BILL NUMBER: S5086

SPONSOR: MAYER
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the public officers law, in relation to the employee
status of certain persons working as guardians ad litem in the county of
Westchester

 
PURPOSE OF BILL:

To provide indemnification to guardians ad litem appointed in landlord-
tenant proceedings in Westchester County in the same manner as guardians
ad litem appointed in New York City housing court proceedings.

 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends subsection 1, subparagraph w of section 17 of the
Public Officers Law by adding guardians ad litem appointed by the court
to assist persons with physical or mental disabilities in landlord-ten-
ant proceedings in Westchester County to the definition of employee for
purposes of state defense and indemnification.
              

Section 2 sets the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

The Westchester County Guardian Ad Litem (GAL) program, designed to
assist incapacitated tenants in landlord-tenant proceedings, and modeled
after a similar program operating in New York City Housing Court, became
fully operational in late 2021. Under the program, judges in landlord-
tenant proceedings may appoint GALs to advocate for tenants who cannot
advocate for themselves. GALs do not act as attorneys, but work to
connect tenants with essential benefits and services and to ameliorate
conditions that threaten the tenants' ability to retain housing.
Appointed GALs may be attorneys or laypersons, paid or volunteer and are
trained and certified by the Office of Court Administration. Their
services have proven invaluable, both to the courts and to the tenants
themselves. One Westchester city court judge stated: "We don't use the
GALs that often, but when we need them, we really need them."

It has recently come to the attention of the Westchester GAL program,
that, unlike GALs in the New York City Housing Court program, and unlike
volunteer GALs, paid GALs in the Westchester program are not currently
eligible for defense and indemnified by the state. This has put the
program at imminent risk of shutting down.

Public Officers Law section 17 provides for the defense and indemnifica-
tion of state employees and of volunteers in "state-sponsored volunteer
program(s)." Under subsection 1, subparagraph w, the term "employee"
includes "a person certified by the office of court administration and
paid by the city of New York to serve as a guardian ad litem in an
action or proceeding pending in the housing part of the civil court of
the city of New York." This bill would put GALs appointed in landlord-
tenant proceedings in Westchester courts on the same footing as GALs
serving in New York City housing courts, by adding them to the relevant
definition of employee in the Public Officers law.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

To be determined.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.