Good evening, everybody.

I'd like to call to order the I'm sorry, is this a special meeting or a regular meeting?

This is a regular meeting.

Regular meeting, thank you.

So call to order the regular meeting of the zoning subcommittee and committee plan on planning zoning and housing for today, Tuesday, May fifth, twenty twenty-six.

The time is now six thirty-three.

Alderman Nate Simson.

All in favor, please say aye.

All opposed, nay.

The ayes have it.

The readings waived.

So on today's agenda, we have a public hearing for item number 37119 regarding Mavis discount tires, seeking granting of a certificate of location of approval to allow state DMV issuance of motor vehicle repairer license for property known as 615 Hartford Road.

For the public hearing, if anybody would like to approach.

Mr.

Chairman, just a reminder that we're in the public hearing for the benefit of the public.

The applicant will have an opportunity to speak to the council.

Nothing precluding them from doing it now, but just for the benefit of everybody that that their opportunity to present their case will be during discussion when it's on the agenda.

Yes.

So what that means is you can have three minutes now if you'd like.

And during the meeting itself during discussion, we can call you up and answer further questions, have more of a back and forth.

And just as a note, Alder Woman Barbosa joins us at 6 35.

So going once for the uh public hearing.

Any speakers?

Twice.

Any speakers, three times any speakers?

Any callers.

Alrighty.

Seeing no more no further speakers.

I'm going to close this part of the meeting.

The time is 6 35.

And on our agenda is item number one.

Is there a motion?

Make a motion to move item number one, item number 37119 to the council with a neutral recommendation.

Thank you.

Just for the for the record, is this a referral?

Referral, yes.

Thank you.

Um I have a second from Alderman Barrero.

And at this time, I'd like to call up Justin Dorsey to read into the city into the record the city plan commission recommendation.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Recommendation of the City Plan Commission.

This building was constructed for automotive repair and continues to be used as such today.

Any proposed outside storage of tires should be addressed, including the frequency of tire delivery and removal.

The City Plan Commission recommends approval of the certificate of location application with the following condition.

One outside unscreen storage of tires is not permitted.

Now, if I just may for a moment, this the city plan commission uh met on April 6th to approve this.

Since then, on April 8th, there's been communication between Jeff Cormier or City Planner and the applicant.

Um, where the applicant addressed the question uh about the tires and said there will be not be any storage for outdoor tires.

There's a designated area inside the building that will be used for tire storage.

Tire deliveries are made three to four times per week, and the delivery truck is on site for around 15 minutes.

So again, this is just a report from the city plan commission.

I kind of talked it over with the council earlier uh too.

So for your guys' resolution, when you get there, you don't have to put any um condition upon it.

Thank you.

So it's achieves compliance.

Yes, thank you.

All right, thank you.

And is there any discussion on this item?

All righty.

Well, if our uh applicants would like to come up and tell us a little bit more about this proposal, love to hear it.

Good evening.

Evening.

Uh, my name is uh Trent Suddith.

I am a civil engineer.

I work for Kimley Horn and Associates, and I'm here on behalf of Mavis for this application for a uh certificate of location approval to allow the state DMV to issue a motor vehicle repair license to Mavis at the location at 615 Hartford Road.

Um the proposal represents a like for like conversion of an existing automotive service facility, formerly occupied but by Monroe Muckler with no physical expansion and no increase in um operational impacts.

Um the existing site right now, the building parking lot access points and dumpster dumpster enclosure are going to remain unchanged, they're gonna stay as is.

There's no site plan modifications, no new impervious surface, and no off site improvements are proposed.

Um the request is kind of operator specific, so no change in land use here for the building.

Ums themselves, they provide tire sales and installation, um, brake service, um, shocks, exhaust system work, oil changes, fluid replacement, and state vehicle inspections.

Um, no engine or body work will be performed, um, and all service work um occur um occurs indoors.

Um, all tire storage, like was mentioned, will be inside, so there's no storage outside.

We're okay with that condition, it's all inside.

Um, vehicles will not be stored outside except for occasional customer drop-offs after hours for services the following morning.

Um, and so kind of the operations mirrors the prior use of the Monroe muffler that was on the site previously.

Um there's gonna be about seven to ten employees at this facility.

Hours of operation are primarily from eight to six, um, with some extended hours on Thursdays and some reduced hours on the weekends.

Um track of traffic volumes are expected to be comparable to the previous use since it's a like for like very similar.

Um existing parking supply supplies adequate and unchanged.

Um talks with the city planner.

There is a blanket parking agreement on this facility that covers the entire property.

There's multiple tenants on this site, um, but we're covered.

There's kind of five dedicated spots for Mavis and one ADA stall.

Um deliveries are limited to a 26 foot uh box truck.

Um happens three to four times a week for around 15 minutes, like that was mentioned.

Um, and there's no changes to the site circulation or access because of this.

Um waste handling, so scrap tires and parts are stored indoors or in the existing dumpster enclosure.

There's an existing dumpster closure to the north side of the property, so not really seen from the road.

Um, waste is removed weekly.

Um there's oil storage indoors, but there's double wall tanks, um, and Mavis has a proper spill response and cleanup procedure in place that they utilize in case there are any spills.

Um, as far as signage, that would be a little bit later on with the building department approval.

Um, they are planning to change the aesthetics on the outside to their branding, so there's two signs that'll be placed on the actual building itself.

Um, the existing pylon sign will be also changed as well to Mavis branding, and then the monument tenant sign that's for all the tenants for the property that's along the road frontage.

They'll have their little placard um exchanged as well.

Um so kind of the key takeaways um low impact continued use application here.

Um the site previously supported the same type of automotive service.

There's no expansion, no site changes are proposed.

Um, and that is the general um idea of the proposal.

Cool.

Thank you.

So any discussion, any questions for our applicants here?

Alderwoman Delernia.

Hi.

Evening.

So it's the same service, it's basically oil changes or yeah, exactly.

So oil changes, tire repairs, no major body work, no painting, no engine work, specifically kind of you know, it's tires, exhaust system.

So no need to have a car stay overnight, taking up parking spaces.

No.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any other discussion?

All righty.

Seeing none, uh, all in favor of rec referring this back to the council with a neutral recommendation, please say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, nay.

The ayes have it.

And our agenda for the zoning subcommittee is complete.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Is there a motion to adjourn?

Motion to adjourn.

I have a motion from Alderman Santiago, seconded by Alderman Barrero.

Uh, all in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, nay.

All righty.

We have adjournment.

It is 6 42 p.m.

And I'm gonna call to order the regular meeting of the committee on planning, zoning, and housing.

And Mr.

Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Okay, thank you.

Chairman Simpson.

Present.

Scott, all the woman bargas.

Alderman Santano.

Alderman Santiago, Alderman Malinowski.

Alderman Gibson.

Here, all the woman Delernia.

Mr.

Chairman, you have a quorum.

Thank you, Mr.

Clerk.

Um, let's see.

Today's agenda we have item number 37139 regarding to act upon a resolution regarding the general fund budget for fiscal year 2026-2027.

And I would just like to say in attendance, we have the police department, fire department, building department, health department support services department, recreation and community uh services department, as well as planning and development.

Is there a motion?

Yes, Mr.

Chair.

Alderman Santiago.

I'd like to make a motion to send item number 37139-1 to the council with a neutral recommendation.

So referring with the neutral.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Is there a second?

I have a second from Alderman Centenno to refer this back to the council with a neutral recommendation.

Is there any discussion on this item?

Uh I'm sorry, but Mr.

Chair, I think we need to present have each one present their their budget proposal.

Yeah, everyone.

So the police department basically would have to come back.

Sure.

Chief Marina.

Welcome.

Evening, everyone.

Evening.

Try and make this quick and then open it up for questions because there's a very tight game over at Martha Hart right now between the Maroon Chargers and the Green Monsters.

We'll be ready.

So our proposed budget, it uh after meeting with the mayor's office has gone up slightly, but there isn't a very good explanation for that.

And it after running all the numbers over the last several years for uh reimbursed overtime for road work and and projects throughout the city and averaging it all out, we realize that we have been taking in a lot more than what we've accounted for or at least planned for.

Um so our budget kind of accounts for that in the next uh fiscal year.

Uh other than that, and uh other than that increase, uh it's strictly contractual, we're not asking for anything more.

Um one thing that I'm happy to report is after last year's budget where we accounted for all of our axon products and signed that 10-year contract.

Uh we had JAG money that went towards um certain body camera improvements in computer software with Axon.

Uh we did get an increase in JAG money this year, and we can now reallocate that uh towards proactive policing and traffic work because we do know that that's been a hot topic over the last several months.

Um and then for the most part, all we're uh uh the other things we're doing are cleaning up line items and moving money so that it actually is accounted for in the right spot.

Uh but I'm happy to answer any questions that anyone has when it comes to our budget.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Do we have any uh questions for Chief Marino?

All righty, thank you, Chief.

Enjoy your game.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Just before we continue, does anybody who's presenting require use of the projector?

I see no hands.

Good.

All righty.

So next up we have the fire department.

Chief Ortiz, welcome.

Good evening, everyone.

I too have to go to Martha Hart Park.

No, I'm joking.

No, uh in all seriousness.

Uh our proposed budget was 18,440, 76.

Um, after going through the Board of Finance and uh Board of Finance and the Mayor's proposed budget, we are looking at 18 18,141,394.

There is some reductions in some of our line items that we had proposed.

Uh and after conversations with the mayor, obviously, we're gonna have to cut back, but we're very comfortable in the systems that we put in place that we'll be able to navigate through those with those cuts.

Uh the biggest increase for us was and one that is contractual and has had to be addressed, was a realistic view of what our overtime budget is going to look like.

Uh typically we've been on the low end hoping to navigate through that.

The reality is with the uh wage increases, federal federal labor laws, uh, contractual increases, uh, we have to we have to address that.

So that's been addressed, and we we feel very comfortable that we'll be within that budget.

And now open it up for questions.

Thank you, Alderman McNamara.

Uh just a question about uh unfilled vacancies and uh firefighters that you still need to get a full compliment.

Yeah, so we've been having conversations with the mayor's office uh and as of recently today.

I think we've addressed that need.

Uh I uh I am very comfortable in saying by July or August we'll we'll have all those vacancies filled.

Thank you.

All right, all the one Vargas.

Um can you explain or explain a little bit more of the training conferences and the increase in that?

Just explain that a little bit more.

Well, there actually was a uh uh an initial increase, yes, and then an overall decrease.

Um, and that is really because we we typically plan on a doing our own academy when we do our own academy that that requires a commitment and training in our conversations with the mayor, we're going to fill some of those vacancies with lateral transfers that will allow us to decrease the amount of uh monies that have to be set aside for the training and conferences.

And again, we've been very uh proactive in our training where you've seen the the return on investment in that, and because there has been a reduction in it, uh again, we're very comfortable that the systems that we have in place, we're gonna try to master them versus trying to implement new systems and new trainings for them.

We'll we'll just dive into what we've already been doing and and really create a mastery in it.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

All right, uh all the one to learn.

Yeah, I read that wrong.

I'm sorry, I can't hear you.

I'm sorry.

No, you're your microphone.

Okay, sorry.

The reductions you spoke of, can you elaborate a little more on that?

Yeah, yeah, certainly.

Um if we look at line items, uh, you look at training and conferences, 3,000, it got dropped down to 2,000.

Uh really what it what it means is there's less training opportunities or conferences for us to go to.

Uh but through technology, through Zoom, through conversations of people off record, we can maybe not attend them, but still get that information through a PowerPoint or some kind of Zoom meeting.

Uh so we'll just have to be innovative with how we capture that information.

But again, we're very comfortable that we're gonna be able to do it and still within uh still be within budget.

Um even trickling down to water and sewage, right?

$12,000, we dropped it down to 10,000, right?

Uh realistically, that's a conversation we had the mayor.

We just have to be uh good stewards of the city's investment and in their uh sewage and water bill, right?

So we're not running the water as much as we want to, but certainly trying to do our part.

Okay, and what if what if you go over in that area?

Well, those are conversations that we have with the finance department, our our board of fire uh commissioners and the mayor's office through pod meetings.

Uh we we give them a burn rate, right?

We're we're hemorrhaging or we're well within our our burn rates, um, and then we have to adjust accordingly.

So if it's a it's been a rough month for us, we have that conversation, and then that next month we may have to pivot a little bit.

So we have these conversations regularly.

Any other areas?

Oh, yeah, there's uh there's a little bit here and there.

Again, um when you consider full-time salaries, uh you see from 11 million uh 32,000, it's dropped down to 10 10 million nine hundred and twenty, and it's really capturing the actual pay rates of our individuals.

Um in the past, what was done was when we hire a new individual, we put them at their highest step so that we can we can do the budgeting.

The reality is they're never gonna come in at that high step.

They're gonna come in at step one.

So that's a realistic view of what our full-time salary is gonna be.

So that was a conversation we had with the Board of Finance and as well as um the mayor's office.

Longevity, right?

We put systems in place that uh the new contract eliminates new hires from getting longevity.

So you see reductions there that we're very comfortable with.

But those are contractual, and uh at no point has the contract been violated where uh monies are not being allocated where they need to be.

These are more discretionary spending.

Um obviously in some cases it's gonna be very difficult just because of the way the market is and the way the the climate is.

Um I was just telling our assistant chief uh the one line item that we can't control, or there's a few of them that we can't control, but they're very expensive, right?

If we're talking about ink cartridges, they're going for 490 dollars.

Six years ago it was only going for 260.

Um so if if we're trying to navigate that, maybe we don't print as much, right?

And we monitor how we print um our materials.

So those are like serious conversations we're just having on how we how we move differently.

Right, and that's that's my concern trying to trying to predict what the future holds.

So are you confident you're you're gonna be able to work with that?

You want to ask me in about eight months?

Uh no, uh realistically, it's just a uh really hard look at our budget and monthly having conversations with our personnel as to what we're doing, how we're how we have to adjust.

Uh I look at it no different than when we had to adjust with COVID, right?

Um during COVID, there was a lot of things that we used to do that just the way things were always done, and COVID had us reinventing how we do things in this budget cycle.

We'll have to just have to reinvent how we do things, uh, which is not unrealistic.

Uh the reality is we should be looking at how we do our expenditures every year and have these conversations monthly to make sure that we're not blowing through the budget.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Any other uh all the in Santiago and then hey chief.

With these these cuts, does this minimize the work that the police uh fire department have to do?

Absolutely costs.

Absolutely not.

Uh our delivery of services will never be impacted.

Uh those are hard stops for us.

Um when that gets impacted, those are real conversations we have with the mayor, and I don't think any mayor would ever uh sacrifice that.

So we're very comfortable that our our delivery services will never be impacted.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

What's up?

Alderman McNamara?

Thanks.

Just wanted to I think I heard that you you have some cross collaboration with DPW and their garage.

We we certainly try to.

How's that working out?

Uh in some cases it works out great because we're all in that same vicinity and we can have those conversations and we've developed some really good relationships with the uh uh the administration there.

Uh I do think sometimes uh there are some things that hinder us contractually that doesn't allow us to uh dabble in one one one machine shop or another.

But in the in the places that we can collaborate, we we try to.

Um, and it's at very least a conversation of hey, instead of outsourcing the work, can you do this work?

And if they can do it, uh I don't think public works has ever really pushed back on any of that um outside of uh contractually, we can't do that, right?

And and some of our trucks aren't interchangeable, right?

We do have pumping uh capabilities in our truck, we have hydraulics, aerial devices that public works normally doesn't operate under, but in other cases, um I'm sure there's conversations that I don't even know about in that shop of saying, hey, instead of me buying an apple, if you have it, we'll we'll we'll take it from you and we'll reimburse you at some point.

So it's all coming out of the city coffers, so those conversations have to happen.

All right, any other discussion?

Hold on a center.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh hi, Chief.

Um first of all, I want to commend you on the minuses that I see.

Out of 22, there's 12.

So thank you for that on on those minuses uh uh the change.

Um but I just have one question as far as the vacancies.

Uh you said by July, how many vacancies are there now?

So we currently have 11.

11.

We currently have 11.

So we we do have an opportunity to grab lateral transfers from other departments.

Um in essence, if a firefighter is looking to retire from one department and jump over or join our department.

Uh in some cases, the departments are smaller, and they want to join a more aggressive, bigger department with more upward mobility.

Uh they they are able to put applications in, and we've been really looking at those applications lately to try to bring them in, and that will also help alleviate some of that the budgetary constraints that we have in that we know we don't have to train them.

There is a training mechanism or a training component in place that we do have to train, but it's typically to bring in a new person that has no firefighting experience is somewhere about four to five months.

Uh bringing in a lateral transfer is about a month and a half process.

So there that three and a half month is a savings for the city.

And when do you said by July, but uh 11?

How many uh um all of them will be by July or we we do believe we can get 11 by July.

Uh we we did have interviews, uh had conversations with mayors of how many people we would bring in from a lateral transfer process, and those are conversations.

It's ongoing right now.

We literally just had a conversation earlier today.

We'll probably have another conversation tomorrow.

Okay, but uh again, we're very leery about bringing in lateral transfers because they're coming from other departments already ingrained with whatever behaviors and uh training modalities that they have to retrain them on how we do things in New Britain, but we're comfortable that we could do it.

We had upwards of 40 to 50 applicants that uh applied for the lateral transfer process, and some of them came very highly regarded.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Any other discussion?

All righty, thank you, Chief.

Thank you.

Up next, I believe we have the uh building department.

Good evening, good evening, everybody.

My name's Mike Nomack, in case uh I haven't met you yet, or uh we haven't passed each other in the hall.

Um so I have a I feel pretty pretty modest budget.

Uh I took into consideration the uh the uh positions that were vacant and knowing that we were gonna add positions just to fill out our building department.

Um the full-time salaries did go up very modestly, I think.

Um but what I tried to do is make up for it in other places, and uh that's that's really about uh I mean it's pretty self-explanatory as far as that goes.

Uh knowing certain things we're gonna increase, I tried to make up for it in other department in other uh areas on the budget, and um open up to any questions you might have.

All right, any uh any discussion uh Alderman McNamara.

Hi, how are you?

Great, how are you?

Good.

Um maybe you can uh unpack the kind of you had you were down serious vacancies on inspectors uh within the last year.

Maybe you can unpack that, which probably goes a long way of explaining uh the uptick in salaries to be fully staffed in a city with a lot of housing and other issues.

Correct, yeah.

We we spent a lot of time uh this past year with very minimal staff.

Um I mean to put it bluntly, it was me and an electric electrical inspector.

That was it.

Uh but we do have two new um two new hires, two new building inspectors.

Uh one started two weeks ago and one started this week.

So I have filled those.

I'm still awaiting um interviews with the plumbing and mechanical inspector.

And then we should uh I should be able to take a breath at that point and and concentrate on other things.

Okay.

Any other discussion?

Alderman's antenna.

Thank you.

Uh hi, Mr.

Nomack, thank you.

Um the only question I have, I just noticed the under the equipment maintenance and repair.

Yes, a 2400 increase change from 100 to 2500.

Uh I believe that was set forth.

Um and I may be mistaken.

I think it used to be um in uh the the maintenance garage budget, and it was separated to each department.

And I may be wrong about that, but I don't want to give you a real quick answer.

I'd rather give you the right one.

Thank you.

I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I believe that's what happened there.

We got assigned uh, you know, certain budgetary uh uh parts of of maintaining.

I mean 25 in the grand scheme of things, 24 2500 is is not a lot, you know, but it's just the jump.

No, I I I see what you mean, the discrepancy, yeah.

And and like I said, I'm I I'm pretty sure that's that's how it came about.

Yeah, but thank you too for the minuses that I see here.

I tried.

Thank you.

And thank you the other day for coming over the house.

You got it.

Thank you.

All right.

Any other discussion?

Okay, I just like to say who who is now enforcing these codes the department is responsible for.

Not sure I understand the question.

The state of Connecticut has their own building code adopted from the International Code Council.

Right.

So they have uh they have a 2021 code cycle that we're in right now.

Connecticut is in 2022 with all the amendments from that book.

So we follow the the the Connecticut State Building Code 2022.

Right.

Did that answer your question?

No, the question was like, who is this?

This is a city function to enforce these codes, right?

Yes.

But if we don't have the staff, who is doing that?

Me.

This is a city of innovation.

Yeah for innovating.

All right, yeah.

No, uh like I said, it was it was uh myself and an electrical inspector enforcing code.

I see.

I see.

Thank you.

Okay.

All righty.

Any other discussion?

All righty, thank you.

Uh next, thank you, ma'am.

Uh thank you.

Support services department.

Come again.

Oh, I'm sorry, the health department.

Skipped one.

We are all late for this baseball game.

Good evening, older people.

Gail Coles, Director of Health for City and Rita.

So this fiscal year, we came in um just a bit above where we were last year.

The biggest increase obviously is contractual obligations for salaries.

Um we worked in conjunction with the administration mayor's office to try to find as many efficiencies as possible.

You'll see some of those decreases in our budget.

Um, the major ones, and I think that uh what I could speak to is there were two-line items, motor fuel oil, and vehicle damage equipment and supplies.

Last year, those were allocated to each department.

This year they've been allocated back out and right back to public works.

So it's a little game of tennis.

Um, but if you have any specific questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

All right.

Any questions, any discussion?

I'll say there.

I suppose not.

Thank you.

Cheers, thank you very much.

And up next now we have the support services department.

Evening.

Good evening, council.

Uh John Delgadio, support services director, uh, support services department oversees three uh very distinct divisions, uh facilities and energy, which oversees all city property, uh, excluding the uh Board of Ed, uh, the fire department and the water department, as well as um the IT division, which oversees all city hall and city building related IT, and then we have public safety telecommunications, which oversees uh public safety IT as well as the 911 dispatch center.

Uh budget presented to you was uh you know, is as neutral as I could keep it, uh very minimal increases uh through discussions with the mayor's office.

We were able to make some cuts, however, we who plan on some awarding of the low CIP dollars to come towards my divisions to uh offset some of those funds.

Okay.

Any discussion?

Alderman McNamara.

I'd just like to focus on any vacancies that are critical to your mission, particularly 9-11 operators and and how I think you were down a few, but how how was that coming along, John?

So we we have never been fully staffed, we were actually closest to we are closest right now to fully staff than we ever have been, and then somebody just put in their notice um to again go work somewhere closer to home and for more money.

Um, but we are closer than we've ever been to fully staffed in the 911 center.

Um, so that's been good.

The issue with um not being fully staffed is FMLA uh time off.

We have a lot of young staff, they have babies, they go away for a few months.

So uh filling up those getting those vacancies filled is very crucial to um that running, and and we've been doing a really good job.

We actually have a lateral uh the lateral opening now for those positions, which has opened up a big door for us.

So we've been actually getting a lot of applicants through that.

So we're hoping to get that to fill our fill our vacancies sooner.

All righty.

Any other discussion?

All right, thank you, Mr.

Delganio.

Thank you.

Up next, we've got the recreation and community services department.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Good evening, everyone.

I'm Mallory Dupre with the recreation and community services department, um, which is uh comprised of six divisions recreation community services, the senior center, which also includes veterans and persons with disabilities, along with two special revenue accounts, the standing golf course, and the Fairview Cemetery.

Um, together, these programs and facilities support youth development, senior stability, veteran services, homeless prevention, workforce development, persons with disabilities, and cultural engagement.

The department focuses on three primary goals, which include one to increase community engagement and outreach, two to develop and enhance programming, and three to maintain operational efficiencies and financial stability.

Um, the budget reflects limited increases.

The increases that you will see is um union contractual salary requirements, our part-time salaries have increased um due to the Connecticut um minimum wage increase that happened on January 1st, and Connecticut paid sick leave mandates.

Um, what that means is if someone is employed with us for more than 120 days, um, we are obligated to um allow them to accrue sick time pay.

That's a state mandate.

Um we have reviewed some of our revenue, the the strengthening our revenue, and um some adjustments include approved fee modifications at our cemetery.

So we uh across the board we review non-resident rates and across the entire department.

We have embedded that um through our recreation department, through our cemetery fees, um, golf fees, stuff like that.

Um regarding the summitary, though, we did look at our weekend and holiday rates, our grave opening fees, winter assessments, tent rentals, stuff like that, things that weren't charged, but um I think that is definitely a necessity as we have to keep our prices of the cemetery competitive with our um neighboring cemeteries, but also we have to cover our staff costs.

Um, recreational revenue adjustments include again the non-resident rate across all of our programs, our facility rentals, Willowbrook Sports Complex, Veterans Stadium, um pavilion rentals and our parks.

Um we rebranded our toy program, and um our Osgood classroom is finally ready for some programming, so we will be launching a new program there this um summer, and those are all fee-based programs.

Um again, the department does deliver um outcomes regarding public safety, economic activity, workforce development, senior stability, youth crime, and um community pride.

So uh with that, I would like to share some impact numbers over the past year on how we impacted our community.

Um over 50 regional and state events were held at Veterans Memorial Stadium, and more to come, hopefully, with the partnership of CIAC bringing in some state tournaments.

We had 2,486 athletic field permits issued to Little League programs and other sports programs, um, 21,000 visits to our splash pads.

We had 26,423 visits to our pools, which was an increase by almost a thousand from the previous year.

Um eighty-six thousand dollars um in aquatics revenue, which was again a $5,000 increase from the previous year.

220 kids learned how to swim, over 200 staff were um employed by us seasonally, and 86% of those staff were New Britain residents.

We had over almost 400 um camp participants, 55 of them were in the middle school program.

55 of them were in the middle school program.

We had 350 elementary after school participants, 136 middle school after school participants, and our winter basketball program was full to the capacity with 200 youth participating in that over uh the winter months.

15 youth-led prevention programs engaging over 600 of their peers in peer-to-peer programming.

2,000 students were reached during Red Ribbon Week.

That's one week in October.

We did a lot of outreach with our youth.

Um, and their your dose podcast, I have to give a shout out is on Apple Music.

That's our youth prevention, have reached over 10,000 views that they have just took ownership of and are filming at New Britain High School currently.

Um lastly, we had a million dollars that was returned to seniors and disabled residents of the of the city of New Britain through our renters rebate program.

Um 69 youth were diverted from a from the juvenile court.

483 households have been assisted through our homeless prevention program.

300 new senior citizens signed up at our senior center last year, and about 3,500 visitors at our farmers market.

That's it.

That's it.

Thank you.

Any questions?

All the women to learn you.

I have to ask the question.

Okay.

Uh donations.

How are donations allocated that you receive for different areas?

Uh well, it depends on the donation.

So we have um we are trying to uh streamline our donations process now through our sponsorship program, but we do have donations that come in for our campership program, so that supports kids that want to join a camp or an after school program um or a youth funded program.

We also have trust funds, so that goes into our donations, and those are all allocated based off of the fund.

So AW Stanley, Walnut Hill Park, Fairview Cemetery, they all have their own funds, but are allocated are um they could only be used for those certain specific locations.

Okay, so in the case of the cemetery, how is a donation used?

It goes into a trust fund and it's voted on through the commission.

So our latest use of that fund was to install cameras, security cameras down at the cemetery.

The um the security arm kept getting crashed into the cameras were outdated, some of them didn't work.

Um so through the Fairview Commission, they were voted on to utilize some of that of the um donation funds to install a security system.

So that actually, thanks to support services and John's team, they were able to work with the cemetery, and that's actually happening currently.

Nice.

Okay, thank you.

Any other discussion?

Mr.

Chair, Alderman Santiago.

You said Osgood is is ready for the classes.

Art is gonna be camp over there also.

There is.

We are launching a kindergarten camp this year for the first time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other discussion?

Alderman McNamara.

Uh hi, Mallory.

Uh just two questions.

I I know the last council uh got a transfer for that homeless.

I think it was 50,000 more.

Yes.

Do you recall how quickly that was utilized?

Because I know the mayor's task force is working on the issue.

It was about three months.

It was gone in three months.

Yes.

They go they go rather quickly, so we use it as a security deposit program, or someone who has fallen back on their rent, but can prove to us that they can sustain moving forward, and that averages anywhere from 1,500 to 2500 depending on the situation.

It went fast.

It goes fast.

Yeah.

And the other thing I I think on the on the capital improvements on the docket this year, you have some work at Stanley Quarter and ADA compliance.

Um there doesn't appear to be any funding for it yet.

Can you particularly the ADA?

Can you comment on where you wanted uh is there a particular site you want to address this year if you had the money?

Yes, we are looking at veteran stadium.

The bathrooms and the um concession stands definitely need some adjustment to accommodate the ADA.

We do a lot of uh deals with um, it's a it's a prime location, it's off the highway, we have a huge parking lot, state tournaments are looking at our fields, they're wonderful, they're beautiful, they're well kept, but our facilities need a little love.

Um, and ADA compliance is something that our we struggle with in our bathroom facility.

Thank you.

Any other discussion?

Yeah, all the women to learn, yeah.

One more.

So we're not doing a Rose Garden festival this year.

Is that due to lack of revenue coming in or expense for it?

No, we're actually switched up, it was due to lack of attendance.

Um, so we're actually doing a rose garden series.

So instead of just doing a one-time festival, we're doing a paint night um one evening, and then another evening, we're gonna be doing a picnic competition, which is a little bit more family friendly, and folks can invite their friends and gather, bring their own food, bring their own setup, and there will be prizes based off of who has the best decorated um picnic area, and that advertisement will be coming out shortly as soon as we conquer um celebrate New Britain, which is next Saturday downtown Street Festival.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Also, there is free yoga in the park three times a week throughout the summer, which will be in the Rose Garden.

So that's part of the Rose Garden series.

Thank you.

Any other discussion?

Mr.

Chair.

Uh Alderman Centano.

Thank you.

Uh Mr.

Pray.

I'm sorry, Dupree Ray.

Thank you.

Um time some while back, this is before I was on the after I was on the council the first time.

But with uh Willowbrook Park, there was uh talk of having and I it might fall under the special events uh of having uh concerts and so on and so forth.

In the stadium, yes.

Yes, we're still exploring that, but we just have to make sure that um we're able and we're ready to um conquer that with confidence.

We did explore it last year, so we're able to do a trial run and how would we do a ticket system?

What is the security system need to look like with security guards collecting tickets?

How much staff would we need?

How would the concession stands run?

So we kind of we did it as a trial run and we have it set up so as soon as we find the right talent, I think it would be a great um a great idea to continue on.

So it's not debted.

Thank you.

Uh Alder Woman Barbosa.

We're still having a summer concept.

Just one more time on the mic.

Thank you.

The summer concerts at Wanna Hill.

Yes, those are still on.

We'll be launching those on social media this week.

Follow us on Facebook.

Alder Woman Maldonado.

Oh, sorry, let me uh only four of these can be on at a time, so I just cut kind of everybody.

So Director Dupree, could you just hit your mic?

Thank you.

Sorry, go ahead.

Okay.

I just want to say thank you for everything that you do for the community.

That's amazing, especially if we're with everything that we're going on, trying to keep the community together and engaged.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other discussion?

All righty.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And finally, we have the planning and development department.

Good evening.

Good evening again.

Uh, first of all, I'd like to commend all you because the last time I was at a PZH uh budget hearing in 2020 during COVID, we were here till 1 a.m.

and even the Zoom had a restart because it kicked everybody off at midnight.

So great progress ahead of time.

Uh Justin Dorsey, planning and development uh department.

Uh we have three facets to our department.

If you are paying to attention to Jeff Cormir's very brief uh presentation last time, but I'll go into it a little bit more.

Umic development, which you know, new businesses or any businesses looking to open or establish themselves in town.

We essentially do everything for you except run the business.

Um we'll guide you through step-by-step any process that you have to do.

Uh city plan, um, you know, we're there to help you, you know, whether you're putting a fence in your yard or if you're doing an addition to your house, any of that kind of stuff in conjunction with the building department.

Uh we've established uh just almost like a one-stop shop.

So you we call them pre-construction meetings, so you meet with the city planner, the zoning enforcement official, and the uh city engineer, just so you could get everybody's opinions and stuff out of the way to save you some time to having to go to several different places, thinking you have one thing done but you don't, and then seeing if you need to go to you know either the city plan commission or ZBA.

Uh and then we have the community development portion, which you know is arguably one of the most impactful uh facets of the city.

Um, you know, we're giving people the opportunity to purchase their first home.

Uh we're building homes for people to own for the first time.

We're providing uh funding to nonprofits so they could service the youth or the elderly or any other of the great causes that we have in town.

We're bringing in grants to the city, and because if there's one thing we love, is we love spending money that isn't ours.

Um so we our budget uh very large in comparison to other things, 499,000.

Um 405 is all contractual salaries, and that's just on the city plan and economic development side.

Um any of the folks in the community development side, they are all grant funded, so they are not uh funded by city taxpayer dollars.

And with that, I'll open it up to any questions.

All right, any discussion.

I suppose not.

Thank you very much.

Oh, uh Alderman Santano.

I don't have I don't have a question.

I just again I like the mice, the minuses.

The mice is minuses.

Yeah, we are fortunate enough, Alderman.

Um they are down from uh the last year or so.

Uh and that was because I had to submit the budget in December.

We established confirmation that we were getting the lead grant, so some of those costs could be paid for by lead grant.

In addition, at the time we weren't sure of the amount of money that we'd be getting for CDBG just because it gets lower and lower every single year, but now that we have you know an affirm um number um that you guys actually at your next council meeting you'll be approving that.

Um we're able to make some more cuts.

Yeah.

I have another question, but we but I'll I'll ask you personally because it's it's not on the agenda.

So all the women of Argus.

You touched on this a little bit, and I'm just trying to figure out what line on line item this falls on.

Sure.

Um the new housing developments.

So that you won't see that on any of these lines.

That's on the the C D B G line, so we have one.

We have it's considered home money, so there's home new construction, and then there's the hot program, which is also home money that stands for home ownership program.

Um so that's separate from what you're seeing in front of you tonight.

Thank you for that explanation.

Yeah.

All right.

Any other discussion?

Joining us is Alderwoman Scott at 720.

Ooh.

Uh so these uh these uh grant funded positions.

Yes, sir.

Do you recall specifically like which funding sources are they?

Federal, state, the somebody really nice to us.

No, they are all federal.

So there's they're split differently.

Um some are C D BG funds, some are home.

That's all under HUD funding, and then some are through HUD, or excuse me, through the LED program.

Thank you.

Any known risk of these positions expiring due to recent changes on the federal level or no?

We are could we are under contract with our lead, that's six million dollars for the next four years.

Um so in addition to the staffing, that's gonna allow us to renovate you know, lead houses in the city of New Britain, you know, anything, I believe, uh before you know 1975, they get first track.

We already um because we work in tandem with the health department, we've been getting referrals.

We already have like a waiting list of 20 people just based off of inspections that the health department had to do.

So we're ready to rock and roll.

Hopefully, uh probably within the next four to five weeks, get going on that.

Beautiful.

Thank you.

Any other discussion?

All righty.

We have a motion to refer the oh, thank you.

Um we have a motion to refer this back to the council with a neutral recommendation.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, nay.

The ayes have it.

Next up on our agenda is item number three seven one four zero one to act upon a resolution regarding the special revenue funds and enterprise funds budget for fiscal year 26 to 27.

Alderman Santiago Mr.

Chair, I'd like to make a motion to send item number 37140-1 to the council with a neutral recommendation.

Second.

Alrighty.

So we have a motion to refer this back to the council with a neutral recommendation made by Alderman Santiago, seconded by Alder Woman Barbosa.

Is there any discussion on this item?

All righty.

Seeing none, all in favor of a uh neutral recommendation, please say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, nay.

The ayes have it.

Motion carries.

Uh and our last item is item number 37141 regarding to act upon a resolution regarding the budget appropriation for capital improvement program 26 to 27, otherwise known as low CIP.

Alderman Santiago.

Thank your honor.

I'd like to make a motion to chair.

I'd like to make a motion to move item number 37141-1 to the council with a neutral recommendation.

Thank you.

We have a motion to refer this back to the council with again a neutral recommendation, seconded by Alderwoman Barbosa.

Um, is there any discussion?

Seeing none, all in favor of referring this back to the council with a mutual recommendation, please say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, nay.

The ayes have it.

Motion to adjourn.

Okay.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, nay.

The ayes have it.

The time is 723.

Thank you.