Letter: Council actions seem aimed at stifling public comment

Posted 8/17/16

To the editor,

I would like to thank council VP Joan Chabot for her efforts rewriting the Tiverton Town Council Governance Policy, to stop the scheduling of executive sessions at the beginning of …

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Letter: Council actions seem aimed at stifling public comment

Posted

To the editor,

I would like to thank council VP Joan Chabot for her efforts rewriting the Tiverton Town Council Governance Policy, to stop the scheduling of executive sessions at the beginning of council meetings. It appears that the scheduling of executive sessions at the beginning of meetings, like the scheduling of the open public forum that was moved to the end of council meetings by council President Denise M. deMedeiros without discussion or approval by the remainder of the council, was done so in order to reduce the openness and availability of the Town Council to the view and comment by Tiverton taxpayers.

The movement of executive sessions away from the start of meetings, just like any movement of the public forum from the end of meetings to the beginning, could/should be perceived as an attempt to appease taxpaying voters before the November elections for Town Council. I believe that Council President Denise M. deMedeiros would make such a move before the November elections as a temporary action that she and possibly other Tiverton 1st town councilors could easily reverse after the November elections. However, the reversal after the elections would not be as easy if the placement of executive sessions and open public sessions were formal dictates by the Tiverton Town Council Governance Policy.

I would hope that the new requirement to avoid executive sessions at the beginning of meetings clearly gives all possible options to be examined before an emergency executive session is held at the beginning of meetings with taxpayers waiting.

Options such as clearly scheduling executive sessions:

• To start 30, or 60, or 90, or 120 minutes before the open Town Council meeting that starts at 7 p.m.;

• Held one, or two, or three business days before or after the open Town Council meetings.

Facts: For the six month period 01/01/14 to 06/30/14, a total of 27 people spoke at the open public forum at the beginning of the Town Council meetings. For the same period in 2016 (01/01/16 to 06/30/16) only one person signed up to speak at the beginning of the meeting and waited until the open public forum at the end of the meeting to speak. Sally Black, School Committee chairman, spoke on three occasions relating to budgets and school bonds.

If moving the open public forum from the beginning of council meetings to the end was intended to stifle the public, then it was a resounding success, reducing public comments from 24 to either 0 or 3, depending upon interpretation. (i.e. Does the School Committee chairman speaking about bonds and budgets qualify as public taxpayer comment?)

I hope that voters and taxpayers remember this when voting in November.

Roger A. Bennis

Tiverton

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