By Will Collette
On May 7, there will be a public
hearing at Town Hall at 7 PM on the proposed Charlestown
The budget calls for a 2.87% hike in expenditures, largely due to
increased costs for schooling children at Chariho and capital expenditures. It
also calls for a property tax hike of 2.95%.
The budget contains $475,000 to be taken from the town surplus for the controversial acquisition of the Westerly YMCA’s abandoned campground on Watchaug Pond.
Hopefully, at this public hearing, we’ll get to explore two
important questions about the decision to pay cash (rather than bond) this dubious deal I call Y-Gate: (1) WHY spend public money on it at all? And (2) Will Charlestown voters’ right to vote up or down
on this deal be respected?
The overall budget goes to Charlestown voters on June 4. I asked Budget
Commission Chair Richard Sartor and Acting Town Administrator Pat Anderson how the $475,000 Y-Gate matter will be presented to the voters. Will it be a standalone
warrant item that allows voters to say yes or no to the deal on its own merits,
the way we voted last year on the town beach pavilions that are now nearing completion?
Or will the $475,000 be buried in the budget, so voters must
vote down the entire budget to express their disapproval of the deal? I’ve
already heard from some angry taxpayers that they are willing to do that.
I am still waiting for an answer
on the question. As of close of business Wednesday. Acting
Town Administrator Anderson e-mailed me to say they are still
researching it.
Progressive Charlestown
has covered this issue extensively since it first emerged over a year ago. To
understand and make informed decisions about what’s at stake, here is a recap:
The issue, in a nutshell, is about the fate of 27.5 acres of
land on Watchaug Pond owned by the Westerly YMCA and occupied by an abandoned
kids’ campground. The camp is covered with at least 17 run-down buildings, old septic
systems, crumbling infrastructure and an unknown amount of hazardous building
material. It is zoned Open Space/Recreational.
A year ago, the Y and a local property owner, Ted Veazey, came up with a
plan for a conservation development that would have cleaned up the dilapidated
property and turned it into a 10-house conservation development that was
well-received by the neighbors to the north of the campground, Ruth Platner and the Planning
Commission and the Director of URI’s Water Quality Program.
However, CCA’s Planning Commissar, Ruth Platner, did one of
her famous triple-flip back stabs and, with help from the Sonquipaug Association –
out-of-state vacation home owners to the south of the camp – and the
Charlestown Land Trust, ambushed and killed Veazey’s conservation development plan.
The alternative: a complicated scheme to use public money to
acquire the derelict campground as “open space." The RI Department of
Environmental Management (RIDEM) would kick in a $367,000 grant. Charlestown taxpayers
would “buy” a worthless conservation easement from the Charlestown Land Trust
for $475,000. The Land Trust would raise $100,000 privately. Then the Land
Trust would pay the Westerly YMCA $730,000 based on an appraisal that used admittedly false assumptions.
The extra cash after paying the YMCA’s inflated price –
about $212,000 including the $100K the Land Trust pledged to raise – goes
somewhere else yet to be identified.
The Sonquipaug neighborhood gets an extended back yard. The
Charlestown Land Trust makes one of the biggest land scores in its history. The
Westerly YMCA gets paid a lot more than the land is worth. State and Charlestown taxpayers get
screwed.
You would think that before Charlestown taxpayers get totally screwed,
they would be given a chance to expressly give their consent. For the screwing
to be nonconsensual, well, there’s a
word for that.
The Y-Gate deal is currently under court challenge by Dr.John Donoghue. In addition, RIDEM has not yet decided to release the second big
chunk of financing for this awful deal – a state grant of $367,000. They are asking for a different appraisal – one that is based on conditions that are more realistic than the one our Town Council (and Budget Commission) accepted.
Now, if the town fails
to give voters their fair chance to decide how their money will be spent, I
think it’s pretty much a given that there may be more litigation, and certainly
protests, over the highjacking of taxpayer money. The Town Council, the CCA,
the Charlestown Land Trust and the Westerly YMCA will have to answer for that. The Sonquipaug people can just go back to Boston or wherever they live for most of the year.
In my opinion, the YMCA camp expenditure needs to go to the
voters as a standalone issue. This is the only “honest, open and transparent”
way to do it. Or as Deputy Dan Slattery might put it, “a moral, ethical and
legal obligation.” And I would hope voters will not give their consent to being
screwed.
TOWN OF CHARLESTOWN
NOTICE OF BUDGET PUBLIC HEARING
May 7, 2012 at 7:00 p.m.
Pursuant to the provisions of the Home
Rule Charter for the Town of Charlestown, notice is hereby given of the
following proposed tentative budget and proposed warrant questions to be discussed at the Budget Public Hearing to be
held on Monday, May 7, 2012 at the Charlestown Town Hall, 4540 South County
Road, Charlestown, RI at 7:00 p.m. (The
Home Rule Charter Amendments do not allow the Town enough time to receive and
certify petitions from electors before the deadline for publishing this
Warrant; therefore, if petitions from electors are submitted after the deadline
to publish this Warrant, they will be advertised on or before April 30, 2012.
Pursuant to Article XXVI §C-86A, the electors of the town, qualified to vote,
shall receive and discuss the proposed budget and warrant items from the
Council in advance of the June 4, 2012 Financial Referendum. Pursuant to Article XXVI, §C-86E, if
there is a conflict between warrant items, the Moderator of the Public Hearing
shall call for votes to determine which of the conflicting petitions for
warrant items shall appear on the Financial Referendum ballot. Please note: The Charter does
not allow for votes to be taken at this meeting except if there is a conflict
between warrant items. Voting will be done at the June 4, 2012 Referendum.
2012-2013 Tentative Budget
as adopted by the Town Council on April 09,
2012
Account
|
Department/Commission
|
As Recommended
|
|
410
|
Town Council
|
$
|
24,450
|
420
|
Town Administrator
|
154,281
|
|
430
|
Election Unit
|
22,000
|
|
440
|
Treasurer
|
167,347
|
|
450
|
Tax Assessor
|
119,559
|
|
455
|
GIS
|
67,294
|
|
460
|
Tax Collector
|
99,959
|
|
470
|
Public Records
|
173,979
|
|
480
|
Town Planner
|
111,083
|
|
490
|
Central Service
|
220,520
|
|
510
|
Police Department
|
2,155,900
|
|
520
|
Building Inspector
|
150,931
|
|
530
|
Civil Defense
|
35,507
|
|
540
|
Animal Control
|
79,071
|
|
560
|
Public Assistance
|
13,100
|
|
570
|
Municipal Court
|
9,000
|
|
610
|
Public Works Administration
|
127,435
|
|
620
|
Highways and Roads
|
932,061
|
|
630
|
Building and Grounds
|
293,448
|
|
640
|
CRCC Mandated Monitoring
|
9,600
|
|
660
|
Public Works Wastewater Management
|
92,629
|
|
720
|
Outside Agencies
|
19,500
|
|
730
|
Local Agencies
|
382,050
|
|
740
|
Boards and Commissions
|
22,600
|
|
800
|
Senior Citizen/Community Center
|
92,441
|
|
810
|
Recreation Administration
|
127,521
|
|
815
|
Recreation Programs
|
82,302
|
|
820
|
84,925
|
||
830
|
32,890
|
||
850
|
72,425
|
||
900
|
Debt Service
|
627,199
|
|
920
|
Employee Benefits
|
1,943,401
|
|
940
|
Professional Services
|
340,100
|
|
950
|
Town Insurance
|
190,000
|
|
960
|
Council Contingency
|
127,147
|
|
990
|
Capital Improvements
|
796,063
|
|
995
|
Transfers Out
|
1,443,921
|
|
TOTAL MUNICIPAL BUDGET
|
$
|
11,443,639
|
|
TOTAL CHARIHO BUDGET
|
$
|
14,894,812
|
|
GRAND TOTAL MUNICIPAL AND SCHOOLS EXPENDITURES
|
$
|
26,338,451
|
|