Town Council amends meeting schedule

By Rachael Scarborough King
Nov. 16, 2007

NORTH BRANFORD — The Town Council took care of some housekeeping as new members were sworn in at the body’s regular meeting this week.

Councilmen voted unanimously to return to a twice-a-month meeting schedule. The council had been holding one regular meeting a month and one workshop, at which members discussed some of the larger projects they were handling.

Mayor Michael Doody said he thought the month between meetings at which votes were taken was too long.

“Once a month is kind of long, especially if there’s any pressing issues that have to be done or have to be approved,” Doody said. “If the meetings are every two weeks apart, we’ll be on top of it more.”

The council’s regular meetings will now be held on the first and third Monday of every month, Town Manager Karl Kilduff said.

He added that the workshops had been used to discuss long-range projects and to talk about setting goals. “The workshop forum provided them an opportunity to learn about issues and focus on maybe one topic at a time in an informal setting,” Kilduff said. “It’s a helpful tool to get them to focus on a given project or task.”

Doody said the council will continue to hold workshops, either before regular meetings or in special sessions, as the need arises.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the council decided to postpone appointing a new town attorney until the next meeting in December. Members also set up a subcommittee to handle hiring a new town manager. Kilduff announced last week that he will leave in early January for a job in Darien.

Kilduff said the subcommittee, consisting of Councilmen Paul Calamita, Andrew Bozzuto and Vincent Caprio, will first approve an advertisement for a trade publication and local media.

Kilduff added that he thinks the council will have a short list of candidates by the end of the year.