Town Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, Bloomfield. We're gonna start with a public hearing. The purpose of this hearing is to solicit public input regarding the revisions to the town ordinance, chapter six, sections 6-2, 6-6, 6-7, and 6-8 of the Bloomfield Code of Ordinances, as well as chapter 15, section 15 six concerning planning and zoning application fees. A copy of the draft revisions are available in the town clerk's office for public inspection. At this time, if there's anyone that has signed up to speak, you are welcome to the platform. Please give your name and address. for the hearing. Now, if you're here for other public comments, you can wait, but this is for the public hearing. Are there any that have expressed an interest? Okay, are there any that possibly may be on Zoom?

I'd like to make a motion that the public hearing be closed.

Okay. We're all set. We'll now ask for everyone to rise as we will continue.

Wait, you got to take a vote. It was moved. It was second and now you have to vote on it.

Okay.

All those in favor. Aye. Those not in favor.

No.

Okay.

So the public hearing is now closed.

Public hearing is now closed. We now stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

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

We now have our roll call. Councilor Cooper is not here. Councilor DeBiefen-Brown?

Here. Councilor Mahon?

Here. Councilor Oliver is out as well. Councilor Merritt. Councilor Waterhouse.

Here.

Councilor Goodwin. Present. Deputy Mayor Lloyd.

Here.

And Mayor Anthony Harrington is here. I want to briefly just state that two of our counselors are out due to extenuating circumstances with their families. So we pray that everything works out well for each of them. And we'll continue with announcements and presentations. I do have one statement. In keeping with my promise to address some of the questions that come up during public comment, I'd like to address questions concerning the newly established Charter Revision Commission. As you know, this is the second Charter Revision Commission that has been established in the past few years. The initial commission was disbanded upon council vote, accepting that commission's recommendations for charter changes. Although those recommended revisions did not make it into the ballot, we are able to build on the work that was done by that commission. This past February, the council established a new commission to review the charter for potential revision. In an attempt to build in some efficiency into the process, the new commission was constituted with the same members as the last commission, given their familiarity with the process. As you know, council set a date of late January, 2027 for a draft report to be submitted. State statute allows us to be flexible with our draft report submission dates, so if the Commission does not meet this deadline, it will be extended, but our hope is that this task can be completed by the end of January 2027. Keep in mind, the draft report is just that, a draft, and we don't expect this process to get wrapped up until sometime late next year and for the revisions to make it into the November 2027 ballot. I hope these remarks address some of the questions that have come up regarding this new charter revision commission and the charter revision process. Thank you very much. And at this point, we will move to awards presentations. This is for the Bloomfield Wild for Wildlife Photo Contest. I do have some awards to be presented. So we congratulate each winner and thank everyone who participated by sharing photographs that highlight Bloomfield's wildlife and natural environment. The first awardee. Oh my goodness. I hope I can pronounce the name. Gabrielle Ohanji. Gabrielle Ohanji. Okay, we will put her award right here. And we will come with the second award. Robert Morrisey.

Can we get to see the pictures? Is there a picture?

There's a, actually come over here.

It's just a deer. It's a deer? A deer deer. Oh, sorry.

It states. Certificate of wildlife photography. Move the mic over, Mr. Mayor.

Certificate of Wildlife Photography Distinction in the category of Young and Wild. The following award is given to Robert Maurici for outstanding achievement in documenting Bloomfield's natural heritage during Wild for Wildlife Month, 2026. Your photograph, Deer in My Backyard, exemplifies artistic excellence and ethical wildlife observation, contributing to our community conservation legacy.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. The next honoree is Douglas Murray. Douglas Murray. Okay, well, we thank you for your contribution and we will make sure that you get your award very shortly. And there is one more. This award goes out to Dwight Hatch. Is there a Dwight Hatch in the house? Of course, I would come to the microphone and no one, shows, but his award was a certificate of wildlife photography distinction in the category of pollinator power. That is Dwight Hatch. And the other was an award in the category of golden hour hunters. So we thank each and every one of you for your contribution and This one was to Douglas Murray. So thank you very much for your support. Now we'll move to citizen statements and petitions.

Members of the town council, town manager, fellow citizens of Bloomfield. My name is Robert Berman. I reside at 8 Hiram Lane. On July 22nd, 2026, I requested a copy of the addendum to the town attorney's contract from the town clerk's office. On August 17th, 2026, I requested copies of the invoices submitted by the town attorney's law office since November 1st, 2023. As of today, I have not received either of these requests. I have been informed by the town clerk's office that the request for the addendum to the town attorney's office was referred to the town manager's office. and that the request for the invoices would refer to the finance department. Discussions with former employees of the finance department indicated that all invoices are routinely scanned into the computer and that an electronic file requesting invoices can be produced in a timeframe that varies from as little as 10 seconds to as much as 45 seconds. I am therefore respectfully requesting that the town council direct the town manager who has the copy of the addendum in his office town attorneys at Denham in his office, to produce it for me within 48 hours. In addition, I respectfully ask you, this town council, to direct the town manager, direct the finance department, to provide the requested invoices within the next 48 hours also. If this town council or this administration is interested in transparency as claimed, then this should be a no-brainer. If, however, both this town council and administration wish to continue not to respond to the residents of Bloomfield, then these two simple requests will continue to be ignored. I ask that this statement be entered into the official minutes of this meeting. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next speaker.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Elizabeth Lane, and I live at 33 Burnwood Drive. I also have the pleasure of serving as your library director. I prepared my notes tonight because last time I was up here, I got a little nervous. I'd like to take a few minutes tonight to highlight two things we're celebrating at the library this month, Library Card Sign-Up Month and Hispanic Heritage Month. September is Library Card Sign-Up Month, and this year's theme is A Library Card Hits All the Right Notes. I think that's a great reminder that a library card could connect you to so many different things. Getting a Bloomfield Public Library card is free, easy, and empowering. All you need is an ID with your Bloomfield address or a piece of mail showing your address. And one of the things we're especially lucky to have here in the state of Connecticut is that your BPL card can be used at any public library in Connecticut, including the newly opened Manchester Public Library that had their grand opening today. So be a library tourist and go see everything that public libraries in Connecticut have to offer. Every community member is entitled to a free library card from birth. Just remember that your card needs to be renewed every three years. Library cards unlock so much more than books. It gives you access to free programs and workshops, streaming media, museum passes, job and career resources, digital collections, and so much more. Our library community is growing too. As of September 1st of this month, 7,552 Bloomfield residents had active library cards. We love seeing that number grow and seeing more people take advantage of everything their public library has to offer. So if you know someone with a new baby, someone who just moved into town, or someone who simply hasn't gotten around to getting a library card yet, tell them to be sharp and stop by the library. Tomorrow marks the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from September 15th through October 15th. This is an important opportunity to recognize and celebrate the significant contributions Hispanic and Latin Americans have made and continue to make to our country. At the library, we see this as an opportunity to amplify Hispanic, Latin, and Latin American voices to share the incredibly diverse and richness of these cultures. We have a number of programs coming up, including book and film discussions, live performances, and bilingual literacy programs for young people. We also have Spanish language collections for all ages, both in print and through our digital resources, including Hoopla, Libby, and Canopy. And your library card can even help you learn conversational Spanish through the Mango Languages app, which is available to library card holders. So if you ever wanted to learn a little Spanish or brush up on what you already know, you can do that for free through your library. There's really something at the library for everyone, and it all starts with your library card. So come say hi to us today. Thank you.

Thank you.

Erin Berringer.

Good evening, Erin Berringer. 28 Kenmore Road. First, since I'll follow the library, I wanted to share that the library also has the Teen Advisory Group, which my son is participating in, and I share this for other members of the community that might like to participate. because they have some wonderful programs offering. And I wanted to share that Interval House is providing a series of health education programs for teens all around teen dating violence, consent and boundaries, how to stay human in the digital age, and the ups and downs in friendship. And this is, again, offered for everybody, not only the teen advisory group, but they're asking the TAG members to be advocates and share these wonderful programs at the library. I also want to make note, I've shared this before about open finance and our system that the residents can look at our expenditures. And in reviewing that, about 7% of the budget is for this fiscal year is categorized in that undefined category that I talked about. So I would urge as changes are being made with Director Hill's departure, I would respectfully ask that the finance department categorize those undefined into the appropriate categories. And finally, I know that Mayor Harrington just shared information on the charter revision process. And although I appreciate and understand this new commission, I think some of the buzz and turn is the question still hasn't been answered on what happened, considering that there were five motions between 2024 and 2025. There still, to me, is not a clear answer of why the question was not on the ballot. And I bring that up not to I bring it up because if we're going to go through another commission, we've got to learn from the misstep or mistake so that we are assured as a public that it doesn't happen again and that the question will be on the ballot. Thank you.

Thank you.

Are there any other residents, non-residents who would like to speak that are online going once, going twice, going three times? Okay. Our citizen statements and petitions are now closed. We'll now move to reports for council subcommittees, starting with governance, policy and economic development. so we have not met since our last council meeting but uh there has been quite a bit uh that's been going on i will speak in particular with reference to our cif proposal spoke with the lieutenant governor today and i understand that as of friday we will know not if we've received the award but if we are on the agenda to have discussion about the awards. So we're told Friday will be that date. Next week, a decision will be made. Counselors and our Senator Slab, Representative Gibson and Representative Kahn, as well as, Senator McCrory have been notified and encouraged to put good word out that This is something very important for our community and many others have also sought to speak with other representatives throughout the state. So we're hopeful that we get a positive result. We also have quite a few activities in town. I know many of you have been let's say salivating at the thought that Popeyes would finally be completed. We did find out there were two major obstacles. One was a year and a half issue with Eversource, which was resolved. And then secondarily, there was an issue with CNG. The issue with CNG has not totally been resolved, but they may find another avenue to move forward with gas. If any of you have seen the site, they've been working on it every day, so we're very excited and happy that Director Coleman had really laid the gauntlet and made sure that they started and are now at the point of nearly completing. I would ask if Director Coleman could possibly give us an update regarding... Oh, in your... Okay, okay. So I will not continue with that, but thank you very much. We will move now to finance, budget, audit, and bonding presented by our Deputy Mayor, Cindy Lloyd.

Good evening. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Reporting out for our last Finance Committee meeting, 8-17-26, there were some very encouraging updates regarding our fiscal year 25 and 26 audits. I'll recap. It was reported by then Director Hill that the trial balance was submitted the week of July 20th as the 2025 audit was submitted to CLA. On July 27th, CLA began their field work. 727 BOE and the town submitted many of the deliverables that were requested by CLA. It takes two to three months to go over all the materials, finish the onsite work, wrap up the loose ends or any deliverables, questions that our consultants may have. So we're looking at FY25 hopefully being accepted. for signatures or review signatures and submission to the state by mid-October. And then once returned, they are still currently actively working on 2026. So there's a lot of multitasking that is going on. This will be the first time since 2020 that an on-time start of the audit has happened once we get to 2027. So backing up to 2026, we expect that the work is currently being done simultaneously with wrapping up 25 and in preparation for fiscal year 2027-28 budget. So there's a lot of work going on right now. The hope is that by mid-March, the submission of the fiscal year 2026 audit will take place. And I believe the town manager, who can correct me if I'm wrong later, stated that we're getting an early start on our budget so that we will be able to be very efficient and effective with that process next year, which also will likely ensue in the beginning of March of 2027. The vast majority of accounts are reconciled as he moved into the June 2026 and July 2027 monthly updates. The vast majority of accounts are reconciled. We are current for 2026 until July. So that is really encouraging news with so many different balls in the air. It's anticipated that it'll only be about three months behind when we do the audit simultaneously going into budget. And so with that said, we've previously known that we've been in a non-compliant status And so less than six months would make you delinquent with the state. And so I think it's important to just put it out there. We're not looking at eight months, 12 months, 15 months. But as it relates to the 2026 audit, we may be looking at three months, which is a far cry from anything that we've seen since 2020. The assistant town accountant has been posted. And at this point, may have been appointed, so I may stand corrected, but at the time it was reported that interviews were forthcoming within a couple of weeks of that last meeting. And the assistant town accountant is going to be integral working with the town accountant slash assistant finance director and beefing up our finance department to make sure that we are able to keep up and have a really strong bench. to ensure that going forward, we will be on time and on point with audits as well as budget and other daily activities that need to occur. BOE, question came up about BOE and MUNIS. We know that they are still in transition. However, they are up to speed, accounts payable. They are actively utilizing MUNIS for that, but their payroll implementation is still ongoing and training. Their target date to fully transition is January of So with the June and July 2026 monthly financial reports as presented, it was nothing striking to report being in the first month of fiscal year 2027. However, Assistant Director Donna Stewart gladly, and I'm happy that she did, noted that there are over 30 bank and investment accounts that are all reconciled. and balanced through the end of July. So with that, I close my report and I may stand corrected either from Assistant Director Stewart or Town Manager Schwab relating to the open positions, but I do end my report there. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I would also like to add that Governance Policy and Economic Development Committee will meet tomorrow evening at 6 p.m. I failed to mention that.

My apologies. Finance will be meeting on next Monday, the third Monday, 921 at 6 p.m. Thank you.

Ordinarily, we would have public health, safety, and environment. For Councilor Todd Cooper, who was unable to be with us this evening, I do want to say that we are hard to go out to the family of the gentleman that lost his life. He was a tow truck operator on Tunxis Avenue and will certainly sadly be missed. I believe he was from the East Hartford area and they have been doing an events for the family because he was married and has two children. Following that horrific accident, another resident was hit by a car. So we would just like to express our thoughts and concerns to all drivers in our town to be more careful, to be less involved with phone activity. I don't know what the issue was in those instances, but we are certainly aware that we need to be much more cognizant of the areas that we drive at night and during the day. We move now to education workforce, youth development and community services. Again, in this instance, Councilor Michael Oliver is unable to be here this evening. He is in the emergency room with a family member. So we will wait to get his report at the next council meeting. We now move to Committee on Committees with Chair, Councilor Dorrell Goodwin.

Thank you, Mayor. We just met this past Thursday to wrap up a series of interviews. So far, our interviews are complete for the Bloomfield Housing Authority, Board of Assessment Appeals, Conservation Energy and Environment Committee, Environmental Development Commission, Emergency Medical Services, Fair Rent Commission, Golf Advisory Committee, Inland Wetlands and Watercourses, Lower Farmington River, Public Art Commission, Recreation Committee, youth adult council, and the youth diversion team. So all of those interviews are now complete, including offering people two times to interview. So the committee members will be able to submit according to the ordinances and the charter for each committee. And we'll have that to the council at our next council meeting. Just an update. I know that at least someone is concerned about the ethics commission. And so I'll just state that based on the ordinance for that particular commission and the town charter, the committee on committees will not actually be making a decision on that particular commission because that is supposed to be nominated and then voted on by the council. so that clarity was made it's printed it's available for anybody to look it up but because i did promise at the last meeting we will follow the ordinances and the charter for each of these committees it would have been inappropriate for us as the committee on commission the committee on committees to just sort of plunge ahead and appoint people to that so i do trust that that will be done expeditiously thank you thank you very much

Now we move to council business, the consent agenda. So I know that was in our packet and we have motion or are there any concerns? Second. All those in favor?

Aye. Aye.

So I would just like to add some, So I know that the minutes for our last meeting, our last regular meeting on August 24th, those minutes are in, I don't want to say incorrect, but they're not, they're not accurate. right, because I did send in an update, sent an email, did not receive confirmation. But we came out of executive session and there was an item added to the agenda. There was a motion. There was a vote to the agenda. I did send that update last week. So I thought that the minutes would have been updated before we voted on it tonight. So these minutes are not accurate and or correct. So I would suggest that we don't vote on them. because you're not accurate. And that email was sent. I can tell you exactly when it was sent. It was actually sent twice.

Can I make, so my suggestion would be to remove it.

Oh, absolutely.

Consent agenda, if you want to do that, but we can still move forward with the rest.

So I would request that we amend the consent agenda and take off the meeting minutes for the 24th meeting. And then please make sure that those updates are made. The email has been sent twice. Yeah.

Motion second. Yeah.

Deputy Mayor Lloyd.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I will piggyback on to what Councilor DeVita Brown said. I did see the email. I don't know about anybody else, but I did respond. I'm not sure it came through and I read it thoroughly. I don't have that exact recollection. So I would ask if everybody on council could actually go back and read the email if you haven't, or if you don't remember what it said, so that you guys can effectively vote on the minutes.

So I, I think if we're taking it off the consent agenda, these particular minutes will probably be on the next agenda for us to approve. So I would agree that we should go back in and look at it. I do know that we came out of executive session. There was a motion to add an item. The item was added and there was a vote taken to proceed with that item. Um, in the general council meeting. So yes, if we could just go back and look at the meeting minutes, that would be great.

So, so I'll second the removal of the minutes from the consent agenda and we can add it to our next meeting.

All those in favor?

Point of order.

Excuse me.

Yes. So typically, when we're removing from the consent agenda, it's to have the items voted on or that specific item voted on separately, whether we approve or disapprove. We would then have to, after it's separated, then vote to push it off into our next table, into our next meeting. So there's two steps that we have to take here to do it properly. We're still in the middle of the first step.

We're still in the middle of the first step.

It sounded like, okay, okay, no problem.

Thank you. So we need to take the vote.

Are those in favor? Aye. Any nays? I heard none. Any abstentions? No. So the motion passes. Now, will we address this or continue with...

So now we vote for the consent agenda. Okay.

Is there a motion?

So moved.

Second. All those in favor?

Aye.

I believe that was everyone.

Now we move. Now we need to vote on the minutes for the 24th. Yes. I'd like to make a motion that we table the minutes of the 24th to our next meeting to give the council an opportunity to review the edited minutes.

I do have a question. Is it the 10th and the 24th or just the 24th?

Just the 24th.

And someone seconded?

Yes, I did.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye. Did I hear aye as well?

Okay.

Okay, thank you very much. We move now to the report from our town manager.

Okay, good evening. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Madam Deputy Mayor, councilor, staff, and valued citizens of Bloomfield. For those who celebrated Rosh Hashanah this past weekend, I would like to wish you blessings and good wishes for a good year. I plan to cover the following topics this evening as part of my manager's report, update for transition plan. present recruitment efforts, fiscal year 28 budget. Madam Deputy Mayor already covered fiscal year 25 and 26 audit, but we will have some further discussion along finance with that topic, capital improvement plan projects, economic development, community events, and then I'll close today. The transition plan for 330 Park Ave for all intents is in place for parks, recreation, and leisure services with Dave Malesko presently exhausting excess leave time. Senior and social youth services departments still have directors in place until the end of the month. Transition with new staff and coaching as needed. uh with present staff will continue as needed after october 1st i do plan to have miss india rogers provide oversight of 330 park ave until the new assistant of senior and youth services is fully acclimated acclimated and prepared to provide oversight to additional two departments at 330 park ave dpw and engineering have been executing without any reduction in service with newly hired Directors. The transition plan for HR will also begin in October with a new HR director expected to be hired by the end of this month. Through an internal selection process, I've hired Miss Donna Stewart to be the town's next director of finance. That transition has begun and will be seamless. Present recruitment. HR Director, we are going to be doing the second rounds of interview this week, and we will try to schedule the final interviews of top three candidates with me within the next two weeks. Assistant Town Accountant, which has already been spoken to by Deputy Mayor, has underwent its first round of interviews. and I will be conducting the final interviews, which will be scheduled soon. The Assistant Director of Social and Youth Services, I am in the process of conducting the final interviews with the top three candidates this week. I anticipate making an offer no later than close of business this Friday. The assistant town engineer, that process is still open to external candidates, and the full-time IT position is still open to external candidates. I do plan to have a meet and greet of our new leaders joining Team Bloomfield for the town council once all of them have onboarded. Fiscal year 28 budget. I will notice the first meeting with the Town Manager's Blue Ribbon Budget Development Committee hopefully by this week. At this point, I will not reveal names, but the committee will include financial experts, engaged community leaders, and local CEOs. The names of all participants will be known soon. Trust me when I say each is an independent critical thinker with no other agenda other than the betterment of Bloomfield. uh, fiscal year 20 and 25. I know, uh, deputy mayor gave a pretty comprehensive, um, overview of that. And, um, but I did want to provide this opportunity for Mr. Daryl Hill to, um, provide a farewell and, um, and also for Ms. Donna Stewart to add anything that she may like to add, if anything, to what was reported already. And also if you can provide just a quick thumbnail introduction of yourself, Donna, I would greatly, Before I go any further, I just wanted to report that the BOE payroll transition to Munis is April 1st, 2027, as reported to me by Chair Lynette Eastman. So I do want folks to just have an appreciation for our finance department and how far we've come. and shuts a short amount of time. I can tell you literally 30 days into my tenure as the town manager at Bloomfield, I was down in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. I apologize for the repeat if you already heard this, but when I got a call, that three quarters of our finance department was going to be departing town services. So I was committed at that time to make sure that we didn't miss a beat. And the first hire that I made, even though it was a temporary status, was Ms. Donna Stewart. And so she's been through the fire with the town. And she is extremely capable. And I'll let her tell you a little bit more about herself. But when it comes to the confidence I have in her, there's no better resume than someone's body of work when you actually had the opportunity to see them in action, which is what I did for the last two plus years. So I'm thankful for Mr. Darrell Hill's service to our community. Darrell was at the helm through a lot of challenging moments and he navigated them with exceptional poise and abilities, which got us in a good place. And I know he knows he's leaving our finance department. in exceptional hands of Ms. Donna Stewart. So Mr. Hill, I'll give you a farewell opportunity, sir, if you so choose. And then I'd like Ms. Donna Stewart to please just introduce yourself, ma'am. Mr. Hill.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. I appreciate the opportunity. It's been an honor and a pleasure serving Bloomfield under your leadership. And working with my colleagues across the town, Bloomfield is fortunate to have so many dedicated employees administering our respective responsibilities. And over the past two years, it has been a challenge. And those challenges will continue likely for years to come. But the team assembled within the administration, even with the departures from resignation or other reasons, government is built to survive. And the folks that are working in the Schwab administration are fully capable of not only continuing what's been done over my two years, Colonel Schwab's three years, but also getting the town to the place it needs to be. that in an enduring way. Um, I wish you well. And, uh, uh, in, uh, answering the budgetary questions, uh, that are on the horizon, uh, having to make the decision, uh, about whether or not you want the services or a lower budget is a difficult one. Um, I've seen it not only here in Bloomfield, but in other places over the past 30 years. Um, And I wish you well in that endeavor. It'll be challenging, not only by the decision itself, but also by the council's handful of vocal critics. But with Colonel Schwab's leadership, Donna, as of Wednesday, will assume the director of finance role. She has been my right hand, as everyone knows, over the past two years. She's been the one that's been on point for the audit work, but also involved in the full administration of the town's fiscal affairs. So I came into Bloomfield wanting to be helpful to a place where I have family and friends, and I leave Bloomfield with my head high and happy about the progress that we made. So thank you, Mr. Mayor, Council, Town Manager Schwab.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. We really appreciate you, and we wish you and the Hill family the very best in your next chapter. Ms. Stewart.

First of all, I apologize that my live camera is not functioning properly, but thank you, Daryl and Al, for the introduction, and Daryl is going to truly be missed. So I know we all wish him well in his next endeavor. But having said that, good evening, everyone. You may have seen me a little bit, but I figured I'd introduce myself a little more. As Al kind of mentioned, I just passed my two-year anniversary in Bloomfield. Prior to that, I did work for several years in a municipality. I also worked in private industry for many years in various accounting capacities. I also worked as an auditor in the federal government, totaling about 35 years in the accounting field. So I figured I'd give you a little bit of that background. My first introduction to Bloomfield I have to tell you that I instantly loved the people that work at the town of Bloomfield. There's a lot of great minds here. I also quickly learned that Bloomfield was a very special place, that the town people, the town services, the events is just second to none. And I'm very proud to be working here. I did also notice in my first introduction to Bloomfield that there were several deficiencies in accounting principles and sound business practice. For instance, the FY24 work was nowhere complete in spite of the year being over for a few months at that point. Bank reconciliations were over 14%. months behind and like uh deputy mayor lloyd had mentioned um there's over 30 bank accounts uh and investment accounts so um things were uh a little bit uh well definitely behind the audits of course were behind the fy23 audit had recently been completed at that point um generally accepted accounting principles were not being followed in certain areas. And then there's simpler things like even payroll tables, tax tables were not updated in many years, but many, many different things that came to light that, for instance, also fixed assets were out of balance. The board of education was always a finding in the audit that was never in balance with the town. Just a string of things. And I guess to make a long story short, those deficiencies are all now resolved. In fact, as Deputy Mayor Lloyd had mentioned, the FY24 audit was completed a few months ago. FY25 is nearing completion. And I would anticipate that we will meet probably in October 15th for a final said and done. I answered questions today on the final field work. So it's really close. FY26, the prep has begun on that. And we are really... close to being, when I say close, let's say, I'm gonna be a little bit conservative and say, we will be able to submit a good trial balance with all the account reconciliations and such, probably by the end of October. um give or take so um and then depending on the timing of the auditors because it is a little tight time frame and uh they've been working with us very very well and very closely so um you know the first quote by the end of the first quarter of the new calendar year i would anticipate the final written report for that uh so when you think about that the uh to have three audits done in one year is phenomenal um our bank recs for all those accounts are up to date through august uh so i am really really excited to continue the progress that we've made uh in the finance department in the town of bloomfield and i am just very much looking forward to working with the town council al and the other town of bloomfield team uh so I guess with that, I'll end.

Well, thank you, Donna. Thank you. And I really appreciate that summary. Sometimes people just don't know what they don't know. And in my experiences, people never fill in the gaps with good possibilities. They always fill it in with the worst scenario. I think it's just human nature. But I'm proud of the team that we have here, folks. And I know we're going to continue to build upon the successes of the last two years. And to climb out of this hole that we were in is an extraordinary feat that I think only those who have the financial awareness can appreciate. And trust me, my awareness has increased. And it's gotten a lot better with the skilled and capable people that we have on Team Bloomfield, as well as the support of those most engaged in this council with all things finance. So we're positioned well, and we're moving forward. There's no time to do anything other than move forward and wish those who choose other paths the best of luck in their endeavors. So I'll continue now with capital improvement plan projects in an effort to provide this council and our citizens with an understanding of our CIP needs each month, until we begin budget discussions, we will, we will report on CIP so that everyone can understand the urgency that faces our community. With that said, I have asked Mr. Glenn Garrity to please to report on some items of concern tonight. And trust me, this will not be the last time you hear from him because the needs are dire. And because of past practices of not funding these projects, we are finding ourselves in desperate situations. And I'd rather let you know now so that this is not something that you're dealing with during the budget itself. and it can be, well, why don't you tell us sooner, right? So I actually want to begin just like two months ago, as Deputy Mayor had mentioned, you know, budget to me has already started in the development and time is not on our side. So the earlier we can get ahead of some of this stuff and share information so that we can have intelligent, fruitful discussions towards a real budget development for fiscal year 28, the better off we're going to be. So with that said, Mr. Garrity.

Good evening. Thank you, Mr. Town Manager. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Madam Deputy Mayor, counselors and residents of Bloomfield. So in preparation for the budget, you know, I've worked for the town now for 11 years in various capacities. And for the previous three, four years, I have served as the capital project manager and now the director of public works and facilities. And I certainly had a grave concern when it comes to the capital budget. I understand how incredibly challenging our given scenario is with tax increases and Commodities and everything seems to be going through the roof and our cost of living as well. But I just wanted to shed some light on our CIP process in general and kind of give the council a heads up on what it is we're actually facing. So traditionally, we carry a five-year CIP, but to put that more accurately, we carry a one-year CIP. As you'll notice, you know, we carry projects in quote for five years. However, we only approve year one. What I'm finding is that as we go forward through years two through five, essentially the deck of projects gets reshuffled and then prioritized again for year one for the council to ultimately come up with, you know, what we can afford and prioritize but at this point i feel uh the amount of deferred maintenance that we've incurred over My career even, it's quite alarming. For example, the roof above your heads, the slate roof at Town Hall, was submitted in 2015 for replacement at the cost of half a million dollars. I don't know if you noticed, but if you walk outside Town Hall, you'll see slate shingles on the ground. They shut off all the time. At one point, we were spending $8,000 every summer to hire a roofing contractor and replace about 100 shingles. that was our approach until we decided it wasn't fiscally responsible to sink costs into projects that were not going to be improved with that being said i would like to kind of capture all the deferred maintenance and needs and a brief presentation for the meeting on the 28th so we have a better idea of exactly what we're facing and then i also plan to invite the council to public works for an open house within the next several weeks at a time that works for everyone, we can have further discussion. But to set eyes on the larger assets that provide critical services to the residents of Bloomfield. As I mentioned, a debt snowball. I have grave concerns with our frontline vehicles, our dump trucks for plowing, for instance. You know, we've crept outside of our industry standard life cycle for truck replacements. And we're creeping towards 13 and 14 years on a truck now. And with heavy use and especially with the first normal winter we've had, I cannot promise that we'll be able to clear all our streets with the efficiency that we currently do. Also, we're facing some concerns with larger construction projects, assets, for instance, a payload replacement. We're looking at half a million dollars. These capital concerns are not all about public works. It's not a selfish ploy to ask for things. I understand the needs of my colleagues as well. And I really think we need to get out of this habit of having tunnel vision, focusing on years one and really set out and maybe follow a 10-year CIP, kind of look down the road years ahead. Even if that means setting aside, you know, $100,000 a year And just following that for five years, it doesn't have to go towards a project, but we will have money to do something. So there's more to come on that. I just thought it would be responsible to present it sooner than later so you have time to deliberate and make well-informed decisions. I do plan on having more of a fruitful conversation, kind of a Q&A after the open house, and I will make a nice brief presentation for the 28th. So there is more to come.

And thank you, Mr. Gary. Really appreciate the reality check that you've provided. And we'll continue to provide until we get through budget development. So thank you very much. We'll now go over to economic development. I ask Mr. John Coleman to please come to the podium, our director of building and land use, to provide an update.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Madam Deputy Mayor, members of the council, members of our peers, citizens of the town of Bloomfield. Now that you've heard all of the issues that we got to spend money on, I will hopefully give you some lighter moments in terms of where we may get some money to help you spend the money. And I'm going to basically go through the report that I normally give to the governance committee with all due respect to the mayor. And if he wants me to repeat it tomorrow evening, I will. But this is the governance report, the sort of economic development report that we generated for the month of September. Starting with the town center plan, as the mayor has indicated, we have, we will know on this Friday, whether we are shortlisted. And we assume next week we will know whether or not we are approved for the $11.8 million that we requested or for a different amount. Hopefully, After three tries, we will be successful. We've turned up the heat as much as we can. We've also asked some of our private sector fund friends to assist us in any way they can in endorsing this plan. Tomorrow at four o'clock, we will receive any interest from developers to be our partners on the town center development. That's the close of the RFP and some of us will be there as we can certainly report that back to the governance committee tomorrow evening. So that's moving along and hopefully we'll continue to move along. The albatross, the plan of conservation and development. I'm pleased to report two things. One, the commission TPZ has approved the future land use map, which is one part, so that's completed. They have received the final written copy and this Thursday they've scheduled a special meeting to go through the written portion of the POCD draft chapter by chapter and hopefully sign off on it. If they do, which I anticipate they will, we will then be able to assign it for public hearing and do the statutory referral to you all and to the Capital Region Council of Governments. And once they're completed, we can adopt the thing and move on. So we're happy with that. In terms of developments under construction, there's a lot going on. Seabury's 24-unit residential addition is well near to complete. Edith Lane has 32-unit single-family dwellings presently under construction. Abbey Court, also known as 1120 Blue Hills Avenue, 29 single-family dwellings is under construction. 57 Jolly Road, Jolly Drive, the second apartment building for 40 units is under construction. Your friends, Arbella, 164 units are well under construction, and I think are getting ready to begin the leasing process. We've heard from them in that regard. Popeyes. Popeyes is now moving quickly towards completion. I finally got frustrated enough, and I communicated directly with the president of the Purdue Corporation, which is the holding company of Popeyes. And I'm pleased to tell you he responded to me within an hour. I expressed our frustration with the progress on that and its appearance. And I think they have made considerable efforts to do both, both clean up the property, remembering it is a construction site, but to do all the constructions. I would like to make a comment. I'm going to choose my words carefully. But the utilities have not been, I would say, a constructive partner on this project, and that's not unusual. The Eversource Corporation basically wanted Popeyes to re-source the entire Geisler's Plaza. That has been worked out, but that took a considerable amount of time so that Popeyes was not under the necessity of repowering the entire plaza, which would have been a significant expense. Um, it was a challenge hooking up with MDC as it often is. And with the Connecticut natural gas Popeye's requested, um, to meet with them a year and a half ago has indicated they got no response until recently when, um, they were informed it would be necessary for them to lay 380 feet of an 80 inch gas pipeline to further service the area. Um, Incidentally, in a newly paved road, Popeyes is looking at other alternatives which would not require them to use CNG. But I think it's an interesting picture, snapshot, of the issues that developers not only in Bloomfield but certainly in the Capital Region face in dealing with the three major utility organizations. makes economic development more of a challenge than it ought to be. And I'm sure I'll hear something back, but I think this had to be said, quite frankly. 5969 Douglas Street, the new self-storage facilities is basically complete. 60 Toby Road, Carson Pearson's industry is doing a very significant expansion to their facility. They are a major defense contractor, and they've got a significant new contract. I think you've all seen the small retail strip development on Cottage Grove Road next to the railroad station. And an exciting one that's coming along is Dorothy Drive has been purchased by a a new owner that's taken over a portfolio of a number of units, and they are going to completely rehabilitate that property. If you want to see how they do it, they are presently doing one in Terrafield Center. And what they do, which is fairly exciting, is they basically relocate temporarily at their expense every citizen. And when they're relocated, they provide them housing. They provide them transportation and any of the other necessities so they can then sort of have a free shot at rehabilitating the units. And as the units are rehabilitated, they move them back in. They will be using state and federal housing funds and will be proposing to council for a tax recovery. arrangement that that process has just started. We have gotten an analysis done by them that Coleman and York thinks is pretty good, and we would be sitting down with the town manager and council in the near future on that. But that's a really exciting one. Approved developments, I think if you've been watching, First Cathedral is moving along. They're All of their land use approvals have been approved by both Wetlands and the TBZ. TBZ has also signed off on the Rockwell Park improvements that had to come through. And you'll see some activities shortly at 92 Granby Street where a new gasoline and EV charging station will be coming in. And also... The first cathedral is also going to be seeking a tax arrangement. Pre-development proposals that we've been talking about, 800 Cottage Grove Road is for about 230 apartment unit building to replace the sort of scattered site office park that's there now. We've completed what we call the FEIS report, which is the analysis by Gohmann and York of the of the proposed tax agreement and are having ongoing conversations with the manager and the council on that. Phase four of the town center apartments, that's Paul Butler's developments. And that is from Gab Road down to the medical buildings on the west side of Tunxis Avenue. We'll be coming in for preliminary sort of informal proposals before the TPC and the Design Review Board, and is also right now having its FEIS being considered and reviewed by Goldman and York. A new multi-tenant warehouse building is being discussed on Woodland Avenue. We'll be meeting with them shortly. The tennis club is looking at an expansion and new parking area for their location. 33 Mukko Road, which is where the transfer station is, is looking to put in a new building and significant expansion. And we're having conversations about a proposed residential development at 32 Griffin Road. It is not a, it is a residential development, not a commercial development, if anyone knows where that, so there's a lot on the books. And then I always end with the numbers. And what I'm going to give you, this is the year end numbers for the fiscal year ending on June, 2026. We had 2,247 building permits. We had a permit value of 1,747,000, which is about 500,000 greater than we was protected in the budget. And we had a construction value to add to the grand list of $126,408,000. It was a good year. And from what we can see, that will continue. And we look forward to continuing to give you good news and having conversations with you about any of the proposed tax agreements. That ends my report, Mr. Manager.

And thank you, sir. Always well-spoken as always. Thank you so much for what you bring to the table. The user error on my mouse, my apologies. Okay, so as I've mentioned before, I'm still fully committed to the development of a tax calculator. I'll stand by for some more on that. Community events. The 2026 Bloomfield Food Truck Festival will occur this Saturday, September 19th at 3 p.m. Activities, vendors, and a huge assortment of cuisines provided by the most trucks ever will be at the event. I'd like to extend a special thanks and appreciation to Chamber of Commerce under the leadership of Ms. Vera Smith, supported by our town departments for making this a noteworthy regional event. Please come on out and enjoy our town center. and all that we have to offer. New personnel update. We have a couple of new folks on the team. One is Ms. Rosie Luther. She's a librarian one at library service. Upon my arrival here, one of the initiatives that we engaged in was a new employee board. And if you ever go into our HR department, you'll see them on the board. I gave the vision, they executed it, and our HR department did a phenomenal job with that execution. One thing that was important to me was to understand from the person's perspective what they plan to bring of value to us. And Ms. Rosie Luther says, I'm so excited to serve the community of Bloomfield through the library, seeing the brand new spaces and how much the community is integrated into The offerings in space is amazing. I'm thrilled to be working for such a community-focused town. That comes from Rosie. Our next new employee is Ms. Vanessa Kilman, Librarian 1 as well. And she says, I am ready for the next chapter in my career, and I'm excited that Bloomfield Public Library will be part of it. I look forward to meeting and serving the residents and staff who create the Bloomfield community. And that's from Vanessa. So that's what we're trying to build here, folks. We're trying to build a team of folks who are committed to serving the citizens of this town, right? And I'll say in closing, working for a municipal government is not a path chosen by people who desire to make millions in base salary, get huge bonuses, or enjoy routine perks of private industry. This is an industry that attracts people that believe in selfless service. I make every effort to demonstrate a level of appreciation to every employee of Bloomfield for their commitment to serve the citizens of Bloomfield. One of the biggest ways I can demonstrate my appreciation is by building the bench and when people meet standard, hire from within. That approach builds enthusiasm towards growth and loyalty towards the town. Most of the time, all they need in addition to a fair raise is a simple thank you or congratulations. You have my support when they get promoted or achieve something out of the ordinary. To me, this is leadership 101. And I thank the council members that consistently takes the time to recognize the achievement of staff. You are valued by the team. This concludes my report, Mr. Mayor, subject to your questions and or concerns.

Thank you very much. Director Coleman sort of stole my thunder, but that's his area, so I won't go into that. I do want to report that I attended a Board of Education meeting last week. It was really, really good. And I inadvertently came out with a percentage number that was totally inaccurate. And so they were able to correct me and it was filled with raving reviews. But we have a 94% graduation rate currently. And yes, yes. And 78% of our graduates... are going to college. So there has been some remarkable achievements of late, and we want to acknowledge that. We also recognize Lisa Lomenzo, who has recently become the assistant superintendent, or is it deputy superintendent? I'm not really sure what the exact title is. They mean the same, but i hope i'm not making her feel any sort of way by saying assistant or deputy but uh it's very very um uh appropriate she's worked really hard and so we're really thankful and pleased with her uh her her development i was going to talk about the uh Food and Truck Festival, but I didn't have to. I do want to say that this week was very, very profound in that we weren't celebrating, but we were remembering 9-11. And it was the 25th anniversary. And I just want to say I have had the distinction. of going to Westport each of the last 20 years and being involved in that event. We had Governor Lamont, We had Lieutenant Governor Bicevich. We had Senator Blumenthal. We had Congresswoman Johanna Hayes, Treasurer Eric Russell, Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas, and 161 members of the families that perished from Connecticut. And it was truly an amazing time, and I really hope next year, we'll be able to do something here in Bloomfield to make recognition of that historic event. Also want to mention that our superintendent youngberg will plan to present monthly updates to council uh during the second town council meeting of each month so we're developing some new things with uh with the board of ed i also want to say that their finance department uh made uh some recognition at that meeting identifying that they are now really really into uh munis and they are satisfying a lot of the concerns that we had uh brought up for a number of years uh so we're really pleased to to hear that um what else oh october 2nd Friday, October 2nd, the Connecticut Minority Construction Council will conduct its annual MCC event. Minority contractors from throughout the state come in. It's from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., at the alvin and beatrice wood human services office at 330 park avenue the title is connections that build opportunities and we'd like many of our contractors in the bloomfield area and surrounding areas to come and and support that event it is provided by director jennifer little greer and we certainly know that it will be a great day. So thank you very much. And I believe on that note, we will move to council comments, starting with councilwoman Suzette DeBethan-Brown.

Thank you.

Microphone, please.

Sorry, please forgive me. Director Coleman, I wanted to ask about the Wedgwood Apartments. I know that I called and I spoke to someone in the building department. I have had a couple of complaints about Wedgwood and their parking or lack thereof. And I was told that some research would have been done, but I have not gotten any feedback yet.

And thank you for your question, and I will ask Mr. Coleman to fill in, but I just wanted to make sure that everyone was aware. Mr. Mayor had brought a similar concern to my attention last week, and I had turned it over to Mr. Coleman, who was telling me earlier today that it's going to be a challenge, and I'll have him state to you for the reasons why.

Thank you. Councilwoman, it is a challenge. The development was approved under different regulations quite some time ago. Parking usage has significantly increased. We're aware of the issues. It's going to take, I think, conversations between our department, the police department, and probably Connecticut Transit to see if we can reach... appropriate what will necessarily be, in my opinion, some type of compromise that hopefully will afford the residents some additional parking. But we may have to compromise how the buses get in and out and whether or not the residents could survive if the bus didn't actually come all the way down Wedgwood but stopped down on Blue Hills Avenue. But that's a choice. We want to have a conversation with them on whether or not we can do on-street parking that's regulated as they do in the big cities, one side of the street at a time. So we're going to be looking at all those alternatives. It probably is going to take a little time to put it all together, but we're very much aware of it. We appreciate their concerns, and we'll hopefully come up with a solution that at least satisfies some of the concerns. I'm not sure we'll get there 100%. but also allows them to continue to get the transit service that's so critical for them.

Thank you for that. I think it's really important.

Councilor DePietro-Brown, I just want to mention, we're going to give you an additional 30 seconds.

Sorry.

I'm sorry. Thank you. I appreciate that. I was hoping that you weren't going to take away the time because I was asking the question, but I thank you for that. Thank you, Director Coleman. I think it's really important that when things like this happen, because residents are calling everyone, right? So it's important that everyone gets the information back so that we can go back to the residents to let them know that we've seen them, we've heard them, and that we are working on their behalf. So I thank you and I appreciate the follow-up.

We will keep you all informed.

Thank you so very much. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm going to try to do my best with the time that I have. I wanted to address a couple of things. Wait a minute.

That was my 30 seconds. That was the 30 seconds.

I thought I had two minutes. My two minutes were up?

Yeah.

Because I asked a question?

Well, the two minutes came and went, and then I gave an additional 30, so.

I asked a question because I couldn't ask him when he was doing that. Okay, so quickly, let me run through it quickly. I think it's important that the council does work, right? So I have started a conversation in regards to the budget for the town manager. I started that conversation. None of my other council counterparts have weighed in on that, which I think the community needs to know. There are times that we blame the town manager. I also blame the town manager. But when the town manager is not getting any directives from the council, the town manager is going to do what he believes is correct. So I think it's up to the council for us to give the town manager some direction to make sure that he is doing what's in the best interest of the town. And that when people come, it's not coming to the town manager. It's coming to his employees, which is the town council. Thank you. Just please let me finish. I would like to congratulate Councilor Mahan, who was awarded this week with the Legacy Leader Award on this past Saturday. So I'd like to just say congratulations on behalf of the council to Councilor Mahan. And everything else that I wanted to discuss, since the two minutes is up, I will give to the clerk of the council so that she can put them in the minutes. Thank you.

Thank you. Let me just say, as we move forward, if we do call a staff person up and not in every instance will we provide the additional time. So I just want to, you know, let us know.

when they're giving their report so that if we have questions as counselors, we can ask them at that time.

What is your question?

My question was, Mr. Chair says, if we take time to engage with town staff, that will come out of our two minutes. So I'm asking the question, if the staff person and or the town manager is giving a report and we have questions, do we ask the questions at that time? Because I think it's important that the questions get on the record.

I'm going to yield to the town manager.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I always end my report by saying subject to your questions or concerns. I open, I say that so that there can be a discussion of my supervisors and me and through me to my staff that will have any questions you may have.

I probably missed that tonight.

I'm sorry?

I probably did miss that tonight, but I thank you for that. So I will use that opportunity to make sure that I get the questions asked and on the record and it not subtract from my two minutes.

Thank you.

You're so welcome.

We move forward with Councilor Mahon.

Thank you, Mayor Harrington. I agree, we should be a lot of that time to ask the necessary questions. And if it does boil into your comments, it shouldn't take away from our time. But since we're sticking to central, can you hear me? Do you want to go to someone and then come back to me? I'm going to exit and come back in. If you can't hear me properly, then this is wasting my two minutes. Yeah, we'll move forward. We'll move forward. We'll come back. Can you hear me properly now?

We'll come back. No, we're not hearing you well. We're going to come back to you, Councilman Hahn, okay?

Okay, I'm going to exit and come back in.

Councilor Merritt.

I have to say up front that it doesn't, somebody mentioned before that it doesn't make sense for councilors to get only two minutes when people from town get three. So I question that. I think it's a rules of procedure and I think we should change it. What's that? Okay. Anyway, I've used most of my time up now. Okay. I would like to congratulate and thank Donna Stewart. I think she's eminently qualified for the job, and I think things would go even smoother with her at the helm. So I think that's a great occurrence, and she is fully qualified with a lot of experience, as you heard. And she is a working... I don't know how to say this, but... We have been very successful with women accountants running that department over the years. So I think that tradition is going to continue. Thank you.

Thank you very much. That was only one minute. Hey.

Okay. I'll give my minutes to somebody else.

Councilor Waterhouse has left, right?

Yeah.

Okay. Councilor Goodwin. I'm going to make sure you start my timer. Give me a moment. Give me a moment.

I'm going to go two minutes. It's okay. I just wanted to say to all of the residents who apply to serve on the very committees and commissions, I have duly enjoyed hearing You talk about your interests, your background, the things you bring to town. I think in moments where we can sometimes be overshadowed by either the critique or something else, it would be helpful to just celebrate that there are amazing people in this town doing amazing things. and the fact that they're willing to share their time, talent in any of these particular committees, I think is worthy of being celebrated. I want to make a special shout out to my Republican siblings and those who are unaffiliated because there are so many spots still available to you. So we're going to go through this round of appointments, but I believe we'll have to come back and say, here are all the spots that are still available. Because again, we want to make sure that each of the commissions and committees are balanced based on charter and ordinance. And so we have far more Democrats who have applied to these roles, but actually the spaces that are available are for Republicans or for those who are unaffiliated or independents. So please, if you would express interest, apply and be a part of these amazing people serving the town. Thank you.

And let me just get prepared here. Councilor Mahan, you have the floor.

Can you hear me better now? So far, yes. Okay, perfect. All right. I do want to say, just at least take a couple moments to say that we should be allowed to ask these questions, whether it happened at the time of the town manager's report, which I've never seen include other heads of departments before, especially in the length that it was. We should probably discuss that moving forward on how we can adjust that in the future. But we should be allowed to ask these questions without it taking away from the time that we have in our council comments. These are our opportunities to address the residents, speak to our neighbors, and to highlight certain points. And that shouldn't be taken away because we asked a clarifying question that a resident may have. Besides that, I do want to thank Councilor Bethan Brown for the acknowledgement and presenting me the award as well. She's a phenomenal, phenomenal host. So thank you very much for that. Moving forward, I do think we also need to take a very close look at this Blue Ribbon Committee. It's a bit concerning that we don't know the names of the individuals. The process was closed, not fully open to the public. The application process was unknown. It draws a lot of questions. And I'm not saying that there is anything nefarious that occurred, but when we have a public a forum or something, we have public decisions being made in private, that's where it becomes a bit concerning, not only to me, but many of our residents, especially when it comes to something so crucial as our budget that determines our taxes and how our tax dollars, public dollars are spent. So I would encourage the town manager to, you know, yield in his current approach with this Blue Ribbon Committee and find a way to include the public. Yes, sir.

So... I'm going to allow you to continue, but we have a response from the town manager.

This is council comments, sir. This is not town manager's comments. He had his opportunity. Just to be frank, your two minutes is up. Okay, no problem, but the town manager should not be allowed to respond during this time.

We won't move with that, but your time is up. It is now my time, and we will continue. I think your points are well taken, as they always generally are, but your time is up. Thank you. So today, I just want to say, I want to give... certainly you know acknowledgments to our awardees tonight uh and i'm sorry that all were not able to come but that's okay we do also intend to recognize our high school track athletes who placed in the national tournament and we just haven't been able to get them all in one place at at the same time, but we had a national high jump champion, uh, from Bloomfield high school. And we had, uh, both the male and the female track teams winning state championships. So that is something very, very special aside from the acknowledgements that 78% are now going to college and we have a 94% graduation rate. All of those things are very, very important. Um, I don't want to belabor the point. We really have a lot on the plate from an economic development standpoint. And I believe soon we will have an avenue to define exactly how our housing development funds will be utilized. I know that it's increasing demand you know day by day so we're really excited about that but most importantly this friday we await word on cif and we pray that they will give our town consideration for uh that fun and that concludes my comments yes asking for a friend so if every counselor gets two minutes to make a statement you have now made

few statements throughout the whole meeting. So how does that work? Just asking for a friend.

Okay. As chair, I made a statement at the outset, which I do have that.

Oh, you did. So you did that. And then you, you went on your committee. Then you made another statement. Then you just made another statement.

Yes. I'm on the program for those statements. Well, no mayor statement. the statement relative to our committee, and then now our town council comments, all of them of which are listed right here.

A few more minutes. I think I want to use one.

Oh, Jesus.

I have a right to say.

You got to press. Can Councilor Mayer turn on his microphone? Yes. He's trying.

I... It was my wife took a picture of two cub bears in our backyard. Her mother had passed by. The two bears were playing in our kayaks. which is a great picture. And I took it out of the running for this contest and I shouldn't have because it was my wife's picture and not mine. So I am apologizing to her because that was the cutest picture. So I'm so very glad about that.

Thank you. But I'm going back to the mayor, the chair, because we're looking at the agenda, right? So governance and policy, you made a report. then you gave your report again and then you made three statements we can go back and look at it here's the thing i just want us to be fair because we are all nine counselors all of us that's all just want us to be fair i wanted to be fair too i think you had i think you had four minutes