Joint Infrastructure, Budget & Public Safety Committee Meeting - April 27, 2026
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Joint Infrastructure & Housing, Budget & Appropriations, and Public Safety & Veterans Committee Meeting - April 27, 2026
The Infrastructure & Housing Committee (Chair Shanae Williams) met jointly with the Budget & Appropriations and Public Safety & Veterans committees on Monday, April 27, 2026, at the Michaelian Office Building in White Plains. The meeting was called to order at 10:09 AM (B&A) and 10:23 AM (I&H and PS&V). The committees considered a correctional facility chiller replacement, a corporate hangar lease at Westchester County Airport, a water district pumping station project, a grant agreement, and year-end budget transfers. All items were approved unanimously with five votes in favor and one absence (Legislator Pierce). The meeting adjourned at 11:30 AM.
Consent Calendar
- Minutes Approval: The minutes of the April 13, 2026 meeting were approved on a motion by Legislator Woodson-Samuels, seconded by Legislator Nambiar. The motion carried unanimously.
Discussion Items
Easement for Propel NY Transmission Lines (Item 2026-187) – Taken Out of Order
- Peter Tartaglia (Parks Commissioner), David Vitale (Deputy County Attorney), and Rob Bokane (Park Planning) presented a request for permanent and temporary easements on county parkland (Bronx River Reservation, approx. 44,000 sq ft or one acre) to allow Propel New York/New York Power Authority to install underground clean energy transmission lines. The county will receive approximately $950,000 in consideration ($94,000 temporary, $855,000 permanent), with funds not anticipated in the 2026 budget. Legislator Williams Johnson noted the project is part of a larger regional grid upgrade, including underwater segments. Questions about communication with local municipalities were addressed, with assurance that the company is coordinating directly. The item was approved unanimously.
Correctional Facility Chiller Replacement (Items 2026-195/196)
- Hernane De Almeida (DPW Deputy Commissioner) and Warden Karl Vollmer (DOC) presented a capital budget amendment and bond act for $3,540,000 to replace chiller CH3 at the county jail. The 26-year-old chiller failed suddenly during start-up; the replacement will include a variable frequency drive for energy efficiency. A temporary rental chiller is needed for the cooling season at an estimated cost of ~$750,000 (including installation/demobilization). Construction will take about eight months; design is complete. The other two chillers will be replaced in future capital projects (likely 2028–2029). Questions confirmed the rental is essential, as two chillers cannot meet peak summer demand. The items were approved unanimously by all three committees.
Justice Assistance Grant (Item 2026-188)
- Chief James Luciano (Public Safety) presented a $30,506.25 federal JAG grant for the Sheriff's Department to purchase a drone command-and-control workstation for the Real-Time Crime Center. The grant is based on crime statistics; Mount Vernon and Yonkers receive the bulk. The vote was unanimous.
Citigroup Hangar Lease at Westchester County Airport (Items 2026-191/192)
- April Gasparri (Aviation Director), Francisco Tejada (Airport Manager), and Brian Miller (Law Department) presented a public hearing resolution and local law authorizing a 15-year lease (with two 5-year options) for Hangar E – Bay 2 with Citigroup. The tenant has occupied one-third of the hangar since 2001; the current lease expires May 31, 2026. Key terms: no county capital cost-sharing; annual escalation at the greater of 3% or 5%; $40 per square foot rate based on fair market value; total projected revenue over the term is approximately $22 million. Citigroup supports voluntary flight restrictions and hosts events. The county retains rights for antenna equipment. Questions addressed brownfield cleanup obligations (Article 19), the template for future leases, and the desire to require county radio group access on all properties. The items were approved unanimously.
Water District No. 3 – Eastview Pumping Station (Items 2026-182, 190, 179, 180, 181, 178, 183)
- Louis Vetrone (First Deputy Commissioner, DEF), Jazmin Logan (Environmental Project Director), and Robert Zambardino presented a package of seven items authorizing the $40,000,000 Capital Project WD305. The project constructs a new pumping station and transmission main to provide a permanent primary and backup water supply for Water District No. 3 (including the hospital and jail) by accessing UV-treated water from the Catskill-Delaware UV facility. Design is 90% complete (already spent $2.4 million). The initial estimate was $30 million; scope changes (e.g., horizontal directional drilling to protect wetlands) increased costs to $40 million. An environmental resolution found no significant impact. Items include state comptroller approvals and a bond act. Legislator Nambiar questioned the 40% cost increase and the process for managing scope changes; staff explained that the original estimate was made before detailed design, and the increase reflects necessary adjustments. All items were approved unanimously.
Year-End Budget Transfers (Items 2026-184, 185, 186)
- Larry Sopher (Budget Director) presented three items to close out FY2025: (184) an act authorizing $41.9 million in transfers across departments (including $15.6 million for Medicaid disproportionate share, $11.6 million for self-insured health insurance, and special education tuition increases); (185) a resolution for $21.8 million in transfers within departments; and (186) a related resolution. Key variances: Board of Elections had significant savings; Parks & Rec required $3.6 million in additional hourly wages due to operating Playland. The county expects to break even for 2025. All items were approved unanimously.
Key Outcomes
- All 14 items (easement, chiller replacement, JAG grant, airport lease, water district package, and three budget transfer items) were approved unanimously by the respective committees. Each motion was made by Legislator Woodson-Samuels, seconded by Legislator Nambiar, and carried with ayes from Legislators Williams, Holstein, Nambiar, Woodson-Samuels, and Gashi. Legislator Pierce was absent. The meetings were adjourned at 11:18 AM (I&H) and 11:30 AM (B&A).
Meeting Transcript
This meeting is being recorded and summarized. All right, take two. Good morning, everyone. Legislative Woodson Samuels here, and this is the budget and appropriations committee. It's April 27th. And I'll start us off with the roll fall vote. I am present. Majority Leader Holski. Present. Definitely the Nambiar. Here, let's say the Pierce, Dimity Vice Chair Tubiolo, Majority Williams. Presence. Legislator Williams Johnson. Chairman Gosh. All right. We are open at 1009 a.m. And we're going to take an item out of order. I'm going to start out with the last item, which is actually item 187. 2026-187. Join us at the table. And just for the record. And uh you want us to move it around. That's why I'm going to just for the record. This is uh items 226-187, an act authorizing County of Leicester to grant permanent and temporary easements in YPA and Transville LLC. Gentlemen, thank you for joining us this morning. Please introduce yourselves to the record and let's dive into the item. Sure. Good morning, everybody. Happy Monday. Peter Truxagraf for a company commissioner County Parks. Good morning, David Vital, Deputy County Attorney. Good morning, Rob Bokane, Director of Park Planning, Parks Recreational Conservation. Thank you for being here. Okay, I'll start and then you can continue. Um actually Parks has really a part of this. This is uh this is Transmission Lines through New York Transco and New York Power Authority. Um very you know long distance energy lines that they are uh they are putting in known better as different programming sorry. Uh Propel New York, yeah, Propel New York. And basically um they're a forward thinking group. I'm sure you've heard about that before. We were doing some other things that are traversing some of the park parkland um about putting a clean high energy um transmission lines as well as substitutions and so forth underground, a lot of things go under the ground, some of them actually go into the water. This particular one um is on municipal property. There's a small section uh that's on the Bronx River reservation. It's about 44,000 square feet or approximately one acre, and it's in the uh sort of Bronxville, Tuckahoe area down Tuckahoe Road where they will need to go underground uh to to place some of these lines. So it's really a two-part, uh, it's a temporary easement, uh, which you know is for storage of vehicles, equipment, materials, and actually performing the work, and then of course the permanent easement for being able to service those lines throughout. Uh it will be minimal disruption to us as county parks. Um, you know, we are we have much much much larger of our own projects um that you know you know cause some closures. This is probably not gonna cause closures, it might be you know some detouring, but it's a very small area if you know Tuckahoe Road area where it's splits and goes it's it's in that area. So the parks department um you have to come to the parks department uh for these types of easements, and we are obviously very much in favor of it. We're also working on you know something larger and similar on Caprole Point part, which you've seen, and this is to really help us all in the future um to have cleaner energy and a lot of what we're trying to do in all our infrastructure is look at the different types of energy sources and what we can change them to when we do have our own capital projects.
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