From the non-partisan meting:

There was very little public participation in this meeting which is shame, because not only do the council member provide pizza, but it gives you an opportunity to talk about just about anything. For some reason the editorial cartoons I’ve published were a popular topic tonight.

At the start of the meeting, once pizza was consumed, and chat about whether to have the council make a rule about pizza being allowed in the council chambers, Fred Bondi announced that when you see oil on your pizza it’s a sign of cheap mozzarella cheese. Which just goes to show you what interesting information can be learned by attending these things.
Long Term Planning Committee:

The meeting started off with a discussion of the makeup of the long range planning commitee.
Coffey: Mayor’s office, 3 Council members, planning committee, chair, police, fire, finance or 2 board of ed… and public participation.

There was actually much back and forth ont he subject, and in the end they decided on a smaller committee. This led to the a discusion on decidiing how they would create the committee and a suggestion that they vote on council to create the committee:

Miklave: take a look at the charter, not aware of any rule of the charter by rule, questions by fiat whether we can create it.

Miklave and Coffey get testy over the use of the word fiat. The crowd almost unanimously rolls their eyes. Coffey clearly lost it and accused Miklave of personally attacking him. Miklave looked flabbergasted at first, but then argued back. This was an unnecessary exchange.
Miklave ultimately reserved his opinion on whether the committee could be created by the common council.
Nolin: What powers do you want to vest it with., what do you want to envision it to be.

There was some discussion about how other committees like this were created under previous mayors.

McQuaid: Do an outline, see what it is at the next bi-partisan meeting and then bring it to the council. (Second council meeting in May)

School Finance Special Committee:
Coffey: Oversight board to work with the BOE, to look at finances to look at a yearly/monthly basis. Lot’s of cross signals after looking at the this past process. Mr. Vetter had recommended it and Coffey accepted it.

Straniti: Thinks it’s a good idea. Thinks some people from the finance committee.

Kydes: Thinks its good. Also should have someone from planning committee:

McQuaid: Look at what Matt said, in how to create the committee.

Miklave: At last finance committee meeting, Hempstead raised a good point, an education committee of the council, not as an over seeer of the BOE, but as an entity that interface with the BOE for matters that coalesce. Given the number of items that impact ob both, ordinances and such, perhaps splitting that out for looking at the interface between board of education and the city would be good, and likely wouldn’t require an ordinance or rule change.

McQuaid: I remember these meetings, they are like these bipartisan meetings, held 3-4 times year, lots of discussion going back and forth and that we were good.

Miklave: I think that was abolished because there was too many meetings that council had to attend.

McQuaid: Also there was much change on the composition of the BOE.

Kydes: Was that committee that had authority behind its recommendations?

Miklave: My understanding from Mr. Hempstead, it had the same force of any other committee of the council. We have many situations where we have concurrence between committees, like outdoor dining. There’s no reason why the education committee of the council couldn’t do the same thing.

Krummel: Very important that it be seen as information gathering, since we are dealing with another elected body, that we encourage the information share on, for example, the budget. It would be very good if they shared information but not so good if they thought it ws some sort of oversight..

McQuaid: Good point it’s out of our jurisdiction., it would be a good olive branch.

Krummel: It would have to be a mutual respect. (agrees)

Straniti: Who else was on that committee? Not people, positions.

Krummel: Looking ahead we are going to be looking at finance. Not looking at teaching.

Jokes fly in an effort to  look at McQuaid’s salary. McQuaid not amused.
McQuaid: We just need to make sure that do it right, and make sure that it’s [the committee] not useless.
Coffey: It’s a positive discussion, it’s very good that we are all talking about it. We’ll extend this into next month.

Coffey: Last thing, the open government to have televised hearings.

Jokes fly after Joanne ROmano mentions she’ll now have to get her haird done and worry about makeup. Mayor [from audience] concluded Kydes will be most concerned about now having to get hair done.
Coffey: Under the public access, they will teach members of the public to … they put cameras into their council chambers. Ask if anyone is opposed to it. Will investigate for more information. All transparency and open government is good government.

Common Council Meeting

Poruban, Hempstead and Hilliard missing.

Approved minutes (Bondi abstained)

Approved Appointments unanimously.

Remarks Form the Mayor: Welcomes back Bondi. Disaster exercise in Norwalk, it was MTA State function, Norwalk was happy to host it. Thanks Coffey, Straniti, Grant for being there. A lot of preparation that we learned for this event was used for the storm preparation we just had. The Council president has to be there to make decisions by charter if anything happens to the Mayor. We learned a lot we still have some issues on interoperability and communications. As best we can be, Norwalk is prepared. Reveres 911 is the final piece of the puzzle, you can do some much by radio and tv. The ability to call every land based phone in Norwalk is essential to the emergency notification to the city (you can add cell phones to the list) We can maybe piggyback on state contract with reverse 911 company, and thinks we can get homeland security funds for it.

Coffey: Thanks mayor, people who work for the city Rilling, Alvord McCarthy did an excellent job. Shows, stresses and emphasis the need to be vigilant and prepare for any crisis that faces us. Mayor has been very gracious in involving the council in this. There is a critical need to get reverse 911 for the city, its one of those things it s very important that we safeguard our residents and keep them out of harms way.

[On a laighter note]
Mr. Kydes and his pizza from Jordan is in first place. Council member McQuaid will bring pizza next month. Mayor asks where the Dominos ranked, Coffey acknowledged he was last.

Now they go through consent calendar.

Approved the consent calendar unanimously.

7B1 Finance Briggs: Moves the report to vote. Miklave recuses himself. Voted unanimously. Miklave returns.

B4: WPCA approved unanimously except Bolden abstained.

Short and sweet, the meeting adjourned.

Update: Typos and comments were added following the original rough post following the meeting.