So much to do, so little time

On the agenda: Y-Gate and the Budget, Deputy Dan's Revised Ninigret Plan, Planning's Power Grab, Charter Changes, the Boston Post Cane and at least 16 speakers

I want MORE!

By Will Collette

Next Monday, May 14, there will be another episode of Charlestown’s long-running soap opera also known as our Town Council. VP Deputy Dan Slattery noted that there are 16 speakers already listed on the agenda and the usual array of contentious issues, so in all likelihood, there will be a second round to the May meeting on May 21^st.

Monday’s meeting will bear only a passing resemblance to the agenda posted on Clerkbase, since most of the agenda items have been juggled to accommodate various speakers and guests. First up, for obvious reasons, will be 99-year old Edith Mashl who will receive the “Boston Post Cane” as Charlestown’s oldest living resident.

Also on the agenda – Deputy Dan’s transmogrified Ninigret Park MOU, a first official look at the Charter Revision Advisory Committee’s final proposals for charter changes, beach passes, the first reading of a major Planning Commission power grab, Pat Anderson’s contract as acting Town Administrator and the formation of a search committee for a permanent (well, as permanent as usual) Administrator, the Edwards Lane affordable housing project, the police officers’ contract, and a bunch of other stuff.

Plus, ahem, the Town Budget, which includes some disposition of the issue of the $475,000 Y-Gate expenditure. That is listed as the 11^th item on the revised agenda.

Budget Commission chair Richard Sartor pitching
the Y-Gate scam

It’s quite possible the Town Budget will turn out to be non-controversial, especially if the Budget Commission’s terrible proposal to pay $475,000 in cash out of the town’s surplus to buy a worthless conservation easement on the abandoned Westerly YMCA Camp is withdrawn as was suggested by Councilor Avedisian at last week's Budget hearing..

I hope the town money for the Y-Gate deal is withdrawn permanently – the state funding, too – so that the Westerly Y will have to drop its ridiculous price to a level where the two main beneficiaries, the Charlestown Land Trust and the Sonquipaug Association, can buy the land from their own money. I would like nothing better than to never have to write another word about Y-Gate again.

The Planning Commission’s proposal for a new ordinance to expand its power over businesses across the town is also on the agenda for a first reading. The proposal is a dense 14-page document that is much too complicated to go into here – I’ll address it later in at least one separate article. But Charlestown business owners need to read this proposal – click here.

Deputy Dan on the attack in March. 

Deputy Dan’s revised Ninigret Park “MOU” motion could also turn out to be non-controversial, since he has gotten his ass thoroughly kicked over the past couple of months for his campaign of lies and misrepresentations about Ninigret.

At last month’s Town Council meeting, Slattery had the audacity to flat out lie about what his motions to change the town’s management of Ninigret Park actually said. He claimed that all he wanted to do was “help” the Parks and Recreation Commission to move the Ninigret Park Master Plan forward.

In fact, what Deputy Dan proposed was dissolving the Ninigret Park Master Plan and the creation of a new “Stakeholders Commission” comprised of Slattery’s political allies and patrons which would write a new plan, subject to the veto of the US Interior Department, Frosty Drew Observatory and the Arnolda neighborhood. The Parks and Recreation Commission would have its role reduced to holding a single seat on Deputy Dan’s new commission.

But no, no, no, that was all a misunderstanding, said Deputy Dan. "What I really meant to say was 'good job, Parks and Recreation Commission.' Keep up the good work and here’s $15,000 to make that work easier.” Deputy Dan thinks he can convince you that if he pisses on your leg, it’s just the rain.

But Deputy Dan has two problems when he tells his tall tales: witnesses and Clerkbase.

Getting caught in a web of lies is downright embarrassing -
to most people, but not Deputy Dan

It was great fun watching Holly Eaves from Frosty Drew tell Deputy Dan that Frosty Drew didn’t want special status and telling the audience that Deputy Dan never consulted with Frosty Drew before dragging them into the middle of a political mess.

Former Council President Deb Carney, along with Paula Andersen and Cheryl Dowdell (chair and vice-chair of Parks & Rec, respectively) each called Deputy Dan out for completely misrepresenting the facts. Perhaps at this Council meeting, they will let him get away with passing through his revisionist resolution that puts things back the way they were, with the $15,000 appropriation for the Commission as reparations.

The proposed Town Charter changes from the Ill Wind-dominated Charter Revision Advisory Committee appear as agenda item 15.e., but because of the wildly altered agenda, this item will be roughly #30 among the items to be addressed. Unless the Council simply decides to say, sure, let’s post the notice of a June 11 hearing on these generally useless charter changes, this matter may be carried over to May 21^st.

I will be posting a separate article addressing the proposed Charter changes and on a very serious coup attempt by the Planning Commission..