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New Canaan CRC Group 1 finds no ordinance authorizing parking citation appeals; motion to notify town council fails
Summary
Group 1 of the Charter Revision Commission reviewed parking citation appeal language and could not locate any ordinance granting the parking commission authority to hear binding appeals. A motion to forward the finding to the town council failed for lack of a second; members asked staff to gather historical documents for further review.
Group 1 of the New Canaan Charter Revision Commission spent an extended portion of its meeting reviewing language that refers to parking citation appeals "if authorized by ordinance," and reported they could not find any ordinance that actually grants that authority.
At the meeting, a member said they performed exhaustive keyword searches and checked historical materials but found no ordinance authorizing parking citation appeals. The member said they also searched local coverage on the NewCanaanite website and found active reporting about appeals, which indicated the topic's ongoing local relevance. “We know that an ordinance is needed. We know that one doesn't exist,” the member said.
Another commissioner asked whether an appeal could be taken beyond the parking commission to another town body if the ordinance were written that way; members noted existing charter language references appeals "if authorized by ordinance," but the ordinance itself appears to be missing or unclear. Legal and procedural options were discussed, including whether a predecessor police-commission ordinance could have authorized a successor agency.
The meeting included a formal motion that the CRC advance the information about the missing ordinance to the town council. The motion received no second and therefore failed. After the failed motion, members agreed that the parking commission itself should be encouraged to review the issue and that one member (Kathleen) would pull together relevant historical documents and circulate them to the group for a follow-up review.
Why this matters: If the charter or code references an appeal process that has no enabling ordinance, residents who are currently using the parking-appeals process may be operating without clear legal authorization. The CRC framed the issue as a timing and process concern rather than a sudden crisis: members want the parking commission and town staff to examine historical records and recommend corrective language if needed.
What's next: Kathleen agreed to collect historical materials and documentation from prior meetings and provide them to Group 1 for review; the committee will return to the item at a subsequent meeting to decide whether to recommend an ordinance or other remedial action.
