Editor’s note: The story has been update to reflect total vote tabulations.
By John Schwing
WESTPORT — A little-known Town Charter provision has emerged as a factor in selecting the appointee to an open Representative Town Meeting seat.
The seat in question was held in District 6 by Jessica Bram, who resigned effective April 30.
The appointee qualified to fill the remainder of Bram’s term, under the obscure charter rule, is Alma Sarelli, who has run unsuccessfully for public office several times in the last few years — including for a District 6 seat last November.
Each of the Representative Town Meeting’s nine districts has four seats, which are contested every two years. If more candidates seek election than the number of seats available, the top four vote-getters win.
When a representative resigns, if the number of votes received by the candidate with the fifth-highest vote total is at least 45 percent of the district’s top vote-getter, then that candidate is automatically qualified to take the open seat for the remainder of the term, according to Town Clerk Jeffrey Dunkerton.
In District 6 last November, Candace Banks tallied 522 votes, the most among the seven contenders for the four district seats. Sarelli finished fifth with 268 votes, the highest total among the three candidates who failed to win election.
But with Bram’s resignation creating a vacancy, because Sarelli’s vote total is roughly 51 percent of the votes won by Banks — or more than the charter-set 45 percent threshold — she is qualified for the appointment.
Since the charter-prescribed electoral equation has rarely applied to filling an RTM vacancy, the current situation caught some political observers by surprise.
Standard practice for filling an open RTM seat typically starts when the district’s remaining three members invite voters interested in being appointed to the seat to submit their qualifications. The applicants then are interviewed and a final selection is made by the three district incumbents.
Although Sarelli is qualified, under the charter rule, to be appointed to the open District 6 seat, it is not certain she will officially be named to fill the vacancy.
The three remaining District 6 members — Candace Banks, Seth Braunstein and David Rosenwaks — will convene Monday to “consider and vote on Alma Sarelli who has qualified per Town Charter rule to fill the vacancy,” according to the meeting agenda. The session will be convened at 2 p.m. via Zoom.
Contacted by phone Saturday, Sarelli said she looks forward to becoming an RTM member and serving constituents in District 6. The opportunity, she added, is “exciting.”
Sarelli, in addition to seeking election to the RTM last November, ran in 2022 as the Republican candidate for the state House of Representatives against Jonathan Steinberg in the 136th District, and the year before that, was a write-in candidate for the Board of Education.
In biographical information submitted to the Westport Journal in 2022, Sarelli said that she and her husband Nick run a national events entertainment production company. The mother of four is also president of Neighbors & Newcomers of Westport.
John Schwing, the Westport Journal consulting editor, has held senior editorial and writing posts at southwestern Connecticut media outlets for four decades. Learn more about us here.
There are a few discrepancies in your article. First, Alma Sarelli received 268 total votes, not 238. Second, the 3 RTM members do not get to make the decision to vote her in, she has already been qualfied to serve as per the town charter. Voting her in is just a formality. Besides, she has already been sworn in. Just a little tidbit, Alma Sarelli will be the first immigrant to serve in the RTM in the town’s 75 year history.
Congratulations to Alma, wish her well in her endeavors on the RTM .
For the record my Wife, Carla Rea is an Italian Immigrant from Rome…. previously elected several times to the RTM and the P&Z. Never checked but there may be others in the Town’s history.
So *now* the moderator is going to honor the Town Charter?
Chris Grimm .. lol..
Plenty immigrants have served on the rtm.
Let’s hope Alma is up to speed on the appropriation which if it carries will destroy Westports beloved town green :))))
Well, she will be the first RTM member from whom you could rent dwarfs for entertainment!
I have to admit that a small part of me is amused that the MAGA Moderator is getting his just desserts. His RTM is a clown show, so why not swear in someone who will be a disruptor? It is so weird that this progressive Town has a MAGA First Selectcritter and a MAGA RTM Moderator. And, of course, the Democrats in key roles (ahem, Lee Goldstein) seem more than willing to sell their souls to these folks in order to get what they personally want, ignoring residents who are just trying to live their lives without disruption.
So we will get an RTM member whose husband bullied a child at a meeting? Town “leaders” made their deals and now they have to live with them.
Welcome to RTM, Ms Sarelli!
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