General Counsel Commission

MINUTES GENERAL COUNSEL COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING OF MARCH 14, 2024 Present: Council Member Blackwell, Council Member Nocera, and Council Member Salafia, Council Member Sweeney, and Council Member Pulino. Staff: Deputy General Counsel, Kori Wisneski Public: Mayor, Benjamin Florsheim; Vinnie Loffredo; Brig Smith 1. Call to Order: Meeting was called to order at 6:30 p.m. 2. Public Comment: Vinnie Loffredo spoke regarding the Baker Tilly classification and compensation study. He explained that he requested a copy of the PAQs and questioned the peer organizations that were identified for the market assessment. He questioned the communities that were chosen to compare to Middletown and believed those communities should be chosen based on the Connecticut districts reference groups. He also expressed concern that Baker Tilly had no prior experience in Connecticut and believed that Baker Tilly should have been contracted already to work with the Russell Library on a similar project. Mayor Benjamin Florsheim spoke to Councilman Loffredo’s concern about the Russell Library being included in a similar study with Baker Tilly. He also spoke briefly about additional resources needed in the Human Resources office to help expedite the classification study. Mayor explained that he was primarily at the meeting to speak on the discussion of possibly repealing or modifying the residency ordinance. He explained that strict residency requirements has an impact on the ability to have a diverse workforce and repealing the ordinance would expand those who could qualify for City service. He hopes that after this discussion, the commission will move towards a full repeal of the residency ordinance. 3. Approval of Minutes Council Member Nocera made a motion to approve the meeting minutes and Council Member Pulino seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. 4. New Business A. Discussion of Residency Requirement Ordinance Council Member Blackwell started the discussion off. She explained that this has been an issue that this commission has grappled with in recent years. The commission had Attorney Wisneski research what other towns in Connecticut were doing as far as residency requirements. Ultimately, the Council decided to take the HR director out of the ordinance, to grant some limited waivers, but otherwise to keep the ordinance as it was initially drafted. Council Member Blackwell reminded the commission that there would be no vote at this meeting and asked to waive the rules to allow the Mayor to weigh in when appropriate. Council Member Nocera made the motion to allow the rules to be waived and Council Member Salafia seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. Attorney Wisneski gave a brief update of the residency ordinance time line to the newest GCC members. She explained that the ordinance has been in place since at least 1994, but the Council has granted several waivers over the years. More discussion ensued regarding municipalities in Connecticut that do or do not have residency requirements. Council Members discussed residency requirements for certain positions in the community and also discussed the hardships that residency requirements have on families. Several councilmembers expressed the importance of residency requirements for emergency personnel and potentially removing some positions from the ordinance. Both parties will discuss with their caucuses and communicate the next steps. 5. Other A. Recruitment Efforts Attorney Wisneski explained that Maria Scarlett and Kisha Michael organized a wonderful Black History month event, in which John Mills and Deb Shapiro, the City’s Municipal Historian, talked about Middletown’s black history. She further explained that Maria is also working on a Women’s History month event. The HR office is doing a lot with police recruitment and there will be a billboard on 91 regarding police recruitment. B. Baker Tilly Update Attorney Wisneski explained that they are waiting on 1 deliverable and then the HR office can do a deep dive into reviewing the job descriptions. She explained that the Council received the peer list that Council Member Loffredo spoke about in public comment in June of 2023. She further explained to the commission that the peer list was selected based on what the department heads reported as their peers as well as a further analysis regarding all aspects of comparators. Some departments have peers that are outside of municipal government and that was considered. 6. Adjournment: Council Member Nocera made a MOTION to adjourn and Council Member Sweeney seconded the motion and the meeting adjourned at 7:41 p.m. 2