TOWN OF SOUTH WINDSOR
WORK SESSION MINUTES
TOWN COUNCIL MONDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2010
COUNCIL CHAMBERS TIME: 7:00 P.M.
1. Call Meeting to Order
Mayor Pelkey called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.
2. Roll Call
Members Present: Mayor John Pelkey
Deputy Mayor Ed Havens
Councillor Gary Bazzano
Councillor Tom Delnicki
Councillor Janice Favreau
Councillor Kathryn Hale
Councillor Kevin McCann
Councillor Cary Prague
Councillor Keith Yagaloff
Also Present: Matthew Galligan, Town Manager
3. Public Participation
None
4. Communications
None
5. Town Manager’s Report
None
6. Items for Discussion
- Juvenile Firesetter Intervention & Prevention Commission (Chief Crombie to be present)
Chief Crombie came forward and stated that he was present tonight as the Chairperson of the Juvenile Firesetter Intervention & Prevention Commission. An Ordinance establishing the Juvenile Firesetter Intervention & Prevention Commission was passed by the Town Council in January 2009. There have been seven youths since January of 2009 who have been identified and have gone through the program. There are a number of others who will hopefully go through the program. The membership of the Commission is the Fire Chief or his designee, Police Chief or his designee who is Sergeant Elsie Diaz and Office Peggy Clousier, Joanne Moriarty who is the Coordinator of Youth and Family Services and Walter Summers who is the Fire Marshal. The duties of the Commission as established in the Ordinance are
to establish rules and procedures for its conduct, to develop recommendations and
ITEM:
6. A. (Continued)
administer programs to look at juvenile firesetting both to correct those behaviors as well as develop prevention strategies. The Commission seeks for grants to help fund this program. By-laws for this Commission have been established.
Mr. Scott Yeomans who is the part time Administrator of this program came forward and explained the program in detail, as shown in attached Exhibit A.
Answering questions from the Council, Mr. Yeomans explained that the people who are being trained as Firesetter Intervention Specialists are myself; Dave Mauldin, Fire Marshal’s Office; Cathy Scanlon, Fire Department; Eileen Adler, Youth Services; and Ginny Molleur, Youth Services. Mental Health is taken care of by another professional resource.
Councillor McCann felt that this program sounds like a reasonable approach to the situation. Councillor McCann questioned if there would be a way to utilize to determine whether or not the program is successful and at what point along the line would you apply those metrics to measure the success of the program? Mr. Yeomans explained that this is something that has been asked to the Statewide Committee and it is a question that a lot of programs ask. The Commission will look if children start fires after they have gone through the program and will also look to do a survey with the parents to see what the parents ratings are to see what they feel the effect of the program was.
Councillor McCann then questioned if the Town has a measurement of the number of fires set by juvenile’s within South Windsor over the past five or ten years and would this be able to be compared with the experience over the next few years?
Mr. Walter Summers answered that since he became employed in South Windsor there have been 6 or 7 children but our referrals because the program is brand new come through the Juvenile Review Board. The children that are referred to the Juvenile Review Board will then be referred to our program that the Town has now. The only numbers that the Town has are those that the Juvenile Review Board has.
Councillor McCann suggested that the Town receive the set of numbers from the Juvenile Review Board leading up to the roll out of the program and those numbers can be compared with the experience over the next few years. Mr. Summers stated that the Town would be able to do that and he also feels the Town will have more children now that the program will be more advertised. After a child has completed the program there is a follow up with the family at two months, four months and six months to make sure what the Town is doing is actually helping the family.
ITEM:
6. A. (Continued)
Mr. Yeomans explained that the Town of South Windsor will not help other Towns monetarily but will allow other Towns to use the South Windsor model. Chief Crombie added that Manchester, East Hartford and Enfield also have programs.
Answering further questions from the Council, Mr. Summers explained that Enfield has had a successful program for ten to twelve years, Manchester has had a program for quite a while and they partner with their Human Services Department.
Mayor Pelkey recessed the Work Session in order to call the Special Meeting to order at 8:00 p.m. The Special Meeting was then recessed and the Work Session reconvened.
Councillor Hale questioned when the Open House for the new Firehouse will be held? Chief Crombie stated that in the next couple of weeks everything from Fire Company 3 will be moved into the new Firehouse. There will then be a Grand Opening in January for Town officials and then when the weather is nicer there will be an Open House for the public. The old firehouse will be vacant within the next month.
7. Executive Session
Councillor Yagaloff made a motion to go into Executive Session to discuss a personnel matter and discuss the Town Managers’ evaluation and salary increase. Councillor Delnicki seconded the motion.
Mayor Pelkey questioned if the individual has been notified regarding the personnel matter? Councillor Yagaloff stated that the individual is the Town Manager and he has been informed.
Mr. Galligan stated that he had not been informed by the Council. Councillor Yagaloff thought the Town Manager was informed through an email that was sent out to the Council. Mr. Galligan explained that the email did not come to him and felt that this item could be discussed in public.
It was by general consensus of the Council to take Item 7. A. off of the Executive Session and discuss as an agenda Item.
Councillor Yagaloff began the discussion by explaining that at the last meeting after the Council voted 6 to 3 in favor of the TIF financing resolution as amended, the Town Manager made a statement to the effect that it would be very unlikely that the project would be successful. The Town Manager is supposed to support the decisions of the Town Council, not undermine their decision. I felt that the decision to make a comment off the record after the meeting that the Town Council’s decision was going to jeopardize that project was unfortunate and also felt it created a dangerous situation for the Town Councillors that were here that night.
ITEM:
- Town Manager, Matthew Galligan responded by saying that it would not happen again. What I said at the end of the meeting was this may have a slim chance of passing and the reason I said that was because after having been in this business for 30 years I know if I do not say something, in the future if it does not come to be, previous Council’s have said if you told us that we would have made a different decision. What I was trying to do is inform the Council before the meeting ended. I was not trying to incite people and apologize if it was taken that way. The project is going forward and I am optimistic about making this work.
Councillor Yagaloff stated he appreciated Mr. Galligan’s comments.
Councillor Prague said he loves the Town Manager’s passion and does not have a problem with him blurting something out at the end of the meeting. I would rather have a passionate Town Manager who brings incredible deals to the Town rather than just sit back and run the Town.
At 7:43 p.m. Councillor Hale made a motion to go into Executive Session to discuss the Town Manager’s evaluation and salary increase. Councilor Delnicki seconded the motion; and it was approved, unanimously.
The following individuals went into Executive Session: Mayor Pelkey, Deputy Mayor Havens, Councillor Bazzano, Delnicki, Favreau, Hale, McCann, Prague and Yagaloff.
At 7:55 p.m. Councillor Prague adjourned the Executive Session. Councillor Yagaloff seconded the motion; and it was approved, unanimously.
8. Adjournment
At 7:55 p.m. Councillor Bazzano made a motion to adjourn the Work Session. Councillor Delnicki seconded the motion; and it was approved, unanimously.
Respectfully submitted,
Deborah W. Reid
Recording Secretary
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