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Image provided by: Suffolk Cooperative Library System
• ,1, I • t -, f 1 - ~ \ 1 ! • ,----------------------------------------~ Duck Race The Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Long Island held their 6th Annual Duck Derby and Festival at Dowling College last Sunday, on the Connetquot River In Oakdale. Pictured elockwise from top left, 8- year-old Brittany Devlin of Selden has fun decorating a pumpkin; Lisa Marotta and her mother Stacy. of East Isiip, do a IltUe horseback riding; Jennifer Lehmann tries to find a rubber duck In a haystack; S-year old K.C. Monissey of West Sayville. Suffolk County Newsmna Palmquist Islip sued over town clerk's petition ruling by Anthonr J. Howard In her ruling two weeks ago, Islip Town Clerk Joan Johnson invalidated enough signatures from two petitions to keep two corresponding referendums off the November 8 ballot. But according to ·the director of a government watchdog group, a state law Johnson cited in her detennination is an antiquated statute invalidated by superseding federal law. In her September 30 detennination, Jolmson upheld objections to the petitions filed by Islip Democrats, which called for the town board to let Islip residents vote on their proposed referenda The first proposed referendum would mandate the town board to adopt a 1995 town budget that is 20 percent less than 1994's budget. The second would estahlisb a system of four geographic councilmatic districts in Islip, similar to the system of congression- al, state and county legislative districts. Council members would be elected by district residents to represent that section of Islip. Town board candi- dates would have to be residents of the districts they represent. Johnson cited various reasons for eliminating signa- tures, including signers who were not registered vot- ers, signers who didn't include their election district and improperly recorded witness statements. One of the factors that led Johnson ro invalidate an undetennined number of signatures was that \The names of the signers ... do not appear on the last preceding town assessment roll, as required by law,\ her ruling states. To appear on the assessment roll, you must own taxable property in the town. Johnson cited New York State Town Law Section 81, which specifies that \such petition shan be sub- scribed and authenticated ... by the electors of the town qualified to vote upon a proposition to raise and expend money,· equal to five percent of the votes cast in the previous gubernatorial election. Also, Section 84 of the Town Law states that MNo person shall be entitled to vote upon any proposition for raising, appropriating or expending money or incuning any town liability ... unless he or she is an elector of the town and the owner of property assessed upon the last preceding town assessment- roll.\ But according to Andrew Greenblatt, executive director of New York State Common Cause, those two secti~ns are ~learly superseded by the federal voting right laws. \Property ownership requirements for voting no longer exist in this country . . . this is Constitutional Law 101, this is not some legal hair- splitting,\ he said. Greenblatt also asserted that requiring property owners to sign the petition is equally invalid. \It doesn't matter, we just don't do that anymore. The theory behind that is we are all affected by it. Just because you live in an aparbnent, do you think your rent won't go up if your landlord's taxes do?\ he asked. Ross Anderson, a Ronkonkoma resident, knows his rent goes up with every property tax. increase. His landlord, Heatherwood Communities, specifies in its apartment leases that tenants must pay a pro-rated Please tum to page 6 Connetqnot teacher contract agreement oMcial by 1i.llhNIJ J. Howard Connetquot teachers have their con- tract. In a 3-2 vote Tuesday night, the school board approved a four-year agreement with the Connetquot Teachers Association, officially ending the 15-month impasse. The union's last contract expired in June of 1993. But the lengthy impasse ended With contentious, bitter and public disagree- ment between board members, teach- ers and the public at the board meeting at the district administration building. The memorandum of agreement to the teachers' contract calls for freezing salaries for 1993-94, and providing three percent increases in each of the next three years. The contract expires at the end of June, 1997. Half of the salary increases in each year will be financed by the district's .Excellence In Teaching funds. The balance of Connetquot's EIT money, provided by the state for teachers' salaries, will be .... __________ ~_ .. ____ ....:... ________ _' _____ .... __ .... _' ... _ .... - _____ '0- ____ ........ divided by all the teachers evenly. The agRement also caDs for the <lis- trict to withdraw a court injunction against the CTA and to not pursue any act.ionagainst a teacher for violation of ·tltatcomt order. In return, the teachers dropped all pending litigation and grievances, including one concerning the district's unilateral decision to switch health insurance carriers and to implement-a reVised formula for payIng medical costs. Superintendent John Maloney - .... _-. __ ,_ 1' .... __ .... _____ .... \' .. _ ~ ............ _ .. said that concession will save the dis- trict between $500,000 and $1 million. The CTA had won a grievance hear- ~ against the district for the change of inSllrallce carriers, a decision that was under appeal. Baker, Mahoney and board member Cliff Schmidt aU cited the uncertain outcome of that appeal and its potential long-teno cost to the district as reasons for approving the deal. Please fum to page 10 3 ;j (I) en c: a: ~ (\) o c: ;:, .:< z (I) :IE en
