Well maybe they don’t. This council has been rather fond of the table motion. And the pass motion. And the meatball motion. That last one is definitely not in Mason’s Rules. From the Advocate:
The Common Council is expected to vote on the city’s controversial garbage contract and possibly intervene in the acquisition of properties for the proposed redevelopment of West Avenue.
The city’s Redevelopment Agency is requesting to take up stalled negotiations with private property owners in the footprint of a planned $553.3 million, 19.8-acre mixed-use development along West Avenue.
Under the proposal, Redevelopment Agency representatives would sit at the negotiating table with property owners in place of the developers, joined by the state’s property rights ombudsman acting as mediator. But testimony from several area property owners who said their negotiations have not reached an impasse, prompted the chairwoman of the Planning Committee to offer an amendment to the agency’s request, directing developer Seligson Partners to go back to the negotiating table.
“We don’t feel that the developer is doing what he’s supposed to do,” Planning Committee Chairwoman Phyllis Bolden said.
Bolden later retracted her amendment and the item was tabled.
The retracted amendment, which the council will vote on tomorrow evening, asks the redevelopment agency to “go back to the developer and demand they make a good faith effort to renegotiate with each outstanding property owner in the Waypointe and Wall Street Project.”
The city’s garbage contract has been debated at multiple public hearings. The city has offered two choices, when its contract with the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority expires Jan. 1.
The Department of Public Works has recommended a plan that would lease a privately held transfer station on Meadow Street to handle all commercial garbage while reserving the city-owned transfer station on Crescent Street for residents who self-haul and for expanded recycling capabilities.That plan would save the city $1 million each year, officials have said. But South Norwalk neighbors of the Meadow Street facility have said the savings are not worth the negative impact on their quality of life. They have urged the council to go with the second option to continue with commercial and residential dumping at the Crescent Street station as it is now done.
Tomorrow, council members will have both options on the table in an agenda that asks them to approve either the Meadow Street option or the Crescent Street-only option.
source: Advocate, Common Council to vote on garbage, By Alexandra Fenwick, 07/21/2008
