Under the current charter the Town of Groton voters have many choices; nine town council members elected every two years, 41 representative town meeting members elected every two years and nine Board of Education members elected every four years with staggered terms.

This represents a talent pool of 59 dedicated, unpaid volunteers who devote countless hours to making Groton a good place to live. This includes detailed, exhaustive, line-by-line budget consideration over many meetings with extensive opportunities for public participation.

The proposed new charter would eliminate the representative town meeting while increasing the town council terms from two years to four years. This reduces the accountability of the town council to the voters.

The proposed charter would create a board of finance with seven members having four-year terms. Voters would only be able to vote for one member from their district, not on all seven members. The Board of Finance would have no check and balance authority over the town council.

The new charter would impose an expensive, mandated budget referendum vote each year. This is not a rational way to create sensible budgets.

The new charter is a bad deal for Groton.

Vote "no" on the charter revisions.

Robert Zuliani

Groton