Groton — The idea of secession by Groton City, which city councilors raised in a proposed resolution last week, has a familiar ring to Eleanor Gergen.

The resolution would explore ways for the city to become financially independent from the town, including secession.

"It threw me right back (29) years," said Gergen, who served on the Groton City Council from 1985 to 1987. "I said, 'I've heard this before.'" 

In July 1986, the Democratic City Committee wrote a three-page declaration saying the city should split from the town.

"When at last it becomes clear that the people of one municipality cannot realize their aspirations and potential while in subordination to those of another, it is appropriate that they sever the ties which subjugated them..." the declaration said.

Apart from the declaration, there was an official committee of the City of Groton that was appointed to consider the issue, said Anthony Skiff, who served on the group and still lives in the city. It included members of both political parties and produced a final report, he said.

Skiff, a deputy city mayor for two terms in the early 1980s, said the declaration did not originate with him but was started by other members of the Democratic committee. Skiff was chairman of the Democratic City Committee in 1986.

The town and city disagreed over money,and there was "a certain amount of grandstanding on the part of the town," he said.

Last week, councilors expressed anger and frustration at the town for cutting the city's funding requests for highways and police. Several also said the town treats them unfairly at public meetings.

"I personally favor secession from the town because they definitely treat us like we're an orphan child," City Councilor Lawrence Gerrish said.

On April 11, the Town Council voted to cut the city's funding request for roads by nearly half. The city had asked for $1.92 million for road maintenance in the coming fiscal year, and the Town Council cut $830,000.

Town councilors also cut the city's police budget request by $74,500, though a committee of the Representative Town Meeting has recommended restoring the money.

Mayor Marian Galbraith said the city would seek arbitration over the highway funding, but a resolution wouldn't come soon enough to run the public works department in the coming fiscal year. The city would have to raise taxes or lay off eight of the 11 employees who work on roads, she said.

Gergen's son, Adam Gergen, works for the highway department, which would be affected by the Town Council's cuts unless the city raises the money through additional taxes. Eleanor Gergen said he and his colleagues are worried about having enough staff to do their jobs.

The city's complaints about the town were similar decades ago.

"It serves no useful purpose for our citizens, our mayor and council, our agencies, our boards and commissions, to be subject to the will of another municipality inherently opposed to our vision of the future," the declaration said. It accused the town of being a "government of people outside the city," denying the city fair representation and disparaging its residents.

"And (the Town Council) has proved to be a self-seeking government, loath to countenance the return of tax monies derived from our territory to fund services for the citizens who inhabit it, and who bear the environmental costs of its origins," the declaration read.

At that time, the Democratic City Committee said that Groton City provided nearly half the tax base — an argument also made last week — yet the Town Council "persistently refused" to support the city police department at a level the mayor sought, the document said.

Signers of the declaration also opposed a plan to run a sewer outfall pipe from Mumford Cove to the city and charged that the town refused to cooperate with efforts to win grants to revitalize Thames Street.

Before then, Mayor Clarence B. Sharp had considered the possibility of secession in the 1950s and 1960s, according to a July 5, 1986, news report. A Feasibility Study Committee was formed in 1984 to look more closely at secession, but nothing came of it, the report said.

Gergen, who still lives in Groton City near Pfizer Inc., said she's not sure what the solution is.

Secession might not benefit the city depending on what the town takes away, she said. The state also might not support it.

"It just passes on from one council to another," Gergen said. "They don't like us. We don't like them. They don't want to give us the money. We just ask for what we think is right. It just goes on and on."

d.straszheim@theday.com

Twitter: @DStraszheim