CCA 2nd Annual Meeting a Great Success
On a mild morning on April 26, 2008, Charlestown Citizens came together at the Quonnie Grange to review the last year and brain storm about the future of our town. CCA had two major announcements to make. The first was to make public our new web site and the second was to announce that CCA has become a PAC. We needed to become a PAC in order to be active in the November 2008 elections.
If you missed the annual meeting, we have provided some of the meeting documents here ...
CCA Survey Results
In March, 2008, CCA surveyed the members of the CCA e-mail list to discover your concerns and interests
...read the answers
Solicitor Craven rules in favor of the truth
In October, land use attorney and Mageau appointee to the Charter Revision Committee (CRC), Margaret Hogan, prepared a legal memorandum claiming that the entire Charlestown Planning Commission is illegally elected. Town Councilor James Mageau wanted to go to court to prove the Planning Commission had to be replaced, and CRC members Hogan and Carney kept pushing the issue for three long months, but the truth prevailed in Bob Craven's legal analysis. There was tremendous pressure to strip the voters of their right to elect a Planning Commission and give the power to appoint the Planning Commission to Mageau and the rest of the Town Council. Mageau was also raising the issue that Planning decisions could be overturned. Since Hogan has two appeals of Planning Commission decisions in court and many current applications before the Planning Commission, many raised the issue of a possible conflict of interest. Mageau's and Hogan's legal arguments were not well founded, but it still took real courage for Craven to go up against Mageau and we applaud him for that.
Read Solicitor Robert Craven's full legal memorandum.
... more
Tribe renews push to force casino into Charlestown
In November 2006, voters defeated the Narragansett Tribe's casino proposal by a margin of over 2 to 1. The tribe's campaign themes had been "Let the voters decide", and let's decide "once and for all". But as soon as the voters resoundingly voted no on casinos, the Tribe renewed their efforts to force a casino into Charlestown without voter approval. Almost immediately after the failed referendum, the Tribe began to lobby the Rhode Island Congressional delegation to repeal or alter the so called Chafee Amendment to the Rhode Island Indian Claims Settlement Act. The Settlement Act puts the Tribe's land in Charlestown under the State Constitution and State law, thus giving the citizens of Charlestown the same rights as other citizens of Rhode Island, the right to hold binding referendums on the establishment of gambling facilities and the right to say no.
...more
Important Meetings
Town Hall Calendar (won't work in all browsers) gives a complete listing of times of meetings for the Town Council and other commissions.
Below we have listed some important upcoming meetings and events for different boards and commissions. Links are provided for each board for meeting times and places and agendas.
Town Council
Wednesday December 3 at 5:30 PM
Agenda meeting
Tuesday December 8 at 7 PM
Monthly meeting
Agendas and minutes for Town Council
Planning Commission
Tuesday December 9 at 7 PM
Workshop
Wednesday December 17 at 7 PM
Commercial Site Plan Review
Agendas and minutes for PC
Zoning Board
Some previously unbuildable lots near or bordering the ponds may be deemed buildable by Zoning Board decisions at upcoming meetings.
Agendas and minutes for ZB
Charlestown Town Council Meetings on TV
If you have cable TV, you can watch the Charlestown Town Council meetings on TV, as well as the Charter Revision Committee meetings. Please turn to Channel 18. If you want to know when the meetings are being broadcast, get on the CCA email list and you'll receive the schedule from us as it becomes available.
Charlestown Tax Assessments
Follow this link to check out the tax assessment on your property and compare your assessment to other properties in Charlestown.
Councilman James Mageau found guilty on assault charges
Acting Town Council President and Town Council candidate James M. Mageau was found guilty of assault against a volunteer cameraman on September 22 by Associate District Court Judge William Clifton.
More inside: read news stories and see video of the court decision from the three major television stations.
Sixteen States back RI and Charlestown in keeping land under local and State control
Sixteen states and RISC have joined Rhode Island and the Town of Charlestown in fighting a ruling that would place 31 acres in Charlestown under the Narragansett Indian Tribe’s control. This ruling if not appealed would remove this land from local regulation and taxation and would pave the way for a casino.
States ranging from Alaska to Massachusetts back Rhode Island’s position in a friend-of-the-court brief written by the Connecticut attorney general’s office. “This issue is profoundly important to all states that face efforts to take land into trust,” Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in a phone interview. “The decision essentially lowers the bar for the secretary of interior to take land into trust.”
Town Councilor Mageau has consistently been against this appeal and the Town's Solicitor for Indian Affairs, Joe Larisa.
More inside: read the appeals, and the friend-of-the-court briefs and related newspaper articles.
According to experts, handwriting on hate mail is a perfect match for Mageau's
Last February many people in town received anonymous hate mail attacking a member of the Town Council and a former member of the Town Council and his wife. The letter was unsigned and arrived with I.M.H. as the return address. The people being attacked and those who received the hate mail had in common that they had disagreed with James Mageau in a public meeting about matters of public policy in the Town of Charlestown. Many of the people who received the hate mail believed that the hand writing was very familiar. They requested writing samples of all the Town Council members from the Town Hall and submitted these together with the hand addressed envelopes that the hate mail arrived in to a private handwriting expert and to Channel 12 Eyewitness News, who have their own handwriting experts. Both experts came to the same conclusion - that the handwriting was a perfect match for the writing of James Mageau.
More inside: read the handwriting analyst's report, see the hate mail and handwriting samples and related newspaper articles.