OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Social Services, Disabilities & Human Rights Committee Meeting - June 2, 2026

Board of Legislators & Committees — Tuesday, June 2, 2026
BodyWestchester County, New York
SessionBoard of Legislators & Committees
DateTuesday, June 2, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
Meeting Thumbnail
⇩ GET FROM SOURCE

STREAMING COPY IN PREPARATION — RECORDING AVAILABLE FROM THE ORIGINAL SOURCE

Transcript — Verbatim
0:00

So do you see that?

0:01

I'll send it to you right now.

0:05

I'm fine, you guys could start, but I'm gonna join from another device before I hop off this.

0:09

Okay, thank you.

0:10

No problem.

0:11

All right.

0:11

And we're gonna go now.

0:14

This meeting is being recorded and summarized.

0:20

Okay.

0:21

Thank you.

0:23

All right, good morning.

0:25

This is the Committee on Social Services, Disability, and Human Rights.

0:29

I'm the NC Bar, I chair the committee.

0:32

And uh we are going to take attendance here.

0:37

How about our vice chairwoman?

0:40

Williams Johnson.

0:44

And legislator in Mamora.

0:46

Yeah.

0:46

Legislator.

0:47

Who Jeff?

0:49

Here.

0:50

Excellent legislator Williams.

0:53

Excellent.

0:54

And Sher Gashi.

0:56

Alrighty.

0:57

So we are ready to begin at another clock in here at the end.

1:02

1104.

1:03

Okay.

1:06

And today we have two interns joining us.

1:09

We have Reese Postach, who's one of my interns.

1:13

And we have Zach.

1:17

Who doesn't want to say his last name on camera?

1:20

Okay.

1:20

We're anonymous in the one of David Remember.

1:26

All right.

1:26

And we are very pleased to have with us the uh director of the Office of People with Disabilities, Karen Horowitz.

1:34

Um, and we're going to hear about all the things that your office is up to these days and what we can do to help.

1:43

Thank you.

1:44

Am I on or do you have other business first?

1:47

No, you are on.

1:48

I do not have other business.

1:49

And uh I send uh Jeff Satoshi's uh apologies.

1:54

He's our program administrator and he is ill today.

1:56

He's downstairs with his mask on and I'm closed doors, so to keep everyone else from getting sick.

2:02

But he shared all his notes with me as well, so I'll share on behalf of both of us.

2:06

Um thank you again for having me.

2:09

Um it is now my I've entered my eighth month on the job.

2:14

Yeah.

2:14

Um so it has been great to really see from this perspective from this seat uh how things are operating.

2:23

Uh I was chair of the advisory council on people with disabilities for about four and a half years prior.

2:29

So um I was already kind of familiar, but now sort of diving in.

2:33

We've also had unfortunately one of our staff members was out uh from mid-February to just yesterday.

2:40

She returned.

2:42

So I have I dove right into her work, which I'll talk a little bit about as well, which has been really really helpful in um really understanding the ins and outs of her program as well.

2:53

So it's actually been really really helpful.

2:56

So I'll start with just the general uh for those who aren't maybe not as familiar.

3:01

So our office, uh, we're a small office, we're a team of six full-time staff members.

3:07

We do have a part-time person from uh who's funded through transportation who handles paratransit ticket sales, um, who is housed in our office.

3:16

So I don't like to say we're six and a half because she's a key member of the team, but we're six full-timers, and then we have another uh staff member with us helping out.

3:26

Um we previously covered paratransit completely for a number of years, uh and a few years ago that moved over back to transportation where it originally was.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Disability Rights█████████████████████████████████████████████54%
Public Engagement███████8%
Youth Programs███████8%
Procedural████5%
Community Engagement████5%
Education And Training████5%
Workforce Development████5%
Engineering And Infrastructure███4%
Affordable Housing███3%
Summary of Proceedings

Social Services, Disabilities & Human Rights Committee Meeting - June 2, 2026

The Westchester County Legislature's Committee on Social Services, Disabilities & Human Rights met on Tuesday, June 2, 2026, at the Michaelian Office Building in White Plains, NY, with Legislator Jenn Puja participating remotely. The committee heard a detailed presentation from the Westchester County Office for People with Disabilities (OPD), discussed its programs and staffing, approved the April 14, 2026 minutes, and adjourned at 12:00 PM.

Office for People with Disabilities: Overview and Initiatives

Director Carin Horowitz (LMSW) presented on behalf of the office; Program Administrator Jeff Zitofsky was absent due to illness. Key points included:

  • Staffing: The office has six full-time staff plus a part-time paratransit ticket sales worker.
  • Paratransit processing: The office reviews approximately 125 new paratransit applications and 90 recertifications per month. It receives about 2,500 calls monthly, of which roughly 500 are non-paratransit.
  • Core focus: OPD emphasizes information, referral, advocacy, and community outreach, collaborating with county departments such as senior programs, the Human Rights Commission, the Department of Social Services, and the Department of Community Mental Health.
  • ADA contacts: OPD is assessing the knowledge and training needs of department ADA contacts and providing guidance.
  • Preventive calls: Recent examples include advising a property manager on emotional support animal laws and an architect on accessible design.
  • College outreach: A January meeting with local colleges drew five institutions (Mercy, Purchase, WCC, Manhattanville, and Iona); follow-on trainings are planned.
  • Site visits: OPD conducted about six accessibility site visits in the past 7.5 months, measuring door widths, parking, and other physical access features.
  • Partnership for Inclusive Internships (PII): A new three-year grant-funded program with ARC Westchester and AHRC NYC, modelled on the Access VR system, will provide paid 320-hour internships in county departments. Plans call for 5 interns in year one, 8 in year two, and 12 in year three. The cost is approximately $20,000–$25,000 per intern (speaker was uncertain). The first intern is expected to start no later than November 1, 2026.
  • School programs: Disability awareness presentations reached 8 schools and over 500 students; the "Beat Plus" transportation/independence series served 5 schools and about 45 students.
  • Communications: OPD publishes a monthly "Out and About" newsletter (3,000–4,000 subscribers) and maintains an online Disability Resource Guide.
  • Staffing transition: One staff member is leaving; OPD expects to rebalance from 3.5 FTE on paratransit and 2.5 on information/advocacy to 3 and 3, and is interviewing for an intern.
  • Upcoming events: The annual Day at Playland and ADA anniversary celebration will be held July 15, 2026; a fall event is planned for National Disability Employment Awareness Month.

Key Outcomes

  • The committee unanimously approved the minutes of April 14, 2026. Note: The agenda listed additional minutes from March 10 (two meetings) and March 30, but these were not presented; the chair indicated they had not been provided.
  • Committee members expressed strong support for OPD's work, particularly the school and internship programs.
  • The committee adjourned at 12:00 PM.

Meeting Transcript

So do you see that? I'll send it to you right now. I'm fine, you guys could start, but I'm gonna join from another device before I hop off this. Okay, thank you. No problem. All right. And we're gonna go now. This meeting is being recorded and summarized. Okay. Thank you. All right, good morning. This is the Committee on Social Services, Disability, and Human Rights. I'm the NC Bar, I chair the committee. And uh we are going to take attendance here. How about our vice chairwoman? Williams Johnson. And legislator in Mamora. Yeah. Legislator. Who Jeff? Here. Excellent legislator Williams. Excellent. And Sher Gashi. Alrighty. So we are ready to begin at another clock in here at the end. 1104. Okay. And today we have two interns joining us. We have Reese Postach, who's one of my interns. And we have Zach. Who doesn't want to say his last name on camera? Okay. We're anonymous in the one of David Remember. All right. And we are very pleased to have with us the uh director of the Office of People with Disabilities, Karen Horowitz. Um, and we're going to hear about all the things that your office is up to these days and what we can do to help. Thank you. Am I on or do you have other business first? No, you are on. I do not have other business. And uh I send uh Jeff Satoshi's uh apologies. He's our program administrator and he is ill today. He's downstairs with his mask on and I'm closed doors, so to keep everyone else from getting sick. But he shared all his notes with me as well, so I'll share on behalf of both of us. Um thank you again for having me. Um it is now my I've entered my eighth month on the job. Yeah. Um so it has been great to really see from this perspective from this seat uh how things are operating. Uh I was chair of the advisory council on people with disabilities for about four and a half years prior.

SUMMARIZED BY OPENPUBLICA AI
TRANSCRIPT VIA PUBLIC VIDEO
openpublica.com