A model approach for Charlestown?

Leading dark sky protection organization endorses model for sport field lighting. Are you paying attention, Ruth?

I want to tell you about a special school on Canada’s rugged east coast: Université Sainte-Anne.  As a student there, you must sign a pledge that you’ll only speak French. The school is equally serious about protecting the night as it’s located within a Starlight Reserve.  Please help institutions like this one succeed. The university aimed to build a football pitch to give its whole community a safe place to stay active, even in winter when daylight is scarce. With support from people like you, that athletic field became the first DarkSky Approved Outdoor Sports Lighting project outside the U.S. “Seeing students, staff and community members use this facility at night and knowing that we’re preserving the surrounding dark sky at the same time makes me proud,” says University President Kenneth Deveau. This project can be a model for communities worldwide. Will you keep that momentum going with a gift to DarkSky International today? With gratitude,  Ruskin Hartley CEO & Executive Director P.S. With global light pollution increasing 10% each year, there’s no time to wait.

“Abuse of Process”

Planning Commissar Platner and Commission blasted for outrageous demands

By Will Collette

Platner gets the bird

Rarely to you ever see the most powerful politician in Charlestown, Planning Commissar Ruth Platner (CCA Party), get publicly taken down for her typical abuse of power…and then see her back off. But that’s exactly what happened at the February 26 Planning Commission meeting. The occasion was Part Two of the Planning Commission’s auto-de-fe of Arrowhead Dental which is before the Planning Commission with its plans for a major expansion.

You can watch this whole exchange on Clerkbase (click here and go to the five minute mark. It runs till 1:22). If you find you can’t make the link work, you may made to use the “secret” fix to get around this flaw in the system. For a description about how to get around Clerkbase’s access flaw, click here.

Most Charlestown residents know about Arrowhead, one of South County’s largest dental practices located near the junction of South County Trail and Route One. Cathy and I have been happy and loyal patients of Arrowhead (and specifically of Dr. Nectara Stefano) since we moved to Charlestown eleven years ago.

Arrowhead is one of Charlestown’s largest employers. They were the first recipients of Charlestown’s Hometown Hero Award for their annual Dentistry from the Heart Day where they treat hundreds of local folks for free. Their practice is sleek and modern. Their interior is pleasant and comfortable. Their grounds are beautifully landscaped.

So naturally, that makes them a great target for Platner and her plucky Planning Commissioners to rake over the coals now that they want to expand. They are also being used by Platner as the first big test case for the town’s controversial dark sky lighting ordinance.

Dark Sky Complient

From Fake Science

How a community regulates itself says a lot about the community

Does Charlestown do it right?

By Will Collette

Since the CCA took control of the Charlestown Town Council and Planning Commission in 2008, town residents have frequently struggled over how much the town should regulate its citizens. 

Ruth Platner’s (CCA Party) ascendance to Supreme Leader of the Planning Commission has made her the most powerful person in Charlestown, and her radical views about the role of government in people’s lives affect every resident and business in town.

Under Commissar Platner’s leadership, Charlestown has become better known for what it is against than what it is for. Platner has turned regulation-loving Democrats like me into neo-Libertarians, chafing at her efforts to put virtually all activity in Charlestown under her control.

Rather than simply rail about her regulatory philosophy, however, I suggest that Charlestown needs to come to grips with the effects of regulation on the town’s business, environment, culture and even on neighbor-to-neighbor relationships.

Not every Charlestown dispute has to become a drama

A rare piece of effective conflict resolution

By Will Collette

At least the school wasn't selling advertising on the sign
At least not yet - click here 
And if the Chariho budget doesn't pass, who knows?

Charlestown strife is measured in many more ways than those that end up covered by the Westerly Sun, Progressive Charlestown or bloviated upon by the Charlestown Citizens Alliance party. 

Lots of neighborly disputes end up being filed as complaints with Charlestown Police or state agencies. Our town Housing Officer gets a steady stream of zoning complaints that often result from personal feuds. 

Then there’s the recent anonymous complaint to DEM that briefly killed Charlestown’s New Year’s Eve bonfire.

Such a battle could have – but didn’t happen – over the flashing LED lights that were installed at the Charlestown Elementary School some months ago with money raised by the local Parent-Teachers Organization.

Gentz launches 2014 reelection bid

…With a Sun “guest editorial” filled with distortions

By Will Collette

The Westerly Sun reprinted one of the CCA’s final 2012 campaign letters, slightly adapted, in its major editorial space and called it a “guest editorial” from Charlestown Town Council boss Tom Gentz, who was also at the top of CCA’s ticket.

To the extent that Gentz is a student of anything, it looks to me like he is a student of Karl Rove’s political formula that if you tell lies often enough and with enough conviction, you can make them become political reality.

Happy New Year, Charlestown!

Some predictions for 2013

Our new Town Administrator

By Ann Nonimus

After the crazy ride our town leaders put us through in 2012, how could 2013 be any worse? Mmmmm, well, it can and, as your Progressive Charlestown team sees it, it will.

Our prognostications for Charlestown 2013:

Town Administrator selection made - It’s the 2012 model of Furby programmed by Hasbro with only one phrase - (“Yes, Tom, whatever you say”). None of the other candidates recommended by the Search Committee were able to polish Council boss Tom Gentz’s shoes to his standards.

The entire CCA Steering Committee will take part in the Penguin Plunge charity event on New Year’s Day to benefit the WARM Center – but they will all be arrested before hitting the water. Somebody told them the affair was swimsuit optional.

Ruth Platner: Six More Years?

Sixteen years are more than enough

By Will Collette

To read all of Progressive Charlestown’s coverage of Ruth Platner’s tenure as head of the Planning Commission, click here.

Charlestown Planning Commissar Ruth Platner is easily the most powerful person in Charlestown. If you’re looking for the true leader of the Charlestown Citizens Alliance, look no further, even though she pointedly notes on the CCA website that she holds no official office other than as CCA’s webmaster.

From her perch as head of the Planning Commission, Platner has grown and consolidated her power over every Charlestown home and business over the four years since every single Planning Commission seat has been taken by a CCA-supported commissioner. Under Platner, the Planning Commission has assumed powers never contemplated under the Charlestown Home Rule Charter and has become the actual legislature for the town, writing ordinance after ordinance that have been rubber-stamped into law by the CCA-controlled Town Council.

Aside from power, Platner’s other clear passion is for open space. Now, I think we all agree that open space is a good thing, but not above all else. It is an important priority, but not Charlestown’s only priority.

Throughout her sixteen years on the Planning Commission, Platner has insinuated the power of town government into every home and business to the point where the town’s zoning ordinance, frequently amended under Platner to cover more and more activity, controls town businesses – often to their detriment – and governs what property owners can do with their land and property down to fine details.

Indeed, Platner took an obscure, and controversial, passage within the zoning ordinance and expanded it to become what I have called the “Platner Principle.” Stated simply, the Platner Principle holds that all land uses are banned unless they are expressly permitted in the zoning ordinance.

TOWN COUNCIL: Big night for the banal

Town Council postmortem

New CPD Chief Jeffrey Allen

By Will Collette

Maybe we’re all just exhausted – or more likely sick and tired – but the September 10 Town Council meeting felt a lot like a “Going Out of Business Sale,” even though it started upbeat. 

After all, how can honoring a new Eagle Scout and swearing in a new, well-credentialed police chief not be upbeat?

But once the Council shifted to the worn-out, washed-out and frankly banal matters that populated the rest of the agenda, it was all downhill from there.

The Town Council meets Monday – here is their REAL agenda

Control of Ninigret Park is back on the agenda and storm clouds over Blue Shutters Beach
By Will Collette

As part of the continuing service by Progressive Charlestown, I have taken the published Town Council agenda and re-ordered the items to reflect the ACTUAL order of business.

As most Council attendees and Clerkbase watchers know, this Council NEVER takes items in their actual order, as published, making it almost impossible to follow if you only have the “official” agenda.

CLICK HERE for a printer-friendly version of this unofficial, but accurate agenda.

Here’s how the actual order of business will go:

Planning Commission meets tonight

Bring a pillow

By Will Collette

The Charlestown Planning Commission meets tonight for yet another of its marathon sessions.

The agenda contains three development proposals that will no doubt get the patented Platner Planning Commission run-around, regardless of their merits.

One of them is an on-going proposal from the Botka family, who frequently appear before Planning. There is no love lost between them.

The Planning Commission, following its usual practice, has a long list of its Top Ten hot-button issues listed, though many of these are simply place-holders. They appear on the agenda so that if Platner and her Planning Police feel moved to discuss them, they’ve at least minimally complied with the state Open Meetings Act.

Town Council tonight – hot topics

Muni court jurisdiction, light poles, Y-Gate lessons learned, another anti-affordable housing push?

By Will Collette

It’s always a crap shoot when you try to predict what will happen at our Town Council meetings. While you can usually count on a certain number of procedural flubs, flashes of rancor and bad decisions from this Council, you never know how heated the exchanges will be or how long the meeting will drag on.

This month, the Council agenda is less overstuffed than usual. It’s even possible they might finish in less than three hours, though I doubt it. Although some hot button issues, like the lighting ordinance, Y-Gate and affordable housing are on the agenda, they may not generate as much heat as they have in the past.

Here are my predictions for tonight’s meeting:

The REAL Town Council Agenda for Monday

For your convenience, the actual order of business

These agendas are SOOOOO confusing

By Will Collette

This is part of a new service we are providing to Charlestown residents who either attend Town Council meetings or watch the video on Clerkbase. Most newcomers to Council meetings find themselves baffled early on in each session, because the actual order of business never follows the sequence laid out in the printed and on-line versions of the agenda.

That’s because the Council changes the order of business for the convenience of guests who are attending because of a specific agenda item. They get the courtesy of having their item of interest heard earlier in the agenda.

There are also a number of “Consent Agenda” items on the agenda. These are generally non-controversial items where Council members agree to simply vote to accept them as a bloc without discussion or debate.

Check Progressive Charlestown through the weekend and on Monday for more detail on some of the more controversial issues. 

Here is how the Monday night Council agenda will actually take place. (Click here for a printer-friendly version).

Planning Commission covers its “B-List” at July 25 meeting

Road bond refund, light poles, open space and affordable housing

By Will Collette

After a short hiatus, Charlestown’s version of political root canal, the Planning Commission, returned to action on July 25. Barely.

The Commission assembled a quorum with four of its seven members present. They actually lacked the three member quorum they needed to approve their last set of minutes (you have to have attended the meeting to vote to approve the minutes).

On board for the July 25 meeting: Planning Commissar Ruth Platner, her top lieutenant Linda Fabre (who is moving out of Charlestown), George Tremblay (who has his eye on a Town Council seat) and Alternate Joann Stolle, who brings her style sense and shingle collection to the table. Stolle’s term is up in November, but she is not running for re-election.

Gordon Foer, who is running for re-election, was not present. Neither was Jim Abbott, another member whose term is up but is not seeking to return. Kathryn O’Connor was also absent.

Planning Commission – THEY’RE BACK!

After short hiatus, Platner and her Planning Police come back on July 25 to long agenda

She's back!

By Will Collette

NOTE: given tonight's very light Town Council agenda, your Progressive Charlestown team will cover it later. The Wednesday Planning Commission meeting has a lot more juicy stuff in it.

On Wednesday, July 25, Charlestown’s premiere legislative and regulatory body[i], the Planning Commission returns to duty. They usually formally meet twice a month, but they cancelled their July 5 meeting and have not met since June 27.

They have a full dozen agenda items listed on Clerkbase, although many of them might simply be “placeholders” – slots reserved just in case Planning Commissar Ruth Platner wants to discuss items without overtly violating the Open Meetings Act.

We can be pretty certain that where there are documents linked to an agenda item, that item will actually be discussed at the July 25 meeting.

Let’s take a look.

Chatting with Charlie

An interview with Charlie Vandemoer on Charlestown politics and the National Wildlife Refuge

By Will Collette

Charlie Vandemoer, US Fish & Wildlife Service

On July 11, Charlie Vandemoer, manager of the Ninigret Wildlife Refuge plus four similar facilities in southern Rhode Island, spoke with me for about an hour and a half.

At Charlie’s request, I did not record the interview, and instead must rely on my hand-written notes. I also didn’t take any photos of him, so the ones accompanying this article were taken of Charlie when he appeared before the Town Council.

Our subject was the political flare-ups that have put Charlie near the heart of a variety of contentious town issues over the past two years, ranging from the Y-Gate Scandal, the town’s rights to use the two parcels of land that comprise Charlestown’s Ninigret Park and the potential conversion of Larry LeBlanc’s controversial 81 acre site on Route One into open space..

Most of the interview was tense and we had several points where our exchanges were sharp, but by the end of the interview, we talked amicably about common ground, such as the need to return to a friendly balance between the important mission of the National Wildlife Refuge and the rights and interests of Charlestown.

June 11 Town Council meeting – your midnight review

The highs and lows of Charlestown’s town government

Elyse LaForest, National Parks Service Federal Lands to Parks Program
speaks at June 11 Town Council meeting

By Will Collette

The Monday June 11 Town Council meeting was, as expected, packed with drama as our deeply divided town and dysfunctional Town Council grappled with several issues that have made Charlestown so dysfunctional.

Despite running almost half an hour overtime, the Council left several big issues to be dealt with at a second June Council meeting, now scheduled for June 25^th.

Three real biggies left over until June 25^th are Ruth Platner’s Power Grab (also known as Ordinance #349), the CRACers’Creation, the seven proposed Charter revision questions and….Charlestown’s new zombie issue, Y-Gate.

Will Charlestown finally come over to the dark side?

Maybe we’ll find out Monday night

By Will Collette

One of the several blockbuster issues on the Town Council agenda for Monday, June 11 is perhaps the final vote on the final version of the long-running saga of the ordinance to preserve Charlestown’s dark skies by regulating lighting on Charlestown properties.

As Progressive Charlestown readers know, I am a big fan of astronomy and truly do love our dark sky vistas. But as this ordinance drama as dragged on, it became pretty clear that we were going about the issue the wrong way.

The Charlestown Planning Commission, under the leadership of Planning Commissar Ruth Platner, followed its usual impulse to try to create the most minutely detailed, invasive and far-reaching ordinance they could think of.

Blockbuster issues on Monday Town Council agenda

Battle for Ninigret Park, the Y-Gate Zombie, Platner’s Power Grab, CRAC Questions and much, much more

Why is it that almost ALL of the Town Council's agenda feels like a
zombie attack?

By Will Collette

The Town Council meeting on Monday, June 11, is a crucial meeting for several of Charlestown’s biggest and most contentious recent issue. On a very long agenda are the following:

• The Battle for Ninigret Park, featuring presentations from National Parks Service Elyse LaForest (whose letters to Bill DiLibero got him fired), our federal overseer from the US Fish and Wildlife Service Charlie Vandemoer (our de facto sixth Town Council member), Deputy Dan Slattery’s motion to give the feds veto power over the town’s use of Ninigret Park and more. Read more by clicking here.

• The Y-Gate Zombie. Will the Town Council majority break its promise to put any payment of tax funds to buy the abandoned YMCA camp in front of the voters for a separate vote, or will they just simply give the money to the Charlestown Land Trust? Read more by clicking here. 

Platner wants more power

• Platner’s Power Grab. Will the Town Council approve Ordinance #349 that could give the Planning Commission extraordinary power over town property owners, including homeowners? Read more by clicking here. 

• CRAC’d Questions: The Charter Revision Advisory Committee has seven suggested changes to the Charter that they would like the Town Council to approve for a November vote by Charlestown citizens. Only one of the seven is really worthwhile. Read more by clicking here. 

• Dark-Sky Friendly Lighting Ordinance. Has the Planning Commission sufficiently watered down the lighting ordinance (Ordinance #347) so that no one opposes it anymore? Was there a better way to do this other than an ordinance that doesn’t really do anything? Read more by clicking here. 

Market Plan to cut greenhouse gasses pays off for Rhode Island

RGGI nets Rhode Island $16 million in revenues

By Will Collette

I’m not a big fan of “cap and trade” anti-pollution programs. These programs set a ceiling on how much of a certain pollutant – in this case, greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide – can be lawfully added to the environment and then require large industrial polluters to “buy” permits to exceed their quotas.

These market-based programs are rely on an acceptance of certain pollution levels and set up a system for industry to buy “licenses to pollute.” But my preferred method of simply mandating cuts in pollution is less palatable in our free market society. So this is what we have.