Norwalk City council elects Josh Goldstein president, confirms department chiefs

Norwalk City held a special organizational meeting in which the council confirmed several department chiefs and elected Josh Goldstein as council president.

Public comment opened the session with John Levin of Chestnut Hill Road congratulating Mayor Smith and the council and urging a strong transparency commitment. "You should be able to do really good, even great things," Levin said, and he warned that private pre-meeting discussions can undercut public accountability by predetermining vote outcomes. Diane Loricella of Little Fox Lane urged more robust outreach, longer public-comment time and video during online participation to improve public trust.

Mayor Smith then announced a slate of appointments and moved to formally place them before the council. The council approved the reappointments and new appointments by voice votes described in the record as unanimous. Appointments announced and approved included Mario Coppola as corporation counsel and Marcia Elkhorn as city clerk. Jared D. Schmidt was moved to serve as division chief and chief financial officer; council members praised his budget work and responsiveness.

Vanessa Valadares, P.E., was appointed division chief and chief of public works and operations; speakers noted she leads a large, diverse department and has a record of keeping cost increases minimal. Sharon Torres was appointed chief human resources officer, filling a role that had been vacant for an extended period. Jay Hovansky, AICP, was confirmed as chief of economic and community development; supporters highlighted his zoning knowledge, online permitting work and efforts to attract small businesses.

In the leadership election, Council Member Jalen Seed nominated Josh Goldstein; Council Member Jones nominated Johan Lopez. The clerk conducted a roll-call vote; the mayor announced the tally as 11 votes for Goldstein, 3 for Lopez and 1 absent. After his election, Goldstein thanked colleagues: "I just wanna say how honored I am, for your support and your vote of confidence," he said, and he named Jalen Seed as majority leader.

Mayor Smith used her remarks to emphasize an administration goal to "govern out loud," improve communications between City Hall and residents and press forward on the upcoming budget process. She announced a joint finance meeting with the Board of Education finance committee for Thursday, Jan. 8 at 6:00 p.m. as the first budget review.

The meeting concluded after brief congratulations and a motion to adjourn was adopted.

Votes at a glance - Council president (roll call): Josh Goldstein elected, 11 votes; Johan Lopez, 3 votes; 1 absent. - Multiple departmental appointments (corporation counsel, city clerk, CFO, public works chief, HR chief, economic and community development chief): voice votes recorded as in favor/unanimous in the meeting record. Specific numeric tallies for those appointments were not provided in the transcript.

Next steps The council did not set further formal votes on these matters at the meeting; the mayor and new leadership outlined upcoming budget meetings and routine committee work.