COMMITTEE ON LEGISLATION
MEMBERS: Stewart-Cousins, Chair, Bronz, Oros, Abinanti,
Rogowsky, and Maisano
BOL: Ann Giordano, Steve Bass
GUESTS: (CEO), William Randolph (CEO) Liz Salvi (Law), Andrew Neuman (CEO), Brendan McGrath(law), Rocco Pozzi (Probation), Karen Pasquale(CEO), Kevin Mahon (DSS), Rosemary McLaughlin (LWV),
Chairwoman Stewart-Cousins opened the meeting at 11:46 a.m. and invited Commissioner Pozzi and Jaquelin Levin to discuss items the Department of Probation had submitted for inclusion in the State Legislative Package.
Commissioner Pozzi began with the request to Require State Parole violators to be immediately placed in state custody. Parole violators, by state law, are arrested and placed in county jails awaiting processing which takes between 60 – 90 days. Housing the prisoners is costly and state facilities are no longer overcrowded. Pozzi also spoke about requiring probationers to pay a fee to help offset the cost of their supervision. Finally, the department is requesting that members of the retirement system who have been unable to work for at least 5 years be designated “permanently disabled.” Currently the State Comptroller makes the determination.
Following Commissioner Pozzi was Commissioner Kevin Mahon and his deputy, Steve Rierdon, of the Department of Social Services. The Commissioner introduced recommendations he felt would save state and county money while serving the public.
Some of the proposals were:
Allow people to opt out of managed care by paying a nominal fee for health care options.
Changing eligibility for Family Health Plus.
Cease the six-month guarantee for managed care and stop paying for coverage when coverage stops
Chair Stewart-Cousins thanked the commissioners for their presentation and promised to seriously consider the inclusion of their recommendations in the State Legislative Package.
The committee then discussed the package contents and having a “Mandate Section” broken out of the package. Karen Pasquale and Steve Bass will work on the list for the following meeting.
Also the committee discussed other possible package categories such as:
State Wide
Westchester Only
Mandates
At this point the Chair invited Rosemary McLaughlin of the League of Women Voters to discuss her groups recommendations for inclusion in the package.
The league recommendations included Lobby Law Reform, Election Reform, Revaluation, and Indian Point among others (see record on file).
The Chair promised consideration of suggested items and the league for their ongoing interest in the legislative process.
In conclusion, with almost 50 items under consideration, Steve Bass suggested that legislators go to caucus and possibly make some cuts before we meet the next time.
Motion to adjourn by Maisano and Abinanti