Marcia Chambers Photo
The real action of the Representative Town Meeting last night happened before the meeting began.
When the Democratic minority arrived at the second floor meeting room at fire headquarters they found three tables lined up in a row instead of two tables on one side for the Republican majority and one table facing them for the Democrats.
The Democrats then engaged in a symbolic revolt — they picked up their table and put it back where it used to be.
The game of musical chairs reflected the new power dynamics on the RTM, where Republicans have just replaced Democrats as the majority.
The new Republican majority leader, Rep. Ray Ingraham (pictured standing above), said he had had moved the tables into a new arrangement because his constituents had asked him to change the seating plan of the meetings. Ingraham said in an interview that he believes that RTM members should reflect the view of their neighbors, rather than what their party ideology might ask. Mixing up the representatives to get greater thought and discussion is beneficial, he argued.
Democrats said they were steamed over Ingraham’s decision because they had previously arranged via e‑mail to have party leaders meet with the new moderator, Dennis Flanagan, after last night’s meeting to discuss the issue. They criticized Ingraham for acting without consulting them or taking a vote; Ingraham said nothing in the rules requires a vote. The Democrats said they are concerned that if everyone is mixed together, it will not be clear who voted for what and that in the end both parties are different philosophically.
One route the Dems might be willing to take is having representatives sit by district, one of them told the Eagle. Ingraham said that idea is worth discussing and perhaps the RTM tables might be placed in horseshoe fashion in the center of the room, with the moderator and the clerk seated to the side.
Jamie Cosgrove, a former Republican RTM member and the town’s new first selectman, first raised the seating issue in an interview with the Eagle in the fall of 2011 just before he won a seat as a selectman. In an interview he said back then that he thought the physical set-up of the RTM room creates conflict. He had spent one term on the RTM.
“Others have said this too. What If people were mixed up among one another? I would be curious to see how that would work,” Cosgrove said back then. “Otherwise it is our side against their side. Obviously each side knows what it wants to do beforehand, they caucus beforehand. But obviously psychologically it might be very different if we sat people from different parties next to each other.”
Ingraham explained in an interview that after the swearing-in of First Selectman Cosgrove earlier in the day, he had been “inundated” by constituents who read various articles on the seating issue and wanted the matter resolved immediately. He said he wanted to act on the concerns of his constituents, who live in the Fifth District. He also serves as the chair of the Branford Republican Party.
He added there is no is no designation in the town code on how RTM members are to sit except that they shall be separate from the audience. The RTM has been separated by party for at least 30 years, according to those serving on the board the longest. Efforts to sit together in the past have failed. (Click here to read the story.)
This organizational meeting was the first full RTM meeting following the recent Nov. 5 election. No other business except the swearing in of the body, the election of leadership, plus announcement of committee chairs and members was on the agenda. The Republicans now have a solid 19 – 11 majority and were sworn in (pictured) last night along with the Democratic side of the aisle.
Ingraham did not present the seating issue for discussion and a vote, Democratic Minority leader Chris Sullivan (pictured standing) and Democratic Clerk Adam Hansen said. Sullivan is the chair of the Democratic Party.
Bipartisanship?
“All they talk about is bipartisanship. But not to even listen to Chris and myself will adversely affect bipartisanship. I was elated to be a nominated to clerk and now I am blind-sighted by Ray’s actions,” Hansen said.
Sullivan, who until recently served as the RTM moderator, told the Eagle afterwards that the four RTM leaders had agreed that at the organization meeting last night, the traditional seating — Republicans on one side of the room, Democrats facing them on the other side — would be kept. They would then discuss the issue afterwards.
“We had a gentleman’s agreement to meet afterwards, after the meeting,” Rep. Hansen (pictured left with Moderator Flanagan) said in an interview.
Rep. Ingraham told the Eagle that a post-RTM meeting had been arranged among the leadership to discuss the seating issue, but that his “constituents came into it and I got hammered by them for not having taken any action yet. They want us to sit together.” So he acted on his own before the 8 p.m. meeting got underway and before he was formally introduced by his party to serve as majority leader.
“This was done in a heavy handed manner, especially if you are preaching bipartisanship. We had this agreement. There is a process to figure it out. It should not be driven by one member,” Rep. Sullivan said in an interview.
“At the last minute I was completely blind-sighted when we walked in and saw the seating arrangement. Ray said it had to be tonight,” said Rep. Hansen/ who was installed as the RTM clerk last night.
There was no motion before the RTM to change the traditional seating. The RTM does not actually begin to act on the business of the town or itself until the Dec. 11 meeting.
Rep. Sullivan said the division of tables, regardless of which party is in the minority or majority, has been set for about 30 years. “This should not be done by one person. We had talked about it via e‑mail for several days that we would meet to discuss it after the organizational meeting. Then at 2 p.m. today Ray sent an e‑mail that he wanted the seating change now,” Rep. Sullivan told the Eagle.
Ingraham told the Eagle that efforts to change the seating failed last year but, for the one or two meetings in which some Dems came to sit with the Republicans and vice-versa, effective conversations had taken place between both sides on various issues.
Before last night’s organizational meeting ended Rep. Ingraham stood to say: ”I have to apologize to citizens of Branford that had asked us to all sit together at this RTM. It will take some work to get some rules. We don’t have them. We will continue on moving toward that effort that the RTM will sit together, all the members will be able to talk to each other during sessions and will be able to vote along what their constituents have asked of them.”
Brooks Acts to Move Tables
It was when the RTM Democrats arrived at fire headquarters to hold their caucus at 7 p.m., that they learned of the new musical chairs arrangement.
Rep. Josh Brooks, a Democrat, described his reaction: “I came in and all the tables were on one side. I went into my caucus and I was told that they had decided that they were going to have us all sit on one side. No objection to that. but first you are going to have an open conversation about that in front of the cameras and then take a vote. And until that time, I am going in there and moving the tables back. And that’s what I did.”
He was joined by Rep. Maggie Bruno, former acting chair of the Rules & Ordinances committee, who told the Eagle that the process for change, along with a vote, had been ignored.
Rep. Brooks added: “I would argue that for six years [when the Democrats held the RTM majority] all I heard about was openness and transparency and listening to both sides. That is what I heard from the Republican side of the aisle. So I am hoping that the Republicans now that they are the majority will do the same now that they requested from us for six years. And that seating decision was to me the sign of not doing that … It was a done deal by the time we walked in. I object to that. I want a discussion and a vote.”
He made a similar statement on the floor of the RTM after the organizational meeting.
“I would just like to encourage a discussion about sitting together. I think we should have an open discussion in front of television and even have a vote on that. I would love to do that and be part of that discussion,” he said before the RTM.
Rep. Sullivan said that after seeing the new seating arrangement the Dems discussed this development in caucus. “We decided that Josh and Maggie would move our table back to the side of the room. So they went out to the room and did that.”
What’s next? The next plan is for the leadership — Flanagan, Ingraham, Hansen and Sullivan — to meet. That will happen, Rep. Sullivan said, the week after Thanksgiving. Rep. Ingraham has agreed. “We will sit down, just the four of us and we will go from there, he said.
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