RTM Leaders Respond to Accusations of 'Secret' Budget Meetings

Editor's note: The following letter was received from James Millington, majority leader of the Representative Town Meeting and a District 9 Republican, and Edward Bateson, the RTM's deputy majority leader and a District 3 Republican.

As the majority leader and deputy majority leader of the Republican caucus on the Representative Town Meeting, we could not help but respond to several recent accusations that the Republican RTM Budget Focus Groups are meeting in “secret."

First of all, let us explain how the focus groups came to be. The Republicans currently hold 38 out of 50 seats on the RTM.  With this large majority, we decided last year that we had a unique opportunity to break the budget into sections and assign small groups to completely review each section line by line.  There is a massive amount of detail that goes into the $264 million budget before us. Hundreds of line items make up our budget and it is not clear exactly what is built into every line. In order to assure that we had performed our due diligence in reviewing the budget in the limited time that we have, we formed seven focus groups.

In the weeks that have followed, the RTM members have attended numerous public meetings, heard from town department heads and talked to citizens at meetings and via email. Those members not able to attend all the meetings have been reviewing the meetings on-line and on TV, compliments of FairTV.  (Special thanks to FairTV for their comprehensive coverage of the budget meetings.)

To set the record straight, there have been no “secret” meetings. The content of the budget is not a secret, what goes into each line item is not a secret and any recommendations which may be made for reductions will not be a secret. At the April 25 RTM meeting, we will announce the areas in which we plan to make reductions. There will be ample time for review by the public and our colleagues, and there will be time for debate and discussions at our May 2 budget meeting.

From Washington, D.C. to Fairfield, it is common practice for members of political parties to meet privately to form their budget strategy and bounce ideas off each other. These meetings are commonly referred to as a caucus and only members of the body from that party and ex-officio members are allowed to attend. On the Republican side of the aisle on the RTM, only Selectman James Walsh and Board of Finance Chairman Thomas Flynn can attend our caucus, as they are the only ex-officio Republicans on the RTM.

In Fairfield, Republicans and Democrats meet privately in caucus prior to each RTM meeting. The public and non-members are not allowed to attend. However, these meetings have never been deemed “secret” meetings. These meetings are a vital part of the political process where we speak freely of our ideas, vet the ideas of others and try to come to a consensus on the issues before the public meeting. Both political parties can have caucuses whenever they wish outside of the general meeting to discuss whatever they wish.

Our focus groups are nothing more than work groups or mini-caucuses. They are too small to officially classify as a caucus, but achieve much of the same goals as a caucus.

The residents of Fairfield elected us to take a hard look at the budget. In our opinion, we needed to spend more time to review the budget outside of the regularly scheduled meetings. As a result, our members are working diligently to make sure that any reductions we put forth are well researched, well thought out and well vetted among our members. We encourage the Democrats to do the same and we look forward to an open public debate of all our ideas.

Regardless of what side of the aisle you are on, we are all working hard to do the best we can in these tough economic times, and we continue to strive to preserve all that makes Fairfield a great place to live.

James Millington, R-9

Majority Leader, Fairfield Representative Town Meeting

Edward Bateson, R-3

Deputy Majority Leader, Fairfield Representative Town Meeting