Tiverton
The Sakonnet Times has put a letter in which I raise some concerns about the AFSCME labor contract online. (We’ll see, tomorrow, whether it makes the print edition.) I’ll be surprised if the new letter racks up the 3,482 views and 171 comments (and counting) of my last offering, but at least local folks have…
In attempting to get a handle on the recently approved AFSCME labor contract in Tiverton on a Saturday morning, I made a data entry error that resulted in a too-dramatically opposing result from the town administrator. He inadvertently jumbled the starting points for his increase/decrease calculations, leading to a stated savings of $117,065, and I…
In an article that doesn’t appear to be online, Tom Killin Dalglish of the Sakonnet Times perpetuates the analytical error that I’ve been describing: Councilors were told that the contract will cost $117,000 less than the contract it replaces, and ultimately it was this feature that motivated the council members to end the debate and…
I’m hearing that the Tiverton Town Council ratified the contract with the AFSCME municipal workers. That’s one out of four contracts in the town becoming available for negotiation this year that is now off the table. One out of four contracts that will now represent a “locked in,” unchangeable portion of the budget over the…
Unfortunately, time-critical tasks kept me from tonight’s Tiverton Town Council meeting, at which the council will (or won’t) ratify the latest AFSCME union contract. However, I did take a moment to rereview a document that the town council posted online titled “Contract Negotiations Summary.” That document shows a negative “net change” for each year of…
It so happened that, the week my letter about Tiverton officials’ relationship with the public unions appeared in the Sakonnet Times, the town council posted a “tentative agreement” with AFSCME Council 94, slated for ratification at Monday’s town council meeting. The coincidence led one commenter on the Sakonnet Times site to aver hypocrisy, on my…
I’ve got a letter in the current Sakonnet Times, responding to some discouraging observations at recent town meetings: To the editor: The self-presumed ruling class of Tiverton — in and out of office — has no governing ideas but to raise taxes in good times and bad while comfortably accepting that most of the town’s…
Things are going to get even a leetle more interesting in our sleepy corner of the state: Danielle Coulter, a chiropractor and Tiverton School Committee member just elected to office last November, has filed a lawsuit against the Tiverton’s tax assessor. She claims that last year’s property tax levy in excess of the tax cap…
The most interesting part of the Tiverton Town Council meeting, Monday night, came when the council discussed whether to “approve” the budget that it was providing to the Budget Committee, something that they’ve been reluctant to do (perhaps for political reasons): Entire discussion: stream Jay Lambert expresses concern that the budget doesn’t give an indication…
When I walked in, the Tiverton School Committee was discussing the issuance of a few more layoff/non-renewal notices related to a possible move of the fifth grade (it sounded like) to the elementary schools. The move hasn’t even been considered, but the notices have to meet a deadline. 7:14 p.m. I may have noted this…
