COMMITTEE ON COMMUNITY AFFAIRS
MINUTES: May 24, 2004, 2:00 PM
IN ATTENDANCE:
COMMUNITY AFFAIRS COMMITTEE MEMBERS: Legislators Jose Alvarado, Chair, Rob Astorino, Lois Bronz Legislators: George Latimer Staff: Barbara Arrington Dodds CEO: William Randolph; Westchester Human Rights Commission: Allison Greene, Executive Director; Members: Shelly Klein, Rosemary Uzzo, Dr. George Casteanos, Barry Kramer.
ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION:
Item #9--Proposed Amendment to Human Rights Commission Law
Item #14--Kemper Memorial Park
Legislator Alvarado called the meeting to order at 2:10 PM and introduced Legislator George Latimer whose proposal is the first item for discussion.
Legislator Latimer gave the background on why the amendments to the Human Rights Commission law are being proposed. In 1998-1999 there was a long battle to create the Human Rights Commission. Before final passage in December 1999, a series of proposals were made to modify the document. Instead of reopening the whole debate for the Commission again, it was decided to pass the Human Rights Commission and then revisit individual issues and make modifications at a later time. Early in 2000 a number of smaller changes were made to the Commission. Late in 2001, Latimer submitted one of these changes that had been advocated by two commissions in his district: the Rye City Commission and the Mamaroneck /Larchmont Commission.
The law that was passed in 1999 gave the Commission jurisdiction only to communities that did not have local commissions. The result is that although he was Board Chair at the time and a strong advocate in the fight to establish the Commission, not one of Legislator Latimer’s constituents can come to this Commission for adjudication.
In trying to correct this, Latimer proposes a change in section 700.14 paragraph a.2 which would say that “except where the city, town or village commission formally requests, by appropriate conveyance, that the County Commission handle the complaint through to final disposition or adjudication. Local commissions may refer up to 5 complaints within a calendar year to the County Commission.” That means that each of the seven commissions could have up to five cases a year totaling 35.
Some legislators have suggested that the communities change their law to become a human rights committee and that would solve the problem. Latimer asked, why should the local communities have to change since the County created this problem?
Allison Greene said that members of the Commission have talked about the jurisdictional problem for the past three years. Basically we have a Westchester County and civil rights law that is brilliant but not everyone in Westchester County can take advantage of it. This situation has set up an unequal system of justice in Westchester. In 2003, Commission received 280 claims of discrimination, but 112 had to be turned away because of jurisdictional limitations.
There are seven local municipal Human Rights Commissions, two of them--Yonkers and White Plains—have executive directors and staffing, the remaining 5 do not have the same structure locally and staffing and backup. In Mt. Vernon there is nobody there and they have no option but to send the case to the state. White Plains has only one person in the office, Yonkers has three or four persons with an executive director. The office does mediation but operates under the state human rights law. Peekskill and New Rochelle have volunteer commissions that meet periodically but none of the commissions provide for a legal process with damages, legal remedies, or hearings from an administrative court judge.
Several years ago the New Rochelle City Council requested a name change so that they could send cases. The County Attorney’s opinion at that time was that if the name was changed we could take all the cases from New Rochelle. Then local politics came into play and the issue kind of died.
However, by letting the local commissions choose the 5 cases to send to the County, you open the door to possible cherry picking, Greene said. Some people may get to us; some people may be referred by their commissions and some people may be referred to the state. The County Commission has the capacity now to absorb more cases and she does not think the caseload would double or triple overnight.
Legislator Alvarado asked Greene what she would suggest instead.
Greene said the only thing she could think of was to take away the jurisdictional limitations everywhere for six months or a year on a trial basis and have it automatically sunset.
Legislator Astorino asked about what happens if a case goes to trial and how much would it cost. Greene said there are 5 administrative law judges on contract through the County system on a rotating panel. They get paid up to a maximum of $3,000 each a year or $400 per day. We also occasionally have a legal stenographer--so a case could total up to $5,000
Rosemary Uzzo suggested a pilot program could be tried for a while where Mamaroneck and Rye send their cases with a definite purpose and process to the Westchester Commission and see how it works rather than open it up completely.
Legislator Bronz said she was in favor of an amendment but would not like the county to assume complete responsibility for all the municipalities. The presence of an entity in every municipality has merit to do the educational process and promotion of human rights countywide that was intended and she is concerned that some of the municipalities with commissions are not operating substantially.
Shelly Klein said the County Commission members want to empower the people rather than to have the local commissions make the decision whether to choose to come to the local commissions or to us. Any criteria that you structure should be for commissions to use not for individuals.
Legislator Alvarado noted that we don’t want to frustrate further people who feel they have been mistreated. Likewise, we don’t want to go back and forth amending legislation.
George Casteanos said that students are now another group that was not anticipated—they might be referred to their school boards of education.
Legislator Latimer asked if think there is a willingness financially and politically to open this up to everybody. That requires some assessments behind the scenes because if it fails publicly then we are still left with the same problem. There should be a working group that should report back to this committee a couple of people from the commission, a couple of legislators we start mating and go back to legislation and hammer out something from both sides of the aisle.
Legislator Alvarado said the test is the willingness of the Commission to accept what it is we are going to do. Rob perhaps you want to participate with us as a member of the Republican caucus. Contact Barbara if you want to be a part of this working group. Yonkers should be represented in this and I will reach out to them.
I will now close this particular item.
There is an active controversial issue between the Mamaroneck School District and the Kemper/Cantor family who originally donated a parcel of land that was set aside as a WWII memorial on the grounds of Mamaroneck High School. The school board wants to change the physical location of the memorial to allow for a sports field to be created. The family is opposed and believes the land had been set aside in perpetuity. On issues like this resolution there is no county public policy and there is no action that the board of legislators can take on this. The committee voted to receive and file the item.
Meeting was adjourned.
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