Politics & Government

Southold Town Opposes East End Redistricting Proposal

Members of the Town Board speak out against a united East End First Assembly District recently proposed, saying the region should have two voices in Albany.

To Supervisor Scott Russell, the North Fork faces issues that are much different than the South Fork — which is why he said at Tuesday's Town Board work session that he is vehemently against a that would unite the Twin Forks and Shelter Island in between to form a new First Assembly District.

Last week, , I-Sag Harbor, said in a statement that under a new plan proposed by the New York State Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment, his district would have new boundaries and become the new First Assembly District. He would continue to represent East Hampton and Southampton towns. But with the addition of Southold and Shelter Island towns, he would lose a portion of southeast Brookhaven Town. Assemblyman R-Shoreham, currently represents the First Assembly District, and Thiele represents the Second.

Though Russell said that he thinks Thiele, an East End separatist who would like to see the region split from Suffolk County and become a new entity — Peconic County, has been a good assemblyman for the South Fork, he didn't want to lose a separate voice representing the North Fork.

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"The South Fork has always had a mightier voice than the North Fork in Albany," the supervisor said. "I'd rather the region continue to have two voices in the assembly. The East End has historically been represented by good people — why cut it down to one?"

Russell's board members agreed.

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"I think it's a slap in the face to the people of the North Fork to say that you're going to cut representation," said Councilman William Ruland. "Albany tends to lose sight about what is best for all the people, not just certain people."

Russell said that ongoing issues such as and are unique to the North Fork and need focused and separate representation. Dan Losquadro told Patch last week that he thinks the North Fork is better served by being contiguous with the North Shore as far as representation goes.

"Shelter Island has its own unique set of issues and could be served by either the North or South Fork, but the issues are different between the two forks," he said. "For one, the North Fork has a much higher rate of primary homeownership than the South Fork. And the North Fork has a much larger agricultural sector than the South Fork."

Southold Town Councilman Chris Talbot said that the only benefit he could see under Thiele's proposal is that as the state moved forward with changing pensions plans, the town might save more money with Thiele in the assembly.

"It's a big fight," he said. "Thiele's been swerving down the middle now for some time and might have more pull there ... On the other hand, he's never had a private job — does he know what it's like out here in the private sector?"

In a poll posted on North Fork Patch last week,


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