01:00 AM EST on Wednesday, January 24, 2007

By Maria Armental

Journal Staff Writer

CHARLESTOWN — “The motion passes. The meeting is adjourned,” said Council President Katharine H. Waterman closing the council’s special meeting on Jan. 11.

But in the new Charlestown, where residents pack every meeting and council members launch myriad personal insults at each other, the move to adjourn was nothing but the sound of the bell announcing another round.

In this one, no Robert’s Rules of Order — or decorum — applied.

Residents, fed up with the way the council has been operating, had once again packed council chambers, pushing to the limit the room’s 100-person capacity and oohing and aahing along the way.

Chaos ensued after the council, again on a 3-to-2 vote, tabled discussion on changes to the council’s rules and procedures, appointments and liaisons and public comments.

Residents didn’t leave. They talked among themselves and tried to talk to town officials to make sense of what had happened.

“I knew this was going to be bad. I had no idea how bad,” Waterman shared with residents.

Meanwhile, Council Vice President Harriet A. Allen released the built-up frustration singing, “It’s over. Real estate for sale.

“They’ve got real estate for sale posted up there at the State House,” Allen chanted in the background, alluding to the political connections of the new solicitor, Robert E. Craven.

“Apply to the new, the new town solicitor if you want to cut any action,” she continued.

One woman approached councilmen John O. Craig Jr. and Bruce W. Picard and tried to convince them to break their alliance to Councilman James M. Mageau.

She told them she had voted for them and believed they were trying to do their job, but Mageau wasn’t.

Mageau interrupted the conversation and the two got into an argument, getting within inches of each other’s faces, their index fingers’ accusatorily pointing at each other.

The exchange escalated when another woman approached them, earning a “you’re nothing but a God damn carpetbagger” welcome from Mageau. Waterman stepped in, but Mageau would not budge.

“I say what I want to say,” Mageau charged as Craig and Picard tried to calm him down. A police officer soon approached the group.

The officer eventually escorted Mageau out, not before Mageau and Allen butted heads again. This time, Allen refused to move.

“You get out of my way,” he told her.

Prompting a ‘do not touch me’ remark from Allen, which was met by Mageau’s “I’m not touching you. Who the hell would touch you.”

Some applauded and thanked the officer when Mageau left. A man offered “Take the garbage out.”