The Hartford City Council held its regular scheduled meeting on December 8, 2025, presided over by incoming Council President TJ Clark. The primary focus of the session was an extensive public comment period driven by urgent concerns regarding the Mayor's unilateral pause on school construction projects, severe housing safety issues following a structural fire at 271 Wethersfield Avenue, and calls for administrative accountability regarding the pension commission and police oversight. The meeting concluded with a brief recess before transitioning to regular business, though no formal votes on consent items or major agenda resolutions were recorded in the provided transcript.
Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us for our regular scheduled uh city council meeting for today, December 8th, 2025. We are in our public comment portion of our city council meeting. I'm joined by my colleagues, Councilman Alex Thomas, Councilman Josh Mitchell. We have our Thomas City Clerk, Eric Lusa, our City Treasurers here, City Treasurer Carmosier, Councilwoman Mally Rosado, our majority leader, Maryland Rossetti, Councilman John Gill is joined online, and my name is Councilman TJ Clark. We are broadcasting live from HPATV.org and all of our streaming platforms on Channel 696 Comcast Xfinity and Channel 6032 on Frontier. Public comments shall be conducted in accordance with the following procedures. Each person shall give his or her name, address, and if he or she represents a group shall in addition state for the record the name and address of said group or organization. Every speaker shall limit his or her remarks to three minutes. Our timekeeper will be Councilman Mitchell. All remarks shall be addressed to the council as a body and not to any member thereof. During the public comment, no member of the council may address the count may address the council as a member of the public. Any person making personal and pertinent or slanderous remarks, or who becomes boisterous while addressing the council shall be forthwith barred from further audience at said meetings unless permission to remain is granted by a two-thirds vote of the council members present and voting. During the public comment, there should be no debate by the council, although questions may be asked by council of persons making such presentations. Our first speaker is Carol Gale. Good evening, members of the Hartford City Council. My name is Carol Gale. I am a Hartford resident and taxpayer. I am also a Hartford teacher and president of the Hartford Federation of Teachers. HFT is deeply concerned about the mayor's unilateral pause on school construction for six Hartford schools. One of the schools is Moylan. Poor air quality in the affected schools due to mold and dust creates illness for students and staff. Don't our students and staff deserve safe and healthy facilities in which to learn. We are aware that the Hartford Board of Education will be looking closely at its budget to find any areas for cost saving, and we'll be conducting a feasibility study for our schools. Furthermore, a legislative task force has met to begin looking at ways to address school funding through the upcoming legislative session. These are planned and purposeful actions towards sustainability. The mayor, on the other hand, asked the Hartford Public School Unions on October 1st to participate in a committee to create a five-year plan for educational excellence, but has yet to convene that committee. In a system of checks and balances, such as our city charter allows, where does the duty to act outweigh the power to wait? I urge you, the city council, to show your commitment to all the children of Hartford and exercise your duty to act. Unpause this pause. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next, we have uh Corey Betts. Good evening, Council members. My name is Corey Betts, and I am president of the Greater Hartford branch of the NAACP. First, I would like to congratulate Council President TJ Clark on your new leadership, bro. The community is watching, and we expect strong, transparent governance. Tonight I am speaking because there are serious concerns about the process or lack of process behind the city pause on approved school construction projects. A recent memorandum to the Hartford School Building Committee cites ordinance language allowing the mayor to appoint consultants and take necessary actions, but that same member will make something else absolutely clear. Once the school construction project is placed on the state priority list and approved for funding, the Hartford School Building Committee, not the mayor, assumes full responsibility for managing that project. The law says the committee is in charge. The committee never discussed or voted on a pause, to my understanding, yet a pause was announced anyway. So my first question is direct. Was the Hartford School Building Committee bypassed? And if so, under what authority? The city new coordinated effort to transform Hartford School discussion, discuss closures and major shifts, yet does not mention the Hartford Board of Education. That omission is alarm. Connecticut law is clear. The Board of Education controls all school buildings. The Board of Education controls all public schools.