Stonington — In its first meeting since its initial public hearing, Charter Revision Commission members agreed Thursday night that they should first focus on the issue that most hearing speakers mentioned - changing the way Board of Finance members are elected to ensure there are contested elections.

But there was debate among commission members on whether they also should consider suggestions about changing other aspects of the charter.

The commission is required to consider changing the election process for the Board of Finance because the citizen's group Change the Charter collected in excess of 1,500 signatures to force the creation of the commission to examine that question.

"Our focus needs to be on that petition; that's why we're here," said commission member Amy Hambly, one of those who helped collect the signatures.

She said addressing too many other issues will muddy the waters and make the Board of Finance task more difficult to complete.

Commission Chairman Matt Berger said he would like the commission to start by focusing on the Board of Finance issue first in case it takes a longer time than expected to resolve.

"We have a task that people asked us to do and we want to stay focused on that," he said.

Residents at the public hearing also asked that the commission consider giving the finance board an odd number of members rather than the current six and decreasing members' terms from the current six years.

Commission member Bob Statchen said members should not consider any items that will jeopardize the primary mission of considering Board of Finance issues.

Former selectman and charter commission member John Gomes recommended the commission spend at least some time discussing all the suggestions made at the hearing, such as hiring a town manager, expanding the Board of Selectmen from three to five members and splitting the annual budget vote into separate town and school decisions.

"We would do an injustice to people at the meeting if we don't address their concerns," he said.

He said some of the other issues, such as making the town clerk and tax collector positions appointed instead of elected or expanding their terms, could be done quickly.

Commission member Gail Shea said she thinks the commission will be able to deal with the Board of Finance issue rather quickly if it's made a priority.

The 11 members of the commission also agreed to allow public comment at all of their meetings and set up a monthly meeting schedule through November 2015, when their work needs to be completed. Any of the changes the commission eventually recommends would have to be approved by voters.

Currently, every two years, two 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.

The petition effort began this spring when some residents became upset after more than 500 people attended a public hearing on the proposed 2014-15 budget and called on the finance board to restore the money it had cut from the school budget and let the voters decide. The finance board refused to do so. Some of those residents felt the finance board had ignored them and they then discovered the board members had run unopposed.

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