Norwalk Mayor’s office: WestCOG is ‘significant chunk’ of time

NORWALK, Conn. — Norwalk has made most meetings of the Western Connecticut Council of Governments (WestCOG) since Assistant to the Mayor Laoise King came on board.

Norwalk representation at the meetings was sporadic before that.

The Common Council voted to join WestCOG, the successor to the South Western Regional Planning Agency (SWRPA), in November 2014, under threat of losing access to federal transportation funding. This was not done with enthusiasm – the vote was 10 to 4, with Doug Hempstead (R-At Large) voting against it and saying, “We don’t really have that much of a choice.”

WestCOG was formed in 2015. Since Jan. 21, 2016, WestCOG has held 15 meetings; Norwalk was not represented in six of them.

Rilling has attended four meetings, one by conference call. Economic Development Director Elizabeth Stocker has also attended two, although she cannot vote.

King was hired in November, and has represented Norwalk in three of the five meetings held in 2017, serving as a proxy for Rilling. The mayor attended the May meeting; Norwalk was absent in February.

King explained that absence: There was nothing significant on the agenda and both she and Rilling had a meeting with Connecticut Department of Social Services (DSS) Commissioner Roderick Bremby to discuss a replacement for Norwalk Economic Opportunity Now (NEON), King said.

WestCOG also has two Metropolitan Planning Organizations; attending both the COG meeting and the MPO meeting is time consuming, King said.

“The COG and MPO meetings are held once a month in Ridgefield,” King said in an email. “The Mayor makes every effort to attend, however with the drive time and the two back to back meeting it usually means he’s out of the office for up to 4 hours when he attends. This is a significant chunk of time out of his schedule. Each month we review the agenda and determine whether there is anything significant relating to Norwalk on the docket. This informs his decision regarding prioritizing his time. I do have a proxy and am able to vote in the Mayor’s stead if he is unable to attend.”

Meetings were originally held in Bethel.

An attendance record:

• Jan. 21, 2016: Norwalk absent
• Feb. 18, 2016: Rilling attended
• March 17, 2016: Stocker attended (non-voting)
• April 21, 2016: Norwalk absent
• May 19, 2016: Norwalk absent
• June 16: Stocker attended (non-voting)
• Sept. 15: Norwalk absent
• Oct. 20: Norwalk absent
• Nov. 17: Rilling attended by conference call, according to King
• Dec. 15: Rilling attended
• Jan. 23: King attended
• Feb. 23: Norwalk absent
• March 16: King attended
• April 20: King attended
• May 18: Rilling attended

There were 12 meetings in 2015, according to the meeting minutes; Norwalk is listed as absent in seven of them.

What does WestCOG do?

Draft minutes of the May meeting state there was “considerable discussion” about a study of regionalization potential for municipal Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal (CAMA), tax billing and collections systems, and related business practices and IT resources.

The group went on unanimously approve several items, including a signatory authorization with the Connecticut Department of Transportation for transportation planning; a 2017-18 budget and an audit of Fiscal Year 15-16; and a Memorandum of Understanding for an election monitor, an update of an existing agreement.

WestCOG-INTERIM-minutes-2017-0518

The February meeting, missed by Norwalk, included a PowerPoint of the then-upcoming CAMA study, resolutions of appreciation and a discussion of potential state budget cuts to municipalities. Also, a resolution on a snow plow routing study was passed unanimously and there was a discussion about the Federal Rail Administration (FRA) Northeast Corridor Plan. Also, there was talk about a theoretically-possible restructuring of the COG to give communities votes according to their populations, referred to in the minutes as “impractical.”

minutes-WestCOG-2017-0223-approved