Vernon council elects mayor pro tem after tie, approves appointments, grants and settlement

John O'Connell was elected mayor pro tem of the Vernon Town Council after a tied roll-call prompted Mayor Daniel A. Champagne to break the tie, and the council approved a series of appointments, agreements, job reclassifications, grants and a settlement during the meeting.

The council elected O'Connell to serve as mayor pro tem for the remainder of the 2023–2025 term after nominations from the floor produced two candidates: John O'Connell and Mary Anne Levesque. The council recorded six votes for each candidate; Mayor Daniel A. Champagne cast the deciding vote for O'Connell, saying, "I will break the tie for John." The council followed the nomination procedure described from Robert's Rules of Order and completed the election at the meeting.

The council unanimously endorsed the nomination of Connor Janicki to fill a temporary vacancy on a board; Janicki told the council he grew up locally and said he looked forward to "working with the board of education." Several asset-disposal motions for the data processing department and the Board of Education were approved; staff noted hard drives removed from disposed IT equipment are destroyed prior to disposal.

The council approved an updated intermunicipal sewer agreement with Ellington. Town staff and the Vernon Water Pollution Control Authority said the revised agreement uses metered flows from the Ellington pump station—already in place and considered more precise than a flat-rate estimate—to account for sewage sent to Vernon's treatment plant. Council members noted the change could show higher measured flow because Ellington still uses many wells, but agreed that meter-based accounting is more accurate for billing and operational records.

Councilors authorized Mayor Champagne to execute a memorandum of agreement with the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (state Homeland Security) for fiscal year 2024 regional grant assets; councilors clarified the arrangement focuses on intelligence and regional security support and does not change local protocols for interactions with federal immigration authorities.

The council adopted updated job descriptions for three positions—chief medical officer, budget analyst and program and prevention coordinator—adjusting wage ranges to align with state averages and reflecting current duties. Staff said the budgetary impact would be modest (on the order of about $10,000 total) and would be covered by existing funds from currently vacant positions.

For nonprofit support, the council voted to waive a portion of building permit fees in excess of $6,232 for Saint John's Episcopal Church's handicapped accessibility project; additional fees would apply if work expands. The council also authorized application for local prevention council grant funds supporting the Vernon Rocks Coalition. Michelle (last name not specified), a coalition representative, said the grant's priority is vaping prevention: "The priority substance for us is vaping tobacco." The motion's paperwork reflected a corrected grant amount of $5,342.

The council approved routine business including waiving the reading of minutes from the July 15 meeting and other consent-agenda items, and it voted to enter executive session under Connecticut General Statutes Section 1-200(b)(6) to discuss a tentative workers' compensation settlement.

After executive session the council agreed to a full and final settlement in the matter of Sinar Yagtu versus the Town of Vernon and the Board of Education, claim number cited in the meeting as 204910; councilors noted the settlement documents will become public once executed.

Votes at a glance (items approved at the meeting): - Election: John O'Connell elected mayor pro tem (tie broken by mayor). Procedure followed Robert's Rules of Order for nominations and sequential votes. - Appointment: Connor Janicki, appointment to fill vacancy (unanimous). - Asset disposals: Data Processing and Board of Education fixed-asset disposals (unanimous). - Intermunicipal agreement: Vernon–Ellington intermunicipal sewer agreement (unanimous); switches to metered flow accounting from the Ellington pump station. - Homeland Security MOA: Authorization for mayor to execute FY24 State Homeland Security grant MOA; council noted intelligence-sharing focus (unanimous). - Personnel: Adoption of job descriptions/reclassification for chief medical officer, budget analyst, program & prevention coordinator (unanimous). - Fee waiver: Partial waiver of building permit fees in excess of $6,232 for Saint John's Episcopal Church accessibility project (unanimous). - Grant authorization: Local Prevention Council grant application and acceptance, corrected amount $5,342; funding to support vaping prevention activities (unanimous). - Executive session & settlement: Executive session held under Conn. Gen. Stat. §1-200(b)(6); council approved a full and final settlement in Sinar Yagtu v. Town of Vernon and Board of Education (claim number cited as 204910); settlement to be made public after execution.

All actions above were carried by the votes indicated in the meeting record. Several motions were seconded from the floor; where a motion's maker or seconder was not stated explicitly in the transcript, the minutes will record the formal motion details.

The council advanced routine municipal business and signaled follow-up on implementation documents (intermunicipal agreement, homeland security MOA and the workers' compensation settlement) that will produce formal paperwork for the town records and, in the case of the settlement, public disclosure after execution.