By Thane Grauel

WESTPORT — The Civilian Review Panel, charged with overseeing complaints regarding the town’s first responders, this week heard reports from the police and fire departments.

The panel currently has three members, Selectwomen Jennifer Tooker and Melissa Kane, and Chairman Harold Bailey, who also chairs TEAM Westport.

Created by First Selectman Jim Marpe last year, the group is supposed to have five members, but two slots from the electorate still have not been filled.

The panel was created after complaints came from a Westport man, Jason Stiber, who was ticketed in 2018 for a distracted driving incident on Post Road West. A police officer said he was on his cell phone; Stiber said he was eating a hash brown.

Stiber was cleared after a trial. The deep-fried dispute, however, made headlines far and wide, and Stiber later said trying to file a complaint with police was fruitless.

Stiber also currently is party to a complaint filed with the state Freedom of Information Commission against the Westport Police Department, the police chief and town over officials’ refusal to release a “police bulletin” that he believes unfairly characterizes another town resident. The town this week filed a motion to delay that FOI hearing, which had been scheduled for Sept. 27.

Whether or not the Civilian Review Panel has a future is uncertain.

The Representative Town Meeting is considering an ordinance to create a more empowered Civilian Police Review Board, which would replace it. Stiber was the lead petitioner asking the RTM to approve an ordinance-established review board, as opposed to an appointed panel, which could be dissolved at the discretion of a future first selectman.

The proposed ordinance is scheduled for a vote at the body’s Oct. 5 meeting. Early this month, however, the measure failed to win a recommendation for approval from the RTM’s Public Protection Committee.

In the meantime, the panel is moving forward with its work. It asked representatives from the police, EMS and fire departments about the complaints typically received, and how they’re handled.

Panel members at their Wednesday meeting appeared concerned about some of the questions on a proposed civilian complaint form.

In addition to the complainant’s name, address, phone number, email and details of where the incident occurred, it asks for their occupation and employer, and — after a clause warning about the penalties for making a false statement — doesn’t just ask for a signature, but a notary’s stamp as well.

“Why do you need to know employer?” Bailey said after the meeting. “And why do I have to notarize it?”

“We’re definitely going to take that stuff out,” he said.

The members of the panel also seemed inclined to allow anonymous complaints through the form.

RTM member Sal Liccione, District 9, attended the meeting, and said after that he feels strongly the panel should have all five members.

Learn more about the panel here.