A regular meeting of the Democratic Town Committee was held on February 12, 2007 at Democratic headquarters, 161 Main Street.  The meeting was called to order at 7: 45 P.M. 

Present:  DaSilva, l, Merante Morgan Abrantes, Coladarci, Cooke, Neptune, Saadi Conciatore, DaSilva, J, Kendall, Armstrong, Halfar.

Absent:  Anders, Seri, McNamara, Golwala, Kelly, Estefan S, Estefan P, Tomaino, Lewis, Braguez, Bernstein, Murphy, kaback, Lees, knight. 

Linda DaSilva made a motion to accept the call of the meeting, Marcia Kendall seconded.  The motion carried unanimously. 

Christine halfar made a motion to accept the minutes of the previous meeting with an amendment to expand on the School Board election of officer’s issue.  After some discussion that included comments by Linda DaSilva that members of the School Board had been polled and did not feel a meeting was necessary, a voice vote approved the amendment and the amended paragraph was decided upon.  The motion then carried unanimously.

Guest Speaker:  Rev. Ivan Pitts was unable to attend the meeting.

Public Participation:  Ken Glucker spoke on the overdevelopment up and down Padanaram Rd.  He suggested that those concerned go to the Planning hearing at City Hall on Feb. 13^th. 

Al Robinson from Hat City Blog spoke about the proposed Dunkin Donut Shop off of Osborn St. and what it would do to traffic in the area.  The residences are very angry and many are questioning the Zoning Boards decision.

Jennifer Inager also spike about the Dunkin Donut Shop explaining that by making the building slightly smaller so as to not trigger 500 cars a day, the project could slip by but would still draw about 492 cars a day and be a detriment to the area.

Please visit www.hatcityblog.blogspot.com for information on this and other City concerns.

Correspondence:  The Town Committee received a thank you from Marge and Bernie Gallo for the donation made upon the death of Bernie’s Mother.  Jason Bartlett also thanked the Town Committee for their support of his campaign and the City Welfare Agency thanked us for the toy donation from our Christmas Pizza Party.

New Business:  Kevin Morgan, Chair of the Ad Hock committee to look into the School Board Elections reported that Gladys Coopers concern was that a change had taken place in the handling of the election process which she felt may have been geared to keeping her from the Chairmanship.   Tom Saadi, Christine Halfar and Kevin felt the policy should be clearly stated with special care that FIOA was not violated in any way.  Tom will be doing further legal research and will report his findings at the next meeting.

Town Committee member Helena Abrantes announced her intention to run for Mayor in November.  There will be an official announcement on February 25,2007 at the Catholic War Veterans at 7 P.M.  All are welcome as are any and all donations as she will need in excess of $i00,000 to run this campaign.

Old Business:  None 

Reports:

     1 Chair:  Joe Da Silva reminded the members of the JJB Dinner to be held at the Amber Room on Friday April 13.2007.  U.S. Representative Christopher S. Murphy will be our special guest.  Every one needs to participate in the quest for ads for the booklet.  It is very important that we raise a substantial amount of money on the book, as it will be needed for the up coming campaigns. 

Kevin Morgan wondered about new laws, which might affect donations.  Linda DaSilva said that lobbyists and businesses had received a booklet on the new regulations and if a question could not be answered a call could be made to Hartford to the Election Enforcement Agency.  A business check can be used to buy an ad in our book but the business check could not be used to purchase dinner tickets.

Joe thanked Linda, Lynn and Ellen for their work on the JJB letters, folders and tickets.

     2. Treasurer:  Linda DaSilva reported that our balance as of 2/ 10/ 07 was $5722.01.  A $2500.00 donation from Godfrey 2006 campaign is gratefully appreciated.  THANK YOU BOB!!  Tom Saadi made a motion to accept the report.  Eileen Coladarci seconded.  The motion passed unanimously.    

Mayor Boughton is asking to push the budget process a head by a month due to the resignation of the Finance Director.  Tom is concerned that this will cause a problem with the State funding of projects, as there are still unanswered questions about the State budget.

The ad hock committee on tax relief was continued, it did not report out.

Ben Chianese feels more information is needed on the senior tax cap and volunteer credit.  Mayor Boughton and David Cappiello will host an open space seminar at City Hall on February 25,2007 at 2:30 P.M.

Lynn Taborsak is concerned that City Democrats are not more upset and vocal about remarks made by Mayor Boughton some of which concern former Mayor Eriquez.  “When will we clean our own house? When will we get more involved”? 

Committees:  Please see Eleanor Lewis if you have not paid your sunshine dues.  Eleanor does a great job with this but your support is necessary, thank You.

Eileen Coladarci continues her work on our web page, please visit the site.

 FYI:  City of Danbury web site address is now www.ci.danbury.ct.us.  It is very easy to register for an e-mail of meeting dates.  Check it out.

 Wards:  Marcia Kendall spoke on the issue of responsible logging.  There will be a meeting on March 10^th at the Community House in Lake Waubeeka Please contact her if you need more information.

Christine Halfar is concerned with the lack of attendance by some members of the Town Committee and wondered what could be done about it.  After much discussion Linda Da Silva said that it should be the ward captain and ward members that would police their own people and encourge them to participate on a regular basis.

Glenda Armstrong is concerned that the committee work on establishing a platform for framing issues for the election and as a basis for the Town Committee members.

Kevin Morgan is looking for candidates.  Contact him with any names you may have.  Nominations are July 17^th, to the 24^th. 

Tom Saadi made a motion to adjourn the meeting.  Eileen Coladarci seconded.  The meeting was adjourned at 8:50 P.M.

 Respectfully submitted,