Bruce Sauvageau, of Swifts Beach Road, is seeking reelection a fourth term on the Board of Selectmen to complete the job he embarked on when he first ran for the office: to dismantle what he said was a town government dominated by entrenched special-interests and rebuild a government with a level playing field where all Wareham's citizens could benefit.

"The job's not done," Sauvageau said. "We've made progress and inroads, and we built the foundation for improvements, but the improvements themselves haven't happened yet.

For instance, Sauvageau cited a nearly completed economic plan and a new management structure in Town Hall introduced by Town Administrator Mark Andrews but a management plan that is incomplete. He also cited an emphasis on fiscal restraint that has helped stem budget expenditures but not yet translated into increased revenue or his goal for Wareham to be fiscally self-sufficient.

But Sauvageau said that he has the experience and the skills to implement these improvements. He completed a law degree from Southern New England School of Law this December, but he has worked in the financial field for the majority of his career.

He was elected to the Finance Committee three years after moving to Wareham with his wife in the late 1990s, and he said that he found a town budget that was undisciplined, relied on overestimated receipts, and routinely underestimated expenses.

"We were in a tougher shape, in many respects, then than now," Sauvageau said. "The municipality was like any business or family that I worked with - it showed the same lack of discipline, lack of goals, and shared the same difficulties of the average family."

Sauvageau said it has taken the "better part of seven years to work our way out of the town's [accounting problems]." He cited the audit that found a $2-million surplus in the Health Care Trust Fund as the result of that effort.

"We have sound economic policies, sound fiscal policies, and sound management," Sauvageau said. "The revenue has to come. Housing values will go up, leading to increased economic activity, and increased property values. That's raising money the right way; raising everybody's worth and values."

He said that he wants to be remembered as"able to contribute real and quantifiable results as a Selectman that led to people having a better life."

He is particularly proud of his efforts to pass the business development overlay district, part of which will be developed by A.D. Makepeace and is estimated to bring up to 2,000 "high-paying, good" jobs to the area in medical services and related fields.

"That's an example of carrying something from concept to fruition," Sauvageau said "We're not here to destroy things. We hope what we're doing is rebuilding."

He acknoweldged that this required difficult management changes, however. But he said that rather than being an "act of vengeance" as detractors view it, the town was seeking the best qualified and most competent workers. "What's vengeful would be the status quo," Sauvageau said.

And he said he has been disappointed that this status quo seems to satisfy the community.

"I don't think the community has been well served by the candidates and the media in the election - no difficult questions being asked," Sauvageau said. "We keep hearing catchphrases, 'civility,' 'change.' What have we heard that suggests major improvements from the candidates? Change is a mantra of saying 'let's go back to the way it was.' But if that's what the public wants, then, we'll see at the election."