Governance, Policy & Economic Development Subcommittee - Regular Meeting

Good evening, Bloomfield. We're about to begin our governance, policy, and economic development committee meeting. First order of business is the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, All to order. Councilor Merritt. I'm sorry. Councilor Merritt is not, okay. Councilor Goodwin. Present. Councilor DeBeath and Brown. Here. Councilor Cooper. Here, present. And the chair, Anthony Harrington is here. So- Mr. Mayor? Yes.

Traveling and I'll be joining you guys shortly.

Okay. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Okay.

So I saw Councilor Merritt earlier, so I'm anticipating that he'll either be joining online or coming in. We will start with old business. Rockwell Park improvement project status update. Dave Malesko, Director of Parks, Recreation and Leisure Services will provide the updates.

Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor. Thank you very much, members of the committee council. Unfortunately, I don't have much of an update for you. As it was last month, when I reported back to you, we were in the application phase to get on the TPZ agenda. That information was provided over to the building and land use. I believe it was the... second week in July, providing us enough time in order to get onto the agenda. Unfortunately, I don't know if that agenda item made it fully onto that meeting. So Will from Benashi is the lead engineer on the project that handles all the permitting for wetlands and for all land use applications. I did reach out to Linda and He did get a response back from her that the public hearing will be scheduled either for the August meeting or the September meeting. I did try to reach out to Linda today, unfortunately. Good for her, bad for us, is that she's on vacation this week. So I'll touch base with her next week, get a definitive answer on that with which one it'll be. Hopefully it'll be the August meeting. This way I'll be able to at least see that portion of it through. But with that said, we're still on pace in order to do with what we need to do. It is just held up right now with there once we get the AOK from TPZ in order to move forward with it. As long as the public hearing goes well, we should be within a month, month and a half. The RFP should be developed and released within that time frame. So unfortunately I don't really have much more of an update than that for you at this point. I mean, we're doing well on that side of it. We're over 90% complete in terms of the design phase of it with just a few outstanding items, which should be rectified and, you know, no time whatsoever.

Just want to take a quick moment to publicly acknowledge all of your work and effort on this project. You know, it's, it's, It's kind of exciting to say congratulations on your retirement from the town. And at the same time, bittersweet because this is your baby. And we definitely want to acknowledge and give you praise for all the work that you've done in putting this together. And we're going to make sure. that it moves at the pace that you had intended. So we're going to follow up with TPZ and others to try to see if we can move it along as swiftly as possible.

Well, thank you very much with that. On the positive note of it, I think all the legwork has pretty much been done. Once we get into the bidding phase and the contractor is selected for it, I do believe that that's the easiest part of the project. It's not real complex in terms of phase one over here. Now, once we get into, you know, if additional funding becomes available at any point in time, you know, phase two, we'll then ramp it up a little bit more at that point. But that could be a year from now. That could be three years from now, however long that's going to be. But with the level of funding that we have now, I feel very comfortable that the project will be moving forward smoothly.

Excellent. Excellent. I do have one question. Certainly. So once this phase is completed, there will be a need to inquire about further funding. Correct. Are any efforts either already in place or organizations that we would present these proposals to to further complete the project?

It all depends on... Where we are at this point in time, I don't know what level of funding is out there right now. I know this was a CIF project over here. We know that that's competitive. I do believe that that's coming to a close shortly. And I know that the town is already looking for, I believe, additional CIF funding. You don't want to compete against one another. Right. for projects like that. So that would be something that whoever takes over the project at that point in time would need to canvas and to see what funding is available for it. The next phase of it is the larger phase of it and the more expensive phase to it. So I do believe that it will be difficult to receive the full amount for that. I mean, we asked for seven million for this or seven and a half. We got four. So that's why we had to scale the project down as part of this. But to move forward, you're talking anywhere between, you know, 11 to 15 million dollars to complete it. So that's that's a. A good size number. And that also depends on what it is that we do in terms of the field use itself. And I think that that's yet to be determined. The project was designed for artificial turf, could very easily be converted over to natural grass. That's a decision that the town will need to make when that time comes on what it is that you're looking for. From a programmatic standpoint, I am highly in favor of artificial turf. You're seeing it more and more places, but there is controversy that comes around with that as well. So I don't want to elaborate too much further at this. I know that we are meeting internally to discuss those in the next week and a half, I believe, or maybe next week, but it's coming up very shortly to have an internal discussion on that and what the recommendation will ultimately be.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Do we have any comments, questions? Okay, Councilor Beetham-Brown.

Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. Before I make my comment, can I just ask a question to Councilor Goodwin? Does your screen look fuzzy? Like it's not, it's like your screen, I'm seeing you clear and bright, but the council chamber When the chair is speaking, it looks a little fuzzy. Oh, yeah.

It does. Dave, you're clear, so that's good. So I was... I wanted to make sure it wasn't my eyesight.

It wasn't my eyesight. And two, I'm not sure if you guys can clear that up a little bit, but it looks a little fuzzy. I really just wanted to say a great big ginormous thank you to Dave Malesko. I've had the pleasure of working with Dave for years, even before I was mayor and before I was on council. And the way that Dave represents the town of Bloomfield is in my opinion, stellar. And everything that you have done, Dave really reflects well on our town and on you as an individual. Everything that I've ever asked you to do, even when you said no, you said it in such a way that couldn't be upset with you. You are a true asset to the town of Bloomfield and whatever your next is going to be, I am sure it's going to be just as phenomenal. I want to say personally, this is Suzette DeBeathen Brown, and I'm going to miss you and everything that you have brought to the table for the town of Bloomfield. Thank you so very much. We are definitely losing a gem, but I truly understand. And I just want you to know that you are truly appreciated. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The council chamber is still fuzzy.

Yeah, we don't have anyone to make any adjustments for this tonight. So it will probably remain as such. Sorry. Councilor Cooper.

Thank you Mr. Mayor for allowing me to speak and so I just want to let me say the same thing uh dave uh you know you've been a great help from what i've seen of course being you know newer on council just in the second term but even uh from the first term to now uh you've been great and really appreciate you know all your efforts for the town of bloomfield and its residents uh what you've done and and in such a professional manner uh and you know you you know a lot of things that um help move this town forward which is always a welcome space to be in. And so I do have maybe one or two questions with some of the design that we have. And I know you said it would If we fully fleshed out all of the design, you're talking about another, if we got $4 million, then you're talking another what? $10 million or so?

Well, the actual project, full project was valued at just under $15 million with turf design.

Okay, so with turf, that would be, we're talking another $11 million or so.

Probably 11 plus at this point. You know, this was a few years back when we did the cost estimating on that. It was a high cost estimating when we went through it initially, which we found over here, working with Banesh once we got them on board. So it could be a little under, but that was the value at that time.

Okay. And just to, you know, just asking through you, Mr. Mayor, as you said, I think Rockwell is important for our town and hopefully we can hopefully we can get it moved forward to the TPZ and maybe reach out to these folks. I think it's Mr. Lester and get it on there. so we can move forward, right? I think that each and every step for the project is extremely important. And we know that delays cost money. That's been evident from every project in Bloomfield that we've had, whether it's, you know, been the 330 or whether it's been the library or it's been Philly. Those are, you know, those delays are money cost. money grabbers, right, especially in this economy. So, again, my hope is that we are able to really move this thing forward and make a last push. Dave, I don't know what you can do for us, but certainly, you know, anything you can do, Mr. Mayor, through you, any internal things that you can do to make it happen would be great. Those are my thoughts. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any other questions? Questions, comments for Mr. Malesko before we move forward?

Yes. If I could just respond. Thank you very much for the kind words. The pleasure has definitely been mine for the 26 years that I've worked here. I do it for the community. I enjoy it with what I do. I do believe it has had an impact on the Bloomfield community, and I'm very proud of that. But it really has been a pleasure. It's a great community. So thank you all for allowing me to be here.

Thank you. I'm just going to bring up one little thing. It reminded me this past week with the Caribbean Festival. It was all wet around the grassy area, and my band used to come up and play. I remember I had a truck. that came onto that grass and you being the the person that you are let me know in no uncertain terms get that truck out of here uh you know uh you were you were definitely making sure that the grounds here were going to remain in great shape and i didn't know how our relationship would go from there but it's been exceptional

So, yes, I can be passionate with the things that I do. I care about the grounds. I care about the looks of it. I really think that the curb curb appeal is very important for any area that you are, whether it be your residence or be the place of employment in this in this case here, the community at large. So, yes, I can be passionate at times.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you very much for having me.

At this time, we'll move to new business discussion regarding the update on the plan for conservation and development. Introducing our director, John Coleman.

Mr. Mayor, we can't hear online. Sorry about that.

There you go, John. Thanks. I'd like to return for a moment to the old business item, Rockwell Park. Two things. One, TPZ, building and land use staff are working very much with the engineer and with Dave's staff to get that in a position to get it before the TPZ as soon as possible, hopefully for the August meeting. You should know that the TPZ has changed some of their policies and They now decide what's going to be on their agenda. That sometimes stretches things out a month. They now operate the way that Wetlands does. We present a whole bunch of items to them. They decide what's going to be on the next meeting's agenda. But we will move this along as quickly as we can. And secondly, equally important, management is working with Dave's staff to ensure there's a smooth transition for all of his projects, particularly this one. in terms of there being the proper and appropriate supervision to ensure that the project goes along and that funding opportunities begin to be explored for the second phase. And finally, speaking personally, and I think speaking for every member of the CSLBT and directors, we feel the same way about David as you do. He's been a an absolutely professional, marvelous individual to work with from a professional standpoint, but also from a personal standpoint. I've had the opportunity to work with him both as an elected official and as a peer, but this town has been exceedingly fortunate to have his service. He will be sorely missed, so it's bittersweet. We wish him well and success going forward. And I think his legacy will remain in many places in terms of the conditions of the facilities, the times of programs that we have now in town, and how those are managed. With that, I move to the plan of conservation and development. We are on a schedule that I presented to you at the last meeting. The staff has completed it. It's revisions to the text has forwarded them to Goldman and York, who is now formatting the book. And we had at the meeting last week, I was not present in person. The commission went over probably for the fourth time, the future land use map. They had a series of changes recommended and staff is now working on those. with the intent of getting it back to the Commission by the end of next week for their review so that they can act upon it at the regular planning meeting, which they have four of those a year, on August 20. And hopefully we'll have them booked by then. A lot depends on how satisfied they are with us implementing the changes, but we've got some we asked for and got some very clear direction there. So I think we're on schedule to get it to you by September. Okay. I'd be happy to answer any questions. Okay.

I know we have a couple of counselors online. Are there any of you that are interested in asking any questions relative to the POCD? Seeing, okay, Councilor Cooper.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Director Coleman, how you doing?

Getting back in the saddle.

Awesome, awesome. That's two of us. So we are going to, the land use, POCD rather, will go to the Land Use Commission on the 20th?

We'll go to the TPZ on the 20th.

TPZ on the 20th.

Right, and they're the controlling body.

Right, and so this is an item that they're going to have at their quarterly meeting. Correct. To take up. And then we will be scheduled for a town hearing, correct?

Then gets, um, if they act on it, they will then have the 30 day on statutory referral to the council, which would allow the commission to act on it. Formally adopted at its September meeting.

Okay. Okay. So it'll come back to the council and then, then the public hearing. Correct. Okay. All right. Um, yeah, hopefully that, that is done. I think that, um, the urgency of a POCD we all know is for SIF applications, right?

There won't be anyone happier than me to complete it.

Right, right. So, and that's really what I'm talking about. You know, I'm just, when I'm talking about things, really, I'm talking about the urgency of them and that how they're going to affect the town of Bloomfield. And I think that certainly we all need to work together. I don't, it doesn't matter which side of the aisle or anywhere that you're at. I think these are all things that we all need to work together to move forward, right, for the residents of the town of Bloomfield and certainly for our greater good. As Dave Malesko just said, Curb appeal.

Well, it's your conservation and development vision for the town for the next 10 years. Right. So it's a set of policies and strategies that not only guide the TPZ and others, but also provide some guidance to you as well in the development and conservation decisions that you make.

I just look forward to seeing it. We do too. Okay.

Thank you. I did see Councilor DeBethan Brown's hand. Was that a legacy hand or?

No, Mr. Chair. Thank you for acknowledging that. I think my question might come up on the next item. So I'm going to just wait and see if I can get the answer then. If not, I'll ask you the question. Thank you, sir.

You're welcome. I also want to acknowledge that our deputy mayor Lloyd is on as well. So certainly feel free to inquire or participate in this conversation. So thank you very much for coming.

Thank you.

You're welcome. So we'll move to a discussion regarding business development updates. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

I'm sort of, as I said, I was away for a couple of weeks, so Some of this is I've got a fairly good complete update from my staff. And hopefully I haven't missed something. But on the town center plan, the major update is that we have released the RFQ RFP for a developer. The second one is out with a response date in mid-September. And we'll see. Hopefully we will generate more than one response. I would ask all of you, if anyone who is potentially a developer or a representative thereof makes an inquiry of you, that you not talk to them. And that's very important that they only communicate at this time with the purchasing agent. They can't contact me either so that everyone is on an even keel. And there's no bias or potential bias built into the process. I think that most applicants, if not all, will understand that, but sometimes we have to explain that to them. We've been over the plan of conservation and development, and I'll jump to that. Under policy ordinances and a number of changes, actions, The cannabis moratorium was lifted because we adopted new regulations with significant limits where they can be. And they're basically limited to one retail in one industrial zone. So it's fairly limited. We have no applications before us. In keeping with the state passed legislation, we are drafting what's called middle housing regulations. which are regulations that basically allow middle housing, which is considered up to nine units in commercial zones as a matter of right. And our zoning regulations have to reflect that. We have adopted new solar regulations, which significantly basically make it very difficult for a solar array to be located in town of any type in terms of using up existing open space for solar arrays and The commission does not think that's particularly appropriate. We only control those that are under a million megawatts. Anything over that obviously goes to the siting council. We would have to interview if we had objections to that. I'm aware of only one that was proposed. That will not be allowed now under our zoning regulations. Whether they increase the size so that they become under siting, I do not know. We're working on a series of text amendments both to respond to other areas of the state statutes, but to clean up a lot of inconsistencies in the regulations and Councilman Cooper to also make sure that data centers are not permitted in town. You won't see it as data centers. You'll see we're making a couple of technical amendments. Basically, we have this crazy clause that in the zoning regulations that says The Commission can permit something that's not already listed if it meets certain conditions that's being removed So that if it's not listed as a permitted use it's not permitted And that will that process should start with the August 27th regular non-planning meeting We're continuing to work on fund policies for the housing trust fund. That for me is becoming more critical because we have a couple of developments out there who have affordable housing requirements, who may choose to use the payment in lieu of building options, instead of actually providing the units we require.

Your order already?

We allow a certain amount of money requirements per unit to go into the housing trust fund. So there could be some significant infusion in the next couple of years of money into that fund. So we're working on audiences. I know that the council has a, great interest in that being available not only to potential developers but also existing homeowners and small. So we want to try and do it in a way that it provides the services that you want to provide but doesn't overload the administrative side and making sure that we don't fall into the issues we had with the last housing rehabilitation fund where a lot of the data is not documented. We're continuing also to work on developing the appropriate code enforcement citation and collection because we're doing much more code enforcement, but we have to update the town ordinances on the collection side and on the hearing side because if you're going to have collections, you also have to allow for hearings. You will be receiving at your August meeting, if I get my button gear, The proposed changes to the fee schedule for building and land use that you incorporated into the FY27 budget. We are also preparing a draft with the town attorney for a pilot ordinance. That's a payment in lieu of taxes ordinance. State statutes allow us to do that. We have not finalized one. We have a tax agreement ordinance, but we do not have a payment in lieu of, and we know there's going to be a request coming in for that. Um, hammer completing as requested, um, publication or a building and land use policies and procedures, uh, as well as preparing material for, um, the annual report and, uh, continuing to work on overall policies and procedures, uh, as requested by the town manager. In terms of development under construction, uh, really not much change. Um, everything that's listed there is on under construction and underway. The one item that's not on there that we bring up every time is our favorite eatery over by Geisler's Popeyes. I am becoming more and more frustrated with them. And what I plan to do is get in direct contact with the CEO of the corporation itself located in Florida and explained to him that his proposed development is an eyesore and a very critical part of the center. And that we had hoped to welcome him as a productive and positive new member of the community. And so far he's not demonstrating that. And it does not, in my opinion, reflect well on his business and his organization. And that I would hope that he can find a way to expedite the completion of the project. So we'll let you know what happens there. We continue to work with the first cathedral on their development. They will be, they have started the process of getting their land use approvals. They are right now in the wetlands agency. 800 Cottage Grove Road, the FEIS economic development proposed tax agreement proposal has had its review completed. And we're waiting to have a subsequent meeting with the appropriate folks to move that along probably as soon as the manager returns. and phase four of the town center report apartments has initiated its FEIS approval process that's just begun. He and Goldman and York have reached an agreement to proceed, and so that's underway, probably be completed in the next four weeks. And then by the numbers, as is usually expected in July, Most of the, we had 190 in-person visits. We had 1,100 plus phone call-in conversations. We had 192 building permits, which is on the use of the permits used here in the spring. The building is underway now. However, we had $121,000 permit value and a little over $9 million in construction value. So the town is still moving along at a very good development pace. And we've got... The last thing I would mention, which is not on the list, there is renewed interest in 132 Griffin Road North, which is, but not for a data center, but for a residential development. They've requested to come in and have the first pre-development meeting with the staff, so we're in the process of arranging that. But that could be also another significant development. Matt, I'd be happy to answer questions. I don't know if I answered Councilman Demetan Brown's question in my presentation, but let's give it a crack.

You have the floor.

Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. That tickled me. Let's give it a crack. So I am hoping that you can answer, um, Thank you for the presentation, the in-depth presentation. I'm gonna also ask if we can get that presentation after this meeting. So I've been hearing about a developer who has $85 million that they wanna put into the Wintonbury Mall. Is that a thing or am I not hearing properly?

I'm not aware specifically of that, Councilman. And if I was, I could not at this point discuss it because the RFQ is out there and I would urge you not to discuss it either. I know that sounds counterproductive.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I thoroughly agree with you. I heard it and I'm sure we can go back to past meetings and listen to the replay to So those kind of things, they perk up my ears, like who in the world is it? And number two is like, are we making this, are we even saying this to the public? So thank you. I will discuss this with you and Mr. Chair offline. But if you go back into some of our meetings, you'll be able to hear it yourself. But thank you so much.

Be pleased to do that. And that would be appropriate. Thank you.

So I have a couple of questions. First, Arabella, just an update relative to their onboarding of a compliance person.

They have selected a compliance officer. It's a construction firm. I don't remember the initials. I should, and that should have been in there. And their letter of agreement has been referred to the town attorney for his review and approval. I have not heard back from him, but I will follow up tomorrow. But my sense is that that should be a go. Okay.

And once on board, they're going to basically facilitate contacting contractors that will meet our expected goals.

They will facilitate that. They'll also track... the efforts of Arbel itself. They will be able to provide publicly to us the numbers. They will be able to provide the actual names of the contractors to the town attorney, but that information, as stated in the agreement, would not be made public.

uh i had been recently contacted um by uh the first cathedral in reference to their proposal so i know you've been on vacation is is there a meeting plan i know the the call that came to me was an inquiry about getting together so i was just wondering if something was on the books for for that there are ongoing meetings with regarding the land use application okay um

I'm not aware of any meetings regarding the financial aspects of the project as yet. I'm still going through all my emails and I will also check with Anitasha to see whether a meeting needs to be scheduled or has, if not, I will schedule it.

Okay. Okay. Thank you. And 800 Bloomfield Avenue. 800 Cottage Grove Road. I mean Cottage Grove Road. I'm sorry.

That has, FEIS has been completed. The modifications were made. We've gotten the third round completed. the managers prepared to make a presentation as appropriate to the folks that should receive that.

So they did communicate with our consultant on trying to determine how the best way to approach the...

There is a, we were provided four options, all of which the developer would accept. We have a preferred option. They and we have a preferred option, and it's the same option.

Okay. And lastly, that eyesore on Tungsten Avenue. I'm told by some businesses in that area that they're looking to sell and have another company come in. But I can't see that because it's built as a Popeye's.

So... Yeah, I don't... I mean, if you go out to Simsbury or Hot Metal Street, they just opened a Chipotle. From the outside, the building looks identical. So if, if I don't know how much I can certainly find out, but I don't know how much of the interior work's been done, you know, whether the kit, I don't think the kitchen has been installed or any of that because they haven't even put the doors on, you know, they've got plywood up for where the door spaces are and some of the window spaces. So I suspected all the interior improvements still need to be made. And if that's the case, I think the building could be transferable to another, another franchise. Okay. Um, I have not, you know, that's out on the street, those conversations. Yes. I hope that by communicating with the CEO of Popeye's ownership, we can get some light shed on the whole situation.

definitely uh that would be great because there are many residents that are contacting us whether they see us in a restaurant or on the street not doing the community any good and it certainly isn't doing popeyes any good right right and we need to be able to respond and answer to some of those questions yep thank you uh are there any yes council cooper

Hey, Mr. Chair, thank you, Director Coleman. Yeah, I'm not going to be the dead horse, but that Popeye's thing. And it seems to me, really, that they are using our own regulations against us. They keep bumping up against the line and then going in and doing something and then pulling back.

And those are state regulations. That's the state building code.

Right. You know, and that's that.

They are. And I mean, and they, you know, then. the contractor says, you know, when I get some money, I do it. So, and he was building three at one time. Now we know one in a recent town went up in six months. So, you know, it can be done. We're working on three years here. Right. They've made no attempt to make the property at least appear either screen it or, or grade it so that it isn't the eyesore that it is.

Right. Um, I just maybe one or one, one other question. The we'll look forward to the review of the policies for the housing trust fund. I think that that's, you know, that's one of the things that I'm pushing for and wanted to see, um, which would be applicable for businesses and residents.

Hopefully we'll have it to you sometime in September. Um, my coat, my coat hosting crime on that is, uh, the director of communications and operations. And, um, She has a pretty heavy agenda right now.

Understood. Lastly, I'm just going to ask a question about the draft ordinance on the payment of Lua taxes, the pilot program. Just real quick for us, is that something based on You know, I know that states use it with the state, Connecticut uses it with its municipalities, counties and towns and things of that nature. But is this something that we, Bloomfield, is using as an authority for private organizations?

Yeah, it's a totally separate process and ordinance and statute. The state has a payment in lieu of taxes system. to municipalities for state-owned property and nonprofit on-prem. This is an ordinance that is locally adopted that allows the town, with the council's approval, to enter into basically a fixed payment for an extended period of time. Normally related to the financing, when federal and state financing are involved, in housing development. And it's there because the financiers are requiring it to make, in their opinion, the financial profile feasible.

Right, so it works for the feds, right? My thing is this. I want it to not only work for the federal side, but I want it to work for the municipal side, us being Bloomfield, because they would be paying... payments in lieu of taxes while not providing affordable housing, right, for residents in the town of Bloomfield. And so however that works, right, I would definitely love to see that we are on the side where the scales tip for us. If I'm going to be asked to not provide housing affordable housing for residents in the town of Bloomfield, then that scale, as far as what we are compensated needs to tip in our favor.

Well, I think first of all, you know, it wouldn't be applied unless affordable housing was, was a significant part of the development. I think otherwise you're going to go to your tax agreement side of things. Okay. And secondly, I want to retain my job. So I don't think I'm going to develop a set of ordinances. That's going to be non-beneficial to the town and try and present them to you.

Right.

I think you'd, uh, suggest that, uh, I might want to be somewhere else.

No, John, you know, I, listen, I, I trust your judgment. I know that you, you know, been in this business a long time, all the way back from the city of Hartford. Right. Um, but you know, I do, I just, I want to know your point is well put, but I think, um,

They will probably be fairly sophisticated ordinance, but one that fully protects the interests of the town. Awesome. And gives you great, you know, obviously significant discretion as to whether or not you want to use it and to what extent you want to use it.

Thank you. Additional thought. Do you have right now an estimation of what the housing fund level is currently?

So I know we've had quite a bit of, I would think it's approaching 700,000. I think we've probably put in on close to $200,000 in permits over the last year and a quarter. I may be a little high, but that's where it is. But if we, If we go to a couple of these developments that want to do payment in lieu of providing units, you're talking millions of dollars. You're talking significant dollars, which creates a very significant fund where we have to have some really good policies and administrative procedures that allow for the selection of recipients but also the monitoring with those recipients and particularly if there's going to be a payback schedule that that schedule is maintained, you know, and whether or not, I mean, one thought we've had is, which we discussed when we originally talked about the fund, is whether or not that administrative requirement wants to rest with town staff Or we, in essence, contract it out to a financial institution, such as one of our local banks, where maybe they get a percentage fee, but we run it all through them, which is probably a much more, which to me is an attractive alternative.

So, I know there's a whole lot of areas that we want to cover with this 700,000, but in reality, it'll go much faster if we have too many things to cover. So in the development of this ordinance or the regulations for this, do you have an idea of what the main features will be?

Well, from what we've heard, the guidance we've received from you all, there seem to be two major areas of focus. One is development and assisting proposed developments that are providing us affordable housing in whatever aspect makes sense in terms of plan development, financing, whatever. And secondly, the individual homeowner in terms of, and potentially businesses in terms of facade improvements, painting houses, roofing, and that our homeowners are pressed to cover because of the present economic times or their economic situation. The latter is much more challenging to administer. but we will develop guidances basically for those two directions. And whether or not we want to do set-asides for one or the other, I think we'll give you options on that and the council and guidance as to whether that makes sense. Obviously, once Indy and I finish our side, we will obviously involve the town attorney and the director of finance to make sure that they are on board with it.

Okay.

Thank you. Councilor DeBetham-Browne?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm going to assume that we are going, the council will also get to people on that before it becomes finalized?

Absolutely.

There was a program, and for some strange reason, I'm not going to say it's because of my age. I'm going to say it's because I'm tired. There was a program of similar nature that other towns have, and I know that we had it in Bloomfield as well, where residents could borrow money for improvements. And I think we also got some assistance with that program. Do you know the program I'm talking about?

Yeah, I can't remember the entitled, but you're correct. I think it started about 15 years ago, and it was basically a combination of state and federal funds. And a grant was made to the town, and then the It was distributed. Some of the properties received a grant that was not paid back. Other properties received a loan and the town put a lien on the property. In all candor, Councilwoman.

So I got a lifeline. I love my lifelines. I'm going to say thank you to my lifeline. It's the CBDG funds, right? Now that money... was not just town money. We were also getting money from other places. Why aren't we trying to bolster and restart that fund? I know back in the ages when I was on council, it was that reports weren't done properly. We would have to get the reports up to snuff and probably apply again. But if this is more money that we can get in our coffers to help our residents, whether it's a a loan or a grant, wouldn't that be more beneficial to us?

It would be, certainly. I think the issue is, are those funds and those types of grants still available? We'll certainly sort that out. I don't think they are at the federal level. There may still be some through the Department of Housing with the state.

They come from the federal government.

Okay, so... Well, it came through the feds, and the state had some of its own money.

Right. So I know that compliance was a problem, right? So if we can go ahead and look into that, because once again, if we have a little bit of our money and a little bit of state money or a little bit of federal money, it stretches along a longer way. And it's more beneficial to us as a town and to our residents. So if we can see, if we can clear up some of those compliance issues, and if we can try to reapply for whatever is out there, that's going to be able to help to stretch our funds, I think that will be beneficial. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Any other questions?

Thank you, Director Coleman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the committee.

Thank you.

Next, we would move to administrative report from town administration, but I don't believe we'll be able to move forward with that item tonight. Okay, thank you. We will now move to public comments. Okay, so we are now moving public comments to the availability of our online participants, if you are interested in. participating, please raise your hand, let us know and we will open the floor. For your comments for those living in bloomfield it will be three minutes and for those who are not residents of bloomfield it will be two minutes. Going once. Going twice. Going three times. So that will close our public comments area. I did want to take just, well, we'll move to the approval of minutes. July 6th, 2026.

I'd like to make a motion that we approve the minutes for July 6th.

Do we have a second?

Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed? Any abstentions? Okay, the motion passes. Before we move to the next area, I just want to take a moment to acknowledge one of our residents, Aaron Behringer, for putting on a really... great fundraising event this past Friday. Actually, it was just a wonderful night in total. The Caribbean Festival, we had about four or five food trucks. They all did exceptionally well. They had great entertainment of our young people as well as The groups that were performing, they had Steel Band and they had a couple of other groups. And money was raised for Interval House and for teachers' items for the year. So we're really, really appreciative of your effort. We won't talk about the whole dunking situation, but someone was dunked often. But I really, really just want to praise the effort because we can do some dynamic things in this community. I just want to tip my hat off to that effort. At this moment, Joe wasn't here to ask us this. Mr.

Chair, can I interject before me? I don't mind making the motion for adjournment. I just wanted to say to our clerk of council, Ms. Latanya, we are thinking about you and keeping you in our prayers. Just wanted you to know that. Definitely, you know, people say you're in my prayers, but you really are in my thoughts and my prayers. And I'm holding good space for you. So with that, I'd like to make a motion to adjourn.

Second.

Wait a minute, wait a minute. Actually, I just passed my parliamentarian class. And the only thing the chair has to say is, With no other items on the agenda, this meeting stands at adjournment. It doesn't have to be a motion.

With no other items on the agenda, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you very much. Thank you. Go ahead, girl.

I passed my class. I passed my class yesterday.