Um good evening everyone.

Um welcome to those in person and those um if we have anyone who has also signed up for the uh public comment.

Um thank you for joining us.

The public comment is um gonna can be viewed at HBA TV on Channel 96, Comcast, and Channel 6032, and we have several HBA TV apps, Ruku apps, apply uh Apple apps, and also after the meeting, uh public comment can be viewed at HBA TV uh Facebook.

So again, welcome.

Um let me read a couple rules and regulations for speaking to the council on um public comment.

Uh each person will give their name, their address, and if they represent a group, uh state for the record, again their name and address in the group they represent.

Each speaker will have three minutes to speak, all remarks, please, you know, to the body and not um to any personal council person.

Uh during the public comment, no member of the council, you know, can address or ask follow-up questions to the uh to the person who's making public comment.

And of course, you know, we will not have any debate um by the council person, even though we may ask for your contact information and follow up a little bit later time to get additional information.

And again, welcome.

Um, my name is Shirley Surgeon, I'm the council president, and we have tonight uh here with us in person, our majority leader, uh Marilyn Rossetti.

We have our town clerk who is helping us with the public comment.

Uh we also have um councilman John Gale, and on carrying uh hybrid, uh we we have Councilman Josh Mitchum, we have Councilwoman uh Kelly Billardie, we have Councilman uh Alex Thomas, is that TJ?

And we have Councilman uh TJ Clark for joining us uh remotely.

Um the remarks I do make, and that is we're also testing um our program um with the mayor brought to us.

It's a translation service.

Um right now, um we're still hiring a couple of the kinks out of it.

Um but tonight if you do need to speak with us, if there's any Spanish language person who needs to speak to us, we normally would have Councilman Mitchum, who has been our translator for several years now.

Um we can retire him, not from being a counselor from translating and use the translation app that will if you speak in your um native language, we'll be able to um see and read um what you're saying in English.

Um we are still working on a couple of kinks along with it.

Uh and so um we may ask a couple of council members, uh a couple community uh with different ethnic group, you know, Irish, Italian, uh, you know, Colombian, Puerto Rican, to actually come up and help us teach, um, translate, you know, work it out because I believe if I'm not mistaken, it can transit up to 60.

80.

Okay, 80 different languages.

So we're gonna be testing this out in the next couple of weeks.

If you would like to volunteer, um we would put you would really, really, really appreciate it.

Just you know, reach out to one of the council staff and sign up, and we'll tell you, you know, when we'll have in-person testing of the remaining of the program.

So let's get the public comment started.

Uh those who have signed us with us first to speak is uh Mr.

Young, Joseph Young.

You've got three minutes, Mr.

Young.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Uh Joe Young, 610 Farmington Avenue.

Uh I just had a couple of things to say.

Uh they had that they had the Hartford Marathon this last weekend.

And apparently what they do is they shut down a lot of bus stops.

Well be the because they uh closed the streets uh for the marathon, and um I I was late to work because of this, and I'm I'm sure it's uh inconvenience for a lot of people.

So I I was thinking that next year maybe they should have like alternative routes and be because they they said that I had to wait until um uh 2 30 for for the bus to start again.

So and then I um and then uh just a second thing.

I I saw on the news the other day that there's this homeless shelter in uh New Haven, I think, that does um actual job placement and places people in uh permanent housing, and I I was thinking that the city of Hartford should fund something like that.

I I know there's only two shelters in Harvard, but they they don't help people look for jobs and actually look for housing.

So and I I was thinking that the uh the the Braza building on Farmington Avenue would be good for that because that's been uh vacant for a long time.

So that's all I have to say, I guess.

Thank you.

I know.

Thanks, Mike.

We'll pass your comment on uh Mr.

Young to the organizer of the marathon.

You know, we're providing alternative rules with people like yourself.

So thank you very much.

Uh next up to speak Alyssa Peterson, um, right after Miss Peterson, we have um Paul Moda Motto.

Good evening, Council Alyssa Peterson.

Um I'm here on another topic, but I certainly want to advocate for our fire department.

I unfortunately had to use the fire department at my house for a very freak accident, and I'm so grateful that they were able to keep the problem limited and uh basically save the house.

So thank you to all.

And uh this number one the number one issue for the fire department and the police department is you have to undo the damage that Mayor Bronin did to their contracts.

I don't know how you're going.

I don't know.

I I don't know how you're going to do it.

I'm sorry, this rests upon you.

Maybe the answer lies in help from the state government is but or as far as the package and as far as their benefits, but something has to be done.

And again, this is this is happening now.

Imagine this room full of police very soon, uh shortly thereafter.

All the unions have to do with the damage caused by Mr.

Bronan.

So I apologize for that.

That said, um uh I just I'm here tonight.

I had sent a letter to you, Council President uh surgeon and to former council president Rosado.

I was very concerned about the impending merger of the former Hartford Municipal Credit Union, which is now CENCAP, uh, with another outside national organization.

And I'm not happy.

The merger hasn't happened yet.

I think this is a local problem.

I think they've had problems for many years.

I think they I well, I like many of their board members.

I think that we need some new board members, and we didn't it needed some new solutions, and we needed some time to look at uh possible mergers with Hartford Federal Credit, with the fire uh department's uh credit union with Franklin Trust.

I don't think CEN CAP needs to merge with a national organization.

The reason I brought it to your attention was the city of New York, when they had problems with their credit union, they put a pause on things.

They went to their banking, the state banking commissioner, and then they brought in NCUA, which is the uh credit union oversight.

So the city of New York took action, and the city of New York worked with state banking officials and they worked with the feds.

I wanted to see the city of Hartford work with banking officials or local officials, take a 30 or 60 day timeout and see if there were other merger possibilities, other board possibilities, other outside financing policies.

I don't think our local credit union uh, which could benefit from other credit unions or or new membership or new board or et cetera.

I don't think we need to lose our local loans, our local accounts, and have them gobbled up by some national entity that we don't know about.

There is malfeasance at this credit union.

They've had problems for years, they've had a problem board for years, and I think an outside look is necessary.

And I put in my email to you, I asked for your review, and I asked for you to put it to the attention of the mayor.

And um uh I believe that there's some oversight role or input role that you could have, just like the city of New York.

I've taken your time too much of your time.

Thank you, and I will be following up with another email.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

And please, let's come up with a solution.

This is embarrassing that we have to go to uh arbitration and more arbitration.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Uh next up to speak is um Paul Mata, and he is the vice president of the Hartford Firefighters Association.

Um welcome up.

All right, good evening, Council President.

Good evening, members of the council, residents of Hartford.

My name is Paul Mata one Linden Suite 104.

I have the honor of representing the dedicated union members of the Hartford Firefighters Local 760.

I have also had the privilege of serving as a firefighter for the city of Hartford for the past 25 years.

I was born and raised right here in Hartford.

I've proudly served this community my entire adult life.

For the last 20 years, I have been an active member of Local 760, beginning my service on various committees, moving on to the executive board, and eventually serving as vice president and chair officer.

Over that time, I have been directly involved in four separate contract negotiations.

I have attended every single negotiation session, every mediation meeting, and every arbitration hearing.

I have been a critical part of this current negotiation process from the very beginning.

At this time, I am stepping forward to lead our local while our brother President Rosa continues to recover from a medical emergency.

I take that responsibility seriously.

I will continue to represent our membership with integrity, professionalism, and respect.

We have negotiated in good faith, under challenging conditions, and with complete transparency.

We have shown up, we have participated, and we have done the work.

The Harford Fire Department has always been a pillar of this city's safety, and its members deserve fair wages and respect.

The men and women who serve the city do so with pride, dedication, and selflessness every single day.

All we ask is for the same level of respect and fair wages that our brothers and sisters in the city and across the state receive.

On behalf of local 760 members, I want to say thank you to the council members for standing with us for believing in fairness and for reminding us that when a city stands together, no one stands alone.

Your support both in the neighborhoods across social media has meant more than words can express.

Thank you for your time this evening in allowing me to speak.

I have left my contact information available.

Should any of you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me.

Thank you again.

Um Mr.

Moto, on behalf of the council, our prayers go out to uh your firefighter brother who is um ill right now.

So, you know, want to thank each and every one of you for your service and let him know that our prayers are with them, you know, for speedy recovery.

Thank you, thank you.

Okay, thank you very much.

Okay, next person up to speak, uh, will be uh Miss Yenny.

Good evening, Miss Yenny.

Good evening, dear.

How are you all doing?

I'm hoping you're doing fine.

Okay.

Um, I'm hi a synthiene, and I'm with the Maple Heaven Your Revitalization Group.

And actually, I didn't come to actually speak about a fire department, but I'm so happy they're here.

And I want to let you know on behalf of Marge, we are in full support of the fire department.

As a fire department has been one of the most influential fire departments in the country.

You gotta know that.

We are accredited, okay.

These are dedicated people, they live here.

I would say 90% of them live here.

Now we need to make sure that we are supporting them.

We should have, they should not have gone this long without a contract.

And so, as a city, we need to band together and work together to make sure they get what they really deserve.

So, yeah, I do pray every day for their safety, and it is important, okay, that we all do because their job is uh almost life and debt when they get to a call.

So it's important for us to continue to support them.

Um, so thank you guys for all what you've done for the city of Hartford and your community.

I also would like to talk in general.

Thank you, Council members, for continues to support our South and Wellness Senior Center.

We are over 400 membership members now.

So I'm just hoping that you continue to support us in general.

And the other thing is I'm actually want to talk about it's uh a plot that's on Bond Street in um South Hartford, which they call the Bond Park.

Now, I'm not sure who turned it into a park, but it is a little city park.

And I'm here to speak and trying to get it removed from that Bond Park to a lot where we can sell and turn it into housing because the general lot in that in that area is just generating drugs and prostitution.

The police, um, Barrett has gone in there, public work has gone in there the regular base, and the police has gone in there regular base and clean it up, and it's like, well, they didn't really actually do anything.

It's a constant problem.

We are driving out those homeowners from that area of the city to other places because the fact is it's become a drug and prostitution area.

So I'm asking the city support to remove it from the lot as a park as a park because it's not doing us any good in the in the city.

Um, what street is that on?

Barn?

It's on Barn Street.

Barnes Street.

Yeah, from Maple, yeah, Barn.

It's it's it's from um Franklin to Maple in that in that section of um the city.

Okay, so I'm asking you to uh look at that.

Um, and I know I've I've spoken to Kelly about it, he's gonna be looking into it.

Um we'll we're looking for something that doesn't cause that continuous trouble in our neighborhood, and so I'm looking forward to work along with you guys to make that happen because I know Sina will be willing to buy it to turn it into a house lot.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh next up to speak uh Ephraim Adams.

You know, please if I pronounce your name, could you please correct me?

Yes.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Ephraim Adams.

I was born in Hartford, Connecticut at Mount Sinai.

I attended Capitol Community College, and I remember when the Civic Center was downtown because my grandfather helped build it, and he always said that the roof was gonna cave.

And so I am here today to briefly talk about some gender issues uh in some Hartford, Connecticut history taking place in the community.

And so before I speak, because we don't always have a shared language.

Um my sex is what I'm born with.

If I place my hand over my heart, that's my orientation, which is who I love, and then my hand on my head is my gender, which is how they I express myself.

So my gender, my orientation, and my sex.

So male, straight or gay, man or woman.

Um in Harford, unfortunately, we lost a black woman who was killed because she was transgender.

Her name is Rita Hester, and she grew up in Dutch Point, which is right down the street from here at City Hall.

Um, unfortunately, Rita was killed in Boston, Massachusetts, um, and no one knew that she was from Harford.

So in Boston, Massachusetts, they started a National Observance Day, which is known to the world or those within the pride community as Transgender Day of Remembrance.

We get together every year and we host candlelight vigils for those who are victims of domestic violence, um, particularly trans people.

Now that's been happening for 25 years because Rita died and was killed in 1998.

Um there's been a lot of discourse in the community about raising a trans flag here at City Hall, but that's not why I'm here today, because raising flags doesn't actually support or do anything unless you pair it with action.

And so I just want to let people know that a group of us will be gathering outside of City Hall on November the 20th, which is Transgender Day of Remembrance to give out food, um, give out uh clothing and warm uh blankets and coats for our homeless people because it's gonna be the holidays, and that's what actually supports um community.

Now, this is a Hartford current article that you can check out.

It's online, it lets you know everything that's been going on in Hartford related to this issue.

All right, that's Rita Hester on the front there.

And this is a special flag because I'm a documentarian and an artist.

No, I'm not with an organization or an institution, I'm just a human being.

And so if you take a look at this flag, it has blue for boys, pink for girls, black and brown in the center because Rita Hester was black.

This flag has been raised in the historical district on Pratt Street, it has been raised at 90 Gold Street across from Center Church.

It has been raised at some pride centers, and it has been raised at 75 Sterling Street in the north end of Hartford and will continue to be raised.

And just to close out my statement during the pandemic, there was a lot of social unrest, and we all may have our own personal feelings about that.

As you can see, this is the traditional trans flag that most people know.

If you don't know it, it is just pink for boys and girls, or pink, blue, and white for boys and girls and white as a neutral color.

Now, this flag has been around for 25 years.

Could you summarize, please?

Huh?

Could you summarize?

Oh, to summarize for people to express themselves, they had to write Black Lives Matter over it and deface the flag.

And so it showed that the flag was not specific enough to black trans people.

And this picture was taken outside of City Hall in 2020.

Um again, if you could just please join us.

Um, we're not gonna be asking for permission because should giving out food and clothes and supporting our homeless people be done in protest, or should we just be able to support?

All right, so thank you.

That'll be from 12 to 2 on November the 20th, and I hope I can see some of you there.

And to close that out, we tend to talk about trans people as if they're some sort of special class, but they're not.

And so I'm sure there's plenty of guys here who have always been told that they're not tough enough, or if they do something that's so gay, or they're a wimp, or etc.

etc.

Mr.

Adams.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh, next up to speak um the register of voters, uh Giuseppe Policiano.

Evening, counsel, good evening.

Uh folks of the public, firefighters, before you guys leave, stay safe.

I'm with you guys, and I pray for you guys every day, and thank you for your service.

Umward, I came in today just to remind everyone on Monday.

We start early voting.

We do have election this uh November for the Board of Education, one of our lowest turnouts.

I'm looking for folks to please come out, place your vote.

Early uh voting will begin on Monday all the way to uh November 2nd.

That includes weekends.

The last Tuesday and Thursday of this month will be from eight to eight.

Every other day will be from ten to six.

So I just wanted to remind everyone of the early voting and that November 4th, we do have the voter of education election that will take place citywide.

That was it.

Um, where is old early voting gonna be taking place?

Early voting will be taking place here at 5 50 Main Street, room zero zero two, which is the uh office of the registrar of voters.

Could you as you wrap up, just give us a little summary?

Are you can you register the vote or you just can just come out to vote?

So we do have same day registration during early voting.

So if you are not registered, you're more than welcome to come into our office during early voting.

Uh register to vote, and take your actual ballot and cast your vote at that time.

Um we still have absentee ballots uh process, which is within the town clerk's office if you won't be in town, but reminder that anyone can come in and cast your vote during early voting, or if you feel more comfortable doing an absentee, go through town clerk's office.

We also have same day registration on election day that will take place here in the atrium.

Uh that'll be from 6 a.m.

to 8 p.m.

on the day of election.

So anyone who again you still have ample time to come and register and cast your vote.

The other thing is that we do have new voting machines this year.

Just a reminder that these are new voting machines, so please take the opportunity to come out and try the actual voting machines, DS three hundreds.

Any other questions?

Just wanted to ask what are we voting on this year?

Oh, that's what it is.

We are voting for the board of education this year.

Okay, just want to make sure I know what I'm coming out to vote for.

So perforol, salgan a votal.

Whoa, thank you and thanking for helping us with the translation service.

So as we are, you know, working our kinks out, the um residents who are sitting in the audience and the um online will see the translation uh there.

So again, you dare this.

We saw that.

Vote no.

All right.

Okay.

Uh thank you, Madame Registra.

Uh yeah, wait a second.

So uh we have no one else signed up to speak.

So my um majority leader just asked, how would the um the voters who are home uh see the translation?

Is that correct, ma'am?

Okay.

Uh I believe do we have someone who can help me answer this?

Because we're still working all the kinks out.

The question is, how do we somebody is at home and they are watching HBA TV currently?

And how would they see the translation?

Um from English to Spanish or from whatever language.

I believe you will sign in to the app.

Am I correct, Paul?

Yes.

I'm sorry.

Oh, right.

Not yet, but you know, we're testing, we're testing this out, okay.

And so this would also help the council person if we want to communicate with the um someone who are not who's you know non-English speaking, that we can also, you know, through English, which will be on the app, and they will also read the translation to uh whatever language.

So uh yes, Paul, play our MHIS person is here who can give us a little bit more detail.

So the people at home, there is a way to see it, but we have documentation on what device you're on.

Can you hear?

Can everybody hear?

Can everybody hear me?

Okay.

There is, but it's on the mobile users end to actually go in there.

We wrote up some documentation that we can hand out for it when we are ready to go that route.

So there is a way for them.

on whatever language so yes Paul play our MHIS person is here who can give us a little bit more detail so the people at home there is a way to see it but we have documentation on what device you're on can you hear can everybody hear can everybody hear me okay they there is but it's on the mobile users end to actually go in there we wrote up some documentation that we can hand out for it when we're ready to go that route so there is a way for them it's they're doing the translation themselves in what language so they can choose do they want English Spanish and then it'll translate it for them so there is a way well it certainly is a great opportunity to communicate you know with our residents and voters who are um non-English speaking also so seeing that we have no one else signed up to speak I am definitely we have one more person and uh like we had discussed earlier on a on a mobile device you do need to download the Google app Google Meets app right so we'll so just so I'm clear if I may go ahead um so just so I'm clear if I'm sitting at home and my first language is Spanish I can watch the public comment that just happened and it'll be translated into Spanish for me provided I've already downloaded uh some software and and let it know that I want the translation is that the idea yes it is so we have to get that information out to the public then so they know how to do this is do you know whether HPA TV will be telling folks at the beginning of any of our meetings how to do that uh I do not know.

So we're um councilman Gale we're gonna be working on that as we test the entire program out in the next couple of weeks you know we'll work with um HBAT we'll work with MHIS in putting out information how they download the app and how do they get that information so we have a lot of education educating to be done in the next couple of weeks uh so again if anyone in the community is interested in helping us out uh I'm sorry Councilman Clark we got a question yes Madam President um go ahead sir is it is it good evening is it safe to say that the Zoom platform will be going away is it safe to say if the platform be going away the zoom platform uh yes councilman clerk it's safe to say that so that's why I said we have a lot of educating we're gonna be doing with the community because everybody since COVID uh you know has been accustomed to contacting the council um regarding Zoom now we're going to a new platform so we have a lot of educating to do in the next couple of weeks any other statement you're welcome any other statement comments seeing or hearing none I call the public comment uh closed thank you very much for joining us