Claudia Weber

Town Clerk: Signatures Obtained for Referendum Vote on Board of Ed Budget

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Those seeking to remove about $460,000 from the Board of Education’s budget for next fiscal year—the amount of money needed to bring about long-discussed changes to school start times—have obtained the necessary signatures on a petition to allow for a referendum vote on the funds, according to Town Clerk Claudia Weber. The Town Clerk’s office has verified the petitioners’ 682 signatures and now New Canaan’s legislative body must set a date for the referendum vote, Weber said in an email Tuesday to several officials, including the first selectman and representatives of the Town Council and Registrars of Voters. The date and time for voting must be set before June 6, and the Town Council must decide “if explanatory text is necessary,” Weber said in the email. “If the date is after May 20th, Covid will not be allowed as an excuse for an absentee ballot,” she said, referring to the date that Gov. Ned Lamont has set for the lifting of COVID-19-related executive orders in Connecticut. 

The petitioners are challenging the Town Council’s decision to reject a motion at its March 31 meeting. There, Councilmen Mike Mauro and Maria Naughton voted in favor of a motion to reduce the Board of Ed’s operating budget by $463,337 and Councilmen John Engel, Rich Townsend, Sven Englund, Steve Karl, Penny Young, Liz Donovan, Cristina A. Ross, Mark Grzymski, Tom Butterworth and Robin Bates-Mason voted against.

Board of Selectmen

Town Clerk: Moynihan’s Comments on Record-Keeping ‘Misleading’

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The town clerk is pushing back on characterizations that First Selectman Kevin Moynihan made last week in which he described her office as failing to digitize documents and records as other municipalities and town departments have. Moynihan during Thursday’s regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen said Town Clerk Claudia Weber “has not modernized” in a way that provides sufficient online access to records and that it’s been “a real hindrance” during the COVID-19 pandemic because it’s brought more people physically into Town Hall. Weber told NewCanaanite.com that officials had her muted during the meeting and so she was unable to respond to what she characterized as “misinformation.”

“The First Selectman’s comments were misleading,” Weber said in a statement issued after the meeting. “The New Canaan Town Clerk’s office has actually often been among the ‘first’ in terms of technology over the years.”

Weber’s statement continued, “Further, while the Land Record Index has been online for a long time, due to a previously made promise to our constituents, the actual images have not. Our residents wanted their privacy protected as much as possible.

Claudia Weber

Podcast: Claudia Weber and Miki Porta on Voting in Election 2020

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This week on 0684-Radi0, our free podcast (subscribe here in the iTunes Store), we talk to New Canaan Town Clerk Claudia Weber and League of Women Voters of New Canaan President Miki Porta about the upcoming election. Anyone with a question about voting in 2020 can click here to submit it to the League. Here’s information from Weber on the absentee ballot process and a link to download an application for an absentee ballot, here’s a step-by-step walkthrough of voting via absentee ballot, and additional absentee ballot information can be found here on the Secretary of the State website. Here are recent episodes of 0684-Radi0:

News

Robert Rizzitelli Sworn In as New Canaan Police Officer

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Robert Rizzitelli, a 25-year-old Monroe man now on track to become the newest member of the New Canaan Police Department, was born into a family of law enforcement. The Bridgeport native’s father is a detective sergeant with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police Department, his grandfather and uncle both served with Bridgeport Police Department and one of his cousins is with Trumbull Police Department, according to New Canaan Police Sgt. Brian Mitchell, the department’s training sergeant. “His heritage has instilled in him the morals and values that are integral to this profession,” Mitchell said on Wednesday morning from the front of a room in Lapham Community Center for Rizzitelli’s swearing-in ceremony. About 30 town officials, police, media members, friends and family attended the ceremony, including First Selectman Kevin Moynihan, Selectman Kit Devereaux and Town Clerk Claudia Weber, who administered the Oath of Office.

Government

‘We Have a Big Job Ahead of Us’: Moynihan Addresses Town as First Selectman at Swearing-In Ceremony

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On the eve of taking office, New Canaan’s newly elected first selectman told residents that he will strive to work on their behalf through collaboration and with purpose, transparency and accountability. Moments after he was sworn into the town’s top elected office Monday night, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan in a stirring, heartfelt speech told a standing-room only crowd at Town Hall that the major challenge facing municipal leadership is to understand and then deliver what residents want. “We made the case that we urgently need—must have—21st century cell service throughout New Canaan,” Moynihan said from the dais in the Town Hall Meeting Room, echoing a campaign pledge while addressing the town for the first time as its first selectman, flanked by Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams.

“We said the longstanding problems of inadequate parking must finally be addressed and resolved. We pledged that as we aspire to provide the finest education to our children we must meet the need for more affordable housing to keep our seniors living among us.”

(His speech is published in its entirety below.)

Moynihan spoke toward the end of a high-spirited, at times lighthearted Oath of Office Ceremony that saw Town Clerk Claudia Weber swear in each member of the Board of Selectmen as well as Town Treasurer Andrew Brooks. Overseen by state Rep. Tom O’Dea (R-125th), it included an invocation from the Rev. Dr. Stephen Chapin Garner from the Congregational Church of New Canaan, Pledge of Allegiance led by Boy Scout Troop 70, singing of the “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “God Bless America” led by New Canaan High School seniors Kaitlyn Piotroski, Lauren Smith and Finley Vigliotti, introduction from O’Dea, comments from Rabbi Levi Mendelow of Chabad New Canaan Jewish Center and the Rev. Peter Walsh of St.