UPDATED: Town Council meeting highlights, so to speak

At least it was short

The meeting included some light entertainment

By Will Collette

UPDATE: The Clerkbase video links for the various parts of the meeting went on line earlier today (thank you, Amy) so you can see and listen to the discussions described below and decide for yourself if I exaggerated or made anything up.

The meeting was short – one hour and fifty minutes. Not exactly filled with drama, but it did have its interesting, even funny, moments.

Among the items discussed were red light cameras, opposition to commercial shell-fishing in in Quonochontaug Pond, beach clean-up, a bike path to the beach and paying to send students to charter schools.

No lights, cameras or action

The discussion about red light cameras was brief and part of Acting Town Administrator Pat Anderson’s report. As you may recall, the controversial subject of installing red light cameras at Charlestown’s five Route One intersections with traffic lights was resolved when the Council awarded the contract to a company called Sensys, largely on the company’s claim that they are a “local” company, even though they are definitely not. Click here for Pat's report.

There was a very bad accident two weeks ago at the intersection of Wildflower and Route One (at the Hitching Post and the motels) where a red-light runner smashed into and critically injured Melissa Verrecchia of Coventry. This is one of the intersections where a camera is supposed to be installed.

According to Pat, Sensys has “run into a snag.” The quotes they have received from local contractors to install the cameras are running four to five times higher than Sensys is used to paying. Pat did not say what the resolution was going to be but said this higher cost was not considered when Sensys offered to install and maintain the system at no cost to Charlestown.

What that means for the future of the red light camera system is unclear, but it raises the question about whether the money will work – issues I raised last year.

When the contract was being considered, I found lots of inconsistencies with the claims Sensys had made, in particular about its local roots. I passed along all of this information to the town, but it was ignored. You would think that if Sensys is as local as they claimed to be, they would know about the local contractor market.

I support the idea of red light cameras and saw how their presence tended to curb red light running in Washington DC. They might not have prevented Ms. Verrecchia from being hurt, but then again, they might have deterred the driver who hit her from zooming through the light. Cameras certainly would make it easier to prosecute and punish the offender.

Aquaculture battle

Quonochontaug Pond - the controversy centers on a proposal
for aquaculture in the western (left) part of the pond

At the request of the Salt Pond Coalition, the Council adopted a resolution by Council boss Tom Gentz (CCA) to object to DEM plans to license a commercial shell-fishing operation at the western end of Quonochontaug Pond. Coalition president Arthur Ganz made of point of saying the Salt Pond Coalition doesn’t oppose aquaculture in general, and is not opposed to a similar operation proposed for the eastern end of the pond, but doesn’t like the one on the western end. Click here for this discussion.

I couldn’t help but notice that the site for the disputed western shell-fishing operation seems to be within sight of those good RI Statewide Coalition folks in Shelter Harbor, and in particular, founder Harry Staley. Ganz said that he hoped the operation would move somewhere else.

Beach Clean-up

Councilor Dan Slattery (CCA) was really lathered up by what were, to him, a lot of citizen complaints about beach properties that still were cluttered with storm debris from Hurricane Sandy. He had two resolutions on this Council agenda to attack this problem. This set up a fascinating duel pitting Slattery against Councilors Gentz, George Tremblay (CCA) and Lisa DiBello who are usually allied with him.

Slattery wanted to come down hard on those errant beach property owners and threaten them with town sanctions if they failed to act. He called on Town Solicitor Peter Ruggiero to amplify so Peter explained how at a certain point, Town Building Official Joe Warner could cite property owners for allowing hazards on their property and then haul them into our municipal court. Slattery emphasized that, in his opinion, out of state property owners were the problem.

Cleaning up rich people's beach property - fun for the whole family.
Great way to celebrate Earth Day

Whoa, whoa, whoa said Gentz, Tremblay and DiBello almost in unison. Let’s go easy on the trigger, Dan. Let’s try to be nice and ask them to voluntarily comply. 

In fact, let’s dedicate Charlestown’s Earth Day (April 22) festivities to recruiting town residents to go down to the beach and clean up these carpetbaggers’ properties. Yassuh.

There might even be some diamond rings or sterling silverware in the rubble.

Gentz, Tremblay and DiBello want to conduct major outreach to get town residents on board with the idea of making things nice for those Florida and Connecticut summer residents. DiBello even proposed using the town’s emergency Code Red telephone alert system to solicit volunteers – she suggested activating the system three or four times. 

I'm not making any of this up. If you don't believe me, listen for yourself (click here and here).

Lisa, I already get enough robo-calls offering me free alarm systems, better rates on credit cards and medic alerts. I do not need repeated town robo-call solicitations hustling me to clean up the property of our summer visitors. Wasn’t one of the reasons why you, and Gentz and Slattery, voted against the Homestead Tax Credit was so these out of state poobahs would have the money to hire local contractors to do work around their property?

While signing up for Code Red phone alerts is generally a sensible thing to do (click here), if Charlestown starts to use the system for this type of solicitation, we’re going to need an opt-out mechanism.

Slattery, who kept saying “we have to do something,” wasn’t thrilled with this outcome, but it was clear he wasn’t going to get Council permission to assemble a posse to go after these debris miscreants. So put the horses back in the barn.

Beach bike path

Gentz's folly - yellow line as the crow flies; the actual route would curve along
Charlestown Beach Road

Tom Gentz was in full Uncle Fluffy mode as he advanced his idea that it’d be really swell if Charlestown had a bike path-walkway that extended from Matunuck Schoolhouse Road down Charlestown Town Beach Road to the water. 

That’s about 1.5 miles. The current road is very narrow and the town right of way is only one foot past the roadway on either side.

A bicycle and walking path would need to be at least four feet wide. Gentz says the best side for this is the west side so that at least part of the way, the path could be on the other side of an old existing stretch of stone wall.

Though it’s a really sweet and well-intentioned idea, it’s hard to know where to start in listing the problems with it. Let’s start with the need to get property owners to give the town a voluntary easement of four feet – more if the property also has stone wall as part of the frontage.

There are over 150 properties listed in the Tax Assessor’s database with Charlestown Beach Road addresses. Since the path would be only on the west side, cut that number in half – i.e. at least 75 properties. To make this path feasible, all 75+ property owners would have to agree to give up rights along their frontage at least four feet back from the road.

Councilor Paula Andersen (D) raised the question of liability. Gentz looked over at Solicitor Ruggiero who said that if the town could get the Charlestown Land Trust to take title to the 75 easements, then maybe the Trust’s liability insurance could cover liability. Or the town could indemnify homeowners. Or something.

There were a couple of folks in the audience who live along the route. While they too thought a bike path is generally a nice concept, they dismissed it as impractical. One noted that with the road as it is now, any vehicle hauling something, such as a boat, is probably violating the law by crossing over the center line. There just isn’t enough run for current traffic, never mind adding a bike path, even if every property owner agreed to give up four feet of their frontage. These two didn't sound like they would give their approval.

Then Mike Chambers stepped to the podium to try to administer a coup de grace. Wasn’t there a problem with the state law on preserving old stone walls, he asked? Gentz noted that apparently Chambers wasn’t listening when Gentz said the idea was to go on the other side of the existing stone wall and would not harm the stone walls at all. Duh, never mind.

Despite Mike Chambers’ swing and miss, this idea is a goner that we will probably never hear about again.

This whole discussion, in all its surreal majesty, can be heard by clicking here.

Charter School Dis-resolution

Chariho School Superintendent Barry Ricci is asking the towns in the Chariho district to support an effort to change state law so school districts don't have to pay to send students to those charter schools that provide inferior education. 

This sensible proposition ran into a buzz saw of opposition from some Council members – Slattery, Tremblay and DiBello – who think that parent choice trumps financial and educational common sense.

It was a pretty surreal conversation to hear councilors – in particular Dan Slattery (CCA) – who normally attack the cost of education for Charlestown’s school kids rise in support of paying extra to send students to charter schools. Even if those schools are inferior to Chariho (which by the way is one of Rhode Island’s top-rated school systems).

Bear in mind that Ricci’s proposal doesn’t forbid parents from transferring their kids to the schools they prefer – it simply says that taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for that choice if the school the parent prefers is inferior to Chariho.

If Chariho provided inferior education, instead of being one of the three best systems in the state, you would expect to hear more about the need for alternatives. But this whole discussion was nuts.

The most ridiculous argument against Ricci’s resolution came from Donna Chambers, former distinguished member of the last Charter Revision Advisory Committee (CRAC). She began her attack by saying that she had not read the resolution, didn’t know it was on the agenda (Gentz reminded her that it was on Clerkbase – click here) and hadn’t done any of the research.

Nevertheless, she felt perfectly qualified to lead the attack against it, and attack she did. She argued that parents should be able to send their children to any school they want – and the taxpayers should pay for it.

She trashed the idea that it’s possible to measure the quality of education, favoring instead a parental roll-your-own standard of measurement. She noted that she knew a person who was sending a child to a charter school specializing in environmentalism and this proves her point. Somehow.

Meet the new Town Council. Crazy as the old Town Council.

Dan Slattery, George Tremblay and Lisa DiBello also weighed in against Ricci’s proposal and in favor of spending whatever it takes to allow parents to send their kids to whatever school they want. Even if the school is crap.

REMEMBER THIS, Charlestown, when we get to the debate about next year’s budget. Just wait until we see these same Council members excoriate Superintendent Ricci for the cost of Chariho schools.

The “resolution” of the Council’s action on Superintendent Ricci’s proposal was to push it back to the February Town Council meeting. The Council also made the de facto appointment of Donna Chambers as a Committee of One to come up with all the reasons why Barry Ricci is an agent of Satan and charter schools are the only solution to whatever these people think the problems are with the Chariho schools.

I'm making up the Agent of Satan part but the rest of it is true. When the audio-video links are added to Clerkbase, you can listen to this as well as the other highly entertaining, if not surreal, parts of this meeting. The Clerkbase links are up, and you can click here to listen to the discussion about why taxpayers should have to pay for charter schools that are known to be inferior.