HARPSWELL — C. Matthew Rich is challenging incumbent Selectwoman Elinor Multer for a three-year position on the three-person Harpswell Board of Selectmen. Voters in town will decide the contest at the polls Saturday.

Rich, 60, said in an interview with The Times Record that his candidacy is not a statement about the job his opponent is doing, but that “competition is healthy for a community.”

Rich said he feels that there should be some changes in town government, including what he said should be a return to more direct involvement of selectmen in the administration of ordinances.

“They’ve lost touch with ordinances and the process of administering the ordinances,” Rich said. “We used to have a lot of familiarity with why the rules were written the way they are written.”

Rich also said that he would like to see changes to the town’s comprehensive plan, which he said is now out of sync with population trends and needs of the community.

“It was written when the (Navy) base was open and when both schools were open,” Rich said. “The population was expanding then and we have changed the assumptions that we’re doing business with.”

Rich said he would place a particular focus on reviewing shoreland zoning and land use ordinances — and examine the reasons behind those ordinances.

Rich also said he would like to strengthen town committees and that he would like to see changes made to the compensation structure for town employees.

“I think that town employees need to be challenged,” Rich said. “We need to establish goals for them as they’ve become somewhat passive in their approach.”

Rich said that he objects to annual raises of a certain percent and would like to see a merit bonus pool system, where he said the Board of Selectmen could set aside $20,000 to $30,000 to distribute as bonuses to town employees.

While Rich said he doesn’t think town salaries “are overly generous,” he “wouldn’t say that they’re stingy either.”

With a declining population in town, Rich suggested that he would like to review compensation for town employees beyond changing to a meritbased compensation system.

According to numbers from the U. S. Census Bureau, Harpswell’s population declined by 499 — from 5,239 in 2000 to 4,740 in 2010 — during the past 10 years.

“We’ve been working with a 37.5 hour work week for the last 10 years and the population has declined by 10 percent while the payroll has gone up,” Rich said.

The town’s greatest asset, Rich said, is its hundreds of miles of coastline. Rich said that coastline has also posed problems when it comes to increases in property taxes, but he said he does not expect the Board of Selectmen to tackle that problem.

“The valuation system has gone haywire,” Rich said. “I don’t think that incomes have gone up as fast as the valuations.”

Rich said that addressing those problems would require changes at the state level.

Rich graduated from the Coast Guard Academy in 1973. He served in the Coast Guard until enrolling in law school, from which he graduated in 1982.

Rich said he continues to do pro bono legal work and stays active in politics. He encouraged everyone to take part in that process and vote.

In 2002 and 2004, Rich ran for state office in two unsuccessful bids for the Maine House of Representatives. In June 2006, he ran unsuccessfully for the Harpswell Board of Selectmen during a special election.

“I really think public participation is important and voting in a democracy is not required, but a privilege that everyone should be exercising,” Rich said.

The polls will be open Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Harpswell Community School. The annual town meeting will begin there at 10 a.m.

dfishell@timesrecord.com