Southington Town Council Hopes For New Era Of Cooperation

Standing, left to right: Councilors Dave Zoni, Chris Palmieri, Kristen Guida, Tony Morrison, Joshua Serafino, Jim Morelli; Town Clerk Kathy Larkin, Town Manager Alex Ricciardone, Town Attorney Lou Martocchio, Jr., Asst. Attorney Lou Martocchio III; seated: Councilors Jennifer Clock, Paul Chaplinsky, Jr., and Mike DelSanto PETER PROHASKA PHOTOS

Transparency and collaboration were the key words of the first meeting of the newly-elected Southington Town Council. While these ideals were not fully realized, the group did take several important preliminary steps toward accomplishing the tasks they were elected to execute.

Meeting officially for the first time on the evening of November 24, the Council took a collective oath of office administered by Town Clerk Kathy Larkin and then joined in prayer, seeking divine aid in putting the interests of the town before any partisan concerns.

Following the swearing-in, Paul Chaplinsky, Jr. was re-elected unanimously to his former role as Chairman. Chaplinsky’s opening remarks invoked “collaboration and transparency and continuing to move the needle forward for the town.”

A motion by Dave Zoni to nominate fellow Democrat Chris Palmieri, the Council’s top vote-getter, as Vice-Chair was not successful, despite a call for cross-party collaboration. Instead Republican Jennifer Clock was elected to serve in that role, saying, “Those who have worked with me know I absolutely am collaborative, and work towards transparency and the good of the town.”

After that, the Council unanimously voted to appoint Lou Martocchio, Jr. as Town Attorney and his son, Lou Martocchio III, as Assistant Town Attorney.

The meeting broke down along party lines when new procedural rules were introduced for approval by the majority leader.

These proposed changes included the elimination of the Self-Insurance Committee; a clearer procedure for nominating a Minority Leader; a notice period for absences; a new restriction on the use of official Town letterhead that would limit it to the Council as a whole; and new protocols for Council member communications with the Town Attorney designed to limit legal expenses incurred by the Town.

Palmieri and Zoni objected to the proposed changes, saying that their caucus had received notice of the proposals only late that afternoon, and that they had not been properly vetted by the Town Attorney.

Council member Tony Morrison argued that the Self-Insurance Committee was essentially redundant, since its reports already must go to the Board of Finance for study and approval. Getting enough members for a regular quorum was difficult as well, Morrison suggested, and thus the body was not optimally efficient.

After discussion, a new set of changes was put forward that included the elimination of the Self-Insurance Committee, the establishment of a procedure for nominating a Minority Leader, and a notice period for absences, but with the letterhead and Town Attorney provisions left out. This proposal passed on a 6-3, party-line vote.

With that framework in place, Palmieri was named Minority Leader by a unanimous vote.

When Clock brought forth a possible nomination for an empty seat on the Police Commission, Palmieri objected, saying that Democrats had previously agreed to vote on an empty seat on the Board of Fire Commissioners as the search for a new Fire Chief gets underway. He objected that any additional nominations had not been previously agreed to, and did not appear on the original agenda.

“It’s not really a collaborative effort when we agreed to something different,” Palmieri said.

Chaplinsky countered that before the Council is officially sworn in, the agenda is made by the Town Clerk and Town Manager, but it can be amended according to Robert’s Rules of Order once the Council is official.

Despite those procedural concerns, the Republicans voted to add the nomination to the Police Commission and three people to the Library Board to the agenda. All of the nominations, including the one for the Fire Commission, passed.

Chaplinsky thanked the Council for their willingness to work together on appointments, since the Council meeting had been delayed due to the recount.

During the public comment section of the agenda, Milldale resident Dr. Laura Triano spoke before the Council, making a case for additional sidewalks and crosswalks on Clark Street. She pointed to the dangers of an increased volume of traffic, including expected trips to the Stonebridge Crossing shopping area just over the border in Cheshire, as well as more bicycle users on the Farmington Canal Linear Trail. Currently, only one stretch of sidewalk exists on Clark, in front of Southington Fire Station No. 3.

As the work involves a state road, any such improvements would likely have to be done with the cooperation of the Connecticut Department of Transportation. Triano also reported that Representative Chris Poulos had expressed willingness to work with the Town on improving safety in the area.

The next meeting of the Town Council is scheduled for December 8.

Returning Council Member Dave Zoni receives his official Town of Southington pin from Town Manager Ricciardone as Joshua Serafino looks on.

High School Tennis & Parking Fix Reviewed, Town Employee Exodus Debate Continues

PHILIP THIBODEAU PHOTO

Superintendent Outlines Tennis Court & Parking Lot Plan

At its October 14 meeting, the Southington Town Council was briefed on plans for a long-sought fix to the high school’s deteriorating tennis courts, one that would also allow the school to create a new parking lot and, it is hoped, alleviate congestion on neighboring residential streets.

The plan presented by Superintendent Steve Madancy was in large part the same as one sketched out by the firm TurfPro at a meeting of the Board of Education on September 25. The aging, undersized courts would be demolished and replaced with regulation-size courts made from durable post-tension concrete. The courts would also be relocated in a way that would allow for a new linear parking lot to wind from the current parking lot on the south side of the high school to a new curb cut on Pleasant Street.

There was one significant difference, however. TurfPro’s original presentation included a third major component – improvements to the current stadium field, along with installation of a new synthetic field just west of it. On Monday night, Madancy made no mention of that component.

The reasons for the omission were obvious: urgency and cost. The tennis courts have been in desperate shape for the past several years, and residents on Annelise and Mandel Drive have been reporting complaints with overflow parking for some 23 years. Both of these pressing issues could be solved for somewhere between $3.1 and 3.8 million, depending on the final bids that come in and whether add-ons like a lighting-system for the courts are also included.

The new field surfaces, by contrast, are closer to a want than a need. And they are not cheap, coming in somewhere between $3.4 and 3.9 million.

By tabling consideration of that part of TurfPro’s proposal, Madancy reduced the anticipated price tag for the project from around $8 million to a bit more than $3 million.

Two other considerations would cut the price tag even further. First, $1,586,840 has already been allocated for work on the tennis courts; it is quite likely then that rebuilding the courts would not cost the town any more money. Second, construction of the parking lot could be underwritten in whole or in part by a state grant. Plans are already in motion to ask the state delegation for help securing that funding.

This was an informational presentation, and the Council took no votes on the proposal. Council members seemed on the whole to be receptive to it, asking for clarification on details but raising no objections. In response to a follow-up question by Councilor Tony Morrison, Madancy indicated that the tennis court rebuild could be completed within a three- or four-month window stretching from late June to September of 2026.

Town Hall Employee Exodus Debate Continues

An at-times heated debate has occupied the attention of Town Council and local residents ever since several former town employees stepped forward to report that changes to the management systems at Town Hall had driven them to leave their jobs, calling for the matter to be investigated.

The former employees first raised the issues during public comments at the Town Council meeting of September 8. At the next meeting, the Council debated a proposal made by Councilor Chris Palmieri to conduct an audit of employees who have departed since the start of Alex Ricciardone’s term as Town Manager in early 2024. Palmieri and his fellow Democrats stressed that the concerns of the former employees should be taken seriously, and stated that the central aim of the audit was to understand whether there were any underlying problems that the Council could help the Town Manager correct.

In his reply to the proposal, Councilor Morrison staked out the Republican position, which is that the timing of the request during an election season seemed suspect; that many of the retirements could be ascribed to early-retirement incentives; and that the Council should fully support the new Town Manager in his reforms because it had previously given him a mandate to implement them. Since then, Councilor Morrison has articulated similar arguments on the Facebook group Southington Talks, engaging there with various commentators.

At Monday’s meeting, this debate continued, but not among Council members. Instead, it was residents who kept it going during the public comments period, with five people coming to the podium to address the matter.

Two of the speakers, Jill Fragola and Debra Maffiolini, had spoken up before. They came forward to restate their positions, and objected strongly to Morrison’s characterization of the motives for their departure on a Southington Talks post.

Another former employee who testified, Ann Marie Anop, had been the treasurer for the town of Southington until her retirement in May of this year. She said she was one of four employees who left a seven-person department earlier than they had planned to. She renewed Palmieri’s original request for an audit, pointing to “a lack of transparency, a disregard of policies and procedures, and loss of respect in how employees are treated.” She expressed a wish that, when the new Council meets after the November 4 election, it will give serious attention to the matter.

After their comments, Patricia Tavalozzi, a former union vice-president, came forward. While expressing sympathy with the workers’ point of view, she said that an employee who is being confronted with a changing workplace environment needs to “get out of their comfort zone,” and thanked the Town Manager for moving things forward.

Finally, Dave Lapreay, the Superintendent of Highways, Parks, and Recreation, stepped up to the podium. He began by observing that in his 16 years with the department he has worked with four different town managers, each with his own distinctive style. Regardless of who is in charge, he said, teamwork is always key; he stressed that there is good teamwork now, and that Town Hall “is not dysfunctional.”

Since Council members normally do not respond to public comments, the matter was left there.

This article has been corrected to clarify that Patricia Tavalozzi was not a vice president for the municpal employees' union.