Council meeting 9/26

The Council had some interesting items on the agenda tonight, including:

1) rejection of the pool consultant (Waterbury Rep Am, by Lauresha Xhihani). Basically, the response to the March Request for Proposals didn't get the desired response. The desire was to find one consultant to both increase the revenue (the program/services) side and decrease the expense (mainly energy/heating) side. But Parks & Rec got only two responses, each of which addressed only one side. So now the idea is to speak with USA Swimming, a not-for-profit group specializing in keeping tax-subsidized pools afloat. The vote was unanimous.

2) rejection of the senior tax freeze petition. The Town Attorney, John Knott, recommended to the Council that the petition be rejected. The Council agreed and rejected the petition unanimously. I didn't say anything during the meeting because others had already conveyed my sentiments: there is a real desire among the members of the Council to do better. As well, the conversation started getting into state issues. And I just felt uncomfortable using a Council meeting to discuss state issues. In the past, I may very well have made comments about the state, but... all things considered, I just felt it could have come across the wrong way. So I decided against saying anything of that nature.

3) hiring of a new Town Attorney, Dwight Johnson. Dwight is a partner at Murtha Cullina LLP. Dwight is scheduled to be named the Town Attorney on January 1. Until then, John Knott will continue on as Town Attorney with Dwight as Special Counsel. Then the title will be changed with John becoming Special Counsel. The whole idea is to have a gradual transition that does what is best for the town. The Council Chairman, Matt Hall, deserves a lot of credit for having made this happen so gracefully and quietly. This was another unanimous vote.

Tim White
Town Council, 4th District
TimWhite98@yahoo.com