About the
Westchester County Board of Legislators

The seventeen-member Westchester County Board of Legislators is the legislative, policy-making branch of county government. It is to Westchester County what Congress is to the United States. Each legislator represents a district of approximately 50,000 residents and is elected every two years.

The County Board meets at least once a month, usually on Monday evenings in the legislative chambers located on the 8th floor of the Michaelian Office Building. All Board meetings are open to the public.

The powers of the County Board of Legislators are enumerated in Chapter 107 of the County’s charter. A key power of the Board concerns finances: appropriating funds, approving the budget and levying taxes. It also approves appointments by the County Executive and passes local laws, acts and resolutions, all requiring nine votes for passage except for bond acts that require twelve. Laws and acts are then sent to the County Executive for his signature or his disapproval. A veto by the County Executive can be overridden by a two-thirds vote of the Board.

The Board of Legislators operates under a committee system. Currently, there are currently seven committees, each of which is charged with overseeing a particular policy area. For example, if the matter involves a bond act, it will need to be reviewed and signed out by the Committee on Budget & Appropriations before the full Board can vote on it. If a public works project needs approval, the Commissioner of Public Works will present the details to the Committee on Government Operations. And so on. The Chair of the Board appoints each committee’s membership as well as its chair.

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Westchester, New York, County Board of Legislators © 2008-09
800 Michaelian Office Bldg., 148 Martine Avenue, White Plains, NY 10601

Thank you to the County's Office of Tourism http://tourism.westchestergov.com,
the Department of Planning and the Department of Parks, Recreation and Conservation for so generously sharing photos of scenes from Westchester displayed on our site.