Fairfield Selectmen To Vote On Proposed Town Charter Changes Tuesday

FAIRFIELD, CT — The Board of Selectmen this week wrapped up public hearings on the proposed changes to the Fairfield Town Charter, but not before residents reportedly voiced objections to a recommendation to reduce the Representative Town Meeting to 30 members.

Currently, the RTM is 40 members, and that number can be increased to as many as 56, and speaker after speaker on Wednesday said they did not want to see the legislative body decreased, reported the Fairfield Citizen.

Besides the reduction to the RTM, other proposed changes to the charter, which was last updated about 15 years ago, include:

• Budget process streamlined to include shared budget meetings and improved efficiency and effectiveness.
• Board of Education terms altered to improve competitiveness in certain election cycles.
• Charter provides provisions for Town Administrator.
• Rules of Order and Civility were added.
• No change to Governance Structure for the Town.
• Many individual changes to improve accountability and streamline the Charter for consistency, readability and usefulness.

The Board of Selectmen is slated to vote on the changes on Tuesday. At that time, they can approve some or all of them, which would send the revisions to a town election in the fall; reject some or all of them; or send them back to the Charter Revision Commission for more work.

Read the Fairfield Citizen story.