New Britain council rejects motion to refer reorganization of health and building departments

The New Britain City Council voted down a motion to refer Ordinance 36877 — an amendment to Chapter 2, Section 2-911 of the city's Code of Ordinances to reorganize the departments and offices — after a heated exchange over staffing and who is responsible for recent grant losses.

A motion to refer the reorganization back to the full council with a "neutral recommendation" was moved by Alderwoman Loy Seedra and seconded by Alderman Jason Gibson, but the roll-call vote failed 3-4. The chair then accepted a separate motion to adjourn; the meeting ended at 6:47 p.m.

Why it matters: The ordinance would formalize splitting a previously combined director role into two separate positions — director of health and director of building — a change the administration says is necessary after the combined director retired. Council members debated whether the change should be treated as an administrative reorganization linked to staffing options or as a substantive ordinance requiring formal charter procedures.

City staff member Linda Guard told the council the prior combined director, "Sergio," retired and that recruitment produced candidates for the separate positions rather than a single candidate qualified to hold both the building official license and public-health credentials. "We were unable to find any candidates that met the qualifications to run the building department to have a building official license and then have an MPH to run the health department," Guard said.

A speaker identified in the transcript as "Dr. Mayor" criticized public statements he said suggested council members were responsible for the loss of a health grant, calling those statements "not true." He said the governor had announced losses of "up to over $150 million in health grants" statewide and attributed the reduction to federal actions. "I was astonished to read from the administration and from comments sent to me that members of the council had lost a health grant. That's not a true statement," the speaker said.

Alderwoman Candace Scott echoed that federal funding cuts, not local staffing, had driven reductions in immunization-related grants and stressed that a passive budget reference does not constitute formal legislative approval of a reorganization. She said the city's charter lays out procedures for reorganizations and noted, as reflected in the transcript, a statute recorded as "section 19A 20F" that addresses appointment of acting directors.

Council procedure and next steps: Council members clarified that the night's item concerned the ordinance language itself, not the hiring process for the two positions; hiring and any interim appointments would be handled separately. The motion to refer the ordinance failed on a roll call (three in favor, four opposed); the transcript records individual 'no' votes from Alderwoman Barbosa and Alderman McNamera and a recorded 'yes' from Alderman Jason Gibson, with the final tally announced as three yes and four no.

The meeting adjourned after a separate motion to adjourn made by Alderman Santiago and seconded by Alderwoman Irish Sanchez. No further formal actions on Ordinance 36877 were recorded during the session.

Notes on transcript accuracy: The audio transcript includes inconsistent spellings and names (for example, the combined director is referred to as "Sergio" and various surnames transcribed differently). The article uses the names and quotes as they appear in the record and flags the surname inconsistency; quantitative figures (for example, the "over $150 million" figure) are reported as stated by the speaker.

Next procedural step: No vote on final adoption was recorded; if the administration or council pursues the ordinance again it must return to the council for additional action or for formal filing as required by the charter.