To the editor:

In response to Donna Cook regarding the Charter Review Commission (with all nine members being Tiverton Taxpayers Association), don’t fall for the “woe is me” cry.

If anyone has paid the least bit of attention to the CRC they would realize this was nothing more than an attempt to gain more power — for the TTA. The CRC dabbled in completely new language that violated state law and attempted to undermine a slew of processes a Town Council handles.

To be clear, the CRC consistently claims they speak for the taxpayer/voter yet they seem to completely forget that a larger electorate votes for a Town Council. So out of one side of their mouths they claim the majority (975 votes and under) elected them to do the people’s work and out of the other they dismiss the Town Council’s authority (top votes from 2000-plus in a deep pool).

There is a reason the TTA members have lost consistently during normal elections with higher voter turnout  and that they are shedding supporters every year. As to FTR proposals put in by the Town Couyncil, this was to address a slew of issues and prevent future lawsuits that the TTA enjoys filing. By increasing the signatures needed this still has Tiverton at the lowest percentage of all the municipalities that have a similar system (about seven of them). The petitioner of record himself claims he is "not afraid getting more signatures. We’ll get whatever signatures we need.” 

David J Paull

Tiverton

The writer is a member of the Tiverton Budget Committee.