For years, Tiverton residents have been sensitive to the tone of town politics, and now one faction wants to bring that hostility to the next level by turning in signatures to force a recall election against Town Council President Robert Coulter and Vice President Justin Katz. Recalls should not be used as election do-overs; they should be reserved for serious and proven wrongdoing.
William McLaughlin first collected his recall petition papers on January 15, less than two months after we took office. By the time a recall election actually happens, we’ll be halfway through our two-year term, with just a year left to go before the next election.
Meanwhile, McLaughlin’s efforts have been accompanied by a long series of baseless complaints to the state government, all of have which have been dismissed. The recall and these complaints have been led by candidates who lost the last election (including McLaughlin) and members of the council who expect to return to power if we are no longer in office.
The people of Tiverton voted for Town Council in November 2018 and will vote again in November 2020. You shouldn’t have to vote for council every year. Imagine how disruptive that would be. Anybody whose ideas for the town are a little bit different from the way things have always been done will have to think twice about whether it’s worth it.
In our time in office, we’ve worked to put out the many fires that we inherited, and over the coming months, we’ll continue our work to fix the long-term problems that Tiverton faces. We welcome calls and emails from anybody with an interest in our plans going forward, questions about the rumors that are being spread, or concerns about our decisions so far. Rob can be reached at (401) 339-3494 or rcoulter@outlook.com; Justin can be reached at (401) 835-7156 or justin@justinkatz.com. We ask the people of Tiverton to stay the course and “reject the recall” by making the deliberate decision not to participate in this harmful political stunt that is based on falsehoods and rumors. If we haven’t convinced you that we deserve to remain in office by 2020, choose other candidates. But for now, if you send the message that you won’t be forced to vote every year, maybe people who want to go down that path will see that it isn’t worth the effort.