Charter complaint re-ignites Katz budget fight with Tiverton schools

Triggers court hearing, postponed to Nov. 9

EastBayRI.com ·

TIVERTON — A Tiverton Municipal Court hearing on a charter complaint — that promises to be anything but routine — has been postponed to Thursday, Nov. 9, at 7 p.m in the Community Room of the new Tiverton Library. 
The hearing had originally been set for this Thursday, Oct. 19, at 7 p.m., but at the request of the school committee and the four of its members named in the complaint, a postponement was granted late Tuesday, Oct. 18 by Municipal Court Judge James A. Donnelly Jr., to allow the parties more time to prepare.
At stake is whether Tiverton School Committee members violated the town charter, as Justin Katz claims they did last spring in proposing an alternative petition budget.
Charter language requires that the actions or inactions alleged by Mr. Katz be "knowingly" committed in violation of the charter, in order for any possible sanctions to be imposed.
Sanctions, says the charter, include fines of "not more than three hundred dollars ($300)" and/or removal or dismissal from office.
Late Tuesday, Stephen Robinson, the lawyer representing the school committee and the four school committee members accused by Mr. Katz of wrongdoing, sent a letter to Judge Donnelly asking for a continuance, saying he and his clients only got notice of Mr. Katz's complaint on Oct. 5, and only received notice of the court hearing on Oct. 13.
Mr. Robinson said they have not had an opportunity to confer about the matter.
He also said that the charter complaint must first be heard by the Town Council before it goes to Municipal Court, if it does at all, and for that reason the court lacks jurisdiction to hear the dispute.
In his continuance-request letter, Mr. Robinson said the entire dispute should be remanded to the Council by the court.
Mr. Robinson also said in his letter that the charter "expressly preserves the right of Town elected officials to originate and/or sign Elector budget petitions…. That same section even preserves the right of any Committee to circulate a petition."

Background for complaint
The hearing is being held to consider a "charter complaint," filed pursuant to charter section 1211, by Mr. Katz against four of the five elected Tiverton School Committee members individually (excepting Deborah Pallasch), and against the school committee itself.
No reason was given by Mr. Katz for not naming Ms. Pallasch in the complaint.
Mr. Robinson, in his letter to Judge Donnelly, said that Mr. Katz's complaint is without merit.
Mr. Katz alleges in the complaint he filed Oct. 3 with the Town Clerk, that on "April 11 and subsequent dates: the School Committee and its members submitted an elector petition as a mere pretense around limits that the Charter places on them in their official capacity."
In a letter dated Oct. 2 that he attached to his complaint, Mr. Katz wrote, "In acting as a body to exercise rights reserved for individual electors, the committee abused the democratic processes for which [sic] our charter allows and claimed the right to act officially through all three separate mechanisms for accessing the ballot."
In that letter, Mr. Katz alleges that "elected officials are not barred from submitting such petitions as electors, but the process is intended for 'electors of the town,' not governmental bodies."
The charter says, in language not directly quoted by Mr. Katz, that "Nothing in this charter shall prevent an elected official or any appointed member of a Board, Committee or Commission from being a petition originator or signatory. Nothing in this Charter shall prevent an elector, a majority of an elected body or Board, Committee or Commission from circulating a petition. An elector may originate no more than one Budget Proposal petition."
In support of his allegations, Mr. Katz attaches two pages of quotes from school committee members that he alleges came from the school committee discussion at its meeting of April 11.
The reported quotes are not claimed by Mr. Katz to be part of an official or certified complete or accurate transcript of the April 11 meeting.
The officials Mr. Katz identifies and purports to quote are William Rearick (school superintendent), Jerome Larkin (school committee chairman), Sally Black (committee vice-chairwoman), Diane Farnesworth (committee member), Elaine Pavao (committee member) (and Stephen Robinson (committee lawyer). .
Under the charter, charter complaints such as that filed by Mr. Katz are normally heard first by the entire Town Council. But Mr. Katz, for differing reasons, asked for a recusal of three town councilors: Joan Chabot, Randy Lebeau, and John G. Edwards.
Town Solicitors Tony DeSisto and Peter Skwirz agreed with Mr. Katz's recusal request, and went a step further.
As Mr. Skwirz told the council at its meeting last week, "every member of the council should recuse," because of the "well-established principle in the law" that "council members cannot have had substantive discussions on a matter prior to a hearing that could indicate what they would decide" at the time of the hearing.
At the Municipal Court hearing, the School Committee and the school committee members accused by Mr. Katz of violating the charter will be represented by lawyer Robinson. The town is not a party to the dispute, so the town solicitor is not expected to present at the hearing.