Eastchester REVIEW THE
September 20, 2019 | Vol. 7, Number 37 | www.eastchesterreview.com
County announces $300K WHERE grant for shared services
The Larchmont Arts Festival, which will take place on Oct. 5, bringing together painters, sculptors, photographers, ceramicists and jewelry designers. For more, see page 6.
Focused on finding additional savings for Westchester County taxpayers, County Executive George Latimer announced a $295,750 state grant for the County-Wide Shared Services Program. The funding will be used to implement the Westchester Shares Online Shared Services Portal Project. The Portal will serve as an online database of all available equipment and services that can be shared between the county, local governments, municipalities and school districts. “The Shared Services initiative was designed to help our local municipalities find ways to save taxpayer dollars by sharing resources, technology and areas of expertise,” Latimer said. “The Westchester Shares Online Shared Services Portal will help to streamline that process, by creating a centralized location where each municipality can log on and see what equipment and services may be available to them. I’d like
Board strengthens protections for building service workers On Sept. 16, the Westchester County Board of Legislators voted on a bipartisan basis, 16-1, to strengthen a law protecting building service workers like cleaning staff and maintenance personal, who face displacement when building ownership or service contracts change hands. The Displaced Service Employees Protection Law was originally passed also by a vote of 16-1 in 2013. It created a required transition period, during which new employers must offer workers the chance to remain on the job. It also created a time frame for those offers and for that transitional employment, and created
limits on the size of contractors who are covered. The changes passed Monday lower the threshold for covered contractors from 15 to 5 employees and extend the transitional employment period from 60 days to 90 days. In addition, there are expanded requirements for information sharing to ensure that workers know in a timely manner precisely whom they must communicate with at the new employer. County Legislator Catherine Borgia, one of the co-sponsors, said, “Since 2013, it became clear that there were provisions that needed to change. We needed to
prevent employers from making an end run around the spirit of the law by using small companies, or avoiding their obligations by not being sufficiently transparent in their communications with workers. We want to make sure the law does what it was intended to do—protect working families in Westchester.” Lenore Friedlaender, assistant to the president of 32BJ SEIU and head of the union in the Hudson Valley, said, “When employers try to circumvent the intent of the law in an effort to reduce wages and benefits it destabilizes the playing field and creates a destructive race to the
bottom. Workers wages, benefits and job security suffer as a result.” “We all understand that our jobs could change very suddenly, if an owner of a building changes the contractor. I have seen it happen to friends of mine,” said Maria Trejo, a cleaner at the BOSCES School in Valhalla and a member of 32BJ. “That is why we first passed the Displaced Worker Law. But we need to make that law stronger. We need to make sure that new contractors don’t hide, and it’s important that small contractors follow the rules just like big contractors.” (Submitted)
to thank the Governor and our partners at the state for their tremendous leadership in moving this project forward.” Once the Portal is complete, each municipality will be able to upload information about the equipment and services they wish to “share” with other municipalities and Westchester County, creating an online catalog of cost savings. The county will be hosting a Shared Services public hearing to hear from residents about ways they feel the county can create savings and government efficiencies. The County-Wide Shared Services public hearing is as follow: · Monday, Sept. 23 at 4 p.m. Westchester County Board of Legislators 148 Martine Ave., 8th Floor White Plains, NY 10601 Westchester County hopes to have the Westchester Shares Online Shared Services Portal completed by the end of the year. (Submitted)
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