Boards Filled, Wind Championed, Canine Root Canal Approved at Common Council Meeting

The Common Council moved decisively to complete city boards, and to beef up the police canine patrol and to move into an alternative-energy partnership with a neighboring community at their meeting on Monday. They also spent hours debating the town charter and the power of the executive branch in Middletown while debating how the mayor should select candidates for a police chief search.

Grady to Board of Ed, Phipps and Johnson to P&Z

The Common Council voted unanimously to appoint local attorney William Grady to the Board of Education to replace Judith Russo who resigned because of upcoming knee surgery. Russo was in attendance but declined to speak, though her husband, P&Z commissioner, and city democratic chairman Dan Russo commended the selection of Grady, and also praised the memory and the work of recently deceased P&Z member Jim Fortuna.

"He donated decades of time to the city," Russo said of Fortuna. "He was never one to say 'no' when asked to do something for the good of the community."

The Council voted to replace fill Fortuna's vacancy by appointing Quentin Phipps, who had previously been an alternate on the panel. After a short caucus during a break, the Council also voted to appoint Michael Johnson to replace Phipps as an alternate on the P&Z.

You Don't Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows

But you need MET Tower, and an anemometer. The Common Council approved making Middlefield the "lead" agency in a partnership between Middletown and Middlefield which may place electricity-generating windmills in the Metacomet Regional Wind Farm on the ridges along I-91.

According to Metacomet Regional Wind Farm chairman Bob Yamartino, who has been pursuing the wind generators, neither city will have to spend a dime if they can acquire stimulus money earmarked for projects like this one in which municipalities work together to solve energy problems. Yamartino, who was joined by Peter Staye, the Associate Director of Utilities at Wesleyan, said that they are applying for $150-175 thousand dollars to place MET Towers on the ridge between Mount Higby and Powder Ridge. These MET towers will measure wind speed, wind direction, humidity and atmospheric pressure over the course of a year to determine if construction of windmills on the ridge is viable.

"We may establish the first commercial wind farm in Connecticut, maybe in New England," Yamartino said in thanking the city of Middletown, Mayor Sebastian Giuliano and the Common Council for their support.

And If Selected We Will Not Assess

The Common Council couldn't hide their partisanship as they debated how, and if, the mayor should have the authority to determine the process by which the next Chief of Police will be selected.

Until Council members Deborah Klekowski (R) and Gerry Daley (D) demonstrated some common sense, other Democratic members spent many minutes claiming that their resolution, which required the mayor to use Bruce Davey Associates in the selection process, should stand, unamended. Problem is, Bruce Davey Associates removed themselves from consideration because one potential candidate from the Middletown Police Department has been employed by the company in the selction process for other departments.

In an email to Middletown's personnel director, Davey wrote that his association with a potential candidate created "an appearance problem, and I should withdraw my proposal.'

Democratic council members said that they did not have access to the email in which Davey withdrew, although the Middletown Press published a summary of the email Saturday. Republicans, on the other hand, argued that Democratic council members were attempting to infringe on the authority of the mayor.

Finally Kleckowski dismissed the flawed logic with a simple question.

"How is it that we going to hire someone who is no longer in the pool for hiring," Kleckowski asked. She warned her colleagues "that we not take on a resolution that names a company that has taken itself out of the running."

She was seconded by Council member Gerry Daley who said he liked the idea of advising the mayor on a process for selecting candidate, but reminded his Democratic colleagues that they "recognize the fact that if he (Bruce Davey) doesn't want the job, we can't make him take it."

"Our faith in the integrity of the process will be a factor in whether we support the candidate," Daley said. And so, he made an amendment that advised the mayor to select an "equally qualified consultant" to Davey, and to have potential candidates screened by the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association.

The resolution passed 8-4. Two local candidates, Acting Chief Patrick McMahon, and Acting Deputy Chief Gregory Sneed are expected to be among five eventual candidates for the position.

Senior Center Upgrade Approved

The Common Council approved the expenditure of $59,000 to supplement federal funding of $189,000 for improvements at the existing Middletown Senior Center. These improvements will increase space for programs at the Senior Center. Despite frequent protests by Council members in recent months that the Council will have to make difficult decisions in tough times, the Council passed this expenditure noting that it leveraged federal dollars to make significant upgrades in the center, especially when a $25 million Senior Center proposed years ago is unlikely to materialize until the economy improves significantly.

"It's about time we help the seniors," Council member Tom Serra said. "We've been trying to do this for 30 years."

What's Worse Than an Angry Police Dog? An Angry Police Dog Who Needs a Root Canal.

Middletown has been offered a German Shepard police dog worth $6,000, but there's a hitch. The dog needs a root canal that will cost up to $1500.

"It gives me pause," Gerry Daley said.

"Paws?" a wag (pun-intended) from the opposite end of the Council console asked.

Daley continued, seriously, concerned that the training of the dog would take an officer out of rotation for 18 weeks. Acting Police Chief McMahon explained that the free training course offered by State Police is 12 weeks (but only offered every 18 months), and that the officer selected would be from the second shift which is well-staffed. He also noted that with the additional dog, it will mean that each of three shifts will have a canine police team after the training.

Other Items

The Council debated another issue concerning mayor power and judgment, as regards Charter revision language. Council member Vinnie Loffredo offered a resolution that would require all memorandum of agreements and memorandum of understanding be reviewed by the Common Council to be sure that they do not have an affect on the budget, as required by charter language adopted two years ago. Loffredo noted that 28 such memos have been issued in the past two years. The resolution passed 7-5.

In discussing overtime during the canine officer resolution, Acting Chief McMahon was questioned about the Police overtime fund. "It's woefully underfunded," McMahon said. When asked to be more specific, the chief demurred, but estimated that he will likely have to ask the Council for $150,000 in additional funding for overtime to date.

Finally, former Democratic mayoral candidate Dan Drew attended the meeting to urge the Council to adopt a wide-ranging search for the new police chief. Drew looked particularly trim as he spoke and admitted later that he had lost 20 pounds since the election. His diet? "I'm just not eating as much," Drew said. And he said he'd like to drop another 20 pounds.