Second legal opinion says the voters have the right to vote on the expenditure
By Will Collette
The Monday night public hearing on Charlestown ’s
Fiscal Year 2013 was yet another strange episode in the increasingly bizarre
politics of Charlestown .
In a nutshell, the night’s hot item – how the town plans to
handle the scheme to take $475,000 of taxpayer money to fund a deal that
benefits the Westerly YMCA, Charlestown Land Trust and the vacation home owners
in Sonquipaug – was postponed.
Council member Gregg Avedisian
made a brief announcement in a very
brief meeting that the proposal to pay the town’s part of the shady Y-Gate
deal could not be done as the Budget Commission proposed. The town could not simply pay $475,000 for a
worthless conservation easement on the abandoned YMCA campground without
putting it before the voters as a separate warrant item.
Instead, the Town Council will have to figure out what to do
next and are due to take this issue up again at the Regular Town Council
meeting next Monday night, May 14.
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| Avedisian said the deal to take $475,000 of petty cash was withdrawn - for now |
With the single most controversial item off the table – and with
the advance notice that there would be no other business on the agenda other
than taking citizens’ comments on the budget – no motions, no votes – there was
little else to do but end the meeting early, much to everyone’s surprise.
Long-time residents observe that this method of dealing with
the Town Budget by holding a hearing, and then the vote, really strips citizens
of the ability to substantively review and alter the budget. In years past,
Town Budgets were subject to often lively Financial Town Meetings, but this new
process leaves most participants wondering “what’s the point?”
This budget hearing was further flawed by minimal, barely
legal public notice. And the notice contained the proviso that if citizens
wished to alter the budget by petition, the signed and certified petitions
would have to be submitted ten days prior to the budget hearing.
Interestingly, the notice containing this information was filed
with the Secretary of State’s office barely ten calendar days prior to the
budget hearing, leaving any would-be petitioners roughly thirty minutes or so
to craft their petitions, gather the signatures and file the petitions.
But, hey, this is Charlestown . If you want true democratic process, you're going to need a new Town Council.
So, you’re probably wondering what will happen next with
Y-Gate. Is this the end of it or is it simply going in another direction?
We won’t know the answer to that until next week’s Town
Council meeting. And we won’t get a hint until the Town Council holds its
agenda meeting on Wednesday and then posts the agenda with supporting
documentation on Clerkbase.
The Council does know they are walking on a razor’s edge and
that there are so many people angry at their months’ of wacky conduct that it
would take very little to send this issue back into court, perhaps to join the
on-going John Donoghue v. Charlestown case that currently contests the Y-Gate
deal.
The Town Council could decide on Monday that they will send
the Y-Gate issue to the voters as a separate warrant item for the voters to
decide at the June 4 budget referendum.
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| Now it was safe for Ruggiero to give an opinion |
Now that the town’s Bond Counsel has opined that the item should go to the voters separately, our Town Solicitor Peter Ruggeiro had the
political cover to also issue his opinion that the expenditure, if it is to go
forward, needs expressed voter approval.
The Town Council could also decide on Monday to revert to
their earlier plan to draw the $475,000 from the voter-approved $2 million Open
Space/Recreation Bond. If they take that approach, they have some stronger
legal basis to argue that specific voter approval is not required, under the terms
for land acquisition set by the Town Charter.
But that path will be so politically unpopular that any
Council member who supported it would face an end to their political future in Charlestown .
The Town Council could decide to re-group and see if the
political climate favors putting the issue in front of the voters in November.
Or they could just forget it – tell the Westerly Y and the Land
Trust and the Sonquipaugians that they tried to make Charlestown taxpayers fork
over half a million dollars, but that it was no sale.
Then these interest groups would have to work the deal
themselves, but not with taxpayer money. They have until the end of the year to
come up with matching funds the state grant of $367,000, presuming RIDEM is
still interested in paying for an over-priced, trashed out abandoned camp.
Politically, the YMCA campground has turned into a
radioactive waste dump. The remaining base of support for the deal is pretty
much down to those few people who have something to gain from the deal.
Time to end it. But until it’s over, and over for good,
stayed vigilant and stay tuned.
