Monthly drama
set to be staged to ratify decisions already made
By
Will Collette
The
Charlestown Town Council meets again on Monday night. Not that it matters for
all that much. Given that the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA Party) holds
every seat, as well as every seat on the Planning Commission and all but one on
the Zoning Board of Review (plus their seats on miscellaneous and sundry town
commissions), the Council meeting simply makes public that which has already
been decided.
The
real seat of power is the CCA
Steering Committee which consists of Town Council President Tom Gentz,
Planning Commissar Ruth Platner, and husband and lead CCA Party player on
Zoning Cliff Vanover, other town big-wigs plus three out-of-state residents (fitting,
because 60% of the CCA Party’s funding comes from out of state).
They meet in
private at undisclosed locations at secret dates and times and there, they make
Charlestown’s decisions. However, they may have accidentally disclosed the date of their most recent streering committee meeting - see screen shot, above, from the CCA Party website.
But
the show must go on. At the Monday meeting, the Council will hear and
rubber-stamp whatever the Ad Hoc bicycle committee, run by CCA co-founder Faith
LaBossiere.
They
will look at transportation priorities that consist of where the next road
improvement projects will take place (e.g. finishing the repaving of Route 1).
While that’s fine, Charlestown is still one of the few Rhode Island communities
completely without public transportation.
They
will discuss a new town ordinance that will tell you exactly where and how you
must display your address numbers at the front of your property. E.g. make sure the numbers are right side up, no Roman numerals, no neon, etc.
They
will discuss two items relating to quarries – control of blasting and general
regulation – where they plan to send stalwart “independent”
Republican-Libertarian state Rep. Blake “Flip” Filippi back to the General
Assembly to ask the legislature for approval to do that
which is already within the town’s power. But since it allows the CCA Party
leaders to claim they are doing something without actually doing anything, that’s
a win in the making for the CCA Party. After all, the appearance of activity is
far more important than actual achievement.
Then
they will bloc vote approval of an array of items listed under the “consent
agenda.” The Consent Agenda are generally items deemed non-controversial and
not worth debating, so they are voted on without discussion. They include
permits for gun shops, Charlestown’s only growth industry, reports, events,
small purchases, etc.
Frankly,
the entire agenda is really a “Consent Agenda.”
Here
is the official agenda as published by the town with links to supporting
documents.
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Charlestown Town Council
Regular Meeting 12/14/2015 7:00 PM Council Chambers
Town
Hall 4540 South County Trail Charlestown,
RI 02813
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