Politics & Government

RTM Majority Leader Declines to Seek Re-election

Was target of firefighters' wrath for voting against labor agreement

James Millington, the Republican majority leader on the Representative Town Meeting, announced Tuesday that he won't seek re-election to a fourth term.

Millington, a past chairman of the Republican Town Committee, said in a statement that it was "now time for me to move on to pursue other opportunities.”

Sources have said Millington is far from the only RTM Republican who is not running for re-election this year. Millington said in an interview that he didn't know how many RTM Republicans planned not to seek re-election, but We the People of Fairfield, a taxpayers' advocacy group, recently publicly solicited RTM candidates in five of the town's 10 voting districts. We the People's concerns over taxes and spending mirror the concerns of many RTM Republicans.

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James Baldwin, the RTC chairman, estimated that eight to 10 RTM Republicans planned not to seek re-election.

Millington, who served in District 9, was credited by many in the GOP with helping the Republicans gain a 38-to-12 majority on the RTM in November 2009.

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But Millington became the target of Fairfield firefighters' wrath over his opposition to a new contract between the firefighters' union and the town, which the RTM voted down last summer. Firefighters protested outside a GOP lobster bake at the Jacky Durrell Pavilion and went so far as to picket outside the Nicholas H. Fingelly Real Estate office in Fairfield's Southport neighborhood, where Millington is employed.

RTM Republicans also came under fire from education advocates for cutting $800,000 from the proposed 2011-12 Board of Education budget in May after the Board of Selectmen already had cut $2 million, a decision that was backed by the town's Board of Finance.

The $800,000 cut was controversial among non-RTM Republicans as well, with Board of Finance member Kevin Kiley and Selectman James Walsh both advocating that the RTM not approve the cut. The cut passed on a 22-20 vote, with one abstention, and a referendum to restore the $800,000 failed about a month later.

John Convertito, one of the leaders of the referendum effort, indicated several weeks ago that education advocates would continue their work into the 2011 election season.

Millington served on the RTM since 2005 and has been actively involved in local politics for over 15 years.

In his statement, Millington said he was proud to have been a member of the team that recruited RTM candidates in 2009, "formulated a united platform and campaigned hard."

“Two years ago we promised to end the rubber stamping of budgets and union contracts.  We promised to fully analyze the short and long term impact of every budget, bond and contract. Two years later, I am proud to report that we delivered on our promises,” he said in the statement.

Millington credits RTM Republicans with two years of reductions to the town budget and for rejecting proposed union contracts in order to force the town to move new town employees onto a 401K-style retirement plan, instead of the town's pension system. He also credits RTM Republicans for rejecting "millions of dollars in bonding" in a tough economy.

“My fellow Republicans and I had to make some tough decisions and we were not afraid to make them. We need to change the way we do business in Fairfield or continue a cycle of endless tax increase," Millington said in the statement.

But the RTM Republicans' handling of the town budget, in which they met behind closed doors in focus groups to review sections of the proposed budget, came under criticism from Democrats, who also complained when RTM Republicans didn't have written material on the proposed 2011-12 town budget to share with the legislative body's 12 Democrats. The RTM Republicans were legally allowed to meet in secret on the proposed town budget because the meetings were considered a "caucus" and exempt from the state Freedom of Information Act.

Millington said in the statement that he would not be "directly involved" in recruiting Republican candidates for the RTM this fall. "It is time for new leaders to emerge and formulate their agenda for the next two years," he said in the statement.

But Millington plans to remain active in Fairfield politics and is "considering several other political opportunities."

“For now, I am fully focused on serving the remainder my term. We still have four months left in this term and a lot of business to finish," Millington's statement says.


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