The Orange County Legislature did not approve a scheduled public hearing on a proposed redistricting map for the county. The legislature voted 10 to 8 during their regular session on Thursday, August 1.

According to the resolution, the public hearing was originally scheduled for Thursday, August 15 at 5 p.m. to be held at the Orange County Government Center in Goshen. The public was given the opportunity to submit comments from August 2 to 16.

Orange County is undergoing its redistricting process which is required by law every ten years after the United States census is taken and completed. The purpose of the map is to assure fair and equal representation in their respective districts.

Furthermore, it avoids future legal challenges brought forward.

Congressional districts, state legislative, town, county, city and village lines are all subject to be redrawn and the county legislators will also be up for reelection next year in November of 2025. The proposed redistricting map up for vote and other iterations of the map prior were created through the hired consultants, Applied Geographics, a division of the company Sanborn Map Company, Inc. The firm was brought in by the county in 2023 to conduct the required work.

During previous legislative sessions and the one on Thursday afternoon, legislators continued to voice concerns and were not satisfied in presenting one map to the public for comment. During the legislative session, a motion was made to amend the hearing time from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Majority Leader Legislator Thomas J. Faggione [R,C,I], who represents Deerpark, Mount Hope and Port Jervis, recommended that the motion to amend be reconsidered as there is no end time to the public hearing.

“It says that the public hearing starts at 5 p.m., there is no closed time on that public hearing. In terms of the the motion and a second here before us, I mean, I’ll stay until midnight, two o’clock in the morning, if necessary for that day, but starting that meeting at 5 p.m. and continuing it through 6,7,8,9, 10 o’clock at night for as long as the public is here, I have no objection to that,” said Faggione.

The motion to change the start time for the public hearing was approved and passed by a vote of 14 in favor and four against the amendment.

Legislators expressed their disapproval of the overall process of the redistricting prior to the final vote:

District 14 Legislator Laurie R. Tautel [D], who represents the Towns of Highlands, Monroe and Woodbury and the Villages of Highland Falls, Harriman and Woodbury: “This process, to me, has been extremely, almost rushed. The data was available in 2021 yet the RFP [request for proposal] did not go out until November of 2023 for the redistricting,” said Tautel. “The reason I chose to support the firm awarded the districting RFP was they said they wanted to meet with each legislator. That did not happen. I did not speak personally to any of the representatives of the firm until the June 26 meeting.”

District 11 Legislator Kathy A. Stegenga [R], who represents the Towns of Blooming Grove, Hamptonburgh and New Windsor and the Village of Washingtonville: “Less than a month ago, when we met on June 26 more than half of the legislators here had issues and questions regarding the process related to the redistricting lines. We felt we were being denied access to the consultants, even though we were told we would have access and our questions and concerns were not addressed,” said Stegenga. “I believe the proposed map that we are being asked to vote on today has been created with total disregard to how it’s going to affect all the legislative districts in each of our communities in those districts.”

District 6 Legislator Genesis Ramos [D,WF] who represents the City and Town of Newburgh: “At the heart, this is a political process and so I think that there are ways in which this process could have been handled very differently,” said Ramos. “What myself and other legislators are focused on is solutions and to be able to move forward a legally compliant map to the public that we feel confident putting forward. It’s so critical for folks to pay attention and really understand that the way in which these maps are drawn is going to directly impact the kind of representation they can have.”

District 12 Legislator Kevin W. Hines, (R,C,I) who represents Cornwall, Blooming Grove and New Windsor: “If I were to write a book on redistricting, this would be how not to do it. This is a horrible process. My district now goes from Cornwall to New Windsor to Orange Lake in the town of Newburgh. In my wildest dreams, I couldn’t have drawn a map such as that,” said Hines. “I think this map is an epic fail. Every one of us should send it back to that committee of six and do the proper work to create three maps, pay the consultant more money if we have to, do it properly for the entire county of Orange.”

District 4 Legislator Kevindaryán Luján [D,WF], who represents the City and Town of Newburgh: “I think this is one of the few instances that you will see, I’ve ever seen in the seven years I’ve been as a legislator, where bipartisanship was unified about how much they dislike the process,” said Luján. “It’s unfortunate that we were not able to find a solution tonight [August 1]. I’m hoping that we’ll be able to find something, that we’ll be able to find a solution in the coming days. Now we’ve created a sense of urgency. This is going to impact long after me.”

After returning from executive session, the legislature voted to end discussion on the item. “I think at this point we’ve had plenty of discussion on this item,” said District 3 Legislator Paul Ruszkiewicz [R,C,I], who represents the Towns of Minisink, Warwick and Wawayanda.

Despite the approved amendment to the resolution to change the public hearing start time, the vote was called and the overall item failed. The legislature continued on with other items till concluding their meeting.