P. O. Box 164
Danbury, CT 06813

A regular meeting of the Democratic Town Committee was held on January 14, 2008 at Democratic Headquarters, 161 Main St.  Chairman DaSilva called the meeting to order at 7:00 P.M.

Present: DaSilva L., Merante, Morgan, Anders, Gallo, McNamara, Coladarci, Cooke, Kelly, Tomaino, DaSilva, J., Eriquez, Council, Armstrong, Lees, Knight.

Absent: Abrantes, Neptune, Estefan, Estefan, Saadi, Conciatore, Lewis, Braguez, Kaback, Halfar.

Jim Kelly made a motion to accept the call of the meeting. Ellen Cooke seconded.  The motion carried unanimously.

Ellen Cooke made a motion to accept the minutes of the previous meeting.  Jim Kelly seconded.  Glenda Armstrong said there was no mention of a discussion of the Board of Education from the last meeting.  Glenda then made a motion to table the minutes and Ellen Cooke seconded.  This motion carried unanimously.  Joe DaSilva asked Glenda to send a summary of her notes about the discussion to Kate Conciatore to be included in amended minutes next month.

Guest Speaker: There is no scheduled guest speaker this month, however, there may be representatives for the Presidential candidates arriving later to talk to us.  Glenda Armstrong said that we as a committee should not endorse any specific candidate at this time.  We should do something for the upcoming primary.  Joe said that Chris Halfar will be doing absentee ballots for the primary but will need help.  We’ve already had requests for rides to the polls.  Headquarters will be open the day of the primary for rides and phone calls.  To contact someone about specific candidates call Warren Levy for John Edwards, Alice Hutchinson for Barack Obama, and Jason Bartlett for Hillary Clinton.  Eileen Coladarci will update the DDTC website to reflect the primary and add links to the candidates web sites.

Public Participation: None

Correspondence: We received a Christmas card from the Golwala’s.

Old Business: None

New Business:

Primary: Vote and tell your friends to vote. Bruce Lees asked about lawn signs, etc for the candidates.  Contact their campaigns directly.  We have nothing to hand out.  Senator Chris Dodd has thanked us for our endorsement of him in his bid for President.  We were the first city to endorse him.

Town Committee Election: Joe has the consent forms.  We can get our petition sheets on Tuesday, January 15, 2008 at the registrar’s office.  They will be due back by 4:00 p.m., Wednesday, January 30.  Each ward must get signatures from 5% of the democrats in their ward.  Joe has the specific numbers.  Be sure to get the petition notarized.  If a primary is necessary it will be on March 4 from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Reports:

Chair: Already discussed the upcoming primary. 

Treasurer’s Report: Linda DaSilva reported that our balance as of 1/14/08 was $1413.60.  Kevin Morgan made a motion to accept the report.  Gene Eriquez seconded.  The motion passed unanimously.

State Central: None 

State Officials:  Bob Godfrey wants to talk to us at a later date about how to raise money for an election.  New rules are in place this year with state money available for candidates.  He has to raise $5000 from at least 150 individuals to get matching funds of $25,000.  He can no longer give any excess to the Town Committee.  On February 6 they will be back in session.  Next week is a special session.  Jay Taborsak talked briefly about public financing of elections. He is working on housing and downtown revitalization.  They are going to have a Danbury Day at the Capital this year.  Jason Bartlett said we need to run candidates for every office because of the public financing.  The convention is in May.

Local officials:  Marge Gallo said the primary is February 5.  The last date for registering for this election or for going from unaffiliated to a party is January 30.  It is too late to change from one party to another.

Willie Knight commented on the transfer station on Plumtrees Road.  Will we take a stand?  Talk to Tom Saadi.  It is his ward and he has already done a lot of work on this matter. 

Glenda Armstrong brought up the 287(g) ICE proposal.  The DDTC should have a stand.  We need to know more before we decide.  Gene Eriquez said there is nothing to exclude us from taking a position.  With respect to the 30-minute limit on public speaking before Common Council meetings, the Corporation Council has ruled that the City Charter says that 30 minutes is the time allotted for public speaking and no more.  When the charter was revised it was changed so that public speaking would come before the meeting and not after the meeting so that people could comment on matters before they were voted on and not after.  It was not the intent to limit public speaking to only 30 minutes but to allow someone who came in at 7:50 to still have time to speak even thought the meeting might have already started. 

Glenda Armstrong asked if we could ask the Board of Education Chair to attend one of our meetings to explain the chairmanships of the sub-committees.  Joe said that would be no problem to ask her to attend.

Jim Kelly made a motion to adjourn the meeting.  Tony Tomaino seconded.  The meeting was adjourned at 7:45 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,