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Rehoboth Republican Caucus Meets and Nominates Candidates

(February 3, 2012)  With about 75 people in attendance, the Rehoboth Republican Caucus met at Palmer River Elementary School on Wednesday to nominate candidates for the upcoming town election scheduled for April 2.

     Michael Deignan was elected by the group as permanent caucus chair, and Wendy Wolfe Cardarelli was voted in as permanent caucus clerk.  Diegnan, currently clerk of the Finance Committee, also serves in several appointed positions, as a member of the Rehoboth Agricultural and Natural Resources Committee, as the town Fence Viewer and as a constable.  Cardarelli is a past member of the Board of Selectmen.

       The Wednesday night caucus featured the nominations of two women for the new selectmen positions that will increase the board from three members to five.

     Susan Pimental, currently the chair of the town’s Finance Committee, accepted the nomination for a three-year BOS seat.  Lorraine Botts, currently the chair of the Rehoboth Council on Aging board, accepted the nomination for a two-year BOS seat.

     Diegnan said he felt Ms. Pimental and Ms. Botts “will make superb additions to our board of selectmen, both bringing their own unique views and experience to the board.” 

     Others nominees include James Muri for a five-year term on the Planning Board.  Muri currently serves on the Information Technology Committee, the Local Emergency Planning Board, and the Rehoboth Agricultural and Natural Resources Committee.

     Susan Taylor accepted the nomination for a three-year position on the Board of Assessors.  She currently serves on that board, and in the past has served on the Planning Board.

    The caucus nominated Lynore McKim to run for a five-year position on the Park Commission.  She currently serves on that commission.  David Perry accepted the nomination to run for Stormwater Agent, a three-year term.

      Robert Johnson II, was chosen to run for the three-year term as Tree Warden, a position held since 1997 by William Dalpe who has chosen to retire.  Dalpe also served as the town’s Fish Warden, Moth Superintendent, Harbormaster, and Measurer of Wood and Lumber.

   One caucus nomination was not accepted.  David Katseff, an incumbent on the Dighton-Rehoboth Regional School Committee declined and announced he will be running as an independent candidate.  Mr. Katseff is a long-time member of the school committee.

     “I am disappointed we did not have more individuals come to caucus and place their name in consideration for nomination,” said Deignan.  “Undoubtedly the political atmosphere contributes to this,” he added, explaining that many people do not want to “subject themselves to the personal attacks.”      

Selectmen Deal with Termination of RePAC and Loss of Cable Access Programming

(February 1, 2012)  Rehoboth selectmen had planned to discuss the latest development in the ongoing saga with RePAC at Monday night’s BOS meeting.  But when they discovered the organization had already removed cameras, microphones and other broadcasting equipment from the senior center, they decided to act definitively and voted to terminate the RePAC contract.

     Apparently the town-owned broadcasting equipment was removed from the town office, senior center and high school before selectmen voted to terminate the contract.  “They took it (the equipment) while they were still under contract,” said BOS Chairman Michael Costello.  “Now it’s stolen property and the police are investigating,” he said, adding that the D-R school superintendent has contacted the Dighton Police regarding the removal of equipment from the high school used to broadcast school committee meetings and other school events.

   “We did not anticipate at vote on RePAC at all Monday night,” said Selectman Joseph Tito, who said they had intended to have a discussion with an update on a court ruling about the contract.  “I was hoping for cooperation and a smooth transition,” he noted, “but instead we have more chaos and obstruction.”

     Tito added that selectmen were prepared to hold off on the administrative action to avoid displacing “folks like camera operators John Meagher and Bette Dyer who were never part of the problem.”  Tito emphasized, “this was not their fight” but now they are paying the price of actions taken by RePAC director and board president Roger Breault, “who has for several months continuously refused to meet with selectmen regarding issues and complaints by the public.”

     Selectmen clearly expressed concern about the subsequent blackout of public access information usually found on the three channels of PEG (public, educational and government) channels provided through the Comcast agreement with the town of Rehoboth.  The town receives Comcast payments  directly to fund public access services.

      It is unknown if the RePAC office still contains the full library of tape archives of past town meetings as well as meetings of various boards, committees and commissions.  These archives were regularly used by town officials as documentation when meeting minutes were unavailable, and as evidence in legal proceedings.

    Along with cable channel programming, information on the RePAC website has also been eliminated including the “virtual bulletin board” of town notices and community information.  Selectmen plan to utilize the town’s recently appointed Cable Access Advisory Committee, to videotape meetings and find mechanisms to make them available to the public.  Until the missing equipment is located and re-installed, there are currently no means to broadcast full programming on all three channels including live meetings.

    Towns and cities in the U.S. traditionally never operate their own public access services because the risks are too high.  With no checks or balances, a municipally-run public broadcasting system could easily be used for political purposes.  To avoid perceptions of impropriety, abuse of power by officials, and costly lawsuits, towns usually contract with an independent, third-party entity, usually a non-profit organization, to manage the public access channels.

Security and Fire Alarm Service to Terminate Contract with Town

(January 31, 2012)  National Security Fire Alarm Systems, a company owned by Christopher Morra, gave notice to the town, on January 23, of termination of all alarm and monitoring services and equipment leases at sixteen municipal building locations, effective February 29, 2012.

    Selectmen on Monday announced the town has already arranged for another company to install new equipment simultaneously with the removal of that used by National Security.  “We feel that we will be able to do the transition  with marginal expense,” said BOS Chairman Michael Costello, who added the town will not be without fire or security alarm services.

       National Security has requested arrangements, per their contractual agreement, to be made for them to remove all equipment from ten individual offices at the town office on Peck Street, the town office annex building, highway garage, senior center, the north and south fire stations and the central fire/police station.

     Signed by the company’s operations manager, Sabrina Marshall, the letter was accompanied by two undeposited checks for recent routine services, one in the amount of $159.38  and the other for $182.52.

       The letter states that National Security has provided over $90,000 in equipment leasing, installations, repairs, and monitoring services at no expense to the town.  “It has only been on rare occasions that we have minimally billed the town,” stated the letter, “for work that was not covered under our agreements.”

      According to the letter, National Security will remove all contracted equipment and terminate services because of “continuous ongoing defamatory, disparaging and false statements” made against the company by “town officials including Michael Costello, Joseph Tito and Susan Pimental, among others.”

     “I am perfectly happy to accept their termination of service letter,” said Selectman Joseph Tito, “but I strongly object to comments made about me and others in the letter.”

$5.2 Billion in Local Aid for Cities and Towns Included in FY2013 State Budget

(January 27, 2012)  Delivering the keynote address at the 33rd Massachusetts Municipal Association’s annual meeting, Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murray announced more than $5.2 billion in state funding to cities and towns to be included in the FY2013 budget proposal. 

     That funding will include $4.1 billion in K-12 Chapter 70 education aid, marking the highest level of investment in education in the Commonwealth’s history. Local aid represents approximately 16% of the annual state budget. The increase in K-12 Chapter 70 aid will fully fund all school districts at foundation levels and ensure that all school districts will receive equal or greater funding than in FY 2012.

     As a result of the landmark municipal health reform passed last year, Murray announced more than $60 million in savings have already been achieved by more than 50 communities that have taken steps to address their health care costs in one of several ways: reaching agreement through traditional bargaining, using the new reform’s decision-making process to make changes, adopting the new local option reform, or scheduling local votes for the coming months. 

     Murray also announced a new proposal to increase the veterans’ homeless shelter reimbursement to cities and towns from 75 percent to 100 percent. The Fiscal Year 2013 budget includes $11.25 million in increased funding to enhance vital services for Massachusetts veterans and their families.

     There has been overwhelming response to the Administration’s Community Innovation Challenge (CIC) grant program. The CIC grant program offers $4 million in seed money to encourage and incentivize efficiencies and innovation in local service delivery. Since its launch in November 2011, the CIC grant program received 100 applications for funding, including initiatives to improve municipal performance management, modernize technology, implement energy efficiencies, consolidate regional schools and enhance regional service delivery. The budget includes $7 million for a second round of CIC grants to provide financial support for regionalization and other efficiency initiatives in local governments.

Additional FY 2013 Local Aid funding for key local accounts includes:

1. •Unrestricted General Government Aid will be funded at $833.9 million and consistent with the FY 2012 budget. An additional payment of $65 million will be made should sufficient surplus funds be available from FY 2012;
   

2. •Chapter 90 Local Road Program: $200 million;
   

3. •Special Education Circuit Breaker: $213 million;
   

4. •State Owned Land PILOT: $26.3 million;
   

5. •Regional School Transportation: $43.5 million;
   

6. •Charter School Reimbursement: $71.5 million;
   

7. •School Food Services Program: $5.4 million;
   

8. •Municipal Library Aid: $6.8 million;
   

9. •Regional Library Local Aid: $9.1 million
   

Additional municipal partnership initiatives include:

1. •Group Insurance Commission (GIC) - The GIC will offer two entry opportunities for municipalities to enter into the state health care system, making it easier for some municipalities to achieve health insurance savings.
   

2. •Information Technology Innovation - The Administration will continue to support initiatives to enhance sharing and flow of business information between state government and municipalities by identify opportunities for state government to provide IT services directly to local government and create optimized procurement for IT contracts that best serve municipalities. 
   

3. •Municipal Procurement Program  - The development of a new Municipal Procurement Program within the state Operational Services Division (OSD) that will help municipalities save money by purchasing items through statewide contracts that leverage purchasing power and save money. OSD is now working with local government stakeholders to develop procurement opportunities for school buses and heavy equipment vehicles.
   

Town Treasurer’s Progressive Actions Produce Valuable Results

(January 18, 2012)  Rehoboth selectmen were elated last night after receiving an update from Cheryl Gouveia, the town’s treasurer and tax collector, whose progressive actions have so far resulted in the collection of over $178,000 in property taxes, penalties and interest.  The collected money will flow into the town’s free cash account.

    With BOS approval, Gouveia organized an effort to deal with delinquent property taxes owed to the town.  When sending out notices proved unsuccessful, she appealed to the BOS to allow her to spend $2,100 to pay for attorney letters sent to property owners. 

    Gouveia reported that from 162 accounts,  55 tax title accounts have been paid in full and other property owners have set up payment plans. Less than thirty accounts are for land-locked or unbuildable lots and Gouveia is working with the attorney to clear those up in land court, in order to sell them to interested abutters.

    Gouveia has also set up a new system of tax collection for the town.  Previously taxpayers sent their payments to the town office where processing took three to four weeks as only there is only one full-time person working in the tax collector’s office.

     Working with Bristol County Savings Bank, a lock-box system has been put into use with payments going directly to the bank for processing.  While this is a common practice for BCSB to offer their business clients, it is the first time the bank has created such a system for a municipality.  They are performing this service at no cost to the town of Rehoboth. 

     “I would just like to offer my personal congratulations to our treasurer,” noted Jeff Ritter, the town administrator. “I’ve worked with a lot of town treasurers, and she is, by any measure, a team player and one who is always part of a solution.”   He commended the fine work of both Cheryl and her staff at the town office.

      Part of the new tax payment system involves a return address envelope to the lock-box post office box.  BOS chairman Michael Costello made an announcement urging residents to use the tax envelope to return tax payments and not for other correspondence to the town.

Selectmen Voice Complaints About Cable Series Broadcast on RePAC

(January 18, 2012)  Troubles with RePAC opened a new chapter at last night’s selectmen’s meeting when Selectman Joe Tito brought up complaints he had received last week about a cable television show broadcast on Channel 98. 

     “I was made aware this week of a video that was broadcast on one of the RePAC channels,” said Tito, who went on to explain the outside programming contained profanities that were “barely bleeped out.”  Without mentioning the name of the program, Tito said it was broadcast during the middle of the evening during “family” time.

     “Once again, we see the kind of thing we are dealing with (with RePAC),” said Tito, who added the program contained reference to a website he visited “that was incredibly profane.”

     RePAC began broadcasting episodes of “It’s the End of the World As We Know It” series two weeks ago on their public access channel 98 schedule.  This week is it aired at 6 AM, 12:30 PM and 7 PM.  The series is a quasi-news program, produced by a video blogger named Stimulator. Under the name SubmediaTV, the series features reports narrated by Stimulator on both political and cultural issues.

     The low-budget series includes video reports peppered with words considered obscene by the FCC on mainstream media venues.  Cable, satellite and internet media are exempt, however, from those FCC regulations.  YouTube is the primary venue for this series which debuted in 2006.

     “I also got a phone call,” said BOS chairman Mike Costello, “and I could not believe what I saw.”  Explaining that the profanity was obvious despite the attempt to beep out the offensive words, Costello said the show was very political in nature and had no bearing to anything in town.

Open Meeting Law Complaints Filed by Morra Against Both FinCom and BOS

(January 2, 2012)   On December 29, three open meeting law violation complaints were filed with the Office of the Attorney General in Boston by Christopher Morra with allegations against two selectmen and three members of the Finance Committee.

      The formal complaints, along with documentation, were also submitted to the Rehoboth town office by Morra who claims he remains a member of FinCom despite a surprise vote by the Board of Selectmen at the December 19 BOS meeting to remove him. 

      The first complaint alleges that FinCom chair Susan Pimental, along with clerk Michael Deignan and member Christine Daluz failed to correct deficiencies in meeting minutes from October 13 and November 17 upon his request made at the December 15 FinCom meeting.

      According to Morra, he made numerous attempts to convince his fellow FinCom members to make corrections specifically regarding alleged discussions held by the committee on two town warrant items regarding acceptance of new town roadways.

       While the roadway acceptance warrant articles were accepted by resident vote at the special town meeting in November, Morra proposed in his complaint that FinCom “produce full and fair minutes of its meetings” together with providing any correspondence between “any member and any other person regarding these matters.”

     “It is a total waste of time for the finance committee and the Board of Selectmen to even have to address his complaint,” said Pimental, “and divert attention away from the town’s priorities with his personal agenda.”  She says FinCom acted properly and the minutes were prepared properly by Deignan, and the “majority of the board voted to accept the meeting minutes” as prepared.

      According to Deignan, who has acted as clerk of FinCom for the last seventeen months, he is confident that any investigation into Morra’s complaints will “indicate the Finance Committee has always acted properly and within the General Laws at all times.”

      The two open meeting law complaints filed by Morra include allegations against BOS chair Michael Costello and clerk Dr. Joseph Tito, MD. 

     In the first Morra alleges there was an improper motion and vote on December 19 to have Sassafras Road and Meadowlark Drive in the Kingsley Estates subdivision accepted as town roadways, without the matter being on the agenda and posted public notice, which is a violation of the state open meeting laws.

      Morra additionally accused selectmen of “misrepresenting the facts” and failing to disclose pertinent information related to the process of registering Meadowlark Lane, Sassafras Road and Franlee Drive as public ways.  Morra claims Tito did not disclose title problems during the unannounced discussion and therefore kept “critical information form the public.”

      The week prior, at the December 12 BOS meeting, developer John Ferreira spoke before selectmen and complained vigorously about the delays in getting new town road recording done despite the fact residents voted at two previous meetings to accept the new roads. Because town officials and legal counsel have missed deadlines, the roads had not been registered at the state level.  Ferreira stated that he was “through coming back before the selectmen to get this done.”

        Morra’s third open meeting law complaint involves the surprise vote by the BOS on December 19 to remove him as a member of the finance committee.  The posted agenda for that meeting did not contain notice of the matter and Morra says he was given no advance notice.  He was not in attendance at the meeting when selectmen Costello announced that he was “very disgusted” with Morra, “when he made allegations against the chairwoman (Pimental) of the committee” referring to the December 15 FinCom meeting (subject of his first open meeting law complaint).

     “I stated that she had a financial interest in the matter regarding the streets,” said Morra about the meeting in question and that he asked her to recuse herself.   “I then stated she stays at this person’s (Ferreira) house for two or three weeks,”  he added.  Morra claims he has sworn legal depositions, from unrelated cases, stating that Pimental and others have vacationed at Ferreira’s residence in Florida.

      Costello said that Morra was “using his position on the board for his own gain and political agenda” and said he was “sick and tired of it.”  After outlining several grievances against Morra, he made a just cause motion to remove Morra from his position on FinCom.  Selectman Tito voted with Costello while Selectman Leffort voiced his nay.

       Morra claims the vote to remove him was not within the BOS authority and that his term on FinCom is “guaranteed by Massachusetts law.”    He has requested the AG’s office compel the BOS to “rescind it’s improper action to attempt to remove me as a member of the Rehoboth Finance Committee” and to  “provide any correspondence and emails between any BOS member and any other person regarding these matters.”

       On Saturday, December 31, an article in the Sun Chronicle noted that Costello had said “Morra has every right to complain to the attorney general’s office” and that the BOS “acted to remove Morra because of the need to protect the town against litigation.”

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