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Who is pushing for Council Districts?
a) A bunch of whackos b) Those without a life with nothing better to do than petition c) The "sue we must for a better Brookhaven" crowd d) Those bugged by having Florida people represent them e) Jealous and cheap people who can't afford to pay expensive "expeditors" to get Brookhaven Town to function f) The good guys,a Coalition of Good Government groups including Civic associations,the League of Women Voters, and others. All have won numerous awards for attempting to make their communities better.
Who is opposed?
a) A bunch of whackos b) Bad guys, that don't want you to vote c) Numerous patronage appointees, "suits", who's job was created for them and has no function. d) Developers that want more than what good land use policy would deliver e) Central Party bosses who would lose control in a district system f) b) thru e) and possibly a) thru e)
The word ward is associated with Council Districts. What is a ward?
a) Batman's young sidekick Robin. b) An area in a hospital c) A verb meaning to repel, as in ward off evil d) An acronym for Working for Accountable Responsive Democracy e) New York State law mandates that the term Ward must be used to mean Council Districts. The wording of the referendum is spelled out in statute to be "Shall the Ward system be established ..." f) All of the above.
Council Districts is a system where citizens elect a local representative to the Brookhaven Town Council. That person would serve as their representative, would be known to the people of the district and would be held accountable. With the present "at-large" system all six councilpeople represent the entire 260 square mile Town which lends itself to anonymous people elected to the Council.
The number of people, constituents, a present Town Councilperson represents is:
a) Just me b) 293,000 (The same as a State Senator) c) 120,000 (The same as a State Assemblyperson) d) 73,000 (The same as a Suffolk County Legislator) e) 72,000 (If we had Council Districts) f) 430,000
Can you Identify this Brookhaven Town Councilperson. This would be the person you would go to for solving your Town problems. (Hint: On Jan22nd he voted by absentee ballot from his home in Florida)
a)Geraldine Esposito b)Eugene Gerrard c)Edward Hennessey d)Charles Lefkowitz e)Glenn Murphy f)Dominic Santoro
Prior to an election there should be at least 40 "meet the candidates" forums throughout the Town where the voters would personally see and assess the Council candidates they will vote for. In the present system how much time does each candidate have to present their ideas?
a) All the time in the world. The six or nine candidates vying for office would meet at all 180,000 kitchen tables in the Town of Brookhaven b) Not important, since all six councilpeople regularly attend all 40 civic meeting throughout the 260 square mile Brookhaven Town, they are intimately familiar with all the communities. c) Not important for voters to actually see the candidates as expensive slick flyers and mailing can do the job of "informing" the voters. d) Not important. Input from voters is better done by distributing surveys with only selected questions asked e) Showing the candidates to the voters is not a good idea. It depresses them. f) 2 minutes per candidate
In 1972 the voters of Brookhaven Town approved a referendum to establish Council Districts. What did the Town do?
a) Established a week of celebration and partying with government offices closed, free fireworks, etc. b) Honored those who felt that Districts would lead to better government. c) Grudgingly honored the good government initiative. d) Quickly constructed a memorial to the "at-large" era e) While not agreeing with the idea, they realized that they lived in a system of law that they swore to uphold and accepted the will of the people. f) They "Discovered" that the Town Clerk did not properly advertise the election and went to court and had the election thrown out.
With the anonymity brought about by the present "at-large" system, how often is there a major or minor corruption scandal concerning Brookhaven Town?
a) The reference to "CrookHaven" has no basis. There has never been a scandal in Brookhaven and the "CrookHaven" epithet is only spread by disgruntled malcontents. b) Some of the "so-called" scandals were actually benefiting Brookhaven residents, such as bringing cheap truck parts to our residents. c) So what about the scandals. We have become at times nationally and internationally famous through the hard work of our officials. d) The voters should be thankful for all the scandals that have been covered up. They should excuse those few that become public. e) The voters should lighten up. Back room "boys will be boys" f) About every 2-3 years.
Questions are raised on the costs of districts with the establishment of district offices. Ten (10) New York Townships have adopted Council Districts. What was their experience?
a) Every elected councilperson opened satellite offices in London, Paris, the Riviera, and especially Florida in case any of their constituents were traveling b) Every councilperson opened ornate carousing halls in their district where free drinks and don't ask what else went on. c) Each councilperson opened a radio-dispatched mobile town office that could, with siren and lights, speed to a constituents home to provide service. The vehicle would also bring the appropriate Town commissioner. d) The councilpeople followed a circuit and boarded with families in their district. e) Local OTB parlors were opened in each district both to employ all the councils relatives but to also allow betting on applications before the Town Board. f) Not one of the ten towns established satellite offices. They maintained the same centralized office facilities as when it was "at-large"
Some feel that the present "at-large" elected council, is unresponsive to the concerns of the citizens. Most think they are too responsive to those contributing heavily to the central political party. This has lead to land use abuses such as overdevelopment, traffic, high taxes, &tc..
Which are Brookhaven Town actions that do not sit well with the various communities?
a) A Covenant,the Town's giving its word on land use is regularly broken. As many as 7 covenants are broken or "relieved" in a single meeting b) The traffic costs of placing an unneeded shopping center with a traffic signal on a on a heavily trafficked road (such as Rt347) is 3 Million Dollars per year (DOT numbers). This is paid for by us. Half the cost is for congestion. Half is for accidents. None of this cost accounts for the traffic displaced to secondary roads and the cost to DOT to "remediate" the road. c) When an existing house and lot is subdivided into 3 lots for two additional houses, the traffic increase is about 20 car trips per day and the net increase in school costs (over what the homeowners pay) is $10,000 Dollars per year. d) Siting a K-Mart or Home Depot on the shore of the scenic Carmen's river is bad zoning on top of frustrating community efforts to renovate a nearby shopping center that is in decline e) A PR program misrepresenting facts to the people of Brookhaven, such as claiming taxes are going down and not mentioning the other categories that are going up. f) All of the above
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