petitions at the polls?

February 4, 2008 at 7:51 pm | In barnstable, barnstable charter commission, barnstable town council, capeCOG, gary lopez centerville, greg milne |
Tags: , , ,

There have been several inquiries today about claims that Gary Lopez and friends will be collecting signatures at the polls this Tuesday  - the questions seem to be regarding what are they allowed or permitted to do and what they can accomplish.

  • People are allowed to collect signatures at polls as long as they are 150 feet from a polling place.
  • This group apparently wants to use a section of the charter that allows for a petition signed by 300 people to call a meeting of the council for he purposes stated on the petition, which is allowed.*
  • A recall affidavit has to be initiated by a resident of the councilor’s precinct. Signing an affidavid means signing a legal document — be sure you read what you sign.

 I don’t know what the reasons for calling the meeting will be. One caller told me that the petition will include an item that says they want the town to pay for Greg Milne’s legal fees.  Another person received an email from Gary Lopez giving these three reasons for calling a meeting:

(1) The reasoning of the failure to support the tax classification shift (the split tax rate).
(2) The reasons Gregory Milne, the third top vote getter in the charter commission referendum does not have a seat on the Charter Commission, and why his attorney’s fees expended to get a seat on the Charter Commission are not paid with town funds.
(3) The reasons James Tinsley, Harold Tobey, and Fred Chirigotis failed to support the January, 2008 shell fish zoning ordinance as written and unanimously approved by the Planning Board.

Seems like reason two confirms that this group wants the town to pay not only to defend the legal action brought against the town BY Greg Milne, (this bill is currently at $9,000.00) but now wants the town to pay Milne’s own lawyer for filing this action against the town.   See this post for more details on costs of responding to these lawsuits.

I haven’t heard this from Councilor Milne, as a matter of fact this is the first I have heard this request.

The Town Council did not vote on the choice to defend the town against the Milne law suit.  We didn’t appropriate money and direct the use of it to sue Greg Milne.  It just doesn’t work that way, despite what this group wants you to believe.

* From the Barnstable Town Charter:
Section 8-9 Open Meeting
  The town council may call meetings of the town. Upon the request in writing of three hundred voters setting forth the request in writing of three hundred voters setting forth the purpose thereof, the town council shall call a meeting of the voters. The president of the town council shall preside and regulate the proceedings of such meetings. The president of the council shall cause the attendance of town official and employees necessary to respond to the issues and concerns raised by the petitioners .

14 Comments »

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

  1. Respectfully Janet, do you think $9,000.00 is allot of money compared to the other things this town is facing?

    Comment by Bradley G Ouimette — February 5, 2008 #

  2. I wonder what people would say if I asked that question.

    Regardless, we have no choice, we have to spend it. Is $30,000.00 a lot of money?

    And, the $9,0000 is the cost — thus far

    Comment by JSJ — February 5, 2008 #

  3. Janet, any word on the petitions did they actually show up at the polls. I haven’t made it to vote yet

    Comment by TJ — February 5, 2008 #

  4. Don’t waste your time on those guys.
    They are mired in conspiracy theories.

    I didn’t see anybody with petitions today.

    If they want to continue to ask the town to spend money to confirm their nutty conspiracy theories maybe we should have a meeting and the people in this town could vote to send them a bill.

    Comment by Anonymous — February 5, 2008 #

  5. Does anyone know what percentage of the town voted today? It was a huge turnout around the state. I hope we measure up.

    Comment by Anonymous — February 5, 2008 #

  6. Nobody asking for signatures at senior center this afternoon! Another big bag of wind as far as I can tell.

    Comment by Anonymous — February 6, 2008 #

  7. Didn’t see anyone collecting signatures at precint 6 either.

    Comment by JSJ — February 6, 2008 #

  8. any petitions to lock TT up?

    Comment by magiclady — February 7, 2008 #

  9. Recent tragedy at Kirkwood Town Meeting reminds us that these arguments can grow out-of-hand. See story link:
    http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/02/08/city.council.shooting/index.html

    Comment by jl — February 8, 2008 #

  10. Just saw this report on one of the cable news networks. He got through two policemen set up for security. Was known for his critisms and stories of conspiracy theories about his local goverment. Shot two policemen, two city councilors, the director of dpw and the mayor before he was killed by police.

    Comment by JSJ — February 8, 2008 #

  11. Janet - There are two types of people that scare me. Males and Females.

    Right now I’m getting in news on the wire regarding another school shooting in Louisianna.

    The problem is that there is basically no way to tell for certain who will blow a microchip, and when…

    I was never ever for guns on campus. But now I think different. When my kids attend university I would like them to be armed. At least that way they’d have a fighting chance.

    When it comes down to it, nuts crazed enough to start shooting will find a weapon regardless, registered or not. Studies show that licensed owners are involed in far fewer crimes.

    People are like de-clawed kittens when it comes to defending against a crazed gunman.

    A friend asked me once… “do you wanna know why I carry a gun?” and when I admitted I didn’t know, he said, “Because a cop’s too heavy.”

    Comment by jl — February 8, 2008 #

  12. yikes - but with that logic everyone on campus would have a gun and that makes it frightening when you think of the emotional rollercoaster some of these kids experience during college years. And don’t forget that the gunman that shot the city councilors and the mayor got through two armed policemen first. - equally important - he took the gun from one of the policemen he killed.

    Comment by JSJ — February 8, 2008 #

  13. I know! untrained people should not carry guns… However, look at the rare times these crazed shooters have been stopped - not by onduty cops, but by off-duty armed men and women. It has reached the point, quite sadly, where the inocents need to have their 2nd ammendment rights on campus. Only if TRAINED. and only if ADULTS (18 and over). And Janet, my dear fellow parent, I also tend to view college students as “kids” and in many respects now-a-days they still are, but the reality is that they are legal ADULTS. Men and women should have the on campus right to protect themselves. Crazed gunmen are predators of oportunity. Crazed gunmen will think twice, at least not have the same “easy pickings,” if they knew in the back of their minds that someone on campus (anybody) might be a trained carrier of a concealed weapon. BTW- police, on average, receive less training than most responsible gun owners. and why should police, a privledged minority, be the only ones who can protect themselves? In today’s violent world, police rarely prevent these shootings, more often merely arriving afterwards to take the horrible report, and yes, sometimes they themselves are sitting ducks. Violent criminals have the advantage and that needs to change. I know, I would have responded with “yikes” not too long ago. But my kids are now trained at the use of firearms, safe handling and storage. Believe me when I tell you that being well trained in this form of self defense decreases their stress level. They feel safer. and when they turn 18 they will be getting their concealed carry permits. studies show that trained gun owners are less likely to be involved in or victimized by violent crime. I’m living in the here and now, that’s all.

    Comment by jl — February 9, 2008 #

  14. I can’t find anyone in Hyannis who signed a petition!
    What is that all about?
    PRobally just another one f their stories.
    Conspiracy theory stuff again

    Comment by Anonymous — February 11, 2008 #

Leave a comment

XHTML: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Blog at WordPress.com. | Theme: Pool by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds.