Our local governments on Long Island were designed to maintain one-party, Republican rule. Over the years, Democrats have been elected to positions where adversarial interests had never been viewed and considered in public, and each time we get to see just how creaky and leaky are the blueprints of our local governments.

In every Nassau and many Suffolk townships, there are now both Democrats and Republicans on the town board. Suddenly we can see that when typical political debate and personal competition is introduced into the equation, the absurdity of our town government structures becomes apparent. The Town of Hempstead, with nearly 800,000 residents, is governed in the same way as the Town of Carmel in Putnam County, with 1/25 [one twenty-fifth] of Hempstead's population. A sort of executive-legislator called "supervisor" shares control with a pseudo-legislative group called the Town Board. Designed for small, homogenous communities, rapid action and executive entrepreneurship are stifled; turf wars ensue.

The Town of Hempstead will finally elect board members by district, first proposed 80 years ago. One-by-one the state's larger towns will move to this more efficient and fairer system. It works better, and politicians in other towns will see the Hempstead model as a windfall: Represent a fraction of the constituents while reaping the same salary and benefits. So change will come. The subject is being discussed in at least seven Long Island townships.

Hempstead isn't getting right on other counts, and other towns should pay attention.

Hempstead's six councilmembers will have alternating terms, so that three are elected every two years. Every other town in the state with councilmanic town boards elects all the members at one time, every two years, in conjunction with the election for supervisor. Why confuse voters and reduce accountability? To confuse voters and reduce accountability. It's part of an old Hempstead law put on the books to thwart or slow the adoption of districts. Since Democrats had better chances to win in smaller districts, alternating elections might prevent a total loss of control if the GOP machine had a really bad year. Controversial decisions might be targeted toward "off-year" districts.

After each census the districts must be adjusted, so for two years out of ten half the board may represent many people who couldn't even vote for them. It couldn't hold up in court.

In Poughkeepsie township, Dutchess County, a serious corruption scandal led to unprecedented Democratic victories in five of their six town districts last year. Seeing how things worked without external GOP guidance, the new town board decided to scrap the system. This fall there will be a public vote on creating a nonpartisan town manager to be chief executive, with the supervisor remaining as an at-large councilmember. The City of Schenectady is also voting on a new charter, which re-thinks the basic relationship between the mayor and the council from top to bottom.

When considering the move to councilmanic districts, or any other reform move, everything should go on the table. Huge municipalities like eight of Long Island's town need real, in-charge chief executives and legislative bodies with clear responsibilities. The era of monolithic machine government is over, and it's time to move our local governments out of their rural past and into our suburban present.