Catherine Borgia is Special Advisor on Women and Families to the Westchester County Executive. Prior to this role, she served for 12 years as a County Legislator, representing the 9th District, comprising the Town and Village of Ossining, Briarcliff, Croton-on-Hudson, part of Cortlandt, and part of the City of Peekskill, serving as Chair of the Board, as the Democratic Majority Leader, and as Chair of the Budget & Appropriations Committee.
Throughout her tenure at the legislature, she championed a package of historic employment equality bills which includes Employee Earned Sick Leave, Employee Safe Leave, the Fair Chance to Work Act, Wage History Discrimination Law, and the Salary Range Posting Law. Several of these laws were later used as models for statewide law.
Borgia’s social justice initiatives also include the Immigrant Protection Act, Co-op Disclosure to prevent discrimination in cooperative housing purchases, and the Clinic Access law, providing safe access to reproductive health clinics.
She worked with the County Executive’s administration and her colleagues on the Board to pass budgets that cut the county’s property tax levy and rebuilt the county’s reserve funds while investing in infrastructure and providing much needed services for county residents, especially during a global pandemic.
Before serving on the County Board of Legislators, she served two terms as the Town Supervisor of Ossining. During this time, she engineered a financial turnaround of the Town that restored the Town to financial health in the worst economic climate since the Great Depression. This was achieved by using innovative management practices to reduce expenses, increasing the “rainy day” fund balance to the NYS Comptroller-recommended level of 20% of budget, and provide two tax cuts to all Ossining property owners. She increased government transparency and increased community participation in several new committees including the Citizen’s Finance Advisory Committee and the Green Ossining Committee.
From 2005-2008, Borgia served on the Ossining Village Board as Village Trustee. She also worked for seven years as chief of staff to Former NYS Assemblywoman Sandy Galef.
Borgia has an MBA from NYU-Stern School of Business and a BA from Binghamton University. She spent 15 years as a marketing and communications professional, assisting Fortune 500 companies and major law firms.
A long-time community volunteer, Borgia co-founded the Ossining Microfund, and also served on the Boards of the Rotary Club of Ossining, the Junior League of Northern Westchester, Ossining Communities that Care, the PTA, Girl Scouts, Westchester County Youth Board, and the United Way of Westchester/Putnam. She is currently the Chair of the Ossining Town Democratic Committee and a member of the Teatown board. She has two adult daughters who reside in New York City.
