FOI Presentation Postponed

The Freedom of Information Act presentation that had been scheduled for this evening has been rescheduled. The new date for the presentation is Thursday, July 8th at 7PM at the Hagaman Library.

Police Commission Meeting 5/25/2010

As promised, here is the full video from last night's Police Commission meeting up until they went into Executive Session.

Police Commission Hires Deputy Chief

The Board of Police Commissioners met tonight in the small room at the back of the Senior Center. Normally they meet in the big room but that was being used by the Democrats for Mike Lawlor's convention. So the 25 people in attendance were put into a little, hot room. I will have the complete video later but I wanted to put up the segment where the new Deputy Chief is hired pending funding which I believe will be forthcoming at the Town Council meeting next week. The Mayor announced the hiring at a press conference this afternoon. Read Mark Zaretsky's article about the press conference in the NH Register.

The decision to hire John Mannion as the new Deputy Chief was a foregone conclusion and the Police Commissioners did not waste any time in discussing the pros and cons of the hiring. In a new hiring speed record the Commissioners took just over 1 minute to read and vote on the motion to hire Mannion. This beat last month's decision to put Chief Gallo on administrative leave by nearly a full minute. Do they get a gold medal if they can get the hiring or firing of command level personnel under 1 minute?

EH News - 99th District Candidate Interviews

I was in the studio last night with both candidates for the 99th District. Mike Lawlor, the Democratic candidate, and Linda Monaco, the Republican candidate, sat down for separate interviews on why they want to run and what they are looking to accomplish if elected.

EH News - May 22, 2010

Marilyn and I went into the studio this weekend to record the latest edition of EH News. Enjoy the show.

Board of Finance - 5/19/2010

The Board of Finance met on Wednesday night for nearly 40 minutes to transfer some funds for wages at the Recreation Department and to discuss the monthly finance report. There was also a spirited discussion about the sufficiency of the posting of the agenda for the last special meeting. Apparently, the 2 Republican members did not receive adequate notice of the meeting which leaves open the question whether the meeting itself was legal under the Connecticut Freedom of Information Act.

BOE Meeting Tonight

If you enjoy screaming at, scolding, berating, belittling, and reprimanding Board of Education members then tonight's BOE meeting is going to be for you. My understanding is that a large group of disgruntled parents and players will be attending to voice their concerns over the appointment of the head football coach. After last week's media disaster Ray Pompano is going to get a lesson in the limits of power of individual Board members. There is something on the agenda I have not seen before. The Chairman, Nick Palladino, has reserved time for himself to make comments. I would guess it is going to be a valiant effort by Palladino to head off the verbal lashing Pompano is going to get but I doubt it will be successful.

So for all of you out there looking for cheap entertainment tonight, grab the popcorn and pull up a seat at the BOE meeting.

EH News - May 6, 2010

Here is the latest edition of EH News with Marilyn Vitale and I discussing the issues around town.

Town Council - 5/4/2010

Here are the last of the videos for this week's Town Council meeting. It has been a hectic week or I would have gotten them up sooner. Enjoy the weekend!

Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3:

Crohn's & Colitis Walk

I ask you to please consider making a donation today to the CCFA 2010 Take Steps Walk for Crohn's & Colitis.

Donating just $25 can help to find a cure for digestive diseases. It is too late for our daughter Vikki, but we are working to help others. The Take Steps walk is June 5th and Fran is the Guilford Semi Colons team Captain. Please take a moment and use the link below to make your donation right now.

Fran & Vikki Foley's Guilford Semi Colons donation link

Bottom Line - May 6, 2010

Last night John Finkle and I did the budget season wrap up at ETV studios. Here is the result:

Town Council 5/4/2010 Tax Collection

The Town Council held a public hearing last night to discuss hiring a firm to help with tax auditing and collection from businesses in East Haven. Their fee is based on the amount of extra money they bring in. Here is the public hearing video:

Selling Town Property

The Town Council held a public hearing about the sale of Town property last night. The Fire Department is going to sell the big truck for $60K. To do so they needed to get permission to sell it and a bid waiver since the Chief has already found a buyer. Public Works wants to sell 5 pieces of equipment, some of which are non-functioning. There will be a public auction. The video of the public hearing is here:

Town Council and Other Items

The Town Council meets tonight at 7PM for a pair of public hearings followed at 7:30PM by the regular meeting. The most interesting thing on the agenda is the item seeking authorization from the Town Council to sell town equipment. At this point I am not sure what they are planning on selling but I will report back after the meeting.

Another item that has come to my attention today includes the likely cost of the US DOJ investigation. I have heard figures ranging up into the millions of dollars by the time it is all over. We are not going to get away cheap from this one. Since we are in pretty dire financial straits already this is not good news. Maybe that is why they are starting to sell town property. I would expect a lot more property to be put on the block in the next several months.

On the BOE side, the budget meeting last night was a big snore. The most interesting thing to come out of it was the likelihood of nearly 30 teacher layoffs. This should balloon class sizes beyond what they have been in a decade.

BOE Finance Subcommittee Meeting Monday

The BOE's Finance Subcommittee is meeting tonight at 6:30PM at the high school. With any luck this meeting will not run for 4 hours and accomplish as little as the last one does. However, I would be happy if they all did not talk at the same time since that makes it very hard to follow the flow of the conversation.