'Connecticut Coming to Newtown': Task Force Will Host Public Hearing

Newtown's representatives are taking major roles as Connecticut seeks to bring about legislative and policy changes in response to the Newtown school shooting.

State congressional leaders, including Senate Republican Leader John McKinney -- whose district contains Newtown -- announced the schedules and membership of groups charged with examining school safety, gun violenceand mental health under the auspices of the newly formed Gun Violence Prevention and Children's Safety Task Force.

As expected, the group will spend an unspecified amount of time in Newtown. Rep. Mitch Bolinsky (R-106), part of the school security committee, told Patch they could be on the ground between 10 and 12 days.

"The state of Connecticut is coming to Newtown," said Bolinsky. "We'll spend the next 10-12 days coming up with our challenges, doing some research, and listen to the community. Then we'll come out to the community and let them ground us -- and correct us, correct us, correct us."

Bolinsky promised a high degree of public access.

"There's nothing on this subcommittees that is not steerable, obserable or reportable," he said.

A public hearing will take place at Newtown High School on Jan. 30 at 6 p.m.

Gun safety, school security and mental health are among the hot button topics that have developed locally and nationally since the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School took the life of 20 students and six educators.

As part of its work, the task force has scheduled a series of public hearings — all of which will take place in room 2C at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford. The schedule is as follows:

• School Safety: Jan. 25 at 9:30 a.m.
• Gun Safety: Jan. 28 at 10 a.m.
• Mental Health Issues: Jan. 29 at 10 a.m.

Meanwhile, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy also created the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission to look into the aforementioned issues.

The newly created subgroups and their membership are as follows:

Gun Violence

• Sen. Martin Looney, Co-chair
• Rep. Craig Miner, Co-chair
• Rep. Gerald Fox III
• Rep. Stephen Dargan
• Rep. Bob Godfrey
• Rep. Toni Walker
• Rep. Rosa Rebimbas
• Rep. Janice Giegler
• Rep. Dan Carter
• Sen. Eric Coleman
• Sen. John Fonfara
• Sen. Joan Hartley
• Sen. John Kissel
• Sen. Scott Frantz
• Sen. Tony Guglielmo
• Sen. Kevin Witkos

School Safety

• Rep. Andrew Fleischmann, Co-chair
• Sen. Toni Boucher, Co-chair
• Rep. Roberta Willis
• Rep. Patricia Widlitz
• Rep. Diana Urban
• Rep. Tim Ackert
• Rep. Tim LeGeyt
• Rep. Whit Betts
• Rep. Mitch Bolinsky
• Sen. Dante Bartolomeo
• Sen. Andrea Stillman
• Sen. Beth Bye
• Sen. Andrew Maynard
• Sen. Art Linares
• Sen. Mike McLachlan
• Sen. Kevin Witkos

Mental Health

• Sen. Toni Harp, Co-chair
• Rep. Terrie Wood, Co-chair
• Rep. Susan Johnson
• Rep. Cathy Abercrombie
• Rep. Robert Megna
• Rep. Betsy Ritter 
• Rep. Prasad Srinivasan
• Rep. DebraLee Hovey
• Sen. Terry Gerratana
• Sen. Gayle Slossberg
• Sen. Joe Crisco
• Sen. Rob Kane
• Sen. Kevin Kelly
• Sen. Joe Markley
• Sen. Jason Welch