Tisbury has three candidates for selectman on Tuesday’s ballot. One is running on an understanding of management, one on understanding of the town and one on an understanding of the job.

Tristan Israel is the one who’s pitching job experience. Like the bumper sticker says, decisions are made by those who turn up, and Mr. Israel has been turning up for 25 years, 17 of them as selectman.

And not only selectman. He’s also a county commissioner. He’s on the joint wastewater committee with Oak Bluffs. He is the selectmen’s appointee to the Island Housing Trust. He’s on a couple of other committees, goes to meetings on average two or three nights a week, plus some in the daytime. If the total meeting hours of all the Island’s elected officials were compared, he’d very probably come out on top.

And he’s not at all tired of it.

“I certainly gave it some thought, about whether I wanted to run again,” he said this week. “But I still have the passion and the energy to put into the job.

“It’s something I choose to do. I’m self-employed, my own boss. I can work my schedule around it,” he said.

“I was raised in a family that believed in public service. The most important reason, I think, why we are here, is to help other people. There are many ways to help people. Some people volunteer at the hospital. This is my vehicle.”

He’s running in pretty favorable circumstances. Tisbury just breezed through its annual town meeting in record time, with no signs of dissent among the citizenry, unless you consider the question of beer and wine sales. And there is no difference among the candidates on that issue; all are in favor of it.

The town managed to hold its budget to zero without significant cuts; two major infrastructure projects — the new emergency services facility and the new connector road, are safely through approval and ready to begin.

“Tisbury is in sound financial shape and I’m proud of that. We have a good bond rating. We can borrow at low rates,” Mr. Israel said.

“I have always advocated fiscal conservatism, but I consider myself a strong advocate of social services. Another part of my agenda is advocacy for people for services for the handicapped, mental health issues, the elderly.”

He said he wanted particularly to stay to see through the construction of the new emergency services facility. But beyond that is the continuation of the infrastructure plan of which the new building was just the first phase.

“We have to look first at what we do with the old fire station property, with a view to ultimately creating a new town hall, because now we are in two facilities. There are some big planning issues coming up.

“Tisbury’s government consists of many independent entities that need to work together in order to accomplish goals. I believe that I have demonstrated that I can work with those different entities and have been successful in bringing them together to achieve some of those goals,” he said.

Bruce Lewellyn, the second candidate, makes a sharp contrast with Mr. Israel in background and approach to the job. He is a self-described “recovering lawyer” from a large Connecticut firm, retired to the Vineyard after many years coming here seasonally, first by boat. He bought his home here 11 years ago.

And his approach to the job, should he win on Tuesday, could be summed up fairly simply, he said.

“The more the town runs like a business, the better off we are.

“I was 37 years a business lawyer. I was in a firm that at one time had as many as 75 lawyers. I advised businesses of all types from sole proprietors to New York Stock Exchange listed companies. I also represented banks and municipalities,” he said.

“I’ve conducted and participated in literally thousands of meetings, and have negotiated just about every kind of business and employment contract you might be able to think of.”

“I have a good deal of experience drafting pension plans and qualified plans, benefits, employment agreements, advising banks in that regard. Banks who were trustees of plans and offered IRAs and various such things. I was close to the investment aspect of that, and while I don’t hold myself out as an investment adviser, I’m comfortable in the economic matters.”

Given that background, Mr. Lewellyn’s two first involvements in civic life on the Vineyard were as a member of the Tisbury finance committee — he is finishing a three-year term — and as a member of the All-Island school committee’s union negotiating subcommittee.

He also has chaired the dredge committee since its inception four years ago.

“I’ve worked with the selectmen on various issues, most of them having some legal taint,” he said.

At a recent candidates’ forum, Mr. Lewellyn raised the prospect of leasing or selling off some town property that was not immediately needed.

Other issues he has nominated for his attention, should he win, is the need to bring a solution to the fractured nature of town government, with town employees scattered in different places. They should all be into a single location, he said.

“It is not a wonderful time to think of increased expenditures, but one of the most propitious times to borrow in my lifetime,” he said.

Then there was the problem of unfunded town liabilities to former employees.

“The town needs to know every year that thing is still looming out there,” he said.

“The police department is another area where we need to address things. We’re waiting and waiting for the report [into police operations], with an interim chief. We have no current contract with our force.

“Those are things the town will have to deal with.”

The third contender for selectman is Angela Cywinski, who also is a candidate for re-election as town assessor.

She cites many of the same issues as Mr. Lewellyn, but her perspective is more bottom-up than top-down, more experiential than managerial.

She’s delivered mail on the Island, run a transport business, served two years on the finance committee and 12 years as assessor. Seen the way people live, close up.

“I see people struggling. I see my town fading away. Businesses closing up on Main street. The bagel shop disappears in the middle of the night. Then another business leaves and another, and you ask what’s happening to the town,” she said.

She misses the day when Main street was a center of commerce and people all knew each other. She wants a more friendly town, in several senses. More welcoming to visitors, for one.

“Oak Bluffs harbor was done right,” she said. “Beautiful wharfs with power and a boardwalk. Shops. It’s pleasant. A shower facility. All we have is Owen Park harbor and a 40-foot strip at Grove street. That’s all the beach we have. That’s it. And the Steamship Authority sends the “best” boats, the ones with lots of walk-off tourists, to Oak Bluffs in summer.

“We don’t have friendly parking areas. The town needs to be more friendly, for people to want to come,” she said.

A yes vote for beer and wine would help, she said. But it needs more than that.

One idea: remove the old firehouse, and use the site to run little markets.Street fairs there every weekend? There should be more special areas, more bike paths.

“There’s always a different way of doing things. You need a fresh pair of eyes. I’ve been an elected assessor for 12 years. Tristan’s been selectman for 17 years. After awhile you get comfortable. Sometimes you need change in order to grow.”

Ironically, considering there was no inflation in the town budget this year, Ms. Cywinski said it was the budgetary and tax growth over recent years which first led her to run for the selectman’s job.

In office, she would see her first priority as improving communications within town departments.

“Everyone’s not in one building, half of our town is being relocated in trailers behind the dog pound. The structure of government is fractured, which causes an independentness. Departments are sometimes little kingdoms.

“It should be a single entity — town government working for the people.”

“I understand public service. I don’t get paid a real lot of money, but I understand serving the public,” she said.

“Sometimes it’s rewarding and sometimes it’s frustrating.”

The Tisbury annual town election is Tuesday at the American Legion Hall. Polling hours are noon to 8 p.m.