Mayor nominates 2 to police reform board

Bronin taps Hartford school board member, P&Z commissioner

HARTFORD — Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin has nominated two more people to the new Police Accountability Review Board — a school board member and a planning and zoning commissioner.

The potential appointments of Shontá Browdy, a member of the Working Families Party who serves on the Hartford Board of Education, and Gary Bazzano, a Republican who was appointed to the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission in 2018, are being considered by the Hartford city council.

On the school board, Browdy, a Clay Arsenal resident, has been one of the most critical voices of the Hartford Public Schools administration. She was a parent advocate before winning her seat in 2017, and had previously been a substitute teacher and education chair for the Greater Hartford NAACP branch.

Bazzano, a former deputy mayor of South Windsor, ran an unsuccessful campaign for Hartford City Council last year. The West End resident is president of a vehicle leasing company, Point Leasing LLC.

The city council must confirm all appointments to the Police Accountability Review Board, which was formed in June to develop formal recommendations on issues that included cadet recruitment, hiring and staffing practices to ensure the department is racially balanced, training and deescalation techniques and use of weapons and equipment.

The first seven appointees were confirmed Sept. 14. The board will eventually have at least 11 members, all Hartford residents.

Bronin nominated Charlie Ortiz — president of Claro, a Hartford-based, LGBTQ+ organization for Latinos that he runs with his husband, former Mayor Pedro Segarra — and Lashawn Robinson, a Black Lives Matter organizer who works for the Women’s Family Center and Compass Youth Collaborative.

Council members Thomas “TJ” Clarke II, the majority leader, and Shirley Surgeon, nominated Lionel Thompson Jr. — a former Hartford firefighter who has served on the Hartford Juvenile Review Board — and Frank D. Barrows, a former state senator who is retired from the Department of Correction.

Council President Maly Rosado nominated the Rev. Elizabeth Arulampalam, a pastor at Riverfront Family Church in Hartford.

Councilman Nick Lebron nominated Diego Lopez, a team leader in Compass Peacebuilders, the city’s largest anti-street violence organization.

Working Families Party council members Wildaliz Bermudez and JoshuaMichtomnominatedKylah Jackson, who works in records maintenance in Rocky Hill.