Governance, Policy & Economic Development Subcommittee - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome Bloomfield. We will begin with our first agenda item, pledge of allegiance.

and allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Okay.

So we're going to call to order and move into our roll call. Councilor Merritt is not here. Councilor Goodwin? Present. Councilor DePete and Brown?

Present.

Here. Councilor Cooper? Present. And the chair is here. Okay. We'll move first to old business. That will be Rockwell Park Improvement Project Update. The Director of Parks, Recreation, and Leisure, David Malesko, is not here, but I do have a report that will be provided on his behalf. So Bloomfield Rockwell Park Improvement Project progress update, CIF round four. The project identification or the project name is Rockwell Park Improvement Project. The funding source is Community Investment Fund. 2030, round four. The contracted amount is $4 million, and the current projected anticipation completion date is August 2027. So here's a progress summary and project timeline through May 29th of this year. launched project with project consultant banish in september 2025 project launch included project meetings and site inventory through december 25 design concepts and preliminary alternatives were vetted completed in mid february 2026 the preliminary design selection and refinement Next design development and stormwater design completed. Several borings for subsoil exploration were conducted. Inland wetlands permitting is now complete. The project has requested placement on the Town Plan and Zoning Commission agenda for Thursday, June 25th, 2026 for final approval. Site design is nearing completion. Site investigation is 100% complete. Design is currently at 68% complete. Bid documents are scheduled to be completed and ready for release by the end of August 2026. 75% of final design documents are targeted for completion in June 2026, with 100% of final design documents scheduled for completion by July 2026. Bid documentation preparation and bid advertisement is scheduled between late June and August of 2026. Bid receipt evaluation and construction contractor selection is scheduled for September 2026. Project construction scheduled for late 2026 through summer of 2027 with anticipated completion of August, 2027. This date will be confirmed upon bid receipt. Key accomplishments, Inland Wetlands Commission permitting successfully completed. The design prior to final permitting is nearly complete. Phase one of this project remains in alignment with the scope provided by the state of Connecticut. This phase will include the four new basketball courts with athletic lights, walkways, parking area, gathering pavilion, water retention area phase one and two, final planning and permitting and community gardens. Next, in conjunction with this project, coordination continues with the separate greenway walking slash bike path project running adjacent to the park. This will create a major connection to Rockwell Park, enhancing the park and creating a wonderful link to the neighborhood and another major park in town. Continuing work on finalizing the amenities and materials to create a consistent theme throughout the park and included with future submittals will be updated designs. Please note, designs include areas not part of this phase of the project. The next section for upcoming work the next 30 to 60 days. Town Plan and Zoning Commission approval requested for June 25th, 2026 agenda. Finalization of site design and completion of bid documents. Continued selection of amenities and materials for the project and preparation for bid advertisement. The next area, issues, risks, and concerns. None at this time. The project is currently on schedule. Sixth, the budget status. The original budget, $4 million. Current expenditures include $170,620, excuse me, $170,620, which represents 4.27% of the total budget. Committed or encumbered is $274,500. The forecast at completion is $4 million. Variants, explanation, none. Seven is action items or decisions needed. No action items are required at this time of this report. Lastly, eight attachments, there are none. So overall assessment, the project continues to advance on schedule with inland wetlands permitting now complete and town plan and zoning commission approval pending for June 25, 2026. The project remains well positioned for bid release in late 2026. all final documents and the construction bid will be provided to decd for final review and approval prior to release i'm not really sure i'd be the appropriate person to respond to any questions but are there any comments that my council members would like to make

hearing none okay okay I want to make sure they had bike racks oh there you go bike racks for kids coming there I don't know to play ball or whatever they came to do because we want them to be able to use a bike pad right

okay thank you there is the next uh old business discussion that will be a discussion and possible action regarding the town's boards and commissions appointment process standard operating procedures or sop uh policy and We have our Director of Ops and Comms here to possibly try to answer any questions that we may have. So I'm going to throw it out to our members. Are there any questions that you may have at this time regarding this SOP policy?

is this concerning uh online attendance and meetings and having to show your face no something different yes yes it's about our boarding commissions and appointments yes and i see no is that has excuse me has that been updated so that we don't have to have a formal interview with several At one point, that was going to make us do interview people. Is that still in there? I don't like that. I mean, we appoint so many people to committees. You have your council people dragged down interviewing people. I mean, it just looked like it was over much. I don't want to do it, so you might interview all those people. That's hundreds of interviews.

i i i like that somehow tone down uh counselor to beat them brown oh thank you so much what do you need me to do both you and uh council goodwin have your hand raised so i i only saw the bright yellow so i'll start with you i will go with count for goodwin i'm actually driving but go ahead councilman can go Councillor Goodwin.

Yeah. My question is really just about in the policy and I'm sorry, I don't know what is going on with my camera. So I apologize about the flickering. But in the policy, it refers to a rubric. Oh, now it's completely gone. I'm a ghost. It refers to a rubric that will be used. And my only concern is that I get it says an enhanced rubric. And it names some possibilities about what that rubric is, but it's not present. So can we just speak a little bit to the enhanced rubric that would be used for evaluation?

So thank you for your question. I'm council governor. My name is India Rogers. I'm the director of operations and communications. So our division is responsible for the administrative management of the boards of commissions in town. So yes, you are correct. There is a rubric there. So my idea was, is that that was something that will be developed either through this committee or possibly, um, down further than your agenda. We were thinking about re-instituting committee on committees. Um, so I didn't want to put something out right now as an example, because I wanted to know what the feedback would be from this meeting.

Okay. Thank you. Uh, counselor to beat them Brown.

Thank you. So I'm going to try to be on, well, I'm driving, so careful. Yeah. Um, so I was going to ask, thank you, uh, uh, counselor Goodwin. That was my question as well. I don't like to, I don't like really voting on something until we have the whole packet. Right. And I don't know what that enhanced rubric would look like. Um, So I just wanted to hopefully, but the question has been answered. We don't really have anything as of yet. So I would honestly hope that we can come back and vote on this when we have the entire package. And I also want to just put out there again that we don't want to make this so cumbersome that one, people won't want to apply or two, that we get so bogged down that it's taking forever to get these committees seated. I also believe that we should take an intentional look on the amount of committees we have to see exactly if they're all needed. And I know that we've been trying to do this procedure for a while. So to add to it might not seem tasteful, but I'm just hoping that when we do it, we do it intentionally and do it properly. So if we could get the rubric, whatever that rubric is going to be, if we could look at the committees that we currently have to make sure that they're all needed before we actually vote on this. And I did see that on the agenda, the possibility of restarting committee on committees, and maybe some of this work can be done in that committee as well. Yes, ma'am.

Thank you for that comment. So regarding the assessment process that we completed, maybe like about a year ago, but I did issue a memo regarding the assessment implementation plan back on January 14. So we do have the information that you are stating regarding our boards and commissions. And unfortunately, all 48 of them are needed at this point, because a lot of them are state required statute or charter. So we can definitely supply that information to you via email.

Thank you. And before I go to council, a good one, I just want to mention that, uh, uh, first that, uh, counselor, uh, merit has come in to join us and we also are joined by deputy mayor Lloyd. I wanted to say that, uh. prior to starting the meeting, there was some discussion with Councilor Cooper regarding the same concern that you brought up, Councilor DeBethen-Brown, and that it would be better suited to further discuss, review, and plan for another meeting. So that will be something that we will move.

forward with and i would just respectfully ask that that's done sooner than later because it's been eight months since november and we have a lot of antsy people wondering what's going on with the process so we did send out an email to all of those people who did apply for our boards and commissions and we have about 150 volunteers and we probably have to point right now about 100 so we need to finalize this process or policy or whatever the council wishes are to do

So there was a question about a special meeting for this. And Councilor Goodwin, I apologize for the delay in getting to your question. Is there possibly a date that we could define on this date that would be advisable or available?

Well, can I actually make my comment before that? Okay. Okay. Sorry. Because here's the tension for me. So what I was going to do is propose that we table this discussion pending the next vote about the Committee on Committees, because I do feel that, unfortunately, the Committee on Committees, if that moves forward, should review this, come up with the recommendation. Absolutely. In the proper order. But what I would fear is picking a date without settling this or settling the next vote. And then we're kind of doing things out of order of that. So my request would be to table this discussion with the caveat that I would appreciate in the next conversation that we would, in effect, if the Committee on Committees is reestablished, relegate this or designate it, whatever word is appropriate, to that committee. And then maybe there could be a timeline whereby which recommendations from that committee, if approved, can come back with options. But I just am a little worried about picking a date before we can even know if the other thing will happen and if we'll be able to get the work done in a timely manner. And I just want to say for the record, Ms. Rogers, thank you. And yes, accountability for the amount of months that this has been here. And I know budget and other things, but you put a lion's share of work in trying to get an SOP that could help us move forward more effectively and efficiently. So I just want to thank you for that work. And I think with some minor tweaks and some definitions of some language, we could get this moving.

Thank you. Thank you. There was an additional question from Councillor Merritt.

I was going to ask, are we holding up appointments to committees because of this?

Yes, sir.

Why can't we take care of them in the meantime?

we used to they can continue to serve um however we still need to do the appointments because some of them are staggered terms they run with the council term or they run with like a year of appointment so they're all pretty much different so they still need to be reappointed or newly appointed because sometimes those committees don't have a quorum either and people are attending but they're not officially a part of the committee or maybe an instance where someone's not attending the meeting so we're trying to track them down for a resignation letter so it's a lot of nuances to these appointments so we don't have a committee like man no we eliminated that committee I would say this is 2026 probably back in 2021 2022 that was eliminated so the proposal was to bring it back reinstitute it yeah let's bring it back go and do it the old way until we can resolve this it's silly to hold it up I understand I agree thank you uh counselor Cooper

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So real quick, my question is really around procedure. We're going to table this, but when we come back, can we, along with other members of this subcommittee, be able to approve the policy, right, and the committee on committees and make appointments?

So back in the old days, we used to do joint committees. So to Council Goodwin's point, if the chair of committee on committees is reinstituted, that chair will work with the chair of governance. We will have a combined meeting to do just that. So everyone's on the same page. Because technically, you guys can set the charge of committee on committees to get this work done. That could be one of their charges of reinstituting them.

Fair enough. Thank you. Mm hmm.

All right. Are you moving on? So they meet around has a question to go.

So.

Thank you, Mr. Brown. Thank you. A motion to table.

Yeah.

You like to. I was like in the conversation.

Well, I was, but probably my comment will probably hold to later on down. So, yeah.

i'll i'll vote to table okay so it's been uh motioned and second uh all those in favor all right all right any extent any nays no any abstentions no okay so the motion passes we will table this and we'll at a later point decide on on a date okay so we're moving to new business so discussion of possible consideration to reinstate council subcommittee commit council council subcommittee committee on committees wow that was a little tongue twister there okay so do we have some discussion second oh all right second All those in favor? Aye. Well, first, some discussion. So my apologies. Would anyone like to take the floor?

Yeah. Oh, Todd. Okay, go ahead.

Councillor Cooper and then Councillor Goodwin.

I think it's, for me, it's a no-brainer. We need to reinstitute it in order to move forward with everything. So I'm in support and ready to vote.

Thank you. Councillor Goodwin.

Yeah. Okay. So I was just going to clarify. My thought process would be that if this was reinstated, which it seems like we would be in alignment with that, back to India's perspective about do the old way while we have time to do due diligence on the SOP. That might mean that it's a hybrid approach of trying to get through some of the appointments right now, but then moving at the same time to be making sure this SOP can be implemented. Because we we will need a little bit of time to do that. So just if we could all come to some understanding, not vote on, but accept maybe that there is a hybrid approach that will be occurring so that we don't leave that previous conversation tabled ad nauseum, and we still get the business of the council done at the same time. So I'm just wanting to make sure it's on the table that we would be considering a hybrid approach if the committee is reinstated.

Thank you. Councilor DeBethan-Brown.

Thank you. Excuse me. So. Counselor Goodwin, I think I'm of a different mind. I believe that the SOP is there. I believe that if the committee is reinstated, that the committee should get to the work of the committee looking over the SOP firstly and getting that ready, maybe in order for approval at a special meeting and then to thoughtfully do the appointments, the interviews, whatever it is that we need to do. I just want to make sure that the process is fair and that everyone gets to go through the process, right? So if we're going to appoint some and then have others go through the process after we've gotten the SOP, I don't really think that's the fair way to do it. I think the fair way to do it is to have the committee do the work finalize the SOP, approve the SOP, and then move on to appointing the committee members or move on to recommendation of the committee members.

Thank you. Councilor Goodwin? So, Councilor DePetre Brown, question for you. Based on what you have reviewed and some of the concerns raised, and then this question would also be for Councilor Cooper, My question is, do you feel that the things that you would like to talk about are substantial changes? And I'm just asking that because if Councilor Cooper and you have substantial changes, I have some that I'm looking at now from the SOP, but I wouldn't describe them as substantial. That would mean that we could move forward expressly and not continue to delay significantly the number of people appointed. So just to temperature check from the both of you, are there substantial changes that you have in mind? if you're comfortable saying that now. Mr. Cooper.

So I just have changes, but I think, and maybe I'm just, you know, I want to, I do want to oversimplify it. I do. I think that, as I said, the committee is necessary and those changes can be incorporated, but let's just have the committee vote on and have it reinstituted. And then we can, you know, begin the work. We need, you know, a lattice to, to to work with you know you we can work but if there's no committee we're you know i'd like to have something in front of me that says hey this is what we're going to do uh with this committee if we can we can do all that work not have a committee uh so that's and hopefully that's it's it's oversimplifying but that's that's really what i'm trying to do mr chair

Yes. To Counselor Goodwin's question. Counselor, I believe that the changes, the suggested edits, I believe they can happen in a significantly quick turnaround where we can work through it and still be able to hopefully continue the process by or before the end of the month, I think.

think it's possible for us to get it done and then make sure that everyone goes through the same process thank you that's answering yes that basically i just wanted to get a temperature of could we do that because i think india is presenting a very important thing so is counselor merit about the people who have been waiting and we don't want to say please get involved but then put them through another four or five months of waiting to be able to do this i think if we can reconcile these edits or changes and get the with this. Thank you.

So there was another question with Councilor Merritt, but I do want to mention or identify the committee members that have been... Mr.

Chair?

Yes.

Should we vote on the committee first?

Sounds good. Okay. Councilor Merritt, you continue and then we'll go to a vote.

Oh, I was... I don't want to hold up the vote particularly. I just say I have some real questions about some of the rules on playing committees. And it would take some time, I think, to resolve them. So my particular beef is this ridiculous rule that the committee has to be made up of a split between the two parties so there's barely a majority of one party. It's very difficult in this town to do that if you're on a committee. I have had people wanting to get on my trails committee, for example. where I think this rule is ridiculous, there were always too many Democrats. So someone wanted to get on it so badly that they became unaffiliated in order to join it. I mean, that shouldn't be necessary. These committees don't spend any money, they don't pass any legislation. People want to be on a committee and there's room on the committee. I think they ought to be allowed on. I want to have our town attorney look into that rule and see if it really has to apply because it shouldn't. You shouldn't have to get out of your political party in order to join the committee. It just doesn't make sense.

Okay. Councilor DePete and Brown.

Thank you. Councilor Murray, I believe that that's in our charter. I think.

State law.

I'm not hearing you.

State law.

I think it's state law. But let's research it and see if it's really necessary.

OK. So is it possible that we can call the question, Mr. Chair?

Sure. So I'd like to make a motion that we reinstitute the council subcommittee on committees. Is there a second? Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any nays? No. Any abstentions? No. So the motion passes. So at this point, we'd like to identify those council members that will be participating on this committee. It will be chaired by Councilor Goodwin and with committee members Debeeth and Brown and Councilor Waterhouse. Huh? Oh, so just wanted to make everyone aware of the individuals that would be on this committee. And we do want to. uh have discussion during this period to determine you know quite naturally those that are vying for positions on ethics or some other you know uh areas we want to make sure that uh rent commit fair rent commission things of that sort that we they do have some element of experience for these positions so um that will all be discussed and worked out through uh committee so thank you very much um we will now yes we can't hear Uh, it's just, uh, restating the question and then voting. Um, so the question was called and now we're looking to, uh, solidify it. So is there a, and it's been seconded all those in favor.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Any more eyes, any nays? okay so i guess there's a bit of confusion so i was just alerted that a weird call the question, we voted on the question, but to vote on this particular consideration to reinstate the council subcommittee committee on committees, we hadn't voted on that. So I was calling, I was basically asking for the committee's vote in this regard. So all those in favor for The reinstatement of the Council subcommittee committee on committees all those in favor say aye. Aye. Okay, so it is unanimous. Mayor votes aye as well, and we will now move to the next item, which is a discussion on Community Investment Fund CIF with John Coleman director of building and land use.

Good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, residents of the town of Bloomfield. We are progressing at this point with an intent of filing a revised application for around $12 million to the state this Thursday. We are now just right now finalizing and editing the application. So it's scheduled to go in. We've been fairly aggressive in obtaining letters of support. And I think we've been fairly successful. We've gotten letters of support from members of the council. We've gotten letters of support from the state delegation. And we've gotten letters of support from local businesses. Great.

some of those housed currently at in the downtown district or yes thank you um question regarding the the rfp has there been any decision relative to uh the RFP for the development company or individual?

I need to be careful when I talk about the RFP because there's a very strict process that needs to be followed. Okay. But the RFP has been out. There was, there have been responses and There's actually a meeting tomorrow to determine what the next steps are going to be. And that's about all I can tell you at this point. Okay.

Councilor Cooper has a question.

Thank you, Director Coleman. So are we like in the cone of silence right now with any bids?

Say again?

Are we in like a cone of silence with the bids? Is that what this is right now?

That's correct.

Okay. And so... all right so any no contact with any bidders or developers or anyone uh at this point in the process except for except for the purchasing agent right what's allowed right correct okay thank you okay uh next item is update on the congressional grant application also mr coleman we applied for

two grant applications, one through Senator Blumenthal's office and one through Congressman Larson's office. We were not successful in meeting the cut for Senator Blumenthal's office. We have so far made the cut. for $4,000 with Congressman Larson's office.

4 million.

For 4 million. Yes. But I know we've made the cut. I have not heard. We're obviously competing with a number of applications in the district, and the funding is nationwide. So it's a big pot.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And is there any anticipated time frame by which determination will be made?

I don't know, but Denise is on the line. She may know, but I think it's with these, it's fairly open ended at the federal level.

Denise Robert from Goma, New York. Good evening. There's a process to this, knowing that for a lot of them, it is also an election year. I would anticipate that we aren't going to be hearing anything until past summer.

Okay. Thank you. Backing up just a bit. in reference to the cif i know we're submitting this week uh is there an anticipated time frame by which uh it will be determined who the in september september okay

thank you and now um a discussion regarding business development updates this is the regular update to the committee this is a two-month update for april and may since um during the budget process you did not hold a meeting so we've given you some a two-month update um town center plan um we've already discussed um Good old plan of conservation and development. We're in the final stages of preparing the final draft. TPZ has requested that we put together a draft complete book at this point, and we're aiming to present that to the commission for its meeting in June, June 25th. And at that point, we would also hopefully do the statutory referral to you all and schedule a public hearing. You have 65 days to comment on it. So basically, we probably wouldn't act until our August meeting at the earliest under the statutes. But there's light at the end of the tunnel, finally. OK. I added a slide on economic development efforts since that's part of our responsibilities and your responsibilities. There are a number of things on here. I don't know if you want me to go through them in detail on the list for the public. We want to strengthen and activate the commercial corridors focusing on the TIF districts and Cottage Grove Road. We want to expand small business support and technical assistance. We want to promote minority-owned and local entrepreneurships. We want to develop, and my assistant's working on this, a business-to-business strategy, what's known as a B2B. We want to strengthen workforce development pipelines. And we want to enhance working with India's office, the marketing and branding in Bloomfield. and continue to work with CMDA and really secure that partnership and work with them and developers to take advantage of what they offer. We're working on revitalization plans for the TIF districts. We're establishing a small business resource program. We hope to offer some micro grants with some of the funding that was set aside. We are promoting mixed income and workforce housing and a bunch of things. In terms of implementation projects, obviously working on the town center master plan, plan of conservation and development. The development of the new housing growth plan is mandated by the state. Zoning regulations audit to align the regulations with the state housing goals and the new plan of conservation and development. We just were awarded the Sustainable Connecticut Bronze Certification Award, so we have now been recertified under Sustainable Connecticut, which is a fairly good achievement. And in turn, we're going to be preparing a number of ordinances for your review in terms of a preparation of a draft pilot ordinance, payment in lieu of taxes ordinances, go along with the assessment, citation fees and collection procedures so we can collect the funds when we give citations. Preparation of the housing trust fund policies and procedures. Preparation of a new Airbnb ordinance to get some better handling on that. Preparation of new special events ordinance and revisions to the overnight street parking ordinance, which is something the public has really been seeking. I won't skip, I'll skip the next one since I've really been through it. In terms of approved developments, 200 Seabury is nearing completion. Edith Lane, that's the one off of Watkins Road is well under construction. Abbey Court on Blue Hills Avenue is under construction. The second phase to Jolly Vaught Drive is under construction. And Arbella is under construction. Popeyes has reactivated construction, and I've been informed, let's see if it happens, that they'll be completed in eight weeks. So that would put them in completion sometime in August. Let's see, we just got that information on Friday, so it's fairly current. Let's see if we can hold them to it. The new cell storage space on Douglas Street is completed, and 529 Cottage Grove Road, which is which is the five-unit multi-tenant. A little retail development just is under construction. So there's a fair amount going on. In terms of pre-development, things, discussions we're having, the initial tax analysis for 800 Gratis Grove Road has been completed, has had a preliminary review, and conversations are continuing with the applicant about that. 51 Gabb Road, that's the old school on Gabb Road. There's no present activity that I'm aware of at that thing. First Cathedral, the public hearing schedule will begin with the Inland Wetlands and TPZ this month. So that's progress and I anticipate that both a review and conversations on a tax agreement for that project will commence shortly. We've had, We've instituted conversations between the applicant and Goldman and York. So they will then deal directly with one another. 12 Philly Street, the zone change to PLR was approved for two duplexes. And then a site plan is pending submittal to us. So that's the second phase. We did the zone change and now there's a site plan. 620 Cottage Grove Road, I think as you know, that's the potential. All these developments, the developer held a public information session, has done, also did a town-wide mailing, but no formal application has been submitted to any of the land use bodies. 375 Cottage Grove Road for a new Seven Brew Coffee drive-thru. We've had preliminary conversations with them and with the Landlord, which would be Copaco, but again, we have not seen a formal application. 36 Toby Road, which is a potential Siding Council solar facility proposal. No proposal has been yet made to the town. And as far as we know, a formal application has not been done to the Siding Council. They're still doing their due diligence on the property, which contains a fair amount of wetlands. And finally, the one that's been in the news and in social media a lot, 132 Griffin Road North. There is no activity whatsoever related to a storage facility, but we have recently had renewed interest in residential development, and staff is waiting to hear if the developer wishes to have a meeting with staff. Subsequent to that, we would do potentially an informal a presentation to the TPZ to get their read on where it is. But that has the potential to move forward for residential development. And finally, the numbers, it's been relatively modest the last couple of months. In April, we had 192 permits with a value of about 135,400. with a construction value of a little over $8.6 million. And in May, we had 172 permit applications with a value of a little over $68,500 with a construction value of a little over $4.8 million. So there's still interest going on. Those are usually our slow months. for permits and the activity we anticipate is going to pick up significantly. And as we discussed, there are some significant potential developments on the line. And I'd be happy to answer questions.

Thank you. I think our first question comes from Councilor DeBethan Brown.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Going back to the new housing Going back to the new housing program, the housing plan of the state, have we looked at anything that we could do to put our own plans into place before they come in and tell us what we need to do? I think I had asked this question like a couple months back when we first heard about it.

Councilor, we intend to do it. We have a year, and it is our intention to prepare our development plans and policies on our own and not We're very confident that we will not be in a position where we're mandated by the state and or the region to do any particular course of action. We are fully confident that we will have everything in place that we ourselves have developed and approved.

So I thought we had a particular time within this year that we had to opt out or tell them that we were going to come up with our own plan. You're saying that we have a year to do that?

Yes, we do.

Okay. My next question is about the microloans. Where is that funding coming from? The business microloans?

We haven't, we haven't identified it fully yet. So I can't give you a positive answer. It's something we're developing.

Okay. And another, I've been, for a while, I've been thinking about the whole pop-up idea. And if we could identify a space where we could probably have small businesses come in and do pop-ups to just get a taste of the community and hopefully a bridge to something more permanent, I think is a great idea. So thank you for your presentation.

Thank you. I do have a question. I spoke with a business person today who previously had a office in Bloomfield, but is looking for a manufacturing location. And he mentioned that similar to Hartford, which Hartford has an enterprise zone. I know we have TIF zones three, but he told me that there was an enterprise zone.

There is. South of Cottage Grove Road and the Toby Granby area is an enterprise zone. I can't give you the exact mapping, but those are the two general areas.

And with regard to enterprise zone, what are the benefits for a business that is interested in it?

It makes them eligible for a variety of funding opportunities that basically primarily from the state that are not available in other sections of town.

Okay, so would there be a possibility of someone taking advantage of Enterprise Zone and TIF at the same time? Are they in the same area, for instance, say, Granby Street?

In a TIF zone, if it's both in a TIF zone and Enterprise Zone, yes, they could take advantage of both.

Okay, okay. Thank you. Are there any other questions? Oh, yes. Councilor Cooper.

thank you uh mr mayor hey john how you doing first of all living the dream sir all right that's two of us um being alive is the dream i was told that earlier so i'm gonna go with it too um just had a quick question couple of questions about the um we joined that The group, CMDA. CMDA. I know it's early, but is there anything that, you know, you're able to share or say about, you know, maybe benefits or future benefits that may?

I think the principal benefit initially is their ability to consider and enter into development agreements with developers. Their funding right now is to assist developers. They hope in the future to have also municipal assistance developers develop funds. But right now, so for us, you know, particularly related to the town center, if there's... know you begin to package the various fundings and we get this cif to do the public side and we get some ca cmda assistance on the private side it all helps to make that development financially more feasible awesome awesome thank you um just another

And I was going to ask you about marketing and, but I'm going to skip over that. I want to ask about the pilot, um, payment and low of taxes. Uh, what do we have in Bloomfield where that is, you know, you're talking about state federal buildings normally where that that's paid, but.

It's it's also, it's the state statutes also allow communities to pass ordinances in accordance with statutes to set up their own payment in lieu of taxes with a development so that a development would have a fixed payment instead of paying taxes for a fixed and relatively extended period of time. And all our conversations with the first cathedral have indicated that that's something they're very interested in and may be related to the funding sources. They're using federal and state funding sources and that may play into it. We have not had a formal request. We have suggested to them that if they're seeking a tax agreement or a pilot, that they provide the information to Goldman and York to do the feasibility analysis and impact analysis that we now require of a developer for any tax agreement or pilot. If it's demonstrated that that's a viable approach from our side, then we would need to put in place an ordinance to allow. Right now, we do not have the ordinance to allow a pilot.

Okay, fair enough.

Last question.

Last question is about, well, not a question, more of a statement on the housing trust fund. You know that, you know, we've had those discussions, but I, I, I really would like to see. know us you know some some effort behind that i know that you know some of our citizens may have some issues right we don't know um you know there's there's there's one side where there's you know a lot of rabble but there is another side where there may be some serious concern about some of our citizens senior citizens and or others who may be in predicaments and and so i'm hoping that we might you know because i know that you know that fun is there should be growing right and so you know just want to be prepared um for when folks do come to us so i'm hoping you know i give no direction i'm asking you know if we could pay we we obviously want to satisfy your hopes and um as i indicated i think at the last council meeting when i was asked um it is our intention

have everything completed by September so we'll work on it during the summer we know that um you know we've been it just has not been at the top of the radar for a variety of reasons but we know it's critically important to you and to the members of the council so it's know i'll be working i'll be working with india that's it's sort of on our dual plate and um it's our intention to have it in place right because that's you know september 60 days after taxes are due you know and you know be a good time may not come when you want it but hopefully it'll be on time right it's our intention to be on time awesome thank you sir

Thank you very much, any other questions for. Mr Coleman. Seeing none. We will thank you very much, and we will move now to our next area. will now move to the administrative report. that will be provided by a finance director. We won't make that mistake again of interim versus whatever, but our interim director, Darrell, who will provide an administrative report.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Madam Deputy Mayor, Councilors, residents of Bloomfield, as always, it's a pleasure to be before you this evening. Just one brief remark from Town Manager Schwab. As we prepare to wrap up fiscal year 2026 later this month, the administration is gearing up for, of course, summer activities, as well as preparing for next fiscal year, this 2027. pending the results of this Saturday's referendum. The town manager encourages all registered voters to come out and vote this Saturday. That's vote. Vote for the budget or against the budget. But the town manager encourages registered voters to come out this Saturday and vote in the 2027 budget referendum for or against. And that concludes the report. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you very much, Director Hill. I believe we will now move into public comments. No public comments. Oh, in person. Okay. Yes. If there are any online participants who would like to participate in public comments, please let it be. Okay. Okay. Do you have the floor, Ms. Barringer?

Oh, I do. Thank you, Mayor Henryton.

I just walked in.

Let me walk out so we don't hear my dog. I have just a brief comment. I want to just say thank you to India for... creating these SOPs. She did a fantastic job and I would be remiss not to say, you know, I also sent comments to her and I love the collaborative of her incorporating not only my comments but i'm sure town council and other residents that shared uh comments to make this sop document and like councilman uh cooper and goodman have already shared and uh councilwoman uh suzette to beat them brown it has been a long time um that we wanted these new committees and speaking specifically about ethics um there was the announcement in december that um we were going to renew the ethics uh commission in six months later we're still at i understand um where india has shared tonight that we have to move forward and i was shocked to hear that round numbers because i was out gardening so i didn't write it down um but we have over a hundred engaged individuals in this town that are ready to serve and they are at a holding pattern so i would urge council six months later to move forward because i've never seen a situation where people are raising their hand to serve and help and we're going through all this administrative nonsense to move forward. So I would urge the council, I'm glad that we have this other meeting, TBD, to then vet all of us that actually want to serve and move this town forward. And that's it. Thank you so much.

Thank you. We also need you to provide your address.

Oh, my name is Erin Barringer, 28 Kenmore Road.

thank you are there any other oh there's someone in in the room though okay yes and when you go up just uh by your name and address, and you will have, if you're a Bloomfield resident, you will have three minutes. If you are not, then you will have two minutes. Okay, oh, come, come. Right here, right here at the podium, sorry. you may wanna touch the mic, the green light for the microphone, straight on the floor.

Thank you.

I listened to the back and forth on the committee of committees and the operating procedures and stuff. Is there a, educated guesstimate on how long it would be before people that have applied would be notified?

Hmm. we can't provide dialogue during this time but i'm sure we can uh you can leave a note with our uh council clerk and we'll follow up with you okay and do the committees that people have applied for have any input into those that are chosen Again, you can provide your question to the town clerk. I mean, excuse me, our council clerk, and we'll respond to you at a later date.

Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any others online that would like to speak? Okay, going once. going twice going three times so motion to adjourn beckett all those in favor aye aye thank you and good night