Click here for minutes from the April 18th, 2002 meeting
Click here for minutes from the June 20th, 2002 meeting
Click here for minutes from the July 18th, 2002 meeting
Click here for minutes from the August 28th, 2002 meeting
Click here for minutes from the September 17th, 2002 meeting
Click here for minutes from the October 17th, 2002 meeting

NOVEMBER 7, 2002

SPECIAL MEETING

Page 2, 1^st statement, after 1^st paragraph, insert page 4, 6^th paragraph Resolved should read Resolution. Page 2, underneath the first statement add the following, Page 5, 8^th paragraph, correct spelling of Rodriguez. Page 2, underneath the 15^th statement, add the following, Page 12, 10^th paragraph, bring should read bringing.

Mr. Flack joined the meeting at 7.40pm.

Page 3, 7^th statement, correct the spelling of Vitam. Page 3, last statement correct the spelling of Mr. Murray. Page 3, Ms. Romano made the motion to accept the minutes, not Mr. Papadakos.

Page 4, 1^st paragraph, 2^nd line, delete the word "from" and replace with "on". Page 4, 3^rd paragraph, 2^nd line after Advisory insert "Commission" and again on the 5^th line. Throughout the 3^rd paragraph replace "Mr. Supreza" with "Dreamy Hollow" Page 4, 3^rd paragraph, 7^th line should read "breach of settlement and Margaret will so inform Mr. and Mrs. Dodds. However, she (delete the Advisory)." Page 4, 5^th paragraph, 2^nd line after "bring" insert "it". Page 4, 6^th paragraph, 2^nd line, delete "the" (after selling) and replace with "their."

Page 5, under point 4 of the settlement agreement, last line, correct the spelling of Anne Dodds, add Dorie Dodds, then replace "follow the" with "file a" and "from" with "of." Page 5, 6^th paragraph, delete the 3^rd word "stated" and replace with "suggested" then delete the "s" from communicate and correct to Fair Housing Officer (delete Commission).

Page 6, 3^rd paragraph under Director’s Report after the 3^rd word insert "in regard to Human Rights Day." Page 6, final motion, correct the spelling of Stabinsky.

Page 7, 1^st line of the motion insert CHRO before the word "settlement." Page 7, 1^st paragraph under Old Business, the second line should read, "regarding there not being a Chairman or Vice Chairman to convene the next meeting." Page 7, 3^rd paragraph under Old Business, at the end of the 6^th line correct to read "others." Page 7, under adjournment, Mr. Scialabba moved to adjourn, not Mr. Papadakos.

Mastrianni should be Mastroianni throughout.

Mr. Papadakos stated that he had received a letter from Ms. Devitt notifying him of her decision to retire. He said he has only known her for the past three years; she has been great and done wonderful work with the Commission and will be terribly missed.

Mr. Flack said Ms. Devitt is dynamic, determined, everybody loves her and he wished her all the very best.

Ms. Amodio said as the longest standing member on the Commission, she was on the Commission before Ms. Devitt was director and that Ms. Devitt has brought the Human Relations Commission into the 20^th and 21^st Centuries; she added that she viewed her as an extremely tough person to replace.

Mr. Scialabba said as Chairman for many years, he became very familiar with Ms. Devitt and her work ethics. He said it is going to be very hard to find someone with such motivation and dedication as she. He applauded her decision to find some time for herself.

Dr. Stabinsky said that through his experience with the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Commission he never knew of anybody that could take on such a diversity of people and get them to do a job and to do it well and added that he was not ready for her to leave.

Ms. Devitt said this has been a long time in coming but it has taken a lot of hard thinking about what to do. She said she has loved this job, it has been very gratifying and phenomenal with the people she has had to work with but the time is now right for her. Ms. Devitt said this job takes a more efficient person to do it within the time allotment in terms of her work volume; for eleven years she has worked at home and on her vacation etc. and still she felt she was not current.

Ms. Devitt said she needs to do this for herself and has enjoyed a good relationship with the new Mayor. There are things that this Commission is doing that she would like to see to completion and one pledge she made to the Commission is that the Blue Ribbon draft will be completed before the spring. She said she would be open to coming back as a consultant to the city and will (after several months) be seeking part time work.

Mr. Kossarski said he was so shocked with this news and added that it was a great pleasure working with her and said he would be happy to give her any help in the future.

Mr. Patterson said over the years there has been a great deal of heavy client work and said he took his hat off to Ms. Devitt for the work she has covered.

Ms. Devitt stated that the staff will need the help of the Commission for several months; in the past during a period when there was no director the Commission chair investigated complaints to help out the staff in the office. She said that the members of the Commission are the ones with the authority. She also asked the members of the Commission to remember that they have a role in the interview process of finding a new director and suggested that they speak with the Personnel Director.

Mr. Papadakos said he had received a copy of a letter of an opinion sent to Corporation Council from the Norwalk Redevelopment Agency, Tim Sheehan with reference to the interpretation of City Code 59A-12A. He said the subject is the role of the chairman of the Fair Housing Advisory Commission to call commission meetings.

Ms. Devitt explained that what this means is that there has not been a Fair Housing Advisory Commission meeting for several months because there is no chairman. The Mayor appoints the chairman and no new chairman has been appointed so they only have five members whose terms have not expired. There has been no appointments and so they haven’t held any meetings but the Commission wants very much to meet and they have requested a legal opinion from the law department as to the whether the Commissioners themselves can meet without a chairman. Ms. Devitt added that the reason Mr. Papadakos received this is because he is the link to the Fair Housing Advisory Commission.

Ms. Romano raised the point that they have two appointments that need filling. Mr. Flack suggested that Mr. Papadakos talk to the Mayor with reference to the vacant positions. Mr. Papadakos stated that he did send a letter to the Mayor, however he had not heard back yet.

DIRECTOR’S REPORT

Ms. Devitt stated that she will be attending a meeting in Cromwell next Thursday (November 14, 2002) on Municipal ADA Coordinators.

She said that one other thing that she did not include in her report was during the last meeting the members of the commission had spoken about her talking to Margaret Suib about some flexibility to settle a conflict with Dreamy Hollow. Mrs. Devitt said she did receive, prior to talking to Ms. Suib, a copy of a letter that Gary Oberst sent to her from Dreamy Hollow. She read the letter that stated that all members of the Board of Directors should take Fair Housing training. Dates and times of the training were proposed but none of the members of the Board of Directors were able to attend.

Ms. Devitt stated that she had informed Ms. Suib that she had received this letter and during the last time they had spoken, Ms. Suib had said she intended to offer an evening for training. The purpose of this training was part of a penalty. Ms. Devitt stated that although she had understood Ms. Suib’s comments she also said it would be of benefit to everyone for the Board of Directors of Dreamy Hollow to be well grounded in fair housing.

Ms. Devitt said she was unsure if Ms. Suib has written back to Mr. Oberst but she did anticipate they should know something before the next meeting.

Dr. Stabinsky asked, in reference to their last hearing, was it enough just to have the minutes as a record of this or does a report have to be made? Ms. Devitt said after any hearing that the Human Relations Commission has, they must also send a report to the Mayor stating what the case was about, the findings and any actions or recommendations. She said she was happy to issue any member of the Commission a copy of the report.

EXECUTIVE SESSION FOR CASE REVIEW

The Commission went into Executive Session at 8.30pm and reconvened into Public Session at 8.45pm.

OLD BUSINESS

A. Fair Housing Representative Report – Steve Papadakos

Mr. Papadakos said this was included in his Chairman’s Report.

B. Review/Revision of brochure – Art Scialabba

Mr. Scialabba said that he had updated the website and the brochure should be ready by the next meeting.

C. Plans for International Human Rights Day – Joanne Romano

Ms. Romano said they were still waiting on the tree. Ms. Devitt stated that she had gone out and chosen a tree today; it was a larger one than last year. Ms. Romano asked Ms. Devitt if she would assist her in choosing a place to put the tree. Ms. Devitt said she would be happy to and said it was a 7ft tree, a Norway Spruce.

Mr. Papadakos asked if everybody knew they had chosen Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights this year. He recited, "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." Ms. Romano said this coincides with a course on bullying in the Norwalk school system.

Ms. Amodio said she called the Mayor’s office and had spoken with his secretary and told her the date of December 10, 2002 would be the Human Rights Day program at Wolfpit School; she was then told that it was the City Clerk she should speak with. Ms. Amodio said she did not get a call back yet but she would follow up again in the morning.

Mr. Papadakos noted that the City Clerk has not been in her office as much due to an illness and to take that into consideration.

Ms. Devitt said with regard to Human Rights Day, she had sent a letter to Mayor Knopp on October 29, 2002 letting him know the day and she had requested of him to make a proclamation and she would provide the text. She told him about the Human Rights program at Wolfpit and said this year’s focus is Article 5 and the school is going to relate this to its campaign against bullying. Also included was an invitation for Mayor Knopp to be part of the program and to speak to the children as he did last year at Nathan Hale.

Ms. Devitt said she had spoken to Bruce Morris today, who feels he has been left out of the loop. She said Mr. Morris should be kept updated; however, he was relieved to know that it is underway. She also suggested that they send a letter to all the principals about Human Rights Day and added that Mr. Papadakos has just signed it.

Mr. Patterson said he was very impressed with all of the essays that the children did last year.

OTHER BUSINESS

A. Discussion and action on 2003-1004 Budget – including goals

Ms. Devitt said every year they have this budget process and it has to be submitted by next Wednesday (November 13, 2002). They would then have a review with the Finance Office on Monday November 18, 2002 at 2.30pm. She suggested they look at the numbers first and referred to a 2003/2004 Budget that had been distributed to all Commissioners.

Ms. Devitt said the only difference that was made in categories to their budget was putting a typing service under Human Relations for $1225; they did not put a similar number under Fair Rent which she suggested could be inaccurate if that is the number set for both Commissions. Ms. Devitt stated by her calculations the $1225 would cover the meetings for the Human Relations Commission meetings only and even more than this should be allotted for Fair Rent, as the meetings are often much longer and the hearings more frequent. She continued to go through each item on the agenda giving her opinion on the suggested figures; there was discussion by Commission members.

Mr. Flack left the meeting at 9.07pm.

Ms. Devitt stated that Fair Rent was upset about the budget because it does not reflect accurately the split of staff time and supplies etc. between the two bodies. She said there were two options, to do a three way split or to have a unified budget.

Mr. Papadakos said if the two were to be put together then there would be finger pointing as to who is spending the money.

Ms. Devitt said the other shortcoming in this budget is that there are no increases for salary for either Irene or Larry, because the contract that ran out has not been signed.

Ms. Devitt stated that her overall feeling was that they put down what they need, to be realistic and not to be greedy.

The Commissioners and staff went through each item on the budget in detail and either left it the same or suggested a number that was appropriate for the next fiscal year.

Ms. Devitt stated that although they had approved the budget they needed to come up with some goals. She read the following highlights:

• Conducted a Human Rights Day at Wolfpit Elementary School in cooperation with the Human Relations Department of the Norwalk public school system.
• Expanded the Human Rights Day observance.
• Concluded a review of the Blue Ribbon Commission report.
• Updated the brochure and website.
• From July 1, 2001 to September 30, 2002 served 117 new clients and made over 800 follow up contacts.
• 15 complaints of discrimination filed and investigated
• Held 2 hearings.
• Report issued on investigation of Brien McMahon High School yearbook complaint.
• Conducted ADA awareness training for all city employees.
• Revised Human Relations ordinance.
• Assisted in the city’s ADA compliance.

Ms. Devitt suggested the following goals:

• Increase the Human Relations investigative staff and reduce the investigative backlog.
• Revise Human Relations Commission by-laws.
• Work with the Mayor to create a City’s Disability Committee.
• Revise forms and informational material.
• Continue timely resolution of complaints.
• Conduct and promote education seminars and informational pieces.
• Expand Human Rights Day.

** MR. SCIALABBA SECONDED.

** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

ADJOURNMENT

** MS. ROMANO MOVED TO ADJOURN.

** MR. MURRAY SECONDED.

** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

The meeting was adjourned at 10.00pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Kate Kye

Telesco Secretarial Services

Back to Previous Page	Back to Home Page