Stonington — The Board of Selectmen will hold a public hearing on proposed changes to the town charter on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Stonington High School.

The selectmen can accept or reject the suggestions by the Charter Revison Commission before placing them on the ballot for the November election. Those who can not attend the hearing can submit written comments to the Board of Selectmen, 152 Elm St. Stonington, CT , 06378.

The majority of the charter review commission’s recommendations involve changing how the Board of Finance is elected to ensure there are contested elections as well as instituting term limits for members and reducing their terms from six to four years.

A petition signed by more than 1,500 residents who wanted the commission to “review the nomination, balloting, term, and party representation requirements for the Board of Finance” forced the creation of the commission. It was, however, free to make recommendations on any aspect of the charter. Recommendations include expanding the size of the finance board from six to seven members, allowing each political party to nominate as many candidates as open seats, making the board subject to minority representation rules, reducing the term of members from six to four years and limiting school board and finance board members to serving three successive terms, after which they would be eligible to serve again after a four-year break.

Currently, every two years, two finance board members - each with six-year terms - come up for election. The current procedure calls for the Democratic and Republican town committees to nominate one candidate for each of the two positions. This means that if there is no third party, petitioning or independent candidate, the two party-endorsed candidates run unopposed and are elected. Voters are asked to select one of two candidates on their ballots, but both are elected.

Another recommendation being made states that the town clerk could not cast tie breaking votes for the finance board which would have to adopt internal procedures for breaking a tie. There are also recommendations concerning the filling of vacancies and how to transition the finance board to seven members.

The commission is also recommending the terms of Town Clerk and Tax Collector be increased from two to four years, a Department of Assessment be established separate from the Department of Finance, the Board of Selectman’s authority for the sale or disposition of any town owned real property be increased from $5,000 to $10,000 and gender neutral terms be incorporated in the charter.

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