The seventeen-member Westchester County Board of Legislators is the policy making branch of County government. The first members of the County Board assumed office in January of 1970 as the result of a court order mandating the establishment of seventeen legislative districts in Westchester, each with a population of approximately 50,000. Prior to 1970, the County was governed by a Board of Supervisors.

Some type of local legislature has been in existence, however, since more than a century before the American Revolution when what is now Westchester County was part of a British province called Yorkshire, which included Long Island and Staten Island.

Early in 1665, a convention of delegates from the towns in Yorkshire met at Hempstead, Long Island and adopted the Duke's Laws, a legal code which provided for town boundaries, a census, the preparation of an assessment list and several other administrative and judicial procedures.

The first step toward a formal legislative body came in 1682 when the Governor of the Province called for the election of a general assembly of freeholders with legislative powers, subject to veto by the Governor and the Duke of York. The Assembly divided the province into shires and counties, created certain courts and imposed the first general property tax. It's most important accomplishment was the enactment of the Charter of Liberties and Privileges which provided that the supreme legislative authority "under his Majesty and Royal Highness should forever be and reside in a governor, council and the people met in General Assembly."

Westchester County is one of the ten original counties created in 1683 by an act of the General Assembly. During the remainder of the British occupation, the County was not an important unit of government, except as a judicial district, and had extremely limited self-governing powers, vested in a Board of Justices, consisting of five or more justices of the peace.

In 1703, the title of supervisor was given to the office formerly known as town treasurer. When it became necessary to build county court houses and jails and transact other business for the general benefit of the towns in a particular county, the town supervisors customarily assembled for the purpose of apportioning expenses. This assemblage constituted the origin for the County Board of Supervisors, the predecessor Board to the current Board of Legislators.

Beyond apportioning expenses and auditing County accounts, the Board of Supervisors had few powers until after the Revolution when the Board of Justices was abolished and their limited powers of legislation were conferred on the Board of Supervisors. However, it wasn't until 1846, when the New York State Constitution was amended, empowering the State Legislature to confer powers of local legislation and administration on county boards, that county governments had any real authority. From that year until the State Constitution was revised in 1892, the legislative powers of the Board of Supervisors were greatly expanded.

By the turn of the century, the necessity for a modernized form of county government, embodying the principles of home rule, became increasingly apparent Westchester County, with its large population and complex municipal subdivisions was one of the principal victims of a cumbersome concentration of local legislative powers in the state body. In 1914, when the State Legislature provided for the appointment of a commission to examine the whole question of county government, the Westchester County Board of Supervisors took advantage of the opportunity by appointing the Westchester County Government Commission to formulate a county charter.

A series of commissions made various charter recommendations from 1915 to 1937, but each plan met defeat, either through veto by the governor or disapproval by the voters in County-wide referendums. The present Westchester County Charter, defining and expanding the powers and duties of the Board of Supervisors and establishing the office of County Executive, was finally approved in the 1937 general election.

By the 1960's, the population expansion of the County varied greatly, from heavily populated Yonkers in the south to more sparsely settled Northern Westchester. Because of this great disparity, the courts determined the makeup of the County Board of Supervisors did not adequately represent the distribution of the population. The Town of Greenburgh, with 83,000 people, had the same representation as North Salem, with 3,000. Greenburgh brought a suit and, in 1966, the State Supreme Court ruled that the structure of the Board of Supervisors violated the United States Supreme Court's "one-person, one vote" ruling. While an acceptable plan was being worked out, the Supervisors used a system of weighted voting. In 1969, the County was divided into seventeen districts, with each legislator having one vote on the floor of the County Board. County legislative districts must be adjusted after every federal census. Following the 1970 census, the County Board, in a unanimous and unprecedented action, reapportioned itself.

Since the members of the first Board took office in 1970, they and their successors have played a pivotal role in shaping Westchester County. As the result of authorization given by the Board, the County has made major acquisitions of parkland, including Cranberry Lake, George's Island Additions, Lasdon Bird Sanctuary, Lenoir Preserve, marshlands Conservancy, Mohansic Additions, Muscoot, Pound Ridge Addition, Silver Lake Additions, Bald Mountain (John Hand Park), Croton Gorge Addition, Deelwood Dairy (Silver Lake Addition), Hillside woods, Jay Property, Kitchawan Preserve, Lasdon Park, Merestead, North county Trailway, Paradise Island, Pocantico Lake, Putnam right-of-way, Rahko-Schwarz, Revlon (Malcolm Wilson Park), Sochurek, Stokes-Greene and Wampus Pond additions. As the result of these acquisitions, Westchester's park system is one of the finest in the Country.

The Board of Legislators also oversaw the transformation of Grasslands Hospital into the Westchester County Medical Center. With its state-of -art equipment and highly trained doctors and nurses, the Westchester County Medical Center has become one of the nation's finest tertiary care facilities.

Under the Board's stewardship, the County opened one of the Nation's first garbage-to-energy facilities at Charles Point in Peekskill. This was followed up with a Materials Recovery Facility in Yonkers which takes the materials collected through an aggressive County-wide recycling program and processes them so that they can be sold to produce revenue for the County. This provides an environmentally safe and fiscally sound mechanism for County residents to dispose of their solid waste.

Westchester Community College, which has just celebrated half a century of educational excellence, has consistently received the enthusiastic support of the members of the Board of Legislators. As a result of this support, Westchester Community College has developed into one of the most respected colleges in the SUNY system.

The Board of Legislators has continually evolved since it came into being in 1970. In the intervening years, each of the Legislators who has served on the Board has brought a different perspective to its workings and has used his or her ideas to move the Board and, consequently, the County forward. The current members of the Board face the future determined to work together to bring the people of Westchester government that is innovative, fiscally responsible and forward looking. The residents of Westchester deserve no less.

The specific powers of the Board of Legislators are enumerated in Section 107.21 of the Westchester County Charter. Among the powers delegated to the Board are the following:

• To create, organize, alter or abolish departments, commissions, boards, bureaus, offices and employments and/or transfer their functions and duties;
  
• To exercise all powers of local legislation and administration as provided for counties in Article 9 of the Constitution of the State of New York;
  
• To provide for by act for the compensation of appointive officers and employees;
  
• To fix the number of deputies, assistants, clerks and other persons to be employed in the several departments, offices and commissions of the county;
  
• To provide for the creation of offices other than those required by the constitution and laws of the state and by this act;
  
• To provide for officers hereafter created by law or for the allocation of their duties to existing officers;
  
• To provide for the assumption and discharge by county officers of such functions of cities, towns and villages and special districts as may devolve on the county by this act or by contract or by transfer or be conferred otherwise by law;
  
• To fix the amount of all bonds and approve the sureties of all county elective and appointive officers and county employees;
  
• To employ such legal, financial or other technical advisers as may be necessary from time to time, in relation to the performance of any of the functions of county government;
  
• To enact such acts and make such reasonable rules and regulations as may be necessary and proper to carry out the provisions of this act and of general law applicable to the county, and provide for the enforcement of such acts by appropriate penalties;
  
• To make appropriations, levy taxes and, except as otherwise provided by the Local Finance Law, incur indebtedness for the purpose of carrying out any of the powers and duties conferred or imposed on the county or any officer, department, board, commission or other authority thereof, by this act or otherwise by law;
  
• To investigate the official conduct and the accounts, receipts, disbursements, bills and affairs of any office or officer of the county, or of any office or officer of any special county district or other unit of county government and make such studies or investigations as it deems to be in the best interests of the county, and for such purposes may subpoena witnesses, administer oaths and require the production of books, papers and other evidence, and in case any person fails or refuses to obey any such subpoena, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and subject to such penalties as the County Board, by act, may prescribe;
  
• To determine and make provision for any matter of county government not otherwise provided for, including any matter involved in transition to the form of government provided by this act.

At the Board's organizational meeting after election, which is held the first Monday after New Year's Day, the members of the Board elect a Chairman, Vice Chairman, Clerk and Deputy Clerk. The two major political parties also select the Majority Leader and Minority Leader.

The Board operates under the committee system. There are 10 committees (Budget & Appropriations, Legislation, County Officers and Departments, Community Affairs, Public Works, Health and the Medical Center, Environment, Public Safety and Criminal Justice, Minority Affairs and Rules). The committees consider items referred by the County Executive, other Board members and members of the general public. The committees hold hearings, interview appropriate agency and department heads and debate the merits of proposals. At the conclusion of its deliberations, the committee writes a report recommending either approval or disapproval and places the report and the legislation (act, resolution or local law) necessary to implement the committee's intent on the agenda for the full Board to consider. Once passed by the full Board, acts and local laws are sent to the County Executive who will either sign them or return them within ten days accompanied by a written statement of the reasons for disapproval. The County Executive's veto can be overridden by a two-thirds vote. If a measure is not signed or returned after 10 days, it will become law without the County Executive's signature.

The Board of Acquisition and Contract is another integral part of County government. The mission of the Board is to contract for and acquire by purchase or condemnation all lands, buildings and other real property which have been authorized by the County Board and to award contracts on behalf of the County including, but not limited to, contracts for the construction, repair, alteration or improvement of public facilities. The Board consists of the County Executive, the Chairman of the County Board of Legislators and the Commissioner of Public Works.