Fairfield commission lowers RTM membership in final charter draft

FAIRFIELD — The Charter Revision Commission approved its recommended draft, removing a change that some residents said they found unappealing.

The commission's approved draft removed a controversial change that would mandate minority representation in Representative Town Meeting districts, but decided to keep a change that decreases the total membership of the RTM to 30.

The revised charter will now be presented to the selectmen, who can either approve it in full, approve parts of it, deny it in full or send it back to the commission for changes to be made. Ultimately, residents will be able vote on the proposed changes in November.

Minority representation was stripped from the proposed charter, with commission member John Mitola making a motion to remove that section. He said it was made clear at a recent public hearing and in emails the body received that the change, which would mandate one spot per RTM district go to the minority party in the district, is unpopular.

“I don't believe that the public wants that,” he said.

Commissioner Pamela Iacono, who voted in favor of taking it out, said the decision was disappointing and that the public misunderstood the intention of the measure.

Using the same reasoning, Mitola also moved to take out a section that would have resulted in the RTM being paired down to 30 members. While the current charter allows for 56 members, there are 40 members at present. He said bringing it down to 40 max and letting the RTM decide on its own would be better, but nobody supported Mitola's motion, meaning the proposal for 30 remains.

At a public hearing earlier this month, town residents spoke out overwhelmingly again on both changes in the proposed charter. Notably, many of those who decried the changes to the charter were members of the Democratic Town Committee or Democratic members of the Representative Town Meeting.

Of the more than 30 people who did speak, a majority said including minority representation would only benefit Republicans. They also said decreasing the maximum RTM membership was taking away direct representatives of government for neighborhoods to work with.

Steven Mednick, the attorney the town hired to guide the commission through the revision process, has said the goal of minority representation was to give people other minority parties representation in districts that frequently end up as solid voting blocks of four members from the majority party. He said the goal of decreasing RTM membership was to get in line with most other municipal legislative bodies in Connecticut, which typically have less than 20 members, so that residents have a better understanding of who represents them.

The commission's recommendations will be sent to the Board of Selectmen for its June 27 meeting.