New London — A majority of City Council candidates on Wednesday called for changes to the city charter, citing clashes between Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio and the City Council under the new mayoral form of government.

A group of 15 candidates vying for seven slots on the council met for the second consecutive night to discuss their qualifications and ideas on how to help the city.

Wednesday’s forum was sponsored by Looking Out for Taxpayers and held at the Senior Center with about 20 people in attendance.

LOT is a group of civic-minded individuals that serve as a watchdog for city government and are especially focused on how tax dollars are being spent, said the group’s co-chairman, Dennis Downing, who is also a Republican candidate for City Council.

The discussion on potential charter changes began after candidates were asked how they might handle a mayor who doesn’t follow the charter.

Democrat Martha Marx said part of the key is for the council to understand the charter and be tenacious when the mayor does not follow it.

Petitioning candidate John Russell, a former council member, suggested something akin to a “Charter 101” class for incoming City Council members and the mayor.

Others called for better overall accountability.

Incumbent Republican Councilor Martin Olsen said he was a proponent of reopening the charter because of the “gaping holes that have been exposed over the past four years in our new government.”

In one example he said he questioned qualifications of those hired by Finizio and whether they met the provisions of the charter.

“The mayor summarily got up and said ‘No, I’m the mayor and I will do anything I want.’ And the rest of the councilors sat on their hands,” Olsen said.

Incumbent Democratic Councilor Michael Tranchida said the charter that ushered in the new mayoral form of government “was not ready to go to the voters.”

Tranchida said “it was rushed,” a “flawed document” that needed work.

“We don’t even know if a mayoral form of government can work because we have to live with the document in front of us,” Tranchida said.

Incumbent Democratic Councilor Anthony Nolan said because of the way the charter is written “there is not a whole lot we as a council can do.”

He said the council did not even have the legal understanding to challenge the mayor.

Nolan said he would look forward to changes to the charter and said the city should look to other communities for guidance.

Republican Candidate Tom Wise said part of the solution to ensure the mayor is following the charter is to “have something that was not available for the first four years of this strong mayor — transparency.”

Democrat Don Venditto said the new charter was “put to the test by the current administration.”

“It was put to the wrong test. I think it was an attempt to use it to their advantage in every way they could, and wherever they couldn’t they basically just ignored it,” Venditto said.

Dennis Downing, a former member of the charter commission, said “we never expected when we wrote that charter to have someone come in and twist it and turn it and use legal advice to make it fit their own personal agenda.”

The majority of the candidates also said they supported performance bonds for city development projects and answered questions about how to support the diversity in the city.

The incumbent City Council members are Democrats Efrain Dominguez, Anthony Nolan, Erica Richardson, Michael Tranchida and Republican Martin Olsen.

Challengers are Republicans Dennis Downing, Timothy Ryan, Katherine Goulart, Keith Robbins and Thomas Wise; petitioning candidates Marie Friess-McSparran and John Russell; Green Party candidates Timothy Hanser and Ronna Stuller; and Democrats Martha Marx, John Satti and Donald Venditto.

Petitioning candidate Marie Friess-McSparran and incumbent Democratic Councilor Erica Richardson were not in attendance at the forum.

g.smith@theday.com

Twitter: @SmittyDay