By Ken Valenti

WESTPORT–Larry Kleinman, an EMT crew chief with the Westport Volunteer Emergency Medical Service, has been named the newest Representative Town Meeting member, filling a vacancy in District 7 created by the death of longtime member Jack Klinge.

The three other District 7 members – Ellen Lautenberg, Joseph Carson and Brandi Briggs – voted unanimously to appoint Kleinman in a Zoom meeting yesterday after interviewing him and two other candidates yesterday and Monday.

“I’m honored,” Kleinman, 74, said today. “It’s a pretty big deal for me.”

Kleinman, who has lived in Westport 33 years, will serve on the non-partisan body for the remainder of Klinge’s term, which ends Nov. 16, 2027. District 7 is generally east of North Avenue, south of Cross Highway and north of Post Road East, on the town’s eastern border with Fairfield.

Retired now, Kleinman was a radio disc jockey for 10 years and a software developer for 30 years. He was driven to join the RTM by his belief that a government requires “ordinary people” willing to put in hard work.

“Before we called our elected officials politicians, we used to call them public servants, and that’s what I see this as,” he said. “In a democracy, regular people have got to step up and do the work of governing, which is not always glamorous.”

Klinge was the longest-serving member on the RTM when he died on June 9 at the age of 87. Before the first interview Monday, Lautenberg remembered Klinge as “somebody who was a real mentor to many of us.”

The others interviewed for the position were Tina DeGroot and Michael Alpert.

Briggs called the applicants “three fantastic candidates” and said, “We were actually very lucky to get these great people all interested in this position.”

Ken Valenti

^{_{A career journalist and lifelong resident of the New York City region, Ken Valenti has enjoyed decades of reporting local, regional and national news in New York and Connecticut. Topics of special interest are development, the environment, Long Island Sound and transportation. When not reporting, he’s always on the lookout for the perfect coffee shop or used book sale.}}