Common Council Meeting of July 9th

It ended after midnight. When I exactly, I don’t know since I dragged myself out of City Hall at shortly after midnight, and in no mood to ask why. Why did it take 4 hours to get through, arguably, the shortest agenda ever. Okay, maybe not ever, but its was short.

First, it was a full house. All council members were there. But, they couldn’t start at 8 PM, because of straggling. Or tardiness. Or something. They approved the minutes, Conroy abstained, everyone else voted yay without comment. The Mayor reminded the public that there was a 3 minute limit to public comments, some public even nailed the 3 minutes precisely. The public comment wasn’t the long part. Highlights though: The attorney representing the property owner who wanted a friendly eminent domain taking spoke about why it was needed. The attorney representing Curry Tire spoke in opposition to the Redevelopment Agency taking over negotiations of 9 properties needed to complete two redevelopment projects, known as POKO’s Wall Street Place and Selgison’s Waypointe. The attorney helpfully passed out a letter to the council, and then, get this public, didn’t read from the letter, but helpfully summarized his argument. To provide a helpful clue as to why reading from letters that are submitted is a personal peave of mine; I read around 800 words a minute, most people speak at about 500 words a minute and people who read verbatim from letters speak at 200 words a minute.

So, the arguments against the RDA negotiation were:

1) The RDA would be stepping in at the moment the negotiations are still onging

2) The RDA is taking the place of a private developer at City of Norwalk taxpayer’s expense

3) This will lead towards a step further to eminent domain takings

4) It violates CT law

5) Mediation is premature

6) The Council should be careful about listening to rumours about what amounts have actually been offered.

There was also some property owners who spoke about the lack of negotiations that they’ve been involved in.

Then there was the president of the the League of Women Voters, whose organization (statewide) was unable to do that open government thing and host a debate between Democratic congressional contenders Jim Himes and Lee Whitnum, stating:

“For a lot of suburban people, many people do go away in August,” Burnett said. “So we find ourselves with limited people to do the work. Our interest is in doing a very good job of it, and I just didn’t have confidence that I could get the right people.”

Ah yes, because the League of Women Voters has such an interest on how appointments to boards and commissions are made in Norwalk. The League’s position, according to Diane Lauricella, is that the Common Council should ask for resumes to avoid the image of a hatchet job. And that people should be informed that are not going to be reappointed. And that there should be at least a two week period for council members to review names of people who could be reappointed. And that exit interviews should be conducted. She concluded with the philosophical question of what does bipartisan mean when the two party heads are not consulted on appointments. Of course, Luricella could have answered her own questions by going to the city web site to see what terms are, like most of the political flunkiedom, and then she’d be informed. Even the two party chairs could do it. By golly you can do it too, here’s the link. Maybe there’s some boards and commissions out there that operate in this cone of silence vacuum that the president of the League of Women Voters alleges, but for the most part, the boards and commissions that I observe spend time communicating all the time with themselves, the public and common council members.

But naturally, the council had to debate the merit of appointments, yet again. I’ve lost count on how many times this issue has come up. And so, Krummel opines that its a serious matter that people be allowed to continue to serve on boards. Kydes questioned if Krummel spoke so eloquently about allowing Kydes to continue to serve when his reappointment on the planning commission came up in 2005. McQuaid said Krummel did not. Lindstrom said she agreed with what Krummel said. Brown asked about what the process was (because the last time she asked it she apparently missed the answer), and then they voted.

I forgot my scorecard, so my notes of arrows and Ys and Ns, oops let’s not forget Sutton’s As, is confusing this morning. Somehow everyone who was on the list got appointed or reappointed. Even the guy form Darien, despite objections that he didn’t live in Norwalk, but was an arborist and it was the tree advisory committee. But it took a long time to get through this part of the meeting. And at the end the Mayor said, “To get new people on board you have to give them the opportunity. The mayor accepts the responsibility to make appointments, like Mayors Knopp, Esposito, Collins and Zullo.� Appointments reflect the Mayors political philosophy. The last election validated the appointments process.”

And that was that, until the next round.

The Consent Calendar was voted on, and the first item up for discussion was the $61k to offset fleet fuel costs.

Tom Hamilton explains that this is a year end clean up item, driven by increases in fuel costs. The city pays $2.57/gallon fuel costs, under a contract and that the budgeted fuel costs is a 10% increase over prior years line item. The problem is that the amount budgeted for the locked in price was 30% in increase of the previous year.

A little bit of the back and forth:

Krummel: Asks about when the term is up.

Hamilton: Replies that it is the end of this December.

Krummel: Says we need to conserve more fuel

Serasis:� Calls Mayor wizard of infinite wisdom. Asks about idling vehicles on construction jobs

Hamilton: Under CBA, and explains fee that covers it which is about 9% for administration in the CBA.

Serasis: Suggests that the 9% doesn’t cover all the bases. Asks when we can revisit the CBA agreement.

Hamilton: 4 year contract, we are in year 2.

Bondi: As similar concern, asks if its necessary to have a car out there on construction jobs. Cites Advocate article about Norwalk being the second highest fuel consumption in the area.
The Mayor also explained that they had a meeting about fuel consumption that morning and that all department heads were asked to conserve fuel. They vote unanimously on it.

After Kydes recuses himself, the discussion begins on the RDA becoming a negotiator. Tim Sheehan explains that the RDA has been sitting in on the negotiations, and is aware of the negotiations that have taken place. He says that they have reached this threshold where negotiations appeared stalled. Because of that, and some references to state statutes, he is asking the council to reauthorize this power which the council had authorized in 2006. Reminds the council that they have final approval of eminent domain. Brown says that she just got the material today and asks more about process.

Sheehan says that the agency has to negotiate first before a filing for eminent domain, and that they would have to come back to the council for that. He confirms the time clock of doing all the takings, it would be 5 years and 5 years for an extension. Conroy asks about who is on the list, and Sheehan explains that the list is of negotiations that have stalled out. Reminds council that they are not party to the negotiations.

Krummel speaks about due diligence. He understands that the 2006 council gave the RDA power. He says that the RDA has the power of eminent domain. He wants the operations under those rules to be transparent. He confirms with Sheehan that an independent appraisal of the property, and not use the developers appraisal.

Sheehan answers how does the agency get to determine values. Reminds council that the threshold is high for eminent domain, and that it would come back to the council with documentation.

Krummel asks what would happen if the developer refuses the negotiation. Then asks about what notes are available if an eminent domain case comes to the council. Sheehan responds that the notes except those of the Ombudsman, if the Ombudsman is part of the process.

Krummel says not all facts are on the table.

Bonnenfant questions whether this is a reauthorization or a new authorizations. Expresses concern about the redevelopment being in his district.

Hempstead confirms the length of time the clock ticks with the Ombudsman and that the property owner can bring the Ombudsman to the table. Rights of the council are not being given up and that the hurdle for eminent domain was set very high.

Bolden confirms that the previous council worked hard to make sure that the hurdle was high and the level of documentation is high with the RDA.

Mayor Moccia then reminds the Council that the Stamford is undertaking a larger redevelopment project hat started 2 years ago and they are already breaking ground. He holds up a newspaper article as evdence.

There’s some more discussion and Geake makes a motion to change the language of the resolution. There’s much discussion and they decide to take a recess.

They came back � hour later and Geake withdrew then made a new amendment

Bolden has a new resolution and she explains that they want the developer to negotiate fairly with the property owners and that they believe it hasn’t happened.

Straniti points out that the amendment Bolden is proposing is completely different than what they were voted down the resolution in the first place.

Sheehan agrees and says that the resolution doesn’t do what the original resolution did.

There’s a bunch of discussion about this and much confusion.

Then there’s much discussion about the language of “timely manner”. Ah time, apparently forgotten because they keep on talking, as if, this ws never discussed in committee.

Geake, Serasis and Brown are concerned about the length of time that the negotiations have happened. Sheehan reminds common the council that they have only heard one side of the story, that they did not hear the offers on the table.

And they keep on talking finally after many minutes agreeing to table the issue.

Then they repeat the whole process for the “friendly eminent domain taking.”� There’s much discussion about what the IRS implications are and aren’t. Corp Counsel has to remind the council thathis office cannot rule on IRS opinions. They eventually vote, barely to authroize the eminent domain taking. Geake is philosophically opposed to eminent domain takings and votes against it. The vote comes out as a tie. Mayor Moccia breaks the tie in favor of the taking. Voting against it, in addition to Geake, is Sutton, Bondi, Serasis, Hilliard, Conroy and Krummel.

Garbage! It’s back, another public hearing. Hillard chides Brown for suggesting that people from Meadow gardens don’t have cars. Brown says she said buses don’t run at night serving City Hall. Bolden abstains and the rest vote for holding yet another public hearing, presumably for the same people who showed up at the last two, to be held on July 17th at 7PM at City Hall.

The Mayor asked for a vote to extend the meeting past midnight. The council people, icker about how long after midnight. The Mayor can barely get them to focus on the motion at hand to go for a half hour. They need it to go into executive session on a settling a claim against the city. Somehow, they manage to vote unanimously on extending the meeting. I only wonder if they were able to adjourn without discussion.