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Trying to prevent the people of Tiverton of getting a window into their behavior behind closed council doors, the Town Council has been making a mess of its business.
News & Commentary
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Our View
Context for the Supposed Conflict of Interest
With the recently elected majority of the Tiverton Town Council moving forward to replace the resigning Town Solicitor, the three incumbents are stirring up talk about conflicts of interest. To make the issue seem like an obvious scandal, they are leaving out all of the context that makes clear that it is obviously not a scandal. The two angles that they are emphasizing are that two of my fellow council members, Robert Coulter and Nancy Driggs, and I have filed lawsuits against the town and that the proposed new solicitor, Giovanni Cicione of Cameron & Mittleman, has received payments for lobbying work from my employer in the past. The plain facts show that the Code of Ethics finds no conflict in these circumstances, and the context should lead reasonable residents of Tiverton to agree that there is no controversy either. The Lawsuits A review of the available meeting minutes from the Tiverton Board of Canvassers for 2017 and 2018 shows that – through two financial town referendums (FTRs), a statewide primary race, and a general election – Tiverton Town Solicitor Anthony DeSisto attended a single meeting. Although he was not on the agenda, on April 23, DeSisto showed up to instruct the Board of Canvassers that they should block some of the elector resolutions that had been submitted for inclusion on the ballot. The Home Rule Charter allows any elector of the town to put “a resolution or ballot question” on the ballot for voters’ consideration as long as:…
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Links to documents relevant to town government that may or may not be available elsewhere.
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