JOINT COMMITTEE ON LEGISLATION/

MINORITY AFFAIRS and HOUSING

MINUTES: - June 18, 2001

 

 

LEGISLATION

MEMBERS:                 Stewart-Cousins, Chair, Abinanti, Mosiello, Bronz, Ryan, Oros, and Maisano

 

MEMBERS

MINORITY AFFAIRS:Young, Bronz

 

BOL:                             Bass, Giordano, Carsky, Spreckman,                                  Chang, Wishnie

 

GUESTS:                     Martin McGlynn (CountyPolice), Stacey Dolgin Kmetz (Co. Atty.), Bill Randolph (CEO), Liz Salvi (Law Dept.), David Spector (Law Dept.), William Rehm (CountyPolice), Marc Fenichel (CEO), Sue Gerry (Law Dept.), Robin Schlaff (CEO),  

 

 

The Chair, Andrea-Stewart Cousins called the meeting to order at 1:45 p.m.  Legislator Young opened for the Minority Affairs Committee.

 

Representatives from the CountyAttorney’s office presented the changes that were made since the last Legislation Meeting.  It was agreed that the Committee Report was fine and expressed the appropriate tone regarding discrimination as well as the reassurance that racial profiling is not, currently, a Westchester County Police problem.  There were some questions, however, regarding where the actual legislation.  Specifically, the differences between race and color were clarified and the difficulty of telling one based on the other.  In contrast, it was stated that gender and age would be found on the driver’s license.   A lengthy discussion with county police representatives about traffic stops, the data currently gathered, as well as the nature of stops helped refine the legislation. 

 

COMMITTEE ON LEGISLATION

MINUTES - JUNE 18, 2001

PAGE 2

 

 

The committee also struggled with what would be the pertinent information to capture.  How much would be enough to determine, from data collection, if profiling occurred.  It was agreed that race, color, or ethnicity must be provided in the report although, no questions would be asked regarding these categories to the driver. 

 

Defining each in an accurate and collectible manner also resulted in discussion.  All agreed that our legislation could serve as a model for other municipalities and that, we should make sure that we carefully and fully capture the intent of the law the first time, to avoid rewriting the law in the future.

 

Much discussion took place on differences of interpreting ethnicity, how the law is to be phrased, and the importance of collecting the right information based on visual information. 

 

The CountyAttorney’s department will make the changes in the Racial Profiling Legislation and return with the changes.

Legislator Young, adjourned the meeting for Minority Affairs, Bronz seconded the motion.

 

Mosiello made a motion to adjourn the Meeting on Legislation and Abinanti seconded it. 

 

The Chair, adjourned the Meeting on Legislation at 3:22 pm.