Fairfield RTM Restores $100,000 To Town Budget For Charter Revision

FAIRFIELD, CT — Fairfield First Selectman Bill Gerber scored a victory Monday night in his request to have $100,000 restored to the budget, paving the way for the convening of a new Charter Revision Commission to update the Town Charter.

Gerber made the request to the Representative Town Meeting to restore the funding, after the Board of Finance axed it last month.

On Monday, the final RTM vote to restore the funding was along party lines, 30 Democrats in favor, nine Republicans opposed. Voting in favor were: Tara Cook-Littman, Dave Rock, Melissa Straus, Cindy Waldron, Myke Nicholas Hartigan, Marcy Spolyar, Liz Zezima, Michelle Lapine McCabe, Josh Garskof, Kristin O'Neill, Jay Wolk, Sharon Pistilli, Rob Blanchard, Nancy Donne, Jennifer Barahona, Andrew Graceffa, John Kuhn, Steve Berecz, Johnathan Delgado, Scott Nickel, Christopher Carroll, Kerry Berchem, Dru Mercer Georgiadis, Lisa Havey, Mark McDermott, Karen Wackerman, Matt Ambrose, Pierre Ratzki, Justin Contratto and Margaret Horton. Democrat Laura Karson was absent.

Voting against were: Ken Astarita, Peter Britton, Melissa Longo, Brooke Sparacino, Amy O’Shea, Chris Shea, Jeff Steele, Collin Colburn and Christine Ludwiczak.

In 2022, under the previous administration of Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick, an omnibus Charter Revision question that would have updated the document did not garner enough votes to pass.

"It's been 18 years since we revised the Charter," Gerber told the RTM. "As we're all aware, there was an attempt to revise it [in 2022]. A lot of hard work was done, and a lot of money was spent. Ultimately, there was one question, which ended up failing at the ballot box. But there were many things within that question that if they had been broken out, I believe they would have passed."

A new Charter Revision Commission has yet to be formed, but Gerber has a list of 16 items that he believes should be reviewed and updated in the 71-page Town Charter, including the policy surrounding the Internal Auditor position; terms of office; job qualifications for town positions; and removal from office policies, among others.

Click here to view Gerber's memo to the RTM that accompanied his request.

"I believe the Board of Finance made it clear that I would be too busy, that I should be paying attention to all the other projects that we have going on, but it's my view that even though I sit at the table, that's not really my commission," Gerber said. "Once the commission is formed, there will be a chairman, and they will do what they believe is right, and I should not be influencing it."

Town Attorney Phil Pires said that since the process that a commission works under is long, it therefore needs to start as soon as possible to give it adequate time to review and create proposed charter changes.

The goal would be to get questions on the ballot for the November 2025 election, three years after the failed attempt, Pires added.

Board of Finance member Jim Walsh, who voted in favor of the $100,000 cut, said under Roberts Rules, he should not be presenting the board's position about the cut, the Chair, Lori Charlton, should. However, since she voted against the cut, she did not want to present the position to the RTM, Walsh said.

"We just had a Charter Revision review in the past year," Walsh told the RTM, adding that launching a new commission now would be throwing good money after bad. "I believe we spent close to $400,000 on that process. A lot of money, a lot of money to the taxpayer. A lot of wasted money with the way it went down, pretty substantially.

"I don't think we can afford it," Walsh said, adding that perhaps Gerber should have "gotten his feet wet" by serving as First Selectman for a year or more before making a charter review a top priority.

Board of Finance member Amy Ruggiero, who also voted in favor of the cut, agreed with Walsh that the town needs some time to figure out that items should be a priority.

"I think we have a right to the taxpayers to figure out what the priorities are, and focus on the charter a little ways down the road and save some money," Ruggiero told the RTM. "Every little bit counts."

Board of Finance member Craig Curley, who voted against the $100,000 cut, said that it was a close vote, and that Fairfield is "way behind" in updating the charter, which he referred to as a "living document."

"I think it's important to recognize that there were a lot of really good things that came out of the last Charter Revision Commission," Curley said.

Steele, who said in theory he supports a review of the charter, said he would like to see the town take more time before launching into another commission review.

"The town is spending a lot on the [United Illuminating] litigation, so maybe we should give the taxpayers a bit of a break," Steele said.

"We're six months in, the next six months could be really fruitful for things that we might want to add in," he said.

"It's time to modernize government, this is the 21st Century," Zezima said. "We've lost four years, after promises of modernization and greater efficiency, and a referendum that was guaranteed to fail. They were warned against an omnibus question, and they went ahead with it, and it failed, so we're four years behind."