Next Tuesday - May 06, 2008 - There will be an "Open Meeting of the Voters" for Barnstable Residents at the Knight Auditorium in Barnstable High School Auditorium.
It is your responsibility to make it to this meeting if you can. The meeting will be open to ALL topics, though many of the COG persuasion will try to make it about their agenda. You need to be there to add common sense to the debates. Those who agree with the COGers (and are less satisfied with this town than most) are going to try to make this meeting into a roast of the Council. It is time to let the COGers know that they are the minority, albeit a very loud minority.
The fact is that the steam behind this "meeting" was started out with a COG agenda. They were able to gather 300 signatures to their petition to call a meeting. Now, I have practice getting signatures, and I could get 300 signatures in a day, just from people who want me to leave them alone. Anyway, when they turned their petition in, it was ruled invalid for a few reasons.
First, their petition contained language that "elected" a prominent COGer as the "Moderator" of the meeting. Two problems with that - You cannot VOTE for and "ELECTED" position by signing a petition. You must have an ELECTION that all voters can participate in and people can run for. Two - the Charter, which allows for the meeting, never even mentions any "Moderator" position. So their rigged "election" is a double phony.
Second, their petition contained language that would have given it subpoena power. In order to force someone to appear at an event (court, town meeting, governmental inquiry, etc...) you must have subpoena powers. This petition tried to use such powers to FORCE a specific list of people to attend, when a petition cannot have subpoena power, nor can the Town Council President. So, no one can force anyone to attend the meeting.
Third, some members of the COG meeting drive sought to limit attendance at the meeting to only those that signed their petition (and the people the wanted to FORCE to come). In my opinion, not only does such a measure break the Open Meeting Law (which the COGers have accused the Council of breaking in the past), it also would have unfairly restricted your right to government oversight and free speech. The Charter NEVER restricts who may attend an Open Meeting of the Voters.
Because of the highly illegal and unauthorized language contained in the COG petition for an Open Meeting, Town Attorney Ruth Weil correctly ruled that their petition was invalid. However, the Council, which has the ultimate say on whether or not an Open Meeting occurs, decided to hold one anyway. This meeting will have no limits on who may attend or what may be discussed. No one will be forced to attend (I know that at least one town official will not be attending), but I recommend that we send so many people over to that auditorium to shout down the COGers, that we have people flowing into the parking lot. Hope to see you there.
8 comments:
Thanks for weighing in on this important issue. It is essential that all organizations in town which support the council mobilize their membership to attend this meeting. One group has decided that to attend would look like support for the fringe behind the petition. This position, while understandable, is wrong. There are around 300 seats in that facility and the sensible people in town should establish an overwhelming presence. Do not let a strident minority create the fiction of popular support. For every voice of resentment and accusation there should be three voices rebutting.
There is more to getting people there to support our council.
What is happening to this town?
Who are these people who cost so much money and time in lawsuits and other distractions.
Why does the Barnstable Patriot give them so much attention? Why do they use Lopez's blog as a source for stories? Why would they announce that he is shutting down his blog, when all he is looking for is attention?
Do we want these people to continue to slam the people we elect?
The things that were in the paper today that they want to ask the council are ridiculous!
Why would we want to pay for Gregg Milne's lawyer? He can't serve two offices, and doesn't think the rules apply to him!
Why do we need to ask why councilors didn't vote for the docks and piers ban when that thing actually passed?
Why do we need to rehash the damn split tax thing? I know that our tax bill still is down $500 + dollars from the residential exemption - the split tax, when it was in for one year only saved us $30.
I want the people who work for this town and the town councilors to worry about the important things! We all need to go to this meeting to tell these people that we have all HAD ENOUGH!!!!! Tell COG people to actually shut down their blog and get back into the world of the living!!!
And these people who do these other blogs, the lookalike blogs, we need to get people to see what they are putting up on the internet about our councilors. People should see what these sickos are all about.
show people this site done by taryn thoman and ask her to explain it when she speaks at the podium! http://barnstablebeatblog.blogspot.com
not to be confused with the real blog http://barnstablebeat.blogspot.com
Go to the Knight auditorium next tuesday and let these COG people know we are sick of them all!!!!
look up Taryn Thoman in the Town of Barnstable registry of deeds. She has numerous tax liens on her home. For someone who is allegedly fighting for this town and state, I wonder why she does not feel the need to pay her taxes? She is outraged about spilt taxes? Taryn how about paying yours? For someone that has a current amount of $10,000+ in tax liens levied by the State of Mass. I would keep quiet.
If anyone decides to search you will find all of the info. on the Town of Barnstable web site, Registry of Deeds. Select: search public records>
free access> click here to search public records>
recorded land by name> last/corp name> “Taryn’s Mirror” and hit search (brown link at bottom). Look all the way over to the right and you will see three options, select “ABS” that will show it all. The lateset lien was placed on 3/19/2008 for $503.61 But remember, she is outraged about the split tax.
While you are at this sick little witch hunt, look up Ronald Howell, who owes 14,000 to Capital One, has had Order of Notice served on him, and went bankrupt in two thousand. If I were him, I would not throw stones from a glass house.
Dont forget to look up Janet Joakim while you are at. You will find plenty. What is the point of this crap? Are you that desperate?
I know a clerk from Botellos is not exactly a math whiz, but that five hundred bucks would be a whole lot less if Joakim had kept her campaign promise to vote for the split tax. DUH!
Janet Joakim is a public official. Her financial improprieties are of interest to the townspeople who hand over their hard earned tax dollars for their elected official to spend as per the wishes of the VOTERS.
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