Today's NEWSDAY has a news analysis column (the first 5 paragraphs, as well
as the URL for the complete article, appear after my name) about the Town of
Brookhaven lawsuit to overturn the referendum that approved the creation of
councilmanic districts for town board members.

The town will argue in its lawsuit that the new configuration of board
membership under the election rules approved by the public on Jan. 22 would
not conform to the terms of King James II's trusteeships as granted to the
trustees in 1686 by the king's governor, Thomas Dongan.

The Town of Brookhaven is in the center of Suffolk county and is one of the
10 towns in Suffolk County and includes within its borders all or parts of 8
villages (incorporated municipalities) and 36 hamlets (unincorporated areas).
 The Town of Brookhaven includes a larger area than all of Nassau County.

For those who have their copy of the 1998, 1999 or 2000 LI Population Survey
or have already downloaded the report from the Long Island Power Authority
web site (eMail me directly if you need instructions on how to access and
download the report), you'll find the Town of Brookhaven (and its villages
and hamlets), Suffolk County on pages 2, 14 & 24 (map) and 25 (population
estimate).

For all those who wish to see the entire story but can not access the web,
please eMail me directly and I will then eMail the entire story to you.


Wishing all a ziessen Pesach,

Walter Greenspan

Vote Gets Royal Treatment
     -- by Paul Vitello/NEWSDAY

March 28, 2002 -- The Town of Brookhaven, with nearly half a million citizens
and almost as many strip malls, is famous for a lot of things. It is home to
a major national laboratory and a first-rate state university campus. Within
its borders are one of the last remaining terrestrial wonders of Long Island,
the pine barrens region, which besides being beautiful is the single most
important recharge basin for the water supply of this Island's 2.3 million
people.

Brookhaven is also famous for a nickname by which it is known in the
political and legal world where people keep track of such arcana as official
indictments, racketeering convictions and sleazy politics.

There, it is known as "Crookhaven."

The nickname has been earned not by the good citizens of the town but by a
town Republican organization that has entangled local government in land
scandals, cronyism, zoning neglect and cheap payoffs for decades. This
tradition culminated in the year 2000 with the corruption trial and
conviction of the GOP chairman, John Powell, who took bribes and ran a chop
shop with his left hand while hand-picking town board members, state judges,
supervisors, a county executive and a district attorney with his right hand.

Now, with Powell gone, the local GOP has been at loose ends.

Copyright (c) 2002, Newsday, Inc.

This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/ny-livit282643327mar28.column