elmont.
The plan would shift Tom Alfano into the 14th district, effectively removing 85 percent of his current district from his representation. "Right now, Elmont has its act together," said Alden Manor Civic Association representative John Sullivan. "There's one Elmont under Tom Alfano. It shouldn't be split in half in order to balance less diverse districts.
Sullivan's views were echoed by more than ten school and civic leaders from Elmont on hand for the hearings. "Since Alfano has been our representative, Elmont has had stability in leadership," said Mabel Johnston, a member of the Jamaica Civic and the PTA. "He has been very effective, especially with our schools."
Superintendent of Elmont schools, Dr. Maria Palandra couldn't agree more, "We insist that he (Alfano) remains; he is our single biggest fighter." Should the proposal go through, the Elmont School District would find half of its schools in District 14 and the other in District 21. "I don't want to take away from whoever would represent the other district, but it would be unfair if we were split like this."
Head of the Elmont-based Gateway Youth Outreach program Pat Boyle also sees the split as detrimental to the work he and Alfano have done for the last seven years. "That kind of relationship cannot be replaced. He knows what we need and gets it without fail."
Elmont residents weren't the only ones affected by the proposal. Cathedral Gardens Civic Association President Scott Jablow, armed with over 350 e-mails collected through the West Hempstead Civic Association website, planned to enter them as testimony into the record. "We want to keep Tom on our side. He's responsive to the needs of our community. West Hempstead, Franklin Square and Elmont share so much in common, including having Tom Alfano as the only government representative all of us can turn to with our problems."
The location of the hearings angered many of those from Nassau County, especially on a Monday morning and afternoon, when many residents would be too busy with their jobs to attend. Town of Hempstead Councilwoman Dorothy Goosby, who criticized the task force's unwillingness to set up a minority senate district, even went as far as to make an invitation. "We have a beautiful facility in at Town Hall in Hempstead," said Goosby. "I'm sure you could get quite a few people out there at an evening meeting to speak their minds."
The six-member group task force, led by Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) and Assemb. William Parment (D-Ashville), had one more meeting on Tuesday. After the last of eight scheduled public hearings in Albany, the plan will go before the state Legislature, Gov. George Pataki and the U.S. Justice Department for approval.
For those who attending the hearing, the overall resistance to the proposal gave them some hope that the 22nd Assembly district would remain at least somewhat intact. While Alfano himself was in Albany during the hearings, he said, "I believe we will be successful in our challenge to keep our communities intact."
