Flatto Not Only First Selectman to Resign

When First Selectman Ken Flatto resigns from his post on April 29, he won't be the only first selectman in town history to leave before his or her term was up.

Charles A. Rowe, who served as first selectman from 1911 to 1921, also left office before filling out his term, according to Thomas J. Farnham's book, "Fairfield: The Biography of a Community, 1639-1989."

Flatto, a Democrat, is leaving to take a job in Gov. Dannel Malloy's administration that pays $120,000 a year, about $7,000 less than Flatto makes as first selectman, according to a Malloy spokesman.

Minutes of town meetings from the early 1920s give no indication of why Rowe, a Republican, resigned, but Farnham's book indicates Rowe resigned at a time of great stress in town— the town was struggling to build schools and to take care of residents struck by the influenza pandemic of 1918 and poverty associated with the post World War I years.

“The demands placed on Fairfield by unemployed workers during the post-war years far exceeded any the town had known earlier,” Farnham wrote. “In 1920, it appropriated $11,000 for its charity fund, which provided care for needy residents. The $11,000 was gone in two months.”

“Charles A. Rowe, who served as first selectman until 1921 anticipated that the town might have to spend as much as $55,000 on its poor — one fifth of Fairfield’s entire budget…Town officials found a widow attempting to support eight young children on $8 a week. Several former servicemen unable to locate work after returning from Europe were destitute, incapable of providing for their families,” Farnham wrote.

Farnham wrote that such problems “seemed to be beyond the competence of the selectmen,” and that that point of view was confirmed by Rowe when he decided to retire from politics.

Flatto is leaving office at a time when the town budget is under significant stress from underfunded reserve accounts and a pension system for town employees that will require annual contributions that are projected to escalate to $17.38 million in 2016-17, but it's hard to imagine economic conditions are worse now than in post-World War I Fairfield.

Town Meeting minutes from March 1921, on file in the Town Clerk's Office, requested that residents advise the Board of Selectmen whether a special election should be held to fill the vacancy created by Rowe’s resignation. Residents decided not to hold a special election, and Frederick A. Burr and William F. London, the two remaining selectmen, served as the town’s chief executives until Burr was elected first selectman in late 1921. The Town Meeting was the precursor of the Representative Town Meeting established in 1947.

In Flatto's case, it will be up to Selectmen Sherri Steeneck and James Walsh to choose a Democrat to fill the vacancy left by Flatto. If the two selectmen can't agree within 30 days of Flatto's departure, the question will be settled by elected Democrats in town. The caveat is those elected Democrats "shall not include state representatives or town officers who serve on town boards whose members are not all elected at one town election for the same term," according to a state statute provided by the Town Clerk's Office.

Rowe oversaw creation of the town's Board of Finance in April 1918 and the Town Plan Commission in 1919, which is now known as the Town Plan and Zoning Commission.

Flatto also will join Rowe as the only chief elected official in town who served more than four years as first selectman but who doesn't have anything in town that bears his last name.

Of first selectman who served in town over the past 50 years, John J. Sullivan's name is attached to Sullivan-Independence Hall (formally called The Honorable John J. Sullivan Independence Hall), and it was attached to an elderly housing complex called Sullivan-McKinney Elder Housing on Meadowbrook Road in Fairfield. Sullivan is the longest-serving first selectman in town history, occupying the town's top job from 1959 to 1983.

Jacquelyn C. Durrell, the town’s first female first selectman who served from 1983 to 1993, has her name attached to a pavilion at Penfield Beach. Also, Old Unquowa Road was renamed “Durrell Drive” when the town built several units of affordable housing near what is now Roger Ludlowe Middle School in the mid-1990s.

Paul Audley, a Republican who served from 1993 to 1997, doesn't have anything in town named after him, nor does John G. Metsopoulos, a Republican who served from 1999 to 2001. Flatto, a Democrat, served from 1997 to 1999 and was defeated by Metsopoulos in November 1999. But Flatto won a rematch against Metsopoulos in November 2001 and has served as first selectman ever since.

The first selectman's term used to be two years, but voters approved a change to the Town Charter in 2006 that extended the term to four years beginning in the November 2007 election.