In a night of frank discussion Tuesday in Tisbury, selectmen past and present were unafraid of offending more sensitive ears.

“They call it the R-word,” said former Tisbury selectman Denny Wortman. “People don’t even want to mention regionalization.”

In a wide-ranging discussion that touched on all the hot topics—­including the Islandwide roundabout referendum—the panel continually returned to the R-word as the most pressing issue of the day.

“We are an Island, we’re a small Island,” Tisbury selectman Geoghan Coogan said at the roundtable held at the Vineyard Haven Public Library and sponsored by the Martha’s Vineyard League of Women Voters. “The last time I checked, the city of Boston had one police department. They have a whole lot of precincts but they have one police department. But the Island of Martha’s Vineyard can’t have one police department. To me that makes no sense. An animal control officer can’t cross over the bridge and catch a dog. It makes no sense.”

Mr. Coogan said that the Island towns needed to set aside their pride for efficiency’s sake.

“We need to get past the color of our cars or the color of our uniforms,” he said. “In the past couple of years whenever there’s been talk of a police department or an animal control officer or a shellfish department it’s always been about us bailing somebody out and that to me is almost comical.”

Mr. Coogan said that regionalization would likely take place eventually through attrition, as Islanders of his generation were choosing to live off-Island as the cost of living continues to grow.

Mr. Wortman echoed Mr. Coogan, noting that when he graduated from the Tisbury School in 1957, the idea of a regional high school “divided the Island more than anything.”

But Mr. Wortman said there does exist a regional entity that, given the proper resources and management, could oversee consolidation of Island services: the county.

“If I were to go out and propose this I’d probably be shot,” he said. “If people had real confidence in the county there would be consideration of giving them more things, but here again it’s all a confidence thing.”

Mr. Coogan said the time had come for the Island to stop thinking of itself as six wholly independent enclaves.

“People come to the Island of Martha’s Vineyard,” he said. “They don’t come here to Tisbury, they don’t come here to Oak Bluffs, they don’t come here to Edgartown.”

About the most contentious regional issue of the day—the proposed roundabout—Mr. Coogan was dismissive. “It means absolutely nothing,” he said.

“I don’t have a problem with it being on a townwide referendum, but it’s an opinion poll,” he said about the roundabout referendum on all six Island town ballots. “It’s not going to do anything. The roundabout project is a state-funded project for the town of Oak Bluffs. It has nothing to do with Tisbury.”

As for Tisbury itself, the town faced serious infrastructure issues.

“The very first thing Tisbury needs is a new town hall,” he said. “It’s central to the government. We just have a building that’s falling down and we have two trailers up on a hill. Our town administration is separated.”

Mr. Wortman agreed.

“We have a beautiful town hall, it’s classic, it’s wonderful,” he said. “It probably should be owned by the [Martha’s Vineyard] Preservation Trust.”

While the town hall needs to be upgraded Mr. Coogan said that town government itself, with its more than 50 boards and committees, needed to be slimmed down.

“We have a computer committee,” he said. “I don’t know when they last met. I don’t know what they do. Maybe we don’t need them.”

The discussion also focused on the role of selectmen and the limits of their power. Mr. Coogan said he was sometimes approached by business owners for help, but said that town hall had little influence on the economic cycle.

“I can’t reach out to a landlord and say ‘lower your rent,’” he said. Mr. Coogan said the town’s role in the business community was limited mostly to permitting events and providing aesthetic assistance to Main street, through vehicles like the beautification committee.

Mr. Coogan did say that his board could tackle other areas of town policy.

“I would have never run if it was a five-man board,” he said. “Three is just enough for good debate.”

“The only thing that might be easier is a one-man board,” said Mr. Wortman.