01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, April 26, 2007

By Maria Armental

Journal Staff Writer

CHARLESTOWN — Board of Canvassers members are sifting through more than a thousand signatures asking voters to authorize action on some controversial issues, effectively bypassing the Town Council.

The signatures, filed Monday, are to be certified by Tuesday for the measures to be placed before voters at the annual Financial Town Meeting on June 4.

The deadline for warrant items and signatures submission is tomorrow at 4 p.m.

Among the requests submitted as of yesterday afternoon:

• To set aside up to $20,000 to hold a special election by Sept. 30 to remove from office Councilman James M. Mageau and appoint a replacement.

• To cut the salary of Town Administrator Edward M. Barrett to a maximum of $300 a month — $3,600 per year — and eliminate employee benefits related to the position. Under the proposed budget, Barrett’s salary would increase to $79,040 from the current $76,000 plus benefits.

• To budget $80,000 for an acting town administrator in the event the administrator is absent or unable to fill the position.

Two separate voter initiatives ask whether $1.65 million from previously authorized open-space bonds should be used for the proposed improvement projects at Blue Shutters Beach, and whether the town should issue up to $500,000 in bonds for the beach improvement project. In both cases, the town’s contribution would be offset by any grants and donations from other sources.

The measures are being sponsored by the Charlestown Citizens Alliance, a registered ballot advocacy association created last January after a special meeting in which the council summarily changed the town’s legal representation without public input.

The group — which according to organizers has grown to 200-plus members over the past three months — launched a signature and fund drive last Saturday to sponsor the warrant items.

Under the Town Charter, warrant items require the signatures of 200 eligible voters to be placed on the financial referendum ballot.

By Monday, members of the citizens’ alliance filed more than the 200 signatures required per petition except the request to issue up to $500,000 in bonds to fund improvements at Blue Shutters Beach. That petition has only garnered 195 signatures so far but may be withdrawn, said John Goodman, one of the organizers of the petition drive. Goodman said that his group will wait for the Parks & Recreation Commission to present a new proposal before asking the council to attach any monetary figure.

Goodman also said that the group will continue gathering signatures on all petitions until tomorrow’s deadline.

The petitions that collected the most signatures were the request to replace Mageau, which got 274 signatures; and the request to cut the administrator’s salary, which got 261 signatures. An initial review by the board of canvassers brought the number of signatures for the administrator’s pay cut down to 240.

The request to remove Mageau from office cites alleged violations of state law and the Town Charter.

Specifically, the petition cites an illegal meeting that Mageau facilitated days after the election to elect Barrett and to gather support to become the council president.

The petition also accuses Mageau of abusing the state criminal justice system by filing “a frivolous criminal complaint calling for an investigation of individuals, public officials, and ordinary citizens” — the state attorney general’s office found no merit to the complaint — and of violating the Town Charter by failing to open the town solicitor’s position to competitive bidding and for engaging “in conduct unbecoming of a member of the Charlestown Town Council in his demeanor and belligerence in addressing citizens of the town of Charlestown.”

The petition to cut Barrett’s salary charges the administrator’s selection occurred at an illegal meeting and charges the administrator, by his own admission, with “withholding and destroying important information from members of the Town Council regarding the appointments of the town solicitor.” Specifically, Barrett admitted to destroying the résumé of the town solicitor, Robert E. Craven, instead of passing it along to the town clerk and the rest of the council.

The petition also criticizes Barrett for recommending “the near elimination of the retainer of the town’s Indian Affairs attorney at a time when pro-casino interests are actively and openly pursuing the development of gambling facilities in Charlestown.”

“[There is] nothing I can do about it,” Barrett said Wednesday afternoon of the petition to cut his salary.

“I’d leave politics to the politicians,” said Barrett, noting he was yet to see the petitions.

Mageau called the move a “scam” orchestrated by someone with political ambitions.

“He is using this to place himself in a position to run for public office,” Mageau said in referring to Goodman.

Goodman denied that allegation.

“The fact of the matter is the only petition that will be on the warrant … [is] the one dealing with Blue Shutters,” Mageau said. “The other three are violations of the Home Rule Charter.”

Moreover, Mageau said, “Two hundred and fifty people do not have the authority to disenfranchise the majority who elected me to public office.”

Mageau received 1,787 votes in the November election. He was the lowest vote-getter.

Craven is reviewing the petitions, which will be forwarded to the council after the signatures are certified.

“Two hundred and fifty people do not have the authority to disenfranchise the majority who elected

me to public office.”
James Mageau
Councilman

marmenta@projo.com