Minutes

Connecticut River Valley Council of Elected Officials

June 2, 2009

 

Attendance:  Please see attached list

 

           

1. Call to Order:

            The CRVCEO meeting was called to order by Chairman Marsh at 12:25 p.m. at the Country Squire Restaurant, Killingworth, CT.

 

2. Approval of April Minutes: 

             Motion to approve the Minutes of April was made by Rich Cabral, with correction noted on spelling of Chairman Marsh’s name and date noted as April 09, which should read April 22, 2009. Motion was seconded by Noel Bishop. All were in favor.

 

3. Business:    

            A. Speaker: James J. Finley, CCM:  Jim noted that three days are left in session.  General Assembly will work thru Friday and Saturday and will continue to pass legislation affecting towns and cities, for better or worse.

            At this point there is an $800,000,000 gap in the budget.  There continues to be no movement on bills to provide mandates relief.  The “mega mandate” to grant special workers’ compensation presumptions to public safety workers appears to be dead in the House.  The school suspension bill is on ice for now. There is indifference on issues unilaterally.  This session has been disorganized, and there are not a lot of tools that will help at the local level.  80% of CCM’s time has been spent killing new bills.  Aid to municipalities is a priority right now; however, it might not be the case in the future.  It is not likely a budget will be passed by June 30th.

            Jim said that a unified voice from municipalities is important.

            Regarding the issue of probate court consolidation, Jim said it’s important for towns to present their proposals for probate consolidation before June 11th.  Otherwise, the State will do it for them.

            The Senate passed legislation that would mandate that 1% of funding received by municipalities for transportation purposes must be used for pedestrian and bicycle access. Bill SB735 is expected to be acted upon by the House on Monday.

            There will be a special session held on budget and budget related bills.  It is expected that proposals covered in this session will be known by June 3rd.

            Jim stated that Congressman Joe Courtney is a good communicator and is responsive to towns.

            B. Options/17 Town Group/Linda Krause:

            Fifteen regions were created in the ‘50s.  Midstate was created in 1962, CRERPA in 1967.

 

      There are three kinds of regional planning organizations:

                        COG: Chief elected officials with separate regional planning commission to advise chiefs – CEOs are board, all functions

                        CEO: any chief elected official can join – it only takes two – regional planning agencies stay in place.

                        RPA – two reps for town, plus one for each 50K over 25K population – one from planning and one from legislative body.

                        COG is main focus today. Recently passed bill HB6463 mandates that membership on an RPA must include the CEO, or designee, from each town.

                        Linda discussed options, the most realistic being to create CRVCOG and establish a Regional Planning Commission among the 17 towns.  Linda suggested that perhaps the time is right to have a plan.

                        Tom Marsh said he felt that December-January would be a realistic time frame for a decision on this proposal.  He suggested forming a committee to research various options.

 

4. Other Business:

            Probate Court Update:  Action must be taken by the 11th of June.  Several suitable consolidations were discussed.  Al Goldberg, 1st Selectman in Madison, said he originally thought a Madison, Killingworth, Guilford consolidation would be good; however, after attending this meeting he was rethinking that Clinton, Madison, Killingworth might be better.             Another proposal by the State Probate would be a Guilford, Madison, Killingworth and Clinton (61,000) consolidation.  Rich showed a map identifying consolidation possibilities proposed by the State Probate Court.

            The area judges have a meeting planned for June 9th at 3:00 in Essex to further discuss the issue and asked the selectmen to join them.

             The selectmen will meet on Thursday, June 4th, at 10:00 in the Chester Town Hall to  establish  consolidation parameters of local courts.

 

5. Adjournment:  The next meeting of the CRVCEO will be held at the Gelston House in East Haddam on June 24th at noon. 

            Motion to adjourn was made by Rich Cabral and seconded by Dick Smith.  All were in favor. The meeting adjourned at 2:20 p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Pat M. Anthony, Clerk