Creating a Truly Representative Town Council

You Deserve a Town Council Member Representing You and Your Community

Imagine knowing the Town Council member to call if you have a question.

Imagine knowing the Town Council member to call if you have a problem.

Imagine your Town Council person showing up at School District meetings even when it is not an election year.

Imagine your Town Council person making sure that your community’s need and interests were heard.

Imagine your Town Council person making sure your roads and highways are adequately funded.

Imagine having a Town Council person from your community and speaking for your community?

This is what changing to Town Council Districts will deliver.

“Huntington is a modern, cosmopolitan town in many ways. It's time its form of government reflected that.” Newsday editorial October 20, 2009.

Making the Change

Under the current at-large Town Council, all four Council Members represent the entire Town, but no one represents you and your community. With Town Council Districts, you will have a Town Council member who speaks for your community and represents your community at Town Hall. Most importantly, you will have a Town Council member who is accountable to your community.

If you have a problem or a question, who do you call today? With Council Districts, if you have a problem or a question, you can call the Town Council member whose job it is to represent you.

It’s What We Do at Every Other Level of Government

We use districts to elect our representatives at the County, State and Federal levels. The numbers make the lack of representation clear:

• Each Huntington Town Council member represents approximately 200,000 people.

• Each member of the New York State Assembly represents 130,000 people.

• Each Suffolk County Legislator represents 81,000 people

• With Town Council Districts, each Town Council member would represent fewer than 50,000 people.

It only makes sense that our local government should have the smallest districts.

Huntington is Too Big for At-Large Elections

The at-large system was introduced in the late 1920s when Town had fewer than 30,000 residents. Today, Huntington has 200,000 residents spread across over 100 square miles with diverse communities. We are larger than Des Moines, Little Rock and Salt Lake City. Isn’t it time we had a government that reflected our size, diversity and strength?  Newsday had it right: “Huntington is a modern, cosmopolitan town in many ways. It's time its form of government reflected that.”

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