It was almost breathtaking to see three newly elected Democrats officiate at the Hempstead Town Board meeting last week. For nearly a century, only Republicans had been elected to the town board.

Hempstead officials spent a million dollars of taxpayer money in legal fees to maintain their political empire with the at-large election system which the courts called discriminatory. The United States Supreme Court upheld the ruling, thus ordering the town to end this charade.

The Town of Hempstead has also spent tax money on issuing a flood of press releases, almost all with photographs of Supervisor Richard Guardino. One photo showed Guardino and four Republican town board members, all up for re-election, awarding a certificate to a golfer who made a hole-in-one.

The monumental political patronage system in Hempstead serves as an employment agency for Republicans defeated at the polls. Guardino's personal staff of 19 includes a former congressman who lost an election but is now on the town's payroll at a salary of more than $100,000 a year.

A recent newspaper story headlined, "The Job Pays, But No Work Required," tells about a Town of Hempstead locksmith who was paid $41,773 a year but, as a union head, he didn't have to show up for work. Meanwhile, the town paid $70,000 to an outside locksmith.

So what did Hempstead do? Since there was only one locksmith slot in the budget, it promoted the no-show locksmith to a vacant mechanics job, raised his salary to $45,260 plus $15,000 in benefits, and appointed his son as the town locksmith.

Locksmith junior will have to show up during office hours but he made this insightful comment: "Almost everybody in the Town of Hempstead has someone from their family working there."

History has taught us that a party with a virtual monopoly on a political office will probably abuse its power. Power corrupts; overwhelming power corrupts overwhelmingly. The Town of Hempstead has had one-party rule since 1905. Voters should keep that in mind at election time.

George Rand