Good evening, everyone.

I call to order the August 6th, 2025 regular meeting of the Committee on Administration, Finance, and Law and Public Services.

The time now is 6 30 p.m.

Mr.

Clerk, will you please call the roll Alderman Connors?

Alderwoman Barbosa.

Present.

Alderman McNamara?

Here.

Alderman Santiago.

President.

Alderman Simpson.

Present.

Alderman Gibson.

Alderman Pabone.

Alderman Smedley.

Alderman Bordeline Savedra.

Here.

Two six present.

You have a quorum.

Thank you.

Yes.

Also seated are Alderman Candice Scott, Alderwoman Iris Sanchez, Alderman Laurie Um McAdam and Alderman Matt Malinowski.

Sorry.

Having just held a public hearing on this item to allow for public comment, we will move on to the agenda for discussion.

The item on the agenda is item number three, six, eight seven seven amendment to chapter two, section two-nine one of the code of ordinances to reorganize the departments and offices of the city of New Britain.

May I have a motion?

I move, Madam Chair, with a neutral recommendation back to the full council.

I make a motion to re uh refer back to the full council with a neutral recommendation.

Motion to refer with a neutral recommendation made by Alderwoman Beloin Savedra, seconded by Alderman Jason Gibson.

Any discussion?

Madam Chair.

Could we perhaps have Linda Guard come up and maybe speak to this?

Linda, yes.

Good evening.

Questions or two I just thought before we voted, maybe you could just go over what's in front of us.

So um Sergio uh Lupo left us.

He retired.

Um he was the director of the building department and the health department.

Um he uh retired, and uh we were in the process of um posting for his position, which was director of health and director of building, uh, two totally different positions.

We were very lucky for all these years to have Sergio with us who could do both.

Um we were unable to find any candidates that um met the qualifications to um run the building department to have a BO uh building official license and then have an MPH to run the health department.

So um in the budget there was um a director of health and uh director of building.

So we did post um for those two positions.

Um the ordinances did say that they would have a director of health and a uh director of building.

So we went through the process.

Um we had some uh alder persons on our oral panel, and we did interview for the uh building director and the health director from a certified list.

But just for clarification tonight, tonight isn't about hiring anybody.

Tonight is strictly about the resolution that clarifies that they are two separate departments.

Instead of being a combined and the budget has them as two separate, but I just want to make clear this has nothing to do with the actual hiring process.

No, it does not.

So actually, it was known by the city that Mr.

Sujot was going to leave at what point in time.

Um he actually made his final decision very quickly.

Um he was on the fence to if he was going to retire or not, and another opportunity came up and he left pretty quickly.

And you did attempt to search to find a needle in a haystack of uh a building official and a public health director.

Yes.

First, okay.

Um and when was that decision made?

The decision made for to seek a reorder to uh separate the positions.

Well, the positions um when we could not find um a candidate.

Okay.

All right, thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Lynn.

Any other questions?

Madam Chair, this is just to uh recognize that Lori is actually a voting member for Miss Adam for O'Connor.

For Connor.

Okay.

Okay.

Any other questions?

Dr.

Mayor?

Yes, thank uh thank you, Madam Chair.

Um I'd just like to make a couple of comments about how this process is unfolded and how uh disappointed I am, and I believe much of this could have been averted uh months ago before the budget process in terms of uh seeking a reorganization, uh recognizing the uh qualifications and requirements of these two positions.

Um I'm disappointed because as this was unfolding, um I heard was sent to me that public statements were made that uh members of this council were responsible for loss of a of a health grant, um which is not true, and recognizing you have a special circumstance where you have to you have to unpack the one position into two.

No, that's a challenge.

Um so I was astonished to read uh from the administration and from a comment sent to me that uh members of the council uh had lost a health grant.

That's not a true statement.

Uh fact of the matter is um the governor announced in March the loss of up to over 150 million dollars in health grants that communities were expecting, including funds for immunization, uh and the uh the threat to those funds, as all of us are now knowing from the Republican administration of Washington, the Congress.

So I don't think it was helpful to make that to make that statement about the council uh members of the council in terms of uh moving the process along.

I'd also say that because of the fact that a reorg was necessary, a public health law allows a city to appoint an interim what while you sort this business out, fully allows that with permission uh permission grant permission granted by the Commission of Public Health.

Uh and I think it would have uh smoothed the process over if an interim had been appointed rather than to um I'd say create uh create create an artificial crisis to uh uh overlook the council.

So I'm I'm very disappointed in how this is transpired, and I I would be open to uh moving forward in a in a more open uh manner about this.

Thank you, madam chair.

Hold on, woman Scott.

I'm disappointed as well.

Um the immunization act plan grant funding was cut at the federal level, not just in this in the city of New Britain, but throughout the state, not having a health and building services director did not influence the reduction in any way.

The council's role in the budget process is to review and adopt a financial plan, not to approve structural reorganizations that were neither formally proposed nor properly explained during the during the meetings.

While the budget may have included line items reflecting department separation, that does not replace the requirement for the ordinance to be submitted formally restructed departments.

The charter in section five through four clearly lays out the process for the reorganization plan.

And the mayor should be well aware of this process as she has reorganized approximately three times since she has been in office.

This is clearly defined in the statute section 19A 20 F.

If the mayor does not want to appoint an acting director, the department of public health could appoint one for her.

Simply appointing an acting director would resolve the problem without any need for work reorganization or misinformation to be spread.

So I believe that the people deserve to have a government that is fair and is transparent and at best interest of the people.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The mayor can't appoint an interim person to be both building and health because there's nobody qualified to serve in that particular role.

So it's important to have the separation of those two departments.

And then you are correct.

The mayor can appoint an interim.

But again, I say tonight we're not here to discuss the hiring process.

That'll come, I'm certain at a later date in time.

Tonight is strictly about the reorganization of splitting these two departments that were merged back into two separate departments.

And yes, an acting person can be appointed for a very specific time.

Um but again I say to you, we still need to act tonight on this resolution for reorganization so that if it is the will of the majority party not to hire a permanent person but to have an acting person in, we still need these two jobs to be separated out so that an acting person could be put in place for both of those positions.

Thank you, madam chair.

Thank you.

Um I would like to ask Mrs.

Gard um on these processes.

Uh are we following the shadow on the ordinance proper procedure or not?

I'm sorry, can you repeat that?

In this uh in this resolution on the resolution, the process the the process and well um the woman Balon Sabeda was saying, are we I just want to know if we are following the shadow and the ordinance proper procedure on this we are now for the um splitting up the organization, yes.

We need to vote that the second moving the question, Alderman Santiago.

Yes, yes, Alderman McNamara.

We need a second.

Second any discussion on moving the question, Madam Chair.

You can call the vote.

Oh all in favor say aye.

Is this on moving the question?

Correct.

Aye.

Hi.

So now we have to vote on correct.

So that ends debate on the resolution now.

Um, madam chair, you should call a vote on the um resolution.

No, is it is it question?

Is it uh roll call or is it uh you if three members consent, you can do a roll call if you'd like.

I mean, traditionally it's the council council level, but if you want, I mean majority.

Okay, okay.

So just all in favor.

So just say all in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed say nay.

No.

So do we do that?

Do it.

Can we do a roll call?

What is the roll call?

This is still a roll call.

Oh, okay.

All right.

Thank you, Alderman Santiago.

Oh, anybody can stand on.

There you go.

Sorry, so this way is the by one by one.

Yeah, I was called field waiting.

Yeah, this one.

That's why I didn't.

I'd be remiss too if I didn't note that the positions are noted separately in our ordinances.

Currently and have never been merged under our ordinances.

The director of health and the director of license permits inspections are separately recognized in our ordinances.

Yes, it is.

Not in the reward.

They are positions that are separately recognized in the ordinances, separately from the reorganization.

The organization ordinance is different than the ordinances actually creating the position.

I'm just I'm just giving you some information on the ordinances.

I just felt like it wasn't part of the discussion.

I just want to add that for the record.

Thank you for the information.

You're welcome.

Alderwoman Barbarwoman Barbosa.

No.

Alderman McNamara.

No.

Alderman Santiago.

No.

Alderman Cipson.

Alderman, this is uh on the resolution.

Sending a bit with a neutral recommendation.

Alderman Gibson.

Yes.

No.

Three votes yes, four votes no.

Oh, I'm sorry, you have to finish the yeah, I'm sorry.

See, see there's no further discussion.

Motion to refer is has been failed.

So yeah, motion to adjourn.

Seeing no further discussion, motion to refer has failed.

So mo motion to adjourn.

Made by Alderman Santiago, segmented by Alderwoman Sanchez.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed say nay.

Motion carries.

Meeting is adjourned at 6 47 p.m.