Labor Day has passed, and serious campaign season for local elections has started in earnest.

Lawn signs are appearing, and your fellow citizens will start knocking on your door asking for your vote on Nov. 7. Local candidates don’t have the visibility state or federal candidates are able to generate but their impact is felt more often and more quickly than for higher office holders.

Unlike most towns in southeastern Connecticut, Waterford uses the Representative Town Meeting instead of a Town Meeting. There is one representative for every 550 voters in each voting district, according to the town charter. First and Second District have five representatives, and the Third and Fourth Districts have six representatives.

Since the Waterford charter follows the minority representation requirements of state statutes, only four representatives may be elected from the same party in each district. One seat in Districts 1 and 2 and two seats in Districts 3 and 4 are reserved for a person not of the majority party. This means that the Republicans and Democrats try to run four candidates in each district.

The RTM serves as the legislative body in the town and is the final approval for all budgets, appropriations, capital expenditures and union contracts. The RTM also is responsible for keeping the Town Code of Ordinances up to date. It appoints members of the Ethics Commission, Personnel Review Board, Police Commission, Utility Commission, the Senior Citizens Commission and all building committees except the School Building Committee, which is a permanent committee.

The RTM meets every other month starting in December plus an additional meeting in May to pass the annual budget. Its procedures are governed by the Rules of the RTM at the beginning of the Code of Ordinances. The Rules of the RTM are the only part of the code not subject to a public hearing or referendum.

Any citizen may submit a petition for a referendum of all other actions of the RTM subject to the procedures outlined in the town charter. The petition must have valid signatures of 5 percent of the voters in the town as certified by the Registrars of Voters in the last election. Since the town has had in the neighborhood of 12,000 voters in recent years, this would mean a petition must have at least 600 signatures to force a referendum of the action of the RTM.

The petition must also be worded correctly, substantially in the same words as reflected in the minutes of the RTM or, if a financial request, the dollar amount appropriated by the RTM followed by the desired amount to which the amount appropriated should be increased or decreased.

The most limiting requirement is that the petition must be filed within 15 days of the RTM action since RTM actions become effective 15 days after the vote unless they are specifically designated as emergency legislation by the RTM when the vote is taken.

Sometimes a referendum is not even necessary to get the RTM to reconsider an action. For example, in the late 1980s the RTM appropriated funds to straighten out Spithead Road. When the citizens living on Spithead Road discovered this action, they overflowed the next RTM meeting protesting the action, and at its next meeting the RTM repealed that appropriation and Spithead Road remains untouched today.

Another example occurred in the early 2000s when the RTM, at the behest of the then first selectman, rejected the proposal to build a new Oswegatchie School. At the time, this school was scheduled to be the first elementary school rebuilt in the series of school renovations. The outcry from all citizens was noticed and at the next meeting, Quaker Hill School was proposed for renovation/rebuilding.

The voters of the Third District let their representatives know of their displeasure in the next election by not reelecting any RTM member who voted to disapprove the Oswegatchie School bonding resolution.

To facilitate its actions, the RTM has six standing committees that normally meet during the month that the RTM does not meet or, more often recently, before or after a regular RTM meeting. All changes to the Code of Ordinances must have a public hearing before one of the standing committees before approval by the RTM.

The standing committees are Legislation and Administration; Public Works, Planning & Development; Finance, Wage & Personnel; Public Health, Recreation & Environment; Education, and Public Protection & Safety. In addition, there is a Committee on Committees that makes appointments to the other standing committees.

Members of the RTM are also appointed to serve on the Social Services Grants Review Committee; the Retirement Commission; the Information Technology Committee, and the Long Range Fiscal Planning Committee. The RTM may also appoint members or nonmembers to represent it on the School Building Committee and any other building committees that may arise due to town renovations.

You should be able to see that the RTM representatives are very important elected officials that impact your town and yourself in a more immediate way than the better known state and federal elected officials. Be sure to vote Nov. 7.

John W. “Bill” Sheehan is a former Democratic Town Committee chair in Waterford.