Candidate and longtime Town Moderator Woody Hartley wants Selectmen to set the example for other boards after a string of recent decisions left him underwhelmed.

“I feel the current board doesn’t demonstrate anywhere near the type of leadership the Board of Selectmen should be demonstrating,” Hartley said.

Hartley, a lifelong resident, has been town moderator for a total of 18 years, 15 of those years were served consecutively.

From his perspective as moderator, Hartley said several board initiatives were defeated due to a lack of leadership at Town Meetings.

“Because they were ill prepared, and unwilling to say why they wanted some items passed, they were soundly defeated by townspeople,” he said. “The town doesn’t have confidence in our board.”

Although he hasn’t served on the board before, Hartley said his career with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and an international engineering firm leaves him more than qualified to serve.

With the firm CH2M Hill, Hartley oversaw the operations of wastewater treatment plants from Maine to Minnesota.

“My experience doesn’t come from my years as a Selectmen,” he said. “I’ve done leadership training and trained several successful managers. I’ve been involved with negotiations between my company and cities and towns. I really do have experience that is totally lacking on the board.”

If elected, he said opening communication between Selectmen and other town boards would be a priority.

Also, he’s concerned about growth and the budget.

“Rochester is growing fast. For every twenty houses that are built there’s probably going to be fifteen kids coming into the school system,” Hartley said.

The school budget will increase because property taxes can’t keep up with educational costs, he said.

Selectmen must get ahead of that problem.

“[Selectmen] can’t start every fiscal year saying: ‘We have no money,’” Hartley said.

“You don’t solve that problem in March. You start working on it in July.”

Hartley has long been active in town. At 18 years old, he volunteered for youth sports leagues and maintained fields at Dexter Lane.

Through the years, he’s been involved with the Park Commission and a school building project in the 1980s.

Currently, he’s on the board of directors for the Council on Aging.

His two children both attended Rochester Memorial School and Old Rochester Regional.

Hartley’s son operates his own business and his daughter was named Fairhaven Woman of the Year in 2014. Hartley’s wife Sharon is also involved in the town as the chair of the School Committee.

Hartley said he would work towards keeping Rochester the type of community where he and his children grew up.

Hartley recounted a recent lunch with a former hockey player he coached.

After leaving town, Hartley said the player married and returned to Rochester with his young family once he could afford to move back.

“That’s what I want Rochester to be, a place where people are happy to come home to,” Hartley said.