FAIRFIELD – First Selectman Bill Gerber has one reason for dissolving the 57-year-old Parking Authority – they really didn’t do much.
“The parking authority has never done much at all,” Gerber told the Westfair Journal. “Typically, an authority collects fees and issues revenue bonds. Fairfield has never issued revenue bonds.
“It was never a real parking authority,” he added. “It’s not like in New Haven where they have multiple lots and three or four garages.”
After July 1, the semi-independent Parking Authority will be merged into a town department, Gerber said.
Established in 1968, the authority was created to oversee parking management, including parking lots, train station houses, and the maintenance of train station parking permit waitlists. But with the advent of train ticket technology and the general lack of maintenance over the past decade the Fairfield and Southport station houses do not have any personnel.
“We have station houses that are locked most of the time,” Gerber said. “I first became aware of issues (of mismanagement) when I was told by a commuter about lots of trash along the tracks.”
While digging deeper, Gerber found that the Parking Authority was in arrears for a $340,000 lease payment to the State of Connecticut’s Department of Transportation (DOT) for both station parking lots and houses. The lease the authority had with the state for the station lots expired in 2018 and hasn’t been renewed. It has been month to month ever since.
So, it didn’t seem surprising that the Representative Town Meeting overwhelmingly approved the dissolution of the authority during a March 31 meeting and later affirmed that decision on Monday, April 28 in a 30-8 vote. The dissenting votes came from Republicans who had presented a motion to rescind the March 31 decision.
Rep. Jeff Steele, Republican caucus leader, explained his reasons for filing the resolution at Monday’s RTM meeting.
“This resolution I put forward to rescind the decision that dissolved the independent parking authority/parking commission at our March 31 meeting is not about politics,” he said. “It’s not about personalities. It’s about accountability, transparency and process.”
He went on to explain some of the specific concerns he and other RTM members have about the depiction of the Parking Authority by the Gerber administration.
“There has been an incorrect narrative of the lease negotiations between the parking authority and the town, which have been going on for the last seven years, unsubstantiated and incorrect claims of mismanagement, inefficiencies and lack of oversight with no opportunity for the parking authority to respond,” Steele told fellow RTM members.
But the resolution to rescind the decision to dissolve or repeal the Parking Authority was based on procedural errors and “legal deficiencies”, he said. He claimed the motion to dissolve was rushed through the RTM without a chance for residents to review it and weigh in.
“I want to emphasize that rescinding is just the right thing to do so we can restart the process,” he said. “Let’s give an independent commission the power to set the fees and policies for the train station and to represent the public.”
Rep. Dave Rock, District-2, called the resolution an attempt to use misinformation to undo a legal vote by the RTM.
“It’s been very difficult for members of the RTM, specifically people in my caucus, because of the spread of misinformation surrounding the meeting on March 31,” Rock said. “And that was the vote to dissolve the parking authority. Serious accusations about process – and these accusations were false – but they were amplified through public email blasts, social media, and local online vehicles.”
As the RTM prepared to vote on the resolution after one hour of debate and three unsuccessful amendment votes by Steele himself, it was evident that the resolution was going to fail.
While no one from the Parking Authority Board of Commissioners spoke up at the April 28, RTM meeting, the board did send out an email to residents seeking support, according to an April 9 Nextdoor post by Pamela Stripay Iacono. She wrote: “From the Parking Authority Commissioners in an email sent out today: As you may know, on Monday, March 31, the Fairfield Representative Town Meeting (RTM) voted to dissolve the Fairfield Parking Authority, an independent agency that has successfully served our commuter community for nearly 50 years. This decision means that effective July 1, 2025, the Parking Authority will become a town department, no longer operating independently under State DOT oversight.
“While we do not know any specifics, we hope that there will not be any diminished services to the commuters.”
The email included a link to an online petition that needed to be sent to the town clerk by April 15. While it garnered more than 400 signatures, that was not enough to bring the matter to a town-wide referendum.
Gerber told the Journal with the dissolution of the Parking Authority, the responsibilities of overseeing parking at the town operated lots and station houses will remain in the hands of Director Eileen Flora and her two assistants. They will continue to handle parking passes and the waiting lists for such passes. Any work, such as repaving the lots or repairs to the houses, will fall under the Department of Public Works. Funds for such maintenance will continue to come from the reinvestment fund, Gerber said.
As for the leases with the state, Gerber said his administration is in negotiations with the DOT on a long-term lease.
