Common Council

COMMON COUNCIL MIDDLETOWN, CONNECTICUT SPECIAL MEETING QUESTIONS TO DIRECTORS TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2024 6:30 PM MINUTES A Special Meeting of the Common Council of the City of Middletown was held on Tuesday, September 3, 2024, at 6:30 PM. This meeting was a hybrid meeting with in-person participation in the Common Council Chamber and remote access via WebEx. The meeting was livestreamed on the City’s Facebook page, on the City website, and on local cable access television. Present: Councilwoman Jeanette Blackwell Councilman Anthony Mangiafico Councilman Grady Faulkner, Jr. Councilman Eugene Nocera, President Councilman Darnell Ford Councilman Jonathan Pulino Councilman Anthony Gennaro, Sr. Councilwoman Linda Salafia Councilman Steven Kovach Councilwoman Leslie Spatola Councilman Vincent Loffredo Councilwoman Kelly Sweeney Also Present: Hon. Benjamin Florsheim, Mayor Linda Reed, Clerk of the Common Council Sergeant-at-Arms: Middletown Police – Officer DiMassa City Staff: Arts – Kisha Michael, Coordinator Board of Education – Eduardo Miranda, Finance Director City & Town Clerk – Ashley Flynn-Natale, CCTC Communications – Wayne Bartolotta, Director Economic & Community Development – Christine Marques, Director Equal Opportunity & Diversity Management – Faith Jackson, Director Finance & Revenue Services – Carl Erlacher, CPA - Director Fire – David Albert, Acting Fire Chief Health – Kevin Elak Human Resources Division – Justin Richardson, Division Director; Michelle Langston, HR Generalist; Marie Scarlett, HR Specialist Legal Division – Brig Smith, Esq., General Counsel; Kori Wisneski, Esq., Deputy General Counsel Library – Ramona Burkey, Director Mayor’s office – Barbara Knoll Peterson, Chief of Staff Police – Erik Costa, Police Chief Public Works – Howard Weissberg, Acting Director; Kim O’Rourke, Recycling Recreation – Cathy Lechowicz, Director Technology Services – Brianna Skowera, Director  SEPTEMBER 3, 2024 COMMON COUNCIL – SPECIAL MEETING Page 2 QUESTIONS TO DIRECTORS Water & Sewer – Joseph Fazzino, PE, Director Youth Services – Justin Carbonella MPA, Manager Absent: Assessor – Damon Braasch, CCMAII, Assessor Land Use – Marek Kozikowski, AICP Public: 40 WebEx: 19 Facebook: unknown 1. Call to Order The Chair, Hon. Benjamin Florsheim, Mayor, calls the meeting to order at 6:34 PM. He welcomes everyone to the Common Council’s Special Meeting, the Questions to Directors Workshop. A. Pledge of Allegiance The Chair notes that this is the Common Council’s first fully remote meeting in quite some time, adding that we are glad that everyone can join us. The Chair asks everyone to stand and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. B. Council Clerk Reads the Call of the Meeting and Mayor 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. Questions to Directors Workshop Opens The Chair opens the Questions to Directors session at 6:36 PM, noting that this session precedes the Common Council Regular Meeting, which will start at 7:00 PM this evening. The Chair: Thank you Madam Clerk. I will have Councilman Nocera first, followed by Couniclwoman Councilman Blackwell, Councilman Eugene Nocera: I'll shift the questions to resolution 11EI, concerning responsible and equal regulation of cannabis and following the money, looking to secure a company for expanded security at City Hall, which we I think all supported. Attorney Wisneski, can you fill us in on that. Attorney Kori Wisneski: One of the things that you're doing tonight is accepting a grant confirmation of a cannabis tax, and that is pursuant to the recent legislation out of the State of Connecticut that allows the City to collect 3 % of cannabis sales (revenue) here in the City of Middletown, which we have done since the location opened up on Washington Street. It is taking in quite a bit of money, and I think tonight you're accepting about $125,000. Under that statute, we are allowed to use that money in certain ways. This resolution is setting forth what we intend to do. We are going to replace $125,000 for the schools, the City's school-based Food Share Program, and we're replacing that money. We are going to use the money that was originally in the budget for that (Food Share Program) on security here at City Hall. There have been a significant amount of incidents recently where City employees, including myself, have not felt safe in this building. Individuals come in. There is nobody to check in, and we get individuals who are very angry, a lot of times coming from the Police Department. They come up to various offices, demanding to talk to somebody like the Mayor. If he's not around, coming to my office, where we've had individuals bring, what was kind of like a knife to our office, so it can get quite scary. So I do think that this is something that is good for City Hall, is good for all of our employees, and I'm hoping that you support it tonight. Councilman Nocera: Thank you. That that was a clear explanation and you know the question came up how we move from that to, to something that I think we all support. Thank you. SEPTEMBER 3, 2024 COMMON COUNCIL – SPECIAL MEETING Page 3 QUESTIONS TO DIRECTORS The Chair: Any further questions on this topic for General Counsel? All right, we're will go to Councilwoman Salafia and then Councilman Loffredo. Couniclwoman Linda Salafia: I have a question about where it was decided what this money was going to be spent on. At Finance and Government (Operations Commission), all I remember discussing is that we were getting this funding, but there was no discussion about where we were going to spend it. So, which departments, or which committees, approve these expenditures? Attorney Wisneski: This is going in front of you (the Council) tonight. We had mentioned at Finance and Government (F&G) that there was going to be a resolution on the agenda, talking about a replacement of funds to use for security. I don't believe that that resolution went to any other committees, but it was mentioned at F&G and then, in in terms of the acceptance of the, the grant, we had talked a little bit about that. I know that the Finance Department worked with your Clerk (Clerk of the Common Council) to draft this resolution, which is in front of you tonight. Couniclwoman Salafia: So the first time we're seeing that. Attorney Wisneski: So what we're proposing to do is to hire an outside company to provide an individual to sit at this front desk, or somewhere near it. We've talked to two (2) companies based on State bids, so we can have. Councilwoman Salafia: I'm just reading this now that this is what's in the issue. And I would say that I've also been in this City Hall long enough to know that there have been people sitting at that front desk and that's a different discussion. My first impression right now is we take the money, but then we don't spend it tonight. Attorney Wisneski: So the people, who have sat at the front desk before, are actually doing light duty. The Chair: We're not going to do the back and forth, so if there's a question, is there, is there a question? So we're going to go next to Councilman Loffredo. Councilman Vincent Loffredo: Thank you. The question that I was going to ask, so I'll just confirm, Councilmembers and committees, in any form or shape, are not aware, if you've been . . . They didn't get a chance to preview the expenditure side of what Councilwoman Salafia was saying. At the meeting, you said you're going to accept the grant. Attorney Wisneski: Yes. Councilman Loffredo: That was the discussion that's going to be $100 and how much grant? Attorney Wisneski: $125,000. That was what was on the agenda at F&G. In terms of the conversation, there was some conversation, I think. Councilman Nocera had talked about security being important and where it would be going. Councilman Loffredo: I understand, but it was mentioned also that the money could be spent in a variety of ways. Have you indicated all the ways that the City could potentially expend the money? Attorney Wisneski: There is a list of how we can spend that money and I can search my email because I didn't have it, I don't have it with me right now. There's a specific list of types of ways that you can spend it, and so, we had reviewed it and was hoping that this would fall into like the education based, reasons. Councilman Loffredo: When you mentioned “we have reviewed it,” who did the reviewing? SEPTEMBER 3, 2024 COMMON COUNCIL – SPECIAL MEETING Page 4 QUESTIONS TO DIRECTORS Attorney Wisneski: We had an internal meeting between the Mayor's Office, Finance, my office, Purchasing, as well as Mayor's Finance person, Rohan Manning, to talk about how we're going to this because security has been a concern. And just a follow up, the amount of money that's been collected has been coming from one major entity within Middletown and that is the . . . I think the entity that's on Washington Street. I don't know the name of it, but that's where the money is being generated from. Councilman Loffredo: Do we have any anticipation so that . . . Just looking back from for how long have we been collecting the money? Is that an annual? Attorney Wisneski: I think we get that monthly, but that question is better addressed to Finance. Councilman Loffredo: Does anybody from Finance know that answer? The Chair: The Finance Director is here and he's indicating it's a monthly payment. Councilman Loffredo: Do you know how much monthly we're going to bring forward on sales? Attorney Wisneski: It's based on sales, so every month is different. Finance & Revenue Services Director Carl Erlacher: It's part of their sales tax return and they remit it to us. The Chair: It's 3% Director Erlacher: Yes, exactly, a 3% tax. Councilman Loffredo: Thank you. Director Erlacher: And no dollars have been spent at all. Councilman Loffredo: And you've been collecting it since how long ago? Whenever you start, when you start getting the first payment? Director Erlacher: I'd have to check is whatever they opened. Councilman Loffredo: All right, thank you. The Chair: Next is Councilwoman Blackwell. Councilwoman Jeanette Blackwell: Thank you, your honor. I have a follow-up to the Sanitation District presentation. If someone would come up, either Deputy Director Weissberg or Miss O’Rourke. The Chair: We'll have Howard (Public Works Acting Director Weissberg) come up, depending on the question, we'll see. Councilwoman Blackwell: Nice to see you again. I should have led with my questions earlier by acknowledging that there is a waste crisis and costs are increasing. Thank you for doing the presentation. My question is regarding the survey, the results of the survey that was administered. How did we disaggregate the data? Acting Director Weissberg: I will have to turn that one over to our Recycling Coordinator as she handled that. Councilwoman Blackwell: Thank you. SEPTEMBER 3, 2024 COMMON COUNCIL – SPECIAL MEETING Page 5 QUESTIONS TO DIRECTORS Recycling Coordinator Kim O’Rourke: The survey was done through jot form, so it was compiled electronically. We then presented the results to the Recycling Commission, the Sanitation Commission, and the Waste Advisory Group. It’s also on the website. Councilwoman Blackwell: Okay, I'll have to go there, but in the meantime, can you speak to it. Were there any themes or patterns that you saw as a result of the responses? Recycling Coordinator O’Rourke: So, this was done in the spring. We had one that was for residents and one was that was for businesses that were using carts. As I recall, we had 270 results from the residents. I'd have to get you the full report as I don't have that with me, the full results of it. As I recall, there were on average people were using about two (2) bags a week. Beyond that, I can't remember, but I'm happy to send you the results to it. Couniclwoman Blackwell: Was there displeasure with the program? Recycling Coordinator O’Rourke: There was both. There was both. Yeah, there was some who, some who I mean it was very, it was, and it was . . . I'll say it wasn't a scientific survey. It was something we sent out. We tried to get the best responses we could, but I don't remember what the breakdown was, but they were both good comments and bad comments for sure. Councilwoman Blackwell: I think that'll be interesting. I’ll take a look at it. Recycling Coordinator O’Rourke: I did send you the link. Councilwoman Blackwell: Thank you. The Chair: Thank you, Councilwoman Blackwell. Thank you Kim (O’Rourke). Next is Councilwoman Sweeney or followed by Councilman Gennaro, asking if either has questions for Kim O’Rourke. Councilwoman Kelly Sweeney: We've had a lot of questions. We've had a lot of feedback from the public, a lot of it is, you know, with, with criticism of the program. So it's nice to hear a few positive things from your presentation. With that in mind, I wanted to ask what alternatives were sought before this program was selected? Before we entered into this program, alternatives, because that comes up all the time in the critical feedback. Acting Director Weissberg: So, in Year One -- this is actually Year Two of the program -- in Year One, the City did a co-collection pilot with the orange and green bags to essentially get people to just voluntarily co-collect and separate trash. That program led to Phase Two. One of the challenges in the Middletown is we don't control the trash in the entire City. We can only control the piece that we, that is in the Sanitation District. The City does have a number of other composting programs. They have Blue Earth, there's a commercial program that Kim (O’Rourke) sponsors. The reality is that the program that is proven to be most effective for reducing waste is unit based pricing or Save as You Throw. So that's I mean. That's really the best solution to mitigating trash. Obviously, you can do so much with recycling, you can do so much with smaller cart sizes. We offer waste audits for anybody that requests them. But something global would be amazing. The challenge is that we only have the sanitation under our control. Councilwoman Sweeney: I wish that you had it in my neighborhood. So did we consider different sized carts, or carts for the food scrap? Acting Director Weissberg: So food scrap carts had been looked at. They are very expensive because it's a separate collection. Co-collection -- the green bags versus the green bags and orange bags -- has proven to be a very effective way of doing it because it's a single pickup. Logistically, it works fairly well, but that's, that's the solution there. The City does offer a, surprisingly large number of different options for people, who want to SEPTEMBER 3, 2024 COMMON COUNCIL – SPECIAL MEETING Page 6 QUESTIONS TO DIRECTORS reduce their cart sizes. That's one of the things that we hope come out of this: people will realize they can recycle more and will opt for smaller cart sizes as a way to also improve on their costs. Councilwoman Sweeney: I'm remembering my youth when we first got all of the recycling bins, and you had the five (5) different colored bins. You had to sort and it was never the right numbers. How do you explain this new program to people, who are just moving to the City? Do you foresee adding a grace period for those new residents? Acting Director Weissberg: Not really grace period. Kim (O’Rourke) and her team do a great job of outreach. It's one of the largest requests that come into our office, and one of the reasons we do need the additional funding for support staff, but education is an area that we have to improve on. We acknowledge that education is really important to get people hitting the ground running on doing the co-collection and using the correct bags and in the correct way. Councilwoman Sweeney: Definitely. With that last question, promise. With that the enforcement, the appeal process, so there's going to need to be something if a failure to comply fee is added. How do you foresee that looking? Acting Director Weissberg: We are going to work with Legal on nailing down that process. As Mark Dancy (Waste Zero) had previously indicated, we're not going to “ding” people if somebody walks by and throws a small trash bag in your bag. What we're looking for is there a legitimate attempt to comply with the program? Are you using orange bags at all? If there are no orange bags in there, and it’s all trash, that's a fairly obvious one, but we're not looking to split hairs. We're looking to make sure there's general compliance with the program because that's where we will see the major savings. Councilwoman Sweeney: Excellent. Good to hear. Thank you. The Chair: Go next to councilmen Gennaro. Councilman Anthony Gennaro, Sr.: Thank you. I’ll just give you two (2) questions even though I have many. I'll just give you two (2) tonight. I'm teeing off on what you mentioned in your answer that we don't control the whole City. So, the question I have is, in other districts, when they have the private haulers, why aren't the other haulers -- these private haulers -- using unit based pricing anywhere else in the State. The concerns that my constituents have mentioned to me is that they feel that it's odd or suspicious for a for profit company, just so you know to use municipality, like ours, and grant money for their program. So why wouldn't everybody else do this as well because other haulers are less than us, even playing with our paying our fines. That's one question. The other question is I've been getting comments about people looking to probably use counterfeit bags. What would be the consequences, if those bags were used and somehow skirted, and they saw that these counterfeit bags were to get through? What would happen to the City, and what would the consequences that be? Acting Director Weissberg: So I obviously our tipping fees -- answering the second question first – obviously, are born into the cost of the bags. The City is paying for the tipping fees without the funding coming in. Counterfeit bags would obviously harm the City. Councilman Gennaro: Would that be hugely significant? Acting Director Weissberg: Oh, yes. We would be footing the tipping fees without the funding to pay for them. Councilman Gennaro: Have we come across that yet? Acting Director Weissberg: I don't believe so. I'd have to ask about enforcement, but we haven't come across it in large enough numbers to move the needle, to my knowledge. Answering the first question, having the private haulers figure out a way to turn this into a profitable activity is really the holy grail of this. The more companies that start to engage, and the more municipalities that start to engage in the unit-based pricing and the bag separation, will hopefully drive the private industry to figure out a way to make co-collection profitable. Once they find the profit center in this, you're going to see it migrate to the private haulers, because if they can figure out a way to separate cost effectively, and pass the savings, and  SEPTEMBER 3, 2024 COMMON COUNCIL – SPECIAL MEETING Page 7 QUESTIONS TO DIRECTORS share the profits between them, and pass the savings onto the customers, you're going to see that happen. A municipality should be taking the leading edge to make that happen. Having the private industry support this and adapt this is going to be, ultimately, one of the goals of this. The Chair: Thank you very much. I have Councilman Loffredo next. Acting Director Weissberg: Not me? Councilman Vincent Loffredo: With sanitation? Yes. Cart size. You have mentioned that we have gradations of cart size and, therefore, the costs. Can you share that? Acting Director Weissberg: We have it. It's in a chart and on our website. The City offers, how many . . . The Chair: Kim or John, are you able to help with this? Acting Director Weissberg: We offer multiple cart sizes and permutations in them. Recycling Coordinator O’Rourke: We offer two (2) cart sizes: the 95-gallon cart and the 65-gallon cart. There is discussion of offering a smaller cart size, as well. Councilman Loffredo: And what's the difference between the 95 and the 65 cost wise? Recycling Coordinator O’Rourke: Cost wise? Okay, so currently, the 95-gallon is $140.81 for every six (6) months, and the 65-gallon is $124.72 every six (6) months. Councilman Loffredo: And you just contact your office and say . . . Recycling Coordinator O’Rourke: Oh yeah, you just contact the office and get the smaller cart. Councilman Loffredo: The other question I had was, you do send out the sanitation bills, mail them out, correct? That's why we received the bills. And in terms of evaluating the program, I don't recall, I'm just suggesting, can you include -- develop -- a fairly straightforward sanitation form, as an evaluation of how the program is going, that folks, who are part of this district have the opportunity to comment in some fashion, maybe asking two (2) or three (3) questions, four (4) questions on what rated. I'm sure it can be readily developed, and added, because I just want to get a better sense of what is the response for those of us that do live in the District and are either using, and cooperating and being a part of the program, and then those that that are not. So I'm just suggesting that since we do, we do mail it twice a year or just once a year. Recycling Coordinator O’Rourke: Yeah, we could include something with the billing. We did, so we something were we included information on this with the billing, since it's been running, and then we did a separate mailing. Councilman Loffredo: But not an evaluation form? Recycling Coordinator O’ Rourke: The link to the questionnaire and some information on it. Councilman Loffredo: Thank you. The Chair: And it is a twice yearly bill, right? So that $280 figure we see up there would be the 95-gallon cart, $140 and $140. Recycling Coordinator O’Rourke: Yeah. 2. Questions to Directors Closes There being no further questions, the Chair closes Questions to Directors at 6:57 PM and ask for a motion to adjourn. 3. Adjournment Councilman Jonathan Pulino moves to adjourn. Councilwoman Jeanette Blackwell seconds the motion.  SEPTEMBER 3, 2024 COMMON COUNCIL – SPECIAL MEETING Page 8 QUESTIONS TO DIRECTORS There being no discussion, the Chair calls for a voice vote. The motion to adjourn is approved unanimously by a vote of 12- 0 (AYE: Councilmembers Nocera, Loffredo, Blackwell, Ford, Faulkner, Sweeney, Mangiafico, Kovach, Salafia, Gennaro, Pulino, and Spatola). The matter is approved The meeting is adjourned at 6:58 PM. ATTEST: LINDA S.K. REED, COMMON COUNCIL CLERK K: review/ minutes/ 2024 Sept 03 – Ques to Directors – 3 Sept 2024