Seven Villages, Janet Joakim

At the end of last week I sent out a package of notices to a number of my clients. It was time for annual renewals, a time when I would always touch base with clients who had websites that didn’t have regular changes.

I am saying goodbye-passing along many clients who are ready to do renovations and updates- making this year a tough year to send these notices out.

CapeCodSportsReport.com was one of the sites I had decided I would keep as long as he needed just updates because I had been doing them without charging him. Frank has been there through all of my years of school sports with my kids. The tall, thin, bearded and be-speckled presence that was a part of the patchwork background of many a victory or defeat year-round, at any sport the kids were playing.
Continue reading FRANK FINN…

You run like a GIRL!

Russ Carpentier wrote great story in the Cape Cod Times - Friday March 15, about the successes of the BHS girl’s athletic program.
Our High School has so many important opportunities for our kids in music, art, technology and so much more.
Lately, I have been thinking about the invaluable opportunities that Title 9 has created for women, and how important a good high school program is to those opportunities.
Continue reading Girls’ Athletics in Barnstable - Run Like a Girl!!…

Another quick note on the “recall” mess. Continue reading SIGNATURES???…

OOPS SEE POST ABOVE!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all who can lay claim to an Irish heritage!

Why is it that some insist on wearing the bright orange during this festive time?
Continue reading St. Patricks Day - Orange or Green?…

A few people are still reading the rantings on the blogs o’ conspiracy theories…
I have been asked about a 30% rate increase for Hyannis Water customers.
?????
Where does this come from?
Continue reading Rumors - tonight’s subject: water rates ?…

story link:http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/barnstablecitizens14.htm
click here to view the complete survey online: (.pdf format)http://www.town.barnstable.ma.us/TownManager/07Survey.pdf
By SEAN GONSALVES STAFF WRITER
Aside from the traffic, life is pretty good in the city known as the town of Barnstable.

At least, that’s how the majority of local residents feel about living on the Cape’s bicep, according to the town’s annual ”Citizen Survey.”
Continue reading Barnstable citizens: We like it here - CC TIMES 3/14/07…

The last thing I want to do today is sit and read emails and reports about angry bloggers and what stories are being spun on the networks today. The theme of late seems to be family…..
Continue reading It’s all relative…the many branches of a family tree…

A quick statement about petitions-
There were not 245 valid signatures on the petitions.

Cape Cod Times March 07, 2007
CENTERVILLE – The campaign to recall Barnstable Town Council President Janet Joakim is officially over.
Continue reading Breaking News Update: Joakim recall petition withdrawn…

Going about business today, I have heard from many about blogs and evil.

It seems as though people want to talk about those who are behind this recall and what other activities they have orchestrated.

This loosely formed group - COG — was formed by the perennial town critic, Gary Lopez, when he discovered BLOGS.

In the beginning he found himself on a locally hosted blog, until he was asked to leave, for reasoned rumored to be .. breaking Terms of Service rules. So, he and his off-cape friend with the little dog set off on their own to create their own BLOGS where no one could tell them what to say or do.

With a website to broadcast their message in this new median, they gathered a following.
They decided that they were going to band this following together to hunt down corruption in town hall, whether it was there or not.

Regardless of what it cost to the residents, they filed lawsuits against the town. They grilled staff and councilors at council meetings on issues that were vetted in public weeks before.

They reported the “corruption” they found in the corners, under the desks, and in the closets at town hall to whatever agency, state or federal, would give them an ear … at more cost to the residents in town staff time…to no avail.
As they continued to look and report and fail to prove corruption, they got angrier and meaner.

And while they were looking for corruption and conspiracies, they decided that this town needs a mayor. So they started a petition to review the charter. After a quick and easy signature drive, they would get themselves a mayor - perhaps that Hyannis councilor - or at least let him believe that to keep him around for inside information.

The idea of a charter review was good one, reasonable people thought, we need review the structure of our town government regularly.

But as they continue to gather signatures they decided to target different councilors for different reasons, even trying to recall me with a nasty and personal campaign, and accusing other councilors of nastiness in their personal lives where no nastiness exists.

The recall attempt failed, but its overall venom remains intact. Lawyers sent cease and desist letters to shut down accusasions about personal lives. Each and every step exposing this group for who they really are. The newspapers love the drama - hey february and march are tough times to find a good story! - but the town is losing what little respect they had for these people.

Now, they will continue their charter commission endeavors - while we all wonder….

Who are these people and what do they REALLY want to accomplish?

10:41 pm
I am becoming concerned for my own safety. There are some unstable people involved in all of this.

6:30pm
A note to anyone concerned about the petitions. They are, in a sense, void. This morning a letter from Jim Walsh was filed by the town clerk. The letter said that Jim Walsh was withdrawing the recall.
Copies of the petition might still be public record - I’ll find out those details thursday or friday.
I am trying to catch up on my own work and council work, and to finish returning calls from as far back as 10 days ago.

update - 2:10pm
3/06/07 On his blog http://capecodliving.blogspot.com Eric Schwaab posted a copy of a Register article with a couple of important paragraphs missing. These paragraphs both state the other side of the argument and show some serious legal implications, as seen in this cut from the article - which is included in the entire article in a post on this blog - Register article. - hmmmmmm: “Joakim … lied and cheated her constituents out of a ton of money with her split tax rate vote,” Lopez rails on his blog site. Speaking of Joakim and fellow councilors Jim Crocker, Jim Munafo Jr., Harold Tobey. Fred Chirigotis, Janice Barton and Gary Brown, all of whom voted to re-instate the flat rate, Lopez asked: “how many pieces of silver did Joakim et al receive to screw their constituents.”

This evening, after a long ride back from an off-Cape doctor’s appointment, I arrived home to a phone call.

Through an attorney who in turn used an intermediary, Jim Walsh requested to meet with me tonight. I brought along my husband and an attorney who was there to listen at my request.

Jim Walsh apologized for the personal nature of the recall, and wanted everyone there to hear him say that there were NO threats made against him, his wife, his kids or anyone. He gave me the petitions and agreed to send a joint letter with me to the people who signed them.

Off Cape for the Day -
looking for the “list”?
click the additional information page tab above -
visit this site later on today and this evening for some interesting information

This has been a long weekend at the end of a long week and I pray that we are almost done with this part of the nightmare.
But these are mean, viscious, angry men, who will not stop.
Trust me.
I can’t believe how many hits we had today- thanks to the links into this blog-
Almost 500 in one day!
Good night!

UPDATE:
10:40 pm
I feel like I am being pulled into the blog-o-sphere nightmare….

I am now being told that I am accused of threatening Jim Walsh’s children?
(I haven’t read this blog posting- but it is apparently on a blog owned by the same person who owns lopez’s blog and has linked to this blog- helping the stats to jump so high!)

Once again, I am forced to say -I have done none of this!

But my phone has been ringing for the past several days, intensly since Friday - literally to the point where I can’t catch up with the phone calls I need to return. Yesterday was the busiest day.

People want to tell me stories about this certain group of men who are out to hunt down corruption and accuse good people of committing crimes of deceipt.

I am not the kind of person who would want to try to use this information against these people, as angry as I was.
That frustrated a lot of friends, neighbors and people outside the precint who knew the people whose names were in the paper and on their own blogs as both running and being behind the recall.

People who I don’t know called me to tell me they wanted to help.
People who have always supported my opponent called to ask what they could do.

Many of these people asked for signs. This upset the people collecting signatures, who apparently tried and tried to find a tact to have someone tell me that they had to come down.

Now there are these veiled suggestions that I might have threatened Jim Walsh and his wife and his kids???
When? While the phone battery was recharging and I was making yet another attempt to revisit my own life?
Why? And with what? If he has done nothing wrong, then what is he worried about?

He needs to talk to neighbors and associates, to people he rode incessently at the golf course who just want to play golf. (I didn’t know he played golf, I thought he just spent time there trying to find wasted money and corruption.) Apparently, he has made a lot people angry in this precinct and all over town during the past 10+ years! If that is coming back to bite him, then he can’t be looking for others to point fingers at…

I wrote the post below when this blog was being visited by friends and people who wanted to be kept up to date, in case we were to begin an actual campaign. At that point, there were just a handful of people reading this thing. But another Cog person linked to this site and voila! I am being accused of more crimes!

My family and I have been through ENOUGH!
I have been dragged through the mud and if the people who had me tied and were doing the dragging were covered in mud of their own, then that is not my problem.

Glass houses and stones, pot and kettle and all that!

If these guys are now going to start accusing me of threatening a mother and her children, then they are barking up the wrong tree.

Is this some sort of effort to suggest that I am cut from the same cloth as all of them?

Will this ever end?

7 PM:Thank you to all of you who have contacted me about this apparent termination of the recall.

Of course this “termination” is laden with more innuendo of corruption in town hall and accusations are flying that continue to implicate me, personally.

I am not convinced this is over.

For details see http://www.capecog.com

Stay tuned.

how does that song go?
things that make you go … hmmmmm

In law, defamation is the communication of a statement that makes a false claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may harm the reputation of an individual, business, product, group, government or nation. Most jurisdictions allow legal actions, civil and/or criminal, to deter various kinds of defamation and retaliate against criticism.

I have been receiveing emails from a group of college kids who are taking a keen interest in the COG blog - www.capecog.com
They have asking for numbers and background and a couple of the math wizs have found their way to the DOR site and more.

One kid actually thought the whole thing was some sort of joke, not believing these were adults writing like this and putting such convaluted spins on the numbers.

They have agreed to try to keep reposting messages - or comments on this blog written and administered and written by Gary Lopez, and owned by Eric Schwaab.

Apparently every time they post - the messages are removed, and they quickly realized it wasn’t just them. Anyone who refutes figures, disagrees with Lopez’s posts, or anyone who posts messages that disagree with others who post messages of hate and viceral garbage, their messages are removed by Gary Lopez.

So they have now been collecting as many as they can catch, whether they write them or others they may not even know.

Today a group of roomates were trying to post and each of their computer ip numbers were blocked from leaving any comments on the CapeCog.com site- so they headed over to one of the campus libraries with their jump drives in hand and posted all the messages they had saved. Figuring if the computers they are using are blocked, they can just go to another one as there are over thirty computers in the lab.

In the process more kids are watching all of this and getting involved! Thus the “voice of the future” — this collective group that now reaches around the country, is formed.

They have asked me to post some of the messages or comments that are being removed - this is a rough collection of responses to yesterdays post on the http://www.capecog.com site. All of these posts were removed shortly after going up…. in the COG way - shame on them for disagreeing with them and for questioning their “facts” and “figures.”

Recognize these are from kids who are frustrated that one can post only if they agree….

***************************************************************************

reposts:
(by the way these are the workings of at LEAST 3 people. but i’ll still
take the blame for all of them since i know you’d find it hard to believe
so many have things to say against thee)

should i make up a name like john h or carol a so you’ll give me some
credit as a human being? i didn’t want to have to lie…

Continue reading The Voices of our Future!…

Yesterday I received a copy of this article, anonymously. The sender included a note that read (spelling etc as presented) :

“Mrs. Joakim, My wife and I are sorry about our signature on the afidavid. We were lied to we will let J Walsh no it.
This article says it has nothing to do with Gary Lopez, but it does and J Walsh told us about the group that Mr. Lopez is leading.
We did not know about the other thing that residential exp. and the money that that saves.
He said in the article that it is nothing personal and it is, he said some inapprorpate things about you and your family.
We will tell Mr Walsh to stay away from us and our neighborhood when he is getting people to sign the petition!”

Town councilors facing backlash for split tax turnabout
By Joe Burns
Wednesday, February 28, 2007 - Updated: 08:32 AM EST

The decision by the Barnstable Town Council to rescind the split tax rate it established in 2005 and return to a flat rate has some Barnstable residents irate.
A Centerville citizen is waging a campaign to recall Barnstable Town Council president Janet Joakim from office, while a long-time Barnstable gadfly has been hurling insults across the Internet at councilors who voted against retaining the split tax, threatening to have some of them recalled.

The Split tax system placed more of the tax burden on businesses while reducing the property tax for most residential homeowners. It was voted in by town council following the November election where voters approved a non-binding resolution calling for the establishment of a split tax. The town council voted to maintain the formula the following year.
James M. Walsh of Centerville has been busy gathering signatures in an effort to have Joakim either resign or face a recall election.
Walsh needs 245 valid signatures to move the process forward. All signatures must be from the 6th Precinct, which Joakim represents and where Walsh resides. If Walsh collects the required signatures, the petition would go to the town council with a request for Joakim to resign. If she does not within five days, a recall election would be set in which Joakim and possibly others, would be on the ballot.
“I’ve got people calling me and wanting me to come to their house to get their signature,” said Walsh who has until March 8 to reach the required number.
“People are ripping about this because the resident taxpayers are paying for the businesses. We shouldn’t support the business,” Walsh said, noting that Barnstable is the only town or city in the state with residential property taxes are higher than commercial property taxes.
Walsh said that he is asking for a recall because Joakim had promised the voters that she would support the split tax rate and has now voted against it. Walsh said he would probably be as incensed if voters favored a flat rate and Joakim first pledged to support it and then voted against it.
“This is nothing personal between Janet and I. I don’t want to run anybody out of office,” Walsh said. “[But] if you tell people you’re going to vote for something, you should keep your word on it. That’s all.”
Joakim responded: “As a councilor, it is my obligation to act as a agent of my constituents as well as a trustee of the town. That requires finding the balance between what benefits my constituents with what is best for the town’s overall health.
“I also voted in favor of the residential exemption, which provided a much larger savings on my constituents tax bills, and which no one seems to be discussing here,” Joakim said. “This year, the residential exemption will save the people in my precinct a total of $412 on the median priced house … which gives about $105,000 credit towards the assessed value of a home in my precinct.”
Walsh said that he’s acting on his own and not in consort with Gary Lopez of Centerville who has been waging his own recall campaign on his blog site, Citizens for Open Government in a less than genteel manner.
“Joakim … lied and cheated her constituents out of a ton of money with her split tax rate vote,” Lopez rails on his blog site.
Speaking of Joakim and fellow councilors Jim Crocker, Jim Munafo Jr., Harold Tobey. Fred Chirigotis, Janice Barton and Gary Brown, all of whomvoted to re-instate the flat rate, Lopez asked: “how many pieces of silver did Joakim et al receive to screw their constituents.”
Lopez also accused Tobey of lying and warned that he would be next to face a recall with Chirigotis and Barton to follow.
Barton said she would not comment on what bloggers write, but offered that she has been consistent in supporting a flat tax rate. She said in doing so she has taken feedback that she received from voters in and out of her precinct.
“A lot of small business owners live in and out of town and they support the town in many ways,” Barton said, calling the split tax divisive.
“It’s a unity issue,” Barton said.
Regarding the threat of a recall petition Chirigotis said “they can do whatever they believe is appropriate and we’ve got to do whatever is in the best interest of the town. I think that’s been done.”
Tobey, who was returned as town councilor for precinct 8 in 2005, had expressed reservation regarding the split tax prior to his re-election, saying jobs would be lost if businesses had to absorb an increase in taxes. Tobey defeated John Alden, who had come out in favor of the split tax, by a margin of 315-104.
Joakim has accused Lopez of being behind the recall effort and has taken exception to Lopez’s language and tone on his blog.
“The rhetoric they are using to make an argument for recall has been downright mean and ugly, and full of lies and what comes very close to libel,” Joakim said. “I have never taken money, or business, in exchange for a vote.”
Joakim had expressed concerns about the split tax prior to its being voted upon by Barnstable residents. In October 2005 Joakim said that she feared that small businesses renting space from large property owners would bear the burden of a commercial tax increase, and that shifting the tax load to businesses wouldn’t result in much of a savings for her the people of her precinct.
“It does matter when you’re talking about some very expensive houses along the water. But when you’re talking about the people in my precinct — the average home here is $250,000 to $300,000 — there’s not a lot of savings,” Joakim said at the time. She estimated that the average homeowner in precinct 6 would save about 30 cents per $1,000 assessed value while businesses would see their rate rise from $5.65 to $8.48 per $1,000.
Chirigotis said that the split tax initiative as originally conceived wasn’t to create tax relief for residential homeowners.
“FAIR, the group that was pushing [the split tax rate] was talking about tax relief. What people voted for and what I think they were looking for is tax relief. Tax relief isn’t based upon the split tax rate,” Chirigotis said. “People have called me concerned that their tax was going to go up. The reality is, with the residential exemption in place there won’t be a substantial increase.”
Chirigotis said the town is losing taxable commercial property as a result of airport expansion into Independence Park and open space acquisitions. He said the percentage of taxes paid by the business community is in decline and is continuing in this direction.
“Real estate property values are increasing and the business properties are decreasing. We need to encourage business development,” Chirigotis said.
Walsh said that Joakim and others aren’t looking at how people are living in Barnstable
“A lot of senior citizens are on fixed incomes. Ten dollars is a lot to some people in this town,” Walsh said.
“I went to get a signature the other day. This woman was in a wheelchair. This woman needs every single penny she can get,” Walsh said. “She couldn’t believe that Janet didn’t go along with this tax rate.”

Cape Cod Times Editorial - March 1, 2007

Citizens of Barnstable should reject the effort to recall Town Council President Janet Joakim and the other councilors who voted to end the one-year experiment of a split tax rate.

The recall process is serious business, like impeachment. It should be reserved for high crimes and misdemeanors, for actions that are irresponsible or criminal.

We supported the split tax, and are disappointed that the council ended it, but it’s a perversion of the town charter and good sense to drum up recalls when you disagree with someone’s vote on one issue. If we were to organize a recall effort every time an elected official shifted his or her position, there would be more recalls than general elections.

Joakim explains that she did campaign on a split-tax plank two years ago, and did vote for its imposition last year. But certifying a tax rate is done annually. The data on actual savings (and no doubt heavy lobbying by business owners, who are also her constituents) convinced her the resident property tax exemption did more to protect year-round homeowners from rising valuations than the split tax did.

What’s really going on here?

Joakim is in the cross hairs of a little band of perpetual critics, those angry, intemperate, attention-seeking citizens loosely affiliated around the blog Citizen For Open Government. In their eyes, the town never does anything right. So Joakim’s vote to end the split-tax experiment is just a convenient excuse to pin a target on her. Before Joakim, COG railed with equal venom (for other reasons) at the previous council president, Hank Farnham.

These men make noise but have no allies in useful civic work. They claim to be righting wrongs, but in fact their incessant carping turns responsible people off. Innuendo and personal insult are their stock in trade.

Here’s a sample:

“Janet is TOAST! Get lost Janet. RESIGN! No one likes a LIAR! Our town already has enough! And the recall of YOU is just the beginning! We will do others. We will get rid of the LIARS and FILTH one by one! The 13 councilors we now have are the WORST this town has ever seen! Nothing bunch of LIARS in bed with a bunch of more LIARS in the Klimm administration!”

Whew! Civic engagement of the highest order.

Residents of Joakim’s precinct shouldn’t have to put up with the distraction and expense of a recall election. They can register their objections to the vote with her personally, and at the ballot box in due course. In the meantime, they should separate the personalities from the real issue: The split-tax method did not have strong political support on the town council. Business lobbyists prevailed. The vote was 7 to 5, and would have been 8-5 if Hank Farnham had been there.

Split-tax proponents need to build political support and change minds. That won’t happen as long as COG controls the bullhorn.