Vote "YES" in favor of Groton's new town Charter

The following material is based on my letter to the New London DAY paper, with some minor additions.

This is to correct some recent comments on the proposed changes to
the Groton Town Charter.

1) The Town Council will appoint an initial Board of Finance to
start this new program, which will only serve until November 2019,
at which time citizens themselves will directly elect 7 members, by
voting district, for 4 year terms.

2) The new budget referendum itself will always be held annually
on the 3rd Tuesday in May.

3) The 9 member Town Council will remain in place, elected by the
citizens, for 4 year terms.

4) Senior Citizens like myself (at 78) will continue with very
supportive programs already being provided by the Town Council and Town Staff
which include the Job's Fair, Veteran's property tax exemptions,
Energy Assistance and Renters Rebate. Additional current programs remain
focused on low income and minority families, which include a large number of various
support groups, counseling, home visits and parent education
classes.

Neither the senior citizens nor the minorities are being overlooked or marginalized with this new charter.

Finally, and most importantly, the new charter allows citizens to vote directly on the
Town and School budgets on how our tax money is spent, rather than
have our votes made by a group of people who don't necessarily
represent our opinions. In other words, we will finally get to
represent ourselves. I have wanted to see this for over 20 years.

Vote "YES" on Groton's new charter.

Thank you for your time.

Ed Johnson, Groton, CT