It’s unfortunate and disheartening that the City of Groton Republican Committee, after an exhaustive year-long search, was unable to produce a Republican slate of candidates for the May 2015 City of Groton election, held Tuesday. After reaching out and interviewing over 50 prospective qualified candidates, it became obvious that they had several concerns which contributed to their lack of interest in participating.

When discussing the mayor’s position, prospective candidates indicated that many highly qualified Republican candidates, who were knowledgeable and experienced in the intricacies of both the city and town of Groton governmental operations, and who had run for mayor in past elections, had been rejected by the voters. This and the fact that the mayor’s position required a full-time person, not someone who presently worked elsewhere, were major contributors for individuals not wanting to run for the mayor’s position.

As far as running for council seats, many potential candidates expressed concern over being subjected to public humiliation, degradation and/or disrespectfulness, such as the lone Republican (Jay Dempsey) has experienced during the past two years during City Council meetings which were aired on public television. No one desires being ridiculed publicly, while contributing countless unpaid, voluntary hours to public service. Mr. Dempsey should be applauded for continually bringing forward new thinking while keeping his composure and not walking out of open public meetings.

It was also expressed that most, if not all, of Mr. Dempsey’s ideas and suggestions were rejected immediately by the mayor and other council members without due consideration.

Recognizing some of the concerns expressed by prospective candidates, the committee also feels that there are other contributing factors to individuals not wanting to run for election.

One example includes the fact that, just prior to the last election, the Democratic administration had a “fire sale” and literally walked away from a $30 million Thames Valley Communications investment, fully funded by city taxpayers, receiving in return a stipend of $500,000. The debt for this financial mismanagement was passed to the Groton Utilities and is now being paid off over many years; however, the situation was almost completely ignored by the voters when they re-elected the party that was in control and responsible for this financial situation.

Why weren’t the voters concerned about this critical and important issue, which has caused financial interruption to the present and future Groton Utility Department’s financial operations? This lack of voter concern, demonstrated by the re-election of those responsible, caused great apprehension within the Republican Committee. If not this issue, then what concerns would be significant enough to persuade city voters, among them Groton utility customers, to make a change in leadership?

Over the last 10-plus years, many city and utility department workers (both union and non-union) have approached members of the Republican Committee to expresses their concerns about governmental micro-managing of their departments and its negative impact on the quality of service they desire to provide to the city. This is not healthy, nor of benefit to the residents.

This long-term, one-party domination on the council has resulted in the lack of intellectual debate at the council level concerning issues of great importance to the residents of the city. This, coupled with the mayor having complete political control over the council, has created a “puppet like” or “rubber stamp approval” governmental system, commonly known as “block voting,” in our community. This is not healthy and, hopefully, over the next few years, the electorate will realize this and actively encourage participation by interested Republican Party candidates.

We continue to strive to improve and build the trust of the city voters, while in pursuit of finding individuals who are willing to stand up for what they believe in. Unfortunately, we were unable to achieve that at this time.

Robert L. Zuliani is the acting chairman of the City of Groton Republican Committee.