Buffett Break.

Last night Phyllis and I went to see Jimmy Buffett at The Mohegan Sun Arena. It was a great show and was an opportunity for my wife and I to spend some quality time together.

Being married to "The Mayor" is not easy for her. I am usually running around from event to event during the week, and on the weekends I spend time campaigning. Through it all Phyllis has worked hard at keeping her career going and at representing the City at functions when I am not available. Phyllis has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for worthy organizations around our City. She is an awesome partner to have in life and a dedicated public servant in her own right.

So last night we put on our jeans and wore our Parrot Head hats while Mr. Buffett performed such hits as "Margaritaville", "Son of a Sailor", "A Pirate looks at Forty", "Come Monday", "Fins", "Volcano", "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere" a cover of the Bruce Springsteen song "Glory Days", and on and on. A great end of the summer show.

Have a terrific weekend, wear your parrot head hat, and have some fun. We have a great city.

All the Best,
MayorMark

These Kids are good!

Yesterday I visited Richter Park were the AJGA (American Junior Golf Association) along with Fidelity Investments is sponsoring a National Junior Golf Tournament. Low round of the day? How about 65 by Niall Platt who hails from Santa Barbara California- which ties the course record. How about 12 year old Julie Yang of Phoenix Arizona who fired a one under 71 (people told me to get her autograph that she is the next star on the LPGA).

Pictured above is some of the lady players. They range in age from 12 to approximately 18. Many of these players are playing at top level high school programs or at Division 1 Universities. If you would like some good entertainment and want to see some great golf, tomorrow is the final round. All at Richter Park which is receiving rave reviews from the AJGA and from the players and parents. Congratulations go to Richter Park General Manager Maria Sanshyn and her staff.

Rocky-The Real Wonder Pug.

Just could not resist in sharing with you a picture of Rocky. Rocky belongs to a Danbury resident who shall remain nameless (because I did not ask if I could use her name). Rocky is a Pet of The Week and is serving as honorary First Dog of Danbury for the week of August 26th. If you would like your pet to be featured here, feel free to e-mail a picture in. Meanwhile, both Buddy and I are pleased that Rocky is doing so well. Keep up the good work Rocky!

Another Victory...

Congratulations to Director of Public Works Antonio Iadarola who pressed the issue of those pesky ATT boxes that are starting to pop up all over the City. Antonio tried to work with ATT initially regarding the placement of the boxes to no avail. So on his recommendation, the City of Danbury hired an attorney and joined with Bridgeport and Stamford in protesting to the DPUC about the process for locating the boxes.

With help from the Attorney General, we have been able to convince ATT that some of the boxes that they installed were in dangerous locations, obstructed site lines for motorists, and made it difficult for handicapped people in wheelchairs and pedestrians to navigate the sidewalks. ATT agreed and has been working with us on the location of the equipment.

The boxes (known as V-Rad boxes) are use to add cable TV and High Speed Internet to ATT's product line. They are hung low so that ATT workman can get into them to turn on the TV for new customers. They are about the size of small refrigerator.

Congratulations to Antonio, and congratulations to Deputy Corporation Counsel Les Pinter for a job well done.

All the Best,
MayorMark

Victory.

Earlier in the month I had been alerted by one of our Detectives in the Youth Bureau of the DPD to a practice by the probation office that was placing convicted sex offenders in our homeless shelter located on New Street.

The Officer detailed a number of offenders that were using the address of the New Street shelter as a address for the sex offender registry required by the State of Connecticut. His sources in the probation office also told him that while it is not the policy to place offenders in the shelter, it is the practice. In fact, many of those individuals placed were not even from Danbury or the Greater Danbury area!

The problem? Having multiple offenders in one shelter is a recipe for disaster for the community and the volunteers at the shelter. The shelter is close to Main Street, the Danbury Public Library, and other public buildings. While some of these offenders are not child sex offenders, they are offenders who look for targets of opportunity, the mentally ill, elderly, handicapped, etc.

I wrote to the Department of Corrections, the Chief Court Administrator, and anyone who would listen. Thankfully the state agreed with our position and developed an out placement plan that will reduce and eliminate the placement of sex offenders in our City Shelter.

People who have served time and paid their debt to society, should have a roof over their heads. It is up the State of Connecticut to develop proper out placement services for those individuals. I am glad that they agreed..

All the Best,
MayorMark

Lebanese Festival a good time for all.

This past weekend I attended three separate events celebrating our diversity here in the great City of Danbury. The annual Lebanese Festival was held for two days this weekend at St. Anthony's Church on Granville Ave. It was a great a event with good food and terrific dancing from the various dance groups. The picture above was taken at the festival.

We also hosted a flag raising at City Hall on Sunday to celebrate India's Independence, Approximately two hundred people attended and it was a huge success. Special thanks to Councilman Shay Nagarsheth for putting this together.

I was also invited to attend service Sunday evening at a Brazilian Church on Main Street by the the Pastor. The parishioners had tons of questions about City rules and regulations and it seemed like we could talk for hours. About half of the people there spoke English, and for the rest we had an interpreter.

All in all, a terrific celebration of who we are in Danbury..

All the Best,
MayorMark

Saturdays with the Mayor busy...

We had plenty of foot traffic at City Hall today for Saturdays with the Mayor. A cornucopia of issues were discussed and accolades and concerns were raised by various residents. Specifically:

1. Concerns were raised about illegal immigration. Two separate groups of residents came in to thank me about work I have been doing on this issue and to discuss steps that they can take to let Congress know how concerned they were about this issue.
2. A neighborhood dispute was brought in for me by a group of residents to help resolve. I think we got some movement on the issue.
3. A gentleman came in with some safety concerns about Stadley Rough School's playground, we will check it out on Monday.
4. Finally, we have to address some issues of residents parking commercial vehicles in residential neighborhoods.

These days are becoming popular and I hope to continue them this fall. Thanks to all of you who participate and thanks for caring...

All The Best,
MayorMark

TB in the City.

This is not a particularly pleasant discussion to have, but based on the amount of e-mail and calls I have received, I thought I would address today's story in the News-Times about the case of TB found in a Danbury High School student.

First, you should know that we track about 30 cases of Tuberculosis in Western Connecticut each year. Those cases are spread around Danbury and the greater Danbury area. Most of the cases are latent, that is they have been identified in a person, but the person is not contagious. TB generally will not be contagious until the carrier reaches their mid twenties and symptoms begin to appear. At that point the person is treated with anti-biotics. In some cases, latent carriers never become contagious and never show symptoms.

Each year, I am briefed by Dr. Draper, our medical advisor, about TB in Western Connecticut and in Danbury. As the regional center of the area, it is important for me to have the most up-to-date information possible so I can answer your questions. Generally, the numbers of cases have remained constant with little variation year to year.

In the case mentioned in the paper, we do not believe that anyone has been infected by the student. We are taking every precaution possible in informing parents and staff and encouraging students and staff to be tested.

While this incident is unfortunate, it is not uncommon as cases of TB have been on the rise nationwide. The City and the School district stands ready to provide any assistance requested of anyone concerned about possible exposure.

Sincerely,
Mark Boughton

PS. Just to refute some of the rumors-the person infected is a U.S. Citizen.

State Prosecutor Setting up Housing Court for Danbury.

Special thanks to our local Prosecutor Steve Sedensky who has assigned a Prosecutor to address housing issues with the Unified Neighborhood Inspection Team. Having cooperation from the local judicial branch will help us prosecute repeat absentee landlords who routinely violate our health, housing, and fire safety codes.

The Prosecutor will be meeting with members of the UNIT every Monday to assign cases, and to update the City's enforcement team on the legal status of various enforcement actions. This is a new and important dimension to the UNIT and I want to congratulate them on this key initiative. Thanks again to the State of Connecticut.

After action report from our Common Council Meeting.

Things went well at Tuesdays Common Council meeting. The Council and I were able to come to agreement on some long standing legal disputes and we implemented some new policies. Highlights include:

1. Tweaking our current policy as it relates to city employees who are called to active duty for the military.
2. Giving the administration permission to apply for grant money to preserve Taylor Family Farm (see News-Times article in today's edition).
3. Finally resolving the Driftwood Point issue.
4. Referring the new Danbury Museum and Historical Society Authority to public hearing.

The Council also gave me authority to negotiate the purchase of the vacant lot next to the Fire Headquarters, and we had final resolution on the Police Department site.

You can view the full agenda here from the City of Danbury website.

I want to thank the Council for their bipartisan support on all of these critical issues.

All the Best,
MayorMark

Kenny Loggins at the Ives Concert Park.

Kenny Loggins is our next national act at the Ives Concert Park on Monday August 13th. He follows two terrific shows by Foreigner and by Chris Isaak.

Kenny is an incredible performer, whose career has spanned some 30 plus years. Famous hits such as I'm Alright (the theme from Caddyshack), House on Pooh Corner, A Love Song, Your Mama Don't Dance, Danger Zone, Danny's Song, Angry Eyes, What A Fool Believes, etc. etc.

The Ives Authority is doing OK. We are working hard on our transition and we have had some success (Foreigner, Earth, Wind, and Fire) and some shows that did not draw as well (Isaak, KC and the Sunshine Band). We will continue to fine tune operations and continue to look for corporate partners so that next year we will be able to offer even more variety of shows and entertainment. So this year, get out and come see Kenny Loggins. His son will be the opening act!
See ya at the show!

All the Best,
Mayor Mark

Leading, achieving, succeeding.

Recently, we have made some changes in our personnel department regarding our intake of new employees and our orientating them to our expectations as City of Danbury employees. Part of the intake process includes a new hire orientation. The orientation has been held twice so far and all new hires for the City of Danbury must take the class.

It is a way for us to convey our Mission Statement of the City, review key policies, and also a way to discuss the overall goals of our administration. This way each person, regardless of their job, will be in tune with the expectations of their supervisor and the overall mission of our City. So far the program has been working nicely...

All the Best,
MayorMark

Lake Candlewood and the SMP.

OK, here is a short primer on something called the SMP. What is the SMP? It stands for Shoreline Management Plan. The SMP was created as a requirement by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (hereafter referred to as FERC) in order for Northeast Utilities to sell the Lake.

So far so good. A management plan for the Lake is a positive thing. It is one of our most precious assets. The Candlewood Lake Authority worked very hard on the plan and made it a far reaching document. That is the good news.

Now for the bad news. The SMP also requires that the residents who own property around the lake pay fees for using property below the 440 contour line. These fees are to be used to help implement the management plan. This is going to be a problem for a variety of reasons. It is still unclear what each property owner will have to pay. It is also unclear about the myriad of existing deeds that have aleady given rights to the property owners. Finally, we would like FERC to have at least one public hearing to listen to the concerns of the CEO's and the residents of the 5 communities that surround the Lake.

Lake Candlewood is a beautiful spot. A management plan is good public policy. First Light (the new owners of the Lake) have gotten off to a good start with our communities. Now is the time for our federal government to step forward and listen to the concerns of our residents.