Committee Assignments: Social Services, Special Nursing Home Facilities & Civic Center

Prior Committee Assignments: Audit and Finance, Public Works, Law & Public Safety

Virginia Maffia-Tobler, reelected in 2007 to her fourth term as a County Legislator, has represented the 4th District in the Albany County Legislature since 1996. The district covers portions of North Albany and Arbor Hill in the City of Albany. It contains such landmarks as Blessed Sacrament Church and Tivoli Lake Park.

Gini served on a countywide children's services task force whose work led to the establishment of the Albany County Department for Children, Youth and Families as the single organizational structure to integrate planning and policy development and coordinate the delivery of services to children and families. These functions previously had been spread among five County agencies - Probation, Youth, Social Services, Health and Mental Health - an organizational fracture caused by separate Federal and State funding mechanisms and procedures.

Among other legislative initiatives, Gini has advocated for a living wage proposal and is supportive of labor issues, veterans' services and benefits, women's rights and programs benefiting children.

A graduate of the College of St. Rose with bachelor's and master's degrees in English, Gini currently teaches middle and high school English at La Salle Institute of Troy and is director of the high school drama club and moderator of the National Honor Society. Previously she taught English at Catholic Central High School in Troy from 1974 through 1979 and junior high English at Blessed Sacrament School in Albany from 1990 until joining La Salle's faculty in the fall of 2002. While at Blessed Sacrament, Gini also served as school librarian and directed its drama club. She formerly was active on La Salle's Parent Board.

Gini has served as a facilitator for the "Rainbows for All God's Children" program to counsel children who have suffered a family loss through death or divorce. She also is a lector and eucharistic minister at Blessed Sacrament Church.

Gini and her husband, Bill, are the parents of two grown sons.