Legislators Override Astorino Redistricting Veto
The Westchester County Board of Legislators voted Monday night to override County Executive Rob Astorino’s veto of the legislative redistricting plan.
Following a 12-5 vote entirely along partisan lines, the new maps of the county’s 17 legislative districts will be in effect until the next federal census is completed in 10 years.
Board Chairman Kenneth Jenkins said Astorino had vetoed the re-districting plan last week without offering any alternative plan. He said the board received the federal census data in the last week of March 2011, revealing that two districts, District 1, which includes the City of Peekskill and parts of Yorktown and Cortlandt, and District 6, which includes part of the Town of Harrison, and the villages of Rye Brook and Port Chester, were not in compliance with the standard because they were more than 5 percent over the average population.
That forced the board to make adjustments by taking population away from the two districts without making any other district non-compliant at the same time.
Legislator John Nonna (D-Pleasantville), who chairs the Legislation Committee that oversaw the redistricting efforts, said no plan is perfect but the lines were redrawn without regard to politics.
“I am dismayed that the re-districting has become a political issue, and hope that we can move forward with the electoral process now that we have voted the new re-districting plan into law,” Nonna said.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/