Saturdays with the Mayor a big hit.

I had a terrific Saturday with the Mayor session this past weekend. Approximately 18 people stopped by the a variety of positive ideas and thoughts about how we can improve the City. In no particular order these are the issues we discussed for three hours.

1. Illegal Immigration.
2. Open Space.
3. Setting up a Community Garden.
4. Dog Park.
5. How to better utilize Lake Kenosia.
6. Communication with the general public on all the good things that are happening in Danbury.
7. Senior tax programs.
8. Process in filling positions. ie Fire Chief and Director of Finance.

Thanks to Councilmen Shay Nagarsheth and Gregg Seabury for joining me and special thanks to Andrew Wetmore (this kid is going to be a star) for spending the entire morning with me.

A quick update on Councilwoman Mary Teicholz. She currently is in Boston undergoing more treatment-I wish her well!

Thanks for coming to Saturdays with the Mayor, see you next month.

All the Best,
Mayor Mark

Congratulations to the Danbury Housing Authority.

Congratulations are in order to Carolyn Sistrunk and the Danbury Housing Authority for getting the first units online at the old High Ridge Gardens Complex.

High Ridge Gardens was one of the most challenged housing complexes in the City prior to this change. The Housing Authority has worked hard to fix the financial issues it had and is now on the road to recovery. People now have an opportunity for home ownership. This is critical to rebuilding our City. You can read the story from the News-Times by clicking on this article.

Keep up the good work Carolyn!

All the Best,
Mayor Mark

Pumping up the Students..

Today I spent the morning at our public schools pumping up our students for the battery of tests that they are required by law to take. Things like the CMT's, NCLB, and the CAPT test are weighing heavily on the minds of our staff. Unfortunately in this era of high stakes testing, our kids need to be reminded of the importance of these tests.

So go get them Danbury students!

All the Best,
Mayor Mark

CCJEF Rolls out its ideas..

As President of the Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding, I spent today rolling out our ideas on improving education funding in the state. We had a press conference at the Capitol with the objective of getting the state legislature to focus in on education funding.

Education funding is the issue facing municipalities across Connecticut and Danbury is no different. You will be able to read more tomorrow.

I had a busy, yet successful day.

All the Best,
Mayor Mark

PS. Pulled off something short of a miracle today, let's hope it pans out. If it works, it will be historic for Danbury. Stay tuned.

Back from Daytona..

That's right Phyllis and I attended the Daytona 500. Many people do not know that I am a huge NASCAR fan and enjoy the races. This is the 2nd Daytona 500 I have attended and they have been terrific. Thanks to the people at Choice Tickets here in Danbury, I was able to purchase great seats and enjoy a fun race weekend. The weather was cold so don't get too jealous! Congratulations to Kevin Harvick and Mark Martin for a terrific battle at the finish line.

Now back to work on the budget and on other pressing issues here in Danbury.

All the Best,

Mayor Mark

Fire Chief search.

Last week I met with the selection committee to begin reviewing the applications for the position of Fire Chief. We have a very strong pool of candidates. The process for selecting the new Chief has been set up accordingly:

1. Interviews with Chiefs from other departments. They will forward 4 or 5 names out of the forty applicants.
2. Interviews with the community committee. They will forward 3 names to me.
3. Final interviews with the Mayor.

I will then announce a selection. We hope to have the new Chief ready by the April council meeting.

So:

Let the competition begin!

All the Best,

MayorMark

Illegal Immigration.

Many of you have written in to me asking various questions about illegal immigration and its impact on Danbury. I have resisted responding because of the potential of future litigation involving Danbury. I have been clear about my position and about Danbury's challenge. The grandstanding actions of one so called "activist" this week are not helping the discussion and the dialogue.

I am preparing a much longer post regarding this issue. So stay tuned...

All the best,
Mayor Mark

Hats off to Public Works.

Hats off to Antonio Iadarola, Duke Hart and the entire team at the City of Danbury Public Works Department. They did a terrific job over the last forty eight hours. Our streets are clean and safe. I also want to congratulate our Police Officers for helping with snow removal. Hopefully, this will be the last big storm of the season. Great work team! Now get some rest...

Aimee Budnick appointed as new Director of Welfare.

Last week I was honored to bring Aimee Budnick's appointment forward to the Common Council as the City's new Director of Welfare. Aimee is a Danbury High School graduate (Class of 91', I was her Class Advisor) and has earned a Masters degree from Case-Western University. She is incredibly talented and will help the City implement its Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness.

I am excited to work with Aimee and I am glad that she chose to give back to her community. Finally, it's great to see young people like Aimee move up the career ladder.

Keep up the good work Aimee!

All the Best,
Mayor Mark

PS I copied the picture from the News-Times article.

Slip slidin' away.....

There is a pretty intense storm over us. We have recieved approximately 3-4 inches of ice and snow and while our Public Works Department is working hard. The traveling is difficult. It looks like we will have a period of snow before it all ends tonight around 10:00 PM.

Our 311 line has been active this morning with calls from residents and with information about roads.

Hope springs eternal....

All the Best,

Mayor Mark

City Hall and Administrative offices closed today due to inclement weather.

This morning at 6:15 AM I ordered City Hall and our administrative offices closed today due to the Ice Storm.

Big storm coming..

There is a potential for a very large storm to hit us here in Danbury over the next twenty four to forty eight hours. Our Public Work Crews are ready and we have been getting preparing all day. Last report has the storm strengthening, but the path is a little unsure. Could be all rain, all snow, or something in between. We will have to see...

School Facilities.

Recently, I have ordered a top to bottom review of how we maintain our public school buildings and the development of a strategic plan to address long term capital improvements in our school buildings.

We need to improve on two fronts. First, we have to get better at responding to work orders filed by faculty and staff and we have to be proactive in the upkeep of our buildings.

Both issues are linked together. A breakdown in our repair process causes us to expend significant dollars on long term maintenance costs that might have been avoided if we got to the work order quicker. This is not to suggest that our Public Buildings Department does not work hard, they do a great job. The problem is that we are always playing catch up because important maintenance was deferred for years.

By developing a strategic plan we can lay out a 5-10 year capital improvement program for our schools that will protect the environment our children learn in, and save the City of Danbury money in the long run.

As they say, it's not good to be penny wise and pound foolish.

All the best,
Mayor Mark

Sunday's in Danbury.

People often ask about the schedule that I keep. I will tell you that the busiest day of the week is Sunday. Consider today. I attended a "Blue and Gold" Boy Scouts dinner at the Ethan Allen Inn. Later I went to a roundtable discussion with Congressman Murphy, stopped by the office for a quick meeting with Chief of Staff Mike McLachlan and now I getting ready for a family event. Phew... I get tired just writing about it. Needless to say, I love my job.

Just got a weather report.. Does not look good for Tuesday into Wednesday. Stay tuned.

All the Best,
Mayor Mark

Nick Kaplanis appointed as Director of Recreation.

On Tuesday evening at the Common Council meeting I was excited to recommend Nick Kaplanis as Danbury's new Director of Recreation. Nick comes to the position with a wealth of talent and experience to help market our programming. I am proud to appoint Nick to this position and look forward to working with him. I copied this picture from todays News-Times article.

Congratulations to Dena Diorio, City of Danbury Director of Finance and Personnel.

Congratulations are in order for Dena Diorio. She has served the City well for the last 4 plus years and is moving on to be the Director of Finance for Mecklenburg County (commonly known as Char-Meck because the City of Charlotte is the main urban area in the County).

I am going to miss Dena's advice and counsel and her talents. She has done a great job for Danbury and will do an even better job in Char-Meck.

In the meantime, she has asked and I have agreed to move the budget process up 30 days. We will roll out the budget in March and adopt it in April. The City Charter says that we must have a budget presented no later than April 7th and adopted no later than May 15th. We both felt that it would be in the best interests of the City to get the budget done while Dena was still here and able to assist the Council.

Once again, congratulations Dena and Robert Diorio and thank you for all of your hardwork for our City. Good Luck.

All the Best,
Mayor Mark

WOW..

Thats all I can say. Gov. Rell cast a bold initiative and it is good news for Danbury. Under her plan, Danbury will get an extra six million dollars to put towards tax relief and towards school spending. I have spent most of the day digesting the numbers. They look pretty good.

I will enter them into our budget models and we will be ready to present the budget. We will be rolling out the budget in March, not in April. This is a change and tomorrow I will tell you why.

I am going to bed.

All the Best,
Mayor Mark

Governor's Budget.

Today is budget day at the Capital. This morning I am getting ready to head to Hartford and see what the Governor has in store for Danbury over the next two years.

The state budget provides a significant amount of revenue for cities and towns across Connecticut. One of the prime drivers in our local budget is education spending. I am told that the Governor will be doing something unique with education spending and I am interested in her plan's impact on Danbury.

We are currently crafting our municipal budget right now and any help we get from the state is greatly appreciated.

To be continued....


All the Best,
Mayor Mark

Common Council Meeting..

We have an extensive agenda for tonight's Common Council Meeting. Common Council meeting days are always busy and today has been no different. There are a lot of new ideas on the agenda, and a lot of ideas that are coming back from committee.

While our process can be unwieldy, it does work and we do get it done...

With 54 items on tonight's agenda, somehow I don't think I will make American Idol tonight. Thankfully, I have DVR.

All the Best,

Mayor Mark

Westconn, an economic engine..

This morning I attended a Press Conference on behalf of Western CT. State University. The focus of the press conference was to recognize the economic importance of having the University here in Danbury. The University generates something over 200 million dollars of output, and employs over 2,000 people at both campuses. This is huge in terms of jobs and economic opportunity for Danbury.

As Westconn continues to grow, Danbury will continue to develop its strategic partnership with the University. We are proud of Westconn!!

Super Sunday..

Spent almost all of the day at work. This morning I attended services at Walnut Hill Church were I was asked to lead the congregation in prayer by Pastor Clive Calver. It is a terrific place of worship, and I was fortunate enough to lead the prayer service with Pastor Frank Davis from New Orleans. We prayed for mutual understanding and compassion and healing in New Orleans. For those of you who don't know I am Christian and proud of my beliefs.

Church is a place to recharge your batteries for the week. Chose a place of worship,(anyplace, any religion it doesn't matter) and get involved. It could be what is missing in your life...

I also went to a new home dedication on Concord Street for Habitat for Humanity. I enjoy these dedications. Seeing the look of wonderment on people's faces who own their first home is exhilarating..

Later, I attended several Super Bowl parties. Now, on to watching the game. Go Bears!

Danbury going green.

This month I have a request of the Common Council that we consider purchasing green energy as a way to contribute our small piece in the fight to reduce global warming. You can read my request to the Common Council here. I believe that global warming is real, and that we all need to do our part to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. So join us, and Go Green!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Council President Joe Cavo!

Real Estate Conveyance Tax.

Today I was at a press conference in the Legislative Office Building in Hartford regarding the real estate conveyance tax. The conveyance tax is a transfer fee paid to Danbury everytime a piece of property is sold. Last year the tax accounted for approximately 1.1 million dollars in revenue. That is a significant amount of money and important to our municipal budget.

The Conveyance Tax is set to sunset this year and that has a lot of us municipal leaders worried. In Danbury, we literally need every nickel to help make ends meet. These types of cuts making budgeting difficult because education spending and insurance increases continue to outpace the rate of inflation.

Let's hope the the State Legislature rethinks the idea of a sunset..