On April 29, the residents of the Town of North Hempstead will vote whether or not to change the way they elect a vital part of their government. Regardless of the constant appeals to emotion made to the voters, there are many good strong reasons why this change is wrong for North Hempstead at this time.

Right now, all council members are accountable on all issues facing the town. Council districts leave residents with less representation. Today, we all influence the election of 100 percent of the legislative body of the Town of North Hempstead. With council districts, including the supervisor, that influence drops to 4 percent with four districts and 28 percent with six districts. Voters will have council members who do not represent their areas voting on issues that affect their areas.

Individual council districts will still be too large to give local representation. For example, under the proposed system, Albertson residents may be represented by a Roslyn resident and New Cassel residents represented by a resident of Carle Place.

A minority district has been proposed. The creation of a minority district centered on the New Cassel community is not feasible. Check the census figures (www.census.gov). The people of New Cassel will find themselves a minority in one district without the power to influence the entire town. Both parties have always had the opportunity to run a minority town-wide candidate. Let's hope they do so in the future.

The cost to the town's taxpayers will not be minimal. A large Long Island daily newspaper calls for six districts to be formed. The cost to run the town board will then increase by at least 50 percent plus the cost of elections and town charter revisions, all while expanding government. Is this what we want?

The National Civic League, founded by Teddy Roosevelt, in its Model City Charter, 7th Edition, prefers at-large districts to wards. A recent article in a government trade magazine points out the parochial, dysfunctional government that occurs in many places that have council districts. Even the League of Women Voters in North Hempstead could not agree among themselves if this was a good idea or not.

North Hempstead is different from Hempstead and Brookhaven in the size of its population, demographics and prevalence of villages. Don't buy into the "lemming" argument (They do it. Why don't we?). It's false and clouds the main issues. None of the supposed benefits of council districts are guaranteed and we should never change our governmental structure without some guarantees.

This issue is all about politics and not about good government. It's about monopolistic newspapers and special interests pushing their agenda to the detriment of the people. It is too difficult to work towards better solutions, so no one does. Possible better solutions like mixed districts or more village incorporations would require new legislation at the town, county and state level. I find it amazing that the pro-district faction would use this issue to call for expanded government and higher taxes.

Council districts are a bad idea for the people of North Hempstead at this time. Vote "no!"