Live City Council Meetings Return

The August 3, 2021 City Council meeting will be live in the Council Chambers at City Hall.  All in attendance will be required to wear face masks regardless of vaccination status.

Statement Regarding COVID-19 Increases

Today, I signed onto a press release distributed by the Democratic City Council members. While I wholeheartedly stand by that message, I feel there needs to be a more proactive role by the leadership of our city to assure the health and safety of our citizens. While our Mayor has done admirable work in raising awareness of the need for testing and raising funds for the local food banks to feed those in need, I feel that there has been inconsistent actions being taken towards the enforcement of health and safety guidelines set forth by the State of Connecticut. Our city has been cited widely for the fact that we’re one of the original “red zone” cities and towns. Looking at the data the State of Connecticut uses, our city crossed into the red zone way before the phase 3 opening which occurred on October 8th. Our city actually crossed into the red zone for cases per one-hundred thousand around the middle of August and have been above the red zone criteria of 15 cases per one-hundred thousand since that point. The City of Danbury should never have gone to phase 3 opening and should have taken a more aggressive posture with enforcement back in August.

I am well aware of the cost economically, emotionally, physically and socially this takes on all citizens of our city. The one indisputable goal here is to keep our citizens safe and to minimize the impact of the COVID-19 virus on the constituents and economy. As a healthcare professional and an elected member of our City Council, I can’t stay silent. We have all seen the public reports of restaurant and bar citations and even closures, but can’t help to notice the fact that other restaurants and bars seem to escape the scrutiny. I’ve personally seen the house parties with more than the allowable number of participants who fail to wear masks and socially distance. I’ve also watched as youth softball tournaments at Hatters Park occurred and the spectators failed to follow the rules of mask wearing and social distance. All of these have been reported and nothing visibly gets done.

At some point, we all have to become accountable parties to the fact that no one person can make the changes that are needed. We as a community must make a huge commitment to not only follow the rules but self-govern ourselves in maintaining adherence to those rules. If we all take accountability, we could possibly mitigate the need to go back to the austere measures that had to be taken back in the first wave. For those who feel it is their personal freedoms that are being infringed upon, you need to take a more global view of the fact that our inactions and failure to comply has hurt everyone around us, including ourselves. Our children will probably go the good part of a year without seeing their classmates in a live classroom, businesses are failing because they can’t open fully because our numbers are going in the wrong direction.

I’m asking that the public continue to vociferously follow the safety guidelines set forth by state and local public health departments. Wear your masks, wash your hands, maintain social distancing of six feet, and finally limit your time out in public to essential needs. If you see something, say something by calling 311. I’m urging my fellow councilpersons to join me in calling upon our Mayor to fully deploy City of Danbury resources to help actively enforce the guidelines and not wait for the State officials to make proclamations and change the rules. Our City is headed in the wrong direction when it comes to the number of cases per one-hundred thousand and the positivity rate. Our citizens cannot handle another full closure without proactive attempts on the part of our city to mitigate the need to go backwards. In the end, this is the right thing to do, it’s not politics.