And thank you for being with us here this evening.

Uh today is Monday, August 17th, 2026.

I would like to call tonight's public hearing to order.

And Councilwoman Mel Rosato, and I will chair this public hearing tonight.

With me uh is Councilwoman uh Marilyn Rossetti.

Uh we have uh Hyper Public Access TV, Samantha Vasquez, and Kelly Circuit Bay from the Office of Council.

This public hearing is being broadcasted live from the following outlets Comcast Channel 96, Frontier Channel Sixty Thirty Two, Hartford Public Access TV dot org, Hyper Public Access TV Facebook page, HPA TV's YouTube channel, HPA TV, local TV, Apple TV, Amazon TV, and apps.

This meeting will also be rebroadcasted on Hartford Public Access TV's YouTube channel and Facebook page.

Before we begin, and we have been joined by Council President TJ Clark.

Before we begin some housekeeping rules, this public hearing will be conducted in accordance with the following procedures.

Each person wishing to address the council or members there of shall upon recognition by the presiding officer give his or her name, address, and if he or she represents a group, and shall in addition state for the record the name and address of such said group or organization and shall limit his or her remarks to five minutes.

All remarks shall be addressed to the council as a body and not to any of the council members.

Any person making personal impertinent or slanderous remarks or who become boisterous while addressing the council shall be forward bear by the presiding officer from Fear the Avenues at this meeting, unless permission to remain is granted by two-thirds vote of the council members present.

During the public hearing, there shall be no debate by the council, although questions may be asked by council, a person making such presentation.

There's only one item this evening um for public hearing, and that is item 2.1, Mayor Rolumpalum with accompanying ordinance amendment to chapter 14, section 4-7 of the Hartford Municipal Code, food establishments and feeds, ordinance food establishments, uh, and fees.

Yes, I can do that.

You have the four.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I apologize.

I didn't recognize your complete name.

How are you, Director?

Good.

I actually have um my chief sanitarian Elizabeth Kavanaugh that just entered.

And she actually is a subject matter expert, so she wasn't on.

I was gonna go ahead and fill in for her, but um, if she can, she can address um the council if you'd like.

Well, this is a public hearing, and we have not had uh anyone sign up.

Okay for uh the public hearing, so we will wait and uh see if anyone does decide to join us.

I usually wait five to ten minutes and then we we adjourn the meeting in case someone at last minute decides to participate in that other time.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Is there anyone that has joined us in this public hearing that wishes to address uh the council body uh with us uh in this public hearing is also Majority Leader Kelly Biladu and Councilman Almaka Hernandez, who has joined us.

It is now seven oh seven.

Is there anyone that has joined us that wishes to address this concept body regarding the item that is about that public thing?

Hi, I've been told that Liz would like to speak.

You have the floor.

Hi, good evening.

Um, you know, basically we just wanted to answer any questions about why we went through this process and um decided now to amend that you know that part of the ordinance.

So really it's more a matter of if you have any questions for us.

We did change to the uh federal food code in twenty twenty-three, and there were sign you know, pretty significant changes for what we call classifications.

So that part of it was addressed.

Um, and then the fees uh are changed, and those are fees that doing a comparable um doing comparables with larger cities in Connecticut.

The fees that connect that Hartford used for late fees were really out of out of line.

I mean, they were significantly higher.

It was a progressive late fee.

So this is a flat late fee, and uh we've also gone to online permitting, so we've had a lot of changes in the last five years.

And currently I think we have about eighty percent of our food establishments are renewed, they're supposed to be renewed on July first, and the ones that haven't renewed currently are being uh are paying that small, you know, it's fairly significant insignificant late fee compared to what it used to be.

Um any other questions.

Uh, usually get public comment, and I think you all for the room here.

Um it is kind of great to have you in case you know so has any questions while we have participants uh participating in the uh public hearing, but um, I assume um that you still have not been in front of committee to present this item.

So that's where a lot of the council members will ask you a lot of questions on regarding the ordinance.

Understood.

But we can never overcommunicate, right?

So it's kind of great that you guys are here in case um, you know, a question arise from uh a public hearing time with an individual.

So uh with that being said, I think you all I don't believe anyone has joined us.

So for the third time, is there anyone wanting to speak for or against this ordinance or against this ordinance?

There being no one uh who wants to address uh the council regarding this ordinance.

I am going to adjourn this meeting.

I thank you all for attending.

Have a good evening, and we will see you when this ordinance is up in committee.

Thank you and have a good evening.