Common Council meeting tonight and reader feedback

Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Time: 4:46 PM

The Danbury Common Council meeting is tonight so it would be within your best interest to learn about what happening in your local government and find out stuff that the News-Times fails to inform you about.

On tonight's agenda is the Democrat's request for an ad-hoc committee to look into how the city hands out money to charities. The blocking of the request last month by Mayor Boughton and the Republican majority set off a firestorm that resulted in every Democrat on the Common Council signing a letter requesting that the committee be formed and hand-delivering their request to the mayor.

These series of serious events went unreported by the News-Times until recently when this blog criticized the lack of local hard news stories in the newspaper. The post was crosslinked on the popular My Left Nutmeg and the response from readers across the country have been very supportive.

Here are a couple of responses from readers at My Left Mutmeg. I've received many more responses from readers but their emails and I don't know if they want to make their comments public. In any case, thanks for the feedback!
Great work (0.00 / 0)
Great catch and great work getting the issue broader attention in your community. It's not just great blogging, it's great citizenship. Congrats!

I'm in Daytona Beach, FL and my city council had a similar fund for charitble giving that had no public hearings or formula for distribution. The council just kind of 'agreed' to fund each member's favorite charities. A cynic (like me) could view those donations as a kind of payoff. I think it's more common than you would think in town government, not that it makes it right.

Important issue (0.00 / 0)
This wouldn't be that much of an issue if we had honest leaders in Danbury. But when the mayor gives sweet deals to local developers who don't need sweet deals, like 7 year tax abatements and nearly free sewer hookups or when they push through zoning changes so developers can build in residential neighborhoods, you begin to question the motives of said officials.

Keep up the good work CT. It's too bad the people at the New Times are too busy writing bullshit fluff pieces like this one about an old house getting a new coat of paint. Hopefully this story happens so we can finally recall some of these crappy politicians in Danbury.
Again, thanks to everyone who responded to my post. The jury is still out on whether or not the News-Times will do a follow-up story or even attend the meeting tonight so COME OUT AND UNDERSTAND WHAT'S GOING ON IN YOUR CITY!

Meeting is tonight at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall. No excuses, get your butt down there.

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On September 26, 2007, ten plaintiffs filed suit in response to an arrest of aday laborers at a public park in Danbury, Connecticut. Plaintiffs amended their complaint on November 26, 2007.

The amended complaint states that plaintiffs sought to remedy the continued discriminatory and unauthorized enforcement of federal immigration laws against the Latino residents of the City of Danbury by Danbury's mayor and its police department.

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