Okay.

The time is 6 01.

And this is a meeting of the fiscal committee meeting.

I am Mary Fidelity, co-chair of the fiscal committee.

And with me this evening are my co-chair, Representative Sean Boger.

Other members present are representative Karen Camparelli, Representative Morrison, Representative Carmine Famas, Representative Pierre Louis, Representative Graham, Representative Vanderport.

And I don't see I missed anyone.

And this is our last meeting of our session.

And we have a few items on the agenda.

This evening, the first item is F 31 604 for $743, $900, $743,941, which is an additional appropriation for operating, which was police administration request for additional funding to increase budgeted police officer positions from 217 to 230 for 300 total sworn as the department is now fully staffed and plans to fill the 13 new positions in the upcoming spring um academy class.

I know this was held but by the Board of Finance, but I know there are some members who would like to make some comments.

So I'm asking this if someone could please move this item.

I think Representative Danderworth, you are muted.

So moved.

So move second second.

Okay.

Representative Boger.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, you know, I'm I'm I'm very displeased that we're not going to be able to vote on this, and this board is not going to be able to this committee is not going to be able to meet again since this is our last meeting.

I'm not sure if any of the other members had watched the the uh Board of Finance meeting, but I just have to say, and and again, unfortunately I always have to preface just to make sure nobody isn't is uh unclear.

These are these are this is my opinion.

I am not speaking as a member of your police department.

I'm speaking as your fellow elected official who happens to be a police officer, um with uh 28 years of experience of of working in that particular department in and the hiring of more officers um does not impact me as far as a benefit or anything like that.

Having said all that, and um the only the only word I can say is disgusted.

Um I listened to the meeting, the amount of of data that is being requested uh of the police department to produce in order to fund this, and mind you, these are the positions that we we told as a total financial leg of the uh of the city.

We told the chief of police that we're not gonna fund these positions right now.

These are those is the bird board of finance, but come back when you're ready to, and we will.

Well, the police department is the academy's been going full blast.

We're trying to catch up.

And just for those of you that that may be on this committee for the next board, I want you to understand something.

Almost 30 years ago, this police department had 315 officers.

We were able to fulfill things that the public wanted, like foot posts, bicycle patrol, SROs.

As you know, um in this country, school incidents, shootings, all these horrible, terrible things have gone nothing but up, while the population of our police department has gone down, while the population of our city has skyrocketed.

And how those members of the Board of Finance, and I'm just gonna say in their in their in their ivory white towers are sitting there without any direct professional knowledge of how a police part department functions or the tactical or strategic decisions that have to be made.

Um and make this decision to to hold these positions in my opinion, hostage at this point until they get certain information, is is just it's disgusting to me.

Um I know they made mention of the fact that they're not pleased with how the pension plan is performing.

Well, the police administration has nothing to do with the in with the administration of the pension plan.

That's that's the the that that's the pension board.

They have their own trustees, two appointed by the city, two appointed by the union, and one neutral.

The the police administration has no power or control over that, but because they're not happy with that, they want to see this data and that data.

They want to see data spanning back years and years and years that that covers a landscape of this department in this city that doesn't even exist anymore.

They want to know where the the police officers are actually going to be allocated, what positions are they going to be in?

Um as if they know better than the chief of police where to put certain people and and whether or not that those things are actually needed.

And the only other thing that I would point out is if I I pay particular attention to uh a lot of the social media that uh involves Stanford directly.

Um and if you go onto any of those platforms, you will see the number the the top gripes of our citizenry are all the same.

And you guys already know this because of the same phone calls that we get from our constituents.

Uh traffic enforcement, because people in the city drive like animals.

They drive with total there's time they just drive with total disregard for only what they need to do and nobody else.

Um it's hard to police a city of a hundred and thirty uh a hundred and thirty uh five plus thousand people when we only have I believe it's four officers assigned traffic enforcement because our patrol demand is so high.

That's ridiculous.

We should be able to bolster that number.

We should be able to double that number with the amount of traffic we have in the city.

Um the other thing I hear about is why don't we have school resource officers in every single school?

And while maybe every single school is a bit much, because I don't know if it's necessary maybe for some of the elementary schools or something, but we used to have them in all the middle schools and the high schools back then.

Now we're lucky if we could cover the high schools when it's busy.

And then I'm trying I'm I'm um oh, and foot patrol, right?

I read I read something online where a woman felt very unsafe and accosted because there was some people whom she described, I believe, as as vagrants near the top or near the bottom of Bedford Street and didn't feel safe just walking there on a regular like weekday night, a Wednesday night, a Thursday night, or whatever.

And why can't we have why can't we have a a police presence right there, like walking around on foot?

And you know what?

She's right.

We should.

How is it possible that we're able to do these things 30 years ago and we can't do them today?

Especially when we're over taxing our residents one year, what I forget what was it, 23, 24 or 24, 25 to the tune of 25 million dollars in excess because our accounting was so screwed up.

Like maybe the Board of Finance should fit should should figure uh on on getting that straightened out first before they worry about holding hostage 13 positions just so we could bring the compliment of our officers up to 300.

You know, I mean there's there's much more I could say, but I think that the glaring thing is is if you look at the four other major cities in our state, we outpace them by population, all of them except for Bridgeport.

But it's only a matter of years before we take over for them take over the number one spot from them too.

And out of all those major cities, we have the least amount of officers.

We have 280 some odd officers right now.

So if we want to be responsible and we want to have the nice things that a nice city like Stanford should have, foot patrols, SROs, a robust traffic enforcement to address all these all these speeding issues and and other traffic violations that I hear you guys complain about on a monthly basis and hear from your constituents.

We have to do something about this.

And unfortunately, there's nothing that we can do as a as a committee to help bolster that because they want such my minutia-based data.

I I I'm just I'm angry.

I'm I'm I'm I'm pissed off, and I'm I'm sorry, this is our last meeting, and and this is probably the last rant I'm gonna have on this thing because I would have rather ended it on a good tone.

I do and I didn't do enjoy working with everybody, but um that's my piece on it.

I need I wish the Board of Finance would pull their heads out of their butts.

Thank you.

Representative Bogar, thank you very much for that passionate response.

I I personally couldn't agree with you more.

Um I think it's an atrocity that they did not prove this, but um, I agree with you 100%.

Represent um, just for the record, um joining the meeting as representative Shaw Figueroa and Goldberg.

Yeah, I just wanted to let you know.

I apologize.

I got engrossed in what I was doing, and the time slipped away.

I'm here.

That's fine.

I got you.

It's not about that.

Yep, Representative Shaw, I got you too.

Yep.

Representative Camper Camparelli got your hand up.

Go ahead.

Um through you to Chair Boger, or I guess I don't have to go through you for Chair Boger.

Um, I just wanted to ask, are we in jeopardy of losing these candidates?

And uh separate from that, I just wanted to to iterate that I completely agree with you.

The number one complaint we get in my district is people speeding and just driving like lunatics and more police enforcement is definitely um needed.

So question to you.

No, we're not in jeopardy of losing candidates, but what the problem is is we just opened up testing for for new positions, and because that those position, we can't send people to an academy until those funds are approved.

And I don't I'm not I'm not exactly sure when the training division is planning on sending more people to the academy, but what happens is because we don't get to vote on it next month, it gets pushed off to November.

Well, guess what?

This committee's not be meeting in November, right?

So then that gets pushed off until December.

And then that committee, that new committee on the 32nd board has to meet, and then the full board, the 32nd board's not going to be able to vote on this until January.

So they've effectively pushed this out till next year.

So those officers we've we've effectively, if we were going to be able to send them, say maybe in a month or so, or maybe two months or so.

We've effectively we we we've effectively delayed that process.

And the thing is is that depending on how many people we want to put in there and the timing of certain things, sometimes we don't always get to put our recruits into our academy.

Sometimes we have to send them to other academies like Milford's Academy or the State Academy, but that is if there's a position, if that's if there's a seat available.

So it's like we're gambling with open positions uh uh based on academy availability, and that's something we don't want to get into as well.

But the damage is already done.

There's nothing that could be done about that.

Yeah.

Anything else, Representative Camparelli?

No, I yield.

Thank you.

Okay, so we're not gonna take any action on this item.

Um as the Board of Finance held this.

I'm hoping that the maybe the Board of Finance may take it up again in a special meeting before our meeting.

Let's keep our fingers crossed that that may happen.

I highly doubt it, but one could hope.

Um so thank you, Representative Boger again for your comments on that.

Um so item number two and uh before you move on, Chair.

I just had my hand raised.

I apologize.

I just had a process question.

Is there anything we can do at this stage?

Should the uh Board of Finance uh move forward?

What would be from a process perspective what we could do for our November meeting?

We'd have to quickly read it.

We would take it up on the floor.

We would, okay.

Yeah.

So you wouldn't want to have a special meeting to uh okay, got it.

Thank you for the process.

We have enough information.

Um if needed, I could have the chief write something up to give it to us.

Um and we could, you know, we could we could vote it, take it up on the floor.

I think this this board was part of the fiscal discussions when the chief came in well, actually, you know, to talk about that during budget.

So I think we have enough background.

So we could take it up on the floor on the night of the meeting.

Okay, and and just out of curiosity, are you and your co-chair planning to just to talk to the chair of the uh the board of finance to see if they can take some action in the interim?

Um I could talk to my co-chair about that.

I I the way that that meeting went, I'm not sure they're gonna take any direction from us.

Oh since it was a um I don't know what the vote was, um, but I think it was was it unanimous, uh Representative Boger to hold it by the Board of Finance.

Yes, I believe it was.

So yeah.

Well, just just as one of your colleagues, I didn't I'd encourage you guys to reach out and just let them know how how just deeply disappointed and frustrated our committee is, just so they have that information if if you have the opportunity.

Yep.

Thank you.

I I I'm done.

Okay, thank you.

Um item number two, F 31605 uh for two million four hundred and twenty-three thousand eight hundred and one dollars and fifty-nine cents.

Um additional appropriation capital project CP 8711 utility paving funding for full roadway rest restorations on utility road openings, utility cover partial costs, road maintenance to manage curb to curb repairs to extend pavement life and reduce future uh surface resurfacing.

Additional appropriation capital project CP 8711 utility paving funding for full roadway restorations on utility road openings, utility cover partial costs, road maintenance to manage curb to curb repairs to extend pavement life and reduce future uh surface resurfacing.

Can I get a motion?

Sure, I'll I'll make that motion.

Second second.

Okay, thank you.

Uh is Mr.

Turk on.

Hello, I have to use my phone.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Thank you.

Go right ahead.

Good evening.

So this is a fairly new capital project, two, three years old, where the city analyzes the trenching that the utilities made, which I'm sure all of you have noticed throughout the city.

And if the side of the road that they're not gonna touch is in disrepair, uh I make that decision.

I decide it's better to take a check from the utility, and then the city goes back with our contractor and we pave it curb to curb so the residents have a completely new road and not half new and half in disrepair.

And it's been working out pretty good.

We're getting more efficient, and the reason for this capital request is because we're trying to be able to do this in real time and not just get a list once a year and deal with 30 roads at once.

For example, I just added five more roads that I want to get done before the end of the season in the next five, six weeks, and this money is crucial to be able to get that done and save having to wait another six, eight months before we get the road paved.

Okay, thank you.

Um Representative Goldberg.

Yeah, uh, I mean, this seems entirely reasonable.

Uh I the only question I had is is this a more cost-effective way to do it?

Yes, because typically our costs are lower than utilities just because we do more bulk than they do.

So they'll give us whatever it costs them to do half a road, which typically covers about 60% or so of our cost.

So we're getting a complete road done for about 40%, which is better than having to pay the whole thing.

Yeah, sounds good.

Thank you so much.

I'll be supporting.

Um, I do not see any other hands.

So we can take this to a voice vote.

All those in favor, please say aye.

I opposed abstaining.

That is one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, yep.

Thank you.

That's on consent.

Thank you, uh, Mr.

Turk.

Thank you, everybody.

Have a good evening.

Thank you, you two.

Um, item number three, F31.

Uh 606 for 88,200 um 330.

Additional appropriation for grants.

Um, oh, this oh, this was um oh, for grants Stanford Police Department, Department of Um Public Health awarded grant for community violence intervention and prevention services support police.

Um, led youth mentoring and violence training in partnership with Domus and Liberation Programs, 100% funded.

Can I have a motion on this?

Uh sure, I'll move it.

Second okay, thank you.

Um, Ms.

Carpenter, are you on for this?

Can't see.

I don't see her.

I don't see her.

Is there someone speaking on this item?

We only have Tyler and the press.

I mean, Tyler is the press, and Mr.

Romano, that's it.

I don't see any other.

Mr.

Romano, are you can you speak to this by chance?

If you're trying to speak, you're muted.

His icon just went.

Yeah, he just loved uh.

Sorry.

Uh it looks like Ms.

Carpenter is on every remaining item on the agenda.

Yeah, this is not a good thing.

Maybe it's just a technical problem.

We should zero any way we can ping her and let her know we need her.

Christine, did she try to get in before?

I don't remember seeing Anita on at all though.

No, I did not see her trying to get in, although I did see um Mr.

Turk, he just logged off.

Yeah, he's finished for the night, but we either need Anthony or Miss Carpenter.

Yeah, Anthony Romano was on earlier, but he dropped off.

So I'm not sure if he might be trying to get back on.

I'll keep an eye out.

Well, we can't do anything right now.

Does anybody have I don't have Anthony Romano's cell phone?

Does staff have access to uh the city directory and could they maybe ping him?

Yes, I'll try that right now, Representative Goldberg.

I have a cell number.

Oh, can you can you text him?

Is that Eric?

Yeah, I'll text him.

We will you let him know that every single item on the agenda?

Yeah.

Is for Anita.

It's for Anita.

Thanks, Eric.

It might be a timing issue too.

Um Chair Fidelity, she might not realize we moved our bumped our meeting.

Yeah, that's true.

But did everybody enjoy the beautiful day?

Oh yeah.

I was inside all day.

Oh really.

I got out and really voted.

Good for you.

Okay, uh Tony Romano is gonna jump back on.

Okay, good.

Yeah, he's afraid we're all gonna turn up in his office if he doesn't.

I know.

Well, well, we're waiting for him to get back on.

How about the gorgeous colors?

It is pretty out.

I will say that.

Yeah, I'm really loving the backyard right now.

It's gorgeous.

That's nice.

Um would that be because of all the trees, Emile?

I love them.

Legacy trees.

The legacy trees are looking good.

They are looking good.

Eric and I were fortunate enough to be up in North Stanford this weekend, and it was really gorgeous outside.

We saw some amazing birds of prey outdoing their birds of prey thing.

That's pretty.

It's a pretty time.

Okay.

Mr.

Romano, are you gonna save the day?

I don't know what's going on.

So Anita isn't on.

Oh jeez.

Yes, and she's got the remind the remaining items on our agenda.

So we were wondering if you had any.

We were on item number three.

Which is on the grants budget for the police department.

Or if somehow you could maybe ping Anita.

Yeah, let me see if I can get a hold of her.

Hang on.

All right.

She might think our meetings at seven.

Okay, I'm gonna put it on mute for a second.

Let me see if I can get a hold of her by phone.

Okay.

The only other alternative I could think of is um I might be able to reach out to I think two of these items and their resolutions remaining are police related, and one of them is uh one of them's kind of self-explanatory.

I don't think we need a need to explain it to us.

It's a grant for the early voting, but I might be able to get a hold of Captain Duckworth and have him jump on.

Okay.

Okay, let's see if you can get Anita, and then if not, then maybe you can get Captain Duckworth.

All right.

Um yeah, because item seven is held.

She'll be on in five minutes.

Okay.

She thought it was seven.

You were right.

Yeah, that's okay.

So we could take a break for five minutes if you guys want.

Come back at 6:30.

You guys want to just take a little bit of a break?

We'll reconvene at 6 30.

Oh, you want to do that?

Yeah, well, let's do item.

Let's do item number five.

Right.

Oh, uh share my laptop just informed me.

It's gonna die.

I'm gonna try and switch to my phone.

Okay.

So I'll move number five.

Okay, item number five.

It is been um moved.

Do we have a second?

Second.

Okay, so item number five is just I'll read it out.

Is an additional appropriation for grants pursuant to public act 25168.

The Connecticut Secretary of State awarded Stanford a grant to help cover early voting costs for the November 2025 election, including labor and ballot expenses for in the amount of 41, 795.39 cents.

So we have a motion and a second.

So do I'm seeing no hands, so we'll take that to a voice vote.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Okay.

Opposed.

Abstaining.

Okay, that's on consent.

And then item number six, F31 609 is the resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into and sign an agreement with the Connecticut Secretary of State for the early voting grant.

Do I have a motion?

So move.

Second.

Second.

Motion and a second.

Thank you.

Um we'll take this to a voice vote.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Abstaining.

Okay, that's on consent.

So that's good.

Anita just joined.

Okay.

Anita, glad to have you.

I am so sorry.

That's okay.

No problem.

You didn't want we were nervous.

You weren't gonna join us for our last little meeting.

You know, we want to fine.

We met early today instead because we have uh legislative and rules.

So no no worries.

So we are we were we moved item three, Anita, which is the um additional appropriation for the Stanford Police Department for the community violence and intervention and prevention services.

So do you do you can you give us a brief overview on that?

Just a couple of sentences.

Item number three.

Yeah, I gotta hold it.

I'm on my phone, so I don't have it up.

Would you do me a favor and just read it for me and then I can tell you?

Yes, sure.

It's an additional appropriation grant, Stanford Police Department, Connecticut Department of Public Health awarded grant for community violence and intervention and prevention services to support police-led youth mentoring, uh anti-violence training and partnerships with DOMIS and liberation programs 100% grant funded for 88,000.

Yeah, okay.

So this is continuation funding.

They got funding last year and they're getting funding again.

Um they they use most of this money to go to uh their partnership with Dolmet.

They do they do this uh training uh funding with uh liberation program where they come in and do um intervention training with their police officers and then um work with DOMA to do some um community engagement work and then they use this to do mentoring services with their police officers and youth in the community.

So it's continuation money.

Okay, thank you.

Any questions for Anita?

Seeing no hands, we'll take this to a vote.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye, aye.

Opposed, abstaining.

Okay, that is on consent.

Um item number four uh F 31607 was the resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into and sign agreements with the Connecticut Children's Medical Center for the Community Violence Intervention and Prevention Services grant.

Can I have a motion?

So move.

I'll move that second motion and a second.

Thank you.

Um all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye, aye, opposed.

Okay, that passes on consent.

The Board of Finance, we did item five and six.

Item seven was held by the Board of Finance, so we won't be taking that up tonight.

Item number seven.

No, we wouldn't take that up either, correct?

That goes with number seven.

Okay.

So that concludes our agenda for this evening.

Um, I just want to thank um, I want to thank my co-chair for being patient with me as I became the co-chair uh middle of the term.

So thank you, uh, coachair boger.

And I just want to thank everyone for particip their participation.

Um we've dealt with over 600 items and four budgets.

Um, so thank you very much for your cooperation.

Um, and we've had a great team.

We've always had a quorum, we've never not had a quorum.

So thank you very much to everyone, and thank you to Anita and uh and Tony for always being here with us.

And then I will turn it over to Representative Boger for anything he would like to add.

Thanks, Mary.

Uh no, I quite a sentiment.

Um thank you to the committee for having patience with me for having to grab um half of the reins in the middle of the term.

And and thank you, uh Anita and Tony, and please uh say thank you to Elda as well.

Um and uh, you know, I know uh I know I know our board has been a tumultuous one, but this committee has always seemed to uh we we've always just gotten the job done no matter what.

And um thank you for for all the sacrifice and time of of coming to every single meeting and especially during budget season.

I know that's not easy on your families, um, so I'm very uh I'm very grateful in the uh in this in the citizenry uh owes you guys a debt of gratitude for for all that time that you give to them.

So thank you.

It's been my honor.

Yep, thank you very much.

It's been such a pleasure.

I I'm sorry, Mary.

I go ahead.

I was, you know, I I've only been here what like a year and a half.

I was a total newbie, and you guys were very patient with me.

I learned so much, especially during budget season.

I learned so much about the city, and I I thought I couldn't love Stanford more, but being on this committee during budget season really made me fall even more in love with Stanford, and I really appreciate all of you for that.

Yep, I I want to echo uh Jessica's sentiment.

I this committee has really taught me so much about our public-private partnerships and so many things that I did not know about the city, and I have loved my time with all of you guys, and thank you both for being such wonderful chairs and uh and Anthony and Anita for all you do for the city.

Thank you, everyone.

So I think a special shout out needs to go to Mary, who partnered with me on the capital budget.

We we had a lot, so for all the meetings we had, we had even more.

And uh she was a great mentor and tutor to me in learning how to do the capital budging budgeting process as well as this committee.

And I think the sentiments are so accurate.

If there were one committee, I'd encourage all of our constituents to pay attention to.

It's this one because when you see how we allocate money, you see what our priorities are.

So you know, nothing nothing really brings home to you how much we do and how much impact we have, then by looking at the numbers and the allocation of over 600 million dollars.

It's it's really impressive.

We punch way above our weight for our spend.

Yep.

Yep, well said.

Well, thank you, everyone.

Everyone have a good evening for some of us for going right back at it in a little while, but um, thanks again, and everyone have a good evening.

And we are adjourned at 6 35 p.m.

tonight.

Good night.

Thank you.