COMMON COUNCIL ACTION

APRIL 23, 2002

NORWALK, CONNECTICUT 8:00PM DST,COUNCIL CHAMBERS

The regular meeting of the Common Council of the City of Norwalk was held on Tuesday, April 23, 2002, in the Common Council Chambers, City Hall, 125 East Avenue, Norwalk, Connecticut. Mayor Alex Knopp called the meeting to order at 8:00 p.m.

I. ROLL CALL
Betsy Bain Jeanette Olmstead-Sawyer
Kenneth Baker (8:05 p.m.) Christopher Perone (Absent)
Fred Bondi (8:10 p.m.) Kevin Poruban (8:10 p.m.)
Barbara Hudgins Judith Rivas
Bruce Kimmel (8:10 p.m.) Douglas Sutton (8:05 p.m.)
William Krummel Peter Wien
Joseph Mann William Wrenn (8:10p.m.)
Matthew Miklave
Eight (8) Members were present at Roll Call.

III. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
There was none this evening.

IV. MAYOR
A. RESIGNATIONS AND APPOINTMENTS
There were none this evening.
B. REMARKS Proclamation: "Young Astronauts Day"
Mayor Knopp announced that in recognition of the excellent work done at Columbus Magnet School with regard to its Young Astronaut Chapter that May 3, 2002, would be celebrated as "Young Astronauts Day". He congratulated everyone involved for the dedication and commitment to learning they had shown.

V. COUNCIL PRESIDENT
A. CONSENT CALENDAR
Mr. Mann presented the following items for consent:
VII. COMMON COUNCIL COMMITTEES
A. PUBLIC SAFETY & EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS COMMITTEE
1. Authorize the Mayor, Alex A. Knopp, to execute any and all documents necessary to apply for and accept grant funds from the U.S. Department of Justice for the 2002/2003 Weed and Seed Grant Program.
2. Authorize the Mayor, Alex A. Knopp, to execute any and all agreements and documents necessary to implement the 2002/2003 Weed and Seed Grant Program.
3a. Authorize the Mayor, Alex A. Knopp, to execute any and all documents necessary to apply for and accept grant funds from the State of Connecticut, Department of Transportation Division of Highway Safety for the 2002 Memorial Day/Fourth of July DUI Enforcement Grant Program.
3b. Authorize the Mayor, Alex A. Knopp, to execute any and all agreements and documents necessary to implement the State of Connecticut, Department of Transportation Division of Highway Safety for the 2002 Memorial Day/Fourth of July DUI Enforcement Grant Program.
B. LAND USE & BUILDING MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE
1a. Authorize the Mayor, Alex A. Knopp, to execute any and all documents necessary to apply for and accept grant funds from the Connecticut Historical Commission under the Norwalk Historical Commission Rogers-Ritch-Merritt House project, including but not limited to the project Funding Agreement and Preservation Restriction.
1b. Authorize the Mayor, Alex A. Knopp, to execute any and all agreements and instruments necessary to implement the Norwalk Historical Commission Rogers-Ritch-Merritt House Project pursuant to such grant funding, including but not limited to a Project Funding Agreement and Preservation Restriction.
2. Authorize the Mayor, Alex A. Knopp, to execute an Amendment to the City's Lease with Valentine D. Dowd for Unit #1 at 35 Smith Street (Old Smith Street Jail), extending the terms for one additional year and increase the rent to $450.00 per month. All remaining terms of the Agreement to remain unchanged. CONSENT TO TABLE UNTIL THE NEXT REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING.
3. Authorize the Mayor, Alex A. Knopp, to execute an Amendment to the City's Lease with Richard A. Winfield for Unit #2 at 35 Smith Street (Old Smith Street Jail), extending the terms for one additional year and increase the rent to $450.00 per month. All remaining terms of the Agreement to remain unchanged. CONSENT TO TABLE UNTIL THE NEXT REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING.
4. Authorize the Mayor, Alex A. Knopp, to execute an amendment to the Norwalk Historical Society's agreement for the Mill Hill Complex for three additional years.
5. Authorize the Mayor, Alex A. Knopp, to execute an agreement with (lowest responsible bidder) for roof replacement at for a total not to exceed (amount to be determined). Acct. Nos. to be determined. CONSENT TO TABLE TO A SPECIAL MEETING.
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY BY VOICE VOTE. MAYOR KNOPP NOTED THAT MR. BONDI WAS NOT PRESENT FOR THE VOTE. (11 IN FAVOR)
B. OTHER GENERAL COUNCIL BUSINESS
Mr. Mann announced that a special meeting of the Common Council would be held on April 30, 2002, if a decision had been made regarding the roof replacements.
V. REPORTS: DEPARTMENT, BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS
A. CORPORATION COUNSEL
1. Executive Session: Authorization to settle claim: Jason Kyle v. City of Norwalk
** MR. MANN MOVED APPROVAL FOR THE BODY TO ADJOURN TO EXECUTIVE SESSION.
Prior to the vote being taken, Mayor Knopp showed the assembly the SBC SNET Telephone Book. He commented on its size and noted that a person unfamiliar with the area would not be able to ascertain if the book contained any Norwalk listings. He remarked that if the telephone company's plans went unchanged the current listing policy would tremendously inconvenience Norwalk residents and would be detrimental to Norwalk restaurants and small businesses. He pointed out that under the current plan after August 2002 the Norwalk white and yellow pages would be listed in one large book. He urged the assembly and all constituents to call SBC SNET and complain about this plan. Ms. Rivas remarked that the new book would present a problem in the library as well. She noted that it was a confusing publication for people to reference and difficult to shelve.
Ms. Rivas then stated that she was recusing herself from item moved by Mr. Mann and she left Chambers.
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY BY VOICE VOTE. (13 IN FAVOR, 1 RECUSED)
The Members went into Executive Session at 8:15 p.m.
Public Session resumed at 8:30 p.m.
** MR. BONDI MOVED APPROVAL TO SETTLE THE CLAIM BASED ON THE RECOMMENDATION OF CORPORATION COUNSEL.
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY BY VOICE VOTE. (13 IN FAVOR, 1 RECUSED)
Ms. Rivas returned to Chambers.

II. ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES

A. Regular Meeting March 26, 2002
The following corrections were made to the minutes:
Page 3, 2nd Paragraph, 1st Sentence should read: "Mayor Knopp stated that the function of the 504 Officer was to receive complaints on ADA compliance and forward it to the City." 4th Paragraph, Last Sentence: Delete the phrase "…their added presence was not everything…" and insert the phrase "…their added presence was not the only solution…"
Page 5, Item #1: Insert "Consent to Refer Back to Committee" at the end of the item.
Page 7, Top of Page: Correct the spelling of the word "mil rate" to "mill rate".
** MR. BONDI MOVED APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES AS CORRECTED.
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY BY VOICE VOTE.
B. Regular Meeting April 9, 2002
Mr. Krummel stated that he intended to vote not to accept these minutes, as they were deplorable. He went on to state that the staff person of Land Use & Building Management would be sending a letter of complaint to the City Clerk. He remarked that there had been extensive public and Council participation at this meeting and the minutes had treated this with less coverage than he had expected to see. He commented that another concern of his was that it was taking a long time to correct the minutes and he wanted to send a message to the secretarial service that this was not a useful undertaking of the Member's time.
Mr. Kimmel remarked that the City was paying for this service and the Members should not have to spend as much time as they did making corrections. He stated that there were major omissions in these minutes and he felt the document was uncorrectable. He sent on to state that to reduce the coverage of the police building item to a single paragraph did not do justice to the minutes that had to be kept.
Mr. Mann commented that he felt the minutes were a summary and not a transcript. He stated that in his review of them he had noticed a couple of changes that needed to be made but he did not feel that the people involved should be faulted. He went on to state that he did not feel that the minutes were "all that awful" and although he felt there were a few important corrections to be made he did not feel they were that bad.
Mr. Bondi commented that he felt that the problem was that the minutes were too detailed.
The following corrections were made to the minutes:
Page 3, 3rd Paragraph: Correct the spelling of the name "Laura Lindstrom" to read, "Laurel Lindstrom". 5th Paragraph: Correct the spelling of the name "Winnie Moeller" to read "Wini Mola". Last Paragraph: Correct the spelling of the name "Glennis Bradbury" to read "Dennis Bradbury".
Page 4, 3rd Paragraph: Insert the name: "James Byington" in place of "name inaudible". 6th Paragraph: Insert the name of the speaker after referencing the signup sheet in place of "name inaudible".
Page 5, 1st Paragraph: Correct the spelling of the name "Bill Krause" to read "Bill Kraus". 5th Paragraph: Throughout the paragraph delete the pronoun "she" and insert the pronoun "he". 6th Paragraph, 1st Sentence: Delete the word "whole" and insert he word "hole".
Page 11, Item F: Delete the word "adult" and insert the word "senior".
Page 12, Item B: Delete the figure "$89,102.00" and insert the figure "$949,102.00".
Page 13, Last Paragraph should read: "Mr. Miklave said that he would support the Ordinance and those individuals who worked so hard to provide answers to questions should be commended. Mr. Miklave said that he would like to see all the tax credits programs analyzed to see what the City could do to bring greater relief to its elderly population and others. He added that this was diligent work on the part of those involved. Mr. Wrenn said that it was a well put together Ordinance. The Senior Tax Committee recommended that that the income level be raised to $45,000, which cannot happen in 2002 but we should look to see if it could happen in 2003. Mayor Knopp added that the program will be made available to taxpayers by July 1, 2002.
Page 14, 1st Paragraph, 1st Sentence should read: "Mr. Miklave said that his comments were related to the Norwalk Center Redevelopment project, and that it was important to remember that all of those in the room share more in common that united us than could divide us." 2nd Paragraph, 9th Line should read: "…that the developer is not a proponent of smart urban thinking and felt the project as presented would not strengthen the community."
Page 15, 1st Sentence: The phrase "resolution of Norwalk's commitment" should read "resolution of the former Common Council of Norwalk's commitment." 5th Sentence, "retail" should be added as the last word to the sentence. 7th Sentence should read: "Mr. Wrenn said that he was opposed to the project not just because of the money, but because the project was fatally flawed." Last Paragraph, 4th Sentence: Delete the word "location" and insert the word "locate".
Page 16, 2nd Motion: Add the results of the vote on the Motion to be: "The Motion was adopted unanimously."
** MR. BONDI MOVED APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES AS CORRECTED.
** MOTION PASSED BY VOICE VOTE WITH TWELVE (12) IN FAVOR (MESSRS. MANN, MIKLAVE, SUTTON, WRENN, BAKER, WIEN, BONDI, PORUBAN, MS. OLMSTEAD-SAWYER, BAIN, RIVAS, AND HUDGINS) AND TWO (2) OPPOSED (MESSRS. KRUMMEL AND KIMMEL).


VIII. RESOLUTIONS FROM COUNCIL MEMBERS
There were none this evening.

IX. MOTIONS POSTPONED TO A SPECIFIC DATE
There were none this evening.
X. SUSPENSION OF THE RULES
There were none this evening.

XI. ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 9:30 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Ann Marie DeLuca
Telesco Secretarial Services