Tiverton Petitioners' FTR budget draws complaint

Challenge brings in lawyers

Tom Killin Dalglish
Posted 4/25/17

UPDATE:

Elector petition budget ruled invalid: solicitor

TIVERTON — Some uncertainty about the legal validity of the electors' petition budget proposal for the Financial Town Referendum (FTR) became evident late Tuesday afternoon.

A meeting of the Board of Canvassers on Thursday, April 27 at 5 p.m. in Town Hall has been announced as the moment when matters will be clarified.

Town Solicitor Anthony DeSisto, said Interim Town Administrator Nancy Mello (also serving as the elected Town Clerk), will be present Thursday to explain an opinion that his office rendered late Tuesday, and released by email, to the effect that the elector petitioners' budget is invalid and should not be forwarded to the FTR.

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Tiverton Petitioners' FTR budget draws complaint

Challenge brings in lawyers

Posted

UPDATE:

Elector petition budget ruled invalid: solicitor

TIVERTON — Some uncertainty about the legal validity of the electors' petition budget proposal for the Financial Town Referendum (FTR) became evident late Tuesday afternoon.
A meeting of the Board of Canvassers on Thursday, April 27 at 5 p.m. in Town Hall has been announced as the moment when matters will be clarified.
Town Solicitor Anthony DeSisto, said Interim Town Administrator Nancy Mello (also serving as the elected Town Clerk), will be present Thursday to explain an opinion that his office rendered late Tuesday, and released by email, to the effect that the elector petitioners' budget is invalid and should not be forwarded to the FTR.
A minute later, another email was sent out saying to "disregard" the earlier email, not that the earlier email was incorrect.
"The Charter makes clear that it is the responsibility of the petition originator to provide specific line item changes or, alternatively, include a statement that the budget shall be remanded to the Budget Committee to determine specific line item changes," wrote Mr. DeSisto's office in its opinion.
"Based on the information provided, it appears that the elector petition was not submitted in accordance with the requirements of the charter in a timely manner. For this reason, the elector petition is in valid. [Citation omitted.] Therefore the elector petition should not be forwarded to the Financial Town Referendum."
This opinion language in the earlier email was not changed or corrected; it was simply said to be disregarded.

TIVERTON — The annual battle of the budgets in Tiverton couldn't get more tangled than it has this year. 

The Budget Committee's budget appeared headed for a solitary appearance on the ballot for the May 20 Financial Town Referendum (FTR), until last Saturday. That's when an "Elector Petition" for what's being called an "alternate budget proposal" qualified for the ballot, by obtaining in excess of 95 valid elector signatures (only 50 were needed).
The elector petition was filed by Sally A. Black and Jerome M. Larkin (both school committee members — Dr. Larkin is the committee chairman), and Joan Chabot and Randy Lebeau (both town council members — Ms. Chabot is Council President).
Then the next day, Sunday, Budget Committee member Justin Katz — whose budget committee wrote the official budget that will appear on the ballot — filed what he called an "Elector Petition Complaint" with Town Clerk Nancy Mello, that blew things wide open.
"[The elector petition proposed by Black, Larkin, Chabot, and Lebeau is invalid on its face," Mr. Katz wrote, when questioned by e-mail about the development.
"In short, they didn't follow the straightforward steps described in the Charter for crafting and submitting a petition. The charter requires a petition either to lay out the 'specific' line items that would be changed, or to remand the budget to the budget committee with the petitioner's new bottom line numbers," wrote Mr. Katz.
Mr. Katz himself has submitted alternate petition budgets in each of the last three years, which were never submitted to the challenge he is making to this year's petitioner budget.
As of Tuesday morning the matter was in the hands of Town Solicitor Anthony DeSisto, who is writing an opinion expected to be made public later on Tuesday (after this paper goes to press).
"My understanding is that the solicitor is currently reviewing my analysis and the [Town] clerk will follow his advice. The correct outcome, in my view, is that he advises her that the petition is not valid and she therefore should not pass it along to the Board of Canvassers for final certification of the signatures."
Petitioners, in a description appended to the petition, say their intent "is to restore funding cut by the Tiverton Budget Committee from the original budget proposals made in January 2017 by the Tiverton Town Council and Tiverton School Committee."
These cuts, the petitioners say, "were in funding to library services, the waste water treatment program ... community service organizations such as the Visiting Nurses Association, East Bay Community Action Program, Parents as Teachers and Newport County Women's Resources ... the winter recreation program and the school department."
After explaining their proposed budget, the petitioners state that their budget "is remanded to the Town Council and the School Committee to determine their final budget."
The Board of Canvassers met Monday, but continued their consideration of the petition until Tuesday afternoon, Town Clerk Nancy Mello Monday told the council at its Monday night meeting, .
Inquiries Monday night before a Town Council meeting, to get a sense of what Mr. DeSisto's opinion might be, were unsuccessful.
Prior to the council meeting, budget committee member (a lawyer) Nancy Driggs, papers in hand, was observed conferring with Mr. DeSisto, as was Mr. Katz afterwards, and as later did Dr. Larkin.
"As one might expect," wrote Mr. Katz in his e-mail about his claims, "that illegal state of affairs opens the town up to the risk of, first, charter complaints (first against the Town Clerk for passing the petition on to the Board of Canvassers as if it were a valid petition) and, second, of another taxpayer lawsuit if the petitioners' budget is actually adopted."
Comparing the budgets
The Budget Committee is proposing a total budget (for the schools and the town) of $49.4 million, and a proposed levy of $38.4 million.
The petitioners are proposing a total budget of $49.7 million, and a proposed levy of $38.8 million.
The petitioners would appropriate $248,499 more to the schools, and $59,461 more to the town than the budget committee.
In their petition, petitioners say
The petitioners would increase last year's tax levy by 1.5 percent, while the budget committee would increase the levy by 0.5 percent.
The petitioner's estimated tax rate would be $19.24 per $1,000 of value, while the budget committee's tax rate is reported to be $19.09 per $1,000.
For a $300,000 home, an owner would pay $5,727 in taxes under the budget committee's proposal, while under the petitioner's proposal the owner would pay $5,772 annually. That's a $45 per year difference.

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