Council workshop reviews plan to use municipal cannabis revenue for City Hall security

At a Sept. 3 questions-to-directors workshop, the Middletown Common Council discussed a proposed resolution to accept municipal cannabis excise revenue and direct part of it toward expanded security at City Hall.

Corey Wisniewski, deputy general counsel, told council members the state's recent legislation allows the city to collect 3% of cannabis sales and that the city has been receiving revenue since a retail location opened on Washington Street. "We are going to replace a $125,000, for the schools, the city's school based food share program," Wisniewski said, and added the administration planned to use previously budgeted money to instead fund security at City Hall. He described a string of safety incidents in the building and said staff had considered hiring an outside company to provide a front‑desk attendant. "There have been a significant amount of incidents recently, where city employees, including myself, have not felt safe in this building," Wisniewski said. "Individuals come in ... we've had individuals bring, what was kind of like a knife to our office."

Council members sought clarity on how the decision was reached and which committees reviewed spending. Councilman Salafia said Finance & Government had discussed the receipt of cannabis funding but recalled no discussion about specific expenditures. Wisniewski said the resolution had been drafted in coordination with the mayor's office, finance, purchasing and legal staff and had been "mentioned at F and G."

Transcript remarks contained inconsistent figures: Wisniewski described $125,000 when outlining uses, while another council member said the Finance & Government agenda referenced $25,000. Staff confirmed monthly remittances are based on sales and are remitted as part of businesses' sales tax filings; the exact start date was tied to the retail opening. The record in the workshop did not show a formal vote to accept any grant at that meeting; the resolution was on the agenda for consideration at the regular council meeting later that evening.

Council members also asked operational questions about the proposed security procurement. Staff said they planned to use state bids and hire a vendor to station a person near the front desk, rather than rely on occasional light duty staff. Staff said further details about eligible uses under the state statute exist and that legal would help ensure proposed enforcement or operational steps conform to the statute.

The workshop did not take a final vote on the resolution; the council adjourned the workshop at 6:50:58 p.m. and planned to reconvene for the regular 7 p.m. meeting where the item appeared on the agenda.