Joe Ciccone, a member of Shelton’s flag committee, presented four proposed city flag designs and a plan to put them to a public vote, saying the committee worked with the public, libraries, the historical society and high school civics classes to develop the options.

The flag committee’s packet showed four designs: two featuring blue and white elements referencing the Connecticut state flag and the Housatonic River, and other variations that incorporate the city seal, historical names of Shelton and high-school colors. Ciccone told the council the committee recommends a uniform 3-by-5-foot flag for exterior municipal flagpoles and provided vendor quotes for 25 and 50 flags; he said the estimated cost for 25 flags and clips would be “under $2,000,” depending on vendor selection.

The committee proposed a Google Forms survey to collect resident preferences and said the link would be posted on the city website. Ciccone said the survey would ask respondents for an email address and attempt to limit multiple submissions by keeping only the first response from any single email address.

Council members discussed outreach and vote integrity. One councilor said bulk mail postcards or inclusion with tax bills could broaden participation; another asked how the committee would prevent multiple votes by a single person. Ciccone acknowledged the limitation that multiple email accounts allow multiple responses, and described the survey as a recommendation to the council rather than a binding vote.

After discussion, the council took no immediate action to adopt a flag. Instead the council voted to send the flag committee’s materials and survey to the finance committee for review and to consider logistics and funding for production and public outreach.

The finance committee will be asked to review costs, distribution plans (including which city-owned buildings would receive flags), and how to publicize the survey before the council decides whether to finalize a design and order flags.