[HISTORY: Adopted by the Town Board of the
Town of Ramapo as indicated in article histories. Amendments noted
where applicable.]
[Adopted 12-20-2004 by L.L. No. 11-2004]
Subdivision 1 of § 85 of the Town
Law provides that whenever a proposition shall have been adopted for
the establishment of the ward system and the election thereafter of
one Councilperson from each ward, the Board of Elections of Rockland
County shall divide the Town into wards and fix the boundaries thereof.
Pursuant to the Municipal Home Rule Law § 10, Subdivision
1(ii)d(3), the Town Board, by local law, can supersede in its application
to it, any provision of the Town Law relating to the property, affairs
or government of the Town, unless the State Legislature shall have
prohibited the adoption of such local law. The boundary of a ward
system is a permissible subject of a local law and there is no state
law prohibiting the adoption of this article. The Town Board believes
that the Town is best suited to fix the boundaries of each ward. Other
towns have done so.
Whenever a proposition shall have been adopted
in the Town for the establishment of the ward system and the election
thereafter of one Councilperson from each ward, the Town Board shall
divide the Town into four wards and fix the boundaries thereof, unless
a proposition shall have been adopted to increase the number of Councilpersons
from four to six, in which instance, the Town Board shall divide the
Town into six wards and fix the boundaries thereof. The division shall
be made so that the number of inhabitants in each ward, based upon
the last regular federal census, shall be substantially equal, with
wards composed of convenient and contiguous territory in as compact
form as practicable. No election district heretofore or hereinafter
created under the Election Law shall contain parts of two or more
wards. The Town Board shall make appropriate revisions of the boundaries
of the wards so that they shall contain a substantially equal number
of inhabitants not later than six months after the publication of
the results of a regular federal census which indicated that the districts
do not contain a substantially equal number of inhabitants. When the
Town Board shall have finally determined the boundaries of the wards,
it shall cause a map of the Town to be prepared, showing, in detail,
the location of each ward and the boundaries thereof. The original
map so made shall be filed in the office of the Town Clerk and copies
thereof shall be filed in the offices of the County Clerk and the
Board of Elections of Rockland County. The ward system shall be deemed
established after such filing is complete.
