By Nick Buglione
The vote, made before a packed house inside the legislative chamber in Mineola, means that Norma Gonsalves (R-East Meadow) will take over Salisbury from Dunne (R-Levittown), who will in turn inherit a sizable portion of North Wantagh and all of Wantagh and Seaford.
Aside from the roughly 250 households Legislator Roger Corbin (D-Westbury) covers, Gonsalves now becomes the East Meadow School District's lone county representative. Before redistricting, Gonsalves and Dunne shared the duties. He represented all houses north of Hempstead Turnpike, while she took the south.
East Meadow civic leaders and residents who fear losing Dunne's voice in the Legislature showed up for the hearing to make their final pleas, though all knew they would fall on deaf ears.
"They're putting the party before the people," said Helen Meittinis, president of the Community Association of Stewart Avenue in Salisbury and one of the redistricting plan's staunchest critics. "We hate to beat a dead horse, but it's my absolute right, and they have to hear it just like we have to hear them."
Considering that the East Meadow School District is the largest in Nassau County, Meittinis and other residents maintain it deserves more than one county legislator.
"If they want to consolidate the school districts completely," said Richard Cardozo, president of the Carman Community Association based in Salisbury, "then why does Roger Corbin still have 250 houses behind the Colony Diner, the high school and Eisenhower Park?"
Others, however, have expressed that it would be in East Meadow's best interest to have one legislator to focus entirely on the whole community's needs.
Both Dunne and Gonsalves have spoken out against the Democrat's redistricting plan.
"We've been given the rationale that school districts should remain whole," said Gonsalves, adding that this theory was not applied to all Nassau communities. "What was the rationale in splitting North Bellmore in half and putting a community like East Meadow together?"
Though he lives in Levittown, Dunne claims to have a strong connection with Salisbury; his granddaughter even attends elementary school there.
"I would really like to continue serving the community of Salisbury, and I hope it's not taken away from me," said Dunne, upon first learning he might be redistricted out of the neighborhood.
Democrats in the Legislature insist that their approved redistricting plan is an equitable one. "It is fair, competitive, and it maintains the districts for the Republicans and Democrats," Presiding Officer Judy Jacobs (D-Woodbury) said.
Republicans, on the other hand, characterize it as gerrymandering -- changing the district lines to influence the outcome of future elections -- and have considered fighting it in court.
Legislator David Denenberg (D-Merrick) has admitted that the redistricting process is politically charged to a degree. Although the changes to the Gonsalves' and Dunne's districts probably won't hurt either of them in the polls, they could potentially benefit Denenberg.
The move relieves Denenberg of the traditionally Republican neighborhoods Wantagh and Seaford, which he passes off to Dunne, making future re-election bids seem more likely.
Redistricting takes place every 10 years, in accordance with the U.S. Census. The Legislature's district lines were drain in 1995, based on 1990 Census data. This marks the first time its lines were redrawn.
Now passed, the new districts will take effect after legislators take office following the November election.
"I think I have to work very, very hard to win in November with or without the change," Denenberg said. "I still live in Republican majority district and I can't take anything for granted."
