All,

For many years, it seemed that working from home would be the ultimate workplace.  Talk about the grass looking greener….you know the rest.  The one good item is that there is very “relaxed” dress code.

As you all know by now, the Capitol complex is still closed to the public.  I got word during the week that some staff member caught the virus sometime during the sessions they held on Thursday and Friday of the previous week.  Couldn’t even go there if we wanted.  Contacts with legislators are by email, text, and maybe phone.  Committee meetings these days are on ZOOM at the CT General Assembly (CGA).  However the big difference is that the only 2-way conversations are between legislators.  The public (me) can only listen.  When things were normal, we wait until after a meeting and get to speak with legislators about our issues.  No such thing anymore.

Things are starting to ramp up.  This past week approximately 500-600 bills were published.  My activity this week consisted of the following.  Including the bills that were published through tomorrow (Mon 2/1), I am trackling 108 bills.  Some are directly related to F.D. issues and some are stretched to F.D. issues.  They will shake out as the session moves along.  Also, there are many duplicates (same issue, different legislator).  As an example, 4 are 1st responder related, 7 are PTSD or mental health related, 9 are PFAS related, 12 are PPE related, 6 Reg Fire School (RFS) funding related, 6 Income tax relief/tax abatement related, 10 have some language that is workers’ comp related, 2 PSAP consolidation related, 2 school safety related, 2 flashing light related.  There are also many single issue items; move over , just cause, concerns of the Gov power under an emergency declaration (couple of those), criminal history record check, etc.

The Public Health committee met on Monday and drafted S.B. #102 as a committee bill.  The bill appears to be the attempt to fix the “one vendor” issue for mental health first aid training that passed a couple years ago.  The Energy met on Tuesday without any F.D. issues on their agenda.  On Wed, the Environment committee met without any F.D. issues on their agenda.  Also on Wed, the Transportation committee had a public hearing.  One bill on their agenda was S.B. #261.  Section 33 & 34 of the bill dealt with DEEP emergency response vehicles and flashing lights.  On Thursday both General Law and Veterans committees met without F.D. issues.  The Public Safety committee also met that day and voted to draft H.B. #5412 which would name the Colchester State Police barracks building after Rep. Linda Orange, a long time Representative from Colchester and a friend of the fire & police service at the CGA.  I realize it’s not one of our issues, but some may have an interest.  I will follow it.

Bills of interest published this week are H.B. 6304 Just Cause for Fire Chiefs and H.B. #6406 fireworks bill.  Committee meetings coming up this week are a public hearing in Public Health on Monday, General Law on Tuesday, and a Labor meeting on Thursday.  Current agendas available at this time do not show any F.D. related on any of them.

I think that is all I have for now.  If anyone has any questions or have heard of any issue that is not listed, do not hesitate to email me .  If I can be of any help, also email me.  Forgot to mention, the form is 21 pages long, but the data sheets are only 19 pages.  In case you want to print it out, save 2 blank sheets.  I don’t’ remember if I ever got up to this many sheets.  At the beginning, the CGA mentioned that even though this is the long year, they did not expect to pass much legislation.  Many of these bills will probably go by the wayside as we move along.    

Ted Schroll Jr., Legislative Representative
Connecticut State Firefighters Association

Email  thschroll@snet.net