Yates considers options after new census

Yates considers options after new census

YATES COUNTY--Prior to the Thursday, March 17 monthly meeting of the Yates County legislature, the government operations committee met to discuss the redistricting/reapportionment of the county. The committee did not end up sending a resolution to the legislature after they met. With the county required to redraw district lines according to the new 2020 census, at stake is not only the redrawing of district lines but also the potential shift to a weighted voting system or adding an additional legislator.
"I'm frustrated that we need to find some gap forward," said Government Operations Chair and Legislator Ed Bronson. "And my proposal... yesterday was to add a fourth person to District 2 and then redraw the lines for District 1 and District 3...that would maintain one person one vote and require eight legislators to be the majority."
A weighted voting system, if selected, would mean that the votes of all legislators would not be equal, something many legislators said town and village officials across Yates were generally not in favor of.
Despite having what he said was a workable plan for redistricting while keeping a one-to-one voting system in place, Bronson acknowledged that there would be some negative consequences.
"It would cost the county more money, it would create some confusion with some people," Bronson added. "Everybody would not be happy...I think we have to decide if it is the ideal or something workable and meaningful to the people of this county."
As a result of the 2020 census numbers, the legislature set up an ad hoc committee chaired by Legislator Doug Paddock to come up with options.
After Legislator Rick Willson opined that perhaps the ad hoc committee should be reconstituted to include county residents, Paddock volunteered that he was ready to step down if needed.
The current 14-member legislature is broken down into four districts. District 1 (Italy, Middlesex, and Jerusalem) includes four members: Timothy Cutler, Bronson, Paddock and Patrick Killen. District 3 (Milo) also has four representatives: Daniel Banach, Leslie Church, Carlie Chilson and Mark Morris. District 2 (Benton, Potter, Torrey) has three representatives: Richard Harper, Terry Button and Willson, while District 4 (Barrington and Starkey) does as well, Bonnie Percy, William Holgate and Jesse Jayne.
This system replaced the nine-member board of supervisors that previously governed the county and also faced the issue of unequal representation due to the population distribution in Yates.
A change such as adding another legislator would require a vote by the public.
If no action is taken, Bronson said the issue would be taken up in the court system.
Only one member of the public chose to speak during the meeting. Jack Clancy, who also wrote a letter to the editor on this issue to area newspapers, was on the first county legislature and urged the legislature to resist changing to weighted voting.
"This system of one person, one vote on the county legislature has survived four censuses at ten-year intervals," Clancy said in the letter. "District boundaries have changed, an additional legislator was added, but the basic concept of each legislator having one vote has survived all the challenges."
Clancy reiterated, "One man, one vote."