Public Hearing Information

January 24, 2013

In response to the Newtown tragedy, the special task force on gun violence prevention and children’s safety will be holding its first public hearing this Friday, January 25th, 2013.

We encourage you to participate and be a part of the public involvement in this important policy debate.  Your voice is essential to crafting responsible legislation.

The first hearing will be on enhanced school security and safety.

January 25 at 9:30 a.m. in room 2C at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford

Be advised that from 9:30 am 12:30 pm the committee will hear from invited experts such as education groups, local police and fire departments, and security experts. This portion will be an Informational Forum.

The public and legislators are invited to speak from 1:00 pm – until all speakers have been heard. There will be abreak from 2- 2:30 pm.

Ground rules:

Morning Informational Forum
There will be four panels of experts/stakeholders.  Panelists will have 3 minutes to offer testimony.

Afternoon Public Hearing
The Public hearing will be governed by a lottery system for anyone attending, including legislators. All witnesses will be given 3 minutes to testify.

Directions to the Legislative office building click on the link below:

http://www.cga.ct.gov/capitoltours/directions.htm

VISITOR PARKING

Capitol Police direct visitors to the first floor of the Legislative Office Garage.  When this area fills, visitors are directed to other available areas of the parking garage.

Once all public parking is at capacity, additional visitors are provided with a map to the Forest Street lot and a list of shuttle times from there to the Capitol complex and back.  Forest Street shuttle buses for visitors begin running to the LOB at 9:00 A.M.  The Forest Street lot closes at 6:00 P.M.  The shuttle pick-up and drop off location are at 450 Capitol Avenue and Oak Street from 6:25 A.M. to 5:45 P.M. 

(Directions to the Forest Street Lot from the Parking Garage)

Coming from the garage entrances, go straight to the light after the stop sign.

Turn right onto Capitol Avenue

Go 9 traffic lights and turn right onto Forest Street

(Note:  First right after crossing under the railroad bridge is Forest Street.)

The Parking lot is the first driveway on the left.

Lot C, State of Connecticut, DPW is marked with a blue sign.

Process for providing testimony in person:

  • Address your comment to task force committee members (3 minutes in length). A timer will go off. Also, be sure to provide written testimony before or after your appearance before the committee.
  • Restrict comments to the subject matter of the hearing on enhanced school safety and security. Be as detailed and specific as possible in making recommendations to the committee.
    Gun control and ammunition control issues will be taken up by the other committees those public hearings are mentioned below.
  • NOTE:  All public hearing testimony, written and spoken, is public information.  As such, it will be made available on the CGA website and indexed by internet search engines. 

If you would like to address issues with regard to mental health or gun safety you may do so before the other committees. Those meetings are taking place on:

  • Gun safety on January 28 at 10:00 a.m. in room 2C at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford
  • Mental health issues January 29 at 10:00 a.m. in room 2C at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford

Additionally, if you are unable to appear in public on January 25th, you can submit testimony by emailing your legislator, or through a dedicated website.

The website http://www.cga.ct.gov/asaferconnecticut/ has been launched to help you file testimony and keep track of the meetings and progress of the special task force.

Thank you for participating in this very important policy development process.