January 6, 2006

2005 Board of Legislators Retrospective

Getting Westchester Medical Center back on its feet after its near fiscal collapse dominated the attention of the County Board of Legislators in 2005, according to its Chair, Bill Ryan (D-I-WF, White Plains). “Strengthening and stabilizing the medical center’s finances were the legislature’s chief concerns this past year,” said Ryan. “Our work kept the medical center open and protected county taxpayers from getting socked with a $20 million annual bill to pay off more than a quarter of a billion dollars in debt.”

Ryan noted that “Westchester was the only government to step forward and help the medical center,” despite the fact that the Valhalla-based facility “serves 3.5 million people, including the indigent, from the region’s seven counties.”

“Community hospitals refer their most difficult, complex cases there,” Ryan continued. “ In addition to its role as health care provider, the medical center employs over 3,000 people with a payroll of over
$260 million. It’s a $1.1 billion economic engine for the region. Its closure is not an option and that’s how the County Board approached the crisis.”

Ryan indicated that his service on the Financial Improvement Committee, the group that worked closely with the new management team developing the multi-year turnaround plan for the medical center, gave him and his fellow legislators current, accurate information and an opportunity to provide critical input. The legislature’s Budget & Appropriations Committee also spent a significant amount of time over the course of the last year analyzing the medical center’s cash and capital needs, demanding answers and regular progress reports from hospital management.

“We devoted considerable time and energy figuring out how we could provide for the medical center’s month-to-month cash needs and its longer term capital needs,” Ryan explained. “It didn’t have the money to remain open and it didn’t have the funds to acquire certain state-of-the-art medical equipment needed to stay competitive. It was behind on introducing technology to make its business operation more economical and efficient. The county prioritized where to put real dollars to make important improvements. There’s still a lot of work to do but it’s encouraging to see improved numbers in the monthly reports and a 2006 hospital budget that projects a reduction in government support.”

Ryan pointed to several key initiatives that were instrumental in bringing the hospital back from the brink of fiscal collapse. These included:

• Providing short term credit to cover cash flow shortages;
• Developing a flexible capital plan that enables the county to bond up to $10 million per year to respond to the medical center’s capital needs on a timely basis;
• Authorizing $2 million to purchase an up-to-date computerized system to manage human resources and payroll, allowing for accurate record-keeping and a projected annual savings of $7.3 million;
• Refinancing the county’s tobacco bonds, raising $57 million at no cost to taxpayers, to defray operational expenses in 2005 and 2006;
• Screening, interviewing and appointing strong candidates to the medical center’s board who could provide top-level financial and business expertise.

In the upcoming year, Ryan said that he’d continue to work closely with the county’s state delegation to come up with a package of initiatives that would provide recurring revenue to the hospital to further strengthen its finances. He also intends to meet with legislative leaders in the six other counties the hospital serves to discuss new contributions by them to hospital revenue.

Work on the 2006 Budget

Dominating legislators’ time in November and December was their work analyzing, adjusting and approving the 2006 budget as proposed by the County Executive. The proposed budget contained a 4.5% property tax increase. The Board managed to cut that back to 3.9%. This reduction saved county taxpayers $3 million. Of the 3.9%, 9/10 of a percent was for general government support and 3% for new hospital assistance.

“Legislators pored over every aspect of the budget to cut costs that would bring that tax increase down,” said Ryan. “Our work involved an exhaustive review of each department’s budget, a process that took hours every day for six weeks and daily negotiations with the County Executive’s office.”

“Our goal was a 0% increase for government operations,” Ryan said. “In the end, we did approve a minimal increase of less than 1% to ensure no loss in services.”

OVERVIEW OF THE COUNTY BOARD’S WORK IN SELECTED AREAS

During 2005, the County Board spent substantial time working in committee assessing and allocating resources to meet the ever-increasing needs, challenges and issues facing Westchester’s residents. The following describes how the Board dealt with some of the biggest and most pressing areas of concern.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Market forces and demographic shifts have contributed to a continuing increase in the need for affordable housing. Below is a status report of projects that the Board worked on in committee and funded.

Completed: 142 units

Yonkers	Hover Road	10 units
Mt. Vernon	Canterbury Commons, 259 S. Columbus Ave	20 units
City of Rye	Cottage Street Town homes	9 units
New Rochelle	Rockwell Terrace, 120-129 Lockwood Ave	73 units
Bedford	8 Anderson Road	2 units
Peekskill	Fremont Street	20 units
Greenburgh	Oak & Manhattan Sts.	8 units

Under Construction: 405 units

Mt. Vernon	Grace Plaza S. 5th Ave	83 units
Cortlandt	Jacob’s Hill Village East Main Street	103 units
White Plains	Kensico Terrace 24 S. Kensico	42 units
New Rochelle	West End 2000 1st Street & Union Ave.	127 units
Mt. Vernon	South 4th Ave 125 South 4th Ave	9 units
Mt. Vernon	South 4th Ave 131 S. 4th Ave	11 units
Village of Mamaroneck	726 Old White Plains Rd	10 units
New Castle	39 Mill River Road	3 units
White Plains	Lakeview Homes Lake Street	17 units

Approved: 70 units

Village of Hastings	Division Street 422 Warburton Ave	14 units
Yonkers	Sprain Lakes Estates E. Grassy Sprain Road	17 units
Yonkers	Waverly Street 217-227 S. Waverly Street	29 units
Peekskill	Art Lofts 974 Main Street	4 units
Greenburgh	Warren Ave. Homes Warren Avenue	6 units

In addition, the Chair and the County Executive, working with the county’s Planning Department, have proposed a new state-of-the-art affordable housing complex for senior citizens to be built in the heart of downtown White Plains. The proposal calls for construction of a 15-story complex with approximately 200 one-and two-bedroom apartment units. It is anticipated that the housing will be completed in about two years, with occupancy of the apartments slated for sometime in 2008.

NON-PROFITS RECEIVE ADDITIONAL COUNTY SUPPORT

The county’s non-profit agencies and organizations offer a broad spectrum of services that contribute to the quality of life for all county residents. Their services range from day care, to cultural programs and the arts, libraries and museums to social programs that help house the homeless, assist victims of domestic violence or provide free legal services, to name a few.

This past year, county legislators interviewed representatives from more than 50 non-profits to determine the financial assistance each agency needed to maintain its delivery of services to county residents. After this review, the County Board determined that it would increase funding to most of the non-profits to reinvigorate some programs previously cut back and establish programs to meet new or unmet needs.

Of special note is the work of three organizations, Legal Services of the Hudson Valley, My Sister’s Place and Westchester Hispanic Coalition. At the Board’s suggestion and with its assistance, these groups joined forces to advocate for county support to establish a new legal services office in Mt. Vernon to handle the civil legal needs of the county’s poor and low-income residents. Ultimately, the County Board approved $500,000 to fund the project.

ENVIRONMENT

The County Board continued its aggressive policy of protecting the county’s pastoral character and natural resources. Toward that end, the Board:

• Authorized the transfer of $7.5 million in East of Hudson funds to be used by Westchester communities for water quality improvement projects in the Croton and Kensico watershed;
• Finalized the acquisition of the 654-acre Eagle River property in Somers to be preserved as open space; and,
• Determined that the county will preserve northern area farms and committed $1 million for that purpose.

THE WELFARE OF CHILDREN IN THE CARE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES

After a grand jury report called into question some of its practices and protocols, the Department of Social Services requested that the Child Welfare League, the nation's oldest and largest membership-based child welfare organization, assess its performance in all of its areas of responsibility. While the League gave DSS an overall positive rating in its April 2005 report, the group recommended some changes to a few department procedures.

The Board’s Committee on Families was in the process of overseeing the progress of DSS’ implementation of those recommendations when the deaths of two children, in the care of the department’s Child Protective Services unit in Yonkers, occurred. This prompted the Families Committee to broaden the scope of its review to probe the circumstances surrounding these deaths. The committee spent considerable time in discussions and meetings with the Commissioner of DSS and senior staff as well as child advocates in contact with DSS to determine if the Yonkers incident was evidence of a systemic department-wide problem in the Child Protective Services unit. As a follow-up to this investigation, the Board has approved $200,000 in the 2006 budget to specifically assess the adequacy of DSS’ child welfare case management practices and protocols.

PUBLIC SAFETY

Westchester is now better prepared to take on a regional emergency

The Board’s Committee on Public Safety capped more than two years of outreach and extensive negotiations by forming the county’s first Special Operations Task Force. This required countywide coordination to identify and enlist career and volunteer firefighters and emergency service personnel to form regional teams capable of responding quickly to extraordinary disasters that are beyond the response capacity of local departments. The teams will provide special services such as trench or rope rescues and hazardous materials clean-up. They will also have the expertise to deal with chemical, biological or radiological agents of mass destruction.

Better training facilities for law enforcement personnel

After studying various proposals, the Board approved the construction of a $7 million indoor firing range/classroom facility that will enable the county’s 1,600 armed personnel in its police, probation, correction and investigation forces to comply with state mandated annual firearms training and certification. In addition, the facility will be available to local municipalities’ law enforcement personnel for ongoing training and certification.

PUBLIC WORKS

In 2005, out of 174 pending public works projects requiring bonds, the Board worked on and authorized 88. Examples of major outlays include:

• Over $15 million toward infrastructure and maintenance improvements to several of the county’s 13 sewer and 4 water districts. In addition, over $6 million was approved for nutrient removal;
• $2.5 million toward the purchase of a new helicopter for the county’s Public Safety Department;
• Approximately $23 million to maintain the county’s 179 miles of roadway and 186 bridges. Of this total, almost $11 million went to repaving the roadway and fixing the bridges of the Bronx River Parkway;
• $5.3 million to install more secure locking systems in the county’s correctional complex; and,
• $2.3 million for infrastructure improvements to the county’s shelter facilities in White Plains and Mt. Vernon.

Moving forward on the County Courthouse

The Board authorized the county’s Department of Public Works to take over the management of Phase III of the courthouse refurbishment. This entails an interior rehabilitation of the tower at a projected cost of $34 million. Chair Bill Ryan and the Board of Acquisition & Contract approved Phase III construction to commence in May 2005. Construction is well underway and due to be completed in 2007. It is currently running under budget.

In 2004, it became necessary to wrest control of the project from the NYS Dormitory Authority, after years of problems and $51 million in construction cost overruns. Asserting that county taxpayers should not be responsible for these overruns, Board Chair Bill Ryan asked his fellow legislators to approve mediation results that trimmed renovations by $17 million and ordered additional state aid of $9 million and a $4 million contribution by the Dormitory Authority. In addition, the state was deemed responsible for any claims arising out of Phase I and II of the project. To date, this mediation package has resulted in more than $50 million in savings to county taxpayers.

PAYING FOR CHILD CARE

The Board continued to make county-supported child care more affordable. In 2005, a Board-authorized program reduced a parent’s co-pay from 33% to 25%. After numerous meetings and continued discussions with child care advocates throughout 2005, the Board authorized a further reduction, from 25% to 20%, in 2006.

HEALTH, SAFETY AND HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES (county actions taken in the absence of or to strengthen existing state or federal law)

• The Board passed an amendment to the county’s Human Rights law that prohibits discriminatory practices by employers and landlords against victims of domestic violence, sexual abuse and stalking.
• Acting to protect Westchester residents from a rapidly-spreading drug scourge, the Board passed a law that blocks easy access to over-the-counter cold medications that contain ephedrine, one of the key ingredients used to produce crystal methamphetamine.
• Because Westchester failed to meet the US EPA’s ambient air quality standards for ozone and particulate matter, the Board’s Committee on the Environment formed the Westchester Healthy Air Task Force, a coalition of groups that included Action for Tomorrow’s Environment, American Cancer Society, American Lung Association, Citizens’ Campaign for the Environment, Environmental Defense and Federated Conservationists of Westchester, to study the health threats caused by air pollution. The Task Force detailed actions the county could take to reduce pollution and its associated health threats. In response, the Environment Committee drafted legislation, which will be acted on this term, to control diesel fuel emissions.
• After reviewing compelling evidence linking ultraviolet radiation exposure from indoor tanning to a dramatic increase in the risk of skin cancer, the Board passed legislation that makes tanning salons off limits to children, 16 and under; requires in-person, written parental consent for 16 and 17 year olds; and, requires tanning salons to post warning signs and provide educational information about the health risks of indoor tanning for the benefit of all prospective users.

RECREATION

• The Board took a substantive step forward in its effort to acquire Davids Island when it committed funds to investigate the extent of the remediation needed to make the 78-acre property off the coast of New Rochelle a county park.
• The Board determined and funded capital expenditures for Rye Playland needed to improve the historic park and to keep its rides operating safely.
• Through its Parks & Recreation Committee, the Board conducted an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of a child this past summer on one of the Rye Playland rides to ensure that safety standards were being met.

BUILDING NEW ATHLETIC FIELDS

The Board’s Parks & Recreation Committee and its Budget & Appropriations Committee, working with the administration’s Parks and Planning Departments, devoted much work time to the continued implementation of the Legacy Program, the five-year plan to build critically needed athletic fields throughout Westchester. Below is a status report on their work:

Construction completed:

• City of White Plains-Saxon Woods Park: one full size, all-weather, lighted soccer field
• Village of Port Chester- Columbus Park: one all-weather soccer field
• City of Peekskill-Louis Street: one full size, lighted baseball field

Construction Underway:

• Town of Mt. Pleasant-Virginia Road: one natural turf baseball field
• Village of Croton-Croton Point: one adult baseball/soccer field and one adult soccer field
• Village of Rye Brook- King Street: two all-weather ball fields and other improvements
• City of Yonkers-Tibbetts Brook Park North: three all-weather soccer fields with lighting

Awaiting Construction:

• Town of Lewisboro (or alternative site in NE Westchester): acquire land and construct two ball fields
• Town of Greenburgh - Ridge Road Park: design and construct “Miracle Field,” a special rubberized surface ball field for disabled children
• Rye City-Rye Ridge Park: provide assistance to construct a skateboard facility
• City of Yonkers-Tibbetts Brook Park South: construct one soccer and one baseball field; improve existing soccer field
• Town of Yorktown-Route 132: design and construct two turf ball fields