Residents from different parts of Orange County, New York, spoke their minds on a draft county legislative map during an Aug. 27 public hearing in Goshen.
Most comments centered around the importance of keeping similar communities together and not splitting up municipalities when redrawing the map, a process that, per federal and state laws, repeats every 10 years following the decennial U.S. Census.
“I recognize Orange County has experienced exponential growth, and I definitely understand your methodology, but my community has been split into three pieces,” said Cornwall Councilwoman Virginia Scott at the public hearing.
“We have a wide variety of constituents in Orange County. Some just moved up from the city, and some have been here for five generations,” Chris Eachus, a state assemblyman and New Windsor resident, told The Epoch Times following his public comment.
“It is going to be difficult to take everybody’s issues into consideration, but I think people want their communities to be held together and be represented by a single representative,” he said.
Mount Hope Supervisor Paul Rickard commented that his rural town—though kept intact—was grouped with a bigger slice of Middletown in the draft map compared to the current map.
“We are rural, we are farms, and we don’t have one single traffic light,” he said at the public hearing. “But we are being moved into a community that we are not alike.”
Regarding redistricting, Rickard said: “I understand it is a really difficult job. ... We are never going to find a map that everyone is in agreement with—everyone has to sacrifice in a way.”
Candida Bido, chairperson of the Latino Democratic Committee of Orange County and a Crawford resident, suggested more translated voting materials for the growing Latino community.
‘Put the Puzzle Together’
County Legislature Chairwoman Katie Bonelli, who led the redistricting project, told the publication that lawmakers have delivered a solid map after months of hard work.“It is like a puzzle. Everyone is interested in their piece of the puzzle, and my job is to put the puzzle together,” Bonelli said.
“There are going to be areas that may not be as happy as other areas, and there is a give-and-take—there are just so many legal requirements that we must follow,” she added.
Per a 2021 state law governing county redistricting, the top rule, which must be met before all else, is that the most and least populated county districts can only have up to 5 percent population difference.
The least important principle is maintaining core areas in existing districts and respecting municipal boundaries. Most legislators and residents suggest map changes in these core areas.
In addition, the 2023 John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act requires significantly more efforts by local governments to amplify minority voices during the redistricting process, according to outside consultants at earlier rules committee meetings.
Bonelli pointed out that the redistricting process was more transparent and involved more lawmaker input than the one from 10 years ago, though it can still be improved.
“You can always learn, and you can always improve,” she said.
Under her design, a working committee—which includes Majority Leader Tom Faggione, Minority Leader Mike Paduch, legislator James O'Donnell, independent legislator Michael Amo, and rules committee chair Paul Ruszkiewicz—acted as the middle link between consultants and the rest of the legislators. Individual lawmakers also had several direct meetings with consultants.
If no significant changes are to be made to the map following the public hearing, it will be voted on for final adoption by the legislature in October.
All 21 county legislative seats are up for election next year.
