VIDEO: Charlestown tapas

Tidbits of the politics and life of Charlestown

Includes:

• The right to vote with your money
• The right to vote with your feet
• Shaking all over
• Good luck, Dave

By Will Collette

CCA Credo: the right to vote

It’s no secret that the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA Party) treasures the support of wealthy non-residents who fill their campaign coffers. CCA leaders have historically supported giving non-residents the right to vote because they own property here. In my list of 2013 New Year’s predictions, I speculated that the CCA Party majority that controls Charlestown town government would change voting rules so that you get one vote for every dollar’s worth of property you own. For those readers suffering from humorous dyscognition, I meant that as a joke.

But it seems that in the right-wing world that the CCA Party inhabits, the idea of “One Dollar, One Vote” is not a joke at all, but actually a serious proposition.

Venture Capitalist Tom Perkins has been in the news a lot lately. First he compared liberals “progressives” who criticize the rich one-percenters to Nazis - . Come to think of it, CCA Party pundit Mike Chambers has made similar remarks about Progressive Charlestown on several occasions (click here and here for recent examples).

Now Perkins says that voting rights should be limited only to those who pay income taxes, and the weight of their vote should be based on the taxes they pay – one vote for every dollar paid in federal income tax. As he put it, "The Tom Perkins system is: You don't get to vote unless you pay a dollar of taxes…But what I really think is, it should be like a corporation. You pay a million dollars in taxes, you get a million votes. How's that?" Here's the video: 

 

I’m sure the CCA Party thinks that’s just fine. How about it, Mike?

CCA Credo: Another hallowed belief debunked

Charlestown’s lack of concern leaves residents in the cold, Part 2

Steps Charlestown can take on its own to improve the local economy

By Will Collette

In Part 1, I reported the latest spike in Charlestown unemployment and what it means. 

Our 8.7% unemployment rate is terrible. In addition, another 3-5% of Charlestown workers are no longer collecting benefits, especially after the termination of the federal extended benefits program. 

Then there’s another 15-16% of Charlestown workers who are “under-employed,” meaning they are involuntarily working fewer hours than they want to.

The Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA Party) leaders who control Charlestown government do not see any role for town government in addressing this crisis that affects more than 1,200 Charlestown workers. I say this is not true.

Untold Story: How the CCA stole the 2010 election

From those openness and transparency people

By Will Collette

In 2010, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance stole the election – from itself – and won control of Charlestown town government for a second consecutive term. I’m going to tell you how they did it – a story that’s never been publicly told. 

Because so much of the CCA's campaign pitch revolves around the whopper that you should vote for them so they can continue to run an open and transparent government, this untold tale shows you just how far the CCA will go to violate that principle when it suits their interests.

Politics is always a rough game and can get really rough in small towns where there are long histories and feuds that extend far beyond the usual boundaries of politics. Charlestown is a case study for that.

But the 2010 election was one for the books because it pitted CCA candidates against each other. The new CCA, dominated by Dan Slattery and Ruth Platner, had fought a pitched battle during 2009 and 2010 against the “old” CCA Town Council slate that the CCA fought to get elected in 2008 when the CCA swept Charlestown’s election.

Do political parties matter?

Depends on who you ask, where you ask and how you ask it

By Will Collette

In the recent debates over the importance of political party labels, there’s one point that most people take to be a given – party labels matter a whole lot less the more local you get.

That’s certainly the case in Charlestown, where Democrats favor tax cuts[1], less burdensome regulation[2] and promotion of small business, contrary to the usual “tax and spend” anti-business stereotypes associated with the national Democratic Party.

But there’s a difference between the common agreement that national party labels matter less at the local level and making the blanket judgment that labels don’t matter at all.

To say that labels don’t matter at the local level is just plain ridiculous, and to find the evidence, you need to look no further than the website of the Charlestown Citizens Alliance. Though the CCA claims to be nonpartisan – indeed, it claims to be a veritable melting pot – that’s just not true.

Things you’d like to know about the Charlestown Citizens Alliance – but were afraid to ask

2012 Field Guide to Charlestown’s shadow government, Part 1

By Will Collette

Former CCA President and present Town Council
Vice-President Deputy Dan Slattery

It’s time to update our Field Guide to Observing the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA), last updated in October. It’s been almost four years since the CCA took control of Charlestown’s government, riding the crest of the wave of anti-Jim Mageau sentiment.

One of the main things the CCA has proven in its two terms in control of town government is that they are even more adept at stirring up dissension and dividing the community than Jim Mageau ever was.

Unconvinced? Think Whalerock, the Y-Gate Scandal, Ninigret Park and their willingness to give over control of town property to the federal government, Dark Sky Lighting, “Kill Bill,” the Planning Commission’s plutocracy, “the riot of the rich,” disdain for fair taxation, attacks against small business, their hostility to families with children, beach toilets, Deputy Dan Slattery’s jihads and Uncle Fluffy’s gaffes.

By the end of June, we’ll see what the CCA intends to do about extending its reign of mismanagement for another two years when it comes time to announce candidates. But in the meantime, for your campaign season convenience, here are the answers to the CCA questions you’ve been dying to ask.

CCA adjusts leadership as old members leave the state

Did they have elections and nobody knew?

By Will Collette

With no announcement, just some minor modifications to the leadership list on their website, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) has changed its line-up. Their actual process for making such decisions is a closely held secret. 

CCA President Bernice Krantz will hand over the scepter of power to Virginia Wooten in June. Leo Mainelli will remain as the CCA’s Treasurer.

Mrs. Krantz and her husband Dr. Milton Krantz are moving out of state after selling their home on King Tom Road for well over a million dollars. They are remaining on the Steering Committee.

This is what the Homestead Tax Credit could look like, if this was Florida

An example of how Homestead exemptions work out for one Charlestown property owner

By Will Collette

Two people who didn’t speak at the December 12 “Riot of the Rich” at the Charlestown Town Council were Kallie and John Jurgens, the immediate past president and treasurer respectively of the Charlestown Citizens Alliance. Both of them still serve on the CCA Steering Committee and both had a lot at stake.

I have a theory why the CCA didn’t roll out these two big guns. It’s not like Kallie Jurgens is bashful about advocating for reducing taxes on big-ticket shoreline property owners, or demanding that non-residents be given the right to vote. It’s not that Ms. Jurgens is bashful about accusing Democrats of engaging in “class war” when they advocate for working families.

Ms. Jurgens has done this, and more, while CCA President and as a leader within the RI Statewide Coalition.

It’s something else.

Should Charlestown residents get a tax cut?

It's time to REALLY make housing affordable

By Will Collette

Charlestown is about to embark on its own mini-version of the current national debate over whether to give tax breaks to low and middle-income taxpayers funded by a surtax on the super-rich.. 

There is a proposal put on the table by the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee to add a new tax credit that would give a $1000 credit off your tax bill if you make Charlestown your home.

The benefits of this tax break will go to homeowners who own homes assessed at less than $900,000. It will have its greatest benefit in the brackets where most Charlestown residents live - in homes assessed between $100,000 and $500,000.

UPDATED: FAQs about the Charlestown Citizens Alliance

Revised guide to Charlestown’s shadow government

By Will Collette

What is the CCA? That’s the Charlestown Citizens Alliance. It is an unincorporated association started in 2006 now registered with the state as a political action committee. The Board of Elections ruled they were raising money to work on electoral issues. According to their last campaign finance report (filed July 30), they had a cash balance of $2339.46.

Why should anyone care who or what they are? The CCA is Charlestown’s shadow government. They picked each and every member of the Planning Commission. Two of their long-time leaders head the Town Council and, with Lisa DiBello’s vote, hold the majority.

Short Takes and Crazy Politics

Interior Sec. Ken Salazar

Slattery and Salazar Not on Same Page. Council Vice-President Dan Slattery and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar are clearly looking at different research on wind energy. While Slattery has been the Council’s leading “authority” on the deadly health risks of wind energy, Salazar was in Rhode Island yesterday promoting off-shore wind energy and asking for bidders to build turbines right off our coastline in federal waters. Fabrication for the turbines would likely take place at Quonset Point, providing a tremendous boost for the RI economy. And Slattery will probably have a heart attack over it.

CSI Charlestown - CCA Decoder Ring

I read yesterday's article where Will explained what he found out about changes in CCA leadership and I was having a hard time following it.
I started drawing lines and boxes and then I redrew it into a table I could share with you.

CSI Charlestown - what happened to Tom Gentz and Dr. Krantz?

Tom Gentz: Have you seen this man?

UPDATED

Here's one for the Missing Persons Bureau—only one month after announcing an internal leadership shakeup and rearrangement of their officers' and Steering Committee members' roles, two of the CCA officers, Town Council President Tom Gentz and Dr. Milton Krantz, seem to have disappeared.

While you will soon be seeing their faces on the sides of milk cartons, your humble sleuths at Progressive Charlestown have launched an investigation into their disappearances.

CSI Charlestown: DNA tests show CCA and RISC from the same gene pool

$59.99 from Amazon.com

There was a flurry of angry comments over a  Progressive Charlestown article I wrote that showed board interlocks between the RI Statewide Coalition (RISC) and the bogus research center the Ocean State Policy Research Institute (OSPRI).

A lot of those comments seemed to come from CCA supporters. That sparked my curiosity about why such a vehement reaction, especially since it had so little to do with the real topic of my articles – that OSPRI had put out a report that was 100% on the facts about what OSPRI considered to be wasteful government spending in Charlestown. I would have loved to hear them explain how cleaning up toxic contamination at the old Kenyon dump site is an example of wasteful spending.

Anyway, I decided to see if CCA had any genetic ties to either RISC or OSPRI and ran the appropriate DNA tests.

Here are the results:

CCA re-shuffles the deck chairs

The Charlestown Citizens Alliance sent out an e-mail message today about major changes in its officer ranks.

The message begins by noting how CCA began almost five years ago as an organization "dedicated to open and transparent town government" - and that "it remains so."

So naturally - in complete secrecy - the CCA "Steering Committee refreshes itself, picks new officers, and recruits members for the Steering Committee."

FAQs about the Charlestown Citizens Alliance

What is the CCA? That’s the Charlestown Citizens Alliance. It is an unincorporated association started in 2006 now registered with the state as a political action committee. The Board of Elections ruled they were raising money to work on electoral issues.

Why should anyone care who or what they are? Right now, the CCA is Charlestown’s shadow government. They picked each and every member of the Planning Commission. Two of their long-time leaders head the Town Council and, with Lisa DiBello’s vote, hold the majority.

To ignore the CCA is like ignoring the Republican Party’s control over the U.S. House of Representatives, or the Tea Party’s control over the Republican Party. Or the corporate interests that control the Tea Party. To understand power, you don’t just look at the puppets, but at the puppet masters.

Why are the CCA leaders and supporters so sensitive to criticism? That’s a good question and I don’t know the answer. I have a theory that they were traumatized by their experience with Jim Mageau. Maybe when they hear criticism, they think somebody is about to shove a camera at them.

Maybe they’re not feeling enough love for having ousted Mageau in 2008 – and for about the 10^th time in writing in Progressive Charlestown, I say thank you for that, but not for the rest of what you have done to this town. 

The CCA functions as Charlestown’s controlling political party. With that power comes heat from those of us who do not agree with their vision or their actions. If they can’t stand the heat, drop out. Go fishing. Go back to Florida. But stop whining.

A Guide to the Charlestown Citizens Alliance, Part 2: What went wrong?

When the CCA started out as the umbrella for opponents to Jim Mageau’s reign on the Charlestown Town Council (2006-2008), they were a pretty diverse movement. Old Yankees, newcomers, environmentalists and conservationists, hardcore Republicans and life-long Democrats, independents, yuppies, progressives, Shoreline Coalition leaders and average citizens came together to try to stop Mageau from making Charlestown a laughing-stock, if not actually remove him from office.

I almost joined myself, but didn’t because so many CCA leaders came from of the RI Statewide Coalition crowd. RISC’s advocacy for the out-of-state millionaire absentee property owners made their vision for Charlestown was just as unpalatable as Mageau’s antics. But there were many good and decent people in the early CCA and they did this town a great service by forcing Mageau into involuntary political exile.

Class War Resumes: Pay up to prop up absentee owner home values

The April 22th issue of the South County Independent carried a letter by Charlestown Town Council President Tom Gentz and Arthur Ganz, president of the Salt Pond Coalition. Gentz (not Ganz) is also Secretary of the Charlestown Citizens Alliance which is a story in itself.

Gentz and Ganz wrote about the state’s failure to dredge and maintain the Charlestown Breachway so as not to undo the work done by the Corps of Engineers to revitalize Ninigret Pond.

New tax rates affect households differently

UPDATE: When the town published the official notice of the June 6 Financial Election, they posted a higher tax rate than the rate initially recommended. Instead of going from the current rate of $7.48 per $1000 of value to $8.95 as had been proposed, the new rate published in the notice is $9.04. This additional nine cent hike adds about 1% to every property owner's tax bill. I have updated the numbers in this post to reflect that new rate.

Charlestown’s tax rate – the amount of tax you must pay for every $1000 of assessed property value - is going from $7.48 to $9.04 $8.95 on July 1. That increase of $1.54 $1.47 looks like a jump of almost 21% 20% but it’s actually driven almost entirely by the drop in the town’s overall property values of $400 million and the need to adjust the mil rate to compensate. Only 21 cents out of the increase is due to increased town operating costs.

Our recent reassessment led to a drop of around 15% in the total value of property in town - $400 million gone pooooof due to the Recession, though our town is still worth more than $2.3 billion.

But let's focus on the disparity in the impact of these numbers on different families with different types of houses. The average middle-income home dropped about 13% in value while the average millionaire home dropped by about 20%. That translates into big differences in who pays the town’s taxes – and a major shift of the tax burden from non-resident millionaires to middle-income permanent residents.

Class War continues: Kallie Speaks?

Tom and I have been posting detailed information and commentary about Charlestown’s impending property tax shake-up since March 19^th when the new property assessments hit residents’ mailboxes.

We predicted to within a penny how much the tax rate would have to rise to make up for a $400 million drop in property values. We created the unique Progressive Charlestown Magic Tax Calculator that allows you to figure out how much your new taxes will be. We showed how the new tax rate will mean major tax increases for middle-class residents, while Charlestown’s millionaire elite, many of them non-residents, will see their taxes drop.

We’ve been waiting for Charlestown’s de facto rulers, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance, to weigh in. To say something. To try to put their own spin on this major development. CCA has yet to put out anything official. The anonymous comments CCA has e-mailed out on the subject have had no coherent message.

But maybe that has changed. I’m not sure, but it sure seems to me that CCA President Kallie Jurgens, a legal resident of Stuart, Florida, may have posted an anonymous comment on the CCA e-bleat. It sounds like her, or somebody using words and phrases Kallie has used before.

From CCA's April 2^nd e-mail, here’s the anonymous comment I’m talking about:

• First of all, thank you CCA. I would never know what is happening in Charlestown if it wasn't for your organization. I don' t know how you stay on top of everything! As for the tax re-evaluation. I am someone who lives  south of Route 1. For the past 15 years, my property evaluation has gone UP-- since my house value has skyrocketed. And not once did I heard anyone of the many neighbors I have all over town tell me, jeez, sorry about that. For those of my neighbors whose evaluations have gone up this year, I DO feel sorry. And it is true that almost 70% of the taxes paid to Charlestown come from homeowners south of Route 1. We, who do not put children in the schools, do not clog up the roads to the beaches, and don't demand anything but keep getting hit with higher and higher taxes. For once, that might not happen this year. But you can safely predict, it will happen next year as our home values go up in a rising economy. So, can we please stop pitting people against each other and focus on what's really important. Put forth a reasonable budget, maintain our services, care for the elderly, and keep Charlestown one of the best places to live.

OK, so the new assessments are a long-overdue redress of the injustice to South of One folks with mega-buck properties. We never shed a tear for them when their taxes were going up because their property values were skyrocketing. I concede that’s really true – that kind of problem never choked me up.

Plus, says the commenter, rich folks don’t send their kids to schools (nannies?), don’t clog the road to the beaches (private beach fronts?) and don’t ask for anything (no comment). So stop the class war, already, middle-class C-towners and take your beating.

But in fact, all through the period described by Kallie or the Kallie clone, these same oppressed rich people didn't just pay their taxes and smile. They organized the RI Shoreline Coalition to fight against town expenditures on things like the schools they don’t use, so they wouldn’t pay those high taxes. They demanded, among other things, that non-residents have the right to vote on town fiscal matters.

Well, Charlestown neighbors, maybe that’s the model we should follow. Maybe it’s time to organize our own Fair Tax campaign to give some relief to middle-class residents who are committed to living here.

Author: Will Collette

More short takes

The Westerly Sun has finally run the story about Lisa DiBello's case against the town. It ran on Page 1 today but is behind the Sun's pay wall (no link). DiBello is charging Charlestown and ten present and former town officials with engaging in a conspiracy against her. See the details here.

The Charlestown Citizens Alliance has also fallen behind on local issues, only belatedly starting to cover the effects of Charlestown's property devaluation with its usual array of anonymous comments. As readers of this blog will recall, our taxbase shrunk by $400 million due to the real estate crash. Mid-range properties fell an average of 13-15% while $1+ million properties fell by an average of 19-22%. The tax rate will go up to compensate, to $8.74 per $1000 in valuation (and another 21 cents to meet budget increases). The result: middle-class Charlestown residents will bear the brunt of the tax increase, while the average non-resident millionaire will probably get a tax decrease. For example, CCA president Kallie Jurgens, who declares her residence to be Stuart Florida, will see her taxes fall by over $568. Maybe that's why it took CCA so long to acknowledge this issue, d'ya think?

The early CCA anonymous commenters are all over the opinion spectrum. One CCA commenter wants to go full Tea Party: "20% cut in the budget...freeze wages for the next four years, cut unnecessary town positions, freeze benefits, eliminate pensions, buy vehicles that get 40 mpg, police vehicles too and stop building buildings". Did Sarah Palin move into town?

Another one who lives in the CCA stronghold around East Beach Road is up in arms over some assessment increases in that area. Another one is upset because their house went down by $30,000 when their house is so special that their valuation should have gone up. OK, I say let's up this person's valuation by $100,000. I can't wait to see CCA's next e-bleat.