Village of North Syracuse v. County Legislature of Onondaga

74 Misc. 2d 842, 346 N.Y.S.2d 439, 1973 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1757
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 9, 1973
StatusPublished

This text of 74 Misc. 2d 842 (Village of North Syracuse v. County Legislature of Onondaga) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Village of North Syracuse v. County Legislature of Onondaga, 74 Misc. 2d 842, 346 N.Y.S.2d 439, 1973 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1757 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1973).

Opinion

Stewart F. Hancock, Jr., J.

At the argument of plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment on May 11, 1973, it was stipulated by all parties that the present districting of the County Legislature of Onondaga County was in violation of the New York State and Federal Constitutions and that redistricting was mandated under State and Federal court decisions. Accordingly, the County Legislature was directed to prepare and approve for submission to the court for its consideration a recommended plan for districting. Subsequently, it was ordered that the County Legislature’s plan and any districting maps or proposals being submitted by any of the other parties would be received on or before June 16, 1973. On June 16, 1973 only two plans were submitted, the county plan approved by the Onondaga County Legislature by Resolution No. 293 on June 15,1973 and a plan submitted by plaintiff-intervenor, the Village of North Syracuse.

The three individual plaintiffs — Ronald Stott, Allen Miller and David Patrie — have submitted no proposed districting maps. They contend, however, in a brief submitted by their attorneys, that the proposed county plan is unconstitutional and urge its rejection by the court and the adoption of a weighted voting scheme, using the present legislative districts, as a temporary measure for the 1973 elections. The Leagues of Women Voters of the Syracuse Metropolitan area and of Payetteville and Manlius, amici curiae, have submitted no counterproposals or suggested amendments to the county plan and have voiced no opposition to any aspect of it. They request in their brief, however, that the court “impose the proposed reapportionment [presumably the county plan] plan on an interim basis and require a referendum as to its permanency ’ ’ in the 1973 general election.

The proposed county plan, prior to its adoption by the Legislature on June 15, 1973 and after the maps showing the proposed districting were made public, was the subject of a well-publicized formal public hearing held by the Reapportionment Commission of the County of Onondaga on May 22, 1973, at which approximately 30 persons were in attendance.

The county plan had beep, prepared prior to the May 22, 1973 public hearing by the Reapportionment Commission (appointed by Resolution No. 282 adopted on June 7, 1971 by the Onondaga County Legislature) after a series of nine meetings held between March 30, 1973 and May 18, 1973.

The Reapportionment Commission meetings were open to the public and were well attended by representatives of various [844]*844interested groups including, on occasions, plaintiffs. After the May 22, 1973 public hearing, additional meetings of the Beapportionment Commission were held on May 23, June 11 and June 12, 1973. As a result of the hearing and the subsequent Beapportionment Commission meetings various minor alterations were made in the maps as originally presented at the May 22, 1973 public hearing.

At the final Beapportionment Commission meeting held on June 12,1973, the commission’s plan and the maps, as amended, were unanimously approved for submission to the Onondaga County Legislature. It should be noted that the Beapportionment Commission consisted of five members, including the Onondaga County Commissioner of Elections of the Democrat Party and a Democrat member of the Onondaga County Legislature.

The entire process leading to the formulation and adoption of the county plan has been the. subject of widespread public interest and has consistently received broad newspaper and television coverage due in part, no doubt, to the defeat, at referendum, of the county’s prior redistricting plan (also formulated by the Beapportionment Commission) by the narrow margin of 463 votes on March 30, 1973.

THE PLAN APPROVED BY THE COUNTY LEGISLATURE

The current county plan now submitted for court approval contains 24 legislative districts, the same number as the present legislative plan. Fourteen of the proposed districts are wholly in the towns and outside of the City of Syracuse. Eight are entirely within the city, while two districts are partially in the city and adjoining towns.

The districts outside the city must be created from the county’s 19 towns having populations ranging from Salina with 38,281 and Clay, 36,274, to Spafford with 1,148 and Otisco, 1,470. The mean district population of the 24-district plan is 19,701. Thus, to achieve anything approaching “ one man-one vote” representation, some towns must necessarily be combined, some divided, and town lines must be intersected. Of the county’s smaller towns, 10 — i.e., Lysander, Spafford, Otisco, Marcellus, Skaneateles, Onondaga, Fabius, Pompey, Tully and Elbridge — are included entirely as part of legislative districts with their lines left intact and not intersected, while two — Van Burén and Lafayette — have been divided. The other districts are composed of combinations of parts of the larger towns (i.e., Clay, Cicero, De Witt, Salina, Camillus,

[845]*845Geddes, Manlius). Thus, 10 of the 19 towns remain intact. In cases where districts have been created by combining one or more whole towns with portions of one or more adjacent towns (Districts Nos. 1, 6,11, 12 and 13) the district boundaries coincide, for the most part, with town boundaries. In Districts Nos. 7, 8 and 9, where single districts have been created out of parts of large towns (i.e., De Witt, Oamillus, and Geddes) town lines constitute a substantial portion of the district boundaries ; and even in districts composed of combinations of parts of large towns (Nos. 4, 5,10 and 14) and of parts of large towns with adjoining city territory (Nos. 19 and 24) town lines and the district boundaries coincide in numerous places.

The largest district (No. 24, consisting of part of Syracuse and part of Salina) has a population of 20,482 or 3.96% over the mean district population of 19,701. The population of the smallest district (No. 2, consisting of Lysander and part of Van Burén) is 18,705 or 5.06% under the mean. Thus, the total deviation from the mean population between the largest and smallest districts is 9.02%. Stated another way, the population variation ratio between the largest and smallest districts is 1.095 to 1. The average percentage variation of the districts, either above or below the mean population, is 2.67%.

It should also be noted that the proposed county plan contains one district, the 23d, which has a nonwhite population of 52.3%. In including a district fairly designed to permit the election of a representative of Syracuse’s nonwhite population as a member of the County Legislature, the present plan is a substantial improvement over the defeated county plan which contained no such district. As a result, opposition for failure to provide minority group representation has, apparently, been eliminated. Neither plaintiffs nor amici have suggested that the county plan is objectionable on this score.

Furthermore, the greater number of districts in the proposed plan (24 as compared' to 22 in the defeated county plan) and the reduced number of districts combining parts of towns with adjacent city territory (two in the present plan as contrasted .with four in the defeated plan) have apparently obviated objections from other groups who opposed the prior plan.

THE NORTH SYRACUSE PLAN

The plan submitted and urged upon the court by the Village of North Syracuse is in all respects identical with the county pían except for the boundaries of Legislative Districts No. 3 and No.

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Bluebook (online)
74 Misc. 2d 842, 346 N.Y.S.2d 439, 1973 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1757, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/village-of-north-syracuse-v-county-legislature-of-onondaga-nysupct-1973.