Housing, Planning & Government Operations

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Chair: Lois Bronz

Committee Members: William Burton; Ken Jenkins; Vito Pinto; Bernice Spreckman

Staff: Barbara Dodds

Members from the business and housing communities: Marsha Gordon, Thomas McGrath, Dennis McDermott, Albert Annunziata

For the 2006-2007 Legislative Term, Chairman William Ryan has established nine committees and assigned chairs. One of the newly configured committees is the Committee on Housing, Planning and Government Operations (HPGO), with Legislator Lois Bronz appointed as Chair.

As the name might indicate, HPGO’s primary focus includes traditional topics from the former Committees on Housing and on Community Affairs, both of which Chair Bronz has headed or served on for many years. Board Chairman Ryan has also included in HPGO responsibility for the offices, departments and the administrative programs under the umbrella of the County Executive’s Office. With its broad spectrum of interests, the Committee membership includes several non-legislator business and housing leaders, and brings the considerable and diverse experience of its individual members to the various areas of responsibility.

Regular items of the committee are those issues involving housing--including policy, development, accessibility, funding, and affordability. The Planning Department will be the Committee's primary partner from the administration, providing expertise and information and advice on housing, land development, open space, and other planning issues. The Committee will keep apprised of Planning Board actions and policies and lend support when necessary.

The Committee has on its agenda the following major areas:

1. Housing
2. Planning
3. Government Operations:

• County Executive's Office
• Human Resources
• Board of Elections (particularly HAVA, voting machine choice)
• Westchester Community College
• Information Technology
• County Clerk's Office

The largest of the departments under government operations is the County Executive's Office.
Under that umbrella is included:

• Office of Consumer Affairs
• Westchester Film Board
• L.G.B.T. Community
• Taxi & Limousine Commission
• Veteran's Affairs
• Youth Bureau
• Tourism Board
• Office for Women
• Human Rights Commission
• IDA & Real Estate
• Office for Disabled
• Hispanic Affairs
• Equal Employment/Affirmative Action

Rather than oversight from a budgetary perspective, the Committee will have a programmatic interest in the activities of these departments and issues from an informational perspective and to keep board members in communication with administration areas of operation. In addition, Committee meetings serve as opportunities to share ideas between legislative and administrative branches in a public forum.

Committee agenda items are generally referred to the Committee from the Board of Legislators agenda and may include legislation proposals, news items and correspondence on issues of interest. The Committee may also initiate and explore topics of interest and advise the Board of further action required.

Some areas on the agenda will have issues that require legislative and policy action and many meetings during the year, while most will have activities and programs to present and may only meet with the committee two or three times for information purposes. Some issues may be of interest to several BOL committees in addition to HPGO. In those cases, the committees will work together.