MONTVILLE TOWN COUNCIL TO VOTE TUESDAY ON DATE FOR POLICE REFERENDUM

Montville — The Town Council will vote Tuesday to decide the date of a townwide referendum on a proposed independent police department.

The council meeting, triggered by a petition calling for a referendum, is scheduled for Tuesday at 6 p.m. in Town Hall.

The Town Council in January passed an ordinance to move the department out of the state police resident trooper program and create an independent department, to go into effect following the swearing-in of a police chief.

Proponents of a public referendumgathered enough signatures on the petitionto push a re-vote on that decision or hold a townwide vote on whether to overturn the passage of that ordinance.

Council Chairman Joseph Jaskiewicz, who supports an independent department, said he and his fellow councilors nonetheless agree with the push for a public referendum on the issue.

“We should let the people decide,” he said.

A similar ordinance the Town Council passed in 2002 was struck down in a referendum later that year, extending the town’s decades-long debate over whether to leave the resident state trooper program.

The council will vote Tuesday on a date and location for the referendum.

A town meeting will also be scheduled next month so residents can discuss the plan for an independent department.