Town Council - Regular Meeting

Rise for the pledge, please.

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, with liberty and justice for all.

And a moment of silence for the men and women in the armed forces. Our first responders, despite the good fight in Ukraine, those suffering from the military conflict. Also in memorial, a moment of silence for Bridgeport Police Officer Cooper Whiteside and a Milford resident, Brittany Islami, who were killed in a motor vehicle crash. May we also remember Private Isabella Gonzalez, 19, Lieutenant Tyler James Freehan, 25, Sergeant First Class Noah Teegens, 42, Captain Cody A. Cork, 35, Sergeant First Class Nicole M. Amore, 39, Sergeant Major Jeffrey R. O'Brien, 45, Sergeant Declan J. Cody, 20. Chief Warrant Officer, 3rd, Robert M. Marzan, 54. Sergeant Benjamin Bennington, 26. Also, United States Service members in the Air Force. Major John A. Klinner, 33. Captain Irina Savina, 31. Tech Sergeant Ashley Pruitt, 34. Captain Seth Koval, 38. Captain Curtis Angst, 30. Sergeant Tyler H. Simmons, 28. May their memories be eternal and a sincere thank you from the town of Nemofer for their service and memorial. Amen.

I don't think she can get on.

Thank you. Now we say the pledge. The American Creed, please.

Okay. The American's Creed by William Tyler Page. I believe in the United States of America as a government of the people, by the people, for the people, whose just powers are derived from the descent of the governed, a democracy in the republic, a sovereign nation of many sovereign states, a perfect union, one and separate, established upon the principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American countries sacrificed their lives and fortunes. I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it, to support its Constitution, to obey its laws, to respect its flag, and to defend it against all enemies.

Could you check the phone?

I think there's somebody on. Zach, can you see if there's somebody on the phone?

There is somebody on.

Is it Diane? Hold on.

Diane?

I know, but did you call in? Okay, hang on a minute. She said she'd try it again and it wouldn't work for her.

Okay. Do you want me to put my phone on? Yeah, can we put it over on speakerphone?

As long as my battery lasts. Okay, you're on speakerphone for as long as my battery lasts. Okay, thank you very much.

Just be aware that... And can you let Jill know who this is?

Jill, this is Diane Clay, Councilwoman. She's calling in. Okay. Okay, thanks, Diane.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you, Diane. Thank you for calling in. Thank you, Tom. Sure. Thank you, Tom. Okay. Katie, we're at the consent agenda.

Yes, after phone. Here we go. Okay. I'd like to, pardon? Oh, I'm sorry. Do we have any? Sorry, I didn't hear you say anything.

My name is Ari Rosenberg. I live at 6 Taylor Street, and although I am an elected member of Town Council, it seems public comment is the only time that I can speak without being interrupted and heckled by Katie Francis, Sal Rankowitz, or Tom Esposito. Mr. Mayor, you claim you won't stand for uncivil behavior, but you have a double standard with your friends on Town Council. and when good people muster the courage to stand up here and speak their truth you intimidate them and threaten to kick them out you may not like it when people come up here to express their concerns about your support for placing a battery storage facility in the dpw over our precious and vulnerable aquifer but it's their right to speak without being bullied just as it is our responsibility to listen with compassion, respect, and an open mind. So you can clutch your pearls and virtue signal and tone shame all you like, but the people of this town are smart and they will not be gaslit and they know what hypocrisy looks like when they see it. So when you try to intimidate people from expressing their legitimate concerns, I would just remind you of what you said on April 27th. You can put your head in the sand and you can cry and you can come up here and you can bitch, Or you can man up, put your big boy pants on, and you can get the job done. Thank you.

Lisa Breeze.

Good evening. My name is Lisa Breeze. I'm a New Milford resident, and I've lived here since 2008. Oh, sure. It's 6 Barrens Lane, New Milford, Connecticut, 06, oh, you know the zip code. So anyway, I'm a New Milford resident. I've lived here since 2008. On July 13th, the mayor announced that residents who applaud or roll their eyes would be asked to leave. I looked at the agenda for that meeting, both the original and the revised revision version. There is no item on about decorum, audience contact, conduct, or public comment rules. There was no motion and there was no vote. The mayor said that night that this council may enact ordinances provided they are consistent with the charter, the state statutes, and the state and federal constitutions. He also said the charter calls for these meetings to be open to the public and to allow public speaking. I agree with him on both points. That is exactly why I'm asking this question. Was the July 13th announcement an action of this council? If it was, under what agenda item was it noticed to the public and when was it voted on? And if it was not an action of this council, will the council confirm tonight that no resident can be removed from a meeting under it? The mayor also cited a definition of civility from the Institute of Local Governments. I have no quarrel with civility. But a definition from an organization is not a law. It cannot be the basis for removing a resident from a public meeting. I would ask that the answer be reflected in the minutes tonight. Thank you very much.

Hi, I'm, is this on? I'm Irene Scribilo, 205 Pumpkin Hill Road. I have one question and it comes from something that the mayor said himself on July 13th. That night he told this council that ordinances must be consistent with the town charter, Connecticut general statutes and the state and federal constitutions. and that they are consistent and whether they're consistent is determined by the town attorney who unfortunately is not here today from what I can see unless he's right there. Those were his words and they are in the draft minutes that you should have in front of you. Attorney DiBella was in the room that night although he isn't here today. So my question is simple. did the town attorney review these restrictions on the applause eye rolling grimacing and what subjects residents can may raise before they were announced from the dais if he did i would ask that his opinion be put in writing and made available to the public if he did not i'll ask the council to obtain a written opinion before anyone is removed from a meeting under a rule that has never been reviewed this isn't a difficult request the mayor identified the town attorney is the person who decides these questions i'm asking that he actually be asked and that we get a response

Hi, my name's Elizabeth Schaub. I live at 26 Carmen Hill Road in New Milford. And I'm afraid this is going to get a little old. I've lived in New Milford my entire life. And as I've mentioned before, when I've been here before, I have attended school from hill and plain through Pettibone, Scattacook, and graduated proudly from New Milford High School. I came tonight because of what was said at the last meeting. I want to say that, honestly, I don't know anymore what I'm allowed to do here in this room. I understand not shouting. That makes sense to me, right? I understand not interrupting. Again, that makes sense to me. I understand about civility. I think that should be true for everyone, right? But what was said about rolling my eyes or making a face and that that could get me asked to leave when that can be an involuntary response. I can't guarantee that I'll never roll my eyes. I don't think most people can. And I'd like to know whether that is genuinely grounds for removing me from a public meeting in the town that I have lived in for the past 60 years. I looked at the agenda for that night. There was nothing on it about any of that. So again, I don't know if what I heard was a rule the council voted on, if it was one person's statement. And I shouldn't have to guess, right? I'm not asking for an apology. I'm not asking for, I'm just asking for something clearly written down. If there are rules, please put them in writing, adopt them by vote, and post them so residents can read them before they walk in. If there are not rules, please say so, so residents know they won't be afraid, they won't be worried that they're gonna be removed from the room at anyone's discretion. rules are not meant to be made up on the spot they are to be discussed voted on and publicly posted that's all i want to know the rules before i walk in the other thing i would just With all due respect, remind the council and the mayor of, and again I say this with all due respect, you are all elected officials, which means the constituents of this town elected you. So, you work for us. Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

hi jackie in six redwood lane new milford um i've been a resident homeowner and taxpayer for 24 years and i've attended council meetings in person or watched the live stream i'm here tonight to address the mayor's july 13th off agenda remarks about public comments and ask the council to consider a bipartisan committee to rework the town council rules and if possible part four of the charter They are conflicting. The council's rules state members of the public can make comments and the charter state's electors may address the town council. Does the mayor mean that business owners, all the visitors who frequent downtown, do sports here, all the parents of students bused to the high school, et cetera, cannot speak publicly for matters related to this town? One thing the mayor said that I can't agree with is that civility is most important during comments and all of these types of interactions. However, if a board or commission member is spreading rumors and hateful rhetoric or telling falsehoods, I'm going to speak up and ask the council to do something. That is my First Amendment right. I also understand that it is the right of the mayor and council to set rules of order to prohibit applause and interruptions. We all agree with that. I don't have a problem with that. However, those same rules must be consistently applied to everyone who addresses the council. That is a First Amendment principle as well. Were the people who applauded the mayor's remarks on the 13th asked to leave? I take serious issue with the mayor stating he'll remove someone for eye rolling or grimacing and believe all of our residents should be concerned about this authoritarian directive and about first amendment infringement and expensive lawsuits against the town if this were to be enforced. The mayor also stated that public comments are to be limited to the council's roles and responsibilities and that national and state issues don't belong here. All politics are local, and every issue I've ever spoken to in this room, no matter where that issue originated, has direct implications for every person in New Milford. And national cuts affect us here, national hate spreads here, national rollbacks of environmental laws affect us here, and we as a town must be proactive and this council must be prepared. Every council meeting during the mayor's comments portion, every council meeting the mayor gives mayor's comments and shares public interest stories that according to his own rules wouldn't fall under the purview of the council and don't belong in council meetings. I would argue that this part of the council meeting would have to be removed from the agenda as well to remain consistent if that other rule was going to stand. And actually, what doesn't this town council have purview over? It has legislative authority, policy and decision-making power. It manages ordinances, processes, has budget and fiscal oversight, forms commissions, boards, and committees. All board commissions and committee members must operate within the town code of ethics, which states that having the trust of the public is essential for government to function effectively, and that public policy developed by government officials and employees affects every citizen of the town and must therefore be based on honest and fair deliberations and decisions. So I don't agree with the way this town is run often, but until January of 2025, I only felt compelled to speak up when education, clean water, or the library were on the line. Thank you. But since January of 2025, there have been daily assaults on our institutions, freedoms, and taxpayer dollars that affect the life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness right here at home. And we expect our leaders to listen to our concerns and be prepared to defend its constituents here at home. Thank you.

I'm the Reverend Dr. Pat Nicholas. I live at 6 Lamplighter Lane. I have lived in New Milford for 56 years. I haven't attended a lot of town council meetings in person, although I have watched many online, and I've only spoken on a few occasions on topics that I felt were of importance to the people of this town. This is one of those occasions. Like others, I was taken aback by the warning given at the start of the last town council meeting. Now I had prepared a lengthy statement, but given the fact that many other people had the same reaction and have come here tonight to speak, I cut my statement way back. As a retired minister, speaking to groups of people was a major part of my professional life. However, I have to say that I'm still nervous when I get up to speak here. That's not because of some random eye rolling or grimacing behind my back or somebody else's, or applause for issues that I don't agree with. It's more often from watching the complete disregard or open look of contempt on the faces of some of the council members, especially when someone expresses something they don't agree with. The warning at the last council meeting was given under the guise of addressing civility. However, to me and many others, it was more than a veiled threat and an attempt to limit the First Amendment right of free speech of concerned citizens. Although the reason stated was to alleviate fear and assure people that they would be heard without judgment, The warning only heightened the uncertainty and fear of reprisal if there was any indication of disagreement. I firmly believe that approach is completely counter to the ideals of the founding fathers, our constitution, and the way citizens of New Milford should be treated by their government officials. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Brian Delaney. I reside at 50 Hawthorne Lane in New Milford. I'm here to address concerns regarding accountability, oversight, transparency, and public confidence in our public safety agencies and town government. My family's concerns arise from an investigation conducted by the New Milford Police Department and Regional Animal Control following an incident in March of 2025. Our concerns have centered on the integrity of the investigative process, compliance with policies and procedures, inconsistencies in reports evidence handling, public records compliance, potential conflicts of interest, and ensuring our complaints receive a fair, transparent, and independent review. Over the past year and a half, I have pursued every reasonable accountability avenue available to a resident. including communicating with town leadership, filing complaints with the police department, regional animal control authority, submitting freedom of information requests, and seeking municipal and state review. Through those efforts, it became clear that many of the concerns involving agency oversight and accountability ultimately fall within the responsibility of municipal officials. Despite these efforts, significant concerns remain without resolution as of today. Two, administrative investigations conducted by the police department did not fully resolve concerns regarding inconsistencies in reports, conflicting information, available records, potential conflicts of interest, statements that appeared inconsistent with body-worn camera footage. Although the allegations were determined to be unfounded, the investigations did not provide sufficient explanation or reconciliation of those issues to instill confidence that they were objectively evaluated. Similar concerns exist regarding the Regional Animal Control Authority including investigative practices management oversight evidence handling and video evidence later confirmed to have been in the agency's possession but not incorporated into the investigation or produced in response to freedom of information requests these issues result issues remain unresolved as of today Taken together, these experiences highlight a broader concern. Our current system lacks an independent process for reviewing complaints involving public safety agencies. I recognize and appreciate the public safety role performed by the New Milford Police Department and Regional Animal Control. Oversight is not intended to undermine those who serve our community. It's intended to strengthen public trust. Our town charter recognizes the importance of accountability and oversight. I respectfully ask the mayor and town council to review our current oversight structure and take three areas of action. First, determine whether town's existing processes provide sufficient accountability, transparency, and independent review. um with concerns involving new milford police department and regional animal control authority second establish an independent review process for complaints involving the new milford police department whether through a civilian review board consistent with the principles of connecticut's police accountability act or another qualified authority independent of the department capable of providing meaningful and objective review Third, refer my family's previously submitted complaints and unresolved concerns involving New Milford Police and Regional Animal Control to an appropriate independent authority for a comprehensive and impartial review of the issues raised. Our town charter charges elected officials with protecting the interests of the community and maintaining... confidence in local government. I respectfully ask you consider reforms that ensure every resident has access to a fair and independent review process. Thank you for your time, your consideration, and your service to our community. Thank you.

i'm going to break it up a little bit here um good evening mayor bass and town council members my name is carolyn hyde i'm the director of clatter valley day camp the girl scouts of connecticut here in the milford clatter valley camp took place july 11th through july 19th this past month we are a pop-up camp meaning if you go to clatter valley today we are not there Kind of mythical, I suppose, for those who do not know us, but with the help of over 45 leadership campers, rising eighth graders and up, a staff of 21, and many other youth and adult volunteers, we set up camp on Saturday, July 11th, and packed it all up on Saturday, July 18th. Within that seven-day stretch, our leadership Girl Scouts, rising eighth grade to rising seniors in high school, pushed themselves outside their comfort zones, helping learning how to plan and implement various activities for the younger Girl Scout sisters. From archery to games, camp crafts, hiking, letterboxing, to songs and skits, all the while, earning countless badges and higher awards, and working within the four pillars of Girl Scouts, outdoors, STEM, entrepreneurship, and life skills. Clowder Valley has been a New Milford tradition for girls spanning 61 years, a shared vision of local Girl Scout moms many years ago. We have serviced countless areas, girls from New Milford and surrounding towns. None of this would take place without the support of the Town of New Milford. I'd personally like to thank Dan Calhoun and the Park and Recs team, especially Julia and the crew who maintains the grounds. Julia was quick and helpful in those last days before camp to make sure everything was in place. The groundkeepers collaborated with us on plans on how to keep campers safe. We had a larger than normal asthma population this year, and with the smoke in the air, we came together up with plans on how to keep the fields mowed and campers safe without causing any attacks. I'd also like to thank Mike Boucher from Public Works and his water crew, Dave and Bob. As I'm sure you know, there's no running water at Clatter Valley and they kept our water container full even when we had some very excited rising eighth grade girls plan and implement hours of water play and games lowered to an uncomfortable level for this director on day two. I sent out an SOS, came immediately. A shout out to the fire marshal's office for their help with the barn and needed forms when I wasn't quite sure where they were. Water Witch Hose Company for coming and cooling us off on Tuesday. I'd also like to thank Jackie Malone, Josh Viola, and Sharon McClain, all in the Milford residents who are performing artists volunteering their time to come celebrate and teach the campers about theater, song, improv, and dance as we at Clowder Valley learned what it means to have a standing ovation and be our best selves in an audience. it was exciting to watch so many girl scouts young and old try something new and be inspired by this trio our theme this year was standing ovation or all things broadway we are excited announced that in the summer of 2027 our theme will be clatter valley takes flight our staff is ready planning units everything from bees to f-15s our archery person happened to fly those in the Air Force. And we will explore all things that fly. This year, we had 95 plus campers. 12 of our 21 staff are Clatter Valley alumni, ages 18 to over 55. I point that out because it shows how Girl Scouts has made an impression on their lives. Some see summer camps in arts and crafts. We see opportunities for girls to grow, take chances, and learn in a safe and fun environment. I can say from my own experience watching my own trio of girls grow at Clowder Valley, they became the youngest campers who are now helping teach archery and lead units, and two of my girls in a Girl Scout troop, who have had with me since they were five, finally agree at 13 and 14 to camp overnight in a tent, something they swore they would never do, and are asking when we're gonna go next. Girl Scouts show these girls it is okay to take chances and try something new, even if it is hard or scary. It is okay to take up space and have your voice heard. It's okay to disagree, but still be civil to one another. That is an actual goal scout gold award by a Girl Scout here in town, civil discourse, a respectful exchange of ideas focused on public concerns. So thank you to all for boots on the ground and in the background for truly helping us raise and empower future female leaders in our community and beyond. We truly appreciate it. And I know someone's going to ask, do you have to be part of a Girl Scout troop to come to Girl Scout camp? The answer is no. All girls are welcome. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor, Town Council, fellow citizens present and online. My name is Amanda Wood, 231 Pickett District Road. I'm gonna start with the preamble to the Constitution. We, the people, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, Provide for the common defense. Promote the general welfare. Secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. Do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Please note where I stand as a citizen of New Milford, Connecticut, 29 years. Also, an unofficial daughter of the revolution, my maternal great-grandfather fought in the Civil War, lost his leg, was cited by President Lincoln. My paternal great-grandfather was a three-star general. My grandfather served in the military along with my uncle. My father could not serve due to illness. My nephew currently serves in the Marines. Thank you, Ari, for responding to my email recently. Battery energy storage facility, no. Department of Public Works on top of our aquifer, no. Continued intense development north and east of the traffic circle without supporting infrastructure, no. Restrictions on freedom of speech, no. Supporting the infrastructure needed for the growth already approved, yes, including our police. Thank you for your service. And I say that as an educator. Considering the posterity of this town, yes. Humanity, morality, compassion, yes. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, Peter Mullen, 64 Old Ridge Road in Milford, Connecticut, mayor, town council, guests. I'm here concerning what was said two weeks ago at the town council meeting about civility. I wanna read a letter that I sent to the mayor on February 22nd, 2018, because we need to know what the history is when we talk about things far worse than a lack of civility. Mayor Bass, oh, PS, I was a member of the town council at the time. I'm writing to inform you of a disturbing incident and to ask that you, as chairman of the town council, take action to address the intimidation by some of your supporters. After last night's town council, the room was crowded and as I went to return some items to the secretary, Rick Agee bumped me from behind so I fell into the table. I did not make an issue of it. Because of the hostile tone, I offered to walk women to their cars. Teresa McSpadden and I were talking at the base of the stairs in front of Town Hall and Church Street. There was no crowd. I felt an arm pushed into my back as I pushed forward toward Mrs. McSpadden. Rick Agee had pushed me. When I asked what was wrong with him, he began yelling, saying, I'll just give you the first letter, F-U, repeatedly. Mr. Agee owns Go-Boy Soaps, which is prominently featured in the display case in Town Hall. He's known to blast music from his vehicle in front of the former mayor's window at Town Hall. I do not know if he feels empowered by his connections to you, Mayor, but I call on you to take some action to address Mr. Agee's now physical intimidation. This is part of a pattern amongst your supporters that does not seem to be improving. Mr. Barnes made comments about Senator Murphy being targeted after the shooting in Washington. Sam Gentile made comments about the former mayor getting hit in the head with a baseball bat. The fact that I have to offer to walk our women supporters to their cars because of the hostility is a disgrace. I'm calling you to take some action. You ran on bringing the town together. We should be able to disagree with your policies without threats from your supporters. I look forward to your reply, Peter Mullen. I cc'd the chief of police. You talk about a lack of civility? These were phenomenal, hostile acts, and there are more, I did not include everything. You did not publicly speak about it. You publicly spoke two weeks ago about eye rolls, grimaces, type of applause. That's not gonna work. History will look back on people who are hypocritical about the right to free speech and history is not kind to those people. Get off this road or get some committee to work about it. Things were far worse eight years ago There weren't eye rolls. I was literally assaulted outside of a town council meeting as a town council member, and there were no statements made by anybody. Thank you.

Good evening. I'm Tom Kapsiak. I live at 94 Long Mountain Road. I found it very ironic that after a reading of the American Creed, which celebrates a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, and which exists by the consent of the governed, the mayor began last council meeting with an attempt to constrain speech that occurs during public participation uh during the meeting and then immediately moved on to celebrate the declaration of append of independence that asserts freedom from autocratic authority the mayor should remember that he has been elected to be the chief administrative officer of the town charged with the responsibility to work on behalf of the community not as a monarch or a dictator. The mayor, the members of the council, the heads of the town's departments and their subordinates, and the members of the town boards, commissions, and committees have all been installed in their respective positions to work on behalf of the community for its long-term benefit. and we and are all subject to the concerns being raised regarding the adequacy of their performance in fulfilling the responsibilities of their office during the presentation during his presentation the mayor made a number of assertions and threats that warrant a robust response Contrary to his claim, all of those affected by the actions of the Town or its personnel should have the ability to speak before the Council. Section 6 of the Council's Rules and Procedures mentioned that members of the public shall have the ability to speak before the Council. Speakers should have the ability to express their opinions or concerns about significant issues that have an impact on the community. Section six of the council's rules and procedures state that speakers before the council may address any topic. People attending the meeting should have the ability to express their reactions to comments made during the meeting so long as they are not an attack on the person making the comments, an incitement to violence, or an unreasonable disruption to the progress of the meeting. The mayor's attempt to ensure civility during the council meeting seems to be nothing more than an autocratic attempt to prevent speech that he finds to be uncomfortable or inconvenient. His effort is ironic, since there has been no pattern of speakers mentioning irrelevant issues or engaging in personal attacks. On the contrary, we have had a number of occasions where the mayor and members of the council have demeaned and disparaged people who have expressed their concerns about the actions of the town or its personnel and the actions of the federal government that impact the town. The community depends on and benefits from a robust discussion of the issues affecting the town. Excessive constraints on such robust conversation beyond what is needed to allow for reasonable progress of a council meeting do not serve the community's interests and should not occur. Any advocate of such excessive control is not acting consistent with the American creed that they claim to uphold, much less the Declaration of Independence that they celebrate. Thank you.

Hi, Hillary Ram, 154 Guernsey Lane, New Milford. I'm here tonight to say something probably unexpected. Mayor Bass, I actually empathize with you. You must be exhausted. I'm exhausted. We are all exhausted. Our world right now, it feels overwhelming and out of control. Fights and controversy and ugliness and violence come at us from every angle 24 hours a day. It feels like we're all holding on. Solutions feel impossible. So I'm with you. Let's take a closer look at what we can do in this room together, in this building, our town hall, together, to try to honestly offer goodwill to each other, to listen to each other, and to govern our town as our founding fathers imagined. After all, we just celebrated our 250th. Now, I majored in political science, so just forgive me for this little blurb, but I studied Plato and Aristotle, Machiavelli's The Prince, Hobbes and Locke, then I read Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America. One of my favorites was Immanuel Kant, The Groundwork Metaphysics of Morals, and of course, James Madison, who's often called the father of our Constitution. So lately, I've been rereading these, and the reason I'm bringing them up here is because These thinkers really literally did leave a trail of breadcrumbs for us, a manual, a user's manual, so to speak, on how to do government. The place that I always land when I follow these crumbs is that government can be and should be a force for good if that power is put in check. Madison wrote about how human beings are flawed, fundamentally flawed, greedy sometimes, and overly ambitious. Government must therefore be designed so that no one person or branch can accumulate too much power. So our system of government is supposed to have separations of power, checks and balances at every level, local level included. However, right now people feel like they have no power. It seems like the system is rigged on both sides. It's pay to play. It's a pay to play landscape everywhere. with very few holding the power. So how does this come to play out locally? Is it pay to play here? I really wanna know. Is there one developer, a single engineering firm, a single bulk material supplier that seemed to benefit from the decisions that are made behind seemingly closed doors? Is the general public left out of most conversations? Because I don't see them happening here. I don't see our town plan conversations happening here. Do our boards and committees operate fully independently from our mayor or do they take orders and return expected outcomes? Does each council member make independent decisions when asking questions and voting? Sometimes it seems like these decisions are already made and this deliberative process is performative. I have wanted transparency on these questions for a long time, but I have been continually blocked by you, Mr. Bass, Mayor Bass. Doesn't the Americans' Creed, the very one you required to be recited at the town council meetings, affirm that our government is of the people, by the people, and for the people? History has repeatedly shown that some of our greatest thinkers have warned that unchecked power inevitably leads to abuse. No public official is above accountability, and no government functions properly when those entrusted to serve forget who they answer to. Please remember that all of you serve the people of New Milford. The authority you hold was not granted by your office. It was entrusted to you by the citizens that you represent. It would be wise to remember where the authority ultimately resides, with the people who are collectively rolling their eyes at what you said at the last meeting. You should be thrilled when people come up here to speak to you, to participate. The apathy in this town is embarrassing. What are the percentages of people that voted on the budget that voted in the last election? We need engagement. That is what makes government work. So don't shut us out. Invite more people should be able to call in and talk. Thank you.

okay item number four i'd like to move that we approve the consent agenda item 4a the approval of the town council meetings of july 13th thank you a second thank you any discussion all those in favor aye thank you any you abstain yeah because i wasn't there okay Okay, item number 5. 5A, I'd like to move the following appointments. For the Opioid Settlement Dollar Committee, we're filling a vacancy, and that would be Toni Sterling. She lives in Litchfield, Connecticut, and the term would be July 27, 2026 to January 28 of 2028. Is Toni here tonight?

anyway this was recommended to us Tony does serve with Greenwood's counseling which also does some amazing work here in New Milford should be a wonderful asset to the committee do we have a second on that thank you thank you any discussion all in favor thank you opposed any abstentions thank you

I'd like to move on item 4B. I'd like to do B and C. Fair Rent Commission, Vanessa Rodriguez would be filling a vacancy on fair rent and that term would be July 27th, 2026 to January 31st, 2029. And then we have Vanessa Rodriguez also joining the Cultural District Commission And her term would be again, July 27th, 2026. This is through January 31st of 2028. Again, filling a vacancy. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you.

And Vanessa's here. Vanessa, would you like to just say hi? we're very excited vanessa wanted to get more involved and uh we can't thank her enough for uh again volunteering for fair rent and the cultural district so we have a motion a second all those in favor absolutely thank you um so um i have no doubt that vanessa would be wonderful on both committees that part's fine but um

i'm not mistaken she works at the town clerk's office and does the town charter for forbid that like in part two chapter nine article two section nine six a it says holding no salaried municipal office in the town of milford so that might be a violation of the town charter is my only concern I wish Randy DiBella was here because we could ask him, but he's not.

Well, is it in the charter? What you just read, right? Excuse me? You read that from the charter. I did, yeah. Oh, well, then it's in the charter. You didn't make it up.

No, but he might have an interpretation of it. That's all.

Well, you do, you're employed there. I am. Yeah, so I think. Are you saying that for both what they're recognizing and what the district commission does?

um i believe so yeah if that's it but i mean it's really a question for the town attorney maybe we could just postpone it until next time right how about so we'll have we'll postpone it and get a rendering from town attorney yeah and then we'll we'll have you come back

Well, we'll check. We'll check. It's very nice of you to want to do it.

We'll get the thing from Ray.

And just to be clear, I'm sure you'd be great on those commissions. I don't know what the rules are. That's all.

Yeah, but I think you're right. That's what's in there. Okay, so we'll... We'll postpone that. Yeah, we'll rescind the motion and the second. Okay, good.

uh item six six six a control right and that's you're gonna talk about that yeah so are you requested this to be on a council agenda yeah um if i could just say a couple words absolutely this is not something that i completely understand or have a strong opinion on but there were several emails and allegations made and i don't know what the proper process is to address them it seems unresolved and I just wasn't sure how we could address it.

I know. Mister Lance hit come up and came to to the public or public participation. One thing for those in the Council and those that are watching it in the audience as well. Our ordinance chapter 4. of our charter is a regional dog warden and pound as we've entered agreements with continuous towns or towns in order to be served by a regional dog warden and such assistance as may be necessary to administer and enforce laws relating to dogs. That regional animal control, the RAC, the towns that are involved in this is New Milford, Bridgewater, Brookfield, Sherman are those in there as well as Roxbury. Selectman Patrick Roy is the chairman of the RAC. And I believe from what it is kind of a summary, so to speak, was the regional animal control. This matter was investigated by the control officer Cynthia Wilcox. involved two dogs uh this was according uh to mr delaney and and i believe there is a lawsuit papers filed by their daughter against the dog owners of the other dog they had an aco investigation that stated only one dog was involved but that's a basis that has has some repudiation to that The second dog was supposedly owned by a relative of a New Milford Police Department officer. They claim the reason the dog owner was not included was the result of a cover-up by the New Milford Police Department in conspiracy with the RAC Officer Wilcox. Mr. Laney, as he's mentioned, has sent several FOI demands to the RAC, the Town of Bridgewater, and the New Milford Police Department. The towns have acknowledged the receipt. Requests were set by, I believe, RAC Chair Charles Roy, who is the chairman. Apparently there was Mr. Delaney's claim, and he is here, I don't want to speak for him, but that two New Milford officers were to be fired. That was not the case through an investigation by the normal for police department. Also, this went to the State Department of Agriculture, which is the actual where you go to appeal a case and they did not reverse the ACO findings. Then this was also conducted by the police department with an internal investigation. The results were given, I believe, to Mr. Delaney and the AI was found no wrongdoing. Also, this was given to the state's attorney for Litchfield Judicial District and the SA's office found no local wrongdoing. So that's kind of where they are now. They also complained about police officer standards and training to the Connecticut Post, but that agency also took no action. I believe there is some outstanding FOI requests that are being processed both here and through the RAC, which is basically the governing body of this. Thank you. Yes, sir.

uh next is did anybody have any questions so far okay the next one okay so item 6b uh is an foi hillary ram and councilman rosenberg and i address it so um my understanding is that hillary filed the freedom of information act request around variety of information related to the Flatiron proposal and town involvement in that back in December and to my knowledge she has not received most I've seen several Freedom of Information Act requests sent through and usually people get an acknowledgement within four days as it's the case and we discussed this at town council but to my knowledge she never even got an acknowledgement Um, and it hasn't been answered and it's been, you know, almost eight months now. Um, and, um, I had made a motion. I had emailed you, uh, January 7th, uh, asking for a discussion on why it was not answered in a timely manner and, uh, requesting a motion that the mayor be empowered to answer it before January 15th. And a lot of time has passed and the town charter, I think requires my motions. any town council member actually any town council member can put anything on the agenda but it did not appear on the agenda it didn't appear on the first draft of the agenda for this meeting until I asked again and it did finally show up here so it would be helpful to hear why my agenda items were not put on here when they were they originated January 7th it'd be helpful to understand why the Freedom of Information Act request was not answered in a timely manner. And it would be great to hear a commitment from the mayor to answer it sometime within the next 20, 30 days.

Thank you, Rory. I'm actually going to answer it this evening. First, Marchin, who really does our FOI when they come in, he's the one to make sure we're compliant. And I had asked Marchin, I had asked our IT director, I asked everyone kind of where we were with this freedom of information request. Marcia, can you talk a little bit about the process?

My name is Martin Stankovich. Amongst many titles here in town, I'm the FOI compliance coordinator, if you don't know me already. So yes, this request originally did come in. It was sent to mayor at newmilfordct.gov on December 16th of 2025, as well as town council at newmilford.gov. on the same date. The town council at newmilford.gov email is incorrect so I don't suspect any of you received that. However, the email did go to the mayor at newmilfordct.gov email but was not received because it went to spam. So no one in the mayor's office was able to acknowledge it because it went to the spam folder. Yeah.

I'm just curious because I didn't see it. We didn't see it. How do you know? I mean, I would ask somebody that. How do you know where it went?

So I was able to work with our IT department to determine where it went. So a little bunch of information about our email system that you probably don't care about. But after 30 days in the spam folder, emails get deleted. But thankfully, there's an email archive that our IT department, who is awesome at their job, was able to recover. So we do have a receipt of that email.

Oh.

as well as the request um i do understand that ms ram has filed a complaint with the fyc commission with the state i've been in contact with the omb spudman russell blair with the state as well i've let him know that we are working to fulfill that request unfortunately due to the volume of requests that we receive as well as limited hours of myself and the mayor's staff which is a very very busy office sometimes these requests take a lot of time

and I'm sorry this also is from our IT director so I asked him could you take a look at it because they did a forensic of it And he had emailed me back because I asked him to kind of update the council. And he said, Mayor, after a thorough review, the message appears to have not been received for the following reasons. The sender attempted to cc town council's distribution, but misspelled the email address. Instead of towncounselnewmilford.gov, it was sent to towncounselnewmilford.gov. The sender's name and address closely mirrored the sender's previous email address within the town's domain, as Ms. Ram did sit on the town council, which caused the message to go to spam. So that was the reasoning for not the acknowledgement. FOI is pretty specific and clear too that FOI requests are done but not to interfere within the town's normal business. My office there's only three of us. There is the two admin are that you know you've talked to them and there's myself. It's been extremely extremely busy with all the stuff that is going on. We try to get to these as best as we can. but sometimes it absolutely will take time. And we continue to get FOIs for all sorts of different things, not only to this. But that's the reason why that particular item was not acknowledged because we didn't know it was in a spam thing.

I mean, maybe you don't have the content of the email itself, but I mean, we knew to some extent that it existed. Like I have seen it myself and Also, we had discussed it at town council at the meeting that we had at the high school. Was that late January or early February? So there was knowledge of this. It might have been a separate communication with Hillary asking her about it. I don't recall how I saw it, but I have a copy of it. So I mean, I might have emailed her separately and asked her for it. Really, it was like eight months ago. But I had asked to put this on the agenda and to empower the mayor to answer it. And that never got put on the agenda.

Because we were going through forensically looking at it, but it's something that we are not going to stop the regular course of business to do. There's only three of us. There's Martin, who does two jobs, who now be going down to Zoni, but he was doing the fire marshal, also doing also personnel, and then trying to do this as well. We have an IT department of only three people.

Thank you for your service, by the way.

So sometimes this will get wrong.

Excuse me, Hillary, just for a second. I just want to ask Gary because he's the one who got it. So you got it, right? Did you bring that up at a meeting?

Yeah, when we were at the high school, we had a whole conversation. It's on the video. We had a whole conversation about Hillary's Freedom of Information Act request. What's a timely response for that? Why didn't she get a response to it? But I had asked for a motion to empower the mayor to answer it, and that's what didn't make it onto the agenda. Hillary's also acknowledging that she did send a follow-up email. I don't know which email she's referring to or if she has the opportunity to talk about that.

We also had an FOI from Ms. Ram. This one was marching... dated february 4th and that was their was that their uh um finding that is a previous request uh but that is a decision from the foic commission uh with the state which i believe you're referring to and this complaint this was dismissed i think that's a different one different issue

And can I just ask Hillary, you sent, I heard you say, you sent a follow-up email to the one with the... I did, to Mayor Bass on December 23rd. To all of us? No, to Mayor Bass. Oh, okay.

That's not the same thing as the deadline for your response.

Okay. I just didn't think I saw that one either, so I'm out of the loop. Go ahead.

But yes, to confirm, I did receive the other email. However, I wasn't made aware of these emails, either one of them, until May 11th of 2026, when the FOIC Commission acknowledges that we were receiving a complaint from Ms. Ramley.

I mean, were you not aware that we had discussed it at the town council meeting?

Personally, no.

Well. It seems like something went wrong here. I mean, this was an open Freedom of Information Act request and it should be expedited at this point. Maybe there's no information in there, but we have a responsibility to the town to answer Freedom of Information Act requests in a timely manner to make sure that the public has the information that they need.

But the only way we get them would be through email, right?

I think she said that she sent a follow-up email to the mayor.

I know she said that, but I'm just saying, is that the only, I'm asking you, you might know, but Marchin, is that the only way that any of us in the town would hear about an FOI request is through the email?

So typically FOI requests have come in a vast majority through email. That's the ones I normally deal with, but occasionally they can come through mail as well. And that's perfectly acceptable.

Hillary's saying that it went to the town clerk as well.

With the right address, or was that on the same one with the wrong address?

Did that one go into spam? So the very initial email, and forgive me, I don't have the date in front of me, but the very first request did go into spam. Again, likely due to the issues that IT department described, and there was also the issue with the town council email being incorrect. The second email, as far as I'm aware, did not go to spam, but I was not made aware of it until May 11th.

Okay, so if the second one didn't go into spam, and this was like in January or so, why wasn't Marcin informed of it? The second email that didn't go into spam.

I don't know about a second email. This is something that I'm just being told about right now. so we will take a look at that but the original one that you just asked me about uh to ask to be put on this agenda was we were explaining why this we didn't see that that was done uh by the uh i.t director who was also done by marching and uh where we can show that there was that issue but i can also say we do answer the foi requests that are done for instance the one by mrs ram that's right here that was nallied for failure to prosecute, and it also said failure to appear resulted in a waste of scarce state and local resources.

Can we look into, before the next meeting, whether the second email to you went into spam? Absolutely. Whether the one to the ten click went into spam?

100%.

Thank you.

Thank you. Okay.

Any other questions as it pertains to this?

Okay.

Okay. Thank you.

All right. Done with this. Yes. OK. Item number seven. I'd like to move that we approve the promotion of the current assistant land use enforcement officer to the role of land use officer. And Jim, can you have a second? Can you come up on that? Thank you, Mary Jane. Thank you.

And this is already been in the budget. This is just to clarify in the budget book.

We were all here discussing about how we're looking forward to try and take our knowledge from our person and pass it down before they go into retirement, etc. It was all budgeted for. What we didn't do is approve the updated job description for the new person so they are allowed to train and supervise the position that was there. So that's what we're asking for tonight.

okay so just to be clear you're not asking for any money the money's already approved by the town council by the um the whole group and by the town yes sir thank you so we have a motion and a second we have a motion in this session any discussion any other discussion

And then we have to make the name right. Correct.

Jim, the actual name position is going from the assistant land use enforcement officer to the land use enforcement officer.

Just removing the word assistant. Enforcement needs to be in there. That is correct. Thank you. Okay.

So you want to clarify the motion? Katie, just to make sure.

Yes. Good. Thank you. Okay. We have a motion and a second.

All those in favor? Aye. Thank you. Opposed? Any abstentions? Thank you. okay item eight mayor's comments okay uh so first uh thank you uh for everyone just uh in summary uh what was brought uh here by the public talking about uh freedom and first amendment rights absolutely that's what the constitution is about 100 uh but we also need to be cognizant uh as we are a republic that our rights are the same as everyone else's There can be no one that has a better freedom than your neighbor. It's all about being neighborly. It's all about being civil to one another. And the reason why I brought up what I did at the last meeting was I've had several individuals that are afraid to come up to the podium to state their piece because they felt they may be in the minority. They felt they may be heckled or they may be talked about or talked at and the whole goal of the public is people's concerns I wholeheartedly agree with but we must be cognizant that we want everyone to be able to come up to the podium and say their piece whether they agree with you or not agree with you but to do that we must be civil we must allow people to speak their minds And when I heard from not one person, but a few people, they're saying, we had one lady here that kind of spoke a little bit, felt a little nervous. We want everybody to know that they can come here in a orderly way, in a safe way, to be able to state their peace to the council. And that's what that was about. And when you talk about eyes rolling, when you do look at Robert's Rules of Order, which is what the town council goes by, part of that is that. And they say in that is because you want everybody to feel safe to come up to the podium. It's not about limiting people's free speech. It's not about telling everybody they don't have a right. You absolutely do have a right to come and speak to the town council. But we all need to do it together, whether we're in the audience, whether we're watching on TV or the council. We all need to make sure that we do it in a professional and civil manner. And that's so everyone can feel free to come and talk. That's what this was about, not limiting free speech, not being a dictator or anything of the such. It's just to allow people to feel comfortable as, hey, I'm going to come to the town council and speak my mind. What I did bring up is when you do look at the council, when you look at the charter and you look at the policies and procedures, it does state, in those two documents that it is for the residents of New Milford but as I said in that meeting it's to the purview of the council if you'd like to have all sorts of people come before absolutely I was just making the case that there are as we are looking at the charter there are things in there that specify things so it's totally up to the council obviously myself I'd love to have everybody come and participate and speak their mind because that's what makes it great That's why I love all the cultures that are here in our town. That's why we celebrate all of our cultures, because it brings such a tapestry to our town. So with kind of that being said, Just real quick Katie, some of the things that's going on here. I want to thank Barbara Crandell, Letty Halpern, and our entire Parks and Rec team. They organized the 8 Mile 5K Kids Fun Run. This was, according to Dan, who's over here, one of the most popular ones that we've had in many years. And I believe the Kids Fun Run was maxed out with people wanting more. So I think it's a great job. And thank you, Dan, to you, the whole team, Denise, the Milford Police Department, Public Works, the sponsors, and George Fletcher, for those that don't know, he again this year starts off the rate sheet each and every year. And he was the gentleman that started this race.

many many years ago so big huge thank you could i ask is there anybody here besides me who remembers george fletcher right of course you would yeah yeah he started our i just so you know the building across the street which is now the light lamp lighting people was turned into a community center mr fletcher did that and uh it was kind of fun I live too far away to be there all the time, but it was, yeah, just so you know, he is a wonderful, wonderful man, gentleman all the way. That was great of him to be there.

Sure is. Love seeing him there.

I thought you were asking who ran, and I did run. Oh, I'm sure you did.

But I am still in a lot of pain.

Next, a big thank you to American Legion Commander Jim Delancey and the VFW itself, as they had the veterans community outreach. They do that every month, and that's where veterans can go. and they can find out the assistance for VA benefits, uh, what they have. Uh, they give them, uh, uh, ways to access those and a big, huge, uh, thank you to Jim and a big thank you to all of our veterans. Uh, we had the Etsy students here from the Milford high school and Scottico that came learned a little bit about town government tour town hall. So big, thank you to the teachers, the staff. It's a wonderful program for those students. And it's great every year that they come to a town hall. So big, huge, thank you. I want to thank Jason O'Connor, our youth agency director and the whole team for this summer's Nature Unplugged. And this is high school, middle school groups, and they explore the woods, nature, and a big, huge thank you also to Sarah Windrow. She's our social worker at the youth agency. And she started this seven years ago. and fills up the program within days of opening the registration. And it's one of the youth agency's most beloved programs and a great job to all of them. And a big special thank you to Sarah for really starting that. We continue with our NIP bottle and garbage roadside cleanup and a big thank you to three veterans as they continue to clean up our roadsides and Aspatuck Ridge Road. They did that one, they did Aspatuck Pines, Fawn Ridge Road, Two Rivers, Scoville Road, they picked up 75 pounds of garbage, 61 nips, 36 redeemables. Mariel Road, they picked up 124 pounds of garbage, 112 nips, 155 redeemables. Paper Mill Road had 85 pounds of garbage, 148 nips, and 77 redeemables. And we ask if we can all do the self-responsible thing together to keep our roadsides clean. Keep your cans, bottles and garbage in your vehicle until you reach your destination and dispose of them in a proper receptacle. That's the best way we all can work together to keep our roadsides and our environment cleaner. Congratulations to the 2026 New Milford High School Athletic Hall of Fame inductees. Troy Appling, from the class of 1994, also All-American, University of New Haven, football safety. Brenda Bardrum, class of 1983. Jen Fallon, class of 1995. John Greary, class of 1963. Carl Reday, class of 1991. Dylan Tuz, class of 2004. I had the pleasure of coaching Dylan back in the day, amazing athlete. And coaches Don Huff. uh will be inducted from field hockey amazing job and beth bethany mahaly from gymnastics and these group of athletes will be honored during the hall of fame inductee banquet at fairview farm golf course in harlington so big huge uh congratulations and thank you to them then congratulations to milford high school alumni jackson olsen And you may know him now as he's with the Savannah Bananas. And he is featured in the August Sports Illustrated Star Appeal article. And what also is amazing about Jackson was the Milford Youth Baseball and Softball Program had their regional tournament. this past weekend and a weekend prior, and Jackson actually came and was there with the kids, stayed most of the day. He also paid for the girls' softball scoreboard, and just an amazing young man. Can't thank him and his family. He continues to pay back to the Milford.

Do you know what he's doing now?

He's doing a great job. He's dancing with the stars.

If you didn't know who he was before, I guess you know now.

And playing with Savannah Bananas.

Yes.

And it was already said here today as well as a big, huge thank you to the Girl Scouts and Parker Rec and Milford Fire. And as this was already said, during public participation for Clatter Valley Day Camp and just a great experience for those Girl Scouts. And they come from all over. So a big thank you to everyone for that. So a great job with that. Great article in Line Drive Media for the Milford High School three-sport athlete Sienna McNamara. She's going to be a senior this year. She's already committed to the University of North Carolina to play D1 softball. Amazing, amazing athlete and just a person. So a big, huge congratulations to her. She's already on pace to graduate with 12 varsity letters. That's pretty amazing.

Yeah.

I want to congratulate our new Eagle Scout, Nicholas Satori from Troop 58. I want to thank Scoutmaster Lewis, the Scout Troop, Holly and Anthony Satori, who are parents of Nicholas. I love going to these courts of honor. Truly amazing. Thank you to State Representative Buckbee for being there as well. And just a wonderful thing to see these Eagle Scouts. Less than 1% of the Scouts come eagle scouts and we have quite a number coming from our new milford troops so great job i want to thank the litchfield irish american club president chris cosgrove irish bowling subcommittee chairman gavin mccabe the entire club the sponsors uh at today's irish road bowling plus all of those that did bowl uh they raised twenty nine thousand fifty two dollars for the freitas family and that's where uh Mr. Freed has passed away. He has two young children and a big huge thank you to them. Over the last four years the Litchfield Irish American Club has raised over $150,000 for the community. So a big huge thank you to them. I want to thank Sullivan Farm team for putting a new bridge in the North Strand Trail that was demolished by falling trees. So a big thank you to Mark Manken and the whole team for that. And then infrastructure work, we're starting to work on Reservoir 4 Dam. We installed this security fencing and a new gate on the new valve stem that we installed, and they continue to work on the back part of the dam, and I'll give an update at the next meeting to the town council. Brookside Avenue bridge rehabilitation project the contractor working on drilling for rebar and warm work for the new bridge being seats on the eastern abutment. And then sunrise Lane road reconstruction project to contract to replace one cross pipe and hold out the old metal pipe on sunrise Lane and those old pipes are 50 years old and when they're pulled out I know. Chuck can testify when they come out there pretty much the bottoms are gone. So this is a wonderful thing that we're doing putting this infrastructure back to the last another 50 years and help keep our roadways safe. Motor vehicle stops spoke to deputy chief. Today. This year we've done 2175 which is about 75 a week. So big huge thank you to the police department We have two officers in training now, so even with some lower officer numbers, we're still able to do that. Motor vehicle accidents are at 511, and last year they were at 505, and as you can remember, we had a larger number of disparages between year over year because of the winter weather, but they seem to be settling down now, which is great. DUIs are the same as last year, which is 52 year over year. That's way too many. And I know the chief and the deputy chief and the police are very vigilant, especially on our night and mids of really honing in on those driving under the influence, which is we don't want anybody to do it. And as we say at our meetings here is if you're drinking, please call Uber, call a friend, call someone. Don't get in a car and drive, because you're not even putting yourself in danger, but those that may be riding with you and those that are in other vehicles that are driving on the roadway. And that's what I got, Katie.

Okay. Let's go to... Oh, go ahead.

Yes, Mary Jane. Sure, so E Street School, where it is as of right now, I was going to bring it up at the next meeting, was the grant that was awarded for... uh studying the uh the environmentals was awarded uh from the economic development corporation so they're beginning that work in that process and then what will happen is that'll kind of tell us what's uh if there is any kind of abatements that need to get done within each street school The actual contractor that was looking to put the affordable housing in the top two units and then the senior affordable housing is working on finalizing his numbers. Also talking with Theater Works as well because that would be kind of almost campus-like for productions. And I'm going to be hopefully bringing to the council at our August meeting more information on that as it's going through. You're welcome.

Okay. Moving on. Item 9A and B. I'd like to move that we approve acceptance by the New Milford Library. They requested permission to accept a donation of $271.25 from the Women's Club of Greater New Milford. The donation would be used for books. And item 9B, the... Police Department, Milford Police Department, would like to take a very generous donation of $1,387 to be used for the canines. And we'd like to thank the Hometown Foundation for all the great work they do in helping the police canines.

So moved. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Thank you. Any abstentions? Thank you.

Right, okay, so item 10, Mayor, I would motion to discuss, of course, and the request for an appropriation of $66,760 of the landfill settlement fund. under 10 a we have Park and Rec fifteen thousand five hundred and forty dollars for the park entrance signage item two is thirteen thousand eight hundred twenty four Park amenities that Park being Lynn Deming on that mayor yes okay item number three thirty two thousand two hundred again Lynn Deming bath house roof and gutters and item four is $5,200 for the water fountain and bottle filler.

So move. In a second, we have Dan here. Dan, would you like to talk a little bit about the requests?

As you know, we have 20 parks in the town, and our signage is becoming old and dilapidated. It really needs to... to upgrade those so it's a welcoming sign as people come into our park so that's what we're asking for so we're asking for signs for each of the parks and we're going to come up with a scheme that is in all the parks nice in regards to park amenities as we as you know we had an ada visit last year and we're going to start like buying some picnic tables that are ada accessible we're looking to buy Grills for the parks, coal and ash bins, trash bins, the trash receptacle similar to the ones in the downtown area. So we're looking to upgrade some of our stuff and add some more. As you know, if you go to Lindeming Park, usually every picnic table and every grill is taken up. So we'd like to add more to that. In regards to the roof and gutters at Lindeming Park, that structure was put up probably about 30 years and it's time to replace the roof and the gutters. That park is the most used park in town and we just need to keep up with it. So we have it for many years to come And also as you know, if you use the park we have an old water fountain there we'd like to upgrade that and be able to have a bottle fill as well as a water fountain, so Those are our requests for Lindeming Park I also have a memo from Olga our finance director the agenda 727 26 includes the appropriation from the landfill settlement fund and

and a capital reserve fund which we'll be talking about next both funds have adequate available balances proposed expenditures. Gen item regarding the promotion of the assistant land use enforcement officer which we already made provides an increase The transfer is not needed in this department as we talked about the money is already set aside So we have a motion concerning the parking recs Request for the landfill settlement fund and we have a second and that is a permitted use all those in favor Opposed any abstentions, thank you

item 10b all right i'd like to move that we approve the following i guess uh we'll say appropriations uh and that would be to appropriate seven seven the seven oh my god i can't i can't believe it i'm looking at it seven thousand seven hundred ninety seven thousand there we go i couldn't get the h out 194.77 out of the town surplus and uh would you like to go through these uh one at a time yes could you certainly so we'll start with uh item number one which is the park and rec security camera upgrade at lynn demming and that would be uh six thousand dollars

Thank you.

Any discussion on this? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Any abstentions?

Thank you. Item number two is for the New Milford Ambulance, $18,125. That's for the HVAC controller in the ambulance barn.

Arnie, can you come up and talk a little bit about it?

Arnie Mice, EMS Operations Manager for the town. So at the ambulance we have a older control system in place to control heat as well as the HVAC, so the air conditioning system. And at some point an upgrade was done to the heating system but not to the air conditioning system. Currently, the control system runs on a Windows 7 PC. Windows 7 is no longer supported by Microsoft, has not been for a long time. It's not something where we can just upgrade the software on it. It connects to the system, it drives the system, so it's not a simple upgrade. This upgrade would basically help us get a controller that does the air conditioning system and it would also control the heating system. Currently that computer is only controlling the air conditioning system. It does not control the heating system. There's not a good control of when does heat come on, when does air conditioning come on, and so on. There is a potential that that computer fails, which then would potentially allow for the air conditioning system to fail because it doesn't have a control system running it. And so this upgrade would basically cover both, where a new system is placed, i.e. computer, that can run both systems. And now, as it was years ago, before they were split, All the systems are controlled. Heat as well as air conditioning are controlled by this one system.

Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. Any questions for Arnie?

Okay.

All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Any abstentions? Thank you.

Item number three is the $74,069.77 for the New Milford Police Department vehicle. What kind of vehicle is it? Deputy Chief. Oh, there you go.

Good evening. We are requesting those funds to replace one of our oldest vehicles in the fleet on a one-for-one basis so the new vehicle would come in completely outfitted. That's light, siren, cage, everything for it. It would come from a government existing contract with MHQ and the vehicle that would be replaced would then be turned over to Public Works for an assessment to see if it could be used elsewhere in town.

It's a car then.

Excuse me?

It's a car.

SUV. Okay.

SUV. Okay. That's what I was trying to get. All right. I have a second on the motion. I didn't hear anybody say that. Second. Second.

Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Any abstentions? Thank you, Deputy Chief. Thank you, Lieutenant. Thank you.

Item number four, this is for public works, and there are several, so I'll start with the first, which is the plow truck for $300,000.00.

Oh, didn't know you were there.

And we have Jack here. And Tom seconded. Thank you, Tom. Jack, you want to talk about the plow truck?

okay we have a fleet of trucks and as they age there probably lasts about 15 years so we've been working with the mayor for the last several years to replace one to two trucks a year that keeps them current and we're not we're not running trucks that are absolutely just you know past their prime and they cost more to upkeep than to run so this is this is now what a new truck the cost of a new truck is up to they've gone up significantly in the last few years and we're we're getting close to three hundred thousand dollars per truck and this is a plow truck yeah it's just i'm sorry a six-wheel plow truck the large ones you see on the road does it include the plow or we use the same plows we have already it comes equipped

This is a $300,000 expense. Was this not anticipated in the regular budget? Why is this coming out of the surplus at this time? Why wasn't it budgeted for earlier?

So we use a strategy already that our auditors really love is the fact that we have the ability to do so through surplus. We're able to purchase this capital requirements rather than having to hit the taxpayers for a second time. So we have this in our five-year capital plan, but we look to see if we have the availability through surplus to do this rather than putting it in the budget, which then results in a higher budget. Thank you. You're welcome. uh i will get you that number exactly uh i believe on the town side uh it's a little bit over a million and a half a million 75 because i in a minute i'm going to talk about some additional monies that will go into surplus that we were able to get um but it's around there board of ed is a little more than that as well but i'll get you the exact number mary jane So we have a motion, and we have a second on that. Yes, we do. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Opposed. Thank you.

Item B, this is $137,000 for Century Brass, environmental compliance per federal and state guidance.

So before you make that motion, Katie, I was wondering if we could change it from 137 to 143. And that's per Olga and Jack when they were talking about the needed funds for the compliance for the Century Brass. So I'll restate.

There you go.

Thank you. Jack.

Okay. Yeah, this is environmental compliance. You know, I think I've talked about the closure plan for the facility. This is historic. It goes back for several years. We have a schedule with DEP and EPA. This particular, we have already been out there. If you go by, you'll see what we've been putting in monitoring wells and taking samples. This would be the next phase. This will be addressing the areas of concern. We call them the AOCs for the facility. And it's in compliance with uh we are working with dep um we have to present the work plan to them and this this match meets our requirements for the for the upcoming uh year any other discussion with jack on the motion all those in favor aye opposed any abstentions thank you item 4c we have 120 000 this is for an undercarriage vehicle wash system for the current wash bed Yep. I'm sorry. Do I have a second on somebody?

Second.

Thank you.

It should say Wash Bay. But anyway, there's the Wash Bay next to the facilities department that we wash our trucks in. Our conversation with our maintenance department and the drivers is, when you lift a truck up, there's places where, with the amount of salt and sand that we use in our trucks, it gets up in there, and that's what causes corrosion. We're trying to find different ways to be able to extend the life of our trucks, thereby maybe reduce the number of times that A would come to you. So one of the ways we can do that is there are undercarriage wash systems that Mike and Chris and Chuck have been looking into. This would go into the existing wash bag and would help wash and remove the salt and material off of the trucks from the winter. The mechanics say when they open up the truck to do work on it, even though the operators and drivers wash the trucks and use a hose, this one is stationary, sits on the floor, and will allow them to do a better job.

And this will be in the facility as it is now?

It will be in that wash bay. If you face facilities, it's to the right.

How much better a job? It's $120,000. I have to get underneath my truck, too, and I just take the hose, and that seems to do it. Is it worth the $120,000 for this?

Many of the departments have them. We've been touring different departments to see how they maintain their trucks, and I will say the majority of the new departments we visit do have this system. When you lift a truck, you know, when... When you lift the truck up, the way it's constructed, there are two beams that are normally put together like this on both sides. The salt gets up and inside there and it sits. You lift it up, you wash it, but it gets embedded in there and also gets embedded in the brake systems and on the hydraulic systems. So this system is under pressure, allows them to wash the truck better. They're still going to have to get around to it. To me, if you look at the price of a new truck, it's well worth the investment.

And what size, what's the maximum size truck that can get washed?

Whatever we can put into the wash bay.

Any of them?

Yeah. I think, well, Chuck, there was one that we were concerned about the...

The only limitation, one, is the length of the wash bay right now, just because of where it's at. But 99% of all our vehicles can run through this right now. And because this system sits on a floor, it's a little bit raised. So anything that's low, has any low-hanging gear, like our street sweepers, we'll have to find a way to get them to go up and over this. But again, the sweet sweepers are out in the harsh climates like salt and wintertime, so we don't really have the big issues like we see with dump trucks. This would be a quick way to get trucks in and out a lot quicker, so they could be put back into service a lot quicker in the wintertime. It'll cycle through a lot quicker, so it'll get all the trucks cycled through. Normally it takes three, four days to wash all our trucks. This could condense that time to a shorter period, so it'll get guys back to work quicker too.

Is there air? Like, you know, when you drive through one of the ones with a car, is there air that blows it dry? High pressure.

No, just high pressure water from underneath.

Okay, so in the winter...

it you use it in the winter yeah most of the time in the winter we'll do it use it some in the summer i will say we have a committee that um this is one thing to talk to the mayor about and he's he's he he appreciates what we're doing we've created a equipment committee uh it's it's chaired by mickey our garage mechanic because he's the one that sees the vehicles the most um mickey's on it mike's on it chris chuck and myself um and we we meet regularly to discuss what improvements we can make and what can we do to extend the life of our of our equipment we we talk regularly on our friday our friday meetings with the mayor about some of our observations good

Thank you. Zach? So I think this sounds like an excellent piece of equipment. Is this something that once installed would be able to be transferred if and when Parks and Rec, you know, you guys, Public Works, you transfer to a different facility? Because I know that's been a huge matter of contention here among town. Keeping the vehicles operational for a lot longer. think this is a great idea is this something that if installed at one location if and when you move you're going to be able to take with you yes okay i just wanted to check the short quick answer is yes okay no i just said that's a good question any any other discussion all those in favor

moving down to item d that would be fifty thousand dollars for a dpw pickup truck so moved this would be part of our rotation of pickup trucks the pickup truck that uh i believe is used in the garage right now has it's it's to the point where it's it's it's tired um you know the amount of work that the mechanics have to put into their own truck it's getting so it costs more to do that than to maintain it this will be part of our normal rotation um what we do is we rotate that a new truck would come it would be specifically sized for a certain application and that and then that truck would be repurposed to the garage it's similar to how we work with the police department oh you would ask that i'm sorry off the top of my head i can't tell you i do know when i took my job here was when they signed me it was old then so

I was older.

And I'm here. I'm going into my eighth year, so.

All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Any abstentions? Thank you.

And the last one is the facilities. Dave Martin will love this, to be able to get a vehicle.

Let me just read it. $50,000 for a facilities vehicle. Yes.

Thank you. They have, you know, the facilities department has a much smaller fleet, but they do have trucks and vans that they use. for moving things around town, for doing repairs. Two of them are equipped with lift gates. This one would replace one of the trucks with a lift gate. If you know Tom, Tom drives one of them and Joey drives the other one. The newer of the two was one that we repurposed from Park and Rec a few years ago. So we're to the point where the one that Tom has, I'm getting to the point I think it's almost becoming not unsafe. We wouldn't allow that to happen.

but it's it's it's on its last legs tired I make the motion you did the second when you say you move I just added All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Any abstentions? Thank you. Thank you.

And item number five, which is for the fire marshal up to $42,000 to replace the deputy fire marshal current vehicle. Second.

Thank you, Rolando. And that particular vehicle was the chief's vehicle from a few years ago. So I believe it's close to 200,000 miles. And now I know, Jack, you can or or Chuck. It goes to the shop more often than not. So the costs of the maintenance versus the cost of getting a newer vehicle really are.

Yeah, it's it's it's very familiar to us. We were fond of it stops and often for us to see. It is we we did repurpose it is one of the part of the program that we repurpose from the police department. um we painted it we got it you know back and running but i think at this point it is it is the time to retire this one entirely

okay thank you jack we have a motion and we have a second yep all those in favor aye aye opposed any abstentions okay thank you okay uh item number c is uh discussion and possible before we do that i'd like to read this from okay from because it's concerning the surplus from olga is uh she wanted to let the council know We have received the grant reimbursement finally from the state high school project because we got state reimbursement for this project and it came in higher than expected by about $552,860.93. Wow. We received 1.676 million instead of the 1.123 million. Right. And as Olga says, the grants are difficult to identify what grant is going to cover since one-time reimbursements. So the differences are common. For this project, the town used in the Board of Ed, we used our own funds in combination with bonding. Additional funds from the state will reimburse the use of the town and Board of Ed funds. During the project, the town appropriated $1.9 million towards the project and the Board of Education $450,000 from the respective capital reserves. So that being said, we appropriated it accordingly to give back to both the town and the educational side. So that'd be $446,993.94 to the town. It will go into our capital reserve and the board of ed will have $105,000 $866.99 to their account where they deem to decide where they want to put that in. And again, she just only wanted us to let us know that the disclaimer is it's common for such grants to require a final audit at some point, which may result in an additional refund from the state or a return of overpayment to the state if some expenses are found eligible, non-eligible. But just as a first blush, that could be additional revenues that the town will get, which is great news. On the town side, it will go to our surplus.

Okay.

Okay, Katie?

right well okay i'll read it again uh item c is a discussion on uh possible action on councilman rosenberg's request for dpw director jack healy's credentials may i say a few words of course thank you so one i did not intend for this to be a town council issue and i'm sure it's not an issue and i'm sure

Jack is well educated and qualified for the work that he does, but several people have asked, you know, where did he get his education? What degrees does he have? And Jack did speak before the town council several months ago, and there were different certifications mentioned. There was an AA degree mentioned, but a few people noted that they didn't hear reference to it. Maybe it was just an oversight to an engineering degree And so I had asked the personnel department and they informed me that they were not able, that the town charter prohibits them from providing that information directly to me, that it has to come from the mayor's office. I asked the mayor, but you are a busy man, I understand that. But I didn't hear back from the mayor. I asked Jack and Jack referred it to the mayor. So I just, I think it should be public information, you know, what degrees Jack has, and that'll put that to bed, I'm sure.

And so, Ori, could you let the council know who the people asked you Jack's credentials? Could you share with us who they are?

I didn't ask you who was too nervous to speak at the public comment section, and I'm not going to disclose who it was that asked.

You do know that's F.O. Waddle. That's what? That is F.O. Waddle.

Okay.

program.

What I'd like to do is actually Jack is here. I'd like to start with actually a letter from our finance director. She did this as a person, not as a finance director. So she addressed it to the council. Dear council members, and I'll give this to you for the minutes, Jill. I'm reaching out to express my concerns over agenda item 10C for tonight's meeting regarding the request for credentials for the DPW director, Jack Healy. I have no knowledge of what direction the discussion may go and what is the goal of the original request was. But even seeing on the agenda bothers me to the point of speaking out. I am concerned what impact such discussion may have on the culture within the town. Town council meetings are the work environment for all town employees who present to the council. Department heads naturally face situations where they have to issue an opinion. fact that an individual holds a certain position that alone gives them weight and responsibilities to issues opinions proposals recommendations etc at the same time it is the right and responsibility of the council to question the subject matter in order to determine the best course for the council but putting an individual on public display and shifting the focus from the subject to the person is quite disdainful. Yes, town employees, especially department heads, face more public eye than in the private sector, which comes with the job. But so far, the set culture throughout town administration somewhat shielded employees when it came to characters. That alone is an important point that becomes the cornerstone of professional work environment, retains employees and attracts talent. It appears the request followed the discussion of a possible public works facility, which became a controversial subject among residents. I will go further by saying that this situation appears to be a retaliation against an employee triggered by a debatable project. It is the direction that the town council is taking where an individual may be publicly targeted when opinion recommendation does not agree with someone else's vision. Is this something that town employees need to fear and consider when they face a challenge while doing their job? It will be a sad workplace when employees need to weigh the safety of their personal space against work-related decision making. I sincerely hope the town council will proceed with caution on this sensitive matter, as there are consequences that may not be immediately apparent. The council does not only represent the public, but the town as an employer as well. In conclusion, I'd like to express my respect and support for Jack Healy. As a taxpayer, I appreciate his dedication to the town, As a colleague, I'm very impressed by his work. Truly thankful to work with someone so professional. And then, Jack, I apologize that we have to bring your credentials to light, which I'm going to read off. I'd also like to make mention that, and we'll talk about this in a few moments, of the charter, because we seem to be talking about the charter quite a bit and how we motioned through there. The Charter is very specific that the organizational employees report to the mayor's office not to the town counts. And the reason being is they are extremely busy. Now could you imagine having to answer 9 sets of questions to 9 cents of things all the time. That's why our forefathers tried to put it in perspective. and we'll talk a little bit about that more. But Jack, first of all, I apologize to you, but I 1000% support you. I cannot thank you enough for what you've done for our town. So his employment, currently he is our Director of Public Works and Town Engineer from 6-1-2019 to the present. He was an assistant public works director from 6-1-2019 to 10-2019. You serve as a public works director here. You also serve as our town engineer. You serve on the WPCA management team. You serve as a tree warden. You know you've been tree warden like forever. You're responsible for overseeing the administration, budgeting, engineering, and overall operations of the Department of Public Works. You direct the engineering aspects of the Department of Public Works, including road, bridge, facilities, and energy programs. You're responsible for overseeing public works staff and the maintenance of public roads, bridges, dams, equipment, and facilities. Provide technical support for the municipal roads committee, the municipal building committee, the traffic authority, planning, zoning, inland wetlands, riverfront revitalization, and economic development staff. You also serve on the town health review board. You're also for the town of Berlin from December 2015 to May 2019. You served as their town manager from May 2018 until May 2019. You were also, and that was the temporary interim, then you became the town manager from February 27 to May 2018. You were responsible for overseeing the administration of town services and the implementation of the town council policies. You directed functions of the town departments and with general direction from town council in determining plans and policies. You develop an initiated policy proposals and actions for consideration by the town council. You supervise town departments, directors, officers, and employee. You plan directed and coordinate the work of the town departments to assure compliance with town policies and procedures to ensure efficiency of operations. You ensure the development and maintenance of collaborative, collaborative relations with all town departments. You're responsible for preparing and submitting annual operating capital budget, to the Town Council and administrating approved budgets. These are all in the Town of Berlin. You were also the Director of Public Works and the Town Engineer for Berlin from December 2015 to May 2018. You directed all operational aspects of the Department of Public Works, including road and bridge programs, water and sewer operations, facility energy and construction projects programs for all town buildings. You also served there as the town engineer, responsible for developing operational and capital budgets for the Department of Public Works, Water Control Commission, and town facilities. Provided technical support for the Public Building Commission, Water Control Commission, Planning and Zoning Commission, Public Grounds, Parks and Recreation staff, Inland Wetlands, Board and Economic Development staff. You also worked at the town of Litchfield, from 2009 to 2015. Your position there was the Director of Public Works, where you directed all operational aspects of the Department of Public Works, including road and bridge programs, preventative maintenance programs for all town buildings and equipment, energy and safety and environmental programs and construction programs. You served as a town engineer and a town tree warden. You were responsible for developing operational capital budgets for the Department of Public Works, town facilities, and other town departments and commissions. You directed town-wide bidding process, wrote grants for the Department of Public Works, the recycling center operations, and town's buildings and grounds. You oversaw school maintenance, buildings and grounds, and custodial operations. You oversaw the town recycling center operations. You managed the staff at their WPCA. You provided technical support for the Planning and Zoning Commission Fire Commission, and Inland Wetlands Board. You have an H.B. Ives College of Electronic Security, Ingersoll-Rand. You worked there. Your position there was an E from 2008 to 2009. EHS manager, multiple sites. There you manage the Environmental Health and Safety Program for multiple Ingersoll-Rand sites. You're responsible for all the aspects of the EHS program. including regulatory compliance with all environmental health and safety laws, energy management, workers' compensation, chemical management program, and operation of the onsite wastewater treatment system. You're responsible for managing the facility's maintenance, tool room, chemistry control departments. You're responsible for the facility closure project management, including asset disposal and facility relocation. You were in environmental resource management from 2004 to 2008. You were a senior engineer. You served as the on-site environmental health and safety manager for multiple manufacturing facilities, responsible for managing EHS programs and overseeing the wastewater treatment operation. You managed the environmental health and safety audit program for a multinational automotive supplier. You managed merger and acquisition due diligence projects for the Fortune 200 multinational corporations. You managed all aspects of environmental soil and groundwater remediation project in North America, Europe, and Australia, including coordinations with state and local regulatory agencies, clients and contractors, remediation design, permitting, and budgeting. You worked for the Torrington Timken Company from 1985 to 2004. Your last position there was Manager, Corporate Plant Engineering. You served in various positions providing domestic and international facilities with environmental facility and engineering support and training. You served on the Ingersoll Rand Company's Corporate Environmental Safety Health Council and Chairman of the Environmental and Energy Committee. You managed environmental programs and resulted in an ISO 14001 certification, charter membership to the EPA's National Performance Track Program, South Carolina Government's Waste Minimization Award, and the Connecticut Green Circle Award. You're responsible for engineering a manufacturing plating system, which received EPA's Wright Grant, Waste Reduction and Innovative Technology Evaluation. You currently are Ames Community College from the 24 to the present. You are an adjunct professor there. Your course is developed and taught in energy management, energy measurement, and environmental health and safety statistics and dynamics. Nagatuck Valley Community and Technical College from September 1989 to May 2019. You were an adjunct professor there. You taught courses in environmental pollution, control technology, waste minimization, hazardous materials, environmental regulations, soil and water resources, and technical drafting. You developed a waste minimization course with a grant from EPA in 1990 and 1991. You served on the Environmental Advisory Committee since 1986. the Computer Aided Drafting Advisory Committee from 2000 to 2004, and on the Construction Management Advisory Committee, 2005. You served on the Facility Search Committee in 1992 and 1993. You also were an adjunct professor for the Tokyo Post University from 1998 to 2002. You taught courses in public management and business management Anaconda Company, Anaconda Mental Hose, from 1978 to 1985. Your last position at Anaconda was a corporate facility safety engineer. Projects included facility renovation, project management, manufacturing equipment, design, product flow, development, and coordination of the company's safety, health, and environmental programs. Jack's education, Litchfield High School, 1976. Wooster Polytech Institute, 1981 with a B.S.M.E. So Jack, what is a B.S.M.E.? Waterbury State Technical College, 1984. Certificate for Environmental Management. University of Hartford, 1990. He got his MBA. Hartford Graduate Center, 1993. Certificate of Pollution Prevention. Ressler Polytechnic Institute.

Hartford, yeah, Rensselaer. Rensselaer Field, that's right. Okay.

Hartford Graduate Center, 1995. You received your master's. Wooster Polytechnic Institute, 2001 to the present. Graduate Engineering Studies. Professional and Volunteer Activities, Town of Litchfield. Town of Litchfield Inland Wetlands Committee, 2009 through 11, 2015 through 2024. Connecticut Associate of Water Pollution Control Authority Board of Directors, 2012 to 2014, 2016 to 2019. Connecticut Tree Warden Association Board of Directors, 2015 to 2016. CTI T2 Advisory Committee, 2013 through 2016. Litchfield Energy Task Force Co-Chairman, 2010 to 2015. Litchfield Capital Committee, 2009 to 2015. Litchfield Bridge Committee Chairman from 2009 to 2015. Litchfield Board of Selectmen from 2005 to 2009. Litchfield Town Hall Building Committee, 2006 to 2015. Litchfield School Building Committee Chairman, 2003 to 2016. Litchfield Board of Finance Alternate Member, 2003. Litchfield Conservation Commission, 2002. Litchfield School Building Committee Chairman, 2001 to 2002. Litchfield Board of Education Vice Chairman, 1999-2002 Litchfield Groundwater Action Project Member 1986-1987 Litchfield Solid Waste Committee Member and Chairman 1985-1988 Litchfield Hazardous Waste Day Co-Chairman 1987-1988 Litchfield Grange, 2008 through 2011. Litchfield Lions Club, 2006 to 2015. Litchfield Hill Road Race Volunteer, 2008 through 2014. Litchfield Rowing Club, board member, 1996 to 1997. East Litchfield Fire Department Volunteer Hazmat Training. Litchfield First Congregational Church Pastor Search Committee, 1993 and 1994. Also, you were a chaperone for the Litchfield Congregational Church for FCC youth groups trips to West Virginia, New York City, and Washington, D.C. You were also the commencement speaker in 2001 for the Litchfield School System. also you're a volunteer for book talks music concerts field trips and plays for the litchfield school system litchfield troop number 31 boy scout leader 1982 to 1985. let's keep going city of torrington

I was going to ask about elementary school accolades as well I think we've probably missed some in there as well I think you should be working at a pentagon yeah but for the record I didn't create this public display I asked a separate email

problem more and go back there and tell them you got the answer.

I want to read the email that I sent Jack because this was not disrespectful in any way.

Excuse me I have the floor and the floor will continue and I'm going to continue because I think that the public needs to know Mr. Healy's credentials because there was a question of which I'm going to FOI about who the people were that asked this because I think the public at large needs to know what a great person we have working here and what a great staff of people that we have here and to have elected officials opine about people's credentials is disingenuous at best at best and we'll talk a little bit more about that in a few moments but I want to keep talking about jack and what a treasure we have as a person and also how old and also how olga right and all of our employees feel nervous because we're people gonna here just start hammering them that's not gonna happen here that's not in our charter and it's not happening here that's going to be a fact licenses professional engineer state of connecticut Certificates, Connecticut Certified Municipal Officer, Certified Tree Warden, Certified Operator Solid Waste Transfer Station Volume Reduction Facility, Certified Inland Wetlands Commissioner, Roadmaster Certificate, Connecticut Transportation Institute, Green Building Professional, Fundamentals and O&M Essentials Certification, Building Operator Certificate Level 1, Certified Manufacturer Technologist, His awards, Recognition for Outstanding Environmental Education, presented by Briarwood College, 1999. SARA Compliance, I don't know what that is, Jack, but that was Northwest Connecticut Chamber of Commerce. Ultrafiltration of Coolants, SME Metalworking Fluids Conference, 1989. Waste Minimization Program, Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection Seminars, 1990, Recycling Non-Contact Cooling Waters, Connecticut Hazardous Waste Management Services and Connecticut Metal Finishers Conference, 1991. Metal Working Fluids In-House Methods for Managing and Recycling Coolants and Oils, ETEX 92, the Second Annual Environmental Exposition and Conference. Thinking about roundabouts in Connecticut. We got one. Training and Technical Center Connecticut Transportation Institute, University of Connecticut. Upgrading DPW Facility Roundtable, Training and Technical Center, Connecticut, Department of Transportation, Institute, University of Connecticut, and you presented June 2024. Employing Sustainability and Resiliency, American Public Works Association, and your work was published in the July 2025 APWA Reporter. Bridge Assessment for Local Roads Training and Technical Center, Connecticut Transportation Institute, University of Connecticut, and you presented in April and in September, 2026. And Jack, I believe you actually were able to bring this down to Pettibone, which was an amazing feat for them to actually come down into our area. It was a first. Fleet Management, American Public Works Association, published in September 2026, another article in the APWA, what's it called?

Yep, excellent.

Yes, could you please put that in the minutes for me? Mary Jane first.

Well, first, Jack, I don't know how you fit all this into your head. I mean, he's truly an amazing man.

And I think we are so lucky as a town to have him.

And he also gave his credentials, I think, not too long ago. A couple months ago, he presented. Right to the podium. Yeah. So maybe you missed it. I don't know.

He actually did not mention the college degrees at that time. And that was why people asked about that. And just to be clear, I did not opine on anything. I simply inquired. I did not ask for it to be on the town council. I sent Jack a personal email. I sent one to the mayor. And I was trying to do research for constituents that asked me about this. And just to be clear, just to make it absolutely clear that I wasn't opining on anything, here's my email to Jack, July 17th. Dear Jack, when you spoke at New Milford Town Council several months ago, you spent some time going over your vast credentials. In the meantime, a few constituents noted that you had mentioned your AA degree and several certifications, but you had not mentioned what engineering degrees you have and where you received them. I have no doubt you have these degrees. If you would be so kind, would you please just share with me a copy of your resume listing where you went to college and what degrees and certifications you have? That way, I can inform these constituents that everything is in order. Thank you, Ari." And I would also remind people that when Jack did testify last time, I thanked him for his service and said, I don't know how far a radius we would have to go to find someone with your wisdom and education. And this was just following due diligence to find out answers to constituents' questions. But I at no point asked for it to be a town council. This is a ridiculous public display. It never had to happen this way.

So I'm going to go to an email that you gave to our HR director where you said, Dear Greg, some town residents have been asking about Jack Healy's credentials. If you'd be so kind to please provide me a copy of this CV and any information from the 2019 appointment packet. I'm particularly interested in seeing his degrees and certifications.

That's exactly right.

And then Mr. Bolero told you to contact my office, of which the email you replied back, Pete, but you forgot to put me on the email.

And then I followed it up when I realized that, and I said I made a mistake.

Again, this becomes town council information when there are constituents that are asking. And again, I'm going to ask who are the constituents that asked you.

not going to answer that right now if you want to file a Freedom of Information Act request you can but I again this goes back to the intimidation I mean this is public information people should know what its credentials are and you do seem highly qualified for this but you're giving opinions on whether it's safe to move the DPW

over to the brass mill site and that's why people were asking and i was trying to find out for them that's normal due diligence it should be public information it's stored by the by the personnel department and there's no reason why i had to come to this all right if it's public information then it's public but uh again mr healy came up to this podium and gave you his credentials but i guess that wasn't good enough so now mr healy again a town employee has to come here and talk about that.

He did not mention his college degrees other than the AA. That's not in there. You can watch the video yourself.

I'm sure he did seven years ago when he applied for the job.

And that's what I was trying to find out, Paul. That's exactly what I was trying to find out. It's just normal due diligence. There's nothing political about it. I like Jack. If he asked for a raise right now, I would vote in favor of it. That's not the issue.

Yeah, you would definitely vote in favor after all this backfired on you because you're just letting people use you, Harvey. You're a councilman. You should be smarter than that. But time is just going to tell. And like I said, you just, you're making mistakes up here. And sorry, Jack, and your family that you had to go through this, but we are very lucky to have you guys. And I'm very happy that you're here. And we hope to have you for much longer. I definitely apologize.

This is unbelievable.

It's fair to research someone's credentials. I think that's perfectly normal. And I won't apologize for that. I'm doing my due diligence and I think you're trying to intimidate me. I think that was a personal attack and totally uncivil for this forum. And I resent the fact that you guys are all picking on me. I didn't ask to put this on the agenda tonight. That was the mayor's choice.

So why don't you pick your issue with him? Ari, no one is picking on anyone. sure we were just talking about you put a request in and i can state my opinion just as you can say yours as you did right at the podium and accuse me of things i'm just stating my opinion and i'm doing in a very business polite way and we can agree to disagree just think that randomly asking for people's resumes when they've been here for such a long time with the pedigree that he has it could have been an easier thing just a suggestion maybe after the town council meeting maybe you walk up to Jack hey Jack I got a question for you

Where'd you go school?

That'd be a probably. That's probably three minute conversation maybe or you could add on to that again. It's about the civility. He's how we treat that.

He had to forward it to you. He wouldn't answer the question.

I'm sure Ari rather than emailing and the reason why he didn't and we're going to get to that in a moment now is the procedures of the town council per the charter specifically limit the operations to the mayor. does not involve the town council anything with that has to be a request to the mayor's office understood but you could have certainly authorized personnel to share that information with me and this would have been done but you made a big scene about it which was completely all right i did not make a big scene about it you're the one that's come up here and say that i violate charter you're the one that comes up here and says i do this to the charter do that to the charter But you know, Artie, you can't pick and choose. If you're going to be about the charter, then you need to follow the charter.

I do follow the charter.

Well, right now I'm saying, why won't you disclose? As a council person, you're saying you're not going to do that. F-O-I-M-E. And then... We've got to bring Jack up here when specifically you cannot sit there and ask town employees to do work for you. That's not the charter. That has to go through the mayor's office.

I wasn't asking that.

I asked Jack where he went to college. That was it. No, you said to Greg, get me this. That's not the charter. I said, if you would be so kind, please. like again the charter says the method there's a method to do it all right i was not aware of that aspect of the charter and he referred it to you which is totally fine the very good news is now we kind of know great which is great but i just want the public to know this is about not uh making people feel intimidated this is a conversation that we're having I feel okay. Well, I apologize that you and transparency too, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. I appreciate that. Okay, Katie.

All right. So this item was listed here as possible action, etc. But we discussed. Yep. So that's discussed right out. Yep. So move to item D, which is discussion and possible action that I'd like to move to amend the town council rules and procedures.

Thank you Katie and thank you Rolando thank you Diane. You can see I think there's a lot of miscommunication and misperception when it comes to the charter and when it comes to our rules and our procedures and what I'd like to propose tonight is some amendments to our rules and procedures kind of button it down and by no means for the public here this has nothing to do with free speech it has nothing to do with coming to talk to us we want you to as i said before uh that we just want to make sure people feel comfortable going up to the podium and not feel intimidated as you can see i've stapled the proposed changes to the top and then you have the actual town council rules and procedures as it is today The proposed change, Katie, I'd like to read number one, and then I'd like to speak to that if I could.

Sure, you want me to do it? So item number one on the proposed changes would be proposed items to be placed on the agenda for a regular meeting by a member of the public. or a town council person must be submitted to the mayor's office seven days prior to the meeting. In the event of urgency, a member of the public or town council person may bring the matter to the attention of the mayor verbally. The mayor shall have sole discretion as to whether to place any such proposed item on the future agenda.

Thank you. And the reason why I bring this up, here's a prime example tonight. so uh Ari had requested that we talk about the dog pound that was here and one of the chief of police here right one of the town attorney here but in life we all have things that go on right our police chief is overseas okay our town attorney had a death in the family happened to be his mom okay so that would have warranted moving an agenda item but that's not the case Wanted it on the agenda.

I didn't insist that it be on the agenda this time. I didn't know that information.

It could be postponed. Yes, you did. You put it on the agenda. Here's the statute.

But it could be postponed. That's totally fine.

This is ridiculous. Which is perfect, which is why I'm suggesting, and I agree with you, Ari, which is why I'm suggesting that we change this to this to allow us to be able to move agenda items in a proper manner that's fair to everyone.

Mm-hmm. Well, you already have that discretion as the mayor, and you do it frequently. So why do we need to change the town council rules and procedures to say that if it's already in the town charter?

I don't believe there's any time frame in the charter. Is there anything that says seven days?

Well, no, we're going by the rules and procedures, which it should be right.

Yeah. OK, so seven days. And would you like to go on to the in addition?

I'd like to vote these in division.

All right. So we have to make a motion. Yep. And I'd like to move that we make a change on the item one, which I just read. It would be a change to the Milford Town Council rules and procedures. Do I have a second?

Second. Thank you. Any further discussion? all those in favor aye aye this is for item one yep for item one okay aye thank you and then thank you and then uh number two this is in addition so as you see in your proposals uh it goes up to uh number i think it's number 15 so this would actually be number 16

okay so this is in addition yep so it'd be number six item sixteen it would be if approved okay so please note that this item twelve will now be called item sixteen and I would like to move the following that the town council acknowledge that they will refrain from copy all or towncouncilatnewmilfordct.gov on their email and correspondence as this can lead to an email becoming a meeting per Robert's Rules. By doing that, it does technically. Second.

So by replying back towncouncilatnewmilford.gov, you've now created a meeting. So we want to make sure that we stay compliant with FOI, stay compliant with Robert's Rules of Order so this is just the council acknowledging if they're going to be doing correspondence it's not town council new milford.org reply because then uh okay am i correct that's that's creating a meeting so it's it's something that everybody should know that yep and you don't want to create a meeting

not to mention that copy all emails are really bothersome in the first place right yes and please everybody pay attention to the fact that it's newmilfordct.gov because otherwise we'll have another spam attack so i you know so we have a motion and a second any discussion all those in favor aye opposed any abstentions thank you All right, now item 13 would also be rather than 13. Yeah, it would be 16. No, 17. This was 16. Sorry. So I'm changing that from 13 to 17. And I'd like to move the following. Per the Charter of Section 502, the Town Council acknowledges that the Mayor shall be the Chief Executive Officer directly responsible for the administration of all departments, agencies, and persons and employees of the town and shall supervise and direct the same unless otherwise provided by this charter. Town council members with questions pertaining to town operations including employees and volunteers can have their questions answered through the mayor's office. The second?

Second.

Thank you. Any questions? all those in favor aye opposed opposed any abstentions thank you i'd just like to say mayor that these really are i think the item about the copy all is relatively new but in the charter and in our rules and procedures that i think it's pretty much known that you as the mayor in the office this this isn't real so it's not really like

no this is it this is an added yeah I just that's why I didn't think it was necessary yeah this isn't this isn't this isn't an added power this is an added anything it's just to codify the charter itself so that we're all uh knowing on the same page how we can follow that process okay now and then Katie if I could I'd like to see if we could uh add a couple items to the agenda are we gonna you're not gonna talk about economic development uh yeah but could we do the sure okay so um you'd like me to i'd like to add as we uh approved the um expenditures for the surplus okay if we could set a date for a town meeting all right which i would suggest would be the next town council meeting

OK, do you want to talk about that first?

The town council meeting? Yeah, yes, we could. If you want to talk about that.

OK, so the Council only has one meeting in August. Just a little relaxation there and it was scheduled for August the 10th and it's an awkward date for several people, you know, medically vacations. So I would like to ask, I did ask most of you that would be moving it to the fourth Monday which is the 24th. If that would be all right and so far the majority of people said yes area didn't.

So OK so that I think we just yeah we think we should do that first yes, that's right and that would be a special meeting a special me to write a 24th.

So anyway, so we would like to make that most I'm going to motion it right now I'd like to motion that we want me in motion that we're changing motion to say move. move the uh august council meeting yeah our august 10th moving meeting to august the 24th which results in a special meeting yes so we will make sure we get that up there special meeting and uh we will let the world know that that's happening so that people don't do we have a second i second it okay thank you thank you any discussion all those in favor aye aye aye thank you thank you any opposed No post. OK, now we will move to add. OK, you want to add the fact about surplus.

Now we're going to add the town meeting. That will be before the town council meeting in August.

Right. So we'd have.

So we would have to suspend the rules, but we. To add this to the agenda for now.

Excuse me, but I'm. Yep. I'll be back in a minute. okay but we're not having the meeting in August 10th you have to have it on August 24th so you'd amend oh I thought you said before the end okay I got you all right so I'd like to move that we set a town meeting we need to suspend the rules to add this to the agenda I have to spend the rules for everything I'm spending the rules for it all everybody know uh that spending the rules to add a special meeting, or not, will be at the meeting. Yeah, it's a town meeting, which will happen on August 24th. 6.30 p.m. 6.30 p.m. in the E. Paul Martin room. You can always say these. And that will be to discuss the... Surplus fund request. Yeah, the surplus appropriations that were expected. Okay?

Second and a second any discussion all those in favor. Opposed any abstentions. Thank you.

All right, so we've moved our date and we set a town meeting. And what else would you like.

Do we have Bob Hannah to see here. So the next meeting want to talk about recycling and some of the recycling fees. So we'll bring that to the next meeting OK.

Right and so the final item economic economic development update.

Thank you, thank you so real quick. You can see some of the projects that are moving for the all-town market looks like the end of August or a little bit sooner. They'll be open you have Murphy's heating cooling right next to it. They're pretty much finalizing finishing up. of their work, and then that will be open as well. Working with Laura Regan, our zoning enforcement officer, and Goldman in York, who's a consultant we hired, as we need to meet the regulations per the new state statutes that took effect in July when it comes to housing and zoning. I'll be bringing that update to the town council. Once we get a little more, we just finalized that. they're going to do a phase one which should be completed uh the end of august which kind of gets an assessment of where we are uh but i'll give i'll continue to give updates to the council on that we spoke a little bit about the east street school as uh we're finalizing that uh it should be from what i'm being told by the economic development commission uh we got grant money for public works to do environmental studies jack when is that september should be completed so that'll be completed and i'll bring that to the we'll bring that do a presentation to the town council uh with that uh we had two new business openings We had Thomasina's eyewear and Italian fashion. Her showroom is right there on Bank Street. We wish her much success there, and thank you for her investment. And design. Yep, and design, yep. And then Compost Restaurant, which is right by the Old Boardman Bridge. Mediterranean cuisine. Wonderful food there as well. If you get a chance, stop in there. It's nice. It's very nice. It's good to see those new businesses. Our ice cream crawl is in full steam. That's until August 31st. We have 10 participating venues. You can go to 8. Please bring your receipts. Come into Town Hall and you can pick up a t-shirt. We have Miles on Main. That's a new initiative that we have, and that is you can go to New Milford Now website. You can see the participating merchants here in the downtown. You can go with a little passport book that we have here at Town Hall, also at PD provisions. Also, you can pick it up at the hunt and you can go to these stores. They have stickers each one. You fill up the book, then you come into Town Hall and you get a wonderful medallion. We've had a bunch of people already participate. It's getting out and walking and seeing maybe some businesses you didn't even know existed in the area. So a big, huge congratulations. We've revamped New Milford Now. If you get a chance, go to www.newmilfordnow.org and see the calendar is much more robust. Have a lot of things from farm stands on there to our antique trail to lots and lots of great things going on in town. We've got stories that are going on as well. That's our tourism and our community website as well. and right now we're looking at uh with the current vendor we have with our town website revamping that website of which we'll bring uh to the town council and that's what i got thank you really that's all yes ma'am thank you do we have a second all those in favor opposed any abstentions thank you everybody