[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[5:42] Welcome to the July 6, 2026 council meeting, and this evening all of our councillors are here, so that we'll stand for our roll call. Our next two items are on our agenda, are the prayer and reflection and the Pledge of Allegiance, and that will be allowed by Deputy Mayor Clees. I'd like to offer a reflection. As we gather just after celebrating our Independence Day, we are reminded that the strength of our nation has always begun in our communities. The freedoms we enjoy are
[6:12] are sustained not only by those who came before us, but also by the everyday work of citizens,
[6:19] willing to serve, participate, engage, and care for one another.
[6:23] Local government is where those ideals are lived out.
[6:26] Here, we may not always agree, but we share a common responsibility to listen respectfully,
[6:31] consider thoughtfully, and make decisions that serve the long-term well-being of our community.
[6:37] This evening, maybe we approach our work with humility, integrity, and
[6:40] and a genuine commitment to the people who have entrusted us with this responsibility.
[6:45] May we remember that every decision we make contributes in some way to the community we
[6:51] leave for future generations.
[6:53] Thank you and let's stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.
[6:55] I
[6:58] pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for
[7:04] which stands one nation under God, indivisible for liberty and justice for all.
[7:10] This
[7:22] evening we have a proclamation proclaiming July 10, 2026 as Oliver Ellsworth legacy day.
[7:32] Whereas the town of Windsor proudly joins the nation in commemorating America's 250th anniversary
[7:39] and recognizing the people, places, and events that shape the founding of the United States.
[7:45] And whereas Oliver Ellsworth, born in Windsor on April 29, 1745, rose from our community
[7:53] to become one of the most influential figures in the creation of the American Republic.
[7:59] And whereas Ellsworth served Connecticut and the nation as a member of the Continental
[8:05] Congress, a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, a United States Senator,
[8:11] principal author of the Judiciary Act of 1789 and third chief justice of the United
[8:18] States. And whereas, Ellsworth's leadership helped shape the structure of our federal
[8:24] government, the United States Senate, and the federal court system, leaving a lasting
[8:29] imprint on American constitutional democracy. And whereas the Oliver Ellsworth homestead
[8:36] located at 778 Palisato Avenue in Windsor, and preserved by the Connecticut daughters
[8:42] of the American Revolution remains a treasured historical landmark and a living connection
[8:48] to Windsor's, excuse me, a living connection to Windsor's role in the founding era.
[8:55] And whereas Windsor 250, the Elzeroth homestead, the daughters of the American Revolution,
[9:00] and the Windsor Historical Society,
[9:03] continue to educate residents and visitors
[9:06] about the people and ideals that formed our nation.
[9:10] And whereas on July 10th, 2026,
[9:13] the program, The Story of Oliver Ellsworth,
[9:16] presented by Biographer Michael Toth,
[9:19] at the Oliver Ellsworth Homestead,
[9:22] Maddie's Hall will offer the public an opportunity
[9:24] to reflect on Ellsworth's life, public service,
[9:28] and enduring national legacy.
[9:31] Now therefore, be it proclaimed by the town council
[9:34] and the mayor of the town of Windsor that July 10th, 2026
[9:38] be proclaimed Oliver Ellsworth legacy day
[9:41] in the town of Windsor, Connecticut,
[9:44] and that all residents are encouraged to learn
[9:46] more about Windsor's own constitutional framework
[9:49] and to take pride in the important role
[9:51] our community played in the founding and development
[9:55] of the United States of America.
[9:57] Signed, Nishat Blackberg, Mayor of Windsor.
[10:00] Members are July 6, 2026. And at this time, I would invite Betsy Ridgeway and Janet Ellsworth and any other members of the daughters of the American Revolution to please step forward so we can present this proclamation to you.
[10:16] Thank
[10:25] you very much.
[10:25] This is an honor.
[10:27] Thank you.
[10:28] Would you like to say a few?
[10:31] Thank you.
[10:31] Oh, excuse me, Smith.
[10:33] Very nice.
[10:38] Thank you very much.
[10:39] Thank you.
[10:40] Thank you very much.
[10:45] I'd like to thank the town of Windsor and the Windsor Historic Society, particularly Patrick
[10:50] Rick McMahon, who's done a lot of effort to organize our event on July 10th with the author,
[10:59] Michael Tulsa, Constitutional Scholar.
[11:01] So we're very excited and we want to thank everyone for their support.
[11:31] Thank you.
[11:32] Thank you.
[11:34] Thank you.
[11:35] Thank you.
[11:36] Thank you.
[11:37] Thank you.
[11:38] Thank you.
[11:38] Thank you.
[11:38] Thank you so much.
[11:39] Thank you.
[11:39] Thank you.
[11:39] Thank you.
[11:40] Thank you.
[11:42] Thank you.
[12:01] Thank
[12:04] you.
[12:04] Item number five in our agenda this evening is public communications and petitions.
[12:11] If
[12:16] anyone from the public would like to address the council, you will be given three minutes
[12:23] to speak.
[12:24] Please state your name and address, and the council welcomes and values public comments.
[12:29] We ask that all speakers conduct themselves with civility and respect.
[12:33] Please do not refer to other speakers by name or use the regulatory and flammatory or disrespectful
[12:39] language when expressing your views.
[12:41] Please note that this portion of the meeting is for the council to listen to public input.
[12:48] The council does not respond to questions or engage in discussion during public comment.
[12:54] Your comments will be received and considered as part of the public record.
[12:58] Thank you for your participation and for helping to maintain a respectful and productive meeting environment.
[13:05] And this time I will turn it over to moderator Scott Coby, our assistant town manager.
[13:10] Thank you Madam Mayor. If there is anyone from the public who is virtual this evening would like to address the council
[13:14] You may do so by raising your hand on your computer by selecting the participants icon on the zoom menu bar
[13:19] And then clicking raise hand or by dialing star nine on your phone. You'll be given three minutes to speak
[13:24] Please state your name and address when you are called on you'd be prompted that you are now unmuted
[13:28] For those dialing in by phone once prompted you will then press star six to a mute and for a clear communication
[13:33] We ask that you do not place the call and speak or phone and at this time Madam Mayor would do have several virtual attendees with
[13:39] They're hand raised.
[13:40] Thank you, Mr. Colby.
[13:41] And again, please state your name and address.
[13:43] You will be given three minutes to speak.
[13:45] At the sound of the chime, we do ask that you conclude your comments.
[13:48] At the 60 second mark, a yellow card will be raised.
[13:52] And at the 30 second mark, a red card will be raised.
[13:55] Thank you.
[13:56] To our first caller, you were now unmuted.
[14:00] My name is James Chapat-Wingert, and I live at 20 Tiffany Drive.
[14:04] I am asking the town council to remove the flock LPR cameras
[14:10] from Windsor streets, even if these cameras and this type of surveillance is legal, that
[14:18] doesn't make it right.
[14:21] Our country's founders knew that protecting our citizens from this type of government
[14:24] overreach would serve two ends to protect the citizens themselves and protect the agents
[14:30] of the state from surveillance is corrupting influence.
[14:34] If we have a good police department here in Windsor, then they would not want to intrude
[14:39] on their fellow citizens' freedoms, and we would not want them exposed to the corrupting
[14:43] effects of having access to the state. There have been many stories in the media about
[14:49] police officers getting arrested and disciplined in other states for misusing,
[14:54] lock and other ALPR cameras and other mass surveillance.
[15:00] If the police require location information in order to find criminals, then they should have no problem getting a warrant, just as they would for other methods of tracing a person's location. I do not believe that we can extend a presumption of good faith to flock as a company with regard to privacy or technical security. It has been demonstrated to my satisfaction as an IT security professional, that the cameras themselves and the data that they harvest are all extremely vulnerable to compromise
[15:29] and misuse. If we are going to require an independent security audit of the
[15:35] camera's databases and software associated with luck as put forth in the
[15:39] incident policy, then we should require that that audit be completed by an
[15:45] independent third party before any cameras are turned back on. We should also be
[15:50] putting aside money from the budget in order to cover the cost of inevitable
[15:53] lawsuits against the town of Windsor. As we the taxpayers will be responsible for
[15:57] depending a compromise product for defending a compromise product that can
[16:01] ducts an unconstitutional function. Thank you so much. Have a good day. Thank you.
[16:08] To
[16:13] our next caller, you are now muted. Hi, my name is Dan Piper. I'm a live at
[16:18] 96 Cape and Street and I'd like to also speak for taking down the ALPR
[16:25] flock cameras. My understanding is these cameras originally went up when a
[16:30] police lieutenant signed a contract with the FLOG company, this major multi-billion-dollar
[16:36] company, and that there was no public hearing or discussion about putting them up in the
[16:40] first place. I've come to a few of these meetings and I think it's abundantly clear that the
[16:46] vast majority of people in Windsor want these cameras taken down, for reasons that people
[16:52] around the country want them taken down, and people around Connecticut want them taken
[16:55] down. In addition to everything that was just said, we've also seen that these cameras
[17:01] are abused by law enforcement in other states and the federal government. We've seen through
[17:08] a FOIA and through other evidence that they've been used to target immigrants, women seeking
[17:14] reproductive care, people seeking gender reframing care, people going to peaceful protests like the
[17:25] to stock women. Now, I understand that the state has passed on legislation that's attempting
[17:33] to do something about all of this, but from what we know about the clock in the federal
[17:38] government, they have no problem breaking state laws. They have no, and they break state
[17:45] laws openly, when, for instance, ice comes in wearing masks, which is against kinetic
[17:48] it law to use the data that comes from these cameras illegally is something that can be
[17:57] done very privately.
[17:58] I mean, a personal private hacker can hack these cameras very quickly as it has been
[18:04] demonstrated a number of times.
[18:07] So it's quite to me, it's a pretty weak excuse to say that the state law is going to protect
[18:13] people from authoritarian actions that intimidate armed people and make people less safe.
[18:24] So for these and many other reasons, I think they should be taken down.
[18:28] I've been joining in the petitioning to pass an ordinance to get the cameras taken down
[18:33] and to get a policy in that would require the town council to review any other similar technology
[18:39] and not just leave it up to one individual whether this stuff goes up.
[18:42] And I'd be very encouraged that many new people in Windsor who would also like these very
[18:49] much like these cameras taken down.
[18:51] So I would appreciate if the town council would take this all into consideration.
[18:57] Thank you.
[19:09] Sure.
[19:09] Next call you are now muted.
[19:13] Hi.
[19:14] This is Coralie Jones, 1171 Mathianic Avenue.
[19:19] The main function of our town government is to see to the health and safety of the public.
[19:24] Our police department wanted these readers.
[19:28] They were another tool for them to help prevent and solve criminal activity.
[19:33] They were very disappointed that the cameras were shut down.
[19:36] To them it must have indicated that they did not deserve your support.
[19:42] We all know that recently these tools helped solve some very serious crimes.
[19:48] Objections to these cameras is privacy.
[19:51] These cameras are far less intrusive than the everyday tracking
[19:55] and profiling that happens to us when we use our phones, watch TV.
[20:00] We use our credit cards, shopping stores, walking parking lots, etc. They know our age, likes, and dislikes. I question why are some people still against these cameras? I stated that a far less intrusive, they are far less intrusive than the tracking we experience every day. The objection is not privacy as much as tracking cars license plates, which might belong to people who could then be identified as
[20:29] noncompliant in the legal status. There's no way that these cameras on our street reaches
[20:36] an individual's privacy in any measure as compared to what every day life interaction
[20:43] does. Therefore, I find the concern of the individual privacy not a value reason not to implement
[20:51] these cameras. Our support, our police department deserves our support and provide them
[20:59] with this tool. Thank you.
[21:03] Thank you.
[21:13] To our next caller you are now unmuted.
[21:19] Good evening. This is Leanne Tyson, 141,
[21:24] Giddings Avenue. And I just had a couple of points
[21:28] to address this evening and I'm just going to read them.
[21:33] I agree with the actions being taken with regards to the
[21:37] reactivation of flock cameras due to the current state
[21:40] of our union and its fascist-leaning government.
[21:44] If we could be 100% sure that abuses would not take place, that would not be a concern
[21:50] for me.
[21:51] So I really believe that the cameras need to stay off.
[21:57] The second concern that I have is I'm deeply concerned with the current proliferation of
[22:04] of wealthy companies attempting to sneak in data centers
[22:08] as we've heard occurring in different locales,
[22:13] which are also being touted as great tax revenue.
[22:18] I would like to hear a written statement from the town council,
[22:24] perhaps even at the next meeting,
[22:27] stating the intentions of our town council
[22:32] with regards to any potential data sensors being developed here so that we know way in advance
[22:43] what the position is of the town and what we as citizens need to do in response. Thank you.
[22:50] So thank you.
[22:59] To our next call, you were now muted.
[23:03] Yes, good evening.
[23:05] Jeremy.
[23:07] I had like 1890, look when I have a new.
[23:10] I just wanted to call to show my support for the flock,
[23:15] the cameras, and I'm turning them back on.
[23:21] I feel that this is a really good tool for law enforcement to use.
[23:26] and they have used it to solve crimes in the past.
[23:34] So I feel it's a great piece of information.
[23:38] A piece of information, I feel that they should be allowed to use this tool.
[23:51] And really, I just feel that this is all about immigration enforcement, and that's why
[23:57] folks don't want them to turn back on, but the federal government does have a right
[24:06] to enforce their own policies, even here in Connecticut, and they should be allowed to
[24:13] to do so and we should be supporting our law enforcement and supporting American values.
[24:28] Thank you so much and I hope everyone had a great fourth of July.
[24:32] Thank you.
[24:33] Thank you.
[24:35] This time Madam Mayor we have no virtual attendees with our hand raised.
[24:39] Thank you Mr. Colby.
[24:40] So we'll move to the town hall chamber again, if you'd like to address the council.
[24:44] We do ask that you step forward to the table, state your name and address.
[24:49] You will have three minutes to speak at the sound of the chime.
[24:53] We do ask that you conclude your comments, Deputy Mayor.
[24:57] Again, if you see a mail card, you have six-
[25:00] You have 30 seconds left. And if you see the red card, you have 30 seconds left.
[25:05] And you can just step forward. Okay, thank you.
[25:11] Good
[25:17] evening mayor and councilmembers.
[25:19] My name is Momina Deem and I live at 14 Lafayette Drive.
[25:23] I urge you to vote no on reactivating Windsor's Flock Safety ALPR system.
[25:30] I recently graduated from UConn's Connecticut, I mean UConn's College of Engineering in December with a bachelor's degree in computer science and engineering with a concentration in artificial intelligence.
[25:41] Because of my background, I think I have a good understanding of how AI-powered surveillance systems operate in the long-term implications they can have.
[25:52] I appreciate the work that has gone into revising this proposal.
[25:56] I understand that new state legislation has been passed and that the contract now includes additional safeguards.
[26:05] But my concern is not just about the policy before you tonight.
[26:08] It is about the surveillance infrastructure you are being asked to restore.
[26:13] The policy says these cameras cannot be used for certain purposes, such as immigration enforcement or abortion related investigations.
[26:22] That is a positive step, but policies are not permanent.
[26:26] Future councils can amend them.
[26:30] State law can change.
[26:33] The cameras themselves, however, remain.
[26:35] Tonight's vote is not just about today's rules.
[26:39] It is about building a surveillance system that future officials may expand in ways we cannot predict.
[26:46] In Texas, a law enforcement official reportedly used flux nationwide network and connection with a woman who has obtained an abortion.
[26:54] Later records challenged the original explanation that the search was solely for a missing person check.
[27:01] My point is not that Windsor would do the same.
[27:04] My point is that safeguards on paper are only as strong as the oversight, transparency, and discretion behind them.
[27:12] Once exceptions exist or justifications can be broadly interpreted, public trust becomes much harder to obtain.
[27:21] I am also concerned about sharing Windsor's data with agencies and other states.
[27:27] This sweatshirt information about where Windsor residents drive be available to agencies in New York,
[27:33] Rhode Island, Massachusetts, or anywhere else.
[27:36] Their laws may change too, their priorities may be different, and they are not accountable to Windsor residents.
[27:43] If Windsor is conducting a investigation, Windsor should remain responsible for it.
[27:48] We should not create a system where our residents' location data can be pulled into investigations beyond our control.
[27:54] So I'm also concerned about where this technology is headed.
[27:58] Earlier this year, Amazon's ring canceled a plan integration with Flock after a significant
[28:04] public backlash over the idea of combining residential camera footage, artificial intelligence,
[28:11] and police accessible license play data.
[28:15] That integration never happened, but the fact that that was seriously pursued tells us something about the-
[28:25] Thank you.
[28:35] Hello, my name is Horace Nadeem, and I live at 14 Lockheed Drive, Windsor, Connecticut.
[28:40] And I also urge you all to vote no on reactivating Windsor's Flock Safety ALPR system.
[28:45] And to also remove them entirely for the reasons previously stated.
[28:48] And that's all I have to say, thank you guys.
[28:50] Thank you.
[29:02] I didn't plan on coming up here and speaking, but I figured I might as well have a few things of it.
[29:07] My name is Mark Cormier, I live at 107 Midiannav, I've lived here for about 35 years with my wife of 46 years.
[29:16] The issue I see is that, you know, we are getting hit up by, you know, we just got a yes vote, sorry, it means our property tax are rising, my wife and I are on Social Security only.
[29:29] We are getting hit by every source all the time, raising taxes, raising electricity.
[29:35] And I realize that this is going to bring in more money for the town, but I figure our police department can do the same thing, can do this without having facial recognition and passing information on to possibly immigration, and which has been happening.
[29:57] Okay, there's a bunch of...
[30:00] If you go to Facebook, there's just tons of articles on this, on the flock cameras, and what is wrong with them, this AI system. The well-documented have been plagued by security and vulnerabilities, rampant misuse, AI malfunctions which land innocent people in trouble with the law. I mean, mine myself had a problem with New York. I never go to New York, I live in Windsor, you know, and I don't go to New York.
[30:29] I got a thing in the mail saying that I owed fine because they caught my car going through
[30:36] a toll booth in New York.
[30:39] And it took me over a month to rectify this.
[30:44] They basically said it was the same white vehicle, but it wasn't, it was a different color,
[30:51] it was a different model, and it was the same license plate.
[30:56] But what the AI misread was the CT and it was actually finally after a month I was able
[31:04] to get a human to look at the actual photo and it was actually CO.
[31:13] So until a human saw this and was able to do that I finally got rectified.
[31:17] But I mean there are a lot of angry I have I'm a musician I'm a drummer and I play out
[31:24] all over the state, I have over 2,000 friends on Facebook.
[31:28] And people are getting nailed by these cameras and other towns, and they're angry, all right?
[31:35] Putting these back on, the town residents are going to be angry at the people that have turned it back on.
[31:47] So my suggestion is not to turn it back on.
[31:50] Thank you very much.
[31:51] Thank you.
[32:00] Good evening, Hillary Carpenter, 45 Bradford Drive.
[32:04] I'll be very brief.
[32:05] I wanted to just point out that opposition to flock cameras is not about their usefulness or lack of usefulness to law enforcement.
[32:14] It's about the use of our data by a private corporation and
[32:18] other nefarious third parties and what they are doing with information about us.
[32:24] An earlier caller pointed out that we give our information out all the time.
[32:28] And that's true. We do, with our consent. I've had the opportunity to speak with folks over the last few days and have noticed some themes.
[32:38] They don't know these cameras exist. If they do know, they assume they are red light traffic signal or speed cameras which are broadly supported.
[32:48] They are shocked when I tell them that all of these cameras, that all the things that these cameras do because they do not consent to that.
[32:55] I do not consent to that.
[32:58] Take the cameras down and put the citizens first.
[33:24] My name is Elise Coleman.
[33:26] I don't live in Windsor, so I'll make this quick.
[33:28] I am from the Reach Fund of Connecticut,
[33:31] which is the only abortion fund in the state of Connecticut.
[33:35] And the Board of Directors of the Fund has been horrified
[33:38] to learn that these cameras were used to track
[33:41] the movements of a patient who came to Connecticut
[33:45] for a treatment that was banned in their state.
[33:47] These cameras are being abused by law enforcement officers to monitor their partners and
[33:53] exes and other romantic interests.
[33:57] And they're used to track people exercising their first amendment rights to express their opinions about this government.
[34:04] We already know the Trump administration has directed its Justice Department, FBI, and
[34:09] other agencies to target people with certain beliefs, people critical of fascism, of Christianity,
[34:16] people who are queer, people of color, and more.
[34:20] People like us.
[34:22] We are living under a fascist government.
[34:25] The fascism is already here.
[34:28] This is not a government that we want to have this much access to our every move.
[34:34] They just put several protesters in federal prison for speaking out against fascism.
[34:39] And I don't think you should let them do that to innocent people in Windsor.
[34:43] I'm not against public safety because I've driven all around the state and some of you all drive crazy, but there are ways to maintain public safety without putting us in danger. I don't feel like this.
[35:00] Technology keeps us safe, I feel like it puts us in danger.
[35:05] And fascism is a problem in America that goes beyond the town of Windsor, but the least we can do is not grease the wheels of authoritarianism for them. Thank you so much.
[35:18] Please
[35:22] state your name and address.
[35:26] My name is Elise Coleman.
[35:28] I live at 2459 Whitney Avenue in Hamden.
[35:31] Thank you so much.
[35:32] Thank you.
[35:38] Good evening.
[35:39] Good evening.
[35:40] Did I get six minutes?
[35:42] I think I'll let you know.
[35:42] My name is Corey Farron.
[35:44] I am at 327 Maryman.
[35:46] And I'm also here with George Farney, 75 Barriola's Hill.
[35:50] And we are here on behalf of Windsor Little League.
[35:54] just want to raise a little more of awareness to let everybody know that
[35:57] Windsor Little League is here our league is growing and thriving parks are
[36:04] looking better and the kids are more than happy than they've been in many years
[36:10] to be down and playing and we just like to hopefully get some more attention from
[36:16] the town we notice that the town budget got cut quite a bit for parks and
[36:20] and rarex buildings and grounds and stuff and we depend a lot on that, the fields are old and we do our best to keep them up, but we just want to let the town and the board know that we are looking for future attention and encourage everybody to come out, watch the kids play, all age groups.
[36:43] Yeah, as Cory mentioned, last time we were here was before our spring season and we just wrapped up our
[36:50] 2026 spring season. We had well over 300 registered ball players both in baseball and softball
[36:57] all down at Welch Park between Welch and Fitch and O.E. And
[37:02] Great turnout and I think as we shared the last time we're here that the league has dwindled in numbers and our vision is to grow
[37:10] the league back to what it used to be years ago, pre-COVID.
[37:15] This town used to have to utilize multiple fields around the town, not just Welch and Fitch.
[37:22] So we appreciate Madam Mayor came out and threw our first ball for our opening day.
[37:28] So we really do, we really do, that was very well received.
[37:33] A lot of comments and encouragement from that.
[37:35] But a lot of comments about the town does really have some interest in our league.
[37:42] And we know that we have your backs, we want to encourage you to continue to have ours.
[37:47] We are a nonprofit organization.
[37:49] We do the best we can from the fundraising that we do on our own.
[37:52] But we do rely on the town to supplement that and help us through some of the more heavier
[37:57] lifts that we need down there and get those fields revitalized, grow the team, grow the league
[38:01] back to what it once used to be, and mainly for our youth, we do it for the kids.
[38:08] And we encourage we are holding a state championship this year for
[38:12] literally international 12U for the week of 21 July through the 26th.
[38:18] Our channel is asked to host that, so we're getting a lot of attention.
[38:21] So that's really good for the community.
[38:23] Thank you so very much.
[38:24] Thank you, and I just want to give a shout out to another member of the team.
[38:28] If I don't know, you want to just wave your hand back there, my friend.
[38:32] All right, thank you, thank you.
[38:35] Thank you.
[38:36] Thank you.
[38:44] Good evening.
[38:45] My name is Maggie Essex, 95 Lighthouse Hill Road.
[38:49] And I am also here representing Windsor Little League.
[38:53] I am the chief information officer and fundraising director for
[38:57] the Windsor Little League as well as a tax paying citizen of Windsor.
[39:02] Historically, Windsor has been quite supportive of Little League, and I am here to ask the town to continue actively supporting recreational youth sports in town.
[39:14] With two daughters who play Windsor Little League softball and serving as coach for one of their teams, and my role on the board of directors, I have first hand experience in the difficulty that Little League has had in finding enough safe and usable fields.
[39:31] for all of our teams to have adequate practice and game space as our registration numbers continue to increase.
[39:40] So as you work through plans for the future with open space, recreation facilities, capital improvement, etc.
[39:48] I ask that you please be cognizant of the positive recreational youth activities that need these recreational fields and spaces in town.
[39:58] I'm sorry.
[40:00] Windsor Little League makes baseball and softball accessible to all Windsor youth and affordable through scholarships granted by the board for those that might need it. This is a stark difference from many travel programs that are out there, and it also keeps our kids playing in town. The first statement of our organization's constitution is the objective of Windsor Little League shall be to implant firmly in the children of the community.
[40:29] the ideals of good sportsmanship, honesty, loyalty, courage, and respect for authority,
[40:36] so that they may be well-adjusted, stronger, and happier children, and will grow to be good, decent, healthy, and trustworthy citizens.
[40:45] I'd like to highlight that this statement does not mention softball, baseball, or athletic ability whatsoever.
[40:52] The focus is character and the development of kind humans, most of whom move through the Windsor
[40:59] public school system, and to become contributing members of Windsor Society.
[41:04] So I implore you to continue your support of Windsor Little League and recreational youth sports,
[41:10] as they serve a purpose much greater than just athletics.
[41:13] Thank you for your time.
[41:15] Thank you.
[41:29] Good evening.
[41:31] My name is Bradley Smolkin.
[41:32] I live at 258 Kenzwick Lane here in Windsor.
[41:37] While these flat cameras aren't me.
[41:41] may be useful for crime prevention investigations and for crime prevention.
[41:48] There is well-founded cause for alarm over the daily trampling upon the rule of law by
[41:54] the present authoritarian government.
[41:58] Trump and his administration's disregard for the rule of law has included among other instances.
[42:06] The illegal seizure of ballots in Atlanta by the FBI.
[42:10] ICE's detention and deportation of immigrants with pending asylum applications.
[42:17] ICE's arrest of applicants in court for asylum at their required check-in appointments.
[42:27] What's to stop Trump and his army of ICE and Border Patrol agents from seizing control
[42:34] a flock safety's entire operation and its data and using the data to identify, locate,
[42:43] arrest, and detain protesters and anyone Trump labels as an enemy of the state.
[42:50] As someone who has attended a couple of no-kings events, I feel a little bit vulnerable about
[42:57] that.
[42:57] Bear in mind that the so-called conservative majority on the Supreme Court has granted
[43:04] virtually unlimited immunity to Trump for criminal actions that he takes in his capacity
[43:11] as president.
[43:14] Trump's DOJ's predictable challenges to the provisions of the Public Act 2614, the act
[43:22] turning democracy and government accountability that provide for jurisdiction in Connecticut
[43:28] and provide for rights of action for citizens in federal court will inevitably be appealed
[43:34] to the Supreme Court whose majority consistently bends the knee to Trump.
[43:41] I respectfully urge the Council to respect the will of the people of Windsor and reject
[43:47] Practice proposal to reactivate the ALPR cameras and renew the contract as revised.
[43:54] Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak with you about this.
[43:57] Thank you.
[43:59] Good
[44:11] evening, Council.
[44:13] My name is Sullivan Cruz, 49 London Road.
[44:17] I'm speaking to taking down the ALPR cameras.
[44:21] I've been frightened by the actions of our government, the actions of ICE and
[44:27] the attack on reproductive rights and on freedom of speech, sorry.
[44:33] This technology has already been mishandled since we have acquired it.
[44:37] And you guys have the power to change it in this town.
[44:43] So please don't continue this attack to happen on our rights.
[44:46] Thank you for your time.
[44:48] Thank you, thank you.
[45:00] Hello, Lindsey Graham, 265 Bloomfield Avenue. The Supreme Court has said that people have a reasonable
[45:09] expectation of privacy in the whole of their public movements. And when the government collects
[45:15] information without suspicion, over weeks in a way that can reveal people's otherwise private
[45:21] habits and routines, that violates the fourth amendment. Currently, as the system stands, there are
[45:29] not enough safeguards in place to prevent the misuse of these cameras by police, let
[45:34] alone a hacker or some other conglomerate.
[45:37] Not to mention, I did not consent to this private third-party surveillance company to store
[45:43] and obtain my data.
[45:45] Did you know that 12 police officers have been arrested for misuse of this database?
[45:51] All 12 use that technology to track previous romantic partners and their new lovers.
[45:57] There have been several false arrests made because these systems misread plate numbers
[46:03] on a plate.
[46:04] In Toledo, a man had a seven mistake in 4.2 and it resulted in an attack from a canine
[46:11] officer that ripped his arm apart and his hair out and they sued for $53,000.
[46:18] This seven in two mistake is a reoccurring pattern the system keeps getting wrong.
[46:23] police concurrently access that system for really whatever reason they want and
[46:29] the safeguards for it are allegedly pretty minimal and they require no
[46:33] warrant to do that. These cameras bring me back to 1984 and not the fabulous
[46:40] year that I was born but the book that our government thinks is a manual on how to
[46:45] run a country. Thank you.
[47:02] Good afternoon men and women of the town council. My name is
[47:06] I was born and raised here in Windsor at 355 Hayden Station Road and I as well as many of the town's folk who have made time to talk to you tonight are concerned.
[47:15] You've heard from many people with many perspectives but the through line here tonight is our concern of rights of privacy of cameras and corporations.
[47:23] The responsibility you inherited from our founders as democratically elected officials is to hear these concerns of your constituents and act in their best interest in accordance with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
[47:35] The authors, the authors of these principal documents, knew the oppression that they were
[47:39] bolted against when in time take new names in shape, new names in shapes, and so sanctified
[47:44] the rights of the individual and left it to you to protect them from whatever forces
[47:48] would seek to infringe them.
[47:50] Of most common concern here tonight is the infringement of our personal privacy rights as
[47:54] outlined in the Fourth Amendment.
[47:56] One's right to deny unwarranted search in seizure is a keystone pillar in defending all of our
[48:01] freedom.
[48:01] It protects us from members of the state, recording personal phone calls with family members,
[48:06] or searching a car for anti-war posters, or searching a basement for a man-to-peated slaves,
[48:11] or searching a barn for colonial uniforms and weapons.
[48:14] Because the tools for oppression change hands throughout time, and the same state you seek
[48:18] to build can turn around and break down your door for distance if not for this right.
[48:22] I ask you to invest my tax money in infrastructure that manages crime or aids investigations while
[48:28] honoring our rights and not infrastructure that strips them.
[48:32] There may not be an easy solution, but protecting freedom has never been easy.
[48:36] Please make the right choice.
[48:38] Thank you.
[48:53] My name is Joel Herman.
[48:54] I live at 107 Ruedaaf.
[48:56] 62-year Windsor resident.
[48:59] TDS is on full display here tonight.
[49:02] The paranoia about these cameras is ridiculous.
[49:05] If you have nothing to hide, there's nothing to see.
[49:08] If you're upset about the flock cameras,
[49:10] It should be the over 200,000 we've sent already spent in a subscription for this, whether we keep it going or not.
[49:21] Nobody asked you about all the cameras that they put up in town that they can watch from the police department.
[49:27] It was just paid for it happens. It's the 21st century.
[49:31] You're going to have to get used to it.
[49:33] I challenge anybody to name one person who's been harmed from the town of Windsor with these slot cameras
[49:42] Thank you. Thank you. Hello
[49:54] can for debt 30 rimmington road
[50:00] A lot of cameras at these meetings in the past. A couple of things that I wanted echo this evening, and then one point that I wanted to dig into just a little bit more because I haven't heard it brought up. I want to echo the concept of consent that it is true that we do wave a lot of our privacy, but we often wave that privacy to private companies that we often do so knowingly. And that when we don't, when we give away
[50:29] the way privacy that we don't know we have given away.
[50:34] The backlash towards the company is usually pretty swift.
[50:37] Where if somebody says, oh, by the way,
[50:39] we've been sharing your data with company X and company Y.
[50:44] And I say, well, the end user license agreement
[50:46] didn't say that you could share that data with company X
[50:48] and company Y.
[50:49] And now I feel a bit betrayed.
[50:52] That kind of feels like where flock and similar companies go.
[50:56] I know that the ring camera, the potential for a deal
[50:59] with ring cameras is out there, and I know the potential for like plugging into AI software
[51:06] for facial recognition, you know, it doesn't say it in the contract now, but what could
[51:11] be plugged into, or what uses could, could there be, that aren't, even on anybody's radar
[51:17] today, that by not having over, enough oversight, do we sort of let, let the horse out of the
[51:27] bar in situations that we're not even thinking about just because we've come to accept it.
[51:35] And it's that piece, the accountability and oversight that I really want to talk about because it says in here that the department will maintain internal auditing practices that I really think there needs to be an independent oversight of this somebody outside the department who's doing data governance who's doing
[51:56] you know, what information is being captured, revising that, keeping up with the laws and not have it be simply an internal mechanism.
[52:06] It needs to be broader than that so that there is more oversight.
[52:12] And that so people who may be more familiar with different aspects of technology can advise on maybe we shouldn't partner with this company.
[52:21] maybe we should partner with this other company.
[52:24] The idea that the police could maintain something similar,
[52:33] the cost might not be there, the flock might be a much more advantageous from a cost perspective,
[52:39] but we need to be keeping that in mind, be keeping in mind our privacy and our overall data governance as we proceed with this.
[52:47] Thank you.
[52:47] Thank you.
[52:57] There, Mr. Colby, there is a hand online, so we're going to go to the hand online and then
[53:02] we'll come right back to you, Mr. Pannos.
[53:09] Paul Pannos.
[53:11] This is one second.
[53:11] We're going to let the person online go first.
[53:15] To our virtual car.
[53:16] You are now in mute.
[53:17] Oh, I'm sorry.
[53:20] Hi.
[53:20] This is Carrie Turk at 248 Pekwanagabanu and I just wanted to make a point tonight because
[53:25] these black cameras were up for five years recording.
[53:28] No one said the thing, there was no problem, and the only people that noticed that they
[53:34] were recording anything or capturing anything were the criminals that were committing crimes
[53:39] in Windsor.
[53:40] So that was the people stealing cars, that were robbing banks, that were involved in shootings,
[53:48] that helped our police departments, and other police departments solve those crimes.
[53:52] So my point tonight is this, it's not about national politics, it's about Windsor.
[53:56] And if you choose not to turn them back on, then we are sending a clear message that
[54:01] Windsor is open for criminal activity.
[54:04] Thank you.
[54:05] Thank you.
[54:25] Paul Panos.
[54:27] 48 Brookview Road.
[54:30] These LPRs are a significant enhancement of the ability the police to be able to locate
[54:36] criminals.
[54:37] Over the last three decades, Windsor has experienced significant increases in the amount of crime, including
[54:42] a lot of automobile theft. And it's with automobiles that criminals usually attempt to get away,
[54:48] this thing. And the cameras help police locate. To be squeamish about having your license plate
[54:55] red makes no sense. The reason we have license plates is to have the...
[55:00] Police identify our cars when we have violated the law with it, only someone else has stolen or misused it. So to be consistent, those who oppose the LPR should simply oppose license plates completely. Hiring extra police and cruises to engage in surveillance for stolen vehicles and other criminals is very expensive compared to adding a number of flock LPR cameras. In addition, it avoids the need for high-speed chases that endanger bystanders and
[55:29] properties. In fact, we do well to increase the number of the flock automated license plate readers
[55:35] over the current 16 in order to get better coverage of crime, especially in higher crime
[55:40] neighborhoods. Now, there are 34 towns in Connecticut that use ALPRs. Among them, Hartford, Bloomfield,
[55:47] Cheshire, Avon, Simsbury, Suddenton, Milford, Waterford. Each Hartford doesn't have, but they have
[55:55] traffic cameras, and same for Middletown.
[56:00] So, you know, Windsor not doing us is not going to change the darn thing at the national
[56:06] level.
[56:07] The only people who would have a real personal interest in not wanting a LPR, or criminals
[56:12] themselves, obviously, the people engaging in illegal activities, the police cannot use the
[56:20] information for any reason that is not legal. Obviously, you know, something, you know,
[56:25] occasionally anything, but we have people who have been taught. Unfortunately, we have
[56:29] people who have been taught to believe that our society is not worth preserving, that
[56:33] we're too materialistic and too selfish. And allowing criminals to get away with theft
[56:37] and other crimes is an altruistic sentiment, but that simply shows that some altruistic
[56:42] some of us are destructive and evil, so I urge you to pass this, bring the KLPR's back on.
[56:50] Thank you.
[56:50] Thank you.
[57:11] George Slates, 74th and Drive.
[57:13] I note that this item is under section 12 of your agenda and not section 10.
[57:22] If when I came here, two cars passed me on the double yellow line on Pukonic Ave,
[57:28] of or past me going over 60 miles an hour on Windsor Ave.
[57:34] The correct punishment would not be to ban cars on those roads.
[57:40] Nor would it be appropriate to stop the manufacturers for manufacturing those cars.
[57:47] The appropriate punishment would be on the five drivers.
[57:52] The analogy could also be, you know, don't shoot the messenger for the message deliver from the center.
[58:02] In all the research I've done on flock, I have yet to encounter indications that the flock camera software or cameras are deficient.
[58:14] The appropriate punishment should only be for the abusers of the system.
[58:21] And I sent you about two hours ago what I found in the quick research.
[58:25] Officers in states like Wisconsin and Kansas have been criminally charged,
[58:31] including felony misconduct for using the flock safety network to track romantic partners or stock access.
[58:39] cases. And in places like Sedwick, Kansas, police chiefs who abused the system have had
[58:46] their law enforcement certifications permanently revoked and served probation. That's the appropriate
[58:53] punishment. You should restart the cameras and sign the new agreement.
[58:58] And flocks earlier this year signed retained bishop flocks evidently a prominent firm to thoroughly test the flock hardware and software.
[59:13] When that report is complete, I hope you can get it and include it in an agenda item so we can all see that evaluation.
[59:25] Thank you.
[59:26] Thank you.
[59:43] Hello.
[59:44] My name is Charles.
[59:44] I'm Jackson III.
[59:45] I live at 26 Wilson Avenue.
[59:48] While sitting here, I listen to everyone say yay or an egg for the flocks and the reasons
[59:53] for it.
[59:55] Just for giggles, I wanted to know where the flock cameras were being used.
[59:58] I realize that I've been a...
[1:00:00] All right, I'm going to go to the floc cameras all day, not just in this time. I went to Walmart. Walmart uses floc. Went to Home Depot. Home Depot uses floc, but Home Depot didn't have what I wanted. Add to go to Los. Los uses floc.
[1:00:30] There was a time where people would be afraid to come into Wilson after a certain period of time and it wasn't because of violence.
[1:00:36] It was just that there was a police presence put a cop back in over at the fire department or at least put a mock car over there from time to time.
[1:00:45] It was various other places. If you're not going to turn these things back on, there needs to be some sort of security theater of some sort to keep the grimmels out because we've got a lot of people that are writing dirty.
[1:00:56] And I really wish these cameras would come on, but if they don't, they don't have a good angle.
[1:01:01] Thank you.
[1:01:08] All right.
[1:01:10] So seeing if you would like to speak, we do ask that you step forward.
[1:01:29] Mayor and council people.
[1:01:31] My name is Sarah Gary.
[1:01:32] I live in the Windsor Station Apartments.
[1:01:36] I also want to speak to the topic of the flood cameras.
[1:01:39] As we recently went through three referendums for the budget and one of the big themes
[1:01:45] that this town spoke out about was managing costs.
[1:01:50] And one of the things that I've heard other people say and I'm going to echo here is
[1:01:54] that how these cameras are used and how flock has access to our data and how people outside
[1:02:03] of the municipality have access to the data is being worked through the courts.
[1:02:08] And there are several lawsuits against other municipalities happening across the country
[1:02:13] that are actively being worked through.
[1:02:16] And in order to protect the people of the town of Windsor from similar kinds of lawsuits,
[1:02:22] I think it is important to understand that employing these kinds of cameras really should also
[1:02:28] come with a fund to prepare for the lawsuits that could similarly roll out in other cities
[1:02:35] and in Windsor if we are using them.
[1:02:37] And at a time when the people in the town of Windsor are asking for us to be responsible
[1:02:42] with their costs, it is not just the cost of the cameras, it is the cost of the legal
[1:02:47] challenges to the cameras.
[1:02:50] Thank you very much.
[1:02:51] Thank you.
[1:03:01] How do you do, esteemed council?
[1:03:05] My name is Christopher Stinson, I live at number nine, Holcomb Hill Road here in town.
[1:03:10] I've been a resident since 1974.
[1:03:13] I am here in opposition to the flot cameras.
[1:03:18] I find this sort of warrantless surveillance absolutely antithetical to a free society.
[1:03:26] And I can't understand how something like this could have been approved in the first
[1:03:32] place without some kind of discussion.
[1:03:37] The lack of discussion is probably the single most disturbing part of this.
[1:03:41] We have a town referendum for the budget.
[1:03:45] We have a town referendum for a traffic circle that might go in.
[1:03:49] But something that is this serious in a front to our fourth amendment rights happens without
[1:03:55] anybody saying anything in public.
[1:03:58] There's no discussion, there's no campaigning, there's no vote.
[1:04:04] And if the result of this is that the good people here are the ones who are going to decide
[1:04:10] on our freedoms, then I hope you won't make the right decision.
[1:04:16] Thank you very much.
[1:04:17] Thank you so much.
[1:04:27] My name is Kay McCollough, I live at 96 Kapan Street.
[1:04:30] I want to say good evening to the council, and hello to all the friendly folks behind me,
[1:04:34] holding signs and wearing buttons, let's say surveillance off our streets and no flock.
[1:04:40] Myself and other volunteer petitioners have spoken to hundreds of Windsor residents and
[1:04:45] people passing through Windsor for the past few days about the issue of
[1:04:48] flock cameras in our town and the massive surveillance system being built
[1:04:52] out across the country by companies like flock and others.
[1:04:56] By my estimate, about 90% of people.
[1:05:00] are against these cameras. Many folks already know about this issue and are ready to take action to get them out of our community. The folks who are just hearing about it are horrified. Windsor's contract with flock was signed without any public oversight, and now the public is not just watching, we are taking action. We are gathering signatures to pass an ordinance that will cancel the flock contract and prevent future ALPR companies from coming into Windsor without public approval. That is the meaning and intention of our written ordinance,
[1:05:29] And in a matter of days, we'll have the required number of signatures needed.
[1:05:33] According to our charter to call a special town meeting where the public voters can come out and vote yes to approve this ordinance.
[1:05:39] We are so thankful for this section 9.5 of our charter, which allows the public to propose and vote on ordinances and take power into our own hands.
[1:05:48] We know you know how many people have come to these town meetings to speak out against these AI cameras.
[1:05:55] You have heard how there's a few people, just a few, calling for them to stay up.
[1:06:00] There is no significant support for these cameras.
[1:06:04] You know how many people came to the meeting at first church last Wednesday
[1:06:07] to oppose these cameras and organize a signature campaign to get them out.
[1:06:12] Has anyone organized a meeting to keep these cameras up?
[1:06:18] You turned them off. There were no meetings calling for them to be turned back on.
[1:06:23] You simply talked about turning the back on and we had a meeting of over 80 people ready to join a campaign to cancel the contract and prevent future contracts from being signed.
[1:06:33] We have almost 300 signatures a few days later in the middle of a heat wave and a rain storm.
[1:06:40] We are speaking with leaders in West Hartford who are building a complimentary campaign to get the cameras out of their towns.
[1:06:46] We've heard from neighbors in New London, New Haven, New Norwalk, and Stanford all across
[1:06:51] Connecticut, people are watching Windsor as an example for how to fight back against
[1:06:55] the growing mass surveillance in our communities.
[1:06:58] You know what these cameras are doing.
[1:07:00] You know flock is a private company that breaks laws.
[1:07:03] So which way you vote tonight shows what you stand for?
[1:07:06] You can side with authoritarianism or you can side with democracy.
[1:07:11] I'm curious which side you'll pick.
[1:07:12] If you fall short, the people are already organizing to fix it.
[1:07:18] Thank you.
[1:07:30] Good evening.
[1:07:32] My name is Jeff Lanzai, I live at 1203 Windsor Avenue.
[1:07:37] According to my president, I am a criminal.
[1:07:40] I'm a Democrat, and I may be a communist, according to him.
[1:07:45] I also know that his Department of Homeland Security is in violation of over 1,000 court orders through illegal arrest.
[1:07:57] And even arresting people who are protesting the illegal measures that ICE is taking on the street.
[1:08:07] Given this information, knowing that DHS who admits themselves that they are building
[1:08:18] databases on individuals, I can't understand how our town would contribute their citizens
[1:08:29] information toward building such a database on Windsor residents.
[1:08:34] It makes no sense at all, and for that reason, alone, there's really no other reason to be against flocked cameras.
[1:08:44] I support the police in Windsor.
[1:08:47] I've assisted Windsor police and investigations, and we'll do so in the future if the opportunity ever arises.
[1:08:54] But I definitely do not want to see you sell out wins or
[1:09:00] residents to a department, a federal department that is gathering information on individuals later
[1:09:11] to prosecute them in court for exercising their free speech rights.
[1:09:17] And there are plenty of cases going on in the United States right now where that is happening.
[1:09:22] One needs only look at the Dallas Fort Worth trial of, I don't remember how many individuals, more than 10,
[1:09:34] some of who were convicted and sentenced to 30 years for being part of a book club.
[1:09:41] So as long as they are building databases on individuals and their behavior, there's a danger for that.
[1:09:50] But we have seen this, I have seen this at least three other times in my life.
[1:09:55] In the 60s and 70s, there was coin tell under rape.
[1:10:00] There were a variety of actions against so-called leftists, and we saw the same thing under Bush over protests against the Iraq War. This is a never-ending condition that our government periodically goes into. I hope you don't sell out the town for that. Thank you.
[1:10:48] Good evening, my name is Lamont Andrews, I'm at 226 Deerfield Road in Windsor.
[1:10:55] Technology is a blessing and a curse.
[1:10:58] I don't know if any of you guys have seen any of the state Will Smith-Jing-Hatman.
[1:11:03] Okay, so let's start there.
[1:11:05] The man who's innocent was being chased around in a tire city because the government wanted to put him, put him, put in a crime on him.
[1:11:19] These cameras aren't perfect.
[1:11:23] A person who looks like me can be misread.
[1:11:26] A person who looks like you, you, and you, and a couple other people in here can be misread off of these cameras.
[1:11:33] They're not perfect.
[1:11:35] So my thing is that don't turn them on because of the fact that in my neighborhood everybody kind of looks out for each other and I also I don't patrol the campus neighborhood, but I do walk around my neighborhood to make sure that I'm get my exercise and I'm looking around and I'm meeting people.
[1:11:54] So, to me, I feel that their areas help whenever the authorities need it by its citizens.
[1:12:05] Now, I like to think that a lot of people here in this town are looking after each other
[1:12:10] from time to time.
[1:12:11] My son was born and raised in this town, and the friends that he made in school, I call
[1:12:20] my school kids and I still look after them to this day. They're all in their mid-twenties.
[1:12:27] So if one of them gets in trouble, if I see what I'm having a problem, I'm there, Johnny,
[1:12:31] on the spot for them. I don't know if any of you guys here are able to do that for the people
[1:12:38] even if the cameras are there or aren't there. Our phones are tracking us more than enough.
[1:12:50] Our
[1:12:50] no reason for these cameras to be here.
[1:12:53] I got eyes, I got ears, you have phones, you got cameras,
[1:12:57] already installed in people's homes.
[1:13:00] So if the government is building up a database
[1:13:06] on these cameras, I feel that's illegal
[1:13:09] because everything is connected.
[1:13:12] So when somebody, the cameras are judging people
[1:13:15] or tracking people going across the state lines
[1:13:17] for my understanding is a HIPAA act because they say we're looking at your EMR records and we're
[1:13:26] tracking you to find out if you're going to have an abortion or not. So this is this for me,
[1:13:32] it's just escalates until there are no rights left for the common person. And that's all I got to
[1:13:41] say forward now on that.
[1:14:06] My name is Cecilia Carita and I live at 43 Pequana
[1:14:10] Gavini, Department B. I also wanted to speak to on the issue of the lack of
[1:14:16] public input on this. I've seen lots of public hearing signs in over the years as
[1:14:22] I walk around Windsor and it seems off that I can go to a public hearing on whether
[1:14:29] a restaurant gets to have music outdoors but not about whether we get
[1:14:35] surveilled all over town.
[1:14:39] On the flip side we've seen a couple of people
[1:14:41] speak out in favor of them.
[1:14:45] A friend of mine heard about this and the first
[1:14:47] thing she said was that there's a certain intersection where she wishes there
[1:14:50] was a camera because people run the red light. Public comments would also
[1:14:55] all you together, that kind of input.
[1:15:00] Gentleman here earlier today, as you wish, they will go back on as a crime deterrent measure. When I think about that, I think that publicized cameras, labeled cameras, can act as a deterrent. But when cameras go up without any discussion secretly, when we have to go to a whole separate website to find out where they are, that makes me think that the point is not to prevent
[1:15:30] Anyone from doing bad things in the first place, but to follow them afterwards that maybe there's more that maybe they're there, so
[1:15:41] Do fundraise off fines rather than to stop a bad thing from happening in the first place
[1:15:46] Thank you. Thank you
[1:15:52] We have a online hand mr. Kobe. Yes, we do to
[1:16:08] a virtual caller. You are now muted.
[1:16:11] Thank you
[1:16:12] Good evening, town council and citizens.
[1:16:15] This is Chris foot at 23 apple tree lane.
[1:16:19] I was calling in in support of the flock cameras.
[1:16:22] I do understand initially when flock was rolled out
[1:16:26] across the nation.
[1:16:28] There really were not any controls in place around the data,
[1:16:32] how it was reviewed and how it was used.
[1:16:35] However, those controls are now coming into place.
[1:16:39] Connecticut's Public Act, as Chief Melonson mentioned, and is a memorandum to you.
[1:16:45] Public Act 2614 lays a very good groundwork and foundation for the control and use of
[1:16:54] this data and this information.
[1:16:56] And I hope that the citizens and the council has had a chance to review this act.
[1:17:04] In addition, we have to remember that this is a world of society where we have surveillance
[1:17:13] constantly.
[1:17:14] That's in our stores, in our hands on our cell phones, and I'm not sure if there's
[1:17:21] any way around that going forward with all of this technology.
[1:17:25] I agree that there has to be controls in place around the data, but flock cameras can
[1:17:31] and help us solve child abductions, stolen vehicles,
[1:17:35] amber alerts, so many good things as well.
[1:17:38] So I hope that's taken into consideration.
[1:17:41] And that's all, thanks very much for your time.
[1:17:45] Thank you.
[1:17:49] We have no other virtual attendees with our hand.
[1:18:03] Good evening.
[1:18:04] My name is Ken Irman.
[1:18:06] I live at 428 Broad Street here in town.
[1:18:10] I've been aware of the flock cameras for about a year now,
[1:18:15] And I have spoken to you all numerous times in this chamber and in the Health and Safety Committee.
[1:18:22] I've paid attention to the recent proposals that flock has put out and
[1:18:28] the newer ordinance or whatever you're going to vote on tonight, I'm not sure the right terminology for that.
[1:18:35] And my opinion on the, my concerns about flock cameras has not changed.
[1:18:41] It's still an emerging technology, it is subject to abuse.
[1:18:48] Now, and I say that fully trusting our town police department,
[1:18:53] their intentions, their service to us, and I appreciate all of them.
[1:18:58] It's not them I worry about, I worry about what the other towns,
[1:19:03] the other surrounding states that will have access to our data can do with those things.
[1:19:08] is because we do not know what they are going to do.
[1:19:13] We do not know if they have the same standards
[1:19:15] or if they have the same attitudes towards our information.
[1:19:19] I'm concerned about hacking
[1:19:21] and I'm concerned about our federal government
[1:19:24] abusing the data and taking it and using it against people.
[1:19:30] So tonight I ask you not to reinstate,
[1:19:33] not to turn the flock cameras back on
[1:19:36] and to cancel the contract.
[1:19:40] Thank you.
[1:19:40] Thank you.
[1:19:54] Good evening.
[1:19:55] Good evening.
[1:19:56] I'm Beth Kuroso of 147 Pleasants.
[1:20:00] Great, I am adamantly opposed to the cameras.
[1:20:05] I want to bring up the fact that people who are
[1:20:13] for the cameras don't seem to understand that there is a problem with this technology.
[1:20:22] The rates of mistakes that happen with this AI technology along with so many other AI technologies is very, very high.
[1:20:35] We've heard four examples just listening tonight of people, some of the people in Windsor themselves who were unfairly targeted because of the mistakes with the technology.
[1:20:51] And there is built-in bias with this AI technology that unfairly targets African Americans,
[1:21:04] Native Americans, women, minorities, and general.
[1:21:09] And that is something that I think we need to be very, very careful about.
[1:21:14] For me, it's not a matter of not supporting the police.
[1:21:17] I've had very positive interactions with the Windsor Police, and I do appreciate them.
[1:21:23] But I don't think they need this technology.
[1:21:27] They have plenty of other technologies at their disposal.
[1:21:33] To say people, you know, you don't need to worry unless you're a criminal.
[1:21:38] Like I said before, no, that's absolutely not the case.
[1:21:42] If you are unfairly targeted and, you know, the AI puts out misinformation about you, it's a nightmare to clear up.
[1:21:53] And it seems counter to living in a democratic society.
[1:21:59] So that's all I have to say. Thank you very much.
[1:22:02] Thank you.
[1:22:17] Good evening. Ryan, you want to swing on Remington Road?
[1:22:21] I just have a couple quick things.
[1:22:24] One is that I'm unsure why we decided to, the Windsor decided to contract with a private company for
[1:22:32] flock cameras if we're already using a state-run ALPR system run by the state troopers.
[1:22:42] So I'm curious what the rationale is there.
[1:22:46] And I feel like if it's that important to use an ALPR system, we should just use that system we're already using.
[1:22:52] My second point here is, I think the rationale for this whole thing, these cameras, is that they're on a public right of way, right?
[1:23:00] So we don't really have any expectation of privacy.
[1:23:03] I would point out that if we're on that public right of way, those video feeds are public information as well.
[1:23:10] So if we have those feeds up, those are foyaable.
[1:23:14] People are going to foya you for those video feeds.
[1:23:17] So I mean, I think just think about the costs that would be associated with that, if you get those FOIA requests.
[1:23:24] And I know some towns in Washington State have, for example, taken them down because of the costs associated with those FOIA requests.
[1:23:31] So just something to consider as you think about this.
[1:23:35] Thank you so much.
[1:23:36] Thank you.
[1:23:42] All right, so we'll bring public communications and petitions to a close.
[1:23:48] And we'll move to item number six on our agenda.
[1:23:50] which is communications from council members.
[1:23:54] And I just want to begin first by saying, again,
[1:23:57] happy 250th birthday to America.
[1:24:01] And I do hope that everyone enjoyed their fourth.
[1:24:04] We do have several events that are going to be taking place this week
[1:24:08] on the green as we continue to celebrate the 250th.
[1:24:13] Also wanted to pause to say thank you to every voter who took time
[1:24:18] to come out for our referendum during that time frame May through June, I was going to
[1:24:28] say July, I'm like no, May through June. There was a lot of conversation in regards to
[1:24:32] our budget and a lot of emails, phone calls, conversations online and just want to say that
[1:24:40] the information that was shared for me, that's democracy. Having input, hearing everybody's
[1:24:46] views, thoughts, opinions. So thank you to everyone who took time to weigh in on the budget
[1:24:52] referendum. There's a lot of pieces that came up, conversations about what can be done,
[1:24:58] how can we look at?
[1:25:00] Our tax bills differently. I know that Councillor Naim will talk a bit more about that, but that's real. We need to respond to where we are as a society. So just want everyone to know that if you shared commentary with any one of us up here, know that it was taken into consideration and more to come in how we look at our tax bills, how we look at our taxes here in the town of Windsor. Also wanted to say thank you to the residents and also to the council.
[1:25:29] So I was out for a few weeks and thank you.
[1:25:34] Thank you for the phone calls, thank you for the cards.
[1:25:36] Thanks for just checking in to see how I was doing.
[1:25:39] I'm getting there, not 100% but I'm almost there, but happy to actually be in the council chambers this evening for this meeting.
[1:25:46] So I wanted to publicly say thank you to our residents for that.
[1:25:51] And lastly,
[1:25:54] I wanted to just share that as a town.
[1:26:00] So much happens here, this summer we have the farmers market, we have the concerts on the green and really hope that we'll have an opportunity to just continue to see each other and talk with each other, irrespective of thoughts, ideas, opinions, that's what makes Windsor such a great place to be, is the diversity of opinion is there, but we can still have good fellowship and fun together at our concerts, the farmers market and all the other amazing things that happen here in town.
[1:26:29] So with that, I will conclude my commentary
[1:26:32] and considerate.
[1:26:34] Do you have anything this evening?
[1:26:36] You left me something.
[1:26:41] Well, one, I'm happy to see you're back and well.
[1:26:43] Thank you.
[1:26:44] Two, I enjoyed the last budget season.
[1:26:49] It was my first one.
[1:26:50] And thank you for the opportunity to do it three times.
[1:26:54] Come.
[1:26:55] You know, we've had five.
[1:26:56] Well, we don't push it.
[1:27:02] I haven't said that.
[1:27:04] I hope everyone has a nice voice of joy.
[1:27:05] I didn't do anything, but watch TV and watch the fireworks show down in Washington, D.C.
[1:27:13] And having said that, I just want to make a comment of, you know, as a new member of the town council,
[1:27:20] So I have learned that we have a responsibility
[1:27:24] as town councilman to all of the residents of Windsor.
[1:27:29] Not just a couple, not just a few that come out and speak.
[1:27:33] There's a lot of people out there who have nothing to say,
[1:27:36] but they make their presence known.
[1:27:38] And as a town councilman, I have learned
[1:27:40] that we have to listen.
[1:27:42] And not all the decisions are going to make everyone happy.
[1:27:47] But then again, this is the real world
[1:27:49] then we can't make everybody happy. I wish we could. Maybe in another day, as I know
[1:27:54] the time. So, anyway, it was a vote. Keep you much longer. I just like to thank everyone
[1:27:59] for coming out and voting. I hope everyone had a nice Fourth of July. And I'm glad the
[1:28:06] mayor is back as well. And having said that, I'll turn my-
[1:28:11] Thank you, Councillor Durent. Councillor King.
[1:28:14] Thank you, Madam Mayor. Just want to thank everyone for coming out today. And I'm going
[1:28:18] I lose my voice, so I won't stop talking, but thank you, yes.
[1:28:21] Thank you, Councillor Kain.
[1:28:22] Councillor Pellke.
[1:28:23] Thank you, Madam Mayor.
[1:28:26] I am not going to be here on Thursday, but I would encourage everybody who was able to
[1:28:31] find some time to come out tonight to find some time to come out to this area of town on
[1:28:36] Thursday.
[1:28:37] I know we had the July 4th festivities and 250th festivities planned for here on the green,
[1:28:43] but due to the extreme heat that got canceled and pushed so that is again just
[1:28:48] reminded everybody that's going to be reoccurring this week so I'd like them
[1:28:52] to come out. I also want to just kind of push something out there for folks who
[1:28:57] they've maybe heard of the program but I want to both congratulate and thank Chief
[1:29:04] Bianchi from the Windsor Volunteer Fire Department and the certified staff and
[1:29:08] folks at the high school. I managed to have a conversation when I didn't
[1:29:12] with him last week, that there were 90 high school students interested in the firefighters
[1:29:19] programs. So that's the data that he shared with me. And I don't know the exact number
[1:29:26] of students in the high school, but basically he said that's like 9% to 10% of the school
[1:29:30] population is interested in the firefighting course. And that's one of those programs I know
[1:29:35] even before I was elected to council. I kind of conveyed to the Board of Education that
[1:29:40] that those sort of career opportunity classes are really worth pursuing and I'm glad to see that he and again the folks at the high school have done such a wonderful job with that one because
[1:29:50] while there's always elective courses and those sort of things for students to take the fact that they're willing to sign up and take a course like this that
[1:30:00] That can be very challenging mentally, physically. It's just no disrespect to anybody else, but man, I don't know if I would have done it when I was in school myself. I mean, I think it would have been cool, but I don't know if I would have been able to do it. So I don't know if they're going to have two sections, three sections, four sections, what they're going to be able to have, but it's just the idea that 90 of our students expressed an interest in a firefighting course here in town. That's really cool to me, and I think that bodes well for the civic engagement that we foster.
[1:30:29] here in Windsor and for maybe sort of a rebirth of a fire department in the years to come
[1:30:37] hopefully sooner rather than later because those men and women do a really, really outstanding
[1:30:42] job for us. That being said, I'll let you guys look on Facebook, a battle of the badges,
[1:30:47] our fire personnel are going to be having their charity softball tournament coming up free
[1:30:53] event cheer on the heroes of our community. And with that Madam Mayor, I'm all set.
[1:30:59] Thank you, Councillor Volkey.
[1:31:00] Thank you.
[1:31:01] House Armstrong.
[1:31:02] Thank you Madam Mayor.
[1:31:04] Good evening to everyone here tonight. It's always good to see those of you out and expressing
[1:31:09] your opinions and I always say we do listen, we discuss and we hear you.
[1:31:14] In this season, I do say also that we take care of ourselves and remember to watch out for
[1:31:21] you're elderly and for those that you don't see quite often, these days have been awfully heated.
[1:31:28] The other thing I do also appreciate the little leaders coming out.
[1:31:34] It's always good to know that our youth are out there and that we support them as we should.
[1:31:40] And also, let us continue to support our businesses that are in town as we frequent Windsor Center and
[1:31:48] There are other businesses we see that they will thrive because we have everything we need in Windsor.
[1:31:55] And continue to know that health as well.
[1:31:58] Thank you Madam Mayor.
[1:32:00] Thank you.
[1:32:01] Councillor Overture.
[1:32:02] Thank you very much, Madam.
[1:32:04] Thank all those who came out to speak and those who wrote notes to us.
[1:32:10] It's important that we hear what the residents have to say.
[1:32:17] The festivities on Thursday should provide an opportunity to meet some of the local organizations
[1:32:23] in town that are going to be out on the green.
[1:32:27] If you're not involved, then one of the local groups get involved.
[1:32:31] That's what makes Windsor great.
[1:32:33] Your involvement in civic groups that benefit the residents of Windsor and or the residents
[1:32:42] Worldwide. A member of the Rotary Club, I'll throw kudos to them. Most of you probably
[1:32:53] don't even realize, but most people don't even remember what Polio is. I do. And the Rotary
[1:33:01] Club actually helped get rid of Polio worldwide. It's only sitting in a few countries now.
[1:33:09] And hopefully we'll see you all out on the green on Thursday.
[1:33:12] Thank you.
[1:33:13] Thank you, Councillor Elleveld.
[1:33:15] Councillor Neill.
[1:33:15] Thank you, Madam Mayor.
[1:33:17] Happy Independence Day.
[1:33:18] Independence week.
[1:33:19] Thank you all for coming out and sharing your thoughts, opinions, and continuing to do so.
[1:33:26] I thought I wouldn't see a full room after budget season was over.
[1:33:29] I'm very glad everyone could continue coming out here.
[1:33:32] I hope to see you all again in August.
[1:33:34] I guess I'm sure we'll have a lively agenda then as well, but no, seriously, it helps us to hear from all of you, and we try to be everywhere we can, but we can't always be at all places, so when you all come out, when you write to us, when you show up online, when you call those things matters, so thank you for doing it, and I'll just echo everyone also said stay cool, it is going to get warm again, looking forward to seeing everyone on Thursday for the festivities, and I know I have some finance and other updates,
[1:34:04] We'll hit those out of those items.
[1:34:05] Go.
[1:34:06] All right.
[1:34:07] Thank you.
[1:34:07] Thank you.
[1:34:10] Comfort live Hoffman.
[1:34:11] Do we make an announcement together?
[1:34:14] We should do it together.
[1:34:15] We should do it together.
[1:34:15] We should do it together, right?
[1:34:16] So I don't get any trouble.
[1:34:17] All right.
[1:34:17] Okay.
[1:34:18] You ready?
[1:34:19] Ready?
[1:34:20] You.
[1:34:20] So there is, we do want to make an announcement.
[1:34:22] If anybody sees on the plaza, the owners of the plaza are kind enough on occasion to, if they're
[1:34:29] requested to put information on there for somebody special birthday or an event of some sort.
[1:34:34] There is someone special in town that has been very involved for many years, he attended
[1:34:38] school with him.
[1:34:38] It's engaged?
[1:34:39] Correct.
[1:34:41] I guess we would call him Mr. Shabder being maybe, he had been very involved with Shabder
[1:34:45] week for 20 plus years and part of the Windsor J.C.'s, and I'll let you say the name and
[1:34:51] for that.
[1:34:52] Definitely.
[1:34:53] And so, just wanted to make mention of that as comes to Elville, mentioned how important is to continue.
[1:35:00] We're being involved in our civic organizations and Mr. John Jerry, who celebrated a really big birthday a few days ago. We just want to say, I won't say the number, because we'll really get in trouble. But, you know, 25 again is always good. So happy birthday, John Jerry from, from your good friends here in the town of Windsor. All right. The only thing I wanted to mention was because everybody has echoed everything. Big thank you to everybody that came out and voted.
[1:35:29] We appreciate that very much in listening and hearing that vote, but very important the public works with all this heat that's been going on are public works folks have been out there working really hard to if you see them say thank you.
[1:35:41] They were really hard for us to make the town look beautiful.
[1:35:44] That's it.
[1:35:45] Thank you, Councillor Blacoffe.
[1:35:46] W here.
[1:35:48] I have nothing to no comments.
[1:35:51] Thank you.
[1:35:52] All right, thank you.
[1:35:54] So, with that said, I will bring communications from our council members to a close.
[1:35:59] Again, please remember all the activities on the green in celebration of the 250th birthday
[1:36:04] of our country.
[1:36:05] And I will move to reports of appointed boards and commissions.
[1:36:08] And I do see Secretary Zatter in the audience coming with the Board of Education.
[1:36:16] Good evening, and just so you all know, the U.S. men's team is down one to Belgium at the
[1:36:21] half.
[1:36:21] Thank you for that.
[1:36:23] So, we're all just going to take a deep breath and shoot out some positive energy because
[1:36:27] they're going to need it.
[1:36:29] Those of us who are recording, thank you.
[1:36:31] Oh my God.
[1:36:32] We're going to watch it later.
[1:36:33] Come on.
[1:36:33] You're going to hit the oilers anyway.
[1:36:37] Okay.
[1:36:38] Right.
[1:36:38] So, on Tuesday, June 9th, Windsor High School had their graduation.
[1:36:45] Graceland LaCos was our valedictorian and Evelyn Schwartz was our salutorian.
[1:36:51] The graduation ceremonies were held also for the 15 adult education students as well as five of our community-based transition academy students.
[1:37:00] So we have their graduation as well, congratulations to all.
[1:37:04] We also really, speaking of community partnerships and all of the amazing civic organizations that we have, we do want to extend our gratitude.
[1:37:12] we did have over $138,000 in scholarships for our seniors this year that were given away on awards night on May 28th, so thank you to all of those who support the fundraisers that help provide those scholarships to our students.
[1:37:32] Our district administrators finished out the school year with their annual end of leadership retreat.
[1:37:37] They traveled around on the mobile classroom and met families and handed out books and activities.
[1:37:43] Literally with megathones walking down streets, having kids come out and grab the books.
[1:37:48] So it was really great to see them so invested in getting out in the community.
[1:37:53] And we love the mobile classroom.
[1:37:54] We think that's just an amazing addition to Windsor Public Schools.
[1:37:58] We also want to make sure that the families know that the Summer Food Program is running from June 22nd to August 21st.
[1:38:06] Monday through Friday, we will be at Shashan Park.
[1:38:11] We will be at John Fitch Park on Bloomfield, and then if there's any changes, everything
[1:38:20] will be posted on our website.
[1:38:22] Due to federal regulations for summer food service programs, the children must be present
[1:38:27] that are eligible for the meal, and they do have to consume that meal on site just so families
[1:38:34] are aware.
[1:38:35] And the menus are posted on the district website, just in case people want to check before they go.
[1:38:40] We've kicked off the Windsor Public School Summer Reading Program for the students, families should visit the district website or town libraries for more information and further recommended books.
[1:38:51] The annual summer block party will be held at the high school on Thursday, August 27th, from 4pm to 7pm.
[1:38:58] There will be food activities and freebies available and students can meet their teachers.
[1:39:03] Always a fantastic event, it gets bigger and better every year, so looking forward to that one.
[1:39:08] We do want to remind families to register and update their returning children information on power school.
[1:39:15] That's an important piece of the puzzle for us as we start getting ready for the return that will be in September.
[1:39:24] There's a banner on the district website too that they can access all of the medical
[1:39:29] forms that are needed or parent registration forms.
[1:39:33] And then obviously, Windsor Visitor website, www.winsorct.org for the most current information
[1:39:40] related to athletic schedules and our academic calendar.
[1:39:44] That is what is on the paper, but I do want to take a moment to talk about something else
[1:39:49] that we're very excited about on the Board of Education, because you know I like to sprinkle a little positivity in there, but also like to always give Mr. Peltie something exciting.
[1:40:00] I would like to think about related to our curriculum. So I am very excited to announce that the new early learning model is going to be kicked off in September. So we did have a discussion about this in the Board of Education at our June 16th meeting and if you fast forward to the very end, you'll see the presentation, Dr. Haiti gave us, which was very exciting. So just to touch on this really quickly about what it is, it is a comprehensive research based instructional
[1:40:29] framework for kindergarten through grade two. So our youngest babies and it is going
[1:40:35] to be launching in September of 2026. A lot of, we hear a lot of community comments
[1:40:45] around, you know, just sometimes the U.S. school system seems to be dragging a little
[1:40:49] bit behind a lot of other countries. So this particular program is not a change in curriculum,
[1:40:57] It's a change in how we are teaching our curriculum.
[1:41:00] So it's informed by the world's top systems,
[1:41:03] including Finland, Estonia, Singapore, and Japan,
[1:41:07] and has been adapted for the Windsor students
[1:41:09] in the community.
[1:41:10] It's also grounded in science, right?
[1:41:15] Science says that K-2 is most neurologically sensitive window
[1:41:19] of a child's life, and the connections
[1:41:21] formed at that stage, covering their reading, reasoning,
[1:41:25] and emotional regulation for decades to come.
[1:41:27] So a lot of this is Harvard's center of developing children
[1:41:33] can form 1 million neural connections per second
[1:41:36] in the early childhood years.
[1:41:38] We are eliminating that screen-based learning
[1:41:41] from our K-3-2 programs.
[1:41:43] So we're really going back into that hands-on play learning.
[1:41:50] There are links, as I'm sure everyone has seen, that relates early screen exposure to reduced executive function and language delays.
[1:42:01] So screen-based phonics programs have been consistently underperforming.
[1:42:06] So we're going to be removing that, and we're going to be moving back to small group teacher lead instructions only.
[1:42:14] There's a whole ton of information related to the 10 pillars, again, not going to take you through it all, but really encourage you to take a look at the last Board of Ed meeting where it is all explained very thoroughly, and again, as always, Dr.
[1:42:30] Haiti always welcomes the Board of Ed members and the town council members to step into the classroom and see it firsthand.
[1:42:37] And so please consider visiting one of our K-2 schools in early September as they kick this program off.
[1:42:44] I think it's going to be amazing and I'm really, really excited to see what this cohort does over the next several years.
[1:42:52] Thank you, Secretary Zahar, for that thorough report.
[1:42:55] Counselors, any questions?
[1:42:57] Comments?
[1:42:58] All right, well, thank you so much.
[1:43:02] All right, all right.
[1:43:03] All right, so I'll move to the town manager's report, Mr. Suza.
[1:43:09] Thank you, Madam Mayor.
[1:43:11] A few items this evening, I just wanted folks to take time this month to recognize Parks and Recreation Month.
[1:43:20] Our department does a wonderful job all 12 months, but on a national level, the National Parks and Recreation Association recognizes July as Parks and Rec Month.
[1:43:34] I encourage folks to go to the town's website.
[1:43:37] There's a whole host of activities for everyone from young toddlers up to our seniors.
[1:43:44] And so many of those are free events as well.
[1:43:48] Council, Pellke had mentioned on this Thursday, July 9th, the activity of the town green.
[1:43:55] I just want to add to that, there will be some traffic modifications in northbound lanes on broad street.
[1:44:03] We'll be closed between Batchelder and roughly Maple Street or Palisato, excuse me, Palisato.
[1:44:12] And so the those Northbound cars will be detoured onto Batchelder,
[1:44:17] on to make mechanics and then back out to 159 or Broad Street.
[1:44:22] And so Southbound travel will remain open as normal.
[1:44:28] So also it's activities that are happening out there, one of our activities this coming Saturday is the bottle and
[1:44:37] can drive that the robotics teams host and so it's a fundraiser that they do several times a year is July 11th from 9 until
[1:44:47] to 20 William Street. William Street is the street between McDonald's and the
[1:44:53] Fire and A.M.S. Building and so you go to the back there and team
[1:44:57] God who uses the former.
[1:45:00] WVA EMS building is there in the great fundraiser opportunity for Team Paragon and the other two robotics teams. Also on the 11th, I guess I get a lot of things to do on the 11th. There is the Windsor Freedom Trail Committee is hosting a food drive to support the Windsor Fuel Bank, and that's going to be Saturday the 11th from 10 until 2 at the Archibald Memorial,
[1:45:27] the federal Army Church on Hayden Station Road.
[1:45:35] Okay, those individuals that are eligible to vote in the Democratic primary on August 11th are able to receive or
[1:45:45] do early voting between August 3rd through the 9th.
[1:45:52] And there will be some evening hours available as well.
[1:45:55] We all encourage folks to go to the town's website, town clerks website for those specific dates.
[1:46:01] And also absentee ballots are available and those have been available for about five or six days now.
[1:46:09] So we can get absentee ballots as well as if you're eligible to vote in the primary on August 11th.
[1:46:15] With the multiple referendums this year,
[1:46:20] The issuance or the mailing of the real estate personal property and
[1:46:24] the vehicle tax bills has been delayed, so they're re-mailed out by July 24th.
[1:46:31] They will be due August 1st
[1:46:37] and must be paid in full by the end of the day,
[1:46:42] Tuesday, this 1st of September to avoid any interest.
[1:46:46] So we'll mail them out the end of this month by the July 24th, and they're doing full by Tuesday, September 1st to avoid any interest charges.
[1:46:56] And lastly, this September 11th will be commemorating the 25th anniversary of the tragedies that the nation had to experience
[1:47:15] through our walk of light community remembrance ceremony on the green.
[1:47:22] And so I bring this up now because we decorate, as a community, we decorate 2,977 luminary bags.
[1:47:32] And so we involve the school childrens from both the public schools and private schools here in town.
[1:47:37] But we also ask the community to participate in that ceremony by
[1:47:44] by helping to decorate these luminary bags.
[1:47:48] So on July 9th, we will have town staff on the town green as part of the events and
[1:47:55] folks are able to stop by decorate a luminary or two and so folks can go on to the town's
[1:48:02] website to learn more about the event.
[1:48:04] The event itself will be on the 11th of September starting at 6 o'clock here on the town
[1:48:10] green.
[1:48:11] Madam Mayor, that concludes my report for this evening.
[1:48:17] Thank you so much, Mr. Sousa.
[1:48:19] Councillors, any questions or comments for Mr. Sousa in his report?
[1:48:27] All right.
[1:48:27] Well, thank you so much.
[1:48:31] Moving on to item number nine, reports of standing committees.
[1:48:36] Councillor King.
[1:48:38] Nothing to report, Madam Mayor.
[1:48:40] Thank you.
[1:48:42] Councillor Armstrong, anything to report?
[1:48:44] I know we have a lot to talk about in a few.
[1:48:50] Thank you so much. I just want to read it again. Thank you to everyone that came out to vote in our third referendum.
[1:48:58] I would return out while we would like to see it be higher. It was consistent, so thank you for all for staying with us through these early summer months.
[1:49:08] As we look at future meetings, I just want to talk a little bit about things that will have our agenda.
[1:49:13] And our next meeting will likely be hitting our fiscal year end conversations.
[1:49:18] So looking at how we did for the year where different funds were.
[1:49:21] But in future meetings, we will be taking up amongst other items.
[1:49:26] Topics including potentially breaking up the tax bill are Goldilocks question in terms of what it would look like.
[1:49:36] we put something like that on the budget referendum, as well as revisiting some of our tax credit programs.
[1:49:43] So if you have other items you'd like to see from a finance perspective,
[1:49:47] love to hear it before budget season starts again, and we usually kick back up early fall.
[1:49:53] So please do reach out and let us know. That is it. Thank you.
[1:49:57] All right, thank you so much.
[1:50:00] All right, deputy mayor, anything from town improvements? We had a meeting on June 29th, and we did talk about the veterans poll concept study, which we'll be bringing to at a future date. And we talked about the train station HVAC replacement project. We had some papillal projects updates on pigeonhole road, prospectile road and wild park. So that will be coming. You'll see all of that soon. So just wanted to give you an update on that. All right. Thank you. This evening, I don't believe we have any ordinance.
[1:50:30] And there is no unfinished business, so we'll move into item number 12, new business.
[1:50:38] And is there a motion?
[1:50:40] I move to accept the sidewalk easement for 425 day hell road has shown on plan entitled easement for sidewalk to be acquired from day hell road LLC by the town of Windsor, 425 day hell road Windsor,
[1:50:54] Connecticut by Alfred Associates Inc. dated 122, 2026 scale, one inch equals 40 feet.
[1:51:04] That's good.
[1:51:05] Oh
[1:51:08] specific.
[1:51:08] Thank you.
[1:51:09] Second.
[1:51:10] Thank you, Councillor Naiveen.
[1:51:12] All right.
[1:51:13] Mr. Susan.
[1:51:13] Thank you, Madam Mayor.
[1:51:14] I'm going to invite up of Suzanne Chote, our town engineer, and Suzanne is going to provide a brief overview of this request.
[1:51:23] Good evening.
[1:51:25] Good evening.
[1:51:26] A 425-day Hill Road was redeveloped with a flex industrial building.
[1:51:32] The site plan was originally approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission in March of 2023, and it's had amendments approved March of this year.
[1:51:42] The developer has completed the site improvements per the Planning and Zoning approvals, including a sidewalk portion along a portion of the day Hill Road frontage.
[1:51:54] The layout of the public sidewalk was constructed on private property.
[1:52:00] The reason it was placed on private property was to avoid wetlands and
[1:52:05] grating issues and a sidewalk easement is thus required.
[1:52:09] The public sidewalk shall be maintained and kept in repair by the town.
[1:52:14] Snow and ice removal will remain the responsibility of the property owner.
[1:52:18] No financial impact other than long-term maintenance is anticipated.
[1:52:24] I'm happy to answer any questions that I can.
[1:52:26] Thank you so much, Suzanne.
[1:52:28] Councillor Colkey.
[1:52:29] If we said no,
[1:52:34] what happens?
[1:52:36] We'd have to close the sidewalk to the public.
[1:52:39] Thank you.
[1:52:42] All right.
[1:52:44] Council is anything else?
[1:52:48] All right, so if we're ready for the vote, all in favor?
[1:52:52] Hi, hi.
[1:52:53] Any opposition abstentions?
[1:52:54] Hearing none.
[1:52:55] And that passes 9-0-0.
[1:52:57] Thank you.
[1:52:58] Thank you, Suzanne.
[1:53:00] Moving to item 12b,
[1:53:05] Mr. Susa.
[1:53:06] We'd like a motion.
[1:53:08] Oh, I did skip the motion, so sorry.
[1:53:11] Deputy Mayor, I move that the job description for the position of fire department administrator be approved as presented.
[1:53:17] Second.
[1:53:18] Thank you. It's been moved and seconded, Mr. Susa.
[1:53:21] Great. Thank you Madam Mayor. I'm going to invite up our Human Resource Managers, Sophia Castellanis,
[1:53:28] I didn't know if Amelia was going to join you, so Sophia will provide an overview of this item which is a result of a pending retirement of a long time in pulling an incumbent of this position, Sophia.
[1:53:46] Yes, well, good evening.
[1:53:47] So before you today is an updated job description for the Fire Department and Administrator position.
[1:53:53] As part of our standard practice, whenever a position becomes vacant, staff review the
[1:53:58] job description to ensure it accurately reflects the current responsibilities and qualifications
[1:54:03] required by the town.
[1:54:04] With the upcoming retirement of the current Fire Department Administrator, the position
[1:54:08] was reviewed collaboratively by the Department Director, the incumbent, and human resources.
[1:54:14] The review identified several updates that better reflect the evolving needs of the department.
[1:54:19] One of the changes is the addition of responsibility for recruiting volunteer firefighters, including
[1:54:24] marketing and public relations that support volunteer recruitment and community engagement.
[1:54:30] In addition, terminology and job duties have been updated to reflect operational changes that
[1:54:35] have occurred over time.
[1:54:37] The general purpose, essential duties and responsibilities in minimum qualification sections
[1:54:42] have also been revised to ensure they accurately represent the expectations of the position.
[1:54:47] Finally, a competency section has been added to align the job description with the town's
[1:54:52] current job description format.
[1:54:54] These updates clarify the role without changing its overall scope or classification.
[1:54:58] The position will remain at-
[1:55:00] Grade 7. Thank you, and I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Counselors, questions?
[1:55:10] Council elevator. Yeah, and I've said this in the past and I'll continue to say it that one of the nice things, when I see one of these things, these descriptions, the first thing I look at is minimum qualifications because there's an over desire by some that everyone has a patchless degree.
[1:55:32] But I think in many cases, as some of us who are older understand experience can be far more valuable than what you're going to get from a book.
[1:55:45] And in this case, I am pleased to see that you do have a section for any equivalent combination of training and experience, and I appreciate that.
[1:55:54] So thank you.
[1:55:55] Great.
[1:55:56] All right.
[1:55:56] I agree.
[1:55:57] Thank you, ma'am.
[1:55:58] Thank you.
[1:55:59] Anything else comes loose?
[1:56:01] All right.
[1:56:02] We're ready for the vote.
[1:56:03] All in favor?
[1:56:04] Aye.
[1:56:05] All right.
[1:56:06] All right.
[1:56:06] Here in opposition of abstentions.
[1:56:07] That passes 9-0-0.
[1:56:09] Thank you.
[1:56:12] Moving to item 12c.
[1:56:25] All right.
[1:56:26] Is there a motion?
[1:56:27] Yes.
[1:56:27] I move to approve the collective bargaining agreement between the town of Windsor and UPSU.
[1:56:33] 2, local 424 unit 10 from period of July 1, 2026 through July 30, 2029.
[1:56:41] Second.
[1:56:42] Thank you, Councillor Naimist or Susa?
[1:56:45] Thank you very much.
[1:56:46] I'm going to invite up Amelia Bliss, our Director of Human Resources, and Chief Melanton will
[1:56:55] will join Amelia. This has been reviewed in executive session with the council and now
[1:57:03] as Amelia and the chief will explain, there is an agreement reached and ratified by the
[1:57:11] union and now it is the council's consideration and request to ratify it as well.
[1:57:19] Good evening, the collective bargaining contract with the public safety dispatchers expired on June 30th of 2026.
[1:57:30] Negotiations were mainly centered around wages, vacation leave, health benefits, and then contract language around overtime, both voluntary and order in and approval of leave time requests.
[1:57:43] The agreement has was reached and ratified by the bargaining unit and it extends from July 1 of 26 through June 30th of 2029.
[1:57:56] Specific negotiated changes include voluntary oversight time assignments and under this contract these assignments would be ordered offered in order beginning with the dispatcher with the least amount of overtime work during that bid cycle.
[1:58:12] This allows the opportunity for over time to be shared more equitably than the prior language which had it being offered by seniority.
[1:58:22] It also eliminates the ability for more senior dispatchers to bump less senior dispatchers after the over time shift is accepted.
[1:58:33] For the order in over time, the new language creates a formal over time rotation system that distributes mandatory over time
[1:58:42] on a more fair and equitable basis.
[1:58:44] If over time is not taken voluntarily,
[1:58:47] dispatchers are ordered by the least amount of ordered overtime worked during the bid cycle,
[1:58:53] rather than the prior language, which was based on the least senior dispatcher.
[1:58:59] For leave time request, the contract creates a more structured leave approval process
[1:59:04] that encourages requests made with advance notice.
[1:59:08] It creates advanced notice tiers with certain guarantees and conditions for leave approval and limits the use of ordering over time for vacation coverage when leave is requested less than 28 days in advance and it also provides greater protection for employees once the leave is approved.
[1:59:28] For the vacation accruals, employees hired prior to July 1st of 2015 will be moved to the same vacation accrual schedule as employees hired before that date.
[1:59:39] Under this schedule, employees accrue four weeks of vacation after 10 years of service rather than waiting until 15 years before they get to that accrual level.
[1:59:48] This change allies with the towns are comparable towns externally and it helps support our recruitment and retention efforts.
[2:00:00] For holidays, this contract adds the option for employees to choose to bank all of their holidays at the beginning of the fiscal year and use them as vacation days rather than receiving premium pay for working on the holiday. It also aligns with existing bargaining unit language for the in the police contract. The health insurance changes include increases to the employee cost share for the high deductible health plan of half a percent for each year of the
[2:00:30] contract. This makes the employee contribution 17.5% 18 and 18.5% respectively.
[2:00:39] Prescription drug copays for both the PPO plan and the high deductible plan will be increasing by $5 more for
[2:00:46] generic and $10 for brand and non-formulary drugs.
[2:00:52] We also have agreed to prescription formulary changes, including implementing a cost relief
[2:01:00] program for specialty medications and this program reduces the cost for the
[2:01:05] employees as well as for the town. And then finally it the contract adds
[2:01:12] optional vision insurance that is currently offered to the Police Bargaining
[2:01:16] Unit and our unaffiliated employees. For the wages we conducted a market salary
[2:01:24] survey of other towns in our geographic area and found that our pay range was below the
[2:01:32] 50th percentile or the median of the market.
[2:01:36] To address this, a one-time market adjustment of a 2% increase and then a 3% general wage
[2:01:43] increase effective retroactive to July 1 of 26 was agreed to and then for FY 28 and FY 29,
[2:01:52] the wage increases are 3.25% each year.
[2:01:56] The financial impact for FY27 of the market adjustment
[2:02:01] and the 3% general wage increase is $64,437 over the FY26 budget.
[2:02:09] And this includes the benefits, the pension,
[2:02:12] FICA, and Medicare.
[2:02:14] And then for FY28, the 3.25% is 58,000 over the FY27 projected cost.
[2:02:22] with benefits and FY29, 3.25% increase is $60,660 over the FY28 projected cost including
[2:02:33] benefits. And these costs are the general wage increase plus the step increases that people
[2:02:39] get if they're not yet at the top step. And that summarizes the changes in the contract.
[2:02:46] You have a copy of it with the red line edits and we're happy to answer any questions that you have.
[2:02:52] Thank you so much, Milliam, councillors, councillors.
[2:02:56] Thank you, ma'am.
[2:02:57] How many employees are in this unit?
[2:02:59] Ten?
[2:03:00] Ten.
[2:03:01] I thought so.
[2:03:01] Thank you.
[2:03:04] Any other questions, councillors?
[2:03:07] And did you say the retroactive will be July 1st?
[2:03:12] For the wages, yes, for the wages.
[2:03:15] This is effective medical.
[2:03:18] No, the medical will be prospective.
[2:03:21] Thank you.
[2:03:22] Thank you, ma'am.
[2:03:23] All right. Thank you.
[2:03:26] Okay. If there are no further questions, I know that we've been waiting for this one to come forward, so thank you for that. All right. All in favor?
[2:03:39] I'm hearing no opposition or abstentions. That passes at 9-0. Item 12 is their emotion.
[2:03:46] I move to authorize the acceptance of a Connecticut state and local cyber security grant in the amount of $38,480 and authorize, I think we skipped one.
[2:03:57] Oh, did I skip one?
[2:03:58] Sorry.
[2:03:59] Oh, I'm sorry.
[2:04:00] About $35,000 or sorry.
[2:04:04] And I said $12,000.
[2:04:06] Sorry, $12,000.
[2:04:08] I move to approve the appropriation of $35,000 from the general fund, unassigned fund balance for the implementation of budgeting and capital improvement plan software.
[2:04:16] Second, thank you, Mr. Sisa.
[2:04:20] Thank you very much, Madam Mayor.
[2:04:22] I'm going to invite up Linda Collins, our Assistant Finance Director, to provide an overview of this request.
[2:04:33] Linda will do a much better job of explaining this than I so I'm going to hand it right over to her.
[2:04:38] Good evening, Madam Mayor and Council members.
[2:04:41] town department staff continuously seek ways to gain efficiencies and improvement and improve effectiveness in everything we do.
[2:04:51] Although incremental updates and refinements to the budget and capital improvement plan processes,
[2:04:57] our current proceedings.
[2:05:00] Members remain outdated and time consuming on multiple levels. The development, publishing, and managing of these documents relies on a fragmented network of Excel and Word files alongside our core counting software system. This disjointed system demands extensive manual data manipulation and constant human verification.
[2:05:26] implementation. Implementing and transitioning to a dedicated budgeting software solution
[2:05:32] will modernize these aspects of our fiscal management. It eliminates redundant data entry,
[2:05:39] automates document, compilation, and provides real-time financial reporting throughout the
[2:05:45] fiscal year. Most importantly, it shifts staff time from tedious clerical work to value
[2:05:52] you added financial analysis.
[2:05:55] Following a competitive request for proposal process,
[2:05:59] UNIS solutions were selected as having the optimal platform to streamline our existing methods.
[2:06:06] This evening we are requesting a one time appropriation of $35,000 from the general fund,
[2:06:12] unassigned fund balance for the implementation of this software.
[2:06:17] While this funding was originally requested in the finance department,
[2:06:21] And FY27 proposed budget was eliminated during budget deliberations.
[2:06:27] And I could take any questions you have at this time.
[2:06:31] Thank you, Councillors.
[2:06:35] Councillor Coughlin.
[2:06:37] So the total one time is 35,000, you said.
[2:06:42] Correct.
[2:06:43] Just so for the public.
[2:06:45] And there will be no chance of anything needed going forward for any add-ons or anything for the software licensing of any sort.
[2:06:52] that your knowledge at the moment?
[2:06:54] Not at our knowledge at this moment for the implementation.
[2:06:58] Okay.
[2:06:58] But there will be any annual licensing fee.
[2:07:01] Okay.
[2:07:01] That we have in our budget.
[2:07:03] Perfect.
[2:07:03] Thank you so much.
[2:07:05] Thank you, Council.
[2:07:06] No doubt.
[2:07:07] Thank you, Madam.
[2:07:08] Just for clarification, just to make sure.
[2:07:10] So we've got in the budget, the amount of money it's going to cost to operate the system
[2:07:15] on a license fee on a year-over-year basis, but it's the implementation that is the additional
[2:07:20] cost.
[2:07:21] Correct. Thank you.
[2:07:25] Any other questions, councillors? Comments? No, comment.
[2:07:31] Okay. If we're ready for the vote. All right, all in favour?
[2:07:36] Aye. Hearing no opposition or abstentions, and that passes 9-0-0. Item 12-E is their emotion.
[2:07:45] I move to authorize the acceptance of a Connecticut state and local cybersecurity grant in the amount of $38,480
[2:07:52] and authorize the expenditure of $48,100 from special revenue account number 1681.
[2:07:59] Second.
[2:07:59] Thank you, Councillor Naeem.
[2:08:02] Mr. Susa.
[2:08:04] Thank you, Madam Mayor.
[2:08:06] I invite Frank Angelillo to provide an overview of this.
[2:08:09] This has been a continued effort on Frank's part to continue to shore up our cyber security systems.
[2:08:18] And so Frank, all you have.
[2:08:21] Thank you.
[2:08:21] It's an ongoing battle.
[2:08:24] The State and Local Cybersecurity Grant is a multi-round federal grant program established
[2:08:30] to address cybersecurity risks and threats facing state and local governments.
[2:08:36] It's administered by and Connecticut by Dean as the Division of Emergency Management and
[2:08:42] Homeland Security.
[2:08:43] The second round is an 80-20% cost share reimbursement grant, meaning that we pay 100% upfront and then we submit for 80% reimbursement.
[2:09:01] Our application, our application named the specific software package,
[2:09:07] classing $48,100, which will span three years, that license is a three year license.
[2:09:16] Once purchased, we'll submit for reimbursement in the amount of $38,480 leaving the town share of the purchase at $9,620.
[2:09:31] We respectfully ask the council to authorize acceptance of this grant or if you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer on them.
[2:09:40] Thank you, Frank.
[2:09:43] Just as councilors?
[2:09:44] No question, but to thank you because I know how much hard work you put in, so thank you so much for what you're doing.
[2:09:48] This is very important for the town, so thank you.
[2:09:54] I'm going to thank you, Frank.
[2:09:55] Yes, I keep telling you.
[2:09:57] You know, you could be doing something on the side. Great, right?
[2:10:00] He might be calling. He doesn't have enough time. But if he rates a grant, he might leave something else. All right. Thank you, Frank. All right. Everybody for the roll on favor? I hear you no opposition or abstentions. That passes 9-0-0. Thank you. All right. Moving to item 12-F. Is there a motion?
[2:10:41] Is there a motion?
[2:10:43] Sure.
[2:10:45] I'll move to approve the reactivation of the police department's automated license plate reader,
[2:10:50] ALPR cameras, and renew the annual contract with FOX safety based on the amended master services agreement as well as the town's amended ALPR policy as presented.
[2:11:03] Second, thank you for Mr. Blackhoff, thank you Mr. Susan.
[2:11:07] Thank you, Madam Mayor.
[2:11:10] I'm going to invite up our assistant town manager, Scott Colby, as well as chief of police Don Melanson to provide an overview of this item, which most recently was discussed at the Health and Safety Committee in June.
[2:11:28] This has been obviously a topic of significant discussion in the last year.
[2:11:34] We're bringing this back at this time because the town council had instructed us to turn off the cameras back in February, which was done, and that once the state general assembly had made any state law that changed, not changed, excuse me, adopted state law, to bring that back to the council as well as to explore with flocks.
[2:12:04] our vendor, flock safety, any amendments to the agreement that we have with them.
[2:12:10] Those two items have been completed, and we, as I mentioned earlier,
[2:12:15] discussed this with the Health and Safety Committee about three weeks ago now.
[2:12:20] And would that, I'd like to ask Scott and the chief to provide a brief overview of some of those changes.
[2:12:27] This has been a tool that the police department has used in the past, that's been an effective tool.
[2:12:32] And so the chief will touch a little bit on how that tool was used.
[2:12:38] So would that Scott, if you want to kick it off?
[2:12:41] Thank you.
[2:12:42] So as was mentioned, staff was working with the vendor in regards to looking to update the agreement that we have with them for the contract.
[2:12:54] At the same time we were also waiting for a language from the state that was signed into law on May 4th of this year.
[2:13:01] And so I'm going to go through some of the elements that are within the state law and then also talk about some of the other elements that were included as part of the conversations that staff was having with the vendor as well.
[2:13:14] And so the new legislation establishes statewide guard rules that directly address many of the concerns that had been previously raised regarding the ALPR technology.
[2:13:23] Some of the key provisions that are now reflected within Connecticut law and are also now aligned with the policy which include the strict permissible uses and so the ALPR use is limited to legitimate law enforcement and public safety functions including hot list comparisons missing persons stolen vehicles and active criminal investigation supported by reasonable suspicion.
[2:13:45] It also expanded the privacy protections, so both the town policy and the state law prohibit the use of ALPR data for immigration enforcement monitoring First Amendment protected activity, reproductive health care investigations, discriminatory enforcement, or personal use under the state law, ALPR data can only be shared with New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, so any broad sharing of that is prohibited by law.
[2:14:11] And we also, as I'll mention a little bit further along the line, we also have it written
[2:14:17] within the master service agreement, the 100-mile radius for sharing that we had in there
[2:14:23] as well.
[2:14:25] The reduced data retention standards, so the state law had reduced that to a 21-day retention
[2:14:31] limit, absent any specific investigative exceptions.
[2:14:35] So this is more restrictive than the town's initial 30-day policy, and will be implemented through administrative adjustment and vendor configuration.
[2:14:45] There's also some vendor contract safeguards, so the adopted state law now requires vendor contracts to prohibit data sale, unauthorized third party sharing,
[2:14:54] commingling of data and mandate security standards and Connecticut jurisdiction proof.
[2:15:00] These requirements provide statutory safeguards directly addressing concerns previously raised regarding the vendor's access and data governance. It also has an auditing reporting an oversight requirement from the state law, which would require annual reporting supervisory accountability as well as regulatory oversight from CT post, reinforcing and expanding the oversight mechanism that's reflected in the town's AOPR policy.
[2:15:29] Along with that, those incorporations of the state law, the town also work with flock to include additional language that's not necessarily addressed within the state law, but had also been raised through the conversations that we've been hearing from the last few months.
[2:15:46] And so one is requiring an annual independent security assessment as well as notification of any security incident, including in the 100 mile radius for sharing.
[2:15:59] requires audit logs and multi-factor authentication for all users to find secure deletion and prohibits
[2:16:07] flexibility to transfer and assign the master service agreement without prior written consent
[2:16:12] of the town. So taking together, the town had worked to put together what you see within
[2:16:17] the master service agreement as well as an updated town of Windsor fixed automated license plate
[2:16:29] reader data usage and security policy at the last health and safety committee meeting.
[2:16:35] There was a conversation to look to add a paragraph within there, which really is talking
[2:16:42] to the system expansion and technology modifications.
[2:16:45] And so no significant changes, alterations, features, upgrades or downgrades would be made
[2:16:53] to the system without the approval of the town council.
[2:16:58] And so those kind of just walk through what's being incorporated into the new master service agreement from the state law, from the conversations that staff has had, and I will turn this over to the chief to talk a little bit about the use of the system.
[2:17:14] Sure, so you've heard me speak many times before about how our officers use
[2:17:20] flock camera and the success they've had in being able to obtain leads on many
[2:17:27] cases where they may not have includes larceny thefts incidents,
[2:17:33] hit and run motor vehicle accidents, so evading accidents, welfare checks,
[2:17:38] So people that are missing endangered motor vehicle thefts, stolen motor vehicles,
[2:17:45] thefts from vehicles, along with weapons offenses.
[2:17:49] So guns incidents that have involved guns, displays, threats, shots fired incidents in town.
[2:17:57] Probably on a weekly basis, the officers ask me, when are we turning them back on?
[2:18:01] Because it has been such a valuable tool, they are still able to search other areas,
[2:18:07] not in Windsor because our cameras are off and they do continue to do that I believe during a three
[2:18:14] month period leading up from when the cameras were shut off there was over 450 searches by our officers
[2:18:21] for about 70 different cases and then another probably another 50 cases where officers
[2:18:28] documented that flock was unavailable to be able to search for their cases. It is a very useful tool
[2:18:36] And I'll answer any questions you may have on its use or what it provides to the Windsor.
[2:18:44] Thank you, Chief and thank you, Mr. Colby, for the information.
[2:18:51] Counselors, questions, I'm going to start with.
[2:18:53] Councillor Armstrong, questions or comments?
[2:18:57] Thank you, Madam Mayor.
[2:18:58] As has been said, health and safety has had several meetings and open forums, which included
[2:19:05] With a lot of the information that was compiled as discussed this evening, the purpose, the guiding
[2:19:11] principles, transparency, public awareness, protection and data responsibilities and limitations
[2:19:16] on the data that's being shared.
[2:19:19] And the purpose was that hearing for this committee was to bring back the information to this full
[2:19:26] committee and make them aware of what the questions were, suggestions were and for the entire community.
[2:19:34] It's more so that the information was definitely about the venue flock.
[2:19:41] That is the issue, and this has been a very meaningful issue, and doing so is very important
[2:19:47] that everyone be allowed to address their issues with respect and consideration to disagree.
[2:19:58] We have been
[2:20:00] Considering this for a very long time, we've had so many meetings about it. We've talked with one another. And of course, this full council always discuss and listen and make decisions, not only for one particular group but this entire community. About the LPR, but having a different, difficult referendum, we've already been out of that. And we serve without a doubt, not a few of individuals.
[2:20:28] I think consideration of research and listening and holding so many meetings and a very difficult
[2:20:35] decision for me and true to the safety of our community, we continue to keep the LPR off.
[2:20:46] But at some point I would ask that we look into another venue because we are still concerned
[2:20:53] about the residents still concerned about the activity of the police and perhaps make that
[2:20:59] available to address the concerns that are grave to all of us and perhaps the factor to look
[2:21:06] into this will always be a concern. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you, Councilor Armstrong.
[2:21:13] Councillors, questions, comments? And thank you, Madam Health and Safety Chair, for all your work.
[2:21:23] So just, I want to just try to, because we've heard a fair amount of misinformation from what I understand in this system.
[2:21:32] What does the camera, and just so we're all clear, these are ubiquitous.
[2:21:38] I've seen in multiple states, multiple locations, multiple towns, they seem to be everywhere.
[2:21:45] And you can identify them there primarily by the solar cell that's attached to them.
[2:21:54] What exactly does the picture, or what sort of a picture is taken of a vehicle?
[2:22:01] The front, the back, the side.
[2:22:03] Sure.
[2:22:04] So it takes a picture of the rear of the vehicle, and you will also get a side profile.
[2:22:09] So from the rear, so that you could see the side of the vehicle and the plate at the same
[2:22:15] time.
[2:22:15] Usually it takes two or three pictures, but it's not until after the vehicle has passed
[2:22:20] So you can't tell occupants or anything along those lines, there's nothing from the front that would actually show the front of the vehicle.
[2:22:28] So you cannot identify the driver.
[2:22:30] Correct.
[2:22:31] You cannot identify their race, their sex, or any of the demographic of the driver.
[2:22:36] Correct.
[2:22:36] Okay.
[2:22:37] The purpose of the picture is to identify the type of vehicle I believe and license plate.
[2:22:45] Correct.
[2:22:47] How does that help us in dealing with crime and Windsor?
[2:22:54] So many times when people call obviously, if it's a serious incident, they're very excited, very emotional, upset.
[2:23:03] Many times their recollection is not great, they're very rarely do we get a full license plate, we may get one or two letters of a license plate.
[2:23:13] We'll usually get a color of a car, maybe a make, rarely a model, unless someone's really a car fix an auto,
[2:23:22] where they know what type of car they're talking about.
[2:23:24] So as the officers are responding to that incident, our dispatchers are looking up if the incident is near one of our cameras,
[2:23:33] they'll look to say, hey, do we have a car fleeing going by one of our cameras, given that time frame.
[2:23:39] And they could put it in, I want to look within the last 20 minutes, I want to look within the last half hour.
[2:23:45] And so that's as the incidents are happening, so they can provide information to the officers as they're responding.
[2:23:51] And then as officers responding, they may actually see the car going by or know that, hey, the car is going in a different direction.
[2:23:57] Other officers may go that way to perhaps try to intercept them as they're fleeing the scene.
[2:24:09] So prior to the cameras being turned off for a period of, let's say, three months, and I'm sure you probably don't have this exactly available.
[2:24:17] How many crimes was this beneficial in resolving in Windsor?
[2:24:23] Prior to, I would say it was, there's data nationally where 20% of all successful cases are
[2:24:35] resulting nationally in arrests are tied into ALPR systems where the ALPR system helps
[2:24:43] the officers identify vehicles and it becomes a key point.
[2:24:46] I would say that number is probably a little bit higher in Windsor where I would say that you know
[2:24:53] Offers use it all the time so it helps develop the lead. I would say it's the only thing that helps
[2:24:58] You know obviously there's many other factors
[2:25:00] But it does point them in the right direction and helps them get information much earlier, which prevents the destruction of other evidence because you're losing time as a, as a, as a case is being investigated. Since they were shut off, how many cases do we have that we basically spalled out on? So there's, there are a few that I mentioned at health and safety since we turn them off. And just to kind of go over the seriousness of how,
[2:25:31] some of the impact art, I have four cases here.
[2:25:34] One was in February, which was the day after the day the cameras returned off.
[2:25:38] They were turned off on the morning of February 18th.
[2:25:41] That afternoon, we had two suspects show up on someone's front door,
[2:25:46] displaying glockian guns with extended magazines, with glocks, which makes the glock an automatic weapon.
[2:25:53] They were there to threaten and intimidate the person who was not home at the time.
[2:25:58] We were unable to identify that vehicle, and to this date we haven't been able to develop enough information.
[2:26:06] And we know that had, we had been able to try, use our cameras based on where the sensitive happened.
[2:26:13] It was a high likelihood we would have been able to get a car, especially because we had a time stamp on the video of when they were there at that house, and we would have been able to narrow it down quite rapidly.
[2:26:23] Secondly, a second one in March, we had a shooting incident in town where five shots were fired
[2:26:29] during an altercation between two vehicles in a parking lot.
[2:26:32] One of the bullets that were fired traveled through a front living room window in a adjacent
[2:26:37] house through the living room wall and into the kitchen cabinet above the kitchen sink.
[2:26:42] Both vehicles fled the scene and we were unable to identify either of those vehicles, even
[2:26:47] though we had a specific time frame when that happened.
[2:26:50] another shooting incident in May, where over 27 rounds were fired into a nonoccupied commercial building.
[2:27:01] A vehicle description was delayed because we're in with possibly ID the vehicle for over two days where to use other means to identify that vehicle.
[2:27:09] And then the last one was shortly before the health and safety meeting was a robbery at gunpoint where a young couple were sitting in their vehicle when they were approached by two men.
[2:27:19] who robbed them at gunpoint, they were able to give a description of the vehicle but only two digits of the license plate.
[2:27:26] Officials were unable to utilize the cameras that were in that area to positively ID the vehicle.
[2:27:32] So there's a short sampling.
[2:27:36] Over the course of that time frame, there were another, as I mentioned, about 70 cases.
[2:27:41] is, you know, larceny thefts, hit and run, you know, welfare checks, weapons, some of the weapons
[2:27:50] ones I talk about here, motor vehicle thefts, et cetera.
[2:27:53] So those are the ones that we're not, we weren't able to use our cameras to search,
[2:27:57] but officers did use the system to search cameras in neighboring towns to potentially find leads.
[2:28:03] So interesting, you mentioned welfare checks, would you please explain how the cameras are
[2:28:09] beneficial in the case of a welfare check?
[2:28:10] Sure, so many times we'll have elderly people that will not report home.
[2:28:17] Someone will call, say he where they are, do you know where they people are, all they have is a vehicle description.
[2:28:22] We can actually obtain a plate, and we've tracked people down out of state.
[2:28:28] I know Gramby had one where a mother just recently, and they utilized, I believe, Simsburg, because Gramby didn't have the cameras.
[2:28:36] But they had a vehicle description where a person took their children and they believe the person was suicidal and they were able to track that person and they were able to track them all the way down to Georgia where they were able to rescue the kids and make sure the person got the help they needed.
[2:28:52] So many times it's mental health.
[2:28:54] It could be suicidal people.
[2:28:56] It could be elderly people that that wander away and things along those lines.
[2:28:59] So without the cameras there's a possibility that that may have ended very poorly.
[2:29:05] Correct.
[2:29:12] I'll turn it back to you at the moment.
[2:29:14] Thank you, ma'am.
[2:29:15] I was going to pick up the, um, okay, um, councillors.
[2:29:21] I have a room.
[2:29:23] Go ahead.
[2:29:23] I'm sorry.
[2:29:24] No, you can go first.
[2:29:24] No, that's fine.
[2:29:25] You can go ahead.
[2:29:26] Um, okay.
[2:29:27] That's a pretty short comment.
[2:29:29] I don't know how long these cameras were in place before they were turned off.
[2:29:35] I believe we first installed the first set in 2021, 2022, when we had the fixed cameras.
[2:29:45] The first fixed cameras in 22.
[2:29:47] I believe the mobile LPR units were in 2019.
[2:29:50] Yeah, that's the thing.
[2:29:52] So when we turned them off in 2023?
[2:29:54] No.
[2:29:55] We just turned them off in February.
[2:29:58] Yeah, so
[2:30:00] During that period, do we have more criminals or more cases, or cases prosecuted or not prosecuted, collected, as opposed to after we turned them off? I would say our sole ability was as decreased without having the cameras there. We haven't run specific numbers, but officers are not able to obtain leads. So many cases go cold.
[2:30:30] without being able to use the system.
[2:30:33] Okay.
[2:30:33] And in your opinion, how do your officers feel about this?
[2:30:37] Having them turn back on.
[2:30:39] I think every officer would say that we need to turn the cameras back on.
[2:30:44] Okay. It would be beneficial for the law enforcement within the town of Windsor.
[2:30:47] Yes.
[2:30:48] You would do something with perhaps you could do anything with like, you know, like the,
[2:30:54] the motorcycle gangs going to the town of Windsor.
[2:30:57] Would that be a consequence of helping them turn them back on?
[2:31:02] That would help, especially if you have many that are violating laws that would be able to identify them.
[2:31:10] And it wouldn't help with stopping them, obviously, in that crown.
[2:31:16] But it would be if you had some that started to do damage, then it would become a very valuable tool.
[2:31:23] Well, if you're able to identify one of them, you can do something about him, all his friends will know about it.
[2:31:29] Right, right.
[2:31:29] You're just going to wear them out.
[2:31:31] And one of the reasons, when we look at it and we don't use flock for a mode of just simple
[2:31:36] motor vehicle fences, we use them for the criminal motor vehicle fences.
[2:31:39] So it wouldn't be used for someone who was speeding or things along those lines.
[2:31:43] Only if they, it would be used for potential DUI evading accidents, motor vehicle
[2:31:49] All offenses that carry a criminal charge in a jail time with it, not just an infraction
[2:31:54] type.
[2:31:55] Okay.
[2:31:56] And one last question.
[2:31:57] Since we've had them turned off, or actually since we've been turned on, has there
[2:32:03] any been any kind of use
[2:32:08] of terrorist action, but any kind of impropriety by the federal
[2:32:12] government in town with the good use of the cameras?
[2:32:15] No.
[2:32:16] And we haven't shared with the federal government, so since they, you know, we have not shared and now the system is set up where it's hard coded that they cannot share it and they cannot be used for immigration, cannot be used for reproductive care, things all those on.
[2:32:34] Chief, if you could just expound on that a little bit prior to those changes that were made, there were searches on our site.
[2:32:41] So there were searches on the meetings.
[2:32:44] So there were prior to, I would say, 2000, mid-2025,
[2:32:53] our system was set up where in order to
[2:32:56] give our officers the ability to search nationwide, there was a tool called Enable Nationwide Lookup.
[2:33:02] What we were unfamiliar with by enabling that tool for our officers to search nationwide,
[2:33:08] that also enabled other agencies throughout the country who also enabled that to search our data.
[2:33:15] We weren't aware of that.
[2:33:17] And there were many agencies that used it, not federal agencies, but
[2:33:22] other law enforcement agencies that were using it, whether there were officers maybe assigned to a task force that used it improperly.
[2:33:30] And used it, there were searches for ICE or immigration on those lines.
[2:33:35] We don't know what the rationale behind that was, what type of case it was, and there was one case in Texas where they stated the officer wrote, you know, check welfare, female had an abortion.
[2:33:50] So when you read the story behind it, that person, they were called with a family called who was concerned for her welfare, and they reported that.
[2:33:59] So it says more, it wasn't that they were looking because she had an abortion.
[2:34:03] We're trying to find her to arrest her for their abortion.
[2:34:06] We're trying to find her because her family called.
[2:34:08] They're worried about her health and safety, so.
[2:34:10] Okay, so just to run my thoughts to the end here.
[2:34:18] Because Peter was talking about that, that was
[2:34:21] I'm illiterated by further training with your officers.
[2:34:26] And if,
[2:34:29] just like I apologize, customer, we disable that function.
[2:34:35] Okay, correct.
[2:34:36] So now is no longer the option, the officers no longer have that ability.
[2:34:41] And then we, so we remove that function.
[2:34:43] And then also there's many other safeguards put in place.
[2:34:47] So there's a two factor authentication where now every officer has to use their
[2:34:53] phone to authenticate their login. They'll get a text message so you have
[2:34:57] multi-factor authentication. There's also
[2:35:00] So a hard-coded disclosure that the officer has to acknowledge that as you log into the system, it'll actually pop up, saying that you agree that you will not be using this system for immigration use, health care reproduction, and then you must follow the laws of any state that has those in place. So it includes Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Wisconsin. There's many other states that have this as well. And so those states are actually listed.
[2:35:29] So the officers have to acknowledge that every time they log into the system that they're going to be obeying by those laws.
[2:35:35] And then we also hard coded it so that no one outside of a hundred miles can get access.
[2:35:41] And even those within a hundred miles, if they're not a Connecticut agency, it's a one on one approval.
[2:35:47] They have to send us a request.
[2:35:49] We have to individually look okay, what are you going to do this?
[2:35:52] We'll send them our policy, make sure they understand what our towns rules are, what the state law is.
[2:35:58] And then if they agree to follow that, then we will allow them to tease our cameras.
[2:36:04] So all those safeguards in place are in your estimate that any chance of this, I'm not saying any chance.
[2:36:11] That the safeguards are sufficient to prevent any kind of lawyer form as appropriate action by the federal government.
[2:36:17] Yes, I think they're okay.
[2:36:20] We'll be back to you, Mary.
[2:36:21] Thank you, considerate.
[2:36:23] I met one question, but I had to step in here.
[2:36:26] So I do want to say, I appreciate you sharing all this information.
[2:36:30] You've shared it before and I really appreciate everything you've done to safeguard this as much as possible and lock it down between the contract that you've rewritten, the kind of safeguard you put in place with ours.
[2:36:42] I think the concern that I heard from people is that it's really not about the police department and it's really not about not trusting the police or not wanting to even support the police.
[2:36:54] but it's the data collection without consent.
[2:36:57] And I think that is the biggest concern
[2:36:59] and the control of the data by a private company
[2:37:02] of which people do not trust.
[2:37:04] So I think that's the balance
[2:37:05] of the thing that people are trying to weigh.
[2:37:08] So I know that's not helpful to law enforcement
[2:37:10] but I think that is the concern,
[2:37:12] the critical concern for,
[2:37:14] so I don't think it's anything to do that.
[2:37:16] I do want to say though,
[2:37:18] so my understanding of the flock system
[2:37:20] just to be very clear,
[2:37:22] is that it takes a picture of the back
[2:37:23] of the license plate in the side of the car. But still, I don't believe that that picture
[2:37:28] is then automatically fed into the system. I think it's typed in from a human being.
[2:37:32] Is that correct? So the cameras capture the picture and it captures the license plate.
[2:37:39] But then the image, the license plate image, is actually transcribed by a human being into
[2:37:44] the system. Is that a system? Is that correct?
[2:37:47] No, I believe the computer camera reads it correctly sometimes.
[2:37:53] Right, right.
[2:37:54] Because I think there was, I think from a couple reputable sites and I'd have to look them
[2:37:59] off exactly, there's at least eight to ten instances that I saw in different states
[2:38:05] where the camera read a number wrong on a license plate, and that those people were ultimately
[2:38:12] stopped, erroneously stopped, and couple were put in prison for, in jail, not prison,
[2:38:19] for a period of time until they straightened that out.
[2:38:22] So there is the possibility of the camera reading, I'm asking, there is the possibility of the camera reading a mistake being made that the camera would read a license plate incorrectly and transcribe that into the system.
[2:38:35] So that is a possibility in our state law, the post-C policy and our policy clearly states that an LPR hit alone is not reasonable suspicion to stop a vehicle.
[2:38:49] So the officer has to validate and verify that the plate you're looking for, the car you're stopping, is valid, and we do the same thing.
[2:39:00] So what does that mean?
[2:39:01] So let's say you have my plate, 87, 653, right?
[2:39:05] And the three is wrong, but it's got, it says that that's the, that's what you have in the LPR read.
[2:39:11] So one, it's, if the camera reads the plate wrong, okay, so unless that plate is identified as an alert for someone that may be, you know, a stolen car or a wanted person or an amber alert, that it's just going to read it, nothing will happen.
[2:39:29] Right, there's no, there's nothing to alert the officer that that car is of suspicion for any reason.
[2:39:34] Okay. So my understanding of those instances was that the car was similar in making model.
[2:39:41] So that would be enough. Similar making model, traveling down 91 with this incorrect plate.
[2:39:49] That would be a stop, right? Am I not correct?
[2:39:52] It will capture the plate. The officer may get information, but then he has to do more legwork, so it's not just not enough.
[2:40:00] We have to stop that vehicle, because you have to look through and say, you know, you need to identify
[2:40:05] that the license plate leader alone does not develop reasonable and articulous
[2:40:12] suspicion to stop a vehicle, all right? So what, because there's, there could be a thousand
[2:40:17] blue Honda Accords driving down the road. The officer needs to look at the plate number
[2:40:23] That's where the advantage is better than the other states.
[2:40:26] Right, and it's good to know.
[2:40:27] Yes, so that's actually hard coded into what an officer needs to do before they actually stop a vehicle.
[2:40:33] Excellent.
[2:40:34] So, yeah, so I do want to say, though, I don't think it's really about the not support for the police.
[2:40:39] I think for the, for many of the people who spoke tonight, it's really about the data collection without consent.
[2:40:45] And the keeping of that data by a private company, of which even though there's a contract, they feel like there's no control over that.
[2:40:52] that data, I know ability to track and manage that data, so I just want to say that that's
[2:40:59] my understanding of the concern of the community.
[2:41:02] And then I just want to say for me, I think that I'd be happy to also say that, you know,
[2:41:10] if we do end up taking the flood cameras down, that I think a consideration might be that
[2:41:15] we consider adding more police officers, that's the other alternative to that.
[2:41:20] And that we think about taking the, I mean, I'm in support of taking the cameras down, but also adding police officers to the force.
[2:41:30] So thank you, thank you WMU, come tonight.
[2:41:33] Thank you so much, I just want to go off of some of what Councillor Cleese was saying.
[2:41:38] I'm a big fan of technology, you have more devices in my own house than I should probably admit to having.
[2:41:44] And I see how it can help.
[2:41:47] And I think in this situation, and I see this day-to-day in my professional career, too.
[2:41:53] But if the public can't trust the people and the companies behind the technology, that causes a lot of the challenges.
[2:41:59] And I think that's a lot of what we're hearing, that it's not necessarily about the technology, but
[2:42:05] it's about who's really behind it.
[2:42:07] I mean, there's people on all ends of the spectrum, but
[2:42:10] So a majority of the communications that we've heard, and after doing additional digging
[2:42:15] into kind of the types of companies that flock, is contracting with not just police departments
[2:42:20] where they're selling their technology, but other types of institutions where they are
[2:42:25] sharing data, even if it's scrubbed and aggregated what that's been used for makes me very uneasy.
[2:42:33] I think there are other systems and other approaches that have been taken with law enforcement
[2:42:38] technology.
[2:42:39] We've seen it in the state with our mobile LPRs.
[2:42:42] I believe that state controlled.
[2:42:44] We've seen it with a couple of other things
[2:42:47] like the red light cameras, the speed cameras.
[2:42:51] And so that puts a little bit more control in place
[2:42:54] of who has access, what they're doing with that data,
[2:42:58] what it's being used for.
[2:42:59] And unfortunately, FLOG has spent many years
[2:43:02] building above reputation that folks cannot trust.
[2:43:05] So, for those reasons, you know, I still have the concerns of their ability and long-term stewardship of the data and I cannot continue to support flock to do this work.
[2:43:20] But again, to Councillor Clay's point, I don't think this is about our police department or the technology.
[2:43:25] I love technology. I'm here for all the things, but knowing how data can be used and manipulated, it's become a real concern day-to-day.
[2:43:32] Okay, so.
[2:43:34] Thank you.
[2:43:36] Anything else, Councillor?
[2:43:38] Councillor Pelkey.
[2:43:40] Chief, I wanted to ask you, you had talked about the 100 mile radius, but you also said,
[2:43:45] and just just for clarification, but I want to make sure they have you right.
[2:43:48] 100 mile radius, but we can New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, because they're in neighboring states.
[2:43:55] So, travel down 84, you end up hitting Newberg.
[2:43:58] It's within 100 miles, at least I think it is.
[2:44:02] So they, because they're in New York, would need a one-on-one approval and agreement to
[2:44:09] follow Connecticut's state laws, our internal local policies, et cetera, and we could grant
[2:44:14] them access if we had all those things in place.
[2:44:18] Yes, correct.
[2:44:19] Okay.
[2:44:20] Buffalo, New York, a little outside of 100 miles, would not get that same treatment.
[2:44:25] Correct.
[2:44:26] Okay.
[2:44:28] Brattleboro, Vermont, which is inside 100, but it's not Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut would automatically be excluded, short of a warrant or something like that.
[2:44:37] Yes, they would be excluded.
[2:44:41] My understanding of how this system works isn't necessarily just for what.
[2:44:47] But, Windsor Police can use it for Windsor original criminal activity.
[2:44:54] This can be if there is a silver alert, an amber alert, or the things that-
[2:45:00] That trigger those events. If there is an abduction, a kidnapping, a, you know, any other one of those crimes. Without these cameras on, we can't help our neighboring folks, whether it's Bloomfield in one town over, or whether it's somebody in North Carolina. We become a dark spot. Now, whether people in criminals know that or not, but if someone, we have 70 spots
[2:45:29] lots to come off of 91 for traveling, northbound, southbound.
[2:45:35] We're missing the opportunity to identify and kind of be able to give folks a clue of
[2:45:42] the direction that someone may be traveling if not outright stop something that's currently
[2:45:47] in progress.
[2:45:48] If the cameras are not functional, that's true, yes.
[2:45:51] Okay.
[2:45:52] Sorry.
[2:45:53] I just wanted to make sure I had that.
[2:46:04] Sorry.
[2:46:06] So here,
[2:46:13] so the
[2:46:17] state plate system that is not the state of Connecticut owns and operates, correct?
[2:46:24] My understanding is that is still, well, the state police do exercise their control on authority and under state statute.
[2:46:30] It's still a third-party entity?
[2:46:33] Yes, it is.
[2:46:37] And then chief probably not a question for you, probably for Peter or for Scott.
[2:46:41] I know someone had asked about FOIA requests and the time and effort that can, you know,
[2:46:50] that the havoc that that can raise.
[2:46:53] I'm not super familiar with it.
[2:46:55] I don't know are these camera records actually FOIA-able?
[2:47:02] So I'm going to go to Chief Melanthin because he's had the most familiarity with the FOIA
[2:47:07] related to the cameras themselves.
[2:47:09] Yes.
[2:47:09] Yes, so the state law has limited, so what's available are the audits, but the actual plates and the data is exempt from the FOIA laws, per the new state statute that came out.
[2:47:25] Okay, so that concern, at least that concern for that is off the table, because I can just imagine what's a data, but we can still charge, just like we can for any other FOIA request.
[2:47:35] The law may have been updated, but last I remember, it was two hours of time, or a hundred sheets, or something like that.
[2:47:41] You can start charging a certain amount or without getting into, but there is a point at which the, if the town or someone can,
[2:47:51] if that report is not readily available and has to be created, then there's different parameters relative under Freedom Information Act.
[2:48:01] Okay.
[2:48:01] Yeah.
[2:48:02] Then our change.
[2:48:03] Chargeable.
[2:48:04] Okay.
[2:48:04] No.
[2:48:04] Just wanted to clarify.
[2:48:05] It's been a long time since I looked at that.
[2:48:09] So I've heard some of the different things that have come through here.
[2:48:12] Comments by Councillors.
[2:48:13] And in particular, comments by the public.
[2:48:15] And so I wanted to address just a couple of those.
[2:48:17] Not just for the things that I just asked here.
[2:48:20] I know we're looking at and people like to pull examples.
[2:48:23] And we can all pull examples of different things.
[2:48:25] But, you know, I know folks will say, well, we have these many instances in this state,
[2:48:30] in this many instances here, something like that, and you know, we don't live in a world
[2:48:35] of perfection.
[2:48:36] You know, are we going to allow perfection to be the enemy of good?
[2:48:39] You know, there's that classic age or argument.
[2:48:42] What any of us ever get into a car, cars failed.
[2:48:45] Cars, people fail at driving them, but we still don't, you know, say, oh, nobody can drive.
[2:48:50] Just wider principle picture as I look at that.
[2:48:57] I think when it comes to more police, I know Councillor Durant and the budget cycle had
[2:49:01] They had advocated for that, but we just weren't even in a position.
[2:49:04] I know we can talk about the future, but we weren't in a position to likely even be able to fill the spots that we have.
[2:49:11] So I know Councillor Durant kind of withdraw that, but that was part of the discussion.
[2:49:18] I'm also sort of of the idea of the, you know, I've heard the consent of the govern, the giving consent to this data.
[2:49:28] Well,
[2:49:31] we have state representatives who put this law into effect and allow it to be used.
[2:49:38] We have a current governor who signed it into law.
[2:49:42] We have a challenger of his, Josh Elliott, one of the primary authors voted for it.
[2:49:51] Jillian Gilcrash devoted for this and then our own local representatives Jane Garvey was a sponsor and then Mary
[2:50:00] I'm con and Doug Macquarie, both voted for it. It passed the, this is the public act, 2614, that was referenced in a material. 24, 10 passage in the Senate. It's a 70% passage rate. In about a 63% passage in the house at a 90, 1553 clip, at least out of the folks who have voted. So, you know, I think our representatives, the people who were put in charge locally,
[2:50:29] and statewide,
[2:50:32] you know, we gave our consent to them to do things and they went and did it.
[2:50:38] So, you know, if there's going to be consequences, I guess there should be consequences.
[2:50:43] But just look at, we already have that local in that state support.
[2:50:49] So, you know, again, we have both of our state representatives and one of our state senators
[2:50:54] voting for this along with our governor and one of the challenges for the governorship.
[2:51:00] So I look at that and I don't see a reason for that.
[2:51:05] And then when I look at what we even did with town staff and
[2:51:10] then even with the Health and Safety Committee,
[2:51:16] we actually asked and town staff put through a system expansion and technology modification section.
[2:51:24] I know there was a little bit for maybe what was posted online originally is a little different than what we were than what we have in front of us here
[2:51:32] But what we're looking at tonight it would change to the policy is that in and we heard folks in the health and safety committee
[2:51:41] We literally listen to people in public who said we want to have a level of control over this now
[2:51:46] This isn't Norman Rockwell. This isn't New Hampshire. This isn't the Simpsons. We don't all get to go and vote on everything every single time
[2:51:53] So, we're trying to take it so that instead of just one person be the town manager, the chief of police, or any other designate just decides to add turn things on or off,
[2:52:07] we're actually looking to make it so that this body, which is accountable to the public through charter and elections,
[2:52:16] is that we can't make, we're the only body that can actually make that changes,
[2:52:21] whether it's to remove or whether it's to add something,
[2:52:24] whether it's a significant feature we've heard of like police having the ability
[2:52:28] through the system to do gunshot detection.
[2:52:31] So we're not looking to change anything. We're not looking to add anything.
[2:52:34] We're not looking to take anything away, but should we want to as a town?
[2:52:38] It has to come through this body. It's not just the whim of a staff member.
[2:52:42] No offense to any of our current staff members, but again looking to the future.
[2:52:48] There's also a requirement that even when proposed to council that we have to have any
[2:52:54] of this modification is that we're told what it is in advance, and so that means it's
[2:53:00] also going to be a public document for-
[2:53:03] Let me just put a clarification on that.
[2:53:05] That is not adopted policies, that correct?
[2:53:07] No, no.
[2:53:07] This is what we're looking at tonight.
[2:53:12] So provided that the council would be provided with a written description of the proposed
[2:53:17] technology modification, its intended purpose, anticipated public safety benefits, privacy
[2:53:22] implications, data retention and management practices, data sharing capabilities and
[2:53:27] amendments to this policy to ensure continued compliance with applicable law and our town
[2:53:32] policies.
[2:53:33] So we have done the work here as a committee and through town staff to address the concerns
[2:53:42] of the citizens and unfortunately as Mr. Durant said, as Councillor Durant said, we unfortunately
[2:53:47] can't make everybody happy on this and we're going to see where we're a relatively split
[2:53:53] town on this.
[2:53:54] I understand that but I'd like to side in where I'm going to vote on this and why I didn't
[2:54:01] making a motion, even though usually the majority would do that, is simply because I believe in the safety of our residents is paramount to the concerns of the privacy.
[2:54:11] I don't like the big brother at watching aspect. I don't.
[2:54:17] But I don't want to be in the position of knowing that I voted to turn something off that could very well have saved the life.
[2:54:26] And I don't mean that as the one out of a million or billion, but jeez, what's one
[2:54:31] life.
[2:54:32] Even if it's not somebody who lives in Windsor, some kid gets abducted, and I don't care
[2:54:37] if it's in Vermont, I don't care if it's in Ohio, if they're coming through and we can
[2:54:41] find them.
[2:54:43] I don't want to be on the side of criminals, this is what I come down to on this.
[2:54:47] And I respect very much, again, the people's concerns for the data and the government in
[2:54:53] the tracking, but at the end of the day, I don't want to have to know that my vote
[2:55:00] Endangered and possibly worse to someone's physical safety and well-being. And I think that we have done as a council, as a subcommittee and as town staff, we have done the very best to thread the needle along with our state legislators who heard, acted, and came up with what they did with public, with this public act. And I see absolutely no reason
[2:55:28] and to not turn these cameras on and have them on.
[2:55:33] And as a matter of cost, as much as we're,
[2:55:35] we're cost conscious, we're under $50,000 a year for these.
[2:55:42] So I think that it's one of those things
[2:55:45] where you're trying to balance the different priorities.
[2:55:49] And for me, that balance sides on having the cameras on,
[2:55:53] having what they offer to our police
[2:55:56] into the safety and well-being of our community,
[2:55:59] whether it's here directly in Windsor or further afield.
[2:56:03] Thank you.
[2:56:05] So several of the points I wanted to make
[2:56:08] have been stated except one.
[2:56:11] So we've heard from council members that
[2:56:15] we all support our police.
[2:56:17] I have family members who are police officers
[2:56:19] or care and Connecticut and other states.
[2:56:22] We support our police.
[2:56:23] But, as has been mentioned, the Connecticut General Assembly passed public act, number
[2:56:30] 26-14, and it clearly states it's an act concerning democracy and government accountability.
[2:56:37] So at the forefront, for me, is exactly what the Deputy Mayor brought forward.
[2:56:43] Where is the data going?
[2:56:44] How is it going to be protected?
[2:56:47] And while our legislators did a wonderful job along with citizens right here in our town
[2:56:52] who are forefront and center, the vendor, in my opinion, still cannot protect our data.
[2:57:05] And for me, that is the issue.
[2:57:07] Absolutely.
[2:57:08] Each and every day, I pray for the safety and the peace of our town, right?
[2:57:15] But it comes back to how is the data being protected, how is it being shared, where is
[2:57:21] Is it going?
[2:57:22] And if we know that the vendor that we are utilizing is doing some dark and murky things,
[2:57:28] I think that is okay for us to then question it.
[2:57:30] So the other point that was made, well, can we find someone who can assist in ensuring that they're safety in our town,
[2:57:37] but it's not going to have our data all over the place?
[2:57:40] I know that might take some time to do, but that's just where I am.
[2:57:44] So yes, our legislators did an amazing job, thank you, Governor, and others.
[2:57:48] But the vendor has not met the requirement that has been shared in regards to what happens with our data.
[2:57:56] That's the target.
[2:57:57] It's not about our police.
[2:58:00] We have fine police officers in this town.
[2:58:02] We know that technology comes and I'm trying to catch up to you with technology and devices.
[2:58:07] We know that technology has a place.
[2:58:09] We know that.
[2:58:10] That's obvious.
[2:58:11] However, we are saying that what we are requesting of a vendor that we are paying money to is to do better.
[2:58:19] So that's my position and I get passionate about that because it can't be hinged on,
[2:58:25] oh, we dislike the police or we're trying to endanger people.
[2:58:27] Absolutely not.
[2:58:29] Absolutely not.
[2:58:30] But I do believe that we have to consider what is being said.
[2:58:35] And at the forefront for me and why I will vote in the way that I do is that again, my
[2:58:42] data, I don't know where it is, I'm sure I'm driving through town, I don't, do you
[2:58:46] know where your data is?
[2:58:48] I don't.
[2:58:49] So that's where, you know, in your right, I go to the airport, I don't know what they're
[2:58:53] doing with my data, but if I consciously know that a vendor has done things that they probably
[2:59:01] should not have done, then I think I have a right to say that I don't want that vendor
[2:59:04] and can we find another one.
[2:59:07] So I'll pause here.
[2:59:08] Other comments, Councillor Svetlana?
[2:59:10] I would just say the same thing.
[2:59:12] Oh, sorry.
[2:59:14] I would just, and again, I'm sorry for my voice, but I would just reiterate what Madam Mayor said.
[2:59:20] At the end of the day, it's not about the police, it's not about the technology.
[2:59:23] It's about this particular vendor.
[2:59:25] This particular vendor is not trustworthy.
[2:59:27] They've done a lot of things that are very concerning.
[2:59:29] Yes, we have a policy in place.
[2:59:30] but the policy is not for Fox specifically.
[2:59:33] It's for this technology as a whole, which I think is a great policy.
[2:59:36] But I think we need to look at vendors that are maybe a little less sketch than the ones working with right now.
[2:59:42] Thank you, Councillor Glockwell.
[2:59:44] Just a quick question.
[2:59:45] Chief, with us not, if it's known to folks that want to go into the academy or want to come to Windsor and be a police officer
[2:59:53] or the current officers that are actually on our staff, would it hinder them from coming here, would it make them want to leave?
[3:00:01] I'm not going to read what people would think or not. I do know that, you know, I believe there's 50 to 70 other communities in Connecticut that use flock that are not turning their cameras off. They have faith in the company. We've seen them, and they have been very responsive to everything that we've done to work to make sure that they've tightened ship. Many of the things that you hear are not always
[3:00:31] fact, I think that that's important also.
[3:00:34] We know that there's a lot of things out on social media that aren't necessarily true.
[3:00:39] They've been very responsive to us, they've been, you know, as far as their data.
[3:00:43] We have the analytical logs.
[3:00:44] We can see the audits of who's touching our data in the searches.
[3:00:49] So I think that, you know, when you look at what other agencies and the chiefs that I've
[3:00:56] They're not, they're, they're expanding their systems.
[3:00:59] They're not turning them off.
[3:01:00] Turn them off.
[3:01:00] Okay.
[3:01:01] And thank you for mentioning about the two factor notification.
[3:01:04] I know you've mentioned that before and I've asked before.
[3:01:05] So thank you for mentioning that as well.
[3:01:09] And do want to state, thank you, Chief Millanson,
[3:01:13] Scott Covey, all of the town staff, Mr. Suza,
[3:01:15] Health and Safety.
[3:01:17] It's been a lot of work to get to this point.
[3:01:19] It's been a lot of work.
[3:01:20] And thank you so much for taking the time and the energy to do
[3:01:23] exactly that and bring us something tonight.
[3:01:27] so we appreciate that. Thank you. All right. We're ready for the vote.
[3:01:31] No. I just asked one because it's going to be 1030. So we are ready to make a motion to extend.
[3:01:39] So my question will be quick. It's probably your answer. They'll be long.
[3:01:43] My question is do you feel that the flock camera contracts and simply a contract
[3:01:49] words put together by attorney can't be negotiated to provide better
[3:01:56] of safeguard to the town of Windsor, do you think we should put that on front of the safety of the town of Windsor?
[3:02:04] And you're asking me this question directly?
[3:02:05] I am.
[3:02:06] Okay, so I feel based on your question that if we find another vendor that can meet the needs that the town of
[3:02:16] Windsor has requested, then we do that.
[3:02:19] And so for me, saying that I'm looking to endanger, is that the word that you choose?
[3:02:23] I don't want to put words in your mouth?
[3:02:26] So you did say that. I just wanted to make sure. So for me it's not saying that I'm putting someone's safety ahead of. I'm saying that this vendor does not meet what I'm a shit. I'm looking for from a vendor who's going to be joining this.
[3:02:41] So it would be a simple to get out of the vendor.
[3:02:44] That's something we could we could consider but are we going to find a vendor that's something
[3:02:49] that could be stated but for right now with what's in front of me and I do believe someone
[3:02:53] is always like well I need to vote on what's in front of me what's in front of me tonight
[3:02:57] I'm voting on that.
[3:02:59] You're not mad man.
[3:03:00] Thank you all right if we are ready for the vote no no okay and again we have two minutes
[3:03:09] Yeah, we have to extend okay. There's a bunch of other stuff on the agenda. Yeah, just make a motion
[3:03:17] Go ahead make your motion if you need to
[3:03:21] Well, what does that make you can we do it?
[3:03:23] Right because we need to do
[3:03:26] I have a question
[3:03:31] So make make please um, I'm in the middle of the liberation. I move it
[3:03:37] So please ask your question, and so my question to those who are saying, I haven't seen or been provided evidence,
[3:03:52] not that there's a requirement to do so, but I haven't seen anything through town staff or presentation,
[3:03:58] its conjecture and hearsay that flock has done this.
[3:04:04] I'd like to challenge that.
[3:04:05] I believe that staff had shared a lot with us back last year over the summer in health and safety about some of the concerns that had come up with flock with the data privacy and everything else with that.
[3:04:16] Again.
[3:04:18] Yes, so Councillor Pellke, because we are at this juncture, it is now exactly 1030.
[3:04:25] We do need to entertain a motion to extend and we do have other business.
[3:04:33] All right. All in favor, extending our meeting to 1115.
[3:04:39] Aye.
[3:04:40] Aye.
[3:04:40] No.
[3:04:41] No.
[3:04:42] All right.
[3:04:42] And so that motion carries.
[3:04:44] So we will extend to 1115.
[3:04:46] Thank you.
[3:04:46] Councillor Pellke.
[3:04:47] But since we've had this change in the law has flocked done anything that violates Connecticut
[3:04:57] the law. Our policy.
[3:05:00] Or even inside of Connecticut with other departments or anything else? I mean, the law is like, like, it's not even six days old, right? Like, I think it's changed in July, right? And then, yeah, it's still asking. Right? So, um, are you asking your other counselors? I'm just trying to anybody who might have an answer for talking that flock is so evil and bad? And I'm not trying to defend them. I'm literally trying to, for the sake of information. I think for reality's sake, I don't think we build the answer.
[3:05:29] that the law is six days old, and I don't think they know what to be factual.
[3:05:33] So Madam Mayor, I believe you should be further researched to that question, if you're asking that.
[3:05:39] So I don't think anyone here would know that as of now.
[3:05:41] Right.
[3:05:42] That's why I'm asking, so.
[3:05:44] So I think the answer to your question and Councilor Pelke, and thinking about the line of questioning,
[3:05:50] I think everybody is able to share their perspective and their opinion, as it relates, right?
[3:05:57] So there are things that have been shared by several Councillors.
[3:06:01] Doesn't mean I have to agree or disagree, right, but you were able to share that.
[3:06:05] So while we don't have that answer, that's only the discussion just to ask.
[3:06:10] Exactly.
[3:06:10] You're right.
[3:06:11] Okay.
[3:06:12] So are you done with your questions?
[3:06:13] Yep.
[3:06:14] Okay.
[3:06:14] Councilor Oliver, did you have another question?
[3:06:16] Well, I was just going to simply ask very simply what happens to two parts?
[3:06:23] What happens to a Windsor police officer that misuses the system to go look up his girlfriend or boyfriend or whatever?
[3:06:31] What's the punishment for that sort of behavior?
[3:06:35] There's two different avenues. There's administrative which they'd probably be fired and then depending on the
[3:06:41] seriousness of what they were using it for. And then also it's a felony to use it illegally. So there's
[3:06:47] criminal, and there's a criminal exposure as well.
[3:06:51] And for officers not in winter but in other states,
[3:06:55] if they were to make a false statement in order to gain access to our system,
[3:07:00] I presume there would be some potential consequence in their respective jurisdiction.
[3:07:07] They would, there would be criminal exposure in Connecticut, because they would be violating it.
[3:07:12] And it's for cybercrime, it's not only where it occurs, but it's both ends of it, so it's, you know, Connecticut as well, so they'd be exposing themselves to criminal exposure in Connecticut, depending no matter where they were in the country.
[3:07:29] Madam Mayor.
[3:07:30] Thank you.
[3:07:31] So I'm going to just reiterate this again.
[3:07:34] I don't think that anyone has any concerns about the Windsor Police Department,
[3:07:38] the calculation of any officer in our department, or even any officer perhaps in Connecticut.
[3:07:43] I think that, and I don't even think anybody has any concerns about the violations of Connecticut law.
[3:07:49] I think that the concerns are, is that people have a concern around their data,
[3:07:54] and without their giving consent to their data.
[3:07:57] And when they can't control it and the environment, you can say, yes, my data is out there,
[3:08:03] but they pick to use a phone or they pick to put themselves in that environment.
[3:08:09] So you can agree with that or not, but that is the contention.
[3:08:13] The other thing is, regardless of whether you believe that that threshold exists or
[3:08:17] not, there have been times in which the federal government has chosen to participate with
[3:08:24] companies like FeltFlock and authorize and access data and you get access to that data
[3:08:31] and there are examples of that. So that is the other concern because they have access
[3:08:36] to their data. They maintain data in their database and they have let Flock has allowed
[3:08:43] the federal government to use that data. They have apologized for that. They said that
[3:08:47] they don't, won't do that again, but that has happened. And as a matter of course and
[3:08:51] and it is on their website.
[3:08:53] So those are the concerns.
[3:08:57] Thank you.
[3:08:57] And Madam Mayor, I might reiterate,
[3:08:59] we did say that if another venue could be recognized
[3:09:03] or be provided that I don't believe
[3:09:07] that factor is off the table,
[3:09:09] but the concern is that we hear over and over about flock
[3:09:14] and not about the issues of the police
[3:09:16] or other items that were addressed.
[3:09:21] All right.
[3:09:21] All right, thank you.
[3:09:23] So if we're ready for the vote, all right.
[3:09:27] So given the agenda item, I don't believe we need to restate the motion, but Deputy Mayor
[3:09:34] for our listening audience, if you could just summarize what the motion is, please.
[3:09:40] It is councilman.
[3:09:42] Thank you.
[3:09:43] Councilor Calkey.
[3:09:45] Motion.
[3:09:52] The motion was that I moved to approve the reactivation of the police department's automated
[3:09:58] license plate reader cameras and reneed.
[3:10:00] I agree with the annual contract with Flock Safety, based on the amended master's service agreement as well as approve the towns amended a LPR policy as presented.
[3:10:12] Right. Thank you. All in favor of that motion. Aye. Aye. All opposed. No. No. And that motion fails. 4, 5, 0.
[3:10:25] Thank you, Councillor. On to item 12. Mr. Mr.
[3:10:36] I'm just getting to my place. Thank you. Deputy
[3:10:38] I move that the mill rate for the fiscal year 2027 beginning July 1, 2026, 6 be set at 28.88 mills for real estate personal property and motor vehicles, which reflects the October 2025 property valuation with a total estimated net taxable grand list for fiscal year 2027 of 4,616,372,252 dollars.
[3:11:07] Second.
[3:11:09] Thank you, Councillor Armstrong.
[3:11:11] Mr. Susanna?
[3:11:12] Thank you, Madam Mayor.
[3:11:13] This is a required action by the town council to set the mill rate for this current fiscal
[3:11:20] year.
[3:11:22] And as Deputy Mayor stated, this reflects the adopted general fund budget expenditures as well
[3:11:30] as taking an account state aid in other non-tax revenue that is generated via the town.
[3:11:40] So this was said at 28.88, I just wanted to reiterate that tax bills will be mailed
[3:11:47] by the 24th of this month, and they're due in full by the end of the day on September
[3:11:54] 1st to avoid any late charges.
[3:11:58] thank you all right and if we are ready for the vote all in favor any
[3:12:05] opposition abstentions hearing none and that passes eight to zero zero.
[3:12:12] I don't
[3:12:12] number thirteen resignations and appointments Mr. Counselor Pellke. Wow you
[3:12:20] really long long short here. Look at that much of us see this meeting. Not at all I
[3:12:26] I look this way, and so sorry.
[3:12:28] Yep, but you'll have to have a practice.
[3:12:30] There are no resignations or a criminal case.
[3:12:33] All right.
[3:12:34] Thank you so much.
[3:12:35] There are.
[3:12:37] So there are.
[3:12:37] How's the king?
[3:12:38] I apologize.
[3:12:39] Oh, I'm sorry.
[3:12:40] Do I look at the wrong thing?
[3:12:41] Oh, you know what it is.
[3:12:42] It's the one meeting I'm sorry.
[3:12:44] Thank you.
[3:12:45] Let me do this real quick.
[3:12:47] Of course, wouldn't.
[3:12:48] I have no voice.
[3:12:49] I mean, never do it.
[3:12:49] No, I'll do it.
[3:12:50] All you guys can just listen to my voice, fail.
[3:12:52] The end will be great.
[3:12:53] So I moved to reappoint Megan Cope as Democratic
[3:12:56] The Democratic Alternate Member to the Inland Wetlands and Water Courses Commission for four-year term to expire March 31, 2030, or until a successor is appointed.
[3:13:04] I move to reappoint Alvin Bingham as a Democratic member to the Wilson-Dearford Advisory Committee for a three-year term to expire April 30, 2029, or until a successor is appointed.
[3:13:14] I move to reappoint Katherine Woodward as a Democratic member to the Wilson-Dearford Advisory Committee for a three-year term to expire April 30, 2029 or until a successor is appointed.
[3:13:24] And I move to reappoint Leant Tyson as a Democratic member to the Library Advisory Board for a three-year term to expire April 30th,
[3:13:32] 2029, or until a successor is appointed.
[3:13:35] Thank you, Councillor King.
[3:13:37] Somebody, second me.
[3:13:39] Second.
[3:13:41] Thank you.
[3:13:42] Thank you, Councillor Armstrong.
[3:13:44] All right, any comments, questions, regardless of the resignation's appointment?
[3:13:47] And these were all reappointments, so there was no like new interviews or anything there.
[3:13:51] It was a quick meeting.
[3:13:52] All right, all in favor?
[3:13:53] I hear no opposition or abstentions that passes 8-0-0 meetings minutes of our
[3:14:01] proceeding meetings I move that we approve the minutes of June 15th 2026
[3:14:05] special town council meeting and the minutes of the June 15th 2026 regular town
[3:14:10] council meeting thank you council Armstrong any corrections comments
[3:14:17] Councillors, hearing none, all in favour?
[3:14:20] Aye.
[3:14:21] And that passes 8-0-0.
[3:14:24] Thank you.
[3:14:25] We are back to public communications and petitions.
[3:14:40] If anyone from the public would like to address the council, you will be given three minutes
[3:14:44] to speak.
[3:14:46] Please state your name and address, and I just need to get to the new piece that I need to
[3:14:52] read.
[3:14:56] The Council welcomes and values public comments, we ask that all speak.
[3:15:00] Members, conduct themselves with civility and respect. Please do not refer to other speakers by name or use the regulatory, inflammatory, or disrespectful language when expressing your views. Please note that this portion of the meeting is for the council to listen to the public input. The council does not respond to questions or engage in discussion during public comment. Your comments will be received and considered as part of the public record. Thank you for your participation in helping to maintain a respectful and productive meeting environment. And I will turn this over to our moderator.
[3:15:29] Scott, who will be assistant to our manager.
[3:15:32] Thank you, Madam Mayor.
[3:15:33] If there is anyone from the public who would like to address the council in this virtual
[3:15:36] this evening, you may do so by raising your hand on your computer by selecting the participants
[3:15:40] icon in the Zoom menu bar, and then clicking raise hand or by dialing star nine on your phone.
[3:15:45] You'll be given three minutes to speak.
[3:15:46] Please state your name and address.
[3:15:47] When you were called on, you'd be prompted that you were now muted.
[3:15:50] For those dialing in by phone, once prompted, you will then press star six to unmute.
[3:15:54] For a clear communication, we ask that you do not place to call on speakerphone.
[3:15:57] At this time, Madam Mayor, we do have one virtual attendee with their hand raised.
[3:16:02] Thank you, Mr. Colby.
[3:16:10] To our first call, you were now unmuted.
[3:16:12] Hello, this is DJ Mobley from 47 Ludlow.
[3:16:18] Just had a real quick information that lately we've been inundated with a person
[3:16:29] that's soliciting even with the signs all over our doors.
[3:16:34] Apparently it's all over our Windsor Facebook page
[3:16:37] that this company doesn't even regard
[3:16:41] whatever the signs are.
[3:16:44] I'm not sure if everybody else is aware of what's going on
[3:16:48] but it is a new sense.
[3:16:50] I'm not sure if the website or the town can just have
[3:16:53] some information of what we could put up.
[3:16:55] And, of course, a vaccine, if it's starting to get to the point where it's harassment.
[3:17:01] I know that we could probably call the non-mergency 911,
[3:17:05] a winter police phone number, but it seems like this company is very adamant,
[3:17:12] especially going up and down multiple times in the driveway,
[3:17:15] you know, pushing in or knocking on the doors in the middle of the night,
[3:17:19] for whatever this company is trying to sell.
[3:17:23] So that was just my two cents, and thank you for having me and thank you for all the information about the cameras.
[3:17:33] Appreciate it, and that's it.
[3:17:35] Thank you.
[3:17:37] This time, Madam Mayor, we have no other virtual attendees with their handrails.
[3:17:40] All right, so we'll move to the town hall chamber.
[3:17:43] Hi, Eric Weiner, 150 Broad Street.
[3:17:48] I'd like to thank you all.
[3:17:49] While this was not easy, it's been a tough, tough six months going through this, and many towns throughout the state are doing the same or will be doing.
[3:18:02] This is not going to be the last time these types of issues come before you as technology, the pace of technology advances.
[3:18:12] When I first approached the police department with a FOIA request, they didn't know how their system was working.
[3:18:21] And they couldn't have been auditing the system till I did the audit.
[3:18:28] These software systems are incredibly complex.
[3:18:34] Think very hard about summer vision to process here as the town goes about adopting newer AI based technologies.
[3:18:46] Because we're going to get tripped up again.
[3:18:48] Again, we started to get going down the path to get tripped up the last health and safety
[3:18:54] committee meeting when the police chief said the department was given a robotic dog
[3:19:00] with a camera.
[3:19:01] And that was just passed right through with no discussion.
[3:19:07] That's exactly how we got to hear we are with flock.
[3:19:12] Something came in, sounds like great, but we'd never considered the ramifications of that.
[3:19:17] that. That's a problem that I think is important to address so we don't get our
[3:19:24] silagery out up like this in the future. I do have a suggestion to help get around that.
[3:19:31] And that would be to have the police department report like the BOE does on a monthly basis
[3:19:38] on their activities, highlight perhaps major crime patterns in the issues that they are facing.
[3:19:45] The public deserves to hear that information.
[3:19:50] And I would encourage you to consider adopting some change in your policy about oversight in law enforcement.
[3:19:59] and proceed.
[3:20:00] Perhaps other departments in the town. And, by the way, there, as the chief said, there are 90 or 100 municipalities in Connecticut that don't use flock. So it's not to be all an end all. Thank you. Thank you.
[3:20:18] Thank you.
[3:20:33] George Lates, 74 youth and drive.
[3:20:35] Before the deliberations for referendum three, Councillor Durant made a comment and my comments are meant totally to be positive.
[3:20:46] His comment went something like he was impressed, please, accepting of the presentations by town staff during the budget process and your hearings.
[3:20:58] I have attended some many, many moons ago and seen some on camera.
[3:21:04] I share that opinion, agree with it.
[3:21:07] The rest of Councillor Durant's comments, I refrain from commenting on that, and Japanese
[3:21:14] phrase for that or the word is Mokusatsu, refraining from comment.
[3:21:19] But my sense is that the other eight Councillors share that view.
[3:21:25] So my comment, the positive one is the board members, the nine of them go through a similar process.
[3:21:37] They do do their due diligence.
[3:21:42] Once the budget comes here and you're going through your deliberations, and I'm not sure if I've ever seen deliberations to move it on budget to go up except for OPEP for $100,000.
[3:21:53] that you're looking at cuts. But always remember, the board members do do their due diligence.
[3:22:04] Thank you.
[3:22:15] If para, 25 Bradford Drive, I'm Anna Mayer, councillors. Thank you very much for all what
[3:22:22] you did tonight considering carefully the flood camera issues and the LPR systems. My
[3:22:31] My thought is that it's a very, very valuable tool for law enforcement and protecting us.
[3:22:36] However, as the mayor said, this company, I think,
[3:22:41] Fluck doesn't qualify as a vendor.
[3:22:44] And this should basically go back to work if they want to be considered by us to provide more security for the data that satisfy the citizenship.
[3:22:54] So hopefully, this is going to happen.
[3:22:57] And so also, one thing I was thinking tonight, I was a little bit taken aback.
[3:23:04] I was not seeing this happening.
[3:23:08] I didn't know that it was about a flood camera tonight.
[3:23:11] And one thing that came up to my thought, hearing everything,
[3:23:16] is it is extremely hard.
[3:23:19] I'm basically being trained in software engineer as well.
[3:23:22] Well, it's extremely hard to provide security of data.
[3:23:27] It's going to leak.
[3:23:28] It can almost be sure it's going to leak.
[3:23:32] So we need to face that situation.
[3:23:34] If you want to provide that to our citizenship, to the police department, to basically enhance
[3:23:42] the safety and the well-being of everyone, we need to keep that in mind and that in consideration.
[3:23:49] Very important in my mind.
[3:23:50] And I think it's very important to the citizenship as well.
[3:23:54] So, that's all I got to say about this, regarding the budget.
[3:24:01] Again, thank you very much to the town manager and
[3:24:07] to the town council for working so hard and making it happen and
[3:24:12] going to revotes and finally we'll go to the proof.
[3:24:17] Personally, I would say that I'm not totally happy about it because we still have a raise
[3:24:22] in the mill rate.
[3:24:24] And also, I'm concerned about the Board of Education budget, to me, it doesn't make sense
[3:24:29] to me.
[3:24:31] However, what I'm going to do is basically start participating in the Board of Education Meeting
[3:24:37] and by being present and see what's going on, more exactly to see what's going on in there.
[3:24:42] So again, thank you very much.
[3:24:43] I know that you're not paid for doing what you're doing here. So thank you very much for your
[3:24:47] work, guys. Thank you.
[3:24:56] All right. Seeing no one else moving forward. Thank you to
[3:25:00] Thank you, our speakers. We already had executive session. So, before I entertain a motion for adjournment, do want to say thank you again to all of our speakers. Please be reminded of the amazing events happening in celebration of our 250th on Wednesday and Thursday on the green. And again, continue just to pray for the peace and the safety of our town. And thank you, Councillors. And with that, I'll entertain a motion for adjournment.
[3:25:30] So moved second. Thank you, counselors. All right. All in favor. Hi. All right. God bless and Godspeed.