Good evening everyone. I call to order the August 6th 2025 regular meeting of the Committee on Administration Finance and Law and Public Services. The time now is 630 p.m. Mr. Clerk will you please call the roll. Alderman Connors Alderman Barbosa present. Alderman McNamara here. Alderman Santiago. Present. Alderman Simpson. Present. Alderman Gibson. Here. Alderman Pabon. Alderman Smedley. Alderman Bordelon-Savedra. Here. Six present you have a quorum. Thank you. Yes. Also seated are Alderman Candace Scott Alderman Iris Sanchez Alderman Laurie McAdam and Alderman Matt Malinowski sorry. Having just held a public hearing on this item to allow for public comment we will move on to the agenda for discussion. The item on the agenda is item number 36877 amendment to chapter 2 section 2 dash 9 1 1 of the code of ordinances to reorganize the departments and offices of the City of New Britain. May I have a motion. I make a motion to refer back to the full council with a neutral recommendation. Motion to refer with a neutral recommendation made by Alderwoman Beloyed-Savedra seconded by Alderman Jason Gibson. Any discussion. Madam Chair. Alderwoman Beloyed-Savedra. Can we perhaps have Linda Gard come up and maybe speak to this. Linda yes. Is that okay with you Madam Chair? Good evening. Questions or did you just. I just thought before we voted maybe you could just go over what's in front of us. So Sergio Lupo left us he retired. He was the director of the building department and the health department. He retired and we were in the process of posting for his position which was director of health and director of building. Two totally different positions. We were very lucky for all these years to have Sergio with us who could do both. We were unable to find any candidates that met the qualifications to run the building department, to have a BO, building official license, and then have an MPH to run the health department. So in the budget there was a director of health and a director of building. So we did post for those two positions. The ordinances did say that they would have a director of health and a director of building. So we went through the process. We had some older persons on our oral panel and we did interview for the building director and the health director from a certified list. But just for clarification tonight tonight isn't about hiring anybody tonight is strictly about the resolution that clarifies that they are two separate departments instead of being a combined and the budget has them as two separate but I just want to make clear this has nothing to do with the actual hiring process this evening. No it does not. So actually it was known by the city that Mrs. Sujoe was going to leave at what point in time. He actually made his final decision very quickly. He was on the fence to if he was going to retire or not and another opportunity came up and he left pretty quickly. And you did attempt a search to find a needle in a haystack of a building official and a public health director. Yes. First. Yes. And when when was that decision made. The decision made for? To seek a reorder, to separate the positions. Well, the positions when we could not find a candidate. Okay. All right, thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Linda. Any other questions? Madam Chair, this is just to recognize that Lori is actually a voting member for Ms. Adam. for O'Connor. Okay. Any other questions? Yes, thank you Madam Chair. I'd just like to make a couple of comments about how this process has unfolded and how disappointed I am. And I believe much of this could have been averted months ago before the budget process in terms of seeking a reorganization recognizing the the qualifications and requirements of these these two positions and I'm disappointed because as this was unfolding I I heard it was sent to me that public statements were made that members of this council were responsible for loss of a health grant which is not true. And recognizing you have a special circumstance where you have to you have to unpack the one position and into two. That's a challenge. So I was astonished to read from the administration and from a comment sent to me that members of the council had lost a health grant. That's not a true statement. The fact of the matter is the governor announced in March the loss of over $150 million in health grants that communities were expecting. including funds for immunization. And the threat to those funds, as all of us know, have come from the Republican administration of Washington, the Congress. So I don't think it was helpful to make that statement about the council, members of the council, in terms of moving the process along. I'd also say that because of the fact that a reorg was necessary, a public health law allows a city to appoint an interim while you sort this business out. Fully allows that with permission grant permission granted by the Commission of Public Health. And I think it would have smoothed the process over if an interim had been appointed rather than to let's say create create create an artificial crisis to overlook the council. So I'm very disappointed in how this has transpired. And I I would be open to moving forward in a in a more open manner about this. Thank you Madam Chair. ELLIE WILSON- Alderwoman Scott. ELLIE WILSON- I'm disappointed as well. The Immunization Act plan grant funding was cut at the federal level. not just in the city of New Britain but throughout the state not having a health and building services director did not influence the reduction in any way. The council's role in the budget process is to review and adopt a financial plan not to approve structural reorganizations that were neither formally proposed nor properly explained during the meetings. While the budget may have included line items reflecting department separation, that does not replace the requirement for the ordinance to be submitted formally restructed departments. The charter in section five through four clearly lays out the process for the reorganization plan. And the mayor should be well aware of this process. as she has reorganized approximately three times since she has been in office is misleading to suggest that passive reference in the budget equals legislative approval of a reorganization plan that was nearly properly submitted. Let's be clear it is in the mayor's power currently with reorganization to appoint an interim director and to file an extension with the state. This is clearly defined in the statute section 19A20F. If the mayor does not want to appoint an acting director, the Department of Public Health could appoint one for her. Simply appointing an acting director would resolve the problem without any need for reorganization or misinformation to be spread. So I believe that the people deserve to have a government that is fair and is transparent, and at best interest of the people. Thank you. Other one below is Saavedra. Thank you. The mayor can't appoint an interim person to be both building and health because there's nobody qualified to serve in that particular role. So it's important to have the separation of those two departments. And then you are correct, the mayor can appoint an interim. But again, I say tonight, we're not here to discuss the hiring process. That'll come, I'm certain, at a later date and time. Tonight is strictly about the reorganization of splitting these two departments that were merged back into two separate departments. And yes, an acting person can be appointed for a very specific time. But again, I say to you, we still need to act tonight on this resolution for reorganization so that if it is the will of the majority party not to hire a permanent person but to have an acting person and we still need these two jobs to be separated out so that an acting person could be put in place for both of those positions thank you madam chair. Other woman Sanchez. Thank you Madam Chair I would like to ask Mrs. Gard On this process, are we following the charter and the ordinance proper procedure or not? I'm sorry, can you repeat that? In this resolution, on the resolution, the process and what I was saying, are we, I just want to know if we are following the charter and the ordinance proper procedure on this? We are now for the procedure. splitting up the organization, yes. Madam Chair, move to question. We need to vote? Does that need a second? You're moving the question, Alderman Santiago? Yes. Yes, Alderman McNamara, we need a second. Second. Any discussion on moving the question? Madam Chair, you can call the vote. All in favor say aye. Aye. Is this on moving the question? Correct. Aye. Aye. So now we have to vote on. Correct. So that ends debate on the resolution. Now, Madam Chair, you should call a vote on the resolution. Question. Is it a roll call, or is it a? If three members consent, you can do a roll call if you'd like. I mean, traditionally, it's the council level, but if you want, I mean. Okay. So just all in favor. So just say all in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, say nay. No. So do we do, can we do a roll call? Let's do a roll call. This is a roll call. Oh, OK. I thought it was a different thing. I'm listening to them. All right. Thank you, Alderman Santiago. Anybody can stand up. There you go. All right. So this way, you just do one by one. OK. Yeah, I was confused. Yeah, this one. I'd be remiss to if I didn't note that the positions are noted separately in our ordinances. Currently and have never been merged under our ordinances. The Director of Health and the Director of License Permits and Inspections are separately recognized in our ordinances. Yes it is. That's a different question. I'm just giving you the information that they are positions that are separately recognized in the ordinances separately from the reorganization. The organization ordinance is different than the ordinances actually creating the positions. I'm just giving you some information on the ordinances. I just felt like it wasn't part of the discussion. I just want to add that for the record. Thank you for the information. You're welcome. Alderman. Alderman Barbosa. No. Alderman. Alderman McNamara. No. Alderman Santiago. No. Alderman Sipson. Alderman this is on the resolution. Alderman Gibson. Yes. Alderman Boloin-Savaja. Yes. Alderman McAdam. No. Three votes yes, four votes no. Oh, I'm sorry, you have to finish the, yeah, I'm sorry. Wait a minute. Seeing there's no further discussion, the motion to refer has been failed. So yeah, motion to adjourn. Seeing no further discussion, the motion to refer has failed. So motion to adjourn. Second. Motion to adjourn made by Alderman Santiago, seconded by Alderman Sanchez. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say nay. Motion carries. Meeting is adjourned at 6.47 PM.