MINUTES
BOARD OF PUBLIC SAFETY
(ADJOURNED FROM FEBRUARY 13, 2008)
FEBRUARY 20, 2008
A REGULAR MEETING of the Board of Public Safety, adjourned from February 13, 2008, was held on Wednesday, February 20, 2008, in the Council Chambers.
Those in attendance included Mayor Ryan J. Bingham, members of the Board of Public Safety Gerald A. Zordan, Richard L. Zaharek, Douglas J. Benedetto, James E. Potter, Christopher H. Cook, and Robert C. Zordan, Corporation Counsel Ernestine Yuille Weaver, Police Chief Robert Milano, Deputy Police Chief Michael Maniago, Traffic Officer Robert Shopey, Fire Chief John Field, Deputy Fire Chief Jaye Giampaolo, Torringford Volunteer Fire Chief Lawrence Dauphanais, Drakeville Volunteer Fire Chief Michael Maccalous, and Emergency Management Coordinator Thomas Vannini. Absent was Director of Operations at Campion Ambulance Fred Rosa, and Burrville Volunteer Fire Chief Roger Rougeot.
Mayor Bingham called the meeting to order at 7:07 p.m.
MINUTES #295
On a motion by Commissioner Potter, seconded by Commissioner Cook, the board voted unanimously to accept the minutes of the regular meeting held January 9, 2008.
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC #300
On a motion by Commissioner Benedetto, seconded by Commissioner Potter, the board voted unanimously to open the meeting to the public.
PRESENTATION OF CERTIFICATES #310
Award certificates for the winners of the Fire Prevention Poster Contest were given to the following students:
Ernest Tremper, Fifth grade Vogel Wetmore School
Hannah Dunn, Fourth grade, Torrington Christian Academy
The following students also won the contest but were not present to receive their certificates:
Leslie Tapia-Bernal, Fourth grade, Vogel Wetmore School
Brenden Hale, Fifth Grade, Vogel Wetmore
EXECUTIVE SESSION: PERSONNEL, POLICE DEPT. #440
On a motion by Commissioner Potter, seconded by Commissioner Benedetto, the board voted unanimously to go into an executive session at 7:15 p.m. under Personnel: Police Department. Chief Milano and Deputy Chief Maniago were invited to attend.
OPEN SESSION #470
On a motion by Commissioner Zaharek, seconded by Commissioner Cook, the board voted unanimously to reconvene into Open Session at 8:19 p.m.
HIRE: STEPHEN KRZANOWSKI #475
On a motion by Commissioner Potter, seconded by Commissioner Cook, the board voted unanimously to hire Stephen Krzanowski as probationary patrolman.
SUBSTANCE STANDARDS #515
Commissioner Potter made a motion to accept the revised substance standards for police applicants. Commissioner Cook seconded the motion.
Commissioners Gerald Zordan, Zaharek, Potter and Robert Zordan voted in favor of the motion. Commissioners Cook and Benedetto opposed the motion. The motion carried.
ADD TO AGENDA #530
Commissioner Cook asked to add an item to the agenda by 2/3rds vote in regard to the hiring of Jason Cooling. Commissioner Zaharek seconded the motion. Unanimous.
HIRE JASON COOLING #540
Commissioner Cook made a motion to hire Jason Cooling as a probationary police officer to start at the discretion of the Police Department. Commissioner Gerald Zordan seconded the motion. Commissioners Gerald Zordan, Zaharek, Potter, and Robert Zordan voted in favor of the motion. Commissioners Benedetto and Cook voted to oppose the motion. The motion carried.
ACCEPT KYLE JOHNSON AS REGULAR MEMBER #560
On a motion by Commissioner Benedetto, seconded by Commissioner Cook, the board voted unanimously to accept Probationary Patrolman Kyle Johnson as a regular member of the Torrington Police Department.
CHIEF MILANO’S REPORT #575
On a motion by Commissioner Potter, seconded by Commissioner Cook, the board voted unanimously to accept Chief Milano’s Report for January 2008.
COMMUNICATION REPORT #585
On a motion by Commissioner Potter, seconded by Commissioner Cook, the board voted unanimously to accept Officer Shopey’s Monthly Communication Report for January 2008.
Commissioner Benedetto asked Officer Shopey about the problem with the software to process parking tickets, and what the dollar amount of parking fines was at this time.
Officer Shopey didn’t have a monetary total because the problem has not been corrected. He explained that the division developing the software for the transfer of the tickets to the Motor Vehicle Department inadvertently changed approximately 3,000 tickets from paid to unpaid. They are now in the process of changing tickets that date back to August of 2006. They have to manually find the ticket and compare the data to make sure the ticket was paid. Luckily, nothing happened prior to 2006 because, under the State Library Laws, their records were destroyed after two years. One of the recruits spent three weeks completing the 2007 tickets. Officer Shopey hoped to have all remaining 980 tickets done in a week. The software glitch has been resolved. The problem was that
they had to make those changes. All tickets have been successfully transferred to the Motor Vehicle Department and they are now taking action. Data has also been transferred to the Collections agency and they are merely waiting for the amounts. As soon as the Traffic Department can catch up with the changes, they’ll have the amounts and will begin the collecting process. Officer Shopey said he was also hoping to start booting vehicles tomorrow.
Commissioner Benedetto asked Chief Milano if he had any civilian employees that could assist Officer Shopey in making these changes.
Chief Milano said he has two light duty personnel in the Records Office that he could
assign to help Officer Shopey. Recruits awaiting an academy seat could help as
well.
Officer Shopey indicated that those persons having five tickets or more are sent to the Motor Vehicle Department whereby they are prohibited from registering motor vehicles. Approximately 8,000 tickets were sent to the Motor Vehicles Department for processing.
Commissioner Potter inquired about the new technology whereby police officers can travel along the road and scan license plates.
Officer Shopey said he could explore that technology, but the board should bear in mind that it would be manpower intensive. Their strategic planning includes provisions to include new technology in the future, including electronic ticketing.
Commissioner Zaharek inquired whether there were more multi ticket offenders than single ticket offenders.
Officer Shopey said they have more multi ticket offenders during the winter months because they park overnight, but as a whole, they don’t get many.
They are still attempting to collect on tickets that date back to 1992-1993 and they fulfill the statute because they have consistently tried to collect throughout the years.
SAINT FRANCIS SCHOOL #820
On a motion by Commissioner Potter, seconded by Commissioner Robert Zordan, the board voted unanimously to accept Officer Shopey’s recommendation to transfer all present metered parking positions from the west edge of Prospect Street to the east edge of Prospect Street in the area of the Saint Francis Parochial School. (Tabled 01/09/08)
Officer Shopey indicated that he sent a letter to every property owner from Pearl Street to Church Street and received two replies. One was from the Calvary Baptist Church, who didn’t oppose the meters being changed but asked for a loading zone in front of their doorway sidewalk to allow access for people to be dropped off or picked up. The other was from Atty. Conti’s Office and they asked that the school explore the use of their parking lot as a drop off or pick up area for students. This suggestion was one of the recommendations from the Roadway Safety Audit Team presented and approved by the Board of Safety on January 9, 2008.
Audrey Blondin said the only issue she had in moving the meters is that any change causes disruption to their patients. She noted that their parking lot is used extensively by parents to pick up children, despite the signs posted, and that the area is very dangerous around 2 p.m. She questioned whether parking on the other side of the street would affect anyone exiting their parking lot. She was in favor of anything that would help the situation.
Officer Shopey didn’t think it would pose a problem.
Commissioner Benedetto asked why the school didn’t use the front of their building.
Officer Shopey noted that school personnel have not been too cooperative in the past in doing things they’ve been asked to do by the city. It was his opinion that many problems could be resolved if the school utilized their own property.
Commissioner Zaharek asked if a curb cut could be installed to get people to drive further into where the sidewalk is currently located.
Officer Shopey said the school would have to apply to the DOT for a curb cut.
Commissioner Zaharek asked if the school lot was designed to have children dropped off and picked up. Using their parking lot and a curb cut might solve their problem because it would double the capacity of people pulling right off the highway.
Officer Shopey said yes, they can drive in one side and out the other.
Commissioner Potter said the school was responsible for the safety of their students and they should use their property.
CHIEF FIELD’S REPORT #1130
On a motion by Commissioner Potter, seconded by Commissioner Zaharek, the board voted unanimously to accept Chief Field’s Report for January 2008.
DEPUTY CHIEF GIAMPAOLO’S REPORT #1135
On a motion by Commissioner Robert Zordan, seconded by Commissioner Zaharek, the board voted unanimously to accept Deputy Chief Giampaolo’s Report for January 2008.
FIRE MARSHAL’S REPORT #1145
On a motion by Commissioner Potter, seconded by Commissioner Cook, the board voted unanimously to accept the Fire Marshal’s Report for January 2008.
TRAINING OFFICER’S REPORT #1150
On a motion by Commissioner Cook, seconded by Commissioner Benedetto, the board voted unanimously to accept the Training Officer’s Report for January 2008.
INCIDENT REPORT #1160
On a motion by Commissioner Potter, seconded by Commissioner Benedetto, the board voted unanimously to accept the Incident Report for January 2008.
A brief discussion took place on lock outs and good intent investigations.
Chief Field reported that they still get a few false alarms from Lakeridge and he is working with Brink Security to address the issue and still maintain the safety of the residents. The common causes of the false alarms are residents starting up their fireplaces, smoke in the building and/or equipment malfunction.
Chief Milano added that his department bills Lakeridge for false alarms. He noted that Lakeridge is paying for extra duty police patrols and that his department is researching the files to make certain the extra duty police officers they are paying for are not the ones who answer the alarms.
THERMAL IMAGING CAMERAS BID #1335
On a motion by Commissioner Benedetto, seconded by Commissioner Zaharek, the board voted unanimously to accept the Purchasing Agent’s recommendation to award the Thermal Imaging Cameras Bid to the only responsive bidder, Brigham Industries, Inc. for $41,408.61. (Approved by Council on 1/22/08.)
Deputy Chief Giampaolo briefly demonstrated the camera to the board.
Chief Field noted that the cameras had minimal value in trade and asked the board for the opportunity to offer them to someone who could use them, i.e., the volunteers.
Commissioner Potter said he’d be more than willing to offer them to our own volunteers.
Deputy Chief Giampaolo noted that the reason they were purchasing new ones is because the old ones are beginning to fail and will be fairly expensive to repair.
Commissioner Potter said it would be the volunteer’s choice whether they want to put their money into them or not.
Commissioner Robert Zordan thought the cameras should at least be offered to the volunteers.
APPOINTMENTS: DEPUTY FIRE MARSHALS #1665
On a motion by Commissioner Benedetto, seconded by Commissioner Zaharek, the board voted unanimously to appoint Chief Field, FF Engle, and FF Bascetta as Deputy Fire Marshals for the City of Torrington.
Chief Field indicated that the Deputy Fire Marshals will only assist the Fire Marshal on a per diem basis if and when they’re needed. He stated that the training took an entire year, two nights a week and one week-end a month. He congratulated the new appointees.
AARON PICZ - PERMANENT STATUS #1795
On a motion by Commissioner Potter, seconded by Commissioner Cook, the board voted unanimously to appoint Probationary Firefighter Aaron Picz to permanent status effective 3/5/07.
ANNUAL REPORT #1870
The board agreed to put the Fire Department’s Annual Report off until next month to give them time to review it.
EMS PROVIDER ACTIVITY REPORT #1920
On a motion by Commissioner Potter, seconded by Commissioner Cook, the board voted unanimously to table the EMS Provider Activity Report from Campion for January 2008. (Not available.)
EMERGENCY MGMT COORD’S REPORT #1925
On a motion by Commissioner Cook, seconded by Commissioner Benedetto, the board voted unanimously to accept the Emergency Management Coordinator’s Report for January 2008.
BUS: DEPT. HEADS #1935
On a motion by Commissioner Cook, seconded by Commissioner Potter, the board voted unanimously to consider business by Department Heads.
Chief Milano indicated that their telephone answering system is experiencing major problems and it will have to be replaced. Funds have been put aside in the capital reserve account for this expense. The cost will be between $6,000.00 and $7,000.00.
Chief Field informed the board that they’ve been meeting with the city’s data technology department and will make every attempt to temporarily house them during city hall renovations.
Chief Field also indicated that they are in the process of finalizing the replacement of Car 2. However, they are having problems with Car 1 and won’t get rid of Car 2 until they know how serious the problems with Car 1 are.
BUS: VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENTS #2070
On a motion by Commissioner Potter, seconded by Commissioner Cook, the board voted unanimously to consider business by Volunteer Fire Departments.
There was none.
BUS: MAYOR & MEMBERS #2085
On a motion by Commissioner Potter, seconded by Commissioner Cook, the board voted unanimously to consider business by Mayor Bingham and members of the Board of Public Safety.
Commissioner Zaharek said he received complaints that traffic is backed up on Kennedy Drive to Alvord Park and people sit trough 8-10 light changes.
Officer Shopey said he will call the state in the morning. That intersection is part of the Lowe’s project and slated to be reconstructed.
ADJOURNMENT #2200
On a motion by Commissioner Potter, seconded by Commissioner Benedetto, the board voted unanimously to adjourn at 9:05 p.m.
ATTEST: JOSEPH L. QUARTIERO, CMC
CITY CLERK
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