REHOBOTH — Both are fathers who moved to town in the late 1990s from another state.

Both agree Rehoboth needs to curb tax increases, offer more to schoolchildren, keep the community rural and have transparency within its government.

And both charge their opponent isn’t doing anything to make these priorities happen.

“I’m about creating an honest town to live in; is that so bad?” incumbent Selectman Christopher P. Morra Sr. said yesterday. “If they [his opponent’s supporters] can’t have the town, they don’t want anyone else to. They’ve never talked about the issues and we’ve come up with unique solutions to the problems they could never fix.”

Morra’s challenger, Finance Committee member Gerald V. Schwall, said, “I’ve wanted to speak about the issues and my opponent wants to deflect talking about [them]. That’s what happens when you’re focused on personal vendettas. We need good government in place.”

The election between Morra and Schwall is Monday. Polls will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. in all three precincts. The winner will finish the second half of Morra’s three-year term, which began in April 2006.

Monday’s vote is a result of the recall efforts by Reclaim Rehoboth, a group of residents who allege Morra abuses his powers and intimidates and threatens those who disagree with him. The group has backed Schwall, 50, of Lorimar Lane, since last fall.

Morra, 44, of Summer Street, said the abuse is really coming from Schwall’s supporters, some of whom he says are past elected officials who hired their friends and family members and broke the law when it helped their interests. He called Schwall a “wholly owned subsidiary of the old guard” and an “errand boy for the ring leader of the recall.”

“When the citizens of Rehoboth elected me [which he called a ‘legitimate’ election as opposed to Monday’s vote], they knew they were not electing ‘just another politician,’ ” Morra said. “I am aware that standing up for the taxpayers often puts me at odds with the powerful public employee organizations in local government. The day-to-day grind of holding the line on their increasingly expensive demands has driven most of my predecessors into indifferent silence. I will not be swayed by the coercion that has worked for these groups for so long.”

He said a vote for him is the “Reform Way” and a vote for Schwall is the “Old Way.”

Schwall says reform and moving forward is what he is all about.

He said solutions to Rehoboth’s fiscal crisis have been presented to the current Board of Selectmen and they have been ignored. The Finance Committee, which he has been a member of for the last year or so, recommended alternate revenue sources such as setting impact fees for developers and having a gravel tax.

Schwall also said the town should not override the state’s Proposition 2½ tax levy mandate unless “it is an absolute last resort.” He said the elected officials should also work with the legislature to protect those — the elderly and others — who cannot afford their taxes.

“We need to work with the state on getting a fair share for state aid,” he also said. “And you can’t do that when you’re trapped in the past.”

Morra believes there should never be an override of Proposition 2½. He said town officials have to rather make sure its departments aren’t “wasting money.” For example, he said Rehoboth’s police officers collect excessive amounts of overtime pay, some of them now earning more than $100,000 in all. He said the current selectmen saved the town money by spending thousands less than expected to fix the Carpenter Street Bridge.

He also said when the Police Department wanted a “Taj Mahal” headquarters to replace its current station, he spearheaded a “common sense approach” that includes selling two town-owned buildings and using that money to build a more suitable public safety complex. He expects construction to begin in the spring.

“I’m not wasting money,” Morra said. “I’m accountable, professional, mature and get things done. If you don’t agree with them, they want to annihilate you.”

Schwall said the Finance Committee has improved relations with school officials and others by being business professionals.

“We have worked with the School Committee to find ways to get more money into the classrooms,” he said. “We have built a bond of trust and our recommendations [to the committee] have been looked favorably upon. We don’t come in and try to tell the School Department how to educate the children [as Morra has done]. That’s not our expertise.”

Morra said the School Department’s budget should be approved line by line at the Annual Town Meeting like every other department. Instead, only the bottom line is approved by the voters, which he believes doesn’t foster transparency.

“I’m proud of every single selectmen meeting and everything I’ve done,” Morra said, while also stating he has never mistreated anyone. “I have faith in the town’s voters to see through the charade and see my track record and not what they said I did. Everything they’re accusing me of is what they did while in office. Rehoboth can’t afford that anymore.”

Said Schwall, “As selectman, I pledge to work to keep our government focused on the goal of providing a great community to raise a family, and to grow old. We must set an example for our children that it is okay to disagree, but not to disrespect. We will be hard on the issues before us, but not on each other. Working together we will return respect, civility and unity to our community.” Correction

  A story in the East Bay edition of yesterday’s Providence Journal incorrectly reported the hometown of Rehoboth Selectman Christopher Morra. He lives in Rehoboth.

apina@projo.com