ORDINANCE REPEAL TIMELINES 

Ordinances and the RTM 

To better understand the timeline for the repeal of the Parking Authority ordinance by the Representative Town Meeting (RTM), it's helpful to first understand what an ordinance is and how and when the RTM typically meets.

What's an Ordinance

Ordinances are our local laws. There are rules and procedures defined in Fairfield's Town Code for the RTM to follow when creating, amending or repealing an ordinance.  Chapter A115-1 defines the following rule for ordinances. A two-thirds majority vote is required to suspend this rule or any other:

32. All proposed ordinances shall initially be referred to the Committee on Legislation and Administration and thereafter to any appropriate standing or special committee as referred by the Moderator for consideration. All proposed ordinances shall subsequently be formally listed on the Warning for two Meetings and discussed by appropriate committees prior to each Meeting as provided herein.

When does the RTM Meet

The Representative Town Meeting generally holds Standing Committees Meetings on the third Monday of the month at 7:30 pm, meeting as a committee of the whole first to hear presentations and ask questions, and then as individual committees immediately following. The RTM then meets for its Regular Monthly Meeting on the fourth Monday of the month at 8:00 pm. Public comment is only required at the RTM Regular Meeting. 

Warning, Notice, and Agenda are similar terms for the same document.

Parking Authority Dissolution Timelines

The RTM needed to amend an existing ordinance in order to dissolve the Parking Authority.

Below are:

• A summary of time spent at RTM Meetings on the dissolution of the Parking Authority

• A detailed timeline of the dissolution process that includes what we believe are deficiencies in the repeal process

• Item language from the agendas 

More specific documents are linked in the detailed timeline.

Parking Authority Dissolution - Summary of Meetings

The following is a summary of time spent on the dissolution issue at the February and March RTM meetings. 

Parking Authority Dissolution  - Detailed Timeline

The following is a detailed timeline of events related to the repeal of the ordinance to dissolve the Parking Authority and what we believe are deficiencies in the process. Please contact us if you would like clarification, more information, or you believe any of the details are inaccurate.

February 2025

Tuesday, February 11

• 10:00 am deadline to submit resolutions to appear on the February RTM Warning (aka Meeting Agenda) and for printing in the local paper. The ordinance to dissolve the Parking Authority is not on the Warning.

• Email notification goes out with agenda and backup from Town Clerk for the February RTM Meeting

Friday, February 14

• The February Warning is published in a local newspaper.

Monday, February 17 (President's Day)

• The Moderator sends an email to some RTM members stating that, at the request of the First Selectman, she intends to add an ordinance amendment item to the February agenda that would dissolve the Parking Authority. The email states that the purpose for taking this action is so the Parking Authority can be accurately reflected during the budget process. 

Tuesday, February 18

• A Supplemental Warning is issued by the Town Clerk in the morning.

  • The dissolution item is listed as "To hear, consider, and act upon..." on the proposed ordinance amendments. It is the only item on the notice.

  • Deficiency #1: The Town Clerk did not follow standard public notice procedures which requires all agenda items to be posted 24 hours in advance of a meeting per the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The meeting is at 7:30 pm that evening.

  • Deficiency #2: The notice is not published in the local paper which is a requirement of the Town Charter.

  • Deficiency #3: Per RTM Rule 32 in the Town Code, a proposed ordinance amendment must initially be referred to the Legislation & Administration Committee.  The Supplemental Warning did not say that. It said "To hear, consider, and act upon..."

• RTM holds its February Standing Committees Meeting 7:30 pm (a public meeting)

  • The Moderator announced that the dissolution item was sent out less than 24 hours ago and that the Legislation & Administration Standing Committee (L&A) may vote tonight, by the required two-thirds majority, to add the item to their agenda so they can discuss it in their individual committee meeting tonight. The Moderator's announcement begins at 1 hour 20 minutes of the recording and lasts about 2 minutes. There was nothing included in the meeting packet related to the item.

  • The Committee as a Whole breaks out into individual committee meetings 

  • Deficiency #4: It was unclear from the Moderator's comments during the Committee meeting whether she had referred the matter to the L&A Committee, as required by Rule 32. She stated during the meeting that she had "sent an email yesterday," but that email was not published as a public communication. If the email involved a referral or discussion of RTM business and was sent to either a quorum of the full RTM or a quorum of the L&A Committee, it should have been included in a public notice.

• L&A holds its Individual Committee Meeting 9:00 pm (a public meeting)

  • L&A convenes its individual committee meeting at 9:00 pm with six of the eight members present.

  • The item begins at minute 26 of the recording and lasts for one hour. The Committee votes 4-2-0 (a two-thirds majority) to add the item to its agenda and hears a presentation on the ordinance from the First Selectman, the COO, and the Town Attorney. The Committee votes 4-2-0 to move the item out of Committee. No members of the Parking Authority Board of Commissioners nor the Parking Authority Director were asked to attend.

  • Deficiency #5: The draft minutes of the L&A Meeting regarding this item can be viewed here starting on page 12. While not final minutes, the draft minutes contain inaccuracies in the wording of the item and the motion, which do not match was was said and done during the meeting. Because committees did not meet in March, the minutes cannot be approved until the April 21 L&A Committee meeting.

Monday, February 24

• RTM holds its February Regular Meeting 8:00 pm (a public meeting)

  • The ordinance to dissolve the Parking Authority is presented by the First Selectman, the COO, and the Town Attorney and discussed. The item begins at 2 hours 0 minutes of the recording. The presentation and discussion lasts 12 minutes. Neither the Parking Authority Director nor members of the Parking Board of Commissioners attended; they were told it might be more useful if they attended next month. 

  • Deficiency #6: The item was presented at the RTM Regular Meeting. It is the RTM's practice to have items presented at the Standing Committees Meeting of the Whole and discussed in individual committees. It is also its practice to take public comment a week later at the Regular Monthly Meeting.

  • Deficiency #7: The RTM failed to suspend Rule 32 which requires all proposed ordinances to be formally listed on the Warning for two meetings and discussed by appropriate committees before discussion at a Regular Meeting. The ordinance was presented and discussed without suspending Rule 32.

  • Deficiency #8: The Supplemental Warning that included the dissolution item was not listed on the Town website under the February 24 meeting. It was only listed under the Standing Committees February 18 meeting (and less than 24 hours prior to that meeting). We believe the Supplemental Warning needed to be listed on the Town website under the February 24 meeting to be considered proper notice for the February Regular Meeting.

March 2025

Tuesday, March 18

• 10:00 am deadline to submit resolutions to appear on the March RTM Warning and for printing in the local paper.

• Deficiency #9: The item (#23) was listed on the March Warning as "To hear and consider for the first time..." That is not accurate and is misleading to the public because: 1) it leads the public to believe that the RTM will not be acting on the item that month; and 2) it was heard (12 minutes) by the full body on February 24

Friday, March 21

• The March Warning is published in a local newspaper.

• Deficiency #19: The item (#23) that was published in the paper contains an inaccuracy. The language to be removed - "Parking Authority" - was not crossed out on the published Warning. 

Monday, March 24

• RTM holds its March Standing Committees Meeting 7:30 pm (a public meeting)

  • The ordinance to dissolve the Parking Authority is Item 23 on the agenda. The item begins at 3 hours 17 minutes of the recording (10:47 pm); backup materials start on page 257 of the online packet. The COO presents the item and the Parking Authority Director and one member of the Commission are available to answer questions. The meeting adjourns at 12:30 am. No individual committee meetings were held due to the late hour.

  • Deficiency #10: In a clear violation of the Freedom of Information Act, no minutes were provided for this five hour meeting. 

  • Deficiency #11: The moderator improperly ruled not to suspend Rule 36 to allow discussion of pending items after 11:30 PM, and kept the discussion going until 12:30 am without a two-thirds vote of the RTM, in violation of the Town Code.

  • Deficiency #12: Individual committees did not meet due to the late hour and therefore the ordinance was never discussed in individual committees. Rule 32 requires ordinances to be discussed in individual committees prior to each RTM Meeting (the next being March 31).

Wednesday, March 26

• The RTM minority leader exchanges emails with the Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) regarding the dissolution and the lease terms between the Parking Authority and the State. The Commissioner states that this is the first he is hearing of the dissolution.

Friday, March 28

• The Town Attorney receives a response to his March 27th email to the Commissioner stating that CTDOT takes no position on the dissolution but that a new lease must be in place between the Town and the State and includes a list of updated provisions that will be required.

Monday, March 31

• RTM holds its March Regular Meeting 8:00 pm (a public meeting)

  • The ordinance to dissolve the Parking Authority is Item 23 on the agenda. The item begins at minute 27 of the recording; backup materials can be found here. The RTM votes, in a single motion, to both suspend Rule 32 (thereby waiving the need to have the ordinance appear on two Warnings) and also amend the agenda to include the words 'and Act upon' (in order to vote on the item that evening). The vote to waive and amend passes with a two-thirds majority (29-9-0).

  • Two and a half hours later, the RTM votes 28-9-1 on the motion as amended thereby dissolving the Parking Authority as of July 1, 2025.

  • Deficiency #13: The March RTM Warning did not include the words "and act upon", it said "hear and consider for the first time." The RTM amended the item by a two-thirds vote to read "hear, consider, and act upon."  In violation of Rule 29, the Moderator never restated the motion after the amendment was proposed. Had the amendment been restated it would have read "To hear, consider, and act upon for the first time."

  • Deficiency #14: The amended item was not held over for one additional meeting as required by Rule 33. Rule 33 states: "Any matter not on the Warning for a meeting...may be discussed at such meeting but shall not be acted or voted on until the resolution stands over for one meeting." The matter on the Warning was to hear and consider. Once the RTM changed the matter to act, the item should have been held over. 

  • Deficiency #15: The vote taken that night violated the Town Charter because an accurate Warning indicating that the RTM intended to vote on the item was not published in the local paper in advance of the proceedings.

• The Board of Finance holds its Budget Deliberative Session on the same night (7:00 pm). Its meeting includes a discussion on the Parking Authority. 

April 2025

Friday, April 4

• The Town Clerk publishes a Legal Notice regarding the RTM's action on the ordinance in the local paper as required by § 4.5 of the Town Charter.

• Deficiency #16: The legal notice that was posted contains an inaccuracy. The language to be removed - "Parking Authority" - was not crossed out.

• An individual pulls a petition from the Town Clerk's Office for a referendum on the amendment and repeal of the ordinance. The petition states that the submission deadline date is April 15, 2025.

• Deficiency #17: The Town Clerk failed to indicate the correct date (April 14, 2025) on the referendum petition.

Thursday, April 10

• The First Selectman's weekly newsletter is sent out that includes a note from the First Selectman announcing the dissolution of the Parking Authority along with his reasoning for the request. It also includes background information on the Parking Authority. This is the first time the topic has been addressed in the newsletter.

Monday, April 14

• The Town Clerk and Town Attorney issue a formal correction changing the submission date from Tuesday, April 15, 2025 to Monday, April 14, 2025.

• Deficiency #18: The undated correction notice was emailed out by the Town Clerk's Office to an undisclosed list and shortly thereafter emailed out by the  First Selectman. Both emails were sent less than six hours before the petition was due despite the petition being pulled a full week earlier. 

Tuesday, April 15

• The April RTM Warning is noticed and includes a resolution to rescind the decision to dissolve the Parking Authority (#5 on the agenda).

Friday, April 18

• The April Warning is published in a local newspaper as required by the Town Charter.

Monday, April 21, 2025

• RTM holds its April Standing Committees Meeting 7:30 pm (a public meeting)

  • The resolution to rescind the decision is Item #5 on the agenda. The item begins at 17 minutes of the recording. Representative Steele and Representative McCloat present the item. The two representatives and the Town Attorney respond to questions for 70 minutes.

  • All questions relate to the WHEREAS statements (reasons given for the resolution). No questions are asked about the RESOLVED statements. RESOLVED statements identify the course of action the body would take and is the only part of the resolution the body is to act upon.

• RTM holds five Individual Committee Meetings 9:00 pm (public meetings)

  • Each committee meets individually to discuss and vote on the item. Recordings can be found here:

    • Education and Recreation Committee - recording - item starts at 2 minutes continues for 3 minutes

    • Finance Committee - recording - item starts at 3:30 minutes; continues for 5 minutes

    • Legislation and Administration - recording - item starts at 36 minutes and continues for 1 minute

    • Public Health & Safety - recording - item begins at 7 minutes and continues for 6 minutes

    • Public Works & Planning - recording - item begins at 7 minutes and continues for 5 minutes

  • All five committees discuss the WHEREAS statements. Only two members mention concern for the commuters. One suggests getting a second legal opinion.

  • One committee chair incorrectly states: "If you’re voting for the resolution it is to say that you agree that there were procedural issues that occurred and ... to rescind the prior vote based on prior issues. A no vote is essentially saying that ... procedural issues did not occur, and to uphold the vote as was already done."  The actions being proposed are not 'to acknowledge' or 'to agree' that procedural issues occurred. The actions being proposed are stated in the RESOLVED statements - specifically to 1) rescind and 2) reconsider subject to conditions.

  • One member references the number of emails received on the dissolution and is told by the committee chair that the comment is 'not directly related to the resolution.'  That is not true.

  • One committee chair incorrectly refers to the resolution as 'the procedural item.' 

Warning Language

The following is the language that was on the February Supplemental Warning and the March Warning. The Supplemental Warning was posted less than 24 hours prior to the February 18 meeting and was never printed in the local paper. The March Warning was posted on March 18.