CHARTER SUMMARY 2025

Some Background on Charter Revision

The Town Charter is Fairfield’s Constitution. Nothing is more important than how we govern ourselves.

Per State statute, The Board of Selectmen (BOS) and the Charter Revision Commission (CRC) the Board appoints, are given the authority to propose and put before the voters recommended changes to our Town Charter.   The voters are the ones who will decide at the ballot box in November whether the changes are approved .

The 2024-2025 Charter Revision Commission made its final recommendations to the Board of Selectmen in July. The Board of Selectmen voted on what changes to move forward on August 6 and on what questions to place on the ballot on August 20. Some of the more controversial changes, that Fairfielders for Good Government would have opposed, were not moved forward by the Board of Selectmen.

There are many changes that are not spelled out as individual ballot questions. Fairfielders for Good Government encourages voters to familiarize themselves with those changes. 

Ballot Questions

Below is a list of the seven ballot questions approved by the Board of Selectmen. The final/seventh question is an omnibus question and includes approximately 45 changes that are not individual questions. Fairfielders for Good Government encourages voters to familiarize themselves with the changes that are in this omnibus question before deciding how to vote on question #7:

Some of those changes in the omnibus question/Question 7 include:

• eliminating the elector (residency) requirements for the Fire Chief and the Police Chief and requiring them to reside within 35 miles of Fairfield

• eliminating the elector (residency) requirement for the Town Attorney and any Assistant Town Attorneys

• eliminating the requirement that the DPW Director be a professional licensed engineer; instead requiring the Director assign a licensed professional Town Engineer to be the chief technical advisor for the Town

• changing the name of the Board of Selectmen to Board of Selectpersons

• adding a Chief of Staff position appointed by the First Selectperson

• raising the threshold on contracts (dollar amount and duration) requiring Board of Selectmen approval

• requiring that a town employee be identified as a liaison for each board and commission

• removing surety bond and paper-based  assessment system requirements

• requiring the charter review process to occur every ten years

• changing the reporting structure for the internal auditor

Redline Version

The following is the Redline Version of the revised charter:

Clean Version

The following is a clean version of the revised Charter as recommended by the Board of Selectmen: