Everyone (except Janet Joakim) is invited to a fundraiser at Schooner’s on Main Street, Hyannis, tonight at 6:00 PM to 11:00 PM to help defray Greg Milne’s legal bills in his effort to be seated to his duly elected seat on the Charter Commission

See you at Schooner's tonight from 6:00 PM on...

SCHOONER'S RESTAURANT

372 MAIN STREET

HYANNIS, MA 02632

508 778 7588

We elected Greg Milne to the Charter Commission, and no one, especially Janet Joakim, can overturn our right to to elect our political leaders...

Don't tread on me...

You voted for change, and neither the Town Clerk, nor Janet Joakim, and her ilk, have the power to impose their will over our vote.

If we let them get away with it today, they'll stomp on our liberty again tomorrow....

Yesterday the Town Clerk, once again, denied Barnstable voters.

During the last 15 years I’ve turned in dozens of petitions, nomination papers, recall petitions, consolidation referendums, other sundry petitions to the Town Clerk,

and each and every time Linda Hutchenrider would notify me,

if and when, the number of certifiable signatures on the petitions fell below the threshold to make the effort official.

Hutchenrider used the same protocol for dozens of other petitions and nomination papers.

Most signature gatherers collect 25% more signatures than needed as a general rule to insure the petitions have enough certified signatures.

On Valentine's Day Taryn Thoman tried to submit 343 signatures on a petition that calls for an Open Meeting of the Voters.

The Town Charter mandates that 300 certified signatures are needed to cement the deal.

Hutchenrider informed Thoman that if she accepted the petitions, and fewer than 300 of the signatures pass her and registered voter standards, she would confiscate the petitions, and require a completely new effort from scratch.

Not wanting to gamble Thoman left with the petitions to collect even more signatures.

Hutchenrider is also responsible for the disqualification of the third top vote getter for the nine-member Charter Commission in November’s general election.

Hutchenrider took the implausible position of

ignoring the first section of Part III of the Town Charter that defines the town’s elective offices,

while steadfastly accepting the second section that postulates that

•  any voter can run for elective office,

• but no person can simultaneously hold two elective offices.

In the first section of Part III, Elected Town Offices, the charter clearly defines the town’s elective offices as

1) Town Councilor,

2) School Committee,

3) Town Clerk,

4) Tax Collector,

5) Housing Authority, and

6) Regional Authority, districts, or committees as established by law or interlocal agreements (permits a local government to enter into  agreements with other public agencies in the interest of cooperatively sharing resources for their mutual benefit such as the Assembly of Delegates, County Commissioner, or Cape Cod Commission),

Hutchenrider refused to swear in Greg Milne as CHARTER COMMISSION even though Charter Commissioner is not defined as an elective office in the Town Charter.

The exact wording in the Town Charter for both sections follows.

Please read the two sections and see if feel the same.

PART III

Elected Town Offices

Section 3-1 Elective Offices in General
In addition to the town council, the offices  to be filled by the voters shall be a school committee, a town clerk, a town collector and a housing authority and such other regional authorities, districts, or committees as may be established by law or interlocal agreement.

Section 3-2 Eligibility

Any voter shall be eligible to hold any elective town office provided that, no person shall simultaneously hold more than one elective town office.

DID YOU SEE CHARTER COMMISSIONER IN THE LIST?

LINDA HUTCHENRIDER, JANET JOAKIM, AND HER ILK ON THE COUNCIL, DO.

DID YOU SEE THE WORD "DISTRICT," LIKE IN "FIRE DISTRICT," ON THE LIST OF ELECTIVE OFFICES?

LINDA HUTCHENRIDER, "EAGLE BEAK" JANET JOAKIM, AND HER ILK ON THE COUNCIL, DON'T.

The 70th Amendment of the Massachusetts Constitution says that

voters can vote for nine charter commissioners,

and the top nine vote getters “are duly elected.”

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE...

Greg’s 1,820 votes made him the third person elected to the Charter Commission,

but the Clerk refused to swear him in because of his election as Town Councilor from Precinct 13.

Linda Hutchenrider swore in James Crocker for his second term as Town Councilor despite the fact the same section in the Town Charter classifies elected fire "DISTRICT" office as an elective office which would

prohibit Crocker from serving on the Town Council.

Crocker was elected to the COMM Prudential Committee which is a DISTRICT within the town of Barnstable.

Greg Milne used his own money to hire an attorney to get him seated on the Charter Commission.

In Greg’s first court effortsought injunctive relief which was denied.

Now Greg must sue to get his duly elected seat.

The full-blown legal action against Hutchenrider's pronouncement will cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Hutchenrider’s defense will be paid by tax dollars.

Janet Joakim, and her ilk on the council, appropriated $9,000 of your tax dollars thus far to pay for a private lawyer to deny Barnstable voters of their choice in the November election.

Joakim's action is essentially no different that voter/taxpayers paying a lawyer to sue themselves.

If you want to help Greg protect your vote in November, please come to his his fundraising party at Schooner’s Pub on Main Street, Hyannis tonight, Friday, February 15th.

Festivities begin at 6:00 PM, and will last until ???.

The event is a fundraiser, and we’re asking for minimum donations of $25.

Twenty-five bucks is short money to insure that your vote will count in future town elections.

In the last two town elections

two separate voter’s choices were overturned by the Town Council simply because Janet Joakim, and her ilk on the council, didn't agree.

In 2005 voters approved the split tax rate in a mandate which the town council didn’t honor.

In 2007 voters elected Greg Milne to the Charter Commission; a vote that was rejected by the Town Clerk, and supported by the Town Council.

Never before in the history of the United States has the clear winner of an election not been seated until Greg Milne.

Hutchenrider and Joakim will be rewarded as their decision has been submitted to the Guiness Book of Records.

As presently constituted, the Charter Commission is evenly split.
 
Four members want to fine tune the charter,

despite the fact a referendum to alter the charter was overwhelmingly defeated in November.

Four Charter Commissioners want to honor the wishes of the voters by penning a completely new charter.

When Greg Milne gets his rightful place on the Charter Commission,

the majority on the board will honor the wishes of voters,

and you'll have the kind of local government you deserve.

Comments

[Taryn Thoman]

Gary - IN FAIRNESS TO LINDA HUTCHENRIDER, she gave me the option to hold the petitions, was professional and courteous, and even said that she did not want our efforts in gathering all the signatures to be wasted. No town attorney was available to consult, and it was late in the business day, so I chose to hold them one more day and gather some more signatures for insurance. Sorry for any misunderstanding here, I know you received the information second hand, and just wanted to clarify that the town clerk could not have been more fair or reasonable. Thanks.

[Taryn Thoman]

Gary - What do you think of the argument that the business to residential ratio does not make the split tax workable? This is the new pound of sand being fisted from the joakim camp.

[XXXXXXXX]

Barnstable does not have the the correct ratio of businesses to residences to properly support a split tax to the benefit of the entire town.

The business to residential ratio is manufactured propaganda by the business tax class that doesn't want to pay property taxes.

In 1988, when Route 132 was one lane all the way from Route 6 to the Airport Rotary, and the Festival Plaza (Blockbuster's, Friendly's, Shaws, Toys R Us, etc. was the Hyannis Drive In Theatre, and Olive Garden, Borders, Christmas Tree Shop, Sleepy's were groves of holly trees, and the Cape Cod Mall was half its size, the commercial levy was 24%.

Today, despite hundreds of millions of dollars in commercial development, the commercial levy is less than 10%.

Although the former assessor who was in charge of undervaluing commercial properties went to prison for child pornography, he should have been charged with malfeasance in office.

The former Assessor's replacement quit the job after a year because he couldn't do a proper job correcting assessing mistakes.

The new Assessor claims he has control, but the CVS property sale for $3.2 million while it is assessed for $885,000 indicates he has his head up his ass as well.

[John Julius]

To the DIMMEST bilb in the chandalier from 7:39 am this morning, NO OFFENSe but your comment HAS to be the MOST stupid and foolish comment I have ever seen written, or heard....

Here, let's see what part of the following you don't seem to understand....

You say WHAT? Barnstable does NOT have the WHAT? The 'correct ratio' of businesses to residences? Mind telling us what kind of drugs you are on?

Here, consider this. MOST, and we MEAN MOST, businesses in Barnstable paid the SAME or many even LESS in property TAXES here in barnstable in 2007 thsn they did in 1992!! And this is PURE FACT!

So come back in here and explain that one, please? As gary has pointed out time and again, along with a DEDICATED INTELLIGENT COMMITTEE of very good men (including Tony Pelletier, John Brennan, Joe Dugas, Al DeFlorio, Dom Gautreau and a couple others), the BUSINESS folk in our town HAVE NOT PAID THEIR FAIR SHARE now here in this town for a VERY LONG time and people like YOU don't get and never will!

So like a lot of other clueless people in this town, you perhaps lack the real ability to have any kind of real understanding of the tax structure in any way....... not surprising nor is it surprising that like the other clueless people who have no basis for statments like the one you made, you have to log in anonymously...... True liberal nitwit....... mouth off with NO BASIS or facts and stay neatly hidden behind you anonymity...

Gee, what a surprise. Any bets this might have come from one of our grand 'councilors'?

Oh, and 7:39, if by chance you do log back in, PLEASE, by all means, do also explain the CVS sale of $ 3.2 MIL and HOW AND WHY the building was only assessed at 889? Any ideas there brainchild?

[AAAAA]

If you cannot get to the fundraiser tonight, please send Greg a check: PO Box 1208 Hyannis, MA 02601-1208

(508) 771-1427

[John Julius]

Don't get me wrong. I like and respect town clerk Linda Hutchenrider.... but I agree that for her NOT to accept the signatures yesterday was wrong....... I would like to see ANYONE show me where it says that ANY petition CANNOT be truned in BEFORE all the required number of signatures is in hand.....

The fact is that 343 people signed the petition. Only 300 signatures were needed. SO WHAT if 53 people's names were tossed out for whatever reason? All that would mean is that another 7 signatures would be needed. No problem. Those could be had in 10 mminutes...

So for our very own town clerk to NOT accept these, I am disappointed, to say the least... in the meantime, no offense but I WOULD HOPE and reasonably EXPECT that the town ATTORNEY'S OFFICE WOULD HAVE AND SHOULD HAVE BEEN AVAILABLE TO ANSWER THAT QUESTION for the Town Clerk, and apparently one of them was NOT!

Let's see now, we have HOW MANY TOWN ATTORNEY's on OUR TAX DOLLARS?????

SIX! I said SIX!

So here we are all over again with INCOMPETENCE up to our eyeballs!

We have a Town Clerk who did not have the answer to a question. No problem. The clerk is NOT an Attorney but damn it, WHERE was RUTH WEIL? Where was Asst Atty David Houghton or the other invisible Town Atty?

Sure as #### these ATTORNEYS make our GOOD $$$$$ so they SHOULD BE AVAILABLE!

Taryn, THANK YOU for your efforts! But please, let these people who make OUR GOOD $$$$$ know we EXPECT them to be AVAILABLE! This was a Thursday afternoon and NOT a Saturday or Sunday morning!

PAR FOR THE COURSE in this town!

[Goosey Gander]

Excellent point on Councilor James Crocker!

Why is he on the town council?

Since there are no other "districts" in Barnstable in which officials are elected, the charter clearly speaks to Prudential Committeemen, Fire Commissioners, Water Commissioners, and Moderators of the fire and water districts.

The Chairman of the Charter Commission was a former town councilor from Precinct One, and was elected to the Prudential Committee of the Barnstable Fire District.

He simultaneously held two elective offices, but the same Town Clerk never challenged him.

[Taryn Thoman]

John, Linda made the effort to look at the charter and to call the town attorney to see if I could add to the signatures should more than 43 be scratched. She said generally, and I have heard this from many others involved in peitioning towns, that about 25% of signatures are not good. It was 4:15, and it was Valentines Day. The charter does not address the signature issue in the open meeting of the voters, I did not want to wait for the attorney to call back, and made the decision myself to hold onto the signatures. If Mrs. Hutchenrider were really out to harm the effort, she could have accepted the petitions happily, scratched more than 43, and possibly told me I would have to do it again. I felt she was more than fair and I will hand in the petitions today. No big deal, really.

[Bradley G. Ouimette]

PO Box 1208 Hyannis, MA 02601-1208

Who should the check be addressed to...

[John Julius]

Taryn, I am not blaming Linda the town clerk. I AM disgusted with the FACT that the BARNSTABLE TAXPAYERS HAVE TO PAY FOR SIX LAWYERS on OUR payroll and NOT ONE of SIX coule be located to answer a damn SIMPLE question?

Or is it that we will HAVE TO SUBCONTRACT THIS OUT TO A ###### other law firm and WASTE MORE MONEY for idiotic nonsense?!

TRUST ME on this:

The TAXPAYERS here are going to be mad as hell when I GET the INFORMATION on just HOW MUCH we have had to pay for OUTSIDE LAW FIRMS! I have been waiting now since last JULY and the MORONS from our town hall have REFUSED to give me this simple request for PUBLIC INFORMATION.

I promise Ruth Weil I will be in again to place my FOURTH request for this>

Maybe it is time for the BOSTON GLOBE to come here and request this because sure as crap the TIMES won't!

Taryn, we ALL deserve better with OUR MONEY! And again, I do not have the problem with the town clerk!

[xxx]

Phone number above for Greg is not correct - Greg may be reached at 774-836-0960.

You people are wasting your time with one-way Milne. He's using you. If you contribute you'll be throwing your money down a rat's ass.

[Taryn Thoman]

John - Ruth Weil is among those being summoned to the open meeting of the voters. Perhaps you can ask her about the monies being spent on attorneys trying to stop Greg Milne from serving on the charter commission, as this question would not pertain to the actual litigation of the matter.

[xxx]

WHY NOT INVITE JANET JOAKIM? I AM SURE GREG WOULD BE HAPPY TO TAKE HER MONEY. COME ON DOWN, JANET!!!

[xxx]

11:11 Milne is not -using- anyone, at least any more than they are using him. These 13 councilors are all supported by those whose interests they represent. Simple stuff, and politics 101. As the council continues to pull stunts like the one at the January 17th meeting, a guy like Milne becomes more attractive to a wider range of voters. The shell fisherman are particularly fond of him at the moment. Wake up and smell the clams, squid!

[John Julius]

the ONLY thing I will do with Ruth Weil is give her a FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST for the info...... I have no use for David Houghton who is still jerking the Attorney from the Sec of State's office around! STILL!

I be any money that Ruth Weil WILL respond to my request as she knows the SECRETARY OF STATE's Lawyer is on this case. David Houghton thinks he is smart by jerking their lawyer around but he needs to think again.

[Tom McShane]

what in those rectrix emails gary?

[John Julius]

Wait till you guys hear the JERKING around Taryn got today when she went to turn in the signatures in to the town clerk..........

Folks, this is GARBAGE and we all might just have to call the STATE SECRETARY OF STATE's OFFICE!

These asswipes in this town really think they can keep steamrolling over the people here..........

Things get worse every day around here....

gary will give all the details.

wow

Milne is only in it for Milne. I will never support someone that insults the town workers behind the workers backs. Milne knew what he was doing when he was running for 2 offices. I can't see how any of you don't see how him getting voted into the charter commision is not an elected office.

[rrrrrrrrrrrrr]

Rob Bastille really needs to get a life, or at least get laid. As for the 9pm comment, you are almost as lame and tired as Bastille and his faltering Hyannis News site. Jimmy Crocker should not be sitting on the council right now, if your argument holds any water, which it does not. Milne is for A NEW CHARTER, dumbass! We need an elected executive official right now. We do not need more of what we have now. Go look at the town council video from January 17th, and tell me if you think this form of government is working. If you think it is, then you must be posting from prison.

The 9 p. m. commenter must be on drugs........ Apparently you can't read. The charter position is NOT an elected 'office' but rather a position. An OFFICE election links two things with it. One is compensation and two, an actual TIME frame of which one will actually serve.

The charter position is more of a voluntary POSITION than anything else. So Janet, WHAT part of that do you not understand? And your anger toward Greg is unbelievable.... you need help. Go get some, please.