After 18 long months, Branford’s Representative Town Meeting last week acted to expand the town’s voting districts from five to seven, a move that will balance the town’s voting population and change the membership of the RTM. It is the first major revision since the RTM was created a half century ago this month.
Rep. Alinor Sterling, the chair of the Rules and Ordinance Committee, held many meetings to discuss, revise and analyze the plans that led to a new redistricting. It becomes law on March 29, 2010. “It does not affect the upcoming first selectman election,” she said.
The redistricting plan was part of a lengthy RTM agenda that took nearly four hours last Wednesday to complete. Midnight was approaching when the meeting at the Canoe Brook Senior Center drew to a close along with the two-year term of the 30 RTM members. Nearly all of the current RTM members are running for re-election Nov. 3.
The RTM itself will not feel the redistricting change until the November 2011 election. The first election to be held with new districts in place is the November 2010 statewide elections for governor and for the state legislature.
Not everyone was in favor of the plan. Frank Twohill, the Republican minority leader, voted against it because the state will automatically redistrict by 2011, after the census takes place. “Every ten years the state redistricts. If our districts don’t gibe with their districts, then we will have to have a brand new redistricting in another two years. This will confuse the voters, I believe. I am going to vote no.”
Michael Nardella, a Republican RTM member who is running for both the RTM and for Republican treasurer this year, said he opposed to the redistricting “since the beginning. I found the whole thing an exercise in futility.” He did not say why. “I will vote no because I voted no the whole time.”
Democratic RTM member Alice Lambert had another view: “Just because we haven’t done it for 50 years doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it. And if we have to do it again, that’s not so bad. Twice in 55 years is not so bad.” In the end, the ayes had it.”
The registrars of voters had been working on the change for two years. Dan Hally, the Democratic registrar, said at the outset that state election officials were concerned about Branford’s imbalance in voting districts.
“The state has guidelines by which they recommend that voting districts be divided up and apportioned. In our case we are way out of proportion. In the Fourth District we have about 5,600 voters, whereas in the Third District we only have 1,900. You almost have a 3-1 set-up there, which is out of whack in the state. The state is aware of it and suggested a while back that it be changed,” he said.
Hally initially wanted the RTM to act by its July 2008 meeting in order to realign districts for the November 2008 presidential election, but that idea failed. Republican RTM member Peter Black, who is a lawyer, reflected the views of many RTM members back then when he said: “This is a major revision to the way we govern this town … It has taken six months for the registrars to come up with these ideas, and then they say you’ve got to approve them right away?” The registrar of voters stepped back from its plan.
Back the plan went to the RTM’s Rules and Ordinance committee. In January 2009, the R&O, as it is called, approved in principle the current plan. The January committee approval might have been ready for the upcoming first selectman’s race, but had there been a primary the RTM again would have had to act quickly. So the plan was reworked and delayed.
While there are currently only five districts, Branford now operates seven polling stations because the town has two state General Assembly districts within its borders. Some residents in Stony Creek and Pine Orchard vote in the 98th State district. The rest of Branford votes in the 102nd. The two assembly districts require a total of seven polling places. Pat Widlitz of Guilford represents the 98th and Lonnie Reed the 102nd. They will be up for re-election in 2010.
The January 2009 plan, tweaked a bit here and there, is the one the RTM R&O committee adopted on March 19 and the one the full body voted into law last week. Under it, the number of RTM members in each district will change. Here is the current breakdown by district.
At one point in the process the Registrars of Voters presented the R&O with plans for both six and seven districts. According to Scott Thayer, who served as moderator of the RTM meeting last week, the main reason for deciding on seven districts as opposed to six was that “the seven district plan is able to preserve the current guaranteed minority representation at nine out of thirty members.” In fact that is the breakdown of the RTM right now—-21 Democrats and 9 Republicans.
The way the reapportionment of RTM members will play out is that there will be six members for the First District, three for the Second District, three for the Third District, Six for the Fourth District, four for the Fifth District, four for the Sixth District and four for the Seventh District. The first and fourth districts will each have at least 2 minority party members, and each of the other five districts will have at least one.
The Strategic Review Committee
In another decision, the RTM dealt with a politically touchy issue. In the only roll-call vote of the evening, the RTM voted 15 to 10 to change the way members are appointed to a new committee to advise the first selectman on land and conservation issues. The vote brought both sides of the aisle together.
The committee, called the Strategic Review Committee, was put in place soon after the town’s ten year conservation and development plan suggested it. It quickly became a political football because of the vague way in which committee members were selected. It was open to charges of favoritism.
DaRos said he would fix it because he had not intended the process to evolve as it did. John Opie, the third Selectman, who is running for DaRos’s seat, pressed for change.
“This became very politically charged,” he told the RTM because it could be used as “a rubber stamp of any first selectman. I feel strongly about that … The big issue I believe is how those members come forward. We don’t all think alike. We need a mix of attitudes… I strongly feel we need to embed language that sets up selection from within boards and commissions…”As if to prove Opie’s point, one Branford Chamber of Commerce board member rose to tell the RTM that his board had no say in who was selected to serve. “We want to have a fair shake. We do represent the business community,’‘ he declared.
Rep. Sterling (pictured) reminded the RTM that the Strategic Review Committee was only advisory and was created with staggered terms. “Different selectmen will make different appointments.” Sterling, an attorney, urged that the staggered terms be given a chance to work before changing the ordinance.
But after discussion, a bipartisan majority of the RTM agreed to the changes. Individual boards and commissions will select a person “representing that group’s goals and mission” at a public meeting. The person selected will sit on the committee.
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