Lots of stuff to worry about

Circle the Wagons! Over the next several weeks, watch the Charlestown Citizens Alliance and RISC go berserk over a vote by the US Senate Indian Affairs Committee to allow a "Carcieri Fix" bill to go to the Senate floor. This bill would reverse the effect of the Supreme Court's decision in Feb 2009 in Carcieri v. Salazar. Without going into all the nuances, that 8-1 decision effectively blocked the Narragansett Tribe from being able to put land outside the jurisdiction of state and local law. The effect: anything the tribe wants to do in Charlestown has to get past Ruth Platner and her anti-everything commission. The new action in the Senate revives that primordial fear that somehow the Narragansetts will build a Foxwoods-sized casino, nuclear power plant, toxic waste dump or mammoth-sized McDonalds franchise in town. Well, before you start panicking, a Senate committee vote is just that. This Congress can't agree on anything, never mind enact a bill like this. Plus, can we not have a little more respect and trust in our tribal neighbors?

Speaking of South County Nukes, in the wake of Japan's post-earthquake nuclear crisis, a lot more attention is being given to the 2-megawatt nuclear power plant on URI's Bay Campus in Narragansett. Former state rep. Ray Rickman has asked Gov. Chafee to decommission the plant to protect us from a nuclear disaster and to save money.

Changes coming to Charlestown’s electoral map

The new 2010 Census numbers show Charlestown’s population declined by 0.4% even though South County led the rest of RI in population growth.

One of the consequences of the census is that C-Town’s legislative map will need to be re-drawn. Every 10 years, after every census, political maps must be changed to more or less equalize the number of voters in each district.

Two House of Representatives districts cover Charlestown – District 36 which is represented by Donna Walsh and District 39, represented by freshman Democrat Larry Valencia. (see map). Both districts cover a lot of territory and several towns. Donna’s district includes the most populated parts of Charlestown.

According to the new census numbers, Donna’s District 36 is now 936 people below the average population size per district in Rhode Island. However, all of the districts that touch District 36 have excess population. Larry Valencia’s District 39 is +683. Sam Azzinaro’s District 37 in Westerly is +410. Spencer Dickinson’s District 35 in South Kingstown is +694. Finally, there’s District 38 in Hopkinton, represented by Brian Patrick Kennedy which has 953 more people than the average House district.

Peeps!

The New London Day is hosting the only local Peeps® diorama contest that I know of. I mentioned in an earlier blog that I love Peeps® and especially the Easter Peeps® contests that the Washington Post and other newspapers run.

Go to their on-line edition here for more information on how to enter. The deadline for entries is April 17. After that, readers will be given the chance to vote on their favorites.

Sgt Peepers... one of last year's winners

The Progressive Charlestown team hopes to enter a Peeps® display of a typical day at Charlestown Town Hall in the Day’s contest.

Speaking of a typical day at Charlestown Town Hall, we’ve heard rumors that an independent TV producer is floating the idea of a series, an edgy political drama, based on Charlestown politics. Sort of a cross between Showtime’s hit, the Brotherhood and the Beverly Hillbillies.

According to the rumor, they’re hoping to get either Gary Busey or Charlie Sheen to play Jim Mageau, Wilford Brimley to play Tom Gentz and Maggie Smith to play Ruth Platner.

Taxes: are government workers the problem?

The quick and short answer is NO. Read down and I'll explain why.

As I wrote yesterday in "Class War and Fair Taxes," government workers have been made the scapegoats in our  current debates over deficits, usually by those who are trying to shield the rich from paying their fair share of taxes.

Even here in Charlestown, there have been comments in the CCA e-bleat calling for drastic cuts in the town worker salaries and benefits rather than a higher tax rate.The next thing I expect to see CCA promote is an all-volunteer town government - no more paid police, town hall staff, public works, etc. Just happy CCA volunteers processing your papers, scooping up road kill, maintaining our beaches and recreation areas and - suitably armed - patrolling our roads. That'll really cut the tax rate!

But I digress. This morning, an Anonymous poster wrote the following comments about public workers.

Anonymous said...

Most economists agree that a healthy state has no more than about 25% of the people working for the government. The US is at about 40%. When you ask for fair policies, the solution is not inequitable taxation policies. Our state is broken. One simply cannot outspend revenue. The answer is reduction of government and reduction in spending. We need a better model...New Hampshire seems to be doing well and it has no income or sales tax, only property tax.

First, who are the economists who believe there is a 25% limit on public workers? Most economists I've read (e.g. Nobel laureates Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz) say public employment should be adjusted based on conditions. During the Great Depression, public works programs like the WPA and CCC kept thousands of families from starving to death. Plus they did great and lasting work, such as Burlingame State Park here in Charlestown.

But more damaging to Anonymous's point is completely wrong data, especially the claim that 40% of American workers work for the government.

Class War and Fair Taxes

Blame Ronald Reagan. The Gipper popularized the idea that all taxes are evil and sold us “Supply-Side Economics,” the idea that the more we slash taxes for the rich, the better off we’ll all be. Trickle-Down Economics, called “voodoo economics” by George Bush I, became political gospel. At the state level too, the watchword for any politician who wanted to stay in office was CUT.

After a 30-year tax cutting orgy, taxes in general – especially for the top brackets – are at record lows. Yet, while trickle-down worked great for the rich, it didn’t work very well for anyone else. It didn't pump up the economy but did bankrupt government at every level, leaving us naked and vulnerable when the economy turned bad.

More money for kids?

UPDATE, Wednesday, April 6: The Chariho $54.3 budget was approved by voters in the district's three towns yesterday. Hopkinton's voters approved by a razor thin margin, 147-143. Richmond's margin was wider, 161-108. But Charlestown, despite Planning Commissar Ruth Platner's campaign against Chariho school kids, approved the budget by the widest margin, 186 to only 37 against, even though this budget will raise C-Town's cost by $41,000.

What would he say to us today?

On this day, 43 years ago, the Rev. Martin Luther King was shot down and killed on a motel balcony in Memphis, TN.

Dr. King was in Memphis to support striking sanitation workers and their union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). The workers were on strike for recognition of their right to join a union.

Today, those rights are under full-scale attack from Republicans in Congress, Tea Party governors and anti-worker public officials even right here in Rhode Island.

A lot has changes in the years since Dr. King's assassination, but far too much has remained the same.



Author: Will Collette



Labor Charge on Council's April 7 Agenda

The Town Council has listed an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charge filed by Teamsters Local 251 on 2/24 against the Town on its  April 7th executive session agenda.

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.

Short Takes

URI Bay Campus

 BRING ON THE NUKES! Now that wind power in Charlestown is effectively dead, maybe it's time to revive an idea that died in 1978 - our own nuclear power plant. That was one of the uses considered for the Charlestown Naval Air Station (now Ninigret Park and the Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge). That nuke plant was Donna Walsh's first experience as a political activist. In Thursday's GoLocalProv, there's a piece asking whether RI's only operating nuclear power plant, the two-megawatt nuclear reactor on URI's Bay Campus in Narragansett is safe. Generally, the article concludes "there's no cause for alarm" but I noticed they didn't say anything about shadow flicker in the story.

NIMBYS LOSE IN WESTERLY. In an earlier post, I confessed to working for almost 20 years to help NIMBY groups block toxic dumps, coal mines, liquid pig manure lagoons, etc. but that I was disgusted to see the same tactics used to block good things. I'm happy to report that the Wilcox East Neighborhood Association lost its bid to kill the WARM Center's planned affordable housing for the disabled and new eating facilities for the homeless. Even though the Wilcox East folks used the line, "we're not against affordable housing, BUT...." they have been trying to drive WARM out of the community. They have actually proposed that a better place for WARM would be the town dump. Well, they had their asses handed to them last Monday when the Westerly Town Council voted unanimously to approve a compromise plan.

DiBello launches legal action against the town

As expected, Town Council member Lisa DiBello has taken the first formal step toward suing the town over her 2010 firing as Parks and Recreation Director. She filed a 30-page administrative complaint against the Town of Charlestown and 10 former and present town officials on March 11 with the RI Commission on Human Rights and the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. DiBello also puts Charlestown on notice of her intent to file charges under other civil rights statutes including the state Whistleblower Protection Act.

In her complaint, DiBello claims she was fired in May 2010 by Town Administrator William DiLibero in retaliation for a December 1, 2005 conversation she overheard (and reported) between former Town Administrator Richard Sartor and present Tax Assessor Ken Swain. According to DiBello’s complaint, Sartor called then Town Council President Deb Carney a “bitch” and Swain made explicit sexual remarks about another unnamed woman.

In the complaint, DiBello claims that when she reported the Sartor and Swain conversation first to Tax Collector Jo Anne Santos and then Deb Carney, she asked that no action be taken. She says she tried to stop the investigation or not cooperate during the investigation. NOTE: under the law, once an employee reports a potential violation like this, the employer is required to investigate and take action. Santos and Carney are not named in DiBello’s complaint.

According to Dibello’s complaint, Council members Greg Avedisian and (now former member) Forrester Safford played major and recurring roles in the alleged retaliation. DiBello charges Avedisian and Safford with threatening her with retaliation and Avedisian is blamed for giving the story to the media.

DiBello reported a lull in the conspiracy against her when Jim Mageau took over the Town Council in 2006, although she claims Safford told her she was responsible for Mageau's win and “this will come back to bite you.”

In 2008, CCA's slate of Council candidates, which included Avedisian and Safford, trounced Mageau. According to DiBello's complaint, Avedisian and Safford re-started the retaliatory campaign, supported by the other Council members.

Then in spring 2009, according to DiBello, former town administrator Sartor went to Hopkinton and met with then Hopkinton town manager DiLibero several times. DiBello claims they made a deal - Sartor would get DiLibero the better-paying Charlestown job in return for DiLibero either by forcing DiBello to quit or by firing her.

The complaint then offers DiBello's view of the string of negative encounters between her and DiLibero that led to her firing on May 19, 2010. 

DiBello brings her complaint against the town of Charlestown, Sartor and DiLibero (as expected), as well as all of the Town Council members who served from 2008-2010, plus Police Chief Shippee and GIS Coordinator Stephen Candless. Ken Swain is not named despite a recurring role in the narrative nor is former Building Inspector John Matuza who was apparently part of the December 2005 conversation.

CORRECTION: The Town and the respondents must respond in detail to this complaint within 20 calendar days of the notice from the RI Human Rights Commission, April 8.

DiBello does not claim specific damages, although she details loss of income and benefits, employability, humiliation and emotional distress. The complaint is not available on-line.

Charlestown Tax Rate Will Rise

Updated - from his vacation in a secret location, my colleague Tom Ferrio (via dial-up!) RE-SET the Progressive Charlestown Magic Tax Calculator to the new tax rate of $8.95. Plug in your old property value and your new number after re-assessment and see how this affects your taxes.

On March 28th, the town Budget Commission presented a new $25 million budget to the Town Council. As we predicted, the tax rate will go up from the present $7.48 per $1000 of valuation to $8.74 just to make up for the decline in property values.

My colleague Tom Ferrio's prediction of $8.75/$1000 was off by a penny. BUT another 21 cent rate hike - for a total of $8.95 - will be tacked on to cover increased costs, including anticipated - and long overdue - raises for town workers who have not had a raise in several years. .

As we've reported, assessments on high-end, million-dollar-plus properties were reduced much more than middle-range properties. The burden of the new tax rates will hit middle-class residents while most millionaire property owners - many of them non-residents - will get a major decrease in their taxes. For example, CCA President and Stuart, Florida resident Kallie Jurgens will still get a reduction of $568 in her taxes under the $8.95 rate. We'll be sure to remind you of that when the new tax bills get mailed out (and maybe a few other times, too).

Confessions of a NIMBY enabler

NIMBY (“Not in my backyard”) is a common term describing people opposed to LULUs (“Locally Undesirable Land Uses”).

Class War: CCA tries a little misdirection

After a long lay-off, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance is once again sending out its e-bleats with a new, cleaner looking format. Not much change in the content, but at least it's easier on the eye.

Today, they sent out an e-bleat touting an editorial that ran in today's Westerly Sun (subscription required). The editorial repeats prior suggestions about rehabbing vacant and distressed properties to serve as affordable housing rentals. The Sun notes Westerly's downtown is ringed by neighborhoods with lots of multi-family housing. They note Hopkinton has found that half of their 331 rental units are vacant.

The CCA touts all this as "A BETTER Way at Looking At Affordable Housing" presumably for Charlestown.

Have you seen many of these in C-Town?

Doesn't anybody at CCA do their homework? Charlestown doesn't have a stock of three-deckers like Westerly. Charlestown doesn't have 331 rental units like Hopkinton (unless we count the summer rentals - which would be interesting).

Charlestown has a grand total of six apartments and 136 two to five family structures. We have have 52 buildings zoned as a combination of commercial and residential. We have 260 seasonal units (no heat). Check the town's inventory of property for yourself.

Class War in Charlestown: Kallie Gets Her Wish

Kallie Jurgens has been complaining about her tax assessment for a long time. In a September 2005 Providence Journal article, she complained her ocean-view Shady Harbor property was assessed too damned high. Apparently unfamiliar with the real estate concept of “location, location, location,” Kallie complained that "I pay twice the taxes of someone north of Route 1."

To fight back, she and other out-of-state property owners formed the RI Shoreline Coalition, now the RI Statewide Coalition (RISC), to win voting rights for absentee landowners in local elections. Then they could vote against anything that might raise their taxes. Like schools.  

A few full-time, South of One residents, such as Tom DePatie, also were part of forming RISC, presumably because they thought their taxes were too damned high as well.

Kallie, her neighbors Richard and Marge Newton, Tom DePatie and others later formed the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) when Jim Mageau’s brief rise to power created a chance for the South of One Anti-Taxers to coalesce with other anti-Mageau Charlestown residents.