By Thane Grauel

WESTPORT — The Representative Town Meeting has passed a fair rent commission ordinance.

But for a measure that is mostly untouchable boilerplate from the state, it took a lot of debate, much of which appeared to center around exactly who should be drafting legislation — the RTM, the town’s legislative body, or the first selectwoman’s office.

A little over a year ago the state General Assembly mandated that each municipality with 25,000 or more people establish a fair rent commission, under guidelines it provided. The Census Bureau’s latest estimated headcount (July 1, 2022) puts Westport at 27,427.

The amended state statute signed into law by Gov. Ned Lamont in May 2022 directs towns to establish fair rent commissions.

Westport’s measure was endorsed by the RTM’s Ordinance and Health and Human Services committees.

At the urging of Jack Klinge, District 7, the Health and Human Services Committee had voted to recommend the full RTM wording specifying that a residential landlord and a residential tenant should be among the five members, and that those each have an alternate.

The measure presented to the full RTM did not include that language so Kling proposed an amendment Tuesday night. His motion also specified that a quorum include an equal number of landlords and tenants.

Brien Buckman, District 6, urged members to refer the measure back to committee.

“It’s clearly not ready for full consideration,” he said.

“From my point we are trying to keep this as clean and as simple as possible,” First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker told the RTM.

“This is a commission that we are being mandated to put together, and quite frankly it’s a commission that is going to ask people to reveal a lot of very personal information in public, if it gets to that point,” she said. “We hope very few things come to this commission …”

“I want to keep this simple,” Tooker said. “I want to keep it straightforward, and I want to keep it balanced and fair.”

“I would encourage you to vote against the amendments,” Tooker concluded.

Harris Falk, District 2, pointed out the state legislation was signed in to law in May 2022.

“We had a year to find out about this,” he said. “It was given to us at the very last moment for us to get it at the deadline.”

He said it was not an RTM measure, just something that the RTM has had suggestions for.

“The RTM should take a swing at this, this is legislation,” Falk said. “It’s actually our job to do it. It would have been better had we been informed of it. But I don’t think that was the point, I think to try actually sneak it through as fast as they can.”  

Buckman’s motion to send the measure back to committee failed.

Klinge’s amendment passed.

Falk then floated an amendment regarding how members are appointed and approved.

“It seems like this is a very important board and it shouldn’t be picked by just one person,” he said of the first selectwoman.

He made a motion that the first selectwoman’s office could appoint members, but with the RTM’s consent.

“Just to be very clear, the first selectwoman, just from a process standpoint, does actually appoint almost every single board and commission in town,” Tooker said, except for the Civilian Review Panel.

Dick Lowenstein, District 5, mentioned that the library trustees are not appointed by the first selectwoman, and the directors of the Westport Transit District aren’t either.

Falk’s motion to amend the ordinance failed, 3-24-1, with Buckman, Falk and Sal Liccione, District 9, voting in favor. Lowenstein abstained and Peter Gold, District 5, recused himself.

The ordinance passed 27-1, with Falk against and Gold recusing himself.

Thane Grauel grew up in Westport and has been a journalist in Fairfield County and beyond for 35 years. Reach him at editor@westportjournal.com. Learn more about us here.