FAQs about the Charlestown Citizens Alliance

What is the CCA? That’s the Charlestown Citizens Alliance. It is an unincorporated association started in 2006 now registered with the state as a political action committee. The Board of Elections ruled they were raising money to work on electoral issues.

Why should anyone care who or what they are? Right now, the CCA is Charlestown’s shadow government. They picked each and every member of the Planning Commission. Two of their long-time leaders head the Town Council and, with Lisa DiBello’s vote, hold the majority.

To ignore the CCA is like ignoring the Republican Party’s control over the U.S. House of Representatives, or the Tea Party’s control over the Republican Party. Or the corporate interests that control the Tea Party. To understand power, you don’t just look at the puppets, but at the puppet masters.

Why are the CCA leaders and supporters so sensitive to criticism? That’s a good question and I don’t know the answer. I have a theory that they were traumatized by their experience with Jim Mageau. Maybe when they hear criticism, they think somebody is about to shove a camera at them.

Maybe they’re not feeling enough love for having ousted Mageau in 2008 – and for about the 10^th time in writing in Progressive Charlestown, I say thank you for that, but not for the rest of what you have done to this town. 

The CCA functions as Charlestown’s controlling political party. With that power comes heat from those of us who do not agree with their vision or their actions. If they can’t stand the heat, drop out. Go fishing. Go back to Florida. But stop whining.

Where are they located? If you look at their Board of Election filings, they list 130 Shirley Drive, the address of CCA Treasurer Richard Jurgens, husband of CCA President Kallie Jurgens. Except that the Jurgens claim Stuart, Florida as their legal residence.

The CCA also lists PO Box 81. They prefer you contact them by e-mail.

I believe CCA headquarters is a small mud and wattle hut in the reeds somewhere along the shores of Ninigret Pond. Alternative location: a cave dug into the side of Mount Cliffy, Charlestown’s highest point at 250 feet above sea level, conveniently located on Ruth Platner and Cliff Vanover’s farm near Biscuit City Road.

How can I join? You can’t. The CCA has no method for people to join. In its early days, CCA was more open. You could join. They used to hold public meetings. But after their civil war (2009-2010), they went into a shell of secrecy.

You can get your name on their e-mail list (unless you’re black-listed). You can even submit a comment for their e-mailing. But you can’t join.

I suspect there might be some exceptions made. For instance, if you were overheard in the Mini-Super yakking about how much you hate casinos, affordable housing, wind turbines, beach toilets, casinos, outsiders, the Narragansetts, casinos, conservation development, casinos, children, the elderly or cats (and casinos), you may get spotted as new member material.

I can picture such a person being grabbed while coming out of Rippy’s some night. Bound and gagged with a bag over the head, the prospect gets thrown in the back of one of Tom Gentz’s Porsches. Then, he or she is whisked to one of CCA’s hidey-holes around town. While hanging from the ceiling, the CCA conscript is beaten with braided reeds and quizzed on their views about the traditional village concept.

If you pass the test, you are inducted into the CCA, take the oath of secrecy and sing their anthem “Whatever It Is, I’m Against It.”

How does the CCA make decisions? Ouija board? Random sample? Harold Camping? Who knows? They have four officers. Our previously mentioned Floridians Kallie and John Jurgens are President and Treasurer, respectively. Our Town Council President Tom Gentz, of the Porsche fame, is also CCA’s secretary. Milton Krantz is the Vice-President.

The CCA Steering Committee members are:

Kallie and John Jurgens

Dick and Marge Newton

Leo Mainelli

Bernice and Milton Krantz

Faith Labossiere

Virginia Wooten

Tom DePatie.

Though Tom Gentz is an officer, he is not on the Steering Committee. Add Planning Commissar Ruth Platner, Cliff Vanover, Kate Waterman and John Goodman who are trusted advisors but not steering committee members, and Town Council Vice-Prez Dan Slattery (whose current relationship with the CCA is murky).

This same small group has pretty much run the CCA since it was formed.

Lots of people have left the CCA. Former Town Council candidate Joe Dolock left in a huff when he was caught in the middle of a flap over a racially-tinged e-mail by Kate Waterman about the Narragansetts. The CCA-endorsed Town Council for 2009-2010, the group that ousted Jim Mageau, were all excommunicated by the CCA less than a year later.  

But seriously, how do they make decisions? To get an answer to that, you’d have to have a set of the CCA bylaws, if such a document exists. And you’d need to actually go to a CCA meeting, but they’re not publicized or open (though before its 2009-10 civil war, they used to hold open forums).

The CCA endorses candidates and spends money on those candidates. But how they make those decisions, I don’t know. (If anyone does, please post a comment or send us an e-mail).

What are the CCA’s plans for Charlestown? Based on the actions of their leaders who control the Planning Commission and the Town Council, the CCA agenda is to freeze Charlestown in place like a bug in amber.

Some, like Cliff Vanover and Ruth Platner and her minions on the Planning Commission, want to reverse the clock, perhaps to some point in the 1600s. Reduce the town’s population (especially children and senior citizens). Convert more land into open space. I’m not sure when we will have enough open space or a small enough population to satisfy the CCA. Maybe a couple dozen people. Maybe nobody if all the CCA leaders succeed at establishing Florida residency.

It’s hard to gauge the CCA’s ultimate intentions toward our neighbors in the Narragansett Tribe. The CCA has consistently opposed any project, plan or aspiration of the tribe’s since the CCA came into being. Whatever it is, they’re against it, since it might turn out to be a casino.

Author: Will Collette