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Q+A with Jack Petropoulos, Candidate for Selectman

Groton Herald:

Some members of the community have expressed unhappiness with aspects of how the Charter is being interpreted and implemented by a majority of the Board of Selectmen. Do you agree that there are parts of the Charter that need some change? If so, what are the most important elements that might need changes? Please be specific but not exhaustive.

Jack Petropoulos:

Our Charter was a great accomplishment. The day-to-day responsibilities of running the town are simply too much for a volunteer Board. We can be well served by a Town Manager. Parts of the Charter need to change to provide a better-defined system of checks and balances.

First, the Finance Committee should be elected or appointed by the Moderator and required to provide an annual report of our financial history and projections to the town, along with benchmarks against other towns.

Second, the Charter should provide better defined expectations of the BOS for the oversight of the quality of day-to-day operations. The possibility to relegate the BOS to a simple policy role should be removed from the Charter.

Third, the Personnel Board should be appointed by the Moderator and have more involvement in wage and salary calculations and an advisory role in termination decisions.

Fourth, The Water Superintendent should report to the Water Commissioners just as the GELD Manager reports to the Electric Commissioners. Currently the Water Superintendent reports to the Town Manager.

Fifth, the Town Manager should not be able to affect the Public Safety budget without approval from the BOS.

And finally, the Charter should require establishment if a Records Custodian and document management policy.

Groton Herald:

Do you think a Selectman should be allowed to hold more than one elective office in town? Please explain your reasoning.

Jack Petropoulos:

No. Done well, the job of being a Selectman is a very demanding role and supporting another office would be a distraction. Furthermore, the demands of a second office may conflict with the role of Selectman. Recusal is not a solution to such conflict. Rather it is evidence of same.

Groton Herald:

If a majority of Town Meeting voters ask Selectmen to not renew the Town Manager's contract, would you follow the voters wishes?

Jack Petropoulos:

Article 4 is specifically a non-binding question, I would take Town Meeting's voice and perspectives into consideration as I do with all input. I will also weigh the strength of the vote. But the Town Manager is not an elected official. If we want Town Meeting to have absolute control of the Town Manager's tenure then it should become an elected position. I have made my position on renewing the Town Manager's contract clear in my version of his Performance Evaluation which is a public document.

Groton Herald:

There has been divisiveness and lack of cohesion between and among certain members of the Board of Selectmen. What is the cause of this dissension? Is such dissension necessarily a bad thing? What would you bring to the Board to improve the Boards ability to work together for the benefit of the town?

Jack Petropoulos:

I think that change, and the reaction to it, are the primary drivers of the challenges that the Board has been facing. Prior to my election, there had not been a new Selectman in approximately eight or more years. I have challenged and questioned things like violations of the Open Meeting Law, refusal to adhere to our own By-laws and Town Manager authority. Though I have always done so as discretely as possible at first, these challenges have not always been well received, and have often been suppressed, so frequently I have had to decide if I would acquiesce or push forward. When I have pushed forward it has generally caused conflict. I will always seek ways to reduce conflict but not at the cost of achieving what I think I was elected to accomplish.

Groton Herald:

Do you believe that a Selectman's responsibility is first to fellow board members or to the voters who elected them? Please explain.

Jack Petropoulos:

I am responsible to voters. I need to work within a Board to do so, but in the end I need to do what is right by voters.

Groton Herald:

The recently completed Financial Benchmarking analysis has identified long-term spending patterns in town government that appear unsustainable. If elected how would you respond to these spending patterns? Please be specific but not exhaustive.

Jack Petropoulos:

I started the Benchmarking Analysis almost immediately upon being elected. Getting traction has not been easy. At this point there seems to be some acknowledgement that we may have a problem. My first objective continues to be to get consensus on the idea that we have an issue to address. We seem to be making some ground in this respect, and advancing this progress is one of the major reasons that I am running for re-election. Should we achieve consensus that there is an issue, our next step will be to do the work to develop the goals and the strategy for handling it.

We have some very smart people who are highly invested in this. I would like to leverage them to help us to do that work. I would generally expect that we would follow business best practices, all the while understanding that we are running a town not a business. I am confident that we can achieve excellent guidelines that can help to manage spending against a set of meaningful criteria.

The idea that we can solve this through revenue growth misses the point and relies on an outcome that has proven difficult to realize. We must first learn to live within our means. Once we have established that discipline we can explore the idea of careful commercial growth without the pressure of financial duress.

The worst thing that we could do would be to ignore this spending issue and find ourselves in a position where we make decisions like rezoning in order to promote business, because we need the revenue and can find no alternative.

Groton Herald

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P.O. Box 610, Groton, Massachusetts 01450
 

Office
145 Main Street, Groton, Massachusetts 014510
[Prescott Community Center]
 

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