In honor of Black History Month the Board made an announcement at the beginning about its  importance. The Board also mentioned the national theme for 2023 is black resistance, the courageous stand against oppression. They then played a pre-recorded video of majority leader Christopher Johnson presenting the first proclamation to Mamie Duncan-Gibbs, a professor and then Leg. Terry Clements presented the second proclamation to Neil Reynolds, a Deputy police commissioner. In the end, the Board declared Sunday, February 12, 2023 “Mamie Duncan-Gibbs Day” and February 11th, 2023 as “Deputy police commissioner Neil Reynolds Day” in Westchester county. Also they had the amazing Letitia James, Attorney General for New York speak in a pre-recorded video. 

Now for legislation in no particular order (everything that was introduced was passed):

• There were 19 resolutions, not including the memorial resolution. 7 of them were appointments of people to various boards such as Human Rights Commission, Arab American Advisory Board, and Women’s Advisory Board. There were 8 reappointments of people, mostly Emergency Medical Services, and another 2 were confusingly labeled under appointment. There was a resolution to set a public hearing on single-serve foodware.
• The last resolution was the 2023 Joint State Legislative Package. This was huge—literally. The whole document is 6 pages long, so I’m going to only hit the highlights of this package. For example, I support the “Give Westchester County parity with surrounding localities by providing it with the authority to set its own gun permit fees” package because gun permit fees are capped at $10 when the cost to perform the necessary work is around $300, meaning that taxpayers money are subsidizing the cost of people getting guns. The resolution also has great things like “Continue funding programs to address the backlog of eviction cases by providing legal representation to those at risk of eviction and develop a long term eviction prevention program for New York State,” and then not-so-great things like “Allocate $3 million in funding to cover costs associated with police patrols to New York State Parkways which are provided by Westchester County” (even though they say they don’t get the money from fines, it’s still a lot of money to be giving the police). It also includes a “Drag Racing and Speeding Enforcement Act ” because apparently up till now people who drag race haven’t been getting points, only tickets. Besides that, it’s a great piece of legislation, supporting immigrants, seniors, differently-abled people in housing and health, and the environment. Overall I give this joint legislative package a big thumbs up. 
• There was one Act Lawsuit Settlement entitled Golodetz v. County of Westchester, two Amendment-to-Agreement Acts for a School Resource Officer and Wireless Telecommunications Infrastructure, four Enter-into-Agreement Acts about Regional Partnership Agreement with Dutchess and Putnam Counties, Grant Funding, and grants for Westchester County Health Care Corporation to implement the Westchester County Domestic Violence High Risk Team. 
• There was an official IMA for Services to Seniors in Yonkers and New Rochelle, (as well as a few unlabeled IMAs, and  two normal acts on taxes.
• There were 8 Bonds that were passed about Roof Replacement, Infrastructure Upgrade, and Replacement of Police Helicopters. 
• There were 4 communications, Catherine Borgia on the appointment of Alvarado to Westchester County Task Force on Cybersecurity, and the rest were brought up by Tim Idoni, the Clerk of the Board, who is responsible for administrative and supervisory functions of the Board of Commissioners, which handles all official correspondence, advertising, legal notices, and prepares/distributes agendas, resolutions, contracts, minutes, etc. 
• Finally, they ended with memorial resolutions.