To the Editor:
On Monday, the Fairfield RTM voted down a factually inaccurate partisan resolution surrounding last month’s vote to dissolve the Fairfield Parking Authority. While not written by an attorney or having any legal basis, the resolution–which was co-sponsored by Republican members of the RTM–disrupted what was an otherwise procedurally legal process that followed RTM’s rules and called for the RTM to rescind a previous vote.
Monday night’s resolution put forward by the Republican members of the RTM had nothing to do with rules, the actual parking authority or our town’s commuters and everything to do with creating obstacles in our legislative process through the use of misinformation. Unfortunately, this resolution only misconstrued facts, wasted time and town resources, and sought to be a distraction during the budget process–which is one of our most important responsibilities as the RTM.
During March’s RTM monthly meeting, the RTM voted to move the parking authority’s operations into a Town Department in an effort to better streamline commuter lot functions, increase oversight and financial transparency, and remove redundancies between the authority and town government.
Our moderator, Mary Spolyar, was in consultation with the town attorney as early as February 14, 2025, when the initial idea of repealing the Parking Authority was first brought forward by the Administration, As she stated, every step we took was guided by a careful reading of our rules and with legal advice. Members of the RTM were repeatedly reassured by the town attorney, who previously served as a moderator for the RTM, that proper procedure had been followed prior to the vote at both the February and March meetings.
Earlier, the Republicans tried and failed to gather anything close to the 2,093 petition signatures needed to reverse the vote, only garnering 423 signatures. This allegation of procedural wrongdoing was another effort to undo a vote that passed by a significant majority.
Democratic members of the RTM could not support this resolution, where the co-sponsors were abusing the resolution process for political gain and the resolution itself lacked any fact or merit. It’s unfortunately clear that as we head into both our budget negotiations and an election cycle, Fairfield Republicans would rather disrupt what has been a fairly collaborative RTM in favor of Washington-style politics.
With thanks,
Elizabeth Zezima
RTM Democratic Majority Leader
Fairfield, CT