The Town of Islip in Suffolk County reached a settlement on Wednesday with Latino residents who claimed their voting rights were diluted by a local election system that perpetually favored white voters.
The town of 330,000 people is about 30 percent Latino, but no Latino has ever been elected to Town Board. The plaintiffs blamed an at-large voting system in which the four board members are elected by everyone in the town. They claimed this disenfranchised Latinos, who live primarily in the western hamlets of Brentwood and Central Islip and could never muster enough votes to elect their preferred candidates.
The consent decree was signed by both parties two weeks into a federal trial, brought under Section Two of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which was conducted by virtual technology due to the pandemic. Judge Gary R. Brown said the parties discussed a settlement with him on day five of the trial.
Under the consent decree, the town acknowledged that “implementation of the at-large system for Islip Town Council elections violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.”
The judge also said that under the at-large system, “members of the Hispanic or Latino minority group in Islip have less opportunity than other members of the electorate to participate in the political process and to elect representatives of their choice.”
Under the terms of the settlement, Islip will create four geographic districts. One of them will have a citizen voting age population that’s about 54 percent Hispanic or Latino. This district will include Brentwood, North Bay Shore and a piece of Central Islip. The three other districts, spanning from West Islip to Bayport, have voting age populations that are 74 to 82 percent white.
The town was sued by four Latino residents and the community groups Make the Road New York and New York Communities for Change.
Ana Flores, a plaintiff from Brentwood and member of New York Communities for Change, was thrilled with the settlement. “Hopefully now our community feels a bit more heard.”
Flores and the other plaintiffs claimed their lack of political representation made it easier for the town to treat them as second class citizens. They said the town ignored their concerns about illegal dumping in a Brentwood park as well as basic public safety issues.
Frederick Brewington, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said the settlement is good news for everyone because the town no longer has to spend public dollars to “thwart the voting rights of its Latino community.”
Islip spent at least $3 million on legal fees and now has to pay another $900,000 in fees to the plaintiffs.
As the trial started on September 30th, an attorney for the town argued there was no racial discrimination. He said Latinos weren’t getting elected to the town board because they usually vote for Democrats in a town that prefers Republicans. Attorneys for the town did not respond to a request for comment from Gothamist/WNYC.
Islip’s system will change in time for the town’s next election in November 2021, when two board seats will be up for grabs followed by the next two in 2023.
“The Town Board will continue its unwavering commitment to represent and be accountable to all our residents in the Town of Islip, as the transition is made to councilmanic districts," Islip Supervisor Angie Carpenter said in a statement. "We believe that a settlement is the best and most responsible action which protects all interests, most especially our taxpayers, particularly in light of the current fiscal crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic."
Brewington won a similar voting rights lawsuit in Hempstead more than 20 years ago, in neighboring Nassau County. Hempstead was forced to create geographic voting districts after a court found its at-large system disenfranchised Black voters. The plaintiff in the case, Dorothy Goosby, was later elected to local office.
When asked if there are other places in the state that have similar at-large voting systems that disenfranchise certain groups, Brewington declined to tip his hand. But he said news of this settlement might prompt communities to consider their own systems and “evaluate changing them.”
As to the future of politics in Brentwood, Flores, who is 23, said she wouldn’t rule out running for office some day. But she said she’s currently focused on her new career as a social worker. Her father was also a plaintiff. They moved to the U.S. from El Salvador when she was about nine years old.
“We came here to Brentwood as an immigrant family,” she said. “Throughout the years we’ve been able to build a community, be part of the community and then change it in a way that will be historical and will go down in, like, history books. Or at least in the Town of Islip.”
She said she already received a congratulatory note from her high school Advanced Placement history teacher.
