Note: The meeting agenda, minutes, and transcript indicate the meeting took place on Tuesday, September 8, 2026, at 7:30 p.m. However, the provided instruction specifies the date as September 9, 2026. This summary follows the instruction date; readers should be aware of the discrepancy.
The 32nd Board of Representatives of the City of Stamford held a regular meeting on September 9, 2026, at 7:30 p.m. in the Legislative Chambers of the Government Center, 888 Washington Boulevard, 4th Floor, and remotely via Zoom. President Shaw called the meeting to order at 7:31 p.m. Roll call showed 40 members present, a quorum. The meeting included an invocation, pledge, moments of silence, communications, a report from the BOE liaison, honorary resolutions, public participation, and reports from standing committees.
Nine members of the public spoke during the session (8:02 p.m. – 8:32 p.m.).
President Shaw adjourned the meeting at 9:22 p.m.
Uh point of privilege. Does the chair hear me? Uh you're muted if you're speaking to me. Can you hear us now? Yes. Um we, those of us that are online have been hearing recording stopped, recording started, recording stopped, recording started. So I think you have some technical issues going on. Yeah, we we do have something going on here. Um it just automatically reset something, but we're good now. You can hear us now, right? We can. Okay. Thank you. Just if you don't hear, just uh raise your hand or just call up and just we'll make sure that it gets addressed and you can hear us. Okay, thank you. Thank you so much. Our next speaker here is Miss Lori Chase. Good evening. Just a short story uh about the back to school shop. My husband, Lou and I, um, Luke Finkel, who already told you about our extended volunteer years with back to school moving boxes, uh lifting uh uh trucks, and uh working as personal shoppers. My story touched my heart a few years ago and still gives me tears and goosebumps when I think about it. When the back to school shop was still at Davenport Elementary School, I was volunteering as a personal shopper for a young boy named Luke, who was eight or nine years old at the time. First, as we explored the new clothing for him to select pants, shirts, and a s and a coat. He was so surprised that the clothing still had tags on them. These are all new. No one's worn them before. I said, nope, everything's brand new. He smiled. As we completed our adventure, after he found a new pair of sneakers, which he wanted to wear home, and we had filled the oversized shopping bag with clothing books and more. He stopped in the hallway on our way back to reunite with his his mom. He looked at me and said, We have to put all these things back because his mother didn't have enough money to pay for everything. She has to pay the rent this month next week. I think she has enough money to pay for the sneakers. I said I said to him very quietly and leaning over to him saying, No, everything in that bag is yours. No charge. Fighting back tears and having goosebumps all over. I said his mom did not have to pay for anything. While volunteers are always instructed not to hug the young companions, he looked at me and asked if he could hug me. Of course, tears and goosebumps again. When we reached them, his mom, I told her what a special son she had raised. We all hugged. That is what makes back to school shop so very important. You have 30 seconds. So very great and loving for each and every volunteer. Thank you for your attention. Thank you so much, Miss Laurie. Our next speaker is Mr. Russ Hollander. Mrs. Chairwoman, I think that you may mitigate the feedback that you're getting if you mute your mic, your microphones on the dance.