How to pay less property tax, Part 8: mis-zoning

Inconsistent or flat-out wrong zoning saves some property owners a lot of money

By Will Collette

Introduction: How to save on Charlestown Property Taxes
Part 1: Waiver of interest
Part 2: Appealing your assessment
Part 3: Tax credits for the blind and disabled
Part 4: Farms, Forest and Open Space
Part 5: Veteran’s Tax Credits
Part 6: Senior Citizens' tax credit
Part 7: Get Religion

This article is part of a series on Charlestown property tax policies. All property owners had to get their new - increased - tax payments in by the end of July. Now, most of us are looking at paying our Fire District tax.

I think most taxpayers understand that not everyone pays the same tax rate, sometimes for good reasons. Sometimes not. This series attempts to give readers the truth of Charlestown taxes and the opportunity to see if they qualify for some of the available breaks.

This article is an update of one I wrote in July 2012 about how taxes for some Charlestown tax payers are skewed by misclassification. An example: the 118 acre Charlestown segment of Shelter Harbor's golf course, which is zoned "Open Space/Recreation" even though it contains a 25,280 square foot office/storage building.

The Town of Westerly, which holds the bulk of the golf course, taxes it at the commercial rate.

These and the other problems raised in 2012 were supposed to be addressed by the Planning Commission, run by Charlestown Citizens Alliance leader and Planning Commissar Ruth Platner.

Very few have been, most conspicuously, Shelter Harbor.

Note that the original article begins talking about the Heavers property. Since that article, Barbara Heavers has joined the Planning Commission on the CCA Party ticket. In addition to the property features described in the article below, Ms. Heavers also has a rental property on the land which she admitted she failed to disclose, as required, to the RI Ethics Commission - until I filed a complaint calling her out on it.

Here is my original article on one back-door way CCA Party supporters get to pay less property tax, where the basic facts stand pretty much as they were three years ago....

“Leave the people out of it”

Boss Gentz names names.

… Unless, of course, you’re CCA and you’re screaming for someone to be fired.

By Linda Felaco

At the July 9 Town Council meeting, Town Council President Tom Gentz (CCA) called for a boycott* of Progressive Charlestown, denouncing our lack of “civility” and our impolite habit of “naming names.” Gentz repeatedly demanded that we “leave the people out of it.”

Which sounds reasonable in principle, but there’s just a few problems with that.

First, just how would Gentz have us report on town government without naming names of who’s doing what when, where, and how? Should we assign numbers to the councilors like in the old Dating Game and refer to them as Councilor #1, Councilor #2, Councilor #3, and so on? I suppose town employees who have unique job titles could be referred to by title rather than by name, but it’d be kinda hard to report on what goes on at Town Council or Planning Commission meetings without “naming names.”

Perhaps Gentz would like us to use a “master lever” in Charlestown so we could “leave names out of it” when voting.

Council finishes its July meeting with a 25 minute silly session

Council disdains MOU as well as open, transparent and professional governance

By Will Collette

It was not Tom Gentz's finest half hour

With no Y-Gate Scandal matters on the agenda, the Town Council met and bumbled through 25 minutes of business left over from their July 9 session.

Playing to a largely empty chamber, the meeting began with comments from Councilor Gregg Avedisian that the meeting agenda was incorrectly constructed. It was set up as if it was a regular Council meeting, rather than a continuation of the earlier July 9 meeting. Avedisian noted that using standard agenda boilerplate was inappropriate.

Town Solicitor Peter Ruggiero agreed, noting that the Council should have the Town Clerk list only those items necessary to complete the Council’s business for the month.

Should Charlestown buy the Y Camp outright?

Or should we leave it to those who stand to benefit

By Will Collette

Last Friday, Jim Mageau announced he was launching a petition drive to put the question of  buying the abandoned YMCA campground on Watchaug Pond outright for up to $600,000 before the voters in a special financial election .

He needs 400 signatures of registered Charlestown voters to make that happen. Click here for Mageau’s news release, which includes information on how you can sign the petition if you support his approach.

If Mr. Mageau gathers enough signatures and then convinces enough voters to authorize up to $600,000, then the Y-Gate scandal might end with the town owning the property, although that depends on whether the Y actually wants to sell directly to Charlestown.

Although Mageau’s proposal for Charlestown to simply buy, own and operate the land for the benefit of all is better than the alternative of buying a conservation easement of dubious value from the Charlestown Land Trust, is it the best approach?

On civility

Is this the face of civility in Charlestown?

Hint: There’s more to it than mere politeness

By Linda Felaco

Twice now, in as many town council meetings, the Progressive Charlestown blog as a whole, and indefatigable blogger Will Collette in particular, has been denounced from the dais for an alleged lack of “civility.” Indeed, at the most recent council meeting, these denunciations even inspired Jim Mageau, who I think will agree with me is not exactly known around town as being Mr. Civility himself, to point out that civility is also in short order on the website of the Charlestown Citizens Alliance. So what exactly does it mean to be “civil,” and where has Progressive Charlestown fallen short?

New revelations cast more doubt on the Y-Gate deal

Grand Theft Y-Gate

By Will Collette

It is a terrible thing to watch two revered and trusted institutions – the Westerly YMCA and the Charlestown Land Trust – debase themselves by attempting to perpetrate a fraud on Charlestown taxpayers.

For months, Progressive Charlestown has covered the attempt by the Y and the Land Trust to bilk taxpayers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars for a worthless conservation easement on that rural junkyard, the Y’s abandoned campground on Watchaug Pond. Click here for all the coverage.

We provided you with every document as it emerged and concluded that Y-Gate was a terrible deal for taxpayers. It turns out that we did not have all the facts. Indeed, more information came out at Monday’s Town Council meeting that shows that the Y-Gate scam is even worse than we have been reporting.

The only good news is that it now seems likely that Charlestown taxpayers will get the chance to vote to end this scandal, one way or the other.

Attacking the messenger

I guess the choice is whether you want “civility” or truth

By Will Collette

Boss Gentz uses the bully pulpit

For two consecutive months, I found myself in the weird position of being personally attacked by Town Council members speaking from the Council Platform during a Council meeting. Last month, it was Councilor Lisa DiBello. This month, it was Council President and CCA-endorsed Boss Tom Gentz.

Both denounced me by name and attacked the news and opinion coverage in Progressive Charlestown. Both claimed I had written bad things that I should be ashamed of, but neither provided any basis or substantiation. Indeed, Ms. DiBello flatly said her attack was based on second or third hand reports since she never read Progressive Charlestown herself.

Both were so over the top that, to my surprise (and gratitude), none other than Jim Mageau rose to my defense, noting that if you want to see vicious attacks, go take a look at the CCA blog.

Here’s the key distinction between what I write on Progressive Charlestown and what DiBello and Gentz said from the Council platform. I research every single thing I write. I provide the documents and back-up. They made their attacks on me without any basis other than the fact that I have obviously gotten under their skins.

Town Council Meeting - July 9 Blow-by-Blow

by Tom Ferrio

Will has been providing a preview of the topics on the agenda for tonight (four earliest articles here). Several of the topics could get contentious but most of those have gone on for months and months already so there is little new public comment to add and we may move fast to the votes.

TONIGHT: Town Council Monday meeting - the REAL agenda

What they hand out is not what you actually get

Check out the agenda items for Y-Gate

By Will Collette

Y-Gate is back on the agenda. So is the Ninigret "MOU"

Most casual audience members at Charlestown Town Council get a little flustered at the way the Council does business. There is a big stack of paper copies of the meeting agenda on the front table, but the actual order of business almost never works the way the agenda is printed.

Last month, I got the idea - duh, after months of suffering through scrambled agenda - of publishing the agenda the way it actually happens in real life. There are always a number of items that are taken from the middle and end of the agenda and stuck in front. There are a number of items marked "CA" ("consent agenda"), meaning they will be voted on as a bloc, without discussion or debate, not necessarily in the same order they appear in the official printed agenda.

So, for your convenience, here is the July 9 Town Council agenda as it will actually happen - unless of course, they decide to change it again.

TONIGHT: Charlie gets his MOU

And he’ll milk it for all its worth

By Will Collette

Charlestown's federal overseer Charlie Vandemoer

On the July 9 Town Council agenda is the consideration of perhaps the last chapter in the Battle of Ninigret Park, the phony conflict concocted by CCA Council members Deputy Dan Slattery and Boss Tom Gentz. Click here for all our coverage.

As you may recall, last March, Deputy Dan and Boss Gentz reveals a terrible though imaginary crisis: the federal government was on the verge of taking back Ninigret Park because we had displeased CharlieVandemoer, our federal overseer from the Fish and Wildlife Service, and Elyse LaForest of the National Park Service’s Federal Lands to Park program.

Deputy Dan declared that we had a moral, ethical and legal obligation to give up our stewardship of Ninigret and place its fate in the hands of overseer Vandemoer. Boss Gentz concurred, fearing that if we didn’t surrender control of Ninigret Park, the feds would take the Park back forthwith.

TONIGHT: The Zombie Walks on July 9

TONIGHT: Y-Gate Scam near the top of the July 9 agenda – is this the big one, or just more diddling around?

By Will Collette

The Town Council meeting will feature debate and votes on resolutions that propose that Charlestown pay the Charlestown Land Trust $398,000 for a worthless conservation easement so the Land Trust can pay $600,000 to the Westerly YMCA for an over-priced, junked out campground so the non-resident vacation home owners in the Sonquipaug neighborhood can have expanded backyards.

Yes, readers, it’s Charlestown’s most notorious zombie issue - the Y-Gate Scandal.

Three resolutions on this subject will be taken up near the beginning of the meeting. Why these motions should be considered at all will be a question for voters to ponder over the next 120 days.

The B-List

Some July 9 Council meeting agenda items that could provide some sparks
By Will Collette

The two hottest topics on the July 9 Town Council agenda are whether this Council will fork over your tax dollars in the much-covered Y-Gate scandal and whether the Council will put an end to the phony Battle of Ninigret Park by giving Fish & Wildlife Service Charlie Vandemoer the keys to Ninigret Park as he has so long desired. There are separate articles on those two subjects. Click here for Y-Gate and click here for Ninigret Park.

But let’s look at some of the sleepers on the agenda and see which ones might provide some interesting action.