Danbury Charter Revision Commission Approves Draft Report on June 25, 2026

Good evening again, everybody.

Thank you.

I'm gonna call the meet regular meeting of the Charter Revision Commission to order.

It is 8 57 p.m.

here on June 25th, 2026.

Um, Madam Secretary, if you can do the roll call again, please.

I am present.

Commissioner Armstrong.

Commissioner Hernandez, Commissioner Jowdy.

Commissioner McCarry.

Commissioner Putnam.

And Commissioner Rivero.

Here.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you very much, Madam Secretary.

So first item on our agenda is the acceptance of the minutes from the June 17th regular meeting.

They're included in the packet.

Does anybody have any questions or comments on the minutes as they're presented?

I have one.

Pardon me.

I have a spelling correction for uh Board of Edmember Kate Canada.

Her last name is misspelled.

So noted, say again.

We'll do we'll do the motion as amended.

So we'll say the original motion will cover it.

Okay.

So so noted on the name correction for board member Canetta.

Any other comments on the draft minutes before we make a motion.

Okay.

Is there a motion to accept the minutes as amended?

Mr.

Chairman would like to make a motion to accept the minutes as amended that copies will be distributed to all members and the public.

Motion has been made.

Is there a second?

Motion is made and seconded.

Is there any discussion on the motion to accept the minutes?

Seeing none, I will try your minds.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, say nay.

Any abstentions?

The ayes have it.

And the motion carries.

Say again.

One abstention, Commissioner Armstrong.

Motion carries.

So roadmap for tonight.

Um the question before the commission this evening is to accept the draft report just as a matter of housekeeping, so the commission is aware of what happens from this point.

We are approving a draft report.

So this is think of it as step one in a two-part process.

We've completed the first part of our job, which is to recommend initial changes in a draft report.

After we act on it tonight, that draft will then get submitted to the town clerk who will transmit it to the city council.

And then the city council will then act on the draft report.

They will meet at their leisure on the draft report.

Any recommendations they have will come back to us where we will look at it again, and then it'll go back to the city council for a final report, which is where they will vote to either approve or disapprove and to put on the ballot or not put on the ballot.

But we are basically handing the ball to the city council tonight with the draft recommendations that we have in our report this evening.

I did also want to take just a moment of personal privilege just to go over some concerns that were addressed during the public comment as far as public participation and noticing and involvement in the process.

I just want to be clear that the commission has met nine times, regular meetings.

There's been two public hearings.

There's been two city council meetings at the beginning for the initiation, an ad hoc committee of the city council.

After tonight, there's gonna be at least one other public hearing run by the city council, at least two other city council meetings, at least one other commission meeting, and above all, there's gonna be potentially an opportunity to voice at the ballot box in November.

So that's about 20 opportunities where the public has had an opportunity to either speak or come observe and be part of the process.

So I just wanted to say that and put that on record because this commission did a lot of work.

They put in a lot of volunteer hours looking at every single line, every sentence, every word of this document.

And I am proud of each and every member of this commission that took this job seriously, did it efficiently, but did it well.

So I want to thank all of you sincerely, and I want to thank our council who has done count put in countless hours drafting this document and getting the language right, doing the research on its legality with state statute.

So I want to thank them and also want to thank our legislative assistant, Elisa, who has done a ton of work behind the scenes as she always does.

But I want to thank all of you for that.

And I know there were some rough comments made this evening, but I want everybody to know that I know the work that went into this, and I know all the work you all put into this, and I want to thank you all sincerely.

So thank you.

Um that being said, we'll now move to the main agenda item for tonight that is the city charter draft report.

Chairman.

Sir.

I move that the Dan Burke.

I'm pretty loud without it, but okay.

Mr.

Chairman, I move that the Danbury Charter Revision Commission.

It's green light and it's on.

Any other instructions?

It's on.

Okay.

Nobody's ever said that they couldn't hear me like miles away.

Anyway, I move that the Danbury Charter Revision Commission approve the draft report as presented and authorize its submission to the town clerk for the transmittal to the city council pursuant to Connecticut General Statute 7-191.

A motion has been made.

Is there a second on that motion?

Motion's been made and seconded, and is there any discussion on the motion, i.e.

the draft report.

Mr.

Chairman, if I may, Terry, please.

I think there were a lot of comments and suggestions made at tonight's public hearing that I personally feel I would like additional time to look at and consider before being ready to vote to submit this as a final draft.

You know, much of of what came up in public comment had come up in public comment and we have looked at and we have considered.

And that is just my feeling.

Thank you, Madam Secretary.

Um we do have a main motion on the floor.

It has been seconded.

Um I am okay with staying here until we put language that we want, but we're gonna be voting on this tonight is my my hope.

Obviously, it's the will of the commission, but if you have uh Madam Secretary, specific sections of the charter, we can go over them tonight.

Did you want to make an amendment on language?

Because we can do we can do that tonight.

It's just we're gonna do it at this part in the meeting.

I'm sorry, I didn't, I'm not hearing what you said.

So if there's any amendments that we want to make, like last minute changes to the draft language, and again, this is a draft, right?

So this is going to the city council, and then it's gonna come back to us to do the final report.

So we are getting another crack at the apple um probably the end of July.

So if there's amendments we want to make tonight to the draft charter, we can certainly have that discussion, but I'm gonna ask that we do it at the dais tonight.

But again, it's the will of the commission.

I'm one of, in this case, eight tonight.

I think there was a lot said tonight that I mean I took a ton of notes, but I would like to see the minutes so that we can recap the voices of the people and what they said tonight.

And I don't think it's gonna be accomplished tonight.

So unless somebody's gonna produce the minutes, and I'm not saying that to be negative to the commission, but I'd I'd like to be thorough and I I support what she said because I feel the same way.

I mean, we need to re-read and look at what the minutes said tonight, what people voice their opinions on.

Understood.

Again, there's a motion that's been made and seconded as a discussion on the draft report.

There we go.

Commissioner Jowdy.

Mr.

Chairman, my feeling is that we should withdraw the motion tonight, table it to a further meeting and then vote on it.

Okay.

Is there any other I Mr.

Dow, do you mind making your comments one more time?

My comment is that we should withdraw the motion to accept it and move to table it and have further meeting to discuss what was mentioned tonight.

Thank you, Mr.

Dowdy.

Any other comments on the draft report?

Commissioner.

And hopefully maybe move forward with whatever the will is.

So I think procedurally, um I'll I'm gonna call on corporation council for that to kind of give us sort of the path forward if we're to make changes tonight, if we're to table it or for that.

So I'm gonna give the floor to council.

Use the microphone.

The only concern I have is that you've already adopted the schedule of your meetings when you were appointed.

And we are running up right now, I believe the public hearing the first public hearing by the council is on the 20 first week in July.

Is that when the first public hearing is?

I believe the it would be whatever the date is set.

But presumably if this were to get on the July council agenda, which the cutoff would be Monday for that.

So I I think you might have if in order to do that, you probably first would have to go back and amend the the schedule of meetings.

And I can't sit here and tell you, you know what amendments are are gonna run afoul of the deadlines, but these are pretty tight deadlines.

And the the only thing I would remind the commission is is what the chair said, which is you're just giving them a draft, and it's gonna come back to you, and there's gonna be more public hearings on it, and it in between that time you would have the opportunity to study the comments for tonight, and then at the second bite of the apple, so to speak, you could make appropriate amendments.

So would it be I'm I'm trying to think of a creative solution here if we were to act on this tonight?

Can the can can the commission send the draft report with because I know you customarily the chairman sends a cover letter attached to it as just an FYI that's not substantive to the actual draft report.

Um could it be something where the commission would adopt the draft as presented tonight and then we just make sure that we're putting in that cover letter or in that you know accompanying document.

That's the will of the commission to authorize you to do a covered letter that would address some of the issues that were perhaps made tonight that were not made uh earlier.

I think that's within the will of the of the commission.

Okay.

So is that is there an appetite for that?

Because we did go through, we spent a considerable amount of time on the draft changes in preparation for tonight, and I know a lot of the comments that were made.

Um I this is meant to be in a political commission, but I think we understand that there's our there are our agendas everywhere you look on both sides that were present in this room tonight.

So I would be comfortable again, the will of the commission that if we wanted to adopt the draft tonight to send the draft to the council and then put in some of the things that were said tonight in the cover letter.

I think that could be a creative solution to make sure that the council is getting enough time to look at this document before they were to send it back to us.

Because like I said, the the deadline for the council agenda for July would be Monday and City Hall is closed tomorrow.

We're still on discussion, so Mr.

Mr.

Chairman, to uh to the uh cooperation council.

So council, what we're presenting to the city council, or the clerk then to the city council, the city council can make changes themselves.

Is that not correct?

Correct.

So whatever the council people that were here tonight that did make notes and did take uh information and listen to what some of the council people had said, they themselves at their own meeting can make any changes they want, and it would be incumbent upon them also to make the changes that they heard in this room and in this chamber.

And then they would send those changes back to you.

So they can also make changes on their own, those that were here.

I know there were several that spoke and so forth.

So they have that ability.

Yes.

So with that.

Okay.

Thank you, sir.

Is there any other discussion yes, Commissioner Armstrong?

Um I to understand that if we send this to uh the council, this council will make could make changes and send it back to us.

At that point, do we still have the opportunity to weigh in on only those changes made by the council, but also other substantive changes that we may see fit in light of what we've heard tonight?

I'll direct that to council if you can.

I'm not aware of any limitation on your ability to when you get when you get the council's comments back.

I don't see anything in the statute that says you can only consider the council's comments.

You can still consider addition the changes that were discussed tonight, even if they're not discussed by the council.

And then eventually uh you'll you'll have a joint meeting with the council where this will ultimately be hashed out.

The council will have the final say, but during the joint meeting, you'll be able to hash out all of these issues.

And this is after the joint meeting is after the council sends back to you its proposed uh changes.

You you can look at those, then you issue uh your final report to the council, and then uh there will be hearings and this opportunity for um a joint meeting where you have additional opportunity to make whatever changes you deem appropriate.

Does that answer your question, Commissioner?

Okay.

Any other discussion on the motion that is on the table, which is to approve the draft to transmit it to the uh submitted to the town clerk to transmit to the council the draft report.

According to the recommendations, Commissioner Putnam.

I would be in favor if we do have the opportunity to revisit the questions and concerns tonight for Amiguel and Mary Jean's points of interest.

Mr.

Chairman, let me just I want to be clear.

The statute says after you submit this draft report to the appointing authority, which is the council, if the if the council makes recommendations for changes in the draft report to the commission, the commission shall confer with the appointing authority.

That's your joint meeting, concerning any such recommendations and may amend any provisions of the proposed charter in accordance with such recommendations, or the commission may reject such recommendations.

In either case, the commission shall make its final report to the appointing authority not later than 30 days after receiving such recommendation.

I can see someone arguing from that that you could only consider the changes that were recommended by the council.

Um but I think in the spirit of an open dialogue, I wouldn't be prepared to rule that you you couldn't consider additional changes.

Thank you, Councilor.

Are there any other comments on the discussion for the motion to approve the draft report to the town clerk?

Sorry.

So there was approximately 10 or sorry.

It's flushing.

There was approximately 10 or 11 city council members here.

The fact that they were here and able to hear the public also, um, I'm confident and comfortable with sending this as is to them, because if there's anything that they wanted to add, they have the ability to do so.

And that's almost half the council was here in this chambers listening to what we listened to.

So that's their ability as a council person to make those changes.

So I'm comfortable sending to them and let them make the changes they want also.

We've done our part for that part, and now it's their face to make changes that they want.

And if they're impassioned as some of them were that spoke, they can make those changes on them on themselves.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Any other comments?

Commissioner Jabby.

Chairman, now if a suggestion comes up by this commission to modify a change in the draft, do we still have the permission or the ability?

I'm not sure I understand your question, Mr.

Jotty.

If we present the draft tonight as is, and there's something that we feel between now and the adoption of this charter, can we make a charge a change?

I think so.

I think I think one way to address it is when the council uh meets, they will have already they know what changes the public has proposed tonight that perhaps you didn't consider.

You you certainly or people in the public could certainly ask the council to say, hey, when this goes back to the Charter Revision Commission, it should take a look at these changes too.

So I think you're covered, especially as the council says take a look at these things that the public brought up in the public hearing that you didn't necessarily address in the draft report.

Thank you, Councilor.

Any other comments from the commission?

Commissioner Armstrong.

I'm uh I'm a bit leery again, uh, based on what uh Commissioner Sfranick said.

Looking at the the council and making the changes, the council noted.

Not all council people were here, number one.

Uh number two, council people spoke.

And if they so I would expect if they spoke, they expected us to do something with what they said.

Not that it be left to for another body or another time to change our argument in some way.

So I'm a little bit leery because it's not real clear, at least to me, um, that um the the that there is a way or there is gonna be a provision by which uh to address those issues uh in another setting later.

So I'm not real clear.

And I know what the uh corporation council said, uh, but I'm not real clear on that because usually when you finish your business, you finish your business, and then uh they uh somebody else reflects on it.

So I'm not real sure if we're gonna be tied to, especially what uh Mrs.

Frank said, and then I'm not real clear on that.

So that being the case, it's gonna be very difficult for me to uh vote in the affirmative to send this to the council without dealing with the issues by which we heard tonight.

Commissioner, can I ask specifically what concern tonight you would like more time to look at?

Because I I I took some notes as we were up here.

You know, there were a lot of comments on the process, obviously, which is not substantive to the draft here.

Um there was questions about the Board of Ed, which we had two meetings worth of discussion about, and we got the okay from corporation council that it was legal and in line with state statute.

Um again, a question on on process in a good way.

Um question on the appointment of the town clerk, which comments were made, which we had meetings discussing the appointment of the town clerk versus elected position, um, four-year terms.

We spent time on that um talking about that.

Um again, Board of Ed, we talked about that for two meetings, comments on the committees for the city council, which we had conversations about the ethics and conflicts of interest section that was talked about.

We spent a meeting on that one and how we have an ethics ordinance that we refer we referenced into the charter with an Board of Ethics, um, more Board of Ed, we spent time on that.

The City Council composition, we had spent time on that at the beginning of our work.

Four-year terms, we spent time on that.

So I just I I think you know, a lot of things were said at this public hearing on parts of the charter that we did spend time talking about, and we did put in the time and the research to go into it.

Legislative assistant, we spent time on that.

Pointing town clerk again, we spent time on that.

So as a commissioner, my comments on this is everything that was spoken about tonight.

There was a conversation by this commission and a substantive conversation.

Um, you know, we were we're in summer season, right?

So we have vacations that we're working around, right?

So, you know, we had a little bit of in and out with some of our commission members, but everybody here put in an extreme amount of work to talk about a lot of the things that were mentioned at the um public hearing tonight, and it would be I would be remiss if the hard work that we did, we lose out on an opportunity to get this in front of as many people as possible in a federal cycle.

Now we can spend more time on this when we get the draft back with comments from the city council.

I think that's an opportunity for us to be a part of the council's process in this because there is a joint conference that occurs by state statute where we'll be at the table with the city council.

And I think that is our next bite at the apple to go over the things that were talked about.

And again, you know, like the big one tonight was Board of Education, the superintendent was at the table and agreed to every word in that paragraph except for one word, which was shall versus may, which it's our discretion, run by um legal counsel that it is within the state statute for us to have that.

So I'm in favor of us acting on this tonight and sending the draft to the city council because as we heard from council, I don't believe this diminishes our opportunity to look at this document again when we send the final report to the council.

So those are those are my comments.

So for the discussion section.

Mr.

Jowdy I would like to open up discussion amongst the commission about the ability to borrow money for the city of Danbury to the extent of five million dollars, and how often can the mayor initiate a bond sale or no sale per year to uh accumulate the five million and is five million too high?

Is three million more of a a better number of the commissioner?

Uh council, if you could opine on that, perhaps.

Sure, Mr.

Chairman, thank you.

Um Mr.

Jowdy's point, we had some pretty extensive discussions on this section of the charter um over the course of one, if not two meetings.

Um the five million is reasonable in our office's view, uh, with corporation council's office.

We did uh review the statutes.

There are bond limitations set by statute for specific kinds of bonding that a town can engage in.

Um we thought that five million was certainly within range and not creating any sort of statutory violation.

So uh we think the language as drafted is fine.

Um we don't have concerns with it.

Um I think the prior increase was I think we said it was fifty five hundred thousand dollars up to up to three million, right?

Is that recall, Mr.

Chairman?

So that's correct.

Um and that was over a pretty extensive period of time.

So uh we think the five million is appropriate, it's within the range permitted under state statute.

Um we uh we don't recommend any changes to this language, at least from a legal perspective.

Does does that answer your question, Commissioner?

Does anybody have any comments on that section?

I think at our meeting that we talked about when we talked about increasing it, it was basically looked upon if a school needed a new roof, you know, when this was done 17 years ago, three million dollars was adequate.

Today's day and age, three million dollars uh is not adequate.

If a school needed a roof, and let's say we had a storm come through and it ripped the roof off, and we've seen some pretty interesting storms in our area over the past ten years.

That's what it was proposed for.

So I don't I don't think in that respect we're looking at that the mayor is gonna run, and I have no political affiliation, just to let everybody in this room know.

I'm an independent.

I've been an independent since I was 18 years old.

So, you know, I was asked to be on this, I looked at it very closely, and uh I feel as a business person I make respective decisions, and I take this very seriously, and believe me, I give up a lot of my time to be here, and we did spend extensive times in meetings on Wednesday nights doing this, you know, long hours.

So that's what we talked about as far as why to increase it.

And basically because of that.

I mean, we all know sitting in this room, anybody that that does anything in business that the cost of living has gone up tremendously.

The cost of products in this area has gone up tremendously.

And our vote was, you know, if the school needed something done, you can't dwell on it, you need to be able to approve to get it done.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Are there any other comments?

Commissioner Svenick?

In terms of the borrowing just to the corporation council, we're not changing the process at all.

We're just increasing the amount.

So the last charter went from a half a million to three million.

So that was a very large increase of very large jump.

We're going from three to five, would be cost of inflation, maybe over that time, but the process is still the same.

You still need two-thirds of the council, so it has to be done by ordinance.

So there was a question raised tonight, I think.

Um, can he go every month?

No.

I mean, it has to have council approval each time.

So that hasn't changed.

No different than the other mayor at how many times they can have a bite at the apple, if you will.

That that's not changing.

Is that correct?

Is I'm interpreting that correctly.

Council is ultimate authority.

Correct.

Okay.

Thank you.

I just wanted a clarification on that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Any other comments on the draft report?

Are there any other concerns on the draft report?

Okay.

Um there's a motion on the table.

There's been is that a hand.

Is that a hand?

Commissioner Armstrong, yes, go ahead.

I know it doesn't mean much, but um in in the con in the minutes of the proposed charter of 2021.

You I don't know if that's right.

You said you clarified that by 2021, all members of the board of it will be on the same four-year term term.

I think you mean by 2022.

But that's just for the minutes.

Now I gotta do that.

Are you on the are you you're in the minutes, Commissioner?

A minute.

Okay.

And to see if that's transferred into the document.

Well, let's take a look.

That's correct.

Section 2-2.

Chapter 2.

I mean since I just got it.

So tonight I didn't say by 2021.

The uh so the draft commissioner, it's correct.

It's 2031 in the in the actual operative document.

So that's a typo in the minutes.

Yeah.

So are we?

I mean, we already accepted the minutes.

I think it's just a typo in the minutes.

Okay.

Okay.

But again, there's no typo in the draft charter.

Wanna make that explicitly clear.

Um okay.

So the motion has been made and seconded on approving the draft report to the city council.

Um is there any further discussion on sending the draft report.

Hearing none, I will try your minds.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

One abstention, two abstentions.

Okay.

So we have six in favor, no opposed, and two abstentions.

So the motion passes, and the commission will submit the draft report to the town clerk, who will then transmit it to the city council.

And the city council will then do their statutory duty, and then it'll get back to us for a final report at some point in um July or whenever they get it to us.

So that being said, we'll move to our next item on the agenda, which is the chairman's report.

Um moving forward, just everybody keep an eye out for emails from Elisa because the city council is gonna then take we're gonna pass the ball to them.

So as far as when the meetings are next, um, when we have that conference with the city council, if they have proposed changes, is obviously gonna be prending our scheduling too, so we're gonna be a part of when that occurs because it's gonna be corralling a lot of individuals, 21 council people and nine commissioners.

So good luck, Elisa on that.

Um trying to think of what else we need to be aware of.

Um we'll probably have one more meeting in July after the conference for the final report or two meetings, whatever we need to do to finish um the draft report, and then we'll eventually send that.

It's gonna depend when what the city council does.

So when they send us when they send us the document, we'll then schedule and do our side.

Okay.

Um any questions on that?

We're kind of in a holding pattern now until the council sends us back a uh a uh recommended draft for us to act on to.

Um okay, any public hearing.

Yep.

So statutorily, the council will have to do a public hearing first before they can um do anything with it.

Yes, correct.

Yep.

Anyone have any comments for the good of the order?

Okay.

Again, thank you all so much for your hard work and your attention to this.

It was a uh Herculean task, and um all the parties involved did it very well.

And for what it's worth, I'm proud of all of you.

So um that being said, is there a motion to adjourn?

Motion to adjourn.

Is there a second?

Motion's been seconded.

Is there any discussion on the motion to adjourn?

Seeing none, I'll try your minds.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Any opposed, say nay.

Any abstentions?

We are adjourned at 9 31.

Thank you all very, very much.