Joint Legislation and Public Safety & Veterans Committee Meeting - May 26, 2026
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Joint Legislation and Public Safety & Veterans Committee Meeting - May 26, 2026
Note on date discrepancy: The agenda, minutes, and transcript list the meeting date as Monday, May 18, 2026, but the instruction for this summary specifies the date as May 26, 2026. This summary uses the instructed date.
The joint meeting of the Westchester County Board of Legislators’ Legislation and Public Safety & Veterans Committees was called to order at 2:08 PM. The committees considered two main items: a resolution requesting state legislation to remove a unique gubernatorial sign-off requirement for civil service classification changes in Westchester, and a local law repealing the County Attorney’s authorization to prosecute violations of probation.
Discussion Items
1. Resolution 2026-257 – Requesting State Legislation on Civil Service Classification Changes
Steve Bass, Director of Intergovernmental Relations for the County Executive, and Gina Pickenich, Acting Commissioner of Human Resources, presented the resolution. They explained that Westchester County is the only municipality in New York State that requires the governor’s signature on civil service classification changes (e.g., changing a position from competitive to non-competitive). All other jurisdictions require only New York State Civil Service Commission approval. This extra step causes extraordinary delays—268 titles approved by the commission have not yet been signed by the governor, some dating back to 2024. The resolution requests that the state legislature adopt legislation removing this requirement. Legislators expressed support, noting similar historical precedents where Westchester was singled out (e.g., bond referendum requirements). The resolution passed unanimously in the Legislation committee.
2. Items 2026-25 and 2026-26 – Repealing County Attorney Authorization for Violation of Probation (VOP) Prosecution
Justin Adin from the Law Department explained that the authorization, enacted in the early 2000s, had not been used for nearly 20 years until 2025, when conflicts arose from the new District Attorney’s prior role as a judge. The County Attorney’s office lacks the expertise and capacity to handle these quasi-criminal cases, which can involve appearances in county and local courts with unpredictable scheduling. Adin proposed two amendments to the local law: (1) delay the effective date for active cases—adding language that the law shall take effect immediately “except that it shall not apply to violations of probation for which the County Attorney's Office has an active appearance as of the date of this enactment”; and (2) change the pronoun “he” to “they” in Section 1 to be gender-neutral. Legislators discussed whether the District Attorney and Probation Commissioner should be present; Chair Gashi confirmed they had been consulted and that the law does not affect the District Attorney’s authority. Legislator Nolan asked about potential increased workload for the DA’s office; Adin noted that conflict cases already go to special prosecutors. Both amendments were approved unanimously in both committees. The items as amended were then voted on and passed.
Key Outcomes
- Resolution 2026-257 was passed by the Legislation committee and referred to the full Board of Legislators. Vote: All present members voted aye (Legislators: Vice Chair Emma Mora, Barr, Nolan (without prejudice), Pujo, Uli, and Chairman Gashi).
- Local Law Intro 2026-26 and the companion public hearing resolution (2026-25) were both approved as amended by both committees and referred to the Board of Legislators. In the Public Safety & Veterans committee, Legislator Tubiolo voted without prejudice; Legislators Smith and Gashi voted aye. The public hearing is set for June 15, 2026 at 7:30 PM.
- The meeting adjourned at 2:40 PM.
Meeting Transcript
No, because it's a branch. I was going to say you want to ask anyway. This meeting is being recorded and summarized. Good afternoon, everyone. And uh welcome for our um one o'clock meeting. One o'clock some o'clock. Not quite one o'clock. Um this is our meeting of uh legislation Monday, May 18th, and I am going to call our meeting to order. I am here, uh committee vice chair Emma Mora. Yeah. Board Vice Chair Clemens. Minority Leader Cunzio. Legislative Barr. Here. Legislator Nolan. Yeah. Legislator Pujo. Here. Legislator Uli. Here. And Chairman Gashi. Here. Okay. So we are now, we have started at 2 08 p.m. And I uh apologize for the delay and thanks to our guests for your uh patience. And um we're gonna take things slightly out of order. Um I will recognize the chairman he has a motion. Yeah, uh Chairman, I uh request that we uh consider the uh resolution 2026 uh-257, which I believe is going to distributed um yeah, formal consideration formal and immediate consideration. Okay. And do we have to uh discuss and then vote? Does it do there need to be a vote to consider it, or do we just start okay? So then uh Mr. You wouldn't mind putting your appearance on the record or whoever's going to um walk us through this. My name is Steve Bass. I'm Director of Intergovernmental Relations for the Westchester County Executive. And Gina Pickenich, Acting Commissioner of Human Resources. Welcome everybody. So whoever wants to take it away. Um I'll start. Uh and then I'll let either Justin or Gina Bill. Um so this issue came to our attention where Westchester County um if they needed a status change to a civil service position. Not only did they have to get approval from the New York State Civil Service Commission, but they needed uh the governor to sign off those changes. We also found out we're the we have not found, I should say, any other municipality that is required to do this. So very often um situations where local municipalities do this, it just takes a couple of weeks. In our instances, it um takes much longer, sometimes months. Um once the county executive heard about this, he was um put to us we should not be treated differently, and we need to make the change so we can help move our processes along. And so we started working with our state delegation recently on this, and the request came from the Senate that the board of legislators pass a resolution requesting that um the state legislature adopt uh such legislation, and uh then we'll get a bill number of the Senate and the assembly, and we'll submit a homework resolution for you all to consider. All right. Sounds uh straightforward enough. Did uh does anyone want to add anything to that?
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