The result of the recall election says more about our opposition and the times we’re living in than about us or our supporters.

A small group of activists were willing to lie relentlessly in order to get enough people who opposed us to sign the recall petition and then vote, with the help of the old-school rumor mill and toxic social media. Toward the end of the campaign, no fewer than five dishonest mailers went to Tiverton homes, three of them from out-of-town special interests.

In keeping with the out-of-town influence, one outcome of the vote is that powerful state representative John Edwards, the Fourth, has his son back on track in town government. Last time he was on the council, the state Ethics Commission found that John Edwards, the Fifth, acted unethically when he advocated and voted to give taxpayer money to his own private organization. However, the prior town solicitor took the fall, saying he’d given Edwards bad advice.

With Edwards on the Stolen Town Council, Tiverton residents should keep a close eye on its activities. We should also watch for quid pro quos to others who were involved in the political hit job.

For our part, the two of us are grateful to our supporters for the continued encouragement. We took a risk in asking you not to vote in the sham recall, and things didn’t go as we would have liked. However, we continue to believe that, in the long run, our town will be better off having the recall be seen clearly as what it was: a one-sided attack on our democracy. Our experience over the past year has affirmed our belief that our town’s professional and talented employees can move Tiverton toward the future residents deserve if only we can free them of the micromanagement and political nonsense that have been far too common around here for decades.

It remains the fact that more Tiverton voters wanted us to represent them than wanted our opposition, and we will continue to advocate for you in and out of office. The TTA slate will still have three seats on the council, now, instead of four, and the two of us will be working closely with them. We will also continue bringing important issues into the open and working to develop solutions.

Our mission all along has been to help change the unsustainable direction of town government, and this experience has clarified our understanding of what needs to be addressed in order to accomplish that goal. We’re excited about what comes next.

Having been elected four times in Tiverton over the last decade, I’m now in the odd position of writing as a target in an odd recall process where just 405 voters can vote me out despite over 2,000 voters voting me in just last year. In all this, Mr. McLaughlin’s motivation with his $4M lawsuit is obvious, but as your Town Council president I am more troubled by the false information being spread about the good work being done by your Town Council.

Only halfway through the two-year term, this council has made remarkable progress on multiple fronts. New firefighter and police contracts signed. Decisions made on closing the landfill. Progress on a true long-term financial plan, a new playground, and remediating Bay Street. Personnel issues, such as the last fire chief, and replacing the last solicitor who resigned, have been resolved favorably. Grinnell’s beach re-opened and a new fire rescue was purchased. Taxes have stayed at less than inflation for a decade, and even went down the last two years. And we are releasing all executive session meeting records to further open government. There are many more examples. Of course, no one person or one council deserves all the credit for any one thing, and there is plenty of other work in process, but the real story is that things are going well – quite well, actually – in Tiverton.

Justin Katz and I put in many extra hours on administrative duties to help run the council and work with the Town Administrator and other officials, but we get just one vote like the other councilors. To those who single out Justin’s or my voting record, did you know that the entire council votes unanimously or 6-1 over 95% of the time? Not counting procedural votes, it’s still over 90%. We disagree from time to time, as we should, but after a lot of research, input from others, and good discussion the council votes together 9 times out of 10. And we’ve held over 30 meetings and workshops in just a year.

At the end of the day, Tiverton is a small town and Justin and I are just two of your neighbors. Like most everyone volunteering in local government, we juggle work, raising a family, and life’s other demands while doing the best we can for our town. You can always call me at 401-525-0469 and Justin at 401-835-7156.

In closing, two things. First, no matter how you voted last year, please consider making the choice to not participate in this recall process. Voting “yes” or “no” either way would normalize and weaponize a consuming, expensive recall process for political purposes, which is not what recalls were meant for, and guarantee deep division in the town for years to come. Second, please see through the clutter and know your hardworking council has accomplished quite a bit, even just halfway through the term, and things are going well in Tiverton.

Tiverton is a beautiful town with wonderful residents. People here get to know their neighbors and lend a hand when help is needed. I’ve only lived here for 5 years, but have seen people stop to help stranded motorists more than once. I have also come to realize that Tiverton has a reputation for drama. Most recently, a recall, started by William McLaughlin (Billy Mac), of town councilors Justin Katz and Robert Coulter.

When I think of a recall, I think corruption and scandals. When our representatives cheat, they should be recalled. This is democracy and the people have a voice.

In this case though, no laws were broken, no codes of ethics violated, no corruption afoot. In Tiverton, when one group loses an election, they start a recall campaign. Why recall these two councilors you wonder? You’ll have to ask Billy Mac about that.

I asked him, before forming my opinion, early on in this round of Tiverton town drama. McLaughlin has his list of complaints, but no evidence of wrong doing. Generally, he just doesn’t like them. Bill Mac told me directly that the evidence against these two exists, but he didn’t want to be accused of “steering people’s opinions” by showing it!

Any time I don’t understand something, like why a person would go through so much trouble to gather signatures and recall two elected officials (who beat him in the last election), I follow the money. Wouldn’t you know, William McLaughlin actually has a $4 million lawsuit against our town. Coulter and Katz have both been fighting this lawsuit, but Billy wants his payout.

If you don’t live in Tiverton, please don’t let this drama influence your judgment of our town. I know we get a bad rap, but Tiverton is actually a very nice place to live and raise a family. The drama is caused by a small group of townies who want the good ol’ boys back in power.

The only story here is a political stunt and an abuse of the Tiverton voters in the last election. McLaughlin couldn’t win the general election, but he’ll try to win with a much smaller majority in an off cycle election. To win, he needs just over 400 votes against the council president, as long as at least 800 total votes are cast. Compare this to the over 2000 votes Counter received in the general election, and I think we all can see what’s going on here.

Remember though: You only legitimize this stunt by participating. Tell William McLaughlin you stand behind your original vote and reject this recall. If the minimum 800 votes are not cast, this charade is over. 

Wow! Deb Pallasch.  Shame on you for claiming your litany of unsupported assumptions, opinions, and erroneous facts serve as a “path to recall.”

You claim by clairvoyance to know how TTA members are feeling, and the motivations of all the signers of the recall petition.

You assert that the actions of the two town council members who are the subject of this recall “failed to discharge the duties of their office” but you fail to list any of these actions.

You assert they didn’t listen to people who wanted them to go out to bid for a new solicitor who has municipal and land use experience.  Be advised, per the Tiverton Town Charter and State Law, there is no obligation for the town council to go out for bid for a town solicitor, and the solicitor who was hired does have municipal and land use experience.

Your claim they didn’t deal with critical issues like rescue vehicles and land fill is strange given that rescue vehicles have been replaced, and this town council has addressed the land fill closure issue – unanimously. 

You speak about Katz meeting with the superintendent.  So what!  You assume once again to know Katz’s intentions and that they are bad.   You are on the School Board, so stop assuming and go find out what went on at the Katz / Superintendent meeting.

As to Rom’s appointment to the Library Board of Directors, a board of trustees benefits from members with diverse backgrounds and priorities.  Rom was selected for that very reason, and to provide a taxpayer perspective on the library’s requested future funds from the town. 

For your information, it was the Carpionato group who asked to be on the town council agenda to present their development ideas.  When that meeting had to be continued because of too many attendee’s, the Carpionato group decided, the day of the re-scheduled public comment agenda item, not to come.  Further, there is nothing wrong, in fact everything helpful, in an entity considering a huge development that is going to call for a zoning change to want to inform the public and local government.

Recall petitions are serious and should be reserved for major misdeeds – like actual crimes.  If the erroneous and unsubstantiated actions you cite constitute a path to recall, then going forward any elected official will be fair game.  Is this the precedent you seek to establish?  

However, you did succeed in demonstrating the sham of this recall petition for which I thank you, and I urge all voters not to participate.  Reject the recall.  Don’t vote. A non-vote is a no vote.

I would like to put personality differences aside and discuss the facts of the past 16 years in Tiverton. It was a dream of mine as a child to live in this beautiful town, even though I have seen some horrendous politics in the town during my 31 years here.

I look at my tax bill for the past eight years and it has an average increase of 0.7 %, the previous eight years had an average tax increase of 6.2% — by the way the previous eight years the council was controlled by the group supporting the recall of two council members. Keep this in mind when you decide if you should participate in this self-serving recall.

About 10 years ago, Justin Katz and Robert Coulter spearheaded a movement to have a democratic private ballot vs. an archaic system of publicly raising hands at the school auditorium. The Financial Town Referendum (FTR) changed that forever and finally gave the voters of Tiverton a chance to privately voice their opinions and control their taxes and the proof is an average tax increase of 0.7% which correlates with inflation.

This same recall group lobbied heavily against giving the voters a voice in this and the FTR. From everything I can determine, this recall has been led by a group of sore losers who collected signatures by misleading people about what Coulter and Katz’s positions are on allowing a mall in Tiverton.

Neither of them or anyone I know want a mall in Tiverton but it was a good selling point to collect signatures and it seems to me some people believe if a lie is repeatedly told it becomes the truth. History has proven this to be correct and it has had disastrous results.

Coulter and Katz have brought long overdue stability to the town of Tiverton, helped level our taxes and increase property values and have made decisions which are in the best interest of the public, not just a few or special groups trying to grab control and lead you to double digit tax increases like we experienced in 2003 (10.1%), 2007 (11.5%) and 2009 (11%).

I encourage you not to vote and participate in these shenanigans and power grab. By not voting it will invalidate the recall based on the required number of votes. Do not let this group of squeaky wheel crybabies who collected signatures based on false statements push you around. This fiasco has been spearheaded by a group who have their own interests in mind. Do not vote in this foolish recall and waste of your tax dollars.

In the 2017 special election for Tiverton Charter Review Commission (CRC) there were 24 candidates running for 9 available seats. 9 of those candidates were endorsed by the TTA, and subsequently, all 9 were duly elected by the voters of Tiverton. The sitting town council dismissed the 12 months of intensive work by the CRC and put their own charter changes on the ballot, denying the voters of Tiverton the opportunity to revise their own government from the work by the duly elected CRC.

In the 2018 election for town council,18 candidates ran. Seven candidates were TTA endorsed and ran a great campaign based on “shaking things up” by introducing new and fresh ideas to solve the long, on-going issues and preserve the future of Tiverton. The 7 TTA endorsed candidates promised to end the “we have always done it this way” mentality, they promised an open government with fewer “behind closed door” discussions, they promised resident access to meeting agendas, they promised long term goals, less contentious contract negotiations, they promised to either follow the existing rules or change them, and they promised to implement an employee “code of conduct” to prevent some of the past, very expensive pay-outs for town employee misconduct.

Town council candidates Katz, Coulter, Cook and Driggs (Coulter, Cook and Driggs were previously elected to the CRC) were duly elected, again, to serve the people of Tiverton. In the 10 months since they were elected, they have worked tirelessly to kept those campaign promises and will spend the remainder of their term doing the same.

Unhappy voters from the 2017 and 2018 elections want a “redo” of the 2018 election for no other reason than they did not like the outcome and are using ridiculous statements, and sometimes outright lies, to try and overturn the results. The recall has absolutely no validity and is driven by the sore losers of the past 2 elections.

Voting is a constitutional right that must be preserved. The strategy based “just don’t vote” campaign has been difficult for me to endorse, however, because I know the history of the 2017 and 2018 elections, I am convinced that the recall is a total sham that voters should ignore. Consider staying home and enjoying your day.

McLaughlin’s allegation that this town council is not representing the will of the voters is a tall tale divorced from reality.

There were 18 candidates who ran for the Town Council in November 2018 and the “will of the people” elected as the majority Tiverton Taxpayers Association (TTA)-endorsed candidates: Donna Cook, Robert Coulter, Nancy Driggs, and Justin Katz. (Donna Cook, Justin Katz, and Nancy Driggs – in that order – being the highest vote getters.) Yet the lowest vote getter, William McLaughlin, joined by town council minority members, former president Denise DeMedeiros and Patricia Hilton, now claim to represent the will of the people in their down-is up and up-is-down topsy-turvy world.

But, if the majority who voted for this town council feel it was misled and its will is not being represented, where are its voices, where is its outrage? If the actions of this town council are so egregious, then why was third lowest vote-getter David Paull’s ethics complaint against Coulter, Driggs and Katz dismissed? And why were the DeMedeiros and Hilton Open Meetings Act charges dismissed? How come McLaughlin’s (the lowest vote getter) and two council minority members’ strident voices are all we hear?

Speculation about why this recall scheme was begun and has the support of DeMedeiros and Hilton includes McLaughlin wanting to change the town council majority to ensure settlement of his $4 million lawsuit against the town, and DeMedeiros and Hilton itching to be in control of the town council again.

What is not speculation is this town council’s accomplishments to date and its future plans: Contrary to McLaughlin’s allegations, it has expanded civil debate by allowing public comment on agenda items, and access to the agenda itself; Katz and Cook, the town council liaisons in the firefighters’ union contract negotiation, successively, and creatively, negotiated a contract and forestalled the anticipated need for arbitration which saved the town between $50,000 and up to $100,000 in legal fees; It scrapped a solar ordinance poorly conceived by the prior DeMedeiros town council and tasked the Planning Board for its input on future solar energy projects. (Unfortunately, for legal reasons some solar projects which had been approved when the solar ordinance was in effect can proceed); And, among other items, it is working on a long-term financial plan, ordinances such as an employee code of conduct to govern the right to receive certain benefits upon termination, and increasing openness and transparency in its actions (which too often in the past were shielded from public scrutiny in executive sessions).

You can defeat McLaughlin’s political stunt fostered and supported by sore losers, by not voting in the election. Because the recall charter provision requires a certain number of people to vote in the election, by not voting and keeping that number low you are helping to reject the recall petition power grab of McLaughlin and his cohorts which is so clearly against the will of the people.

During the last Tiverton campaign season, I talked to many people in town. I discovered that some are either not registered to vote or, if they are, simply have dropped out of the process and don’t vote. The answer is always similar: “I don’t believe my vote counts” and “it isn’t worth the trouble.” Both sides of the equation complain of this when election results show only a small percentage of registered voters bothered to vote.

However, this recall is different.

Recently a small group of disgruntled low-vote council candidates decided they want to redo your election via a recall? The reasons given on the recall petition are vague and set a dangerous precedent if the recall is justified.

I ask you, how is this McLaughlin recall stunt going to ensure you, the voters, that your vote counted in November 2018?

This recall stunt doesn’t work; it will only make voter participation matters worse. This recall supports the argument that your vote doesn’t count because it can easily be overturned. Even worse, it reflects discouragement in the system and encourages lower voter participation in future elections.

Really!! Why bother if your “will” is nullified on sketchy reasons by a recall? There is no reason for the McLaughlin recall except sour grapes and an aversion to what’s rightly done by respecting the outcome of an election. Furthermore, is it knowing and willful failure to follow the “will of the people” when Councilors vote contrary to a few dozen people who, at Town Hall meetings, expect favorable decisions to be made based on who is loudest on an issue? Why have a Town Council? Why bother having elections? Just have a show of hands at town meetings (and maybe fisticuffs), to determine town business, appointments, contracts, etc.

And two Councilors, Hilton and deMedeiros, both signed the McLaughlin recall petition. Councilor deMedeiros actually obtained signatures and had them notarized in her name. McLaughlin has a pending $4 million lawsuit against the town.

The “Will of the People” was decided on November 2018. This recall is a slap in the face to all who voted for Justin Katz and Robert Coulter. The voters “will” is in jeopardy of being overturned because a few dozen people are having a temper tantrum, not accepting the results of your election. So now they try to void the election results via a recall.

You shouldn’t have to vote every year, so don’t. Because of the way our recall process works, if not enough people participate, it doesn’t count.

That’s the best bet, this time around. Don’t vote.

It’s hard to believe that people would just lie.  And when people spread lies about you, it can be like a trap.  You can’t prove that a conversation never happened, and you definitely can’t prove that you’re not going to do something you haven’t done, yet.

That’s the position that the TTA majority of the Town Council is in right now.  People who want to get themselves or their friends back in control of the town are saying we have some plan to force through a major development on Souza Rd.  We don’t.

In fact, the Carpionato development would require a change in zoning, and I for one and Council President Robert Coulter for two have no intention of voting to do that.  The last proposal from the company caused months of stress in the community, and with no planner, new zoning and building officials, and multiple vacancies on our planning board, the town isn’t in a position to revisit that decision for a project that’s very similar.

Why would people be saying we’re somehow trying to push the development through?  That’s an easier question to answer.  One of them, William McLaughlin, is the man who pulled petitions to recall Rob and me.  He’s got no real justification for that campaign, so he’s trying to invent one.

Whoever has control of the “Don’t Mall Tiverton” group is obviously doing the same thing by constantly linking the development with the recall.  Not one person from the organization asked us our position on “the mall” before they started telling people they had to recall us to stop it.  Even after we made clear that neither of us supports the development, they continued with the lie.  If they were really about stopping “the mall,” they wouldn’t be trying to get rid of two council members who plan to do exactly what they want.

Here are the facts: Developers have a right to propose plans to the town.  This Town Council has an open-agenda policy that allows anybody to request time to make a presentation.  (That’s another thing that McLaughlin is spreading falsehoods about.)  Carpionato requested some time, and we have no justification for treating them differently than anybody else.

To my knowledge, nobody on the council had seen the development plans until we received our backup materials to prepare for our last meeting.  The presentation couldn’t go forward because too many people attended, so it is rescheduled for Wednesday, September 4, in the high school auditorium at 7:00 p.m.

At that meeting, the developer will present the plan, and then people will be able to offer their opinions on it.  My opinion, and Rob’s, is that the town should not change its zoning regulations in that part of town.  Anybody who says differently is saying something that isn’t true.

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.