001My it's my privilege to chair the uh town of Trumbull edit committee and I welcome you to our meeting of March 12th, 2026. Uh I would ask for you please to join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Uh, I don't usually do this. Just dawns on me to do it now. I I'm going to just take a moment. Whatever you think about uh our politics, whatever you think about um the wisdom of our our current endeavors, uh our our men and women of the armed forces are have put themselves in harm way in in harm's way uh for for our good and for
002the good of our country. And I just take a moment to acknowledge that and thank them. Um, madame clerk, uh, the roll call is that, uh, in addition to myself, Shallith Fleming, Rodney Gray, and David Rosenberg performing our quorum, we are joined, of course, by yourself, by Jim Cordone, uh, I see now Samantha Miller as well, uh, and, um, Jennifer Winshell, the town council liazison, Paul Brown, the uh from the tech department and yourself and our guest of honor this evening, Chief Michael Lombardo of the Trumble Police. And we'll we'll I thank you, Chief, for joining us. We'll come to you in a in a few minutes. >> Sure. >> Um moving on in our agenda, the next item is correspondence. We have had no correspondence since our last meeting. Uh next on the agenda
003is public comment. If there's any member of the public who is in attendance and would like to offer comment, uh please let it be known, let uh uh Paul know that that you're interested in speaking by maybe Paul, you could tell them whatever the mechanism is for flagging their interest. Paul, >> the only person there is Dawn and she says she wasn't commenting earlier. >> Okay, fine. Thank you. Appreciate it. Uh, so we'll move on to the approval of of um the uh minutes of our meeting of February 12th, 2026. Uh, everybody who is who's here tonight was there. Uh, the only one who wasn't in attendance is Chris. So, everybody is eligible to vote. Uh, but I'll first call for the motion so that that we know what we're voting on. >> Motion to
004approve our minutes from the February 12th, 2026 meeting. >> Okay. Is there a second? >> I second the motion. >> Great. Thank you. Um, any discussion? >> All right. All in favor? That car carries unanimously. Um and I think that then takes us chief to you. So uh I apologize for the slow start but I want to again thank you for joining us. Uh you have joined us in the past and we appreciate it. We appreciate the return visit. >> Sure. I I think I I mentioned to you that edit has has embarked now on uh uh an effort to try to have periodic visits with uh leaders in the town of Trumbull just to touch base, check in, see how things are going, find out a little bit about your your successes, your uh
005your challenges, and and any ways that we might be able to be of help or or might be able to uh you know, serve as a megaphone for you to the extent that that you're looking. Not that we have, you know, this huge audience, you can tell, but uh to the extent that we can help to get any message out, we are we're delighted. Um before I give you the floor, uh Joanne, you probably saw Chris Pal has also joined us. So, uh going to add add Chris to the to the group. Uh Chief, we'll we'll let you talk to us for a few minutes and then I'll let folks ask any follow-up questions for for a little bit. Uh but again, thank you for joining us. The floor is yours. >> Thank you. Um
006just as kind of some remarks, I would just like to say that um a little bit of an overview of um what we've done and some of the things we've seen nationally actually and the things we've done locally. But thank you for um the opportunity to speak to um the committee. And I would I'd like to start off by saying that over the past few years, policing uh as most of you are aware is nationally um has placed a strong emphasis on building trust and legitimacy with the communities we serve. In Trumbull, we've approached that in several practical ways. First, we place a strong emphasis on community engagement. Our officers regularly interact with residents through a number of programs designed to build relationships outside of enforcement situations. These include initiatives such as our coffee with
007the cop, cones with the cop, walk-in talks, um, and a variety of other measures that we've put into place to be more involved with the community over the years. Um, and these are settings where residents can meet the officers in an informal setting to ask questions and maybe share concerns and just get to know the officers and um, understand how approachable they are. In addition to that, our school resource officers also play an important role in building positive relationships with young people and educators within our schools. In addition, we have continued to expand programs that support both the officers and the members of the community, including our most recent uh wellness dog program, our uh peer support program, and the addition of a full-time social worker that works for the department alongside our officers to
008assist individuals and families experiencing mental health or social services service challenges. The wellness dog program just started a couple weeks ago and the the purpose of the um dog is the dog was specially trained uh in an organization called Puppies Behind Bars which is located in New York State and we sent an officer to be trained within a maximum security prison and she now has a labor that she's brought back here and she works as a um support dog for the officers but also within the community. Large engagement in the community, schools, nursing homes, um shopping centers, you name it, she does it. And um that's part of a real strong outreach that we have. Um the programs reflect an effort to keep community members where they are and to build trust through consistent and
009positive engagement. Second, we ensure our training. Training is obviously very important and the policies reflect modern professional standards. Our officers receive training in areas such as procedural judge justice, deescalation, and bidess awareness. The goal is to make sure every person we encounter is treated fairly, respectfully, and professionally. Our department has also recently become a fully accredited police agency through the Connecticut Police Officer Standard Training Council, which requires meeting rigorous professional standards in policy, training, accountability, and operational practices. The town council in fact recently commended the department for achieving this milestone, which reflects the commitment our officers have to professionalism and best practices in policing. In addition, our department today is more diverse than ever than it ever has been. As part of our recruitment efforts and commitment to transparency, we have posted demographic information about
010our department on our website, including a comparison to the demographics of the community within our recruitment section of our web page. We believe in transparency in these areas helps residents understand where we are and where we continue to work toward improvement. I've als I've also tried and engaged uh personally um in conversations throughout the community the community. I've served as a panelist on several um in several programs with the state's prohibition on profiling initiative which was just recent where the program's director commended our department for its leadership and commitment to fairness. I also helped organize and participate in a public forum at the Calvary Church uh which uh Mr. Gray was a part of a big part of um focused on equity and relationships between the Trumbull Police Department and members of our community. And
011just last week, I was invited to participate as a panelist at the Bridgeport Islamic Community Center to discuss building trust between law enforcement communities during difficult and sometimes diverse times. I must say I'm proud of the professionalism our officers demonstrate each day. In the more than 11 years I've been their police chief, we have never had a sustained complaint alleging racial inequity or racial profiling by one of our officers. That reflects the standards our officers hold themselves to and expectations we set within the department. Um, I'd also like to add that in terms of successes, I believe we have maintained a strong relationship with the community. Residents continue to engage with our officers, attend forums, and communicate with us about their concerns, which naturally help us improve and adapt. There are, of course, challenges as
012with any profession. Policing alo all often requires officers to make quick decisions in difficult circumstances and those situations can sometimes be viewed differently depending on perspective. Um, another ongoing challenge is concerning that the public fully understands the responsibilities and realities of police walk work. Um, so thank you for having me and I'd be more than happy to answer um questions you may have. I hope I didn't go on too long. No, no. Thank you very much. U I I very much appreciate your remarks and I would invite anybody on the committee who's got some follow-up questions to uh raise your hand. Shala, I'm sorry I didn't didn't see the hand go up. >> Uh that's all right. Thank you. It's a little bit inconspicuous in the background. Uh Chief Lombardo, hello. Thank you so much
013for being here. appreciate um the remarks as John um shared. >> Uh I also really appreciate the demographic overview that you referenced. >> Um I think that level of transparency is really thoughtful um and is perhaps a model for what um other other towns or other departments um might might consider. Um and so I just have one question for you in connection to that. Um which is do you do you have or have you had any particular goals as it comes to um the diversity of the officers in town? >> Well um I guess in terms of recruitment um one of the things I would say is that we work very closely with the town's human resources department throughout the hiring process. Um, we've made a number of efforts to expand the pool of qualified
014applicants and ensure that our recruitment reaches as many potential candidates as possible. Uh, human resources has also worked with outside consultants to help broaden outreach and attract more diverse group of applicants. Um, naturally, our goal is to always identify the most qualified candidates who are committed to serving this community professionally and fairly. Um, so we continue to um expand awareness of law enforcement careers um to the best of our ability among a wide range of individuals who may be interested in public service. >> Rodney, >> yeah, I have a quite a bit of I have a few questions, but I'll just start off and then stop and see if anyone else have any has any questions. First, thank you, Chief Lombardo, for coming. It's always good to see you and um learning about the updates
015about what you're doing and and what your department is doing. Um quickly with the um the event that you did at the uh Bridgeport Islamic Community Center, is that way that um you know if that was um like record or anything or I can catch that on YouTube or something like that or >> I don't know if they recorded it or not. Um Dr. Fifi is the gentleman who invited me. >> Um, you might want to contact him and see if they did or not. I I just don't know. >> Oh, okay. Okay. Do you know who else was on the panel or or >> uh myself, Chief Porter from Bridgeport, Chief Paris from Fairfield, um Senator, um Gaston from Bridgeport. Um oh boy, I'm trying to think who else was there. >> Our senator
016and Bridgeport senator too. Um Sugada. >> Oh, great. And um there were a few other people there as well. I just can't remember their their names right now. >> Okay. I'll reach out to him and just see if he has anything. >> Sure. >> Um second question I have is um are you are able to um um look back into doing a citizens academy? >> Yeah, that's been something that's been a goal of mine for years. And several years ago, about probably started about 5 years ago, we started to lose officers from the department. Um, and we just couldn't do it. I just didn't have the people to do it with. And we're we have recouped um a large portion of our our staffing levels have gone up um significantly for probably a variety of
017reasons. Um, so we're we're pretty close to um our authorized strength. Um, we do have seven people that are still in one phase or another of training, so they're not able to work by themselves, but once my I would like to do a citizen police academy in the fall. We were I was trying to do it this spring, but it's just not going to happen. So, um when when we do get it together and we're able to do that, we'll certainly advertise it and um ask for people to join us. >> Uh Samantha, >> uh thank you. Thank you so much, um Chief Lombardo for joining the conversation and sharing your remarks. I do have a couple of questions. Um, one I'm wondering, you mentioned that um, the force is more diverse than it's ever
018been in and reflective of the community. Can you speak to where do you where do you uh, see the kind of biggest success in terms of that that shift in in building some of the diversity um that you that you want to and see now? And um what do you think the the difference or the biggest differentiator has been in terms of getting the diverse a more diverse um force? >> Um I guess I'll I'll start with um uh let me try to answer all of those several questions that are within that. If I missed one, please redirect me. Um, so right now we have 79 officers on the department, 10 of which are Hispanic, four are African-American. Um, we have, I believe it's 10 women, which we've uh haven't had that many women in
019quite some time. um multiple officers that speak a variety of um different languages and um just a much more diverse um population within our patrol division. That's where most of those officers I mentioned speak I mean work. Um and patrol is really the generally the first contact that people have with us to be officers in uniform in the field. Um, you know, and I've worked Tom MacArthur, our director of human resources. We've worked really closely with him and Steve Lebrandy within his office for quite a few years now to one build the number of people we had as applicants, but to really reach a much larger and a much more diverse um, uh, applicant pool as I mentioned earlier. >> Other questions for the chief? Okay, >> I have a couple more. >> Go ahead,
020Rodney. >> Um, so, uh, the coffee with the cops again and cones with the cops. I'm only able to learn about that through the town website. >> We generally do uh publication of that on our Facebook site, the police offic's Facebook site. >> Um, We did this past August. I'm not sure who might be aware, but we did our first national night out and it was a huge success. Um, we had pro probably several thousand people at Plascos Farms um throughout the evening. It was really a great event. It was it was structured to um we had it was really structured just for law for our officers to engage with um anybody in the community. So, we had a lot for our first time our first time doing it. We It was a tremendous success
021and I really encourage we're going to do it again in August that um as many of you attend that. I think you'd really like it. You'll see um the officers engaging with adults, children, teens. Um it's it was really a success. We I was really happy with that. Yeah, I think I was mentioned that um my interest in or maybe other committee members being a part of the uh agenda or learning about the planning process for that and the goal of maybe even possibly co-sponsor >> as a committee. >> Just want to get your thoughts on that in terms of that a possibility of that happening. >> Yeah, I mean we can we can certainly talk um offline about that. Um, I have several officers that are that are assigned to it and it's um
022I believe they already started working on it because we we try to get as many different um also we get some we had some federal law enforcement agencies there also. We had some um rides for children. There was um a dunk tank and it was just um a good night overall. But I can certainly if if you want to email me or call me, put you in touch with um a couple of the our officers that are in charge of that. >> Sounds good. Thank you. >> Yep. Okay. Any anything else? >> Okay. Uh Chief, thank you again for joining us. Uh I very much appreciate your time. uh the time you spent with us, the time you spent clearly preparing to talk to us and uh for your remarks and and for uh answering
023our questions. We'll look forward to seeing you, I hope, uh if not in the August event, but again, uh maybe return next year and we'll be glad to hear about uh all the all the things that have happened since we saw you today. >> Sure. >> You are I'll make you the same offer I make everybody who comes to see us. You are welcome to stick around for the rest of our meeting. You are welcome to run. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> I I do have a few things um at home with my family, so I won't run, but I'll I'll jog. >> Have a good evening. >> Okay. Thank you. Bye-bye. >> So, uh we'll move on to uh old business. And uh the first item up on our agenda under old business
024is the survey. We have made some progress. Not as much as I'd like, but some progress. We are we are now um working with someone specifically within the administration who is focused on uh trying to help us get the survey out. The town, I think, does not have or I shouldn't say that. Uh um first of all, it's Cindy Katsky. I there's no I'm not trying to uh um be evasive. I just didn't dawn on me to to name names. Uh Cindy is um looking into the question of of whether the town can provide a a survey monkey resource. If not, I have some thoughts about other ways to approach that problem. But once we have a a survey that's designed and an appropriate link, Cindy is is uh able to help us get the
025word out and circulate the link. And so I'm very optimistic that in the perhaps as soon as by by our next meeting uh we'll we'll be good to go. But in any event, progress has now now been made. Just to put a a slightly finer point on that, not to um dwell on it more than than necessary. Uh because of the significant amount of work that went into getting through budget season or into budget season, we we weren't able to uh um pull resources into this until recently, but we we're we're now moving forward. Uh any questions on that or I'll move on. Okay. Uh, next up is is our book club. The library has reserved Monday, June 29th for the next event and is also for that matter holding October 5th during band book
026week for a which is also a Monday for a possible book after that. I don't suggest that we necessarily try to pick two books now, but I don't rule it out either. Uh Shala was kind enough to remind everybody before the meeting of uh the books that we discussed last month. I don't we're not we're not bound to that list, but obviously those are the books that I hope people have had a chance to give a little bit of thought to and um see if we can reach a consensus on a on a book to pick. Um, I I have a couple of thoughts, but I I I feel like uh maybe my voice has been louder than others in past book selections, and so I want to I want to make sure that everybody
027has a chance to to speak. Uh, so is there anybody who wants to start us off by by advocating for a particular choice? No. Okay. Well, then I will uh Oh, there Shala, go ahead. >> I was trying to yield as well. Um but um I um would push for recommend suggest either Good Talk by Meera Jacob or Poverty by America by David I'm sorry. Nope. Matthew Desmond. Um, uh, Good Talk is actually a graphic novel and a memoir. And so, as we think about kind of, uh, types types of literature that we have not yet engaged with. I don't think we've done a graphic novel and can't remember if we've done a memoir or not. >> We did a a some kind of a I don't I don't know what the genre is. I
028I'll probably embarrass myself by getting it wrong, but the the book that we did about the uh woman struggling with her sexuality was was a >> Oh, gender queer. Yes, that's yes, that was a graphic novel. Yes. Yes. Um and um poverty by America is just that's a a space that we have not delved into yet. And so that one would be um probably my top choice. >> Okay. Uh other thoughts of of the two that you named Shalah I I I prefer the uh the graphic novel uh I also thought that and I don't remember who brought it up last month but uh the um bias or biased book but very intriguing to me and and seemed uh in light of the training we were recently trying to arrange like a a really excellent
029choice for us to to dive into uh if if folks were interested in that. But um what do others think? >> I can absolutely get behind bias for sure. >> Okay. I'm I'm not I'm not hearing u strong opinions, but I I welcome people to to to jump in. >> I could go either way on this. I I wasn't prepared to be on the meeting tonight, so >> I appreciate David you're jumping on to give us a quum and then and then Samantha and Chris came on right after you. >> It's not a problem. >> Thank you. I I can get behind what uh either. I think the last time we met I also mentioned poverty as as a book that I'd be interested in um have you know discussing and so forth but could
030get behind either. I don't have really strong opinion. Okay. Rodney or Chris does either of you have a a preference among those three or any other? >> No, I don't have a preference. Um, but I do want to think of a different direction down the road. Not now or the next book, but I am reading a book called uh Community by Peter Block and it's really so far um intriguing in terms of what it takes to um think about how to build community and um the efforts that they take to actually what does that really mean? But I just started it, so I'll give my feedback on it when I'm done and then see what you all think. But >> sounds like an interesting choice for us. Uh, >> whatever you decide today, I'm okay.
031But I that's something I'm just kind of just starting to do. I did a loaner with uh at the Trumbull Library and I haven't done that in years and I just went on and gave it back because the policy of just of renewing is a little different. So I gave it back to him. I'm going to go to the bookstore and buy it or get it off Amazon, read it, >> okay? and then I'll get back with feedback and then see what people think if they want to try that something like that. If I get if I start getting to it and I think it's something that the committee can benefit from. >> Chris, do you have a a perspective you want to share? >> No. Um I'm fine with either one. They all sound
032like great options to me. >> Okay. So uh among biased poverty and good talk uh I I personally would like to maybe exercise a a a veto. We'll just strike one. I'd prefer either of of good talk and biased. Does anybody else want to maybe exercise a strike and we'll narrow it down? I not a strike but um as we think about the October meeting um good talk is actually a considered a band book. Um and so if we I'm this may not help because I'm not sure I'm following the ball from all the things but but uh that is one that we might think about doing in October since that meeting aligns with band booking. >> Well that's fine. So that works out. I was wondering if any of these were band books. So
033from my perspective, if we would like to pick biased for June and and uh consider good talk for October and community might jump in next year. Um that seems like a great way to proceed to me >> in favor. >> All right. Is everybody uh agreeable to proceed that way? Okay. I I I by the way I should I should uh in full disclosure I've told Shalow this but I have a trial starting in uh California on June 15th. I might not be back for the June 29th. So I I look forward to reading biased either way but u you may have to discuss it without me. So, all right. Uh, we've we've we'll let Kathleen know how we intend to proceed and, uh, I'm move on to our next agenda item, which is an
034update regarding invitations to future meetings. Uh, pleased to report that we've made progress on this front, too. Uh, so we are in March. We will be joined in April by Colin Basset of Trumbull EMS. We will be joined in May by Reena Balar of uh economic and community development or whatever the department is. uh will be joined in October by the library and uh uh I was a little slow out of the gate this month as I am every month and and of course not there's nothing like circulating an agenda to make you realize that you better kick it into a higher gear. So I I finally talked to Dr. assemble today uh at the end of a very long day for him. Actually, in the middle of a long day for him because he
035he just finished a two-hour meeting and then was rushing off to a school event and uh had a some kind of a finance meeting tonight. But he took a few minutes to talk with me. I I think it was a good discussion. he appreciates where we're coming from and and he wanted to have a a little bit of a chance to consider where and how he might fit in and come back to us and and and let us know uh what he's able and willing to do. So, uh I'll circle back with him when when I can. Uh I did not follow up this month with uh with Vicki with the first elect, but uh I'll try to do that. Uh I did not follow up with Joan Littlefield uh in in um thanks the
036health department. But in any event, um she had wanted a little bit of time to to get her seal legs in the position and so I had promised that I would give her that and then go back to her. I think we're now a few months since I had that discussion and it's probably appropriate to go back to her. So I I'll do that. Uh I still have not heard from from parks and wreck. I think I've now reported on everybody. If I if I'm forgetting somebody, I I apologize. But um we we made pretty good progress in terms of getting people lined up and uh I'm I'm delighted we're able to see Chief Lombardo tonight and uh we'll have Colin Basset on our agenda for next month. Any >> I ask a quick question.
037Sorry. I >> was going to ask if you had anyone had any questions. You you go ahead. um for is it Stefan that will be coming from the library or someone else? >> Uh I believe it will be more than one person including Stefan. >> Okay, >> that's that's my current expectation. I and I I think among uh there may be three. I think that in addition to Stefon and and some someone whose name I don't now recall, it's to my shame. Uh Kathleen Fe uh who who was liazing with us for the book club and and handles adult ed or whatever the title is uh will will be part of that that uh group. Any uh further comments or questions? Okay. Um, moving on to new business. Any anything that we haven't talked about
038that people have on their minds this evening? >> Rodney. >> Yes. Uh, I just wanted to follow up again. I met with another um, community leader. Her name is Donna Jolly. I'm trying to see if I can get her CJ. Um, I forget their last name just that quick. long day for me too. But I just but they are again they have formed a community justice network and it's at least about 15 to 18 towns. Um and I'm trying to get Donna to come speak. Um she may be able to come to our next one but their their schedules are tight as well. But I want you all the committee to listen to what they're doing in terms of um how they form this uh leadership group and which each town is focused on in
039terms of how they serve and um how the leaders serve each town when it comes to community justice and belonging and that the committee would consider joining this network. one event that they're doing that I will be attending in Middletown in May. Um it's a brave space conversation. It is what is it to be a white ally? And um I was really intrigued in terms of uh that they've had this brave space conversation before and and um this time as they're planning it, they're doing it. You know, I was kind I kind of chimed in with grace from both sides in terms of um how they put that agenda together. So, uh I plan on um writing about that also on LinkedIn and releasing it. But, uh I want to just get you all as
040far as just thinking about that and then once I get some dates locked down and what's of a reality and see if it can fit on one of our um calendar dates as well. >> All right. >> Very good. Uh anything else? All right. Um, I thanks thank everybody for for u joining tonight. David, special thanks to you for shifting your plans around in order to rescue us and let us get the meeting going. I appreciate it. Um, and uh I wish everybody a good evening and a a good month. >> Do we need a motion to >> Yeah. Yeah. Yep. No, thank you. I I appreciate it. Jim was about to make sure I did it right, but Shala, thank you. I was gonna shut off the the things. >> I appreciate at least
041one person keeping me honest. Uh is does anybody have a motion at this time? >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> All right. All in favor. All right. I'm going to assume Chris joined that one. That one's unanimous. And uh thank you. Have a good evening. >> Take care, everyone. Night, everyone.