To the editor:

The Tiverton Charter Commission (CRC) has worked tirelessly for eight months, and will continue to work for the next four months until the end of the one-year term. The nine members of the CRC were duly elected by the voters of Tiverton and are the legislative body, mandated by the RI Constitution, for the review and amendment recommendation process of the Home Rule Charter.

The charter amendment process:

1. The responsibility of the CRC is to review the charter and recommend proposed concepts 
and specific language changes to the present charter.

2. The Town Council is responsible for only the wording of the corresponding ballot language. 
Town councilors can place their own proposals or opposing CRC amendments on the ballot, but the Town Council should not be blocking you from ever getting the opportunity to vote on the CRC’s proposals.

3. Amendments are accepted or rejected by a majority vote of the Tiverton electors in a general or special election. In the case of two opposing amendments, the highest number of votes prevail.

4. The voter approved amendments are then sent to the General Assembly for ratification.

Why are the Town Councilors and the Charter Commissioners in conflict?

1. The Tiverton Town Council voted to convene a CRC election in July 2017. Clearly, the Town Council never contemplated the reality that a nine-member slate of Tiverton Taxpayers Association (TTA) endorsed candidates would sweep the election by a wide margin.

2. Without CRC puppets to manipulate, the Town Council president appears to be directing the town solicitor to ignore the work of the CRC. That manipulation was disputed by the Town Council president as well as the town solicitor, but despite 11 letters to the solicitor asking for legal review of the proposals approved by the CRC, the solicitor has only sent one response. One of the opinions that the CRC received was contradictory to the solicitor’s own opinion that he prepared for the casino sub-committee a year ago.

3. A court of law decision may be the only option to protect the voters of Tiverton. During a Town Council special meeting to discuss their own charter recommendations, Councilor Hilton made a profound statement …” people in Tiverton do not trust their government”. That was quite a strong statement, and I agree. Councilor Edwards stated “democracy and the FTR (Financial Town Referendum) are archaic, we should have a republic”, in response to discussions about his proposal to eliminate the Budget Committee and the FTR from the Town Charter.

4. The majority of your Town Council wants to strip the voters of their right to decide how to allocate the casino revenue and how to control your taxes. Please don’t allow your voice to be silenced by a posse of dictators who think they know how to spend your money better than you. Every taxpayer and voter in Tiverton should check the facts and question why the majority of your Town Council do not want some of the CRC recommendations to ever get on to the voter ballot.

Laura Rom

Tiverton