It’s not Tuesday anymore, but both of these things happened yesterday:
1. As you probably know, the Chariho budget failed by one vote, 526-527. Town by town: Charlestown was 224-142, Richmond was 142-125 and Hopkinton was 160-260.
2. The RI Supreme Court says that Felkner cannot be on the Town Council and the School Board. Thus he can keep his Town job but has effectively resigned the School Board.
I’m not so surprised about the Chariho vote. I expected Richmond to stomp the budget but they did not. They did have a lot of “no” votes relative to “yes” votes and they likely pushed it over the line. Now we get to watch the fireworks. Will they sue or will Chariho fix its budget? I’m betting on a lawsuit.
I was, however, extremely surprised by the Felkner decision. I expected him to win although it seemed that the RI SC was somewhat antagonistic during the hearing. They used the Town Charter and the doctrine of incompatibility against him. I still can’t see using the Charter. The damn thing is so full of holes you can argue either position and I think the stronger position is the one that allows him to do exactly what he was doing. But that was because of the technical language. The court made a point of interpreting intent. It is a harder thing to do but I think they got that right, the framers of the Charter never envisioned allowing someone to serve on both the Council and the Board. Regardless, I am honestly pleased to see the decision which was ultimately produced. In the end, it may have been a political decision but I’m not sure we’ll ever know.
Personally, I think that the conflict of interest between sitting on the Town Council and the School Board is significant. No one has attempted to do this since Chariho was founded. It’s just common sense to most people, you don’t take 2 elected positions, especially two that are so likely to be in conflict!
Thanks for all the fun, Bill. I guess your life will be a lot quieter sitting on the Town Council (they don’t really do all that much but complain about Chariho- you fit in perfectly). But you could always start hacking away at the municipal budget if you get lonely and want to see your name in the papers some more! Heck, why not rewrite the Charter to let yourself serve on two elected positions? Now there is an idea, provided you show up to some of the meetings….
