Letter: Fairfield Needs Stronger Legislative Body In Charter Revision

To the editor,

The current proposal before the Charter Revision Commission for changes in the structure of Fairfield's town government is concerning in several respects. I recently sent my comments to the Charter Revision Commission and wanted to share them with my fellow citizens. In addition to my comments below, I note that the current proposal is to reduce the number of Representative Town Meeting (our legislative body) districts to nine, with three members each. The RTM has had 10 districts for approximately 30 years. During that time, the population has grown, so that the districts now have a larger number of constituents than they did 30 years ago. Reducing the number of districts, particularly in combination with a reduction in representatives per district, will result in less legislative representation for Fairfield citizens.

I urge my fellow Fairfield residents to pay attention to the proposals of the Charter Revision Commission. If their revisions are approved, we will be asked to vote on them in November. Here is a link to the commission's page on the town website: www.fairfieldct.org/charterrevisioncommission.

To the Charter Revision Commission:

I am writing to strongly urge you to revise the draft charter governance provisions to provide for a stronger legislative arm and more oversight over the first selectman. After what the town has been through over the past 6-7 years, it is clear that Fairfield needs more checks and balances, not fewer.

I applaud the proposal to do away with the Board of Selectmen. Their duties should be transferred to the RTM, including investigative powers and confirmation of contracts. Investigative powers over town departments and the administration should by no means be a power of the first selectman, who oversees those entities. There needs to be a body independent of the administration investigating issues in the administration.

There must absolutely be no veto power on the part of the first selectman; that would completely undermine the work of the RTM and be an unwarranted interference into the legislative branch. And in no event should the RTM have a minority representation requirement. The state statute exempts RTMs in towns with voting districts from that requirement for a reason — if a body is to be truly representative, the will of the voters should be paramount in determining its makeup.

I also strongly caution against setting the number of RTM representatives in the charter. You are proposing some significant changes to town government and it is not clear yet how it will all work. It may be that the RTM recognizes that it needs more members or fewer members, and any change will require a charter revision. That makes no sense to me.

Our town has experienced a series of scandals over the past six-plus years. These episodes make clear that oversight of the town administration is necessary. Putting more power into the office of first selectman without scrutiny risks further problems later.

Thank you for all of your hard work.

Karen Wackerman

Fairfield

Wackerman is a member of the RTM representing District 7 and sits on the RTM's Redistricting Committee, but wrote this letter as a private citizen.