Common Council MTG 05/27/08

The meeting didn’t get called to order till about 8:20, much scurrying back and forth between the caucus rooms. Many political flunkies were in the audience tonight, likely due to the charter revision agenda item.

Attending: Krummel, Serasis, Brown, Sutton, Lindstrom, Bolden, Geake, Moccia, Bondi, Straniti, Conroy, Moccia, Bonnefant, Kydes, Hempstead, McQuaid

III. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

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They are evaluating Corda.

The Board of Education will meet tonight to evaluate Superintendent Salvatore Corda.

The meeting in Room A300 of City Hall starts at 7 p.m., and a closed session is anticipated.

Corda has had the job for seven years. His review is conducted every year, school board Chairwoman Susan Hamilton said.

The school board last approved a new contract for Corda in August. The pact is the subject of a lawsuit brought by the Norwalk Federation of Teachers in September.

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Truly the world is coming to an end. The venerable school field trip is now being added to the endangered species list because of, ahem, the lack of educational ties to the classroom. That was the whole point. Whoever dreamed up the very first field trip knew something apparently the highly certificated masters of educational curriculum today don’t –that 30 kids, imprisoned in a classroom, eventually seek escape at all cost. Back in the day when everyone walked to school in the snow up hill both ways, the field trip was the most exciting thing happening in school except for kick ball. Even if the field trip was simply going to the public library and a behind the scenes tour of the stacks, which were of course haunted.

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We honor those that have served and sacrificed for our country on Memorial Day. But let’s not forget the living. Serving in the the military is one of most noble acts an individual can perform and we have an obligation and duty to return that support by ensuring that those who served and are still serving in our military get access to the financial and medical assistance benefits that they deserve.

While Bill Moyers is too stridently anti-war in this clip, the part about the veterans coping with PTSD and mental health of our vets in an important one.

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Ever since Kelo V. New London, the idea that private economic development constitutes a “public good” has been hotly contentious. While Kelo V. New London centered on eminent domain, the rest of the appendages of economic development are just as much an issue. Today’s Hour dissects the idea of municipal bonding for a private development.

With the economy hovering in or near recession, some find the prospect of the city issuing $104 million in municipal bonds for a private, retail-anchored development in West Avenue a poor choice.

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A perfect storm of sorts is heading our political junkie way this coming Tuesday, when the Norwalk Common Council holds its meeting in the aftermath of the Norwalk DTC battle of Waterloo. Or is it the 100 year war? French-Indian? War of the Roses? Battle of the Bulge? It’s memorial day tomorrow, so our posting today is military themed. For some reason, Norwalk Democrats elected/chose/coerced some pretty brain dead individuals to make up the exclusive fan club called the town committee. I can only reach that conclusion by summarizing the latest round of action as the vainglorious attempt to foment as much chaos on the Common Council as possible.

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To say I dig Indian Jones and franchise is an understatement. From the minute I saw the first movie, didn’t care much for the second (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) and was thrilled with the third (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), I looked forward to the fourth. That includes the Marvel comic book series, the Dark horse series and the PC games have provided hours of inspiration, and career of sorts. So at long last, after nearly two decades the fourth movie breezes in to movie theaters in time for summer. And I have mixed feelings about it.

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June 11th is being targets as the day the Connecticut legislature will open a special session, officially to extend the conveyance tax and possibly to tackle ethics reform.

Democratic leaders have set June 11 for a special legislative session to extend a real estate conveyance tax that’s worth about $40 million a year to towns and cities.

Speaker of the House James Amann, D-Milford, and Senate President Pro Tempore Donald Williams Jr., D-Brooklyn, told reporters yesterday afternoon that the scope of the one-day session could be broadened to include ethics reform legislation that died when the General Assembly’s regular session ended May 7.

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Is Norwalk a safe or not a safe city? That is the question that some here are asking, which has lead to some rather interesting events these past days. If you are a tow truck driver about to tow a taxi cab, Norwalk might not seem so safe. If you are having dinner at Strada 18 in Norwalk Norwalk might seem very safe. Safety, like art, is one one of those things that rests in the eyes of the beholder. Each person is all so confident that they know it when they see it. Or was that Brandeis on pornography? I digress.

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The Advocate is running the preview of tonight’s meeting, which is a good thing because then I don’t have to do it.

At-large Common Council member Mike Geake invited Sliwa to speak at tonight’s meeting of the council’s Health, Welfare and Public Safety Committee in response to residents’ interest in forming a chapter of the crime-busting group in South Norwalk.

Sliwa founded the nonprofit Guardian Angels in 1979, when violent crime rates were skyrocketing in New York City.

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