Eliminate the County Legislature and their support staff altogether and bring back the Board of Supervisors form of government. They do nothing that a Board of Supoervisors could not do or do even better. Other counties do it; why not Monroe? (I’ll tell you why: It serves the interests of the party bosses to keep things as they are.) And thats why Louise has the headphone district. The Monroe County Dems didn’t have any complaints giving Louise a district full of socially dependent voters and now that the national pendulum is swinging to the right, there is a call for bipartisanship and compromise. The left seems to think that compromise means agreeing with them.

A group of Monroe County legislators on Monday rejected a proposal for an evenly bipartisan redistricting commission. However, that doesn’t mean the public won’t get to see any independently drawn lines.
The League of Women Voters will partner with the Center for Governmental Research to draw district lines once census data is released, and those lines could be matched up with what the legislature draws, said Katherine Smith, president of the League of Women Voters, Rochester Metro Area.
“We think it will get the citizens engaged in this process,” Smith said.

The County Legislature approves new district boundaries following the census every 10 years with the expressed purpose of accommodating population changes and keeping the districts’ sizes relatively even. Redistricting has been referred to as a process in which politicians pick their voters.
Four out of five public speakers at the meeting supported a Democratic proposal for a commission that would not include legislators and would not take into account each household’s voter registration and voting frequency.
The Agenda-Charter Committee approved Legislature President Jeff Adair’s proposal, which keeps the five-member commission laid out in the charter intact, in a party-line vote, 3-2, with Legislators John Howland, R-Henrietta, Mike Barker, R-Fairport, and Richard Yolevich, R-Parma, voting in favor.
A proposal from Legislator Vincent Esposito, D-Irondequoit, to form an eight-member commission, with equal appointments by the legislature’s majority and minority, failed 2-3, with Esposito and Legislator Steve Eckel, D-Rochester, voting in favor.
Adair’s proposal, consistent with the charter, calls for the commission to include both Republican and Democratic election commissioners, the majority and minority leaders, or their designees, and the president, in this case, Adair.
Majority Leader Dan Quatro, R-Webster, has said he will serve on the commission, while Minority Leader Ted O’Brien, D-Irondequoit, has not said whether he will serve or appoint someone.
If O’Brien appoints himself, the commission’s membership would be exclusively white men.

“I would appreciate having representation, thank you,” Gates resident Yvonne Cleveland, who is black, told lawmakers before the vote.
Joan Roby-Davison told the committee it makes sense to keep towns, villages and city neighborhoods together.

Following the meeting, Roby-Davison said while she respects the legislators, she found it “insulting” that they don’t think there is anyone else in the county who can be trusted with drawing the lines.
The full legislature will vote on Adair’s referral on Feb. 1.