By Thane Grauel

WESTPORT — The Civilian Review Panel — a body established in 2020 to hear citizen complaints against police — for the first time has a full complement of members after two people were appointed Tuesday by the Representative Town Meeting.

The new members of the five-person panel are Michael Guthman, a former RTM member who has been active in other community groups, and Teresa Fabi, a former New York prosecutor.

The vote to approve both nominees was 33-0, with one abstention.

They take the panel’s two seats set aside for members of the electorate, which have not been filled since the body was set up by then-First Selectman Jim Marpe.

The three other seats, per the formula set by Marpe, are held by two members of the Board of Selectmen excluding the first selectperson and a member appointed by TEAM Westport, a local multicultural committee. Those members now are Selectwomen Andrea Moore and Candice Savin, and TEAM Westport Chairman Harold Bailey.

RTM follows Tooker’s lead; proposed ordinance sidelined

First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker earlier this year handed over to the RTM the authority to appoint two members of the electorate to the panel’s open seats.

That action appears to have sidelined another effort, advanced by a petition signed by more than 20 voters, to have the RTM approve an ordinance establishing a Civilian Police Review Board.

The petitioners’ plan was a revised version of a proposed ordinance that was overwhelmingly rejected by the RTM last year. The revised ordinance suffered a similar fate when it was turned down in January by the RTM’s Public Protection Committee.

Advocates of the ordinance-empowered board said an independent body is needed to review complaints against police, noting that the Civilian Review Panel is advisory and could be scuttled at any time by Tooker or a future first selectperson.

“Deep bench” of applicants for panel

RTM Public Protection Committee Chairman Jimmy Izzo, District 3, told the Zoom meeting of the full RTM that his committee sorted through more than 30 applicants for the two panel seats, and interviewed about 10.

“We have a very deep bench in this community,” he said. “Everyone that we interviewed were winners. We just got it down to who we felt were the best two for taking on these roles.”

Guthman, a retired human resources executive, on his resume lists  several civic activities, including as the Connecticut representative to the IRS Taxpayer Advisory Panel; member of the town’s Flood and Erosion Control Board; president of the Terra Nova Homeowners Association; RTM member and chairman of its Employee Relations Committee; president of the Westport Library board; member of the Jewish Senior Services board, and president of the Y’s Men of Westport/Weston.

Several RTM members praised the nomination of Guthman, having worked with him either on the RTM or in his other roles. He thanked them for their comments.

“I was very embarrassed, but appreciate every one of them,” he said. 

Fabi is a relative newcomer to Westport. The lawyer said she’s visited her sister here for years, and moved here two years ago from Brooklyn, after her husband died suddenly, to be near family.

She worked for the Kings County District Attorney’s Office more than 30 years and is the director of the client placement for the Women’s Community Justice Project in New York.

“I love it here,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to be a part of this place.”

“I’m passionate about criminal justice,” Fabi said. “I think it’s so critical to have faith in your police department and I think it’s so critical that the police department feel embraced by the citizens that it protects. And I feel because of my background I can bring something to the Civilian Review Board.”