Town Council Candidate: Richard Semeraro

Editor's note: Seventeen candidates are running for 9 seats on the Groton Town Council on Nov. 8. Below is a Q&A with one of the candidates.

Name:  Richard Semeraro

Age:  77

Education:  Harvard Law School & Drew University

Work Experience:  35 years New York University Labor Relations, negotiating over 100 collective bargaining agreements with over 20 unions; private practice, labor law, leading Philadelphia law firm, 3 1/2 years; attorney, National Labor Relations Board, Washington, D.C., 2 1/2 years; Captain, U.S. Army, active duty, 3 1/2 years.

Civic/Political Experience:  Member, Groton Public Library Board, 3 years, and Friends of Mystic & Noank Library Committee, 5 years; active on church committees (finances, investment, personnel, hospitality).

Family:  married to Dana Semeraro; son, Ken, 28.

Why are you running for this office?  I am a candidate for Town Council because I believe my 35 years of experience as part of the top management team at New York University has qualified me to deal with the problems facing the council.  My primary responsibility was negotiating collective bargaining agreements with the unions representing the University's employees.  That required an ability to listen and find common ground among parties with very divergent views.  I worked with five presidents, several heads of the hospital and medical center, university administrators, deans, doctors, nurses, lawyers and professors, and managed to form a consensus on how to proceed.  As I did at NYU, I would strive to achieve an appropriate balance between our needs for services and relevant economic factors, including our ability to pay.

What do you believe is the greatest challenge Groton faces today, and what would you do to meet this challenge?  The most important issue facing Groton today is providing our children with public schools that are safe and adequate for their needs.  I want to be part of a team effort to salvage what we can from Phase II, learning from past mistakes, and building a broad consensus of support for a new approach.  It will take a lot of communication, public meetings, community input, and hard thinking.  It might be necessary to stretch the work over a period of time to make it affordable, but we need to get started as soon as possible.

The Town Council and RTM have spent a lot of time debating the economics and efficiency of the way we provide police and public works services in the Town and City of Groton, and Groton Long Point.  I would like to participate in an in-depth study of the issue.  I have an open mind on the subject, but as a minimum, I would like to provide our citizens with a clear explanation of why it either would or would not be advantageous to combine these services.  I would also like to work on other ways to streamline government so that we can provide services more efficiently and not have to raise taxes.

How would you rate the performance of the current board overall, and what, if anything, would you do differently?   The current board has been hard working and thoughtful.  I would give stronger support to the Groton libraries.  I would like to help resolve the issues that I raised above (schools and services), which still need a lot of work and a plan of action going forward.