County Executive Robert P. Astorino today elevated Deputy Parks Commissioner Kathleen O’Connor to the position of acting commissioner, filling the vacancy created by the retirement of Joseph Stout.

The Westchester County Board of Legislators announced today that they have officially received the proposal by County Executive Rob Astorino to consolidate the Departments of Emergency Services and Public Safety. Legislature Chairman Ken Jenkins (D-Yonkers) says lawmakers are strongly in support of the idea which is expected to save millions of dollars.

He says the Board's Committee on Government Reform, Efficiency Savings(GRES) will have a presentation on the matter next Tuesday. Jenkins says the current economic times "Gives us a tremendous opportunity to re-shape government."

Westchester County has submitted its latest housing implementation plan update.

The latest revision is a 46 page document that provides further details about the County's plans and processes for building 750 units of fair and affordable housing in 31 communities.

County officials say plan update is the product of numerous conference calls and extensive pre-submission discussions between Westchester officials and the Federal monitor's team, all of which were designed to address previous questions and issues raised by the monitor in July.

In a further effort to consolidate services, Westchester County will soon  begin offering a Unified In-Service Training Program for police officers from all departments in the County through ithe Westchester County Department of Public Safety. The new program is being offered at no cost as a shared service to help police departments in Westchester lower their training costs.

Currentlly, each department in Westchester must pay for a minimum of 21 hours of refresher training to all of its members. The requirement is mandated by New York State.

The Business Council of Westchester is partnering with Con Edison and Westchester County to launch phase two of the so-called Westchester Green Business Challenge. The challenge is a pro-active educational program aimed at sensitizing the County's businesses to improving the environment while at the same time spurring economic development.

With Westchester facing a 130 million dollar budget deficit in the next fiscal year, County Executive Rob Astorino is proposing consolidating the County's Public Safety and Emergency Services Departments, a move he says will save Westchester $3 million over the next three years.

Astorino has asked the County attorney to prepare legislation to be submitted to the Board of Legislators to implement the plan. If approved, the resulting merger would be put into place on  January 1, the start of the new budget year.

With the planned retirement of two prominent Westchester County officials, County Executive Rob Astorino has named two Acting Commissioners.

Dr. Kunjlata Ashar has been named to serve as Acting Medical Examiner and Acting Commissioner of the Department of Labs and Research. She will replace Dr. Millard Hyland who held the job for the past 27 years. He is retiring August 13.

Dr. Grant Mitchell has been named Acting Commissioner of the Department of Social Services (DSS). He replaces Kevin Mahon, who's retiring July 29 after serving as DSS Commissioner for 12 years.