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.

You’ve heard the saying, “politics makes strange bedfellows”? That sure is proving true in Tiverton.

During the 2000s, James McInnis tried again and again to sell his land between Souza Rd. and Rt. 24 for a variety of developments. Again and again, the town government did not let it happen. The back-and-forth came to a head on March 24, 2008. Shortly before a scheduled Town Council meeting, Mr. McInnis submitted another plan to develop the area.

That night, led by then-President Louise Durfee, the council changed the zoning to residential, in keeping with a 2006 change of the town’s comprehensive plan. Along with McInnis’s lawyer, his real estate advisor, Bernard Giroux, argued that the town should hold off on the change and first consider the new proposal.

Here we are in September 2019, and the town is still trying to resolve the lawsuit that was sparked that night. And within the past week, both Ms. Durfee and Mr. Giroux have taken to the local newspapers to go after… me.

Ms. Durfee’s reason is obvious. She doesn’t like the results of the last election and doesn’t want to wait until next year to try to change them. So, she helped collect signatures for a recall petition to get rid of President Rob Coulter and me and shift power back to people she likes better. A few weeks ago, the Don’t Mall Tiverton group, with which Durfee has been deeply involved, began lying to the public, trying to sell the recall as a way to stop “the mall” on Souza Rd. I wrote a letter to the editor informing Tiverton residents that Rob and I have no intention of voting to change the zoning as the development would require.

Because the recall campaign depends so heavily on lies, Durfee pivoted to a complaint that my letter would bring another lawsuit, like the one that her Town Council caused. She’s just plain wrong. When it comes to zoning changes, the town’s ordinances do not require the Town Council to keep its mouth shut until the Planning Board studies a proposal and then to vote based only on the Planning Board’s findings.

The only restriction on how the council makes its decision is that it must “be in the best interest of the town.” If a council member looks at the initial plan and believes that it is definitely not in the best interest of the town, he or she can say so before the developer spends time and money convincing the Planning Board. In this case, the developer hasn’t even officially submitted the plan.

Mr. Giroux’s reason for objecting to my letter is more obvious, and his arguments about the law are even more obviously wrong. My writing a letter to the editor has no relevance to the Open Meetings Act, and expressing an opinion about a public policy question in which I have no financial interest is not even in the universe of the state’s Code of Ethics.

To be sure, angry people are free to pretend elected officials might have violated the law in order to try to make other people angry, too. Actually, I should clarify that’s only my opinion. In 2010, when she was Council President, Ms. Durfee attempted to sue a Tiverton resident for saying the council had violated the law. The ACLU jumped in to defend him because her lawsuit was an abuse of the legal system.

So, here we are. The same people who were just two weeks ago lying about my position on a development on Souza Rd. are now angry that I told the public the truth. A former council member who tried to sue a resident for suggesting that her actions violated the law is suggesting that my actions violated the law. And the anonymous people behind Don’t Mall are now aligned with the developer in objecting to my statement that I wouldn’t vote to make the mall happen.

Yup. Strange bedfellows. Tiverton residents should stay out of that bed and choose not to participate in the sham recall election that would put Durfee’s allies back in control.