Second half of February
session on Monday, Feb. 25
The Real Agenda
By Will Collette
Nimble Town Council Boss Tom Gentz allowed a lot of discussion on
February 11 on items that have been officially postponed to February 25. But
just because an item has already been pretty much talked to death doesn’t stop
our stalwart Town Council from doing it all over again.
As a regular Progressive Charlestown public service, I have prepared a
version of the Council agenda that takes into account changes to the order of
business that this Council always does. Maybe they change around items just to
see if anyone notices that the printed agenda they distribute bears little
resemblance to what they actually do. But for those of you who actually like to
see the actual order of business (and my snarky commentary), here it is.
TOWN OF CHARLESTOWN
AMENDED PUBLIC NOTICE
SECOND MONTHLY TOWN COUNCIL MEETING – February 25, 2013 at 7:00
p.m.
Charlestown Town Hall, 4540 South County Trail, Charlestown, RI
1. CALL
TO ORDER, Moment of Silence, Pledge of Allegiance
2. ROLL
CALL
Motion to move items 18c, 7b, and 8a to be heard next on the
agenda
18. FISCAL MATTERS
b. Discussion
and potential action regarding the approval of a funding agreement for the use
of Affordable Housing funds relative to Edwards Lane and authorization for
the Town Council President to sign
7. UNFINISHED BUSINESS
b. Discussion
and potential action regarding support of the Chariho School District’s request for legislation relative to public funding of charter
schools
8. NEW BUSINESS
a. Discussion
and potential action regarding the formation of a Chariho Act Review Committee for the purpose of addressing the following issues as recommended by
a Town of Richmond resolution dated February 5, 2013: a nine member Chariho
Regional District School Committee (three members per Town); giving the School
Committee the authority to establish elementary school districts without regard
to town boundaries, in order to reduce transportation costs; eliminating the
requirement that a quorum of qualified voters be present for the public hearing
on the proposed budget; and transferring from the towns to the District the
responsibility for imposing and collecting taxes to support education
Agenda
items 7.a. and 8.b. are the two items that were supposed to have been bumped
form the February 11 agenda. Despite that action by the Council, Council boss Tom Gentz allowed more than an hour of discussion anyway. We’ll see if the
anti-Chariho, pro-charter school people have anything new to say.
3. PUBLIC
COMMENT for items not on the Agenda
4. COUNCIL
COMMENTS
5. PERSONS
WISHING TO BE HEARD –
None
6. ADMINISTRATOR,
SOLICITOR, COMMISSION REPORTS
a. Town
Administrator
b. Town
Solicitor
7. UNFINISHED
BUSINESS
a. Discussion
and potential action regarding the manner in which appointments are made to the Town’s various Boards and Commissions NOTE: maybe they want to add criteria, such as swearing a loyalty
oath to the CCA or swearing that they do not believe in the mission of the
board or commission they want to join[1].
8. NEW
BUSINESS
b. Discussion
and potential action of Providence Mayor Angel Tavares’ request to make Rhode
Island gun laws more sensible, to improve access to behavioral health
services and to join a statewide gun buyback effort. NOTE: it will be interesting to see how many gun
nuts turn up for this item.
c. Discussion
and potential action regarding the “Affordable H.O.M.E.S.” report
from the Affordable Housing Commission
d. Discussion
and potential action regarding the celebration of the 275th anniversary of Charlestown’s incorporation (August 22, 1738) COMMENT: one way the CCA could celebrate this is
to host their own bon fire to burn Charlestown’s Home Rule Charter, since their
elected town officials hate to follow it.
e. Discussion
and potential action regarding a letter to the RI Department of Transportation asking that
they move up the implementation date for Traffic Control Devices outside Fire
Stations on Route 2 and Route 1A in Charlestown
9. PUBLIC
HEARINGS –
None
10. COUNCIL
SITTING AS BEVERAGE LICENSING BOARD –
None
11. LICENSES
AND PERMITS –
None
12. CONSENT
AGENDA
All items marked with “CA” are to be considered
consent agenda (and will be voted on as a bloc without discussion
or debate)
Motion to accept approve and place on file the
following as the consent agenda: 13a, 13b, and 18a
13. MINUTES
AND REPORTS
“CA” a. Town
Council Minutes:
January 29 (10:00 Executive, 5:30 Executive and
7:00 Special); February 6; February 7; February 11 (Executive and Regular)
“CA” b. Department Reports: Police Chief – January 2013
18. FISCAL MATTERS
“CA” a. Award of the bid for Klondike Road (Phase I) Construction
to Cardi Corporation
in the amount of
$464,168.83 with approval for the expenditure of the balance of the budget
approved by Referendum ($650,000) to be available for built-in cost
adjustments, unforeseen conditions on site, line striping, and other
contingencies after construction is completed, as budgeted from account number
70.000.5100 and authorization for the Town Administrator to execute contract
documents
14. ANNOUNCEMENTS
–
None
15. ORDINANCES,
RESOLUTIONS AND PROCLAMATIONS
a. Discussion
and potential approval of a Master Lever Resolution COMMENT: this is a pet issue of the CCA’s so this item is sure to pass.
 |
| Planning Commission wants Charlestown to buy the street lights and then take them down |
b. Discussion
and potential action regarding a resolution in support of Street Lighting as requested
by the Washington County Regional Planning Council COMMENT: Tom Gentz discussed this idea – of Charlestown buying National Grid’s street
lights to save money in the long term – a year ago in the context of the
Planning Commission’s crusade for dark skies. Planning Commissar and her plucky
planners LOVED this idea – several said the town should buy the street lights
and then either turn them off permanently or remove them.
16. COMMUNICATIONS
AND PETITIONS –
None
17. APPOINTMENTS
AND RESIGNATIONS –
None
19. LEGAL
MATTERS –
None
20. ADJOURNMENT
[1]
CCA appointees to the Affordable Housing Commission, for example, usually are
picked because they hate affordable housing. Ron Areglado was recently named to
the Chariho School Board even though he was an advocate for breaking up the
Chariho district.