Public speaker urges delay of police commission reappointments; council reappoints four members

A public commenter urged the Norwalk City Council to delay reappointments to the city’s police commission, citing what he described as the commission’s failure to perform duties outlined in the city charter and its refusal to review the police union contract. Despite the appeal, the council voted to reappoint the nominees.

Mister Levin, who spoke during the public participation period, criticized the previous commission’s conduct and said it “did a great job as a cheer squad for the police department” while ignoring “the significant role assigned to it under the city's charter.” He told the council the commission “refused to review any portion of the police union contract” and “refused to ever discuss a procedure whereby an individual commissioner might even seek to add an item to the commission's meeting agenda,” and asked the council to “table the 4 police commission appointments.”

Council members discussed the nominees’ qualifications during the appointments portion of the meeting. The reappointments named in the agenda were Fran Collier Clemens, Tony Lopez, Ron Talladino (listed with variant spellings in the transcript), and Nathan Sumter. One councilor stated that public comment had been taken into consideration but moved the four names forward for confirmation.

The council called the vote and the reappointments were carried. The transcript records the motion moving forward and a unanimous passage; no roll-call vote tally by individual member name was recorded in the meeting transcript.

The meeting record does not show a direct, on-the-record rebuttal from the police commission to the public commenter’s allegations. The council’s approval means the four appointees will continue to serve on the police commission; the council did not adopt any additional votes to require a separate review of the commission’s practices at this meeting.