01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, May 15, 2007

By Maria Armental

Journal Staff Writer

CHARLESTOWN — A Washington County Superior Court judge will decide today whether four citizens’ petitions are to be placed on the ballot of the June 4 budget referendum as warrant items.

The petitions, each of which bore the needed 200 signatures, were effectively removed by the council yesterday.

A motion to forward the petitions to the state Board of Elections failed on a tie vote, with council President Katharine H. Waterman and Vice President Harriet A. Allen voting in favor and Councilmen James M. Mageau and Bruce W. Picard voting against.

Councilman John O. Craig Jr. did not attend the meeting.

The petitions seek to:

•Issue up to $500,000 in bonds for the design and development of public recreational facilities at Blue Shutters Beach, with the town’s contribution being offset by any other funds raised.

•Cut the salary of Town Administrator Edward M. Barrett to a maximum of $300 per month, with no benefits.

•Create a position of assistant town administrator paying $80,000 a year, without benefits.

•Set aside up to $20,000 to hold a special election by Sept. 30 to remove Mageau from office and elect a replacement.

In a legal opinion on May 4, Town Solicitor Robert E. Craven recommended that the council not place the petitions on the ballot, saying they seek to fund purposes that are illegal under town or state law.

“To allow a technically correct warrant petition to mature into a budget item to fund an illegal purpose, is illogical and contrary to law,” Craven wrote in his opinion.

Anticipating the council’s actions, a group of town residents filed a motion in Washington County Superior Court yesterday asking the court to stop the town from barring the items from the ballot.

In the complaint, the group argues there is no mechanism for the removal of a warrant item after the public hearing.

“The removal of the warrant items, either directly or by a failure to ‘adopt’ them, based on any conjectural argument as to the enforceability or validity of the warrant items . . . would constitute a serious denial of rights of the qualified electors who submitted such petitions, should any determination be made later that the items were valid and enforceable, but had been removed prior to the All Day Financial Referendum,” the motion reads.

“If there are questions with regard with enforceability, those would be addressed if [the warrant items] pass,” said Caroline Manning, the lawyer for the group. “But the council doesn’t get to say if they are enforceable. They are not a judge and a jury.”

As it stands, voters will be asked to vote on a requested $9.1 million for municipal expenses and ratify the $13.6 million previously approved by voters for the regional schools system.

Voters will also be presented two questions seeking to issue up to $500,000 in bonds to finance reconstruction and resurfacing of a portion of Old Coach Road and $788,800 to finance reconstruction and resurfacing of a portion of Buckeye Brook Road. Last summer the council spent just over $700,000 in reconstructing and repaving another portion of the road.

Charlestown