ACCORD – The Rochester Town Board is concerned about what the Ulster County reapportionment will mean for Rochester, which falls a few hundred people short of having its own legislative district and could be split into two or more pieces. Various plans place parts of the town with Denning, Hardenburgh, Marbletown, Wawarsing, and Shawangunk. Rochester is not the only town which faces possible fracturing under the new county charter, and there have been calls to consider a weighted voting system in order to keep the towns whole.

Supervisor Carl Chipman and board member Manuela Mihailescu were the only two people to attend the informational meeting in Olive on April 20, according to Chipman. "The ones showing the most interest are current county legislators," he said. "My interest is in keeping Rochester whole."

Rochester currently shares a legislative district with the Town of Wawarsing, and Chipman feels that the combination hasn't served his constituents well. Four members represent the district, and Chipman says that Legislator Terry Bernardo is the first Rochester resident to serve in recent memory. "We clash sometimes" with Wawarsing, Chipman said, over issues such as funding for low-income housing. Municipalities with a high percentage of public assistance housing, such as Wawarsing and Kingston, want the county to distribute the cost evenly; Chipman prefers the present model of having each town pay its proportional share. "It would raise my constituents' tax bills," he said.

The supervisor feels that keeping the towns whole is important for proper representation, because the needs of the towns vary widely. Legislator Bill West of Woodstock, whose town may also be fractured, has called for keeping the towns as whole districts by shifting to a weighted voting system.

In a weighted system, legislators' votes would be given less or more impact based on the district's population. Gerald Benjamin, the former SUNY New Paltz dean and county legislator who guided the process of creating the new charter, isn't convinced that such an idea would hold up in court. "Single-member districts are usually adopted as an alternative to weighted voting," he said. "It only contemplates the voting function of representation," ignoring such things as service to constituents, which is more challenging in districts with a higher population. "The charter directs contemplation of municipal boundaries, but they are not always compatible goals."

Leonard Distel, supervisor of Wawarsing, hasn't been following the process as closely as Chipman. "You have to be a rocket scientist to figure this thing out," he said. "I'm not clear on their intentions" for Wawarsing, and he predicts that "it's not going to be pretty" as county officials debate the final plan. "Hopefully, it will save us some money."

As for Rochester, Chipman is hopeful that the town will find itself in a district with people who have similar needs and values. "I feel much more aligned with Kerhonkson than Ellenville," he said. Likewise, "Marbletown is a different culture . . . in fact, it's two: High Falls is more like Rosendale than Stone Ridge is."