01:00 AM EST on Tuesday, March 6, 2007

CHARLESTOWN — Councilman James M. Mageau is calling for the resignation of the Mud Cove ad hoc committee chairperson, citing “egregious violations of the Home Rule Charter and the public trust.”

Specifically, Mageau accuses Faith LaBossiere, the ad hoc committee chairwoman, of spending $125 without proper authorization and says “the disclosure of Ms. LaBossiere’s dishonesty in the [present] case could be the tip of the iceberg with respect to additional suspected irregularities involving some of the people involved with the campaign to discredit me and my Town Council colleagues John Craig and Bruce Picard.”

“From what I understand, this is not the first time that this has happened, and I think she no longer deserves the trust of the people,” Mageau said yesterday, adding that he will move to remove LaBossiere from her council-appointed position at the next Town Council meeting.

“It may be just $125, but it’s just a continuation of the way these people have been doing things,” Mageau said, noting that LaBossiere is a close political ally of Council President Katharine H. Waterman and Vice President Harriet A. Allen, whom he has criticized for their involvement in approving expenditures beyond the voters’ authorized spending for the construction of the new police station.

LaBossiere says that this latest accusation against her is a political attack orchestrated by Mageau.

“He is doing everything in his power to discredit people who disagree with him,” she said.

LaBossiere was one of the 17 “eco-terrorists” Mageau had accused of launching a campaign of threats, harassment and defamation against him.

The state Attorney General’s Office found no merit to that complaint.

LaBossiere, a real-estate broker who also serves as an alternate on the Planning Commission and previously served for 10 years on the Conservation Commission, defended her actions, saying during her tenure in the Conservation Commission she “had the occasion to authorize expenditures for certain things that never needed to be authorized by the previous town administrator, specially for nominal amounts.”

LaBossiere said she retained Marybeth Hanley, a University of Rhode Island botanist, last October without the five-member ad hoc committee taking an official vote because the town was “up against a very tight time frame.”

LaBossiere said that Hanley told her a study on whether there were any environmentally sensitive or endangered species on the Mud Cove site needed to be done before the first hard frost.

The ad hoc committee is working on reclaiming the approximately 32-acre scenic overlook between Route 1 and Ninigret Pond.

Plans are to build a parking lot and an observation deck as well as several trails, LaBossiere said. The work will be funded through a $200,000 state Department of Environmental Management grant.

The site abuts a seven-acre neighborhood park and driving range that was acquired by the town in 1988.

Under the grant guidelines, the project is to be completed by May 2008, LaBossiere said.

Hanley inspected the project site last year on Oct. 19, and prepared a written report on Nov. 27.

The $125 invoice for Hanley’s services was paid on Jan. 12.

Town Administrator Edward M. Barrett later learned that the work had not been formally approved by the ad hoc committee and that LaBossiere had not followed the town’s purchasing guidelines, which require approval from the town administrator.

Barrett sent LaBossiere a letter on Feb. 27 asking her to reimburse the town for the expenditure.

Yesterday Barrett declined to comment further on the matter, saying through a secretary “it was business of the town.”

LaBossiere said she has since sent a letter to Waterman explaining the matter and will not resign from her volunteer positions.

“Of course not,” LaBossiere said when asked if she would resign.

“Why would I do that?”

“It may be just $125, but it’s just a continuation

of the way these people have been doing things.”
James M. Mageau
Town councilman

marmenta@projo.com