1. PURPOSE AND AUTHORIZATION
   The objectives and purpose of the Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Agency of the City of Middletown, Connecticut, are those set forth in Sections 22a-36 through 22a-45 of the Connecticut General Statutes, as amended, and further authorized by the Common Council of the City of Middletown in accordance with Ordinance No. 17 adopted May 18, 1973, as amended by Ordinance No. 6 adopted February 3, 1975 Ordinance No.73 adopted November 18, 1987 and Ordinance No. 25 adopted on April 2, 1990.

   Ordinance No. 25 states:
   BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF MIDDLETOWN that Sec. 26-6. Inland Wetlands and Water Courses Agency. of Chapter 8 of the Middletown Code of Ordinances be amended to read as follows:
   

   Sec. 26-6 Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Agency
   1. Established; Membership; Appointment; Terms of Office; Alternates; Removal There shall be an agency known as the Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Agency, hereinafter referred to as the Agency. The Agency shall consist of ten (10) regular members and five (5) alternate members appointed by the Mayor with the confirmation of the Common Council. The regular members shall serve for a term of three (3) years. The present regular members shall serve the remainder of their terms. Regular members shall be appointed as necessary to fill any openings in the ten (10) regular positions on the Agency. The term of office of each alternate member shall be for five (5) years. The present alternate members shall serve the remainder of their openings in the five (5) alternate positions on the Agency. In the event a member misses three (3) consecutive meetings, such member may be removed and the vacancy thereby created filled as provided in Section 4a of Chapter V of the Charter. No regular member or alternate member of the Agency shall concurrently sit as a regular or alternate member of the Planning and Zoning Commission or as a member of the Common Council.
   2. Regulations. The Agency is authorized to adopt and amend and change regulations pertaining to inland wetlands and watercourses located within the City of Middletown, including the establishment and amendment and changes of boundaries of inland wetland areas within the territorial limits of the City. Such regulations and boundaries shall be established and amended and changed in the manner provided in the Connecticut General Statutes, as amended, the applicable regulations of the Connecticut Commissioners of Environmental Protection, as amended, and the regulations of the Agency, as amended. The Agency may, in its regulations, provide for a filing fee to be deposited with it to defray the cost of reviewing and acting on applications and petitions, including, but not limited to, the costs of certified mailings, publication of notices and decisions and monitoring compliance with permit conditions or agency orders. The Agency shall only consider proposed regulations or amendments or changes to regulations or inland wetlands boundaries which have been submitted in writing on a form prescribed by it. The Agency is not required to hear any application for an amendment or change to its regulations or boundaries for a period of twelve months after a decision by the Agency on an earlier application concerning substantially the same request.
   3. Powers and Duties The Agency shall have all powers and duties conferred upon municipal inland wetlands and watercourses agencies by the Connecticut General Statutes, as amended. The Agency shall have all incidental powers necessary to enforce its regulations.
      The effective date of this Ordinance is July 11, l990.
   4. Staff The environmental professional in the City of Middletown’s Water Department shall be staff to the Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Agency. Two years from the date of passage of this section, the Common Council will evaluate the environmental professional’s position in the City’s Water Department.
2. NAME
   The Agency shall be known as the Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Agency of the City of Middletown.
3. OFFICE OF AGENCY
   The Agency may have office or offices at such place or places as the Agency may designate by resolution.
4. MEMBERSHIP
   
   1. The membership, in terms of office, shall be as specified in Section 26-6 of the Middletown Code of Ordinances.
   2. Vacant seats shall be filled by the Mayor with the consent of the Common Council.
   3. In the event that any Agency member misses three (3) consecutive meetings, the Mayor, with the consent of the Common Council, may remove a member and fill the vacancy created by the manner provided in Section 2. of this Article.
   4. That all regular members of the Agency present at a meeting should be seated before any of the alternates. If any regular member was absent for the earlier deliberations of an agenda item, he\she must affirm that he\she has listened to the tapes of the meeting which was missed.
5. OFFICERS AND THEIR DUTIES
   
   1. The officers of the Agency shall consist of a Chairman, a Vice Chairman and a Secretary.
   2. The Chairman shall preside at all meetings and hearings of the Agency and shall have the duties normally conferred by parliamentary usage on such officers. The Chairman shall have the authority to appoint committees, call special meetings and generally perform other duties as may be prescribed in these bylaws. The Chairman shall be one of the Agency members. He shall have the privilege of discussing all matters before the Agency and voting thereon.
   3. The Vice Chairman shall act for the Chairman in his absence and have the authority to perform the duties prescribed for that office. He shall be an Agency member.
   4. The Secretary shall keep the minutes and records of the Agency and shall prepare the Agenda of regular and special meetings under the direction of the Chairman, provide notice of all meetings to Agency members, arrange proper and legal notice of hearings, attend to correspondence of the Agency and such other duties as are normally carried out by a Secretary. The Secretary may be one of the Agency members or staff member of the Agency.
   5. In the absence of the Secretary, the Chairman shall appoint a Secretary pro tem.
6. ELECTION OF OFFICERS
   
   1. . An annual organization meeting shall be held at the regular January meeting, at which time officers will be elected and bylaws reviewed and be made a part of the minutes of the annual meeting.
   2. Nominations shall be made from the floor at the annual organization meeting and elections of the officers specified in Section 1 of Article V shall follow immediately thereafter.
   3. The candidate receiving a majority vote from the entire membership of the Agency shall be declared elected and shall serve for one year or until his successor shall take office.
   4. Vacancies in offices shall be filled by regular election procedure.
   5. Resignations from the Agency shall be in written form and transmitted to the Chairman who will then forward same to the Mayor.
7. Meetings
   
   1. Regular meetings will be held on the first (1) Wednesday of each month at 7:00 p.m. in the Municipal Building, deKoven Drive, Middletown. In the event of conflict with holidays or other events, a majority at any meeting may change the date of said meeting. The Secretary shall notify the membership of regular meetings not less than forty-eight (48) hours in advance of such meeting.
   2. . Six (6) members of the Agency shall constitute a quorum and the number of votes necessary to transact business shall be a majority of Agency members at a meeting.
   3. All Agency meetings shall be open to the public when in session and shall be open to the public when in executive session except when so voted by the majority of the Agency members present and voting in accordance with State law.
   4. Unless otherwise specified in the Connecticut General Statutes or these bylaws, Robert’s Rules of Order shall govern the proceedings of the meetings of the Agency.
   5. The rotation of alternates will occur at the regularly scheduled monthly meeting. The rotation shall be that the first alternate at one meeting becomes the last alternate at the next meeting, without regard for whether alternates were seated or not.
8. ORDER OF BUSINESS
   
   1. Unless otherwise determined by the Chairman, the order of business at regular meetings shall be:
      1. Call to Order
      2. Public Session
      3. Old Business
      4. New Business
      5. Reports of Officers and Committees
      6. Public Open Forum
      7. Action on Minutes of Previous Meetings
      8. Communications and Bills
      9. Adjournment
   2. No new business submitted for action by the Agency shall be acted upon unless it is submitted eight (8) working days prior to a regular meeting date. Provisions of this Section may be waived by unanimous vote of the members present.
9. HEARINGS
   
   1. The Agency must hold a public hearing in cases where significant impact of the wetlands is anticipated. It may hold public hearings in addition to required hearings when it decides that such hearings will be in the public interest.
   2. All public hearings prescribed by law shall be held in accordance with the requirements set forth in Sections 22a-36 through 22a-45 of the Connecticut General Statutes, as amended.
   3. A competent stenographer shall take the evidence or the evidence shall be recorded by a sound recording device at each hearing for the Agency in which the right to appeal lies in the Superior Court of the Judicial District of Middlesex in Middletown. Proceedings for the hearings shall be incorporated into the Minutes Book of the Agency to be a permanent part of that record.

   4. The Agency may employ such other officers, agents, technical consultants, legal counsel and employees as it requires, and to the extent allowed by the budget.
10. CONDUCTING THE PUBLIC HEARING
    
    1. The Chairman of the Agency shall preside at the public hearing. In the event of his absence, the Vice Chairman or a duly appointed Agency member, shall act as presiding officer.
    2. The Secretary shall read the legal advertisement and note the dates of newspapers in which the advertisement appeared.
    3. A summary of the question or issue may be stated by the presiding officer at the opening of the public hearing. Comments shall be limited to the subject advertised for hearing. In any event, the Agency shall have the privilege of speaking first. The Chairman shall describe the method of conduct of the hearing.
    4. The Chairman shall first call for statements from the proponents. The opponents shall be given equal opportunity to comment. The order is reversible, the discretion of the Agency prevailing. Whichever the case may be, each group shall make its presentation in succession without allowing an intermixture of comments pro or con.
    5. It shall be made clear prior to hearing that all questions and comments must be directed through the Chair only after being properly recognized by the presiding officer.
    6. All persons recognized shall approach the hearing table in order to facilitate proper recording of comments. Before commenting on the matter before the hearing, each person shall give his name and address.
    7. The presiding officer shall assure an orderly hearing and shall take the necessary steps to maintain the order and decorum of the hearing at all times. The presiding officer shall preserve the right to terminate the hearing in the event the discussion becomes unruly, unmanageable or irrelevant.
    8. The hearing shall be conducted only for the purpose of taking testimony to be considered in deliberations of the regular meeting of the Agency.
11. COMMITTEES
    Special committees may be appointed by the Chairman for purposes and terms for which the Agency approves. PUBLIC RELATIONS The Chairman or a duly appointed Agency member or staff personnel, may act as public relations director for the Agency. All information releases shall reflect the thinking of the majority of the Agency.
12. AMENDMENTS
    These bylaws may be amended by two-thirds (2\3) of the vote of the entire voting membership of the Agency only after a proposed change has been read and discussed at a regular meeting.
    • Adopted: October 23, l973
    • Revised: November 28, l977
    • Revised: January 2, l980
    • Revised: January 2, l986
    • Revised: April 6, l988
    • Revised: August 3, l988
    • Revised: January 3, l990
    • Revised: May 8, l990
    • Revised: November 7, l990
    • Revised: August 7, 1996

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