Common Council Meeting 1/8/08

Full house tonight, but the meeting began on a morbid note for several moments of silence for Amanda Brown’s grandmother, Mary Roman’s sister and some guy Bob Andre that Nick Kydes mentioned who had previously served on zoning and conservation.
Serasis, Brown, Bondi Bolden, Conroy, Geake, Hilliard, Bonnefant, Kydes ,Lindstrom, Hempstead , Stranitni, Kurmmel, Sutton,

They then launched into corrections to the minutes, starting with Amanda Brown doing her paralegal thing and some discussion about whether Krummel was voting on something.

They vote unanimously on the corrected minutes.

Public Participation:

Marilyn Robins: Speaks about the appointment to the Historical commission. She mentions that she is in fact being replaced. She speaks to the strong support that council members on both sides. She said that Moccia promised to reappoint her. [Interesting to note which council people are spacing out while listening, do I call them out in it?] Says that it is hypocritical to call for more volunteers in closing.

Moccia: Takes a point of personal privilege, defends the conversation he had with her a year and a year and half ago. Says that he has never told anyone on the other commissions how to vite.

Gail Wall: Wall says she was in the meeting with Moccia and Robinson. Wall supports Robinsons reappointment and is bearing witness

Moccia: Says it was about her position as chairman and that she did not need to resign. Asks how anyone could serve on a commission if no one leaves. He reiterates that he has never told anyone how to vote and specifically never told Wall or Robinson how to vote. “Change is good” He says that other change happens with mayors and council people and so it must happen with commissions. He attacks Knopp for his removal of 10 year vets on commission and mentions names. After the heated exchange, Moccia calms down and praises Robinson somewhat, he restates that he is not apologizing for making the appointment. He said twice that no one is appointed to a commission for life.

Marija Bruant: Disappointed that Robinson is not reappointed. Speaks that there is so much new blood in it that the abilty to serve the history of Norwalk has been jeopardized. Reminds the council that it has been 5 years and the commission has completely turned over and says that perhaps its not the commission that is the problem.

They move on to Gwen Briggs on conservation. Krummel seconds.

It seems they voted unanimously but Sutton says abstention but nothing happens.

They move on the the first Historical Commission appointment, Jospeh Dilorio, and this time they count the 5 Abstentions.

The abstainers are Krummel, Serasis, Brown, Sutton, Lindstrom.

Bondi votes, on historical commission appointments hrmm…..

Latanya Langley is next up. Krummel speaks to her appointment. For the record, he thinks that Robinson service on the commission should be praised for the public record.

Moccia agrees.

Lindstrom speaks next, also to Robinson and would like to have seen Robinson reappointed. Says the two appointments seem good, but that the passion for history may be in less, and that while construction background is good the passion for Norwalk and its history is an important requirement.

Hilliard: Appreciates the work that Robinson has done but that it is not wise to have any conclusions about the new appointees. He says the resumes are good, but that you can’t draw conclusions about the passion for history and prejudging anyone.

Kydes: Thanks all people that serve on committees. Says that there is sugarcoating on the past historical commission. Incerto house is still sitting in trailers, and in his opinion that the commission has not “functioned like a Swiss clock” and that they have “delved into property rights.” He did not agree with Robinsons positions, and that the HC has “overstepped its bounds” and that he is happy she is off the commission.

Moccia: Reigns it in by saying focus on the person who is being appointed.

Hempstead: “Stuff happens” Mayors come and mayors go, agrees with the mayor and the past mayor who kicked him off a commission. He thanks Marilyn for serving, but his gut feeling is that we need to do something else.

They vote and the same 5 abstain. Krummel, Serasis, Brown, Sutton, Lindstrom.

Moccia: Points out that he was criticized for not appointing diversity to the redevelopment agency and that when minorities are recommended that they are not voted for but the person who was criticizing

Anne Cagnina to the conservation committee.

2 abstentions on the reappointment. Sutton and Brown.

Harbor Commission reappointment, John Callahan.

Moccia: Says its an important appointment because of the $6 million in dreding funds brought to Norwalk by Senator Lieberman and Congressman Shays. He mentions how hard they [the commissioners work at it] work at it.

Sutton abstains.

Henry Palau next also to the Harbor Management Commission.

Sutton abstains.

Council President Remarks:

Bondi rattles off the consent calendar item numbers and they go through the ones that they want to remove. They vote unanimously on the consent calendar.

The first item up is from the health and safety committee. The software and hardware that is being requested for the Health Department that is part of a grant. The Digital Health Software from Garrison Enterprises and annual support services and to issue purchase orders.

Geake questions the lack of an account number.

Krummel questions the working on the requests and discusses what is going on. There’s a long pause.

Conroy asks if Krummel is finished.

Krummel responds that he is thinking.

The discussion continues, and I wonder what the point is, since this is a funded by a grant.

Ah, Krummel says that the wording should say “no more than”

Conroy: Asks about any requirements that the Grant may require.

Callahan: There are no requirements, and that the grant is a state capital grant.

They will add the item numbers and the prices for the item that they are discussion. [I’m wondering who chairs this committee and why the item was worded so poorly that there’s this huge discussion on it. ** Looks like its Geake. Ruh-roh, Mr. Geake.]

Brown: Asks if the contract has been drawn up.

The rest of the council knows that contracts don’t get drawn up until the autorization for the purchase happens, and murmurs to that effect in answer to Brown’s questions.

They finally vote for it as amended with the results of the discussion.

Bolden must be reading my mind, she states that committee heads should read the items before moving them to the council floor.

Moccia: Reminds department heads need to get as much information to council as possible since they are not full time. Suggests that a memo be sent out to department heads outlining this.

McQuaid: Adds that in this memo that they do a cost analysis to the city for the items as well.

Geake: Moved item 5, which is emergency outcall services.

Moccia: We all know this as reverse 911.

Krummel: Agrees that Moccia’s remarks and that the council has to be concerned with amounts and detail. Says that there are 3 bidders in the backup and they we are picking the highest bidder. Points out that the highest bidder is twice as high as the lowest bidder. He is looking for a strong summary of why the committee is moving this forward without backup material explaining why they are making the recommendation.

Karen Delvecchio is the IT department head. update: Mike Geake corrected my misidentification Emergency Management Director Michele DeLuca spoke. I updates the identifcation also below

DeLuca: They received 8 bids and that they looked at from the annual price. They are looking to get through the 08-09 period which is 17 months. So the difference in numbers is because of the time period.

Krummel: Asks when it would start.

DeLuca: Planning for February 1st. They went with NTI because the other solutions were all hardware based and would require that the city owns the phone lines and is responsible for maintaining it, and that it would take 24 hours to fully call 30k of households. Reverse 911 (connect CTY) is service based and can carry higher capacity. Connect CTY said it was the only system that had unlimited calls to outreach and also conduct surveys. They have thousands of phone lines and will keep 30 days compiled records. The time period to make the 30k of calls is less than a couple of hours.

Moccia: Asks about redundancy.

[I wonder if anyone is asking about where the calls are originating form and if its digital based]

DeLuca: There are 3 redundant data centers. Points out that the other systems would charge more for out of area calls, while Connect CTY does not. Says once all these expenses are added up the cost difference wasn’t that much.

Krummel: Points out that the time to deliver calls in “best case scenaior” is 15 minutes.

DeLuca: Says that alternate ways to go through may be delayed, and gave an example of SNET wires going down. Said there was also language issues, and that Connect CTY offered text to speech translation., as well as TTY services.

Krummel: In looking at the differences. All three are web hosted. He gets back to best case scenario, that all 3 would be subject to the same best case scenario.

DeLuca: Connect CTY has access to thousands of phone lines. Smaller companies may not have redundancies to ensure success.

Bonnefant: Asks about how many calls a week should people expect to get.

DeLuca: The focus in the first few months will be on public safety. They don’t want people to get overwhelmed with the system.

[I wonder if they allow people to opt out of the delivery system]

Moccia: I plan on reviewing them too.

McQuaid: “yeah we don’t want Hal to send out messages asking for his budget to be approved”

Everyone laughs.

Bolden: Asks about whether people can opt out. [ha- that was my question too]

DeLuca: Responds, yes the system lets people opt out. And that average number of calls in a case study in Mass. Was 15. Explains that the calls will be geocoded.

Kydes: Commedends everyone involved in the committee for making this happen and that this is great for Norwalk.

Brown: Asks how do you know all the residents phone numbers in order to call.

DeLuca: Connect CTY will pull data from may data sources and will be able to pull out numbers including cell phones. Gives an example that unlisted numbers can opt in, and get only emergency info. There will be a special 911 database, and that there will be a special website that is user updateable and that Connect CTY will update it every 30 days.

Moccia: Says that grant coordinator Kathryn P., worked hard on the grant money for this project. Mentions that Homeland security grant to pay for this.

Conroy: Asks about any other fees after the 17 months, and what happens after the grant money runs out at the end. Says that department heads should include that info.

Krummel: Offers an amendment that indicates the months 17, in the motion.

They unanimously approve the amendment and the main motion.

Up next, the grant on the Norwalk Children’s Mental health planning grant is 125k when they asked for 75k and that the period is 18 months.

He meeting gets disrupted at this point because there’s a tie vote on the BOE. THe mayor has to leave to vote in the BOE meeting. Bondi takes over.

Hempstead: Asks for the completed mental health plan to be distributed to the council.

Bolden: Pleased that the grant was obtained and that this is an important issue.

They vote unanimously on it.

A motion to suspend the rules to add another item regarding a fire department ladder thing. They vote unanimously.

They move on the item about a Porsche Club to hold a concours at Cranbury park.

Krummel: Says that this is a concours that is members only and has concerns.

Bondi: “As I explained to you last night, it is that you have to be a member of the club to enter your car in the display. Members of the public can view the cars.”

Krummel: Responds that he wanted the response on the record and that it is important for the public to know.

They vote unanimously.

They adjourn.

update I made some minor corrections to some grammar and fixed typos that I could see, at least.