In an effort to ensure that citizens are appropriately represented by their elected officials, the Joint Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment released a rough draft of new state legislative district boundaries earlier this month.

The proposed plan would reduce Long Island's Assembly delegation from 22 to 21 seats, granting the remaining seat to New York City. Furthermore, the proposed lines adhere to the principles expressed in the Voting Rights Act and follow each decennial census of the state's population. A series of statewide hearings to gather public comment on the plan are scheduled for next month, according to Task Force co-chairs Senator Dean Skelos and Assemblyman William Parment.

"By ensuring that every man and woman in this state has equal access to government representation, we are reinforcing our demographic process and preserving one of the fundamental values of this nation," Parment said. Concern for ensuring minority voting rights took precedence in the decision-making process.

The draft plan will essentially affect every assembly district on Long Island in one form or another, resulting in various shifts of power. Local districts, which encompass Levittown, Island Trees, East Meadow, Wantagh, Seaford and North Wantagh that would be affected should the proposed plans stay as they are would be the current 10th, 12th, 14th, 15th and 19th.

Possibly the biggest change in Nassau County would be the 14th and 15th Assembly Districts combining, with only one seat available to either Marc Herbst, the current assemblyman for the 14th Assembly District (A.D.), or Donna Ferrara, the current assemblywoman of the 15th A.D. The reapportionment of the districts would leave Herbst and Ferrara, who are both up for re-election in November 2002, living within the same district.

Currently, the 14th A.D. encompasses all communities between the Wantagh Parkway and the Seaford Oyster Bay Expressway south of the Northern State Parkway, including Hicksville, Island Trees, Wantagh, Seaford, a portion of Jericho and Plainview and half of Bethpage. Plans to eliminate one district entirely, however, would mean that Herbst's current constituency would then fall under the 15th Assembly District and run east from East Garden City through to Bethpage and Plainview.

Wantagh would then fall under the 19th A.D., with North Wantagh split between the 19th and 12th A.D., Seaford in the proposed 12th A.D. and Levittown split between the 15th, 19th and 10th A.D.

The 14th A.D. would then comprise those communities east of Valley Stream to Freeport. If passed, the new boundaries would be in effect for the 2002 election.

Herbst, however, is hopeful the districts will remain the same. "This is just a proposal," he said. "Within the next month there will be negotiations. We are hoping to keep the seat."

Increasing the number of constituents per assembly district, said Herbst, does not give residents fair representation. "Representing 14,000 extra people dilutes their representation," said Herbst. "I still have only one vote."

Assemblyman Dave McDonough, who represents the 19th District, said that he, like many of his fellow assemblymembers, feels the plan needs to be changed. In addition, McDonough said that Long Island does not deserve to lose a seat.

"What concerns me, from what I've seen of [the plan] so far, is that it really seems to be an attempt on the part of the speaker to solidify his own political base in New York [City]," McDonough said, adding that he is confident that the issue will be further discussed while the assembly is in session this week.

"From what I see, they're entitled to two seats in New York [City] and he's (Speaker Sheldon Silver) is proposing four. I don't believe that the numbers justify that and I think it's not a reasonable plan. Long Island does not deserve to lose any seats, based on the population numbers, and their representation under the proposed plan would be cut."

McDonough added that he realizes that the plans are currently just a proposal and noted that he will not support it.

Fellow Assemblyman Steve Labriola agreed, although he said he would be pleased to represent the residents in the communities of Seaford and North Wantagh.

"Although I'm extremely disappointed in losing the Incorporated Village of Farmingdale, I'm pleased [to be] gaining Seaford and part of Wantagh," Labriola said. "These areas are very [similar] as far as the kind of people that I've been representing in Albany. The people in Seaford want the same things the people in Massapequa or Farmingdale want; they want the same thing from their government. In that respect, it's very similar in terms of the type of area and interest that I'll be representing."

Although he said he'd be happy to gain the new communities, Labriola stressed that he feels the map has to change.

"As a member of the Long Island delegation, I'm extremely disappointed and going to work towards change, [because] we are losing one seat," he said. "Speaker Silver recently published a column about bi-partisanship, and it's nothing but words because his actions are completely the opposite. What he's done is propose maps that [pit] 22 Republicans against each other. It sets the wrong tone for the spirit of bipartisanship. We are going to fight extremely hard to change that."

Labriola added that he and fellow assemblymembers plan to work with the Senate delegation on Long Island to come up with a better plan.

"What Silver has done is he has created four new New York City seats at the expense of upstate New York and of course Long Island," he said. "This is just a naked grab by Speaker Silver. He wants to increase the power of New York City at the expense of suburban interest," Labriola said. "This sets the wrong tone."

Labriola added that the assembly delegation now has to work together to restore the seat, saying that is the most important issue.

"We need to work together in a bipartisan way to craft and create district maps that we can live with and that continue to support Long Islanders," he added.

Assemblyman James Conte, who represents the 10th Assembly District which currently only encompasses communities in Suffolk County, would gain the Village of Farmingdale and a portion of Levittown if the maps were to change.

Although he said he believes the proposed lines are going to change, Conte said he is confident that he will be able to represent all the districts granted to him if they stay the same.

"I truly believe, from a Long Island perspective, that what the assembly Democrats have proposed is just not fair," he said.

Like many of his fellow assemblymembers, Conte agreed that the proposed plan was designed for the city to gain four seats at the expense of other state regions.

"I don't know what ever happened to one person, one vote," he said.

He added that since the shift of the districts moved to the west, one of the districts that fall on the county line would have to cross over.

"[According to the new lines,] now I am the assemblyman from Lloyd Harbor to Levittown," he said. "If it all stands up at the end of the day, I have 14 years in the New York State Assembly. I'll be able to represent the area with what I've done for the people of Huntington. I would have no hesitation [or] apprehension representing those districts," he said, noting that he works with all the local Senators on a daily basis. "So continuing with that would be [no problem], it's just too early in the process right now."

He added that even though he feels more than confident that he'd be able to represent any new communities added to his district well, he's equally confident that the lines will change again. He also noted that he believes Levittown will go back to another district in Nassau County.

"You just have to look at the numbers to understand that they are playing politics with it," Conte added. "If they truly cared about true democracy, every single district in New York State would have 127,500 people, and you would have very few percentages up and down from that number. I've seen the computer technology and they can do it."

Also known as delimitation and reapportionment, redistricting results from population changes that are weighed against political considerations to determine whether a political district's lines need to be dramatically altered, slightly adjusted or left alone. The redistricting plan will determine how every citizen and community will be represented at the state and federal levels of government for the next 10 years. It will also determine whether New York's diverse communities will have sufficient political strength to elect candidates of their choice.

One person-one vote, the idea behind the redistricting plan, should be observed so each district has approximately the same number of people in it. The U.S. Supreme Court decisions in the 1960s clarified the constitutional intent to provide equity of representation for all Americans in both congressional and state legislative districts.

"Just to give you some background, redistricting happens every 10 years and is required by the US Supreme Court's interpretation of the federal Constitution," said Parment. "It is really a response to the knowledge that the current districts are mal-apportioned if measured by the criteria of whether or not they have substantial equal numbers of residents residing within the current districts.

"If there were no population changes we wouldn't have to do this but the population changes are such that some districts have as few as 100,000 people and some have as many as 170,000 people so the US Supreme Court's requirement for equal representation - the so-called one person one vote standard - must be met following each census."

In a prepared statement, Senator Skelos said, "The recrafting of district lines every 10 years is designed to ensure that citizens are appropriately represented by their elected officials. The process won't end here. We will continue to solicit the public's input on this proposal so as to reach and craft a final plan that meets all the legal requirements to best serve the people of this state."

The state legislature and the governor must approve the redistricting plan. In addition, the US Justice Department's Civil Rights Division must review and approve it for compliance with the Voting Rights Act. Parment and fellow Task Force Co-Chair Skelos said they are virtually on schedule to meet the same redistricting timetable as in 1992 despite disruptions at the Task Force's lower Manhattan headquarters resulting from the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.

A new set of lines will come out following the hearings and will be voted on by the state legislature and approved by Governor George Pataki. Since politicians must announce their candidacy by July, the vote is expected to take place over the next four- to six-weeks.

"I know from my experience that even small changes are very meaningful to communities, so although I think of them as relatively small, the communities may think of them as significant. Of course that's part of the purpose of having public hearings on these proposals to get their impression," said Parment.

Victoria A. Caruso contributed to this story.