Date: Fri 26-Sep-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

public-safety-committee

Full Text:

Public Safety Panel Tries To Regroup

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

Members of the Newtown Public Safety Committee met Tuesday and discussed ways

to revive the panel which members say has lost its bearings in recent months.

Even the legitimacy of the meeting itself was brought into question.

No notice or agenda for the meeting had been publicly posted as is required by

the Connecticut Freedom of Information Act.

The first selectman's office said that it had created past agendas as a

courtesy, but the task now has become the responsibility of the warden of

Garner Correctional Institution.

The warden's office said no content for an agenda had been forwarded to it by

the first selectman's office.

The public safety committee was created by an act of the state legislature to

keep open the lines of communication between the town, Garner, and the general

public. The panel meets on a quarterly basis to discuss safety issues stemming

from the presence of Garner, a high-security prison with 744 inmates, some of

whom are the most violent inmates in the state Department of Correction's

(DOC) prison system.

Since notice of the meeting hadn't been publicly posted, committee member

Wendy Beres informed members that the gathering simply amounted to a "chit

chat session" at which no action could be taken.

Committee member Sandra Michaud said that if she hadn't telephoned Ms Beres

that day, she wouldn't have known the committee was meeting.

Ms Beres, Ms Michaud and committee member Melissa Pilchard said the public

safety committee should be better organized to more effectively serve the

public interest. Ms Pilchard is a Legislative Council representative to the

committee.

Ms Beres urged that committee meeting minutes be more diligently kept and

distributed.

As she spoke, a DOC meeting clerk was taking meeting notes on a portable

computer.

Garner Warden Remi Acosta assured the women that a DOC clerk will generate

meeting minutes which would be available within a week.

Recollecting an April 1993 meeting and tour of the sprawling prison, Ms

Pilchard noted that the following day Garner experienced a major riot.

To which Warden Acosta asked, "So should we have these meetings any more?

Because the last thing I want is a riot."

When it was noted some members of the public won't attend safety committee

meetings because they are held at the prison, it was suggested the sessions be

held elsewhere, such as Edmond Town Hall or the expanded Booth Library.

Ms Beres picked up one of her crutches which had been leaning against the

meeting table and started banging it on the floor, asserting that Edmond Town

Hall is not handicapped-accessible and the expanded library has poor

handicapped accessibility.

Ms Beres urged that the committee hold a meeting in October when members will

decide how to organize the panel. That session is slated for Monday, October

20, at 5 pm in the warden's conference room at Garner.

Even though the Tuesday meeting technically wasn't a legal meeting, Warden

Acosta assured Ms Beres she would get a copy of the minutes, allowing her to

distribute them if she chooses.

Ms Pilchard told Warden Acosta committee members couldn't ignore that a safety

committee meeting was being held Tuesday and an agenda for it hadn't been

publicly posted.

Ms Pilchard termed the session an "hour-long chat" which wasn't actually a

meeting.

Besides Ms Pilchard, Ms Beres and Ms Michaud, other committee members

attending were Joy Previdi and John Roumanis, VMD.

First Selectman Robert Cascella, the committee's chairman, didn't attend the

Tuesday meeting.

On Wednesday, the first selectman said, "It was not a legally warned meeting

and I would not subject this administration to criticism by attending a

meeting that was not legally warned."

The state legislation which created the public safety committee requires that

it meet at least quarterly. The session held Tuesday was apparently conducted

to comply with that requirement.