Chronology of Charlestown Town Council Actions Against the Citizens of Charlestown - the First Year

In November, 2007, CCA prepared a summary of the first year of the Jim Mageau Town Council. Much has happened since then, but this document provides a good introduction to the bad government that came into power with the 2006 election.

Introduction:

The political process in Charlestown Rhode Island has historically represented a participatory process between citizens and the elected Town Council to create public policy and pass budget decisions that reflect the will of the people. For decades Charlestown politicians and citizens have worked together to preserve the environment, natural beauty, and charm of this resort town.  The town has benefited financially from the income from tourists and part-time residents and non-resident homeowners whose tax dollars help support the Charlestown budget and its programs.  Fiscally conservative, Charlestown has been well run thanks to the efforts of the Budget Commission, the administration, and with the cooperation of the staff have provided a sound financial climate.

The November 2006 election results in Charlestown reflected a change from the usual participatory style of government to what appears to be a dysfunctional Town Council, the majority of which has systematically worked against the will of the people.   The trio of councilors whose actions we believe have repeatedly broken State Laws and violated the Town Charter, include Mr. James Mageau, Mr. John Craig, and Mr. Bruce Picard.  Through what appears to be their willful misconduct, lack of ethics, and total disregard for the principles of public service they have given citizens cause for their removal from public office.  Unfortunately, the Town of Charlestown does not have a useful mechanism for recall.  The three have worked as a unit and voting block to pursue Mr. Mageau’s personal agenda against the will of the citizens of Charlestown.  Consider the chronology of facts listed below and you will not find it hard to connect the dots to a series of apparent unlawful actions and unethical behavior that threatens and undermines the government and town of Charlestown, Rhode Island.  No council action can be taken against this individual because he inexplicably retains the support from two members of the council and thereby controls the majority vote.

Chronology of Actions against the Citizens of Charlestown:  

1. Four Open Meeting Act Violations against State Law were committed and later validated by the Attorney General’s Office. Counselor’s Mageau, Craig, and Picard worked unlawfully behind the scenes to influence both public policy and hiring decisions without the benefit of input from citizen commissions, public input, or consultation with the other two elected town councilors.  Both Mr. Barrett and Mr. Craven participated in these meetings and were later hired as Town Administrator and Town Legal Counsel without benefit of citizen input or a valid search committee.

2. Once sworn into Office, Mr. Mageau systematically attacked citizens who offered  different view points during open debate at Town meetings or wrote letters to the newspaper editors that differed from his views on public policy process or who did not agree with his personal agenda.  It seems Mr. Mageau’s personal agenda includes halting all citizen input as would become clear to the citizens during the next year.  We believe his first efforts to silence citizens included his attempt to stop public comment and citizen input at all Town Council Meetings.  This was a clear violation of the Town Charter that endorses citizen input and public comment on all Town Council and public policy issues. In fact, we believe that he was responsible for the Town Administrator threatening the Cox cameraman and ordering him to stop filming the town meeting or be arrested.

3. Mr. Mageau’s next attack on innocent citizens included his well publicized SLAPP Suit against 17 citizens who either worked on environmental committees or voiced support for the environment. His accusations included both the Town Council President and Vice President.   All of these individuals reflected the town’s historic position of supporting reasonable development while maintaining current zoning regulations but not at the expense of the environment.  Mr. Mageau’s response was to recklessly label these citizens as “Eco-Terrorists”.  His suit was later dismissed as having no validity or merit.  Yet, Mr. Mageau has never been fined or penalized in any way for his false accusations in this frivolous action against these citizens.  

4. The next action taken by Mr. Mageau which we understand to have been an attempt to scare and silence his critics was the reported Hate Mail incidents. Charlestown senior citizens, and the Vice President of the Town Councilor who spoke against Mr. Mageau’s policies and behavior were the recipients of this hate mail. The hate mail was also mailed to many other people in Charlestown. Two independent handwriting experts including one hired by a Providence TV Station identified the very distinctive handwriting on the hate mail envelops as belonging to Mr. Mageau.   No punishment was ever given Mr. Mageau for violating the Town Charter’s Article D, willful misconduct to the injury of public service which the Charter states is cause for removal from office.

5. Citizens responded to mounting evidence of misconduct by Mr. Mageau with letters to the editor and speeches at Town Hall Meetings.  Mr. Mageau’s response included distorting the facts in his rebuttals to the newspapers and at town meetings he would unleash violent, expletive laced attacks against individual citizens who dared speak against him or question what he believed, did, or said. 

6. After two months of enduring the nightmare political situation in Charlestown, the citizens formed a grass roots organization called the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA).  CCA became a Ballot Advocacy Organization with the goal of restoring good government to Charlestown and began to obtain the required number of signatures to put a recall ballot initiative before the people at the Town’s Financial Referendum.

7. Even though we submit that the CCA Ballot Questions complied with the Town Charter, Mr. Mageau used his hand picked Town Attorney to appeal the decision of the Superior Court to prevent the four ballot items including the recall provision from being brought before the people. 

8. Mr. Mageau’s attempt to push his pro-development anti-open space agenda included his motion to spend $1.65 million of the taxpayers money which represented a two million dollar open space bond to replace an old Blue Shutters beach pavilion that could have been rebuilt for only $500,000 or 1/3rd of the cost proposed by Mr. Mageau.  If it were not for the anger and strenuous objections by the over 250 citizens who attended the meeting, Mr. Mageau may have succeeded.  This was one of a handful of occasions when Mr. Craig did not vote with the Voting Block and complied with the citizens’ wishes.

9. After his defeat on the Blue Shutters Project, Mr. Mageau’s next target was to try and dismiss the Town’s Indian Affairs attorney who represented the Town’s Anti-Gambling position with the State and Congress.  We think that Mr. Mageau used the Town Administrator to present a factually distorted cost / benefits analysis of Mr. Larisa’s salary.  Mr. Larisa presented actual billing statements that showed his legal charges were the same as the salary for the Town Attorney (Mr. Craven) who was hired by Mr. Mageau, Mr. Craig, and Mr. Picard .  Mr. Mageau’s motion to fire Mr. Larisa was thankfully defeated. Again, over 250 citizens turned out for this meeting and let their voices be heard that they disapproved of this action.  Based on the facts presented by Mr. Larisa and the citizen’s outcry, Mr. Craig and Mr. Picard, for only one of the few times during their tenure, voted for the citizens motion to retain Mr. Larisa as the Town’s Indian Attorney.

10. Mr. Mageau, again used false information on a public policy issue and used false accusations of racism against the Town Council President and citizens who spoke up and opposed gambling in Charlestown.  In tandem with his latest attack on the citizens, Mr. Mageau tried once again to dismiss the Town’s Indian Attorney, Mr. Larisa, and cut funding for stopping an appeal by the Town to the US Supreme Court to oppose gambling in Charlestown.  Once again the Town turned out in record numbers to voice their disapproval of Mr. Mageau’s actions and those of Mr. Craig and Mr. Picard.  This motion was also defeated when Mr. Craig voted with the people and not with Mr. Mageau.

11. After three very public defeats on public policy issues, undeterred Mr. Mageau put into place a different plan to apparently undermine the Town and community volunteers.  The Town Administrator, Mr. Barrett, who was hired by Mr. Mageau, Mr. Craig, and Mr. Picard has now begun to attend and participate in Town Commission meetings in a blatant effort to micro-manage the efforts of citizen volunteers.

12. Once Mr. Barrett became involved in Town Commission meetings, Mr. Mageau started a new round of attacking and belittling citizen volunteers and even professional consultants hired by the town during public meetings. There have been numerous resignations of both town hall employees and citizen volunteers under the present council trio of Mageau, Craig, and Picard and their hired help, Barrett and Craven.

13. Mr. Mageau’s most recent attacks have been on two environmental committees whose actions have a long history and have recently reached the contract stage for fulfilling the environmental goals for these two projects.  Please remember that this is the same man who filed a frivolous SLAPP Suit against 17 pro-environmental citizens he labeled as terrorists.  The projects Mr. Mageau is interfering with include the Route One Scenic Highway through Charlestown which was approved by the State in 2002, and the Mud Cove project which has been in the planning stages for 5 years.  Mr. Mageau has inserted himself in both projects by distorting the facts and  falsely claiming the consultants have not followed proper procedure to include citizens in the project.  He further questioned the citizen volunteers’ intelligence and integrity for recommending this contractor for the project.  He has declared with the voting help of Mr. Craig and Mr. Picard that the Council will now review all contract bids and not entertain recommendations from citizen committees.  Without an honest vetting of the potential contractor’s by taxpaying citizens, Mr. Mageau is free to select whom he wants with the help of Mr. Craig and Mr. Picard.

14. Mr. Mageau has consistently tried to place friends who would do his bidding on various committees.  His recent attacks on citizens resulting in more resignations of competent honest citizens, allow him more opportunity to place people in positions that can affect contractual awards.  With Mr. Mageau’s criticism of consultants recommended by citizen volunteers and his motion to have the Council review all consultants prior to hiring without citizen input, it has caused citizens to view the new process as unfair and unethical.

15. Another recent example we believe reflects an attempt to influence public policy and circumvent the Town Charter would be reflected with the recent Affordable Housing Committee’s last minute recommendation for a change in housing density laws. We believe that a developer friend of Mr. Mageau has introduced a change in housing zoning density through this Committee.  Also, we believe that the increase in density if passed by the Council would not create additional affordable housing units in Charlestown, instead we believe that it would create more market rate housing in the same space and allow for greater profits for the developer under the smoke screen of increasing affordable housing.

16. In another blatant pro-development move, Mr. Mageau has supported an expedited  plan to change the Comprehensive Plan in a manner that appears to be a violation of State mandated procedures.  His desire to bypass procedures demonstrates his lack of understanding of the process and his disregard for the citizens. His plan would declare residential areas of Charlestown as “mixed use” to promote business establishments being allowed to build in residential neighborhoods. 

17. At the September Town Council Meeting, Mr. Mageau cleverly aborted the public discussion about the Position of Wastewater Manager.  He also failed to address or acknowledge the highly successful Charlestown Wastewater Program that was created in 1994 and would now be placed in jeopardy.  Moreover, he did not address the impacts his latest actions would have preserving the ground water and salt ponds from pollution caused by failing septic systems.  The fact of the matter is Charlestown has lost a highly qualified full-time engineer to oversee the Waste Water Management Program. Mr. Mageau’s response to this resignation was to authorize a job description for a different set of qualifications, education, and cut the work hours to 19 per week. The hourly wage was set at $17.06.This job was created and advertised to the public without two Councilors (Waterman and Allen) knowing or participating in its formation. This is either an open meetings violation or a hijacking of authority. Individual councilors can not request such an act. The results of Mr. Mageau’s interference have led to breakdown in following proper procedures.  The result we have is predictable. The September deadline for the Town was missed to participate in having State funds available for low cost loans to homeowners to fix broken septic systems. For the first time a Charlestown administration let the September deadline pass without our application. The result is, at least, three families that could have each applied for an $18,000 loan, are not eligible. Those three loans would equal the cost of a full time, qualified administrator doing the full job.

1. The most recent unethical act that failed to follow proper procedures and process involved the Ninigret Park Planning Commission Issue.   Mr. Mageau directed the Town Administrator to speak for the Council in favor of a special interest group in relation to the planning of Ninigret Park’s future.  The Administrator is not authorized to speak for the Council unless directed by a majority of the council after open public discussion.  Apparently, Mr. Mageau has convinced the Administrator that because he controls three council votes, he can unilaterally establish public policy and give the Administrator orders to carry out his wishes. Why Mr. Barrett complies with Mr. Mageau’s orders is perhaps a whole different issue.

1. This Chronology ends here in November 2006, but the negative actions and negative consequences have not ended. To bring yourself up to date, check our news page with links to newspaper stories, or the "What's Hot" page with highlighted news stories.

 Conclusions and a Call for Citizen Action

What is happening in Charlestown is a tragedy.  The unethical misconduct of Mr. Mageau, coupled with his hand picked administrative puppet Mr. Barrett is an injury to public service and an affront to every honest taxpayer in Charlestown.   Citizens expect good government and honest Town Councilors to carry out the will of the citizens and not implement a dishonest personal agenda to undermine the Town and the wishes of its citizens.

The chronology of events outlined in this document provide overwhelming factual evidence of a systematic plan to implement Mr. Mageau’s personal agenda against the citizens of Charlestown. 

Despite Mr. Mageau and Company being found by the Attorney General’s Office of breaking the open meetings law, and numerous violations against the town charter that justify removal from office, he continues to pursue an agenda against the citizens without any consequences.  If the Town Charter had a process for a recall election, he would have been removed a long time ago and Mr. Barrett would have been fired and an honest and open search for replacements would be conducted.

Without the recall option, Charlestown citizens will need to wait until the next election to replace this dishonest man. However, citizens should do everything they can to inform the public and oppose what Mr. Mageau is doing to Charlestown.  Citizens, you need to continue to speak up in the media and attend Town Council and Citizen Commissions to protect your rights and stop his unethical public policy efforts from being implemented.  Let your voices be heard.  Without citizen input Charlestown runs the risk of irreversible damage to our quality of life and our most precious natural resources including our forests, salt ponds, and water resources.

When the next election comes, citizens need to pay attention to the quality of candidates who are running for office.  An all out effort will be needed to ensure that Mr. Mageau is not only defeated but none of allies are elected either.  The new Town Council will have to undo the damage caused by Jim Mageau and Company and restore citizen trust and faith and reintroduce Good Government and appreciation for citizen participation in Charlestown. 

We need responsible citizens to step up to the plate and run for Charlestown Town Council, as well as volunteer to Commissions and apply to fill important positions at Town Hall.