Fear and loathing in Charlestown politics
By Will Collette
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| Just substitute "CCA" for "GOP" and you get the gist |
Long before Trump, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) has used that technique, starting in 2008 by portraying Charlestown’s resident curmudgeon Jim Mageau as the devil incarnate.
While Jim was a terrible Town Council President, his wacky behavior made him an ineffective threat to anyone other than himself. But as a "threat," Mageau helped catapult the CCA into power.
Since that initial success at seizing power through fear and
loathing, the CCA has come up with some enemy – real or imagined – to stay in
power. They create one or more villains and then claim that only they can defend the town. The CCA is as phony as Trump and Vance claiming Haitians are coming to eat your
pets.
The CCA's list of threats and enemies is long
The Charlestown Citizens Alliance threat list includes:
The Narragansett Indian Tribe for their long-abandoned plan for an Indian casino. The CCA hired attorney Joe Larisa, called a "racist by tribal leaders" specifically to harass the Tribe and block any effort the tribe makes to improve the lives of its people.
“People from Providence” who will swarm in with all their kids if we build any family housing and overrun the Chariho schools. Another example of the CCA's use of racist code words.
Developers and Democrats – the CCA has worked hard to create the myth that they are one and the same even though it's demonstrably false.
Wind power, spurred by Larry LeBlanc’s proposed Whalerock wind power project, became one of the CCA’s most successful phony campaigns. Ironically, in 2011, the CCA leader Tom Gentz was a staunch supporter of wind power, even making a presentation to the Council about how good wind energy is. Of course, that was before anti-wind NIMBYs started to contribute heavily to the CCA. Charlestown now has an effective town ban on ANY wind-to-energy device, even small residential units.
AMTRAK made another good boogeyman when a half-baked, improbable idea surfaced to run new track through northern Charlestown, scaring
the shit out of half the town. CCA leader and Charlestown’s Planning Commissar
Ruth Platner has been trying to revive the Charlestown Choo-choo hoax since the
furor died down. Her 2021 headline for a story that attempted to revive the
Amtrak boogeyman read They’re
Back: Northeast Corridor Commission Sets Out Plan To Implement NEC Future.
Lights. In 2012, the CCA went nuts when a town staffer explored funding for temporary lights to facilitate autumn kids' football practice. This innocent inquiry mushroomed into a full-blown crisis - The Battle for Ninigret Park. The CCA confabulated this lighting inquiry into a direct threat that the Interior Department would take back Ninigret Park because the lights during autumn twilight would disturb the birds and bunnies in the Wildlife Refuge. It was all bullshit - the Interior's regional director Elyse LaForest had to come in to debunk the CCA lies - but it cost then Town Administrator Bill Delibero his job.
The Narragansett Indian Tribe became a CCA target again
when one official made an ill- advised and broadly rejected deal to sell water to a nonexistent power plant in Burrillville.
Frank Glista was trashed for selling open, undeveloped land to the state Water Resources Board to preserve water resources. The CCA
normally worships permanently protected open space, but not when the land comes
from Frank.
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| Tons of asphalt were laid for "Faith's Folly" despite the CCA's hatred for asphalt. Faith sold this project, telling the Town Council it would cost less than $7,000. The final bill was at $266,927. |
Progressive Charlestown and me in particular made the
CCA enemies’ list early on for writing articles like this. I’m fine with that.
The CCA also hates Deb Carney despite her years of
effective leadership on the Council and the Chariho School Committee.
You can add a lot of others to the list. For example, CCA
Town Council President Tom “Uncle Fluffy” Gentz frequently mocked and belittled
Janice Falcone when she would rise to support a measure the CCA didn’t
like.
The CCA viciously attacked Janice when she attempted to get
the town to buy the historic General Stanton Inn that Janice and her
beloved late husband Sonny labored to keep in tiptop condition. The CCA fought hard to block a town referendum to buy the Inn as an anchor for the Cross Mills
historic district even though the CCA was otherwise willing to pay any price to
preserve the “historic village district.”
* NOTE the contradictions. The CCA wants to do whatever it takes for the Cross Mills Historic Village but killed the plan to buy and preserve the General Stanton Inn. The CCA is willing to pay any price to add more protected open space but attacked Frank Glista for trying to do just that with his land sale to the state Water Resources Board. The CCA hates asphalt but is willing to lay down tons of it for "Faith's Folly." Go figure.
They viciously attacked my colleague Steve Hoff, a
retired CPA, for doing the research to expose the CCA’s fiscal irresponsibility,
especially the “$3 million Oopsie.”
In their big 3-page flyer, the CCA sums up their position,
stating “What is at risk in this election?” Note they use the negative instead of “what is our plan for
improving people’s lives” or some other positive theme. At risk, according
to the CCA are “low taxes,” “dark skies” and “clean water.”
First, the town tax rate has dropped since the CCA was
booted from control in 2022. They left behind a tax rate of $8.17 per thousand. Under the CRU's first year, the tax rate dropped to $5.74. It’s currently $5.78.
They claim there’s a $39.5 million plan for “commercial
development” in Ninigret. There isn’t.
They claim this imaginary threat will thwart “the Ninigret Wildlife Refuge and our children’s ability to learn about the universe.” This is a total crock of horse manure, as stupid as the "Battle for Ninigret Park" described above.
The CCA flyer also raises the specter of the need for “a
sewage treatment plant and miles of sewer lines that would cost at least $1
billion.” Yup, that’s the claim. They say this will happen unless there is
a “delicate balance” between well-planned residential development and
what the land can support.
Here’s the key question: WHO is proposing otherwise? Who? If
the CCA is going to create a boogeyman, at least give it a name.
Early on in the CCA’s history, one of their resident
geniuses, Mike Chambers, liked to brag about the CCA's effectiveness at. They used Hitler’s
Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels’ formula: “Repeat a lie often enough
and it becomes the truth”
Creating fear and hate through lies kept the CCA in office for over a decade. They have also gotten very good at covering up their lies by blocking access to public records that would unveil their deception. CLICK HERE for an example.
In 2022, Charlestown voters saw through the CCA’s blue smoke and mirrors and voted them out of office. The CCA wants to take back power using the same old Goebbels’ formula. Don’t let them.
