CLINTON - At the Clinton's Charter Revision Commission (CRC) public hearing on March 7, residents' concerns centered on limiting the power of the Board of Selectmen (BOS), though not everyone was in agreement as to how best to accomplish that.

The CRC was charged by the BOS to review to town's current charter, which defines all aspects of how the town's government works, from term limits to board composition to overall format. A little less than 20 residents came to the Town Hall auditorium for the latest meeting.

"It actually went very well. We were there to listen to anybody who wanted to speak," CRC Chairman Lenny Cahill said.

Two residents presented suggestions to the nine-member commission. Peggy Adler, chairman for the Clinton Taxpayers Association (CTA) Charter Revision Oversight Task Force presented the task forces' recommendations, while Phil Sengle, who is a member of the CTA and the chairman of the Republican Town Committee, presented his personal recommendations to the group.

Both argued against the possibility of extending selectmen's terms from two years to four, though they disagreed on whether the unsuccessful candidate for first selectman should be seated on the Board of Selectmen if he or she had more votes than a selectman candidate.

For the first selectman, Adler said the candidate receiving the highest number of votes for office should be declared elected first selectman. The balance of the board of selectmen should be seated from the six candidates for that office receiving the greatest number of votes and should not include the unsuccessful candidate for the office.

"It is to the public's advantage to have the strongest and most knowledgeable person present on the BOS to challenge the majority. It's the British concept of the 'loyal opposition' and it works," Sengle said, noting that eliminating the unsuccessful first selectman candidate "concentrates too much power in the first selectman's office by removing inconvenience and a former opponent. Proposing alternative ideas on the BOS is exactly what we should want."

Cahill said that many of the public's recommendations were those that had been also discussed among the commission in regular meetings. He was pleased with the different recommendations presented and looks forward to discussing them in coming weeks with the other eight members of the commission.

"We didn't want to make any decisions going on until we heard what the town had to say," Cahill said. "We are meeting almost every week up until the end of March. From there, we'll see how we're progressing and maybe we'll meet every two weeks or we might have to do it more than once a week."