Common Council

COMMON COUNCIL MIDDLETOWN, CONNECTICUT SPECIAL MEETING: COMMUNITY MEETING THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 2025 6:00 PM MINUTES A Special Meeting of the Common Council of the City of Middletown -- the Community Meeting -- was held on Thursday, January 9, 2025, at 6:00 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 Grady Faulkner, Jr. Councilman Jonathan Pulino Councilman Darnell Ford Councilwoman Leslie Spatola Councilwoman Kelly Sweeney Absent: Councilman Anthony Mangiafico Hon. Benjamin Florsheim, Mayor Also Present: Linda Reed, Clerk of the Common Council Public: Chamber – 6 WebEx – 0 Facebook -- unknown 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 6:01 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 6:03 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. John Milardo (36 Bailey Road): I am a Middletown resident. I am also a member of the City of Middletown Retirees Pension Plan and serve on that commission. I've spoken here before regarding a pensioner, who has received his pension and a no bid contract literally within a month after retirement. Now that's been going on since 2021. I found out about this as a Pension Board member about a year ago, maybe a little more now, and I've been butting heads with everybody trying to get something done. My view is that the contract that they had was illegal because it didn't go out to bid properly. It was supposed to be a $2,000 or more bid has to go publicly out to bid and it wasn't. It was just awarded him somehow. Nobody in the City knows how it occurred: the Mayor's Office, the City Attorney's Office, and the Economic Development Office. Nobody. They don't. It just came out at thin air, I guess. I'm going to try to read something here so I don't forget much.  JANUARY 9, 2025 COMMON COUNCIL – SPECIAL MEETING Page 2 COMMUNITY MEETING I'm here to speak on and this is a new bid that just was awarded to the same person yesterday. I found out through FOI. I'm here to speak on bid number 2024-020 the building superintendent for the Keating Building, Tate's Restaurant, Harbor Park, and a building at 131 River Road that I believe the Council just purchased for $365K within the past year. It's a brick building. I t looks like a house. I don't know if there's any businesses in it. I don't know if you guys bought it for redevelopment purposes or what, but it's there. The original contract that the City signed with this individual was in August 2021 for RWK Enterprise's LLC. The LLC was created literally right before he retired. It was in effect until this week. This was an illegal contract, this was over $2,000 and it was for $72,000 a year so it should have gone out to bid. And it was not sent out to bid. No one within the walls of Town Hall have any idea who, what, when, or why this contract was signed and given to this individual. I don't know if that's how Town Hall operates now. I mean, I was here for 42 years, I worked under seven (7) different mayors for various and they had various terms, and Purchasing, as far as I know -- I've been retired for 13 years -- the rules and regulations haven't really changed that much. I used to do a lot of business with Purchasing and I've never witnessed anything like this. It's . . . I'm not sure if I'm even presenting this to the right venue, seeing this how that contract was never brought to you guys. The lease wasn't brought to you guys now. I don't know who's in power and who's not in power anymore. I don't know. It's like the Mayor's Office is running a roughshod over everybody, including our pension. I was I was elected to make sure our pension was on the up and up and solvent and there was no gimmicks or tricks or anything played. To me, this is definitely, it's under-handed to me the way this was performed. The Mayor just putting a stamp on things, I mean not bringing it forward. Nothing even went to Commissions, Committees. It didn't go to approval, Ethics Board. It's just plucking it out of thin air and saying, “Okay, here you go. Here's taxpayer money. Don't worry about it.” The City Attorney's office. Where are they on this? To me, in my opinion, they make excuses for what has transpired. They don't really tell you the whole story of if this is illegal or not. They pinned on one specific thing in the retirement plan: “Oh, he could do it because of this.” Well, it's not the whole story. The whole story is, how do you . . . The contract that he originally signed from 2021, according to Federal wage and hour laws, makes him an employee. It doesn't make him a contractor. He had to report to departments. They provided office for him. They provided phones for him. I don't know if they probably could provide computers. They got emails for him. That's an employee. That is not a contractor. Let's see this. The City Attorney’s Office is supposed to ensure the city hasn’t violated ordinances and policies. They are to ensure there's no collusion, corruption, misconduct, and everything's on the up and up. The office isn't meant to represent the taxpayers, not be a personal law through for the Mayor or for a director or anybody else. This is not a political issue. This is an issue of who's responsible for illegal activity. It's a criminal issue in my opinion, what transpired up until yesterday because that person, even though this contract that they just awarded yesterday, this contract, the person was still receiving the illegal amount of money up until yesterday. So, I don't know what you guys could do about that. I'm worried about our pension plan: $118,000 a year since 2021 times four (4). That's a lot of money coming out of our pension that shouldn't have because he was considered an employee and the $72,000 a year on the no bid contract, that's money that's taken from the taxpayer's pocket and, and put in somebody else's with no discussion, no approvals, no anything. It's just -- boom, stamp -- rubber stamp on it. I don't know why, but it is. All I'm looking for . . . Both parties should be appalled at what happened here. This isn't politics. You guys should get together, find out what you could do with what's going on and reimburse the taxpayers that money and reimburse the pension plan that money. It's crazy. I've all the years I worked here -- and I personally didn't care for Dan Drew – but he didn't pull this crap. This is ridiculous. I mean in my eyes of what's going on. Since 2021 taxpayer money has been awarded to RWK Maintenance LLC in the amount of approximately $250,000 since his retirement. That's just on that contract. The retirement plan has lost $413,000 to date because, if he was considered an employee, his pension would have stopped – ceased --- until he was no longer an employee, but those years he was collecting the $118,000. Federal wage and hour . . . I talked about that. And, if you give somebody an illegal contract -- and it is illegal because they wouldn't have gone out the bid again and bid it properly the second time, and it was the second contract that was just validated yesterday -- closed October 31st and they're just awarding it now. If that wasn't illegal, why are you giving the same vendor now another contract? I mean, I don't know why, but it is. As a retirement board . . . The Chair, John, you have 1 minute. John Milardo: Okay. As a retirement board member, I would like to see language change. I can't change it. Just the Council can by creating an ordinance. The ordinance I would like to see -- and it's kind of like what the State has, and I'll make this as fast as I can -- is to amend the retirement plan including language to ensure no games played with the pension money, language such as, some other pensions and purchasing plans which maybe you have to change. “There shall be a five (5) year cooling off period to inhibit use of influencing contracts with one's former employer, the City of Middletown, for improper gain once an employee retires from active employment.” That's similar to what the state of Connecticut has except I upped the one (1) year because it's a very close in that community here. It's not statewide. So I would like to see somebody, or both parties, get together and put some  JANUARY 9, 2025 COMMON COUNCIL – SPECIAL MEETING Page 3 COMMUNITY MEETING kind of language up there. Send it to the Pension Board and see if we like it, or want to change it and send it back to you guys because this has got to stop. This is this is ridiculous. In my opinion, there's corruption in Middletown. The Common Council must regain their authority and powers to ensure the citizens of Middletown are no longer lied to by the Mayor and his cohorts. Lastly, impeachment should not be taken off the table. Sorry, but I am concerned. Thank you. Thank you, John. If we can get a copy of that, John. Thank you. Joseph Hoydilla (2603 Hunting Hill Avenue): I want to thank Linda (Clerk of the Common Council) for kind of navigating and getting me, explain the information to me about this. So for the last, I don't know, maybe eight (8) or ten years, every so often my wife and I, we pick up garbage around Middletown. And, it's no surprise, I'm sure, most of the people are realizing that there's just more plastic everywhere, and it's just, it doesn't go anywhere. It just disintegrates and it's kind of unsightly and it just leads to a lot of issues. Recently, we just picked up an area on Mill Street. It's -- I wish I had a little more time to get some more of the information -- but it's off of South Main Street. It runs parallel with the connector that goes to Route 9. My wife and I, over the weekend, and a friend of ours from another city, we picked up garbage because we wanted to feel like we're actually doing something and there's something to be said about that because you really feel like you can see the results of what you're doing. My wife walks her dog and she noticed this area is kind of a neglected area -- neighborhood -- and so she noticed some garbage. We decided, over the weekend, to pick up some trash. I was surprised in a few different ways. One of the biggest I'd start with the positive. The area that we picked up was just a beautiful pristine, it’s a marsh and I just couldn't believe how beautiful, if you overlooked the garbage that was around this area. I said it's too bad. I was thinking there's another park called Ravine Park in Middletown. It's not exactly, but it's pretty close to it, but it’s a similar situation because it's classified as a park. You don't see like contractors just dumping illegal stuff into the woods. Some of the debris that we picked up was . . . there were truck tires. Some of it, my wife and I just didn't have the strength to pick up some of the stuff. I ended up taking an old couch that was down there. There were mattresses. We ended up picking up about two (2) piles. I really appreciate Kim O’Rourke for all the help that she's doing, but, at the same time, the garbage has been out since the weekend. I'm concerned about the wind blowing it back and we did about three (3) hours’ worth of work with our friend and my wife. And, so I was talking to the Park Department -- and I forgot her name, but very nice person responded. I was telling her about how we can make this potentially a park, if we could find out who owns this land and because this is a beautiful area. I could only envision a trail going through there and it goes over a marsh. There are two (2) or three (3) small, little marshes that are like right next to each other. It's something nobody would even take the time today to even see this. I was picturing a boardwalk or something going on top of it. And Linda (Clerk of the Common Council) was talking about, I believe, there's maybe a volunteer opportunity with some Boy Scouts possibly doing the work, if this is even a doable project. One of the main things about making this into a park, I really think it would stop the contractors from dumping a lot of this stuff. I feel a little bit angry and almost at a point that I wanted to stop working on it because I can't believe that we could let things get so far. There are no signs up there to tell contractors that you can't dump the stuff. I was just thinking that we could change this. We don't have the manpower or the person power to go to everywhere in the City, but, if we could just concentrate in this one area. My proposal, if it is possible is to make it a park, make it like a trail or two to go through there and to hopefully have the City help maintain it. My other concern is, if possible, if Parks -- or whoever is in charge -- could run by and pick up that debris sooner rather than later so it doesn't blow back down into the hill where we grabbed everything. So that's basically it and I appreciate the time. The Chair: Thank you, Joseph. We don't usually respond, but, if you can make sure you give our Council Clerk your phone number and I will get back to you on your questions. Joseph Hoydilla: I appreciate it. Thanks again. Edward McKeon (Pearl Street): Happy New Year. Thanks so much for coming out on this cold night. I know these meetings sometimes are crowded and filled with people, expressing their opinions and sometimes it's like tonight: the old guys open mic night, but without the jokes. It wasn't on my list, but I want to say thank you. You guys can't say it, but I want to say thank you to Joseph and his wife and their friend for making that effort to clean up Mill Street. Mill Street is a historically important street in Middletown. You might not know this, but Henry Clay Work was born on that street. His house is still there. He is obviously dead now, but he lived there in the 19th Century. He wrote Grandfather's Clock, which you probably all saying in elementary school and Marching through Georgia. He is known around the world. His music is known  JANUARY 9, 2025 COMMON COUNCIL – SPECIAL MEETING Page 4 COMMUNITY MEETING around the world, and his house is still there. To have a park there -- maybe named Henry Clay Work Park -- and associated with the house would be fantastic. Thanks to Joseph and his friends for cleaning up. I want to address three (3) topics that I think are in your bailiwick. First, and you're not going to be surprised at this -- I'm going to talk a little bit about the DOT (Department of Transportation). In May of last year, you requested that the State of Connecticut Department of Transportation meet with you in a public hearing to address the many legitimate concerns of residents about the DOT's proposal: the plan to remove lights on Route 9. That was eight (8) months ago. You placed no restrictions on them conducting this hearing, indicating that meeting as soon as possible would be best. That was eight (8) months ago. They were supposed to meet tonight, it was scheduled for tonight. Now, by reports, they seem to be conducting essential tests that they should have conducted in the first place and they're using the testing, and the analysis of that testing, as the excuses why they haven't met with us yet. It hasn't stopped them from meeting with the Middlesex Chamber of Commerce or with leaders from other neighboring communities. But, honestly, they be they seem to be treating your requests more lightly than they should. That was a request, by the way, that was made eight (8) months ago. So I'm here again today to ask that you light a fire under their bureaucratic behinds so that we, as a community and as a municipality, can understand what's going on with Route 9. As a member of the Sanitation District Commission, and you know I'm going to mention Kim O’Rourke for the second time tonight, last month, I read, with very mixed feelings, an announcement about the retirement of Public Works employee Kim O’Rourke. I wish her the very best. She's been with us for in the City for more than 30 years and I know she's going to be missed. I'm going to miss her. You know Kim's name, probably, because of your association with her, but you really know her name because she was regularly chastised and insulted in these Chambers by misinformed members of the public for trying to make Middletown a more environmentally sustainable community. She was maligned and hounded by quacks and conspiracy theorists, some of whom might be listening tonight, and she was falsely accused of collusion, malfeasance, and supporting communism of all things. All this because she had the temerity to think that Middletown could be a pioneering community in waste reduction and the channeling of food scraps for transformation to energy and compost. By the way, thanks to all of you who voted to extend that program for at least one (1) more year. But Kim did a lot more for the community than just Pay As You Throw. I don't think people understand the extent to which she was dedicated to her job, from pursuing innovative programs to dealing with the administrative slog, the day to day work, the grunt work, all with minimal support staff. I think, when I wrote the letter to her, I said she was doing the work of three (3) and I think that's probably true. She's one of the hardest working people in the City Hall. And, whether it was the recycling program that we all still use, the rainwater collection efforts, the paper shredding days, the educational programs and schools, the hazardous waste collections, or the most recent Pay As You Throw program, she has put in Middletown at the forefront of the essential movement towards sustainability for our own community on this fragile planet. Thanks, Kim, for your innovative thinking, your courage to do the right thing in the face of unkind and misguided criticism and for all your hard work. Her departure also points to a larger problem and it came up at Monday's Common Council meeting. It seems that there are 42 open positions in the City at this point. It was always my understanding that having a job at in the City Hall, especially in Middletown, was something that was sought after and so it's kind of shocking that we're now down one more person in a woefully understaffed Public Works Department, but we have 42 open jobs. And one of the things I hoped to work on when I was on the Council, and never got to it, was a reorg to move the Human Resources Department from as a subdirectory of the General Counsel's Office. It's a move that I never quite understood, but I think we're beginning to see proof that it's not working, so. So I hope it's something that you'll address. Finally, and this is kind of a larger thing you might think it's not appropriate, but I do think it's germane. In a few days, for the first time in history, we are going to inaugurate a felon as the President of the United States. That's frightening enough, if he wasn't also a champion liar with a complete lack of moral code, who demonstrated an utter disregard for the rule of law, who showcases an astonishing ignorance on a daily basis, who coddles dictators and oligarchs, and who confuses cruelty with leadership. I fear for our country. More practically, I fear for my neighbors. I think it's essential that our City leaders, including you, like other City leaders in Connecticut and across the country, make it clear that we will not cooperate if federal agents come to town to pull children from schools, to wrench families apart, and to arrest those, who have sought asylum and are now doing the jobs that we, as second, third, and fourth generation children of immigrants, refuse to do ourselves: mopping floors, nailing roof shingles in heat and cold, pulling weeds, harvesting crops, cleaning dirty dishes and restaurant kitchen restaurants, and a lot of other menial tasks. I hope we'll stand up for justice and equal treatment for these desperate people and for the marginalized people that this administration would like to grind under the boot heel of fascism. I see somebody's listening. The message probably won't get through. I hope you and our Mayor and school administrators will declare that we will not be part of any unlawful, unkind actions of Federal agents driven by the precepts of Project 2025. I hope will declare that our Police Department will not participate in raids by ICE, and that our schools will consult with legal counsel before they ever open the doors to agents, hoping to put children in custody. I urge you to take appropriate action. Thanks for your courtesy of listening. Thanks to all of you for all the hard work you do and taking your job seriously and doing all that's required to make the right decisions. Thanks so much. Clerk of the Common Council: We have a hand raised online.  JANUARY 9, 2025 COMMON COUNCIL – SPECIAL MEETING Page 5 COMMUNITY MEETING The Chair: All right, let's go online, after the person in the Chamber. Christine Marques, Director of Economc & Community Development: I am the Director here at the City for Economic and Community Development. As part of that role, the RM Keating building falls under my purview, and I would like to speak to that. I also would like to clarify a few items that were mentioned previously. I'll start with the items that I have to clarify. So 131 River Road was purchased prior to 2022. That was purchased in an effort to control the property along the riverfront so that we could further our plans for redevelopment. So that was one thing that I wanted to clarify. The second item that I'd like to speak to, and I've prepared a statement, is regarding the RFP process for Remington Rand and 131 River Road and 80 Harbor Drive. I understand that there's been questions raised to the RFP process and the RFP itself. My hope is to provide everyone with an overview of what happened and how it mirrors the process here at the City. Before getting into the RFP process, I would like to give a brief description of the Keating Building and the property and the sensitive nature of the property. The Keating Building is approximately a 190,000 sq. ft. and made up of various buildings constructed between 1897 and 1934 for the purpose of manufacturing. Currently, many of these spaces are rented to locally owned, small businesses. There are also large areas of the buildings that are unoccupied. The buildings have a fire sprinkler system and a fire alarm system that must be tested and maintained. Historic manufacturing uses of the building contribute to fire risk. This includes oiled wooden floors for dust control. The Keating Building has decades old fire sprinkler pipes and requires constant oversight. The property has various environmental land use restrictions known as environmental caps, containing environmental contamination from previous manufacturing processes. These caps are monitored by what is known as a “responsible party.” A responsible party means that the entity that contaminated the property has taken responsibility for the contamination and is actively addressing it. This means the responsible party must actively monitor the caps. The City, as the property owner, has an agreement with the responsible party and must ensure that the caps are maintained and not disturbed. This also requires constant monitoring and being cautious when doing interior work. The interior floor slabs has contamination underneath it. All the improvements to the property, whether interior or exterior, must be done with caution and in consultation with the license environmental professional. The RFP was designed to address the sensitivity of the building and to minimize the risk exposure to the property poses to the City. The RFP addresses emergency repairs, identifies needed repairs for routine maintenance, all to be done per environmental contamination requirements, coordinating contracts and overseeing the fire suppression system maintenance and repair, meeting with prospective tenants to determine space needs, which include square footage and utility needs, enforcing tenant leases, collecting run payments, and overseeing the grounds. The RFP also outlines the requirements to submit a proposal. The RFP was advertised in the Hartford Courant on September 19, 2024, and the City Purchasing website. All of this was done with Purchasing, with the City Purchasing and with the Legal Department. A mandatory site visit was required and stated as such in the RFP. In order to submit a proposal, a representative from an interested company would have to attend the mandatory site visit. The mandatory site visit included a tour of the building. The mandatory site visit was scheduled two (2) weeks after the Hartford Courant advertisement. The date of the mandatory site visit was October 1, 2024. Any questions regarding the mandatory site visit, or the RFP, were due to the City's Purchasing Department by noon October 11, 2024. The City Purchasing Department directed any questions not pertaining to purchasing requirements to the Director of Economic and Community Development (EDC). ECD provided answers to each question submitted to the Purchasing Department. The Purchasing Department issued an addendum with the questions and answers. The addendum was posted to the City website for interested companies. Proposals from interested companies were due to the Purchasing Department by October 30th by 3:00 PM. The ECD director reviewed the proposals, which was me. Selection was based on complete proposals as outlined in the RFP, qualifications requirements as outlined in the RFP and costs of a memo for professional service summarizing the RFP process. Company experience was presented in their proposal. A cost comparison and a recommendation of award in a memo to the Mayor and to Legal for concurrence on December 16, 2024. The RFP process, as outlined above, was completed for the City's procurement requirements. So I just wanted to give an outline of how we go about this and that the City procurement process was followed. The contract was signed prior to January 1st. I can't express enough how important it is that we have oversight at this building. There's a lot of things that we worry about there daily, one of which is fires or broken pipes, and I just want to express how much it's important that we have the proper person. We received two (2) proposals: one which was a $142,000 approximately for one (1) year of service and the other one was $72,000. We went with the most cost effective and the company that had the most experience. Thank you. The Chair: Thank you, Christine. All right, and Christine, if we could have a copy of that for the record too, please. And now, let's go online next.  JANUARY 9, 2025 COMMON COUNCIL – SPECIAL MEETING Page 6 COMMUNITY MEETING Leyda Diaz (45 Jackson Street): I recently wrote to the Mayor's Office and also the Council in reference to a homeless encampment located on Jackson Street, specifically in the woods behind the dorms of Wesleyan University, right before the one-lane bridge traffic sign. Over the past few months, there's been an influx of unhoused individuals living in the woods and also in their vehicles, particularly, a specific vehicle that's been there for over a month and a half. There's also the Root Center for Advanced Recovery on Washington Street, which is also feet away from the dorms and also a school bus stop. Many patients, who receive services there, go directly into the wooded area on Jackson Street. This road also leads to a residential dead end street where children regularly play. This raises significant safety concerns for our community, especially for the children, who have to pass this road to go to and from the school bus stop. And, needless to say, it is also a safety concern for the students who live on the in the dorms of Wesleyan. I've notified the Department of Health, the Wesleyan University Security Office, and also the Middletown Police Department regarding this matter. While the Police Department stated that there's no crime associated with being homeless, where's the protection for the residents, who live here? This is very disheartening to know that this falls on deaf ears. The presence of these individuals living in their vehicles and, also, in the woods near the train tracks, specifically near a residential area, again poses a serious safety concern. I would like to highlight that, in 2023, the property at 51 Jackson Street, which was left abandoned, there were unhoused individuals living there, who squatted, and that resulted in a two-alarm fire, which burned down the home, again, highlighting the safety concern of this issue. I would just like to bring it this to the Council's attention, to the City's attention to see if there's anything that can be done. In the middle of the night, rightly in my bedroom, I hear them arguing. They play loud music in the woods. It's just a lot of traffic of these unhoused individuals, who go to and from. So I would just like to bring us to the attention to see if anyone can assist with this. The Chair: If you could give your phone number to the Council Clerk, we'll make sure we get back to you. Leyda Diaz: Okay, thank you. Bill Wilson (220 Woodbury Circle): I am here to speak about the Columbus statue, and, hopefully, that's something will get straightened out very soon. I know you denied paying to look into what happened with it, but I'm hoping that both sides can get together to find out what happened. Five (5) years for it (the statue) being missing is an awful long time. Where it's at now, here's my issue with where it's at now. Women are not allowed at IACO. You can't be a member there. They can be an auxiliary member, but they're not a member. I would like it to be put back in public space somewhere. Not asking for a lot. It's what it was donated for, that's why the City had it. So, I would hope that someone would get that straightened out. It's just something that needs to be done sooner than later. The second thing was . . . I know you have no control over this issue: the Board of Education. I'm the Chairman of the Northern Middlesex Cable Advisory Board. I have parents calling me and asking me how to find the information for them. Their meetings are on YouTube. Again, I know you have no say over what the Board of Education does, but it would be nice if someone from the Mayor's Office, or someone from Council, would let them know that, if they were using this, the dais is here. That we have and they could watch on Facebook, they could watch on Channel 19. They'd have places to be able to watch what's going on. Parents, right now, cannot. There's no communication. If you have little children, you're stuck home and you can't attend. One mother called me and she says, “I have two little ones. I don't want to drag them out to go to Beaman. What can be done?” She's one of many. Actually, I've had probably seven or eight that have called and asked, not just me, also other people are on our board. So I'm hoping that's something that you will look into, maybe just a suggestion to them. They moved away from here three (3) years ago, over to Beaman. The problem is that, if you're a parent and we have a small one, you can't drag in a kid out in this kind of weather. It's freezing outside. And it would be better if they had it here at least here. It's warm and you can call from home, like you can do tonight. You had two (2) people call: one from work and one from home. They can't do that for a Board of Education event. So that was just a suggestion. These are the two (2) things I want to talk about. Thank you so much. I appreciate your time. Thank you. 3. Public Comment Closes There being no further public comment, the Chair thanks everyone for joining the Council tonight and closes the public comment session at 6:42 PM.  JANUARY 9, 2025 COMMON COUNCIL – SPECIAL MEETING Page 7 COMMUNITY MEETING 4. Meeting adjourned Councilwoman Jeanette Blackwell moves to adjourn. Councilman Vincent Loffredo 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 Blackwell, Faulkner, Ford, Gennaro, Kovach, Loffredo, Nocera, Pulino, Salafia, Spatola, and Sweeney; ABSENT: Councilman Mangiafico). The matter is approved. The meeting is adjourned at 6:43 PM. ATTEST: LINDA S.K. REED, COMMON COUNCIL CLERK K: review/ minutes/ 2025 Jan 09 -- community meeting – 9 Jan 2025