Candidates address Proposition 1, zone change

On Wednesday, Oct. 16, candidates from the 7th Assembly District, Garrett Petersen (D) and Jarett Gandolfo (R); 8th State Senate District, Alexis Weik (R, C); and a campaign representative for Democratic challenger Rob Lubin for 2nd Congressional District, attended a Meet the Candidates night hosted by the Bohemia, Ronkonkoma, Oakdale, and Sayville civic groups.

Weik’s opponent Francis Dolan (D) is not actively campaigning and did not attend. Incumbent representative Andrew Garbarino was not in attendance due to a previous engagement.

Isaac Hoffman, a member of Rob Lubin’s campaign, stood in for the Democratic challenger as Lubin was recovering from food poisoning.

While a number of topics were covered for the event by moderators Jim Swike of the Sayville Civic group and Milynn Augulis of the Bohemia Civic group, for purposes of this article and space limitations, the focus of this article is on specific questions to candidates that most immediately affect The Suffolk County News coverage area.

Proposition 1 is listed as an “amendment to Protect Against Unequal Treatment.”

This proposal amends Article 1, Section 11 of the New York Constitution. Section 11 now protects against unequal treatment based on race, color, creed, and religion. The proposal will amend the act to also protect against unequal treatment based on ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, and pregnancy outcomes, as well as reproductive healthcare and autonomy.  The amendment allows laws to prevent or undo past discrimination.

Weik addressed her stance on the proposition and said it was “mislabeled as an equal rights amendment; it does not address equal rights the way we think of it. A small portion codifies full-term abortion into the Constitution of the state of New York. If you vote no, abortion would still be legal in the State of New York, so you’re not voting against abortion. It means that if we ever got together and decided that we would prefer to go back to first-term abortion, we would not be able to do that because it would be codified in New York Constitution. It’s not a vote against abortion, which many people make it sound like it is—it is not.”

“The other portions of the bill address a lot of serious things. So when we talk about equal rights, I don’t see how we can consider allowing genetic males to use the ladies’ locker room, the ladies’ bathroom, and other female facilities. I don’t see how that’s equal. This bill allows transgender individual to be able to use female facilities. That part is not fair. It allows transgender genetic males to compete against girls in girls sports. Again, not very equal. Men and women are created differently, our strengths and powers are different, so to have them competing in the same sports is just not fair,” said Weik.

“It also serves to give illegal migrants rights, the same rights that New Yorkers have. I don’t think that’s fair. I think that making sure you are a legal citizen of the United States, that you came in the right way, and that you understand you’re a law-abiding citizen—that’s how you should have the rights that we have and this bill will give illegal migrants the same rights as New Yorkers,” said Weik.

Finally, Weik said, “It also takes away some parental controls and the state can decide if your child can be taken from you in certain situations.”

Assembly candidates Petersen and Gandolfo were asked about a possible zone change or development on the former Island Hills Golf Course in Sayville and strategies to “address the overwhelming opposition to the zone change.”

The question regarding Island Hills was asked by moderator Milynn Augulis, who is currently the president of the Greater Islip Association, a civic group that has been fiercely opposed to any zone change on the property owned by Rechler Equity.

Jarett Gandolfo said, “When I think of what the site can handle, I think of adding more cars to mix and how our public transportation would also have to change. Hochul’s development zones have been focused around train stations. She proposed a super zoning board to supersede local zoning decisions, but thankfully that didn’t happen. We want our local communities to decide what we can handle... I think that initial proposal was way too big for Sayville… the new one might not be there yet. I think any development [for Long Island] that is broached should be more focused on home ownership, especially for young people. You can’t encourage them to take on rent that’s the same as a mortgage payment.” 

Petersen said, “The initial proposal was a little too aggressive and it seems like they did address water concerns and capacity. I think in general if we have these developers making a boatload of money building up property, building up houses on Long Island, then we need them to provide better infrastructure. I’ve seen developments throughout the South Shore, like in Central Islip, where we’re building all this housing and there doesn’t seem to be a conscious effort because we’re making money hand over fist to think ‘can schools support this?’ ‘can traffic support this?’ If we’re going to build a 500-unit housing, then put in sewers, contribute to the public infrastructure that will be there long after you cash your checks. Or we just NIMBY [not in my backyard] everything and not build housing and nobody can afford to live here in 30 to 40 years with declining population and school districts falling apart.”