Board of Representatives Legislative and Rules Committee - Regular Meeting

But I'm going to call to order this meeting of the Legislative and Rules Committee, August 25th, 2026. I see in attendance committee members, Representative Blank, Woodrow, Vice Chair Caparelli, Representative Hughes, Hyde, Lapine, myself, Stone, and Weinberg in attendance. Also note, we have ex officio members. President Shaw, Representative Felicia, Majority Leader Morrison in attendance, and Clerk Johnson as well. If there's anybody else that I haven't acknowledged, please feel free to tell me so. All right, we've seen nobody else. With all committee members present, we have a quorum, and so we're going to move forward with the items for today. As we have two public hearings today. TAB, Mark McIntyre:" that's right to public hearings today, I would like to take this agenda in reverse order, if possible, so to that extent, I can get a motion to suspend the rules to take the agenda in reverse order motion.

TAB, Second. First, or will we be quick enough through four and three that we're not keeping any members?

Excuse me. Three also has a public hearing, despite the lack of attention to it on the agenda.

Okay.

So, yeah, three and two have public hearings. Four, I think, will be able to resolve pretty briefly. Okay.

All right. Where is Stone? What was that? Was it Stone?

Oh, sorry. All in favor of the motion to suspend, please say aye. Aye. Any abstentions? All right, the ayes have it unanimously. So we'll take up item number four. If I could please, well, actually, I'm going to give Representative Stone, I don't know if you have a motion that you'd like to propose. If not, I'll solicit a motion to approve.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. As the person who wrote this resolution, I do feel this is a very important issue and we need to take the action that we as a municipality are legally allowed to take. That being said, while I appreciate leadership putting this on tonight's agenda, I actually want to recommit this item for one month and take it up in September. I want the most meaningful resolution possible. And in conversations that I had with Chief Morris and Director DeRubis, It made sense to allow them the opportunity to voice their opinions directly to this committee. Unfortunately, they're not available tonight. I think it'll allow us to have the most impactful discussion as well. We can work through potential relevant amendments that respect the expertise of our local safety officials. And with that, I move to recommit to September and I yield the floor.

Thank you, Representative. Second. Second. Second.

So just point of clarification, this recommit to CRM? Yes.

Any second for that one? I second. Thank you. Any discussion on the motion to recommit item number four? Oh, and apologies to, probably read it for the record. This is item number four, LR32.020, a resolution urging the Connecticut General Assembly to enact statewide window safety legislation for the protection of children.

For now, that's good information. Yes. Is it 021? What did I say? 020 is what you said. Thank you for the corrections.

It is LR32.021. Thank you, Representative. I'm working on three hours of sleep, so I'm going to say it's fine. Is there anybody else that wishes to seek the floor? All right. Seeing none, we'll try this by voice vote. All in favor of the motion to recommit to steering, please say aye. Aye. Thank you. Any opposed? Any abstentions? All right. The motion passes. And item 4, L02.021 is recommenced steering. Perfect. And we'll move on to item number three, an ordinance, LR 32.020, an ordinance for publication, an amendment to the Code of Ordinances, Article 12, delegating the authority of the Shellfish Commission to the Harbor Management Commission. This one is the subject of one of our public hearings this evening. So at this time, I will open up the floor, or excuse me, open the public hearing at 7.07 p.m. I understand we don't have any one registered to speak for this. So I'm going to pause for a moment to see if there's any member of the public that wishes to speak on item number three. All right. Seeing and hearing no one. I'm going to close this public hearing at those seven. Yeah. and solicit a motion to approve item LR 32.020. Motion to approve. Thank you very much, and a second? Second. Anybody wishing to seek the floor with respect to LR 32.020? Okay. All right, and, I'm sorry. And with this, I want to try a voice vote as well. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Any abstentions? Hearing none, the motion passes unanimously. Perfect. Moving on to LR 32.017, another item with a public hearing. So this time I'll open up the public hearing on LR 32.017 at 7.08 PM. This one also did not have any registrants to speak tonight, but I'll pause for a moment to allow anybody from the public that wishes to speak. Will you read? Oh, thank you very much. LR 32.017 is an ordinance for public hearing and final adoption, amending the code of ordinances to establish information reporting requirements of the office of the mayor with respect to the applicants and appointees of the city boards and commissions. Thank you, Representative. All right. Seeing and hearing no members of the public wishing to speak for this public hearing, I will close it at 7.09 p.m. Is there anybody that wanted to seek the floor? Oh, excuse me. Can I please have a motion to approve LR32.017?

Motion to approve.

I hear a motion and a second. Second. Thank you. Is there anybody that wishes to seek the floor with respect to LR32.017? Yes, Representative Weinberg.

Yeah, I just wanted to call your attention to two scriveners here. Sure. If they are clearly scrutinized errors, therefore do not, are not substantive, require a fourth of the hearing. Thank you, good Lord. In 5211C, the word says the mayor comma or, insert the words his or before the word her. Not at all. Mm-hmm. And second and 52 11 the in the last sentence, the report shall also include the number of applicants interviewed over the same period of time, the number the circle word of. And followed by appointees and.

Perfect. Yes, that's it. Thank you very much friends in the library for pointing those out was corrected before publication. Anyone else wishing to seek the floor on LR32.017? Seeing and hearing none, we'll take this by voice vote. All those in favor of approving LR32.017, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Any abstentions? All right, motion passes unanimously. Fantastic. Moving on to, I believe, our last item of the agenda, LR 32.016, an ordinance for what should be final adoption to repeal the Appointments Commission per Article 17 of Chapter 6, including Section 6-121 through 6-124 of the Code of Ordinances. Can I please have a motion to approve LR 32.016? So moved. Thank you. All right. Is there anybody that wishes to seek the floor with respect to LR32.016?

Yes, Representative Woodrow. I'll keep my comments pretty brief, but I just want to refresh on a couple of things since this has been on my phone for the past six months. So we have been pushing this back and back to tie it to LR32.017. The idea being that the the reporting ordinance would help to mitigate some of the potential losses that people brought up as concerns with the Appointments Commission, the potential of transparency and being the primary one there. And I think some of the amendments that we made last month somewhat undermines that goal. And it doesn't really stand as strong as I had hoped that it would going into this. Nevertheless, I am still planning to vote in favor of this. The first time we brought this up in committee, one of the questions that I asked to the former members of the Appointments Commission was, what would it take for the Appointments Commission to function effectively? And the answer that we got from them was essentially a supportive mayor. And I think that it fundamentally doesn't really work as a check or a transparency mechanism if the mayor needs to be supportive for it to be a check. So I think that even with the weakened version of 32.017, it's still the best path forward. And what would you look for?

Thank you, Representative Latrobe. Anybody else wishing to sit the floor on LR32.016? Seeing and hearing none. We'll try this by voice vote. All those in favor of approving LR32.016, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? The ayes have it. The motion passes unanimously. 13 minutes. And with that, I thank you very much. I'm open to adjourn. Do I have a second? Perfect. We are adjourned at 3.17, excuse me, 7.13 PM. Thank you very much for your attendance.

Have a good night.

13 minutes. I think you started at 7.02, so it might've been 11. Either way, that's great.