One of the most notable exchanges of the Fairfield City Council’s March 23rd meeting came when Council Member Paul Gandy raised a formal objection about how an immigration policy meeting held the previous Tuesday had been organized and conducted.
Gandy said he first learned of the meeting at 11:37 a.m. that same Tuesday, when a constituent forwarded him an email stating that “the City of Fairfield invites all residents to an important community meeting,” featuring the city attorney and interim police chief. He said no other council members, the mayor, or the city administrator had been notified in advance.
“That is a serious, serious failure of protocol when the entire governing body of this city is left in the dark about what is called a city meeting until hours after it begins,” Gandy said.
Gandy also objected to the physical arrangement of the meeting — the city attorney sitting in the mayor’s chair and a council member in the city administrator’s chair — calling it a departure from the city charter that created a false impression of official city policy and exposed the city to potential liability. He noted the meeting took place on a day city hall is specifically closed to the public to allow staff uninterrupted work time, and that staff had no advance knowledge people would be arriving. He said the mayor’s request for better protocol going forward should be made mandatory, not optional.
City Attorney John Morrissey responded that there was no intent to undermine the council, and that the meeting grew out of written ICE policy letters he had prepared since mid-January. He said the meeting was originally planned for the library before being shifted to city hall, and that since only one council member was involved, it did not technically trigger the city’s open meeting notice requirements. He acknowledged the protocol misstep and said he would be more careful going forward.
Council Member Bob Ferguson, who organized the meeting, took full responsibility. “This was a rookie error on my part,” he said, explaining that he had cleared the time and believed he was covered, but acknowledged the seating arrangement and city branding created optics he had not anticipated. He said he asked to sit at the council table because Fairfield Media Center’s Jason Strong advised that the microphones would better capture audio there. Ferguson apologized to Gandy personally.
The mayor said she wanted to distinguish between individual council members organizing meetings on topics of concern to constituents — which she encouraged — versus meetings billed as official city events without full council awareness. She asked that going forward, council members check the chamber’s availability with staff, notify the city administrator before using city resources or personnel, and be clear in public communications about whether a meeting is a city-sanctioned event or an individual member’s initiative.
Gandy clarified that his concern was not with the subject matter of the meeting but with the process. “The reason is to be transparent — not appear transparent, but to actually be transparent,” he said.
Photo courtesy of the Fairfield Media Center.
