Charter revision panel backs organizational chart, asks first selectman to assign staff liaisons; tweaks 10% variance wording

FAIRFIELD — The Charter Revision Commission on Jan. 22 voted to ask the first selectman to produce an organizational chart covering town boards and commissions and to designate a town officer to serve as a staff liaison or adviser to each appointed board, commissioners said during a lengthy discussion of how boards are governed and how they fit into the town’s administrative structure.

Those actions were adopted as a pair of sense-of-the-body recommendations after members spent more than two hours discussing which commissions should remain in the charter, which could be carried in town code, and how volunteer boards should be connected to town departments for administration and accountability.

The commission’s chair, Commissioner Chris DeWitt, introduced the idea of a chart that would “include all commissions and boards” so that volunteer bodies have a clear reporting path into a town department. He said the commission would recommend the chart be prepared outside the charter and delivered to the board of selectmen as part of the CRC’s final work. “I will make a motion to sense of the body that the end product we deliver to the board of selectmen have at least a template for an organizational chart that must include all commissions and boards and a reporting structure,” DeWitt said.

Why it matters: Commissioners said unclear departmental links leave some volunteer bodies without a staff contact to process paperwork, oversee procurement or coordinate budgeting. Commissioners repeatedly cited the Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) as an example where current organizational lines — the authority’s charter language and its administrative ties to the Department of Public Works — have created confusion about day-to-day supervision and accountability.

Discussion highlights and staff role recommendation

Commissioners debated whether to move many boards from charter text into municipal code but…