After Charlestown, can Stankiewicz hold a job?

Leaves Berkley MA gig after only six weeks

By Will Collette

Stonewall Stankiewicz

The Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) raised former Charlestown town administrator Mark Stankiewicz to the status of demi-god, almost running out of adjectives to describe what a wonderful guy he is.

They bitterly attacked the new Charlestown Town Council majority that swept the CCA out of power last November for forcing such a nice man out of his job.

Here’s what the CCA wrote:

Do not be fooled! This is a FORCED, not a voluntary, resignation. Mark has served the town masterfully for ten years and has no desire to leave.

 He is being forced out to avoid being fired because of ongoing difficulties with the Council President unrelated to his outstanding performance as Town Administrator.

The CCA’s own Mikey Chambers took his invective to Biblical heights:

“The people responsible for forcing Mark out of his job will be judged on their humanity and character and cannot be absolved from this heinous act unless they publicly come clean. It is not my place to forgive them this sin, they sinned in public and need to seek redemption in public."

Even though Stankiewicz told everyone who asked (including me) that “I work for the CCA,” - not the town, not the people - his party loyalty to the CCA only ran so deep.

Unbeknownst to the CCA, he actually DID have a desire to leave. He worked out a deal to become Berkley MA town administrator months before the November election. 

He was not, as the CCA and Mikey Chambers claim, forced out, although I felt he should be bounced for reasons I detailed HERE.

He began the Berkley job immediately on the SAME DAY as his last official day in Charlestown on February 13. 

As I wrote HERE, not only did Stankiewicz make the CCA look stupid, but he also seemed to be jumping into a pretty messed up town where most of its top staff had quit during the summer of 2022.

After the initial fanfare over his hiring in Berkley, it didn’t take long for Stankiewicz to bail. The Berkley Board of Selectmen’s agenda shows his resignation on March 29, effective April 22.

He lasted six weeks. Two members of the Board of Selectmen resigned at the same time. Berkley records don’t show any detail and apparently the town waits until the end of the year to publish its minutes. 

The Taunton Gazette loosely follows town news and did not report any detail about Stankiewicz’s recent departure or the numerous other resignations.

We don’t know whether Berkley asked for his resignation or whether he found yet another job.

Berkley held a special election on May 6 to replace their governing board. They named Stankiewicz’s predecessor as his successor, at least on an interim basis.

The Taunton Gazette interviewed the new Selectmen, but none of them wanted to talk about what happened to cause Stankiewicz’s departure and all the other resignations. Joseph Freitas’s remarks were classic:

"You hear stories about how Berkley is run. But it still has its rural charm, and I like that charm. And I would like it to be maintained to the best of my ability. What happened was all based on individual decisions.”

Sounds like the kind of answer you give if you’re worried about a lawsuit or are party to a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

In several ways, the legacy of Stankiewicz’s 10-year run in Charlestown remain. Our new auditors issued findings of substantial flaws in Charlestown’s financial management, all of which occurred on Stanky’s watch. 

And his pick for Town Treasurer, Irina Gorman, just handed in her notice.

Charlestown has a new interim Town Administrator

And Berkley, Massachusetts has a new Town Administrator, too

By Will Collette 

The CCA treated Stankiewicz like he was a Marvel
superhero. As far as I can tell, his superpower is to
 cover up mistakes.

It’s going to be hard for former CPD Chief Jeffrey Allen to fill the shoes of St. Stanky of Stoughton, Charlestown’s recently departed town boss who has been sanctified by the Charlestown Citizens Alliance as “the best town administrator Charlestown has ever had.” 

Except Mark Stankiewicz wasn’t the best, not by a long shot, having failed the most fundamental responsibility of the job: the proper oversight of the town’s money. 

Interesting, Stankiewicz appeared to have little good to say about his time in Charlestown, telling the Taunton Gazette that storm emergency preparation and the use of drones were his most prominent achievements during his 10 years here. 

It also looks like Stankiewicz played the CCA for chumps. While they were singing his praises and trying to save his job after the CCA lost the election, he was already carrying out his exit strategy. He doesn’t say exactly when he decided to go for the Berkley Mass town administrator job saying, according to the Gazette: 

“He was advertising for a Charlestown vacancy in the Massachusetts Municipal Association job listing when he saw the Berkley position posted. ‘I said, “This could be a good fit for me', he recalled. " 

Most of the top managers in Berkley, MA suddenly resigned last summer, leaving them desperate to find new management. They posted the job vacancy last July with a November 9 deadline for applications. I am puzzled why Stankiewicz would think that, given the turmoil in Berkley, "it would be a good fit." But I guess he saw it as better than working another year for the CCA. 

Unless Stankiewicz filed his application the day after Election Day (application deadline was November 9), he was already looking to bail well before the CCA took its well-deserved thumping at the polls. 

You may recall that Charlestown has been roiled for months by revelations that somehow town managers had “misplaced” $3 million, had been overpaying town staff by failing to count the actual number of working days in a year and that Charlestown’s administrative costs are the highest in the state. 

The buck for all these issues stops with Stankiewicz. 

Through it all, the CCA denied there were any problems at all and, if there were, it wasn’t Stanky’s fault. Maybe space aliens. And if there were problems – and the CCA isn’t saying that there were – what’s the big deal because we have such a low tax rate. 

All the while, St. Mark was planning his big escape to Berkley. His daily commute from Stoughton to Charlestown was 72 miles and 90 minutes on a good day. Berkley is only 23 miles and a 20-minute run down I-495 from his house. 

Did his top apologist, ex-CCA Councilor and Charlestown demi-resident Bonnita Van Slyke know that Stankiewicz was looking to leave when she sent all those fact-challenged screeds to the Westerly Sun defending him? 

Here’s the kicker before we move on to Chief Allen. Stankiewicz pleaded with the Town Council to have his last day set as February 13, coinciding with his 10^th anniversary and making him fully vested in the state retirement system. But also, by coincidence, February 13 is his starting day in Berkley’s Town Hall. I wonder if he’s getting paid by both towns for that day. 

Anyway, the CCA, especially Bonnie and Mikey Chambers, should face reality and get over it. Yes, he played you for chumps, but for you guys, that's situation normal.... 

Chief Allen when he was sworn in as CPD Chief in 2012

Now, moving on to new Charlestown interim town administrator Jeffrey Allen. He’s well known to many of us as a long-time Charlestown resident and our former Chief of Police. He retired in 2018 after more than six years as Chief. 

Before his term in Charlestown, Allen was an up-from-the-ranks top official in the South Kingstown Police which he joined in 1986. 

During his time in Charlestown, Chief Allen worked at building the force and a good working relationship with the Narragansett Tribal Police. In fact, before he took the job, Tribal Police Chief Jay Montey told the Independent that 

“He and I started together, and I could tell early on that he was chief material. He’s a fair guy, and a guy who is full of integrity and good character, so it’s not a surprise at all.” 

Goodwill with the Tribe got Chief Allen and the town through a series of troubling problems caused by rogue CPD ex-cop Evan Speck. 

I first heard about Speck after an April 2014 incident where Speck, against orders, went onto Tribal land looking for suspects based on a report that someone in the woods might be discharging a firearm (duh – it’s surprising when you DON’T hear shots in the woods). He confronted a group of Tribal members at Schoolhouse Pond and picked out two of them as his suspects. 

Things got very ugly as Tribal members essentially told Speck to f**k off and Speck got more and more agitated. Fortunately, a more experienced CPD member and a Tribal cop arrived in time to prevent violence. 

This case turned into Charlestown v. Gonsalves and Barber which was heard in 2015. Speck should never should have arrested the two young men. Prosecutors never should have brought the case forward. 

But one of the issues raised by the Tribe was that its sovereignty was violated. This triggered Charlestown’s paid Indian fighter, lawyer Joe Larisa, who couldn’t help but come swooping in to combat any such claim. 

The facts in the case were pretty clear that Speck should have listened to orders to not cross into tribal land and certainly should not have made the arrests. To read the engrossing details of this case, CLICK HERE. That's how the judge ruled, dismissing the charges and blasting Charlestown for bringing such a ridiculous case.

Chief Allen did his best to calm things down and to bring Officer Speck under control. But Speck would have none of it. He sued Charlestown and the Chief for discriminating against him because he had ADHD. 

This all took a big turn on March 26, 2017, when the FBI, DEA and other federal and state agencies raided Speck’s home and found cash and a large quantity of steroids. Speck pleaded guilty to three federal charges for money laundering and drug dealing. He received a hybrid sentence that included some jail time, a long probation and community service. 

He also dropped his lawsuit and was ordered to send an apology to the town and the CPD. 

Getting the town through all this earned Chief Allen a lot of respect in my mind.

I don’t know if Chief Allen is interested in the town administrator job permanently, but I do wish him wish him a successful tenure, however long it may be.

Still time to vote on Charlestown’s budget

June 5 deadline

By Will Collette

You still have time to vote for Charlestown’s $16 million municipal budget. As a formality, the budget ballot – mailed to every voter in town – also lists the $14 million Chariho budget which has already been approved in a separate vote of voters in the three Chariho towns.

You can send in that ballot by mail – though do it now to make sure it arrives on time – or put it in the drop box at Town Hall, or you can vote in person next MONDAY. I sent in my “yes” vote over a week ago.

This is the first budget not written by the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) since 2010 when they took over Charlestown. As anyone who has been paying attention knows, the CCA was routed at the polls last November by Charlestown Residents United (CRU) who hold the Council with a 4-1 majority coalition.

Budget issues were a major factor in that election.

This year’s budget is strangely without drama but not without a high element of weirdness. The weird part is the extent to which sky-rocketing tax assessments (50% on average) jacked up the tax base. The practical effect is to lower Charlestown’s tax rate to an unprecedented level. The current estimate is a rate of $5.74. Calculate your estimated taxes HERE.

For all the years the CCA ruled Charlestown, they touted Charlestown’s low tax rate as their crowning achievement, never mentioning that the rate is solely dependent on the tax base because your taxes equal the rate times your tax assessment.

This new tax rate is the lowest in historical data listed on Tax Assessor’s Ken Swain’s chart found HERE. I wonder how the CCA will spin that. 

I predict that CCA leader Ruth Platner will take the credit for her crafty use of taxpayer money to buy land the town didn’t need at criminally inflated prices.

See the whole budget HERE.

Finance shake-up

Last December, when the RI Public Expenditure Council released its annual report on municipal finance, Charlestown came off very badly, with administration costs the highest in the state.

When our last auditors revealed a “$3 million oopsie,” a misplacement of money that led to a string of budgeting errors, no one in the CCA administration wanted to take responsibility, though they were very willing to spin, distract, and lie as best they could. Other uncovered errors were given the same treatment.

The auditors resigned a step ahead of being fired and the new auditors reviewed the years of errors citing the town for three significant categories of financial mismanagement. All those CCA claims of being premier money managers went down the toilet and they paid for it at the polls.

The CCA lost its majority and their golden boy Mark Stankiewicz had already lined up a new town administrator job, unbeknownst to the CCA, in Berkley MA. Stankiewicz’s prodigy Town Treasurer Irina Gorman has since resigned.

Stankiewicz only lasted six weeks in Berkley before he either jumped off or was pushed. 

A confidential source told me he’s now Finance Director in Pawtucket, even though he’s already told co-workers that he’s “no finance guy,” as his Charlestown record confirms. The source also tells me Irina Gorman will be following him.

Obviously, we need new, better financial management.

This year’s budget creates a new position of Charlestown Finance Director. Hopefully, we’ll find someone actually qualified and motivated to do the job. The budget allocates $187,000 to get that going.

Ditto on finding a new Town Administrator, although I’d be fine if interim TA, former CPD Chief Jeffrey Allen, stayed on. And double ditto on finding a new town Treasurer.

It’s also well past time for Budget Commission chair Dick Sartor to resign. He shares blame for much of the financial mismanagement. His leadership after the slip-ups became public was more about image management than about problem solving. Dick – it’s not a lifetime position.

CCA favorite, former Charlestown Town Administrator Mark Stankiewicz leaves the second job he’s held since leaving Charlestown in 2023

After only two years, Stankiewicz leaves Pawtucket Finance Director position

By Will Collette

He manned the ramparts at Town Hall,
fending off all non-CCA interlopers

Remember Stanky? For 10 years, Mark Stankiewicz did the ruling Charlestown Citizens Alliance's bidding. He insured a place for himself in the CCA Hall of Fame by being a Town Administrator who actually told me that he “works for the CCA” and not the citizens of Charlestown.

Ex Town Administrator Stankiewicz served the CCA by covering up shady land deals, denying access to public records and rationalizing financial screw-ups such as the CCA’s infamous “$3 million Oopsie” where $3 million in Charlestown funds were, to use Stanky’s term “misallocated” for two years. The CCA is STILL talking about what a great job he did.

Under Stankiewicz, Charlestown racked up the state’s highest per capita administrative costs - $566 per capita. Compare that to Cumberland, the lowest at $106 or to our neighbors in South Kingstown ($175), Richmond ($199), Hopkinton ($234) or Westerly ($270). But to the CCA, he was worth every penny.

He left Charlestown February 2023 after the 2022 election that saw voters overturn the CCA's decade of control over the Town Council.

CCA spokes-troll Bonnita Van Slyke claimed Charlestown Residents United (CRU), winners of the 2022 and 2024 town elections, ousted Stankiewicz and denied there were ever any problems. The CCA Steering Committee stridently asserted: “Do not be fooled! This is a FORCED, not a voluntary, resignation. Mark has served the town masterfully for ten years and has no desire to leave.”

But the fools turned out to be the CCA because Stankiewicz had already lined up a new job to become Town Administrator in Berkley Massachusetts even before the first vote in November 2022 was counted. Clearly, the CCA was clueless about his secret plan and looked pretty stupid.

Stankiewicz played the game out to its end, squeezing more money out of the citizens of Charlestown by timing his departure to coincide with his February 13, 2023 first day at his new job.

He only lasted six weeks in Berkley. In his resignation letter, Stanky told the town "It's because I got a fine job offer, and after careful consideration, I am taking it. I was approached with this job offer. Another municipal position. I wasn't searching for another job. I wasn't looking. If not for this job offer, I'd still be here."

That “fine job offer” was a gig as Pawtucket Finance Director.

Confidential sources in Pawtucket city government told me Stanky’s 2023 appointment was made by Pawtucket Mayor Donald Grebien over the objections of top city officials. Shortly after taking the job, Stankiewicz told subordinates that he "isn't a finance guy" clearly indicating that he didn’t think he was qualified for the job he was holding. His record in Charlestown certainly supports that admission.

Stankiewicz brought Irina Gorman, Charlestown’s ex-treasurer who was directly involved in the $3 million “oopsie,” with him and she became Pawtucket Treasurer.

Upped the Mayor’s salary by almost double

One of Stankiewicz’s first major projects was to engineer a huge pay increase for his patron, Mayor Grebien – raising the Mayor’s base salary from $80,000 to $150,000. No doubt Grabien appreciated the value of such an unquestioning soldier as Stanky.

Mistakes led to big money trouble for Pawtucket Schools

An on-going problem that was apparently due to Stankiewicz’s inattention was last year’s revelations that money had run out to continue construction of two new schools. Pawtucket voters had approved $570 million in borrowing.

Here’s how the Providence Journal described what happened:

The situation became obvious in mid-March when city Finance Director Mark Stankiewicz alerted public schools Superintendent Patricia Royal in a memo that money for key payments was running out. Stankiewicz warned in the memo that without additional funds for ongoing projects, come April 15, "we will no longer be able to make substantial contractor payments in order to reserve sufficient funds for normal operating expenses, including payroll."

Stankiewicz said records show that of the $220 million approved, just $30 million in bonds were issued last May. In the meantime, roughly $50 million has been spent on the school projects. From the state, $40 million has been paid out for the projects, and Stankiewicz said in his mid-March memo that there's no money left, and there were no requests for further funding from the Rhode Island Health and Educational Building Corporation, the "quasi-public" agency that helps health care and educational institutions access financing for construction and renovation projects.

This looks remarkably like how Stanky handled Charlestown’s $3 million “Oopsie.” 

While it’s a good thing that Stankiewicz brought this issue to the School Superintendent’s attention, the crucial mistakes that led to this financial crisis happened on his watch during the ten months after he became Finance Director.

Here’s how the Pawtucket City Council President described it:

[City Council President Terrence] Mercer said it was his sense the problem is "a whole host of things that don't seem to be getting done," including crucially important reimbursement requests that need to be sent to the state's education department if the city is to get more money for its projects.

Part of the issue, Mercer suspects, is some recent turnover in the finance department, which caused the city to lose institutional knowledge.

Council President Mercer is talking about Stankiewicz. As Finance Director, it was his job to not only make sure city bills got paid but also that city collected the reimbursements that it was due. He does not get any points for finally warning the School Superintendent that the money had run out when he should have attended to it from Day One.

It's deja vu all over again and a much bigger screw-up than the CCA's $3 million oopsie.

This will cost every Rhode Island household at least $302

Stankiewicz has also been a major player in the controversial minor league soccer stadium being built in Pawtucket. It’s first home game was just held ending in a zero-zero tie. 

The stadium is receiving a massive amount of corporate welfare from city and state funds. Rhode Island taxpayers are on the hook for $132 million in bond payments. When the bonds are paid off on this nice stadium, neither the state nor the city will have any ownership stake in the venue. According to GoLocal, that will cost the average Rhode Island household $302 each.

The project ended up 50% over budget and years late. The City of Pawtucket’s lead financial advisors resigned after concerns about the long-term financial future of the stadium were unheeded.

In a letter to the City, three executives of Hilltop Securities wrote:

“As you know we have detailed concerns about the proposed stadium transaction and bond offering. As a fiduciary to the City of Pawtucket and its development agency…we must do what we believe is in the City’s and PRA’s best interest…Therefore, please let this serve as Hilltop’s notice to the city and the PRA of our withdrawal as municipal advisor on this bond offering”

The letter was dated August 16, 2023, a couple of months after Stankiewicz took over as Pawtucket Finance Director. Despite this protest resignation, Stankiewicz soldiered on with this project while cancelling numerous other city projects – and neglecting to pay attention to the city schools finances.

So what? Why should Charlestown voters care?

The life and times of Mark Stankiewicz continue to be relevant to Charlestown residents and not just because every Rhode Island household is on the hook for $302 to pay for the Pawtucket soccer stadium.

The CCA’s determined deification of Stankiewicz speaks to the CCA’s lack of judgment on financial and governance matters, something voters need to remember. As recently as last July, the CCA is still defending Stankiewicz and denying that the thoroughly documented financial screw-ups ever happened.

You can bet that if the CCA somehow regains control over the Charlestown Town Council, they’ll be looking to replace our steady, drama-free Town Administrator Jeff Allen with some toady like Stanky. We don’t need to go backwards.

If you are interested in applying for Stankiewicz’s Pawtucket job, the city wants to hire ASAP.

Here is the job posting:

Van Slyke’s “commitment” to apple pie and motherhood is not enough to make up for fiscal mismanagement.

Van Slyke must answer for CCA’s glaring financial blunders that she helped to create

By Will Collette

Loving animals and nature is not this election's key issue,
but money management is

The Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) retread candidate Bonnita B. Van Slyke in the December 2 town council special election just issued a piece in the CCA blog that reprises her promises to support a broad array of environmental issues, the same ones she covered at length in her big, fancy mailer.

Her two opponents, Democrat Jill Fonnemann and Republican Laura Rom, also believe in protecting our environment – clean water, healthy ponds and streams, dark skies, and all our critters and birds. Jill is especially strong on animal protection. The candidates differ on how to achieve our goals, but don’t differ on the goals themselves.

So let’s stipulate that all the candidates love our town and its beautiful environs. And dogs.

The real difference between Van Slyke and her rivals comes into sharp relief when you look at her record on how to manage the taxpayers’ money. Van Slyke makes two “promises” that are belied by her actions and omissions.

Van Slyke pledges “to provide open, honest, responsible leadership” and commits to “manage our town’s administration and budgets effectively” which she failed to do during her previous time on the Town Council.

Bonnie B. left the Town Council in 2022 at the height of Charlestown’s worst financial scandal in a generation, a crisis where she was one of the key architects and led the cover-up and misinformation campaign.

And in her own writings for this special election, she still is.

In 2022, Charlestown learned that under the total control of the Charlestown Citizens Alliance, Charlestown had not only achieved the dubious distinction of having the highest administrative costs in the state but that this CCA-controlled administration had “lost” (they say “misallocated”) $3 million for two years. The “$3 million oopsie.”

Van Slyke was the CCA’s principal spokesperson leading the cover-up and disinformation campaign to deny there was a problem and, failing that, blame someone else while refusing reasonable requests for an outside, impartial review.

Van Slyke pushed – and still pushes – pumping up the town’s surplus (“Unassigned fund balance”) beyond any reasonable need. The $3 million oopsie grew out of the accumulated pockets of cash the CCA had squirreled away in the town budget often used to finance Planning Commissar Ruth Platner’s shady land deals.

Van Slyke praised and defended ex-Town Administrator Mark Stankiewicz even though he failed at his #1 job which was to take care of the money. Instead, he presided over ending legal public access to records about the town’s finances and shady land deals and allowed the $3 million to get lost. Then Stanky and ex-Budget Commission Chair Dick Sartor did their own self-audit and of course found themselves blameless.

Van Slyke consistently obstructed every effort by then minority Council member Deb Carney to bring in an outside forensic auditor to find out what really happened and to fix it.

And did I mention that according to the RI Public Expenditure Council, Charlestown’s administrative costs peaked as the worst in the state per capita during the final year of CCA's reign? We're right there at the very bottom of the chart. Here's what RIPEC found (and note that the CCA NEVER even acknowledged this data, never mind acted on it):

Voters threw out the CCA in 2022, electing four of five Charlestown Residents United (CRU) candidates, leaving the CCA with only Susan Cooper to wave their flag. Cooper dropped out in 2024 and voters replaced her with another CRU candidate, giving CRU a 5-0 supermajority.

Stonewall Stanky, Charlestown's cover-up king

After the 2022 election, one of the first orders of business was what to do with erstwhile Town Administrator Mark Stankiewicz, executor of the CCA’s clamp down on public records and failed money manager. Right up until Stanky’s exit, Van Slyke praised his feckless performance as masterful and condemned the CRU for driving out this superhero.

The facts showed that Stanky’s only talent was his loyalty to the CCA, but even that turned out to be phony. It turns out Stanky had already lined up a new job in Berkley, MA even before the 2022 election which the CCA was expected to win.

While clueless Van Slyke and the CCA were campaigning to save his job in 2023, Stanky was already out the door and was simply trying to get the biggest severance package he could. Incidentally, Stanky only lasted six weeks at the Berkley job before moving on to mess up Pawtucket’s finances.

Then in 2025, Van Slyke and the CCA repeated the process when the CRU decided not to confirm CCA-aligned Budget Commission chair Dick Sartor – a central figure in the CCA fiscal meltdown – to another term on the Commission. Sartor failed at his job to provide oversight over Charlestown’s finances and teamed with Stankiewicz to run the cover-up of the $3 million oopsie.

The CRU wanted him out but naturally, Van Slyke wanted him retained. Ever the champion of incompetence.

Since the CCA was booted out of office, the CRU-led Town Council has done a great job of cleaning up the mess the CCA left. And to see exactly what the CRU did, see what the state's chief auditor found. 

According to the Rhode Island Auditor General, in their first year in office, the CRU-led Council improved Charlestown’s financial management in the following ways:

Raised more revenue. 

Under the CCA, revenue was $28 million. Under the CRU, this increased to $30 million.

Lowered expenses. 

RIPEC flagged Charlestown’s highest in the state expenses which were $31.2 million, more than the revenue collected. Under the CRU, expenses dropped to $29.8 million.

Increased the town’s savings. 

This is the unassigned fund balance (UFB) that the CCA criticized the CRU for failing to increase. In fact, according to the Auditor General, the CRU raised the UFB by 17% from the CCA’s $5.3 million to $6.2 million.

Improved pension funding. 

Funding to cover future pension costs rose from the CCA’s $8.3 million level to $8.8 million under the CRU.

Reduced Charlestown’s debt by a LOT. 

Under the CCA, Charlestown’s debt was $7.9 million. Under the CRU, debt dropped to $6 million, almost 25% less.

Erased the deficit the CCA left behind. 

According to the Auditor General, the CCA left behind a DEFICIT of $3,266,029. The CRU erased that deficit and ended FY23 with a SURPLUS of $157,666.

This table on page 16 of the Auditor General’s report gives the detail:

Not once has the CCA acknowledged these hard facts, sticking instead to Bonnita Van Slyke's false narrative that the CCA was infallible. Oh, she also loves her dog.

Election started today (November 12)

Early, in-person voting has started at Town Hall. If you plan to vote by mail, ask our Town Clerk Amy Weinreich for a mail ballot application. If you've already applied, your ballot should be on the way.

Generally, special elections like this draw almost exclusively from those who pay attention to politics. Turn out is usually very low, maybe a thousand if we're lucky. A three-way race like this is especially hard to predict. 

The CCA will spend from its huge treasury built on non-resident cash to send you fancy mailers telling you Charlestown needs to go back to the good old days when they ran things. The financial facts shown above tell a very different story. 

Democrat Jill Fonnemann is pledged to support the CRU’s sound financial management for a better, more prosperous Charlestown. Let's move FORWARD, not backwards. 

Another person burned by Copar Quarries comes forward

Businessman charges Copar with reneging on contract

Brunswick Mill fire, 2000 (CT DEEP photo)

By Will Collette

For previous coverage of Copar Quarries, click here.

Business developer John Gauvin of Saunderstown read the Progressive Charlestown coverage of the Copar Quarries and wrote “I, as the Managing Member of Old Village Mill LLC of Connecticut want to add myself as a victim of Sam Cocopard. In the summer of 2009 I went through a ton of problems with Sam Cocopard and Dan T. Tons of broken promises one after another.”

Gauvin sent me documents describing how in 2009, Sam Cocopard whose company was then called the Copar Corporation, made Gauvin an offer for a lease to restore and excavate a former industrial site – one of EPA’s “brownfield” sites, the site of the Brunswick Mills that burned down in 2000 - in Moosup, CT that Gauvin planned to develop into the Old Village Mill project.

Cocopard’s offer to Gauvin was similar to the one he just signed with Richmond Commons developer John Aiello. Copar would go onto the site of the future development to blast, mine and remove stone and gravel for sale to outside customers and, in the process, prepare the land for development.

Cocopard offered Gauvin a price of $10 a ton for the stone at the Moosup Old Village Mill site, compared to $1 a ton he promises to pay Aiello for removing stone from the Richmond Common site.

The CCA was responsible for Charlestown's 2022 financial crisis

CCA Council candidate Van Slyke wants you to forget what they did

By Will Collette

The Charlestown Citizens Alliance, for reasons known only to themselves, are trying to boost Ruth Platner's favorite puppet, ex-Town Counciler Bonnita Van Slyke, candidacy to return to the Council.

She and I are dueling in the Letter to the Editor pages of the Westerly Sun, something I'd rather not do. Generally, I'm content to watch the cranks bang away at each other. 

But Van Slyke's recent efforts to re-write history to canonize ex-Town Administrator Mark Stankiewicz and now ex-Budget Commission chair Richard Sartor as well as erase the financial screw-ups that cost the CCA the 2022 election demanded a response.

Tenacious deep-digging by Steve Hoff and Council President Deb Carney uncovered years of financial mismanagement by Sartor, Stankiewicz and the CCA Council majority. 

Van Slyke's position was that both Stankiewicz and Sartor deserved to continue in their jobs because they were there a long time and, hey, how 'bout that tax rate? Bonnie says everything was fine and nothing happened because...low tax rate.

How do you argue with Charlestown Citizen Alliance Council candidate Bonnita Van Slyke when she just makes stuff up?

My rebuttal letter to Van Slyke's rebuttal appears below. No doubt, there will be another Van Slyke letter, then another and another as we find ourselves in an Escher's Loop. Unless someone else wants to get into this game of ping-pong. 

At some point, I'm going to get bored with this and simply stop. But for now, if Van Slyke wants to keep reminding voters how badly the CCA screwed up the money, then fine. That really worked well in the 2022 election.

Here's my letter to the Sun:

I challenged Van Slyke’s glorification of former Budget Commission Chair Richard Sartor and former Town Administrator Mark Stankiewicz. I argued both should have resigned after facts revealed they mismanaged Charlestown’s money for years.

Van Slyke says there was no mismanagement. She ignores the expansive cover-up where Stankiewicz used every trick in the state open records law to delay, deny and black out public records showing the extent of that mismanagement.

Here’s how that worked. You ask for public records. You are stalled until the last possible hour when you receive an astounding price quote for the cost of retrieval and review. Nothing happens unless you agree to pay. If you pay, you get page after page of documents almost completely blacked out. You can appeal but that takes adds more delay.

After a struggle, the truth did come out – at least enough to verify the “misallocation” of $3 million, as Stankiewicz called it and some of the underlying problems.

But not all. That’s why many Charlestown residents called for an outside review, including a forensic audit, to get to the heart of the matter.

Van Slyke and her CCA Council colleagues refused to even placean outside review on the agenda for discussion and had Sartor and Stankiewicz conduct a self-audit that of course found them blameless. Later reviews found serious systemic financial management issues. Van Slyke says they came out clean every time only showing she didn’t read them.

Van Slyke repeats her lie that poor Mark Stankiewicz was “forced out” by the new Council majority when records show Stankiewicz had lined up a new job in Berkley, MA months before the 2022 election while Van Slyke and her CCA colleagues still assumed they were invincible at the polls.

Bonnita declares I have no right to raise these issues because it hurts Sartor’s and Stankiewicz’s feelings so the Democratic Town Committee should silence me. Maybe the CCA can control what its followers say, but not the rest of us.

For a decade, Sartor, Stankiewicz and the CCA Council majority failed their primary responsibility: properly manage the taxpayers’ money. They claimed – Van Slyke still does – that everything was fine because Charlestown has a low tax rate.

Van Slyke wants to return to the Council. The CCA wants to regain the majority on a campaign crafted from a tissue of lies. They will say or do whatever they can to win.

In 2022, Charlestown voters pierced the CCA’s fog of deception and voted them out. On November 5, I hope they will do it again.

Poor Bonnie

Van Slyke's lament

By Will Collette

Van Slyke (right) at a Council meeting with her BFF
Ruth Platner, leader of the CCA

I wrote this as a letter to the editor of the Westerly Sun in rebuttal to a long screed the Sun had published from Van Slyke. The Sun published my letter earlier today.

Here's my letter: 

Ex-Charlestown Town Council member Bonnie Van Slyke is upset that the new Town Council majority is holding too many meetings [Letter: Charlestown special meetings inefficient, not transparent]. She and what’s left of the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) can’t keep up.

That’s not “transparent,” she says, and it’s “inefficient.”

When the CCA ran Charlestown, Council decisions were made
in the secret CCA clubhouse. Very efficient.

In the decade-plus the CCA ruled Charlestown, Council decisions were handled very efficiently.

The CCA would hold its secret steering committee meetings at undisclosed locations and make the decisions the CCA Council members would vote in lockstep to enact.

Very efficient and, in its way, transparent since we all knew that was how the CCA ran the town.

They made sure their compliant Town Administrator clamped down on public access to information on shady land deals, financial foul-ups and imaginary threats concocted by the CCA to drive fear among the voters. 

NOTE: former town Administrator Mark Stankiewicz even kept his own departure secret, lining up a new job in Berkley, MA even before voters booted the CCA. In the bargain, he made the CCA look like chumps.

It took more than a decade of this, but last November, Charlestown voters wised up and ousted the CCA from power. The new Council majority has indeed been calling a lot of meetings because it takes time and effort to clean up the mess the CCA left behind. They don’t consider it an option to make those decisions in secret.

Slyke of hand, again

Van Slyke defends Budget Chair who helped mess up town finances

By Will Collette

Sartor is outta here

On July 8, the Charlestown Town Council appointed two applicants to fill the two vacancies on the Budget Commission; returning Commission member, Gregory Plunkett and Michael Marcylenas, who holds a bachelors degree in Actuarial Mathematics.

This has mightily angered long-time Budget Chair Richard Sartor’s patrons, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA PAC). Their leading scribe Bonnita Van Slyke penned another one of her fact-challenged missives praising Sartor to the heavens and condemning the CCA’s archenemies, Charlestown Residents United (CRU), which holds a 4 to 1 majority on the Council.

When Van Slyke was still on the Council (she’s hoping to make a comeback), I wrote a series of “Slyke of Hand” articles taking apart Van Slyke’s numerous false or ridiculous claims, mostly about town finances. Here we go again.

She wrote the broadside reprinted below. The parts in blue are the exact words attributed to her (I don’t know if she actually wrote it). The parts in bold red are my fact-checking and rebuttal. Here we go.

Silencing A Voice Of Experience On The Charlestown Budget Commission

Bonnie Van Slyke 

On July 8, the current Charlestown Town Council majority got rid of a highly qualified and experienced member of the Budget Commission, Dick Sartor. Mr. Sartor had applied to be reappointed, and he was not. This sacking of Mr. Sartor was carried out by a Town Council majority that says institutional knowledge, and qualifications, are of utmost importance in government.

Sartor’s institutional knowledge and experience is that of screwing up. That does’t entitle him to another term. Read on for specifics.

Mr. Sartor was, until July 8, the chair of the Commission. He had served admirably on the Commission for almost 20 years. He has a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s degree in public administration. He has over 40 years of experience in town and city management, and he served as Charlestown’s Town Administrator in the early 2000s. He is skilled in budgetary preparation, planning, and evaluation of fiscal proposals.

The Budget Commission advises the Town Council on budgetary matters. The reason the Council’s action is so completely mind boggling is that our town has seen its Town Administrator of 10 years forced out by this Council majority, has had two Town Treasurers leave, and is now on its third auditing firm—all since November 2022.

Van Slyke (CCA photo)

WHOA! What an incredible pack of lies. Town Administrator Mark Stankiewicz was NOT forced out. In fact, he had lined up a new job months BEFORE the 2022 election, but milked months of extra salary from the taxpayers.

Stanky began his new job as Berkley, MA’s town manager on his last day in Charlestown in February 2023. He lasted six weeks.

Van Slyke knows all this but repeats the CCA lie because the truth makes them look like chumps.

Then, over objections from top financial officials in Pawtucket, Stanky got a patronage job as Finance Director from Mayor Donald Grebien even though he admitted he was “no finance guy.” His Charlestown experience certainly showed that.

In Pawtucket, Stankiewicz has helped Mayor Griebien get a close to 50% pay hike and a massive corporate welfare scheme for a planned $137 million soccer stadium heavily subsidized by taxpayers all while Pawtucket’s schools are having trouble paying their bills. Stanky is still a political stooge but on a much larger scale.

And Bonnie misses him.

Incidentally, Stanky took Irina Gorman, one of those failed Town Treasurers mentioned in Bonnie’s letter, with him to fill the same job in Pawtucket. Further on, I deal with the auditors.

Mark Stankiewicz was a terrible town administrator. How terrible? CLICK HERE. Among his worst offenses was covering up the Sartor and CCA “$3 million oopsie” as well as the CCA’s shady land deals.

He kept his job because he did exactly what the CCA told him to do, even if it was unethical or illegal.

Were it not for Dick Sartor’s experience and skill at the helm of the Budget Commission, the town would not have been able to develop the 2024–2025 budget on time this past June. There was no draft budget; there was no audit of the previous year’s finances; and there was little to no institutional knowledge in the Finance Department.

The problems Van Slyke complains about were caused by Sartor and the CCA and the mess they left behind. The CCA, Budget Commission, Charlestown’s long-time auditor and Stankiewicz failed to spot a “$3 million oopsie” – a misallocation of funds that remained unnoticed on the books for almost two years.

Instead of acknowledging the “oopsie,” Sartor and the CCA looked for ways to try to cover it up and explain it away. The scapegoated auditor quit.

The CCA hired another auditing firm, Marcum LLP, just before the new majority took office. Marcum’s audit confirmed the serious problems that had escaped Sartor’s and Stankiewicz’s attention.

That was helpful, but Marcum's over=billing practices were unacceptable. The CRU majority fired them. Shortly after that, the US Securities and Exchange Commission fined Marcum LLP $10,000,000 because, the SEC charged, "Marcum prioritized increased revenue over audit quality.".

In producing this year’s budget, probably his last, Sartor also allegedly committed an unforced error by leading a discussion of raises for the town’s unionized workers.

This violates the terms of their contract – you ONLY discuss terms and conditions within the collective bargaining process. Teamster Local 251 notified the town it will file charges of Unfair Labor Practices (ULPs) with the NLRB. (Agenda Package at page 207). With all of Sartor’s vast knowledge and experience, that’s a rookie mistake.

With Mr. Sartor at the helm of the Budget Commission, Charlestown was the first town in the state to develop a written Fund Balance Policy, which was based on an independent evaluation of the risks the town faces.

Sartor pushed Charlestown to maintain a fund balance (surplus) far in excess of what financial experts consider prudent even for the most generous “rainy day” fund.

Sartor said he wanted to give the town the option to pay cash for major capital projects (roads, bridges, buildings, etc.) instead of issuing low-interest municipal bonds.

Now unless you studied financial management under William Shakespeare (“neither a borrower or lender be” – Polonius in Hamlet), that’s a stupid policy.

Regular people take out mortgages and car loans for household capital costs and don't pay cash. So do normal municipalities. But Sartor’s modus operandi called for a needlessly large surplus that increases taxes.

In good part because of Mr. Sartor’s service, Charlestown is one of the most solvent towns in the state, has been able to achieve a tax rate that is among the lowest in Rhode Island, and has, at the same time, provided excellent government services to taxpayers.

For the 1000^th time, the CCA harps on the tax RATE while ignoring the other key factor in determining what you pay in taxes. That’s the property ASSESSMENT.

Tax rate X property assessment = what you pay in taxes.

Charlestown’s tax rate actually went up under the CCA. It stayed relatively low because it was propped up by rising house prices. Average residents still saw steady increases in taxes, but hey, says the CCA, “how ‘bout that tax rate?”

After voters booted the CCA in 2022, the tax rate fell to $5.74 and is expected to go up by only four cents under the new budget. Now, if the CCA was still in power, they’d take credit for the drop and would ignore the role rocketing assessments played in causing the drop.

Sartor’s only role was to trumpet the CCA’s false narrative that only the tax rate matters. If that’s the case, the CRU’s 2023 tax rate at $5.74 beat the CCA’s peak rate of $10.21 by almost half.

The loss of Mr. Sartor’s knowledge, experience, and institutional knowledge is unfortunate. One can only wonder why the Town Council majority would remove Mr. Sartor’s practiced eye from oversight of the town’s budget.

"Practiced eye?" "Oversight?" how do you spell "oopsie?" Richard Sartor vehemently opposed a proposal by Town Council President Deb Carney to commission an outside forensic audit triggered by the “$3 million oopsie.” Instead, Sartor and Stanky did the review themselves and, of course, found themselves blameless.

One last item that is part of Sartor’s legacy. Under him and the CCA majority, the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council (RIPEC) ranked Charlestown as having the highest administrative costs in the state. Details HERE.

If Sartor was an honorable man, he would have taken his fair share of blame for Charlestown’s financial chaos and $3 million oopsie and resigned. Instead, tapes of Budget Commission meetings show Sartor was much more concerned about protecting his image, minimizing the problems in public perception and assigning blame to others.