Politics & Government

Tetreau Could Take Over by Mid-June

Steeneck's and Walsh's Last Chance to Agree on Interim First Selectman Appears to be Wednesday

Board of Finance member Michael Tetreau could take over as first selectman as early as mid-June.

Wednesday is the final scheduled Board of Selectmen's meeting in which Democratic First Selectman Sherri Steeneck and Republican Selectman James Walsh are scheduled to discuss who the interim first selectman should be, and the last meeting saw Steeneck and Walsh dig their heels in even further over Tetreau. Steeneck wants Tetreau, who was the unanimous choice of the Democratic Town Committee. Walsh doesn't want Tetreau because Tetreau is running for first selectman in the fall, and Walsh feels Tetreau will have an unfair advantage over other candidates.

The selectmen's meeting on Wednesday is at 4:30 p.m. in Sullivan-Independence Hall.

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If Steeneck and Walsh don't agree on an interim first selectman by the end of Thursday, Town Clerk Betsy Browne has 10 days to send a letter to 18 elected Democrats in Fairfield, informing them that Steeneck and Walsh have failed to reach an agreement.

The 18 Democrats then have 60 days to vote on who the interim first selectman should be, but Town Attorney Richard Saxl said Tuesday that he expects the vote to take place fairly rapidly after the 18 Democrats receive Browne's letter.

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"They have 60 days. I would expect it done in one or two days. She [Steeneck] wants to be done by June 14," Saxl said.

June 14 is not only the date of a townwide referendum on restoring $800,000 to the Board of Education's budget, it also will mark "40 days and 40 nights" of Steeneck's tenure as first selectman, Saxl quipped.

Saxl said Steeneck has done a great job since former First Selectman Ken Flatto resigned from office June 3 to take a job in Gov. Dannel Malloy's administration, but Steeneck, even before Flatto resigned, said she had no interest in being first selectman for an extended period of time, due to business and family commitments.

Saxl said he expects the election by 18 Democrats to be publicly noticed and open to the public. "I assume it will be open to the public, most election processes and nominations are. The Democratic Town Committee, when we have conventions, they're always open to the public," he said. "I would completely anticipate, number one, it's open to the public; number two, it is noticed; and number three, it is all of five minutes."

"Everybody's playing the game by the rules," Saxl said.

Saxl said there isn't a mandated waiting period between the vote by 18 Democrats and the time Tetreau takes over as first selectman and that he, Saxl, could swear Tetreau into office. "I could swear him in as a commissioner of the court. With Ken [Flatto], I swore him in once," Saxl said. "Mike is pretty anxious to do stuff."

Since only 18 Democrats would vote, the election would take place in one room and likely follow the process of someone nominating Tetreau, nominations being closed after no other name is put forward, and one ballot being cast in favor of Tetreau, Saxl said.

Residents could challenge the 18 Democrats' vote by filing petitions within 15 days of Tetreau taking over that are signed by 5 percent of town voters. If those petitions are submitted to the Town Clerk's Office within 15 days of Tetreau assuming office, it would trigger a townwide special election, but, due to the timing of events after that, the special election could fall within days of the Nov. 8 municipal election in which Tetreau would be on the ballot for a townwide vote anyway.

The Fairfield Registrar of Voters' Office reported Tuesday that the town has 34,496 voters, meaning, if that number held, petitions signed by 1,725 voters would have to be submitted to trigger a special election.


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