Snub the Charter Commission hearing on Thursday; The proposed Barnstable charter diminishes your First Amendment Rights …

After Barnstable's charter commission was elected

(each commissioner elected by fewer than 18% of the registered voters),

Richard Clark,

Susan Rohrbach,

Sheila Geiler,

Debra Fitton,

Bob Jones, and

Roydon Richardson

arrogantly pronounced themselves Gods;

• knowable,
• approachable,
• creative,
• forgiving,
• honest, and
• capable.

All ignored the synergy that brought them to their positions (complete dissatisfaction with the current polymorphic government) when they produced their new charter which simply reduces some of the facets of the multi-faceted current charter along with some of your civil rights.

Although the First Amendment explicitly applies to the Congress, the Supreme Court has interpreted it as applying to the executive and judicial branches and limitations of the First Amendment to each state, including any local government within a state.

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights that expressly prohibits the United States Congress from making laws (among other things)

the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Clark, and his ilk, produced a charter that eliminates citizen’s right to recall elected officials guilty of

• moral turpitude,
• financial irresponsibility,
• dishonesty,
• corruption,
• deceitfulness,
• malfeasance,
• misfeasance,
• unlawfulness,
• or any number of moral and ethical offenses.

They want the "pig in the pokes" elected to serve the full four years no matter what.

Virtually every state in the union has a provision to recall governors;

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger came to office as the result of a recall.

The last four Speakers of the House in Massachusetts left their positions because of nefarious practices,

including Tom Finneran, who is a convicted felon,

and Sal DiMasi who took hundreds of thousands of dollars in payoffs.

The Barnstable “Gods” want you to believe that those elected to town hall will not be crooks, thieves, liars, and degenerates;

but we know different.

The new charter also takes away citizen’s rights to assemble and question councilors and school committee members for questionable and nefarious actions (Open Meeting of the Voters).

Clark and his ilk plan to limit your right to redress the council to two minutes at bi-weekly council hearings during which you will not be able to mention the culprits by name.

Last May COG called for an open meeting of the voters during which voters asked the council and the town clerk for their reasons for not seating Greg Milne on the Charter Commission.
 
Voters who spoke at the meeting cited the same issues used by Judge Kane to overturn the town’s decision on Milne which showed that voters knew more about the issue than the council, town clerk, town manager, and town attorneys.

If it isn’t broke; don’t fix it.

A vote for the new charter is a slap in the face to Maureen Niemi.

The three elected Barnstable tax collectors during the last thirty years have performed admirable and honest work,

yet Clark, and his "Gods", plan to take the election of the tax collector away from the people.

Why pay homage to the "Gods" on Thursday?

During the past fourteen months the charter commission ignored all but one commenter, and the charter petition signature gatherers.

Clark, and his ilk, want us to believe the 7,000 voters who signed the charter petition did not want a mayoral form of government, so they're giving us a bastardized current charter.

There was lots of conversation when signature gatherers accosted voters to sign the petition.

For example Roydon Richardson refused to sign the charter commission petition four times when solicited by John Julius,

 because he saw nothing wrong with the current charter.

Not every person solicited signed the charter petition for the same reason.

Simple logic postulates the 7,000 voters who signed the charter petition preferred some form of mayoral government because the state allows no other options other than some form of city council government.

Clark, Jones, Richardson, Geiler, Fitton, and Rohrbach aren't even altar boys or church ushers.

They are however cantankerous, crotchety, obdurate political boors who managed a few hundred votes more than the nineteen other commission candidates in a city with 32,000 voters. 

Why would anyone want to commit five minutes of their time listening to Clark's diatribe?

The leading vote-getter on the charter commission managed only 2,000 votes.

I reviewed public comment in all charter commission public hearing minutes available on the town’s website beginning 11/27/07, and found that there were

30 separate commenter’s who supported a mayoral form of government,

five who were concerned about ancillary issues but silent as to mayor and council/manager government,

and only one who said, “I see no need for a mayor,"

yet Clark, and his ilk, who formed a majority, wrote the same city council/town manager charter thousands rejected in November, 2007.

Clark, and his ilk, ignored us, and it's time for us to return the snub...

Stay home Thursday night. 

Your absence will send a loud and clear message to Clark;

take your charter and shove it.

At the November 27, 2007 hearing, other than Greg Milne who at the time was denied a seat on the panel,

no public comment was allowed.

At the December 4, 2007 hearing only Peter and Sylvia Doiron, and Greg Milne, all mayoral supporters, gave short comments.

At the December 17, 2007 hearing,

1. Oliver Cipollini,
2. Mary Clements,
3. Carolyn Garbutt,
4. Councilor, James Munafo,
5. John Julius,
6. Peter Doiron,
7. Bradley Ouimette,
8. Greg Milne, and
9. Tim Ferreira

spoke in favor of a mayoral government,

while Allan Goddard asked the commission to offer both a mayoral and other form of government to the voters.

Skip Simpson spoke in general terms supporting no particular form of government.

The minutes cite Munafo as saying,

 “Mr. Munafo feels a strong mayoral form of government would be good for this community.”

At the January 10, 2008 hearing

1. Goddard,
2. Cipollini,
3. Milne, and
4. Clements

echoed their comments from the previous meeting while

Patrick Page, of West Barnstable, said he, “agreed with the statements of the previous speaker.” (Greg Milne).

Jane Saunders (Page), of West Barnstable, Patrick Page’s wife said, “The Town processes are badly broken. This Commission needs to think about more than just a mayor.”

There was no public comment at the February 14, 2008 Charter Commission hearing.

At the February 28, 2008 meeting held at Our Lady of Victory chapel,

Cipollini,
Goddard,
Shirley Fisher

spoke in support of a mayor,  while

Pete Fisher from Centerville saw no need for a mayor,

Jim Lang from Craigville Village (neutral on mayor, but supported the split tax rate),.

Wolfgang Fattler from West Barnstable, and

Bruce Gilmore spoke,

but were neutral on mayor/council/manager forms of government.

At the March 27, 2008 Charter Commission hearing in Marstons Mills,

1. Garbutt,
2. Cipollini,
3. William Elkins of Centerville, and
4. Paul Boucher, of Marstons Mills

said they support a mayoral form of government,

while

Al Baker of Marstons Mills,
Debbie Lavoie, of Marstons Mills, and
Alex Frazee, of Marstons Mills

were silent on mayor/council/town manager form of governments, but commented on ancillary issues.

At the June 12, 2008, commission hearing Marilyn Contreas from the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development was the guest speaker.

Only

1. Clements,
2. Baker, and
3. Goddard

spoke from the public.

At the July 10, 2008 hearing attended by former town manager, Warren Rutherford, Town Clerk, Linda Hutchenrider, Fred Chirigotis, Jan Barton, and Leah Curtis,

no public comment was allowed.

There was no public comment allowed at the

1. July 24, 2008,
2. July 31, 2008,
3. July 31, 2008,
4. September 11, 2008,
5. October 22, 2008,
6. October 23, 2008, hearings.

No minutes are published for

1. 1/29/09,
2. 2/04/09,
3. 2/12/09,
4. 2/17/09, and
5. 2/18/09,

hearings held in the Selectmen’s Conference Room. 

The only person I could find who commented before the Charter Commission who said he didn't support a mayoral form of government was Pete Fisher,

yet Clark, and his ilk, wrote a city council/city manager form of government that ignores your First Amendment Rights.

Comments

[Beacon Hill Observer]

Times are really tough all over.

Boston's real-life 'Cheers' bartender is laid off

Eddie Doyle was the guy who really did know everybody's name.

But after tending bar for 35 years at the Boston tavern that inspired the television show "Cheers," Doyle has been laid off.

The bar's owner says the economy is to blame.

Doyle was a fixture at the pub known as the Bull & Finch long before his TV counterpart, Sam Malone, entered the mainstream.

After the NBC show hit the airwaves in 1982, he started serving 5,000 people a day.

Doyle used the bar's fame to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity.

Friend Tommy Leonard tells the Boston Herald Doyle is "the most giving person" he's met.

The 66-year-old Doyle tells The Boston Globe he's not bitter and may write a book about his experiences.

[Following]

Gary, Today's post was exceptional and we appreciate your notes on community participation in this endeavor. Clearly, you are watching every move and you have your "i's" dotted and your "t's" crossed.

You haven't missed a trick, and we've been waiting to hear that your monitoring every move.

This reporting is up there with the efforts you made describing the crisis in the Barnstable Public Schools. Ignore some of the derogatory comments made toward your suggestions on a local alternative blog site, and stay on game.

You clearly have a propensity to connect the dots on the effect of municipal corruption. Your finest hour just got brighter.

Good work, good post!

[Gary Lopez]

Thanks for the kind words. Spread the word the charter offered is a charter from hell that if accepted will dig a hole so deep it'll take voters a lifetime to claw their way out.

Surprising adolescents make up the majority on the charter commissions who chose the town of Winthrop as the paradigm for our charter.

In 1739, what is now Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop withdrew from Boston due to governmental control disputes and became the Town of Chelsea.

Revere and Winthrop seceded from Chelsea in 1846 to become North Chelsea.

Shortly thereafter, in 1852, Winthrop was incorporated as a town in its own right with a Board of Selectmen and Town Meeting form of government.

In 1920, Winthrop was the second town in the Commonwealth to apply for and receive a Charter for a Representative Town Meeting, which continued to 2006.

In 2006, a new Town Charter, establishing a city form of government, was passed in a special election.

The Winthrop charter commission chose Barnstable as its paradigm for local government, and the Board of Selectmen and Town Meeting were abolished, and legislative powers were vested in an elected Town Council.

Executive power, largely ceremonial, resides in the Council President, who is popularly elected.

An appointed Town Manager serves as the head of administrative services.

Winthrop's population is 2,000 less than Sandwich, and 3,000 greater than Mashpee. If the council wanted to emulate a community, it should have picked on one its own size, like 35 Greater Boston communities, all of which have mayors.

Winthrop has a sordid past serving

as an internment camp for Native Americans during King Philip's War,

a quarantine station where many immigrants died,

and for centuries is the site of Suffolk County jail (Boston).

Winthrop is also home to the mammoth Deer Island Waste Water Treatment Plant, which provides sewage treatment for 61 Greater Boston and Metropolitan cities that are members of the MWRA.

All sewers flow to Winthrop and the city is commonly known as Shit City, U.S.A. and Clark wants to us to emulate it.

[Suggestions]

Wasn't Chelsea placed into receivership over disorganization and chaos in the school system in the 90's? I'm wondering if it isn't time for Barnstable to be placed into receivership for corruption and malfeasance that has made the quality of living for all abysmal.

So much for tha All-America City!

Gary, can you check on the parameter and laws regarding placement of municipalities into receivership?

[Gary Lopez]

Chelsea went into bankruptcy due to political corruption.

Believe it or not a good friend and horse partner of mine operated one of the largest rubbish companies in the state.

He had the rubbish contract for Chelsea and dumped all of his commercial waste at RESCO, an incineration site in Saugus, charging the $90 a ton disposal costs to the city of Chelsea.

The word was out; the city was for sale for anything.

Chelsea's debt was so great the city could never catch up without significant overrides the people rejected.

Chelsea's school program failed as well.

Boston University was put in charge of education in the mid-eighties and I think it still manages education.

The city is still in receivership.

Any city can go into bankruptcy once its debt is significantly greater than its revenue.

[Hey Wrap]

The people signed the charter petition because they wanted change. They wanted a mayor.

The stacked deck charter Nazi group have provided john Klimm and his gang of theives just what they wanted. The same Government with less involvment by the people.

Get these citizens out of our hair and let us continue ruining the Town Of Barnstable!

All American communism

[Moving to Chelsea for a better standard of living]

I remember the event and the efforts of John Silber to reconstruct the school system. I certainly follow the reasoning behind the need to place Chelsea in receivership and find your story of a colleague in the rubbish industry relevant and interesting.

Chelsea is connected by a rather large bridge. Question is: do they have an airport too? RESCO is sounding a lot like RETRIX these days.

Ya' know what I'm sayin'?

[John Julius]

Sorry to say this but Gary is 100% right on all this! I have heard some people say that gary should not continue to post for people to NOT show up. I agree. The medicine for these people shoule be for people in this town to send these ASSWIPES a message:

STICK IT!

Personally I have every intention of showing up tomorrow night and i plan to say some things right to their faces!

The politicians in Washington STUCK up their middle fingers up at ALL American taxpayers now for the last 15 years! In Massachusetts, the clueless Patrick is now doing the same.

And here, right at home, the COUNCIL, the Klimm administration AND this so called charter commission just did the same thing:

DOUBLE BARRELLED DOUBLE MIDDLE FINGERS stuck up at EVERYONE in this town!

And gary has appropriately identified the scum responsible for all this!

Gary, thank you.

And IF ANYONE in this town votes for this GARBAGE, then it will only be FRIENDS of ALL these pukes!

Tell these asswipes to stick it!

[John Julius]

Gary:

Any chance of you doing a POST ON THE GENERAL GOV'T and HOW MUCH KLIMM HAS INCREASED this since he came here?

People here deserve to KNOW where our money is being WASTED! And we all know it is!