Town Council Sets Mill Rate Among More Police Chief Drama

On May 17, the North Branford Town Council met in order to establish the new mill rate. However, before there was any discussion of property taxation, the beginning of the meeting was dominated by the ongoing saga between Police and .

Nicholas Mingione, Pietrandrea’s lawyer, came before the Council in order to address concerns with the Police Commission.

“There was a special Police Commission meeting held yesterday. Now I won’t say that meeting was illegal, but I will say that it was suspicious to say the least,” he said.

According to Mingione, the meeting was held in order to expand upon previously approved minutes from an April 11 Police Commission meeting. For Mingione, the expansion of these minutes indicates a flawed investigation by the Police Commission.

“I am far from a conspiracy theorist, but I do believe in the notion that where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” he said.

The Town Council dismissed the idea that expanding minutes was suspicious activity.

“The minutes of a meeting are mere evidence of what occurred at a meeting. It’s unusual for someone to complain that the minutes or the memorializing of what occurred at a meeting had been expanded,” said Town Attorney John Gesmonde. “If somebody felt subsequently that there wasn’t a sufficient statement of what happened, that doesn’t change what happened. It doesn’t add to it, it doesn’t lessen it. It makes it more accurate.” 

According to Mingione, the Police Commission investigation and report is inaccurate. “The Commission’s findings are flawed,” said Mingione. “Something else is going on with regards to the Police Commission and with regards to the investigation they conducted.”

“[Mingione] feels that the Commission, in addressing his client’s letter, didn’t conduct an investigation the way he would like it to be,” said Gesmonde. “His client made allegations saying that the chief slandered and harassed him. But, the Police Commission could not substantiate anything that he said.”

Council Member Joseph Faughnan responded to Mingione’s allegations and while he said he felt it was "one investigation too many," in order to remedy the situation, Faughnan put forth a motion to request the Police Commission to consider allowing testimony be heard from Mingione and his client. The motion was supported by all members of the Council.

The Town Council then announced the new mill rate will be 27.77, which is a 1.06 increase from the current mill rate of 26.71. The mill rate is determined on how much net revenue will be produced based on the Grand List of all personal property, motor vehicle and real property in the town, according to Town Manager Richard Branigan.

To calculate the mill rate, the Council must look at the budget and determine how much money will come from the state and how much will have to be generated through taxes. According to Branigan, the state makes up about $8.5 million of the roughly $45 million North Branford budget. Therefore, almost 80 percent of the budget has to be produced through local taxes.

“Our Grand List only grew from last year about 2/100 of a percent so we have a very flat Grand List and expenses are going up and property values are going down,” said Branigan. “Residential property value has gone down, whereas commercial property has gone up.”