Common Council

COMMON COUNCIL MIDDLETOWN, CONNECTICUT SPECIAL MEETING: COMMUNITY MEETING THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 2024 6:30 PM MINUTES A Special Meeting of the Common Council of the City of Middletown -- the Community Meeting -- was held on Thursday, April 11, 2024, at 6:30 PM. This meeting was a hybrid meeting with in-person participation in the Chamber and remote participation via WebEx. In addition, the meeting was livestreamed on Facebook and on the City website and was broadcast on local cable access television. Present: Councilman Eugene Nocera, President Councilman Steven Kovach Councilman Vincent Loffredo Councilwoman Linda Salafia Councilwoman Jeanette Blackwell Councilman Anthony Gennaro Councilman Darnell Ford Councilman Jonathan Pulino Councilman Anthony Mangiafico Councilwoman Leslie Spatola Councilwoman Kelly Sweeney Absent: Councilman Grady Faulkner, Jr, Hon. Benjamin Florsheim, Mayor Also Present: Middletown Police – Chief Costa and Officer DiMassa -- Sergeants-at-Arms Linda Reed, Clerk of the Common Council 1. Call to Order A. Pledge of Allegiance Common Council President, Councilman Eugene Nocera, is Chair for this Special Meeting. The Chair calls the meeting to order at 6:30 PM. He welcomes everyone to the Special Meeting of the Common Council. The Chair asks the Common Councilmembers to join in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. B. Council Clerk Reads the Call of the Meeting and Chair declares call a legal call and meeting a legal meeting The Clerk of the Common Council reads the Call of the Meeting and the Chair declares the call a legal call and the meeting a legal meeting. 2. Public Comment Opens The Chair opens public hearing at 6:33 PM. Any member of the public wishing to speak may either step to the podium or indicate by raising their hand using the WebEx function. When called on, they are asked to state their name and address for the record. Councilmembers are here to listen, not to engage in dialogue. The Council will not be taking any action. People having a particular issue are welcome to contact individual Council members or the Mayor’s Office. Speakers are asked to limit comments to 10 minutes. The Chair also states that, if anyone is calling by phone, they may press *3 to indicate that they wish to speak. Ken McClellan (114 Tavern Circle): Before I get started, I just want to ask if the Mayor's directive about displaying the LGBTQ2+ flag on all City properties been rescinded or is it still in effect. Councilman Nocera replies that the Councilmembers don't normally respond, but he can say that it is in effect as far as he knows. The speaker continues. Okay. Thank you. I want to say that the Constitution of the United States is pretty clear about endorsing, promoting, or favoring any one group over everyone else in this country. By the City of Middletown displaying a flag permanently, that represents one specific interest group so it is pretty much violating the Constitution. It's also bad government. You're saying that this group, by the flag displayed on City buildings, the City is favoring APRIL 11, 2024 COMMON COUNCIL – SPECIAL MEETING Page 2 COMMUNITY MEETING this group, is endorsing this group. This is not inclusive, no matter what someone tries to tell you. I'm going to ask you, please don't do this. I have some visual aids here. I think if a flag is going to be displayed, you want to be inclusive. That are a whole bunch of other groups in the city that would also like to be represented. For example, have the Irish, who came here before the Civil War. A lot of them and enlisted and fought for the Union during the Civil War, came back to the Middletown with their wives and families. Those from the Caribbean came and contributed to the City. In the early 1900’s, hundreds of Italians again, immigrated to this country looking for a better life. They built families, built homes, built schools, built churches. They served during two World Wars. Don't forget there are also Sicilians. Some Sicilians say they're not really Italians. They are Sicilian. I've heard that. We also have a large Greek population. Don't forget them. How about the Polish got to keep them included. We have our Jewish population. We have our Muslim population. We're talking about religions, so we have to make sure we include the Catholics, make sure we include the Protestants, the Episcopalians, and Buddhists. They are all here in town. They are all represented. By flying one flag, you're ignoring all the rest. How about the Hindus? How about people that don't believe in any Supreme Being? Can't forget them, you got to include them. Also heard there's a Pan-African flag, but if you're going to do that, you've got to remember there's about 18 different countries in Africa. That have descendants here in this country. Don't forget any of them and I know I'm forgetting somebody so let's put another flag up there for those that I don't have included. What about the Shinto religion I know there's some of them around here. I'm running out of holes in my flag pole. There are the Baptists. They are represented very well in town. We talked about Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists, large population from India coming here. Thanks. There are the Lutherans in town. So, here's the question. I ran out of holes on my flag pole. How many flags are we going to display? Here's an idea. How about we just forget about where people came from, if we forget about how they worship God or whether they even worship God at all. How about we forget all of that? Forget those things that divide us. Forget those things are separate us and just put it all in a bucket. And how about remember we remember the one thing that does include us all. We already have a flag for that. It's right there: the stars and stripes, the flag, which represents every citizen of the United States. It doesn't matter whether you worship, where you came from, where your parents came from, How about we just keep the flag pole for one flag and leave it at that. Thank you for your time. I do have one more question. I know you can't answer it. Apparently these flags have already been ordered. I'd be curious to know where the money came from, and if it was budgeted for that purchase, or if it came out of some other budget, and it was transferred without the approval of Common Council. Thank you. Mark Forman (75 Chamberlain Road): Good evening. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak at this forum. I wish to address the forthcoming property tax increase here in Middletown. The following is an expression of appearance. It isn't meant to denigrate anyone, but I feel that it expresses the view of many of us, the taxpayers, who support this community. I know this increase is purely a matter of monetary expedience. It is what you, who govern us, feel is necessary in order to keep things going in Middletown; however, I feel that it's ill-advised for the following reasons. You appear to have overlooked the economy we are presently living in. Our State just had a huge tax assessment over the last year to raise our upcoming property taxes. We have record high prices is due to inflation. You have ignored this. Our family, like many others, has had to deal with $1,000 a month heating bills. Vegetables, which, in many cases, in the supermarket, are a dollar each and, you have approached this situation with total disregard for your citizens and in the sanctimonious fashion. Your community’s own needs have not figured in at all in your decision-making. You have increasingly isolated yourself from those you pretend to serve, and this needs to be brought to your attention in a manner in which you might consider. At the beginning I said, this was an expression of appearance. What do I see when I look at you? I see money being spent: over $5M on the unending refurbishment of the former Canoe Club, which continuously floods from the river when the tide is too high. If you are truly interested in saving your citizens money, you could have said, “No, our citizens cannot afford this right now,” and try to cut back. Why can't you? You seem to be spending money freely, but you are blind to the cost other than to spend money and raise taxes. I know all of this is a bit harsh, but if you didn't hear it in this fashion, it might not have made an impression of at all. “Do you actually give a *** **** about us?” You absolutely deserved this kind of criticism. How dare you. Thank you for listening. Yuri Brazenberg (111 Middlefield Street): I think that's actually a pretty good segue into what I came to talk about, which is, as I have many times before: the sanitation district saves you throw program. I think you hit the nail on the head that there's a major issue with money being spent and nobody caring about the added costs that are affecting the people in the City. The save-as-you-throw program, as you know, it's a grant money, a hand out essentially that the Mayor signed on for. I have documents that were provided to me under the Freedom of Information Act that actually bear the Mayor’s signature. Nice to see that the Mayor isn't here today. Running through the document, after I reviewed it, it seems that there is a very clear intent from the onset without any concern for scientific data, any results that could be gleaned from attempting this pilot program in APRIL 11, 2024 COMMON COUNCIL – SPECIAL MEETING Page 3 COMMUNITY MEETING advance. The intention is for this to become a permanent program. Here's the signature right there: Benjamin Florsheim, 11/20/2023. As I look through it, it appoints Kim O’Rourke as the coordinator, the director of this pilot program. It says out $705,100 for the purposes of running this program. Now, there are major, major issues with this. As I've addressed many times before, the City set up an opportunity for the community members to reach out and interact with the Public Works Department. I attended every single one of those meetings. Primarily, they were held at the library, but, more recently, they moved to the Police Department where no cameras, no recording, can be done because it's the Police building and they have the right to restrain people from making recordings there. In the last meeting I attended on the 8th, it consisted of two (2) members of the public: myself and one other. The other two (2), who were there were Kim O’Rourke, who commented on the resignation of Chris Holden with no explanation of why that happened. Just a quick little blurb: “Oh, he retired,” which is absurd. It is an absolutely absurd statement. There is more of that story that will not be answered by anyone, who we ask. The other member was John Porter, who is a member of the Sanitation Commission. So, two (2) people with a clear agenda that this advanced forward. I have attended all these meetings every single time calling for social justice and equity. It's a Democratic City Council. I look around I see a lot of Democrats and the sitting Republicans here. Although I would appeal Republicans to open an investigation into the City Councilmembers, who are participating and complicit in this save-as-you-throw a program because there is clear fraud, waste, and abuse contained therein. I attended these meetings. One, in particular, where Mark Dancy was present. He's the CEO and president of Waste Zero, I sat next to him. I didn't know who he was. He proceeded to get into an argument with a man named Matt, who brought up to his attention the expenses for sanitation elsewhere, the weights, all of these metrics and data figures that the State of Connecticut, that Mr. Chris Nelson has lied about, that Chris Holden lied about. They all lied about these things. They stood in front of you and they told you specific numbers that were projections. They weren't based on real things. They're based off of hypotheticals and pie in the sky ideal circumstances. So Matt is tearing into him and asking him, “What's this? Why doesn't it match up?” Mark Dancy, in his infinite wisdom espouses faith and believe in the use of behavioral economics -- nudge theory -- by Richard Thaler. He specifically told us, “Read this book and you will better understand what's going on here.” I read the book and the book describes and prescribes an action upon which you are to manipulate a group of people, trick them into performing the action you want by nudging them in a direction. This is done, in particular, with our trash bags that Mr. Dancy sold to the City. Now I asked many a time how much Mr. Dancy sold them to the City for, how much money he made off of those bags. What's his profit? I have been told, of course, that he's going to make a profit because he's a contractor, he's a business, a for-profit company, which is understandable, but, from what I gleaned from her, his profit is about 33 cents on the bag. The City had to purchase these bags and the statement that's made again by Chris Holden, Chris Nelson, Kim O’Rourke, and everybody -- the lie -- is that the bags are priced to reflect the cost of the disposal. Anybody with two brain cells to rub together will immediately realize that that's not true. It's based off of a projection. The City somehow managed to take a discount off of our bill, again to manipulate us and trick us into thinking that this this program is in our best interest. They gave us free bags and let us loose on it with no proper education. That's part of the nudge because we will waste the bags and then we will have to come back and buy them at an exorbitant price --- $1.25 for the orange bag and 25 cent for the green bag. If you do one bag a week with the discount the City gave us, and the mandatory fees that we have to pay for to participate in the Sanitation District, the incredible limitations were not allowed to have smaller cans, were not allowed to bring them to the dump . . . I'm sorry this was a point of contention with Miss O’Rourke. Let me correct that. It's not a dump. It is a recycling center. It's a transfer station. Forgive my parlance. I’m from New York. We're not allowed to do these things. There are institutional barriers to prevent us from having common equity, having social justice that should be a hallmark of the Democratic Party platform. All these barriers are in place. I've stood up. I've asked for them time and time again to be removed for the Council, for the City to do something to make it fair and equitable so we can actually save money. And every time I'm told, “No.” Most recently, Miss O’Rourke laughed at me and said that, if that's something I want to do, then go right ahead. They're going forward with this program because the State has said it is the best program. It's the best way to save money. They don't need any more evidence just the State said, so well, I have evidence for that. I did my research. I looked at equity and fairness. I brought up scientific, documented data specifically from Japan, where they are the leaders in unit based pricing. Mr. Daisuke Ichinose and Masashi Yamamoto in Does Unit Based Pricing Really Reduce Waste? A Causal Inference Approach with a Panel of Data. This is a research paper in 2019. This is bedrock. This is scientific data. This is not somebody's perspective hypothetical nonsense. It states . . . I'm going to jump straight to the conclusion and I'll give you guys a copy of this when I'm done: The results of a weighted fixed effects model implies that unit based pricing reduces the amount of discharge waste when the price is sufficiently high. Thus, unit based pricing is effective for waste reduction, but no effect of unit based pricing is observed when the price is relatively low. This finding suggests that there exists a threshold of value for price and the effect of unit base pricing appears only when the price exceeds the threshold. We also examine the effect of unit base pricing on recycling rates or recyclables, and found the policy may increase the recycling rate of paper, but has no significant effect on other recycles. According to these observations, the unit based pricing policy has some effect on promoting recycling, but the effect is limited. APRIL 11, 2024 COMMON COUNCIL – SPECIAL MEETING Page 4 COMMUNITY MEETING It is not the manna from heaven that we've been told it is and the system has now been built with bags that are coercively priced based off of Mr. Dancy’s advisement as a consultant to the City, based on nudge theory once again, to manipulate us into complying with the program because they're so expensive. There is no weight relationship between what goes in those bags and the tipping fee. I can fill a bag with cat excrement, which I do because I have a cat, and that bag will weigh 35 pounds. If I fill it with the regular household throw away items that I can compress and reduce it will way maybe a pound or two. I go out and I know when they report these numbers, “Oh, the compliance rate is 70%.” They are lying to you because I go out into the City during recycling days and I collect and recycle aluminum cans to return to the canned center. I go through those trash cans and I see what's . . . The Chair notes that this speaker has two (2) minutes left. . . . in them and I know that there's non-compliance. I've also seen that many people before any of this started already barely use those cans. They are 90% empty. They don't need 65 gallon cans. They don't need 95 gallon cans. They need 35 gallon cans. They won't allow us to have those, they won't allow us to bring our trash anywhere but what these curbside pick-up nonsense. This is an institutional injustice and someone somewhere in the chain set up the sequence of events as dominoes to fall down the people -- citizens, as the gentlemen just said -- with expenses in our pockets, we are now having to pay for these bags and the expense that's coming out of our pockets is to manipulate us into complying with the program. This is nudge theory. Read it if you don't know what it is, and all of you should reaffirm your values to social justice. If you're truly Democrats, if you're truly with us, this is something that you should be standing against. You should be looking out for us. I have withdrawn from the Sanitation District, to be clear, and now I have a $150 administrative fee that I'm debating whether or not I want to pay because, ultimately, this may end up being a protest action and I may have to call on the citizens around me to say everyone withdraw and then don't pay that ridiculous fee and make you – the City -- fight us for it. You don't want to pick up our trash. We'll let the trash build up on the street and we'll see whose resolve is stronger. We know the rules and we will break them properly. California v, Greenwood clearly states that, when trash goes out on the curb, you have no expectation of privacy. So we can share cans. We can work together to create collective efficacy on our own. We can take our trash elsewhere and use public trash cans. We don't have to use the City system, and, if we do withdraw, and if we don't pay your $150/year administrative fee -- union fee -- that we're not getting union representation from any more anyway. I've already found that waste management is the same price. In fact, if I comply with the bags and I spend exactly 1 bag a week – yes, 1 bag per week – 1 orange bag and 1 green bag a week -- I will end up paying $5 more than I would for private service. This service that's provided to us as a social benefit is now more expensive than all of that. I will close out by quickly saying, I have a petition going around the City now. I ask anyone to look at the minutes. It will be in there. Follow this link and have your voice heard tell them that they need to cancel this nonsense. They need to cancel this nonsense. Also, I know that the Mayor is looking at this item. A survey was presented at the last meeting. Laughable. It is as if a high schooler put it together with no concern for the (inaudible) scale for responses. They express total pessimism about the responses that they would even get to this survey and it had responses that were 10 . . . 10 with 7 yes. Responses. I looked at them and I said to them, you know, the data is going to be useless from this. You're doing it simply to say you did and then stand on that action alone. 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MEETING APRIL 11, 2024 COMMON COUNCIL – SPECIAL MEETING Page 85 COMMUNITY MEETING Jim Fellows (44 Andrew Street): I was here last week and I think there's a lot larger audience tonight online, but maybe not. I'm here, not here to talk about taxes, but actually there are some answers to people, who are concerned about taxes. I did the audit that that you failed to do. Let me start with the beginning. We're talking about Russell Library. The library is funded 98% by taxpayers and 2% by a private organization called the Russell Library Company. For that 2%. They get to run the library all by themselves. We have no say in hiring, firing, or salaries, except we can approve or deny their budget. They decide what materials to purchase and especially what materials not to purchase, which we'll find out about later. They have greatly aggrieved their employees. There were 88 when the current director took over and now we have 47. Many of them cited “toxic work environment” when they left. Not all those letters of resignation are public, but I've had the privilege. Some of them have let me see their letters and they are scathing. I'll leave that for now. We're going to come back to the employees. Last year, a year ago, I submitted 19 questions about the Russell Library, and even questions as specific as who owns the properties. I did not get one answer from the Council. I assume the Council submitted it to Russell Library for help and answering these questions, but I got no answer from them either. So, I decided, then -- I'm going to apologize, if my answers aren't the official answers -- but I decided since no one else was doing this audit, I would do it. We asked the City to do an audit, and it was rejected. Only two (2) people voted for it. The rest of you turned it down. We brought it back over and over again. One of the former library directors (Arthur Meyers) came here and begged you to do it. He said he was appalled at what was going on. One of the union leaders spoke with the Mayor -- either shortly before his 1st term or right after – and her comments were forwarded directly to her boss. She eventually quit, and she's one of the lawsuits that has been filed in Federal court, a civil rights violation, a lawsuit. There are 50 others in line, and, you can imagine who's going to be paying for this. Russell Library Company doesn’t have the money to pay for it so we're going to be paying for them. Just think about that. The judge has refused many motions to dismiss the case from the Russell Library Company. I expect he's getting annoyed. Let's talk now about what happened to the audit. The Council picked a group of 12 towns, including Middletown, as comparables, but the audit was never done. Last week, after I spoke, you debated at great length how you're going to get them to do this audit, who would pay for it. Would the City pay for it? Would the Russell Library Company pay for it? Obviously, we're not going to get an audit in time for this tax discussion on our way. Here are some of the things you will find, if you actually did the audit. Let's start with the director salary. There's some confusion. I've been getting lots of emails in today from all kinds of people and there's lots of interesting information, but one thing that's a little bit mysterious is what the director’s current salary is. I have two figures: $157,000 a year and $162,000 a year. My figures will be rounded to the closest 1,000. Let's look at in the towns that you picked. Most of them range between $103K and $125K. There is an exception in Bristol: it is $144K, which is a comparable library in some ways. Norwalk is the closest at $157K. They have two (2) branches. We have no branches. They have no assistant director. We have two assistant directors. We'll get to the assistant director salaries in a minute, because that's the most shocking part. West Hartford is the closest comparable because we used to be a library that had the same respect that they did. Some 10 to 15 years ago, if you asked anybody in this library system in Connecticut, Middletown had an extraordinary library. I think we deserve an extraordinary library. We had one. I know what it's like. At that time, there were six (6) racks of periodicals from around the world. Each rack had a 100. That was reduced under Matt Poland to four (4) racks. We now have one (1) rack, of which one side is empty and, on the side that could hold 50 periodicals, there are 42, none of much use. If you want to get your nails done, there is information on getting nails done. You'll get that kind of information from People magazine. A friend of mine went to the library, trying to get Atlantic Monthly because a friend of hers had written an article about the Russell Library. They don't have Atlantic Monthly. Sorry. Go someplace else. Financial Times of London, Kirkus Review, and all these magazines you used to be able to get there so you could get almost a college education at Russell Library. You could keep up and we'd have an informed public that was incredibly educated and would be sitting here able to talk to you about all kinds of things. Not many people reading magazines today because there are not many magazines to read. We have the New York Times, the Hartford Courant, and Middletown Press. No more Financial Times of London or New York Review of Books, et cetera. I'm going to move from those materials, but will come back them a little bit later. I want to get back to the salaries. APRIL 11, 2024 COMMON COUNCIL – SPECIAL MEETING Page 86 COMMUNITY MEETING The West Hartford director makes $143K. That might be $19K less than our director, depending on which of those two figures is correct. However, that salary has been increased in the current budget. The Director will now get close to $170K, a salary of $167K to be specific. If we are going to pay $170K, we should be recruiting from the Library of Congress or the New York Public Library. I'd love to have a library director from there. I'd love to have some of the materials that we could buy for that money, but if people are complaining about taxes, and you say there's no wiggle room, well, that's just not true. West Hartford, even if we're going to say those salaries are roughly equal, which they're not, has 98 employees. Well, that would be reasonable because we used to have 88, not so different, but now we have 47. Let's look at the materials on the shelves and these two libraries. The Chair advises that the speaker has just over two minutes. I'm going to make this part brief. West Hartford has 104,000 adult print books. Wallingford has about the same. We used to have 109,000 volumes, so we would maybe warrant that kind of salary, but we now have 61,000 adult print books. Sorry, they're gone. There are empty shells. The children's library had the magazines removed a few weeks ago. There are none left. Why? Why do we want to strip the public of information? I can't say. Since I'm running at a time, I will get back to some recommendations. We talked about the lawsuits. We talked about the materials. We talked about the salaries. We talked about how much we're paying. To get a failed state of a library we are paying for the New York Public Library and we are getting a failed state that has no comparison to where we were 10 or 20 years ago. When I used to go there every day, and just every evening, and I spend my evening reading and could get information from around the world. I could felt like I was still at Wesleyan University. They have thousands of publications, but it was comparable for a town of our size. With an academic population and a very diverse population, you could get all kinds of things. My recommendations for the current budget: the director's getting raised up to $167K and we have two (2) assistant directors. Those salaries in our comparables group range from $78K to $96K. These assistants were getting $135K, now just a little bit under $140K. There are two of them. Most library directors don't get that even when they are running branches. So, a Finance Director. The City writes the checks. We need a bookkeeper. The Finance Director has gone up. I don't have the new one. It used to be $94K. The administrative assistant was getting $83K, now getting $91K. I didn't make this money when I was a public school teacher with 20 years of experience and a master's degree, working 60 hour weeks. These salaries and the total materials budget -- even though they're getting $700K just for the administrator's office—the total of materials, budget is $233K dollars. They sat here and told us that materials would not be affected. They've also canceled the concerts here. The Chair calls time. Thank you. Thank you for four time. I appreciate the 10 minutes and I appreciate your patience. I see some reactions, and I'm glad to see that because I think the next visit we need to get to is maybe the office of public corruption and financial crimes in Connecticut from the Department of Justice. Thank you. Joanne Oulette: The clerk of the Common Council reads a letter submitted by this resident: As a senior and taxpaying homeowner I am deeply concerned about the Mayor's proposed budget. Of course it will be on the backs of property owners (except Wesleyan). I live on a fixed income, downsized my home, moved here 3 yrs. ago hoping to cut living costs. Well that was all a dream. Along comes re- evaluation of property that caused an increase in taxes last year. I pay more taxes here on an older, smaller home than I did in Meriden. Now this Mayor want to increase the budget to give raises and pet projects. Harbor Park restaurant restoration is a classic misuse of tax $$$$. Gets more expensive daily. Still floods when it rains. With this high inflation and cost of living many families are struggling just to live. So any tax increase would be the final nail in many folks (sic) coffins. I ask you to vote no on this proposed budget increase and give taxpayers a break from outrageous property tax increases. It could mean the difference from foreclosure to home ownership for many. Thank you for your time an attention to this matter. Joanne Ouellette Samantha Cedeno: Hello. I have lived in Middletown most of my life. This is where I chose to raise my family, buy a home, and send my children to school. I love this community and all of the events that the City holds to bring people from all walks of life together. I work as a food service worker at Central Connecticut State University (CCSU). I'm a steward and organizer with my Union Local 217 United. My union job has made it possible for me to buy a home in this wonderful community, but I've noticed the mill rate increasing and taxes rising. APRIL 11, 2024 COMMON COUNCIL – SPECIAL MEETING Page 87 COMMUNITY MEETING I'm fortunate to have a union job that allows me to weather the rising costs, but I know not everyone in my community has that. Meanwhile, I recently learned that Wesleyan receives a $20M tax break. It shocks me that Middletown has to raise taxes while an institution like Wesleyan receives a tax break. It makes it hard for everyday people -- like me -- to buy homes and become part of this community that I love. I also heard through my union that here in Middletown, Wesleyan University is not doing what it needs to do to help food service workers at two (2) on-campus restaurants, who recently joined my Union Local 217. This is a threat to my union standard at CCSU and the union standard of over 100 full-time unionized workers at Wesleyan’s other dining contractor. I come from a union family. My mom was an organizer with our union and fought for that standard for me and my siblings. Now, I'm doing the same for my children, because I know that, if I didn't have that standard, I wouldn't have been able to buy the house here. I want my children to have the same future. I want my children to have the same opportunities. Given the financial support that Wesleyan receives from Middletown in the form of tax breaks, it needs to ensure that all jobs on its campus pay fair wages and provide good benefits. The other unionized workers on campus, who work in the main dining halls, have one of the best food service contracts in the country, even better than mine at CCSU. This is a huge benefit to Middletown, but having non-union jobs on campus threatens that standard. Wesleyan needs to be a better neighbor to Middletown and do its part in making sure all jobs on campus are good jobs with fair wages, good benefits, and a union contract. Thank you. Drew Olsen (60 Brainerd Avenue): I've lived in Middletown for the last 2½ years as well as attending Wesleyan University. I'm currently a senior. I've stayed in town even over summers and breaks. I know multiple other Middletown residents. I know that Wesleyan has not been a good partner to our community, getting almost $20M in tax breaks every year. It makes me angry, watching Wesleyan buying up housing in Middletown, which increases their tax breaks. Yet I've had personal experiences of housing and security as a student. In the winter of 2021, Wesleyan cancelled my housing accommodations that I had for winter break, which I needed because I was stuck in an abusive situation back where I grew up. When I went to the University for help, there was no formal process. I was bounced between administrators and different offices, leaving me stuck in an unsafe situation for weeks. Finally, one of the jobs I have on campus vouched for me, and I was able to return early. Wesleyan keeps on buying up housing, but it's not even providing resources to students. What are they using it for? I know this has a price for Middletown residents too, who also need affordable housing. I was already disappointed in Wesleyan for its behavior in our community and now, watching Wesleyan stand in the way of union labor on campus in the last few months, has only increased my disappointment. I work at the Red & Black Café, a coffee shop on Broad Street, and I helped found my union there. The cafe is a mix of both students and non-students. I make $15.79/hour, which is 10 cents above minimum wage. My non- student colleagues, average about $18.50. One of the reasons we unionized was for better pay, but Wesleyan is standing in the way of that. It turns out the University takes 13½% of the businesses revenue, which makes it hard for the owners to afford to raise our wages. In short, Wesleyan is making this small business pay for the privilege of serving the Wesleyan community at the expense of workers, many of whom, like me, live in Middletown. Wesleyan needs to do more for our community. Thank you. Bill Wilson (220 Woodbury Circle): I actually came here to speak on one thing, but I want to speak on a couple. Five hundred dollars ($500) a year for new taxes is ridiculous. I don't care about the $42 a month. There are people, who have houses, who can't afford what they have now. Inflation is going back up. Anybody watching the local news, sees it's going on. People are getting jobs, yes, part time jobs. They're not full time jobs. They are part time jobs. We cannot afford $42 more per month. You are going to drive more families out of here. It is frustrating to see the Mayor act so cavalier about his budget. We didn't grow up with a silver spoon in our mouths. I'm sorry. This Middletown, a blue collar town . . . always has been always will be. We didn't grow up with all the finest things, but you know what? We worked hard for what we have, and you take it that away from people who could no longer afford that, if you continue to raise the prices to live here. The Wesleyan thing just hit off on something that I've been thinking about for years. Yale University gives money to New Haven every year. Trinity, which is similar sized to Wesleyan, gives money to Harford every year. If you want the numbers, I'll get that for you. But Wesleyan, on the other hand, has taken $20M. How is that even right in our community? And we stand by and we let it happen. I want to ask you something, seriously: Who's running in Middletown? Are we -- the people -- running Middletown or is Wesleyan University running Middletown? I'll tell you right now: it seems like Wesleyan. It has APRIL 11, 2024 COMMON COUNCIL – SPECIAL MEETING Page 88 COMMUNITY MEETING an awfully big hand in everything that's going on in our town. That has to stop. They are supposed to be a partner with us, not dictate to us. The last thing that I want to say is the history of the American flag. I don't even know why this issue was even coming forward. Family members, who have died for this country, who have fought for our country, and yet we're going to put up a flag that divides our city. You've taken the Christopher Columbus statue away because it wasn't “representative.” That's what I was told. Now, you're going to put up something that's representative of 3% to 5% of the population. How can you do that -- look at the people around you, who pay taxes -- and say that this is fair? The flag of the United States is a symbol of freedom before which Americans recite the pledge of leisure, which we did tonight. The flag -- 13, red and white stripes represent the 13 original colonies. The 50 white stars on a blue background represent the 50 States. Each of the colors of the flag have a meaning. Red is for valor and bravery. White is for purity and innocence. Blue is for vigilance and perseverance and justice. That flag covers everything. We do not need another flag. If you want to fly the Connecticut flag or a POW flag underneath, that's what that's fine, but let's not divide Middletown over one issue that the Mayor decides is the best thing to do. I have another question. You have the checkbook. You are in control of the money. How is this happening? Is the Mayor taking the money out of his own funding, because I know that the Mayor has his own budget? Again, these are things that shouldn't be happening. I didn't know about the $20M for Wesleyan. Come on. Who is running Middletown: our Middletown residents, who pay taxes and who live here? I've been here 60 years. Or is it Wesleyan? At the time of building a high school, who said, “We do not want your high school students near our university.” That's the fact I know, because it was at the meeting when it was said by Dr. Roth. “I do not want your students mixing, integrating, with our students.” If you were there, you heard that. So, the City put our high school over in a swamp and had to spend an extra $14M to make sure that it stays where it is. And there are still issues with it. The pool was cracked and a bunch of other things. All I'm saying is, is that they shouldn't be dictating what happens in our town. We, the people, dictate what's happened in our town. The one flag covers all. Thank you. Ken McClellan, (114 Tavern Circle): The Chair notes that this speaker addressed the Council once already. He suggests that the speaker get someone else to read his comments. The speaker explains that he is speaking on a different subject. The Chair explains that speakers are only allowed to speak on one subject at a time. The speaker replies that he does not believe that he used all of his allotted time when he spoke earlier. Multiple speakers (inaudible) The Chair explains that these are the Rules adopted by the Council. Michael Rogalsky (139 Birchwood Drive): I went to school here in Portland, so hopefully they taught us well. Actually, I should comment on two things. This is about the trash bags. Four gallon countertop $1.50 per role of 10. Using one bag per day is $54.75 a year. For 8 gallon bucket size, which is 250 roll of 10, using 1 per week is $13 per year. Orange bags: 33 gallon for a large family is $8.25 per roll of 5 is $1.60 each. They don't fit in the trash cans, which means we need another liner and double bag. 15 gallon is $5 per role of 5, which is $1 per bag. You need 2 bags per week. That's $104 dollars a year. They don't fit in the household cans. Another liner has to be used and double bag. Then, 8 gallon singles, which is $7 per roll. It’s a little bitty bag and it’s a roll of 10. Somebody says each 2 per week. That's $70 to $80 a year. Kitchen trash bags, $8.69 for 45 bags or 19 cents each. Sounds like a good bargain, but that's 2 per week. Cost is $20.80 a year. Large trash bags: $14.09 for 50, which is 28 cents each. Finally, large orange, heavy duty trash bags are online at $37.69 per 100, which is 38 cents. APRIL 11, 2024 COMMON COUNCIL – SPECIAL MEETING Page 89 COMMUNITY MEETING That's a lot of money that's and if Ken (McClellan) wants to whisper in my ear on it about his other part on it . . . We ended up double bagged. Doubled bag and it's a waste in a way that. Personally, I don't have the reason to have to do this because I have private contractor where I live. Why does it need to be? I used to be an orange bag. Now. I know there have been hassles about landfills. Landfills get full and they're closing. And, yes, there has to be something done, but what is it? I have seen, and I've heard from somebody else that . . . especially, let's go up to the North End where people are, instead of buying these, they're going out and aren't they they're throwing a garbage in other people's garbage. They're not putting them into bags -- in the proper bags -- that they are. But then I was told that there's a vehicle that follows the trash pickup. So I guess they have a camera now that they can see what's going in and, if they see something that's not proper, they notify the driver by radio, the guy in the car behind. And he goes out and I guess he goes on site and slaps a sticker on the garbage, which is, apparently, what leads to a fine to the people. If they are there, they need that data to put up with this. That's not fair to them. You are going to end up with garbage piled up on the streets. You are going to get people, who are going to protest, and, by that, they're not going to want to participate in it. I think that could end up being a major problem for the City of Middletown. I'd like it, hopefully, to be kind of reconsidered. There's got to be another way. Number 1: get it done properly, not costing the residents extra money. Even though we're saying, “Well, we knocked off all this from your bill.” In some cases, I'm sure that people are probably putting more garbage in. It's going to cost them more money. I hope the Council can do something about, maybe changing this process or finding something better. The other thing that, I wasn't going to do this, but the other thing is about this flag issue here in town. If you can't really tell, I might have had something to do would be in a Veteran. As a Veteran, we fought for freedoms and rights of everybody. We have put up and, believe me, unless you've been well, he left now, I was going to say . . . There are a couple of things, as a Veteran, who has been in a combat situation. I was 1968 Vietnam. For those of you, who may not be aware, that was the worst year of the Vietnam War. There are three (3) 3 major things that we remember. The Chair notes that his speaker has 2 minutes left. APRIL 11, 2024 COMMON COUNCIL – SPECIAL MEETING Page 90 COMMUNITY MEETING The speaker continues, saying he will be quick. There are three (3) major things that we remember: smells sounds, and the crack of a bullet. You thank God that you hear that crack of a bullet because, if you don't hear it, you're dead. But anyhow, I personally do not have any complaints about the way any individuals want to live their lifestyle, want to display whatever flags that they want on their properties. No problem. But the United States Constitution does state “American flag.” the State flag on Federal and Government buildings. The POW flag is accepted as being a 3rd flag flying on it. Now, if the Mayor wants to fly the Pride flag, that's it, but not on the same pole. That, to me, is a disrespect to each and every Veteran, who serves this country. If you want to put it on another poll, so be it, but please have something to do -- talk to him -- at least get him to realize that you can't specifically recognize one particular group over another. That's all I need to say. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Eamon Wisneski (65 Sbona Drive): I'm here to this evening to speak about the Russell Library. First, I want to set the record straight. The Russell Library and looking around the faces here I see, I probably don't need to say a lot of this stuff, but I'll just quickly cover some ground. The Russell Library Company doesn't exclusively run the library. The Company has six (6) members of the Board of Trustees of which I am the President of the Board of Trustees, but there are also six (6) City appointed trustees and there's another – a 13th member -- who's a member of the Russell family, currently Thomas Russell IV, so we have a connection to our history. Also, neither the Russell Library Company, nor the administration, has free access to spend the money in some unfettered way. In fact, there's a budget that has to be followed very closely with line items. Again, these are things that I don't really have to say. I'm not really breaking new ground with anyone when I'm looking at the City Council, but I figured I would point out. I'm not really going to comment on any pending litigation except to say that we heard some description of the pending litigation. I'll say that this is a public record. Anybody, who has an account, can feel free to go on to the case detail and review all the pleadings. In this case, you will find the facts of the case are actually the facts, and the procedural history of the case are actually very different than what was described today. In any event, as I've done the past few years, it feels like when I show up here around springtime, I usually show up with my kids in uniform. The kids are on vacation. Actually, it's raining today, so all City fields are canceled. So I am in my “civilian attire” and not my little league attire. I hope that's acceptable to everyone. These are exciting times for the Russell Library. The Feasibility Committee is closing in on the end of our years of work. We've considered dozens of sites from all across town, some empty parcels and some developed properties. We've narrowed it down to only a few remaining properties, and we're actually on the verge of, potentially, finding what the best possible site is for the Russell Library. So we're really looking forward to that. Again, something that I don't have to really tell everyone on the Council is, but the Russell Library budget is under consideration. It is true that we have had flat budgets for years for circulation, and the effect of that, when you have a flat budget, which I get from a City finance perspective, the needs of a flat budget sometimes. But when you combine that with inflation, eventually, something has to give. That's something that has to give is the ability to that, the purchasing power that we used to have to buy the same materials that we used to do. We are a member of a library consortium that enables Middletown residents to get books from across the State, which is a great feature. We also have robust online services that I probably take advantage of too much. There are many ways that the library gets materials into the books of citizens even if it's not exactly the same newspapers that have been there in the past. Through the Feasibility Committee, we are doing work to collect public input on what Middletown residents would want to see in a future library. The survey is still up. I encourage everyone to take the survey. Hundreds of people have already taken the survey. We do not yet have the full results and we don't have the analysis, obviously, of the final results though. I believe that the survey is up until April 23rd, but the early returns show that Middletown residents are hungry for more library services. They are hungry for versatile meeting spaces, places to meet people, to see and be seen, and more library services. The library is getting out into the community. It's not really so much about people have to go to the library to get value. The library is going out to people. Having said that the building, it's also probably no secret to many here, that the building faces significant issues. And when I say the building, we have the church building. We have the Hubbard Room from the 1920s. We have the Bank because I think it was built, maybe, in the 1960s. We have the bridge that is the lobby and the Children's Department that was built around 1979 with the promise that we would have a new library in town in the year 2000. Well, we're still waiting, but we're making progress on that APRIL 11, 2024 COMMON COUNCIL – SPECIAL MEETING Page 91 COMMUNITY MEETING and we hope to have more soon, but, having these buildings stitched together leaves the overall library structure vulnerable to leaking. It leaves the mechanicals in non-ideal condition. I am proud to say that I've lived in Middletown virtually my entire life. I haven't, I've probably been living in Middletown for the same time. A lot of the mechanicals in the library have been living in Middletown that is entirely too long for them. That's way beyond their useful life. We want to avoid a situation where we have to make emergency decisions about aged mechanicals. We want to have a more deliberate path and planning, and that is part of our facilities assessment and the feasibility planning. Beyond that, I want to highlight a couple of recent articles in the Middletown Press. One of them was about how the library is combating the epidemic of loneliness in Middletown and beyond. In fact, Director Burkey was selected to speak at a conference that U.S. Senator Christopher Murphy was putting together on this subject. This is showing that libraries are not just the place where people can go and pick up books or read a magazine, but this is impacting people in ways that a lot of people when they hear the words library and in the town they don't think about. It truly is making a huge impact on people. Thank you. With that, I'll say that the library motto is: “We enable people to grow, connect, strive and thrive.” We -- and when I say “we” -- I mean the library, the Feasibility Committee, we invite all Middletown residents to take the survey, and to participate in the coming community sessions to let us know exactly how we can better serve the residents of Middletown to do that: to grow, connect, strive, and thrive. I ask everyone on the City Council to join us on this mission so that we can better help citizens in Middletown and beyond. Jennifer Greenberg (Evergreen Avenue): The Clerk of the Common Council reads the following letter into the record. People have asked me “why the fuss now, where were you in 2022?” And I have to ask, where was I supposed to be? There was never any public forum for Pameacha Pond. The issue wasn’t even on a single city public meeting agenda. That is, until the Public Works commission announced in February 2023 that a decision had already been made. There was a meeting with the city, DEEP and Save Pameacha Pond that the public wasn’t invited to and the city will not provide the minutes or. You would think that a multimillion dollar project affecting almost 20 acres of very prominent city property would have a clear public record on how this decision was made. Council members, I understand if you feel you made a promise to this organization you don’t want to go back. I’m asking you to request more detail about the decision on the public record. Some of the support for the pond is based on some assumptions that Save Pameacha Pond made then turned into assertions in their outreach, including in statements to the press. This group is full of good people who love the pond, but statements have repeatedly been made about the dam and the environmental impact by folks who are not scientists or engineers. Two of these assumptions should be CERTAINLY questioned: #1: Dam removal would be more expensive. It’s usually not. And there are grants available. And I’m not just talking about removal costs $9 while replacement costs $10. One 30 yr. study in MA found that removing dams is 60 percent less expensive, on average, than repairing and maintaining them. We’re not Massachusetts, but we’re also talking about a replacement, not a repair. So isn’t a cost comparison worth looking into on the public record? https://www.mma.org/study-removing-dams-less-expensive-than-repairing- maintaining-them/ #2 The pond is nature that needs to be preserved because it has a positive effect on the environment. The fact is, the pond is manmade and whether you’re removing the dam permanently or replacing it, the pond is going to be drained. Also, the pond’s existence likely has an overall negative impact on the environment. Without the pond we could have a natural floodplain. This could increase resiliency to the more frequent extreme weather events that occur. Dams often have an overall negative impact on water quality. For example, they can increase evaporation and raise water temperatures, encouraging the growth of algae blooms and Cyanobacteria, which can be toxic.  APRIL 11, 2024 COMMON COUNCIL – SPECIAL MEETING Page 92 COMMUNITY MEETING Just look at this story the Pameacha Pond group keeps sharing about the turtles being saved by the cleaners when they cross route 17. One of the main photos features three turtles, covered in algae, sitting on a tire in the pond. The turtle on the far right is actually a red-eared slider, which is an invasive species that can outcompete our native turtles. Is this a thriving ecosystem? My point is, shouldn’t we hear from an environmental scientist on the public record about the implications of the pond? For this issue, the gaping hole in expertise on the public record is already causing problems including a lack of funding for a dam. It’s only going to get worse if this goes to a bond referendum. And can you imagine if the first time a scientist speaks to this on the public record is at the state DEEP hearing AFTER we spend $0.5 million designing a new dam? As I read through the minutes from the Public Works commission over the last couple of years, looking for the meeting I was supposed have attended, a lack of resources and flooding are two topics that come up time and time again across this city. So it just seems absolutely bizarre to not ask questions at least about what resources Pameacha will require and what impact it would have on flooding. So, I would ask you, as council members tasked with working towards best outcomes for ALL Middletown residents to just question these assumptions on the record. Thank you, 3. Public Comment Closes There being no further public comment, the Chair closes the public comment session at 7:39 PM. 4. Meeting adjourned Councilman Vincent Loffredo moves to adjourn. Councilwoman Jeanette Blackwell seconds the motion. There being no discussion, the Chair calls for a voice vote. The motion is approved unanimously by a vote of 11-0 (AYE: Councilmembers Nocera, Loffredo, Blackwell, Ford, Mangiafico, Sweeney, Kovach, Salafia, Gennaro, Pulino, and Spatola; ABSENT: Councilman Faulkner). The matter is approved. The meeting is adjourned at 7:40 PM. ATTEST: LINDA S.K. REED, COMMON COUNCIL CLERK K: review/ minutes/ 2024 April 11 – community meeting – 11 April 2024