You certainly would have good reason to question a North Hempstead redistricting plan that split the Village of Mineola – a close-knit community that has worked well together on redeveloping its downtown business area – into two town districts.

The seven redistricting guidelines set by state law include calls to consider contiguous territories that connect, are compact and share “communities of interest.”

Check. Check. And check again.

We understand that the seven-member town redistricting commission appointed by the Town Board and the Town Board itself needed to ensure that the largest and smallest districts did not exceed a 5% difference in population and to recognize North Hempstead’s growing Asian population.

But we still don’t get why the four Town Board Democrats rejected a request by North Hempstead Supervisor Jennifer DeSena, who won election as a Republican, to postpone the board’s decision on a map that will guide the town for the next 10 years.

The Town Board, DeSena noted, has meetings on July 7 and Aug. 4 ahead of the Aug. 12 deadline for redistricting to be finalized.

“We have time to make sure as many of our residents’ voices are heard as possible in this process, as they will be the ones most affected by all this,” DeSena said last Thursday. “This will decide the future of all residents in our town for the next 10 years. There’s nothing compelling us to put this to a vote tonight since we have two more board meetings and we can call another meeting. It is important to take our time and do this process directly—otherwise, we open the town to potential legal challenges.”

DeSena had a point. Why the rush?

The map approved by the four Town Board Democrats includes the creation of a district in which Asians are the majority and switching the numbers of District 4, now represented by Town Councilperson Veronica Lurvey, a Democrat, with District 5, now represented by Town Councilman David Adhami, a Republican.

The change in the district numbers map will result in moving the election for the district now represented by Lurvey back by two years and moving up the district represented by Adhami up by two years.

The redistricting hearing drew heated opposition from mayors throughout the town, who criticized the actual changes and the way in which they were created.

East Williston Mayor Bonnie L.S. Parente, whose village will change from District 2, now represented by Democrat Town Councilman Peter Zuckerman, to District 3, now represented by Republican Dennis Walsh, engaged in a back-and-forth discussion with Zuckerman, arguing that he had not informed her of the three public hearings held in May by the town’s nonpartisan redistricting commission.

Parente said she was not engaged in the process and would like to have been, saying to Zuckerman directly that the two see each other at a lot of events and that she wishes he would have told her.

“We stood next to each other on Memorial Day Weekend and you didn’t mention it,” Parente said. “As my councilman, I am asking you not to allow this to move forward this evening.”

Other mayors to speak against the redistricting proposals included Barbara Donno of Plandome Manor and Lawrence Ceriello of Munsey Park, who sent a letter and e-mail that were read into the record, respectively.

Former state Sen. Jack Martins, a former mayor of Mineola and a member of the state redistricting commission after its creation in 2014, criticized the Town Board for a lack of transparency.  He said the state commission sent out public notices to “get as many people in the area” to participate.

“Certainly we’re aware of how easy it is today to reach out to elected officials,” said Martins, a Republican, who is running to reclaim his state Senate seat. “Especially with so many villages in the Town of North Hempstead; mayors, trustees, fire chiefs, school board presidents, school board trustees, fire districts, fire commissioners, water commissioners. The list goes on and on. All of them could have been alerted to the fact that we had three hearings.”

The officials have a point about the outcome. We find it hard to believe the board could not have come up with a map that left Mineola intact among other changes that could have improved the outcome.

But in terms of transparency not so much.

Notice of the three public hearings held at town hall, Clinton G. Martin Park at New Hyde Park and the ‘Yes We Can’ Community Center were posted to the town’s website, publications, including Blank Slate Media and Newsday, and articles on the redistricting process appeared in both publications as well.

Notices were also issued to local TV news outlets and social media networks and advised where the public could submit comments online.

Kent Stegall of Citygate GIS, a service that provided consultation on both data analysis and mapping for the commission, said aside from the public comments in-person at the three hearings, there were fewer than 30 certified public comments submitted online.

We agree with the mayors on the importance of the redistricting plan.

But the mayors who did not attend or comment at those hearings should take a look in the mirror before assigning blame. They did not do their jobs and their complaints ring a little hollow.

Jeff Wice, legal consultant to the commission, said the steps North Hempstead took were by far more transparent than what he has seen throughout Long Island.

“I think it’s fair to say this has probably been the most open process for any redistricting in Nassau or Suffolk County that I have seen,” said Wice.

Wice seemed to be referring at least in part to the Nassau redistricting plan approved 10 years ago by the county Legislature.

In that case, Republican county legislators used a 10-9 seat advantage to draw lines that gave them a 12-7 advantage in districts in which registered Republicans outnumbered registered Democrats.

Back then as now registered Democrats outnumbered registered Republicans in Nassau.

To increase their advantage in 12 districts, Republican county legislators divided Roslyn and Hicksville not into two districts, not into three districts but into four districts stretching from one end of Nassau to the other.

DeSena said the map approved by town Democrats along with three other options were “an attempt to preserve political power for the next decade through gerrymandering.

She might be right but offered no proof.

Democrat Town Councilwoman Veronica Lurvey said the redistricting was based on data and took into account what the different laws require.

“I think this process is not about any one of us or protecting incumbencies,” Lurvey said. “This process was based on numbers, statistics and the seven principles that have been provided. Creating a minority-majority district, including united communities of interest and all the seven principles. I think that’s more important than protecting my seat or any one of our seats.”

Lurvey also offered no proof and, like DeSena, asked us to trust her word at a time when trust is in short supply in the Town of North Hempstead.

DeSena’s commitment to non-partisan redistricting will be tested in the coming months when the Nassau County Legislature begins redistricting the county maps.

Democratic New York legislators failed that test this year when a non-partisan redistricting commission that included Martins was unable to reach an agreement on new maps for Congress, the state Assembly and the state Senate.

The Democratic-controlled Legislature came up with a map that would likely have given Democrats all but three congressional seats.

But that map was tossed out by a state judge and a state master revised the map to put eight seats into play.

Many Republican-controlled states have had greater success in gerrymandering congressional districts than Democratic-dominated states.

We would have liked to have seen North Hempstead Democrats set an example for everyone by allowing more discussion on the town’s new map.

But sadly they wouldn’t even wait another two weeks to vote on a plan.