consider this …. councilors serving on the charter commission

November 27, 2007 at 11:45 am | Posted in barnstable, barnstable charter commission, barnstable town council, blogger, bob smith, charter ballot, charter comission, city charter, council, council president janet joakim, councilor, councilors at large | 7 Comments

SUPPOSE FOUR, FIVE, OR 13 COUNCILORS HAD BEEN ON THE BALLOT FOR CHARTER COMMISSION……..?

Several months ago, more than one town councilor sought out advice from the town attorney regarding whether it was possible to serve both as a councilor and as a member of the charter commission.

Suppose more than one councilor had managed to win a seat on the charter commission?

This would mean that a committee of citizens including multiple town councilors would be discussing possible changes to the charter that is the backbone and structure of the offices they are currently holding.

All of the councilors who sought out the advice of Town Attorney Bob Smith, accepted his decision and advice and chose not to run – all but one councilor.

The ”right” to ignore the current charter and serve on this commission should not be a reward for working to get signatures on the petition that brought us this commission. Each effort should be independent of the working government, or the process might be questioned. 

Does this commission in its make-up now, already have a new charter design in mind before they begin the process?

Would a group that included multiple councilors have a preconceived idea of what a new charter would look like?

Is it fair that one person feels that the rules that apply to everyone else, do not apply to him?

Does this show a lack of respect for the current charter?

Can we trust the process if the decisions are made by someone who chooses to follow the charter selectively, while ignoring conflicts?

What do you think?

In future posts we will examine the past charges made to the ethics commissions about councilors holding multiple elected offices….and who was most vocal on those issues as it pertained to ethics.

In the mean time, The Barnstable Beat blog’s author has done a lot of work on explaining areas of the charter. This is valuable reading and I encourage you to visit his site: http://barnstablebeat.blogspot.com/


7 Comments »

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  1. I agree with you Janet. The people on the Charter Commission should be independant from the town councelors. I think that Greg Milne needs to decide which position is more important to him, and move on. Stop wasting taxpayer time and money to be on both. The crazies who cannot accept defeat, and we all know who they are, are just mad because nobody, other than Milne, who they wanted on the commission won. There are 9 people that the voters of Barnstable ELECTED on this committee. They are capable people with ties to this town, and want to improve Barnstable. I am sure they will be open minded and contribute great ideas and LISTEN to others ideas, a concept the crazies are quite obviously incapable of. Let them fight in the courts and try and recall people. They are becoming quite notoriously well known in Barnstable and it will all work out in the end. IGNORE their antics. It obviously does no good to try and educate them on the facts, they don’t listen.

    Comment by C Howell — November 27, 2007 #

  2. What about people who work for the town?
    Why wouldn’t people who have jobs working for the town be able to run? Why not let them have a say?
    Seems like a union rep or something should have a say in this. If a councilor gets to be on this then so should a rep for the workers in this town!!!!!!

    Comment by Anonymous — November 27, 2007 #

  3. There are reasons these rules and laws are in place. A charter commission made up of councilors is what we have now, isn’t it? If you allowed current councilors to serve why bother with a committee?

    Comment by Anonymous — November 27, 2007 #

  4. We agree for once. But probably not for the same reasons.

    Comment by Sylvia Doiron — November 27, 2007 #

  5. How much has little Harry Potter cost the town so far, and has anyone run the numbers to estimate the total cost of the twerps latest quest for attention?

    Comment by fed up with twerps — November 28, 2007 #

  6. Of course you are right on this. Greg did a good job getting the question to the ballot. He should have left it there but his ego and political career plans wouldn’t let him permit other competent folks carry the ball.

    A vote for Milne for the charter commission was wasted – he heard the town attorney’s position but he chose to ignore it.

    Comment by Gregs Constituent — November 28, 2007 #

  7. Thanks for this, this is something that I think isn’t being discussed in this.
    It isn’t about just one particular councilor holding an elected office on the charter commission and the town counci, but ANY councilor.

    This is good point, if one can serve, why not 9?

    That is why we need to fight to keep the commission free of other elected positions in town.

    Comment by john h — November 29, 2007 #


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